Thank you for reviewing Akasha10199, KalypsoKari87 and Ozzy. I chose to focus on Australia because it's where I live! I couldn't write about them being in USA because I don't really know the places and in this story they do a lot of travelling. Welcome to the club new follower InternalAssumpter.


~ CHAPTER 54 ~

Party like it's Twelfth Perigee's Eve

"I'm stuffed." Dwayne led a bunch of trolls down to the main bedroom at the end of the corridor, rubbing his stomach as he went.

"Pasta's quite filling." Kaylah spoke up in agreement.

They stopped in the doorway and watched Dwayne go straight to his bed, still messy because he hadn't made it properly. It was just them teens – who was going to bother making beds? Camilla weaved through the spaces to her bed and then lunged, bouncing to a stop. Kaylah made her way in and claimed a bed beside Camilla's and opposite Dwayne's. Jasper trailed his hand along the headboards as he walked.

"So that must be Wesley's." He indicated to the other bed that wasn't unused and pristine. He took a seat on a bed beside Kaylah's. "What about Reagan? Does she sleep up here?"

"Um no." Dwayne couldn't hide the no derr from his voice. He undid the belt of his jeans to get ready for bed.

"I didn't think so." Jasper reached up to ruffle his untidy hair and bring his arm back down again. "She's… kind of intimidating."

"You don't know the half of it." Camila said and started bouncing up and down on the mattress. Dwayne frowned and tossed his covers back, he climbed in and then covered himself.

"So what's her deal?" Kaylah tried to be nonchalant, she was just as interested in Reagan as Jasper was.

Dwayne tried to remind himself that Reagan was only the second highblood they've met as well. The attractive Sawyer kept popping up again in Dwayne's mind and making him feel funny, he really hoped the guy was telling the truth and he actually was harmless. For all he knew Reagan was having the same effect on them as well. Stupid flushing.

"Reagan is… a crazy Purple Blood." Camila answered because Dwayne had been distracted by his thoughts. "'Nuff said."

"That can't be all there is to it?" Kaylah pressed.

"We don't know why Reagan is the way she is." Dwayne said, worried in the back of his mind that Reagan might be hidden somewhere and listening. "She doesn't talk about herself but she was in a weird place when we found her. Also… supposedly she doesn't sleep. She just meditates for three hours a night. At least that's what she said. Most of the time we don't know where exactly she is… she's just around." He stopped himself from adding it's kind of terrifying.

"Ahuh?"

"Yeah she was running a cult, or something." Camila got up and was standing on her bed.

"What are you doing, Camila?" Dwayne asked her.

"I don't want to go to sleep yet. I have too much energy." She started jumping on it like it was a trampoline, the metal frame squeaking.

"If either of you guys want sleep there are private rooms." Dwayne told the other two. "The beds are probably better there too."

"Thanks but I'm not all that sleepy either." Kaylah admitted.

"Yeah, I mean…" Jasper fidgeted "Now that we finally know who we are… I mean, man, for a while I thought we'd never find out. But now I'm way too curious to want to go sleep by myself."

"This is like a slumber party!" Camila announced while bouncing, her shoulder-length hair fluttering up and down as she jumped. Leaning forward she sprang off the bed and landed on the next one, continuing to labour the springs on that bed instead.

"You could break something…" Dwayne warned.

"I'll be fine." She sighed. "Stop worrying all the time, Dwayne."

He was about to say something else but then Kaylah got up and started jumping on her bed. Camila laughed and then started bouncing across the room, leaping across the mattresses like bouncy stepping stones. Kaylah was cautious, but daringly lunged around the big room as well. Wiggling around a bit Dwayne got comfortable and rested his head on the pillow.

The girls were laughing and it looked like they were chasing each other. They got close to falling a few times but no one did. Camila almost got tagged by Kaylah but reached around and swatted her with a pillow. Bed-jumping tag became a pillow fight as well and Dwayne watched and laughed along at the combatants. Jasper seemed fine with standing on the sidelines and throwing pillows at the girls, but then he got up and started playing as well.

