Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Jerrica,” Kimber came into her sister’s office. “So I’ve been doing some thinking lately; you’re always so busy running Starlight Music, Starlight Foundation, managing bands, raising your daughter, raising the Starlight Girls, and you know, other things.”

“Where are you going with this Kimber?” Jerrica sounded exhausted.

“Well, you need help,” Kimber said. “I’m part-owner of Starlight Music and it’s about time I acted like it.”

“But you hate business,” Jerrica sighed, trying to remember how to do what she wanted to on the computer.

Kimber draped her arm on the computer monitor. “Oh definitely. But as your sister it’s my responsibility to help you out with things. You’ve been overworked for years.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Jerrica leaned back in her chair as she waited for the program to load. “But I don’t want you to do something you hate. Just help out at Starlight House more often.”

“That’s not enough!” Kimber pushed. “Even when I was living with the girls you were constantly in a frazzle. Let me do this.”

Jerrica considered things for a minute before giving her answer. “Okay. But you will need some training before you’re able to lighten my workload. I’ll talk to Joanie and see if she can do it. My week’s too filled up to train you.”

“Wait. You got training?”

“No,” Jerrica rubbed her eye. “Well, sort of. I often helped Father while he was at work and learned through doing that. And Joanie did help fill in the gaps in my knowledge. But you were always uninterested in inheriting the family business.”

“And when Riot took you to Mexico everything fell into my lap and I was unprepared,” Kimber crossed her arms. “I regret not learning more from Daddy about business. That’s a large part of why I lost Starlight Music.”

“Don’t put all the blame onto yourself. Aja wasn’t able to save the company either. With Jem gone our biggest seller was unable to produce anything new—”

“NO!” Kimber slammed her hand on the desk. “We had two other groups signed on with us. Don’t blame Jem for Starlight Music going under. You do not need that on your mind too! I messed up. And I want to make up for it.”

Jerrica stammered. “W-wh-well, yes. Okay. I see you’re serious about this.”

“I’m dead serious,” Kimber looked directly into Jerrica’s eyes.

And this was enough to fully convince Jerrica. “And you have matured a lot in the last ten years.”

“I won’t let you down sis!” Kimber’s look of determination was frankly, adorable and a little hard to take seriously.

But Jerrica knew her sister well. And once her mind was set on something there was no changing it.

“I even studied business while I was recovering from my accident,” Kimber continued. “And I asked Maggie for some pointers too.”

“Maggie?”

“You know, Mary’s cousin.”

“I remember who she is. I’m just surprised.”

“Maggie likes me… You know, in her weird sarcastic Maggie kind of way.”

“That’s true. And she did study business in college,” Jerrica then sighed through her nose. “Alright. You can start training with Joanie tomorrow.”

Kimber grinned and grabbed Jerrica’s hand with both of her own and shook it. “Thanks for having me onboard!”

Joanie was an odd mix of both proud and confused when she met up with Kimber for training.

Proud, because Emmett would be.

Confused, because Kimber had never shown even the slightest bit of interest in business before this.

But she did well during her training. She had told Joanie about studying in her spare time and preparing for the day she would step up to the plate.

After finishing up with the refresher and familiarizing Kimber with the new programs and equipment Joanie asked her a question, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Absolutely!” Was Kimber’s reply. She showed zero hesitation. “Jerrica trusted me with half this company. I let her down before, and I won’t do it again.”

“Kimber you’ll never let your sister down, you know that,” Joanie said. “You’ve always been drawn to the artistic side of music and not the corporate side. You take after your mother in that regard.”

“Yeah I guess I do…” Kimber couldn’t argue with that. “But still! I worry about Jerrica. She’s juggling way too much!”

Joanie didn’t have much to say.

And Kimber continued, “I’m worried about her health, I don’t want her to have a heart attack like Daddy did.”

“Huh?” That took a turn. “Where did that come from?”

“Well,” Kimber looked like she was about to cry. “Mary’s dad, Mike, he had one recently. He was working on his dad’s farm because Jake is way too old.”

Joanie sighed heavily and offered Kimber a hug. “I see. You don’t have to worry. Jerrica is strong and healthy. Emmett unfortunately was not.”

“I know, but even if we didn’t have that scare with Mike I’d want to do this. Jerrica has been frazzled for so long. And if I can help, I should. She would do the same for me.”

“That she would. Many hands make light work.”

Kimber broke up the hug, but still held hands with Joanie. “I gave this a lot of thought. I’m taking it seriously.”

Joanie gave in, she smiled warmly at Kimber. “I can see how serious you are. We’ll continue your training tomorrow. Although I don’t think you need it. You really did study up on this.”

“I did! Except it was so long ago that half this computer stuff didn’t even exist yet. I think that book was out of date too.”

Joanie stifled her laughter. “It was enough to give you the basics.”

“Yep, and I’m glad,” Kimber let go of Joanie. “See you tomorrow! And thanks!”

“See you tomorrow.”

Kimber ran out of the building and was almost immediately picked up by Stormer. After giving Kimber one last wave Joanie met Jerrica in her office.

“How did it go?” asked Jerrica.

“It went well,” replied Joanie. “Kimber really did brush up on this.”

“She said that she did,” Jerrica rested her chin on her hands. “And she has no doubts about this?”

“None that I can see,” Joanie quickly debated if she should say the next part. “She told me that there was a scare with her girlfriend’s father. He had a heart attack. I think that’s why she approached you so suddenly.”

Jerrica sighed. “So she’s worried that I’ll end up like our father.”

“Yes.”

“I suppose after having her own brush with death Kimber would become skittish about these things. I just wish she wasn’t.”

“Will you be hiring Kimber? She can do the job well.”

“I will. But as a trial run to see if Kimber can handle it. The last thing I want is for her to lose her passion for music.”

“Make sure you tell her that.”

“Of course. Honesty is important when dealing with Kimber. Thank you Joanie.”

“You’re welcome Jerrica. Do you need anything else?”

“Not that I can think of, you can go home now. Have a good evening.”

“You too.”

And with that Joanie left Jerrica alone in her office to think about what she was going to do next.

It shouldn’t have been such a difficult decision, Kimber said again and again how much she had prepared and how badly she wanted to help.

She packed up her things and closed her office down for the night. Jerrica drove herself home and stepped into the ever busy Starlight Mansion. Rio greeted her with a kiss.

“How’d it go?” He asked.

“Well,” Jerrica replied. “Very well according to Joanie.”

“That’s good, Kimber has finally grown up.”

“Hmm… She grew up years ago,” Jerrica felt like she constantly had to tell Rio that. “It’s just now Kimber wants to help me out. She’s worried about my health with all the different stressors in my life.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s not, or it wouldn’t be. But this just isn’t sitting right with me.”

“Maybe you just don’t want to give up control.”

