"You can do this, Connie!" Connie whispered to herself. She ate a spoonful of carrots and nearly choked crying out, "I did it! I ate four cans of mashed up carrots!"

The door suddenly glowed and she turned to see the Crystal Temps. "Hello, Connie." Peridot said.

"Guys! Look!" Connie cried. She ran to them with the empty cans.

"What have you got there?" Lapis smiled.

"I've got four empty cans of mashed carrots!" Connie said proudly.

"Sweet." Jasper said.

"Yeah, and on the back are five dollar coupons for the tennis court. I ate four cans, so we all can go together!" Connie explained, showing off the back.

"You're very kind, Connie. However, uhh…" Peridot glanced at Lapis.

"We've… got to go on another mission." Lapis murmured.

"What? Not again!" Connie cried, dropping the cans. "You guys promised we'd hang out!"

"This is a very important mission, kiddo… I'm sorry, but we can't stay." Jasper said.

"B-but, it's like swinging a sword, and you hit stuff, and I like it…" Connie said. Her eyes lit up. "Look! I pulled out my dad's old rackets and also found a pair of his old tennis shorts. They're a little big on me, but you
can wear them, Jasper!"

The other gems chuckled while Jasper frowned.

"Bye, Connie!" Lapis said, waving.

Connie watched them disappear on the warp pad.

"Well, you're not the only ones with a dangerous adventure to tackle." She whispered.

The girl ran to her room and turned on her tv to a game, 'Tennis Quest'

"Hooray! You received the Mythril racket!" Connie said, she made the game's sound effect. "Don't worry, professor! We're gonna whack 'em all!" Connie giggled, saying the main protagonist's line. "Uh-oh."
The girl said, seeing a giant tennis ball approach. "Oh tennis ball. Why must we always fight? Man, it would've been just like this!"

She played all night and finally beat the boss. She watched it explode.

'Unlocked secret ending' the screen said.

"Secret ending!" Connie squealed.

"Connie! We're home!" She heard Lapis yell.

Connie's eyes were glued to the screen.

"Project S.I.N.N.T? That's tennis spelled backwards!" The main character gasped. Suddenly, a capsule started opening. "What is this?!" The girl asked.

"Connie! Do you want to hear about where we've been?!" Lapis laughed, bending down in front of her. Connie gasped and bent down to look at the screen.

"June 9, 2014? But that was the date she disappeared!" The character gasped.

"Since when have you liked video games?" Lapis asked, falling in front of the girl.

"Hey!" Connie cried in frustration.

"Check it out!" Jasper said proudly, slamming a heavy object on the floor. Connie desperately tried to see the screen.

"It's a rock!" Peridot squealed. "Well, a very special rock, anyway! It's called the Wailing Stone!"

"That's great, but I kinda need you to mov-" Connie was interrupted by Lapis flying to it, "It makes a loud noise when you press this!" She pressed a button on the top of the stone.

The stone made humongous sounds and destroyed the tv then Peridot slammed her fist down on the button. "Lapis, don't touch that!"

"THAT WAS THE SECRET ENDING!" Connie yelled, making them jump. "Now I have to replay the final dungeon all over again! It's not fair! I can't play tennis, I can't play my game, I can't stop going into the bathroom because I
ate all those mashed carrots, so many carrots...I just wish I had a place for myself."

Her gem started to glow. She glanced down at it while Jasper saw the door glow, "Kid, come here." She breathed.

They ran to the door and saw the yellow diamond that matched the one on Connie's chest glowing.

"It unlocked your mother's room!" Peridot gasped.

Connie stepped closer but the gems creid out warnings.

"Stop!" Peridot yelled.

"Don't go in there!" Lapis creid.

"It's too dangerous!" Jasper called.

"It's never about what I wanna do, is it?" Connie flipped to them, her hair almost smacking Peridot. "Well now we have a place where I'm going and YOU CAN'T COME!"

"CONNIE!" The gems yelled.

She went in

The girl looked around and saw the room was yellow, and full of clouds. "So this is my mom's room? She must've liked clouds a lot... But what kind of room doesn't even have a bed?" No sooner did she say that then and bed did appear underneath
her. "Cool! Hm...This bed is pretty nice. But you know what would be really nice? Quadruple bunk-beds!" It did as she wished. "With a slide!" She laughed as she slid down and flew through the air. "Parachute please!"
She gently fell to the ground.

"What next? Hmmmm... Ummmm... A tiny floating whale?" The yellow whale appeared beside her. She giggled. "Hey cutie!" She petted it. "Here… I can have anything I want! But you know what I really want? I wanna see
the end of my game, without being interrupted!" She saw the tv pop up next to her and high-fived the whale. "It's me, your mother! After decades of cryostation, I'm finally free!" The main character's mother cried. The two hugged. Connie
smiled with satisfaction. "Awesome!" She then yawned. "Hm.. I wish I had a book to read." The room made a book. She attempted to open it but it poofed into clouds. "What? I want a real book…" She said. She tried to read
the new one that appeared but it disappeared as well! "Now I have to go out for books!" Connie groaned. A door appeared. She exited.

