Four

"Leib, just drop me around the corner, I'll walk from there." I told him, fidgeting. "Nope, little sis. Mom specifically told me to drop you off the parking lot and walk you to your classes, and be with you on breaks and lunches." He over-cheerily answered. It had been two days since they found me and I was trying to go through without mulling over what happened to me in the park. Aaand, I was finally given permission to attend school, one downside though, I had my brother tailing me every second. The trip to the hospital was a nonsense, the doctors didn't find anything wrong with me both internal and external, but I couldn't explain the pounding of my heart the first time I stepped in the white-tiled building. Next was to the psychologist, who told us that my mind was probably blocking the memories because it was either traumatic or insignificant, but whichever, I would recover them as time passes. "I can take care of myself, dude, and you have classes, and practices, and a date! How are you even gonna manage to babysit me, huh?" I am forcing myself to cheer up, to erase the flashes of people in white in my mind in the last two days. I tried every single thing I knew to get my mind off of the seemingly big chunk of memory missing in my brain that I was itching to remember, but alas! I failed, because even now that I stare at the windshield of my brother's car, blinks of human-sized tanks and white tiles kept sporadically appearing. "What date?" Leib's voice pulled my thoughts back to him. It took me a beat to catch what he had just said. "With April Mabry, duh!" My brother frowned appearing annoyed, but I could see the budding blush on his cheeks as he killed the engine and pulled the handbrake. Smile lit my mouth, opening my door and getting off. Leib walked to my side and handed me my bag. This would be a long day with him glued to me so might as well make it worth my while. "You guys are practically dating." I suppressed my smile as I heard a choking sound and then him clearing his throat a few times after. True to his word, he really did walk me to my class even with his football buds calling him. "Wait here for me after your class." I didn't think I heard him right, so I stopped mid-walk towards inside the room. "No," I knew I sounded like a kindergarten whining. "No," he mocked. "You can't do anything about it, I can't do anything about it. Mom's order." He looked pained from just telling me that. "Have to report to her every after your class too-if you're doing fine." He crossed his arms on his chest. I groaned. I am doing fine, exclude the bubbles popping and invisible murmurs buzzing in my ears. "Get to your class, kid." He pushed me gently towards the room-like steering a little kid. "Give April a kiss for me, would ya?" The kicks of teasing Leib were endless. "Shut up." I heard him mutter and walked away. I chuckled. Now let's go learn. ● ● ● ● As soon as I entered the room, my eyes scanned for Les, full name's Celeste Vaani, she hated being called that, though. She was seated at the last row from the door I just came in, first column. My feet took me to where she was and sat on the empty seat beside her. She hadn't looked up from her notebook which she was furiously scribbling using a pink mechanical pencil with a cat-head cap. "Good morning, stranger." I greeted. Les stopped writing and sat straight. Those light-brown eyes stared at me, and then they blinked and blinked again. Without tearing her gaze from me, she handed me a paper full of writings. "Mr. Romero will quiz us later about bacteria. I wrote all the things you'll be needing to know. Good morning." Her tone was almost monotonous, but I was used to it. I scanned the paper and gave her my thanks. Les, she was...cool and calculating, but it didn't hinder the friendship that formed between us in middle school. She, I would say would be the perfect description of stoic. Yes, she was capable of smiling but it only happened thrice a month. She was the way she was and I ain't complaining. Everybody was unique in their own way. "So what happened to you? Your brother didn't want to tell me anything. He won't even let me visit you." I see she went back to writing while I was caught up in my thoughts. Uh, how do I tell her? Les, I was kidnapped for four days and probably tortured and experimented on. I said probably, because I couldn't remember anything that happened only that I knew they gave me a wad of cash when they dumped me back at the park where they got me. "I caught a really bad flu and I infected everyone in the house except Leib." Liar, liar pants on fire. Without looking at me, she just mumbled a, "Hah," as a response. Feeling dismissed, I opened the notebook she gave me and started reading-slash-scanning the