"We need to hurry people! Chop! Chop! Chop!" Perrie was sprinting down the halls after school that same day.
"What is wrong with her?" Ray asked with a laugh.
"She's excited to see the love of her life. Perrie acts like we didn't meet with her last Friday. Such a drama queen that one." Jade shook her head fondly as she walked at a normal pace with the guys and Jesy.
Jesy wished she could come visit Leigh-Anne too but she was trying not to be insensitive. I wonder if she'd still freak out if she saw me. The two of them were happily exchanging letters but to meet in person may be an entirely different thing. Maybe I should ask Jung to test if we'd be able to meet face to face again. She stroked her chin in thought.
"Not so much. I miss my booboo too. Leigh-Anne I am coming!" Jungkook started running out of nowhere.
Prince held a hand to his face as people stared at them. "Y'all just . . . why though? Why all the drama? Now people are gonna start thinking things and you know that everyone is up your ass right now." He had Perrie in mind as he muttered these things.
Jade shook her head again while walking out of the school with the others.
They met Perrie and Jungkook hopping into their cars at the same time.
"Yikes." Ray wondered if they knew how desperate they looked.
"Don't judge me Rayan! You'll never understand how it feels to be so desperately in love with somebody! Never! And for that, you should pity yourself." Perrie sounded kind of deranged.
Kids from their school paused in walking to their cars to look at this.
Prince smiled tightly as he noticed how much they were whispering. "Perrie. Now questions are gonna start coming our way and we don't want that do we?" He turned to the staring students and nodded. "How y'all doing?"
"It doesn't matter how she acts. People already know she's a simp for Leigh-Anne so . . ." Jesy shrugged. "Could one of you give this to her for me?" She pulled a note out of her pocket.
Jade took it and set it in her blazer.
"Will you and Sairah let her play the game while you're over?" Jesy really wanted to see Leigh's reaction but of course . . . "Wait have you finished the mini version that's designed just for her?"
Jade nodded. "Yeah we finished it over the weekend. Didn't take too long since we were dedicated."
"Ooo so that leaves y'all with a lot of free time to do other stuff with each other." Prince seemed intrigued. "What have you and Sairah been up to with no game to work on Jade?"
Jade's cheeks were pink as the boys continued to tease. "Nothing. She's busy with school." She looked away.
Perrie was honking her horn. "Let's go people!"
Jesy groaned. "Relax! We're having an important convo."
Perrie growled but sat back and folded her arms.
Ray Ray smirked. "Really? So y'all aren't planning to meet up over the weekend or anything? I mean, you are girlfriends."
Jade squirmed. "Sairah says I should keep coming over but I don't know what we'll do when I'm there since we're done with the game."
"What do you mean you don't know? Isn't it obvious?" Princeton did a kissy face.
Jade groaned. "We don't kiss that often. I don't think Sairah's into it."
"Huh?" Ray scratched his head. "But you said that she was the one who wanted to kiss you that time on that highway."
"She did but she doesn't get like that often and I don't wanna be pushy." Jade shrugged. "Now let's get going before Perrie has a heart attack." She walked to her car.
Jesy had just been listening to all of that. They kissed on a highway? That sounded romantic to her. Damn. She wanted to kiss someone on a highway. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine doing that and the person she saw moving towards her was . . . Leigh-Anne. Eh?
Jesy snapped out of her fantasy and realized that all of her friends were in their cars.
"Jes want a ride home or is your mom on her way?" Ray Ray asked.
"M-my mum's coming but thanks." Jesy looked away and started walking quickly to the school gate. That was weird. Her brain was a strange place wasn't it?
"Perrie let's go!" Jungkook started his engine.
Perrie had been as ready as one could be until she got a message on her phone. "Just a second!"
She pulled the device out while groaning and opened her chat with her mother. What was this woman sending her? Probably details about when I'll be shooting that ad for L'oreal. She honestly couldn't wait for that whole thing to pass. Her mom's excitement for it was annoying. Not that I don't like seeing her happy. I just . . . don't like the idea of doing work.
"Perrie Edwards goes mad over meeting with fellow model Leigh-Anne for another exclusive date." A guy from their school appeared next to her car with his phone out, speaking in a mocking tone. He had some other kids next to him and they were all laughing at this.
"Ah shut up." Perrie was frowning at the message from her mother.
Mam: Vogue wants D's Angels on the cover of an upcoming issue :D
"Huh?" Perrie had to blink a few times to see if what she thought she read was correct.
Me: I'm sorry? Vogue? *wide eyed emoji*
Mam: Yes! The hype continues. Yous are only now going completely viral on TikTok so they'd like to snatch that sensationalism by the balls to attract attention to their magazine.
Mam: And I'll be getting BANK if you girls agree. I think I'm going to trademark D's Angels. What do you think?
Perrie ended up staring ahead.
"Perrie, we're waiting for you to lead the way." Princeton said from his car.
Me: What I think is that this is going waaaaaaay farther than I bargained for. They want all of us on their magazine?
Mam: They'll be releasing different versions with subgroups of you girls on the front. But there will be one with all of you. That's their idea for now but it may change. What do you say?
Mam: Wait is Leigh-Anne still ill?
Me: She's still not one hundred percent. When's this shoot gonna be?
Mam: Some time in March. She should be good by then right?
Me: I don't know but I'll have to talk to you later.
Perrie closed her phone then started driving off.
"Watch it!" Some students from their school had been pretending to be paps by holding up their phones to take pictures of her. They nearly got hit when she started driving just now.
"Serves ya right!" Perrie stuck her tongue out as she kept driving.
The guys laughed in their cars as they drove behind her.
________________
Leigh-Anne was reading one of the books that Marcy had gotten her at her desk that afternoon.
She had just started this one but was already half-way. After having a nap as soon as she came home, she had gotten something to eat, did a few exercises and then hopped right into her book. She'd started reading around two p.m.
The girl turned to her next page eagerly, nearly ripping her page in the process. This was getting juicy.
