Hey guys!

I have no excuse for posting this so late other than finals and horrible, chronic writer's block caused by stress over finals. School ends soon, though, so that won't be a problem much longer.

On a lighter note, welcome to chapter 13! I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I only own Erin and Devon.

Enjoy!

Chapter 13

Tea was hard to stop when she was determined to do something. And when that something involved learning about some cult that could have kidnapped her friend, it was downright terrifying how dedicated she was. She sat down next to me in first hour, eyes shimmering with excitement. "Alrighty, Miss Procrastinator, we're doing this today."

And since I was still tired and groggy from just having woken up about an hour ago, my mind wasn't quite up to speed with things, so my mouth decided that the proper response to this was, "Wha-?"

"The library. We're doing research." She put a hand on my shoulder and shook me. "Nap time's over, sleepyhead."

I didn't like the shaking. In fact, if Tea had been anyone else but Tea, I would have lashed out with some very not-nice comments that had less to do with obscure cults and more with where she could stick her research plans. But I managed to force a small smile. "Oh. Right. I knew that."

"Sure." She snorted, then got out her notebook for class. "I was thinking we could grab some coffee on the way. We're going to walk with the boys until we hit Starbucks, and then we'll split."

"Okay. But why are you telling me this now? It's, like, eight o'clock in the morning, and we won't be heading to the library until at least three." I admired Tea for being prepared, but like I said, it was eight o'clock in the morning. Who reminds someone of their afternoon plans while said someone is still fighting a battle against sleeping during the instructor's lecture?

"Just letting you know."

"Oh. Well, thanks."

"I also wanted to know if you would be okay with Ryou meeting us there."

I knit my eyebrows together at this. It was too darn early to be learning new names. "Who?"

Tea paused, looking at me like I was insane, but then widened her eyes. "Oh, right. I meant Bakura. That's his first name. Ryou."

Images of the white-haired boy who sat with us at lunch some days flashed through my mind, and I nodded slowly. "Oh. I don't mind if he comes. Does he know a lot about these things?"

Tea nodded. "He's an expert on anything in the occult. He can help us find the right information."

"Great!" I feigned enthusiasm, then let my head drop back on my desk. "Will you give me your notes after class?"

"Erin!"

I groaned. "Fine."

A large, double-espresso-pumped, chocolate-filled, whipped-cream-and-chocolate-chip-topped coffee later, I arrived at the library, Tea next to me. The place was much bigger than any library I had ever seen. Shelves stretched back as far as I could see, and rose to the ceiling. Old-fashioned ladders that you always see librarians using in movies rolled across them as people went to grab a book they wanted. A balcony overlooked the main room, and on top of it I could see yet more bookcases. People of all ages wove in and out of the shelves.

And just like the big, fancy libraries in the movies, it was dead silent, save the sounds of paper rustling and the distant patter of unseen computer keys.

"Wow." I murmured, finishing my coffee and dropping the empty cup into a trash can underneath a sign that read NO FOOD OR DRINKS ALLOWED. "It's like I've just stepped into Mystic Falls."

An old woman seated at a table between shelves looked up and glared at me. I bit my lip and mouthed, "Sorry."

"Alright." Tea whispered. "Bakura said he's upstairs by the computers. He knows a database that the library keeps of every major newspaper published around the country. I figured we should start with the last couple hundred years or so."

Surprisingly, the old woman didn't even glance up when Tea spoke, even though she had said much more than I had. So not fair.

Up an intricately carved wooden staircase, we found Bakura near the furthest wall, sitting at the end of a row of computers. His eyes were glued to the screen, mouse clicking at a rapid pace as he scanned through websites. He didn't look up until Tea tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Bakura." Tea said as he turned around to get a good look at whoever was disturbing him. "We're here!"

"Hello, you two. How've you been?" He asked, nodding to me, eyes intent on mine, as if I had been mentally scarred or something and it was necessary to check in on my state.

I gave him a small smile. "I'm great. We're both great."

He smiled back. "That's good. I found some books on the library catalog that you two could check out when we're done with the online research." He gestured to his computer.

"Thanks, Bakura." Tea said, sitting down in the chair next to him. I followed suit and took the one next to her. "So, what's this database you've told us about?"

Bakura grinned and pulled up a new page on his computer. "It's called NewsHistory. I've got to give you the password, but then it's all yours."

