"Ember Ember Ember Ember Ember Ember Ember…"

"What, Aradyn?" Ember groaned, pulling her book down, away from her face, and glaring at Aradyn.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Too bad. I'm reading," she growled, raising her book again.

"Ember…"

"I'm still reading, believe it or not." Ember felt like she deserved a few minutes of peace. First, Aradyn had caused the disaster in the prison, making it so that Ember had had to console Seto. Then, Herobrine had come for a talk. After that, she'd had to go to get Ty to stop freaking out over his stupid tail.

Oh, yeah. And it had all begun with a pillow to the face.

And don't forget you had to keep your idiot friend's marshmallow from exploding.

How could I? That too. Rose had almost created a marshmallow volcano.

"I know, but this is important," Aradyn wheedled.

"Will you shut up and let me read if I talk to you?"

"Yes…"

"Go away. There. I talked to you." Ember's tail twitched, smacking against the couch with a loud thump.

"Ember!" Aradyn protested.

She growled, the sound rumbling up from deep in her chest. "I said go away!"

Aradyn sighed, then yanked the book away from Ember. "Pay attention to me!"

"No! I've had a pretty awful day, and I want to have a few moments for me! Is that too freaking much to ask?"

"Right now, yes! Please, Em, please. I need help."

"Give me my book and leave me alone!"

"Do you think I'd be asking if it wasn't really important? Emmy, please."

Ember stiffened. "Don't call me that." It reminded her too much of what her brother used to call her.

"Okay, but… please?"

She made the tactical mistake of looking up—right into Aradyn's puppy-dog eyes.

"Please, Em?" Aradyn almost whimpered.

"I hate you. Fine," Ember said, defeated.

"Awesome!" she squealed, happy dancing around the room. Aradyn sobered quickly, though. "Can we go to my room? I don't want anyone to hear."

"Okay... By the secretiveness, I'm guessing this is about a boy?"

Aradyn opened the door and bounced on to her bed, Ember following, waiting impatiently for her excitable friend to calm down enough to talk.

"Well?" Ember prodded.

She blushed. "Yesssss."

Oh. Wonderful. "We don't exactly have a surplus of boys, you know. So who do you like? Seto? Mitch? Ty?" Ember swallowed. "You don't crush on Sky, right?"

"Nah, none of them. I like… I like…" She muttered something unintelligible.

"I can't hear you."

Aradyn mumbled something that sounded like 'gerbils.'

"Still can't hear you."

"Jason, okay? I like Jason!" Aradyn shrieked.

Ember stared at Aradyn, knowing her mouth was hanging open but not caring. "He's a human," was all she could say.

So is Sky, little miss lover girl.

Shut up.

You still love him. You dream about him. You want him.

What part of 'shut up' do you not understand?

Aradyn shifted a little. "Yeah… I know it's stupid. But… ah!" She fell backwards. "I can't stop thinking about Jase!"

"You call him Jase?"

"And he calls me Ara."

Ember took a deep breath. Okay. Okay. This was weird. So was life. She could deal. "So what makes you like him?"

"He's cute and he's funny and he's Jason and did I mention he's Jason?" Aradyn gushed. "Those are great things, right?"

"Jason is Jason. Excellent logic."

"I know, right?"

She wasn't sure that Aradyn was really listening anymore. "Look, you can fangirl just as well by yourself. So why am I here?"

"What?"

"Why am I here?"

"That's deep shit, Em," Rose said, the door flying open behind her.

"Aiiieegh! Rose, get out, get out, get out!" Aradyn yelped, jumping up and trying to shove the taller girl out into the hall.

It was a futile effort. Rose pushed Aradyn out of the way easily and plopped herself on the bed. Her gum popped with a smacking sound. "So, Ara and Jase?"

"You weren't supposed to be listening!"

"Yeah, whatever. So have you kissed him yet?"

"What? No!"

"Jason and Aradyn, sitting on a cliff, K-I-S-S-I—wait, you do realize that he's a human, right?"

"Yes, I do, but I love him!" Aradyn said, clearly still mad at Rose for eavesdropping.

"How do you know? You've never been in love!"

"But how could I not be? He's Jason!"

Rose gaped at her, then slowly turned to Ember. "Is she serious? Like, her brain is practically on the ground in a flippin' puddle."

"I know." Ember shook her head tiredly.