“That’s not it!” Jerrica failed to not snap at Rio. “I worry about Kimber’s passion dying. She loves music, it’s her whole life. And by moving over to the business side she might lose that love.”

“Did you lose your love for music?”

“No. If anything I started to love it even more. I manage bands, I see how much they love their craft and it inspires me to keep going.”

“I think Kimber would feel the same way. Your father liked the technical side of music, and your mother liked the artistic side. You two inherited both of those aspects.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Rio hugged Jerrica. “As rash as she can be, Kimber does still stop and think things through. She wouldn’t have made the offer if she wasn’t ready.”

“That’s true.”

“Just trust your sister and if things do fall apart with Kimber working for you pull her aside and talk to her about it.”

“Yeah because that always goes over well,” Jerrica remarked sarcastically.

“She’s become a mostly sane and rational woman.”

“‘Mostly’ is the key word here,” On some level Jerrica did feel bad about these mean jokes. Kimber did offer to help her after all. “Well, I should change and then help you out with the girls.”

Jerrica jumped when she heard a crash and then two girls arguing about who did it. “It sounds like you need it.”

The first week with Kimber working at Starlight Music went very smoothly. Her new office was set up without any problems, she picked up the skills quickly enough, and had a knack for marketing. It actually made Jerrica quite aware that Kimber absolutely knew how important public perception was.

Which explained why Kimber was so good at controlling her fiery temper when the camera was on her.

It was both impressive and a little scary.

And throughout the week Jem would make appearances in the recording studio and Kimber was as enthusiastic as ever then too.

She was especially enthusiastic when Ashley was the audio engineer for these recordings.

Her songwriting was as strong as ever, although the backing music ended up with a bit more of an edge than before. But it worked for the band well enough.

Week two was also smooth, almost too smooth. Kimber was far too agreeable, especially with Rio who she usually butted heads with at least once a month. It was at this point Jerrica decided to leave marketing mostly up to Kimber.

Kimber even hopped in the car with Jerrica every few days to help out at Starlight House. Something that had become very rare after Rio moved in.

Something Jerrica noticed of course.

Kimber even made a terrific offer, teaching the girls a basic life skills class. It went over well with everyone and became a regular occurrence.

It was at week three Jerrica noticed something off about Kimber. She tried to hide it with makeup. Interestingly, the giveaway was the scar next to her eye vanishing slightly.

“Are you okay?” Jerrica managed to catch Kimber in the hall at work.

“Huh?” Kimber was spaced out more than usual. “Oh, yeah I’m great.”

“Are you sure?” Jerrica firmly looked into Kimber’s eyes. “Because you seem tired to me.”

A reflexive laugh came out of Kimber. “Just some growing pains. I’m fine.”

Jerrica sighed. “If you say so. But if you need to take a break or work less hours tell me.”

“Don’t worry,” Kimber winked. “I won’t push myself too hard. You know me.”

“The fact that I know you is why I worry.”

“Hey now. I’ve gotten better.”

“You have,” Jerrica crossed her arms. “But only a little.”

“Seriously, I’m fine,” Kimber firmly made eye-contact with Jerrica. “If things get too hard I’ll tell you.”

Week four.

Things just got more concerning. Kimber was good at faking being fine during recording sessions, and she worked as hard as ever in the office and even took up mentoring a new act she scouted for Starlight Music.

This was when Jerrica decided to have a little meeting with Kimber.

She called this meeting knowing that it would probably turn into a shouting match. But she was prepared for it. Naturally Jerrica sent Joanie home early.

“What’s up?” Kimber came into the office sounding chipper.

“We need to talk,” Jerrica gestured at the couch, Kimber sat down on it then was joined by her sister. “You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“I know,” Kimber gave in way too easily. She sighed. “But I gotta adjust to this workload somehow.”

“Take a week off to recharge,” Jerrica used her ‘mom voice.’ “You can return to work after that.”

“Oooorrrr…”

“No.” Jerrica did not let Kimber sweet-talk her. “You are taking time off work.”

“Okay but—”

“—NO.”

Kimber didn’t even try again.

“Look,” Jerrica sighed. “You did this to help me because I was overworking myself. I don’t want you to do the same to yourself. I appreciate the help but I want you to recharge so you don’t drive yourself to an early grave.”

“Oof, using my own argument against me,” Kimber cringed. “Yeah I guess I have been doing that huh. I fell a little behind on my sleep.”

Jerrica put her hand on Kimber’s knee. “I’m glad you realized that. I’m serious when I say this, I worry about you.”

“I know,” Kimber had become a little too submissive. “So what gave away the fact that I’m so tired?”

“Well besides the way you’ve been dragging your feet and dozing off at your desk,” Jerrica then tapped slightly below her left eye. “I also noticed that something was off.”

“Oh, the concealer. Yeah it’s hard to avoid my scar.”

“Also your eyebrows have been slightly off,” Jerrica pointed that one out in a more lighthearted way.

Kimber groaned in response. “My eyebrows! Of all the things… You know how Pizzazz constantly looks surprised now. Maybe I wanted to do something a little different too.”

“Pizzazz doesn’t have any actual eyebrows left,” Jerrica raised one of hers. “Also that woman’s stylistic choices are odd to say the least.”

“You just don’t understand punk fashion.”

“How on earth did you gain such an understanding?”

Kimber gestured to the rings on her right hand, one sapphire and diamond, the other amethyst. “You’ve met my wife, haven’t you?”

“I have. She’s far more understated than Pizzazz.”

“Hey if you wanna be the baddest bitch of the punk world you need to look the part.”

Jerrica burst out laughing.

And that was a victory for Kimber. “Oh come on, you have to be used to me swearing by now.”

“I am,” Jerrica couldn’t regain her composure. “You just caught me off-guard.”

“Good to see you laughing, you’ve been so serious lately.”

“Well I’ve been worried about you.”

“I’ll take the week off,” Kimber restated her agreement. “Then I’ll be back in full force.”

“But not in full full force, right?” Jerrica pushed the matter. “Only give me eighty percent of the effort you have been.”

“Aren’t you supposed to give it a-hundred and ten percent at work?”

“I used to think that but then I ended up constantly on the verge of a physical and mental breakdown. So no. You’re not.”

“Alright, I’ll come back next week and give it ninety percent.”

“We’re not bartering,” Jerrica gave Kimber a flat look.

“Eighty-five.”

“Eighty.”

“Eighty-three.”

“I can do this all day. I negotiate profits. And I’m quickly learning that you absolutely should not help me with that.”

Kimber giggled cutely. “Hey I can be stubborn when I want to be. Say, I know I’m supposed to take time off but can I still teach my life skills class?”

“Sure.”

“Great, can I get a ride then?”

“Of course, I’d never make you take a taxi to the mansion from work.”

