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'The_Author' and 'Mizuno, Hana' found in EarGloEmSa-RouERROR-[TERM]

Before anyone in the Hairpins knew it, three big things happened.

First, Emmy's friend Mira dragged all her friends into the club, bringing their total member count up to, as quoted by Owen, "Way too fucking many."

Then, four of their jackets came in for Emmy, Owen, Ethan and James, the later working with Jirard to tailor them and sew in the patches. They were black and white, fitting with iPlay theme, with their names embroidered along the bottom inside portion of the jacket.

They also got their first performance opportunity.

A dance was being held by the student council late in the year, the theme based on submissions by students. Paul, Nick and Josh worked with Jared to decide which theme would be the most interesting and possible, and ended up deciding on a 1920s swing aesthetic. Emmy managed to hear about it early through a conversation during lunch, and quickly jumped on the opportunity for them to perform.

Owen learned quickly that it was indeed West's idea after telling him and Nialle about it whilst working on an art project. He almost immediately ran off to tell Ryan, leaving the roommates alone again.

"You need to clean your desk," Nialle snarked from her bed, not looking up from her phone. "There's crap everywhere."

"Yeah?" Owen hummed. "Well, you need to mind your fucking business."

Nialle hissed through her teeth. "It's my room too."

"And it's my desk."

"We already had ants, Owen."

"That wasn't my fault."

"You left a bag of chocolate on the floor and it all disappeared."

"It wasn't the ants-"

"It wasn't the ants-"

"Stop fucking mocking me" Owen spun around in her chair, tossing a crumpled piece of paper at her roomate. It missed, and Nialle just picked it up and tossed it in the trash. "Slut."

Nialle rolled her eyes. "Calm down."

Owen just stomped over to the trash and dug the paper out, placing it on her desk and flattening it on her desk. "Whatever, I'm bored. I'm going to James's room."

"Don't-"

"Go fuck your girlfriend or something and get off my ass," Owen slammed the door, leaving Nialle by herself. Again.

She'd never understand how James put up with her so well, much less managed to keep her consistently calm.

Nialle opened her texts to look at any she'd missed. It was just photos of her cousins she'd gotten from her aunt, where they were running around at what appeared to be a picnic. Her mother was holding the youngest in the background, seemingly consoling him.

She hated to miss the family gatherings, but she knew she was making them proud. They all had wished her off here with a picnic similar to the one they were at now, with cake and music and all of her cousins breaking into her room to steal her shit.

Fond memories.

After sending back a simple heart in response, she slumped out of bed, stretching her arms over her head. She began aimlessly braiding her hair, phone tossed onto her bed behind her.

Nialle paced the perimeter of her side of the room, kicking Owen's clothes and papers back onto her side. The divide was made obvious by a line of yellow duct tape across the floor, one that Owen put in place to keep Nialle out. The doorway was marked in blue, signifying a dead zone.

The whole system was unnecessarily complicated, with specific things being okay or not okay to cross or sit between the lines. Their desks were back-to-back across the line, with the only thing crossing into boths sides being a trash bin.

Nialle had decorated her half of the room with gold and navy colors, with metallic ribbons hung using pins and her sheets scattered with stars. She even had those little glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars, a gift from her Jaijai, of whom's name came from her then baby cousin's inability to say "Jaddati".

Pictures of them hung from the ribbons with clothespins, cutouts of the planets glued to the wood. Her "certificate" she got from a space camp was also there, but it wasn't really an award persay.

Nialle loved space since she was as young as four years old. Her dad would tell her fairytales of Princesses throwing stars like confetti across the sky, making creatures from the dust. She learned their names, from East to West, building and painting anything she could to put the sky in her bedroom.

This passion grew into a curiosity for everything beyond what she knew. All of space became her goal, to know everything she could. Under her desk sat worn astrology and astronomy textbooks from elementary to university and beyond. Her mother only cut into her obsession when it began replacing her studying, limiting her personal research to just one a week.

Nialle's biggest dream was to be an astronaut.