"Ugh. I hate that hippy-dippy love crap. I declare a group meeting!" Rose shouted.

Wispice burst into the room a few seconds later. "Sorry I'm late!"

Aradyn hung her head. "I didn't mean for everyone to know!"

"Small world, sista. Deal with it," Rose ordered, with her usual tact.

"Rose, her heart is exposed to us all now. This is a part of her that she might not have wanted to share, but she's still Aradyn. We'll accept her anyway, right?" Wispice asked, patting Aradyn's arm. "It's okay that you're in love with Ember, Ara."

Ember almost choked, she was laughing so hard. "Wisp… you have no idea what's going on. Absolutely no idea."

Wispice blinked. "I… oops." She blushed.

Aradyn was glaring at them all now. "I might as well just tell you guys, so that there aren't any more misunderstandings."

"Yeah. Well, pretty much only Wisp, because I was listening," Rose smirked. "See? I pay attention."

"Only when you're not supposed to!" Aradyn hissed indignantly.

"Wait, what did you say?" Rose asked innocently. A little too innocently. "I don't think I was listening."

"That's it, you—"

Ember grabbed Aradyn's arms before she could punch Rose. "Guys. Chill."

"I don't want to chill!" Rose complained.

"Too bad. Shut up. Aradyn, please explain to Wisp."

"Fine. So basically… IkindofmaybehaveakindofmaybefreakishlyhugecrushonJasonbutjustmaybeandifanyofyouguystellhimyouwilldieinincrediblepainIswear. There."

"Oh…" Wispice blinked. "I thought…"

"We know what you thought," Ember sighed, releasing her friend.

"But he's human!" she finally burst out.

"I KNOW," Aradyn growled.

"Yeah, I told her that."

"Herobrine's planning on fixing that," Aradyn smiled, her face relaxing slightly at the knowledge. "Then he'll be completely available."

"That's good," Wispice said happily. "You guys are going to be such a cute couple."

"I know, right? He's so dreamy." Aradyn flopped down against the bed. "I can't wait until he joins us."

"You know, they aren't exactly thrilled about Herobrine's plan," Ember warned Aradyn. She didn't want her friend to get too excited.

"I'll make him come around, Em," she assured Ember.

"Don't get your hopes too high."

"Stop raining on my parade! Anyway, you like Sky."

"What?" Ember said, hoping she'd sound disbelieving.

"Eh, yeah, you do," Rose grinned.

"Aradyn's right, Em. You like him."

"I do not!"

"Yeah right!"

"Look, guys, I had to act like I liked him to get him to come here. That's all it was. It was just a job. He wanted me to like him, so I liked him for as long as it took. I kissed him because he wanted to be kissed. I loved him because he wanted to be loved. It was all an act, and I don't know why you all think it was more than that. I had to do it," Ember lied. It wasn't all an act; she'd enjoyed it, sometimes, and occasionally not even had to think about how she should respond to Sky's affection.

"Then explain why you were dreaming about him," Rose challenged. "You are so in luuurrrvvve!"

"Dreams are weird. Explain why you dreamed about being snogged by broccoli," Ember retorted.

"When did I—

"Last week," Aradyn smirked. "Sorry, Rose. Your secret's out!"

"I hate you!"

"Meeting adjourned!" Aradyn called, ducking away from Rose's punch and sprinting into the hall. The taller girl chased after her angrily, screaming something about frying her liver with mashed potatoes.

Ahh, the power of friendship.

#Jadyn! I can hear you, orchidlove123, I know you're screaming in fangirly delight. I told ya I'd do it! Thanks for reading, as always, and I know it's been a while since I updated. Sorry. I will find an excuse! I promise!

Also, thanks to ArcticHuntress for sending in le first OC! Yay! Shoutout! Bossery! Computer red lines of rage are happening!

I'm going to be starting a new story very soon... This story is almost done! There could (maybe) be a sequel! Yay! Would y'all like that? IDK. I have some ideas...

Who is your favorite character? Tell me in the reviews, and I'll tally up the points next chapter! You can choose three!

Aradyn/Rogue: 0

Zariah/Ember: 0

Rosewing/Crimson: 0

Wispice/Mint: 0

Eguire/Ty: 0

Herobrine: 0

Seto: 0

Mitch: 0

Sky: 0

Jason: 0

SOTC: Oath by Cher Lloyd featuring Becky G.

Peace, and Nafia out!