SATURDAY

"Hey, Pipes."

Piper accepted the small kiss he gave her before stepping aside and letting him enter her house. She pointed to the living room.

"I selected some options of movies, but if you don't like any of them, feel free to choose from the infinity of choices. I'll see about the popcorn."

"Do you need help?"

"No, just go choose the movie."

Jason followed her instructions and she headed to the kitchen.

Wait!

What?

The movie he chooses.

What about it?

Do you really want to watch one of our dad's movies?

Good idea.

"Jason, I swear to all the gods, if you choose a movie with my father, I'll kick you out!"

***

"Wow. That was... graphic."

Piper shrugged, stuffing her mouth with popcorn before answering.

"Special effects."

"They look real, nonetheless."

"Meh."

Jason turned to look at her, lying on the couch with her feet on top of his thighs.

"Doesn't that amaze you? How real they can make things look like?"

She waved at him, before offering the popcorn bowl, which he accepted.

"After you spend some time behind the scenes, some things kinda lose their magic."

"You don't."

Piper took her eyes from the tv to look at him.

"Hum?"

He smiled gently, giving her ankle a little squeeze.

"I have spent time with you in every aspect possible, and you never lost your magic."

She blushed deeply, before recoiling her foot and kicking his thigh, lightly.

"Ow, what was that for."

"For making me blush."

Piper retracted both legs, kneeled, raised his arm and cuddle with him.

"But I still love you."

"Alright, that was the last straw! What is wrong with you?"

Both jumped at Claire's voice, who was threshold. Piper quickly put some distance between the two of them.

Is she angry?

It's hard to say. Claire has such a cute face, that even if she's pissed off, she only looks seriously annoyed.

"Claire? What are you doing here?"

Which brings to the question, how did she enter?

Probably her spare key.

Right, I had forgot about that.

Claire waved her hand, which held a bunch of gossip magazines.

"I obviously came for our night of gossips, that we had to reschedule to this weekend, since the last weekend we had the play."

Oh, damn.

Well, didn't she get here in the worst possible moment?

"Sorry, I totally forgot about it."

Claire glanced at Jason, and focused on Piper again, with her angry/annoyed expression.

"Yeah, I noticed that. Which brings us to the question you haven't answered: what is wrong with you!?"

"With me?"

"YES! You have been acting a little weird for the last two months."

Wait, do you think she noticed?

"Hum... weird how?"

Claire gave her an incredulous look, before marching to throw the magazines on the coffee table, so she could have both hands free and tick her fingers at each statement.

"You get easily distracted. Not the 'I'm creating the perfect news' but the 'my mind is somewhere else'. Your writing is different, less acid, like you were holding back the venom that always laced your words. You stopped making up gossips, even before you created that new column. You got into a fight! Not one that you provoked, you actually joined to help someone else that is not me. And after that, kept talking to that girl from mathletes, Annie, and a girl I'm almost sure is in the student council. For that matter, I didn't expect any of them joining that fight either. Hum, now that I think about that, you're not the only one acting weird. After all, Annie is dating Peter, how in the world did they get together? Maybe it's a virus that affects the behavior? Back to you! You know how to fight!? Since when!? When it's just the two of us, you act weird, like you don't know how to act around me, but we know each other all of our lives! But in that fight, you looked like you finally were in your element. And since when do you like Will? I never thought I would see you in the same room, and now you hang around and try to hide it from me? ME? The only one who ever wanted you two to be friends again, so why would you need to hide it? I tried not to pry, tried not to be hurt that you didn't trust me with whatever secret you have, because you HAVE one, don't try to play it off and lie to me. You wouldn't be acting so different from the Trish I've known all my life from nothing. It's like a switch flipped and you're not yourself anymore. I know all of your moles, I know about that scar on your palm from when we tried to make a soup when we were 12, I know about that burn mark on your elbow when you accidentally touched the hot oven from trying to prevent that cup from falling when we were washing the dishes together three years ago. If I wasn't seeing all this, I would believe my Trish had been replaced by an evil twin. Not evil, but you know, not you. We never hide anything from each other. EVER. And now you're kissing JOHN? Not only kissing, but DATING? No offense, John."

Jason was with his mouth open, but closed and waved it off.

"None taken."

Piper's jaw was starting to hurt, but she couldn't find any energy to close, she was too dumbfounded. Claire held her eyes again.

"Back to track! WHAT is wrong with you?"

What now?

I... I don't know. I wasn't expecting her to notice so much differences.

I thought she would notice something was off, but when she said nothing...

She was giving us time to tell her in our own accord.

The thing is, are we telling her the truth?

"See? There it is, your lost look, like you're not really here. Oh! Did you become a mind reader? That is the look I would expect one to have.

I think she earned the truth.

"I can tell you, but you'll think I'm crazy."

"I'm already thinking you're crazy, you have nothing to lose."

Piper took a deep breath, glancing at Jason. He nodded encouragingly, like he also thought Claire deserved the truth.

"Well, the truth is, you were right, I'm not Trish."

"Are you an alien?"

Piper almost laughed at the fear mixed with wonder in the back of Claire's voice.

"Not the way I see it."

"Explain."

"Okay, sit for a moment and I'll tell you."

Jason stood up.

"I'll get you some water and be right back."

She nodded gratefully.

***

"Rewind. You're Piper. And John is Jason, your boyfriend."

"Yes."

Claire was with a notepad in her hands, taking notes.