But Owen thought it was stupid and ignorant of her to have such an unlikely dream. "She doesn't know anything," Nialle muttered, stopping in front of her vanity, to tie her braid at the end. "Her dad just gives her anything she wants."

A sudden ringing of her phone called her back to her bed, and before she realized, she had answered and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" she hummed, fiddling with her sheets. There was a loud shuffle on the other end of the line, and what sounded like muffled talking. "Huh? Is someone there?"

"Nialle?" the line cleared up, the shuffling ceasing. "Sorry, I had my phone upside down."

Rolling her eyes, she pulled her legs to cross in her lap. "You're fine, Emmy. What's up?"

"Well, uhm, ya' see…" Emmy stuttered, the sound of something falling distracting her. "Stop it! I told you to quit messing with that," she hissed, a muddled response picked up.

"Oh, are you with someone?"

"Yeah, uh, Shane! I swear to god, do I need to come over there-"

"I'm picking it up, shush."

"Sorry, Nialle. Yeah, Shane's here. That's what I called about," Emmy sighed, the springs of her bed shifting softly in the background. "He found this uh, this paper thing. A whole book of numbers and shit. But like, we can't fucking read," she chuckled, flipping through the papers.

Nialle was already standing, her phone pressed to her ear by her shoulder. She tugged at a boot, jumping around on one foot. "What? Shane can't read."

"Yes I fucking can-"

"He's dyslexic," Emmy laughed, Shane making sounds of frustration. "Stop it, I'm talking. Anyways, he's been trying to read this packet for like, ten minutes, but the font is the worst thing I've ever seen and it's at something like 5 point font."

Nialle, pushed out of her dorm, tapping her boot against the floor to try and unbunch her socks. "I'm heading over. You're in your room right?"

"Oh, yeah. Jeez you move fa-"

"Here."

Nialle hung up the phone and knocked on Emmy's door. Her room was up one floor, and Nialle's was right near the stairwell, so it took barely any time to get there. The door opened to reveal a very unamused Shane and Emmy lounging on her bed. Nialle nodded to the boy as she stepped inside,

"Good lord," Emmy chuckled, pushing up to stand. Her glasses were on her face, a contacts case lying on her bed. As Nialle placed her phone down, Emmy wrapped her arms around her shoulders from the side. "Thanks for coming."

"Of course," she smiled, giving Emmy a short hug back. The girl was pulled over to the bed and sat down as Shane dug through a pile of papers on the floor.

Emmy pulled her mouth straight, walking over the Shane and kicking him lightly in the side with her toe. He reciled jokingly, grabbing her by the wrist and tugging her down. "The paper clip fell off."

"The paper clip fell off."

"Quit mocking me."

"Quit mocking me."

"Your British accent is god awful," Shane rolled his eyes, lining up a stack of papers on the floor. "Here."

"Here."

"I swear, Emmilia-"

"If you call me that one more fucking time I'll stab your fucking eye out."

"Twins?"

Emmy made a face to Nialle that made her laugh before passing her the stack. She took one look at it and whistled. "Gosh, I see what you mean," Nialle squinted, tilting her head. The font was tiny, looking almost like fuzzy streaks on the page. The font was almost impossible to read as well, seeing that it was a thin, tall lettering with stiff lines and curves.

She flipped through the pages, each one covered with numbers and symbols without reason. "I think it's some sort of printer test packet, but Shane isn't convinced."

"It can't be," he muttered, sitting at the end of the bed. "I found it in the cafeteria two nights ago, there's o reason for a printer test to be sitting under a table like that."

"Huh," Nialle hummed, stopping on a page near the back. "Look," she turned the page towards Shane, who gave her a look in return. "Oh, yeah, uhm, sorry. It's Russian, I think. At least, it looks like it."

Emmy climbed onto the bed behind Nialle, placing her chin on her shoulder too look at the paper. "No, not quite. It's really similar though. But I'm not quite sure."

"Well, I don't know any slavic languages. I barely know Japanese," Nialle sighed, passing the papers back to Emmy. She moved to stand up, but Emmy grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

"Please don't leave," Emmy whined with a pout. "Shane's killing me."

