A/N: An on time chapter! An on time chapter! Here it is! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I had so much fun writing it! My apologies, this chapter got a bit longer than I had anticipated. Enjoy!
That night, Finn walked down the stairs from his bedroom, Willa having texted him five minutes ago to say that she was on her way. Before he could make his way to the foyer to wait for the others, he ran into his mother coming out of the kitchen. He sighed; he couldn't escape a conversation now.
"You look so nice Finn," his mother said brightly.
Finn surveyed his outfit. He'd put on cargo shorts and a polo, and put a little gel into his hair as well.
"Those kids are coming over again tonight right?"
"Yeah," Finn said. "They should be here any minute."
He tried to turn to the door again, but his mother stopped him.
"Is there any reason why you're dressing so nice?" she asked, leaning into him, her voice clearly indicating that she was holding herself back from bursting.
"What do you mean?" he asked, trying not to let his voice show how quickly annoyed he was becoming.
"Well….there were quite a few girls here the other night…"
"Mom," Finn protested, cutting her off.
"I'm just saying…"
"I'm having company, that's all. I thought I should look nice,"
"That Amanda girl seemed to…"
"Mom!" Finn shouted once more, which finally silenced her. She looked as if she wanted to say something else, but just smirked at him and turned away.
Finn sighed, feeling bad, and was about to apologize when the doorbell rang. Before he opened it, he took a moment to straighten out his shirt, and to check his hair in the mirror, not knowing who had arrived first. His Mom wasn't wrong; he had taken Amanda into slight consideration when getting dressed for the evening: of course he'd never tell her that.
He opened the door to reveal Charlie, greeting him with a bright smile.
"Hey!" she said.
"Hi!" Finn replied.
She held up a plastic Tupperware container.
"I made lemon bars with my Mom this afternoon, so I thought I'd bring some over, if that's okay," she explained. "I don't wanna step-on your Mom's amazing cookies,"
She laughed, like she was speaking to an old friend.
"It's more than okay," Finn said lightly. "There's no such thing as too many sweets."
Finn was ushering Charlie inside, when a voice came from behind her.
"Sweets?" Willa said, appearing from over Charlie's shoulder, her thick brown curls bouncing just below her shoulders, rather than being held in their normal braid.
"How do you guys know me so well already?!"
The three greeted each other and stepped inside, when Mrs. Whitman came up behind Finn.
"How lovely that you girls are here!" she said. "Charlie I can take those lemon bars and put them into the kitchen for you."
Finn begged for an escape then, but there didn't seem to be one; as Charlie handed his mother the container of lemon-bars, Amanda and Jess could be seen walking up the path.
"Oh!" Mrs. Whitman squealed, reaching what was probably the highest frequency her voice was capable of producing. "All four girls are here! Isn't this wonderful? Finn never has girls over you know."
Amanda and Jess raised their eyebrows as they made their way inside, and Finn turned a bright shade of red. That moment was the first time in his life he thought he truly understood the feeling of wanting to die from embarrassment.
Amanda caught sight of him and covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Finn raised his eyebrows at her in a challenge, and she returned the gesture. Jess watched them carefully and her expression went serious, remembering what she had seen with Mattie and in her dream. Not wanting to reveal herself, she shoved her fear down, and turned to Charlie and Willa, who were happily chatting with Mrs. Whitman.
"Finn, your Mom is so adorable!" Charlie exclaimed.
Before Finn could say anything for himself, his mother took charge.
"Oh don't say that girls," she said. "He's embarrassed by me."
All of the girls laughed and cooed as if teasing Finn, even Amanda, and again, he felt his cheeks growing red and wanted to sink into the floorboards he was standing on. Just then, Dell was at the house, knocking on the door frame.
"What'd I miss?" he asked.
All attention turned to him, and Finn breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Dude," he said. "You're my savior."
Dell looked confused, but everyone laughed, even Finn, and eventually, he joined suit.
"Does this mean I get more cookies?" Dell asked.
