(Calliope)
Life always has brought a lot of changes. So days there were a lot of friends in the play room, sotis there were just a few. Sodays I was not allowed to go to the playroom because it was experint day. Those days are never fun; they usually involve eating or touching things that hurt. The days after, however, I got more food, so it was not that bad.
No, what always felt bad was when a friend did not show up for a while because that ant that they would never really co back. So, when Mom showed up when the playroom went yellow, and my skin was hurting, it just felt like another change.
But sohow this change was different. It felt more permanent. Even though I was not sent to the playroom anymore, I was not sent to the experint room, either, just to a place with my own room and stuff. Is this what happened to all my friends who disappeared? Were they also sent to places like this?
All those changes are nothing in comparison to the change I see before right now, Mom. The lady with the sa eyes as who has been giving constant hugs and good food, has sohow turned into three different ladies.
Then one of the moms starts walking towards the door and trips. “Too many legs,” she says as she stands up and leaves.
“That was weird, right?” the new lady asks the one with pink hair.
“Yep,” one of the moms says. “Probably will be fine though?”
“How do we have too many legs, getting stuff done with just one leg sounds hard?” the other mom continues.
“Well, how many legs you have is a problem for later.” The last lady says, nodding at .
I quickly turn back to the TV thing where there is a little baby Daisy playing with her friends. I do my best to seem interested and not like I was listening in on the adults. They never liked that, and I would always get punished for it when I did.
Soone sits down next to and pats my head. “Cali, are you enjoying the show?" Mom asks from next to .
I nod my head vigorously. “Yes, the little Daisies seem to have a lot of fun.”
“Right, they are cute, aren’t they? Maybe we can go see so in real life sotis.” Mom continues.
“When?” I ask, wanting to know how long I was staying here.
“Ahh, I don’t know, kiddo. I am in contact with soone in Africa called Lion Spirit, but his reply ti is leaving sothing to be desired, so it might take a while. Like a year or so if we are unlucky.” Mom explains.
“A year?” I ask, not sure what that was.
“A year is three hundred sixty-four days,” she answers.
That was a lot. I did know what a day was, and that was a lot, making smile brightly. I got to stay here for such a long ti and eat good food that made happy.
“Anyway, can we pause the program for a bit? We still need to get so stuff done today?” Mom says,
I freeze, so it was punishnt after all. That was okay; I would still get good food, right? The screen pauses, and I turn to look at Mom, who gives a strange look.
“Are you okay? You look a bit... White, are you feeling sick?” She asks, lightly touching my forehead. "It does not feel like a fever.”
“I am fine,” I say, looking at the other mom, who is standing a bit behind the one sitting next to . “Just confused”
Mom looks behind her at the other Mom and nods. “Right, that, we should probably explain that. So we had, let's say, a bad experience that kind of split our minds into three parts, creating three people with one body. Does that make sense?”
I glance back and forth between the two moms. “But?”
“Right, so at ho we have a body for everyone, but when we are not at ho, we only have one.” She adds.
I nod along, not understanding any of it. But I don’t really understand most of what Mom says, and she always seems happy when I nod along, so I just keep doing that.
“Dear, it might help if the two of you actually look different from each other.” The other lady tells Mom.
They both nod, and sothing seems to flash in front of their eyes for a second. Then both of them start to change. One of them has the wide mask appear on the side of her head as the tips of her hair turn green and pieces of tal appear on her face. The other mom just changes her hair to be slightly more pink and makes so wires appear on her face.
“Better?” Pink Mom asks.
“Uhm,” the lady says, looking between both Moms, her face quickly turning redder.
“Well, we succeed in sothing at least.” The green mom says.
“Anyway,” Pink Mom says as she plays with my hair, “Should we go and set up your room?”
“My room?” I ask, feeling a bit lost and confused.
Mom nods. “Yeah, you rember the tablet you had yesterday where you could pick out things for your room?”
I nod. I did rember that it was fun, just clicking on everything that looked pretty had given lots of ideas.
“So let's get you that stuff.” She says, standing up from the couch.
I blink in confusion, not understanding it at all. Get the stuff like I can have it for real, and it was not another experint? That was weird, right? I look over at the other girl, who is staring at , just as confused.
