Jesse was about to reply teasingly again, when suddenly a squeal rang out in the air. Immediately, her attention snapped away from Aiden as her eyes scanned the crowd. "Reuben?" she called out, hesitantly.
"Get your porkchops here!" a man at... what appeared to be a butcher's booth called out. "Fresh from the bone!"
Okay, Jesse got that people sold everything at Endercon, but who wanted porkchops at a convention? ... then again, she might've just been biased since she hated pork.
Aiden arched his eyebrow at the butcher's booth himself. "Who sells porkchops at a convention?" he asked, under his breath.
Okay, so maybe Jesse wasn't that biased.
Jesse automatically began to approach the butcher's booth, although she didn't realize it at first until she heard Aiden let out a surprised exclamation and started after her himself. "Hey, where are you-?"
The butcher lifted up a little pig onto the counter- a little pig with a mark on the side.
There was only one pig that Jesse knew that had that mark.
"Nothing sticks to your ribs quite like a juicy porkchop!" the butcher continued, drawing out a stone axe as Reuben- Jesse's Reuben- let out a terrified squeal.
"REUBEN!" Jesse yelled, breaking into a run for the stand. Behind her, she could hear Aiden letting out his own alarmed exclamation and running for the stand after her, but she didn't care, in this one moment she'd forgotten about Evie and Ivor and and Aiden Petra's deal and the only thing that mattered was that if she didn't get there in time Reuben was going to die.
Reuben turned at the sound of Jesse's voice, letting out a terrified squeal. The butcher also turned, scowling at Jesse. "What's the big idea? I'm trying to run a business here!"
"That's my pig!" Jesse protested, as Aiden managed to catch up to the girl.
"Oh really?" the butcher asked, in a voice that practically screamed that he didn't believe her, "Well, I found him out in the woods, so I think that makes him my pig."
"Oi, Jesse," Aiden hissed, trying to catch his breath a little from where he was standing a little behind her, "I thought you were-"
"Not the fattest pig I've seen," the butcher continued, ignoring Aiden, "but he should still cook up nicely."
Jesse fought back the anger rising in her chest. "Please?" she asked, a little weakly, "he's my friend."
The butcher shrugged- a motion that made the anger swell up in Jesse's chest even more angrily. "To me, he's inventory. I... might be amenable to some kind of trade." His tone implied that he was certain that she didn't have any item worth trading.
As if Reuben himself was an item.
The dam holding back Jesse's rising temper broke.
The scrape of stone on the sheathe, and the butcher stepped back in surprise- before getting dragged back forward as Jesse seized his collar and hauled him towards herself, noses an inch apart, teeth gritted in anger. She was vaguely aware that Reuben had let out an alarmed squeal and Aiden had taken a step back in surprise behind her. "Give. Me. Back. My. Pig," she snarled.
"Alright, alright, you little maniac," the butcher growled, and Jesse released him. He stepped back, smoothing out his rumpled shirt, before smacking Reuben off of the counter over onto Jesse's side. "Take your pig."
"Thank you," Jesse snapped, turning away from the butcher and stalking off deeper into Endercon, Aiden hustling to keep up with her and Reuben moving into step beside her. "C'mon, Reuben."
A moment of silence passed, before Aiden said, "Uhh... remind me not to mess with you anymore."
At that comment, Jesse glanced back at Aiden. The bully's face had turned oddly pale at the scene he'd just witnessed, and he looked a little nervous now that he looked at Jesse.
The black-haired girl sighed a little, trying to wrangle her temper back into check. "Yeah. I'll be sure to do that."
Reuben let out a little snort, giving Jesse a glare as he looked up at her. Jesse looked down at her pig, her temper cooling off dramatically as relief filled the places where anger had been. "I'm sorry, Reuben," she apologized to the little pink pig, "I should never have let you run off in the woods like that."
Reuben snorted again, but this time it seemed much more mild than before. Jesse looked up- just in time to spot what looked like Evie from the back, walking into the crowd.
Aiden had spotted her too. "Hey, isn't that...?" With that, he sped up, Jesse now being the one to have to chase after the guy- the benefit of having long legs- walking into the crowd faster. There was a momentary knot of people, where Jesse had to struggle to get past the crowd without shoving them aside- and when the three of them finally managed to get out of that section of crowd, Evie was nowhere to be seen again.
"Darn," Aiden muttered.
Jesse, scanning the crowd, saw Olivia standing and scrutinizing what seemed to be a chicken machine herself (really- what was the thing with her friends and chickens? Pigs were WAY better), and moved towards her. Upon spotting that Jesse was starting to move again, Aiden followed her quickly.
Walking up to Olivia, she tapped the girl on the shoulder, making Olivia immediately turn to look at her.
"You know that thing Evie and I had to do with Petra earlier?" Jesse asked, allowing Olivia to nod before continuing, "Long story short, we met up with this guy, he cheated me and Petra out of a deal, Evie ran off after him, and now, we're trying to track them down. You in?"