After some more lighthearted conversation Kimber and Jerrica went to Starlight Mansion together. There Kimber taught the shockingly popular class. It wasn’t mandatory by any means but most of the girls still attended it. It was mostly a cooking class with simple dishes that even a child can make.

Perhaps all the taste-testing was the big appeal.

It became evening and Kimber was still helping out at the mansion. Jerrica heard a ring on the doorbell and answered the front door.

“Hey Jerrica,” Stormer was standing at the door.

“Hi Mary,” Jerrica greeted her warmly. “It’s always good to see you. You know you should come by more often.”

The hesitance told Jerrica everything. “Yeah I should.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“How’s Kimber doing at home?”

“Ah,” Stormer rubbed the back of her neck. “Well… She’d probably kill me if I told you the truth but I can tell you’ve figured it out already. Yeah, Kimber’s been pushing herself too hard and not sleeping enough.”

“Is it stress or something else?”

“Probably stress, but you know how Kimber gets when she’s into her work. So while figuring out how to market your acts she works until late in the night.”

“And it’s impossible to get her to stop once she’s started.”

“Sure is. That’s never changed.”

“No it hasn’t.”

“Just so you know, I have tried talking to her about this.”

“I don’t doubt that. You take good care of my sister. So how are you feeling about everything?”

“Same as you probably,” Stormer replied with a shrug. “Pretty proud of Kimber for helping out with your guys’ business. But also kinda worried about her.”

“I see,” Jerrica called Kimber’s name then leaned against the doorway. “What have you been up to?”

Stormer copied Jerrica’s posture. “You’re my boss so I think you know.”

“I mean outside of your band.”

“Honestly, not much that’d interest you. I just started my garden a couple days ago. I wish my yard was a little flatter because I can’t grow too many vegetables with all those hills.”

“So what are you planning on growing?”

“I was actually thinking of growing some corn.”

“Corn? In your back yard?” Puzzlement was all over Jerrica’s face.

“Yeah why not?” Stormer shrugged. “I go through so much of it. Red onions too.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever seen corn in somebody’s back yard before.”

“I haven’t either but my mom grew some last year and she’s in Minnesota. California has to be a better climate for corn.”

“Amazing I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.”

“Do you plan on getting into gardening?”

Jerrica hissed. “Probably not. I’m sure I can trust my girls to not trample it but I just don’t have the time. Besides, I think black thumbs run in the family. My mother never managed to successfully keep flowers alive.”

“That explains a lot about Kimber actually. Your mom didn’t know how to take care of plants so she never taught her kids. But you have house plants and they all look healthy to me.”

“Mrs. Bailey takes care of them.”

Stormer groaned, and this was when Kimber appeared.

“What’s up?” She asked.

“I just learned that Jerrica kills plants too,” Stormer replied.

“Hey I’ve gotten better!” Kimber quickly defended herself.

“You have, thank god.”

“Rude.”

Stormer snickered. “We should probably get home. Purrsey misses you.”

“Definitely,” Kimber joined Stormer’s side. “See you tomorrow Jerrica!”

“No you won’t,” Jerrica said pushily. “You’re taking a week off of work.”

“I thought it was just office work, not all work.”

“Huh?”

“Did you forget? Practice session.”

“Ah, right, music,” Jerrica lightly blushed. “Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Wait wait wait!” A small child’s voice grew in volume. “Aunt Mary I haven’t seen you in forever!”

Stormer knelt down with a warm smile. “Hey Jill. Whatcha got there?”

The young daughter of Jerrica and Rio held up a piece of paper with a shining smile. “Pokemon! I drew them!”

“Wow really?’ Stormer asked Jillian for the drawing and took a closer look at it. “So I know Pikachu,” Stormer pointed at the round yellow figure with pointy ears, “who are the other Pokeymon?”

“Um, um!” Jillian ran over so she could also look at the printer paper. She pointed at the colourful shapes as she talked. “This is Starmie, Misty has Starmie. This is Geodude, Brock has that. They’re Ash’s friends!”

“Oh yeah?” Stormer acted fully engaged in this conversation.

“Yeah!” Jillian beamed then pointed at more shapes. “This is Sandshrew! He’s a arma-arm… Mommy what’s it called?”

“Armadillo,” Jerrica answered.

“Armadillo! That!” Jillian bounced on the balls of her feet then pointed at something orange. “This is Charmander. He’s cute! His old trainer left him alone in the rain and it was really sad. But Ash saved him! And now they’re friends!”

“Ash sounds really nice.”

“He is! I wanted to draw Butterfree but he’s too hard.”

“You’re a good artist Jill, I’m sure you’ll be able to do that really soon.”

“Thanks!” Jillian grinned at Stormer before taking her drawings back and hugging them to her chest. “I have lots more to show you!”

“And I look forward to seeing them,” Stormer patted Jillian on the head, ruffling her niece's curly purple hair. “But I really need to take your Auntie Kimber home. I’ll come over and play soon, okay?”

This was the first Jillian actually looked disappointed. “Okay…”

Stormer stood up, and Kimber wrapped her arms around hers.

“Hey, don’t look so sad,” Jerrica spoke to her daughter gently while rubbing her shoulders. “You’ll see your aunts again before you know it.”

Jillian pouted. Jerrica picked her up and held her.

“Now now, let’s say bye to your aunts and look forward to seeing them again,” Jerrica said. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Jillian seemed like she got over her sadness.

“Aw bye Jill,” Kimber held her niece’s hand. “See you soon!”

“Yeah we’ll see each other soon,” Stormer said as she rubbed Jillian’s back.

Then the adults all said their goodbyes to each other.

Kimber stumbled into the music room in Starlight Mansion. “Sorry, I’m late! We got a little held up in traffic.”

Aja took in Kimber’s slightly dishevelled hair and flush cheeks. “Hey don’t worry about it. Shana and Raya haven’t gotten here yet. Nice seeing you in a fun pattern by the way. Glad you haven’t gone fully corporate on us.”

“Whaaaat, my suits are fun colours,” Kimber objected. “I hardly look corporate. Plus you know.”

She finished by flicking the two cartilage piercings in her left ear.

“Okay I have to ask, how many suits do you own?” Jerrica asked Kimber.

And Kimber pondered.

“The fact that you have to think so hard worries me.”

“Five,” Aja answered. “I counted five.”

“Yeah that sounds right,” Kimber nodded.

“You sure?” asked Jerrica. “Because it looks like you wear a new suit every day.”

“Oh it’s because I was smart with my colour choices,” Kimber responded in a way that made her sound like a teacher. “You get a bunch of colours that you can mix and match and still look good in. It refreshes your look. And you know I like a nice three-piece suit and with those you can just wear the waistcoat. It’s a good way of making your wardrobe stretch so you don’t need an excessive amount of suits.”

“Five is an excessive amount,” Aja said flatly.

“I only own three…” Jerrica said in awe.

