Hauhduuiuibfiuhf ITS ASAGAO'S ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY WTF

I JUST FINISHED ITS 11:52 GOTTA GO FAST TO UPLOAD

Love you guys this chapter was hard to write yadayada HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASAGAO time to sleep in my NB jacket

James woke up first, as usual. He was probably on of very few morning people not just between the friends sleeping in Emmy's room, but probably in the whole school.

Ethan didn't appreciate being woken up at the crack of dawn, normally choosing to stay up until the early hours of the morning and sleeping 'til noon instead. James, on the other hand, would much rather start his sleep cycle earlier so he could wake up and actually get stuff done.

That being said, he woke up rather late for the James standard. He didn't even know if he'd actually woken up yet since when he opened his eyes all he saw was black. But after trying to move his left arm, realizing it was pinned down, and then trying to move whatever was in front of his face, he realized it was, indeed, not the empty void of space, but instead someone's hair.

Owen's hair, to be exact.

James rolled her slowly onto her stomach from where she had been facing the wall. He didn't remember when she'd moved beds from the one she'd been sharing with Emmy, but he honestly wasn't surprised either.

Ethan had taken up half the bed, as normal, and while James would have usually ended up either crushing or being crushed by Ethan in the middle of the night, Owen had acted as some sort of human blockade.

James managed to weasel out of the blanket crumpled up between the three of them, soon realizing that Owen had also brought another one that he recognized as Emmy's bedspread along with her, and he'd managed to get his leg snared into that as well.

Once he'd stood up, he realized just how little floor room was left. Luke was half falling out of the couch, Ian appearing to have shoved his legs off in favor of his own. Caddy's chairs had separated a bit in the night, leaving one of his legs to get stuck between the two with his foot hitting the floor. It wasn't the injured foot, luckily.

James glanced around the wall dividing the beds to see Emmy's back turned to him. He stepped over Wallid, PBG, and Jimmy to stand next to her. Shane was on her other side, face half buried in a blanket, which explained why Owen had moved. The two were both kept well to themselves, aside from one of Emmy's legs that had been pulled from the blanket and was now crossed over both of Shane's ankles.

He felt bad, but he leaned down and gently shook her shoulder. She stirred, but made no move to open her eyes. She just turned her shoulder so she was kind of facing him. "Hey," James whispered, shifting down onto his knees so he didn't have to lean down anymore. When Emmy started moving like she'd get up, James just shh-ed her and pushed her shoulders back down. "No, no, don't move. I just wanted to know if you had groceries."

"Mmm," Emmy hummed, rolling back over. "Blue box, bottom shelf fridge."

"Thanks," James whispered, tugging the blanket back up her shoulders. He stood up with a stretch, almost falling back onto PBG as he did. He stepped over people again, walking to Emmy's desk to look for a hair brush.

Owen woke up second, mainly because of James. She actually woke up before he'd even spoken to Emmy, she'd just chosen to keep her head stuffed into the pillow for a bit longer.

She eventually did push up from where she was, stretching her arms out in the process. Ethan didn't appear to wake up from the jostling, just rolled slightly closer to the wall. Owen stood up from the bed, leaning backwards to help her spine, before tip toeing across the room.

James, while brushing his hair, noticed Owen in the side of the mirror moving up behind him. "How long have you been up?" James mumbled, Owen moving to sit in front of him on the desk's surface. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

Owen just shrugged, grabbing his hand that was holding the hairbrush and moving it towards her scalp in a brush-like movement. James took the hint and started slowly brushing out her hair, Owen closing her eyes and making a small hum. Her legs swung loosely in the open space between them and the floor.

"I'm gonna make breakfast," James whispered, taking some of Owen's hair into his hand to brush out a knot without pulling on her head. "You wanna help?"

"Doubt I'll be of much help," Owen muttered. "But I'll come join you and eat all the food you make."

James just quietly chuckled, putting the brush down on the desk. "You can make sure I cook it right," he joked, helping her jump down onto the floor. Owen still seemed drowsy, but she was awake enough to open the door, James making sure to grab one of the keys on Emmy's wall before following.

