"Hey Lu," Erika calmly greets you as she stands on the top step of the basement stairs.
"It's ok, you can come in!" you reply.
She joins you in your lab, approaching you quietly before hoisting herself up onto one of the countertops with her legs spread out. Erika is wearing a white blouse with a knee length plaid skirt. Her piercings have been removed, and her makeup is conservative. It's faded, but her pink hair is still visible in sharp contrast to her otherwise preppy attire.
"I can't believe Dad is making me do this." she whines.
"Oh yeah, it's your first day at St. Agatha Christie's... Good luck."
"Dad is fucked in the head. This is child abuse. Making me transfer to a new school during my senior year? Who does that? And a school with a uniform like this. If he thinks this is going to turn me into a good little christian daughter, he's really fucked."
"You haven't put up much of a fight until now. If you'd begged and thrown a fit back in the Spring I bet you could have made him back down."
Erika sighs, and stares at the ceiling. "I felt bad. For a while I thought he was right. After I crashed that car into the house, and wrecked all that stuff, I thought maybe he was right. Sometimes when you screw up so bad, you feel like you deserve any punishment the world throws at you, and it still wouldn't be enough."
That last part resonated with you. Even though you should have been furious with Erika when she crashed a car into your laboratory, you were never mad, just glad she wasn't hurt. For everything you had done to her in the past, you felt like you deserved much worse in return.
Erika pulls back her legs, and launches herself off the table landing next to you, demanding your attention. "And then I put on this damn uniform and saw my whole identity go up in flames! How am I supposed to be me when I look like this?"
You turn around and face your sister, remembering what things had been like even a year ago. "Come on, Erika. There's a lot more to you than your clothes. You could be wearing a clown costume and you'd still be unmistakable."
She smiles at you and you smile back, getting an idea. "In fact, I can prove it to you. Hop in that pod over there and I can show you... If you're okay with participating in one of my experiments. It's totally fine if-"
"Yeah, of course. Whatever it is you want to show me, I trust you, Lu."
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