Roja is still lying on the bed with her eyes closed again when Jason walks in without knocking. At first, she didn’t even really notice the door being shut behind him but she’s startled when he asks, “Do you feel better?” She tries to sit up as fast as possible and looks at him, fear written all over her face. “I’ve asked you a question,” Jason states while crossing his arms.

“Yes, sir,” Roja says with a weak and shivering voice. She tries not to look at Jason to not show him how scared she is. Meanwhile, Jason’s thoughts are concerned with something else about her. Did she really call him sir? She has already done this before but he doesn’t think she’s much younger than him. Does she know who he is? He puts the last question aside, as there is no possibility that she knows anything, judging by the way she acts. She seems scared but not just because of Jason’s presence.

“There are clothes for you in the wardrobe. Just put something on and let Mary do her magic to let those ugly bruises heal fast,” he suggests. However, his tone doesn’t make it sound like a suggestion but rather as an order to Roja.

After replying “Yes, sir,” again, she waits till Jason leaves and tries standing up again. The wardrobe is close to the bed and, although her body is still weak, she manages to open it and have a look at all the clothes inside. Without really looking at what she takes, she pulls out a few pieces and changes into them. The purple shirt she chose is a bit too large but perfectly fine for her. It has been years since she wore clothes that don’t have holes in them. Roja takes a deep breath, trying to calm down as Mary told her. It’s not that bad here right now, but she still doesn’t know where she is and the pain in different parts of her body keeps demanding her attention.

Two knocks on the door disturb her thoughts. Frightened and unsure about what do to, she just stands next to the wardrobe. “It’s me, Mary. Can I come in?” she hears the already familiar voice shout. Just a second later, Mary opens the door and comes in without waiting for a reply. “I just wanted to go over the results of the check-up I did on you. The bruise on your head is not too bad. However, when you were still unconscious, I saw some bruises that definitely aren’t new.” Roja starts feeling uncomfortable. Does Mary want to question her about her scars? Seeing the confused and scared look on Roja’s face, Mary adds, “You don’t have to tell me what happened. I just want you to get me if you start feeling dizzy again or if your head suddenly starts to hurt again. In fact, you should call for me whenever you feel any pain so I can see if there’s anything I can do about it.” Roja nods, unsure about what to think about all this. “You should also get something to eat,” Mary continues.

Suddenly, Roja hears someone running towards her room. The door gets pushed open and a female voice shouts, “Where is she?” Mary smiles politely and turns towards the door. A girl, about the same age as Roja, comes running into the room. With her purple hair, she is quite an eye-catching person. Roja is frightened by the sudden entry of a stranger but Mary laughs.

“I’ll leave you two alone. Don’t do anything too strenuous,” she says before leaving.

“Thanks, Mary!” the girl says before turning to Roja. “Hi, I’m Lola!” As she sees Roja’s scared face, she tries to turn her energetic personality a bit down. “Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you. I just heard that you were up and that my brother gave you my clothes so I had to come over and see you.”

“I’m sorry,” Roja whispers, slowly losing the power to speak again.

“No, no, I’m happy you’re wearing them! But he should have given you the better-looking ones, not those old shirts. I guess my brother just took whatever he could find out of my wardrobe without even looking at it. He’s a bit stressed lately,” Lola tries to reassure Roja. “So, what’s your name?” Lola asks. Roja tries to not stare at this extraordinary girl in front of her.

“Roja,” she mumbles.

“And your last name?” Roja starts clenching her fists, trying to keep herself from crying again. She can’t remember her parents’ last name and she never knew the last name of her first foster family. Ric, her second foster family, didn’t even bother to tell her anything about him.

“I don’t know,” Roja whispers while looking away.

Lola is shocked, “You have to know your family’s name!”

“I don’t have a family. I live with my foster father.” A few of Lola’s questions were answered with this small bit of information. She isn’t Ric’s daughter, she’s a foster kid. However, nobody would ever give Ric a child to care for if they knew who he was.

Lola needs more information from Roja to be able to help her, so she suggests sharing something from her private life with Roja. The still scared girl agrees and Lola starts explaining, “I live here with my two brothers, my twin Oren and my older brother Jason.” She stops for a moment. Did Jason tell her that he’s a gang leader? She decides to better not mention anything about that yet. “Mario, my youngest brother, was shot by the same people who shot my father a year later.” Roja can hear the grief in Lola’s voice and her fear turns into sadness. She knows how it feels to lose a loved one.

After she took a deep breath, Roja shares a small part of her story, “When my parents died, I lived with a really nice foster family. But they died just a few months later and Ric took me in as his foster child.”

“Sounds like you have nowhere to stay now. I’ll ask Jason if you can stay here for some time. Of course, only if that’s what you want?” Roja isn’t sure of what to reply, this is a new situation for her. She doesn’t even question why Lola thinks that she can’t go back to Ric now.

“Yes, miss,” she stutters. Lola needs to keep herself from giggling. Nobody has ever called her “miss” although she’s the sister of a gang leader.

“Please, call me Lola. We’re friends now!” That’s everything it took for Roja to let her guard down a bit more again. Her eyes well up with tears before she starts crying again. Lola is startled at first, trying to think of what she could have done wrong. As she realises it was the word “friends” that made Roja so sad again, she decides to hug her. In Lola’s world, a hug can fix a lot of things.

At first, Roja is surprised by the kind gesture and gets a feeling of comfort. However, just a second later she feels one of her bruises hurting a lot. “Could you… please…” she starts stuttering, but Lola understands immediately and takes a step back.

“Did Mary already have a look at all those bruises?” she asks. She knows about the bruise on Roja’s head but Jason mentioned a few other ones that he has seen on her arms. Those probably aren’t the only ones. Roja just nods. Her silence makes Lola decide to give her some space as this situation must be very exhausting for her new friend. “I’ll talk to my brother and get you something to eat afterwards,” Lola says before leaving. Roja, who’s walking back to the bed to sit down again, tries to make sense of all of this. Lola seems really nice and a lot less aggressive than her brother. Her first friendship seems to be a success, at least from her perspective.