Her eyes were moving quickly as she reached the end of the last visible page. Just as she was about to flip to the next one-
"Leigh-Anne! My main girl." Someone barged into her room with no remorse.
Leigh startled then turned in her seat to see who it was. The voice gave it away though. "Hi Sairah."
Sairah walked up to her with a wide smile on her face. Her hands were tucked in her blazer pockets.
Leigh looked up at her sister once she was next to her desk.
Sairah was staring.
Leigh-Anne's eyes darted from left to right. "What?"
Sairah patted Leigh on the head then snatched her book. "What's this one about?"
Leigh-Anne growled as she tried to take her book back.
Sairah held it away as she read the cover. "Oh this is the one Marcy bought you?"
"Yes. Now hand it over. I was on an important section and you made me lose my page." Leigh sounded angry as she got up to take back her belonging.
Sairah allowed her to hold it and sit back down.
Leigh-Anne was trying to find her page again.
Sairah hummed in thought as she looked at her. "So like . . . how was the rehab? Marcy told me you loved it and that you made tons of friends. That true or was she exaggerating?" She sat on Leigh's desk.
Leigh-Anne wished she wouldn't do that but she did not say anything about it. "I wouldn't say that I loved it but by the second day of being there I did feel much better."
Sairah smiled. "I can see that. Did you gain some weight too?" She held Leigh's face with a hand and squeezed her cheeks. "You look fatter."
Leigh pulled her face away. "I didn't gain any weight but they gave me snack bars to help with that." She looked at her book. "I hope they help soon 'cause I can't stand being the skeletal version of myself. It's embarrassing and everyone stares when they see me."
Sairah chuckled.
Leigh frowned. "You think that that's funny?"
"No, no. I feel bad for you but you shouldn't care what the freaks outside of that ice cream truck thought. What did they say? That your legs looked like chicken legs?" Sairah tilted her head.
Leigh-Anne was starting to think that Sairah was doing this on purpose. There was no way she could be this clueless as to what was offensive to her. "No. They only said that I was skinny." She was still trying to find her page. I hope I don't end up spoiling anything for myself.
"Oh. Well that's not so bad."
"Yeah well it made me feel weird." Leigh sighed before setting her book inside her desk, deciding to deal with it later. "Some girls at the facility asked me to sign their magazines. They liked the winter shoot too."
Sairah whistled low. "To sign their magazines?"
Leigh nodded.
"Like your name?"
"Never heard of autographs?" Leigh-Anne asked curiously.
"Yeah but the idea of someone asking for yours is crazy." Sairah giggled. "What did Joe call it? You're a 'celebrity'?"
Leigh rolled her eyes as her sister laughed at her. "Didn't think I'd ever be important enough to be considered one of those?"
"Nope. I mean, you're important to me but I wouldn't ask you to sign my stuff or take pictures of you." Sairah said with a smile. She was very happy to see Leigh again and even happier to know that she was better. Her sister was acting like herself again. Quiet little bookworm. Wasn't there something she had to say to Leigh-Anne?
"That's true but I think it's a bit different when it comes to people who know somebody just from something like a magazine or a TV show or movie or song." Leigh-Anne explained to her sister. She moved her chair back and started walking towards her bed. Kyro was lying in it. They had been sleeping together earlier but she had woken up before him. She sat next to him and began to pet his head.
Sairah stood before her sister. "Right, right. It's weird in the case of those things isn't it? 'Cause you don't actually know them. You've just heard of them." She winked.
Leigh showed a half smile before continuing to pet her puppy.
Sairah watched her quietly.
Leigh brought her eyes to her sister before bringing them to her lap where she started playing with her thumbs. "Sairah?"
Sairah did not understand this shaky tone. "Yeah?"
"I'm sorry I'm not strong enough to be your rock like how you're mine." Leigh said softly.
Sairah looked at Leigh in silence.
Leigh-Anne met her sister's eyes while chewing her lip.
"What? What does that mean? I'm your rock?"
Leigh felt like face-palming. "It's a metaphor. Like . . . you're my strength? You're strong for me?"
"Ohhh okay. I get it." Sairah chuckled. "What do you mean you're my rock? Or that you can't be my rock? You can call yourself whatever you want when it comes to me if it'll make you happy."
Leigh shook her head. "No, no. That's not what I mean. I'm your sister so I'm supposed to support you when you can't walk and provide a listening ear when you need someone to talk to but I'm not strong enough for you to confide in me." She was touching her chest. Just because she felt better didn't mean that her insecurities were gone.
Sairah was quiet.
Leigh-Anne's eyes were blurring with tears but she wiped them quickly. "Sierra wrote in her note that I've got to be there for you as much as you need to be there for me as all we have is each other now but while you've been here when I needed you I can't look out for you because I'm a . . . stack of toothpicks. Literally and figuratively." She pouted sadly.
Sairah snorted but tried to hide it by placing her hand on her mouth.
Leigh growled. "Don't laugh!"
"I'm not! I'm literally not." Sairah removed her hand to show Leigh that she was not smiling. Only that she was because Leigh's analogy was funny.
"Sairaaaah! You can't just laugh at my feelings just 'cause you don't understand them." Leigh-Anne whined.
"Okay, okay. You're right, you're right." Sairah stepped closer to Leigh-Anne.
Leigh shook her head. "Look, I'm apologizing for not being what you need as your sister. I . . . I wish I could be more but I can't and it's probably ten times harder for you knowing that you can never come to the person who went through the hell that was our past with you."
Sairah blew a raspberry while putting hands on her hips.
Leigh stared sadly at her.
Sairah locked eyes with Leigh.
"Sorry." Leigh-Anne said in a tiny voice.
Sairah shook her head then brushed a hand through her sister's hair. "Don't worry about it okay Num-nums?"
Leigh's cheeks heated. "Num-nums?" That was the least offensive nickname Sairah had called her.