Everyone laughed again, including Finn's mother, and he was starting to mind her involvement a little bit less. All the while, Amanda had never stopped smiling at him, and he hadn't failed to notice. Smiling at her, and being smiled at by her, was beginning to become his favorite activity.
Terry arrived last, walking in the door less excitedly than the rest of them,
"'Sup?" he asked.
Everyone greeted him brightly, save for Charlie, who fell silent and held up her hand in a shy wave. No one missed how she, normally radiating confidence, seemed to become a shy, shadow of herself, playing with her clothes and pushing her hair behind her ears.
Dell offered a smile to Willa, and she returned it quickly before turning away. Finn and Amanda were still undergoing an endless exchange of shy looks, and no one was saying anything.
"Alright!" Jess exclaimed. "Shall we head upstairs?"
Later, all seven "Keepers" sat in a circle on the floor of Finn's bedroom. It was more of a squeeze than it had been before, but no one seemed to mind. They'd been there almost an hour and, somehow, no business had yet been done. All of Charlie's lemon-bars, plus an entire plate of Mrs. Whitman's cookies, were gone. Another plate was already half-way finished, and everyone was currently nibbling on them, leaned back and laughing.
While they hadn't talked about their supposed mission yet, they had fallen into a discussion about Kingdom Keepers: listing their favorite parts and characters, discussing what moments shocked them, and debating their feelings on the movies.
"Okay,okay" Finn said, as everyone was still laughing from the last comment that had been made. "We gotta talk about this: what do you think of the ending?"
Everyone groaned in mock protest.
"You're treading into dangerous territory there Whitman," Amanda said, appearing more comfortable than she'd been since he first met her.
"I thought it was a total cop-out," Terry said. "How can you not tell me how something like that ends?"
"Um…maybe to provide a sense of mystery?" Charlie argued. "It's this thing called letting the reader decide,"
"Well that's bullshit!"
"I always thought it was beautiful, artistically I mean." Willa offered, ignoring Charlie and Terry, who were now exchanging challenging smiles. "The Keepers didn't know what would become of them after they got on that carousel, so we don't get to know either. It makes the end of the story haunting, but gorgeous at the same time, and it makes you connected to the characters, because it keeps the mystery alive. They could remember, but they could not, and we'll never know, so it's both."
"Like Schrodinger's Cat," Dell added.
"Exactly," Willa said brightly, a warm smile on her face.
Their eyes locked for a few moments, like they were in awe of each other, and, as it always was when the two of them talked, they became the only ones in the room, only now, it was stronger than it had ever appeared to be. To watch them was like looking at people in another room through a pane of glass. Something had happened between them, a realization that neither of them was voicing.
"Not to end a perfectly nice conversation," Terry said, breaking the silence and calling Willa and Dell back to the room. "But didn't we come here to talk shop, come up with a plan to figure out what's happening in the parks?"
Everyone fell silent, and their eyes widened. Finn chuckled. It had only become clear now that they had veered off topic. These people that were strangers not a week ago had become so easy to talk to, so easy to lose track of time with, to waste time with. He'd invited them with the intention of doing nothing but business, but he'd quickly come to realize that he liked having them over just to be spending time with them. For all the protesting he'd done of his parents' pleas for him to get more friends, he really didn't mind having this bunch around. More than that, he actually enjoyed it.
"Okay," Willa said, having quickly moved on to the task at hand. "Dell and I were texting back and forth all day today, and we managed to compile a good amount of information on the ride mishaps."
She turned to her bag and pulled out a packet of papers, each of them covered with bullet-points, charts and graphs.
"These are the rides that have had 'mishap' reports more than three times," she explained, pointing to a list on the front page. "I excluded any one with less times than that to remove possible outliers, but I've still noted them here."
She flipped to the next page in the packet and indicated another list of attractions.
"This," she said, turning to the next page. "Is a Venn Diagram of possible 'problem' attractions. On the left is rides that are in the books, on the right, rides that are on that first list, and in the middle, ones that are both. As you can see, most of the rides fall into the middle category, which is interesting."
