* RUN ON FOR A LONG TIME, [sandra]

[NELL DOE DALE]

Despite the cold, Nell felt as if it was a good day for walking. She liked moving around, keeping active. And she just didn’t want to deal with Gwen and any problems she may have. Once Lucille was done, she’d focus on doing some more work on the PT Cruiser since she planned on keeping her for things she wouldn’t want to put her Pontiac through. And she was already planning the next car she wanted to work on. Lucille was almost completed, and it had taken time and dedication. Thoughts of cruising down the street in that beauty made her smile as she walked down the street, messenger bag knocking against her leg. It may have been cold, but it was pretty temperate considering it was still winter. She’d had had a lot of hope for January’s debut, as if its arrival could heal her father, but he was still losing weight. He tried to pretend like he could move around a lot, but it was obvious he needed rest. And still he would not get himself to a doctor. And she knew with both of them being stubborn, any arguments would fruitless.

She’d turned down a corner, trying to find a shortcut and not really paying attention to anything around her. So she was oblivious to anyone keeping an eye on her, trying to see if they recognized her. She didn’t even know there was anyone around until someone grabbed her arm, and she stopped walking, looking up with a confused gaze. The face did not click in her head, she didn’t know the boy. But he knew her, made clear when he said, ”You’re Nell, right?” She wanted to release her arm from his grip, but he held fast. ”Yeah. Do I know you?” Being caught off-guard and man-handled made her tone sound rather clipped, which apparently didn’t please the fellow. He pushed her away, and she rubbed her arm. ”No, but you’re gonna.” He shoved her again, and she stepped back with the force of it. What did I do? The thought was rather panicked. ”Hear you’ve been causing trouble with Rafael.” What? What the hell was this? ”I haven’t,” she said with assurance. He’s the one who’s been causing trouble.

Big Guy apparently wasn’t convinced. And if he was a friend of Rafael’s, that probably wasn’t a good thing. ”He says so. Between him and his girl.” She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. Is this the game her brother was playing at now? Turning his friends against her? ”So what, did he send you after me or something?” The guy drew in close so he could look down at her. Not that he needed to be close in order to do that. ”Nah, I just recognized you from school. And I figured I might as well talk to you.” She nodded, wanting to get out of here. ”Well, you talked. It was nice meeting you.” Nell tried to walk past, but he blocked her off with his huge chest. She immediately bounced back. ”I don’t think so,” he said, tilting his head to the side. ”Lay off Raf.” She narrowed her eyes, impudent. She knew what was coming, her big mouth. ”Angela’s my friend and Raf is a scumbag. I’m not ‘laying off’.” He was close again and she tried not to step back. ”You’ll regret it.” She didn’t want the next words to come out of her mouth, but they came before she could stop them. ”Yeah? Make me.”

If there was any doubt that it was the wrong thing to say, it evaporated when he clocked her across the face. With her small stature she wasn’t built to take blows like that, and she stumbled back, falling on her ass. Tears from the sheer pain prickled at her eyes, but she quickly buried it down. ”I’m not afraid to hit a girl,” he spat, and she had enough sense to bite back the retort this time. ”Especially bitches like you.” And with that, he walked away. She didn’t even know what to make of the situation at this point, all she could do was sit there. After a moment, she stood, mumbling, ”Owie.” She brushed off her jeans before touching a finger to her eye. It was tender. She wasn’t surprised that Rafael’s friends were douche bags, too. She continued on her walk to Matt and Sandra’s place. A more sensible person may have gotten some ice before it swelled. Right now she didn’t want to go back, right now she needed the company. By the time she reached the Changs’ place, a nice purple bruise had already formed under her eye and she had to be careful about knocking, scrapes from falling on the asphalt on her palms.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

It was around two in the afternoon, and Sandra had just woken up. It was a Saturday, and school had been in session at the Academy for about a week or so already, but apparently she was still operating in holiday mode. That made sense, of course, especially since even during schooltime she slept way more than she should anyway, but that was kind of the way it was. Matthew came and got her on weekdays, and occasionally he did on weekends too, but usually she was glad that she was allowed to sleep in when she had no plans or school or anything like that... and Matt wasn't even home right now, though she didn't know exactly where he actually was. Still, perhaps it wasn't such a good idea, because when she slept in so much she felt tired for the rest of the day -- Vitamin D deficiency or something, if her science education thus far had taught her anything. She hadn't bothered changing out of her pyjamas, but she had at least gotten up, brushed her teeth and hair and what-not, grabbed Roosevelt the teddy bear off of his perch on her desk, and walked into the living room, where she plopped onto the couch and didn't move. She could have probably slept away the whole day here, too... but instead she reached for the remote and turned the TV onto the latest episode of a teen drama she'd never seen before. This one guy looked familiar, though. She'd probably seen him on some girl's locker or plastered on a binder or something like that.

