Cheryl Sakurai (April 22, 2026)

I’m window shopping with Blossom and Glen this lunch hour. Blossom wanted to go look around for some props to use for the Daisy concert fight between her and Glen, so she asked me to drive the two of them to a nearby dollar store. 

When we first enter, I spot a bunch of greeting cards. Now that Easter has passed, Mother’s Day is the big occasion half the cards appear to be for - not that their springtime aesthetic is much different from the ones for Easter. The rest of the cards are either for parties, life events, or religious celebrations.

“You know,” Blossom points to a conspicuously cheerful Get Well Soon card, “I’d love to get this one for my mom!”

“She’s sick right now?” I ask Blossom.

“Not in body,” Blossom grins, “but her actions are!”

Glen squints.

“You’re not actually gonna buy it,” Glen snarks, “will you?”

“Glen,” Blossom states, “I’m not stupid. We’ve known each other long enough for you to know that.”

“Sorry…” Glen apologizes.

The three of us go to the arts and crafts section. Glen and Blossom hope to find some cheap paper and yarn for their planned fight, although I’m not exactly sure how they’re going to use those as mock weaponry. Glen isn’t quite sure, either.

“I think we should try to look less cartoonish,” he suggests to Blossom.

“We can’t use real knives against each other!” Blossom exclaims.

“That’s not what I meant,” Glen says, “but ok.”

Before I can nudge them into being slightly more quiet, an olive skinned guy in khaki pants waves to Glen.

“Hey Glensies!” the guy greets Glen.

“Hi!” Glen greets him back.

The guy is carrying a set of shopping bags that appear to be rather heavy, if his mild grunting is a sign.

“Quincy,” Glen tells him, “lemme help you out with that.”

“No thanks,” Quincy replies, “I’m fine. Oh yeah: I got a little surprise for you for our date after school!”

“Interesting…” Glen smugly nods.

Blossom shoots Glen a look to get him back on task.

“I’m busy right now,” Glen says to Quincy, “but I can’t wait for this evening!”

I give the two as much privacy as I can in a small shop.

After School

I’m worried about Lavender. She doesn’t look like her usual self today - a girl who is tired from being overworked, but not truly broken. Throughout every scene I film with her present, she looks utterly dejected the moment I stop rolling the cameras and the director isn’t looking at her. I want to ask her how she’s doing, but the director takes her aside before I even get the chance to greet her.

After a two minute break spurred by the director scolding one of the 11th grade interns, it’s time for me to record a scene where Danielle cleans her room. Despite the fact that we’re using a green screen, Daisy is very meticulous with her mimed tidying, her hands scrubbing a nonexistent table as if a flat surface were right there and then organizing props hologrammed into design.

Today, I am yet again assigned to help Daisy with Mandatory Chores™. This time, it’s the dressing room I’m assigned to help Daisy with. It is thankfully much cleaner than the kitchen we were thrown into last time I was with her. Obviously, that isn’t saying very much given how…unsanitary the kitchen is, but at least there’s some semblance of basic legal compliance instead of whatever the hell the kitchen is.

There are two main tasks the director has assigned us to do: clear out debris, and organize costumes. I offer to sweep and wipe out the area so Daisy can properly sort out clothing, as I figure she’d know the director’s costume organization system better and would prefer not to deal with dirt. However, she insists we do opposite roles - to which I agree.

I decide to start with organizing the tops, as they’re lying on top of the massive stack of costuming the two of us have been assigned to deal with. It’s tedious, but I get used to the routine pretty quickly due to its house chore-like nature - until I don’t, that is.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Daisy asks me in an unusually gentle tone.

“Honestly,” I tell her, “no.”

Daisy sighs.

“The man has a system,” she warns me, “though I don’t have time to explain it to you. Here, lemme take over.”

As the two of us perform the tasks I originally planned for us to do anyway, I use what I can of our remaining time together to ask Daisy about Lavender. 

Maybe Lavender might have vented to Daisy when I was at school, I think.

“How’s Lavender?” I ask Daisy.

“She’s…a little better now,” Daisy responds. “She doesn’t want to talk, though, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Oh,” I mutter.

I toil around, struggling to dust away the last spot I can find. Somewhere behind a window in the dressing room, though, is a person leaning against it.

“What was that?” I wonder.

“Probably just a random object,” Daisy swipes the curtain near the window, swaying it past me.

Right when she says that, a camera stick slashes through the window. The person holding it rips open the curtain and aims his lens right at Daisy and I, with the two of us encased by the curtain Daisy brushed as he takes the shot. He runs before any of us can say anything whatsoever. 

The two of us return to touching up the last parts of the dressing room, this time with us both on clothing duty. Daisy, however, looks more detached.

“You know,” she tells me, “maybe you shouldn’t be trying to get close to Lav.”

I cautiously turn around, feeling more offended by Daisy’s remark here than usual.

“...What do you mean?” I ask somewhat rhetorically.

“You wanna know why she’s been off lately?” Daisy snaps. “Because she took your diary suggestion, and the director found some of her entries!”

“Oh my God…” I freeze out.

Daisy rolls her eyes in fury.

“It’s a miracle Mr. Locksmith never found her latest journaling about this set,” Daisy states, “but he found basically everything else!” 

“Daisy,” I retaliate, “this is the director’s fault. How would I have known?”

“Oh Cheryl, you poor innocent woman!” Daisy puts on the sarcasm. “You would have known, and you did! You’ve seen what the director’s capable of, and everyone’s warned you. I don’t want to hear another excuse from you.” 

She dashes off to a place I do not want to follow her afterwards.

(Wattpad version: https://www.wattpad.com/1662762983-the-daisy-theory-chapter-16)

(Tumblr version: https://www.tumblr.com/talesfromasnarkylisa/830034305907654656/the-daisy-theory-chapter-16?source=share)