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🅴︎🅿︎🅸︎🆂︎🅾︎🅳︎🅴︎ 🆃︎🅷︎🆁︎🅴︎🅴︎ Ⓟ︎Ⓐ︎Ⓡ︎Ⓣ︎ Ⓣ︎Ⓦ︎Ⓞ︎
WAKING UP IN the Wheeler home sent a funny feeling through the pit of Kaliʼs stomach. She wasn't used to such a colourful setting, to such a warm environment — she wasn't used to being taken care of.
The fresh smell of toast and honey lured her out of her sleep, having never met with such a sweet scent before. Cole was already up, silently playing with the toys he'd stolen from Mikeʼs room, and Nancy was sitting at her vanity, brushing her hair.
Kali slowly rose from her laying position on the floor, stretching out to sit up, careful to make sure her palms were still covered. She looked over to see what Cole was doing, seeing that he was content in his own mind. Then, when she took another glance at Nancy, she could clearly see the girl already looking straight at her through the mirror.
In the panic of being caught, Nancy quickly redirected her eyes, playing it off as though she was never staring in the first place. She bearly got any sleep last night, too distracted with everything going on. At the top of her list was Kali and her brother — none of it made sense to her, and she needed some answers before she exploded —, then Barb — no matter how many times she called, it was only ever her parents who picked up —, and then Steve — she knew he shouldn't be at the bottom of her list.
"Breakfast is downstairs, whenever you want it," she said, brushing her hair. "My mom and dad have gone to work early, but they left it out for all of us." Nancy turned to Cole with a smile. "You might want to get all the maple syrup before Mike drinks it all."
Cole looked at Kali blankly, who stared at Nancy with no expression. "He's sensitive to flavouring," she informed her. "He'll eat his pancakes plain."
Nancy smiled, understanding. "Well, there's plenty of those," she assured the young boy. She felt as though, even if it wasn't enough, every single time Kali spoke, she showed a different side. Nothing about her was predictable, nothing about her was stable — she was so many different things, and Nancyʼs investigative instincts only wanted to know more.
Who were the people chasing them yesterday? Why were they being chased? Why didn't Cole speak? Why was Kali always so intense? Where were the parents throughout all of this? None of it made any sense, and all Nancy Wheeler could do was imagine the answers, put the pieces together in her head.
"Do you want to borrow an outfit for school?" she offered kindly.
Kali shook her head. "Not safe," she answered simply, still sharing no emotion about any of it. "They know who we are now."