“You wanna know what’s really scary?” Kimber crossed her arms as she leaned on the nearby wall. “I owned most of those suits before I started working in the office.”

“And judging by how ripped you are it isn’t even a collection you built up over years,” Aja smirked.

“Two years is still years,” Kimber argued cutely. “Wait, were we counting tuxedos in the suit discussion? Because I have two of those.”

“Why would you need two?” Not even Aja expected that one.

“One black, one white of course.”

“…Of course.”

The door opened and Shana walked through with an apology.

“No hassle,” Jerrica said. “We’re still waiting on Raya.”

“Huh that’s weird,” Shana said as she waved at Kimber. “She’s usually so punctual.”

“She could have gotten held up at the nursery,” Jerrica said.

Shana nodded. “That’s possible.”

Barely five minutes later Raya ran through the door apologizing profusely. “My appointment ran late.”

“Appointment, huh,” Kimber raised an eyebrow at Raya, she had noticed a little plastic wrap and redness on her bandmate’s left upper arm underneath her sleeve.

“Oh,” Raya quickly put her hand over where Kimber was staring. “You saw. I was hoping to let it heal a little before showing you all.”

“Show us what?” asked Shana.

“Oh I see it too,” Aja said coyly.

Kimber looked like she could barely contain her excitement, with a sigh Raya gave into the fact that if she didn’t say anything, Kimber would. “I got a tattoo.”

Jerrica’s eyes lit up. “You did? What is it of?”

“I can’t believe I’m not the only one with a tattoo anymore,” Kimber practically squealed.

“I literally just left the tattoo shop,” Raya said as she rolled up her sleeve. “So it’s still red and swollen.”

“Oh it’s a black orchid,” Jerrica immediately said her voice filled with pleasure. “It’s so beautiful.”

“It is,” Raya said, a little thrown off by into her tattoo Jerrica was. “I thought a black orchid would be nice because my dad takes so much pride in how well he can grow them.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black orchid sold anywhere else,” Aja said.

“They aren’t,” Raya’s voice was full of pride. “They’re my dad’s specialty. And he’s teaching me how to grow them.”

“Are you planning on taking over the flower shop eventually?” asked Shana.

“Not take over,” Raya replied with a head shake. “Help out. I don’t see my dad retiring any time soon. Besides, I travel too much and I don’t see myself giving up drumming.”

“I’m happy he’s teaching you,” Shana said. “It must be hard to grow them if your family’s shop is the only one selling them.”

“Oh it is,” Raya beamed at Shana. “I’d explain it to you but I don’t want to talk your ear off about plants.”

“No please do,” Shana insisted. “Maybe not now, but I am interested.”

Raya smiled warmly at Shana. “Sure, and maybe you can tell me a little about designing.”

And Shana returned Raya’s smile. “Deal.”

“Count me in,” Aja said.

“Me too!” Kimber quickly followed.

With a shrug Jerrica suggested something. “Why not give us the lesson now? I’m interested too.”

“It’s very complicated and will take a while,” Raya didn’t expect everybody to be onboard. Before now only Stormer had shown so much interest in cultivating rare flowers. “How about this? We take a trip to the nursery and I can explain it there.”

That plan worked with everyone.

“I suppose we should get started with practice, showtime Synergy,” a touch to an earring later and Jerrica had transformed into Jem. “We’ll be recording our new album next week. And then soon after that is our tour.”

“I forgot how much was coming up,” Kimber said. “Gosh. And I’ve heard rumours of Howard proposing a movie to us soon.”

“You did?” Apparently this was news to Jerrica. “Where? When?”

“Ashley mentioned to me that she read online about this a few days ago,” replied Kimber. “And I’ve had a couple people in marketing approach me about it. Although I’m not sure why it’s that much of a concern for them. The studio’s marketing department will be the ones in charge.”

“Not entirely,” Jem clarified. “They will be consulting Starlight Music. That is, if Jem is in the movie. It’s just a rumour at the moment.”

“I hope it ends up happening,” Kimber said with a smile. “I love working on movies. I get to do some really cool stuff with the soundtrack.”

“And acting is so fun,” Raya said. “I hope I get a bigger role than I usually do.”

“You always give it your all,” Aja said with a warm chuckle.

“What can I say? It makes it easier for me to come out of my shell. There’s just something magical about the stage.”

“There really is,” agreed Shana.

“I would love to be in another movie,” Kimber said. “I wonder when it’ll be.”

“Let’s not get too excited,” Jem tried to reign everybody in. “I’ll let you know if Howard approaches me. But until then I think we should focus on our album and concert.”

Everybody agreed to move onto the things they knew for sure were happening. They practised one of their new ones, one with a slightly harder edge to the backing music. The session went well, everybody was feeling good about the song. They were confident that the recording session would go well. They all had put in a lot of work and it showed.

“Good work,” Jem said with a smile. “We’ll meet up tomorrow to further tighten things up. But I think we’re good to go.”

And with that the practice session was officially over. Although everybody still hung around and caught up with each other. Having returned to their music careers everybody kept in far better touch than they had only a few years ago. But there was still plenty to talk about.

And of course a botany lesson needed to be scheduled.

After some time had passed Jerrica excused herself for a minute so she could check on the girls and make sure everything was going smoothly at the mansion. Things were a little too quiet for her liking.

While Jerrica was out of the room Kimber and Raya ducked away into a corner and spoke to each other.

“So are we on for this evening?” Kimber asked Raya.

“Absolutely,” replied Raya. “Have you already talked to Roxy?”

“Sure did, she always looks forward to it.”

“Will I be taking you with me, or is Mary giving you a ride?”

“I think you should be the one driving me today. We’re already together. Mary will pick up Roxy.”

“But of course you’ll have to call her to make sure.”

“Naturally.”

“Should we invite Aja?”

“Ummm…” Kimber looked over at Aja. “I dunno. I kind of enjoy it when it’s just the four of us. Maybe some other time.”

“I feel a little bad going behind her back,” Raya said with a frown.

“Gosh you are just the sweetest person in the world,” Kimber giggled. “We’re allowed to hang out in separate groups.”

Raya anxiously rubbed her hands together. “I know.”

“You sure your arm isn’t too sore?” asked Kimber. “I know I was tender after I got my tattoo.”

“My sleeve rubbing does bother it a little. But other than that I’m fine.”

“Great,” Kimber clapped Raya on the back.

And this was also her cue that they were done making their plans. The two of them met back up with Aja and Shana who had also been talking. Though it was about far more boring things. In Kimber’s opinion at least.

Then soon Jerrica returned. Happy that nothing was on fire; the girls were just invested in a new video game they rented. And half of Jerrica’s time away was spent with them trying to convince her to buy the “Super” version of their Nintendo.

Personally Jerrica didn’t get it. But the promise of better sounding music did appeal to her.

