12It started like any other normal post-game day. Jade Harley woke up, showered, had breakfast, irradiated a steak for Bec, and got to work on her pumpkins. Bec- it was nice to have him with her. Of all the guardians, he was the only one who came back. He was good company on this lonely island. All 20 players came back and kept their memories. They just woke up on morning three years after the last day they remembered, thoroughly confused and thinking it was all a dream. As for the rest of the world, it was as if the game has never happened. Now it was 2012, everyone was 16 years old, and still slightly scarred.
Anyways, it was any other normal day- until the boat came. Yes, a boat. Well, more like a tiny canoe, but still- a boat. It was headed straight for the island, piloted by a girl with shoulder-length brown hair.
Jade ran up to the shore and waved at the boat. The girl rand the boat ashore and Jade went forward to help her pull it on land more. "Hi! Hi! Oh my god hi what are you doing here?" she blurted at the girl.
A familiar voice came from behind the girl. "Whoa there, slow down Harley. This isn't entirely an accidental thing."
Jade gasped and her eyes sparkled and smiled widened as Dave Strider stepped off the boat. She ran forward and threw herself into his arms, and he picked her up and spun her around in the air before putting her back down and allowed her to squeeze the breath out of him.
"Dave! Ohmygodhowdidyoufindtheislan dwhatareyoudoinghereOHMYGOD!" Jade finally let go of him, beaming.
"Calm down Harley. I'll explain in a minute."
Jade grabbed some bags and ran ahead to show them the way to her house, followed by Dave and the unnamed girl.
Once inside, they settled down in the living room for some explanation. This was done by Dave.
"So about 3 months ago or something, I brought up the idea of having you over to Houston to Rose. She wasn't sure if our small apartment would fit another person, but she was willing to give it a try. So a week ago I flew out to Southern California in hopes to find somebody willing to take a boat out to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific. I had some general idea where this place was, but no directions. I looked for a good couple days, but no one was willing to do the huge-almost suicidal- trip. Finally I found Autumn over here, who readily agreed. So we set out-and thank God we found this place."
"Wow! Nice to meet you Autumn, I'm Jade Harley."
"Nice to meet you too Jade. Dave has told me quite at lot about you."
Jade blushed. "Well um. I'm assuming that we are not setting out right away?"
Autumn smiled, "If you don't mind, it would be lovely to stay at least overnight."
"Oh no problem! I only have one spare room so Dave can stay there and Autumn can share with me-unless Autumn wants her own room, then Dave can sleep on the couch."
"I am fine sharing a room with you Jade."
"Awesome! Okay then, I'll just show you guys where the rooms are."
Jade took the two upstairs, and after dropping Dave off at her grandpa's old room, the girls proceeded up to her room. "Sorry if it's messy. I wasn't expecting visitors today."
"Yes, I'm sorry about that. We would have contacted you earlier to warn you, but Dave wanted it to be a surprise. Also, we had no way to get in contact with you had we wanted to."
"Heheheh it's okay!"
"Anyways, your room should be no problem. My room at home is terrible."
Jade opened the door and let Autumn in. "So there's only one bad, but you can have it if you want. I think I have a sleeping bag downstairs."
"Do you mind? It would be lovely to sleep on a real bed again."
"Oh not at all! I'm gonna go try to find a sleeping bag. Feel free to move stuff around or whatever. When I get back I'll clean up a little."
"Thank you very much Jade."
"Oh you're welcome!" Jade ran out of the room and downstairs in search of a sleeping bag. She passed by the kitchen and almost ran into Dave, who was walking out of the doorway. "Oh! Sorry Dave!"
"God Harley slow down. Don't you have any apple juice in this place?"
"Sorry! And, um, no I don't think so, sorry."
"Hey, it's fine. You go do whatever you're doing. Also pack. We want to leave tomorrow morning."
"Okay!"
The rest of the day passed quickly. Jade packed, Autumn and Dave unpacked then repacked, and Autumn met Bec. They got a tour, had dinner, and eventually went to bed.