Shane huffed.

"Oh shut up, you know what you're doing," Emmy stuck her tongue out, getting a mirrored response. "Please stay?"

"Well, sure, I guess. I don't have anything else to do," Nialle shrugged. "There's not much I can do to help, though."

Shane grabbed the papers out of Emmy's hands, scanning over the page. "Do you think Ethan might know any slavic languages?" he said, his face two centimeters from the page.

Emmy made a hum, scooting over to give Nialle a bit of room. "Perhaps, but I doubt it. He moved out from France more or less, seeing that he knows Spanish, German, Dutch, English, Portuguese… y'know, Western European."

"West might know Russian," Nialle offered. "Actually, I'm almost certain. He has a couple Russian novels in his room, though I'm unsure if he actually has read them."

"Why would he have Russian novels if he couldn't read them?" Shane muttered, stretching his arms. "Well, might as well call them, see what they know."

Emmy poked him in the side as he stretched upwards, making his body recoil. "I'll call Ethan. One of you get West, 'lright?" she pushed off the bed, her glasses falling off her nose a bit.

"I don't ha-"

"Oh fuck off, Shane, I know you have his number. I looked in your phone," Emmy chuckled, picking up her own off the floor where it was charging.

Shane made a loud noise behind his teeth before jumping off the bed and ; Emmy from the back. She laughed as Shane placed his chin on her shoulder and made complaints in the back of his throat.

"I won't say anything, promise," she smiled, stroking his hair back. He slapped her hand away in a semi-playful manner, grabbing his phone from his jacket pocket.

He tilted his head, tapping at something before lightly kicking Emmy's calf with his toe. She turned around, looking down at his screen. She took it from his hands with very little retaliation, scrolling around before passing it back. "Well," she muttered, placing her phone back down.

"Are you two done with the telepathy bullshit yet?" Nialle sighed, folding her arms. Shane turned his head and scowled as Emmy walked back to her bed. Shane frowned and followed. "What's going on?"

"West just texted Shane. Asked if he found a stack of papers the other night," Emmy explained, gathering the sheets from where Shane had hastily strewn them around the bed. He was standing, typing on his phone while reclined on the wall.

Nialle raised her eyebrows. "Well isn't that convenient."

"He's fucking lost," Shane said out loud, already walking to the door. "I'll go hunt him down," turning the handle. "Dumbass."

"There goes the ghost," Emmy rolled her eyes as Shane closed the door behind him. "Pissy-pants."

Nialle's mouth puckered for a moment as she turned to look around the room. She'd been in there a few times, mostly just helping Emmy read or just coming to sit and chat. Emmy warmed up to her quickly, but that appeared to be one of her key traits, seeing that she got in so quickly with Normal Boots and Hidden Block.

Nialle always wanted to ask Emmy how she handled everything happening. She knew about the drama she'd gone through not that long ago- everyone did, in fact. No one really talked about it, though, since it honestly wasn't their business. Emmy wasn't even gone from school much after the incident from what Nialle heard, which seemed odd until she heard Emmy had just gotten back after an injury.

No one knew why Emmy was gone for so long except, it seemed, Emmy herself. But she hardly ever talked about her own issues anyways, so Nialle would have to wait a while to get any answers.

"Hey Nialle," Emmy spoke up, her legs swinging off the bed. "Are you in any clubs?"

"Huh? Oh, uhm, no. There aren't really any I'd be interested in." Niale said, watching Emmy through the corners of her vision. Emmy frowned, wrinkling her nose impatiently. "What?"

"That was where you were supposed to say, 'You know what? I'd love to join the best club led by the best girl in the entire school," Emmy teased, playfully tossing the small strand of hair dangling past her jaw over her shoulder.

Nialle rolled her eyes. "I don't know, I don't think Hidden Block's welcoming any more members…"

"Rude! There's not even any girls in that club."

"Ian's close enough."

Emmy rolled over onto her back, kicking at Nialle with her socks. "I don't think he'd appreciate that," she chuckled, dropping her feet on Nialle's lap. "But no, seriously. Wanna join?"