Tea thanked him again as he helped the two of us get logged in, then excused himself to go find the books he had been talking about so we didn't have to waste time looking for them later. I marveled at this boy who didn't usually talk to me much, yet still was kind and willing to help me research a weird topic, and his extreme familiarity with the library. It seemed I was learning a little more about him all the time.

We spent ten minutes of quiet browsing before I laid my head down, already tired of dead-end keyword searches. We had no idea what this cult was even called, much less anyone involved in it. "Where's Bakura with those books?"

Tea nudged me in the shoulder. "Come on. I'm sure he'll be back soon. Just keep chugging."

I sighed and looked back to the screen, the words on it becoming jumbled together into one big mess of letters and punctuation. I clicked out of the page I was on, then tried another word to feed the search: kidnapping. A list of young children and twenty-something women came up on the reference list, but not many girls my age. When I tried the few contenders, they turned out to either be resolved and normal-circumstance (if you can call kidnappings normal) or unresolved, but still not close to what I was hoping for. I scanned dates of papers going all the way back to the eighteenth century, but still found nothing.

On a whim, I decided to just stick with cults in general and hope that something came up that sounded useful. Mostly articles from the sixties about racist groups and some from fifty years before those about witchcraft popped up, but nothing more.

Bakura returned with the books a few minutes later, laying one next to me. "I think you might find this very informative." He said softly and handed another to Tea. "In case you two get bored with the computers."

"Thanks." I said, looking down at the thick paperback he had chosen for me. The title was written in blood-red ink: Ancient Bloodlines: A History of Western Occult. More than a few coffee stains dirtied the edges of the obviously old, worn book. I opened it and checked the table of contents for something I could use. All of the chapters were named after a specific cult, with subheadings beneath them that pointed to which page one could find that cult's beginnings, beliefs, and rituals. I bit my lip and closed the book again, not much in the mood for scouring through all of these strange words and belief systems at the moment.

With lips pursed, I took my web search back up and just began typing in random keywords to see what I found: "underground cult hideout," "teenage girl kidnapping," even "cat blood symbol." Nothing of much value came up.

Until I sidetracked a little after reading an article about the unresolved kidnapping of one Deserray Matthews in 1998. Though the topic and the circumstance were of no use to me, it gave me a new idea. I decided to get out of the database and try my hand at a simple Internet search.

The amount of kidnappings covered by the news and not in the papers was staggering, little to my surprise. I found a national news channel's website and checked their list of names that was pages long and went as far back as 1954, then began an advanced search that narrowed it down to girls around the ages of sixteen and seventeen. Still with pages to go, I narrowed it down even further, typing "cult" into the search box to see what happened.

Two names were listed under my keyword search. The first, Jessica Klichton, was a smart, athletic, and bubbly-looking blond who had disappeared for three days in 2004, only to be found dead. Slash marks were drawn across her torso that resembled the shape of a pentagram. Signs of rape and torture were evident. The final statement on her case was "occult, no witnesses."

I swallowed vomit and clicked on the second name, prepared for something much worse.

This one didn't have much information. The girl, named Fiona Vandeur, had died along with her family in a tragic fire in 1963 that witnesses claimed had been set by people in black robes. This had been after her kidnapping, from which she had been recovered only two months before. Her description of her kidnappers had been eerily similar to those of the neighbors who had watched her house get set on fire. There was hardly anything relevant to what I had experienced, but I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away from the page.

Next to the relatively short article, a grainy black and white photograph of the deceased stared back at me. A mother, father, and four children grinned at the camera, all sharing the same resemblance: pale skin and dark hair. Fiona was the tall girl standing behind her mother and father, a cheeky smile on her face and a glitter in her eyes.

I couldn't exactly describe the feeling I got when I gazed at their faces. Familiarity, maybe? They didn't look like strangers in some old paper to me – they looked like people I had seen before. Yet I knew I had never seen them before in my life. I frowned and printed the page.

When I sat down from my trip to the printer, Tea stretched. "Wow, it's already been two hours!" She said.

"Seriously?" I checked the clock on the bottom right of the screen. Sure enough, it told me that it was almost six o'clock. "Holy crap."

"Did either of you find anything?" Bakura asked, gathering the books he had been reading into a pile.

Tea and I both shook our heads. "None of them really matched what we were looking for." Tea replied. I noticed that she glossed over the fact that we were going off of my hazy recollections of faceless people and a small, dimly-lit room.