Mom reaches out her hand. “Are you coming?”
I nod, taking Mom's hand.
She takes to my bedroom, picks up the tablet from where I left it and starts scrolling through it. Then she chuckles as she looks at . “Are you sure this is everything?”
Is it too much stuff? Should I have asked for less? “Uhm, we can remove so...”
“No, honey, that is not what I ant,” Mom says, kneeling down to look at . “You have not chosen a bed or a closet to store your clothes in. So you should probably choose so more items.”
I nod in surprise. I had chosen too little items? how? that... huh?
Mom turns the tablet towards , showing a bed that stands on tall leggies. “How about this? We can attach it to the jungle gym you have selected so you can climb into bed.”
I look at the bed for a bit, then look back at Mom.
“You don’t like it?” she asks.
“No I… confused.” Then, I look at the bed already in the room.
Mom also looks at the bed then nods. “I guess you can keep that bed if you want, just, you know, you can pick whatever you want.”
I nod slowly, taking the tablet from her and looking through the options for beds and closets. Mom smiles at for a bit before sitting down on the ground next to . “Maybe get comfortable chairs as well.”
After a while, I think I have a new bed and dresser that look nice. And walk up to Mom to show them. Mom smiles, taking the tablet from to look through it.
“Dragons, huh? That is nice.” She reaches out a hand. “Okay, honey, co stand here and let cast so magic.”
I follow Mom to the door, where she holds .
“Okay, abo cadoodle or sothing,” she says, and with a flash, things appear. My lizard bed, which apparently is a dragon, shows up with the climbing toy attached to it. The orange and yellow closet appears next, fitting underneath the tall bed. Next, the toys and dolls appear all around the room and, lastly, the big red chair that had decorations in the sa colours.
“So what do you think?” Mom asks.
I slowly walk forward, touching a soft pink bear. Then, I just sink into it, fully enjoying the soft feeling against my skin.
I hear Mom chuckle and turn around to see her smiling at . “I will be going to help Cierra for a bit now. You have fun, okay?” She says, before leaving the room, leaving all alone to play with my new things.
I never had things before, just a cold bed and food. I look around the room, the room that is filled with things that are all mine. Where was the trap? The trick? The experint. Sothing was wrong here, and I need to figure out what.
I slowly leave my room and knock on the door next to mine to the girl that is supposed to be my sister. She slowly opens the doors and looks at , confused. “What is it?”
“I uhm… Don’t understand.” I say.
“Understand what?”
I gesture around wildly “All you know this.”
My sister slowly nods and opens the door wider. I slowly walk into her room, which is now filled with a lot of different plushies.
“That is a lot,” I say.
Sister nods. "The lady did not like that I picked so little, so she just added all of this.” She gestures around.
I nod. “I forgot a bed, so that was added.” I look at my sister. “Weird, right?”
Sister nods again. “Yeah.”
“So what are we going to do?” I ask, feeling scared.
My sister looks around and then slumps. “I don’t know, I failed my mission. I should be dead. But this does not feel like death or a punishnt. I am scared.”
I nod, slumping down as well, so days were not that bad, so days were good even. But those never lasted, so in the next few days, sothing would happen. “So what now? Should we run?”
My sister looks at the door. “Maybe, but this place is big; I am not sure if we can.”
I feel tears start to prickle my eyes as I try to figure out what to do.
“Girls, dinner is ready. Co, eat with us.” The voice of the other lady echoes through the hall.
I take a slow breath and turn to my sister. “Food?”
My sister nods, and we walk out together towards the kitchen, where Mom is putting up plates on the table, with the help of the wicked witch. The other lady is further in the kitchen, ssing with sothing that creates a lot of steam.
When Mom spots us, she smiles and pulls back a chair that looks different from the rest. “Look, Jason recomnded these chairs. They should be the perfect height for you to sit at the table.”
I nod slowly and go and sit on the chair. The next thing I know, there is a plate with hot food in front of .
“Now, Cali, I need you to listen to ,” Mom says in a serious voice. “If all the food is gone and you want to have more, I need you to ask for it and not eat the plate, okay? You think you can do that?”
I nod. That makes sense, so I just need to eat the plate first. I could do that.
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