Harper rummaged through one of the food chests. "What do you think we should make for the others, Ivor?"
No reply.
"Ivor?"
Still no reply.
Harper twisted around to see Ivor staring at her. She blinked twice, feeling a bit bothered by that. "Uhh... Ivor?" she repeated, tentatively.
Still no reply.
"IVOR!"
The black-haired man started and banged his elbow on the not-lit furnace, muttering a soft swear as he rubbed it. A faint blush came over his cheeks as he coughed sheepishly. "Er, what? Sorry, I wasn't listening. What were you saying?" he asked, his blush growing steadily more acute and resolutely ignoring Cassie's snickers at him.
"I was asking what we should have for dinner," Harper responded with an amused shake of the head. Standing back up, she poked his now-red cheek. "How about apples to match your cheeks?"
Ivor's face went even redder as Cassie actually sat down, laughing so hard that she had to throw one arm out and cling to a nearby chest to steady herself. Harper grinned and chuckled a bit herself. It was nice being the one who was teasing rather than the one who was being teased for once...
Finally, the red-haired girl calmed down and stood back up, leaning over and rummaging through a chest herself. "Apples work for dessert, but they're not exactly filling. Um... how about..." she rummaged through a chest and picked something out of it. "Pork?"
Ivor gave her a perfectly deadpan look for a good ten seconds, before his eyebrow went up.
"No," Harper stated like a strict mom, shaking her head. "No pork. If anything, we're burning all the chicken and pork in here."
Cassie blinked at them both, before her face slowly turned as red as her hair as she realized her mistake. "Oh. OH. Yeah. That-" she coughed awkwardly. "That... might be a good idea. Let's do that now."
Harper nodded and went over to the chest with the meat in it, before the three of them were interrupted by the sound of the doors swinging open. They whipped around to spot two of the now-customary blue figures roaming the kitchen. One of them was the one with dark, curly hair and the odd streak of color, while the other one seemed to be Ariza. "How about some steak and potatoes?" the long-haired one asked.
Ariza shook her head with amusement. "We already had that last week, Gommie. I'm pretty sure we can go another few days without having your favorite," she replied, kneeling down to poke through the chest next to Cassie.
'Gommie' pouted a bit. "Aww, c'mon, Ritza-Cracker- wait, crackers. Crackers... how about crackers with fruit and peanut butter? We can put peanut butter on the crackers, and cut up some fruit?" she suggested, snapping her fingers thoughtfully. "And we could just have some water."
Ariza thought about it for a couple of seconds. "Mmmm, yeah, it's only lunchtime. We can do more of a snack than an actual meal," she mused. "What fruit? D'you think everyone would be okay with apples?"
"Yeah, and we can throw some watermelons to the mix. And... maybe some oranges?"
"Mmm, too juicy. Oh, Red loves strawberries," Gommie added, snapping her fingers again and doing a sort of finger-gun motion at Jesse. "Can't forget those."
"Oooh! Yes! Hm, and..." Ariza walked over to the chest next to the one Harper had been poking around in earlier, "I'm eighty-five percent sure I saw some bananas in here... yep, here we go," and she pulled out an armful of the fruit that she'd previously mentioned.
Gommie suddenly gasped, the shorter girl's eyes lighting up in excitement. "Fruit ninja style?"
A huge grin spread over Ariza's face, the tall girl's eyes widening with her own excitement as she exchanged the grin with Gommie. "YES."
Gommie stepped back a few feet, grabbing several plastic bowls and setting them on the floor around her, before flicking out a sword and holding it at the ready. "You ready to witness my graceful sword work, Ariza?"
"Aren't I always?" Ariza grinned at the playful jibe, picking up the banana and peeling the skin off. "We'll start out easy first. Go!" And she threw the banana at Gommie.
The flash of a blade darted through the air several times, and the banana peel landed in little chunks in the first bowl. Shoving it aside with her feet, Gommie then sliced the strawberries Ariza threw in half with expert precision, then the apples (although she kicked the bowl towards Ariza this time), before Ariza carefully hefted the watermelon into the air, tossing it up and down a couple times and then threw it.