At around 5:00 everybody went their separate ways in order to eat dinner. They all said their goodbyes.

The week off from working at Starlight Music did Kimber wonders. She came back to work full of life and energy. She was like a whole new woman.

Some of the songs she hummed while walking down the hall were interesting. Although they never were proposed to Jerrica as ones for Jem and The Holograms to perform.

Jerrica figured that perhaps Kimber was just working on a new album with Stormer.

The recording session and tour also went swimmingly. Jem and The Holograms were still at the top of their game. The album was at the top of the charts and their concert sold out.

Then one day Jerrica called Kimber into her office.

“So I’m sure you heard this already,” Jerrica said as she motioned for Kimber to sit on the couch stationed across the room. “Howard Sands did indeed come to me with a movie proposal.”

Kimber let out a little cheer. “Have you already read the script?”

“I have and it’s very solid as usual,” Jerrica tented her fingers. “You will be playing the main love interest. And this is where I find myself a little concerned.”

“What about?”

“Well, I asked Howard who the male lead is, and he told me that if everything goes well it’ll be Sean Harrison.”

“Sean?!” Kimber grinned. “Oh I love Sean! I haven’t seen him in ages!”

“Yes, but you will be playing his character’s love interest,” Jerrica laid out that fact. And didn’t get the shock she was expecting. “Aren’t you worried about that?”

“Why would I be worried?” Kimber raised an eyebrow at Jerrica. “What? Because he’s my ex? We’re on good terms, you know that.”

“Isn’t there somebody in your life who’d get jealous?”

“Who? Mary?” Puzzlement was all over Kimber’s face. “She understands that acting is acting. I guess I’ll talk to her about it. But trust me, she won’t care.”

“Huh,” Jerrica sounded genuinely surprised. “Well I know Rio would lose it if I were to act opposite of Riot.”

“Yeah but that’s Rio. Mary’s not like that. We agreed to be exclusive and we’ve been true to that agreement. And besides, Riot’s pretty manipulative so I’d honestly worry too if you played his love interest.”

“Okay yes, maybe Riot was a bad example. But I just don’t have an ex to make a comparison with.”

“Lucky you,” Kimber said. Although she thought something very different. “But seriously Jerrica, it’ll be fine. So what’s the movie about?”

“It’s a spy thriller,” Jerrica hoped that her discomfort with Kimber moving on so quickly didn’t show. “Sean and I will be playing a pair of spies who learn that the agency they work for is corrupt. And as the male lead’s love interest your life will be in danger. Your role will be more proactive than most love interests’ roles.”

“Sounds cool,” Kimber leaned forward in her seat. “I can’t wait to read the script. Will we be doing the soundtrack?”

“Naturally, it wouldn’t be a movie with Jem if we didn’t perform some of the music.”

“So when does filming start?”

“If we do sign the contract then it would start in two weeks. But of course we can still turn Howard down.”

“But why would we?”

“We already covered that.”

Kimber let out an exasperated sigh. “And we also covered how it’ll be fine. There’s no jealousy issues in my relationship.”

“I’d still feel better about it if the two of you discussed things first.”

“Fiiiine,” Kimber groaned. “I’ll get back to you about it.”

“I’m sorry, I just love you and Mary together as a couple and don’t want you to take any risks.”

Kimber blushed. “That means a lot to me. I promise, I will talk to Mary about this and get back to you.”

“That’s all I ask,” Jerrica then looked at the clock. “Will you be going to Starlight Mansion today?”

After some thought Kimber gave her answer. “Not today. I’m pretty tired so I think I’ll just go home and rest.”

“Of course, would you like me to give you a ride?”

Kimber scowled.

“What’s wrong?”

“I hate that I still need to get a ride everywhere.”

“None of us mind driving you places.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t like the fact that I don’t have the option to just drive myself around. I miss it.”

Jerrica went silent, she had so many thoughts and didn’t know which one to verbalize.

“And yes I know I usually walked or bussed everywhere anyway,” Kimber did respond appropriately to one of Jerrica’s thoughts. “But I liked the freedom to choose.”

“I’m sure one day you’ll regain that freedom,” Jerrica said. “You’ve been doing some driving around the city with Mary in the passenger seat.”

“I have been,” Kimber then sighed. “But then I tried to drive on my own to take Purrsey to the vet and I couldn’t make it out of the driveway.”

“These things take time,” Jerrica got out from behind her desk to sit with Kimber.

“It’s been almost four years,” Kimber argued.

“Has it been?” Jerrica found herself deep in thought. “It didn’t feel like that long.”

“We’ve done a lot in those years,” Kimber said with a laugh. “I’m not surprised you lost track of time. I feel like the only reason I remember is because I keep a diary.”

“It could be that. But you’ve also always been better at keeping track of time than I am.”

“Which is funny because you’ve always been way better organized than me.”

Jerrica softly chuckled. “I have been. If only we could combine your keeping track of time, and my organizational skills.”

“Now a person with both of those abilities would be scary,” Kimber said with a smile.

“Aja has them.”

“I stand by my statement.”

Jerrica laughed heartily and Kimber joined in with her.

Before The Misfits went on their next tour, Kimber, Stormer, and Roxy all headed down to Raya’s garage to meet up with her. Nobody could remember when or how it happened, but it had become a semi-regular occurrence.

Raya greeted her friends with a bright smile and a wave.

The purpose of these meetings was simple. They all needed a break from their usual style of music; Kimber and Raya especially. It was pretty much the only thing keeping Kimber from getting completely burnt out on songwriting for Jem and The Holograms.

They experimented with a variety of styles of rock, mixing it up a bit depending on the mood for the day. It was a nice change of pace.

The only departure instrument wise was Kimber, instead of playing keytar she played lead guitar. She also sang lead on most of the songs. Although Stormer and even Roxy took turns with her. There wasn’t any real hierarchy it was all just for the fun of it.

Another nice change of pace, and frankly why Pizzazz was never invited.

In between songs they’d all talk to each other about their thoughts. Nothing was planned to be released as an album but there was a shared love over the craft and wanting to improve at it.

The energy was purely invigorating and the sessions never lasted long enough.

Roxy had eyed Kimber carefully during the entire session. She knew something was up and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

After the last song for the day Roxy shoved Kimber into a nearby chair. “Fess up! What is up with your shoulder?”

“My shoulder?” Kimber tried to act all innocent.

“Yeah! Your shoulder! Something’s going on with it. You keep babying it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you know I switched over to being a lefty a long time ago.”

Kimber tried to wriggle her way out of the chair but Roxy refused to let her go.

“Roxy! Come on!” Kimber shouted. “I’m fine!”

“No you’re not!” Roxy stood firm.

“I noticed it too, you’re not fine,” Raya had joined Roxy, though she was far less aggressive about it. She was chewing her bottom lip. “Kimber we love you. Please tell us when you are hurting.”

