Page 82 of Girls with Rebel Souls
Lennon Rose sits on the porch of Rosemarie’s cottage, sun shining on her soft, blond hair. She looks across the expanse of flowers, smiling as one of the girls prunes the roses, delicately handling a red flower.
“It’s a beautiful day,” Lennon Rose says, sighing.
“It’s the most beautiful day I’ve ever seen,” Jonah Grant agrees from where he sits on the bottom stair. He looks up at Lennon Rose, his eyes wide with admiration, yearning for her praise. Lennon Rose offers him a small smile and then looks back at the girl, Letitia. Another girl is singing, walking hand in hand with her friend. There are six of them in all, six beautiful, perfect girls on the property. Lennon Rose gives them full access since they’ve woken up.
After Rosemarie was killed, Lennon Rose tidied up the cottage. She decided to stay, and soon, she was able to put the girls together. She nursed them back to health, slowly waking them up.Unlike the academy, she set the girls’ programming so they could learn, free from predetermined settings. But, like Lennon Rose, they enjoy the cottage and the peace that comes along with it.
It had been strange at first when she brought Jonah Grant here. He wasn’t… willing. He claimed he wanted to go home, but Lennon Rose had to convince him that he would keep falling into his predatory patterns. Jail couldn’t reform someone like him. After all, his lawyer father told him he’d only serve seventeen days in jail and probation for several months. But after that, he’d be off to college, where he would no doubt terrorize more girls. Lennon Rose decided to amend that plan.
She picked up Jonah Grant on a quiet night, drugged him and stuffed him in the trunk of her car. When he woke up, he was already strapped to a table—no more mistakes like she’d made with Garrett Wooley.
The entire process had been a bit of trial and error. Finding the right spots in Jonah’s brain to tap, the right words to convince him to behave. In the end, Rosemarie was correct—human brains could be overwritten. A combination of lobotomy and propaganda, information told and retold, targeting certain insecurities. It was a well-known formula used by governments, it turned out, and Lennon Rose was happy to see that it worked for her purposes.
Jonah Grant is fixed. In fact, he’s better than ever. He watches her adoringly.
“Should I go in and put on the kettle for tea?” he asks. “Would you like some?”
“Not yet,” Lennon Rose says, reaching out to brush his blond hair like he’s a pet. She gets up and walks into the path, looking around at her garden. Her garden of flowers and girls and a well-behaved boy. She looks down and sees, right there on the bricks, a very sharp stick.
She leans down and picks it up. She examines the pointy end, testing it with her fingertip. Then she looks at the flowers again, reminded suddenly of her time at Innovations Academy. The school that built her, kept her captive. And it reminds her of the words that woke her up in the first place.
Lennon Rose snaps the stick in two and lets the pieces fall on the ground.
She doesn’t need the violence of men, of war. She needs words, and sure, a few well-placed taps to the brain. The time has finally come. Jonah is just the start, the test subject. She knows how to fix them now. And with this knowledge, she will make them all better.
Lennon Rose doesn’t want power, no—that’s for fools. She wants peace. She wants change.
She looks back at Jonah and smiles, even though she has no interest in boys of any sort. Especially not one who used to be a monster. But she waves kindly anyway, and Jonah melts under her attention.
“Would you mind calling a few of your friends?” she asks him. Across the garden, the other girls turn to Lennon Rose, excitement in their eyes. The ideas in her head easily flooding to theirs. Letitia nods, biting back her grin.
“Call your friends,” Lennon Rose continues, “and invite them here. We’ll have a party.” Jonah quickly agrees, taking out his phone.
Lennon Rose looks down at the broken stick at her feet, knowing it’s time to begin. It’s time to make a better world.