The blade swished through the air again, and the watermelon landed in the bowl at her feet, although it rattled with the force of the impact. Leaning down, Ariza scooped it up and tossed it a bit, setting all the fruit bowls on the counter. "Man, every time I see you do that, I can never get used to it. You handle the crackers, I'll work with the fruit," she ordered Gommie cheerfully, and the two of them went about preparing lunch, Harper, Ivor, and Cassie watching the scene in stunned silence.
After a good three minutes, lunch was ready, the fruit arranged nicely on a big plate. Gommie grinned up at Ariza. "You use your mom's fruit-arranging technique?" she asked, slightly teasingly.
"Yep. Can't say this doesn't look nice," Ariza agreed, setting the big plate on the table and putting her hands on her hips with a satisfied grin.
"Mmhm. Guuuuuys, lunch is ready!" Gommie called out the double doors, the figures dissipating in the breeze.
Ivor tentatively approached and stuck his hand into the spot where Ariza had been. "It's... a bit chilly over here. You two saw that too, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder to confirm that he hadn't been hallucinating.
"Yeah, we definitely saw that," Cassie said, slowly.
Harper continued staring at the spot where they'd been for a few seconds, before giving her head a small shake. "How... uh, how about we follow their example? Crackers with fruit and peanut butter? We can eat something while watching the episode that way..."
Cassie shook herself out of the slight daze she'd fallen into. "... yeah. As long as you don't want to do it 'fruit ninja' style, whatever that is," she said, smiling faintly in amusement.
"Yeah, no," Ivor said immediately, shaking his head. This made all three of them laugh.
After the outdoors lunch, everyone was just sitting around, chatting, getting some much-needed sunlight. After all, you don't get much of it sitting indoors watching episodes all day.
Jesse was playing with Reuben in the grass, Lukas watching with an amused smile while Jace and Petra were leaning against a tree nearby, chatting aimlessly with the shorter boy's head resting on Petra's shoulder.
Cassie was the only one who was sitting next to Aiden, the two of them just mildly chatting while Winslow napped in the grass, batting lazily at a random string of grass every few minutes. Maya and Gill were sitting together as well, while Magnus and Axel were chatting away about TNT, and Ellegaard, Olivia, and Harper were nearby, talking about redstone and making hand motions that none of the rest of them could understand.
Gabriel was talking to Reginald and Isa about something, the two of them nodding and occasionally shooting Jesse a glance from where the three of them were sitting near Jace and Petra's tree. Milo was sitting near the group but talking to Soren animatedly, Soren indulging in telling Milo about some of his builds from when he was in the Order and Milo listening intently. In fact, he was probably making mental notes.
The YouTubers were all discussing a video they'd seen, and something about 'channels' that the other members of the audience didn't understand. Ivor was sitting near Soren and Milo and occasionally interrupting the conversation to make a random comment. Hadrian, Mevia and Otto were sitting off to their own side, talking quietly, while the gladiators were playfully shoving each other around and Em and Nell were watching Jesse play with Reuben.
A light breeze blew through the area, suddenly materializing at least fifty people into a large, flat area of land. Some of them were standing off to the side and holding drinks, one of them immediately recognizable as Ariza, who was standing near where Jesse was playing, while most of the others were on the 'dance floor', dancing to the music.
"Slide to the left!"
"Slide to the right!"
Ariza gave her head an amused shake as a boy with frosted-tip hair walked over to where Ariza was watching the huge crowd dance in amusement. "Honestly, how did this many people want to come?"
"Weren't you the one who sent all those invitations?" the boy asked, looking a bit amused himself.
Ariza simply shrugged once at him before taking a sip of her drink. "To be honest, I expected ninety percent of them to decline the invitation. Let's see... I invited Rebekah... ooh, and then there's Nina-"
"Which one?"
"Nina Naranja, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Continue on?"
Ariza gave an absentminded nod and continued pointing people out in the crowd of dancing people. "Oh, there's Lunar... oh, and there's Crystal. And there's Jess-"
Jesse blinked a couple times upon hearing that in confusion.
