Happy American Thanksgiving! Have fun overeating and all that other stuff you may do, and have this chapter of complete anger and other feels to top it all off XD

Cierr was the one to finally wake Holly up the next day. She did so by sitting on Holly's face until she sneezed from the small bit of fuzz on the kwami, which was not at all appreciated by Holly.

"Why did you wake me up? I want to sleep," Holly groaned, shoving her pillow over her head, trying to block out the sunlight streaming through her window.

Cierr tried to pull the pillow out of her grip. "Your parents already tried- they went to work, by the way- and Paige is worried about you. She's tried to open the door at least five times this morning. You should at least go out, get something to eat, and let her know that you aren't dead or something. And besides, I need more trail mix. My stash is empty."

Holly gave the kwami a withering glare, discarding her pillow on the floor. "I hate it when you're right." She rolled out of bed- literally rolled, landing on her hands and knees on the floor- before pushing herself up. Taking a quick glance in the mirror after putting on her glasses, she noticed that she looked like a zombie. There were dark rings under her eyes- she knew she should have slept more- her face looked pale, and her hair was an absolute mess of tangles. More or less, she looked kind of like Bellatrix from Harry Potter.

Nevertheless, she still unlocked her door and shuffled out into the hallway, heading towards the kitchen. Cierr hung back in her room, waiting for her trail mix. If Holly could help it, she wouldn't spend more than five minutes out here before going back to her room for the rest of the weekend. Hmm, better make that the rest of the month.

"Holly, it's about time you came out." Paige appeared in front of her, arms crossed and scowling. Her choice of wording made Holly scowl as well. "What was that last night?"

"Nothing," she mumbled, taking out the trail mix bag and dropping it on the counter. Now wasn't the time, not with herself and Paige in a pissy mood. "It was nothing."

Paige rolled her eyes. "Holls, it clearly wasn't 'nothing,' otherwise you wouldn't have left. We were all worried about you, you know. None of us knew why you left."

"And you don't need to know. I shouldn't have even gone to the party in the first place." Two frozen waffles were jammed into the toaster before Holly poured herself a glass of orange juice. "I didn't want to go in the first place."

Her sister narrowed her eyes. "That still doesn't explain why you left. What the hell were you thinking, going out alone? You could have been hurt, or kidnapped, or a million other horrible things!"

She snorted, doubting very highly that she would be kidnapped or something while in her superhero form. But then, Paige didn't know about that. "I can hold my own fine, Mom."

"Well, she's never around to do any of this, so someone has to!" Paige snapped, her expression filled with fury now. "Excuse me for caring about you!"

The toaster popped up, and Holly grabbed her steaming waffles. "We're done here," she said, going back to her room with the trail mix in one hand and her waffles balanced on top of her orange juice in the other.

Paige caught the door before Holly could slam it. "The hell we are! If you didn't want to play truth or dare last night, you could have just said so."

"That's not what this is about." She tried closing the door again, but Paige forced it open.

"Then tell me." Paige's voice became dangerously quiet as she searched Holly's face. "We never talk anymore, and these days I never know what you're thinking like I used to. Please, if something's wrong, just tell me. I'm your sister; I can help."

Holly paused, lightening her tone a bit. "Look, I appreciate it, Paige, but I don't want to talk right now. To anyone," she clarified, closing the door and locking it again. She heard Paige sigh on the other side of the door before her footsteps retreated into the living room and the television turned on that trashy reality show she liked.

She turned away from the door, picking up one of the waffles from her desk and biting into it as Cierr opened the trail mix and dove in. "Paige has a point, ya know," Cierr mentioned from inside the bag, stuffing a peanut into her mouth. "You two really never talk anymore."

"Maybe we're just growing apart," Holly offered half-heartedly, picking off the burned pieces of her waffle.

