Chapter 5 - Plumage and Paranoia

As Emilia is talking to the crazed man, Robbie positions herself somewhere between her friends. She swings her umbrella at the rampaging birds or flaps it open at them to scare them off. It looks utterly ridiculous, but she hopes it will buy her friends some time...As the birds are flapping around and she is fighting them off, they begin to turn to her. Robbie feels them peck at her and she's pretty sure they're drawing some blood where she's not protected by her armor.

Of course Robbie is glad that they managed to solve the whole issue of the evil, controlled birds and their attacks, but when the three girls return to the ferry and with it to Svartsölandet and Kungsberga, she's hurting from the bird attacks and crying from the fear she felt as the whole swarm had suddenly set upon her - as well as then from embarrassment at crying in the first place.
She splits off from the others as soon as she is able to and returns to the farm. As much as Robbie would like to talk to no one more than to her, Tyra isn't there. She won't be again for two days. And so Robbie has to seek comfort from her own mother, who treats her wounds and makes her hot chocolate and soothes her nerves, but who does not at all believe Robbie's story. She figures that Robbie and her friends were just wandering around a bit when one of those violent swarms of seagulls they had spoken about on the radio attacked them. And everything else is just her daughter's overeager imagination.

Over the next few days, Robbie tries to listen to the radio to figure out if there are any news, but there was no mention of Gunnar or the strange situation with the birds at all, not even that the bird attacks stopped. The reporting on those attacks just stopped along with them.
Freddie one day lies sick on Robbie's pillow. When she tells her parents about it, the two initially don't much care about some pigeon, but seeing how upset their daughter is, tears in her eyes, Robbie's father agrees to take Freddie to the vet. He returns some time later, empty-handed. He doesn't tell Robbie what happened to Freddie, but she never sees him again after that, and she spends many evenings crying and missing her silly, avian friend.

---

After their strange bird adventure, Robbie starts to have the feeling that Emilia actually likes hanging around with her and Tanya. Not where anyone would see them, of course, but they meet more often in their shared hideout and sometimes play boardgames there. Or they talk for a bit whenever they run into each other in school, at least as long as none of the other popular kids are around.
After some time of this, Robbie suddenly has an idea. It probably isn't a very good idea, and Emilia is unlikely to agree, but after school one afternoon, she approaches Emilia and asks, "Would you like to come to the farm today? You can meet the animals. And we can spend some time together. I think that would be nice." She isn't quite sure why her cheeks are turning so red as she asks that.
To her surprise, Emilia agrees.

"Careful, don't break them," Robbie reminds Emilia as the smaller girl reaches into the chicken coop and plucks out the four eggs in there. She places them in the little box Robbie brought for that purpose. "We can eat those, if you want. My mom can boil or fry them up for us. But first, we have more work ahead of us."
When Emilia realized that Robbie intended for her to actually help with her chores, the girl at first was indignant, but she agreed eventually. However, Robbie had to give her some clothes to wear so she wouldn't ruin her own. Both of the girls at first felt awkward when Emilia stepped out of the bathroom wearing one of Robbie's far too large for her shirts, but by now, Emilia doesn't even seem to notice it anymore, and Robbie thinks that Emilia actually looks kind of cute in it - a thought that makes Robbie blush furiously every time she thinks it.
But after the eggs are safely stored away, Robbie begins showing Emilia how to take the old hay from the chicken coop and to replace it with fresh one. It's not very difficult work - Robbie doesn't want to scare Emilia off on her first day as a farm hand, after all - but the girls chat excitedly the whole time and are having fun, so their work goes not nearly as fast and efficiently as it usually does when Robbie works on her own. Not that Robbie cares about that right now.
In fact, Robbie finds herself so caught up in spending time with Emilia, that she completely misses what is usually the highlight of any day on which it happens. Behind the girls, Tyra's transport drives onto the farm and parks in its usual spot. Emilia's mother steps out and is just about to call out for Robbie, who usually always helps her, when she spots her own daughter in the chicken pen with Robbie, the two girls laughing as hay flies about them.
Tyra doesn't say anything. She just regards the two with a curious expression for a moment, then turns silently to her own work.

Tanya gets out of the confrontation pretty beaten up. It takes her a while to calm down from the shocking attacks, and has to be really creative to hide most of her cuts by wearing baggy garments.

There is shock in her parents as well, as she tells them the story of Gunnar and his experiments, especially as the details of her tale start to match with those of the official narrative from the aftermath. For Tanya, the fact that a known 'friend' would try to harm her is quite unsettling. Maybe her parents didn't know Gunnar all that well...

For a long while after the attacks, Tanya stays indoors, wary of any bird. She almost develops a phobia of the damn things.
As her cuts heal, though, she finds her courage and starts going out more comfortably. But still, she rushes from an indoor place to another...

On the plus side, she manages to use her trauma to convince her mother to sign her off the swimming team. So maybe... a blessing in disguise?

Her books, Professor Hedstrom and her friendship with Robbie and Emilia help her recovery. Her friends stood up for her, helping her as she made a mess on that island. She feels she can trust them.

As they manage to get away from the birds Emilia is overcome with emotion. Did we do it... we did it. right? She lets out a laugh of joy and before thinking hugs Robbie, and then goes to hunt Tanya before freezing and letting go and mumbling an apology, and how they should head back.

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She learns to be more relaxed around the girls as the day move on, and the hugs no longer become awkward as she meets them in secluded places and hang out. There is still that nagging feeling though of being torn between two groups. At school she would still pander to Izzy, to stay safe, but the guilt in her stomach grows, as does her frustration at how boring the others are. Talking about shopping, clothes, boys...the last one she would definitely rather do anything but. Hanging out with Tanya and Robbie, it was different. It was fun. Maybe it was they fact they talked about actual interest things, their shared experience... or the fact she didn't have to pretend anything.

Still the worry, the fear of what would happen if her 'friends' found out kept her in line. At least for a while. Izzy didn't bring up the day of the bird attack, may it was the knock to the head, she thought it was imagine, and Emilia was grateful.

It was the day at the farm. The first of many. The realisation that Robbie knew her Mum, knew the truth and never outed her, despite the way she had been treated her...that was what finally made her decision.

It was couple of days later, in the canteen. Mari and Dana were arguing over which boy in their year was the best looking and Emilia was doing her best not to get drawn in when Izzy once again decided to cause trouble, approaching Tanya and Robbie. Going on about them being weirdos, and then starting to turn on Tanya about her leaving the swimming team...something inside EMiilia snaps..

'You know what's weird Izzy? You're obsession abut these two and bothering them.' She stands up as she calls across to her. As most go quiet realising something is going down she grits a her teeth trying to stay calm. Her eye land briefly on Robbie, also watching, and her her resolve is steeled.

'No-one else cares. So what if they like birds, or other stuff. Just give it a rest for once. Hell, the stuff they like is more interesting than you most the time.' She picks up her food and walks over bumping a shoulder with the bully as she walks past her to sit down next to Robbie.

Like last time Izzy didn't seem to know how to react to thing not going her way, to the open defiance, and growled out some more inuslts before going back to the table.

In the following days the old friend group were divided on whether Emilia had truth to her words, or was now just another weirdo she found herself having to seek comfort from Tanya and Robbie, including moment of clinging to the taller girl trying not to panic as rumours and gossip circulated.

Then as they do the school found something else to gossip about, and moved on. She was able to publicly be with the pair, though sometime with a stink eye from Izzy, who otherwise refused to speak wit her anymore. Finally, a weight was lifted.