Apple Hair

Chapter 11 - VAN📖

Apple Hair's second month as a team begins with a literal bang as Kaden falls to the floor in the dance practice room. I reach out too late, and the clatter of his body against the wooden floor shocks me. It's like staring at a book and watching the letters rearrange themselves. I must look like one of those cartoon characters with their eyes bulging out of their heads.

"What happened?" I say, when I finally find my voice.

Armani runs over and kneels down. She grasps his shoulder. "You've been pushing yourself too hard. It's obvious your back is bothering you."

Kaden scrunches up his face, and I know he's about to deny it—like he has the past month. But this time, he stays quiet. I want to tell him it's okay not to be so strong all the time, but I decide to save that for when we're back at the dorm.

"We're almost done anyways," Armani says. She moves her hips back and forth, as if weighing something. "Let's end a few minutes early. It's been a long practice. Plus you have your very first etiquette practice today!"

The sigh of relief from the other guys makes me breathe my own. I help Kaden up, and we head to the corner of the room. David passes out our water bottles, and the sip I take almost makes me believe in God like he does.

"Time to take your meds," Seiya says, nudging Corrin against the shoulder.

Corrin scowls. Ever since he was prescribed antipsychotics by the doctor, he balks every time he needs to take them. Either Seiya or I will be the ones to remind him.

"It's been helping you bit by bit," I say.

Corrin rips out a packet of meds and takes them in one big gulp. His grooming needs some help sometimes too, and I reach out to brush his growing bangs out of his eyes. "You guys are seeing weird things all the time too. Why am I the one who needs to be on meds?"

It's true that we're still writing our stories, coming across the ghost who sometimes speaks or the dream worlds that try to suck us in. But Corrin's case is... different. He sees things even outside of those shared events. He listens to the birds and comes up with sentences that instruct him to do strange things. He talks to shadows and expects them to answer back to him. And his energy normally takes him all over the place.

"I'll make us a soup when we get home," I say. "That'll make us all feel better about... everything." My Vietnamese parents told me that a good dish can cure almost anything—and my older brother and I experienced it many times before.

Corrin perks up a bit. "Well that won't fix everything," he says. "But it's a good start. Thanks, Van!"

"Yeah, mahalos," Seiya says, flashing me a peace sign.

Kaden crunches the water bottle with his fist. "Make sure to add something good for bones."

"I will," I say, not sure if I have the superpower to cure scoliosis.

"Damnit!" David draws me out of my thoughts about beef tendon. "I think I left our book back in the library."

"I'll get it," I say, thinking about how good it will be to be alone for a few seconds.

I leave as the boys try to catch a few Zs before etiquette class, using yoga mats for pillows. If the ghost doesn't get us first, it'll definitely be the sleep deprivation.

I hum the new song Mrs. White is teaching us, while Mr. Matthews' story about how he got lost on the Korea metro distracts me from remembering the right notes for the harmony. When I open the door to the library, I don't realize the edges of my vision blurring until it's too late.

The library comes to life with shadow that furls into tendrils of smoke. I blink a few times, then focus in on Shar's book. The book's open to the last page we were writing on. I think it was a fanfiction work about a girl fan who was obsessed with Kaden. David got particularly invested in it, his creative side putting us all to shame.