Through the following day Cinder was dosed up on drugs she couldn't name and put through tests she couldn't pass. By the time the doctor left the room she was exhausted.

During the day Scarlet had come in to see her, and had told her that they were sitting in the hospitals waiting room with cookies and coming up with excuses as to why they wouldn't be in school on Monday which ranger in seriousness from being taken out for work experience to zombie apocalypse.

"I told Thorne it's not his problem, but he insisted on helping," Scarlet complained with a shrug. "At least he seems happy I guess."

"Can I see him?" Cinder said, "Thorne, he's not that bad is he." Scarlet left with a promise that they'd think of something and just minutes later Thorne was standing beside her bed.

"How's it going," Thorne said casually, flopping down on the bed next to her, and swinging his arm around her neck, the one with the hand in a cast.

"I could ask you the same," Cinder said, tapping the cast gently with her nail. "Iko told me what happened."

"You know me," he said, grinning "I'm tougher than a slab of porcelain." Cinder laughed and punched him, too tired to shove him away from her.

For a moment they sat there, laughter fading between them, the nurse glancing over to see what had caused the sudden silence.

"Why did you do it?" Cinder asked, "I know you're stupid, but I didn't think you were that stupid."

Unusually he didn't seem to have an answer, though he stuttered briefly over a few suggestions of a response. In the end he hung his head and sighed.

"I didn't mean..." Cinder started, but she didn't know what to say, instead she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed his shoulder. "Just don't do it again," she said, pulling back and leaning against the headboard.

"Only if you don't break down on me again," he promised and stood from the bed. "Get well soon Linh," he said. Why did it feel so much like a goodbye?

---

When both Cinder and Thorne were deemed fit to leave hospital they piled into the mini van and drove to the nearest town to find somewhere to eat. They came across a small Chinese place and sent Wolf and Scarlet away with their orders.

When they returned they found a park and sat down in the grass with their food, avoiding the glares of mothers with small children. It was obvious that some of them should be in school, but none of the parents said a thing as Iko did all she could to brighten the scene, but not even Thorne was in the mood to laugh.

"Well at least I'm trying," Iko grumbled when she finally realised her efforts were in vain. She knew everyone was shaken, especially Cress - though she hid it better than expected – but that didn't mean they needed to be so miserable.

"Look," she said eventually "this town is probably filled with clubs and bars, didn't you see how many drunks were in that hospital."

"Seriously Iko?" Scarlet cut in, shaking her head. She was half in Wolf's lap half laying on the grass, her red hair a curly tangle.

"What I mean is why don't we check one out, it could be fun!"

"We'd never get in," Cinder pointed out "at least, me and Cress wouldn't."

"Ohhh, I could give you a makeover! Then you'd both look old enough!"

"No." Cinder said as Cress flushed.

"I love how you think I look old enough even though we're the same age," Scarlet said.

"Shut up Scarlet," Iko snapped, holding up a hand, "you're not involved."

"Yes I am," she said, swinging her legs out of Wolf's lap, "I want to give Cinder and Cress a makeover too."

"So do I!" Thorne added with a smile.

"Great. Kai? Wolf?" Iko asked, looking at the two males in turn.

Wolf held up his hands in mock innocence, but Kai was beaming from ear to ear.

"Great, so it's decided," Iko said. Mission accomplished: she was going to enjoy this.

----

They booked rooms at a new hotel, and after they were unpacked Iko pulled out her overflowing makeup kit and told Thorne to pick out some dresses from her suitcase.

"I suppose you'll have to find one for Scarlet too," Iko said, ignoring Scarlets sigh of annoyance.

"Why did you bring dresses? We were only meant to be away for the weekend?" Cinder asked as she was pushed onto the bed and held still by Kai who seemed to be having a lot of fun; the jerk!

"Not too much," Cinder warned, "I'll let you do this, but only if you don't go overboard."

Iko gasped and put a hand to her heart. "Why on earth would I do that? I'm a mature woman!" Thorne snorted from the suitcase and Iko chucked whatever she was holding at him before shrieking and running across the room to retrieve it.

"Now, let's get started," Iko said, opening the lid to whatever torture device she was holding and dabbing it onto her cheeks.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Cress watching anxiously, glancing between Thorne and Iko before returning her gaze to her laptop. Behind her she could feel Kai playing with her hair, and though she slapped at his hands he wouldn't budge.

"Close your eyes," Iko instructed as she took Kai's hand and squeezed his fingers. He swore and grabbed his hand away. Cinder smiled to herself.

After what seemed like forever Iko stood back and admired her work. "All done, Kai hand me the mirror."

When Cinder saw herself she couldn't say she wasn't impressed. Her eyes looked brighter, her cheeks glowing, her lips shiny, and yes, she looked older. She wasn't sure if she looked pretty or not, her face was still annoyingly angular, but somehow Iko had made it seem softer.

"You like?" Iko asked. "Ooh if you like I can get you a lip piercing too!"

"NO!" Cinder pretty much screamed.

"Well you didn't think you'd like the makeup either," Iko pointed out.

"I never said I liked it," Cinder said.

"You never said you didn't."

"She has a point," Kai said with a smirk.

"That's it!" Cinder said, leaning back against Kai and grabbing a pillow from the head of the bed to whack him with.

