Skipping to the reviews first before we begin...

TO MY BEAUTIFUL REVIEWERS!

ananonoddish — LOL, really? Thanks for the nice compliments, haha! YES! Everyone does need to sit down and talk lol! Also, thanks again for that! I don't really get their personalities right in my opinion, but I try. Thanks again for reviewing! You made my day :)
Just Another Kid — Seriously, dude, I always love your long reviews, LOL. Yeah, it was slowly recovering and based on info, but I'm happy you found it humorous :) Car Killer is just something I brought back from a few chapters back haha. And yes, I like doing three person POV most of the time bc I'm not that good in capturing characters, but people tend to like the thoughts more, so I try to do first person, but I can never really grasp their thoughts. BTS Red is actually bad (i'll admit it), but that's probably bc I'm trying to do a difference specialshipping approach in BTS. Anyways, thanks for the sweet comments! As for the questions you have about their past selves, it will eventually be answer (the spoiler is probably the next chapter if I ever get to it). LOL, the shippings will come too later, just wait XD I'll add like tons! LOL, Behind the Scenes is seriously about easy going ships tbh. Anyways, thanks for reviewing like always, and I won't :)
J.530 — Aw thanks!
demigod39cluesfan — The concept will be as confusing as the last chapter, let me warn you lol.

To everyone who reviewed, thanks for reviewing :) They always make my day and I appreciate your comments whether it's criticism! XD I don't want to blab on too much, so go ahead and read the next chapter!


Chapter Sixteen — Coincidences Don't Always Happen


Platinum still couldn't exactly process what happened yesterday. Well, she could, but it was hard to fully wrap her head around it. Though it was shocking to hear Marley's story, she knew she needed to do something about it since she was involved with the mess. On the bright side, Marley was also on her side, so at least she wasn't all alone in it.

As she rubbed her eyes and began to brush her teeth in her silk pink pajamas, she stared straight into the large mirror in front of her.

Her cobalt eyes stared at her face in thought.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that she was definitely Dawn. The visions she had were also of Dawn. She somewhat guessed Dawn had something to do with her, but confirming it made her feel more secure. She didn't like how she wasn't in control and confused lately. Also, thinking about Dawn, Platinum couldn't help but wonder what happened to her. If she was Dawn, why is she Platinum? Why did Dawn lose her memories? Why was she younger than Dawn even though she's supposed to be Dawn? She wanted to believe Marley's story because the girl seemed like she was telling the truth, but things didn't add up. There were also some crazy suggestions in her mind where she put reincarnation as a factor, but the settings she saw in the visions seemed pretty modern.

Platinum rinsed her mouth and splashed her face with water. After wiping her face clean, she looked up at the mirror again and then remembered what Marley told her. After finding out about the 'Diamond and Pearl being Barry and Lucas' thing, she needed to act normal like nothing happened.

Could I really do it?

She slapped her cheeks to clear her thoughts. She always observed Sapphire doing it, so she thought it would help.

"Missy, is there something wrong with your cheeks?"

Platinum quickly put her hands down and turned to the butler with a straight face, secretly hiding her embarrassment that he witnessed that. "I am fine, Sebastian. Thank you."

"I see. I apologize for barging in without knocking, but the door was left open and I wanted to inform you that school will start soon," her butler informed.

"I am almost done getting ready," Platinum responded. "Thank you."


"FOOTBALL PRACTICE IS GOING TO START! HURRY UP AND LINE UP! KICKS ARE FIRST THING!" Lt. Surge shouted, blowing his equally loud whistle.

The football players followed as he said and went to go line up. The coach went over to the other side and started tossing them towards the football players so they can practice their kicks.

At the back of line, Red yawned inside his helmet. "I am so tired..." he mumbled.

"Are you okay?" Diamond asked.

"Don't worry. He's only tired because he was staying up last night for football tickets downtown," Green stated.

"What?! Football tickets downtown?! You mean the one where Bruno and the others are playing?!" Gold exclaimed, remembering something about a famous team from a far away region coming. "Dude, I've always wanted to go, but those tickets sold out fast! Take me, man!"

"Haha..." Red let out a nervous laugh. "I only have four tickets—"

"Still!" Gold insisted.

"I wanna go too!" Sapphire pleaded, giving her best puppy face.

"No! Take us instead!" Pearl said, referring to him and Diamond.

"Yeah but funny story—" Red didn't get to finish because Green intervened.

"—He lost two of the four tickets."

"WHAT?!" the four underclassmen exclaimed.

"I'm obviously going," Green stated, crossing his arms and reaffirming his position.

"Sorry guys," Red apologized.

"How'd ya lose it? Didn't ya just get it last night?" Sapphire asked.

"I got the tickets by winning a Pokémon knowledge competition, and of course, I won easily. When I went to give the tickets to Green, there was a hole in my pocket, and two of them were missing. I think it fell out on the way back to the dorms," Red summarized. "It was very tragic."

"Your sense of responsibility is the thing that's tragic," Green stated. "But then I guess I can't whine about it. I'm still going no matter what."

As the other underclassmen sighed and groaned about how they weren't going, Red awkwardly chuckled.

"Oh, I'm next!" Pearl exclaimed, realizing that the line was getting shorter.

Lt. Surge blew the whistle after the person in front of him kicked and they continued practice.


"Yellow, you're such a worrywart," Blue stated, sipping on her coffee drink.

"I can't help it!" Yellow responded.