The girl on TV was having what seemed like a pretty intense conversation (or argument) with what looked like her parents. Sandra blinked slowly and tried not to fall asleep. Said girl now stormed out of her family's penthouse apartment and was heading for what looked like the house of her best friend. Sandra rubbed at her eyes blearily. Now there was that familiar-looking guy on TV instead, calling the home number of the penthouse that aforementioned girl had just left. He looked pretty worried. Sandra rolled over so that she wasn't even looking at the TV anymore. They went to a commercial break, and she fell asleep completely. It was probably a bad idea to go ahead and take a nap again when she'd just woken up and it was afternoon as it was, but she'd never claimed to be an excellent decision-maker. In her dreams, she was on a date with the same guy from TV, whose name she still didn't know, but for some reason she was calling him Michael. Well, that was as good a name as any! It was a pretty weird date that they were on, though, honestly -- he was trying to convince her to go skydiving. Sandra was so not about to go skydiving, whether in her dream world or in real life, not that she could tell the two apart when she was sleeping. She stormed away from the guy and next thing she knew, her dream self was also asleep, though in her bed. She was woken up by someone's knocking, and her first instinct was to tell Matt to go away and let her sleep for five more minutes, but then she realized that she was awake and no, she wasn't even in bed at all, but on their couch, and the closing theme to that show from earlier was now on.

Also, perhaps most importantly, that knocking had been coming from the front door. Huh. She didn't really know who that could be, unless Matthew had forgotten his keys or something, but that didn't seem likely. She couldn't think of any reason burglars would want to come rob their house, either, or why said burglars would knock or show up in the middle of the day, but she picked up Roosevelt for protection anyway, just in case. When she looked out the little peephole, though, she was relieved to see that it was Nell, though of course with that type of thing it was kind of distorted. Still, she recognized her friend and so she smiled as she opened the door. Her eyes then widened as she got a proper look at the other girl. "N-Nell? Oh my god, are you okay?" she asked, squeaking a little in her uncertainty, as she stepped aside to let Nell in. She looked like she had been roughed up a little bit -- most pressing was her black eye. "What happened?!"

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell smiled when Sandra opened the door, seeing that she was still wearing her pajamas. Right now that sounded pretty good to her, comfy. Much comfier than jeans. They were a hassle to get into every morning. Unless Nell chose to wear something else that day, but it usually was jeans. The fondness turned to fear when Sandra expressed her distress, eyes wide and voice strained. Of course she'd notice the black eye, unless she decided to look everywhere but at her friend. She lifted her hands as if to soothe her, "Just got into a little scrape. Nothing big." Should she tell Sandra? What was worse, hiding something like this and making her wonder or saying it and still having her be concerned? Either way it didn't sound too good. There was no escape from any of this, and Nell didn't like to lie. She'd spent a good amount of time doing it, and that ruined quite a few of her relationships. She was lucky that Ashton forgave her. He had every right not to have. "Uh, this guy just decided to jump me." Her brother, should he be mentioned? The fact that she had a douchebag with her name on his shit list? Ugh, she didn't even know what to do, just entered the house when the Water girl let her in.

The place was almost as familiar as the mansion. More familiar, actually, since it was a mansion that she often found herself lost in. It was a nice place, but she was still intimidated by it and preferred hanging around outdoors when she could. Her garden was suffering in the winter, but she still kept it up, preparing for warmer climate. Heading into the kitchen, she said, "Knocked because I didn't know if anyone was home." She was prone to just entering using the spare key, but when she had something planned later in the day, it wasn't the wisest idea to wait until someone returned. Especially if she frightened them. Not that she was someone to be afraid of. Even while she didn't just waltz in, she entered the kitchen and opened the freezer to pull out some frozen vegetables to place against her eye. It was pretty soothing. "Hope you weren't planning on eating these tonight," she joked to diffuse the situation. That was a little technique that she liked to use, making light of things. She didn't want the situation to be any worse than it already was. Maybe she should have headed home to save Sandra the shock, but she really needed the girl's company.

So she was glad that she found her home, hoping that she hadn't been disturbing her. By the looks of things, she didn't think she was, but she could never be sure. Nell wasn't fond of being a burden. She walked back out to the living room and saw that the television was on, the people moving across the screen. She watched a bit of television, mostly Dora the Explorer in the mornings before she went to class. She had a weakness, and she wasn't ashamed of it. Cartoons gave her something back that she never had, and she enjoyed that. "What were you watching?" she questioned. But realizing that Sandra had been in her pajamas, she said, "Or were you just asleep." Nell didn't enjoy falling asleep with the television on. Or any form of light, for that matter. She could manage it, she just preferred the complete dark, and not only because it was easier. Her mother was afraid of the dark, would use a nightlight even when her daughters braved the darkness of their own room. It would be amusing if it weren't for Mia's mental health.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Well... actually, truth be told, despite going to the Academy where violence wasn't always uncommon, Sandra wasn't all that accustomed to seeing people hurt. On the whole she avoided that kind of thing, not because she was a pacifist or anything necessarily, but probably more because she was physically weak and honestly, the thought of getting hurt or hurting anybody else was... painful, and not in the literal way. Of course, if she did get hurt then it would be painful in the literal way, but luckily she'd kept out of harm's way for hte most part. That wasn't always easy or even possible, though. Sometimes people just liked to start things. "O...okay," she said slowly, not sure whether she should just take this story at face value. "Wait, why... Like, did he just decide to jump you randomly or something?" Did people usually get jumped for no reason? She had no idea, honestly. It wasn't like she knew her way around this type of thing. She didn't even know what to do to help, damn it. She just let Nell in, watching as Nell wandered into the kitchen and then poking her head outside into the hallway as if somebody would be waiting there to jump both of them or something. No, that was unlikely. Why would he follow Nell into here, whoever he was?

