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Callisto had remained behind, telling Tomlin that he should head back to Shep's apartment. There would be food for him in the bowl hidden under her bed, she knew; so far, Shep didn't know about her pet kitty. She knew she'd have to tell Shep sometime, but for right now she didn't see how stressing out her brother would help anything. She only gave Tomlin what she wouldn't eat, anyway…

"Okay," she said, standing awkwardly on the roof. Could you even go to get pancakes while you were a senshi? She didn't think that'd be a good idea. You couldn't use a card or anything. And Callisto didn't have her wallet on her. She didn't think that Europa would be very understanding about that. Rubbing at the dark sleeves of her fuku, she shrugged a little bit awkwardly. "That sounds… okay…"

She rubbed her cheeks, studying the toes of her chic ankle boots. At the dark flash, she looked up and was shocked to recognize her tutor. "You're Tallulah," she accused, pointing one hand with its sparkly polish at the dark-haired girl. "Why didn't you tell me you're my tutor!" Betrayed in tone, but she still transformed back into Erika Adalsteinn. At least she knew what to expect from Tallulah Cowden. That meant Tallulah knew about Erika's… um… situation. And now the younger girl felt… she didn't even know. "Okay," she said after a moment, hands fisted in the ends of her sweater.

If nobody had made an etiquette yet, Erika would, she decided, shoving her hands into the pockets of her beaten-up capris. Destiny City didn't get truly chilly until late October, but Erika dressed like it was almost December in most cases. Except the flip-flops; it looked like she'd gotten dressed in the dark, actually. She straightened out her elbows, shoved them a little deeper into the pockets of her holey denim pants. "Kallichore seems nice," said Erika, definitely guarded. She liked Ganymede too, and Valhalla seemed okay even if he was kind of intimidatingly tall. He had nice fluffy parts on his uniform that she kind of wanted to pet.

She picked up the menu carefully, regarding it with a certain reverence. Going out to eat always meant something special, at least in her family; the money was almost never there, and before Mama's death it had been even more rare because Father resented Shep and Erika. Celebrating things like their birthday usually rested far outside the realms of possibility.

The idea of confiding in Tallulah/Europa was a little strange. She didn't like Europa as much as she did, say, Darryl or Shep. But Tallulah was a strong and skilled senshi, who had probably been at this game for longer than Erika had been out of middle school. If she didn't know the answer to Erika's questions, no one would. Still, first she tapped her finger on the chocolate chip pancakes option, pushing it over to Tallulah so her tutor could see what she'd picked. Chocolate chip pancakes were Shep's morningtime specialty, aside from bacon, but Erika tried not to eat bacon unless it was really alluring. Which it usually was. But she tried. "If I'm evil," she said, looking down at her fingertips on the menu's laminated surface, "Shep won't love me anymore. He's… he's all I've got."

She could believe the Jovians would be a good team. Even the pink-haired girl, Euanthe, seemed to be eager to learn. Except the problem with the Jovians was that Erika was a member, and while Erika knew her way around math and she liked to read and sing, she wasn't exactly a fearsome senshi warrior. She'd actually spent most of her time hiding and getting hurt--she chafed a hand over the three sealed-over scars, running parallel to each other, that she'd gotten from the fight against the badger monster with Ganymede. She'd rather those claws go through her face than turn evil. Shep could handle a disfigured sister. Could he handle an evil one?

Shaking her head, she looked at her own ice water and bent the straw into a compressed form. It was better to stay straight up, easier to hide. Except if you were going under a desk or behind a couch, then the best thing was to crouch over. With that in mind, she twisted the straw into shape. "But they could make me be evil," she said in a small voice. "They'd just have to make me like that Spinel guy. Or like your cousin. Whatever they did to them, they could do it to me, too." She didn't know how to explain to Tallulah that the worst case scenario was the one most likely to happen when your name was Erika Adalsteinn. What more could be worse than a dead mama, a father in jail, and a brother who'd given up most everything he had to keep her in school?

"I can't leave Shep," she started, descending into hysteria, but Tallulah's calm words cut through that and the petite brunette slumped in her seat. No one was going to become evil, but Leto had. Erika was going to stay Erika, but she was already also Callisto. She'd snuck out just that night in order to go to the meeting. Who knew but Shep was worrying forever?

She looked at the milkshake she'd ordered, poked at the colors inside. She'd never actually had what they called a root beer milkshake--or really, any milkshake other than a Wendy's Frosty--but she liked the Mug stuff her mama used to buy with the bulldog on so she'd decided to give it a go. A tentative taste revealed it actually did taste pretty good, even though she'd rather eat it with a spoon--so she did, folding herself up tighter in her seat. "I'm not very good at protecting anybody but myself," she said, worry shining through her tone. "I'm really bad at it actually. Shep always had to look out for me at home."