The two were outside together in the morning to get some fresh air before school starts. They sat under a tree near the school gates on a small hill that was close to the football field. Blue wanted to talk to her more, and Yellow just wanted to relax and get stuff out. The girls didn't know why they were constantly exhausted, but they were.

"Gold is still hurt, and I don't want him to go back to school so quickly, but he kept insisting," Yellow told her, sighing in worry.

"Yellow, you're overreacting," Blue remarked. "His wound is like a scratch now."

"He's still hurt though whether it is, or isn't a scratch," Yellow retorted. "How's Silver by the way? I know I asked yesterday last night, but I couldn't help but be worried. Sorry for being nosy."

"No, it's fine," Blue reassured, waving it off. "Silv is actually doing pretty good, but he's still hospitalized. I'm planning to go visit him after school later. You know, after that dumb detention thing."

Yellow nodded. "I think that's good," she commented.

"Maybe I should just make him go to your place," Blue suggested. "I mean, the same thing happened to Gold, but he's doing pretty good."

"But that's the weird part. Even though he was shot by a gun like he said, when I found him, he had a pretty deep wound, but it's not as deep as a gunshot," Yellow informed. "I wonder if something else happened, but I don't want to doubt his words since he was there and I wasn't. But then again, I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much since he's okay. I hope Silver gets in the best condition as well."

Blue nodded, agreeing. "Yep. He has an upcoming homecoming game," she reminded.

"And then there's the play we're supposed to do," Yellow reminded.

"Oh yeah, weren't they going to do that yesterday or something?" Blue asked, thinking that she remembered something about how they wanted the play to be on the next day after the festival.

"We're supposed to meet in the auditorium during eighth again today," Yellow replied.

Blue let out a long groan then laid on her back against the grass. She stared at the clouds, reaching her arm out to grab them. "Y'know, sometimes I wish I was a cloud. I wouldn't have to do anything risky or dangerous like going to school."

Yellow giggled at her remark.

Blue dropped her arm dramatically onto the floor again. "Well, I guess I should be happy. Maybe I can get White to give you and Red the lead roles, or something. That'll be so awesome to watch!"

"More like awkward..." Yellow trailed off quietly. "Speaking of Red, he doesn't really seem affected by the thing."

"Oh yeah huh," Blue mumbled. "He didn't get hurt or anything, so I don't blame him. We actually ended up pretty lucky compared to Silv and Gold."

"Yeah," Yellow agreed.

As she stared at the clouds, Blue continued the conversation, "So who do you think is one of the fourteen? We already got six, including you and I."

"Mm... I don't know. Can't you just hack the system or something again like you did to track me?" Yellow inquired.

"That was once, and after that, when I tried to find out who Capturer was, they put up a wall," Blue replied. "Plus, it's dangerous to go back there for a while."

"Yeah, I guess. Sorry, I didn't think about that," Yellow said.

Blue sat up again, holding her weight back with her arms. "I guess we could check the computer club or something. There's bound to be RPG geeks there."

Yellow's sweat dropped. "Blue! That's so mean! We're not in the computer club, but we play it!" she pointed out. "Green, Red, Silver, and Gold are in football and are popular, yet they play it too!"

"Yeah, but still. Think of the possibilities," Blue tried to persuade. "Sometimes we would go during lunch break and see them play some game! What are the chances that they're actually playing one of the best RPG game? We should go check it out just in case. It's the only lead we have."

"It's not really a tactical lead though..." Yellow mumbled, sighing. "But I guess it's better than nothing. I'll follow you, Blue."

"Thanks, Yells," Blue responded, smiling. "I'm actually—"

She stopped when a football was flying towards Yellow's direction. Yellow didn't react because her back was to it, and Blue quickly tackled her out of the way. They both fell to the floor, rolling down the hill. Seconds later, Blue opened her eyes and sat up again, only to see someone there blocking the sun from her view.

"Gold will never become the quarterback, seriously," a familiar voice muttered.

"Green!" Yellow exclaimed, seeing him.

The boy had the football in his hand. He caught it a couple seconds before it hit them.

"Good morning," he greeted politely.

"Hi," Yellow greeted back sweetly.

"Hey," Blue said softly, staring at him.

Green averted his eyes at Blue for a good three seconds before turning around and walking away back to the field.

"What was that?" Yellow inquired. She was watching the two make silent eye contact during the time.

"It's not really much," Blue reassured, giving her trusty smile again. She laid back down again and watched the clouds drift once more. "Anyways, we'll investigate during lunch time. For now, let's enjoy the scenery while we can! We have to go to the after school detention thing later and also discuss the play details as well after they announce it. I swear, school stuff is literally killing me. They're slave drivers."

"It'll be over soon," Yellow optimistically said.

"Y'know, Yellow, I can finally understand why you can sleep on the ground all the time," Blue stated. "I feel so drowsy, but I hate sleeping on the ground."

She giggled lightly when she saw Blue's relaxed state. "We have like thirty minutes till the students rush in. You can take a nap, and I'll wake you up."

"Okay, thanks," Blue mumbled, turning on her side. "We should really bring Crystal here too. She needs to chill."

"Wow, you sound like Gold," Yellow commented.

"Don't insult me," Blue joked, yawning as she stretched her arms. "I'll take your offer up on that."