Once she'd ensured that they were indeed not being watched by any suspicious figures in the hallway, she locked the door and followed her friend. Nell was here pretty often, actually, so it wasn't weird that she knew her way around the small apartment. "S'okay, even if we were you know where the key is." She'd occasionally walked in to find Nell just there, sitting around or waiting or stealing their food. (Usually, it was a combination of all three but mostly the lats one.) It didn't really bother her anymore -- when there were comic books it meant Nell was waiting for Matthew, when there were girly things or something it was probably Sandra. Then again, she did wonder about the things Nell got her brother to do sometimes, so hey, no hate on Sandra's part. She wasn't bothered, either, at the use of the frozen vegetables. Of course, she did wonder about the whole thing in general, but this... this wasn't the time to worry. This was probably the time to just make sure that Nell was okay, first of all."It's cool, I hate carrots," she said, laughing. "Though I'm sure we have a real ice pack in here somewhere..." She didn't often see injuries like black eyes, things that tended to only get there because of an actual physical fight with someone, but lord knew how commonly she hurt herself by accident. Things like ice packs were vital. "Aha!" It'd been hidden behind a box of Hot Pockets. She wrapped a clean dishrag around it and handed it over to Nell. "Unless you prefer the vegetables, in which case that's cool too 'cause then we can't eat them tonight." She liked veggies just fine -- just not carrots, and that bag, though assorted, was chock full of carrots.

She stayed in the kitchen, peeking into the fridge this time even as she heard Nell leaving. It wasn't like she would get lost or anything -- she'd certainly been here enough times -- so Sandra didn't really feel the need to tag along, especially not when they could hear each other perfectly fine as it was. Hm... Food. There was actually quite a bit of food; they'd bought groceries just yesterday. "Huh? Oh... I was watching something on MuchMusic, I think," she answered, glancing over, but she couldn't actually see the TV from the fridge (a tragic flaw of this apartment). "Not sure what it was! But it was one of those drama shows, you know, with that teen actor guy with the Bieber hair that everyone likes so much." Sandra, personally, had no idea who he was, but her taste was bizarre as it was. Every other teenage girl at this point seemed to like him, though, and she had to admit that he was kind of cute. That said, she was the one having weird dreams about him, so what the heck. "Though yeah... mostly I was just asleep," she called in conclusion, grinning a bit at herself. She let the fridge swing shut (waste of cold air otherwise and what-not) and then walked over to the doorway of the living room, leaning against the frame once she got there. "Have you eaten anything yet?" It was well past lunchtime, even, but having basically just woken up she hadn't even yet had breakfast. Sandra was starting to feel the hunger.

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell hated lying. Absolutely detested it, and yet here she was, considering flat out lying to her friend. You know how this works. Lying meant losing people, it happened with Ashton. He was the one who truly made her realize her mistakes, who made her look back and see that what she'd done had been due cause to lose everyone she held close. Everyone. But then there was the other part of her that liked to hide, that didn't want anyone to know her personal life. Because she wanted to be viewed as a stalwart, as someone who always had it together. So, she decided to do that without showing how bad it really was. An easy shrug, a wry half smile, and she said, "Nah, it wasn't random. He's one of my brother's friends. There's been drama lately, and he thought he'd take it upon himself to deal with it." She shook her head. It's not bothering me at all, see? "You know how people are." People like...well, whoever it had been to fuck with her. She didn't get his name, and she didn't want his name. Nell hoped that she'd never have to see him again. Or any of Rafael's friends. He loves to talk, doesn't he? she thought in anger. The boy had no filter.

It wasn't Nell's first time in dealing with a black eye, her first (and she'd consider it her first because she didn't want to think of the before times when injury had been a common thing of her) shiner had been a gift from Rafael. It was the first time that her father had ever truly stuck up for her, and Nell still wondered about that. He really doesn't like Raf. She tried to keep herself from thinking of things like that, because they reminded her that what she was doing to the sick man was completely wrong. "Oh, yeah, that'd be great," Nell said when Sandra said they had a real ice-pack. The Earth girl was used to improvising, and it was a good thing for her now that she lived in a mansion with aspiring doctor Joshua Dale. Now it just wasn't gauze and electrical tape for wounds. And she always had a lovely collection of band-aids around her fingers from kitchen mishaps. She giggled when Sandra let out a successful 'aha', trading the vegetables for the ice packs and holding it against her eye. The cool relief eased her nerves. "Nah, think I'm gonna let you keep the vegetables on the off-chance that one day, your life will depend on them." It happened sometimes. The one thing you think you'll never need ends up being a key to your survival.

