CHAPTER FIFTEEN

We're Gonna Need A Spotlight

_______________

     ANOTHER. RUDE. Awakening.

     Ryan grumbled against his pillow when Hope tried, and failed, to wake him early one morning. The fact that he and his sister's spelled a trap around the urn did not deter him from sleep. In fact, he ignored the alert and snoozed until he needed to attend class.

     Rafael and Landon intercepted Ryan when he walked out of the Grand Hall with a breakfast burrito in hand. All three boys claimed spots in one of the common spaces to pass time before class. Ryan would have AP World History, while Rafael and Landon were set for Physics. Few of the many courses they needed unrelated to the supernatural world.

     "So, do you know what the monster is?" Landon questioned the Mikaelson boy from where he sat on a couch.

     Ryan shook his head and swallowed a bit of his breakfast burrito he swiped from the Grand Hall. "No. If it was anything too serious, Hope would've probably broken down by door to drag me to it by my hair."

     "Morning, little brother," Hope exclaimed with a smile as she approached the boys. Her eyes on Ryan. She then shifted her attention to her boyfriend. "Hey, Handsome." She plopped down on the couch and set her arm on his shoulder. Her gaze glanced to Rafael. "Handsomes." Hope hummed when she saw the beignet in Landon's hand. She took it, pinching off pieces to eat. "Sweet, sweet carbs."

     Ryan's brows furrowed as he stared at his sister. What the hell?

     "Somebody's in a really good mood," Rafael voiced, holding his own expression of confusion.

     Hope shrugged and gave the pasty back to the boy at her side. "Just woke up on the right side of the bed, I guess," she said, slipping her backpack from her shoulders.

     Ryan scoffed. "For the first time in your entire life."

     Hope laughed with a bright smile. "You're so funny, little brother."

     Ryan leaned back into his chair. A strange feelings bubbled in his stomach. Was his sister on something?

     "Good morning, Rafael."

     Ryan looked over to find the Saltzman twins stood at the edge of their little area. Lizzie smiled as she greeted the Waithe boy. Another odd sight.

     Rafael produced a tight grin in return. "Hi. Uh, how was your – your trip?"

     "Excellent," Josie said. "Thank you." She turned to the couch and said, "and welcome back, Landon."

     "Didn't you vote me out?" Landon replied.

     Ryan rolled his eyes. Oh, what a glorious morning.

     "That's all in the past," Lizzie told the Kirby boy, before she glanced around at them all. "Now, is everyone as excited as I am about tonight?"

     Ryan's annoyance deepened at the reminder. "Oh, no," he muttered lowly.

     "What's happening tonight?" Landon asked, looking from Lizzie to Hope.

     Hope chuckled. "The school's annual talent show. All the factions compete," she explained to the boys and then turned to the twins. "You know, the witch performance wouldn't be the same without you two."

     Ryan gaped at his sister. Did Emma finally slip some happy pills into her coffee? Ryan figured he would have been her target first.

     "Thank you," Josie accepted the compliment.

     Hope laughed in return.

     The school's bell system chimed, singling the intercom that echoed throughout the building. "If I could have your attention," Alaric's voice sounded. "Last night, we were able to capture a monster here on the grounds. We have everything under control, but given the potential danger, it is with a heavy heart that I must postpone the talent show." Students began to groan. "Hopefully, we'll be able to reschedule this – unique event – at a later date. A much, much later date."

     Ryan suppressed his grin. It seemed as though he was not the only one who hated the annual talent show.

     "Kind of overkill, if you ask me," Hope mused to them all. "I told your dad that a unicorn barely counts as a monster."

     Ryan turned to his sister and asked, "a unicorn? Really?"

     Hope nodded. "Pure white and a pointed horn to match. It was positively adorable." She smiled and set her sole attention on Landon.

     Ryan could no longer stand to be in the presence of a reformed Hope. He tightened his hold on the rest of his burrito and snatched his backpack from the ground to slip onto his shoulder. "Right. Well, I gotta get to class. See you guys later."