"That's something friends do, not sisters." Cierr paused, examining a chocolate piece. "My friend Zyann- she's the fox kwami- and I had our chosens one year who were twins. Hers was a boy, and mine was a girl, though it didn't matter to them. They were closer than any of the chosen we have had before, even closer than Ladybug and Chat Noir are now. Close enough, even, that they entrusted with each other their identities.

"One day, when they were around sixteen or seventeen, one of Zyann's chosen's friends was courting my chosen at the time. They had a really close connection with one another, one that even strangers could pick up on, but in the end, she turned him down because her father had arranged for her marriage already. She really loved him, but she wouldn't dare go against her father like her brother did on a regular basis.

"This broke the friend's heart. He moped about all the time, Zyann told me, and nothing her chosen could say or do helped. He started taking his anger out on her chosen, and in turn, her chosen took his anger out on his sister. They started arguing all the time, over even the smallest of details. The last straw was when my chosen became pregnant with her husband's baby. Neither of them spoke to each other again unless it was absolutely necessary."

Holly's eyes widened. This story became depressing very fast. "What happened to them?"

Cierr's expression darkened. "They were in the middle of a battle with their enemy after the birth of her second child. They started arguing about something- it has slipped my mind now- and their backs were to the enemy. Before anyone could shout for them to get away. . ." she trailed off tears brimming in her eyes. "That was the last time Zyann and I have had a chosen. We were returned to our miraculouses until I was let out a few weeks ago to be your kwami, and who knows when Zyann will be able to have a chosen again."

The kwami blinked a few times, clearing the tears from her eyes. "Anyways, the moral of the story is, you and Paige are not drifting apart. I won't allow a repeat of what happened last time. You two are sisters; you need each other in this world. Make up and stay together."

"I'm so sorry, Cierr," Holly whispered, staring down at her desk. "I'm going to make up with Paige, but today's just not right. I need some time to sort myself out."

"I didn't really find out about what made you run away, anyways. What happened?"

Holly thought about it. "You told me a hard story, so I guess I owe you one. Last night at the party, when I went back out for slap or kiss, I got kissed by Marinette. And I liked it."

A beat passed. "That's all?"

"What do you mean, 'That's all?' I'm a closet lesbian, and I haven't even told my family yet so I ran away from a social situation in order to make sure nobody found out until I want them to," she sighed out, falling onto her bed and closing her eyes.

"That's not too complicated, it seems. Just avoid slap or kiss until you're ready to come out."

Huh. She hadn't really considered that. It seemed simple enough to do, as well as really logical and obvious. "Yeah, you're right, I guess. Promise you won't force me to go to any parties?"

The kwami giggled. "Promise, but only if you check your phone. I'm pretty sure your classmates have been trying to reach you."

Holly groaned, reaching over and turning her phone on for the first time since last night. "Fine. But I'm holding you to your promise!"

Cierr grinned, going back to her trail mix. "This calls for celebration," she announced, popping the chocolate chip in her mouth.

A tiny smile graced Holly's face as she rolled her eyes, checking her phone. 24 new messages and 10 new emails, her lock screen read. "Holy crap, you weren't kidding," she exclaimed, unlocking her phone. Luckily, her emails were all new chapters of fanfiction or favorite and reviews on her own fanfiction, so she didn't have anything to respond to there. Her heart fluttered, however, when she saw the familiar favorite alert from AmeliaLaughs. No new content from her, though.

Her texts were a different story. Sixteen of them were from Paige, which she felt no need to respond to, as they mainly consisted of Where are yous and What happeneds. Another five were from Nathaniel, who also expressed his concern for her running out and asked her to text or call him as soon as possible. One was from Alya, apologizing about whatever happened. The second-to-last one was from Adrien, asking where she went and if she was alright. Finally, the last one was from Marinette, who apologized for maybe being the reason for her running and hoping that she was safe. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't even sure how Adrien and Marinette had gotten her phone number, but then assumed that Alya or Paige gave it to them.

She responded to Marinette and Adrien's first, assuring Marinette that she wasn't the reason and telling Adrien not to worry, that she was home now and she was alright. She also apologized to Alya for running and causing such a scene as well as assuring her that she had had fun at the party while she was there.

