Chapter 4: Did She...Trip?

Andi POV

What stood in front of me was terrifying. I've seen it so many times, but no matter how many times I'm there, it never gets less horrifying. Yep, that's right.

I was at Maddie's house.

I shuddered at the thought of being near both of the Van Pelts. I had gotten used to it a little, I guess, but I still dreaded it. But I did it anyway—it was worth getting to see Philip.

Philip was awesome. Usually, I wouldn't have to come here, and Philip and I would meet somewhere. But after we found out about the whole principal and E situation, we decided it would be better to lay low for a while. It would be pretty unlikely for them to come here.

I took a deep breath and walked into the house. I walked to the sitting room to find another argument. This time, it wasn't between Maddie and her mother, surprisingly. It seemed to be between Mrs Van Pelt and Diego. Well really, it seemed like Mrs Van Pelt.

She was shouting at a confused Diego, something about smelling like snow and getting garlic in her precious shoes. I'm guessing that's why Diego was confused. Mrs Van Pelt could confuse anyone.

My eyes found Philip, sitting on the couch with a slightly pained expression. His eyes met mine and a look of relief crossed his face. "Andi!" He got up and nearly ran over to me, enveloping me in a hug.

I smiled and hugged him back. "Hi." I still hadn't thanked Emma enough times for saving him. He had adapted to being human almost right away, and I had to admit, I was proud of him. He still wasn't used to flashes, it being too bright or too loud, but he was getting there. He still loved Pizza, though.

He pulled back and I frowned at the sudden loss of warmth. He noticed and laced his fingers with me, quickly bringing the smile back to my lips. He smiled back and I internally face palmed as a butterfly volcano erupted in my stomach.

What? I am still a girl and when my amazing boyfriend who used to be a freaking zombie smiles his amazing smile at me, I'm allowed to get butterflies okay?

"Hey Andi!" Diego said, looking as relieved as Philip.

Mrs Van Pelt made a strangled noise. "Ugh, more of you. Maddie-winky why can't you hate everyone and just be friends with your Panthers, like you used to?"

Maddie looked pissed. "Shut up Mother!" She turned to Diego, her face morphing into a smile. "Come on Proxy. Let's go, away from here."

Before Diego could answer, she dragged him to her room, probably to complain in peace. He shouted, "bye Andi!"

"Good luck," I waved to him. Mrs Van Pelt gave us an annoyed look and went, somewhere. Philip crushed me in another hug and I laughed into his chest.

"Thank God for you," he exclaimed. "I thought she was going to explode." He pulled away, taking my hand and leading me to the couch. He collapsed onto it and I took a seat beside him.

I imagined an exploding Mrs Van Pelt and grinned. "That would be so cool!" Philip chuckled at me, but then he frowned.

"I'm sorry you had to come here. We should have went somewhere else." He looked genuinely sorry and I quickly shook my head.

"It's okay. We didn't really have a choice. Em would let us go to her house but we can't annoy her all the time. Besides, I'm pretty sure Jax is gonna be there, and I'm not sure how much more Jemma I can take."

I made a gagging noise and Philip grinned at me. "Jax is our friend. Jemma is, sweet." I rolled my eyes. Him and Jax had become good friends, and as much as I was happy for Philip, and Jax and I had made a sort of peace, I still would have preferred Diego.

"Yeah yeah, I know. They're the golden couple, Jax is good, I know."

His grin grew. "You, be friends with Jax?" he asked hopefully. I opened my mouth to protest, but he continued, "for me?" He looked so hopeful.

"Stop that. It's not fair when you do that." The hopeful look didn't go away, and he gave me a small, crooked smile. I sighed. "Fine. I'll think about it okay? No promises."

He grinned at me again and pulled me into a sideways hug. I had to smile at him. It couldn't be that hard. We were already kind of friends, right? I think so. It wouldn't be so hard to make it official. I wouldn't have to act any different. I could still tease him. You know, all the time.

And I guess Jemma was kinda cute.

Woah. I don't know why I thought that. I've never thought that before. I don't think anything's cute. I blame Philip for this.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out to find a text from Em.

Where are you?

I frowned. Why would she ask that? Philip saw my expression and frowned too. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's nothing. I hope it's nothing." I typed a quick reply.

With Philip. Why? Are you okay?

She replied almost instantly.

I don't know. Can you come over? Bring Maddie and Diego too.

I shot up from my seat. There was something wrong. I knew Emma wasn't safe there. I knew it.

"Andi?" I turned around to see Philip looking at me curiously, a hint of worry in his eyes.

"We have to go to Emma's. Now."

"What is that?"

We were at Emma's now, leaving right away after getting Maddie and Diego. We got here to find Emma, Jax, Mia, and Daniel sitting on the couch around the table, a disk-like object in the centre.

Emma gave Maddie an irritated look. "If we knew that, we would've done something with it by now."

"Well you're not gonna find out by staring at," I pointed out.

"We were waiting for you guys," Mia said. "We thought you'd be pretty pissed if we didn't."

She had a point.

"Well we're here now. So, do something." Ah Maddie. Patient as ever.

The, uhm, thing, was a black round object, about as thick as two disks stuck together. I looked at it, and sighed.

There was a button on top.

"It's a video. You press the button and it plays a video," I told them.

They all looked at me for a minute. Then at the disk. Then me, then back to the disk. Then, finally, Jax pressed the button.

Like I thought, a screen appeared. Along with Principal Torres and E.