"That's a shame." He stood with us and scooted his chair in. "Maybe you should check those books out just in case, though. There's always a new angle; you guys just need to find it."

"Yeah, probably." Tea said as we made our way downstairs to the checkout counter. "Thanks for all of the help, though. It was really nice of you to spend the afternoon with us."

Bakura scratched the back of his head and gave her a soft smile. "It was no problem. Besides, what are friends for?"

We didn't linger long after checking out the books. Bakura said he had an errand to run, and Tea wanted to get home so she could get ready for her dance class. Tea and I split the books Bakura had picked out for us between the two of us, amounting to a grand total of four books per person. I had to force the zipper on my backpack closed. We all went our separate ways soon after.

I contemplated going to the game shop to check up on Atem, but decided better of it and went in the direction of home. There was always tomorrow.

My worst fear had come true.

Of course, as I had suspected, the English project we were gathering materials for was, in fact, a partner project. To my surprise, the instructor chose our partners.

To my disappointment, I was paired with Devon. Apparently, we were both "hard workers."

I hadn't forgotten about our reconciliation on Monday, but I still didn't feel right about being friends with him. Something about the way he still looked at me made me uneasy.

"So, partner," he said, plopping himself down on the desk in front of me when the bell rang, lazy smirk already cocked, "How's it going?"

"It's going." I said, gathering my books and dropping them into my bag with satisfying thuds on the chair beneath them.

"When do we start working?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "On the project? Not until we have a topic, which she hasn't given us yet."

His mannerism deflated at the thought. "Right." He jumped up when I moved to walk past him, and followed me to the door. "But it couldn't hurt to plan whose house will be the lair and who will provide the snacks."

I guffawed. "Snacks? What are we, five?"

"Hey, a man's gotta eat." He rubbed his stomach for emphasis. When I just shook my head at his antics, he cleared his throat. "I say we go to my house."

"Do you now?" I asked. He had followed me all the way to my locker by that point, and I was praying for him to leave as soon as this conversation was over.

"Yup. And I say that you provide Snickers bars and Doritos."

"Healthy study foods."

"Yes. That's why I chose them."

I shut my locker and clutched my notebooks to my chest. "Fine. But how about instead of your house, we just use the school library? I'm not sure my mother would take kindly to me going to a boy's house alone, even if it is for a school project." I left out the part where I didn't want to be in such close quarters to him without witnesses around.

"Oh, your mother is one of those." He wiggled his eyebrows, then shrugged. "Fine. I'll bend to this one request. But you're still sneaking me some Doritos, right?"

I shook my head. "Sneak your own Doritos. I'd rather not have detention for bringing cheesy food into the library."

Devon sighed dramatically. "Fine. Then I'm not sharing."

"I'm not complaining." I said, eyes darting to the hallway behind him, where I needed to go to get to my next class. I hoped he would take the hint. He didn't. He stayed where he was, in my path and grinning down at me like a hawk excitedly watching its prey. I shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, so I need to go to class now."

He seemed confused for a moment, then broke his weird stare. "Oh, right. Yeah."

I gave him what I hoped was a polite smile. "Bye, Devon."

He hesitated, as if he was going to say something else, then nodded. "See you, Stephenson."

I closed my eyes as I turned and walked away, trying to fend off a strange feeling that had risen inside me as I looked at him. It was probably caution, but I could've sworn it had been something else, the same something I had felt last time I had spoken to him.

I shook my head. Don't go there, Erin. Enough weird crap has happened already.

Atem did not look at all pleased to be studying again. Halfway through my physics lecture, I noticed him massaging his temples. I wasn't an expert, but when Miri had gotten a concussion, that was usually a sign that she was being over-exhausted.

"How about we stop for a while? Take a break." I said, closing the textbook. Atem's face visibly relaxed at my words.

Joey and Tristan had both dozed off sometime during my talk about kinetic and potential energy, and jumped up when they heard the book slam shut.

"Who's there?!" Joey shouted.

"Definitely not your brains." Tristan retorted once he realized what had happened. He chuckled to himself when Joey swatted his arm, then looked back at us. "Is the tutoring over?"

I shook my head, exchanging an amused glance with Atem at Tristan's attempt to dodge his embarrassment. "We're going to take a break."