Nialle made a face, looking away towards the door. "I've never even played an instrument, Emmy. What would I even do?" She felt Emmy lean herself up, using Nialle's forearm as leverage.

"Well, I could always use help with the planning and paperwork. I've heard you're pretty organized," Emmy smiled, drawing back Nialle's attention. "Plus…" Emmy danced her finger's over Nialle's skin, catching her hair between them. "It gets kinda lonely sometimes. I'd appreciate your company…"

"I…" Nialle paused, holding her breath. Emmy was inching closer, her legs still in her lap. But before she could say anything, the door swung open, causing Emmy to fall off the bed, taking the comforter with her.

And Nialle.

"I'm back, fucker," Shane announced, not even fazed by the calamity. "I brought our little Russian man."

"Are you two okay?" West jogged over, pulling away the comforter. "Nothing broken I hope?"

Nialle groaned, shoving him before flopping onto the floor. "Just my dignity," she sighed, helping Emmy climb out from her tangled mess of a blanket.

"Fuck you," Emmy hissed, jumping up with a pillow in her hand. She threw it towards Shane, but he just leaned down, causing the pillow to fly out the door.

It hit Hana square in the face.

"Ah, oh my god! Hana!" Emmy yelled, sprinting out the door. "Since when were you there?!"

"I'm okay," Hana whispered, tapping around on the floor. Emmy picked up her glasses, wiping them off in her shirt. "And I was just trying to find Mai. I heard the loud noise while I was on the stairs and thought she might be here."

Emmy helped Hana place her glasses on her face, pushing back the hair that had fallen over her face. "I'm really sorry. That was meant for Shane."

At the name Shane, Hana snapped her head to the doorway, where Shane was trying and failing to hide behind West as Nialle pushed them both closer to Hana from behind. "Oh, I see," Hana deadpanned, clutching the pillow in one of her hands. "Need any help?"

Before Emmy responded, West had quickly dodged forward towards Emmy, giving Hana a square shot at Shane's stomach.

"Gah, fuck, Hana!" he coughed, kneeling over. "What the shit?!"

"Oh my god, did I actually hurt you?!" Hana panicked, scuttling towards him. "I'm sorry!"

Shane didn't respond, he just placed his hands on the ground.

Then he hit Hana with the pillow.

"Shane!" Hana squealed as she fell over. "Come on! Cheap shot!"

"Strategy is always, Hana. Did I teach you nothing?" Shane teased, gently hitting her on the back before letting the pillow drop to his side. "You can't sneak attack when I'm expecting it."

"When are you not expecting to get suddenly slammed by a pillow?" Emmy chuckled, dusting her baggy gray sweatshirt as she stood.

Shane pursed his lips, a small smile at the edge. "Neve-"

He was cut off by West gently hitting the back of his head with a small, decorative pillow.

Shane stood frozen for a minute as West smiled, continuing to gently tap him. "You okay buddy?" West laughed, dropping the pillow to place his chin on Shane's shoulder.

"Did you know?" Shane muttered, his gaze fixated at the end of the hall. West scrunched his eyebrows, tilting his head. "You're fuckinqg dead West!" Shane reeled around, knocking West off his feet into Emmy's room.

"Holy shit Shane!" Hana and Emmy cried, Nialle just laughing in the background from inside. Shane stormed into Emmy's room, already lifting the pillow over his head. Emmy scrambled into her room to find West laughing as Shane beat him into the ground with the soft white cushion.

Nialle grabbed another, larger pillow off Emmy's bed and swung it at Shane to knock him back. "Vengeance!" she yelled, tugging West to his feet.

"This is war," West laughed, grabbing two more pillows and throwing them at Emmy and Hana. "Choose your sides!"

"I'm going with Shane," Hana chuckled, scrambling behind her clubmate. "I'd rather not get clocked into the closet."

Emmy picked up her pillow, looking between them. "Are y'all seriously gonna make me choose? Cause that's kind of rude."

"No, we won't make you…" Nialle smirked. "That just means you're on your own."

"That's not very fAIR," Emmy screeched, Nialle tossing her pillow straight at her. She retaliated with a blind swing. "Give me my glasses, turd."

