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After Lucas had been calmed, settled in his bed with his stuffed little creature, Jada had left her family's home, returning to Crystal Academy before it was fully dark. She dropped everything she had in her room, staring around the bland emptiness of it all with a mildly confused look. The school's closets were so impersonal next to the knick-knacks and memories of the palace she had just left. She'd never noticed how bland everything was. She appreciated the simplicity of it even more after weeks in the hospital and then almost a full week at home. Simple but impersonal. Where were the knick-knacks, the statuettes? Where was her kitten, the darling little beast? (Castor was at the vet, but she would be able to pick him up soon.) There were extra locks on her windows, and the brocade drapes had been drawn. Outside, it was raining. Off and on, on and off; it was not a pleasant night. There was still time left until curfew. Jada pocketed her phone, pocketed her room key, her ID and her debit card. Her henshin pen was left behind, wrapped up in her suitcase. She slipped out of the dorm room, locking her bland wooden door behind her and moving down the stairs to the front. “Jada!” she heard someone call after her.

She walked out into the rain, heading for Crystal gates.

It had always helped her, when she was a child, to walk in the rain. Jada wasn't allowed to cry. Not really. Crying puffed up the eyes, made the nose run. Crying made the voice sore, and was a distinctly discomposed and undignified activity that was beneath her. Big Girls Don't Cry. Her father had whispered it in her ear when she was small. And they didn't. They weren't supposed to. Crying was an activity for the weak. Jada wasn't weak. Not outwardly. Inwardly, Jada knew her own fault. She was weak, she was needy. She craved attention, affection. She needed to feel wanted, desired, loved. Those feelings she'd always been given with stipulations as a child. If you cried, no one would respect you. They would think you were weak. The weak weren't loved, not in her family. Not by her mother. The weak weren't respected. Not in the world she walked through, the world of money and magnates, the world of the beautiful and the corrupt.

So the rain cried for her.

How long she had walked when she finally came to a confused stop, she didn't know. Where she was, she didn't know. How had she gotten here? Which way was the way back? There was nothing for her but trees and rain, the dim silhouette of lamp posts, their faint glowing weak little beacons. There was nothing for her to see but dilapidated little buildings, faint figures on the street corner, a few greedy-eyed passerby looking at her before moving on.

Nothing to see here. She could have screamed it at them. Wanted to scream it. The show is over. Go home! Her dark curls were flattened with the weight of the water, normally long and curly hair even longer and straight; her hair tangled around her ankles when dampened by a thorough soaking. She'd been wearing a white shirt, and it clung to her now; her blue jeans fit to every curve as she collapsed down onto a bench, pulling her knees to her chest.

She was out past curfew. She wasn't supposed to be here. Monsters stalked Destiny City in the dark.

Jada didn't care.

She hated her mother. She hated the way the older woman tried to mold her into the kind of girl that Szelem had been. Couldn't stand the way the older woman was slowly beating her children into submission. Zora had made the right decision. Kayley, for her, most likely had as well. But like Lucas, Jada toed the line. She could remember when Szelem had loved her. When their family had been too close to middle class, and not had a Nanny, and not lived in the home that was now known as the Chamberlyn Estate. She could remember the days when her mother hadn't dressed her like a toy and paraded her in front of wealthy old men, trying to catch one of them by his c**k.

Jada's body was cold to the touch. Her lips were blue, and she couldn't feel her fingers. How long she had been sitting in the rain she didn't know. The sound of someone calling her name didn't affect her, didn't drag up her attention from a small crack in the sidewalk. Didn't pull her from her pensive, half-stunned state. She didn't flinch until someone sat down on the bench next to her, their body hot compared to her own. A flash of blue. Jada tilted her head up slowly, looking into the worried face of Audrey Collins.

"Its raining." she said finally, slowly, the words coming out slurred past numb lips and a cold tongue.