Silver knew Blue would've freaked out if she knew he left the hospital. Though he could actually walk now without the wheel chair, he was sort of limping. However, despite his condition, he felt hasty to find answers. He wanted to hurry up and find the members after hearing Blue's plan over the phone last night. He wasn't going to do anything insane though. He was just going to get his laptop out of his dorm to use it to find some clues about the characters. Plus, he needed to ask Soul because it seemed like she knew something.

"Silver?"

His perfect escape plan was soon ruined quickly when someone already discovered him.

Turning around, he recognized the person as Diamond. He was pretty horrible at remembering names, but he remembered that underclassman's name due to always having food in his hands.

"What?" he answered.

"Oh, sorry," Diamond apologized upon seeing his irritation. "I just thought you weren't going to be here because you skipped practice."

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be at practice?"

"Well yeah, but I forgot something and the coach was going to let me run and get it since we have a fifteen minute break right now. Anyways, are you okay?" Diamond asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah," Silver answered quickly.

The boy shouldn't be able to see his pain since he was staying still and not moving. Silver was sure he shouldn't had seen him limping earlier too because he didn't really show any signs of it. The last thing he needed was everyone to know how he's injured.

Diamond looked him straight in the eye, his innocent ones bore into his. Silver actually felt like he was reading his mind, or looking into his soul or something.

"Mm... I guess I was wrong," Diamond said, believing him. "I just get this vibe that you're not okay and that you're hiding something." Silver slightly flinched when he spotted it. "But it's not my business and I don't really know you personally. Sorry." And with that, Diamond gave polite farewells then went over to his dorm five doors down to get the thing he intended to get in the first place.

What a weird kid... Silver thought, staring in the space he was standing in before going into his dorm himself.


"HIYA!"

Crystal's cry went around the dojo loudly as she kicked a roundhouse kick at her opponent right in the face and knocked him down. Though he was wearing protective gear for fights, he could still feel the effect of the kick and it made him stay down. After it was ruled that she was the winner in the practice match, Crystal let out another intimidating cry and tightened the black belt that hung across her waist. She went over to go help her opponent up when she heard someone call out to her.

"Woah, aren't you cool! I might fall for ya!"

Crystal turned around and frowned when she recognized who the voice belonged to.

Gold stood there, grinning at the sight of her with the same sleazy smile he always had on. "Wait, I think I already have," he flirted, tossing her a towel.

"Leave," she snapped, wiping herself with the towel. Once she remembered what happened the other day, her hostility disappeared and she reminded herself to be nicer. She muttered a 'thanks' inaudibly, looking the other way.

Gold furrowed his eyebrows, somewhat hearing her mumble, but he wasn't sure what she said. "What did you say?"

Crystal let out a sigh, and dismissed it. "What are you doing here?"

"Can't I visit my favorite girl?"

"Get out, you're going to distract me."

"Okay, geez," Gold said, putting his arms up to surrender and make peace. "The truth is, Yellow told me that you were the one who brought me to my dorm the other day, so I came to properly thank you and let you know how I'm doing. I heard it was a special effect that some other club made that went around, but it was so bad that it knocked me out and stuff. Sorry, I didn't get to bring you around the festival much and you had to lug me around."

Crystal took a deep breath, trying to process his words. Obviously, she knew Gold was lying about the injury and attack to make her feel better (though the real reason is because Gold didn't want her to know about the game) so that she doesn't freak out that he got shot. To be grateful to him, Crystal went along with his intentions.

"It's okay. Just make sure to take better care of yourself," she told him.

"So are we cool?"

"We're cool," she replied, alright to be friends with him. "But I'm still holding you responsible for throwing my phone out of the window for no reason."

"Oh yeah," Gold muttered, remembering that incident. He almost forgotten about it because it happened like over a week ago, and he didn't make arrangements to make it up to her besides an empty promise because they were so busy that week.

"Do you want to go shopping this Saturday for a new one? I bet you gals love shopping."

"I'm not into shopping, but if it'll get me a new phone then sure," Crystal agreed. "I should be free on Saturday. What time?"

"Central Plaza at 10 AM," Gold replied.

"That's fine," she remarked. "See you there. Now, get out, I need to continue practice before class starts."

"Alright! I'll see ya in first period! Bye, Super Serious Gal," Gold said, leaving before she could change her mind.

Crystal's gaze lingered on his back as he exited the dojo. Many things ran through her mind, the first being how she needed to be nicer to him. She only acted that way because of how irresponsible Gold acts and she wanted to distance herself, but after seeing how he took a bullet for her and shrugged it off, she felt bad.

I should buy him food, or something. It's the least I could do since that gun was supposed to hit me, she decided.


"Hello, boys~!"

Blue and Yellow stood in front of the computer club awkwardly, its members staring at the girls with confused looks. They didn't know why they were here, nor who they were, but a couple of them recognized Blue as their student president. Turning their complete attention to the pair, one of them questioned why they were here.

"I was just wondering if any of you play an RPG game," Blue replied sweetly in a chirpy tone to mask her motives.

"Well yeah, of course, but which one?" another one spoke up.

"Pokérune," she answered.

Once she said that, snorts and sounds of laughter went around the room, and Blue's eyebrows furrowed, confused as to why it received that reaction. Yellow stood behind the brunette, completely embarrassed. She was already embarrassed when they came here in the first place, but being laughed at was another level of embarrassment.

"Play that lame game? Us? As if! Those creatures are so fake looking with that graphic, the system is horrible, and the setting is so cliché that their knockoffs are better," one of them commented.