Jade woke up with a start, breathing heavily. She rolled over and glanced at the clock glowing in the darkness of her room. 3:46. Great. Trying to shake out the memories of her nightmare, she crept out of the room and down the hall to where Dave was sleeping.
She pushed open the door and snuck in. "Dave?" she whispered.
"Hmmmm?" came the muffled reply.
"I couldn't sleep. Can I stay her for a little bit?"
"Sure. Come here Harley." Dave rolled around and opened his arms for Jade to come lie next to him. She climbed in and snuggled next to Dave. "What's wrong?"
"I had a nightmare."
"What about?"
"T-the day on LOFAF." Jade sniffed and shivered and little bit.
Dave pulled her closer. "Shhhh, it's fine now Jade. I'm alive, everyone's alive. And I never blamed you for that. Never. It's the reason I became godtier."
"I-I know. It's just-just seeing you there, lying on the ground covered in your own blood, and know that it's my fault, that I killed you…" with that, Jade broke down completely and started sobbing into Dave's chest.
"Shh…it's fine. Everything is fine now." He held the girl close until the sobbing started to stop.
"I'm sorry Dave."
"What for?"
"For coming in her and waking you up and then crying on you like that."
"Jade. It's fine. Now we should probably get more sleep. But if you have any more nightmares, come and see me, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks Dave."
"You're welcome." Dave kissed the top of her head, and Jade climbed out of the bed and left the room.
"Night Dave!"
"Night Harley."
The next time Jade woke up, it was the more reasonable hour of 8. She squirmed out of her sleeping bag and quietly left the room.
She worked her way downstairs and turned on the kitchen light to find Bec asleep on the ground. She smiled stepped around him to go up to the counter. She pulled out a box of pancake mix and go to work on breakfast.
Fifteen minutes later, Autumn came down, woken by the smell of fresh pancakes.
"Morning Autumn!" Jade said cheerfully.
"Bluh morning." Autumn replied weakly.
"Do you like pancakes? I've got some ready now."
"Yeah sure… thanks Jade." Autumn sat down at the table in the kitchen, and started to sip the glass of orange juice Jade handed her. Jade put one plate in front of Autumn and another on a different spot across the table. She sat down and they began to eat.
Half an hour and lots of pancakes later, Dave came down, half-asleep, still wearing his pajamas. He had, however, managed to put on his shades.
"Heheheh nice of you to finally join us Dave!" Jade smiled.
"Morning Jade, Autumn. I smell pancakes."
"Yup! I made them a while ago! Do you want some? They're still hot!"
"It's the only reason I'm awake."
'Okay then!" Jade got another plate and filled it with pancakes before setting it in front of Dave.
"Thanks Jade."
"You're welcome coolkid!"
"Don't call me that Harley."
"Why shouldn't I? You're the coolest coolkid!"
"Memories."
"Sooooo cooool."
"Harley."
"Sorry-coolkid."
They lightly bickered like that, back and forth, for another couple minutes. Autumn tried to hide a smile while they argued, it was so obvious they liked each other. She had tried to pry some info out of Dave about his feelings on the boat, but, being a coolkid, he refused to say anything.
The two finally settled down a bit and all three of them cleaned up.
"So! What's the plan?" Jade asked.
"We will hopefully leave as soon as possible and make our way back to California." Autumn replied.
"Awesome! Let me go finish packing and I'll be ready to go!"
"Very well. Dave and I will stay down here. Our bags are ready." Autumn shot a glance at Dave.
Jade ran upstairs, leaving the two standing in the kitchen. Autumn sat back down at the table. "I know you like her Dave. And it's pretty obvious she likes you as well."
"Yeah. Sure. I like her. Big deal. And actually, I don't like her."
"Oh?"
"I love her."
Autumn smiled. Mission accomplished.
A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading so far, I have a couple more chapters planned out. Please let me know what you think, I love reviews! If you find any errors, or anything ooc, please let me know and I'll do my very best to fix it. =D