"What are we gonna do?" Joey asked hopefully. "Play Duel Monsters, maybe?"

We all shrugged. Tea sighed at that. "I guess..."

Again, I spoke without thinking. "Or we could go get ice cream."

"How are we not best friends yet?" Joey asked, grabbing my arm and pulling me off the couch so he could spin me around. Surprised by this sudden movement, I stumbled and struggled to regain my balance, but laughed all the same. Luckily, Joey had still been holding my arm, and he helped me steady myself.

Tea stood, along with Yugi and Atem. "I know this great place a few blocks from here. It's called Salty and Sweet."

"My sister and I go there sometimes! Their soft serve is amazing." I said, immediately recognizing the name of the cute little parlor that Miri and I had eaten at three more times since our first week in Domino City.

"So how about it?" Tea and I looked at the three boys who had yet to respond to my suggestion.

Tristan made a thumbs-up and winked, saying, "You think I would turn down ice cream?" and Yugi and Atem exchanged glances and nodded.

We all piled out onto the small sidewalk, wanting to walk side-by-side with each other and realizing it was a bad idea as soon as we tried. We resorted to Tea, Atem, and me leading the group, and Tristan, Joey, and Yugi behind us. Joey and Tristan immediately began tapping the three of us in front on the shoulders, then looking away and whistling when we turned around and asked what they wanted. They even tried to blame it on Yugi, who only laughed and punched them in the arms. Their middle school antics never ceased to amuse me.

"It feels so good to get out of the house." Atem said, more to me than anyone else. "Thanks for breaking the study session."

I grinned. "When it comes to putting off school, I'm an expert."

He chuckled, then addressed Tea as well. "Did you two find anything with Bakura at the library?"

Tea shook her head. "Not much. I think Erin printed out a page, but we both have yet to read through the books he helped us find. There's so much we have to do to find who we're looking for."

I nodded along. Atem studied my expression, but didn't say anything.

"Even if we don't know their names, those creeps won't make it that close to Bluebird again without hearing from us!" Joey said, pumping his fist in the air. Tristan whooped along with him, drawing stares from passersby on the street.

"Thanks, guys." I said. I kind of wished we could change the topic. The whole cult thing only made me think of the stupid necklace, and by default my weird dreams. It was all giving me a headache.

Luckily, Tea picked up on my uneasiness. "So, Yugi, I heard that there's going to be another Duel Monsters Tournament at Kaibaland. Are you and Atem thinking about competing?"

Both brothers perked up at this news, but then Yugi shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean, we've got a lot going on right now as it is..." He tried to hide it, but I noticed the glance he gave to me, as if my problems had become his. I instantly felt even more guilty, not just that Atem now had a concussion because of me, but also because my predicament had been wearing on everyone else when it shouldn't have been.

But I didn't know how to tell them to let me deal with it on my own. "You guys should join." I said. "I'm sure you'd have a lot of fun, and it would get your mind off everything."

"Yeah," Joey added from behind me, "plus, Erin's never seen the three of us in action before. She can finally see a real duel."

"The three of you?" Tristan asked.

Joey puffed out his chest, a proud look on his face. "What, ya think I would let those two enter a tournament without me? I got a name to uphold, ya know!"

"Yeah, because you're so high up there." Tristan said, then snickered. It was obviously a joke and not meant to be taken to heart, but that didn't stop Joey from smacking him on the back of the head.

"Maybe I'll sign up for the tournament by myself," Joey said, jabbing his thumb at his chest, "so you'll remember how hardcore of a duelist I am."

I shook my head. "Maybe you should, Joey. Show Tristan who's boss." This earned a playful glare from Tristan. I looked back to Atem and Yugi. "And you guys should, too. Don't let me stop you."

Atem's gaze softened as he exchanged a glance with Yugi. "Maybe we will."

"Besides," I added, nudging Atem in the shoulder, "Joey's right. I haven't seen any of you in a serious duel. It would be cool."

Yugi beamed. "Alright. I'll talk to Kaiba about it. I'm almost positive that he wouldn't object to having any of us in his tournament." He paused.

"Except maybe Joey." Tristan added, which earned him another smack on the head, courtesy of the red-faced blond.

"I wonder if it's an amateur tournament!" Tea said, excited. "Maybe Erin and I could join, too!"