"Well this is interesting," Scarlet said, picking at her cuticles.

"You two pack it in!" Iko shouted. When Cinder rolled onto the floor she saw Cress giggling to herself, blushing slightly. It lifted Cinders spirits more than anything else.

"Thorne, have you found dresses yet?" Iko asked as she grabbed Cress by the wrist and hoisted her onto the bed. She warned Cinder "Don't mess up your makeup, or I'll have to do it again."

"I found one for Scarlet," Thorne said, laughing at Scarlet's snarl.

"Great!" Iko clapped her hands, "go put it on."

Thorne threw the dress into the bathroom without letting anyone see and gave Scarlet a wave as she followed it in.

"Keep working Thorne, they're going to look amazing." Without another word she started working on Cress' makeup.

"So while you were painting Cinder's face..."

"Painting!" Iko demanded, "I was creating art!"

"Okay, so while you were doing... whatever, I looked online for local bars and clubs, then I hacked into Levana and Evret's personal diaries and found they have nothing planned tonight. Then I hacked into Evret's offices database and sent out an anonymous message to him and all his colleagues to meet at Marley Hill bar for a work gathering."

Iko stopped prodding Cress and Thorne looked over from across the room. Cinder smiled at her friend.

"Basically I made an excuse for us to meet with Evret," Cress explained, causing Iko to squeal in joy.

"Well done," Thorne said, seeming genuinely impressed.

"Oppression locate-winter-and-save-her-from-levana's-evil-clutches is a go," Iko cheered.

"Really?" Cinder asked "That's the name of our mission, I was thinking of something more along the lines of..."

"Squish the bitch!" Thorne interrupted.

"Not that either," Cinder said, wondering for a moment if Thorne was ever serious, or if he always was and just had some sort of brain deficiency she wasn't aware of."

Iko mindlessly went back to painting Cress' face, humming to herself as she drew around the blonde girls eyes with a pencil. Wait, why was she using a pencil on Cress' skin? Did pencils even work on skin?

"I don't think this is going to work," Scarlet said from inside the bathroom.

"Sure it will," Thorne said.

"No really, I'm too big for this," Scarlet protested.

"I'm sure you're not Scar," Wolf said, probably intending to be encouraging but just sounding lost. I guess it was a little unfair on him, Scarlet was the only member of the group he'd met before the other day.

"Please just show us," Cress said, "we won't laugh."

"You won't Cress, I'm sure."

"I won't either," Wolf said, sounding genuine, despite what Cinder might have thought when she first met him.

Scarlet sighed audibly. "Fine."

The door cracked open.

---

A/N: As promised I updated on Saturday! whooo!

And I already have the next chapter going *gasp* she's being organised (nope I'm not I'm just getting back into the swing of reading and writing after my massive life slump as I'm now calling it)

Anyway after being depressing for the last two chapters I thought we needed a little fun and this is what came to mind, but honestly everything I write always seems more exciting in my head than when I actually write. Is this just a sign I'm a bad writer? Either way if I keep writing I know eventually I'll improve, like I've been editing a story I wrote for NaNoWriMo in November last year (an origional not fic) and I find my writing back then aweful when I was impressed with myself at the time, so either my standards have improved or I have.

Anyhow, yeah I'm writing and reading more now which is great because I LOVE writing and reading! I don't know if people have left this story while I wasn't updated but hey, that's what I get. If  you've stuck around thank you! I always love reading your comments (some people ask for votes on stories but I prefer seeing what you think) Like when you tell me what you like, even if you don't point out the bad parts I can see what I'm doing right and what people like to read.

Well those were two really long and boring paragraphs but I don't suppose everyone reads the A/N anyway (disclaimer, I only really read A/N if it's a friend or someone I  chat to or if I really love the story or the authors notes amuse me) I usually skim read them but that's it if its just something I'm reading quickly to check it out or something.

 So now all that's said (it didn't need to be said) QOTD: what sort of dress do you think Thorne picked for Scarlet

2nd QOTD: why would Iko even bring enough dresses that Thorne would have to pick one I didn't think this throught did I?

No, I don't like to think too hard about this story or it would stress me out, it's just a little bit of fun for me and hopefully for you. disclaimer again: I don't do background research for this story (besides a few character details) so it is based purley what I already know, I do not spend hours planning and plotting because I spend so much time editing and planning my origional story, like I said, this is for fun, I write what comes to my head and what I think would be interesting or funny (sarcasm wars)

Sorry about this long A/N I saw a story last night where someone said some TLC fanfic writers don't put effort into their stories and now I feel like I need to justify myself. I do put effort in, but I don't pour my blood sweat and tears into it is what I mean.

So now I've bored you all to death, I'll just say I will continue to update every Saturday if I can, I want to get as much as possible written before I go back to school but obviously I've left ALL my summer work to the last minute (uuuuh).

Also I'm tring to decide on a day to start the Scarlet princess, but I'm tring to get all my wattpad stories back in the flow. I'm thinking maybe a Wednesday. Maybe this Wednesday coming up who knows.

I'm saying I'll update every Saturday but this Saturday I'm on a 3 day walk so I guess I'll update Friday instead.

If you're still reading then congrats you too have no life.

Bye bye for now!