"Is everything OK?"
"1206 Rose avenue. Come and get us, we need help."
A large red Toyota pulls into the driveway. I gather my friends and lead them out into the car. "I can't go anywhere without hand sanitizer!" Cole fiddles with the door.
"Did you put the child safety locks on?"
I ask, buckling everyone in. I feel like a mother caring deeply foe the safety of her children, but never did I once think I would care to this extreme.
"Yes, now give this to Cole."
I quickly snatch the bottle of hand sanitizer and drop a glob into his hands. He rubs them together ten times and stops. He got the right amount, this bottle should last until we get to her house.
"Where are we going?"
Jin unlocks his seat belt.
"We're going somewhere safe."
I buckle him back in.
Valentine laughs and covers her ears, "I can't hear you! LALALALALALA, I can't hear you!"
I punch the card door and grip Valentine's arms.
"Shut up!"
"We're here."
She opens the car doors for us and leads us into her house.
"Thank you for answering my call."
I take a seat and tap my fingernails on the kitchen table, impatiently.
"What did you want to discuss?"
"You know what I came here for."
"Celestina, are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"Of course I'm sure! Look at me! At them! What else is there to do!?"
"There's something I want to tell you, Celestina."
"Make it quick, I don't have all day."
"I called your parents."
"You did what?"
"I called them to come back from their countries to come and live here so you can have your real parents back. I explained what we did. What your father, myself and their parents did. Oddly enough, they forgave us, but not too much because we're getting sued and we have a court date set to send us to jail. What I'm going to do for you guys is my last apology. I will do whatever it takes to get you better and get back to a normal life with your real families, but..."
"But?"
"But, I will tweak the cerebrum part of your brains and give you happy childhood memories, as if you never had a bad past. However, I am going to leave that you in fact did suffer from a mental disorder. I created a new chip that will make sure you will not get your disorders back. You're father and I have been working on this chip for a handful of years now. Since I'm doing this for you, you have to do something for me."
"Anything, I'll do anything to get us back to normal."
"I want you to go to mental institutes in the area and pose as patients to discuss with the entire staff about our breakthrough method of mental disorder elimination. You just don't understand that all we wanted to do was to help the mentally ill get better."
"I understand, I'll do it... I want our last names changed back once we recover."
"Deal, I will also have to put in the chip a little something to help you remember our deal. You have my word that I will not do anything else to ruin you kids again... I'm really sorry for what we did, I am genuinely sorry."
"Apology accepted, now let's get this over with."
"OK, I'll have to give all of you a sedative to get you groggy so you guys won't flip out on me. Alright?"
"Fine."
I go to my friends one by one and calm them down so Mrs. Emperador can inject them with the sedative. I give her my arm and turn my head when she sticks me.
"I love you, Celestina, I wish you the best life with your real family."