     _______

     After lunch, preparations were well underway for the talent show that night, which had been reinstated by Lizzie and Josie. Ryan avoided most of it. The next time he entered the room he found a full sized stage against the wall. Curtains were strung from floor to ceiling and chairs were placed in rows across the open space.

     Ryan halted when his stare fell on the staircase. Hope near the bottom of the steps with several of the witch students perched around her as they laughed. She held a pink milkshake in her hands, sipping on the straw with a smile.

     Ryan must have stepped into some kind of parallel universe.

     "You weirded out, too?"

     Ryan glanced over his shoulder to where Josie appeared on his side. He glanced back to Hope and said, "I've never seen her like this before. To be honest, it's kind of scaring me."

     Josie grinned. "Maybe she's just in a good mood. It's happens."

     Ryan scoffed and looked to her. "Are we talking about the same girl? Hope Mikaelson, certified Princess of Darkness?"

     Josie rolled her eyes, but she continued to smile a bit. "Everyone deserves to have their good days. Anyways, I actually came here looking for the stupid canes," she sighed. "Have you seen them?"

     Ryan shook his head. "No, but maybe the new ray of sunshine can help you." He gestured toward his sister.

     The two of them walked over to where Hope remained on the staircase with the witches.

     "Hey, do you know where they moved the stupid canes for the talent show?" Josie questioned when they reached the edge of the steps. "Lizzie was asking me to find them."

     Hope's brows raised as she stood. "You seem very anti-cane."

     "No. Uh, just anti-doing the same thing every year. But it's fine," Josie said, crossing her arms over her chest.

     Ryan understood her annoyance. He had only been at the school for two years, but he witnessed the same performance from the witches during both talent shows. The exact same.

     "Yeah, it's definitely not fine," Ryan voiced with a glance in the Saltzman girl's direction, gaining a flat look in return.

     "I'll keep an eye out." Hope sipped on her milkshake. Eyes pointed behind them. "But, um," she paused and pointed, "I think someone has an eye out for you."

     Ryan turned at the same time as Josie to were Penelope stepped across the stage in their direction. More so, in Josie's direction.

     "Oh, dear God. Hide me," Josie breathed, ducking around Hope to crouch on the bottom of the staircase.

     Ryan's brows furrowed at the sight of the girl physically hiding from her ex-girlfriend. He did not know why Josie wanted to avoid Penelope so badly, and he honestly did not care to find out. He wanted nothing to do with their complicated relationship. It took way too much effort to keep track of.

     Penelope walked over toward them, well aware of Josie behind Hope. She glanced toward Ryan and gave him a light grin. He nodded in response. Penelope then set her gaze on the not-so-hidden Saltzman girl. Hope stepped aside and let the short haired witch pass.

     Penelope held out a folded note and said, "just – make sure you read it in private."

     Josie swiped it from her hand and retorted, "I'm not gonna read it at all."

     Penelope's expression hardened. She turned on her heel and raised her hand to indicate for the other witches to follow her. They stood to their feet, trailing after her without a word.

     Ryan looked to where Josie closed her eyes, clutching the note in her hand. "Kind of harsh, don't you think, Jo?"

     Josie sighed. "It's better than the alternative."

     "Okay, what do you think it says?" Hope quipped with a smile and emphasized her words with her hand. "'Check this box if you want to kiss me, check this box if you want to kill me?'"

     Ryan eyed his sister. "Are you okay?"

     Hope simply sipped on her milkshake. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

     Before Ryan could say, Josie answered Hope's previous question. "I don't know, and I do not want to find out."

     "If you need me to help you smite the She-Devil, I got you, girl."

     Josie blinked toward the Mikaelson girl. "Okay. Did Emma just slip you happy pills or something while we were gone?" she asked. A significant look set on Ryan.

     Hope shook her head. "No. Just having a good day."