Blue walked over to the one who voiced that comment and personally grabbed shirt collar and shoved him against the wall, surprising the other members.

"The only thing that's fake looking is your face," she said in a high-pitched, sweetly sick tone with a smile.

The others stopped their laughter and were suddenly scared by the threat. The brunette let go of him and walked over to Yellow.

"It's official. The computer club is disbanding by my command," she announced, still keeping her expression.

"W-What! You can't do that!"

"Yes, I can. I'm the student president," she retorted, flipping her hair. "I even have blackmail on you guys and how you hacked the school's system to change your low grades you got due to gaming too much. If you want to test me, then go ahead. I dare you."

Yellow let out a sigh. She knew this was a bad idea from the beginning.


"Did you really have to pick a fight with them?"

After threatening the computer club members, the two went to homeroom to have lunch. Since the other students and teachers that usually occupied the classroom left to go to the cafeteria, they had the whole place to themselves. Yellow thought it'd be better to come here since lunch was almost over.

"They were totally being mean to me," Blue argued. "I tried to be so nice! I seriously can't believe they said all of those things!"

"That doesn't mean you had to threaten them and disband their club," Yellow chided.

"Oh, okay, it was going to disband anyways. I was supposed to take down their club because it was a waste of money since they weren't earning any achievements for the school due to constant gaming and because they literally hacked into the system. It was inevitable," Blue informed.

"Aw, that's sad," Yellow commented, kind of feeling bad for them. Well, the sympathy was limited since it was their own fault.

"What are we going to do now? We don't have any leads," she brought up, remembering the original reason why they went there in the first place.

"Hmm..." Blue started to think, her forehead creasing. "I think we should just ask them."

"Ask who?"

"Ask the players."

Seeing the look Yellow gave her, Blue continued, "I prefer sneaking around and doing it secretly, but lately their security has gone up and even Silv couldn't hack it. It's faster to do it this way too. We can just text them in the group chat to meet up, and then hide somewhere to see their identities. Technically, we're still sneaking around."

"What if they don't show up?" Yellow pointed out.

"I mean, I guess we can change that to last resort with the variables. It's the best choice of the options we have, considering the other one is asking around," Blue said. After a second of thinking, she continued, "Why don't we ask the football players?"

Yellow raised an eyebrow. "The football players? Why?"

"Well, Red, Green, Gold, and Silver play the Pokérune, and they're all football players. Don't you think there are more dorks there?" Blue reasoned. "Your boyfriend could be an influence where he makes the whole team play it."

"R-Red is not my boyfriend!" Yellow stammered.

Blue gave her a playful smirk, and teased her. "Hey, I never say Red, did I~?"

"Blue!" Yellow cried in a whiny voice, wanting the brunette to stop.

She took her friend's hint and ended it with a giggle. "I'm just kidding! No need to get so worked up!"

Yellow frowned at how she was having fun with the teasing, but shrugged it off. "Alright, so we're going to ask the football players?"

"Yep! Let's totally do it after school!"


"This is all yer fault!"

"As if! You were the one who talked back to the substitute!"

"At least I didn't insult her outfit!"

"She was wearing black and black! Black and black do not go together! It's like mixing white and white!"

Sapphire wanted to point an accusing finger at Ruby, but her hands were currently occupied with buckets full of water. After talking so much in class (some of the conversations being about the substitute teacher), the two were told to hold buckets of water outside the classroom as punishment. It's only been ten minutes, and it didn't stop their squabbles.

"What are ya talkin' about?!" Sapphire snapped.

"You wouldn't understand," Ruby said, letting out a sigh that meant he gave up on her.

"Ya're just crazy!" Sapphire insulted, glaring at him.

"I'm perfectly fine!" Ruby told her, snapping his head the other way. Sapphire did the same thing, and the silence between them grew.

Secretly without being noticed, Ruby glanced over to the girl and looked her body up and down. Her body seemed to be in a better condition, and the fact she was holding heavy water buckets seemed to be the evidence of that. He didn't know how she recovered so quickly, or how strong she was, but he was sort of surprised how fast she got over it.

"Hey, you two!"

Both Ruby and Sapphire stiffened up in surprise when they heard their substitute teacher, Ms. Whitney slammed the sliding door open and called out to them.

"Is the punishment done?" Sapphire asked.

She let out a sigh. "I wish I can keep you two here longer, but according to the school announcement, all students in the program have to go to the auditorium for the all-grade level play. Eighth period is about to start, so I'll release you for now, but you're going to continue the punishment tomorrow if I come back!"

"Yipee!"

Sapphire tossed her buckets aside and ran down the hallway, elated to see her friends and get out of this punishment early.

Ruby looked uneasy as he gently placed the buckets down and stared at the wet mess she made in the hallway. He heard the teacher grumble something incoherently beside him.

"Tell that girl she's going to get a write up."


Pricilla, the prince's mother.

Upon entering the auditorium, Platinum was handed a piece of paper, and she didn't know what it meant. When she had asked the person who gave it to her what it was, he just replied that it was for the upcoming play and was too occupied and busy to answer more of her questions.

Platinum looked around for a good seat so that she could properly pay attention to the directions that were going to be given soon. It's her first year at this school, so she wasn't really familiar with how they're going to run this. She wanted to make sure that she doesn't make herself look dumb.

When she was looking through the option of seats, she spotted someone familiar. Rushing over to her, Platinum confronted her, "What are you doing here? I don't even think you're allowed in here unless you're in the Prodigy Program."

