Jaden skipped another class, to no one's surprise, but Rae was also absent. Syrus wasn't worried about Jaden, and he was relieved Rae wasn't in class either. Seeing her having to be forcibly removed from a fight scared him. He always thought she was scary, but once Jaden had introduced them, he knew that she was all bark. Or, at least, that's what he thought. Sometimes he had wondered if she was even capable of emotions beyond her sarcasm and bad jokes.

He started to feel anxious during class, the images of blood splatter plaguing his mind. She looked like a rabid animal, covered in her prey's blood, and no light in her eyes. He was so lost in his own head that when the students around him started to move, he gave a shout. Other students looked at him and his face flushed. He rushed out of class. Rae would never hurt him, would she?

Syrus walked back to his dorm, trying to clear his mind of the night before. Opening the door, he saw Jesse and Jaden sitting on the floor, unopened booster packs piled next to them.

"Hey, Sy!" Jaden greeted, "Wanna check out these new cards?" Syrus set his bag down next to the door.

"You missed class again." Jaden waved him off.

"I never learn anything there anyway!"

"That's cause you don't pay attention, Jay," a voice called from the entryway, the smell of fried food coming in on breeze from the open door. Syrus jumped, not expecting to hear that voice this soon. Rae was balancing three paper plates of funnel cakes."They've got some sort of festival thing going on. We could check it out, but this is honestly the best part," she awkwardly held up the plates. "Sorry Sy, I didn't know you'd be back so soon. You can have mine, if you want." He stared at her wide eyed, color drained from his face. He was almost as pale as Rae is. She stared back at him, her brow furrowed in confusion, as she shifted two plates to balance on her left arm and slid the plate in her right across the small counter toward him. She looked away from him and gave the other two plates to Jaden and Jesse.

How were they okay with her being that close to them? They just witnessed her beat someone into unconsciousness and they're just...letting her give them food? Syrus watched her, unblinking, as she sat down, helping them open the booster packs.

"How's your hand feelin'?" Jesse asked when he saw the dark bruises on her knuckles. They were much worse on her right hand, but her left hand had that blue tint of trauma. She looked at her hands, clenching and unclenching them, before shrugging. His tone softened, "How are you feelin'?" She knew what he meant, but she wasn't ready to talk about that.

"Sore. And tired." She looked down at herself, "and covered in powdered sugar." There was a dusting sugar on lace ties on the top of her dress. "It's velvet so it's not gonna brush off," She pouted as she tried to pick the sugar off the neckline, pulling it up as it popped, not wanting to expose herself too much,"No matter what I do." Syrus was still in shock that she was here, acting like nothing happened, and when she looked at him, he tensed. Her eyes softened in knowing, "I'm not going to hurt you, Sy." She could read him a lot easier than most people. "I'd like to forget last night happened."

"That's easy for you to say!" Syrus covered his mouth, surprised that he was actually able to say that to her. She sighed, looking at the ground before looking back at him, her eyes full of her apology.

"It's easy to say, but not easy to do, I know. What happened was…" she glanced at Jesse and Jaden. "...horrifying." Her eyes were clouded with regret when she finally looked back at him. "Washing off my own blood is one thing," her eyes began to dull, her mind trying to leave again, "Washing off someone else's…" Jesse placed a hand on her forearm, grounding her. "I'm sorry, Syrus." She had never said his full name like that before. "I wish I could go back and prevent you from seeing that." It didn't go unnoticed that she wasn't apologizing for what she did. "No," she answered his unasked question, "I don't regret beating the shit out of him." Her eyes hardened, rage building behind them. "He deserved it." Her tone quickly flipped, "You have nothing to worry about," She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"So, uh, what about this festival?" Jaden wanted to relieve the strain between his two friends. "Do they have more food?" The funnel cake was long gone, but it's dusty remnants painted his face.

"There is more food. And games. And duels." This smile did reach Rae's eyes.

"We could check it out then!" He was quick to his feet, the temptation of food strong. Rae grabbed the hand that rested on her forearm and dragged him out after Jaden, a half eaten funnel cake abandoned on the floor.

Jaden had trouble deciding what food he wanted to eat next. He bounced between stalls and trucks, becoming more and more stressed about it.

"Just get one of each," Rae insisted. "We know you can eat all of it." His eyes sparkled when he looked at her. That was the best thing he has heard today. His bouncing between each stall now resulted with new deep fried food, slowly piling up.

Jaden's face fell when he realized he didn't have enough money for every stall. He looked at his friends, eyes glistening with his dramatic tears. Jesse laughed and pulled out his wallet. Jaden looked at him like he was about to cry from this pure, unadulterated joy when Jesse handed him the last stall's food.

Jaden had the incredible talent of hoarding and balancing all of that food, while walking and eating. He had refused help from his friends; he couldn't trust them. This food was his and his alone.