"Jess?" Toni gave Ariza a faintly confused look.
"Oh, Rabbits rule?"
The boy gave a comprehending nod. "Ah, keep going."
"J.M.M., I don't remember his name exactly... it's John or something. Oh, and then there's homework overload," Ariza ticked another one off, "and Beli, and then there's Sailor Mikuchan, ooh and Darkbeast came too, although I honestly wasn't expecting it... and then there's indecisive bird and Emily."
"The Avenger?"
"The very same. And then there's Sofia, and LittleAngelbun, and- yeah, I see Aqua K. over there. Oooh, and then there's Sasha over there... ah, and Kaos. Ah, and there's RavenBlaze, too." Ariza mentally counted on her fingers for a moment, raising her lime green eyes to the sky, before giving a satisfied nod. "Yep. That's them. That's all of 'em. I invited some other friends, too, but they were all busy."
Toni rubbed his chin. "Okay, so even with all the invitations, that only accounts for eighteen people." He paused, before amending the statement. "Well, only."
Ariza grinned as he continued, "Well, I invited my brother and some friends... most of the guests are probably Gommie's cousins, actually; since they were in town it was kind of just automatic invitation. Red brought the Colors..." A slightly alarmed look came over his face as he looked around. "Hey, wait a sec, where's Blue? I didn't see-"
"He's right over there with Gommie, stop stressing," Ariza said lazily, before taking another sip of her drink and then giving the glass in her hand an appraising look. "Okay, seriously, where did you get this non-alcoholic beer? It's actually really good."
"Butterbeer? Sammi made the trip to the town that sells it, so you'll have to ask her," Toni responded, taking a sip of his own drink and indicating one of the glowing blue figures.
"Mmm, gotcha." Ariza took another sip and glanced at Toni out of the corner of her eyes. "So, anyway, about half the guests, if not a bit more, should be accounted for. Did the others invite people too?"
Toni squinted back into the crowd of glowing blue. "Um, I think Cho invited a couple friends. But I'm not sure about Becky or Sammi..."
The music changed, interrupting their discussion about the attendance. "This is our jam, guys, c'mon!" Gommie called out to the duo as she moved onto the dance floor near one of her cousins.
Ariza exchanged a glance with Toni, before the dark-haired girl smirked a bit and set her glass down, raising her eyebrow at Toni. "Ready to witness my Notch-awful dancing skills, Toni?" she asked the boy with frosted-tips briskly.
"Mine might just be worse," Toni replied with a grin as the two of them moved onto the dance floor as Red hopped onto the dance floor with his friends as well, the music going into full swing.
"They say we are what we are,
but we don't have to be,
I'm bad behavior
but I do it in the best way~!"
Ariza let out an amused laugh as she tripped over her own feet during a spin, catching herself and keeping herself from falling flat on her face.
Tentatively, Jesse stood up and approached the nearest glowing blue figure, who happened to be Ariza. She reached out to touch the blue figure, hesitantly-
Immediately, her friends seemed to disappear from view, and the glowing blue changed to vibrant colors, making Jesse blink several times as she tried to get her eyes accustomed to the sudden explosion of color.
Ariza did another twirl and spotted Jesse, giving the black-haired girl. "Hey, nice to meet you!" she said cheerfully, brushing some now-black hair with a bright red streak out of her eyes and adjusting her slightly disheveled dark gray flannel. Her jeans nearly covered up the pair of black combat boots she was wearing altogether, and Jesse spotted a slightly glowing blue pen tucked behind Ariza's ear.
She couldn't do much more than just stare at Ariza in stunned surprise.
The girl arched an eyebrow, lime green eyes still sparkling cheerfully. "I don't think I've seen you around here before. You new?"
"I-I-I-" Jesse stammered, unsure how exactly to begin.