Marley shrugged her shoulders, the look in her eye hinting that she didn't care. "I got in by coming through the back," she replied. "Guess security isn't hard to get past here."

Platinum folded her arms. "So, what are you doing here?" she repeated, looking around to make sure no other students notice that she's here.

Marley kept her stoic expression, and she didn't seem to be as nervous as Platinum. "I need to stay at your house."

Platinum stopped looking around and gave the girl a look. "Pardon?"


"Hey guys!" Sapphire greeted the football team and joined them in the auditorium.

This morning, they agreed to meet up in the auditorium again to discuss more plans about the homecoming play Green wanted. The brunet was eager for victory, and he kept wanting to drill it into their heads and use the limited time they had left even though it wasn't too close.

"Yo, Wild Gal!" Gold greeted back, waving.

Red also greeted her. "I think that's everyone? Should we start? Oh wait, Silver isn't here."

"He's absent today," Gold informed.

"I saw him earlier at the dorms. He seemed busy though," Diamond brought up, thinking back to earlier.

"What? He might be busy, but that's not a good reason to skip school," Pearl commented.

Green shrugged his shoulders. "That's his business. Everyone has their own reasons for what they do, Gold can just tell him the game plan next time he sees him."

Gold pumped a fist over his chest and lifted his head. "Yeah! Leave it to me, I'll pass it on!"

"It's probably not even a lot that he's missing out on. I bet we can't really talk too much here since we're involved in this event," Red pointed out.

"Oh, speakin' of this, I almost forgot!" Sapphire interjected, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. She flashed it to them with a puzzled look. "What does this say? I got it in on the way in!"

"Cinderella," Pearl read for her.

"I think it's the parts for the play. I remember they mentioned something about drawing or whatever last time we were here," Diamond informed.

Gold snickered beside her. "This is funny! I never thought you'd be Cinderella!"

Sapphire wrinkled her nose, still confused. "What's 'Cinderella'?"

"Cinderella is some princess from a fairy tale. She has an evil stepmother and stepsisters who work her like a maid and make her do all the chores. The prince in the story is throwing a ball for marriage, and secretly, with the help of the fairy godmother's magic, Cinderella is able to attend that ball and meet him. She runs away though because the magic wears off at midnight, and the prince tries finding her using the glass shoe she left. Of course he finds her, and they marry and live happily ever after," Red summarized.

"That sounds magical," Sapphire commented, looking a tad interested.

She wasn't super sure about being some random princess who couldn't stand up for herself, but the story sounded fun. Sapphire didn't know how to feel about the plays though.

"Okay, let's get back on topic before they start this thing," Green said, getting the group's attention again. "Here's another game play I came up with."


"Crystal!"

Crystal's attention averted from her book to the brunette and blonde standing in front of her. They greeted the junior, and Crystal returned the greeting back politely as well and put her book away. Blue looked around her, noticing that she was sitting alone.

"Aw! Are you all alone without your twin?" Blue asked. "Do you want sweet Blue to keep you company?"

"You make me feel uncomfortable all the time," Crystal told her honestly.

Blue grinned, giggling at her reaction. "I'm kidding, of course!"

Crystal didn't know why this girl made her crazy sometimes, but she always did. She didn't know if it was the weirdness that came with the senior, but something was always off with Blue, or at least, in Crystal's opinion. Every interaction was always wild when they would decorate City Hall together.

"What part did you get, Crystal?" Yellow inquired, curiously.

"Cinderella's best friend," she answered, showing her the slip. "I hope it's just an extra, so I don't have to do too much. What about you guys?"

"Yellow and I got the stepsisters," Blue replied. "I bet it's because we walked in after each other."

"Those are pretty big roles," Crystal commented.

"Well, it's fun to be a part of things once in a while," Yellow remarked, okay with the role. She didn't know if she had the confidence to act mean, or act at all, but this was one of the first times she was involved in the all-grades events her whole high school career. It was nice to make some memories before they graduate soon.

"I'm surprised they're going Cinderella though since it's more common in the west. I'm sure Soul would be excited to hear about it!"

"More than excited actually," Crystal corrected, imagining her reaction. "Unfortunately, she can't join."

Crystal felt like it was self-explanatory that whoever doesn't come to the auditorium was automatically excluded from the main roles since they were already passed out.

"It's okay, she can still enjoy it next year!" Blue said, trying to cheer her up. "On the other hand, us seniors are too old and we'll be gone soon! I better get all my ships together before everything ends, so I have no regrets."

"Blue, I don't know if anyone told you this, but you're insane," Crystal remarked.

Blue flipped her brown hair over her shoulder in a cool manner. "It's called being amazing. Anyways—" She stopped in mid-sentence with a gasp when she spotted someone in the background.

Both Crystal and Yellow looked in her direction, wondering what or who caught her attention, only to find it to be the group of the school's football players in a corner.

"We should go say hi!" Blue told them, earning looks.

"Why?!" Crystal exclaimed.

"Now?" Yellow asked, confused. She knew Blue was going to talk to the football players, but now wasn't the best time with everyone around.

"Yeah! Crystal's boyfriend is over there, and I literally just said I need to get my ships together!" Blue informed, yanking Crystal's wrist to drag her. Though she said this, she actually just wanted to interrogate or check out the team, but it'll be fun to use Crystal as a distraction and drag her along.