"Your other friends are Peter, Annie, Regina, Felix..."

"Hannah and Nanni."

"Hannah is the girl from the student council that fought too."

She looked at Piper and Jason for confirmation, and they nodded.

"And Nanni? Who is he?"

"Do you remember that time that bully punched a guy during lunch?"

"Oh, I remember him! Is Nanni his name? I always thought about him as the gothic guy who hang around Niel. He was being beat up again some time ago, and Will jumped to help, but Niel helped more. Is Niel one of you?"

"No. We have no idea what is he up to."

Except hitting on Claire.

Yeah, except that.

"Hum. But Will is one of you. Except there is a guy inside our Willhermina."

"We call them he-Will and she-Will."

"Who is we in this case?"

"Hum... Trish and I."

"And Trish can hear and feel anything you do?"

"If she is familiar enough with the feeling it causes, yes. It's like when you smell a food and can almost taste it in your mouth."

"Ok. But hearing?"

"Unless she is not paying attention, yes, everything."

"So she can hear me now?"

"Yes."

"Hi, Trish! I miss you, my crazy friend!"

Piper laughed.

"She is saying she misses you too."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Piper sobered up.

I was expecting her to not ask this.

Well, she deserves an answer.

"For a reason, it's a crazy thing. We were living it and took some time to accept and adjust. Some more than others. Percy said that in the second day, Peter was already napping while Percy woke up because he was too lazy to wake up when he didn't need to. Will..."

"What about her? Well, them."

"They... had a rough start. I think it improved a little, though I'm not sure how much or why."

"Well, if I know Will, she wouldn't like to have a guy in her body. Wait."

Oh, gods, what now?

It's probably something we don't know how to answer.

"Does that mean that Will doesn't really like me? We are not really f-friends again?"

"No no no no no, don't cry, Claire! I'm sure Will likes you!"

"You can't know that! I-I was hoping we could all be friends again like before and n-now..."

Piper wrapped Claire in a hug, petting her hair.

"Easy, Claire. Don't cry. I never wanted to see you sad."

"Who is talking? Trish or Piper?"

"Both of us. I care about you, as much as Trish does. Well, almost."

"She told you no one cares about me like she does, right?"

"Yeah."

Claire smiled against Piper's shirt and nuzzled her face on her shoulder.

"I know my best friend."

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We thought no one was going to believe us, when ourselves weren't believing."

"I believe more in this than that I ever believed you were Trish."

"I know now."

Claire paused for almost three minutes, before speaking again.

"Piper?"

"Hum?"

"You're cool too. I like you."

Piper smiled over Claire's head.

"I think you already know I like you too."

Claire disentangled herself from the hug, wearing a mischievous smile.

"Now, you need to tell me everything, not the short version. How did you and Jason got together in your world, and how did you get together in this world too. Oh, and hi John. I know we never really talked before, but hi!, how are you?"

And that's Claire. We just told her something completely crazy, and she rolled with it like a pro.

I'm proud of her. It takes a very open mind to accept the craziness from our world.

I'm proud of her too.

"That is an excellent idea, John! I mean, Jason."

Piper turned to see Claire beaming and clapping.

"What did we miss?"

Claire gave her a knowing grin.

"You were talking with Trish, right?"

"Yes."

"About what?"

"About how proud we're of you for accepting the truth and accepting us."

Claire blushed deeply.

"So, what was an excellent idea?"

"Oh! Jason suggested we call Will. So I can know how does Will... well, she-Will, feels about me!"

Is it an excellent idea? Actually, is it a good idea?

It might ease her worries. And you know she deserves it.

Piper got her phone and called Will.

"Yes?"

"Will, is Piper here."

"'Sup, Piper?"

"You're on speaker."

"On speaker to who?"

"Jason."

"Oh, hi, Jason."

"And Claire."

"... I'm sorry, what?"

"She knows about us, Will. And about you too. She noticed too many details and we thought she deserved the truth."

"Hum... you know that the others won't react smoothly, right? You remember how they act about me."

"I know, let worry about it later. The reason we called is about Will. Not you, her."

"... What about her?"

"Claire is afraid only you like her, that... she-Will still dislike her and they aren't friends again."

"Claire?"

"I'm here?"

"Will likes you. And she doesn't say, but I know she regrets being apart from you for so long."

"How do you know if she doesn't say?"

"Because I can feel the regret she feels when we say talk about your time apart."

Claire turned to Piper.

"Can you feel emotions too?"

"If they are strong enough. This works both ways."

She nodded thinking, before turning back to the phone.

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"It was you most of the time?"

"Yeah, I am the one controlling, after all."

"Then I can say you're a very sweet guy, and you can count on me for whatever you need. All of you, actually."

"Thanks, Claire. I'll keep it in mind."

"Okay! Bye, Will! We talk better in school."

"Bye, Claire."

She turned off the phone, and looked at her notepad again.

"Is there anyone else from your world?"

"Well, do you remember that guy that sang with you in karaoke?"

"Leo, Niel's friend? Yeah, I do? Is he one of you?"

Jason touched Claire's shoulder to catch her attention.

"Wait, do you know Leo?"

"I met him in the mall once, we talked a little. He is nice, I like him. So, when do I get to meet everyone?"

Jason and Piper looked at each other, with worried expressions.

"How about we take this easily? There is no rush."

"Okay. But I still want to know how did you two start to date!"

And we're back at that.

Claire loves the love.