What's better than a morning run for your life because you took a picture of your possible crush sleeping awkwardly?

Everything. Trust me.

Eventually, he cornered me in my room. You know that thing everyone jokes about horror movies when the stupid person runs up the stairs instead of running out when the killer is in the house?

I've been there.

We started laughing and when we stopped, I punched my stomach. Hard.

«What the hell was that for?» Jon asked what my stomach was probably asking me too.

«Bugs. They're in my stomach. Annoying.» I muttered. As you probably guessed, I was referring to the butterflies.

«Okay..?» he gave me a weird look. I get those a lot lately.

«I'm hungry.» I changed the subject.

«Then I shall have my revenge by not giving you a bowl for your cereal.» he smirked.

«You're a monster. Well, I guess I'll just have to climb on the counter and get it myself. And probably falling and breaking a couple bones on the process.» I frowned.

«That's a little pessimistic.» he rolled his eyes.

«You tend to be that when you've found two dead bodies, been stabbed, have witnessed a murder, figured out you have a lost evil twin and that one of your friends has faked their death.» I shrugged. «I'm whining again, aren't I?» I babbled.

«Okay, I'll reach the bowl for you. Isn't that what you wanted?» he asked me.

«Yep. I told you, I'm hungry.» I replied and he rolled his eyes.

We went downstairs and found that Claire was up too. She was holding baby Alice, who was crying loudly.

Along with Kyle, we went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast. After that, we sat on the kitchen table to give my sister and her daughter some space. Claire was probably trying to get the baby to sleep and we didn't want to get in the middle of that.

When we finished our luxurious breakfast and Alice was asleep, I left Kyle and Jon and went to talk with Claire about the Defence Union.

«Claire?» I asked her hesitantly.

«Yeah..?» she raised an eyebrow.

«Can we talk about this whole Defence Union thing?» I cringed.

«Oh. You were serious about that.» she said, surprised.

«Yeah, of course I was. Look, we're not going to be many people. When we become too much, we'll just move the Headquarters elsewhere. For now, I just need you to say yes and talk to a few close people you trust.» I told her.

«I get that you're trying to make a difference, but I don't think many people are brave enough to do what you're doing.»

«Please! It's not about making a difference. It's about helping out! Someone has to step up, and since no one is planning to do that any time soon...» The rest was kinda obvious, so I didn't state it.

«Fine. I'll see what I can do. I'll send Ben to take care of the legal stuff because I doubt starting an organisation without some thorough paperwork.» she rolled her eyes.

«Thanks! You're the best!» I cheered.

A month passed after that. We had started the Union, we had had some meetings and discussed some stuff. We had mostly people from the neighborhood, but also some of Ben's classmates. Pearl and Michael were also in and we had been doing pretty well, considering we had only been working for a week.

And that's when things went downhill.

The remaining of the "gang", aka me, Kyle, Chris and Jon, were hanging out at Kyle's living room, playing board games and snacking on chips.

«Okay, my sister is leaving today, so I'm gonna go spend some time with her before she takes off.» Jon announced, as we finished a round of Cluedo, and got up.

Ben and Claire had their 5-year anniversary and we were all going out. Unfortunately for us, fortunately for him, Jon couldn't make it.

«Say "hi" from me and wish her a nice trip.» I told him. Kyle and Chris nodded in agreement.

«Will do. See you tomorrow. Sorry I can't join you tonight.» he replied.

«Don't worry about it. It will mostly be our parents flirting, anyway.» Kyle shook his head.

«Don't forget Ben and Claire.» I rolled my eyes.

«I don't think my parents will be in a mood to flirt, but whatever.» Chris added.

«Anyway, goodnight and have fun!» Jon wished us and left.

«So...» Chris started. For some reason, Kyle smirked.

«When are you and Jon getting together?» he asked. I choked on my chips. They burst out laughing.

«What?!» I croaked. «What the hell are you two talking about?» I glared at them.

«We're not stupid. You're the savior, as Jasmine pointed out and we chose to conveniently ignore for a month, and Jon is the hero. Besides, ever since we got our soulmates checked, you've been asking strange.» Chris smirked.

«Whoah. First of all, you're stereotyping the relationships between saviors and heroes. Secondly, have you two been drinking or anything? And three, I'm still your usual sarcastic ray of sunshine. If anything has changed, it's probably because of our ever-growing bad luck. I don't think I need to explain number three any further.» I replied.

«Fine. We're here if you want to admit your undying love for your soulmate.» Kyle scoffed. «But just so you know, there's a war coming. I'd hurry if I were you; you could be running out of time.» he frowned.

«And he's thinking of my sister again...» Chris muttered. «Did I say that out loud?»

«Guys... There's something I haven't told you.» Kyle sighed.

«What? Is everything okay?» I asked him.

«Not really... You know that thing they say about soulmates? That you see their spirit for a few seconds after they die?» he asked.