Now she had to answer Nathaniel's texts. She would rather call him than anything, so she put on her earbuds so Paige and Cierr couldn't hear his end of their conversation and pressed the Call button.

It took him two rings to answer. "Holly, are you home? What happened last night?" At least he stuck to only two questions to begin with.

"Yes, I'm home. I don't really want to talk about what happened last night right now, but you said to call you, so here I am. Did you want to talk about anything specifically?" She absently ran her fingers through her knotted hair.

"No, I wanted to talk about the weather we've been having," he deadpanned. She could basically smell the sarcasm in his voice from over the phone. "I want to know what happened last night. What made you run?"

She exhaled through her nose. "I just said I don't want to talk about it."

He paused for a beat. "Okay then. Is there anything you do want to talk about?"

"Well, I read a new book recently. It was pretty good, though it was different than the themes of books I usually read."

"What was it about?"

"HIV."

There was silence on both ends. "And this was a fiction book?" Nathaniel tentatively inquired.

"Yeah. It was good, though. No tragedies at the end, so I would count it as pretty cheerful, other than the whole HIV thing. It raises awareness about the disease and how to prevent contracting it." It was kind of awkward for her to discuss this with Nathaniel, but it was his fault for bringing up books she read recently anyways.

". . .Have you read any other books?"

"Mmhmm. There was this one with a girl who was in an accident, but she doesn't remember any of it. She just remembers that she hit her head and that her cousins and a boy, all of whom she sees every summer except for the one after the accident, haven't been answering their emails in the time since they've seen each other. Then at the end, you find out that-"

A loud blaring sound came from the television, followed quickly by Paige shouting, "Sorry!"

"Whoa, that must've been quite the plot twist," Nathaniel remarked, having still heard the end detail.

"It was! I had to put down the book for a whole half hour and read some fluffy fanfiction to get my mind off of it."

They chatted for a good half hour before Nathaniel had to go and work on his homework.

"Nathaniel?" she said before he hung up. "Thank you."

"For what?"

She smiled to herself. "For taking my mind off of everything. I really needed it."

"In that case, you're welcome. I'll talk to you later." The other end of the line went silent and Holly hung up as well, taking out her earbuds.

"That went better than I expected it to," she said, winding up the earbuds and setting them on her desk. "I'm going to catch up on this fanfiction."

Cierr flew over to her. "What fanfiction do you read, anyway? Can you read some to me?"

Holly laughed lightly. "Sure, I guess. Do you want to hear some that I've written? I can wait to read these updates." She grabbed her laptop, settling in on her bed. Scrolling through her emails, she deleted the ones for stories she didn't read and opened the links of ones she did read in new tabs before opening one for her stories.

"Ooh, yeah! I haven't read any of your writing yet!" The kwami settled down on the pillow next to her, snuggling deep into it as Holly pulled the list of her stories. "I wanna hear. . . 'Twisted Love.' Yeah, that sounds cool!"

She nodded, pulling up the story. "Alright, here we go. 'In my opinion, love is like a crazy rock band concert. . .'"

I was originally going to do a shameless plug for another one of my fanfics (namely "Twist in the Story"), but I thought that would be a bit off, so instead I made up one of the most random opening lines you may ever hear. And to think, that took me a while to come up with. Why I spent so much time on that one line, I have no idea.

And those books I mentioned I actually had recently read upon writing this chapter. The first one, about HIV, is My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi, and the second one (I wasn't about to actually spoil it) is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Both are very good, and I highly recommend them.

Oh yeah. And there's also the fact that I put a name to the fox kwami, whose canon name is Trixx apparently. I think that was a leak a while ago? I don't know, but anyways, I named her Zyann because I thought that was pretty and would fit her.

Thanks to EmptySpot for following, AnimePsycho1107 for following, celinette9221 for following and favoriting, and everyone else for reading!