The dorm's kitchen was on the main floor, but no one really used it for much most of the time. It was fairly small too, so the students normally choose to use the public kitchen in the cafeteria instead.

There were two large refrigerators with stacks of boxes of food piled next to them as well. James pulled a blue one with Emmy's name on it from the bottom before grabbing an identical one from the fridge.

Owen was sitting on the counter,, and scooted over a bit to make room for the crates. She pried the top one, the non-refrigerated items, open before pulling out some basic things James would probably want. James was riffling through the bottom cabinets, pulling out some larger pans and pots.

"Ew," Owen commented, pulling out some wheat bread. It looked relatively fresh, as did everything else in the box. "How does she eat this shit?"

James just sighed, "Don't you have white bread somewhere?"

"Nialle does, we'll just take hers," Owen stood up, moving to tug one of the larger boxes out of the corner to pry off the top. "Her boyfriend or whatever he is makes a lot of food, but he only cooks here since the guy's dorm has the shittiest kitchen."

"Tell me about it," James grumbled, holding out his hand to take the two loafs of bread Owen handed him. She also dug through the fridge to pull out two glass milk jugs and one plastic one. The plastic one had a sticker with West Erison printed on it. Owen made a chuckle before placing them on the counters.

"Do you know this guy?" Owen pointed to the sticker. James shook his head, turning on the sink to fill the pot with water. "He tackled me once."

James jolted, almost dropping the pot in the process. "Wait, what?! Why?"

"He thought I was a criminal," Owen shrugged, opening the jug. "I mean, I guess I kinda was, just not the kind he thought I was."

James looked confused, but he just shook his head without a word. "So he's Nialle's boyfriend?"

"Kinda," Owen tilted her head. "They hang out a lot at least. He's pretty chill, I guess, but he doesn't really understand the whole 'Split the Room' thing me and Nialle do, so he sometimes messes with my stuff."

"Ahh," James placed the pot on the oven and started the ignition, making sure the water would boil before moving to plug in the toaster.

"I don't think you've seen my room, have you?" Owen realized, watching as James began untwisting the bag holding the bread. James seemed to think it over for a moment before shaking his head. "Hmm. Well, you can come help me with my project, and I'll pay you back with a movie or something. How's that?"

James began pulling apart the bread, separating the edge crusts away on a napkin before placing three into the preheated toaster. "Sounds cool, but only if I get to choose the movie."

"That depends on if you're any help with my project or not," Owen chuckled, reaching across his workplace to grab one of the edge pieces of bread. "You can be a bit distracting."

"What's that supposed to mean?" James laughed, bringing a bowl out from the cabinet to place in front of him. He wiggled his shoulders in a jokingly suggestive manner before Owen kicked him on the arm. "Okay! Sorry!"

Owen huffed, smiling at him before pushing off the counter to wander aimlessly around the room. James worked quickly, Owen being of very little help aside from disposing of the bread crusts and sometimes dumping out eggshells. She managed to sneak one of the boiled eggs off the plate and, even though she thought he didn't notice, he did.

He just honestly thought it was funny.

Meanwhile, in Emmy's dorm room, everyone was getting to that half-awake "I should get up but I don't wanna" phase. Eventually, after a bit, everyone hears a loud thunk before Jon was heard muttering curse words at the desk. At that moment a few other people decided to stand, most notably Caddy, who was sunk so deep into the chair crevasse that he had to push them apart to get out instead of climbing back on top.

Almost everyone had clambered out of bed by the time Ian slid off the couch. The only ones left in bed were a half asleep Ethan who everyone could see was just blankly staring at a wall at this point, Emmy, Shane, and Jared, who was buried so fa under a sleeping bag that Mai wasn't even 100% sure if he was there when she woke up.

Jimmy, while no one was looking, started taking photos that one could only possibly describe as blackmail of Emmy and Shane sleeping, before Hana stole his phone and refused to give it back until both of them woke up.

