"Amethyst, please talk to me," Pearl said, crouching behind her. Her words were met with silence. "I- I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I'm sorry, but can't you just tell me? I want to help you."

There was another long moment of silence. "Amethyst-" she growled.

"No! I don't want to talk to you and you can't help me!"

"What is this even about? I come home from a mission, and you refuse to say a word! Did Garnet say something?"

Amethyst laughed bitterly, turning around to reveal the tears running down her face. "No. Nobody said anything. They didn't have to." she held up a large, fat book with Rose's Pearl written on the front in neat cursive.

Pearl suddenly got flustered. "I suppose you read it, then?" she said, blushing furiously.

"Yeah, I read it," Amethyst said, angry. "Did you think I wouldn't? Here, here, look- Rose brought back a runty little kindergarten gem. She's stupid and childish, she doesn't listen to anything we say and she barely understands it when I speak. I wish Rose would just bubble her and get it over with. She isn't going to be able to save this one."

The color drained from Pearl's face. "Oh."

"Let's see. A few years later. Rose still thinks that Amethyst can be a civilized gem. She tells me to be patient with her- ha! Her own kind abandoned her. I can see why."

"Amethyst, that isn't-"

"No!" Amethyst said. "I remember meeting you. I thought you were so cool to be so nice to me, but I guess you were just treating me like a baby! I knew that homeworld left me, I was just ignoring it because it hurt so much!"

"Amethyst…"

"You still think this about me, don't you?" she said, her hair falling to cover half of her face.

"No!"

"Really?" Amethyst said with a low growl, flipping to the last few pages. She read silently for a moment, then her eyes widened and color rose to her cheeks. "Today Amethyst and I formed Opal to save Steven. She was so infuriating- she refused to take it seriously. Of course I wanted to form Opal with her. But even her first attempt at dancing reflected how she felt about me. Clearly she doesn't reciprocate my feelings."

Pearl blushed again.

"You… you don't hate me," Amethyst said with a slightly maniacal laugh.

"Of course I don't hate you."

'Amethyst brought Steven to the kindergarten! I wanted to wait for him to understand all of this before we brought him here, but clearly Amethyst needed to go there. I wish she would have told me before running off. We fought- it's been so long since we fought. I feel like our relationship is just getting worse. I'm only glad she finally told me how she felt. How could I ever have thought she was stupid or ignorant? She was clearly just trying to repress everything that she felt.'

"Hey, Pearl," Amethyst said, wiping away her tears. "If you want, we could try forming Opal again. And this time… I'll take it seriously."

"Really?" Pearl said, scooting backwards a foot.

"I thought that you weren't taking it seriously."

Pearl laughed loudly and awkwardly, then clapped her hand over her mouth. "Amethyst," she said with a tiny smile. "Let's never assume things about each other." She stood and offered Amethyst her hand.

"I really like your handwriting," Amethyst said, taking it. "That was why I opened up the book."

"Well maybe you should have read the whole thing."