"Thank you two for coming, I don't know how much more of mother I can take today..." Zoe nervously glanced around, as if her mom Amaya would appear out of thin air to chastise her yet again.
"It's no problem, Saori, we know you have it rougher than either of us." Sabrina Johnson, one of the local goth kids, consoled her friend. "And sorry we weren't here earlier we were just..."
Trevor Blake smiled at her, making her fight back a laugh.
"We should make time to help each other out, though..."
"You are my only real friends in this country, just talking it out helps more than you can know..." Saori really didn't want to cry again. She knew the goth crowd respected being above it all, but she really had nowhere but them and the shrine to drop the calamity of bad feelings she was carrying.
"Well, we could ask Sarah or Beth to do something about your family, they're not always great friends but maybe they can shake things up?" Sabrina offered. She really felt dumb having that be her best advice to say, those two were the worst...
"Or maybe I could just tutor you more? You're way too smart to be a janitor..." Trevor practically scoffed.
Saori got agitated, "I am a caretaker of this land, Trevor. We have a well, maybe nefarious yokai for all I know that need keeping in check, my family is meanspirited, but the job isn't dumb!"
Trevor remembered how superstitious Saori got about this stuff. It was all interesting, but not so interesting that she wouldn't be better off doing something less damaging, away from her smothering family...
"Listen, just remember that friendship still exists even if your family doesn't have any for you." Trevor hoped that saved the conversation.
For once, Saori smiled.
