The next few weeks were normal. The zodiacs continued to hang out, study for tests, etc. Gemini continued researching more about the eleven royal zodiacs to see what they were planning.

It was now mid December. Snow dusted the streets as the temperatures dropped. The zodiacs couldn't hang out in their usual spot in the mornings and during recess, therefore they now used the library as their hangout spot.

One early Monday morning, all twelve were sat around a library table, eating their recess. Gemini was telling the others about his research while Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces listened. Aries and Leo were sleeping while using their arms as pillows on the table, Capricorn was quickly doing a biology lab that he completely forgot about while Gem and Sagittarius were... wait, where are they?

"So I discovered that Pie has dissappeared again," announced Gemini.

Taurus sighed. "I wonder what she's up to now."

"Did you find any information as to what they could be planning?" asked Aquarius.

Gemini nodded. "Turns out Ares, ruler of Fortis has also disappeared. They're likely hiding to make plans. A couple of witnesses last saw them on a boat headed towards Fortis. I've also discovered that they all have secret meetings once every two weeks, but they meet up with a twelfth unknown person."

"How did you find THAT out?" asked Libra.

"I can't say much, but I happened to contact some of my former staff who act as spies for me. Since Gina is dead, Geminus doesn't have a ruler anymore, therefore Vinn, the new ruler of Sub-Terra, decided to rule both kingdoms until they can get a new ruler."

"Wasn't she poisoned by Pie? Then Pie dragged her dead corpse away?" asked Pisces.

Gemini nodded. "Well, guess what! She's not actually dead."

"Why does everyone die and end up not dead?" asked Cancer.

Gemini shrugged. "I have no idea."

Everyone heard a book fall out of a shelf.

"What was that?" asked Taurus.

"Probably Sagittarius or Gem," replied Aquarius.

"Where are they?" Scorpio looked around. Then she shrugged because they were probably just causing trouble.

"So who's the twelfth person that they're meeting up with?" asked Virgo.

"I don't know, but I have a theory. You guys remember Ophiuchus? How she helped us adapt to human life and checked on our kingdoms every now and then? Well, its possible that she's helping the others now."

"Psst... Virgo!" Capricorn tapped Virgo on the arm. "How does sodium affect your blood pressure?"

Virgo sighed and explained it.

"So what does this have to do with us?" asked Scorpio.

"They're planning something!" replied Gemini. "I suspect that their plan is to get rid of us. I'll see if my spies can get more information."

The bell rang.

"I'M AWAKE!" Aries jolted awake.

"Five more minutes..." muttered Leo.

"Time to get up sleepyheads!" Then Pisces started making loud alarm noises. Aries and Leo groaned as they got up and checked their schedules to see what class they have.

Everyone else got up and walked into the hallway. As soon as they stepped out, they saw Gem and Sagittarius sneaking out of the chemistry lab.

"What are you two up to?" asked Libra.

"NOTHING!" screamed both of them at the same time.

"Nothing? Well that's a relief. Good thing that's not suspicious at all," said Capricorn.

Gem crossed her arms. "You guys have to get to class."

"Yeah," agreed Sagittarius. "Would you rather expose our plan? Or make it to class on time?"

Everyone decided to get to class without worrying about it. Except Aries, Leo, Cancer and Taurus who had chemistry next.

***

At lunch, everyone except Libra was sitting at the lunch table.

"Where's Lib-Lib?" asked Pisces.

Taurus rolled her eyes. "Oh great. Now Libra has to nick name too."

"Who else has a name?" asked Aries.

Pisces smirked. "Taurus is Tauri or Taur Taur, Cancer is loser, Leo is Virgo's future wife-"

"EXCUSE ME!" demanded a flustered Virgo.

"WHAT THE FUCK PISCES?" roared Leo.

"Virgo is the future husband of Leo's kids-"

"I DON'T EVEN LIKE HER!"

"EWWWWWW! ME AND VIRGO WILL NOT GET MARRIED!"