"Hey! Let go! I don't want to!" Crystal grumbled, taking her wrist back.

Blue placed her hands on her hips. "Oh, that's hilarious! You think you can go against me?"


"—And that's the final part. We're done," Green finally finished, closing his sketchbook. "Any questions?"

Gold let out a long sigh. "Finally! I was about to fall asleep, seriously," he commented, laying back in the theatre chairs.

"Guess we have none," Pearl said, looking around at the others.

"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME!"

Someone screaming caught the group's attention, and they all looked over to see Crystal running towards them with Blue following close behind. Yellow was also seen in the back, but she was way behind the two and slower. When Crystal was about to pass their seats, Blue jumped and tackled her down in front of them. The two girls began wrestling with each other and fighting on the floor.

"Blue! You can't do this!" Yellow said, finally arriving at the scene out of breath.

Green shook his head disapprovingly at the scene and looked the other way. "She's always starting something," he grumbled.

"Should we break it up?" Diamond inquired, getting worried when he saw Crystal kick Blue.

"Dia, my friend, this is a special lesson you should learn from your dear seniors. Do not ever engage in a girl cat fight, or you'll be the one who gets hurt or clawed in the eyes," Gold advised with a serious face. He experienced it first hand one time in freshman year, and after that, never again would he interfere.

"Shut up, Gold!" Crystal snapped, hearing what he said. She got her shoe and threw it in his direction, hitting him straight in the forehead.

"Ow!" Gold exclaimed as he rubbed the spot.

Crystal immediately faltered, realizing what she did. She wanted to be nicer and more gentle with him ever since he saved her, but she unconsciously did that since it was a habit that grew over time.

"Um—" She opened her mouth to apologize, but stopped when she saw Yellow run over to him.

"Gold, are you okay?" she asked worriedly as if he was on the verge of dying.

"Yeah, but I seriously don't know what I did wrong!" Gold groaned, giving Crystal a look. He turned over to his junior. "Look how vicious girls are, my dear Diamond."

Diamond's sweat dropped as he looked in between a raging Crystal and a dramatic Gold. He chose to eat his food quietly.

Blue finally got off of Crystal. "Hey there, guys! It's been so long, I've missed you!"

"We literally saw each other the other day," Green deadpanned.

"Details, details," Blue shrugged him off. "I came over to visit and hang! I also want to ask some fun questions!"

"Leave," Green told her, standing his ground.

Blue shoved him out of the way and proceeded to act all cutesy. Everyone looked at her nervously, surprised that she had the gall to just push Green. There was a mix of surprise in their reactions when they saw Green not react to it.

"Have you guys ever played that game, Pokérune?" Blue asked upfront.

Green shot her a look when she asked about it since it was supposed to be a secret. Gold, who was in alliance with her and Yellow, somewhat figured out their plan and gave her a look of amusement at her direct approach. He didn't think she would straight up ask them, but he thought it was fun.

"Why?" Diamond asked before anyone could answer, suspicious of her.

"Because! I just found it and I absolutely think it's such a cool game, so I was totally wondering whether you guys would play it because the football team is—" Blue paused, making it dramatic, "—full of the most fun guys!"

Half of the football team blushed at her comment, looking prideful and flattered. The other half of the team that knew about her lies didn't react. It was more like most of the people who actually knew Blue's crazy antics after school.

"I play it," Sapphire said, raising her hand and answering her question.

"Really?" Blue asked, gaining her attention.

"I've played it since I entered high school," she informed. "Oh, but Blue, um— wait. Do ya mind if I tell ya somethin' real quick?"

"Yeah, sure! We can go over there," Blue replied, motioning over to an empty spot in the auditorium. Sapphire nodded and followed the girl over to where she had gestured.

"Since Sapph is leaving, I'm gonna go take a dump," Gold announced, taking his leave as well.

Crystal frowned at how he rudely phrased that instead of "I'm going to use the restroom", but didn't say anything. Yellow's sweat dropped.

"Sorry, he's usually more mannered," she tried to defend Gold, not that it was working.

"No, it's okay," Crystal mumbled. "Um, by the way, Yellow, sorry for leaving abruptly after dropping him off. I never got to apologize to you."

"Oh! No, it's totally fine! I'm sorry you got involved," Yellow replied. She assumed it was Gold's own fault for getting shot, and Crystal was just the witness of the event.


"Hey, so what did you want to talk about?" Blue asked.

"I wanted ta tell ya not to play the game!" Sapphire replied, catching her off guard. She didn't think Sapphire would just come out and tell her that.

"I know I sound insane and stuff, but the other day, this guy came after me after the game told me about it! It's so weird, don't play it!" Sapphire warned, shaking Blue's shoulders frantically.

Blue managed to shake her monster grip off. "Okay, I won't!" she reassured the girl with a smile.

She found it really sweet that Sapphire was warning her to get away from the game, and kind of thought it was funny how she outright told her about it.

"Alright! Good!" Sapphire remarked with a toothy grin. "Let's go back!"

"Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" Blue stopped her. "What part did you get for the play? I'm curious!"

"I got someone named Cid— err— lla? Cidalla? Nah, that's not right," Sapphire muttered, totally forgetting how to pronounce the name properly. She dug through her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper, showing it to Blue.

Blue unraveled the crumbled piece of paper and read it. After finding out what role Sapphire received, Blue brightened up like a Christmas tree. "Oh my gosh! You're Cinderella?!" she squealed. "That is so great! It'll be so fun!"