When one of them did wake up, it was Shane, who just kinda blankly sat there for a minute before sitting up. This, apparently, shook Emmy enough that she woke up too. Well, kinda. She just kinda made a noise and rolled slowly out of the bed, taking the blanket with her.

Jared was the last one up, emerging from a different sleeping bag than the one he'd started in. He didn't really get it either.

"I think…" Emmy mumbled through the blankets, making everyone turn, confused. She pulled her head free and said, "I think James made food downstairs, I don't know."

With that, about half the room ran out at once, leaving behind a few drowsy stragglers to catch up. No one really knew what to do with Ethan, so, since Emmy was in no state to carry him, Luke did it instead, Ethan just making weird purring noises as they walked out.

Shane helped Emmy climb off the floor, and guided her over to her desk since she was having trouble seeing. Her eyes were mostly closed, but she was able to grab her contacts as Shane turned around. Jared was being pulled up by Mai and the two left, leaving Ian, Paul, Nick Josh, and Caddy. Caddy was having some trouble walking, so Ian was half-heartedly dragging him up by the forearm and collar from where he'd tripped on the chair.

Paul and Josh were trying lazily to drag Nick, who'd sat down and refused to stand, to move out the door. Emmy finished putting in her contacts and just grabbed Shane's sleeve and dragged him out of the room.

The two walked down the hall in tired silence. Emmy was moving to tie her hair up into a bun, which she managed to do nearly perfectly even without a mirror. It made her look a bit more awake, but her overly wrinkled clothes begged to differ.

Shane was still drowsy, but he seemed to be fairing better than before. He definitely slept much more soundly than he'd expected. One of Emmy's hands was clamped into a fist that was holding onto the end of her shirt. When they made it to the stairs, Emmy mumbled out a, "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmhmm," Shane hummed, slowly stepping down the stairs. "You?"

Emmy just shrugged, staring at the wooden floor. "About as good as normal." The rest of their walk was mute, the only noise being Emmy's quiet chuckle when Shane missed the last step and stumbled a step.

The two walked in to see that most everyone had begun to actually wake up at this point. The talking was approaching normal talking standard, at least. They were all seated at one of two tables to the right of the doorway while James and Owen were at the itchen on the left.

Ethan laid his head down on the table with his head pulled back through the hole of his shirt so that it covered his face. He wasn't asleep, seeing as he was talking Jeff, but he didn't seem to like being so close to a window this early.

Emmy walked silently behind James and Owen, the former waiting for the last bit of egg to cook while Owen just ate bread crusts. "Nice," Emmy smiled, reaching forward to grab one of the pieces of toast. Her hand stopped short however, before she pulled it back and crossed her arms. "You outdid yourself. Where'd you get all the food?"

"Roommate," Owen mumbled through the bread in her mouth. She had her whole body propped up on her arms, legs dangling. She would sometimes push up and down on the counter as if doing pushups.

James had earbuds in, but turned to flash her a smile. Emmy could hear traces of swing music playing through them. He soon turned away, holding the two plates of eggs. Owen followed him with a stack of paper plates and a box of plastic silverware. Emmy grabbed the toast plate and followed.

Eryone seemed pretty hungry, everyone getting a plate of food quickly. Emmy grabbed a box of corn flakes from her food for herself, letting Jared and PBG eat some too. The volume of the group progressively got louder, and every girl who walked in to grab breakfast looked at them confused.

Then there was Nialle.

She walked in about half an hour into breakfast. She was fully dressed, hair done in a long brown braid that fell over her shoulder and to her hips. She had a loose-fitting sleeved dress with white tights on underneath.

West stood in the doorframe after following her. He stopped when he noticed the crowd however. His hair, long and dark blonde, fell over his eyebrows. He was also dressed, but more casually in a soft blue t-shirt, a white raincoat, and gray jeans that belled out at the bottom. He traced in dirt from his tennis shoes.

"Owen," Nialle hissed, catching the girl mid-conversation. "Where have you been?!"

Owen just frowned and, without turning around, replied, "Sleepover."