"That's why they think now. Anyway, Libra is Lib-Lib, Scorpio is..."

"Scorpio is..." continued Scorpio, expectantly.

"Haha. I didn't give her a nickname, forget I said anything! Yeah that's about everyone who has a nickname."

"And why do some people have a nickname?" asked Taurus.

"Because it's boring to always call you guys by your names. I like to mix it up a bit."

Sagittarius chuckled. "Why don't I get a nickname?"

"Hmm..." Pisces thought for a second. "Princess."

Sagittarius wrinkled her nose. "I hate that."

"Whenever you ask for a nickname, you get stuck with a shitty one. You have to be blessed with a nickname whenever I feel like it."

"So what are we going to call Pisces?" asked Aquarius.

"I call him little shit," replied Cancer.

"Piscespoo," suggested Gemini.

"Ugh that's sounds terrible! Great work Gemini!" Gem gave him a high five.

"NO!" declared Pisces.

Capricorn crossed his arms. "Anytime you call anyone else a nickname, we'll call you Piscespoo."

"And this is the cafeteria." Libra walked into the cafeteria with what seemed to be a new girl.

"So... where do you sit?" asked the girl as she shyly pushed up her glasses.

"Over there. I'll introduce you to my friends." Libra led the girl over to their table.

"Oh yeah," remembered Virgo. "Libra is student president, so she shows the new kids around."

"Hi guys! This is Olive. She's a new student!" introduced Libra.

Olive had brown eyes and short black hair that was a bit longer than chin length. She wore glasses, and had a few freckles on her face. Olive also had some kind of scar on her left arm.

"H-hi. I... uh... my name is Olive. Oh right you already know that! Um... uh... hi. I'm SHY! Ah I'm sorry! Please don't judge me!" She hid behind her hands.

"I'll show you the art room next. Come on," Libra led Olive out of the cafeteria.

"She's so shy," stated Sagittarius.

Leo nodded. "Let's hope she ends up being nice and not one of those snobby bitches."

"Yeah! We don't want her to end up like Leo," smirked Aries.

"Sagittarius, tickle her armpits!" ordered Leo.

"NO!" screamed Aries as Sagittarius started to tickle her. She was screaming as if she was being murdered.

"Stop screaming like that! Everyone's looking at us!" scolded Aquarius.

"Stop being boring. Let them think we're trying to murder Aries," joked Gem.

"As long as they don't know about the last FRIEND THAT WE MURDERED!" shouted Pisces.

"Shut up!" hissed Cancer.

Capricorn started jokingly tearing up. "Poor Becky. She had so much more potential in life."

"Oh my god! They're actually going to think we killed someone!" gasped Taurus. "I am not going to jail because of you guys!"

"Why did I even decide to be friends with you shit heads?" muttered Virgo.

"That's the best insult you've got?" asked Scorpio. "The teachers think we're all on drugs at this point, so they don't care about us anymore."

Aquarius looked at Virgo. "Everything goes to hell when Libra isn't around to put them in their places."

Gemini chuckled and looked at Virgo. "I don't even know who let Aries out of all people be the leader. It should have been you or Libra."

"We're the unofficial leaders."

"Then why can't you stop them?" asked Aquarius.

Virgo sighed. "Okay, Libra is the only one intimidating enough when she gets mad to put the crazies in line."

"So Aries is the leader when it comes to the crazy stuff, but Libra is like the unofficial leader that puts us all in our places?" asked Aquarius.

"With the help of Taurus," added Virgo.

"That's right. I'm equally as important!" smiled Taurus. "That means I'm more important than all of you, so you should buy me a cookie."

"I'll do it!" Cancer reached in his pocket for his money as he walked up to the counter to buy a cookie for Taurus.

Taurus' eyes widened. "Oh no, you don't have to! I was joking!"

Cancer continued walking anyway. After he bought the cookie, he sat back down and passed it to Taurus. "I asked them to make sure that your cookie was made with love."

Taurus smiled. A pure, appreciative smile that even reached her eyes. "That's so sweet. Thanks Cancer."