«Yeah, but that's a myth, right?» Chris frowned.

«No, it isn't... I saw Felicia.» Kyle teared up.

«Come here...» I told him and hugged him. Chris patted him on the back. «It's gonna be okay...» I comforted him.

«Yeah... Don't worry. The worst will pass.» Chris added.

«I don't think the worst has even come yet, guys...» Kyle muttered.

«Okay, I say we get ready and go out to the anniversary, have some fun and drown our guilt in--» I started.

«Alcohol?» Chris suggested.

«No, you idiot. We're underage and we're going out with our parents. I was gonna say soda and other fizzy drinks.» I snorted.

«Right. I didn't think of that.» Chris blushed.

«Okay, my parents will be here any minute now. How about we meet here in a couple hours?» Kyle shrugged.

«Sure. And mark my words, we're gonna make you feel better in no time.» I smiled at him. It was a forced smile, but it did the trick. He smiled back and I left with Chris.

When we got out of the house, I turned to Chris.

«Get ready as fast as you can and come by at my house immediately. We need to come up with a plan to cheer him up.» I told him.

«I will do my best, you know my mom...» he said bitterly.

«Fine. Just hurry.» I replied and went home.

After having Claire trying to play dress-up with me for about half an hour, the doorbell rang. Ben, who was already dressed to impress, opened the door. Chris was wearing jeans and a white shirt, which wasn't bad at all, even though I think he could have done better in half an hour.

But I wasn't one to talk either.

My room had clothes, mine and Claire's all over the floor, as she was trying to find something for me to wear. My choices were too casual for her and her choices were too formal for me, so we couldn't really decide on anything.

«Come on, Claire! Chris wore jeans! Why can't I wear jeans?» I begged her.

«If you ask another stupid question, I'm gonna burn all your pairs of jeans.» she threatened. I didn't get why my question was stupid, but I didn't ask because she would probably burn my jeans.

«Okay then, why can't I wear shorts? It's summer after all.» I suggested.

«Nope.» she frowned. «How about this?» she held up a floral yellow dress that I absolutely hated.

«No way in hell.» I replied as my eye caught a knee-lengthed black dress. It had short sleeves too and was neither too formal nor too informal. «What about this?» I asked her and held it up.

«Done.» she rushed. «Put it on and hurry to the bathroom. You're getting a ponytail.»

«That's so unfair...» I grumbled like a toddler.

After we were all ready, we rang Kyle's doorbell and took off. Claire and Ben drove us, the younglings as Ben called us, and the Chris and Kyle's parents drove together. We were about half an hour away from the Clonies, which was quite a change of scenery.

Chris and I had taken a photo album with pictures from when we were little and dumb. We showed them to Kyle, and we kept laughing during dinner.

Ben and my sister announced they had started planning their wedding, which was not much of a surprise. We had all seen that one coming. They had been engaged for three years and they had been in love for much longer than that.

And then we were back to the Clonies.

We realised something was wrong before we arrived at home. There was an ominous cloud of smoke in the distance as we approached the neighborhood.

«What the hell?» I whispered. I was sitting in the middle seat, so I had to duck and lean over Kyle to get a good look of the fire that was burning the Clonies.

I assumed it had started about that time, because no firemen or policemen were around to stop us from driving towards it.

The crowd that was running away in panick, though, was. This led to us all getting off the car.

For some stupid reason we ran to our Bart of the Clonies. I had a really bad feeling about this.

Jasmine was casually checking her nails out at the front door.

«Finally! I had started to worry that you wouldn't come here on time to enjoy the show!» she smiled.

«What have you done?» I yelled at her. Thank goodness we had taken Alice along. If we hadn't, she would have probably been fried by now.

«Back off, Jinx. You're gonna want me to make this quick. The clock is ticking.» she smirked.

«What are you talking about?» I asked her, confused.

«Remember when we visited to see baby Alice? Well, Jessie planted a bug in the house. At first I was mad at her, but then that turned out to be very useful. We found out about your little Defence Union. This is payback. Now, someone is missing from the group... I wonder who that may be.» she turned around and looked at the house.

«You little--» Kyle had to hold me back to keep me from killing Jasmine on the spot and swearing like a sailor. I'm not one to swear, but I was really mad at her.

«I wouldn't waste any time, twinsie. Time is running out and you're the only one allowed to go in there and get poor little Jon out.» she smiled with a glint in her eyes.

Without a second thought, I set off to get in there and get Jon out, but Claire grabbed my arm. She had handed Alice to Ben. The poor baby was crying at the sight of the fire.

«Jinx, no!» Claire hissed. «You're gonna get yourself killed.

I unwrapped the usual bandage from my arm.

«Don't you remember? I can't die yet. Get them all out of here. Call an ambulance.» I replied aggressively and ran in the building.