"Oh, I'm in, alright," and Olivia turned to face Jesse with a grin... before it collapsed into a frown. "Uh, by the way, you... are aware that Aiden's behind you, right?"
Jesse resisted the urge to check behind her. "Uh- yeah. He's helping me look for Evie too."
Olivia's eyebrow shot up at that as she processed that. "Huh... kay, then." Her gaze shifted over so she was staring right at Aiden, whose expression was a little annoyed. "I guess that works."
A moment later, Petra and Axel ran up to them, thankfully making the awkward moment a little less awkward. "Any sign of them?"
"I thought I saw Ivor earlier," Jesse said, shaking her head and glancing around in case he might be nearby, "but it was just a false alarm wait there he is!" she blurted, eyes widening.
Indeed, Ivor was turning to look over his shoulder and panting slightly, before he turned back around and ran towards the keynote. "It looks like he's headed towards the Hall!"
A moment later, Evie's whereabouts were also cleared up- the girl emerged from a large bush and brushed some leaves out of her hair, before moving to hurry after Ivor as well.
"Hey, Evie!" Jesse shouted after her, but the girl was already out of earshot. "Darn... we've gotta follow them," she said, turning to face the others again.
Petra's brow furrowed as her gaze shifted down to something else. "Well, we're going to have to get past that usher to do it," she said, lifting her arm to point at said usher. Actually, it seemed to be the same guy that had been telling people to step aside earlier.
"Let's go," and Jesse hurried towards him, the others quickly falling into step behind her. Even Aiden only hesitated a couple seconds before following the girl quickly.
The usher looked at them quizzically as they all came to a halt in front of them. Jesse was painfully aware that this was probably the most mismatched group that had approached him all night- a short girl in overalls, a girl with a green beanie and goggles, a guy wearing a leather jacket, a really buff boy that was actually about the same size as the usher, and a redhead that looked as though she could probably punch your teeth out.
"So... uh... hey," Jesse said, sheepishly raising her hand and giving a little wave. How she wished that Evie had come along. She got the feeling that the other girl was even more awkward than she was. Awkwardness loves company.
Petra was quick to intervene for Jesse. "What would it take... to get us inside tonight?" And she grinned casually, the others being quick to follow. Except for Aiden. He just crossed his arms with a slight scowl. It was a good thing he was standing in the back of the group.
The usher stared blankly at them, before chuckling. "Uhh... tickets." He then proceeded to start laughing really hard, as if he'd just told a really good joke.
A moment of brilliance hit Jesse, and she rubbed her head awkwardly- not that that was hard to do- and sheepishly smiled at him. "So, here's the thing- we had tickets, but then we lost them."
The usher pulled a sympathetic face. "Oh man. That sucks. I hate it when that happens."
"I know!" Jesse nodded in agreement, "I feel like such an idiot."
The usher nodded back, before giving her a slightly sheepish shrug. "I'm sorry brah, but... no tickets, no show."
A moment later, a chicken- presumably from the chicken machine that Olivia had been looking at earlier- fluttered down to the ground in front of the usher, clucking. The usher proceeded to cringe away from it with such zeal that Jesse backed straight into the rest of the group and nearly knocked them down the steps. "Chiiiiiicken!" he practically screamed. "Chicken- Chicken- Chicken!"
Jesse felt her face fall into an unimpressed sort of look.
The chicken walked away a moment later, making the usher glance up at it as if to make sure it had left. "It's gone," he reassured himself slightly shakily, "you're fine, you're a totally cool dude..."
Reluctantly, Jesse turned around and shepherded her friends and Aiden to an area a little ways away.
"We have to do something," Petra said immediately, glaring in the usher's direction.
Olivia frowned, glancing back at the usher. "Like what? The keynote has been sold out for ages."
"We could bust right through," Axel suggested. "I just need a little wind-up room."
Aiden scoffed. "Oh yeah. Great idea, if you want to wind up in jail."
Axel's head snapped around as he narrowed his eyes into a glare. "Nobody asked you. Why are you even here?" he asked, in a low, dangerous tone.
"I'm helping Jesse track down Evie," Aiden replied, turning and putting a hand on his hip as he narrowed his eyes at Axel. "The question is, why are you here?"
Jesse decided to intervene before Aiden ended up in the hospital, because judging by how Axel's fists were starting to clench, that was the route they'd started down with this conversation. "Okay, um... I agree, maybe we shouldn't try to bust right through," she interrupted swiftly, making both boys immediately look over at her.
A loud cluck interrupted Jesse's train of thought, and she glanced up- before stopping and staring up at the chicken machine Olivia had been scrutinizing earlier, a flurry of chickens visible through a glass pane. "What we need," she said slowly, the cogs in her brain beginning to turn, "is a distraction."
Petra turned to see what Jesse was looking at... before a slow, sly sort of grin came over her face. "A bunch of chickens running around might be a distraction," she said slowly, as she picked up on Jesse's idea. One by one, everyone standing there turned to see what the two girls were looking at.
Jesse glanced over, the reaction she'd noticed from the usher earlier coming to mind as the usher tried to shoo away another chicken. "Shoo, shoo! Get out of here!" he exclaimed at it, before shrinking back as if the bird was going to bite him.
