A/N: I'm back! Today's chapter should be fun. Hope you enjoy!

Finn walked into the kitchen to find his mother washing the dishes from dinner that night. Finn approached her sheepishly and placed more plates into the sink-he'd eaten in his room, which was typical of him since starting college. She flashed him a smile, but he could hear the quiet sigh as she turned back around.

"So uh, I'm gonna have some friends over in a little bit," he said. "If that's okay,"

"This late Finn?" his mother asked.

"We're just hanging out," he insisted. "We'll stay in my room and we won't be loud,"

His mother sighed.

"Who is it that's coming?" she asked. "Dillard?"

"No, not Dill," Finn sighed, using his best friend's nickname.

"Who's coming over if Dill's not coming over?"

Finn turned to see that his little sister was sitting at the kitchen island, looking up from her phone to glare at him.

"I didn't think you had any other friends," she teased.

"Shut up, Katie!" he snapped. Her favorite activity had always been pissing him off.

"Hey," his mother yelled. "Don't talk to your sister like that!"

"Or is it Sally?" Katie continued. "God, I always thought it was bad enough dealing with you and Dillard every day, until Sally was coming around all the time,"

Finn lunged from the counter, but Mrs. Whitman put up a hand to stop him.

"Katherine," she snapped. "Why don't you go tidy up your room a bit?"

Katie sighed, but hopped of the chair and chewed her gum loudly as she walked past Finn.

"Don't keep me up," she teased. "I've gotta get my beauty sleep before Prom,"

"Just go do your chores," Finn snapped.

She made a motion to lunge at him before he stuck out his tongue, and she went on her way, snickering.

"So…..we're cool?" Finn asked, turning to his Mom.

"I don't know Finn, I don't know anything about them."

"They're just some people from school," Finn lied, knowing his Mother wouldn't be too keen on the idea of him hanging out with some random people he met at Disney Springs.

"What are their names?"

"Why does that matter Mom?" Finn sighed.

"Well excuse me if I want to know something about the people my son is inviting into my home,"

Finn sighed and went to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

"Look Finn, I'm not trying to be pushy," his mother sighed, "I'm just…it's good to see you branching out your social circles,"

"Mom please," Finn sighed. He hated when his Mother went all philosophical on him. She liked to do it rather often.

"I'm just saying, you know I love Dillard, but it's good for you to have more than one friend,"

Finn clenched his eyes shut, not wanting to get into yet another argument about how his life was fine, and he was happy, and he didn't need more friends than Dillard, when the doorbell sounded from their front hallway.

Saved by the bell he thought.

He walked to the door and opened it to reveal Jess and Amanda. His face lit up. Out of everyone he'd met today, it was them that he'd been looking forward to seeing again the most.

"Hey!" Jess said, greeting him with a bright smile.

"Hi!" Finn replied. "I'm so glad you guys could come,"

He looked to Amanda, standing slightly behind Jess, and offered her a shy wave. She did the same, and awkward smiles came across both their faces before the moment was broken by the voice of Mrs. Whitman, who Finn hadn't even realized was behind him.

"Oh Finn, these must be your friends!" Her voice sounded decidedly more upbeat than before.

Of course Finn thought. The only thing she's more obsessed with than me making more friends: me meeting a girl

"It's nice to meet you Mrs…." Jess started, before realizing she didn't know Finn's last name.

"Whitman," Mrs. Whitman said. "But please, feel free to call me Alice!"

Finn could feel himself turning bright red. While Jess continued to chat awkwardly with Mrs. Whitman, Amanda tried to hide a giggle. Finn saw this and raised his eyebrows at her, which only caused her to laugh more. The moment was broken by the appearance of Dell walking up the path.

"Hey!" he said, raising his hand slightly.

Finn knew he should've been grateful that more people were showing up to this meeting, but he felt a twinge of upset that Dell was ruining a chance at alone time with Amanda…and Jess.

"Oh!" Mrs. Whitman chimed. "Another friend! How lovely!"

"Alright!" Finn shouted, putting himself back in control of the evening. "We're gonna go to my room! I'll talk to you later Mom,"

Finn led the others inside and towards the staircase that lead to the second floor and his bedroom.

"Have fun!" Mrs. Whitman called to them. "I'll put some slice-and-bake cookies in the oven and bring them up in a bit!"

Finn rolled his eyes as he made his way up the stairs. This was going to be a long night.

Alice Whitman watched her son and his friends walk up the stairs and let out a breath as her husband came to stand next to her.

"When did he start being embarrassed by me?" she asked. "What happened to the little boy running home from school wanting to tell me all about his day?"