Sapphire wrinkled her nose uncomfortably. "Do ya want ta trade? I'm not interested in stuff like theatre and actin'."

"No way! I really want to see you! Don't trade!" Blue told her. "Yellow and I got the stepsisters, so I guess we'll be your bullies."

Sapphire cracked a grin, finding the scenario funny. "Really? Yer going ta bully me?"

It was just amusing to her because Yellow was one of the sweetest people she's ever met, and Blue was extremely friendly and cheerful all the time. She couldn't imagine any of her seniors picking a fight with her.

"It seems so~!" Blue replied.


"Damn it! Why isn't it working?!"

Silver slammed the table, stressed about how many errors and firewalls he was getting when he tried hacking into the system. The redhead let out a deep sigh and leaned back when he hit another firewall. He was growing impatient and trying his best to get to the bottom of this crap he was put through.

RING!

He groaned and sat up when he heard his phone go off. Seeing the name on the screen, 'GOLD', he picked it up.

"Yo Silv!" a voice from the other side of the line greeted him.

"What?" he replied.

"Geez, thanks for the hello. Why are you so grumpy right now? I thought Green's mood was bad."

"Just get to the point. Why did you call?"

"I checked up on what you told me."

Silver's attention was now grabbed. "On Soul?"

"Yeah, I was casually mentioning it to super serious gal earlier, and she told me that Mario is currently in the same hospital you're in," Gold informed.

At this, Silver got excited. He might've not been able to hack into the game system because of their extra coding and security, but when it comes to accessing hospital information, it should be much easier. He could find Soul and confront her about what happened that day. He should've known Soul was in the hospital since he ran into Crystal there, and she's obsessed with taking care of her sister.

"By the way, you're funny. Foodie kid mentioned how he saw you earlier at the door. Did you escape the hospital?"

"... I didn't escape it," Silver said. "I just left."

He heard a chuckle from Gold. "That's what I meant."

"That's not the concern here," Silver snapped. "I just needed to get my laptop, so I can try hacking into the system. It's not working, and the security is too hard to get by no matter how hard I try."

"Well, you better get to work on getting past it because big sis is not doing the best job," Gold remarked.

"What are you talking about?" he inquired.

"She's going around asking people whether they play the game or not," Gold informed.

"What? Are you sure it's her? She's usually secretive and sneaky about situations like this," Silver commented.

"I mean, she's still somewhat secretive by lying to everyone about how she was wondering about the game and was a beginner," Gold pointed out, shrugging. "It was hilarious, you should've been there."

Silver let out a sigh. He really cherished Blue and appreciated her, but sometimes he didn't know what the brunette was thinking sometimes. She must've been impatient at this point too.

"You know what, it's okay. I'll... just do something. Thanks for telling me."

"Don't worry! I will too! Count on me!"

"Don't do something stupid and irrational," Silver snapped. He knew Gold sucked at being subtle and secretive. The boy was probably going to do something that exposes them.

"Hey! That's rude! I didn't even tell you yet!"

"I already know you have some wild scheme cooked up in your head. You better not do it."

"Just 'cause of that, I'm going to do it!"

"You—"

"—Bye Silv!"

Gold quickly hung up the phone before Silver could chide him more, and he heard the line end. Silver tossed his phone beside him on the couch and leaned back again, rubbing his temples and internally praying that Gold doesn't do something dumb. He quickly shrugged it off and sat up again when he remembered he had to do something. Sitting up and typing on his laptop, he attempted to enter the hospital's database.

Time to find her room number.

If anyone has answers, it's Soul.


Emerald stretched out his arms. "I'm so happy I got free time today! I've been so tired of everything, ugh."

Ruby sat beside him in the audience, drawing something that looked like a dress. "Were you able to hack the system last night?"

"I couldn't— yet. I've never seen a system I couldn't hack. The coding was more complicated than I expected, so it's going to take longer to crack. It doesn't matter too much anyways. I already have a lot of info on the others."

Ruby looked up from his sketchbook and furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"I managed to get some information about the players before the game wiped out my computer," Emerald replied. "I was going to get more, but then a weird virus hit my computer once I got past the firewall. Anyways, the information about the rest of the group are three things."

"Which are?" Ruby said, motioning him to continue.

"We already know two of them. One, they go to this school, and two, they're around our age. The new information I found out is that they're in the Prodigy Program."

"They're prodigies?" Ruby responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Surprisingly, yes," Emerald answered. "I saw a list of the school's database linked into theirs, and it showed a list of students only in the program. Before I could further identify the players specifically, I hit another wall."

"I mean, that's very plausible. There's us, Soul, Crystal, and Sapphire, and we're all in the program," Ruby reminded.

"Five out of fourteen, huh?" Emerald muttered to himself.

"Yeah..." Ruby agreed.

"Hey guys!" Blue greeted, popping out of nowhere beside Ruby.

The boy defensively jumped towards Emerald and let a small shriek while Emerald stared at her with a crazy look, placing his hand on his heart. They were having such a serious conversation in a quieter voice, so Blue's loud greeting caught them off guard and scared them.

"What do you want?" Emerald asked. Sure, they had a couple conversations at City Hall and was friendly, but Blue wouldn't go out of her way to go find them and start up a conversation. He found the girl's appearance suspicious.

"Oh, nothing much! As friends, I just wanted to ask what roles you got for the play. Since I'm student president, I'm super excited!" Blue replied, smiling.