Nell flopped down on the couch, taking the remote and switching around channels to see what else was on. "Ooh," she replied to Sandra when she said she was watching MuchMusic. "Uhmm...Gossip Girl? I dunno, don't watch it much." She's seen just about everything, though, even if it was just little snippets. It was difficult not to know about some shows since it was a topic of conversation that a lot of people had. If she didn't know about a certain show, she could guarantee that a friend of hers watched it and would fill her in. "I don't know if there's anything else on...Whee, infomercials!" She held the status of a spendthrift shopper, but she had a weakness for infomercials. She couldn't help it, everything looked so cool and useful. "That vacuum cleaner is awesome..." she mumbled as she watched, wondering if she should take her phone out. Nell blinked at Sandra's question, scrunching her lips together in thought. Usually, it was an easy question to answer, but the blow to her head must have shaken up her brain a little. "I had breakfast early this morning. Got up at like, six. Why, you got anything here? Or you wanna order out?" She shifted so she could look over her shoulder at Sandra.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

"You have a brother?" This was the first thing to come out of Sandra's mouth, and it wasn't until afterward that she wondered whether she should have known that. She didn't know Nell terribly well, but she'd known her for a few years at this point, and she thought that she should probably know when people had siblings. Had she just forgotten? Sandra didn't even know at this point. Her forehead wrinkled a little bit as her eyebrows knitted together in mild confusion, though. Still, she figured after that this was probably the worst of her problems. Her friend was hurt! Nell was acting pretty tough about it, and Sandra was actually kind of impressed with this because she, personally, would probably be bawling and freaking out. "But what kind of drama? Why did he have to deal with it? Why you?" she asked, pretty much all at once, perhaps a little bit frantically, but in fact she was calmer than she would usually be. It was probably because Nell was so... put-together right now. It had kind of a calming effect, just a little. At least, she wasn't panicking just yet, and that was something in and of itself. Admittedly though, she didn't really know how people are, but... well. That wasn't really pressing information. She was way more concerned with her friend right now, with Nell's safety and well-being and... whatever drama this was. Sandra herself lived a pretty boring, undramatic life. She didn't know much of what Nell got up to herself, much about her life in fact, but... well, something. She didn't even know anymore. Sandra bit her lip nervously as she watched Nell, still feeling a little buggy and weird. It wasn't every day that someone turned up with a black eye or something.

She tossed the bag of vegetables back into the freezer, way at the back in the hopes that maybe Matthew would never see them and suggest they eat them soon or anything. Ew. Carrots. She liked other vegetables, though... "Well, I doubt they'll actually save my life or something. Unless I'm dying from Vitamin A deficiency... then maybe," she said, laughing. She had no idea if veggies were even the ones with Vitamin A, actually. These things weren't really Sandra's concern, and neither were most of those teen drama shows. She did watch a bit of TV, though. Gossip Girl was one show she'd watched for maybe about half a season before she'd lost interest, so she was pretty sure that definitely wasn't the one that had beeno n this morning. "Nah, don't think it was Gossip Girl. It might have been that Secret Life show? Dunno." She shrugged even though Nell was facing the screen and therefore couldn't see her. She did perk up a little bit when she heard the word "infomercials", though. "Oh, oh, is it a food infomercial?" Sandra didn't have money and therefore didn't really bother watching most of those infomercials at all, but she'd sat through entire infomercials before only because they featured food that looked yummy or things like that. She practically had the Magic Bullet and Flavour Wave commercials committed to memory. "Oh, just a vacuum cleaner... Buy it, though!" She giggled, wondering if this fancy vacuum thing was actually better than a regular one. Her parents had pretty much taught her never to trust things like this, but Sandra didn't always make the best decisions. She walked over and flopped down next to Nell on the couch, putting Roosevelt down next to her when she realized that she was still holding him. "I was just going to make breakfast, I just woke up so..." She grinned sheepishly, then put on a more serious face and cocked her head to the side as she looked at Nell. "You sure you're okay?"

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell wore a crooked little smile at the question. She didn't want to consider him a brother. In her mind, in her life, Sandra was more of a sister to her than he was a brother. And that was saying something. "Yeah. Half-brother. Just kind of met him." Of course it was news to Sandra, and Nell would have preferred everything to be kept on the downlow. She didn't like people knowing she even had a family. Was that weird? She didn't know, but it was how she worked. "He's a bad guy, Sandra, and...I don't even know where to begin." She scratched the top of her head, shaking out her hair. There's been a lot of shit going on in Nell's life that the girl didn't know about. She should feel guilty, but in her mind, it was so that she could keep her friend away from all that. Her life had always been messed up, and the Earth girl had just found a way to deal with it. "He's been abusing his girlfriend, my friend, and he's upset that I've been trying to interfere. So I guess he's gossiping to his friends about it." She hated saying it, because it would make the situation worse, wouldn't it? But it was either that, or 'it's complicated'. She didn't know which would be better at this point. "It's not a big deal, just some high school bullpoop." Rafael enjoyed playing his games, but she was not having fun in this situation.