words. Strain 121. I stopped reading, had I heard these words before? They seemed really familiar. I wasn't able to stop my brain from racking itself to find an answer, but all it got were flashes of whites and bubbles and incoherent mumbles of deep voices. Cool fingers lightly pinched the bridge of my nose. "Are you okay? You're pale." Les' concerned voice snapped me back to where I was. "Yeah, I'm fine." Why would she think that I'm not? She removed her fingers on my face. "You were whispering about a Strain 121." Yup, I think my brain went haywire when I got electrocuted. I was whispering and I didn't know it? Maybe it was normal for kidnap-survivor to get like this, right? Now I'm pitching my thoughts to no one. Gah. "It's just this Strain 121 thing seems familiar. Like I heard it before, but I've never heard it." I scratched the back of my head. The itch to remember something was crawling on my scalp into my mind. Les rested her chin on the knuckles of her right hand that was propped on her table. "Maybe you read it somewhere but you cannot remember it consciously. That happens to everyone." I shrugged, "Maybe." The day seemed normal...enough. My mind kept coming back to the two words I read from my best friend's notes. Leib waited for me outside the room like he promised and walked me to another. By the time the day ended, I felt like a very important person with my very own bodyguard (Leib, haha) fetching me food and drinks, asking me how I was feeling, and giving me a clear path in the crowded hallway every end-period. "So, how was your date?" I asked when we were walking to the parking lot. Les and Leib on my either side. Little by little, the students got in their cars and sped away eager to get to somewhere. "What date?" same thing he'd asked this morning. Well then, same answer I would give, "With April Mabry, duh." My brother, a bad actor he was, tried to look annoyed, there was no denying the pinkish-red on his cheeks, though. Ah, I wouldn't ever get tired messing with him. "Kat," Les shoulder-bumped me and waved, said "bye," to Leib and on she went to her boyfriend's Civic. The epitome of a woman with a few words. Scott, a decent guy with a swimmer-shoulder, was leaning against his car's passenger door when he waved at us. I wasn't sure about that though, because he was looking at Les with pure adoration while wiggling his hand to our direction. So, maybe he was waving at us. Having reached our own four-wheeled monster (not really it was just a Sentra 2016), I watched my best friend get in the red car and waved one last time before Scotty took her away. "About the date," I began, while my brother stuffed our bags in the backseat. "You're really forcing me to give you a noogie," He straightened and shut the door. "Get in the car, shrimp." Leib entered a few seconds after me, but didn't start the car. Instead, he was focused on his phone. "Why are you not starting the car, aren't we going yet?" No answer. His eyes were still glued to the phone in his hands. Oookay, I'll talk to the windshield, then. A few minutes later, I got my answer. April Mabry was walking towards the car while smiling at her phone. My eyes slid to Leib and he was doing the same. Message received, time to move out. I wiggled my body into the backseat despite my brother's sputtering protests and settled with a huff. "Are you crazy?" No I'm not. "Just giving you the food that's been long dangling in front of you, brother." I smirked at how smart that sounded. When April entered the passenger side, I immediately greeted her. She poked her head behind the front seat. "Hi, Kat. Are you okay? Leib told me went missing for four days." He told April but he let Les, my best friend in the whole wide world, miss out? I narrowed my eyes at my brother's in the rearview mirror. I know you got my stare, Oleiber. "I feel fine," I smiled as Leib finally started the car. April frowned, making my face slightly sync with hers. "Is our school scheduled for fogging?" I shrugged. Don't ask me I just got in today. "Maybe, I mean it's Saturday tomorrow." Leib answered maneuvering out of the school gate. "Hmm, They were...I don't know, a little off, and they have this weird logo emblazoned on the breast pocket of their shirt." With April already faced in front, I could almost see her biting her nails. "Maybe they created it like that with that purpose in mind?" Leib answered looking ahead. I stayed silent, and let them carry on with their non-romantic conversation. "It was a circle with a red coloring the lower half and white on the upper. They sort of divided the circle thing diagonally." Every hair on my arms and nape stood up as April's description painted a picture inside my head. It felt familiar, like I had seen it lots of times before.