Trinity woke up and winced as she stretched. Cracking her eye open, she looked down and saw she was wearing the clothes from last night. The pants weren't comfortable to sleep in, and they had all been sweaty from the concert. She groaned as she got up. "Shouldn't have done that," she said. She cracked open the door and headed to the bathroom, taking a quick shower to wash the sweat off of herself. She wrapped herself in a towel, blow dried her hair (for what felt like an eternity but she knew was the normal length of time), and then made her way back to her room to get dressed. She checked her phone first, saw the messages from the others. Zoe checking in, Sarah saying they could all come by at 2. She checked the time, nearly 1. She'd have to head out then.
She got dressed and walked out to the kitchen. Her father was seated at the table and glanced up at her as she walked in. "Look who's returned to the land of the living," he said.
"Kind of..." Trinity said.
"I grabbed muffins earlier, they're on the counter. Figured you'd want something when you got up and wasn't gonna try to figure out a hot meal when you could have been out another 3 hours."
"Aww, you do care," Trinity said, adopting a forced looking smile. She opened the bag and peered inside, searching and finding a blueberry muffin. She grabbed it and turned around to face her father, leaning against the counter. "And I never sleep that late."
"You were out late, that can affect things. And I expect you to learn the wonder of sleeping in later when you start college." Trinity snorted out a laugh, shaking her head, and her father ignored it. "What are you up to? I expected you to be hanging around in your PJs for a while but you look ready to head out."
She looked down at herself and saw what she had put on without even thinking. A black dress with lacy straps around the shoulders. She fought the urge to clench her fists, not wanting to draw her dads attention. It wouldn't help, could only distract her. She needed to just get to Sarah's and find out what she could. She shrugged. "Was gonna go hang out with the others. Delia and them."
"Busy weekend," her dad said. "I gotta run to the next town, pick some things up for tomorrow. And prepping for a bunch of interviews this week."
"So exciting," Trinity said before taking a bite of her muffin.
"Hey, someone has to put muffins on the table," her dad shot back. "You gonna be home for dinner?"
"Not sure. I think so, but I'll let you know if that changes."
"Please do," her dad said. He picked up his phone and sighed. "I need to get going, wanted to make sure you were still alive." He stood up and approached her, kissing her on the top of her head, and then gathered his things and left. Trinity stayed where she was. She finished her muffin, tossing the wrapper into the trash, and thought.
That bitch Holloway had changed her. Aside from the obvious. She hadn't been able to go into the mosh pit, sh hated smoking, she could remember how her relationship with her dad was in this world. Hell, she had even dressed like this without thinking about it. It had been automatic, normal to her.
Because it was normal to Trinity, she realized. The more she thought about, them ore this outfit seemed right. Athena's comment from the night before about her wearing nicer stuff usually... It had felt correct then, but she had been willing and able to brush it off. Now, she couldn't just ignore it. Holloway had threatened to erase the Trevor part of her, to leave only Trinity. She didn't doubt that she could, but... hadn't she already? Kind of? If the Trinity parts of her felt so much more real and were taking more precedent?
She left the kitchen and returned to her room. She grabbed a bag and shoved a swimsuit into it. She'd rather not bother, but she could recall how Sarah was. She would push until everyone complied, and if she didn't bring a suit Sarah would offer up one of hers, which...
No fucking way.
Grabbing her phone, she unlocked it and checked her messages. Delia mentioning that she was getting a ride to Sarah's with Randi, saying Trinity could ask for one too. Nah, she'd rather take the walk and think things through. Like what the hell would happen to them if they said no to joining the cheer squad?
Messages from Zoe and Athena, talking about the show and the songs they had liked most. A separate message from Zoe asking how she was doing. She hadn't seemed herself the night before. She was worried. None of that was like Zoe, and Holloway had no reason to affect her. But... she had done her thing to Jen. If Trinity's dad was acting different, then it made sense Zoe would be different too. But did it make sense? Did Jon being Jen now cause that much of a change? Zoe had never particularly bitched about her older brother? Or, well... she had, but Trevor had never thought that Jon was the reason Zoe had been like she was.
I'm fine, just... stressed. It'll be fine
You can talk to us about what's stressing you! That's why we're here. Jen and the other members of the cheer brigade, I'm sure
Yeah, yeah. I know. It's fine. Really. We'll talk tomorrow at school
We better
Phone joined her other things in her bag, and Trinity headed out. She winced as the sun hit her. She was still tired and really would rather have been sleeping. Instead, she headed toward Sarah's, going over what she knew already the entire way and hoping to get answers to fill in her blanks once she got there.
