A/N: It exceeded 3,000 words! Omg! Since this is already so long, instead of replying to specific reviews, I'll just say thank you guys for reviewing (some of your reviews amused me XD) and I'm glad you liked Chapter 6. Here's Chapter 7. I really like it and I hope you guys do, too. Warning: in case you plan on flaming me, I've already clearly stated in this story's summary that nothing good will happen to Daniel. That's especially true in this chapter, so if you don't like that, get out. *thumbs up* To everyone who does like that—and to everyone who likes Jemma being cute & sexy—enjoy! ;D

To say things started looking up after Jax and Maddie's little conversation would be a major understatement. Now that Daniel didn't have the upper hand, Maddie wasn't holding back her Head Panther-ness. At. All. In the past thirty minutes, she'd insulted him twice, slapped his hand away three times, and flat-out laughed in his face four times. Jax would know; he was keeping track, not to mention loving every second of it.

Emma didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. She just assumed Maddie was being... Maddie. While Emma and Daniel had waited on the pizzas (which Maddie had threatened to smash in Daniel's face), Daniel had made it a point to talk about nothing but how great Maddie was. Emma figured he must really be in love with the girl. Nothing else explained his sudden change of heart.

Either way, Emma was relieved he wasn't pining for her anymore. It was a major weight off her shoulders. Jax had sworn to her last week while they were cuddling on her couch that he'd seen someone outside her kitchen window. Emma wasn't sure if he was joking or not, but—and she'd never admit this to anyone—she'd immediately suspected Daniel. He'd become pretty creepy these past few months, and Andi had a joke about him being in love with that window… He'd really been starting to freak Emma out. But she realized now that Jax, Andi, and she all must have been wrong.

Thankfully.

"Well would you look at that," Jax said, observing a water play section of the zoo. Mini water slides and shallow kiddie pools for children under the age of twelve were placed next to each other. Small children swam, splashed, and squealed as they enjoyed themselves in the water. Off to the sides on the patio were tanning chairs where adults and teens were lounging out, chatting, and keeping an eye on the young ones.

"Aweee, that family on the left with the baby is so cute," Emma gushed.

"What do you want with a bunch of children, Jax?" Daniel snarled. It was majorly obvious he was butthurt because Maddie was painting her nails as they walked rather than allowing him to hold her hand. "Gonna try to corrupt them, too?"

Jax didn't get to offer a retort to that nonsense comment because Emma responded first.

"Too?" she asked, clearly offended. "What are you saying?"

Daniel's eyes widened. "N-Nothing, Emma, I—"

"You're saying Jax corrupted me?"

"No! I didn't mean—"

"Well guess what?" The usually sweet and gentle girl took a threatening step toward her ex-boyfriend. He took a cowardly step back. "Jax has not corrupted me. In order for him to do that, he'd have to be corrupt himself. Which he's not. He's amazing. I know you don't like him, but that doesn't mean you have to bring ridiculous accusations against him. I don't like Maddie but I've listened to you talk about what a goddess she is all day." Under her breath she added, "No matter how much I disagree…"

"HEY!" Maddie snapped.

"Emma—"

"The point is, Jax is nothing but wonderful to me, and I've been nothing but respectful to you and your girlfriend since we got here. So for you to accuse us of being bad people is really not okay. Just cool it."

Jax smiled, proud of Em for standing up for herself. It was something he'd taught her to do. And of course it was adorable she'd stood up for him, but Jax didn't need defended; he couldn't care less what Daniel thought of him.

Maddie started on her second coat of polish and said, "Woooow. She told you off."

Daniel sulked and muttered, "Whatever…" under his breath.

Emma walked over to Jax and gave him a kiss.

"Awwww, how cute," Maddie cooed, half sarcastically because they were making her miss her Proxy again, half in an attempt to piss Daniel off even more. It worked; he held his hands out to her in frustration. She flashed him her brightest smile then returned her focus to her nails.

"You know, Daniel, I was only going to point out that those secluded chairs underneath the sun umbrella in the back would make a wonderful make out spot. I wasn't even looking at the children, let alone thinking of hurting them." Jax lowered his voice and said, "Do you have a problem we don't know about?"