     Josie sighed. "That makes one of us."

     "I gotta get to class, but your day is gonna get so much better, Jo." Hope reached forward and wrapped her arm around the siphon. She pressed their cheeks together. "I just know it." She then turned to her brother with open arms.

     Ryan immediately backed away. "Oh, I don't think so."

     "Come on, little brother, it's just a hug."

     "Yeah, and I'm feeling very anti-social today. Sorry, sis," Ryan told her. Which had been the truth, he just did not elaborate on the nausea that rolled up his throat the closer she got to him.

     Hope shrugged and dropped her arms. "I'll just try again later, then." She spun on her heel, striding off through to attend her next class.

     Ryan stared after her until she disappeared around a corner. Something was seriously wrong with Hope. He looked back to where Josie remained next to him and found a bright smile on her lips. The same nausea he felt near Hope bubbled in his stomach.

     "Are you alright, Ry?" Josie questioned with a slight tilt of her head.

     Ryan took a step back. He cleared his throat and said, "yeah – no, I'm fine. I just – I gotta get to class. See you later, Jo." He turned away from her to flee the room. He needed to talk to Dorian.

     _______

     Ryan searched the places he would normally find Dorian. The library, the classroom where he continued to oversee, and his office. The man was nowhere to be found. What Ryan did find was more people doing strange things and noticed how much his nausea grew as time passed.

     With no sign of Alaric or even Emma, Dorian would be the only one he could turn to. Ryan exited the school and decided to check near the recently caught monster. Sure enough, his eyes landed on a white unicorn was trapped in the spelled circle around the Old Mill. Dorian stood next to the broken branches that made up the barrier, staring at the mythical creature.

     "Mr. Williams," Ryan called out as he approached the man. "I need your help. Something's going on at the school, and I can't find Dr. Saltzman or Ms. Tig."

     Dorian faced him and nodded. "Yeah, I kind of figured after I found this." He held up a mason jar with some yellow colored slim on the inside of the glass.

     "What is that thing?" Ryan grimaced at the sight.

     "A slug."

     Ryan whirled around to come face-to-face with Hope and Landon.

     "One just came out of my ear," Hope exclaimed. The creepy smile finally gone from her face.

     "Did it look like this?" Dorian asked, indicating to the jar in his hand.

     Landon nodded. "Yep, exactly like that."

     "This one tried getting into me. I was hoping it was the only one. I think our harmless friend the unicorn brought it onto school grounds to infect all of us."

     Ryan pressed his lips together and shrugged. "Of course it did."

     In that moment, the unicorn snorted and neighed. It rose up on its back legs, kicking at the air, before it dropped to the ground and fell to its side.

     "See?" Hope spoke when the animal stilled, no longer breathing. "Harmless."

     _______

     They retreated to a secluded table at the edge of the library. Everyone in the school gathered in the Grand Hall for the talent show, which had already commenced by the time they began to research what monster they now faced.

     Ryan flipped through the pages of a book, looking for any mention of a mind-controlling slug. Or something along those lines. And there were many. Hope and Landon were stood next to the same table, searching through their own resource material.

     Dorian walked up to them and set a duffle bag on the table. "Okay, so we have no idea how long the unicorn was infected before it killed over, so we should figure this out, right now."

     "I thought only one monster comes for the urn at a time," Landon thought aloud.

     "The unicorn wasn't the monster," Ryan stated, drawing all eyes to him. "It was just the host. It hitched a ride in the unicorn to make it here faster."

     Dorian nodded. "Like a Trojan horse. It then moved onto us. From what Hope describes, it sounds like it latches onto the prefrontal cortex. The part of the brain associated with inhibitions."

     "So, I was slug-drunk?" Hope questioned.

     "Since we have multiple slugs, it must replicate inside the host and then lie in wait for the opportunity to infect someone else."

     "I'm good on the gory details, thank you." Hope squirmed at the thought. "How do we stop it?"

