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“Something wrong, Lay?”
Sadie's question jolted her upright. “How could you tell?”
“Because you’re the only one not singing along with the radio right now. You. Out of all of us.”
Lay Lay sighed. She supposed Sadie had a point.
The Alexander family were riding home from the CHoFMAs. All the kids were in the backseat, with Sadie in the middle and Marky and Lay Lay on the ends. Lay Lay had been leaning against the window and holding her head during the entire ride–a lethargy that was completely unlike her.
“I’m not really sure,” she admitted. “I’ve been feeling these sharp pains in my head since our performance ended.”
“It sounds like you're describing a headache, Lay Lay,” Bryce chimed in from the passenger seat. “Which is totally normal after a busy night like this!”
“Probably just means you're tired,” Trish added. “It should feel better in the morning, but I can get you some Advil, too, if you’d like.”
“No!” all three kids shouted, not wanting to know what human medicine would do to Lay Lay’s body.
After seeing their parents’ confused and alarmed faces, Lay Lay spoke more calmly: “I mean, no, I think you're right. I just need to sleep this off.”
That was the end of it until they got home. Trish, Bryce, and Marky all went to their respective rooms to change and get ready for bed, leaving Sadie and Lay Lay to theirs. The latter went into their bathroom to change.
“Do you need any help?” Sadie offered.
“Nah! Just cause I’ve got a headache, doesn't mean I’ve forgotten how to undress,” was Lay Lay's response. “Besides, I know how I like my clothes!”
Sadie gave her a slight chuckle before sighing. “You're still recovering from the glitching, aren't you?”
Lay Lay gave her host sister a playful sigh in return. “Dang it, Sadie, can you not figure out what's going on for once?”
“I mean, it was kind of obvious.”
“Touché! But, like Mrs. A said, I should feel better in the morning. Don't worry about me!”
“If you say so,” Sadie conceded. In truth, after tonight's events, she couldn't help but worry about Lay Lay. But she also trusted that she knew what was going on with her own body, so she didn't press the subject.
On Lay Lay's end, though, the headache wasn't what was bothering her. It was the idea that she had somehow glitched her way into becoming a shell of herself.
She hadn't let Sadie or Marky know just how aware she was during that whole mess. She’d been disoriented, sure, but she knew exactly the kind of robotic pushover nonsense she was spewing.
And it made her sick!
She was and would always be an avatar, she wasn't trying to deny that. But that didn't mean she didn't have a real personality or opinions and feelings of her own! Watching that all be erased, even if temporarily, completely freaked her out.
But that was also why she wanted to get to sleep as soon as possible. So she could put it all away as if it were a nightmare and get back to being her full, complete self.
Once she was ready, she immediately climbed into bed, the headache and associated exhaustion allowing her to fall asleep fairly quickly.
“Night, Lay!” Sadie said, only realizing because of the lack of a response that her exchange sister was already out for the night.
Lay Lay slept in the next morning. When she woke up, her headache was gone. And the first notification she saw was that the CHoFMAs had tagged her and Sadie in a video of their performance online.
She watched it over again and smiled.
Now, that was her!