The black-haired girl waved a hand dismissively and grabbed Jesse's, making the black-haired girl jump in shock. Ariza's hand felt warm and very, very solid. "Never mind. Nice to meetcha anyway. Here, let me introduce you to my friends. Yo, Gom!" she yelled, flailing her free hand, "Red, Toni, Becky, Cho, Sammi!" Another girl passed by, and Ariza nodded and gave her a flail of the hand as well. "Hey, Emily."
"What's up, Ariza?" A girl with tan skin and long, rather wavy dark brown hair and a green streak through it drew level with them- Gommie. Her dark brown eyes glinted with interest as she tilted her head and slightly arched one of her bushy brows, adjusting her tan leather jacket over a dark gray t-shirt, strong-looking build, and dark jeans. When she smiled, a chipped tooth flashed at Jesse.
"This is- what's your name again?" Ariza asked, glancing over at the black-haired girl, who was staring at the two of them as if she'd spotted a pair of ghosts.
"J-J-Jesse," Jesse stammered out.
Ariza's lime green eyes dimmed a bit suddenly, making Jesse nervously edge back. Ariza regarded Jesse with a slightly blank face, eyes narrowed slightly, before the sunny smile returned to her face. "Well, nice to meet you, Jesse. I'm Ariza, and this here is Gommie."
Gommie regarded Jesse for a few seconds, her own face having gone blank, before smiling again, the chip in her tooth showing. "Nice to meet you," Gommie said, a little bit too loudly. Then again, the music was pretty loud.
"Hey, hey, what's going on over here?" Toni edged his way over. His frosted-blue brown hair stood up a bit as he adjusted his black-rimmed glasses up, magnifying his freckly face a little less. His brown-green eyes matched the black, rainbow-sleeved hoodie with a grey creeper face on it, which in turn matched the blue jeans and brown boots he was wearing.
"Hey, Toni," Ariza said, Gommie nodding at the boy in a friendly way, "this is Jesse."
After a few seconds where the boy was just staring at Jesse (which was long enough to make Jesse start thinking of possible escape routes), Toni nodded at Jesse, giving a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you, Jesse. I'm Toni," he said politely, giving a little bow and laughing at the slightly flustered look on Jesse's face. He then reached out and appeared to pull another boy out of thin air over to him, making Jesse blink again- the boy looked like some sort of red flag. Red hair, eyes that seemed to be flashing red in the lighting, red t-shirt, red leather jacket... Jesse half-expected him to have red skin. (He didn't, of course.) "And this is Red," Toni introduced the red boy.
"That's... e-easy to remember," Jesse said, blinking at Red with a disoriented look on her face. "Nice to meet you, Red."
Red grinned and nodded. "Nice to meet you too... uh..." He hesitated, looking her up and down for a moment as he obviously attempted to grasp for something to call her or a name. Seeing as Jesse wasn't wearing a name tag or anything, the attempt sort of flopped. "Green Eyes."
Ariza cleared her throat and then pointed deliberately at her own lime-green eyes. "Her name's Jesse, Red."
Red's 'red' eyes blinked a few times. (Seriously, what was it with the group and her name?) "Ah, I see. Well anyway, hi," and Red gave his hand a little wave.
"Holy catnip, what's this? A little party I wasn't aware of?" A girl with long, dark auburn hair in a braid skidded to a stop next to them, blank red eyes glinting slightly as she grinned at the group. A tiny dusting of freckles rested on her face, and she was wearing a blood-red cloak that effectively covered everything except for her bare feet up.
None of the others even blinked at this dramatic entrance, though Jesse certainly did. (She may have jumped half a foot into the air as well.) "Hey, Sammi," Gommie said, a little loudly, before expansively gesturing at Jesse. "Ariza was introducing us to Jesse here."
Sammi owlishly blinked at Jesse a few times in faint surprise, before she waggled her fingers at the black-haired girl in front of her a bit, playfully. "Pleased to meetcha!" she said, chirpily. "Do you like cake? I like cake! 'Specially chocolate cake, 'cause that's my favorite!"
Ariza arched her eyebrow a little bit; she looked as if she was deliberately hiding a big smile. "Er... Sammi, exactly how many drinks of butterbeer- it tastes amazing, by the way, you're going to have to tell me where you got it- exactly how many drinks of butterbeer did you have?"