Nialle laughed, picking up Emmy's glasses. "Turd? Really?"

"Yes, you're a turd. C'mon," Emmy waved her arms, blindly aiming towards Nialle's hands. The other three were fighting behind Nialle, West accidentally hitting Nialle in the back. It made her stumble forward into Emmy a bit, but she caught her before they both fell again.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Nialle chuckled, unfolding Emmy's glasses. "Uhm, here. Let me…" She placed them on to her face, using her index finger to push it onto her nose. "Boop."

"Boop," Emmy smiled, tapping Nialle on the nose. "Oh and, fight me turd!" Emmy yelled, swinging her pillow into Nialle's hip. The other retaliated with a similar wing, throwing them both back into the fight.

The fight lasted about half an hour, devolving into split territories and couch cushion walls. Her room was an actual mess, but Emmy made sure nothing important was hit by using a mixture of loud "Please don't"s and moving a few things into drawers.

It ended with West collapsed on one of the cushions, Hana hiding in a closet, Shane sitting with a pillow held over his face, Nialle sitting with her whole body wrapped in a blanket, and Emmy sitting face-down on the floor staring into a pillow. Hana poked her head out of the door when all went silent, saying, "Is anyone alive?"

Emmy groaned into a pillow while Nialle poked her head out. West, lying about two feet from Nialle, rolled over and tapped her on the forehead playfully. She flashed a little smile, flopping onto her side so her face was resting into her hair.

Shane hadn't moved much, but one of his hands had swung off the pillow to land face up, fully extended from his side. Hana crawled over, sitting cross legged behind him. She lifted the pillow a bit to peek, but Shane just slammed his hand over the pillow's top to keep it down.

"So," Hana started, patting Shane's hair that was poking out. "Why were you all here in the first place?"

Emmy blinked, laughing shyly. "Oh, yeah. Oops. We got really distracted, huh?"

"Hey, we needed something fun to do. School's been stressful," West smiled, sitting up and stretching. "But yeah, we should do that now, huh?"

"We brought West in cause we want him to translate something," Shane muttered into the pillow."

West huffed, shifting to lay down next to Shane. "That wasn't the deal, buddy," West poked Shane's side, the other smacking at his hand blindly. "You just have something of mine."

"Come on, West, you gotta tell us what it is!" Nialle pouted. She squirmed with her blanket, rolling next to West. She laid her chin on his shoulder, making a loud whine. "Don't be lame."

"I'm not gonna tell you just because you whine," West sighed, rolling his shoulder to knock Nialle's face away. She continued making loud whining noises, Emmy joining in from across the room. Hana looked around before doing the same. Een Shane made a low, monotonous whine in West's direction. "Jesus! Fine! Just stop!" West covered his ears, chuckling. "You guys are desperate, huh?"

Nialle hummed, rolling over to face Emmy, smiling. The girl responded by grabbing the papers off her bed and throwing them in West's lap. Emmy settled in next to Nialle, who had propped herself up by her arms. Emmy let her lay her head in her lap.

Shane moved the pillow from his face, his cheeks flush from the heat. West chuckled, grabbing the pillow and placing it under Shane's head. The brit made a sound as he rolled on his side to face West.

"Can I stick around?" Hana asked, combing through her hair. "I can leave if you'd like."

"Uhm…" West scanned the papers to find the one page in Russian, shaking his head. "No, you can stick around. It's not really anything important."

Shane sat up from his position, looking West in the eyes. "How will we know you aren't lying?"

West blinked, pursing his lips. "Uhh, I don't know," he chuckled, crossing his legs to prop the pages up. "You'll have to trust me I guess."

The other boy frowned, lifting his pillow so he could sit on it right next to West's shoulder. "I want you to point to words and tell me what they mean," Shane muttered, squinting his eyes at the paper. "If you can even read that small."

"Well, it is mine, but honestly, it's not as important as you guys think it is."

"I wanna hear it anyways," Emmy hummed, Nialle nodding in agreement. Emmy had pulled Nialle's hair out of her braid and was brushing through it slowly. "Ethan rarely speaks other languages outside of French and Japanese."