I stopped walking and stared at her dubiously. Everyone else stopped as well, and Tea raised her eyebrows. "Please tell me you're joking."

"What? There's no shame in trying."

I tried to laugh sarcastically to make my next words sound a little less whiny, but my lack of confidence still seeped through. "Unless you consider the fact that I can barely last ten minutes in a casual duel. Competitive ones will chew me up and spit me back out." After my humiliating defeat on the DDR stage at the arcade, I didn't want to face another, even if it was a totally different game.

Atem cocked his head. "With that attitude, they will."

"Yeah," Yugi added, "you have to believe in yourself. And the Heart of the Cards."

"The what of the what?"

"The Heart of the Cards." Yugi repeated. "It's an expression my grandpa taught me. It means you have to believe that your deck will guide you, and that every card you draw will bring you one step closer to winning, even if you don't know how yet. But most of all, it's about dueling with your heart. Because if you don't have your heart in the game, then what are you playing for?"

I nodded, letting the new phrase settle in my mind.

"Get'cha head in the game." Tristan whispered to me, which caused me to burst into a small fit of laughter.

When everyone looked at us, confused, I responded loud enough for them all to hear, "My head's in the game, but my heart's in the song." Of course, Tristan was the only one who understood, so we were the only two who laughed.

However, Joey recognized the quote. "High School Musical, eh?" He asked. "Are we about to have a sing-along?"

I couldn't help it. "You gotta get'cha, get'cha, get'cha head in the game..."

"You gotta get'cha, get'cha, get'cha, get'cha head in the game..." Tristan echoed.

What ensued was an off-key and off-rhythm chorus of the basketball song from the cheesy musical, in which Joey, Yugi, and Tea eventually joined, followed – to my surprise – by Atem, who caught on to the words by the third repeat. People stared at us as we walked down the sidewalk, but we didn't care – being dorks was too much fun. Tristan and Joey supplied the verses, even though they could only remember half of them. I couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face, especially when I realized how into the song Atem was getting. It was amusing to watch him act like a kid with us, and even more so when his singing voice turned out to be more than halfway decent. By the time we got to Salty 'n Sweet, we were out of breath from belting out song lyrics and laughing.

If I had never had a best friend before, I found five of them on that sidewalk that afternoon.

"However you put it, Calvin, you're not going to change my mind."

Mom's voice was the first thing I heard when I got home, echoing in the kitchen. Miri wasn't home yet – some club event at school kept her late – and Mom was talking loudly enough that I knew she hadn't heard me walk in the door. She never let Miri or me listen to her arguments with Dad. They often grew vicious due to a huge difference in opinion.

Don't get me wrong – my father was not a bad man. He had never done anything to hurt Landon, Miri, or me, nor had he intentionally tried to do the same to Mom. The two of them just disagreed a lot, which had been one of the biggest factors of their divorce.

And when I say a lot, I'm not kidding.

"Tell Landon to stay home. He doesn't need to drop school and come all the way up here for nothing." Like it often was when she was becoming frustrated, Mom's voice rose a few notches. "Just stay out of it. Tell him it's a false alarm."

I had intended to enter the kitchen to announce my presence, but the mention of Landon attempting to ditch college to drive to Domino City intrigued me, so I instead elected to stay in the foyer and eavesdrop. Landon was a smart, down-to-earth guy – not the type to make rash decisions like that. Why was he so eager to visit us?

"Calvin, they said there's a sixty percent chance that the scan will be clear. And if it is, then Landon will have wasted money and missed precious school time for nothing. Is that what you want?...Stop it! Stop telling me that I don't know the risks. Of course I know the risks! I – " She must have been cut off by Dad's counter-argument.

I froze. Scans? Risks?

"Why can't you just leave well enough alone, Calvin? You're not responsible for me anymore. We're not married anymore...God damn it! Stop!" Her voice had risen to a shout.

Mom was not a fighter. She hated all forms of fighting. But pull the wrong string, and she would explode. I assumed that I had inherited that trait from her.

"Tell Landon to stay home...If our son shows up on my doorstep tomorrow evening, I swear to God, I'll – ...No. This conversation is over. Goodbye." There was the sound of her slamming her ancient flip phone shut and groaning in rage.