The girl tapped the side of her head. "You never know? What if Matt is being held hostage by some thugs whose only request is vegetables?" Because that was a completely logical scenario. All thugs want the veggies. Even though she was exaggerating, it was true that you could never know what might happen. Sandra said it was probably Secret Life. "The one where they're all pregnant or something?" She tilted her head. That wasn't vague at all, now was it? Most of the soaps Nell watched involved pregnancy plots. "Nooo," she said, and sounded quite disappointed by it. Those were the best, as Sandra could agree. They were the most tempting ones. Nell typed out the number on her phone, her other hand fixing the ice pack in place. Of course they had websites, but she still didn't trust herself much on the internet. "I saw this slider making thing once, and it was so cool," she said. "But Josh wouldn't let me buy it. Party-pooper." Okay, he had been reasonable. And maybe it was the sickness that made her hop all over that stuff. But it was just so cool! "Breakfast, aw right. Got those pancakes and bacon and sausage?" Those were the best parts. She smiled and looked over her shoulder hearing the girl's words. I wish you didn't have to know. "Yeah, it's fine. Just need to give it a little while for the swelling to go down." She was feeling a lot better now, this was a safe place. She was all right. Comfortable.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Just met him? It must have been weird to have siblings -- half-siblings, step-siblings, adopted siblings, plain old regular siblings, whatever -- and yet not know about them... or perhaps know about them, yeah, but not meet them for years and years. She assumed that this half-brother of Nell's, whom she'd just learnt about, wasn't just a kid either, if he was going around starting drama. He must have been around their age, or something like that. It was hard to tell. "Oh," was all she said for a second, mulling this over for a second. A bad guy. That always seemed to be the kinds of things in movies and stuff, or things that Sandra's parents would have warned her about but that she'd never had to come across and deal with in her lifetime. She'd met jerks and idiots and overall assholes, sure, but somehow this seemed much more serious than that. She kept silent and let Nell go on. "Is your friend okay?" she asked first, deciding this was the most concerning thing apart from Nell's safety itself. "But oh... ohhh." That was what she'd meant by a bad guy, then. She wondered if that was the extent of it. "He does kind of seem like a bad guy. Not really 'kind of', actually. But it is a big deal! If people are getting hurt." "People" was Nell and this other friend of hers. The idea kind of scared her, made her worry -- already her imagination was running on overtime imagining all the crazy possibilities, even when she knew nothing about this shady half-brother character, not his name or what he looked like or what his motives were or anything at all.

Did thugs even eat vegetables? Well, she was sure they couldn't avoid them all the time or anything, but somehow the thought of thugs sitting around eating a healthy green salad or something was hilarious. She wondered what they did eat. What kinds of thugs were they talking, even? "Must be some pretty interesting thugs," she said, mostly thinking aloud. "Like a gang whose main goal is to hoarde and deal back out all the vegetables in the hood." Man, that would be a pretty weird scenario, like a scene from a kids' cartoon or something, the kind that she'd never understand as a joke about drug dealing until far later. "But I guess you're right! Wouldn't want Matt to be held hostage by the Veggie Gang." A bunch of pregnant teenagers sounded pretty accurate on The Secret Life of the blah blah, but Sandra only knew this from advertisements. Hey, for all she knew, it was a totally legit show... She doubted it, though. She had her guilty pleasures too, but that wasn't one of them. "Yep, sounds about right! Though ew... don't bother if it's not even food-related," she said, sighing and shaking her head a little. Nell and Sandra tended to agree on food -- that it was the best thing in the world, pretty much.

"You should have bought it anyway. I'm sure he would have appreciated it once he saw it in action," she said, nodding, before she hopped up off the couch, offering Nell a hand. Well, she wouldn't mind leaving her there, but it would be nice to have company while she made breakfast. Sandra was alright in the kitchen but not anything great. "Sweet deal, breakfast at... what, three PM it is! I don't think we have pancake mix, unless you know how to make it from scratch... but we should have everything else!" She led the way back to the kitchen, hopping along, happiness coming effortlessly to her though she was still pretty worried about Nell. "That's good... you should stay a while then, too," she suggested as she pulled a carton of eggs out of the fridge. "Matt can probably give you a ride back home or something when he gets back later." She normally felt kind of bad taking advantage of her brother for rides and that kind of thing, but this was slightly different -- she didn't want Nell walking back home if the dude was still creeping around, and she assumed that the girl had walked here alone considering someone had managed to jump her on the way.

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell wondered if maybe she feared judgment from Sandra. It was ridiculous since she was the sweetest thing, but they had two different lives. And most likely two different pasts. She certainly hoped so. In Nell's life, this kind of thing was all too common, and unfortunate part of her. Something she couldn't escape even when she'd left home. She studied Sandra's dark eyes, wondering what was going on in her head. The simple word was a little auspicious but she gave it time, folding her hands in front of her. Patient. Just be patient. "I...really don't know. She's still with my brother, and she won't press charges." It was something that Nell was afraid to talk about with Angela, and she hated herself for it. But abuse was a touchy thing, she knew that very well. And the not big part of it had been her getting hurt, not Angela. "Don't worry too much about it, is all," she said with a wan smile, wanting to assure Sandra. She hated that she had to bring this kind of thing up. She didn't like sadness or anything that may resemble it. "I'm dealing with everything, you know. Just trying to hold down the fort." That wasn't too vague, was it? Because in all honesty, Nell was not dealing with it. The entire situation was out of her hands thanks to the power Rafael held over her.

She was glad to be entertaining ridiculous scenarios of thugs craving mixed vegetables, now. It took her mind off of everything. She usually felt guilty about that, but since it was her that had gotten injured, she was more than willing. She didn't drink away her problems, she knew where that got her, she coped like the adult she wanted to be. "Instead of selling rock on street corners, they sell Brussels sprouts." The crack game was something she was slightly familiar with, and in her head she replaced all the white bags in the hands of hooded figures she'd seen in her childhood with vegetables. That would be a better thing, wouldn't it? Unless there were still drive-bys involving people growing vegetables on other gang turfs. Maybe there were several Vegetable Gangs. "See? Keep 'em." You know, just in case. And as for a show, Nell was tempted to add something else to her DVR. Josh didn't watch much television, and Annabel had her video games, so the TV was more her thing. "That's it, we're going to the food channel now..." She clicked the remote. It was usually not a good idea, but they were going to eat so she figured she'd be safe.

