Coach Fadel grabs them both by the arms, and pauses to scan for more trouble-makers. Ravi stays put. At a distance in front of her is the horse-meat farm across the road, fenced for what looks like acres, where a couple of ranchers are whipping a bony-looking bull over and over until it walks into the trailer, presumably to be turned into glue and "roast beef" sandwiches.

Rancher
(Whipping.) Hyaaa! Get in there, ya damn fool!

Bull
(Panicking and pained.) FRRRRUUUrrrrrr...

Ravi watches miserably as the bull finally submits to its fate, and the trailer is shut. Then Ravi looks down, and at her feet is a rabbit... but something is seriously wrong with it. Out of its mouth are twisted, gnarled black flesh horns, in wayward directions. Ravi's heart jolts, and her eyes go wide.

Ravi
(Freaked out, hushed whispering.) An al-mi'raj?! Nervous someone will see her, she hesitates to shoo it away, silently panicking at how gross it looks. Like, all of it... its whole deal. Yuck.

Ravi
(Pained with disgust.) Oh fuck, you got like... rabbit cancer. That's so nasty, I'm so sorry, little guy. I've been there, technically.

The al-mi'raj looks up at her, and paws closer.

Ravi
(Frowning viscerally.) Ew, ew, ew!! Get away, you little freak!!

Ravi kicks it away, shoving her boot into its little ribcage. It flies a few feet, lands with a soft bounce, and scampers away like it's just been called back to the mothership. Ravi covers her mouth with horror at what she's done, and checks to see if anyone's looking. Her breath is quick, and she squints hard and cringes hard. She spits at the ground in front of her, the smell of viral flesh still hanging in the air... at least, that's what she's pretty sure it is. Unfortunately, it's a familiar smell. She's not even sure where from... just that she knows it intimately, and passively.

After a minute, Ravi looks around again, and the coast is finally clear. She nonchalantly follows Jessica into the alcove, where she's crying. Somehow, Coach Fadel didn't spot her... he must have been preoccupied with the dudes. Immediately, Ravi feels a damp, heavy weight on her heart, and it stops her in her tracks. Her feet won't move. Scared of being caught, Ravi awkwardly shuffle-slides her feet until she's out of sight. She can't really breathe, but some air makes it through. Jessica looks up, tears in her eyes, but mystified. Ravi shrugs, and tries to laugh it off. It's wheezy and awkward.

Ravi
(Croaking.) My... legs weren't moving.

Jessica
(Sniffling.) Oh, uh. Okay. Do I know you?

That's... odd. Maybe Ravi has changed too much... she's noticed her old photos don't seem to have the same face, though. They're more boyish, and hard-edged. Better just roll with it.

Ravi
(Squints.) Apparently not.

Jessica
You were hiding, just now.

Ravi
I also just kicked a rabbit, which was horrible.

Jessica
(Alarmed.) Why would you do that?!

Ravi
(Guilty, gently panicked again.) It was fucked up! I think it was an al-mi'raj, like Amira said. There were horns coming out of its mouth. Like a fucking... demon rabbit. It was after me, alright? It wanted my fleeeeshh.

Jessica laughs, but in a "I can't believe you did that" kind of way. Then, silence. Not wanting to appear clingy or malicious, Ravi slides her back down the wall slowly and sits a few feet away.

Jessica
(Resigned.) I freak out at stuff too, sometimes. I just had a freak-out, actually, in class. That's why I'm out here.

Ravi
What about?

Jessica
I don't even know. Just... everything.

Ravi
(Gesturing a 'go on'.) Like...?

Jessica
(Sighing.) Okay, you asked. The girls here are horrible, at least most of them. The guys are jerks. The teachers are strict, my parents never do anything for me, except sometimes my dad, but I can't even tell if he's 'all there'. I never do anything right. And worst of all, it feels like I'm the only one struggling.

Ravi
Like everyone else wants things to be terrible, because it's easier for them to live in Hell than on Earth, and all it takes to start a fight is to not want to be in one?

Jessica
...yes. Exactly. They all think... I'm some prissy rich girl. Who's fake, and only cares about money. But I'm not like them.

Ravi
Hey, neither am I.

Jessica
Yeah, there's no way I could ever bring you home.

Ravi
Home?

Jessica
My mom would eat you alive. Haha. She can be a total wasp.

Ravi
Wasps can be nice. Do you wanna get into it?

Jessica
Yea- ah, no... not if you, uh, don't...

Ravi
My foster parents were the same way, sort of. It's always, "we're so nice, look at us! Big hugs, guys!" Then when your back is turned... SHNK.

Ravi makes a stabbing motion.

Ravi
They're so scared of being shown how terrible they are, they just project onto everyone else. It's all about denial.

Jessica
Well, as a show of appreciation for listening, I pre-emptively believe you, and have decided that I also hate your family.

Ravi
Aw, thank you.

They laugh.

Jessica
You know, you talk a lot.

Ravi
Yeah, I try to keep it to paper. I've got more words in me than my lungs can push out.

Jessica
You write... stories? Like Aurion?

Ravi
(Wry.) No, not like Aurion. Mostly just biographical stuff. What about you?

