Apple Kid assures us that he's well enough to get back to Twoson on his own, and while I want to walk him back I'm also not sure if we can wait to head after Tony and Dr. Andonuts now that Starmen are involved. So we decide to let Apple Kid go, and Ness says he'll teleport us back to Onett so he can stock up.

Onett. It's been so long.

And when we appear there after Ness starts his teleportation PSI, it looks like nothing's changed at all. Same big library, green fields, and Ness's favorite burger joint. Well, I guess I don't know if it's his favorite anymore. I'm almost tempted to ask, but Ness takes off straight towards his house without dallying. Guess I'll have to live with the oddness of not knowing my friend as well as I used to.

We walk up to Ness's house, and after unlocking the door he strides in. The silence that fills the air feels wrong, and it takes me a second to put my finger on it.

No King.

I walk in after Ness and glance around, and sure enough there's no sign of the dog. That's when I remember how old King already was when I met him, and Ness even mentioned that King was older than him. Given that Ness is seventeen now and big dogs rarely make it past fifteen, King must be…

I gnaw on the inside of my lip. An irrational part of me is annoyed that Ness didn't tell me, but of course he couldn't have when I was the one who cut him out of my life. I thought that facing my life without Ness was making me strong, but now I can't shake the feeling that I missed five years of my best friend's life out of useless self-pity.

"Hey mom."

I glance over to see Ness's mom getting up from the couch where some soap opera I don't recognize is playing on the TV. The expression she regards Ness with is loving but stern.

"I got a call saying that there was a Starman attack," she says, "And that after you ran out of school to help with it, you disappeared and didn't tell anyone where you were going."

"Huh." Ness scratches the back of his head. "I guess I didn't."

"I don't expect you to swing by and let me know every time you need to visit somewhere from your adventure," she says, "But at least tell someone where you're going, okay sweetie?"

Ness's mom pauses, turns off the TV, and then turns back to him.

"Even better," she says, "You could let me get you a cell phone so you can call to let me know how you're doing. Tracy says that's what people your age are using to keep in touch with boyfriends and girlfriends, so you'll want one before long anyways. They're pretty nifty, you know. My BlackBerry even has a keyboard and lets me use email."

"A lot of the places we go are off the grid anyways," Ness says. "Sorry if I worried you, mom. Paula and I have to head over to Winters, so I'm going to get packed. I'll be home as soon as I can."

Ness heads past his mom and leaps up the stairs an astonishing three at a time. Must be nice having long legs.

"Paula."

The authority in her voice and face vanishes when she turns to me, her sweet smile taking me back to when Ness first introduced me to her. Even compared to Ness, she really hasn't changed at all.

"It's good to see you again," she says. "I was worried something awkward happened between you and Ness when he stopped talking about you as often. But when you came up in conversation, his face still lights up every time."

Given how warm he's been to me, that shouldn't surprise me. Every new piece of information I learn about Ness makes my decision to avoid him look even sillier.

"And I don't think I ever said this," she continues, "So I'll do it now. Thank you for watching my son's back out there, Paula. I know that if you weren't there, there's no chance he'd have made it through."

I want to deny the claim, but then I remember how I was the one who was able to break through Giygas by praying and reaching people all around the world. I'm still conflicted about that moment after how the public turned against me, but I can at least be glad that it got me and my friends out alive.

"In my mind," she says, "You saved my son's life. If you ever need anything at all, please ask."

Ness's mom must know what happened to my public image, and even now in her proper red dress and yellow earrings she can look past my punk-lite outfit and treat me with kindness. How much support was out there in the world if I only put in the effort to look?

"And of course," she says, "It makes me happy to see that you and Ness still get along. Did you know that a couple years after your adventure when I saw a bunch of girls chatting him up and trying to impress him, he told me after the fact that he was only interested in you?"

That's the moment when Ness flies down the stairs with a full backpack and winter jackets in hand. The way he shoots a glance at his mom tells me he caught that last part.

"Got all of your embarrassing stories about me out of your system, mom?" he says.

"Embarrassing? I thought it was sweet. I just wanted to make sure Paula knew how you felt about her, since boys your age are… you know."

"No, I don't know," Ness says, crossing his arms.

She waves a hand in dismissal. "I'm sorry if you didn't want me to share that, sweetie. I won't embarrass you further. I hope you and Paula have a nice trip to Winters."

Ness grunts, and then turns to me with one of the winter coats outstretched.

"This is an old one of mine," he says. "You okay wearing it?"

I nod and take it from him. "Honestly, I'm surprised you're not planning to stick to t-shirt and shorts in the snow like last time."

Ness glances at his mom, and then back at me.

"I may or may not have gotten chewed out for that," he says.

"Your father gave you thousands of dollars in spending money for that adventure," his mom says. "You could have at least bought yourself a nice jacket."

Now doesn't sound like a great time to mention that I stuck to my dress as well. In our defense, we were never in Winters for that long.

"Call me if you need anything, sweetie," his mom says. "And Tracy still can get you premium delivery on Escargo Express, so take advantage of that if you need to resupply on the road. Love you."

"Yeah," Ness says. "Love you too."

After all these years, I had almost forgotten what the unconditional love of a parent is supposed to look like. When Ness walks out, I do my best to swallow my jealousy and head after him.

"I hope it wasn't awkward that I left you alone with my mom," Ness says.

"No, it was good to see her again." I pause. "Did you really say that you only wanted to date me?"

