All Four Of Me

Chapter 26

KENZIE

A few days have passed since my last session with Dr Miller and the tension in the house has slowly started to dissipate with each day that my alters remain dormant. It is clear that everyone is still on high alert, but nobody has been game enough to address the elephant in the room which has caused an uncomfortable awkwardness to creep into our conversations whenever we are all in the same room at once.

But that's all going to change tonight. I have a plan to make everything go back to the way it was before Alex came along and messed it all up, and I'm not going to let anybody or anything stop me from seeing it through.

Today is my second day back at school after the double dissociation disaster occurred almost two weeks ago. Nathan and Chris had wanted to keep me home for an extra day just to make sure my alters were stable, but with a little help from James and a lot of convincing on my part, I managed to persuade them into letting me go back yesterday. Will had made it very clear though that if I felt even remotely close to dissociating that I could get the office to call them and someone would come out to pick me up.

Overprotective? Maybe, but I know they are only acting this way because they are scared of being faced with the prospect of Alex taking over and turning things on their head again. Whatever the alter did to push Will's buttons almost succeeded in destroying our entire relationship and I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared of the same situation happening again.

The only person besides James, Mitchell and Dr Miller who has remained the same is Ben. Upon meeting him in the quad before school yesterday, he had been nothing but his usual crazy self. Apparently, his parents had asked him if I would be interested in doing some more prep work for them at the restaurant and although their gesture ignites a flame of excitement within me, the fact that I am grounded, and probably will be for a while after tonight kind of puts a downer on the news. I'm sure if I wasn't grounded, I would be spending every spare moment in the kitchen at the Wonky Chopstick, that is if Will and Nathan would allow me to.

Despite feeling bummed about not being able to hang out after school, Ben has done everything in his power to make up for the time we have lost by filling our lunch break with his constant chatter, but I don't particularly mind especially when the majority of the time he shares his thoughts on a new recipe that he is trying to develop for the restaurant and his plans to involve me in the experimentation process. Even though I have been temporarily isolated from him and our cooking adventures, Ben still finds a way to make me feel included which in turn makes the situation seem a lot less sucky than it is.

Our lunch breaks, however, only last for an hour between the two and by the time Ben and I go our separate ways in the quad I am left feeling as if the time we just spent together didn't even happen at all. The sensation only grows stronger as the day continues, especially when I have to sit through the worst two classes of the day; History and English.

All of my teachers have taken a particularly keen interest in me since I have been back and I know I have Mr Greene to thank for their sudden onslaught of attention. He had told me that he was going to make my situation known to the rest of the faculty, and from the mixed bag of reactions I have received from my teachers it is clear that he stayed true to his word. For the most part, everyone has been understanding of my situation, however the thought of so many people knowing something so personal about me puts me on edge.

What if one of these teachers ends up being a bit too loose lipped with another student and my personal struggles are made known to the rest of my peers? My life is complicated enough as it is and I'm not sure if I will be able to cope if any more drama is added to the mix, especially at the one place that seems to be relatively untainted by my messed up private life.