Our ex-principal looked confused, but E was grinning manically. When she was Em's clone, that was pretty creepy. They were just standing there, there was nothing around them, it was just black.

E giggled like a maniac. "Hi Emma. Jax. Miss me?" She looked directly at them as she spoke and I realized it wasn't just a video. They were really talking to us, right now, like a video call. Like, I don't know, magical Skype or something.

"Nope," Jax said immediately.

"Not at all," Emma informed her.

E pouted. "Aw. You guys don't have to lie to me. Why can't we be friends?" Torres laughed 'evilly' and E quickly joined her. "That's right. We're too good for you. Prettier too."

We all burst out laughing and she glared at us. "You do know you look exactly like Emma right? You know, 'cause you're her clone?" Daniel said.

Jax shook his head, smirking. "Not exactly. Em's more beautiful."

E glared at him. "I guess that's why she finally chose you. You just worship the ground she walks on, don't you? Think Jaxy. You could do that for me."

Jax grimaced at the nickname. "No thanks. See, I actually care about Em. You, though, not, well, at all." He shrugged. Emma grinned at him and E turned her glare to her.

"I don't know what you're so pleased about. That's what he says now, but I'm not there yet. You all think he's changed, that he's so good now. But I know. He's still a Novoa. It's in his blood to be dark. Completely now, maybe that's why your Mom's gone."

Jax's face hardened. "Shut up," he ground out through gritted teeth, glaring at her. She smirked. No. Come on man, don't let her get to you! It's what she wants!

Emma quickly grabbed his hand and he visibly relaxed. E's smirk dropped and she went back to glaring at Em.

She turned back to Jax, ready to try again. "You think something happened to her. You blame your dad. But did you ever think she left? That it was her decision? That maybe, it's your fault," she smirked.

I looked at Jax. He was fuming. I could actually imagine the steam coming out of his ears. She's She's good.

Emma squeezed his hand and he looked at her. She smiled at him, and of course, he smiled back. Cue the gag. It worked though.

Jax turned back to E, his face impassive, almost bored even. "Or maybe I'm right and you're just trying to be a bitch." I smirked. Not that good.

"E, don't bother. You don't have to waste it all on him. Look at all the others. So pathetic," Mrs Torres smiled.

E smiled. "Yeah. I wonder which one would be easiest to get to." She looked at all of us in turn, then went back to Daniel.

"Hey Danny. I bet it really annoys you that she finally chose Jax. Doesn't it?" Daniel shuffled uncomfortably but kept his face blank. He just shrugged.

E narrowed her eyes. "But I mean, you are just the human. The creepy, weird, human. You weren't so bad when you were bad though. That spider seal worked well. Pity he wouldn't like you for real." She paused, directing this at Mia. "Actually, I don't care," she finished happily.

Mia glared at her. "You know, if you were really like this, I would have left you to be zombie food," she said to Emma, her eyes not moving from E, who just giggled.

"Aw. Isn't that cute. Little kanay thinks she's tough. But really, you're just a scared little orphan with a pathetic crush on the pathetic human," E said, mockingly sad.

Mia's face fell and Daniel's hardened. "Back off," he glared at E.

She laughed and started to walk, Torres following after her. After a second, she tripped, and we all burst out laughing. She turned around and glared at us. "Shut up. You don't even—"

"That's enough E." The screen flicked to a man with dark hair and eyes. He looked slightly familiar. It only stayed for a split second before flicking away again, back to E and Torres. "You can torture them more later. We have more important things to do." It was the same voice, and Jax froze at hearing it.

E smirked again. "Yeah. Like think about what exactly we're going to do to all of you. Have fun trying to guess." She laughed—evilly?—and the principal joined her. The screen went black, like a TV, before disappearing completely.

We stood in silence for a minute, until Mia spoke. "Who's the dude?"

I snorted and shrugged. "We don't know." I looked at them. "We don't know, right?"

"I do," Jax said, his voice strangely quiet. He was still frozen. "I knew he was bad but I never thought he would do this."

Emma looked at him worriedly. "Jax?"

He shook his head, not wanting to say whatever he was thinking.

"Jax," Emma tried again. "What's wrong? Who was that?"

He looked at her and seemed to calm down a little. Of course. Cue the eye roll. But I was curious about what had shaken Jax so much.

He took a deep breath, and when he spoke, we got it.

"I'm pretty sure that was my dad."

Hi! Yay, I updated! It shouldn't be that long until I can update again. My exams start tomorrow and I probably should be studying now but, *shrugs*. They only last until Wednesday though and then, SUMMER! YAY! More updates! I need your reviews though. They're the most important. So you, *points finger*, review!

Please?

I'll try to update soon if you do.

:)

Reviews:

angelcreature13: First- You're writing 'The Sleepover Trio?'! I like it! It's good! Now- Thanks :) I like your idea, you should look out for it soon ;) Who wouldn't want to see Mia kick butt? And you gotta love Andi. Don't worry, they'll be plenty of 'couple-y moments' :)

RandomGirl xoxo: I thought it was a good name, makes me think of Andi XD Jax is perfect, he can't even be put into words. It probably isn't healthy, but it's not really our fault. And we always have Raola :) Thanks and here you go!

Danielle (Guest): Thank you :) Isn't Jemma just the cutest? I'm glad you think its realistic, I can see it happening too. Yeah, let's hope she doesn't hurt Jemma... You did send me a long review, and I love long reviews, so we'll see ;) Don't worry too much, they ARE my otp. But it does need to be realistic...