     "That's the weirdest part," Dorian said. "I can't find any ancient legends about a creature like this."

     "That's not weird," Ryan voiced, capturing the man's attention. "It's because of Malivore. The slug no longer exists."

     "Yes, it does," Landon stated when a beat of silence passed between them. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The Faculty. I say again, Wrath of Khan. Sci-fi is our modern day myths. Meaning they could have been inspired by something, right? In those movies, it's all about mind control. Before the slug popped out, Hope wanted to take the urn someplace. I'm guessing Malivore."

     "So, it's like an infection. It gets worse as it spread," Dorian interjected. "Stage One, it – it lowers your inhibitions, it makes you act out of character. Stage Two, once you're susceptible to suggestion, you'll do whatever the slug wants."

     Hope picked up the jar that held the dead slug. She grimaced.

     "'Til Stage Three. You go the way of the unicorn."

     "Did you see this?" Hope questioned, glancing away from the slug to the others. "Parts of this thing look bioluminescent."

     "Let me check that out." Dorian rummaged through the duffle for a flashlight. He took the jar from Hope and held the beam up to the bottom of it. The darkened light, like a black-light, forced the slug residue to glow a bright green.

     "Whoa," all three teenagers exclaimed.

     "See that?" Dorian asked, moving the light around the jar. He shifted the beam away to where Hope stood across the table.

     Ryan watched as Dorian trailed the light up to her face. His eyes widened when a trail of the slug's residue ran from her left nostril and across her cheek. "Oh, gross."

     Hope looked to her brother. "I don't want to know, do I?"

     "Probably not," Landon blurted.

     "Nope," Dorian added.

     Ryan raised his hand and pointed to his nose.

     Hope's own eyes widened, lifting a hand to cover her face.

     "You know what? We can use these lights to find anyone who's been infected." Dorian pulled out more flashlight black-lights from his duffle and handed them to Ryan, Landon, and Hope.

     _______

     Because of the talent show, most of the lights around the school were turned off so there were no distractions from the acts. Ryan walked alongside Hope, Landon, and Dorian, shining the beam of his light around the walls and floors to find evidence of the slugs. The bright green trails were everywhere. And he meant, everywhere.

     They followed the trails through the school, looking for any students or faculty who were infected by the slugs. The trails led them to the Grand Hall were the entire room was packed.

     Not good.

     "We need a way to de-slug whoever's infected, and fast," Dorian voiced as he looked over the crowd.

     "When I touched the switch to the kitchen, it shocked me and that's when the slug popped out," Hope told them.

     "Great. So, we just have to find a way to electrocute every student in the school without killing them," Landon quipped.

     "If we don't, they're dead anyway." Dorian began to leave the room and said, "I'm gonna call Ric." He then disappeared back through the hall.

     The crowd erupted into applause for the talent show "Welcome our next act," someone announced.

     Ryan turned to where he watched Rafael walk out onto the stage. He sat on a solitary stool in the center with microphone stand in front of him. A girl with a bass instrument was near the side of the raised platform, ready to play when the boy began.

     "My name is Rafael, and my talent is spoken word poetry." The students snapped their fingers in response.

     "Oh, no. He promised he wouldn't do this again," Landon muttered.

     Ryan's brows creased. "This is an actual thing? I thought this died out back in the 2000s."

     "Stillness. A light breaks inside. Unity. And division. Tension."

     "Suddenly, I remember why I didn't want to be in the talent show," Hope voiced as she watched Rafael.

     Ryan nodded. "Same here."

     "All these wolves staring at me, waiting for the answer. Expectation is a cancer. Oh, you can't, sir? Then who will?" Rafael scanned the crowd, raising his gaze to where the Mikaelson siblings and Landon stayed on the top of the staircase. He held out his hand to the bass player to stop her strumming. "Two brothers brought up together. Then one's left behind because he's no longer needed. Violence inside of me. Inside, I'm – I'm bleeding."