West scrunched up his face. "I don't actually speak Russian. I don't really know how. I just read it," he frowned, scanning the page. "I mean, I know basic phrases, but nothing more."

"Ugh, fine, but I expect to be greeted in Russian henceforth," Nialle teased.

"Well, let's see," West started, everyone turning their attention towards him. "'The following pages are res… restricted… for those not inclusive, er uh, included, in the following listing.' Then there's a list of names, but I don't know what any of them are. One of them says Tia, she's the one who gave me this. I think it's, uhm…" he pointed to a word, showing it to Shane. "I think it's that one."

Shane nodded for him to continue.

"Okay, well it has the list, then uhh…" he scanned down the page further. "'Should these fallen into bad hand-', er, 'should these fall into the wrong hands, please return them to, uhh,'" West's eyes focused onto a word, but he just shook his head. "It's smudged, I can't read the next few lines."

"I thought this was your packet, West," Nialle hissed. "Shouldn't you know what it says?"

"I haven't actually read through this page in full, I just know the basic gist of it is that they should be returned if lost," West mumbled, scanning the bottom of the page. "Oh! I can read that. 'These pages are to be used by, uh, I think that's authorized? Authorized persons above Rank… Rank три.'"

Shane pointed on the page near the word West skipped. "What's that mean?"

"It's a number. I forgot which one," West brought the paper close to his face. Hana leaned over his other shoulder, the boy pointing to the word. "I think it's two?"

Nialle grabbed her phone from her pocket, handing it to Emmy. "Look up russian numbers," she hummed, Emmy tapping through the phone quickly. "You find them?"

Emmy nodded, showing West the screen.

"Oh! Three. Duh," he chuckled, scanning the rest of the page. "The rest of the paper is basically just the same thing repeated, and some stuff to do if it's lost," he said, placing the papers on the floor. "All they are is a bunch of passwords basically. They're to access random articles and studies and stuff."

"Then why'd you have it?" Shane frowned, looking West in the eye. His eyes widened, Shane nodding. "I get it."

Nialle groaned, running her hands down her face. "Jesus, is everyone telepathic in here?" she kicked West in the shoulder gently, pushing him to lean on Shane. West shoved her foot off. "I just wanna know what's going on."

"It's really nothing," Shane muttered, standing up. He reached out a hand to pull West off the ground. "Plus, I should probably be going."

"Same," West yawned, stretching out his back.

Emmy pouted, grabbing at Shane. "But you promised to watch "Protectors of the Planetary Systems" with me…" she complained, Shane walking over and letting her grab his hand. He leaned down to whisper in her ear so quietly Nialle didn't hear a word.

Shane leaned back, a tiny, almost nonexistent smile on his face. "Is that fine?"

Emmy nodded her head, letting go of Shane's hand. "But you're coming over to help me practice tomorrow, right?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Shane waved over his shoulder, grabbing West by the forearm. "C'mon."

"I can walk," West laughed as Shane pulled them through the door.

"Not so sure about that," Shane grumbled, the door closing behind them. The girls heard loud footsteps and West laughing as the two disappeared down the hall.

Hana had her head tilted towards the door. "What's up?" Nialle smiled, Leaning up from Emmy's lap.

"It's just…" Hana sighed, grinning. "Shane isn't usually so playful. I mean, he takes everything so seriously that it's just.. Odd I guess," Hana pulled on her bow, tightening it in her hair. "You really changed him," Hana looked over to Emmy, "You know that?"

Emmy chuckled, glancing at the door before looking back at Hana. "We'll see if it was for better or for worse."

Hana laughed, standing up and dusting off her auburn sweater. "I'm sure any change with Shane is for the better at this point." She leaned down to give Emmy a little hug, then turned to Nialle with her hand extended. "It was great to meet you!"

"Right back atcha," Nialle shook the girl's hand, a large smile on her face. "It's nice to know who Emmy's spending all her time with these days."

"Hey, I've known Hana longer than you," Emmy laughed, shoving Nialle's shoulder.

