Finished A show of genuine concern

Dalia was maybe the last person Aedes would expect to visit her. The two of them had never really been on good terms, and Dalia had been mere centimeters away from beating up the other girl. Sometimes it felt like they were destined to just fight and fight forever, stuck in a blood feud their mothers had started however long ago.

And yet here she was, taking an afternoon off after cheer practice to come do a wellness check on the girl who it would be probably accurate to call her nemesis. Her mom had come with her to do the paperwork but was waiting outside of the visitation room. This was Dalia's thing.

She was still in her cheer uniform, but with a big leather jacket thrown over it. Dalia sat in her designated chair, kicking her legs idly under the table. This was going to be rough. Aedes was definitely going to make some snide comments. But that wasn't important. She knew how it felt to be in juvie, to be cut off from your normal life like that.

"I'm not here to gloat," Dalia said with as much indignance as Aedes offered her. She didn't scowl though, her expression remaining as soft as it could. She didn't like Aedes, but some part of her ached for the girl.

"I'm here to make sure that you're alright. I know it sucks, being here. Remember, I was here before too. And I dunno. I just figured maybe you'd like a visitor."

Dalia shrugged a bit at that. She didn't dare smile, even though she wanted to. She didn't want to validate any notion that Aedes had that she had come here to taunt her. "And I was really awful before too. You know the stuff I did that landed me in here."

There was a beat of silence, one that felt longer as Dalia remembered what a terror she used to be. How grown up she felt now in comparison. "You know, our moms suck. Pandora and Nasci. But we don't have to be like them. We don't have to, like, hate each other."

Dalia blinked. And then she blinked again. She had no idea how to respond to that at first, and unfortunately her first instinct reaction was to laugh. She covered her eyes, trying to stop herself. "No no no no no. Aedes I don't think I'm- I mean I'm not better than you. I was only super bitchy to you because you were bitchy first and I mean, I'm a Tor. I have a lot of trouble letting things slide."

She calmed herself down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. I wasn't laughing at you. It's just... kinda funny. I thought you did hate me. It's actually... I mean it's nice to hear that you don't. Oh right."

Reaching into her jacket pocket, Dalia pulled out a small clear bag of bright red individually wrapped candies. They had been inspected by the guards and she had been allowed to bring them in for Aedes. "I brought these too. Blood candies. I figured... I mean, it's not much but it might be nice to have something, ya know?"

Dalia couldn't help but smile. That was probably as close to an actual thank you she was going to get out of Aedes. "I hope you like them. I got them from the same place I get my favorite femur chips. I could... maybe show you sometime, if you like them well enough."

But then the conversation shifted and Dalia found her smile fall a bit. "We had a long talk about that after practice when you first got arrested. Some of the girls wanted to kick you off, but I talked to Bel and... well, you'll be on probation when you get out. Still on the squad but you won't be able to actually be on the field during games for a while."

She shrugged. "I did my best. At least you can come back though, yeah?"