Chapter 2
After returning to Senel's house several hours later, Chloe, Shirley, Moses, and Jay sat in the living room, watching the time go by. The entire room was filled with silence, and the room was slowly getting dark from the sunset.
Shirley was picking the petals from a flower. "He loves her...he loves her not...he loves her...he loves her not." Then she picked the final petal. "He loves her..."
"Not..." Jay spat.
The group let out a melancholy sigh. At that moment, Norma and Grune came into the house.
"Hey, how come it's all dark and gloomy in here?" Norma asked, turning on the lights.
"Oh my..." Grune gushed. "You're all so gloomy."
The group stood up at once.
"It's that new girl, Sadie," Shirley said. "She only just came onto the Legacy, and Senel is already all over her."
"We've never even touched him the way she has," Chloe added.
"Not that I'm that desperate," Jay said.
"So you're still going on about that?" Norma scoffed. "You're all just jealous. This is all just a fling! It won't last very long, trust me."
"Are you sure?" Shirley asked. "He seems to be even more in love with her than he was with Stella."
"You can't even compare her with Stella," Chloe grumbled.
"It's just a crush," Norma told them. "Crushes may be really strong, but it burns out fast."
"But look how long it's been since he left to show her the city!" Chloe protested.
Norma sighed. "Okay, if you're that worried, we can check on them again. They happen to be at Lumen Spring as we speak."
"Lumen Spring?" Chloe and Shirley gasped.
"Well, what're we waitin' fer?" Moses jumped in. "Let's get goin'!"
"Right," Jay agreed.
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Senel stood in front of Lumen Spring with Sadie. But instead of admiring the spring, they gazed up at the stars in the sky.
"If you look at the arrangement of the stars, you can see shapes," Sadie explained. "Those are called constellations.
"Yeah...it's amazing," Senel responded.
Unbeknownst to them, the rest of the group was peering around the tall bush off to the side.
"Blah-blah-blah, blah, blah..." Moses mocked with a graceful hand gesture. "Blah-blah-blah, blah, blah...blah-blah-blah...blah-blah, la la la la..."
Jay half-smiled at the mock, but continued to look disgusted at the scene.
Laughing softly, Senel began to wander away from the spring.
Shirley gasped. "He's coming this way!"
Senel stopped when he noticed the group. "Hey...what are you guys doing here?"
"Oh..." Chloe and Shirley blushed, avoiding eye contact with him. "N...nothing..." they said in unison.
"We were just, uh...playing hide-and-seek," Norma lied.
Grune pressed her finger into Norma's shoulder. "Tag...you're it..." she sang in her usual airheaded voice.
"Hey!" Norma cried in protest.
"You guys, what am I doing?" Senel asked. "This isn't me at all. It's totally rapid, and we have nothing in common. But I haven't felt so...complete since Stella died."
Silently, Moses grabbed Jay, clamping a hand over his mouth. He dragged the boy behind the fountain, where Jay managed to break free.
"What the hell are you doing, you stupid bandit!?" Jay growled.
"Shh!" Moses snapped. "Didja hear that? Senel finally feels complete after Stella's death."
"Ah..." Jay sighed. "I can see trouble coming for Senel. Like you said, Senel is nothing more than a happy meal on Sadie's plate."
"But Bubbles said that it'll only last a little while. It's not like Senel would leave the Legacy for her."
"Guess what, you guys," Senel told the others. "Sadie asked me to go to the mainland with her."
"Then again, maybe he would..." Jay muttered softly.
He and Moses quickly rejoined the others.
"So...are you going to go?" Shirley asked.
"I'm...not sure yet," Senel replied.
"But you're considering it?" Chloe asked.
"Well...yeah. Why do you ask?"
Chloe only laughed sheepishly as she wandered out to the spring, where Sadie stood. "Sadie, hi!" she said, half cheerfully.
Sadie turned to her with a sweet smile. "Chloe..."
"There's...something you should know," Chloe explained. "Coolidge is...part of our group."
"Oh...really?" Sadie responded.
"Yes...we are a group...more like a family," Chloe went on. "What I'm saying is that...Coolidge should be together with us. And if you get..."
"In bed?" Sadie asked, cutting her off.
"No!" Chloe quickly blushed. "That's...not where I was going. See, if you get in the way of us being together...then we will be very sad."
"Oh, okay!" Sadie nodded.
"So you...understand?"
"Yes, yes, I understand."
"Well...great." Chloe let out a sigh of relief as she began to walk away.
"Except..." Sadie began.
Chloe paused and turned to face her. "Yes?"
"Senel already told me that he would come to the mainland with me."
Chloe's eyes widened to twice their size. "That's...that's not what he told us. He told us that he wasn't sure."
"Oh? I guess that makes him a liar, now doesn't it?"
"But Coolidge would never do that. If he decided to go to the mainland, he would tell us."
"Oh...there are some things people just can't talk about."
Chloe only stared at the girl in shock for a moment. She then turned and ran to join the rest of the group...but Senel was nowhere to be found.
"Hey...where'd Coolidge go?" she asked.
"He went home," Moses said simply.
"Ugh!" Chloe grunted in frustration. "That girl Sadie just said that Coolidge agreed to go to the mainland."
"What? That's not what he told us!" Shirley protested.
"I know. Now I don't know what's going on. Did Coolidge really agree? Or was Sadie just saying that to...to..."
Before Chloe could finish, Sadie walked by calmly, completely ignoring the group as she hummed an incoherent tune to herself. The group paused and watched her carefully until she was out of sight.
"I hate that woman..." Moses mused.
"I don't like her either..." Shirley said.
"So what do you propose we do?" Jay asked.
"Well...we could have a talk with him," Shirley suggested.
"Yeah, we definitely have to let him know how we feel," Norma agreed.
"Oh...I don't want Senel to say goodbye," Grune said sadly.
"Right now, let's just go to bed," Norma said. "We'll see what's going on tomorrow."
The others nodded in agreement, then quietly began to leave the spring.