Nell held up her hands as if her point had been proven by the Water student. "I know, right!" Not that she was at all bitter about it. Would be a rather petty thing to be bitter about, as a matter of fact. It was easier for her to forget about things like that. "Breakfast for lunch. I guess we can consider this a realllly late brunch then. And I can totally make pancakes from scratch." She was pro in the kitchen, it was in her blood that way. Usually it was in the male side of her blood, but her father raised her like a son. Without the teaching catch and father-son bonding deal. When Sandra expressed the fact that it was a good thing she wanted to stay a little while, Nell got up to help her retrieve ingredients for their meal. "Hey, hey, I got an idea. Can I sleep over? We can have a slumber party and stuff." She thought of Matt and how she'd have to explain the black eye to him, too. Oh dear. She didn't know how comfortable she was with that. Not that she didn't trust him, it was this whole talking thing. She wasn't at all good with it.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra didn't understand why people stayed in abusive relationships. She'd never even tried. She didn't think it was without reason or anything, no, definitely not. Still, she tried to avoid thinking about it as much as she could, and maybe that was a little bit selfish on her part, because she'd never had to deal with that kind of thing personally or with her friends or anything of the sort. It was probably because of that, that she now had no idea what to say that could possibly make this any better. It made her feel kind of awful. "But that's not fair! To herself. She can do better," Sandra said, even though it wasn't like Nell could do anything about it either, and even though she... didn't even really know the girl. Ugh. She did know that everyone could do better than someone who was violent like that, though, even when she didn't know the details. Nell wouldn't make something like this up, wouldn't exaggerate. Sandra didn't think so, anyway. She couldn't imagine why she would make up that kind of excuse for a black eye. It wasn't a very serious injury, but it was a pretty obvious one. "But how?" she asked, struggling to understand still. "How are you dealing with it, I mean. Are you okay?" She didn't like when her friends were upset, and honestly, Sandra was no good at fixing problems. She didn't know what to do here! The best she could hope to do was to cuddle up to Nell and tell her that everything would be okay and hope that it was true, but for once, Sandra wanted to be a little more proactive than that. It turned out she wasn't very good at it, though. "If you ever need anything or anywhere to stay or anything, just come here," she said instead, firmly and surely. She didn't say anything about making sure that she or Matt were home first, either. Nell knew how to let herself in here.

She laughed a little bit too hard at this image in her mind. She had seen something similar on Family channel once before, on one of those newer Disney shows, where a bully picked on kids for their lunches but complained if it wasn't healthy enough. "So they run the veggie operation in the hood, and grocery stores go out of business," she said. "Pretty sad stuff. Poor grocery store owners." She lived quite a way away from anything resembling gangs and drug deals, though, at least as a significant presence. Sandra's world was sort of a bubble. "Oooooh, Triple D!" she said once Nell changed the channel to the Food Network. "Oh my god that looks so good..." It was just a plain old mac and cheese, but hey, judging by Guy Fiyeri's expression, it was some pretty darn good stuff. She started tossing a few other things (lightly, though!) onto the counter -- bacon and sausages, and she was pretty sure they had cereal somewhere too, but that was mainly for when she was feeling lazy, and food was one of the few things she wasn't lazy about. "Alright! What do you need for pancakes? Eggs, I figure?" She handed the carton over to Nell, and started poking around in the cupboards. "And flour... and I don't know what else?" She was quickly excited by Nell's suggestion, though, and her face brightened considerably, not that she hadn't been happy before. "Hey, yeah, we can!" She giggled. "I can totally lend you pyjamas and stuff, and we have a bunch of new spare toothbrushes somewhere." She giggled. Sleepovers were always fun!

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell wished she could go to Angela and say what Sandra had just told her. She thought that maybe, in all her conviction and strength, that the Water girl might be able to do such a thing, to go up to the girl and tell her to get out of this, to leave Rafael and find someone who'd be good to her. But Nell knew it didn't work like that. She had seventeen years of no one telling her to get away, and even if she had, she wouldn't have left until it was her decision. "She does. But she loves him." Nell hated that, but she understood that Raf didn't lay a hand on her at the beginning of the relationship. You didn't fall in love with the people who hurt you. That's why it was so difficult to leave when the violence started. She resisted biting her lip when the Water girl asked how she was dealing with it, if she was okay. "Yeah, I'm all right." Then she opted not to lie so much, and told her, "I'm as good as anyone in my position could be. But you know how I am, Sandra. I'll be fine." Nell was a calm, serene person. Nothing got to her. She didn't fight, she didn't get angry. She was a fortress. But she didn't want to tell Sandra that her fortress was slowly collapsing. "Thank you," Nell said softly, not being able to voice how touched she really was by those words. She had rarely been offered sanctuary before, never had a safe place that had been given to her by someone who knew her situation. These two siblings were more family to her than her relatives had ever been, and this was why, right her. No matter what, she could rely on Sandra. Even if she didn't want to admit that she needed it, even when she stubbornly refused support, she wanted it like any other person did.