"You don't need to be anything for me but yourself. If I am being completely honest with you Leigh-Anne," Sairah opened her arms. "I'm just f*cking happy you're alive. That's all you gotta do to be there for me. Live and not die. Knowing that you're here even after everything is what keeps me going so don't feel bad about not being a rock or whatever you said. I mean, you need a rock to keep you down 'cause you're a little paper bag in the wind, but I . . . I don't need nothing like that okay? Dr Jung said that even though me and you more or less went through the same shit, we reacted and processed it differently 'cause our minds are different." Sairah pointed to her brain. "Yeah. To me most of it was f*cking cool but to you it was like a horror movie. I guess a lot of it sucked and I show how it f*cked me up in certain ways but my f*ck up doesn't require a strong person to hold me at night while I cry and have nightmares 'cause I don't do that. You do that Leigh. Not me. We're sisters, yes. But we are not the same. So don't cry. Don't. I'm good. All you gotta do is be my baby sister and I'll be good alright?" Sairah smiled once she was done talking.
Leigh . . . did not know how to take that. She guessed that these words were comforting? "But you had to go to Jade when things got rough." She looked sadly at her puppy.
"So?"
Leigh frowned. "So you should have been able to come to me."
Sairah sighed. "Leigh-Anne you don't have to be anything like that to be there for me. I just said it. Just be you and I'm happy." She held the base of Leigh's face. "Alright?"
Leigh-Anne's cheeks were warm. "Well . . . okay."
"Good. No hard feelings right?" Sairah drew her hand back to put it in her pocket.
Leigh-Anne still wished she could be more for Sairah but if Sairah only wanted her to be . . . alive then she guessed she could respect her sister's wishes. "Right."
"Awesome. Now come on. Me and Jade finished the game and I want you to play it." Sairah clapped once then started bouncing to Leigh's door.
"Your game?" Leigh-Anne perked up as she climbed to her feet. "Wait is Marcy home or did you come here without her?" Marcy would come say hi if she had come over.
"Oh she's got a case so she sent a driver to pick me up. She won't be home for a while. Did you know she's a lawyer?" Sairah kept walking with swagger as they moved to her room.
Leigh-Anne laughed a little. "Yes Sairah, I knew Marcy was a lawyer."
Kyro ended up following them with Nemo in his mouth.
"Nooo Kyro! Stop doing that or you'll break him." Leigh stooped to try to get her toy out of her puppy's jaws.
Kyro refused. He ran down the stairs with Nemo.
"Kyro!" Leigh-Anne chased him.
"Hey! My game." Sairah angrily followed the two of them.
While Leigh wrestled her puppy for her plush toy and Sairah came to help, they both heard the speaker on the wall crackle.
"Leigh-Anne Perrie and your other friends are running up to the front door."
Leigh-Anne stopped what she was doing to turn to the door.
Once she did she heard excessive knocking.
"Oh Leigh-Annnnne!" Perrie sang from behind it.
"Well damn. That was fast." Sairah easily grabbed Nemo from Kyro's mouth and shoved the toy at her sister. She moved to the door and opened it only to see Perrie grinning at her.
"Hello my lovely little trooper!" Perrie threw herself onto Sairah and started kissing her face.
"Perrie! Hands off!" Jade was running up the stairs with a fist waving.
"Oh Perrie has stolen Jade's woman!" Jungkook had his phone out to record this.
Leigh came up to Sairah and saw Perrie kissing her sister's face. "Perrie??!"
Perrie's eyes remained closed for a few seconds until it clicked.
Her eyes opened and when they did it was like glass shattered. She slowly retracted her lips and pulled away only to see Sairah staring at her with a cringe on her face.
And now things were awkward.
Jade face-palmed.
Perrie cleared her throat. "Good day Sairah."
"Come on now." Sairah folded her arms. "Admit it. You just wanted to do that. We don't look that much alike for you to mix us up like that."
"You do." Jungkook, Jade and Perrie said together.
"And we finally caught up." Ray Ray and Princeton were now before the front door too. "Did we miss anything?" Asked Prince.
"Yeah. That one peppered my face with her white girl lips." Sairah was wiping Perrie's lip gloss off her face.
Perrie was pink. "Um . . . Leigh-Anne!" She saw the love of her life next to the person she had mistaken for her.
"Leigh!" Said everyone else before rushing in to bombard her with a hug.
"Hey no!" Perrie was squished up against Leigh-Anne as they all moved to hug her.
Leigh-Anne squealed as she staggered back by their weight. She eventually started giggling as she felt arms wrapping around her and people squeezing her.
Kyro was hopping to his hind legs and barking while he watched this.
When they were done, they all started expressing how much they missed Leigh and asking how her visit to the rehab was.
Leigh-Anne felt even better now that her friends were here. She was especially happy to see Perrie. After all Perrie had done, she saw the girl in new light. Perrie was an angel in her eyes. The only reason she started recovering was because Perrie went against her wishes and visited her that day. And that was something she would never forget. "The rehab was good. I got a lot of medicine that boosted my appetite and replenished my energy. They provided me with loads of snacks that'll help me gain weight too so hopefully by March I'll stop looking like a pack of bones with little chicken legs sticking out of it."
Sairah clapped her hands and laughed. "Chicken legs."
Leigh blushed as her sister cracked up.
"Oh don't say that about yourself love." Perrie knew how Leigh felt about her weight right now. Those losers outside of the ice cream truck had only made her feel worse.
"Yeah don't. You don't look so bad." Ray Ray said. "I mean . . . you're much smaller and I agree that you gotta put some weight back on but I wouldn't beat myself up about it."
Leigh-Anne shyly shrugged. "I've got to wear a belt with all my trousers now. Even my sweat pants." She lifted her sweater to show them that there were loops sowed into her sweats and a cloth belt wrapped in it. "See that?"
"Ooo." Ray Ray, Princeton and Jungkook said.
Jungkook stretched to poke the bit of her stomach he could see. "It's soft."
Leigh pulled her shirt down and laughed. "I didn't say you could do that. What's wrong with you? That tickled."
Jungkook wore a clueless look as if he did not understand what she had just said. "It is soft so you are not as badly off as you think."