Kimber grit her teeth and her eyes fell onto Stormer who looked deeply concerned. “Fine.”

Once Roxy gave Kimber some space she continued. “My shoulder’s been hurting real bad for the last month or so. It’s been sore since the accident but now it’s practically unbearable. I saw a doctor and apparently I have arthritis in it.”

“Isn’t that an old person thing?” asked Roxy.

And Kimber nodded her head. “Usually. But sometimes when you hurt a joint bad enough it can develop arthritis at an accelerated rate. For now I'm just taking some Aspirin for it when it gets too bad.”

“For now?” Raya pried.

“With the way things look I probably will need to eventually get my shoulder replaced,” Kimber then scrambled. “But that might not be for a long time! We’re still keeping an eye on it!”

“I hate how you’re like this,” Roxy said with a scowl.

“I know, it’s awful, I’m trying really hard to break the habit,” Kimber then sighed. “But you know how it can be.”

After a heavy sigh Roxy spoke. “Yeah I know.”

“Well this is kind of a downer note,” Kimber pointed it out as an attempt at lightening things up again. “You Misfits will be going on tour soon.”

“And it’s in Ireland!” Stormer cheered. “I’ve never been there before and Craig still won’t stop talking about it.”

“What do they have in Ireland?” asked Roxy.

“Oh it’s just a really beautiful country. I’m excited for the sights more than anything.”

“Of course you are,” Roxy wrinkled her nose. “I was hoping for food or drinks or something.”

“Well I mean yeah, like any country there’s going to be good food. And do you like Guinness? That’s Irish.”

“I do like Guinness.”

“Make sure you take lots of pictures,” Raya said to Stormer. “I’ve never been either.”

“Sure, of course,” Stormer agreed without hesitation. “I plan on doing a ton of sightseeing on the first day.”

“And you guys,” Roxy gestured at Kimber and Raya, “have a movie filming coming up.”

Raya couldn’t even begin to hide her excitement. “We do! And I read the script, and I actually have a really big role.”

“It’s a spy thriller,” Kimber grinned. “I’ll be playing the male protagonist’s love interest and I even get some cool action scenes.” Something then dawned on her. “Oh yeah Mary we were supposed to discuss Sean being my love interest.”

“Okay cool,” was Stormer’s extremely blasé response. “Why were we supposed to discuss it?”

“Jerrica thinks you’ll get jealous or something.”

Stormer rolled her eyes. “Ugh, Rio. You know it’s because of him.”

“One-hundred percent because of Rio.”

“Shana should make him an outfit entirely out of red flags.”

Kimber broke into cackles. “She should! She should!”

“Looking from the outside in Rio doesn’t seem so bad,” Roxy said.

“I didn’t think he was either at first,” Raya said. “But the more time I spent around him the more concerned I got. I thought maybe becoming a dad would have helped mellow him out a bit. But it didn’t.”

“If anything it’s worse,” Stormer aired out her grievances. “He doesn’t want me hanging around Jill at all.”

“He has told you this?”

“No, it’s just heavily implied by all the side-eyes and glares.”

“Why on earth would Rio still have such a problem with you?”

“No idea!” Stormer threw up her hands.

“He’s not much better with me,” Kimber said with an exaggerated shrug. “Probably something about us being a bad influence on his daughter.”

“Oh so I should look out then,” Raya joked in reference to her tattoo and eyebrow piercing.

Kimber giggled. “Don’t worry, as long as you don’t french any Misfit Rio shouldn’t have a problem with you.”

Both Misfits in the room snickered.

“So I gotta keep my hands off you,” Roxy playfully flirted with Raya and got a blush in return. She took that as a victory.

It was time for the first day of the movie filming. Jem and all her Holograms met up with the cast and crew. They were all familiar with each other from previous movies. Howard tended to hire all the same people he could. There were some new faces and quickly made their acquaintances with the band. Not everyone was there, a couple of the stunt people mainly, they’d arrive later.

“Oh my gosh Sean I’m so excited to work with you!” Kimber gave him a tight hug.

“I’m excited too,” Sean lifted Kimber slightly off of the ground. “It’s been too long.”

“It really has been!”

He put Kimber down slightly to his side and smiled at Jem. “And I’m looking forward to working with you too.”

“Always a pleasure Sean,” Jem said with a cordial smile.

“After you’re done in hair and makeup I would like to run my lines with you ladies,” Sean said. “My agent can only do so much after all.”

He then winked at Kimber in his usual playful manner.

Kimber played along by patting him on the chest. “Now now Sean. I’m still taken.”

In the back behind all of the actors Rio huffed and crossed his arms. He was planning to make an important phone call to a certain musician on tour.

After some rehearsal came hair and makeup for the actual filming.

Jem and The Holograms went off to have their hair and makeup done in their own dressing room. Jem was done up like a super spy, a gorgeous midnight blue pantsuit complete with a low cut top and an elegant hairstyle. Kimber was placed in a very cute blue sundress with strappy little heels, her hair was done in a bit more of a feminine style, smoothed down far more than she normally had it. Her scars and sheet music chest tattoo were covered up with makeup. Something that didn’t sit quite right with her for reasons she couldn’t place. Raya’s bigger than usual part was of another spy in the agency so she was also placed in a suit, one that accentuated her naturally muscular physique, a floral shirt set her apart from Jem. The two braids she normally had on one side of her head were joined by another two on the opposite, the long parts of her hair were brushed back in a style that she found oddly captivating.

No part of Kimber would be surprised if Raya joined a jam session with her hair styled this way. It did suit her. But the marketing part of Kimber’s brain told her that it wouldn’t work terribly well for a Hologram outside of film.

Aja and Shana sadly, were given smaller parts in the agency. They both wore very nice suits with different shirts from each other. They were still more than just background characters but not much more. The benefit of this was that neither of them had to worry about taking off their wedding rings.

Jem did however, but Synergy simply hid hers underneath a hologram. Before changing Kimber had placed her two rings into the pocket of her blazer.

Sean, Jem, and Kimber gathered together to quickly run their lines before the filming started. Their chemistry was still off the charts. Especially between Sean and Kimber. And this was just going over their lines, the actual filming was bound to be hot.

After Jem left to get into position Kimber quickly stopped Sean before he could do the same.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something at lunchtime?”

“Well sure,” replied Sean. “You can always talk to me. What’s it about?”

“Just something bothering me and it’s probably dumb that it is.”

“And you want me to weigh in on how dumb it is?”

“You guessed it.”

“Okay, we’ll talk at lunch.”

Kimber let Sean go, and after a quick apology to the director he was ready for filming. The leader of the spy agency was played by one Jim Hindsyte. Playing the part of the agency’s leader, Vincent Cross. Director Cross gave the movie’s main mission to Jem and Sean’s characters. Jem played Leah Winters and Sean played Nathan Chase.