"You're welcome." Cancer put up his hood to hide his blush.

The bell rang.

Everyone got up to go to class. Taurus ate her cookie on the way to math.

***

After school, everyone was on the bus. Leo and Aries took up the very back seats for themselves as usual, Gem and Sagittarius were in the seat in front of the back seat to the left, Scorpio sat in the front so she wouldn't have to listen to everyone else's stupidity, and everyone else sat in the middle of the bus. Virgo and Libra were listening to music to drown out everyone else, Gemini and Capricorn were sticking sticky notes on each other, Taurus sat alone, Cancer and Pisces sat in the seat in front of Taurus so that Cancer could talk to her, and Aquarius was just getting on the bus.

Aquarius picked Gem up by her waist.

"What are you doing?" growled Gem.

"Sitting by my best friend. I don't get to talk to her often." He put Gem down in the seat across from Sagittarius before sitting where Gem was.

Sagittarius chuckled. "She's going to kill you."

Aquarius shrugged. "I don't care. So, what exactly did you two do in the chemistry lab this morning?"

The memory made Sagittarius laugh. "The chem class was supposed to go in there for a lab this morning. They were going to mix specific solutions together to create a precipitate or something like that. We mixed the first solution with a second solution that reacts violently with the third solution they were going to mix together. So according to Taurus, they all got their samples of the solutions, and when the mixed the solutions together, a mess was made."

Aquarius rolled his eyes. "I figured it was something like that."

"Do you want to get ice cream when we get home?" Sagittarius' eyes lit up. "Leo has to go to work so we can get ice cream AND bother her."

"I don't want to bother Leo though."

"That's okay. I'll bother her and you can pay for our ice cream."

"I've bought you countless ice creams."

"But I'm so cute that it's worth it! Riiiiiiight?"

Aquarius sighed. "I suppose."

"We'll even take one of our ten thousand pets for a walk."

"We don't have ten thousand pets Saggi. We have the three sugar gliders, Cheeto, Handsome, Libra's fish, and you. Wait, Libra keeps her fish in her room, Scorpio and Pisces keep their pets in the living room and sometimes their rooms, but where do you guys keep the sugar gliders?"

"Well, Leo and Aries' room is on the same floor as mine and Gem's, so we have to share that little living room area where the elevator is. That's where we keep their cage."

"I see."

Meanwhile, Gem was observing Aquarius and thinking. It appears as if Aquarius likes Sagittarius. Maybe he doesn't, he's just very fond of her since they've been best friends for a while, but I don't know. But does that mean that I was wrong and he doesn't like Leo? He doesn't seem interested in Leo. So WHO LIKES LEO?!?

Gemini went over the options. It's not Cap or Gemini, or Cancer or Aquarius. That leaves Pisces and Virgo. But I'm pretty sure Virgo likes Libra. So there's two options! Either Pisces likes Leo, or Virgo likes Libra and Leo. There's also the possibility that Libra likes Virgo but he doesn't like her back, he juts likes being close with her. But I don't think that's the case. Ugh this is so confusing!

Gem glanced at Scorpio. Scorpio and Aries both know who he is, but they won't tell me. Those little shits. I won't be able to get them to admit it either. Maybe Leo changed the names in the group chat herself, to make it seem like someone had a crush on her. She does seem to really like herself. But Scorpio found out who it was and they're making plans to make him confess. I have to figure out who it is somehow. Pisces or Virgo? Maybe Pisces says he ships Leo and Virgo because he actually likes Leo so he likes to torment her. Pisces liking Leo is the most likely option, but I can't say for sure.

I'll figure it out one way or another! I could even ask Gemini to help, he's amazing at observing things and figuring things out! But I don't want to ask help from my smelly brother, I'll do it myself!

***

Leo and Aries were texting each other, despite only being a few feet apart.

Leo: We should thank Gem and Sag for ruining our lab, since we wasted a whole class and have to do the lab again tomorrow!