"Rald got an extra role, and I'm the fairy godmother," Ruby answered.

He wasn't really into the part where the whole outfit is a robe and played by a female, but he didn't hate it as much as others. Ruby made a note to make the robe with glitter.

"Wow, such a cool part. I want it, so trade with me!" Blue said, snatching the paper out of his hand and shoving another one in replacement.

Ruby read the role she suddenly forced onto him, and to his surprise, it was a major one. "The prince?"

"You don't mind getting this part, right? Considering you get to be the star of the show and show off to Mr. Wallace," Blue persuaded, using his weakness.

"I mean, I'm grateful, but I'm surprised you're giving this to me," Ruby said.

"Yeah! It's no problem!" Blue replied. "Well, I'll be off! Can't leave Yellow and Crystal all to herself, y'know?" And with that, she zoomed out of there before he could change his mind.

"That was weird," Emerald commented.

"I wonder if she's going to blackmail me, or make me owe her something now," Ruby mumbled, watching her run away.


"We should leave as well," Crystal suggested, motioning the other way. "I want to sit down."

"Um yeah," Yellow agreed, feeling like they were disturbing the football player's conversation.

"Wait!" Red called out, making them stop. He scratched the back of his head and smiled at them in a friendly way. "Uh... What did you guys get for the play?"

"Yellow got a stepsister role and I'm the best friend," Crystal answered briefly.

"Since when is there a best friend in Cinderella?" Pearl commented.

"My thoughts exactly," Crystal agreed. "But I'm not the one who got to choose it, so I can't really complain."

"What about you guys?" Yellow asked, extremely curious.

"Oh, I got—" Red was interrupted when Blue shouted behind him.

"HEY!"

When he turned around in surprise of her sudden yelling, she quietly slipped a piece of paper in his jacket pocket.

"What was that for, Blue?!" Red yelled back, still shaken up.

"I just wanted to scare you guys to see your reflexes! Of course Green was my target, but—" Blue glanced over the brunet. "—he's never scared. Darn it, I failed."

Red always thought Blue was out of it because of every interaction they had, but this time, he was sure she was. He secretly found it funny that she had something against Green though.

"Where were you, Blue?" Yellow asked. "Sapphire came back earlier."

"Oh, I was curious about the roles everyone got, so I went around asking. Speaking of which, what role did you guys get?" she inquired, looking at her football detention buddies.

Red began to dig in jacket pocket for the piece of paper for proof. "I got the prince— huh?" he mumbled in confusion, looking at it again.

"What happened?" Green asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought it said prince earlier. What the heck?" he replied, showing him the piece of paper. "Did I read it wrong?"

Green looked over to Blue who had a suppressed smirk on her face. He could tell it was her attempt to look innocent, and that she was obviously the culprit of the switch up.

"What part is it, Red?" Sapphire asked, appearing next to them.

"Godmother," Green read, glancing.

Red slightly blushed in embarrassment. "Aw man..." he muttered. He turned to Blue with a hopeful look in his eyes. "Blue, what part did you get?"

"Stepsister," Blue answered, making him drop his hope of trading with her. She snickered, finding the situation kind of funny. "Hey Green, what part did you get? The mom?"

"I'm the narrator," Green replied, not embarrassed at all.

Blue clicked her tongue. She was kind of hoping he would have a female part since there's a lot in the play.

"I'm the stepmother," Pearl announced in disgust, extremely dissatisfied with the role given. "I should complain to the director about this."

"Nah, you should keep it. You'd make an awesome stepmother," Diamond commented, jokingly. "I'm the prince's father, so I'm actually cool with it. I should make a running joke with this."


Silver didn't think it would be this easy, but he managed to find her room thanks to looking at the hospital database on patients. Looking around, the nurses were busy helping other injured patients to come and bust him for leaving his own room. Without hesitation, he opened the door, and finally found the girl he was looking for, playing on her phone.

Soul looked up from her phone and widened her eyes in surprise when she saw Silver. "W-Why are you here?" she managed to say, finding it extremely hard to say something else.

"Look Car Killer," Silver began, shutting the door for privacy. "I need answers, and you're the only one who has them."

"T-That's my line!" Soul shouted, putting her phone down. "You were right, okay! I ended up healing faster than usual and everything! Who the heck is Kristina though? What were you talking about?"

"What?" Silver said, confused. He walked closer to her bed. "Look, I'm—"

"Wait, are you a part of the game? You are, aren't you?" Soul suspected all of a sudden, thinking back to how insane everything is.

"What are you—"

DING!

The sound of both their phones getting a notification from the game went off, interrupting the conversation. Soul and Silver looked at each other before checking their phones. Silver clicked his tongue when he saw what Gold had sent in the group chat, internally cursing him in his head for not listening.

"... It's not a coincidence that we got the same message," Soul began, catching his attention. "... Is it?"


Blue's mouth curved into a grin subtly when she heard multiple notification alerts go off near her. Red and Green seemed to be busy talking to notice, and no one checked their phones, but she was sure she heard a couple sounds that rang at the same time.

"Well, I guess this narrows it down," she mumbled to herself inaudibly.


"I knew this guy was always an idiot, but I didn't think he would be this insane," Emerald remarked after reading the text Awesome sent him.

"Well, I wonder how this'll play out," Ruby mumbled, also looking at his phone.

On the phone screen, it read:

Awesomenessofall_123: guyz let's meet up in person.