"Pedophiiiile," Maddie sing-songed.

"I AM NOT A PEDOPHILE!" Daniel shouted.

Everyone in the vicinity turned to stare. A nearby couple quickly ushered their children away from the group of four.

Maddie chuckled as she switched hands. "Hashtag judging."

Daniel's face had officially invented a new shade of red.

"So that make out spot," Jax said, relooping the conversation because he absolutely could not pass up the perfect opportunity for 1) a make out session with his Em and 2) driving Daniel even further into the ground—if that was possible. "How 'bout it?"

"Let's go," Daniel said through his teeth. He grabbed Maddie's wrist and tried to drag her toward the pool's entrance, but she screamed, "SECURITY!" and he quickly let go.

By this point, Emma was completely done with Daniel for the day. Ignoring him and his immature ways, she smiled up at her boyfriend and said, "Sounds great." Her cheeks tinted a soft pink.

Jax smiled at how beautiful she was when she blushed. It made her glow even more than usual. "Then it's settled. Let's go."

Jemma led the way. Daniel made sure he and Maddie were far enough behind that they wouldn't be overheard.

"What the hell is your problem?" he hissed venomously. "You're making me look like an idiot!"

"Uh, correction: you're making yourself look like an idiot. You have been all day."

"Maddie, I kid you not, I am this close to never mentioning your shoes to the T3 ever again."

"Okay," she said with a shrug.

"Okay?!"

"Yep. If you aren't going to keep your end of the deal, then I guess I can go home—"

"No no no!" Daniel grabbed her wrist again but she yanked it away and said in the most intense voice he'd ever heard her use, "You will never grab me anywhere ever again. Do you understand me?"

"Maddie—"

"I'm serious, Daniel. There are guards stationed all over this place. All I have to do is scream and—"

"Maddie, I'm sorry, okay?" Daniel had tears in his eyes. Shocking. "I wasn't trying to—"

"Oh I know you weren't. You're far too busy trying to fuck up someone else's relationship to be trying anything with me. But just so you know, you're wasting your time. Emma and Jax are in love and nothing you do is going to change that. I can tell." Maddie Van Pelt twisted the top back on her nail polish bottle, dropped it in her bag, and walked ahead to catch up with Jemma at the gate.

Daniel was shell-shocked. He'd never heard Maddie swear once, let alone drop the F-bomb. And since when was she Jemma's advocate?!

Whatever. It didn't matter. Daniel hurried to catch up with his… They really weren't his friends… as they walked through the gate. A security guard checked all of their wrists for their admission bracelets, gave Daniel a weary look (he must have heard the defensive claim Daniel had made about not being attracted to children), then told them they could go inside.

Maddie pushed past Jemma, dove onto one of the chairs in the area Jax had mentioned, and sighed with bliss. "This is perfect. After all that walking, I could use a rest." She laid her hands out, palms down and fingers apart, so as to avoid messing up her nails. Then she closed her eyes and dozed off.

Daniel immediately started to panic. No. This was bad. Maddie needed to be awake because—

"Come here, Em," Jax said, leading his girlfriend to the chair to the right of Maddie's. It was the furthest back in the corner, directly underneath the umbrella, meaning it was the one best hidden by the shade. Jax sat down in the middle of the chair and Emma sat on his lap.

"I've told you how beautiful you look in purple, right?" he asked in a low, sexy voice, playing with a lock of her perfectly straight hair. Emma was wearing a bright purple romper with little white flowers all over and a pair of dark brown gladiator sandals. Jax thought the outfit looked absolutely stunning on her.

Emma giggled as the inevitable blush heated up her face. "Yes, only about fifty times since you picked me up this morning."

"Good. Then it should be impossible for you to forget." Jax's hand traveled from her hair to her face. He traced her jaw line with his thumb then gently guided her face toward his. Their lips met and the ever-present Jemma fireworks went off. Emma's hands moved to Jax's face and she deepened the kiss. Ten seconds later, they were full-on making out. She had one hand in his hair and one on the back of his neck; he had one hand behind her head and one on her thigh. Up until Jemma started dating, Emma had never made out with anyone. But she'd gotten pretty good at it these past few months. Obviously; it was kind of impossible not to with Jax Novoa as her guide.