"Of course," Dell added, "There is the possibility of the data being skewed by people who, like Terry suggested when we first met, think they are seeing something because of their love of the series. So that brings us to these graphs,"
Willa and Dell flipped to the next page, and the eyes of everyone else in the room flitted back and forth between the two, trying desperately to keep up. They were going too fast, but there was no point in trying to slow them down. They were in their own little dance now, and it could be seen in how they looked at each other as they talked, like they were waiting for the other to make a mistake they could correct, but at the same time wanting for the other to outsmart them, just to see that they could.
"This graph here shows the amount of ride mishap reports across the years," Dell explained, pointing out the different line graphs on the new page. "And this graph show the popularity of the series over the same number of years, based on the number of posts about it on various social media platforms."
"As you can see, they have a positive correlation." Willa said.
She looked around at the group to see blank stares blinking back at her, except for Dell, indicating that they didn't understand. She sighed before explain herself in plainer terms.
"As the popularity of the series increases, so does the amount of ride mishap reports."
"And in the same percentages too," Dell added.
"Now that of course supports Terry's theory," Willa continued.
"Ha!" Terry exclaimed. "So we can be done with this!"
This earned him a few judging looks, and he immediately backed down, quickly realizing that he wasn't so sure he meant it.
"Not quite," Dell said. "If you look towards the end of the first graph, you'll see that in the past year, ride mishaps have increased much more than they had from year to year in the past, while the series' popularity has remained fairly steady in the past year."
Willa and Dell looked at the group again, expecting to see shock in their faces, but everyone still seemed confused, not following their line of thinking.
"So…" Willa said slowly. "The past year's ride mishaps could have nothing to do with people reading the series."
Still no response.
"So we furthered our research," Dell said, as Willa turned the page to their packet again. "And we found in the cases that we could, that in past, the percentage of those making ride mishap reports who were also fans of the series was about 75 percent. In the past year, it's about 45 percent."
The rest of the group seemed to be following more clearly than they had before, but still looked confused.
"So…" Terry said.
Dell sighed, finally giving in.
"The ride mishaps in the past year, which are much more significant than they are in the past, have little to do with hallucinations of Kingdom Keepers fans."
That explanation finally sent everyone into a state of shock, fear silencing and freezing them. Dell, however, smiled brightly at Willa, and she smiled back. She was filled with a sense of joy and pride, feeling like they'd accomplished something that was all their own. She remembered how fun it had been that day, calculating facts and figures with someone else who found it just as fascinating as she did. That fun returned now when recounting the research, and being the only ones in the room who understood the math filled her stomach with butterflies in a way that she strangely enjoyed.
"So that's it?" Finn said flatly. "Something is going on?"
"Probably," Dell answered. "There is still the possibility that people are just seeing things, but this is enough evidence, I think, to justify heading to the parks to check things out."
A silence fell over the group. They couldn't run from it any longer; if what Dell and Willa were saying was true, they couldn't ignore it. They were genuinely investigating an idea that, not five days ago, they'd all thought to be pure lunacy. Now though it was something different.
"So where do we start?" Charlie asked. "What ride? There are so many possibilities."
"Well," Willa said. "Our research indicates that It's a Small World has significantly more reports than any other ride, but, since Casey already had an experience there, and since it also had the highest percentage of Kingdom Keeper fans being the reporters, I say we check out the second most reported ride."
"And that is?" Terry asked.
Willa and Dell said nothing for a moment, and exchanged a nervous look before Dell spoke.
"The Haunted Mansion."
The announcement silenced the room again, as everyone looked at each other the way Willa and Dell had a moment ago. Though none of them would admit it, they were terrified.
About an hour later, after finishing the cookies and watching one too many Vine compilations on Youtube, Finn and the others stood outside his house, ready to say goodbye.
"So we'll meet at Magic Kingdom on Friday," Finn said, reviewing what they'd agreed upon inside. "Casey will use her Dad's passes to get Terry, Amanda and Jess in, the rest of us will use our own annual passes."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Alright," Finn said. "Then I'll see you then."