Leigh-Anne shook her head. "Anyway, I've got my strength back so I don't need Ms. Perrie to carry me around anymore. Although it was a pleasure to ride your back like I did that time."
Perrie fanned at her. "Girl it was a pleasure to carry you."
"I could have carried you." Jade spoke.
Leigh looked at her and giggled.
Jade was happy to see her smiling her way. "I'd do it if I had to."
"I think you'd collapse under her weight. Sorry fam, you're just not the strong type." Sairah was staring at her nails. "Before you people came I was gonna show Leigh-Anne my completed game so even though you're here, I'm still gonna do that."
"Wait how'd they give you the medicine? Was it all liquidy and gross?" Princeton was curious.
"Uh they actually started off with giving me jabs in my shoulder before switching to liquids and putting it in these protein shakes I would drink and I still have to drink. Look." Leigh rolled up her sleeve and pointed to a bandage on her shoulder. "I got so many of them in one day my shoulder was bruised. It's still recovering."
"Oh no." Perrie pouted.
Sairah blinked at the bandage. "Damn. It's like you were at the hospital."
Leigh nodded. "But I'm much better now so I'm glad they did all that they'd done back there."
Her friends agreed.
"Yeah I'm glad they did too. And soon you'll be chunkier so people will stop calling you an anorexia. Right Jade?" Sairah nodded at Jade.
Jade sighed. "Sairah, Anorexia is a disease, not a dinosaur remember?" How many times would she have to say this?
"Oh right, right." Sairah chuckled. "We spoke about that in science class once."
"Anorexia?" Leigh tapped her fingers. "People were saying I had a disease?"
"Uhh . . ." The guys, Jade and Perrie stammered.
"Yeah. Jade what is it? A mental problem where someone stops eating? I guess in a way you did have that didn't you?" Sairah observed her sister.
Jade shook her head. "Anorexia's usually as a result of body image or control issues. Leigh lost her appetite due to depression so it's not the same. Did you ever look in the mirror and think that you wanted to look skinny?"
Leigh said a soft 'no' while continuing to tap her fingers.
"Well you didn't seem to have it." Jade told her.
"Who said I had anorexia?" Leigh-Anne felt self-conscious.
"The nosey weirdos who see you as a celebrity." Sairah said.
Leigh's shoulders fell. "Oh."
Perrie wondered if that made her feel worse. "Just don't worry about it. People always talk and make shit up so it's best to act like they don't exist." She clapped once. "Now, were we about to play a game?" Change the subject like your life depends on it Perrie!
"Yeah, yeah, come on Leigh-Anne." Sairah grabbed Leigh's writs to drag her along.
When they were in Sairah's room, Sairah let Leigh-Anne sit in her gaming chair as she got the game ready.
Leigh liked this chair. She spun in it and adjusted herself. "It's soft."
"I know right?" Sairah smirked while opening the game. "Okay." She stepped back. "So the game that me and Jade made actually isn't the same as this one. This is kinda like a . . . you could call it a summary of the real one? Something like a summary and a less intense version of the real one since the real one is heavily based on our lives and I didn't wanna freak you out."
"Whoa so it's like y'all's past: The Game?" Princeton made a gesture with his hands on 'the game'.
Sairah nodded. "But it's mainly centred around our house. The game's called 'The House On The Corner'. You could say it's inspired by our past but actually mainly inspired by Leigh." She smiled at her sister. "Leigh the main character is you. See?" She clicked a side arrow which brought them to a close up view of the main character and the different outfits they could unlock for her to wear. There were only two of them.
Leigh had been struggling to keep up with everything her sister was saying. She wanted to ask more about the main game but the character caught her eye. "Wow."
It was a little cartoon girl wearing a green hood over her outfit. Her skin was Leigh's complexion and her hair was curly and stopped at her shoulders. She had cattish eyes but no mouth. The character was cute.
Everyone was looking on and smiling.
"It looks like her." Jungkook pointed out the obvious.
"Did you name her after Leigh too?" Ray found this super sweet.
"No nimrod. That would make things obvious." Sairah folded her arms. "Her name is Dee."
Everyone exchanged quiet glances.
"Dee-Anne?" Perrie asked with a finger raised.
Sairah growled with narrowed eyes and pink cheeks. "Just Dee."
Leigh-Anne already liked this. "Jade did you design her?" She searched for her friend who was dating her sister. I try not to think of it too much.
"Yup. I did all the drawings and helped a lot with the storyline while Sairah did the mechanics." Jade said. "But it was really easy to make these characters since we used templates from the software."
Leigh-Anne nodded before facing the screen again. "Okay so what does Dee have to do?"
Sairah pressed play. "Escape the house without getting caught by monsters."
Leigh-Anne watched as instructions came up on screen. "Okay." She was smiling. "I feel nervous."
"Don't be. You'll slay this thing." Sairah ruffled Leigh's hair.
Leigh shook her off as she started.
About an hour later, Leigh-Anne was getting through the last level.
"Slash him! Slash him!" Ray Ray was saying from behind her.
"That one is getting close!" Jungkook pointed.
"Make a run for the door to get out! You're running out of time! Ahhh!" Perrie both loved and hated video games since they made her excited and anxious. Leigh's character- Dee- started off with no weapons but as the game progressed she unlocked different tricks to face the monsters in the house. One was a bat that she could swing and the other was a combo where she could call on this shadowy figure to wipe out several of them at once. The figure was called 'sister'. Dee had also acquired her other outfits. One was a white sweater- Obviously the sweater that Jade bought for her all those months ago- and the other was a cat costume- Leigh's Halloween outfit. Sairah and Jade thought they were slick but they weren't.
"I'm trying to do everything you lot are saying but it's hard. I don't wanna lose! Ahhhh!" Leigh-Anne was very invested in this. This game was so much fun! Sometimes it made her anxious and other times it made her laugh. Certain levels required high concentration and some brains to get through while others were a breeze. She could not believe that her sister and Jade had made this.
