Two short chapters to balance each other out haha although this one is a bit longer

(Chapter 10 did upload, it's not a test this time, the emails messed up, so go back and read it if you haven't)

Review replies at the end of the chapter!


"I felt my eyes closing
yet there seemed to be nothing
that could pull me away
from the tragedy that day."

"What are you saying?" Jesse sipped from his little juice box and stared at her with a strange look on his face.

Jess felt her face flush and she used her hands to gesticulate all of her words in little, frantic movements. "Oh, um, forget what I just said! Sorry, I was just thinking out loud and thought of this line from a song I heard..." She laughed nervously and tried to get him to wave it off.

"Are you okay?" Jesse put down his juice box and lightly put his hand on her forehead. "You're a little warm."

"I'm fine! Really, I am! I'm just... I've been thinking a lot."

"About what?" He picked up his juice box again and sipped loudly, much to Jess's irritation.

"Well-" she awkwardly cleared her throat- "It's the third day of school, right? Our first Friday?"

"Um... yeah."

"It's only the third day- and we've already managed to have mortal enemies. Mercer, Porter, those other two- what were their names, again? Ah, Maya and Gill."

"The Ocelots are kind of a bunch of jerks if you don't remember."

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously. Just... okay, listen to me as I speak and don't interrupt me unless I say otherwise." Jess took out her phone and spoke as she pulled up a screenshot. "Yesterday, I may have done some really regretful actions. I screamed at Porter and cursed at him. The day before, I insulted Mercer without thinking and threatened him. I hustled Porter, too."

"Wow..."

"Shush, I didn't say you could talk yet. Anyway, after yelling at Porter out of pure anger, I went home and he found our Instagram account and messaged me. He asked if I could forgive him and if we could start over again. I said no. I blocked him. I deleted our messages. A few hours later, you came home and started talking about your day with Petra. You sounded really happy and I didn't want to ruin that for you, so I just... kept my mouth shut about the whole ordeal."

There was a silence between them and Jesse watched as Jess fidgeted around with her fingers. He threw away his juice box in a nearby trashcan and sighed loudly, placing both hands on her shoulders.

"Jess. I can't believe how dumb you are despite your 3.95 GPA."

"Hey- what?!"

He smiled and pulled her in, hugging her tightly. A shocked expression and a gasp were all he needed to see and hear. "Jess, it's good that you've paid attention to your interactions with other people and considered how they may have affected the other. In fact, you made me feel like a jerk for a bit until you explained what you did."

"Hmph."

"Sorry," he chuckled. "But really... you did a good thing. Can we start over with the Ocelots? I don't know. But it doesn't hurt to try."

"... Thanks, Jay. I love you." She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed gently, digging her face into the crook of his neck.

"I love you too, Jess."

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A bunch of cheese?"

The two looked up and slightly frowned. Aiden stood cockily in front of them while the other three were behind him. "Come on, we were just talking about starting over with you guys!" exclaimed Jesse.

Lukas's head perked up behind Aiden and he looked at the twins. Although he didn't express any emotion, his eyes were sparkling.

"Starting over? Pfft, how so?" taunted Aiden. "It's not like we can erase the past."

"Yeah, that's impossible," Maya joined in with a small hair flip.

Aiden glared at Maya but didn't do anything.

"Ahem." Jess let go of Jesse and took a small step forward. "I'll go first. Listen, Aiden..."

He returned his attention back to her and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry." She rested her hand on her chest and sighed. "I'm sorry about the way I treated you. I'm sorry I snapped at you. It wasn't right. Doing so just made everything worse."

"I'm sorry, too," continued Jesse. "I shouldn't have judged you all based on previous events. Maybe you all are as bad as you were back then but... I should still give you guys some chances."

"All in all... we're sorry for everything," concluded Jess.

There was no reply from the Ocelots. The twins simply sighed and acknowledged the elephant in the room. "Sorry for making everything awkward. We have to get to class now." The both of them held hands as they turned around and walked opposite the group, heads held in shame.

"... Come on, guys. Let's go," ordered Aiden, who shoved his hands in his pockets and walked in the other direction. Maya and Gill followed shortly behind.

