Life returned to normal, as normal as life could be for someone who lived with their friend's cake prankster nanna. Jade zipped up her hoodie and took Bec's leash, looking out onto the bright weekend skies all the while. She stepped out the door onto the pavement, thinking about what corners of Maple Valley to explore next. Was there an alternate route to the community garden that took less time? A smile crept on Jade's face. There were multitudes of fruits, vegetables and flowers she had never tried to grow before in her old atrium, ones that the people who also lived here were more experienced in coaxing from the ground. They were beautiful things. What about her own plot, her own little group of flowers in its box? How were they doing? Maybe it'd be a good idea to check on them. Jade took a left turn, cautiously looking down the road before she crossed. Nanna made extra sure that her other legal charge knew how to cross a road. Another turn, this time going right.

A bus passed the gardener as she strode down the sidewalk. Though it wasn't yellow like the bus she took to school, the familiar rev of the engine made her reminisce anyways. The feeling of being so high off the concrete, of watching the houses and streets slide past her window – Jade knew that it was a perfectly mundane thing in her new home, but for now it was breathtaking. She continued walking Bec. The community garden was in sight now. Only a couple of minutes until she made it.

There was a puddle on the sidewalk, reflecting a black haired girl in the glassy water. It was oddly clear for a splotch of old rain on the ground, Jade knew, as she glanced in it. She made eye contact. Green. That was good. The thought of it being otherwise sent chills down her spine, the horrified looks and gaping mouths staring her in the heart. Body language was a powerful thing. Luckily though, that was not reality at the moment. Jade walked on, pushing away any thoughts of eye colours and thinking instead of leaves and roots.

That wasn't to say though, that the red was completely unwanted. Sometimes, it was a bit of an escape to have. Like during the feeling jams.

Dave set up a puppet pile in a room that Nanna wasn't using, and that was where he and Jade were sitting.

"So what was this about again?" Dave asked. "You called me over for a 'feeling jam' or whatever you called it and that's all I know about this."

"It's about the letters you keep sending John! The ones that sound like his dad's notes, in the all caps grey text and the really discouraging messages! You know wereally miss our old guardians and wish we haven't gone through what we have. And we've all experienced the same thing, too." Jade answered.

"Except we haven't."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm pretty sure John's dad doesn't hate his son for getting a free pass out of the Heat Haze," Dave hissed. Then came the backstory that Jade was all too familiar with: the look asking for the "Real Dave" that both Bro and John gave him, because he was one of the failures. Only got out after he got killed too, Jade heard for what she thought was the thousandth time. It would be the same song and dance all over again – she'd pull on her mask of optimism, drop earnest advice that would never be followed and let time pass. The cycle would perpetuate itself. Jade could see it all in her head, and how it made her fists clench. So what was the point of words and feeling jams, if they were all so cheap? Wait. These were bad thoughts, and this was Dave's feeling jam. They had to stop. She had to put them away.

But then it happened again.

Dave's voice pounded against his throat, trying to get out. Never breaking eye contact, the coolkid reaching over for a dusty pencil and notepad on the ground. Using his hand for a surface, he wrote:

jade why are you activating your eye ability all of a sudden

"I don't know! I didn't mean to do that! I just started thinking mean things that I shouldn't say or even think and now this is happening!" Jade let the rest of her breath go. Taking a new one, she said, "Maybe I can just deactivate it, and we can go on with the feeling jam." She blinked. "Better?

Again Dave's voice knocked against his throat. Not better.

we can just continue the feeling jam on paper jade its cool chill out

Yes. They could just keep talking using the paper and pencil. How stupid, Jade mused in her head. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She was the one supposed to be helping Dave here, but who here was coming up with solutions? Stupid! But it would just have to wait. The gardener pushed her inner voice away, and began to read as Dave wrote. Occasionally, he crossed out a word and started again, but the feeling jam went smoothly otherwise. It was still the same song and dance, paper or spoken word or otherwise. But that wasn't stupid. Stupid. The word really made things feel sour in the world.

Ah, but it isn't really that stupid, whispered a voice, silent, in Jade's heart. It was smooth. Slippery in tone and word choice, like a snake. No one else heard it, it seemed, no one but the gardener herself. You're not using all that's available to you.

So someone else had to give her advice now?

But is it really someone else when this is coming from your very own heart and mind? You want this, and you're saying it. With your thoughts. Listen to what you're telling yourself.

Dave scribbled on, unaware that his feeling jam partner had tuned into another voice.

Go all out, Jade. Those red eyes of yours? Open them even more. You have something to say, yes? That was you wished for. Go, fulfill your own wish. Open them wide. I'll make you do it.

Something surged within Jade. It roared and pulled, tussling with the same heart that it swallowed just months ago. This was unacceptable. This was fine. She should cry. She should keep listening. Dave's throat finally relaxed, and so he looked back up at Jade, about to continue the feeling jam verbally as planned –

But then it happened again.

Jade managed a smile. Nanna came in with cookies, delicious chocolate chip cookies. The gentle lilt of her voice was in the air, and her trademark 'hoo-hoo' laugh continued to sound.

But then it happened again.

John was projecting into the past, wasn't he? Jade swore she saw him turn a corner, where the door to the room she was in hung open.

But then it happened again. And everyone had left. Nanna had probably gone to clean the oven, Dave home to do a project and John back to his present, whenever that was. Only Jade remained in the puppet pile room. It was lonely.

Apart from Dave's white slip of paper that he used to communicate just now, there was another on the floor, written on in green instead of red. It said:

"Being 'alone', doesn't mean that 'no one is around you', but rather, it means that 'you are not connected to anyone'." ~~a nice person whose name i cant remember right now :/

Jade was certain that it was Kemu who said that. One hundred percent positive. And it didn't matter.