They stopped when they caught the tail end of a duel. The center of the festival had a huge clearing, meant for dueling. When the duel had finished, another set of duelists took their place. That was the main purpose of this carnival afterall: getting in those survival duels, but Rae wasn't the type that really liked to watch duel after duel like the boys did. Instead, she enjoyed people watching, and there were a lot of people gathered around, giving her plenty of things to look at. Friends were laughing together, trying not to get their hands sticky from cotton candy, couples were holding hands and trying to win each other prizes, french fries were being stolen by birds. There were so many smiling faces. A welcomed change from the exhaustion that had been hollowing out otherwise healthy students' faces.

Something caught her eye as she looked around; a game stall, prizes hanging from the walls and the ceiling. There was one, in particular, in the center of the wall that she knew she had to have it. The boys were too preoccupied by the duel to notice she wandered off.

The soft high pitch of Ruby's voice caught Jesse's attention. She was sitting on his shoulder, with a "I have something to say" expression on her little furry face. Jaden's attention was still firmly on the duel so he did not hear what Ruby was saying. Jesse looked over to where she was talking about, seeing Rae playing one of the games.

She was sulking when Jesse walked up beside her, right as she narrowly missed the basket. He watched as her brow furrowed in frustration, the click of her clutch closing sounded sad. "How was the duel?" She tried to hide her devastation behind her question, an attempt of a distraction. "They had a strong start."

"Kinda disappointin'." He made eye contact with the carnie and they exchanged his money for some wiffle balls. "One of 'em played his trap card too early. Probably what cost 'im the duel." She switched between looking at him and watching the balls bank off the backboard into the basket. He made each one of them.

"How did you…" Her frustration shifted from her losing all of her money to this game to him being damn near perfect at it. He chuckled in response and scratched the back of his head.
"My family goes to the local fair every summer. Got kinda good at these sorts of things." She didn't hear what Jesse told the carnie when he asked what prize he wanted, too flustered at herself. "Here," she snapped out of her head and stared at the small poster he was holding out to her. Slowly, her hands wrapped around its thin plastic frame, not quite able to process what was happening. "Ruby told me you were tryin' to win it."

Jesse was starting to get concerned by her lack of response when Rae slammed into him, arms circling around his neck. He laughed as his arms went around her waist, returning the hug.

"Thank you! Thank you, so so much!" Her words muffled against his shoulder. Her arms loosened as she pulled back to look at him. Jesse watched as she blinked back some tears, the brightest smile he's ever seen taking over her features.

"What did I miss?" Jaden interrupted. They both looked at him and Rae pulled back to show him the poster, her empty hand lingering for a moment on Jesse's shoulder.

"Jesse won this for me!" She took a step towards Jaden, both hands holding the frame now. Jaden looked at Jesse, amused. Rae narrowed her eyes at Jaden. "You told him." Jaden's eyes widened.

"No!" He was waving his hands in defense.

"Told me what?" Rae stared Jaden down, threatening him. Jesse looked between the two and the poster in her hands. "Jay didn't tell me anythin'." Her eyes were still sharp when she looked at him. "Ruby did." Realization hit her and it was soon replaced with embarrassment.

"...you did say that…" She began chewing on the inside of her cheek. "I forgot that you can also see duel spirits…"

"Rae doesn't want people knowing."

"What, that you like Taylor Swift?" Panic flashed across her face as she shh'ed him. "What's so wrong 'bout that?"

"It doesn't fit her "aesthetic" or whatever," Jaden playfully mocked, "She wants everyone to think she's some heavy metal...what did you call it?" Rae looked down.

"Heavy metal witch bitch…" she mumbled. Jesse chuckled.

"Likin' Taylor Swift doesn't make you any less of a 'heavy metal witch bitch'."

"She doesn't just like Taylor Swift," Jaden began, drawing Rae's attention.

"I will end you," she warned, but Jaden just gave her a huge grin.

"She's obsessed." She launched herself towards Jaden, fingers brushing against the collar of his jacket, when an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back. She crossed her arms and Jesse let go of her.

"You two are the worst." She huffed, glaring at the ground in front of her. Jesse could tell this was something that was very important to her, but it was a part of her that she wanted to keep quiet. He understood why. She spends a lot of time making herself out to be someone intimidating. And loving Taylor Swift was one of those things that was contradictory to her whole act.

Jesse tried to take the poster from Rae, but her hand tightened around it, confusion, and betrayal, written in her eyes.

"Let me carry it," he requested, "they'll think it's mine." Relaxing her hand, she let him take it.

Rae had noticed it before, this warmth in her chest, but it was small back then. It used to be just like things are with Jaden, but it was changing. It was growing bigger and warmer and, now, it was starting to spider out through the rest of her. It became something she never wanted to lose.

Viper had gotten his computer up and running again after a few days. It seemed slower than before, but it was running and that's all that mattered right now. He was relieved, but he had residual frustrations because he missed a huge payout. The carnival would have generated a lot of energy for him.