Heat rises in his cheeks. "That was three years ago, and I said it to get her off my case. Don't worry, I'm not dumb enough to start coming onto you after learning that you've been avoiding me for five years."

I play the words in my head several times to make sure I'm not misinterpreting him. It's clear he wants to drop the subject, but nowhere in there does he say that he's no longer interested in me. What am I supposed to do with that?

The question lingers in my mind as we teleport off to Winters.

#

As soon as the cold wind hits me, I throw on the coat Ness gave me. Yeah, I have no idea how we withstood this in our usual clothes five years ago. Ness heads over to the boarding school, the gate closed as usual.

"Does Jeff even live here anymore?" I say.

"Yeah, they teach up though high school. He worked with Dr. Andonuts for a while but decided to head back to school to get a wider range of education."

Now I feel silly for asking. Of course Ness and Jeff have been keeping each other updated on their lives after I cut both of them off.

"Now," Ness says. "You okay heading in there on your own and grabbing Jeff?"

I blink. "Why alone? Why me?"

"I can do it if you want," Ness says. "But I think one of us is going to help the other over the gate, and I feel bad about leaving you out in the cold." A pause. "And using you as a stepping stool when I weigh 200 pounds."

I'm about to protest when a shiver runs through my body. After rubbing my arms, I glance over to see that Ness looks unfazed by the cold. Yeah, if I stay out here too much longer I'm going to start having to use PSI Fire to warm myself up.

"All right," I say. "Any idea what part of the building Jeff is in?"

Ness shakes his head. "I'm sure the students will know if you ask around."

Right. A part of me still prefers the cold to the combination of social anxiety and fear of breaking rules, but I do owe Jeff after ignoring him for years. Besides, while the area's supposed to be peaceful now Ness has a better chance at holding out solo against a monster attack than I do.

After I confirm that I'm ready, Ness gets on his hands and knees to give me a boost up to the top of the brick wall. I slide down on the other side and drop into the snow, which is already starting to soak my sneakers. Lovely.

Putting that aside, I head into the school and ask around for Jeff. Nobody's seen him recently, but I get pointed to the classroom of a student teacher named Maxwell Labs who apparently works closely with him. I go into the room to see a college-age redhead guy in a lab coat standing over a lab bench with chemicals in flasks.

"Um," I say. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, this assay isn't time sensitive." He turns around, pausing as he regards me through lab goggles. "You're Paula, right? Jeff's friend?"

Well, I'm glad that it sounds like Jeff still sees me as a friend. I nod, and his face lights up.

"My name's Max," he says. "I went here with Jeff, actually, and now I help out with teaching when I have time. You have no idea how hard it is to design labs so robust that not even grade school students can mess them up."

"Um, nice to meet you. I'm looking for Jeff."

"Right." Max's brow furrows. "Actually, he's been gone since this morning."

I blink. "What?"

"Yeah, didn't leave a note or anything. I thought it was odd, especially since students aren't supposed to leave school grounds, but I figured Jeff can take care of himself."

"And Tony's also missing."

Max hesitates, and then nods. "The staff told the students here that he was visiting family, but obviously they weren't fooling Jeff. Maybe Jeff went out looking for him?"

It is possible that Jeff didn't realize the danger of venturing out alone, given that as of this morning none of us knew that Starmen were on the loose again. If Jeff encountered one of them…

"I have an idea of where Tony might be," I say. "And if Jeff came to the same conclusion as we did, he'll have went the same way. Ness and I will see if we can find him."

Max's shoulders relax. "Thanks. I can rest a little easier knowing that you're on the case." A pause. "Oh, how did you get into the building in the first place? The gate is supposed to be locked."

I debate making up some excuse before sighing. "Ness helped me over the wall."

"Sounds like great minds think alike, then."

Huh. Is that an established thing people to do to get in and out of here? Seems like a bad idea when there's no easy way to go the other direction.

Ah.

"I guess I do need help getting out, then," I say.

"That's why I asked. I'm staff now, so I can let you out with a key."

"And it's okay for you to do that?"

"I like your eye for lab safety. It's true that I need to be careful leaving this assay here unattended, but don't worry. I labelled all my flasks and I'll lock the door to this room so students can't mess with it."

I was more worried about him getting into trouble with his superiors for aiding a trespasser, but I guess if he's not concerned for himself I have no reason to fret on his behalf.

Max tosses his disposable gloves in the trash, takes off his lab coat and goggles, and leads me out into the front courtyard. Ness waves us hello, apparently also unconcerned with the potential trouble of me trespassing, and Max unlocks the door for us. Ness and I thank him, but it's clear that he's itching to get back to his lab so we don't hold him up for any longer.

I update Ness on the situation, and he furrows his brow in thought.

"If he had gone out looking for Tony, he should have called me first to let me know what he was up to," Ness says. "Plus, I bet he'd have asked Max for the gate key. Which we know he didn't, considering that Max doesn't know for sure where he went."

Good points that I hadn't considered. Where does that leave us?

"Still, I like your thinking," he says. "Jeff's a smart cookie. If we know that the sanctuaries are important, he'll already be two steps ahead of us. I say we head to Rainy Circle and see if we can find him there. If there's some explanation for his weird behavior, we won't find it by waiting here."

Right. We may be down an ally, but we should be fine to handle Starmen on our own. And as we set off town towards Lake Tess, it sinks in for the first time.

I'm on another adventure with Ness. All of the excitement, fear, friendship, and pain that I tried to escape from but felt empty without is coming back.

This time, I'll prove myself.