"Almost got it! Almost there!" Princeton said as she fought off most of the monsters.
"Call sister!" Jungkook was watching through his fingers.
Leigh-Anne kept a tongue at the corner of her mouth as she did the combo to call 'sister' and after she did, all the monsters were gone. "Thirty seconds! Making a dash for the last door!"
"Quick!" Jade hopped up and down and clapped as Leigh-Anne made Dee run.
After she went through it, the game took over.
Dee ran out of the house into a bright forest but stopped before continuing.
'Sister' eventually caught up to her and put her hood down to reveal that she looked a lot like Dee. She was just a little taller.
The two of them walked off into the sunset together and the game told Leigh that she won.
"Yay!" Leigh-Anne was doing a happy dance as her friends clapped.
Sairah smiled with folded arms.
"Oh gosh." Leigh-Anne turned to Sairah. "That was wicked!"
"And it wasn't even the main game?" Ray was flabbergasted. "I wanna see the real deal."
"I'd like to play it too." Jungkook raised his hand.
Sairah chuckled. "All of you wanna play the real game?"
Leigh-Anne kind of did too. "Is it a lot like this or waaay different? 'Cause this was cute but if the real deal is close to home then . . ." She shrunk. "I'd rather not." She whispered.
"The real deal is very close to home so I don't think you should play it Leigh-Anne." Jade advised.
"I second that." Perrie did not want Leigh-Anne to lose her progress.
"Aw man." Leigh's shoulders fell. "Okay well I'm sure that it's just as good, if not better, than what I just played." She smiled at her sister while bouncing. "Is it as fun or just terrifying?"
Sairah's hands were at her back. "It's fun but way scarier than what you just played. It's from your perspective so me and Jade added this 'fear meter' so when people play and get to real scary things in the house, the fear meter goes up and if you're too scared then the whole thing can go black so they gotta be careful. After you unlock certain characters you get less scared but . . ."
Leigh's eyes were wide. "You incorporated my anxiety?"
Sairah nodded proudly. "It was Jade's idea." She pointed.
Leigh turned to her friend.
Jade suddenly looked very small. "Does that seem invasive to you?" She asked tinyly.
"No, no. I'm just surprised that you thought of that. You even made the character faint like I do sometimes." Leigh whistled low. "Does she dissociate?"
Sairah shook her head. "We didn't want it to be too complicated."
"If yous win then the whole world will have an idea of the shit you went through." Perrie cringed. "Is it rated PG 13? It should be rated PG 13 'cause I don't know if little kids would be able to stomach it."
"Yeah we'd make it rated PG 13 if we won." Jade told her.
Ray shook his head. "Nah. Y'all gonna win for sure. If the mini game is like that then the main game's gotta be God tier."
Jungkook agreed. "Is the mini game in the main game?"
"Yeah. You can unlock it in a secret room at a certain level." Jade said.
"Damn." Princeton was very impressed. He smiled. "Do you got like a shout out to Leigh in the credits?"
Sairah scoffed. "Of course I do. In the beginning it's got 'For my sister Leigh-Anne'. And in the end I've got 'In loving memory of my sister Sierra'."
Well that did it for Perrie. She was tearing up. "Aww." She held her chest. "Can I hug you?"
Sairah was lost. "Huh? Why?"
"This is the sweetest thing in the world." Perrie was crying and she could not stop it.
Leigh turned in her seat when she heard the sobs. "Perrie nooo. Don't cry." She got up and hugged her friend. "It's a nice game. No need to tear up love."
Perrie inhaled Leigh-Anne as the girl rubbed her back. She liked the feeling of Leigh's hair against her face. She wanted her to hold her forever.
But Leigh let go and smiled at her. "Are you sad or just moved?"
Perrie sniffed. "I'm both I think."
Jungkook felt his eyes becoming wet. He wiped a tear away. "It really is sweet."
Sairah blinked when that guy started crying too. "Well then."
"Aww!" Leigh went to hug him next. "Sairah your game is moving people to tears."
Ray and Princeton were catching it.
"They're crying too." Sairah pointed at the two other guys.
Jade felt a bit strange. "Guys, is it that touching?"
"Yeah." Ray said as he wiped his eyes. "I get the feeling that the main game's gonna have me crying buckets."
"I think it'll give me a better appreciation for Leigh's past you know?" Prince sniffed.
Leigh went to him and gave him a hug too. "I hope that it won't give anyone nightmares. Sairah how close to reality is it on a scale of one to ten?"
Sairah rolled her eyes. "Leigh there are no people getting the shit beat out of them. Instead it's scary monsters so that already makes it unrealistic. I don't think anyone will get nightmares."
Leigh-Anne had been hugging Ray Ray while Sairah spoke. "Well okay." She released her friend. "So what now? You lot want to try your hands on at the actual game? I could go walk Kyro in the meantime-"
"Me! I! Perrie!" Perrie wanted to come with her.
Leigh-Anne blushed when everyone laughed. Perrie really couldn't get enough of her could she? "Okay me and Perrie will walk Kyro while you lot try out the actual game. Sairah have you and Jade submitted it yet?"
Sairah yawned. "We're gonna do that tonight. You just gotta upload it to some website really." She pointed at Ray Ray. "You wanna try it first or should someone else?"
"We can't all take a turn. It'd take too long." Princeton said. "So one of us will have to play it while the others watch."
"She pointed at me first so." Ray was in Sairah's gaming chair.
Jungkook was mad. "Me. I want to do it."
"Too late." Ray rubbed his hands together.
Sairah was getting the main game. "Jade, you staying or going?"
"I'll go help with walking Kyro." Jade just wanted to be around Leigh-Anne.
Perrie scowled. "Okay."
Jade laughed at her face.
"Alright see you all later. I hope you enjoy it." Leigh-Anne happily stepped out of the room. That game made her really happy. Sairah made it for me. Her sister had said that before. She did that. For her. And all she wants in return is for me to live? She supposed she got where Sairah was coming from. Was her sister fearful that one day she would take her life like their mother and sister did? I'd never do that. The thought had never crossed her mind until now.