Jessica
(She wipes her tears away.) I uh... I wanna write. I haven't worked up the motivation, yet. Things keep... slipping away from me. I tried to write this... long-form fantasy series, or whatever... like a monster war, is what I was trying to do. It was gonna have vampires and ghouls and magic and karate and stuff!

Ravi
(Smiling.) That sounds freaking awesome.

Jessica
Yeah, it was gonna be a bizarre adventure, alright. But this other girl in school, she said she was gonna take my idea and do it first. And then she did it, for like... English class. She took my idea and got an A+ on it. It was the most hacked-up, candy-assed version of it she could possibly manage. It didn't even have any karate, they just talked at each other about how bad they were gonna beat each other up... for like five whole pages.

Ravi
Prophet of a generation.

Jessica
And then when I tried to start on it during lunch, she came over with a bunch of her friends and said I was 'copying her'. They dumped pop on my notebook and laughed about it – I ended up having to throw the whole thing out, so it didn't get sticky in my backpack.

Ravi
Who was that?

Jessica
(Rolling her eyes.) Harley, the Queen Bee.

Ravi
Ah, yeah. I know of her. You know, I've got a similar project going, only mine's already kind of... half done, at this point, I think. If you wanted to pool our ideas together, I'd be up for it – or I could even just show you some tricks so you can write your own story how you want it. I could be someone for you to bounce ideas off of.

Jessica
I never really have the energy, anyway. And my parents are always drinking, so they don't really have time to go out and get me some extra supplies in the city. It's too far for me to go by myself, and we don't even have a supply store here. I used to have a friend at my last school who wanted to write with me, but he was really creepy and obsessive. He wouldn't stop talking about stories as if they were really happening – absolute eighth grader's syndrome. Told me I was all these different characters, and asked me all these invasive questions about my life. Trying to crack my heart like a safe, or something. It freaked me the fuck out. When he left, I was honestly glad. I fucking hate feeling so... exposed.

This guy sounds familiar. And vaguely insane.

Ravi
Damn, I'm... really sorry. You know what – most of telling a story is the 'what to say, how, and why', but the rest of it? It's economy. You gotta tell a story that's within your means, use as little space as possible for what you really wanna say. If you can't dedicate all your time to one massive story, you just sort of... flit through it. Pick a moment, any moment, and just take a few pages to describe it. Don't even worry if it's the BEST moment – it's all about stitching moments together. If you focus on everything that happens, your story gets bogged down anyway.

Jessica
(Nodding slowly.) Uh-huh...

Ravi
So how about some time this week, you and I sit down for your story? I'll help you with whatever moment you pick, and we'll iron it out together. And it'll be twice as good as Harley's – I bet she wrote the whole thing in glitter pen.

Jessica
(Grinning.) Pink pen, actually. But good guess.

Ravi
(Laughing warmly.) Haha.

They look at each other for a moment, and Jessica turns red. Ravi's face drops a little, realizing she may be having an effect. Like her mom has on people. She decides to dial it down a little bit – she wouldn't want to lead someone on when they've probably got other ideas about other people. Besides, didn't Jessica just break up with Thor? You can't just hound after people and their exes just because you feel alone. Ravi looks at Jessica again, who seems to be recovering from the red on her face, but now Ravi's is starting up. If she does what's on her mind right now, this girl's gonna run away screaming.

Jessica
So you write biographies, I guess?

Ravi
(Snapping back.) Uh, yeah!

Jessica
Do you just remember conversations, or what?

Ravi
Sometimes. Other times, I record conversations with this little gadget I got for my last... I mean, twelfth birthday. Especially if they're telling a story. I always get permission, though. I just don't clutter up the page with me saying, "Can I record you?" and stuff. Then I edit some words to protect their secrets, shape up dialogue, that kind of thing.

Jessica
That's really cool. I read, a lot. I'd totally read your stories. Are you... recording right now?

Ravi
Oh, shit! Yes. It's been on since my last class. I was using it to make sure I didn't miss any notes.

Ravi fumbles in her pockets for the device, and tries to shut it off. She JUST said she hates feeling exposed... not cool.

Jessica
(Looking nervous.) My parents would be so pissed to find out what I said.

Ravi
Yeah, I'm not gonna repeat that. Your secret is safe with me.

Provided they can't read. Ravi is aware, from having read stories of her ancestors past, that secrets are a matter of discretion – and sometimes, the best thing to do is to let them go. She grits her teeth, hoping she'll never have to repeat anything that was said... but for the sake of telling a story that actually helps people, by airing out their problems where they can't rot or mold, she might just have to one day. Even her own secrets, dark and twisted as they can sometimes be, will eventually have to face the sun, so they can be sanitized by ultraviolet. Even worse – she might have to let out a secret that was never stated in the first place, because it was heard without anyone having spoken at all. Much like journalism, sometimes the words everyone needs to hear are the last words anyone wants to hear out loud... or have heard. And by virtue of having heard them, the audience is just as compliant in their unwanted revelation as the person who did the revealing. The reader is just as guilty as the writer. And sometimes the genie doesn't go back in the lamp.

Jessica
(Relieved.) Okay, that's good.

Ravi
(Nervous, but playing it off.) Hey, you wanna see something cool?

Jessica looks away, shrugs, then nods.