“So he’s back eh,” Nathan Chase crossed his arms. “No matter, we caught him once, we can do it again.”

“It’s odd; we thought he had died,” Leah Winters put her hand to her cheek. “How did he manage to pull it off?”

“No worries my dear, we are the best in the business,” Nathan Chase stuck his thumb against his chest with a cocky smile.

“You’re right,” Leah Winters grinned. “We truly are.”

With the briefing finished Jem and Sean walked through the façade of a wall.

They had to do more takes to fully get into the groove of their characters. A spy thriller was brand new ground for both Jem and Sean. And it had been years since Jem’s last acting gig.

The next scene was one with Sean and Kimber on a balcony. Kimber played May Daye, the longtime and dedicated girlfriend of Nathan Chase.

“So you’re leaving again?” May Daye asked as she placed her hands onto Nathan’s chest. “I wish you didn’t have to go on all these dangerous missions.”

“I know love,” Nathan pulled May in closer and gazed softly into her deep dark sorrowful eyes. “Please do not worry for me.”

“How could I not?” May rested her head against Nathan’s chest and breathed out. “Especially when it’s Capt. World again. You nearly died the last time.”

“Well this time I know all his tricks,” Nathan spoke with boundless confidence. He then lifted up May Daye’s chin and gave her a kiss. “There will be more for you when I get back.”

May gave Nathan a coy smile. “I look forward to it.”

The director called it for the scene. This style of character was more natural for Kimber and her history with Sean made the role surprisingly easy to fall into. She pulled from all her old feelings for him and he did the same. Like with every scene there were retakes, but the chemistry between the two was ever present.

The final scene before lunch involved Leah Winters and Raya playing a rival agent, Holly Hawkes.

Holly Hawkes grabbed Leah Winters by the wrist in the (fake) hall. “I still can’t believe you! Just waltzing in one day and taking my job.”

“What are you talking about?” Agt. Winters yanked her hand out of Agt. Hawkes’ firm grasp with a glare. “I worked just as hard as you did!”

“Did you?” Agt. Hawkes spat at Agt. Winters. “From my point of view you came out of nowhere. I was so close to getting that promotion!”

Winters crossed her arms with a scowl. “You didn’t know about me because you only paid attention to your own standing.”

“Just you wait,” Agt. Hawkes shook her head. “I will become his partner.”

She then stormed off leaving Leah Winters behind shaking her head with a sigh. “Maybe some day she’ll understand.”

The retakes were so hard for Raya. Her character was meaner than she expected, she had read her lines ahead of time, but the direction. Acting was still fun however and in between takes Jem still smiled at her.

“Raya I didn’t think you had it in you!” Kimber gushed. “I got goosebumps!”

“I didn’t hurt you did I?” Raya asked Jem, her hand resting against her chest and eyebrows knit together with concern.

“No,” Jem replied with a giggle. “You were very gentle, I barely even felt it.”

“I’m so glad,” Raya breathed a sigh of relief.

Kimber gave Raya a little “tee-hee.” “You’re so cute~ And that’s why I can’t believe how good you were in that scene!”

“You were good too,” Sean said to Kimber. “You’ve still got it.”

“Well I had a good man to act off of,” Kimber said in a sultry voice.

Sean leaned into Kimber and whispered in her ear. “Didn’t we have something to discuss?”

Kimber gasped. “Oh! Thank you for reminding me. Uh, yeah we need to talk in private.”

She and Sean excused themselves and moved over to a corner far away.

“Um,” Kimber hugged herself. “Something’s bugging me and I want your opinion on how dumb it is.”

“If it’s bothering you that much then it probably isn’t dumb,” Sean said diplomatically. “I could tell your heart wasn’t completely into our scene.”

“I think you’re the only one that could.”

“So what’s bugging you my dear?”

Kimber breathed in a calming breath before answering. “I don’t like how they covered up my scars with makeup.”

“I see.”

“My tattoo being covered doesn’t bug me at all though, and that’s why this feels so dumb to me.”

“Well,” Sean thought hard about his answer. “It’s probably because you chose to get the tattoo. I imagine if they asked you to take out most of your earrings you would also not be bothered by it.”

“I’d be a little bothered because you can see where they were. So it’d feel kinda pointless to me.”

Sean softly chuckled.

“I get why they covered me all up with makeup,” Kimber leaned her shoulder against a nearby wall. “You never see a love interest with big ol’ scars, especially not on the face.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever seen it done before.”

“That’s the thing,” Kimber’s voice took on a more professional tone. “It has never been done before, so nobody wants to do it. And it will keep going on like that until somebody is the first.”

“And you think that somebody should be you?”

“I do.”

“To answer your question from earlier, I don’t think your concerns are dumb at all.”

“Thanks,” Kimber said with a smile and sounding much more like her usual self. “I think I’ll bring it up with the director. Thankfully we’ve only taped one scene so we won’t have to throw out too much footage.”

“Could anybody even see your chest in that scene?”

“Doubtful, but they could see my face, shoulder blade, and probably a little of my arm.”

“Oh right, your arm.”

Kimber giggled. “Now how did you forget about that big guy?”

And Sean joined in on the laughter. “I’m just used to it I guess.”

Then he decide to get serious again. “When you talk to the director would you like me to come along for support?”

“Well…” Kimber hemmed and hawed. “Probably. It might help me convince him. I could easily just get seen as a diva or something.”

“Should we have Jem with us?”

“Nah,” Kimber shook her head. “The whole world knows she’s my sister so it’ll seem like she’s just taking my side because of that.”

“I can’t say I understand why Jem hid it for so long.”

“You know how she likes her privacy.”

The pair made their way to where the director had set up shop. They discussed their plans for the meeting, although neither of them was too sure if things would go the way they wanted it to. Once they reached the office Kimber let herself in with authority.

“We need to talk,” Kimber said to director Kristov Michaels. “It’s about my makeup.”

“What about it?” Kristov already sounded annoyed.

“I…” Kimber hesitated, it was Sean squeezing her hand that got her to continue. “I don’t like how you asked the makeup person to cover up my scars.”

“You’re the love interest, you’re supposed to be a girl that the audience wants to be,” Kristov said, rather predictably.

“Yes I know that, but why can’t the female love interest look like I do?”

“Because none ever have before.”

“You hit that nail on the head,” Sean said to Kimber.

“Well I work in marketing,” Kimber sighed. She then returned to addressing the director. “I know it has never been done before, but if we keep not doing things because it’s uncharted territory then nothing new will be done.”

“There’s a reason this has never been done before, it’s scary seeing a pretty girl with injuries,” Kristov stuck to his vision.

“So you’re a coward?” left Kimber’s mouth before she could think.

“I’m not a coward, I just want the movie to be successful!”

“Don’t talk to me about profits! I know that stuff!”