"He grew up," Donald Whitman said, putting his arm around his wife's shoulders. "Happens to the best of us,"

A little while later, Finn sat in his room with Amanda, Jess and Dell. Though they'd now gone through as much small talk as they could, the night had been pleasant so far; Finn might even call it fun. His Mom had brought up chips and soda for them while the cookies were baking and he had to admit, he really did like hanging out with this group.

"So," Finn said, taking a sip of his Coke and raising his eyebrows. "Who does Casey claim you all are in the Kingdom Keepers world?"

The others threw back their heads and laughed, save for Dell, who still looked completely serious.

"Why don't you tell us first?" Jess said, cocking her head to the side to challenge him.

"Touché," Finn replied.

"I'm Darren," Philby said, oblivious to the banter. "Apparently,"

Finn nodded at him, and tried his best not to show his amusement after thinking about his conversations with Willa earlier that day.

Oh, I get it: long lost crush who never knew you existed?

What? No! Shut up!

"Well you're clearly not Gary," Jess teased, looking Finn up and down. "So I guess that makes you Liam; what a hotshot."

"And you are?"

"Jamie Kendall," Jess said proudly. "Or…so Casey says,"

"What about you?" Dell asked Amanda.

She'd gone quiet again, like she did in the restaurant that afternoon, staring at her lap and picking at her nails.

"Oh," Dell said, glancing between her and Finn. "I get it: you're Olivia,"

Amanda seemed to sink even further into the floor, and Finn shied away from the group, hoping that the heat in his cheeks hadn't presented itself as a blush. Jess glared angrily at Dell, who seemed lost, unaware of what he'd done.

"Awkward," was all he managed before taking a drink.

"Look," Jess said, mainly addressing Amanda. "Even if all of this is true, it doesn't mean that we are them, right? I mean it doesn't mean that our lives are necessarily coded to be lived exactly how they are in the books."

"I don't even know how much of this I believe," Finn answered. "And if I do believe it, I have no idea what it means,"

"Well that's why we're here isn't it?" Dell added. "To figure all this out,"

"I don't know why we're here," Finn said. "I just felt like it would be fun to have everyone over tonight because I…"

He couldn't figure out how to finish the sentence.

"Maybe we don't have to know anything right now," Amanda offered. "Maybe...we don't have to really think about what we believe until we're given some concrete reason to believe something."

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and before anyone could answer, Mrs. Whitman came into the room, practically bouncing, carrying a plate of chocolate chip cookies. The conversations ceased as she walked over to the group.

"Here you go kids," she said, placing the plate of cookies in the center of them. "Can I get anybody anything? Milk, coffee, tea?"

"We're fine Mom," Finn said hardly, before anyone else could answer. Mrs. Whitman nodded then walked out of the room.

Finn, Amanda and Jess all immediately reached for a cookie at the same time. And then, their hands stopped, all three of them frozen in space. And suddenly it was like Finn was drowning in a memory, like it was playing out before him, but in broken snippets rushing by, things happening so fast that he couldn't even tell what they were.

Flash; he was sitting at his kitchen table. Flash; the cookies, there were the cookies and...Flash; he was hot, unexplainably hot, a sense of panic was filling him but he couldn't place why he'd been panicking Flash; chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies in his kitchen and his Mom making them and Flash; someone else was there, people he didn't know well….someone else…they were reaching for the cookies…

Everything stopped in an instant, and he was back in reality, unable to grasp onto a single thing that had just rushed through his mind. What was left though, was this strange feeling, a feeling he wasn't sure he'd ever felt before. There was a…familiarity, distant and close at the same time, and it had come to him when he'd reached for the cookie.

He looked up and saw that Amanda and Jess' eyes were both as wide as his, and the three of them were looking at each other now, shock and fear on all three faces. Dell looked back and forth between them, locked in and studying what was happening.

"Did you just…" Finn started.

"When we reached for the cookies," Amanda continued. "It was like…the three of us,"

"Like it's happened before," Finn added.

"It was like deja-vu, but stronger," Jess finished, before they fell into silence again and continued to stare at each other, unsure of what could possibly be going on. They all knew for certain that they'd never lived this moment before, not even anything close to it, and yet….

"Well," Dell said. "I think we just found the concrete reason to believe something,"

A/N: AGH writing Finn being all distant from his family like that actually physically pained me! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! On Thursday, we'll start meeting the other keepers more in-depth, and I'm super excited to share the next chapter with you! Until then, thanks for all your love and support, and I hope you're enjoying the story as much as I'm enjoying writing it!