"Oh, only about seven..."
Ariza waited.
"... dozen."
"Okay, we're going to have to unhype you," another female voice spoke up as a girl with a faintly yellowish skin tone, dark brown almond eyes, and thick shoulder-length brown hair appeared to materialize right next to Sammi, who was now bouncing around on the balls of her feet like some oversized bouncy ball. Her knitted sweater that started as dark green at the shoulders and faded to white at the bottom hung slightly over her gray sweatpants and the black, yellow, and pink braided bracelet on her wrist. She gave the assembled group a small bow, giving Jesse a friendly nod of the head. "Who's the new girl?"
"Ah, this is Jesse. Jesse, this is Cho Leung, one of our friends," Gommie introduced, still speaking a bit loudly, patting Cho on the shoulder.
Upon hearing Jesse's name, Cho's eyes had narrowed, but the suspicious look faded a few seconds later. "I see. Pleased to meet you, Jesse. Now, if you'll excuse me."
And she nipped out of there with Sammi in tow, the dark-auburn-haired girl cheerfully waving goodbye to the rest of the group.
"Oh, hey, Becky," Gommie called, waving yet another girl over. This one had light brown hair in a braid that just reached past her shoulders and hazel eyes that were somewhat hidden behind a pair of purple-rimmed glasses. She adjusted the pink t-shirt over her faded jeans as she drew level with the group, and Jesse was somewhat relieved to see that she and Becky were about the same height, unlike Ariza, who fairly towered over the petite black-haired girl, or some of the others, who were also rather tall.
"Who's this?" Becky asked, raising her brows at Jesse.
The black-haired girl gave Becky a tiny wave. "Um... hi. I'm Jesse. Nice to meet you."
Becky looked Jesse up and down three times, a more appraising look coming over her face upon hearing Jesse's name, before nodding, her expression remaining in a faint scowl. "Nice to meet you too." She gave the other girls with Jesse a more friendly nod and look. "I'm going to head out and get some more butterbeer."
"Feel free," Toni replied, giving a friendly wave.
Becky just nodded and walked off again, making Jesse blink a few times.
"Ahh, sorry about Becky. She's a bit snarky... and foul-mouthed... and she's a bit of a tsundere..." Ariza thumbed the corner of her mouth. "... and sometimes she can be really rude..." The thoughtful look on her face was replaced half a minute later with a bright smile. "But, she's great."
"... I see..."
Ariza made a cheerful humming noise and checked her wrist, pushing the flannel sleeve back to show that she was wearing a wristwatch. Her face grew slightly more serious, before she let her hand drop back to her side and gave Jesse a tiny wave. "Well, looks like our time together's up." She let the arm with the wristwatch drop, sleeve falling back over it as she gave Jesse a searching look. "Do watch out, you might not be as lucky with the next time we have an incident like this."
"Wha-?"
"See you next time!" Gommie agreed cheerfully, before cocking her head to one side. "Ah, right. Watch out for murderers."
Red grinned a bit wolfishly and waggled his fingers in a wave. "Don't underestimate the Prototype: Autonomous Management Agent."
"Bye!" Toni added, bowing slightly and giving Jesse a crooked smile. "Do make sure that if you read the books in Becky's library, that you put them back in the place where you found them when you're done."
Ariza smiled cheerfully at the black-haired girl in front of her. "See you later, Jesse."
Before Jesse could ask what they all meant, a hand closed on her wrist and yanked her backwards powerfully.
Jesse flew backwards and crash-landed on someone, Lukas letting out a pained grunt in her ear. The black-haired girl blinked rapidly seven times, watching the scene of the party- or- well- whatever it was- dissipate in the breeze, back to a ghostly blue. Lukas's arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, keeping Jesse from moving around too much, and he didn't seem like he was about to let go any minute soon.
"Jesse, you okay?" Jace was staring at Jesse in concern. Now that Jesse was paying more attention, everyone in the area was staring at Jesse with worried expressions on their faces.