     "What's he talking about?" Hope questioned.

     Ryan looked between Rafael and then to Hope and Landon. The realization dawned on him. "Oh, God. No," he groaned low enough for none of them to hear.

     "And I can't believe what I'm feeling – since the moment you danced with me. Buried so deep, rising up, enchanting me." Rafael stood to his feet as he continued. "And it won't go away. And I was never jealous of anything that you had – until today." He paused. "And why is that artifact here?"

     Bingo. Rafael was infected with a slug. Ryan turned to exchange a look with Hope and Landon. He should have figured it out when the wolf started spouting about his feelings for Hope. He suspected them, of course, but he knew Rafael would never voice them aloud. Not without a little mind-control help.

     "Monsters coming, people running. Ask for answers, always nothing." Several students from the crowd stood. "I say we get rid of it."

     Ryan stepped back when he noticed Rafael's eyes flash a bright green. Just like the slugs' slime around the school. Others eyes glowed the same way as they turned away from the stage, before they leapt into action to reach them.

     "So, they're all infected? Okay," Hope voiced at the sight of the mind controlled student body.

     "Yeah, I'm not gonna wait around to find out," Landon said, before he spun on his heel to run.

     Ryan turned to do the same. "Right there with ya."

     The crowd surged up the stairs, shouting and screaming for them to stop. For them to hand over the urn.

     When they made it across the threshold of the double doors, Ryan whirled around with his hands raised. So did Hope. "Vessera portus," they chanted, telekinetically sealing the entire student body inside the Grand Hall.

     "That should hold the pod people in for now. Let's go," Hope said as she grabbed Ryan and Landon's arms to drag them away.

     _______

     The three of them found Dorian shortly after they departed from their trapped classmates. He must have finished his call Alaric, wherever the man happened to be.

     "Hope and I sealed them into the Grand Hall, but the spell won't last forever," Ryan told the man when they convened in a hallway.

     "Alright, these chains should help until we come up with a better solution." Dorian handed them a bundles of thick chains he happened to have looped over his shoulder, along with others. "I'll get the doors downstairs," he said and then walked away to do just that.

     "At least we have all the infected people in one place," Hope exclaimed.

     Ryan rolled his eyes. "You just jinxed it."

     Hope turned to him. "I did not."

     Ryan turned around when footsteps clicked against the hardwood floor down the hall. His gaze landed on Lizzie, dressed in her talent show attire, as she strode toward them. "You so did."

     "What're you three doing out here?" Lizzie questioned, forcing Hope and Landon to face her.

     Ryan sighed and raised his hand to hold her still with a nonverbal spell.

     Lizzie tried to move, but she was able to twitch a muscle. "Hey! What're you doing?"

     Ryan ignored her, looking to his sister who held the chains in her hand. "Chain her up."

     Lizzie's eyes widened. "What? Has your multiple supernatural personalities finally driven you to insanity?" She then groaned.

     Ryan deadpanned. "Funny."

     Hope did not waste any time as she moved forward and secured the chains around an immobile Lizzie.

     "Have you three gone crazy?" Lizzie exclaimed when she was pushed into a chair in the hall.

     "You've been infected with a mind-controlling parasite," Hope told the Saltzman girl. "That's why you've been so nice all day."

     "That is not why I have been – hey!" Lizzie gaped at Landon as he leaned toward her and shined his light up to her nose.

     "I don't see any slug trails," Landon said, looking for the glowing residue.

     "Check her ears," Ryan stated.

     Landon proceeded to do so, before he pulled back. "Nope."

     "What are you freaks talking ab...ow." Lizzie winced, jerking from some kind of pain.

     Landon's eyes widened at the action. "What was that?"

     Lizzie glared at the boy. "Unchain me, and maybe I will tell you, you thrift store hobbit."

     Ryan could not help the snort that slipped through his lips.

     Lizzie gasped from another burst of unseen pain.

     "I don't think she's infected," Landon said.