Dwayne really was tired though, it was late and his eyes were bleary, but it was amusing to watch them all the same. Camila was fast, ducking and weaving her small agile body and hitting people in the back of the head with cushions. All the beds were messy now. Kaylah and Jasper started to gang up on her and when they had her cornered she jumped across to Dwayne's bed and he quickly pulled in his legs before she landed on them.

"Hey!"

"Sorry Dwayne!" She just hopped right on by. "Pillow fight tag is serious business."

"She ought to be penalized for that." Dwayne complained. The three were panting and red, excitement in the air, Dwayne tried keeping himself awake with more urgency this time. His eyes were paying special attention to the smaller girl.

"She's like a bloody cat." Jasper complained.

"I'm like an agile ninja." Camila replied and ducked a pillow thrown by Kaylah. "A graceful gazelle." She ducked down and stretched to pick the pillow off the floor. The others converged on her corner and she quickly hopped away, shielding herself from another flying projectile.

They were making so much noise that it was obviously only a matter of time before others would appear in the doorway. Torrie and Sawyer peered into the room, when Dwayne caught sight of the tall blonde guy he felt immediately awkward, his heart started to race. He sat up a little.

"Ah, hey." Dwayne greeted.

"I was wondering what was going on in here." Sawyer smirked and crossed his arms. "Playing a game of 'the ground's lava'?"

"Torrie come help me catch her!" Kaylah called, trying and failing to herd Camila. Her voice was part-excitement and part-annoyance.

"If Torrie joins in she's going to start bowling people over and then someone's gonna slam into the wall and break bones." Jasper complained.

"Good point." Kaylah's eyes were still on Camila. "Don't help, Torrie."

"I wasn't going to." She snapped. "Don't be too loud cause my room's only a few doors down."

"You're not going to sleep here with us?" Dwayne tried. "I haven't really gotten to know you."

"This place is a pig-sty and I want to actually sleep." The Asian girl responded.

"I'm sleeping in a room by myself as well," Sawyer explained. "I also like my privacy, but I hope you don't factor that in as a Violet Blood's sociopathy Dwayne."

Dwayne was embarrassed and said nothing. Camila leaped to another bed, still focused on the game. Kaylah was completely focused on her but Jasper stopped to turn around.

"What were you guys doing all day when you weren't with us?" He asked.

"Reading." Sawyer answered smoothly and with his arms still crossed he leaned against the doorframe, freeing one foot and kicking the ground rhythmically.

"Same." Torrie itched her hip. They both looked to be wearing their pyjama-wear – Torrie in a grey band shirt with holes in it and Sawyer with sweat pants on.

"I guess some of us want to learn from books and some of us want to learn through actually talking to the others." Jasper pointed out, but his inattentiveness to the game earnt him a flying pillow to the face. Camila rolled back onto her feet again and dodged another grab from Kaylah.

"Whatever," Torrie responded. "Just remember to keep it down." They went to leave.

"Goodnight Torrie, goodnight Sawyer." Camila called as she hopped around the room.

Torrie didn't respond but Sawyer raised a hand as he left. Once they were gone Dwayne lowered himself back to his pillow and released a long sigh.

The midnight frolicking didn't last for much longer, instead the three teens finally settled onto their bed. Dwayne could feel himself drifting off as the three lowbloods started up a game of truth and dare. Camila tried pleading with him to play along, saying he was allowed to get away with picking truth every option (since Dwayne didn't want to leave the confines of his warm bed). A few rounds and Dwayne was too tired to even comply with that however.

After the initial rounds Kaylah and Jasper learnt that all trolls were bisexual, or at least that Dwayne and Camila were. Kaylah fired him a jarring question that made his ears heat up, that and his sleep-addled brain was seriously making him consider giving up the game at that moment.