"Leigh? You're all in your head right now." Perrie waved a hand in Leigh-Anne's face.
"Sorry. I was thinking." Leigh-Anne smiled. "I liked that game a whole lot." She was close to the door, putting Kyro in his harness.
Jade was glad she did. "It was a lot of work to make. Both of them. But the mini one you just played wasn't nearly as hard as we relied mainly on the software templates. But the main game? A nightmare. I had fun but you know."
"I can imagine." Leigh opened the door and they started walking down the stairs.
The three of them were walking along the sidewalk together with Kyro stretching his leash to move ahead. Roger was following a few steps behind them since he wanted to keep an eye on Leigh-Anne.
Jade was highly aware of the guard behind them. "So you need your security with you at all times?"
"Hm?" Leigh caught on to what she meant a second later. "He's not here for protection, just to ensure that I don't have an episode while I'm off. Last I went out I nearly fainted a couple times and I dissociated a little too so he wants to make sure that I don't disconnect. Right Roger?" She smiled at the man.
Roger gave a stiff nod.
"Oh . . . okay." Jade was trying to keep her eyes forward.
"I kinda like it. Makes me feel important." Perrie walked with her head held high. "Like we're celebrities or something. Heeheehee. VIP coming through."
Leigh-Anne was laughing. "Don't look at us we're famous."
Jade rolled her eyes. "You two kind of are at this point but it seems as if you've chosen to completely ignore all the attention."
Perrie fanned at Jade like she was a fly. "I don't have time to care about people being up my ass. My baby's been ill." She pouted.
"I'm better now so there's no need to cry anymore Perrie." Leigh-Anne said brightly.
"Yeah so you can pay attention to the millions of people copying your look and making edits on TikTok. And Leigh-Anne, I heard someone say you're Milan's sweetheart or something. For some reason Italy really likes you." Jade still did not understand how that happened.
"Milan?" Leigh-Anne was stunned for a few seconds. "That's a place that doesn't come to mind often. Why would they choose me to be their sweetheart?"
Jade could only smile at the innocence in her voice. "They loved you the most in the photoshoot. And they were also quite concerned when people saw you out with Perrie looking um . . ." Jade you fool. She should do what Perrie would do in this situation. "Yeah Kyro's a really cute dog."
Perrie detected her skills being copied. "Uhh . . . he really is isn't he?"
Leigh-Anne stared at Jade. Did she think I didn't hear what she'd been saying earlier? "Well I appreciate their concern." She made kissy noises at Kyro. "And Kyro is an adorable pup."
Kyro was running towards a bush further down.
Leigh jogged to keep up with him.
Jade and Perrie ended up jogging too.
"So, how's school been girls? It's nearing your exams." Leigh-Anne asked when they slowed down.
"Exams?" Perrie was bewildered.
Jade sighed. "GCSE's? The major exams we have to sit in May?"
Perrie's mouth hung. "Oh yeah! Hahaha. Leigh-Anne no one in our school cares about those." Hadn't she been assigned a tutor to help with her poor grades? Haven't been seeing 'em around so I guess not.
"I do." Jade raised her hand.
"Except for Jade." Perrie said bluntly.
Leigh seemed disappointed. "Shame on all of you. Perrie weren't you trying to be a better student? Be like Jade. Jade how about you tutor Perrie a bit so she can get up to speed. You failed everything last term Perrie. That's bad."
Jade was laughing. "For someone like Leigh-Anne it must have been unheard of to see grades so low. Her sister only gets perfect scores on all of her tests."
"Which I still don't get. Are we sure she's dyslexic? Wouldn't she be spelling everything wrong if she was? How's she getting A stars in English? Teachers always find shit to mark as incorrect in essays. And Sairah can barely talk. No offense Leigh but this seems sus." Perrie's eyes were narrowed.
"Her essays are quite good actually." Jade told her. "I had the same thoughts as you at some point so I asked if I could see one of her essays and you'd never believe that the same person had written it. I asked her how she got so good at writing essays and she said she was behind everyone in her class during practice essays and that the teacher was worried for her but the night before the test she started reading college essays online and just 'copied their format'. As for the spelling? Her test papers have got tons of words crossed out since she naturally spells everything wrong but you can tell what she's saying. They end up being like five pages long because of all the mistakes but the shit sounds good all together. It baffles me. I can't understand how she's able to struggle through her essays in just an hour. It seems like a true battle with how she described it. She said she writes the fastest out of everyone but finishes last anyway."
Perrie's eyes were wide. "Wow. Did she tell you all of that?"
Leigh-Anne was quietly looking at Jade.
Jade could tell that Leigh felt a bit awkward hearing all of this about her sister from her. "I asked and she told." She shook her head. "She's doing well but like I said, it's a struggle and a battle. She's working fifty times harder than everyone. This girl finishes all of her tests last because she fights to read the instructions. She's got to write it over in a spaced out manner and read it over several times. Sairah told me her desk is a mess during tests because of all the paper she uses."
Leigh gulped. "Is it stressful for her?"
"Hell yeah." Jade said. "She doesn't like reading or school work so studying and doing tests is a nightmare but she does it. And now she's got to do tons of it. Her teachers give her thirty minutes extra as she's got severe dyslexia so that helps but it's still difficult. She told me her A-level computer science teacher had a chat with her after her latest test to see if she felt as if she was under too much pressure but she told him things were fine. Computer Science especially is difficult for her since the codes are a combination of letters and numbers and symbols and words and . . . that's the subject giving her a headache right now but this girl is just soldiering through it. It's hard to find errors in her codes when it won't run since everything flips around with her dyslexia but she usually just deletes and rewrites things every time to avoid searching through the sea of codes to find the one error. It takes time but it works. But she's got a knack for it so once she deletes and starts over she's able to find her way."
Perrie did not understand how Sairah was functioning like that. "Can she tell what the exact problem is when the code doesn't run?"