     Ryan nodded. "Kind of figured that out."

     "Then why are you acting so weird?" Hope asked the blonde.

     "I'm not acting weird. I am turning over a new leaf. With this." Lizzie looked down to where a silver bracelet was wrapped around her wrist. "I spelled it to zap me whenever I said anything mean. And in increasing voltage. Worst idea ever."

     "No, that's genius," Landon voiced, glancing between the Mikaelson siblings next to him. "That's why there's no slug in her. She's been zapping herself."

     "They why are you wandering around here, instead of at the talent show like everyone else?" Hope questioned the Saltzman girl.

     "Yeah, the talent show is like – your favorite event. You know, besides Miss Mystic Falls," Ryan quipped.

     "I was looking for Josie. She's been acting weird all day, and then she just bailed on the performance."

     Ryan closed his eyes at the reminder. "Crap. I knew I was forgetting something." He moved back to begin down the hall. "I'm gonna go stop Josie from getting the urn. Just –find a way to get those slugs out of everyone." He did not want for a response, before he set off to find the mind-controlled Saltzman.

     _______

     Ryan sped through the grounds of the school to reach the Old Mill. By the time he arrived, the spelled barrier had been siphoned away and held no magic at all. He jumped over the branches around the abandoned building where the urn was inside. He approached the open entrance to find Josie and Penelope, foreheads touching as they faced each other.

     "There," Penelope said when her eyes shifted to where the urn sat on an old shelf.

     "That's the urn," Josie confirmed, turning away from the other girl to approach it. "Let's go. You drive."

     When their backs were turned toward him, Ryan made his presence known. "I don't think so, Thelma and Louise." Josie and Penelope turned to him. The Park girl raised her hands to send a spell his way, but Ryan beat her to the punch. "Motus." His hand shout out, propelling Penelope backward through the air. She smacked the raised platform of the stairs and plummeted to the ground.

     A second later, a mass of black and white canes fell from above and covered Penelope's unconscious form. "Found the canes," Ryan quipped and set his stare on Josie.

     "You shouldn't have done that," Josie said in a monotonous voice. She raised her hands and held them in front of her chest, forming a mass of fire between her palms.

     Ryan sighed. "Wow, using my own spell against me."

     Josie made the fireball bigger and brighter, before she lifted it up to launch toward him.

     Ryan readied himself to defend against the attack, but Lizzie appeared from the back of the building.

     "Jo!" Lizzie shouted, racing across the room to grab her sister's hand. "Don't." The fireball was extinguished as Josie turned to her twin. "This isn't you."

     Josie struggled out of Lizzie's grasp and exclaimed, "you don't even know the real me."

     "Answer one question, while you're saying how you really feel," Lizzie said as she held onto her sister's arm. "Am I a good sister?"

     "You kidding me." Josie shoved Lizzie away from her. "You're a terrible sister."

     Just then, the bracelet around Josie's wrist flared and zapped her from the anti-insult spell. Ryan stood back as Josie screamed from the pain. The slug slipped from her ear and to the floor from the electricity. Ryan moved then, stomping his tennis shoe onto its body to kill it.

     "Lizzie?" Josie breathed when she returned to herself. She faced her sister as tears began to brim her eyes. "Lizzie, I'm so sorry."

     Lizzie reached forward and pulled Josie into her arms. She rubbed her hands against her sister's back to calm her. Ryan met Lizzie's gaze over Josie's shoulder, catching a light smile on the blonde's lips. He did the same in return.

     _______

     With the help of Emma and an air-duct-crawling Landon, the mind-control slugs were expelled from the entire student body. Ryan, Josie, Lizzie, and a woken Penelope returned to the school to find out what happened during the slug chaos. People were disgusted by the glowing slime trails on their noses or ears, along with their involuntary actions throughout the day.

     Given the circumstances, Alaric called for a talent show redo to calm the tensions around the school. And for the first time, Ryan agreed. They needed something to distract them all from the crazy day. He also needed to push the thoughts of Josie and Penelope together from his mind.