Nell laughed, feeling everything ease up, the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders. She could joke and pretend like everything was okay for a moment, because Sandra gave her that, let her feel it was okay. Asylum, this was what it felt like. "The fuzz should really get on that. Make sure that no more business owners have to suffer because of the veggie gang." That sounded like some mafia stuff right there, though, something she didn't want to be as familiar with as she had become. People who business owners had to answer to, people that ran the underground city. She wanted to keep it in the hypothetical, make pretend realm. "My stomach wants me to bust through the television," she said as she watched, her stomach groaning in discontent. She had to remind it that it would be getting food in just a moment, it simply needed to be patient. "Salt, milk, baking soda, and....butter." She hopefully wouldn't forget anything, but it wasn't too difficult to remember. She had been making them for Mr. Seok, after all, so the recipe was now one she could remember off the top of her head. "Yay!" Nell said as she got the salt, careful not to throw her hands up too high, lest it pop open and fly everything. "But unfortunately I have a little bit of work to do. College sucks the fun out of my life, man." It was obvious that she was being over dramatic, because she did love college and everything that came with the opportunity of an education. "How are you doing with the new year?" she wondered as she searched for a pan to use.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra wasn't exactly an expert on the ways of love, or at least certainly not romantic love. She knew that her parents loved her despite the occasional (or, okay, frequent) nagging and lecturing, and she knew that she and Matt loved each other in that weird sibling way that meant that of course they'd never admit it and of course they'd go around trolling each other all the time. She knew that she loved her friends a heck of a lot and that this was something totally irreplaceable... but Sandra didn't really get this whole relationship nonsense. "Oh," she said again, thinking this over, this idea of loving someone anyway. The girl wasn't so sure about this whole young love thing anyway, if only she didn't see such prime examples all the time, like Nell and Josh. She'd guess that not everyone got that kind of... fairy tale or something, though. "Sometimes love is sad." She said this kind of sadly, not really thinking about the words, but it was a little bit like disillusionment. What did Sandra know about the way things like that really worked? She pretty much knew nothing. She snuggled in next to Nell on the couch instead of trying to say anything intelligent. "Good. You're tough. You got this!" Nell really was tough. "And seriously, any time. You know where the key is and you can even stay here whenever you want and just..." She wrapped an arm around her friend worriedly. Sandra wasn't much of a protector, wasn't anybody's champion, but she'd be damned if she wouldn't try her best when her friends were in trouble somehow.

She was happy in the kind of relieved way to see that Nell was laughing and joking around as usual, because that moment had been entirely too intense and heavy for her. Sandra was willing to lend help, she always was, but she was the greatest help when it came to laughing about nothing and being silly. She wasn't really all that great at giving advice or anything. "The fuzz," she repeated, giggling. "It really is tragic. I mean, who knows how many store owners have gone out of business because of the veggie gang? Poor Mr. and Mrs. Greene." She shook her head as if these people had been her neighbours and had been forced to relocate because of the veggie gang or something. She'd just made up the name, though, but for somewhat obvious reasons the name Greene always made her think of grocers. "Shhh, Nell's stomach, you get food soon... Probably not as good as Triple D food, but still food." She was hating on her own cooking skills more than she was Nell's, of course. Nell was probably far handier in a kitchen. "Okay, let's see here... Salt, milk, baking soda, butter." She fetched all these things from their respective spaces in the cupboards and fridge, putting them on the counter in front of Nell for her to use. "You're the boss! I have no idea how to make pancakes... but ew, work, what's that?" She made a face and then laughed before continuing, "Did you bring it or would you have to go back home for it? 'Cause if so... too much trouble, yo." She passed over a couple of pans, letting Nell choose one for the pancakes -- eggs and bacon she could whip up in just about anything, so that wasn't really a problem. "Not bad! Same as usual. Homework load sucks but I don't really do it," she replied nonchalantly. "What about you?" She grabbed some oil for the pans. Breakfast would be good right about now.

[NELL DOE DALE]

Nell was beginning to feel more and more at ease with talking to Sandra about this. She wouldn't judge her, no way. Especially since it wasn't her that was the problem. You didn't choose your family, unfortunately. She wouldn't have chose hers, she didn't think any of them would have chose each other. Her lips tugged into what might have been an effort for a smile when Sandra lamented love, the melancholic tone endearing. Was that a terrible thing to think? "Sometimes. Not all the time, I don't think." And she could get that sort of question, what does she see in him, why does she stay with him? Only Angela could honestly answer that, but no one had the balls to ask. Not even her friend. I can't stand how adorable you are, chica, she thought in her head when Sandra snuggled up next to her. Her friend's faith was encouraging, at least, a good boost to the non-existent ego. "Thanks. Not to get all gushy and sentimental, here, but it really means a lot." More than she knew. People meant more to Nell than anyone could truly fathom without understanding what she'd come from and where she'd been. But that's all right. She just wanted this right her, Sandra's arm around her and the reassurance that she'd be around.