Aries: Yeah. Let's bake them cookies

Leo: cookies with a secret ingredient

Aries: of course! What should we put in the cookies this time?

Leo: Tooth paste!

Aries: Yeah!

Leo: I have to go to work in half an hour though

Aries: we can do it later

Leo: speaking of later, would you be able to flirt with me in front of the others?

Aries: oh wow I didn't know you liked me 😏, okay babe

Leo: 🙄 shut up its to see who gets jealous. I want to know who likes me

Aries: Your new nick name is babe

Leo: if you'll do that people will think that you're the one that likes me

Aries: but then I can crush them with disappointment when they figure out that it's not me

Leo: I suppose it will make him jealous, whoever he is

Aries: He's awfully weak if he's going to get jealous of two best friends. I'm more important to you than some guy anyway

Leo: lol I didn't know you get to decide my feelings for me. But yeah you'll always be more important than some guy.

Aries: aww I'm so touched! You're such a true friend... babe

Leo: 🙄 you're going to call me that to annoy me aren't you?

Aries: yes I am

Leo: I'll have to get used to it

Aries: yeah. So when you get a boyfriend he's not allowed to call you babe since that's my name for you. He has to call you honey or sugar or something like that

Leo: or he can use my name because both of those suck

Aries: you know how some girls call their boyfriends daddy?

Leo: oh god no

Aries: he can call you mommy!

Leo: you're so weird

Leo put her phone away and frowned at Aries with disgust while Aries laughed her ass off.

***

"And then I got the highest grade for that project. The art teacher said I had a talent for art," announced Cancer proudly.

Taurus smiled. "That's great. Good for you Cancer."

"I think that's the first time I heard someone say good for you and not be sarcastic," added Pisces.

Cancer blushed with pride. "Yeah. Wait, you're great at photography so you promised to teach me how to do photography as well. I'm a great artist, so I can teach you how to paint. Then we can collaborate and do some kind of big project together!"

Taurus' eyes lit up with interest. "I've been trying to think of what to do next. A collaboration project doesn't sound bad. With my photography skills and your art skills, we could make some kind of cool art work."

"You're not even as good at art as you're pretending," whispered Pisces.

Cancer elbowed Pisces. "Even Pisces agrees! So, did you get any good photos recently?"

Taurus shook her head. "The only pictures I took recently were selfies. I've been busy with schoolwork lately."

"Oh. But those selfies are probably a work of art themselves. You're pretty so any picture of you probably looks as nice as a sunset!"

Taurus smiled shyly. "Oh, I don't know about that."

Pisces, who was cringing, got up to find a new seat.

"Where are you going?" asked Cancer.

Pisces quickly looked around. He noticed Scorpio sitting alone. "I'm going to sit with Scorpio. You see, I have a huge crush on her so I'll go attempt to flirt with her while being super obvious. But she'll probably be completely oblivious and anyone sitting near me will cringe because I can't flirt at all." Then he sat by Scorpio.

Cancer gave Pisces a look that said shut up!

"What?" asked a confused Taurus.

"He's acting weird. I don't really know what he was saying either."

"I didn't know he likes Scorpio."

"He doesn't."

"But why did he say that?"

"I really don't know. He's acting funny. Anyway, what was I saying? Something about how you're so pretty? I'm not flirting, don't get the wrong idea. I just happened to notice how visually pleasing your face looks."

Taurus laughed and petted him on the head. "You're cute."

"Yeah." Cancer turned around and grinned from ear to ear. SHE THINKS I'M CUTE! SHE THINKS I'M CUTE!

***

Scorpio gave Pisces a funny look as he sat next to her. "What are you doing?"

"Aww I can't sit next to you?"

"You usually don't."

"Cancer keeps flirting with Taurus. It's making me cringe so I made an excuse and sat next to you."

"I sit in the front so that nobody will annoy me. You could of sat in one of the other empty seats since barely anyone goes on this bus. There's more empty seats than there are people."