Everyone nodded, feeling like their goodbyes should be more, but not sure of how to achieve that without feeling like they'd gone too far.
While Charlie and Terry had exchanged an awkward goodbye and gone their separate ways, Dell had approached Willa, who was digging through her bag to look for her headphones.
"Hey," he said, startling her slightly, but earning a smile once she saw it was him.
"I saw that you walked here," he stuttered. "And…I did too…and my house is just a couple blocks past yours and I was wondering if maybe….you wanna walk together?"
Dell winced as soon as he finished the question, expecting rejection, fearing he'd been too forward and made Willa uncomfortable, because she already looked confused. He didn't mean anything by it, really, he just genuinely thought it might be nice to walk together. He'd come to enjoy her company, even just as a friend. As he was about to apologize and bolt in the other direction, Willa smiled at him.
"I'd like that," she said.
His face lit up, which made her blush, and she turned to stand next to him before they walked off together.
That left Finn alone with Amanda and Jess, all three of whom weren't saying anything, but weren't moving either.
"Your Mom really knows how to entertain," Amanda said, hoping to maybe lighten the tension.
"Yeah well you might not wanna come over all that often," Finn joked. "The freshman 15 has nothing on the Alice Whitman effect."
Finn patted his stomach, and Amanda began to laugh, light and free and easy. Finn watched her, her face lighting up in a carefree smile, and, though he didn't quite understand it, just looking at her, he found he couldn't help but want to smile too. Their eyes met, his heart raced, and he felt his face go hot, and he was almost a bit dizzy.
Jess looked back and forth between them, not sure what to expect now that she knew what she knew from her dreams. Looking at their expressions, she was sure of it: these were the same people she'd seen in her visions, holding each other and smiling like there wasn't a single ounce of badness in the world. The only question was…how did she get them to realize it?
"So I guess we'll see you on Friday," Jess said, after a few more moments of no one saying anything.
"Friday," Finn stuttered. "Right. I'm gonna get the tickets from Casey, so you can text me when you're leaving and I'll meet you outside the gate with your tickets to get you in."
"Okay," Jess said.
Amanda simply blushed, and looked away from Finn shyly, only to find she was unable to turn away from him.
"Bye," Finn said, trying at a smile.
"See ya," she replied, her voice so quiet that it could barely be heard.
Finn nodded, then looked as if he was going to say something else, but eventually turned and went back into the house. Amanda immediately started walking away, so much so that Jess had to jog to keep up with her.
"Look at you little miss flirt!" she said, patting her sister on the arm teasingly. "I didn't know you had it in you!"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Amanda lied.
"Oh come on," Jess sighed. "We may have grown up in complete isolation, but I'm not that naïve. You like him."
"So what if I do?"
Amanda sounded nervous, but Jess stopped walking, and raised her eyebrows playfully. Amanda crossed her arms and stared her down for a few seconds, but, eventually, the two girls burst into hysterical laughter.
For that brief shining moment, Jess felt like they were little girls again, sitting in their room in the Barracks, dreaming of what their lives would be like once they finally managed to escape. For that moment, it was like they'd returned to the time before the world had hardened them, when everything was carefree, even in the face of tragedy. For a moment, they were the best of friends, true sisters, able to quickly bring out a smile in the other no matter what.
For a second, Jess frowned; things hadn't been like this in so long. But then she turned to watch Amanda. As they walked, her step was lighter, and the softest of smiles was on her face, along with rosy blush that filled her cheeks. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her sister look like that.
She thought back to the dreams and visions she'd had in the past few days, looked back to Finn's house, and looked at Amanda again. Her cheeks crept up into a grin of her own. Maybe there was hope after all.
A/N: FRIENDSHIIIIPPP. Things are getting exciting for the Keepers now, and I think you all will REALLY like Sunday's chapter. I'm so excited to share it with you! Thanks to everyone reading for all your love and support, and stay magical Keepers!