"Yeah, cool, I'm guessing you forgot about fixing my desk chair that you broke that you told me you'd have done by yesterday?!" Nialle scoffed, throwing her hands up exasperated. "I kinda need that!"

West just stepped forward and muttered something to her. "No, honey, you don't need to do that for her, Nialle frowned, rolling her eyes.

"I'll do it later," Owen dismissed her by waving a forkful of egg. She turned her head around just to shove the fork into her mouth, chewing loud before Nialle stormed out with a disgusted huff.

West just looked at Owen with a lopsided, concerned smile. "I'll fix it for you," he muttered before stepping forward to grab a piece of toast Owen had held out for him. "Compliments to the chef," West chuckled, gesturing his hand with the bread towards James as he walked backwards from the room.

James look at the doorway he'd just left from confused. "How'd he…?"

"I don't know," Owen shrugged. "I wouldn't think to much about it. He knows a lot of stuff no one else does."

Eryone had gone back to talking at this point, seeing as everyone had shown up soon after Emmy and Shane had. Paul, Nick and Josh had begun to steal the other's food when they hadn't gotten any, Nick taking most of Ethan's while he was blanked out staring at a wall. James tried to make him move, but Ethan just stood up and splashed his face in the sink. He was fine after that.

Jon, Jared, Mai, Caddy, Wallid, and Continue? ended up having to leave just after finishing their food, whereas Jeff, PBG, Hana, and Luke had to leave a bit after. The rest of them sat in Emmy's room for a bit, Ian showing Ethan and Emmy some pictures that were taken at the tournament earlier that year. Emmy noted that Hana started the photos wearing just her school uniform, but near the end had one of their jackets on.

She'd have to ask about that later.

Ethan then ended up chatting to Shane a bit about something, while Owen and Jimmy sat on the couch wrapped in blankets, the former watching as he played Nokemon. James worked on picking up the room, Emmy joining in after looking at the photos. Ethan, after talking to Shane, stood up to carry his backpack that James had left.

The two then waved goodbye, Owen reminding James on the way out to come by her room to help her with her project later.

Shane, who Emmy had expected to leave, said he'd rather stay in the quiet room for a bit. Jirard had told him ahead of time that he'd be working with someone knew on some secret project, and he didn't really feel like walking in on whatever they were doing.

Ian was the same, knowing that Jeff had left alongside PBG and Hana since all three were going back to their room like they did sometimes. Hana, after beginning to date PBG, had become very good friends with Jeff in the process, seeing as the two boys were nearly inseparable. She played videogames with them a lot.

Owen just didn't want to go back to Nialle, which Emmy understood. Nialle was a workaholic, Owen wasn't. Nialle practically shoved homework down Owen's throat every time she walked in the room.

Jimmy just liked Emmy's blankets.

The five of them hung out for a while, watched a movie, helped with some light homework. Shane ended up curled up in the corner of Emmy's bed at one point, nose in a sketchbook while the other four played some board game Owen had dug out of Emmy's closet.

Jimmy left first, followed by Owen who said she had somewhere to be. Ian just took a blanket and sprawled out on the couch while Emmy filled out a homework packet.

Shane ended up falling asleep over his sketchbook, and woke up to find a blanket on his back, the lights turned off, Ian sleeping on a couch, and Emmy fiddling with something while spinning aimlessly in a chair.

Her back was to him, and Shane couldn't see her face since all light was too her back. But when she turned a bit farther to one side, he saw a reflection of polished metal in the setting sunlight drifting through the windows, the golden shine sending memories of a gunshot through his head.

Before he said a word, Emmy's arm fell, causing her to drop the metallic picture frame to the floor. The sound of glass cracking made a noise similar to that of dropping a pin in an empty opera house.

Quiet, yet loud enough that you could feel it in your bones.

Emmy sobbed before wiping her face with her sleeve, moving to pick up the frame carefully. The glass pieces fell off like snow into the carpet as she lifted it onto her desk. Hane watched her flip the frame around and pull the back holding the picture in place out. She pulled out some photo Shane couldn't see and placed it on a shelf hung above the desk.