"Rate the guys in here on levels of hotness." She declared. "But you don't have to include yourself. Oh wait! No, you do have to include yourself!"

"I thought truth questions had to be 'yes' or 'no'."

"Just do it, Dwayne!"

"Nah."

"Party pooper." Camila chimed in.

"Just give me a 'yes' or 'no', question. Or at least one that has a simple answer. Then I'm out and I'm going to sleep." He adjusted his elbow from under his pillow.

"Okay… how's this?" Kaylah thought, tapping a finger to her chin. "If you could make out with any one of us who would it be?"

"Jeez…"

"Come on, Dwayne. Your last question." Kaylah prompted and he looked around at the other two. Jasper smiled at him awkwardly and Camila made a show of winking at him.

"Who I would kiss… so that would be the same as… who I think is most attractive…" Dwayne struggled to twist it into something less convicting.

"Who is most attractive to you." Kaylah pressed and they all leaned forward.

Dwayne gave an unpleasant frown as he considered his options. He'd never really been attracted to Camila. Their personalities were okay friend-wise, but there wasn't anything more than that. He was her Auspistice now, but he certainly didn't want to make out with her. Jasper seemed nice enough and he had a cute face. However the truth was that Kaylah was nice and funny, while still having the appropriate mix of responsibility. She was also… very cute.

"Okay you win. It's you, Kaylah."

"Yes." She fist-bumped in victory and Dwayne rolled over.

"G'night." He quickly dozed on and off, the voices of the others surfacing and lulling him along the edges of sleep. Sleep felt like being at the edge of an ocean, the tides covering him and then withdrawing again but it wasn't unpleasant.

Wesley arrived at the final round of truth and dare. By the sounds of it Kaylah was doing a handstand against the wall while struggling to say the alphabet backwards.

"What are you doing?" Wesley's deep voice sounded from the doorway.

"You're too late to join us, Wessle-bee. I think the others are too tired to play another round of truth and dare." Camila replied.

"Cause you probably wore them out with your hyperactivity. Come on, it looks like Dwayne's trying to sleep."

"He didn't have to stay in here with us!" Camila retorted.

Wesley made his way through and into Dwayne's view, his bed the side he was facing. As the sleep momentarily ebbed he blinked his green eyes at the boy as he sat on the edge of the bed.

"Wesley…" a tired yawn.

"Oh crap…" Camila whispered. "You think he heard me trying to dare Jasper to put cream on his face?"

"Wesley," Dwayne ignored her. "What've you been doing all day?" He watched the other boy slipping into the bed beside him.

"Making plans for tomorrow." He kept his voice low, turning on his side so they were facing each other. It felt like they were in a personal and private bubble like this.

"For the…" Dwayne's sleepy brain tried to focus.

"Tomorrow we're teleporting the base to Queensland. I've been working on all the details."

"That's very productive of you Wesley…" Dwayne closed his eyes. "Thanks…"

"…Sawyer helped me." The teal-blood admitted and Dwayne frowned sleepily. "He said he was really interested in the technology and so he helped me by going through the manuals and figuring how to get it to work. It's really complicated, it would've taken me days to figure it out but… did you know he has an Engineering Masters degree? At only seventeen years of age?"

"Woah… that's… cool…" Dwayne murmured into the pillow.

"Yeah. Maybe he can be trusted… although after he left I had a visit by Reagan. I never thought she'd come to me about anything. She warned me not to trust him, but of the two I'd definitely be on his side."

"That's… weird…"

"Okay guys, turn off the light." Wesley called out to them. "It's past three in the morning."

Kaylah moved away from the wall and Jasper yawned. Only Camila seemed unhappy about finally sleeping but the lights went off and the noise stopped. Dwayne fell almost immediately into slumber.


Thanks for the suggestion for the Fuchsia Blood. When it comes time for the Empress to finally make her appearance I will go through it again and see which of the ideas fit in with what I'm looking for. As the leader she pretty much has to be the bad-ass-est of all the trolls, right up there with the limey.