     Just because he knew they used to be in a relationship did not mean he had to like it.

     Everyone moved back into the room to watch the three factions perform their acts. The werewolves chose to juggle, which was a sight to see, especially when Rafael took part. They did not drop anything, so that must count for something. The vampires chose to do a sit-in protest. Not the most popular choice. They were booed off stage.

     What surprised everyone was the witches' performance. Josie took center stage to sing, while the other witches danced around her. They took home the win, yet again.

     Ryan headed back to his room after a quick trip to the kitchen when there of the school settled down for the night. He had a plastic container of chocolate chip cookies in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. The perfect way to end a strange day. Ryan made it to his bedroom door to find it slightly ajar. He eased toward it and was ready to blast the intruder, but he sighed when he found Josie the only one there.

     "What're you doing here? I thought you'd be scrubbing yourself clean of the slugs like everyone else?" Ryan questioned as he stepped further into the room.

     Josie faced him with a placid expression. One he could not decipher. "I'm so sorry about today. I would never throw your own spell in your face like that."

     Ryan moved to set his milk and cookies down onto the nightstand beside his bed, before he turned to the girl. "You were being controlled by a magical slug. I think I can let it slide," he quipped with a light grin.

     "How can you be so cool with all of this?" Josie asked him.

     Ryan shrugged. "I've grown up being the son of Klaus Mikaelson, one of only two tribrids on the entire planet. It's gonna take a lot more than mind-controlling slugs and unicorns to phase me."

     Josie nodded. "Right. Should've remembered that," she laughed a bit, before her expression fell. "I know you saw me and Penelope at the Old Mill."

     Ryan's upbeat mood dropped. "It's doesn't matter."

     "Of course, it matters. If it wasn't for that slug, I – I wouldn't have done that."

     "But you wanted to." Josie's lips parted to speak, but Ryan continued. "The slug lowered your inhibitions and you wanted to kiss Penelope. That's fine. You were in love her once, and you probably still are. I get that."

     "And you're not – jealous?" Josie questioned, stepping closer to the Mikaelson boy.

     Ryan's heart began to beat faster in his chest when their distance shortened. "Uh, should I be?"

     "No, because you have no reason to," Josie said, now a few feet from him. She took a deep breath. "You're right. I still like Penelope, but she broke me, and I'll never be able to forgive her for that."

     Ryan stared at her for a long moment and asked, "but you still want to be with her?"

     Josie pressed her lips together. "I don't know."

     Ryan could not help the twinge of hurt he felt at her words, but he never wanted to have a strictly romantic relationship with Josie. He liked her as a friend, maybe even more. He needed time to figure out his feelings, rather than jump into something that would ruin everything between them. Now he knew Josie needed that time, too.

     They were silent for a moment until Ryan broke it. He raised a hand and pointed his thumb to where his snack remained. "Want some milk and cookies?"

     After a moment, Josie nodded. 

<March 15, 2019>

Yes, I didn't write the talent show scenes. Yes, Ryan and Josie's relationship is going to take some time. Ryan hasn't even turned sixteen yet. Let my boy live.

Most importantly, I want to address everyone. SO READ THIS! Please, stop commenting for me to update. I was being nice at first when I asked the first two or three times, now I'm going to start muting people. I'm not trying to be mean about it, but when I get like three in one day, it gets a bit excessive. I even posted on my message board that I wasn't going to update this story until Season 1 finished, but I've changed my mind after the recent episode.

I will update when I'm inspired to do so, or whenever I get the chance. I have my writing career to get started, and I have one last year in my undergraduate degree. I can't put all of that on hold to write for this story.

With that being said, I will be posting a few more chapters over this next week because I'm on spring break. I don't know when, but it'll be when I'm ready.

I do love you guys.

Don't forget to vote and comment.

-Jordan

P.S. Unedited chapter.