Amity was in her room trying to focus on her textbook. Really, there was no reason for her to be upset. It's not like she'd been harboring some deep desire to be closer to her siblings. After all, when they'd started acting all cloying after the library incident, hadn't she been annoyed, only putting up with it because they were helping her train for the Hexside entrance exam?

Well, that's how she'd acted, anyway. And if that's how she'd reacted to them being nice to her for once, could she really be surprised that they wouldn't do it again except under unusual circumstances like these?

She looked at the rock Ed had given her. Once she'd found out that the reason Ed had gone to the zoo with her was just because he had no other options, she'd almost left it outside before coming back into the house. But she'd ended up keeping it. It was a nice gesture, and like she'd said to Em, at least he'd been honest.

She heard a knock on the door.

"Hey, Mittens, can I come in?" It was Ed.

"I'm studying," she said.

"It'll just take a minute."

"No." It's not like I'm the one you really want to talk to anyway, she thought, though she'd never say that.

"Fine, I'll just say this through the door. I didn't realize you didn't know about the bet or that you'd get so upset when you found out about it."

"I'm not upset."

"OK, but I just wanted to say that bet or no bet, I'm really glad we spent the day together."

"I told you, I'm not upset."

"All right, if you say so."

Ed paused for a few moments. "Also, do you think you could maybe go easy on Em?"

"I think I did," she replied.

"Come on, if it makes any difference, she's really sad that you're angry with her."

Amity looked up from her textbook. "Really?"

"Yeah."

Amity considered. "Ed, can you just give me a little time alone to think?"

"OK," he said.

She heard his footsteps as he walked away.

Amity thought about Em. Even if she'd only wanted to spend time with her because she had no other options, she didn't need to buy her a copy of The Gecko Sonata. Even if the money she'd used had been ill-gotten, it was a nice gesture. And was she right when she'd said that about her pushing people away?

Amity looked at the stone Ed had given her again and put it in the box where she kept various keepsakes. Her Grom tiara was in there. Looking at it, she thought about what Em had said about how Grom didn't have to end as long as she kept spending time with the people who'd made it so special. And who were those people? Willow and Gus, and most of all Luz. And hadn't she been pretty terrible to all of them? If Luz could forgive her, and Willow was at least willing to entertain the possibility of forgiving her, then shouldn't she be a little more forgiving herself?

Besides, was she even really angry at her sister? Or was she just disappointed that she hadn't really wanted to spend time with her?

Then she heard a knock on the door.

"Amity?" It was Em. "You don't need to open the door. I just wanted to say, maybe I did want to take you to the bookstore because I couldn't spend time with Ed or anyone else. But I really did have a good time with you, and I really did want to get closer to you after that."

After a pause, Em continued. "I'm going to buy you The Gecko Sonata with my own money, OK? It just might take me a while. You don't have to forgive me. I just want to do it."

Amity heard her start to walk away and went to her bedroom door to open it.

"Hey, Em?"

Em turned around. "Yeah?"

"Well, it just seems a little silly for you to save up money to buy a book when we already have a copy. So, maybe it makes more sense if I just keep that one."

Em smiled broadly. "Really!" Then her brow furrowed. "Wait, does this mean you're not angry, or do you just really want to read the book?"

Amity laughed, in spite of herself. "I'm not angry."

Em ran over and gave Amity a hug, which made her groan.

"Thanks, Mittens! Let me go get the book from my room."

As Em turned around, Amity said, "Em, you should know that Ed came over and told me I should go easy on you."

Em turned back around. "Really? That's… that's nice of him."

"Why don't you two just call off this silly bet? I can tell you miss each other."

"I don't miss him!"

"Oh please, Em! It's obvious you do. And he misses you too. I could tell today."

"Really?" Em looked down at the floor. "If he were willing to call it a draw, maybe I'd be willing to accept that. Do you… do you think you could ask him?"

"No way! I'm not getting in the middle of this."

"Please?"

"No!"

Em sighed. "OK, I guess I can't blame you."

After Em gave the book back to Amity, she sat in her room thinking about how just minutes ago she'd told Amity that she pushed people away and would always end up alone because of it. But wasn't that what she and Ed were doing to each other in a slightly different way? It had only taken a few minutes and a gesture of good will for Amity to forgive her. Really, her little sister was acting more mature than she was right now.

And if all Ed cared about was winning this bet, he wouldn't have asked Amity to go easy on her.

Em got up to go to Ed's room.

Ed played around on his scroll thinking about Amity and Em. He figured Amity needed some space, but she didn't seem too mad at him, at least. And hopefully she'd forgive Em before too long.

Ed had never expected this bet to cause so much conflict. He wished they could just call it a draw. If Em came and offered that to him, he'd accept it. But he couldn't be the one to make the first move, not after she'd said that about being stuck with him forever.

Ed heard a knock followed shortly by Em opening the door.

"Ed?"

"Yeah?"

"Mittens and I made up."

"Oh." That was fast. His little sister really had changed. "Good."

"She told me you asked her to go easy on me."

"Yeah."

"Thanks. You didn't have to do that. I mean, with the bet and all."

"Well, the bet didn't seem that important right then."

"Anyway, that made me think..."

"Yeah?"

"Regarding the bet..."

"Yeah?"

"Well... I... I guess I owe you some kind of favor. Like you get the first chance to make plans with our friends next week."

"Oh." Ed tried to hide his disappointment. "Yeah, that seems fair."

Em hesitated but then said, "OK. Well, I guess I'd better go. We're already stretching the rules a little."

"Yeah." Ed said

Ed watched as Em lingered for a second and then closed the door.