by Elsy

Prologue

Before I say anything else, I’m glad they’re there. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I mean, sometimes they’re hard to deal with, and cope with, but really now, who wants a normal life?
Haha… Because life without there short-attention-spanned, constantly negative, irritating, insecure, completely psychotic approach to life wouldn’t give me straight As or an academic scholarship plus much more time to disappear into the portals to false realities known as books… Of course not…
But they are difficult to have around, none the less. They tend to come out at the most inappropriate times. Try trying to appreciate good literature, but then as soon as this one character is introduced, a little voice comes out of you and says, “I ship it”.
Or imagine you’re trying to pay attention in Latin, because the end of year test is coming up in a week, and then you’re suddenly in some sort of trance when you’re looking at the window, like a part of you is completely mesmerised by a flock of swifts dancing mid-air, although you yourself aren’t feeling anything and really just want to know the different verb endings.
Studying and reading are things that I can only properly do at home, when we can all… separate…

Entry 1

“Where the heck is Tally?” I yelled at Jen, who did nothing but keep staring at me, unphased.
Then she spoke. “Where do you think? She’ll be in the annex; gaming, or watching anim… Whatever that Japanese cartoon thing is called.
I realised the obvious as she spoke, but registering how stupid that was, needed to turn this around on her. “How do you not know what anime is? It’s all Tally talks about at the moment.”
“Annoying, isn’t it?” Isla said, opposite Jen at the table in her usual strict monotone. Next to her, Lera stared into the space right in front of her eyes.
“Yeah. But anyway, have you seen Korbyn?”
“She’ll be moping somewhere.” Jen said, and sniggered a little.
“I’ll go looking for them. You three stay here. We’re going out soon.”
“What?”
“Grandparents.” I shrugged, then set off towards the annex. “Hey, Tall?” I called.
Tally was absorbed in some sort of violent shooting game that aired on the black flatscreen on the wall above her happy blue bean bag. She sighed audibly and hit a button on the shiny boomerang-shaped controller, and the picture froze.
“What do you want, Mina?” she asked, without turning.
What nearly had me confused was how she knew it was me, and not Lera or Isla or Korbyn or Jen. “Get ready. We’re going out.”
She turned this time, and frowned. “Mina – it’s the weekend.”
“I know.”
“Where are we going?”
“Grandparents.”
Her jaw dropped suddenly, then she closed it and shook her head. “No. Not going.”
“Why not? Like you said, it’s the weekend. We should spend our more of the time we have away from school socialising, having basic human interactions.”
Tally just laughed. “Seriously? ‘Socialising?’ Coming from you?”
I bit my lip at how right she was. My… ‘sisters’ and I are all very different people; I like reading and equality and trying to do well in school, Tally likes video games and fandoms and ships, Jen likes being anxious, or maybe she just is constantly anxious when we’re in public, Lera likes philosophy and reading, as well as I do, and daydreaming, Isla likes… um, what Isla likes… (dark things, let me tell you…) and Korbyn doesn’t really like anything, and yet there’s something that we all feel the same way about: people.
Ugh.
We’re all just very socially awkward and lack both charisma and people skills.
“Shut up. We’re merging.” I said finally, and Tally sighed in defeat and got up.