"The usher is afraid of chickens," she said, quietly.
A smirk came over Aiden's face. "I think I'm going crazy, but... you're having the same idea I am, right Jesse?" he asked, glancing over at her.
Despite the fact that he was their rival, their enemy, even, Jesse couldn't help but smirk back. "I think I am. What would you guys say..." And the smirk grew to beauty pageant proportions. "If I said I wanted to break this guy's chicken machine to cause the mother of all distractions?"
Aiden's smirk grew as well.
Really, nice Aiden made about as much sense as shy Petra. It just... didn't.
"You're going to have to break that pane of glass to do it," Olivia said, reaching up to point at said pane of glass, eyes narrowing as she tried to calculate a method. "How're you going to reach it?"
"Let's look around," Petra said, glancing around quickly, "there has to be something we can do."
Quickly, everyone split up, fanning out to look around the general area. Nobody seemed eager to go too far for fear of getting lost in the crowd. Not even Aiden, and, well, Jesse knew how much Aiden disliked them.
A squishy sound alerted Jesse, and she looked up to see someone jumping up and down on a slime block, the slime block launching the guy into the air higher than he would've been able to jump otherwise. "Huh..." and Jesse reached up, thumbing the size of her mouth. "I bet I'll be able to reach that pane of glass with a slime block."
And she approached the booth. Reuben let out a little squeal and trotted after her as well, being careful to stick close to his owner.
The woman at the booth looked up at the sound of Jesse's approach, blinking pale blue eyes at her.
"Um... hi." Jesse rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "One slime block, please."
"We don't sell slime blocks here," the woman replied, holding up a slime ball, "just slime balls. But we've got a limited supply today, and we're only giving out two per customer. You could craft your own slime block if you had nine slime balls..."
"A round of slime balls for everyone, please," Axel suddenly interrupted, and Jesse twisted over her shoulder to see Axel, Olivia, and Petra approaching the booth with casual grins.
"Where's Aiden?" she asked out of the side of her mouth, as the woman shrugged- a sale was a sale- and doled out two slime balls to each person.
"I don't know."
"Who cares?"
Axel and Olivia glanced at one another in slight surprise at the two slightly conflicting answers they'd just given, taking their slime balls and walking back off into the crowd (after Jesse gave the woman a quick thank you).
"Well, without him, we've only got eight slime balls," Jesse replied, holding up her own two slime balls for emphasis, "and we need one more to make a slime block."
Petra frowned down at the slime in her hands. "Well, we need to find a way to get some more slime then- and quick."
"On it!" and Axel jogged off into the crowd again, Olivia being quick to follow. Petra went off in a different direction, and Jesse glanced around for some ideas.
She came up with nothing. At least, she'd come up with nothing until she spotted Aiden and Lukas standing near a post, talking to one another. And Lukas seemed to be holding a slime ball.
Inhaling deeply, Jesse walked towards the two Ocelots.
"- trying to come up with ideas on how to get into the keynote."
Jesse stopped in her tracks at the sound of Aiden's slightly hushed voice, the Ocelot member gesticulating as he spoke to Lukas.
"I figured, maybe if we could find a way to get some more slime-"
Jesse's eyes widened.
"We could build a slime block and bounce up to that pane of glass on the chicken machine-" Aiden turned to point at said glass, and stopped in his tracks at the sight of a wide-eyed Jesse.
Lukas turned to see what Aiden was staring at. "Oh, hey, Jesse," he said, sounding slightly surprised. "Nice to see you... again."
"Yeah. Uh, hey, could you... do me a favor?" Jesse asked, slightly weakly, reaching up and rubbing her head. Today was the weirdest day in her entire life. Nice Aiden, Lukas actually turned out to be a nice guy, and she'd met Evie.
She really didn't know how to feel about Evie, since she'd known the other girl for the span of an hour.
"Anything's possible," Lukas replied, turning to face Jesse and giving her a small smile to show he didn't mean her any harm.
"I, uh... I need slime balls."
Aiden's eyes widened a little at that. Lukas was silent for a moment, before raising his eyebrow at Jesse a little. "Are you guys... building a slime block so you can break the chicken machine so you can get into the keynote?" he asked, after that moment of silence.
Jesse paused, before giving a little nod. "We... already got eight slime balls. We... just needed one more," she said, slowly.
Lukas's eyebrow went up even more. "Huh." He glanced from Aiden to Jesse, before a strange smile came over his face. "You two... have pretty similar thought processes."
Jesse and Aiden automatically exchanged a glance at that.
Neither of them really knew what to think about that.
A/N: Honestly, Aiden and Jesse do have slightly similar thought processes, I feel like. Jesse has a lot of ambitions as a hero, and goals, and Aiden has those types of ambitions and goals... but goes about getting them in a different way.
I dunno, that's just how I feel about the whole thing.
LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) Oh, really? Glad you're interested!
NoItsBecky: (laughs) Considering she barely knows her, probably not.
x.X. A.L. X.x