Jada made a soft noise as Audrey's hands started scorching along her arms. It hurt. She blinked at her friend, blurry-eyed. "Hours?" she swallowed. "What time?" How long had she been out here? She slowly pulled away from the heat of Audrey's hands on her arm, drawing her legs closer to her chest. And then she coughed. It sounded wet, harsh, and she let her legs fall off the bench. Ow. When she straightened her body, her spine gave a soft, small crack. "Warm would be nice." she said finally. She'd cried all she was allowed. Her cough had decided that for her.

She swallowed, feeling the lump in her chest rising into her throat. She would hardly be the best company, but to refuse Audrey would only make her friend worried. She didn't want to worry Audrey. "You know how I love cake." her mouth felt fat, her tongue overly thick. "It does sound nice. What kind of a cake was it?"

After midnight? Jada shivered. That was at least three and a half hours she'd been in the rain. No wonder the world was so cold. She let Audrey hold her, leaning on the other girl tiredly. Jada wasn't wearing heels. She wasn't wearing closed-toed shoes. She was wearing flip flops, that were too soggy to flip and flop as she stumbled along at the side of the blue-haired girl. Her toes were numb. Her legs tingled. She didn't complain. In fact, she didn't make any noise at all, not even the sound of breath. It was like she was holding it, trying to keep still and silent. Jada was. She lifted her hands to her mouth as they moved towards Audrey's home, trying to breathe onto them to warm her extremities. It did nothing.

"I'll be as quiet as I can." she promised her friend. Her speech didn't produce the puff of warm air that Audrey's was. Her breath was cold. Jada coughed, the sound a rattle in her chest. It made her pale lips turn down into a small frown. She paused behind Audrey as they got to the small, familiar home, leaning her wet forehead on her friend's shoulder. She followed the bluenette up the stairs, stumbling halfway up and giving a small, quiet moan. Crawled the rest of the way up the stairs, using the wall to pull herself back to her feet.

Another cough. "Much better." Jada agreed. Her tone was expressionless. It was better to just agree with whatever Audrey said, she had decided. She was tired of fighting. She'd been doing it for almost eighteen years versus her parents. Her mother, rather. She'd been fighting herself. She'd been fighting, and didn't know why. So she just surrendered with silence. She stepped into the bathroom, stripping her clothing off without bothering to wait for the other girl to leave. Audrey had seen her naked before.

"May I take a shower?" she was shaking. "Or a bath?" or was that bad to do, cold as she was? "Or is that too much noise?" She wrapped the towels around her body. "And I don't mind." clothing was, at the moment, clothing. She'd be just as content to curl up naked under a blanket and sleep in a fetal ball on the bed. "I'll stay."

Jada left the door unlocked so that Audrey could step in if she needed to drop off clothing or something, and started the tub. Her hands were almost too numb to feel anything, but she managed, sliding her feet and hands under the water flow while the water was still cold, then gradually adding heat to it, until she could feel her extremities tingling. And then she slipped into the steaming water.

She came out of the bathroom about an hour later, skin pink and scrubbed raw, long hair piled in a wet little bun on top of her head with a scrunchy stolen from on top of Audrey's counter. A towel was wrapped around Jada's body, ends securely tucked together. Her eyes were still tired. "Thank you." she told the other girl, taking a seat on the bed. Jada coughed again. "Did you have any clothes I could borrow?"

She laughed softly at Audrey's surprise, accepting the clothing and nodding her thanks. "I am bigger." she agreed easily, and stuck out her tongue. "It makes me look fat in the pictures, and you like a skinny little nymph." her humor fell flat, the joviality that was normally there not. Audrey's hand lightly poking her breast went ignored, unrecognized as purple eyes stared blankly at the clothes.

"Oh. Right." Something Audrey had said and done made the teenager realize she was clad only in a towel. Standing, she dropped it, sliding into the flannel pants and the t-shirt. It may have been larger for Audrey, but it was still a hair tighter than Jada was used to across the chest. "Dressed. Where should I put my clothes and the towel?" her clothes were still on the bathroom sink. "And of course I am better." it was a lie, bald-faced and said blandly.