After a few hours of rest, Jaden left her house in search of something to do. She then remembered that she had promised Ursula that she would build her a house on the beach. She groaned with annoyance. Why did she always make promises that required a lot of hard work? If Malibu's Dreamhouse hadn't already made her go bankrupt, then this favour certainly would. If she left now, then perhaps Ken would come back when she was already out. With her decision already made, Jaden left her house and headed towards the beach.
A short walk later and she was already walking along the south part of the beach, looking for the perfect place to put Ursula's house. After about twenty minutes of scouting out an appropriate spot, Jaden placed a marker in the sand and was about to walk towards Scrooge's store until she was stopped by a slender woman with long, black hair, who approached Jaden with a gracious, elegant walk.
Without giving Jaden any time to introduce herself, the black haired woman grabbed Jaden by the arm and dragged her over to Malibu's Dreamhouse, where the unknown woman stopped just a few feet away from the porch. "How come Barbie gets her own house?" The woman questioned Jaden as she gestured towards the enormous, pink house.
Jaden shrugged, unsure whether or not she should be confused by this woman's crazy antics or laughing right in her face for her self-entitlement. The mage had to bite her tongue in an attempt to restrain herself from giving this woman the hard word that she didn't owe this woman anything. Why should she bend over backwards for a woman who she didn't even know? But, she kept her own counsel. She had a funny feeling that this woman didn't like to be told the word no. "Because Barbie asked for one." Jaden replied.
The woman stamped her foot like a child with a temper tantrum, her face reddening as her rage increased. "Well, I want one too and it has to be bigger than Barbie's!" She yelled, her voice increasing alongside her growing anger.
Jaden sighed with exasperation and gave the woman a pointed look, one that conveyed her annoyance, though the mage supposed that this woman didn't really care. She sure knew how to demand stuff. She had very obviously been in a position like this before and with her intimidating behaviour, had somehow gotten away with it. Jaden chuckled inwardly to herself. Just to further infuriate this woman, Jaden would comply with her request, but she was only going to work on it whenever she had the chance. She wasn't about to push herself like she had done with the Dreamhouse. Maybe if the woman had been polite enough, then perhaps Jaden would have put all her time and energy into building the house. But no, this woman had basically shot herself in the foot.
"Just send me the details of what you want and I'll get round to it at some point. I have a very busy schedule right now." Jaden told her. She didn't actually have the energy to build another house, especially one that was bigger than the Dreamhouse. Just as she was about to let the woman in question reply, Jaden interrupted any train of thought that might have come the woman's way, the mage's mind racing with stunning clarity. "Wait, who are you anyway?" Jaden questioned her. She suddenly recognised the woman as one of Barbie's girlfriends, but she never did get her name whilst they were both present.
The black haired woman flicked her hair over her shoulder, appearing to drop her threatening persona for her more disarming, sexy one. "I'm Raquelle, you best remember that name." She told Jaden as she pointed a long, manicured finger at her and then heading into the Dreamhouse, no doubt about to flaunt to everyone about her new house.
Jaden shook her head and sighed as she watched Raquelle go. Well, that sure was something. Jaden remarked to herself, taking that as her leave to finally head over to the plaza and into Scrooge's store, making sure to take her time as she wasn't in any sort of hurry.
As she stepped inside the store and walked up to the counter, Scrooge turned around in her direction as he heard the sound of the bell above the door ring it's small chime. He was about to greet Jaden when the words died on his tongue as he gave her a look of pure shock as he took in the state that the mage was in. He knew about her attempted suicide, it was common knowledge amongst all the villagers now, but he had no idea just how bad it truly was. But still, he took a deep breath and wanting to appear friendly, gave her a kind smile. "Ah, Jaden. It's good to see you. It feels like forever since you last stepped foot in my shop. Now, what can I do for you?"
Thankful that at least Scrooge got the hint that she wasn't in the mood for anybody's pity for her sorry state, Jaden began to explain to him about needing to find a house for Ursula and how she had found just the right spot on the beach, having already placed the marker where she wanted it built. Scrooge nodded his head at Jaden's plan, giving her a time frame of about two weeks for it to be built, regarding that everything goes well. Satisfied with what Scrooge had told her, Jaden handed him almost all of her money to him, groaning inwardly to herself that she was once again, broke.
Saying her goodbyes to the duck, Jaden walked out of the store and walked around to the back of the building, leaning against the wall and lighting a cigarette as she wondered on what she can do next now that Ursula's house was now out of her hands. As she smoked her cigarette all the way down to the butt, Jaden scanned the lushest green fields right in front of her, its usual beauty destroyed from the presence of all the Night Thorns that had grown since she had been bedridden for a week. With nobody else being able to take care of them, they had been left to fester and grow to their full potential, their faint purple glow ominous, yet captivating at the same time. With nothing else to do, Jaden tossed her cigarette onto the ground and got straight to work on the Night Thorns, acting like she had never been away in the first place. She started with the thorns in the plaza, then moving onto the ones in the meadow and then onto the beach. It was going to be a long, hard-working process, but at the end of the day it still needed doing.
It's not like anyone else was going to do the job for her.
Later that night in the Dreamhouse, Skipper, Stacie and Chelsea were sitting in the living room watching TV whilst everyone else was asleep or at the very least in their bedrooms. They had been drinking and were currently a little bit tipsy, the perfect condition to be devising a plan. Ever since Jaden had taken up with Ken, the sisters had been meaning to confront the mage about her relationship with Ken and where that exactly that left Barbie.
Skipper wasn't really paying attention to the TV. Her eyes kept glancing over to her phone every few minutes for the time. She had asked Jaden to meet her in the basement for a simple chat. Skipper wasn't looking for a fight, all she wanted was some answers as to why Jaden had supposedly lied to Barbie about her feelings, considering that she was now shacked up with Ken.
"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Stacie asked her sisters, cutting into Skipper's thoughts as her older sister sat up straighter on the sofa.
Skipper flicked her hair over her shoulder, rolling her eyes to the ceiling as she breathed a sigh of slight annoyance. They had only been over the plan three times now. "We're doing this because it's a little strange that Jaden was trying to impress Barbie, but then started to date Ken." Skipper explained. "We didn't watch her struggle for hours writing that letter for nothing." She added.
Chelsea chuckling, remembering the memory fondly. "Yeah, she struggled quite bad."
"So, something is either very wrong or Jaden is a bitch and played Barbie." Stacie said with a sigh. "I'm almost hoping that something is wrong. I don't want to believe that Jaden is a bitch, not after everything she's done for our sis. Hopefully if there's something else going on that we can help her with." Stacie said.
Skipper shook her head. "None of us wants to believe that. Now come on, she should be down in the basement by now." Skipper told them, rising from her place on the sofa and following her two younger sisters out of the room, all the while rehearsing exactly what she was going to say to Jaden. Although the main purpose of this chat was trying to figure out why Jaden had ditched Barbie for Ken, it was more of a welfare check to see how Jaden was faring up. If it was true that Jaden was indeed dating Ken, then Ken was more than proving to everyone around him that he wasn't exactly the most considerate lover out there.
Skipper was just hoping that this talk wasn't going to end in some sort of fight.