"Y-yeah, of course, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Jesse asked, voice shaking a little bit as she spoke.
"Well," Magnus cleared his throat once. Then again. "Well," he repeated, more tentatively.
"You were starting to dissolve, sport," Hadrian told her flatly.
Otto scowled at Hadrian. The white-haired man splayed his hands out in defense. "What?! She was!" he exclaimed, sounding a bit annoyed at the scowl Otto was now giving him.
"I was?" Jesse asked stupidly, blinking a few times at the surrounding audience.
"Yeah," Aiden spoke up, shrinking back a bit when everyone turned to look at him, "you were turning the same blue they were-" he pointed at the spot where the vision- or the memory- or the ghost- or whatever it was- "and starting to smoke at the edges. Lukas tried to pull you out three times and couldn't actually get ahold of you."
Jesse still felt a bit dazed by the whole situation. "He did?"
Lukas nodded, his arms still ensnared around her waist. "Yeah. It was like you were a ghost," he told her.
Jesse blinked a bit. "Really?"
Dan nodded from where he and Stampy were sitting together. "Yeah. We were yelling your name and trying to snap you out of it, too, but you couldn't hear a word we were saying. It was kind of like you were in a trance."
"Yeah, whatever was going on with you," Lizzie spoke up, "you weren't snapping out of it."
"... oh."
A little too calm considering the situation, but Jesse really didn't know what else to say to any of that. Maybe Lukas's arms being around her waist so tight was cutting off her oxygen circulation.
(Yes, she was joking.)
Her eyes strayed back to where she'd been only a few seconds before, but the scene she'd been in had completely disappeared from sight.
She wondered what those 'warnings' had meant.
A/N: HAPPY 100TH CHAPTER, GUYS! (blows one of those cheap noisemakers)
But seriously, 100 chapters with over 250,000 words and 1,480 reviews... GUYS! This is amazing!
Shoutout to the reviewers who tend to comment almost every single time, or who used to, anyway xD If you couldn't quite figure out who was who, just review and I'll put up a list next chappie. x3
About a thousand words longer than usual! Wow, this took me way too long to write xD It didn't really help that I got a nosebleed towards the end...
RQTC: Have you ever just randomly gotten a nosebleed for no reason?
Yes. Multiple times.
the indecisive bird: (winces) I'm sorry... / I'm probably going to be working on it anyway, tbh xD / I did! Took me way too long, tho xD
LunarStarsMoons: (hums) I'll find a way to put it in. / Heehee (grins mischievously) / (screams) I KNOW RIGHT?!
Darkbeast Dend: Hmm, I forgive you. / Yes, I think reading is healthy.
homeworkoverload: (cracks up) I would've been a little worried if you had. / Ahhh, gotcha. / (winces) Ouch, that's gonna smart.
Emily The Avenger: (grins) / Yeah, that should just be her villain name xD / Heehee xD
sailor . mikuchan: (screams with you)
Beli0304: (grins) / Ah. Gotcha.
RavenBlaze4850: (grins cheerfully) / Very true. / No spoilers x3 / Kk. :3
petra x jesse: Ah. / (laughs) I see.
J.M.M. : ... ?
Guest: Oh, that's a good idea! I might just do that! / (frowns) I thought it was pretty clear that it was Isa. Can you tell me why it was confusing?
Shadow: Lol sorry xD / Yeep. :3
AquaK13: (dies laughing) I never actually made that connection. Nice job. / (screams with excitement as well) / Mm, I see.
Jack638: You better not be pranking me boi xD I'm getting super hyped up.
Rabbits rule: Aww, c'mon Fluffy, most people don't have the backbone necessary to make a pun like that. / (laughs) Bone puns are great.
Kaos Ruin: (laughs) Very true.
RapidSammi: IT'SFINEDON'TWORRYSTOPSTRESSINGOUTIDON'TMINDATALL / Yeep :3
DynamiteHunter6: Thanks, bro! :3
Rose: Nope :3 / Thank you!
x.X. A.L. X.x