I couldn't just stand there and wait for an appropriate time to tell her I was home. Besides, Miri wasn't home, which meant I could ask her serious questions about what was going on between her and Dad and receive less candy-coated answers. It might still work for Miri, but hearing all of that, "Oh, nothing. We're just working something out. It's fine now" crap was beginning to tick me off. I needed the truth. I took a breath, preparing myself, then walked into the kitchen. "Mom?" When I turned the corner, I found my mother slumped over the counter, her head in her arms and her fists clenched in her light hair. She shot up as soon as she heard me, face softening as her eyes met mine.

Even then, I could tell where the lines from her deep frown had etched themselves into her skin.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

I could already tell she was trying to formulate a lie, but I raised my eyebrows, and she sighed, defeated. "You heard that, didn't you?"

I walked over to the bar next to her and leaned on it. "I think the people next door might have heard you on that last part."

Mom rubbed a hand over her face. "Great. More witnesses."

"What were you arguing about? Why is Landon trying to come up here?"

"He's not. Your father received my medical bill from the insurance company by accident and assumed from a test I had run that I was sick. Which I'm not." She added at my slackened jaw.

"You said you'd run a scan. What kind of scan?"

"It's not a big deal, Erin."

"Mom."

"PET."

In my freshman health class, there was only one thing I learned that a PET scan could look for. "For cancer?" I couldn't believe my ears. My heart skipped a beat, and my blood turned ice cold. I had noticed Mom had lost an unnatural amount of weight in the last two weeks, and she had become a little paler than usual, but I hadn't realized it was that bad.

"Yes, but it's nothing – "

"You said there's a sixty percent chance it will be clear, Mom. Those aren't good odds. And you're saying that's nothing?"

"It's better than fifty percent. Or forty percent. It could be a lot worse."

My voice rose an octave. "Mom, it's cancer."

"I'm very aware of that, Erin." Even arguing with me, she sounded tired.

"How can you be so casual about it? Why didn't you tell us?" It was like someone had sent an electric shock right through my chest. I couldn't breathe.

Mom broke. "You don't think I'm scared? You don't think I thought about my family the second I was recommended to get a PET? The moment I realized I could die?" She was trembling along with her words.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I didn't know if it was from anger or terror. "Mom..." My voice shook. "No, this isn't fair. You can't have cancer. That doesn't happen to people like you." My hands clenched into fists.

"Honey, please. Don't cry." She embraced me, and began rubbing slow circles on my back. I remained stiff, not knowing what to do. "I haven't even gotten the results back yet. We don't know that for sure."

I fought against the tears. "You don't have cancer. You can't. That would go against all the laws of nature. It's forbidden. It's impossible."

"Erin, please, calm down. We both need to calm down. We can't do anything about it until the results come in."

I sniffed and pulled away. "Right. Because you don't have cancer. You're invincible, right?" My statements were childish and uncertain, but I felt that the more I repeated them, the truer they would become. As if my words alone could beat a mutation in my mother's tissue.

"Right, sweetie." She brushed my hair behind my ear. "I'll be fine."

I nodded, even though her words didn't comfort me.

"Erin?"

I met her blue eyes, aged and tired. "Yeah?"

"Don't tell Miri, okay? Not until we know for sure."

I didn't answer at first. How could I keep this from my little sister? She was the only one I would want to tell.

"Okay?" Mom tried again.

I nodded.

"Thank you." She hugged me again, this time tighter. I took deep, shuddering breaths, trying to regain my composure. Everything will be okay. Mom doesn't have cancer. She can't.

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"I love you."

She couldn't hide the wounded look on her face, but she squeezed her eyes shut against tears and kissed my forehead.

"I love you, too."

Goodness, that was emotionally distressing to write!

What's going to happen now? What are Erin and her mother going to do?

On a lighter note, how was the sing-along? I laughed while I wrote this chapter. A lot. Just imagining Joey jumping around and proclaiming to "fake right, and break left" with a deep-seated passion in his voice. Maybe I'm just weird lol.

And what's going to happen with Devon? Is anyone sensing disagreements coming up soon?

Again, sorry for the huge delay. I've really been sucking at meeting deadlines lately, and for that I'm deeply sorry. Hopefully I haven't lost any readers.

For those of you that have stuck around, thanks for your patience! I am definitely not giving up on this story, so I'm glad that you haven't either!

If there's anything you guys want me to add to the plot, like little scenes or details or whatnot, go ahead and let me know. I can use all the help I can get.

As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!

See you next time,

-creativelybored