From the other side of Maddie's chair, Daniel stared. He didn't sit down. He didn't look away. He didn't pretend to text (who would he pretend to text, anyway? Diego? His mom?). He stared.

Once, when Daniel was eight, his parents took him and Robbie to see the Northern Lights. They were almost to their destination when they witnessed a head-on collision between a Subaru and a Sedan. It was bad. Worse than bad; it was terrible. There was blood everywhere and voices screaming and crying and Daniel had wanted to look away, he'd wanted to look at anything else, but it was so upsetting that he couldn't.

This was the Northern Lights Collision 2.0: Jemma Edition.

Even worse: cheek kisses were definitely out. The way Emma and Jax were making out made that perfectly clear. Since when did Shy, Awkward, Glittery Emma know how to kiss like that?! And since when did she put her hands all over a guy when she kissed him?! She'd never done that with Daniel! Not that Daniel had even known up until right now it was something couples did…

If Jax's hand inched any closer to the hemline of Emma's romper…

Daniel tapped Maddie's arm urgently. When she opened her eyes and glared at him, he whispered, "Kiss me."

"No way!" she hissed.

"Come on, we had a deal!"

"I'm not cheating on Proxy!"

"Just one kiss!"

"Daniel thinks he's sly

Just like a pet cat

I'll teach him who's boss

Give me a smoothie, stat!"

A smoothie (strawberry; Maddie's fave) appeared in her hand. She sat up, tore the lid off the top, and threw the blended drink in Daniel's face.* It dripped down onto his white T-shirt and unbuttoned plaid button-up, most likely staining both articles of clothing.

Jax and Emma didn't notice. They were far too consumed with each other by this point to even remember who Daniel Miller was.

"Back. Off." Maddie tossed the empty smoothie cup over her shoulder, laid back down, and returned to her nap.

Since the trance had been broken and he was no longer stuck staring at NLC 2.0, Daniel decided to do just about the only thing he could that didn't involve crying. He shrugged off the button-up, pulled the T-shirt over his head, used the inside of it to wipe the smoothie residue off his face, and walked over to the kiddie pool. He had some antibacterial hand sanitizer in his shorts pocket; it would have to act as soap. Washing his clothes in the men's restroom would have been more efficient, but no way was he about to leave the group. If he did, chances were he'd come back to find they had left him.

Daniel knelt down at the pool's edge, put his shirts in the water, and extracted the sanitizer. He'd just squirted a decent sized amount onto his T-shirt when someone hollered, "HEY!" He turned to see a different security guard storming his way. Oh great. What could this possibly be about?

"Is there a problem, sir?"

"Yeah, there's a problem!" the man said, stopping at Daniel's right and placing his hands on his hips. "I'm Officer Harold, head of Zoo Miami security. I just found out the guard up front let you in here. You're the guy who was yelling about not being a pedophile. I can't have you in the water section with a bunch of children!"

"B-But I'm not a pedophile! I swear!"

"Yeah, and Miley Cyrus is a virgin. Let's go." He grabbed Daniel's arm and pulled him to his feet.

"Wait! I'm with those kids over there! We're here as a group for a school thing! See?" He fumbled to turn his wrist band to the place where it was marked specifically to say he was here as a part of the IHS raffle. "We have to stay in a group! So you kick me out of the water section, you have to kick them out, too."

Officer Harold squinted over at the darkened corner. "You mean the sleeping blonde and the passionate couple who can't keep their hands off each other?"

"Sure," Daniel said through his teeth.

"Well, I hate to throw out a couple of high school sweethearts, but it seems you've ruined everything for everyone. Come with me."

Daniel scrambled to grab his shirts from the pool. Once he did, Officer Harold took him by the arm and dragged him back to the corner.

"Excuse me, youngins," the man said to the three of them. Maddie's eyelashes sleepily fluttered as she opened her eyes. Jemma reluctantly broke away from each other, Emma blushing profusely, Jax scowling at the man for interrupting them. "Are you all here as part of the Iridium High School raffle?"

