Danny, Mel and Elsie had decided to "roadtrip" to VidCon. Go in Mel's car for five hours and switch driver every other hour. Should be fun, right? Key word being should. Things in the Summers had been tense lately. Mel was growing more and more controlling every day, refusing to ride anything but shotgun when she wasn't driving so she could tell the driver exactly what she was doing wrong.

Elsie was growing more and more distant. Her videos were becoming less about fitness that she'd been so obsessed with when Danny met her. Instead she talked about having a social life and eating sweets while she could instead of spending 40 hours per week (she'd never been good with maths) on staying "thin or good-looking or whatever".

And Danny, she was trying to stand up for herself in a group where nobody really cared what she thought – they were falling apart. They'd became the top three because they'd been dedicated. Mel had been a perfect leader because she was so headstrong and dedicated. So was Danny, but she hadn't minded being Vice President. Elsie had been the one who'd inspired all the Society girls more than anyone else, and the three of them had been a natural fit to be a sort of Summer Society Golden Trio. They all loved the workout, Mel was incredible with discipline and training-schedules. Danny had been surprised by how good she was at fighting the things Silas U had bombarded them with – lots of weird things had happened on that campus that nobody talked about, but Danny had been the battle leader, so to speak. Self-defence classes had been an obvious thing for her to take up after that.

They'd been close friends for so long, but now… now it wasn't the same at all. Mel was growing more focused on and agitated with the Zetas every day, and she watched their videos more than she actually edited her own. Plotting revenge, plotting an attack, whatever she was doing – it was weird.

Elsie kept going on about swag. Danny would admit that Elsie's new "image" as she called it was the definition of the word, but hanging out got annoying after a while.

She sighed quietly. She'd get some separation from them at VidCon, but… she definitely could be more excited about this.

Everything had been neatly folded and put into the travelling bag. The ticket laid on the table, the apartment was immaculately clean, she'd given her neighbour clear instructions on how to care for her flowers, and she'd already given her the key. Everything was finished.

She should be ready to go.

Mattie would never tell Carmilla why she wanted her far away from Mother.

Not that Carmilla ever complained about that. She wanted to get herself as far away from that woman as Mattie did. Carmilla just didn't know why.

Mattie shook her head and focused back on the road. These thoughts were far too dark and morbid on the way to a video convention. Her little sister didn't want to go, but even Carmilla couldn't avoid the fact that her little videos, commenting on the old classical first-edition books she'd read since she was five because they were the only books kept in Mother's house, had spread like a flame among the literal people on the internet. Carmilla had a lot of fans – intelligent fans who were interested in classics and their origin and finer details that Carmilla talked about, but she ignored them. She never replied to comments or took requests or ever mentioned her fans at all. Which was the reason Mattie was physically dragging her to VidCon.

"Babe?"

They had to bite their cheek to stop themselves from sighing. No matter how familiar it had become by now. "Yeah?"

"Should we bring our science stuff? I mean, we're doing a few panels and stuff…"

"I doubt they'll ask us to perform an experiment. And if they do, they'll have to bring materials themselves."

"Right, you're right. Do you think we've got everything, though?"

"Yeah, stop worrying." They hoisted their bag over their shoulder. "I still don't see why we're going with them, though. They annoy us both."

"He's my brother. And they're his bros."

"Yeah, and they test out ridiculous stuff for fun. We're real scientists. It doesn't go together."

"It's one ride. We can catch another one back."

"Whatever."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Another sigh. "Nothing, JP."

Kirsch was dreaming.

SJ hadn't left him. She was still there, she still loved him, like she'd said she always would.

She was playing video games with him. It was something that included shooting and strategy, something she'd always been better at than him. They'd just decided to go in from the side and attack when –

When a bump in the road jerked him awake.

Theo was behind the wheel of the giant jeep, cursing quietly. Will was riding shotgun with a pouty expression, and Kirsch sat in the back with JP, LaFontaine squished between them.

LaF was rubbing their shoulder with a pained look on their face. He'd probably hit them by accident when he woke up, so he hurried to apologize. They assured him they were fine and returned to stare out the window with a forlorn expression that almost matched Will's. JP looked like he really wanted to say something. Kirsch wondered if they were fighting. They'd been dating for almost as long as he'd known them – or at least that's what he thought it was. It wasn't like the dating he and SJ had been dating. LaFontaine never let JP kiss them in public, and never really wanted to hold hands, either. But JP did that anyway.

SJ loved that stuff. He missed SJ.

Mr Hollis wasn't very happy about letting his daughter go to VidCon. He knew it all came from the internet, and the internet was a dangerous place. But, as she kept reminding him, she was nineteen now. So he could, according to Laura, either let her do it all on her own, or he could drive her there and stay in town so he was close by during the entire event.

He chose the latter.

This meant listening to his Laura speed-talk her way through the three-hour long cartrip about her fans, her videos, her shows, and Harry Potter houses.

Well, at least it was better than partying and male celebrities.