"Sometimes but other times it's trial and error." Jade shrugged. "But she's doing very well on her assignments. A stars all 'round. Says some kids in her class are envious of her but they don't know how much she's struggling to keep up those grades. She's lucky she's got a high IQ and a mind like hers. Someone else would lose it and drop out. Or at least take less subjects. What's she's doing is phenomenal."
Leigh-Anne thought of her sister in awe. "Why won't she just take it easy? When school got hard for me I started doing home school."
Jade sighed. "She likes the distraction. Plus, her good grades make your grandparents happy so she likes that too."
"But she herself hates school?" Perrie asked.
"Yeah. It's too much work but what can she do right?" Jade shrugged.
Leigh-Anne wondered if Sairah would tell her all of that if she had asked. "Did you have to pry at her to get all of that info?"
"Kind of. She takes everything lightly so she doesn't go in depth of whatever she's talking about so I've got to ask and ask and ask." Jade said. Did Leigh feel jealous that her sister shared all of this with her?
"Hmm . . ." Leigh-Anne looked at her feet. "What if she collapses under all of this work?"
Perrie laughed. "If she was gonna collapse she woulda done it by now. I have a feeling that she won't let herself rest until she's done all what she has to do."
Leigh-Anne felt kind of pathetic. If she was in Sairah's place she would surely have ten seizures and have to be pulled out of school. "Some people are just built like that." She said in a whisper.
Jade heard her. "Leigh-Anne?"
Leigh-Anne slowly faced Jade. "Yes Jade?"
"Can we stop for a moment?"
Perrie stopped when they did.
Kyro seemed upset that they were no longer walking but he found entertainment in chasing his tail.
Leigh-Anne could sense Jade's unease. "What is it Jade?" What did Jade have to say to her? Did she want to hear it?
Jade swallowed. "I just want to say that I'm sorry."
"About?" Leigh-Anne did not understand where this was coming from.
"About not communicating with you when I started having feelings for your sister." Jade sighed. "The entire time, you knew me to be into you so for me to just out of nowhere end up with your sister it must have felt . . . weird. It's been weird right? You've been acting like it hasn't been but I don't know. This must be hard."
Leigh-Anne smiled a little then looked downward. "Don't apologize Jade. You didn't owe me anything." She stared into Jade's eyes once more. "You feel how you feel and if you fell for Sairah then I should be happy for you. You're allowed to love other people. I'd have to be selfish to be angry at you or demand an apology from you just because you fell in love with someone else. It's fine. You're . . . not my doll." Sairah kept saying things like that. "And I suppose that it does feel a bit strange but . . . I'll get used to it."
Perrie scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
Jade was not sure. "But I feel like I should have told you."
Leigh-Anne shook her head. "You didn't have to do anything 'cause we weren't dating. We were friends." She shrugged before smiling. "And from now on I'm going to try to be happier for you and my sister okay? This is just something I'll have to learn to get used to."
Jade felt a bit weird. "You were jealous weren't you? When it was revealed that we were together? You up and left the scene after you found out. I eh . . . did that mean anything?"
"Yeah did it? Did you love Jade?" Perrie was up in Leigh's face.
Leigh leaned back then stepped away. Her brain was becoming flustered. "N-no."
Jade's shoulders fell.
"I mean I was jealous but as for if I loved Jade? I . . . Jade . . . um . . . I suppose that I did. I don't know. Yes? It's weird because you're both so amazing and the two of you make me feel so great that I can't tell if I love either of you or not. I don't know." Leigh-Anne exhaled. "But Jade you're with Sairah now and Perrie you know the situation with me and relationships so . . . I don't know."
Jade and Perrie looked at each other.
Leigh-Anne folded her lips.
"Okay." Jade did not even know if that was an appropriate response to what Leigh had said. "I'd just like to assure you that I will be your friend no matter who I date. You can't be replaced in my eyes alright?"
"Technically you did replace her with Sairah as someone you liked so-" Perrie got pinched. "Ow. I was just saying."
Leigh-Anne did not want to talk about this right now. "It's alright guys. You don't have to worry about me and how I feel about Jade and Sairah. I've got stuff going on in my head that only I've got to work through so don't make it your responsibility. Let's just keep being friends and enjoying each other's company alright? Can we do that?"
Perrie and Jade both said a quiet 'yes' before they started walking again.
Leigh-Anne was glad that they moved on from that. "How's Jesy been?"
"That reminds me." Jade pulled out a folded paper from her blazer. "That's from her to you."
"Oh lovely. I always look forward to reading her notes. She's quite rough in the way she writes but that's fine. I remember her to be a . . . mean person but once her meanness isn't directed towards me or anyone else it's all fine." Leigh took the note and placed it in the pocket of her sweat pants.
"How can she be mean if it's not towards other people?" Perrie did not understand. Sending each other special notes. She hoped that Jesy knew where her lane was so she could stay in it.
"She just uses rude words to describe a lot of things. And she swears a lot but I don't want to tell her to stop since that's clearly just how she is." Leigh shrugged.
Jade was trying to shake off the conversation of earlier. "Would you say that you're growing to . . . like her?"
Leigh's brain replayed a few instances where Jesy had been awful to her in the past and then put forward the girl's notes in her mind. "I'm not sure. It sort of feels like we're both polar opposites and very alike at the same time. I . . . I started off loving her at first sight and ended up disliking her then being worried about her and now . . ." She tapped her chin with her fingers. "I'm scared to like her again 'cause although she's doing better she was still mean." She had to shake her head. "Okay. I do like Jesy and it would be nice for us to meet again to see how we work in person but I don't know. Everyone says she's a lot nicer now but I don't know if she'd be able to control herself around me. I mean, at some point she viewed me as the girl who ruined her life."
Perrie laughed. "She did that all herself hun."
"Yup. You should really stop justifying her fowl behaviour by using that. You were just a nice girl who came in and made everyone want to be better people." Jade said.
Leigh-Anne supposed she had a point. "I don't know. I told her that I'm open to being friends and I think that right now we are friends so what now? Keep writing letters?"
