A Different Path

Chapter Eight - The True Faces

"No more than one tablet per 12 hours due to risk of losing consciousness." Sonya raised her eyebrows at the instructions on the little box in her hand. "Why would they even sell this stuff? I mean, sedatives are supposed to calm you down, but this is a bit extreme." She snickered and passed the box to Harriet, who stood next to her.

"Whoa, you weren't joking," Harriet laughed. "Don't think we'll be needing this, though." Harriet returned the box to Sonya, who carefully placed it back in the cabinet where she had found it. 

After having gone through the little storage room, Sonya and Harriet decided to join the other two group B girls at the front of the pharmacy.

"How's it looking?" Sonya asked brightly.

"Great!" Jane answered. "We've got bandages for years, rubbing alcohol and rags for cleaning wounds and stuff, and a truckload of those raspberry flavoured children's painkillers. Of course, you'll need to take more of-" Sonya shushed Jane and listened closely for the soft sound she thought she had heard.

"Listen," she whispered, pointing a finger up to draw the girls' attention. "It sounds like... like someone's yelling." Sonya couldn't contain her curiosity any longer and peeked head around the corner of the door of the pharmacy. She saw Minho sitting on the fountain, looking straight down at his feet. Teresa towered above him as if she was trying to intimidate him. Thomas sat next to Minho, one hand placed on the Asian boy's knee, and his other hand held out to Teresa as a sign to stay back.

"It looks like they're having a bit of an argument." Sonya looked back at the group B girls, frowning. "And Aris seems to have disappeared, somehow." Sonya put her head around the corner again. Thomas was standing now, and he did not look pleased at all. Sonya couldn't make a word of what he was saying, but the soft murmur she could hear was nowhere near happy sounding.

"Hey, Son." Rosa tapped her on the shoulder.

"Don't startle me like that, you stick!" Sonya shrieked. She had always been really jumpy, and everyone who knew teased her with it.

"Maybe you should go check it out. Out of the four of us, they seem to like you the best," Rosa continued, smiling widely. "We'll finish up here, you go get that argument solved with your magical peacemaking powers." The girls laughed, genuinely, something they had been doing way too little recently.

The closer Sonya got to the fountain, the more she could hear, and the more worried she became.

"Just leave it, Teresa! If he doesn't want to talk, he doesn't want to talk. Is that so hard to understand?" Thomas sounded agitated, but not yet angry.

"All I'm trying to say, Tom, is that Minho's not telling anything for a reason. Something happened down there and I want to know what. I have the right to know."

Sonya didn't know what exactly was going on, but still, she felt like Teresa had crossed a line; if whatever happened was of major importance to the safety of the group, Teresa would have had a point, but Sonya was sure Minho would have told it if that was the case. Sonya respected Minho's decision, and she believed Teresa should do that too.

"The right?" Thomas slightly tilted his head. "What on earth makes you think you have the right to know what happened?"

Before Teresa could answer, Sonya gave her a light tap on the shoulder, hoping it would maybe snap her out of it.

"I'm sorry, what's happening here?" she asked. Teresa hastily turned around, so hastily her hair swung in her face.

"What's happening is that Minho refuses to tell what happened when he just visited Newt, and that's not okay." Teresa spat out the words. Sonya bit her lip in thought, making sure she had remembered it correctly.