"Yeah…," they reluctantly muttered. They could tell by the officer's tone this wasn't going to end well.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to leave the water play area. Your friend here can't be trusted around small children."

Maddie and Jax erupted into laughter while Emma's face drained of all color. She looked like she was about to cry. "Oh my gosh, Daniel, what did you do to them?!"

"NOTHING!" he shouted, beyond pissed by how ridiculous this was. "I was just trying to wash my shirts—"

"Feel free to explore other parts of the zoo," Officer Harold went on. "Just not parts where there are children in bathing suits. Sound fair?"

"No!" Daniel yelled, exasperated. Not that he wanted Jax and Emma to stay here and continue making out. It just wasn't fair he was being accused of pedophilia!

"Of course," Emma said in an apologetic tone, bringing herself to her feet and taking Jax's hand. "Come on, babe."

Maddie huffed, grabbed her bag, and stood, as well. "I was just starting to enjoy that nap, too…"

The man escorted them out of the water play section, keeping a firm grip on Daniel's arm until they were a safe distance away. He stopped near the end of the line for the sky ride.

"Thank you so much for not kicking us out of the zoo altogether, Officer," Emma said.

"We're so sorry about…" Jax motioned to a rigid Daniel. "…that."

"He's not your fault. Have a nice day." Officer Harold gave them a smile (well, he gave Jemma and Maddie a smile) then walked back to his station.

"Good one, Daniel," Jax said. "Getting us kicked out of the children's water play area. I think that's what I'll tell Mr. Alonso I liked best about this trip."

"I didn't do anything wrong," the outcast spat, growing angrier by the second. "The only reason I even went over to the pool was to wash my shirts because Maddie threw a smoothie on me!"

"Uh, yeah, because you were trying to force yourself on me!"

Emma's mouth dropped. "You were what?!"

"I just wanted to kiss her!"

"And you wouldn't take no for an answer when I told you I wasn't going to cheat on my Proxy!" Maddie crossed her arms over her chest.

"Wait." Emma's eyebrows crinkled. To her left, Jax smirked. This was it. She was finally going to put the pieces together. "I thought you two…"

"Are you guys in line?"

Dammit!

The IHS students turned to see a group of six girls and guys who looked about their age standing behind them. Only then did the foursome realize it looked as though they were standing in line for the sky ride, except there was a large gap between them and the people in front of them.

"Oh, no, we—"

"Yes," Jax interrupted his girlfriend, suddenly getting an idea. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and smiled his thanks at the group of strangers. "Yes, we are." The sky ride went all the way from one end of the zoo to the other. With tensions running as high as they were right now, being in that secluded of a space for three whole minutes almost guaranteed Maddie would blurt the truth or Emma would figure it out herself. And by the time they got off the sky ride, a certain pair of twins should be here. One twin would kick Daniel's ass on camera while the other got the inside scoop on his douchebaggery and exposed him to all of Iridium High.

Sometimes even Jax wondered how he was so brilliant.

"Come on, love." He stepped forward to close the gap between himself and the people ahead, Emma right beside him. Jax motioned for Maddie to follow their lead. She discreetly nodded and complied, leaving Daniel no choice but to do the same.

"I didn't know you wanted to go on the sky ride," Emma said with a surprised smile.

"Of course I do," her boyfriend said. Aside from trying to bust Daniel, Jax had another motive for doing this. "Cuddling with my Em while we look at the beauty of nature... I don't know which view will be more breath-taking."

"Aweee!" Emma couldn't contain her touched reaction. "You are literally the sweetest boyfriend ever, Jax Novoa."

"Only because you're the sweetest girlfriend ever, Emma Alonso."

The two shared a kiss (a cute one; not a heated one like back at the water play area) and Maddie tilted her head. She looked at Daniel and said, "Not gonna lie: I think I'm starting to ship Jemma."

Daniel could do nothing but blink. He kept his lips sewn shut, moved forward each time the rest of the line did, and tried not to hit anything. This day cannot possibly get any worse, he thought to himself.

Oh, how wrong he was.

*As you can see, ghostgirl19, I used your strawberry smoothie idea. ;D

Two more chapters left! Please review!

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