"Yeah there's only the thirteen of us plus like, five other people."

"So why are you sitting with me rather than in an empty seat?"

"You see, we're both water signs," whispered Pisces. "But I barely speak to you. You see how close the fire signs are? Well I should be close with my other water sign buddy."

Scorpio rolled her eyes. "Lucky me."

"Yes, lucky you. Actually I should sit with you for now on."

"I don't think so."

"I need to learn more about my bestie ScorpyWorpy. So who's your crush?"

"I don't have a crush because I hate all of you."

"You say that, but I don't think you hate Libra or Taurus."

"I know but saying that I hate everyone sounds cooler. I like observing everyone else's crushes."

"Who do I like then?"

"At the moment, nobody."

"Maybe I secretly have a crush on you."

"No, you're just trying to annoy me."

"What? Why would I do that? In fact, you're the girl of my dreams. I often fantasize about marrying you."

Scorpio gave Pisces a funny look. "You do realize you're trying to fool me, someone who's very good at reading body language. I'm not Libra or Taurus, I'd know if you liked me."

Pisces frowned. "Yeah I didn't think that was going to work."

"So do you have anymore questions for me, or can you stop annoying me?"

"I do think us water signs should all become better friends. That's why I'm your new best friend."

"Yeah, actually Libra and Taurus are my best friends. Aries too. Sorry, I'm only allowed to have three best friends."

At that moment, Gem thought of an idea. Maybe if I can become close with Scorpio, she'll tell me who Leo likes. That's why she shouted, "HEY SCORPIO! LET'S BE BEST FRIENDS!"

"OKAY!" screamed Scorpio back at Gem.

Pisces crossed his arms. "I thought you could only have three best friends!"

Scorpio shrugged. "Actually, I just checked the imaginary rules. Turns out I can have four best friends."

"Now I'm going to keep trying to be your friend."

"Go back to Cancer, or Gem and Sagittarius. You LOVE to torment Gem and Sagittarius."

"You see, my imaginary rules state that I can have three best friends, plus a Scorpio! You're not getting away from me."

Scorpio turned around and mouthed help me to Taurus.

Taurus laughed and shook her head. Scorpio was in this alone.

"Wait. You love to mess with people," stated Scorpio.

Pisces nodded. "It's the only thing that gets me up in the morning."

"I could benefit from this. If you want to be friends, then you can help me mess with the others. You can help me mess with Sagittarius and Gem."

Pisces grinned. "So I get prank others with you AND prank others with Sag and Gem? Prefect."

"Suddenly this friendship doesn't seem so bad."

"That's right, ScorpyWorpy."

"Yeah, Piscespoo."

***

Capricorn and Gemini ran out of sticky notes, so they just sat there, covered in them.

Gemini took a water bottle out of his backpack. As soon as the water touched his lips, Gemini spat it out.

Capricorn gave him a funny look. "Are you okay?"

"My water tastes funny."

Capricorn took the water and sniffed it. "It's probably just old."

"Are you a water expert now?"

"It doesn't take an expert to know that if you open water and leave it for a while, it starts to small funny."

"Fine. I have an idea though!" announced Gemini. "We can't share a room, but if we sleep in the pillow room every now and then, we can still cuddle."

"You're a cuddle addict."

"So what?"

"I'll sleep in the pillow room tonight, as long as I'm the one that gets to cuddle you."

Gemini crossed his arms. "No way, I get to cuddle you."

"I won the sticky note war, so I get to cuddle you."

"You did NOT win."

"Yes I did."

"No, you didn't."

Capricorn took a sticky note off his shirt and stuck it on Gemini's nose. "Yes, I did."

"Fine," pouted Gemini.

"You and your sister have the same pout." That made Gemini scrunch his nose.

"You're getting cuddled and you're going to like it."

"As long as you give me a foot rub. "

Gemini sighed. "Okay."

"And you're not allowed to break the bones in my feet."

"I'd never hurt your feet! I'll even rub scented lotion on them."

"That actually sounds nice."