Lukas didn't move at all. He just kept staring at the two siblings who were walking towards the main hallway entrance.

"Lukas. What are you doing?" asked Aiden with a slight tilt of his head. "We gotta get to class."

"You... You guys go ahead. I'll catch up later." The blonde started running to the hallway doors and Aiden groaned.

"Don't tell me he's going after those guys!"

Maya and Gill nodded. "Okay."

"It wasn't a literal thing!"

Lukas kept running and weaved through the crowds of students entering the halls. He'd lost sight of the twins and mentally cursed himself. What was their first class? Agh, it wasn't like he'd know. They were sophomores while he was a junior.

He turned a sharp right and accidentally bumped into some people- hard.

"Oh my gosh!" he said in a rush. "I'm so sorry!" Looking down at the girls who had fallen over, he blinked in surprise when he realized it was Olivia and another girl he didn't recognize.

"You?" Olivia rubbed her head gingerly and stood up, picking up her books and papers.

"Oww..." moaned the girl beside Olivia. The dark-skinned girl helped the other stand up and picked up her bag for her. "Thanks," smiled the girl.

Lukas hastily grabbed any loose papers and gave them to Olivia. "I'm really sorry about that. Have you seen either Jesse?"

Olivia frowned and crossed her arms. "Why would you need to know?"

"Well, uh, they-" he bit his lip- "they forgot something and I'm trying to give it back to them." He felt somewhat bad for lying but did she really need to know that the two were apologizing?

"Oh, I just saw them walk past room 231," interjected the brown-haired girl next to Olivia. She fixed the flower crown on her head before continuing. "They were talking and holding hands."

"Okay, thanks! See ya later, maybe." Lukas dashed off and continued looking for them while Olivia scoffed and glared at the girl.

"Why would you tell him?!"

"Was... I not supposed to?"

"No, you weren't! Vienna, I thought I explained all of this to you!"

Vienna shaped her lips into an 'o' and she tapped her pastel pink nails on her plump lips. "Oh, he was Lukas?"

Olivia threw her arms up in the air and let go of all the papers she had been holding. "Vienna!"

~*Ω*~

"We tried and fought valiantly, but failed in the end," sighed Jess with a slight pout. She gripped Jesse's hand but he simply shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. We tried and they lost by losing their chance."

"I guess. Ugh, where's Olivia? She's supposed to be here by now."

"Maybe she's in the bathroom or something."

Jess was about to softly groan when footsteps echoed behind them and a hand rested on her shoulder.

"What- who are you- oh."

"Sorry... about that." The male took his hand off Jess's shoulder and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I wanted to follow up on the whole thing back there."

"Porter, you don't have to say anything," Jess shook her head. "We understand if you don't want to talk to us."

"Yeah, you don't need to feel obligated to say anything to us," Jesse said, running his thumb over Jess's hand.

"This is not because I feel obligated to- this is because I want to," affirmed Lukas. "I'm sorry about everything, too. The way things started out between all of us was not what should've happened. And I should have never said the things I said yesterday to you, Jess... I'm so sorry. It was an absolutely stupid move on my part."

"I'm really sorry, too..." She clenched Jesse's hand tighter and he moved closer to her just in case. "I should have never cursed at you, I shouldn't have shouted at you, I shouldn't have just brushed you off like you were dirt. I feel... terrible."

"Oookay, let's put all of this behind us for now," Jesse said as he gently patted Jess's back. "Why don't we start over?"

"Y-yeah, that sounds good," agreed Lukas.

"... Hi," softly said Jess, "I'm Jess Ryder. This is my brother, Jesse." She made eye contact with Lukas's cyan orbs and smiled. "What's your name?"

Lukas smiled and looked back at Jess. "Hey. I'm Lukas Porter, and I'm glad I was able to meet you guys."

"And I'm Axel Posehn, and I have no idea what's going on here!"

"AXEL!"


Apologies are difficult for the twins because they are just so genuine about their emotions... aww.

Hopefully you enjoyed the story so far! Sorry it's been somewhat slow-paced, but things will get a little quicker! And I guess this is the chapter everyone has been waiting for, so your wait has not been in vain!

Also mwahaha there are no chapter reviews bc I posted these side by side! I tricked you all!