The girl's head was turned still towards the shelf, but farther to the side. Shane could see the outlines of the rabbit before Emmy turned her gaze towards the floor.

"I'm sorry," Emmy whispered, her eyes flying towards Shane. "I never should have dragged you into this."

Shane sat shocked, realizing she must have known he was awake. Staring. "I-"

"No," Emmy spat, relling back after realizing what she'd said. She looked at him for a moment before turning back to the shelf. "You… why?"

"Huh?" Shane was still dazed, and didn't know if he'd missed part of the question.

Emmy pulled the photo back down. "Why me?" She spun around s quickly that papers on her desk fluttered to the ground. "Why wouldn't you let me die?!"

He voice was strong, yet still was quiet enough that Ian never woke.

"You…" Emmy's hands shook. "I just… I don't… understand…" she was choked by sobs. "You're too nice to me! I don't deserve this! You! Anyone! I…" The photo in her hands tore slightly on the edge. "I ki- I… killed someone. I could've…" her voice fell near silent. "I could've saved a lot of people a lot of pain if I'd just… left you all alone."

Shane was completely stunned, Emmy seeming to forget he was there somewhere in her monologue. He sat still for a moment before standing. "I understand," Shane, voice low, took a step towards her.

"No," Emmy whispered.

"It's okay."

"No."

"Don't blame yourself."

Emmy's mouth opened but nothing came out.

"You forget," Shane was a foot away from her when he stopped. "I've been where you were. It's… hard to explain in normal terms but…" Shane realized that the photo had fallen once again, torn in two pieces. "Someone else made all the choices in my life. I don't know who, if it even is a who, but…" he looked her dead in the eye. "I'm sure I don't have to explain.

Emmy clenched the fabric over her heart. After a moment she shook her head. "Do…" she seemed to think it over in her head. "Do you hear her sometimes?"

Shane stilled.

"I hear them," Emmy whispered, finally staring back at him. "Casper, Saniya… It's like… they aren't d-dead. Just…" Emmy sniffed. "Not themselves anymore."

Shane thought it over in his head. "I don't hear her, no," he whispered. "But I see her. In others. People like… Hana. And Saniya. And…" he leaned to pick up the photo. He pointed to Saniya's mother. "-her."

Emmy picked up the other half. There was Casper, Saniya's father, a woman Shane guessed was Emmy's mother. Saniya's arm was seen around Casper's middle. The tear divided him in half, separating Emmy and Saniya to the two pieces.

"I never thought of how hard it was to not say sorry," Emmy half-heartedly chuckled. Her finger ran over the seam splitting Casper. She deeply sighed. "I always thought you'd gotten over it. I envied that. I assumed that your sudden change wasn't about me. At least at first. I just thought you'd… I don't know, accepted it? So I decided to try and do that. I put on a front of being fine after they forced me out of my room. You guys were so welcoming of my return that I just assumed we were all acting like… like it never happened.

There was silence for a moment. Shane didn't know what to say. Then Emmy crumpled up the photo and threw it in the trash.

"Sometimes I think it never did," she whispered, sobbing. "But I-if that's th-the case… then why the fuck do I miss them so goddamn much?!"

Shane, without thinking, reached out to grab her shoulder. The sun had fallen below the window, casting a single ray of light over just Emmy's upper body. Shane was completely in shadow before stepping forward.

Emmy's hands were covering her face, long green sleeves catching her tears. Shane just stood still for a moment, processing what to do.

Without a word, he stepped forward and awkwardly wrapped his arms around her. "Shh."

Emmy's crying never stopped, but her body froze and she quieted for a moment before returning the hug. She buried her head in the thick fabric of the neck of his jacket, Shane making small noises in hopes of quieting her down.

"I know," he muttered into her hair. "I understand."

I understood. Not a thing either of them thought they'd ever say, but exactly what needed to be said at that moment.

They stood like that for a while, until the moon cast a faint glow over the room, turning the two silent figures into ghosts in the white light.

Casper's legit named after Casper the Friendly Ghost it's official put it on the merchandise