*

I ran my hands through the drawers of Robyn's desk, having just emptied it of all her school books. All I could feel was s.p.a.ce, no hearing aid.

"Are you sure you haven't just misplaced them?" I asked.

Ava was looking through Robyn's bed, unmaking it and lifting the mattress with Robyn's help. Ava answered, "They have to be around here somewhere. This is the third pair she's lost this month." They dropped the mattress with a loud thud, Robyn turning to the pile of clothes on the floor, as she rifled through them, Ava continued with a loud, "Robyn, you really need to take better care of them."

Robyn didn't respond.

Ava narrowed her eyes, nudging her with her foot and repeating her statement, "You usually take such good care of them, dude."

Robyn made a quick gesture, complaining about how she had been busy the last couple of weeks with ballet and school. There was something almost dismissive about her gesture, too quick to go back to leafing through the pockets of her dresses.

Ava shrugged it off, starting to remake the bed as I searched the side tables.

Robyn lived a remarkably simple lifestyle, at least by the standard of her room. While issued with the same furniture as everyone else, Robyn had barely personalised it. The walls were bare of posters or photographs, the curtains were always open day and night, and her bedsheets were a soft yellow. When I scanned her bookcase, it was proudly filled with books, mainly dance theory, cookbooks, and foreign fables, the colours and volumes being the only personality in the room. When I went to her closet to try there, I found more of Robyn's things tucked away behind the doors. Baskets of pastel coloured wool, knitting needles, other cookbooks and stuffed animals were stacked in uneven piles under her hung up dresses.

I squatted down to the plus.h.i.+es, pus.h.i.+ng them aside to find an organisation container. I opened some of the lids and rummaged through the random hobby supplies, hiding my smirk when I saw dozens of hard-core metal band CDs with very graphic art styles and images. One that took me particularly off guard was a trio of voodoo heads, their skin was a decaying dark grey and their hair painted to be black and oily. It sent a s.h.i.+ver down my spine as I replaced it.

"I think I found some," I announced, grasping a pair of bright red hearing aids at the bottom of the box.

Both girls watched as I held them up, Ava grabbing them and examining them, Robyn peering over her shoulder to look. "I haven't seen these ones in ages," Ava beamed, running her fingers over the polished red. Robyn stared at her lips when she spoke, "Do they still fit?"

Robyn shrugged, taking one and adjusting it to her ear, Ava simultaneously doing the other for her. Robyn scratched at her earlobes for a second, before shooing me from her closet to push aside her hung up clothes to get to a mirror hidden on the back wall. She pulled it out and rested it against the wall next to her closet doors.

"Why does Robyn hide her mirror?" I muttered to Ava.

Ava blinked, considering the situation with puzzlement, "I don't know."

Robyn seemed happy, tucking her hair behind her ears to see the red hearing aids that somehow still fit. She signed; happily, her fingers almost twinkling with how happy she was to find some.

Estelle suddenly started yelling from the hallways, knocking on the walls as she approached and ringing the bell with the other until she stood at Robyn's door. "Here thee, here thee, I call upon my company to partake in masterful soap opera, Downtown Lover's Lane," Estelle announced, Simmons was quick behind her, clearly fl.u.s.tered by the Princess' loudness, but not objecting as Estelle added, "You guys interested? I'm making popcorn."

Ava nodded, "Popcorn sounds great."

Robyn clicked her fingers in response.

When we went to the living room, almost everyone else was there. The twins sat on the floor, resting their elbows on the coffee table, as they versed each other in a small video game. Alexis sat on the edge of the lounge, her hands fiddling with a strange metal object. When I hopped beside her, she jumped, "Not cool."

"I like to think I am," I countered, placing a quick kiss on her cheek, "What's that?"

She held it out to me, allowing me to get a better look at the strange trinket. "They're called Impossible Tricks. They come with Mia's weird science magazines," she informed. I looked over the metal object, frowning at its strange design. It was made of three bits of bronze coloured metal, all looped together but able to be s.h.i.+fted around and moved.