Nialle fluttered her lashes. "That doesn't make me any less important," she joked, making Emmy roll her eyes.

"I'll see you tomorrow Hana," Emmy waved.

Hana nodded, turning to the door. "Oh! Don't forget, we're holding a Nario Kart tournament for fun with Hidden Block in 4 days. We're meeting in Room AA135."

"I'll be there, don't worry," Emmy smiled, Hana saying goodbye as she left the room.

"So," Nialle said, looping her arms around Emmy's neck and leaning her head on her shoulder. "What were you and Shane talking about?"

Emmy flushed, looking towards the door. "Just rearranging plans," she muttered, placing a hand over Nialle's. "He wanted to hang out with West for a bit so they could talk."

"And you wanted to hang out with me?" Naille cooed. "That's so sweet of you!"

"Oh shut up," Emmy laughed, pushing on Nialle's chest to roll her onto her back. "Shane thought you'd be more willing to watch a movie with me than he was."

Nialle laughed, pulling Emmy down to the floor with her. "Of course I am," she said, swinging her leg around to that she was laying on top of Emmy. The girl let out her air with a huff.

"Ow," Emmy sighed, her arms attempting to push Nialle off. Nialle had her arms crossed over Emmy's chest, her chin nestled on her forearms. "You're pushing on my uterus."

Nialle's laugh rung out loud in the silent room, Emmy joining in as Nialle slowly rolled to Emmy's side.

"It's true!" Emmy snorted, holding her sides. "Come on, let's put on a movie."

"Aww, but I liked hanging out on the itchy, dirty carpet," Nialle said sarcastically, standing up to pull Emmy up with her. Emmy rolled her eyes again, walking over to the closet to pull out the TV stored inside. "How come you don't have anything in that one, but the other closet's full of crap?" Nialle pointed out, helping Emmy carry it over to the desk. She started hooking up the disk player as Emmy pushed to couch forward.

"Well, that closet's more of a future storage," Emmy said, pushing at the sides of the couch. "My parents are going to send a bunch of stuff from our house in Germany here since I'm staying here over the summer."

"Wait, what?! You're not going home?!" Nialle questioned, poking her head out from behind the TV.

Emmy shrugged, walking to her bed to grab her blanket and throw it onto the couch. "My dad's always busy with work and my mom won't be home for the summer," she said, kneeling next to Nialle to glance over the TV. "Are you?"

"Well, probably. It depends where 'home' is at that point," Nialle pushed the final wire in, causing a flicker on the screen to reveal the movie's home menu screen. "There's a whole war going on near my home, you know. A lot of terrorism in neighboring states, our allies burning up our terrain in hopes of weeding them out, my mom's not sure if they'll all still be there by the time I graduate."

Emmy reached out, stroking Nialle's upper arm gently. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, grabbing Nialle's hand to tug her closer. "If they ever need somewhere to go, let me know. I promise my family can do something."

"What could they possibly do to save my family? Your country hasn't really been helping us much at all," Nialle hissed, crossing her arms. "Neither has Owen's. They're supposed to be saving my people, taking them somewhere safe, but all they've done is draw them closer and destroy our cities in the process… I've already lost my uncle, and I'm scared I'm going to lose the rest of them too."

"Nialle, look at me," Emmy begged, placing the back of her fingers on Nialle's cheek. The girl glanced over, inviting Emmy to talk. "I know it's hard- no, harder than just hard- but you have to believe me when I say that I don't support my country's decisions. And I;m really sorry I brought this up, because this is obviously a sensitive topic."

Nialle looked at her lap, placing her hand over Emmy's with a sigh. "I know you don't. I'm sorry for lashing out. It's just that Owen, she-"

Suddenly, the door swung open, slamming against the wall it was hinged to. Where the door once stood, a girl was standing, a hood pulled up over her head and a bag over her shoulder. Her hair had fallen over her face most of the way, so she blew it out of the way.

"You know, when I said to, quote, "Go fuck your girlfriend", I didn't mean it literally, right?"

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'TheAuthor' added message

{"I'm back bitches."}