Ok guys, so not gonna lie, I screwed up. I screwed up Emily's entire character and relationship development for these past three arcs. So, this chapter and the next one and tell the story I was supposed to be telling this whole time about how Morgan made a friend and ally in Emily LeDuc. Instead of it being all rushed and all at once like it was in "Your Best Minion" Consider this a retcon for anything this chapter contradicts with.

Emily's pov

Ok, let's take it back a bit, huh?

You might be wondering why I ended up where I did. Why in the world I sided with a girl like Morgan Xanthos, who sent her robot army to go cause chaos? I still can't quite believe it. I can't pretend to be ignorant. I could see what she was doing. Ok, maybe at first I couldn't see what she was doing...but I found out, and I still stayed. There's no excuse for me, or none any jury of my peers would care to hear.

Still, I feel compelled to tell my side of things.

Morgan was the new student at Kadic, and she came in way at the end of the year. Everyone thought it was a little weird, but apparently some family thing happened and this was the place she needed to stay? Or something? I never really asked about that particular bit of backstory. I never really thought to.

She made herself known real well real fast. She was standoff-ish and blunt and she didn't really talk to people. She looked straight out of a biker gang, and she had the attitude to match. When people annoyed her...they had a funny habit of going to the infirmary. Nobody could prove she did anything, but rumor was that she did...something. Nobody actually saw her do anything...But some people thought she was cursing them or something. Nobody really had the guts to confront her about it.

I've always been one to give people the benefit of the doubt, whatever their reputation says about them. Look no further than one Odd Della Robbia. I dated him once for about a week, if that. I knew his reputation before he asked me out. The guy dated every girl. He cheated, he was really immature. All my friends told me so. But I still gave him a chance when he actually asked me. He ended up cheating anyway. But that isn't the point. I gave Odd a chance, and his rumors had way more foundation than Morgan's.

So I started keeping an eye on her. She sort of tried to worm her way into Odd's group of friends. They were pretty, um, exclusive. That was putting it nicely. Nobody was even allowed to be friends with them. The one time they let someone else in he got all wonky. A lot of people don't pay attention. I like to think I'm pretty in tune with my surroundings. I have a pretty good memory for detail.

But even when they seemed to ignore her approaches at friendship, she still tried to get into that group. I wondered why she was so fascinated by them. They were a pretty tightly knit group, sure, but they weren't that great. Besides, they were sort of a bad crowd. They got detention and skipped class all the time. That was not the kind of crowd a new kid wanted to be surrounded by. You were who you associated with. People judged you by the people you hung out with.

So I decided I would hang out with her. Morgan struck me as a girl who needed a friend, and someone who had a lot on her mind she needed to get out. So, one day, when Jeremie and his gang weren't around, I sat across the table from her. I introduced myself. She seemed cold at first, in that way she is. And it was hard to get very far with her in conversation. But it looked like she had something on her mind.

I asked her what was wrong. She looked at me, did this sort of half chuckle, shrugged her shoulders and told me. She said there was a problem with inheritance. Her father died recently, leaving her an orphan, but on top of that there was this problem. While she was still mourning. People were trying to claim things that were supposed to belong to her. I told her I didn't know much about how that all worked but that she should talk to her lawyer or something? If it truly belonged to her the law would make sure she got it. This wasn't something she should give up on, even if it's annoying, because it was something her father wanted her to have.

She thanked me and left.

No wonder she was so cold and acted weird. The girl was in mourning. This was her way of processing her emotion. I decided then I would be her friend. But Morgan was the type of person that needed you to treat her like she was already a friend before she even remotely considered you a friend. That involved a lot of sticking to her like glue and asking her how things were going. Sometimes she would tell me, and sometimes she wouldn't. I was patient with her. Whenever she did say what was going on I sympathized with her and offered what advice I could based on my own life experiences. Eventually she would start ranting about her issues without my prompting, and I felt like we were getting closer. We would hang out. She appreciated my advice.

And that girl is a wicked DJ, let me tell you. She played the end of the year dance, and the room was on fire. Well, I didn't know much about what makes a good DJ, but she played really good music and it got everyone up and dancing and everything blended together really well with transitions or...I dunno. She was good. Not sure if she was better than Aelita or not. It was more that they had different styles. Morgan was more polished, but Aelita had more personality. Morgan suddenly left and had another DJ take over for her towards the end of the party.

The next day I asked her what happened. She said she had to take a call, and it turned into this whole big thing, but long story short she was able to get the inheritance thing sorted out. I was really happy for her and insisted we celebrate. I got us some cookies. From that point on she didn't try to hang out with Jeremie and his gang anymore.

But they did come up and talk to me within the next day or so. They pulled me aside after class one day and told me not to hang out with Morgan. They told me she was dangerous and that I should stay away from her. That got me mad. I told them off, every last one of them. They were the ones that rejected Morgan when she so clearly wanted to just be friends with someone. I wasn't about to abandon her just because that group of jerks told me to.

Oh, and there was also that Taelia girl. I honestly don't even want to get into her. She was a whole other sort of...uh...interesting. You heard so much stuff about her. She looked so much like Aelita, not to mention they lived in the same room. She arrived, left, and returned to this school so suddenly, at weird times in the year that didn't make sense. She must have had night terrors. There was screaming. She seemed really smart in class. She seemed always slightly on edge and sometimes she would talk down to people. I don't think it was on purpose, like she thought she was more important than anyone else on campus.

Anyways, after that Morgan wasn't around quite so much. She still had time to hang out. Or...I would find her and hang out with her, and sometimes she would talk about troubles and frustrations she was having. She was always really vague about what it was exactly that was bothering her. That was fine with me. I was fine with whatever she was comfortable with. And I would continue to give advice and encouragement. I didn't know what I was encouraging...

Then there was...what I like to call...the incident. It was the last day of finals, and the courtyard was set up for graduation. We were all just hanging around. Morgan was gone. She didn't show up to her final that day. I was sort of worried about her, but I called her and she said she just had to do something in town. And she knew she was missing the final and she was making arrangements for it. I didn't ask any more questions. The fact that she answered her phone in the first place was enough reassurment for me. She was a close friend by that time.

Then, out of nowhere, Sissi went crazy and started attacking everything and there was electricity in her fingers or something and just...panic. Panic everywhere. I hid, but there wasn't much place to hide. I hid behind a column near the courtyard. Maybe not the best place to be...William and Ulrich showed up and tried to organize everyone and they were talking about something real weird and Ulrich had a gun...but then Ulrich tossed the gun to William and ran off.

As soon as he was out of sight, William turned around and looked directly in my direction, and then he walked over to me. He handed me the gun...and told me to give it to Morgan when I saw her, and then told me to get in the shelter with the others. A thousand questions popped into my mind...but I did what he said. And I kept the gun hidden while we all huddled in the gym.

When I did see Morgan again- Well, I'll leave that for later. That should probably be told in real time.

And there you have it. A far more believable relationship arc for them squeezed into one chapter. But the real kicker is in the next chapter.

We went backwards so I'm not doing the time thing.

Hope y'all have an awesome day!