"Don't get excited, guys. I'm only back for a second." Connie saw the whole place was dark, and no one was there. "Huh."

She walked to the bookstore and browsed them.

"What can we help you with, Connie?" The girl jumped and turned to see Lars and Sadie smiling down at her. "O-oh! It's just you! Er, I'm looking for some poetry… to read with my dad later, you see we haven't read-"

"It's very nice to see you, Connie!" The two said.

"Oh, um, it's very nice to see you, too, I suppose." They handed Connie a bag full of books. "Here are your books!"

"But I only wanted-"

"Okay, we love you, Connie! Bye bye, now!" She watched them almost robotically go behind the desk. "I haven't payed for these!" She ran to them out the back door but only saw Onion.

"Oh, hi Onion…" Connie whispered. "Have you seen Lars and Sadie? They should have just been out here… Hey, if you see them, let me know. Okay?" The boy stared. "Do you… know how to read yet? Here, look, this book
has pictures you can look at…" Connie bent down to show him a book without opening it and he blinked. "Here… you can borrow it." She placed one beside him and ran off.

She was at the boardwalk and all was quiet, yet all had lights on. "This… is weird…" She walked by the fry shop and felt a familiar sense of horror… Connie turned to see Frybo. The girl fell back in shock. "Peedee?..." The monster
suddenly put a plate of fry bits in front of her. "Oh, fry bits. Usually I'm all about the bits. But I'm feeling kinda spooked right now." The girl backed away slowly but the thing put more fry bits out. "Ghaa! Er, I have to go!"

Connie walked into Funland, deserted too. She came up to the arcade and suddenly, all the lights and games turned on. She screamed and fell back, running away.

She then saw she was at the beach. Then, on a hill, she saw Steven with his back to her, a pink glow around him. She smiled gratefully. Steven would know what to do! "Steven! I can't believe it's you. When did you get back in town?"
She then glanced down at the water. It kept moving forward and back. "The water! Steven, what's going on?! Where is everyone?!" The boy suddenly turned around. She couldn't see his eyes in the glow of the bracelet. "She was AWESOME!"
He yelled, making Connie fall away.

"WHAT?!" She cried.

The boy kept repeating when she turned to see the other residents behind her, doing nothing…

"What's wrong with your faces? Lion, you too?!" She gasped seeing her pet.

The girl was suddenly walking in water. "Can someone please explain THIS?!" She started to sink and found herself at the police station. Her father walked through the door. "Connie!" He smiled.

Connie frowned and cocked her head. "Dad? Is that you?"

"What? Of course! You doing alright? You look like you saw a ghost. Either that, or you stayed up all night playing a videogame." He winked at her.

"Dad, I'm really scared! I feel like I'm stuck inside of some crazy dream." The girl whispered.

"Whoa. Why don't we share some of those books and you can tell me about this crazy night you're having?" They sat on the police car.

"The Temps were trying to tell me something about Mom's room. But I was so mad that I didn't listen. They're always leaving me behind, and... I guess I wanted to do it to them, too." Connie sighed.

"Aw, that's not so bad." Doug shrugged. "Everyone needs some alone time now and then." He played air guitar.

"Yeah. It was really fun for a while. But now," Connie bit her lip, "the whole city; everyone and everything... is acting really weird…"

"Well the important thing is you told the truth." Doug smiled.

"Yeah, I... guess I did." Connie frowned. He suddenly played air guitar again. "Uh, Dad? Your advice is making less sense than usual."

Doug turned to her. "Well the important thing is family and friendship, honesty values, and no one got arrested, heh, I would know." He played air guitar.

The girl frowned then glanced at the book in her lap. She hesitated, then tried to open it… it poofed into clouds. "I'm… still in the room!" She gasped. "This is all fake!"

The room started to crack around her. She was in a star filled sky and watched it, all of the horror, leave…

She started to fall and creid out, "I DON'T WANT THIS!" Suddenly, the yellow whale appeared in front of her. "What do you want, Connie?" It said in a calm voice that made Connie feel as if she had heard it many, many times
before…

" I want to be back with the Crystal Temps!" She sobbed, hugging the whale as if it was a child would hug its mother when it was scared.

Connie slammed right into Jasper and bit her arm.

"Hey! Watch it, kid!" Jasper grunted.

"You're not clouds!" Connie laughed in relief, happy tears slipping down her face.

"Connie? Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Lapis gasped, hugging her.

"It was awful… I was trapped in a messed up version of Beach City. Everyone was acting super weird and…" Lapis looked at Connie. "The room made a whole town?!"

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Peridot creid.

"At least you're safe…" Jasper sighed.,

"I'm sorry I got mad, guys. I get it now. Things can't always go exactly how I want." Connie whispered.

"Connie, we're sorry, too." Peridot said. Lapis nodded.

"But guess what? We have time to hang out, now." Jasper smiled.

Connie was now playing tennis with the gems. "I always get what I want!"