"We can even build a pillow fort."

"How old are you again?"

"Older than you."

"Barely."

"I'm still older."

"And I'm younger, your point?"

"Be quiet or i'll toss you out the window."

Capricorn smiled. "But I'm too cute to be thrown out a window."

"Behave or I'll tickle you."

***

Virgo and Libra were listening to songs on Libra's phone. They each had an earbud in one ear.

"How did you like showing the new girl around?" asked Virgo.

Libra smiled. "She's very nice, but shy. She's in my art and language classes. She's definitely a nerd like you, and a teachers pet, which is also you."

Virgo chuckled. "I'm not teachers pet, I just do well in school."

"She reminds me of a lost puppy."

"Olive does?"

"Yeah. She just has this look, like she's been kicked around too many times. Whenever I asked her why she moved, her eyes would go wide and shed just shake her head, refusing to tell me. Maybe I'm thinking too much of it, but I'm afraid that she may have been bullied or something at her old school."

"That's a fair assumption. We should look out for her, just to make sure no one picks on her here."

Libra smiled. "She's not going to join our friend group or anything, but I might like to be her friend. We have a lot in common."

"Really? I was getting worried that you'd be a loner since you only have twelve other friends. We were going to call you loner Libra."

Libra playfully punched Virgo. "Shut up. I'm still hanging out with you losers most of the time."

"Oh no, you're not going to ditch us? Shit. I thought we almost got rid of you."

Libra laughed and slapped Virgo's arm. "You asshole."

"By the way, I was thinking about playing the piano. I'm not really sure if I-"

"I LOVE the sound of the piano. It just... I don't know, fills my heart with joy or something."

"Yeah. I'm thinking about signing up for lessons every Monday. Capricorn might play the guitar. Wait, do you want to come along too? We can learn how to play the piano together. They we can become a piano playing duo, the piano playing best friends. Then we'll become famous."

Libra chuckled. "I'm not sure we'll get that far, but we can definitely go take piano lessons together."

"That's great. I-" Virgo got hit in the back of the head by a paper airplane. He whipped his head around. All the other zodiacs were looking at him, except for Leo who was looking out the window. He picked up the plane and ripped it. "Who did this?"

Everyone pointed at Leo.

Leo snapped out of her daydream long enough to notice everyone pointing at her. "What?"

"Leo threw it because she loves you," said Pisces from the front of the bus.

Virgo crumpled up one half of the plane and threw it at Pisces. He threw the other half at Pisces as well, but it hit Scorpio instead.

"Which one of you idiots did this?" growled an annoyed Scorpio.

"PAPER FIGHT!" screamed Gem. Then everyone except for Virgo, Libra, Taurus, Cancer, and Aquarius tore paper from the notebooks in their backpacks and threw it at each other.

"These idiots," muttered Libra.

Virgo remembered the conversation he had with Gemini and Aquarius at lunch.

Then why can't you stop them?

The words echoed in his head. He could stop them. He was just as much of a leader as Libra was!

"Hey! I order you all to stop!" demanded Virgo.

Everyone froze, unsure what to do.

"You're not our leader, you don't get to make us do anything," smirked Aries.

Virgo barely had time to put his backpack up as a shield before everyone started throwing paper at him.

This was apparently the funniest thing in the world to Libra.

"Aren't these guys immature? True guys who are boy friend material don't throw paper," announced Cancer.

Taurus caught a flying paper ball mid air and giggled as she threw it at Cancer. "I threw a paper ball. Are you calling me immature?"

Cancer's eyes went wide and his face grew red. "No! I didn't mean-"

"I'm teasing you, silly. It's what friends do."

Oh, I'm friend zoned. Thought Cancer. At least it's better than not being friends at all. I can get used to this. As long as she stays my friend, I can be happy.

"THE NEXT ONE TO THROW A PAPER BALL IS GETTING KICKED OFF MY BUS!" screamed the bus driver.

All the zodiacs sat perfectly still in their seats for the rest of the ride home.