Nell rubbed her tummy with a shake of her head as Sandra scolded her stomach. "It just doesn't understand. It's like a baby, they get up whenever they want and cry. Don't realize it's four in the morning." She spoke as if she had one herself, but she spoke from experience in babysitting. Usually with her friends, sometimes alone. Good thing people trusted her, and judging by her past experience, she was deserving of that trust. No infants toddling their way out of windows. Nell held the salt, shaking her head at Sandra's question. "Don't know, bro. This thing that people keep telling me to do. I get paper out if it, at least." She brushed the fingers of one hand together. And yes, she did get quite a bit of paper. Unfortunately, she did not see a lot of that paper. "It's all in my bag. Though I'd love for an excuse. You should get a dog so we can feed the papers to it." She nodded certainly. She pitied the poor soul that actually did have their homework eaten by dog. No one would believe it. "Homework is the creation of the devil," Nell said as she tried to open the salt. "I usually just have papers to do. Ten page papers that...whoops!" She blinked as the top of the salt popped off and salt shot out before she tilted it back straight. "Ehehe...gonna clean that up." What was cooking without a little mess?

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra wasn't a very judgmental person, in all honesty. She saw the best of most anyone, or at least she always tried to, because the way Sandra saw it, there was no point in going around judging the heck out of everyone and deciding to hate them for these things. It wasn't only that, either -- she just genuinely believed that everyone was innately good, unless they did something to prove that she was wrong. Plus, she knew that there were situations that people couldn't control, and this seemed like one of them. It was fine for her to sit there and think that this friend of Nell's needed to drop her boyfriend like a rock, but she'd never been in a situation like that, so it wasn't like she could talk exactly. She couldn't judge Nell for this, either. Nell wasn't even at fault here -- it was true, nobody could pick family, and Sandra had just gotten lucky to be honest, but obviously not everybody could be. None of this was Nell's fault, at least as far as Sandra knew, and that was always good enough for her. She trusted her friend. "No... I guess not all the time," she said, smiling a little bit. Nell and Josh had something much less... destructive. "And sure. I mean it too, you know," she said, not that she thought it needed to be said, but sometimes it was better to have that kind of reassurance, and she figured that this was one of those times.

She giggled a little bit at this comparison. While she'd never been responsible for really taking care of babies, except for a few minutes or possibly a couple of short hours at a time while their parents had been busy for whatever reasons, she knew that it was no easy task. They were difficult to manage! Stomachs were pretty much the same, but maybe not for everyone... Sandra's and Nell's seemed to be pretty high-maintenance, though. "Yeah, except if you get hungry at four in the morning it's probably a bad sign." She was usually out cold at that time, though. She did still have a school schedule and everything, and while she did stay up fairly late over holidays and such... well, 4AM was seriously just a little too late. "It's all about the money, money, money," she sang, changing one (probably most key) word of the song to fit. "And dude, I would love a dog! I don't think we have the time to look after a dog, though," she said, pouting a little bit. Matthew had a pretty hectic schedule, but while Sandra didn't really, she was still gone half the day at school and then possibly out with friends for a couple more. Well... maybe she could do it, but definitely not a puppy that needed training or anything. "But yep, s'why I never do it!" Well, it wasn't why, but close enough. She had been fetching the olive oil for them to start frying up bacon or eggs or whatever, and then she heard Nell's "whoops" and saw the cap sent flying out of the corner of her eye, and she turned with wide eyes to see what had happened. "Nell!" she exclaimed, in a bit of a shrill voice, but it was more because she was laughing than actually angry. "What did you do?" she asked between giggles.

[NELL DOE DALE]

She blinked when Sandra spoke, her eyebrows knitting together. "Oh no, that happens to me. Does that mean I'm dying or something?" Her immune system was beastly, so incredible that she'd only gotten sick once. And that had turned into the flu thanks to her not being willing to admit that she really was sick. She'd probably have been hospitalized if it weren't for Josh slapping some sense into her. Nell laughed when Sandra sand her own version of the song, saying, "I see what you did there." And sadly, it was pretty true for her current situation. She didn't like her job the same way she liked working at the daycare, and she really did miss it, she had to say. A dog was an awesome idea, though, and she wanted to encourage Sandra on this. "Josh and I have a zoo in our house, we make time for it." Of course, they also had staff. Oh dear, she was officially assimilated, wasn't she? Nell didn't know whether or not that was a good thing, no matter how thankful she'd always be that she could live this way, be successful.

The Earth girl couldn't help but laugh to, unwarranted and loudly so that she cupped a hand over her mouth. Nell looked down at the floor, passing the salt from hand to hand as if she could make what had just happened a figment of their imaginations. "It wasn't me," she said quickly, pointing to the container. "It was this, I swear. Uh...where do you keep your broom? This is an emergency! A salt emergency!" Nell proceeded to make siren sounds as if to emphasize the fact before actually getting the broom and going through the tedious process of actually scooping it up into the dustpan. It was a good thing she had patience, otherwise she would have thrown the dust pan across the room because all of the salt wouldn't get in. She dumped it into the trashcan and actually started on the preparation of the pancakes. And she had to say, they worked well together, because the pancakes shapes out pretty well. "We should work at iHop and share our magic with them. Or not, we could be higher than iHop. Open our own restaurant." That did sound interesting to Nell, something to do in the future. She loved food, why not make it for a living?