"Each one comes with a story." Bonnie rolled towards us, a giant bowl of popcorn in her lap. "Mia usually finishes them by the time I've read the story out."

I widened my eyes, noting how easily the three parts got stuck and refused to move. "This seems really difficult," I mumbled, the metal on metal sound clinking as I tried to pull them apart. "What's the story behind this?"

Bonnie shrugged, reaching over to the side table where all the magazines were stored. After a moment of reading, Bonnie read out, "'Long ago there were three brothers who all lived on a farm. The first brother worked in the fields, the second worked with the animals, and the last travelled to sell their trades.'" As she read, I considered the three attached parts, each resembling a strange utensil. "'One day the three got into a heated argument about whose work was most important-'"

"Never do that," Amia cooed.

"Always ends badly," her brother added.

Bonnie continued, "'The first announced his work in the fields fed the animals and gave the last brother the goods to sell. The second proclaimed that his animals provided for both the crops and the stalls. While the third exclaimed that without his travels and sales, they wouldn't be able to maintain the farm in the first place. During the argument, a witch overheard their harsh words-'"

"As they do," Alexis whispered.

"'And cursed the brothers to be attached at the hip, until they could find common ground. Help the brothers work together to become unstuck,'" Bonnie finished, tossing the magazine back on the side table.

After some fiddling, I was convinced they couldn't come apart. "They do come apart," Alexis a.s.sured, "I heard Mia do it earlier."

"Where is Mia anyway?" Ava asked, both her and Robyn sitting on the lounge across from us.

"Still playing the piano," Bonnie answered, "She loves that thing."

"She's played it a lot this week," Amia cooed, her eyes still glued to her game, "I could hear her playing at like eleven at night."

"It seems to calm her down," Bonnie confessed, holding out the bowl to Estelle who was trying to sneakily steal popcorn, "I had read an interesting therapy called Music Therapy. You play instruments to relieve tensions and such."

"I think I've heard of that actually," Estelle cooed, coughing when she breathed in popcorn bits.

Bonnie nodded. "I got excited when she almost sang the other day," she admitted, sighing contently.

"Is this smart though?" Amada's voice sounded small as if he wasn't quite sure what he was going to follow up with.

Bonnie's annoyance was ignited, reflecting in her eyes as she cast a glare at him. "Is what smart?"

I watched Amada gulp as he placed his game on the table and nervously scratch his face. "Well… you aren't a therapist, Bonnie," he put simply, "This might just be a distraction for Mia, or like an obsession trade."

I had expected Bonnie to lash out at Amada, maybe throw something at him, lose her temper, but she remained eerily calm, which unnerved me more. "I'd rather distract her from what's going on then see the way she tries to deal with it."

"You mean panic and anxiety attacks aren't the answer?" Estelle spoke with an air of sarcasm.

Bonnie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and barely hiding her want to pout. "Are we watching the show or not?"

Estelle apologised with a soft punch to her arm and reached for the remote, forgetting what b.u.t.tons meant what as she turned on the wrong stereo system and went into the wrong settings. This caused an uproar between the twins, Bonnie and Ava, who all at once tried to s.n.a.t.c.h it off the Princess to take over the control of the TV. Alexis linked her arm with mine, resting her head on my shoulder as she continued blindly playing with the Impossible Trick.

I instinctively tightened my grip around her, prompting her to smile and snuggle into my shoulder.

The moment was interrupted for me, when I saw Robyn, still sitting across from me. She scratched at her ears, staring at the others as they argued, with narrowed eyes and a troubled expression. I saw her bite the inside of her cheeks, her eyes dropping to the floor as she continued to play with the hearing aids, once pulling them out and replacing them. Just as I went to question her about it, her eyes lit up, and she gave a small smile to Ava, who had returned to her seat, having won the remote-control battle.