"Well ya can't see 'er. You'll fall apart. You just got back on your feet. I don't think you should take a chance by trying to meet in person with Jesy." Perrie was not sure how she felt about this. "Maybe you could try texting her?"
Leigh shrunk. "The last text she sent me wasn't very nice."
"Doesn't mean all her texts will be like that." Jade did not get how this worked. "You still seem scared of her."
"I know." Leigh smiled sheepishly at Jade. "It's weird. I have so many feelings when it comes to Jesy that I can't begin to describe them."
"None of those include love do they?" Perrie sounded like a mouse.
"No Perrie. You can relax. I don't love anyone like that at the moment." Leigh-Anne said with a hand on Perrie's shoulder. She released her to face forward. "It's like I'm scared of her but I can't be because I've realized that she's just as vulnerable as I am, maybe even more vulnerable as she's . . . suicidal. And then I want her to get better because I don't want anyone to feel so horrible that they'd end their life and it's like I feel guilty that I sort of brought on those feelings by coming into her life and shaking things up when she was already not in a good way but then she's been so horrible to me that again, I'm scared but I feel like I've got to look out for her at the same time so I sent her that letter in the Christmas present that I'd bought her, hoping it would let her know I was rooting for her but she sent one back and then it's like we're forming a relationship through these letters and I feel like I can check on her that way and I sort of like interacting with her but at the same time she makes my stomach hurt 'cause . . . it's just a lot."
Jade had been barely able to keep up. "How long have you had that pent up inside you?"
"Since I received her first letter." Leigh laughed shortly. "I'm sorry that I dropped this on you guys just n-"
"It's fine. It's fiiine." Perrie wrapped an arm around Leigh-Anne. "I thought everyone told you that you shouldn't feel all guilty and sad about Jes being suicidal because she hadn't even wanted to do it. It's not like your sis Leigh-Anne."
"Leigh-Anne's sensitive when it comes to that so I understand why she can't help but try to lend a hand to Jesy." Jade added. "If she makes your stomach hurt then maybe you should stop."
Leigh shook her head. "I kind of like her and that scares me."
Perrie and Jade watched her in silence.
"Why?" Perrie asked slowly. "And you mean like as a friend right?"
"Yes. As a friend." Leigh-Anne kept her eyes on Kyro. "I want to be her friend but then my brain's telling me 'oh Leigh-Anne you like being around people who hurt you. Leigh-Anne you're crazy. Leigh-Anne you're gonna end up like your mother. Leigh-Anne you've got to keep away from that girl'. But then I know that it's not the same situation as my dad- why do I link this girl to my dad so much? Dr Jung told me but . . . I can't just keep that in the back of my mind forever."
Jade found this all to be very curious. She did not know that these letters were causing so much of a tornado of emotions in Leigh-Anne's brain. They seemed so innocent and sweet. "I'm not sure how to resolve this."
"Yeah me neither." Perrie hummed. "Maybe you should ask Jung to supervise a meeting between the two of you and see how you react."
"Why would you propose that though?" Jade was frowning.
"I don't know. Her brain seems to have evolved since she last fainted over seeing Jesy so maybe something different will happen? She also needs to learn how to not die every time she's around her. What? You're just gonna live your life fainting whenever you see one person? What if you both get invited to a party and you have to go?" Perrie thought she was speaking facts.
"But that's not a dire issue." Jade could slap Perrie.
"Dr Jung says that we've got to work on my whole Jesy issue but we certainly won't do that now. Maybe later when I don't look like the endoskeleton of a robot." Leigh did a brief robot dance.
Jade laughed. "Why do you keep trashing yourself?"
Leigh-Anne giggled. "It's one of the many ways that I cope with my crazy life."
"Well don't cope that way. I don't like hearing you say mean things about the person I love most." Perrie cupped the side of Leigh's face.
Leigh-Anne just had to smile at Perrie's undying affection. "Okay. I'll stop." She said in a tiny voice.
Jade was happy to hear that. "Good."
"But how you feel about Jesy do be sounding wild. I mean . . . from here it just looks like she's happy to talk to you but you're out here having a conniption." Perrie chuckled. "If only she knew."
"Please don't tell her. I can sense how happy she is to write me every time I read her letters. She's already gone through so many wild emotions. I don't want to take this away from her." Leigh-Anne awkwardly played with her fingers. "And it's not like I'm having a bad time writing her. I enjoy it. It's like I'm making a new friend but I just . . . I'm a complicated person I suppose."
"You are but none of it is your fault at all. People have f*cked you up Leigh. You haven't done one bad thing a day in your life." Perrie patted her shoulder.
Leigh did not agree. "Trust me, I've done plenty of horrible things."
Jade laughed shortly. "Name one."
"Stepping on Kyro's tail?" Perrie tried before she and Jade laughed together.
Leigh's face went pink. "It's not necessarily what I've done but sometimes what I haven't done." She spoke softly.
"Like what? Forgot to take out the trash?" Jade asked.
Leigh's mind sent images of her sister's sad smile, her mother crying for help on the floor and Sairah being Sairah. "No."
"So what is it then?" Perrie could see that Leigh was in deep thought. Did this sweet girl somehow murder somebody? Nah.
Leigh-Anne sighed. Then there's being jealous. But she would wait for that emotion to pass. "Nothing. What I've come up with I've been told isn't really my fault so I can't say."
Jade and Perrie exchanged glances. "Okay." Was all they said.
Leigh was yanked forward by her puppy who suddenly started running. "Kyro! Slow down boy! What did you see? What did you see?" She screamed as she was pulled way ahead. "Jade, Perrie! Help!"
Jade and Perrie started chasing.
"How does one get yanked around by a puppy anyway?" Jade did not understand Leigh-Anne.
"I'm underweight!" Leigh defended as she continued to be dragged around.
"Even before that Kyro was bullying you! I think you're just weak! Ahahahaha!" Perrie laughed while catching up.
Leigh stuck her tongue out just as she was pulled further away from her friends.