Kimber left out the part about her solo album being a flop. That would only prove Kristov’s point.

“I’m with Kimber,” Sean spoke up. “I think it’s ridiculous that you see girls like her as being risky to put in the spotlight.”

“Well of course you agree with her, the two of you have slept together,” Kristov said, disgustingly.

“You are the worst!” Kimber yelled at him.

“I refuse to act until you’ve changed your mind,” Sean decided to play the star card. “And if you try to recast me I’ll make sure to warn everybody you hire next.”

Not wanting to give in Kristov grumbled. “Fine. Go get the makeup removed and I’ll retape your first scene.”

This victory felt hollow. It bugged Kimber. But it was still a win and she decided to take it as one.

Everybody was confused by the fact that the first scene with Kimber and Sean needed another retake. As far as they were concerned the two had nailed it. Some of the crew grumped about it and the director made it very known “whose fault it was.”

It felt bad. And for probably the first time in her life a small part of Kimber regretted speaking her mind.

“What’s with you?” Aja asked Kimber after the reshoot.

“The director’s really mad at me,” replied Kimber. “I didn’t think he’d raise such a stink about it. It’s only one scene.”

“I think it’s less about the scene and more about his precious ‘artistic vision.’ If you want we could mention this to Howard.”

“Nah,” Kimber shook her head. “I’m no stranger to spouting off. It might just be that.”

“Okay, but we’ll talk to Howard if things get worse.”

The moment was abruptly put to an end by Rio grabbing Kimber by the right arm and pulling her towards him. “You! We need to talk!”

“Ow!” Kimber yanked her arm away. “Rio what the hell?!”

“Aja get out of here!” barked Rio. “I want to talk to Kimber in private.”

Aja glared at Rio. “When you’re like this? No way.”

Rio thrust his finger at the door. “Now!”

“Just, go,” Kimber said to Aja. “You’re only dragging this out.”

It took a lot of Aja to not snap at Rio. She reluctantly left Kimber alone with him.

“What in the love of god are you doing?!” Rio immediately started yelling at Kimber. “You and Sean!”

“I’m acting,” replied Kimber. The word “dumbass” sat on her lips. “You know, for a film?”

“That did not look like acting!”

“It was! Sean and I are on good terms and we’re comfortable enough in our friendship that was can still act as a convincing couple.”

“I thought you gave up cheating!”

“Oh my god!” Kimber was now fully shouting at Rio. “I did! It’s not real! It’s a movie!”

“Does Sean know that?” Rio matched Kimber’s tone.

“Of course he does! We’ve been friends for years! Our relationship is completely platonic!”

“I’m talking to him next,” with that, Rio turned on his heel to leave.

“No you won’t!” Kimber had now grabbed Rio’s wrist. She jerked it up. “Stop and think for a minute. We’re professionals. We’re giving a good performance and that’s all it is. A performance.”

“Let go!” It was now Rio’s turn to pull free from Kimber’s grasp.

“Doesn’t feel so good now, does it?” Kimber spat at him. “You yank me around like that all the time. You always have!”

“That’s different.”

“How?!”

“It just is!”

And with that, Rio stormed off.

Good riddance, in Kimber’s opinion. She knew he was going to scream his paranoia at Sean. There was no stopping Rio once he was in one of his moods.

Some part of Kimber did take solace in seeing Rio rubbing his wrist.

Once she heard the yelling stop Aja returned to the scene. “I knew it.”

“How can a grown man have such a hard time distinguishing fiction from reality?” Kimber huffed and put her hands on her hips.

“He doesn’t get that two people can flirt and not mean anything by it. Remember the wrap party for a certain renamed tour?”

“Right, and how he stormed out because Roxy was play flirting with you. But come on Aja, me and Sean were clearly on camera!”

“Your natural state is just good-natured flirting. It scares and confuses people like Rio.”

Kimber’s skin crawled. “Ugh. He’s going to be huffy this entire filming, isn’t he?”

“Huffy, and you bet he’s going to call Mary about this.”

“No he can’t! He can’t call her about this! That’s too much even for him!”

“I’ve already seen him at the payphone twice.”

“No!” shouted Kimber. “Twice?!”

“Twice.”

Aja heard herself being called to set.

“I gotta go, take care and try not to stir the pot with Rio too much.”

“He started it!”

“I know, but you know how it is.”

“It’s so shitty.”

“It is, and I wish it were different.”

Once again Aja’s name was called. She gave Kimber a quick goodbye before running off to basically just stand in the background as Raya’s character researched the mysterious villain of the movie.

The rest of filming went well and after it was called a wrap for the day everybody changed out of their costumes. Most of them tired from their long day of work and a little hungry on top of it.

Kimber grumbled and groaned as she fluffed her hair back up. All she wanted to do was collapse on the couch with her cat. But of course things were not that simple. Jem stopped her before she could hitch a ride with Aja. Fortunately Rio wasn’t with Jem; he was busy bossing members of the crew around.

Typical.

“What happened?” asked Jem.

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Kimber said, but she knew exactly what Jem was getting at.

“Between you and Rio,” Jem clarified. “Suddenly you’re completely at odds again.”

Kimber gave Jem an incredulous look. “He hasn’t told you?”

“Not a thing.”

“Well,” Kimber grit her teeth. It was so frickin’ hard not to yell. She took a deep breath before continuing. “Rio got on my case about Sean. Because Rio doesn’t know what acting is.”

“Sean? Why?”

Deep breaths, don’t scream at Jem. “Because we’re a little flirty and Rio thinks I’ll cheat on Mary with him.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jem didn’t hold back. “You and Sean just have that sort of friendship. It’s like me and Pizzazz. Well, with her it’s a little more one-sided.”

Never before had Kimber been so glad about Jerrica’s bizarre friendship with the leader of the Misfits. “Rio’s never seen you with Pizzazz.”

This got Jem to pause. “He hasn’t?”

“No. Well, not since you two became so close.”

“That can’t be,” Jerrica rummaged through her memory banks. “Surely not…”

“I mean professionally he has, but casually? No.”

“Huh. You think I should properly introdu—”

“—Definitely not.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’ll lose it on you. Like he lost it on me. Plus Pizzazz hates Rio anyway.”

“That’s true. She’s not fond of him,” Jem forced herself to back to the original topic. “Okay but, Rio lost it on you? Over Sean?”

“Yes. He lost it on me over Sean. I’m going to try my best to ignore him.”

“Maybe I should talk to Rio about it. Reason with him. Would you like to join me?”

“Oh hell no. I got enough of that earlier. All I want to do now is to call Mary and then pass out on my couch.”

“Fair enough,” Jem said with a shrug. “I’ll try to cool Rio off in the meantime.”

Jem’s form offered Kimber a hug, but she knew it was all Jerrica as she accepted it.

“I’m so sorry,” Jerrica apologized to Kimber.

Of course she did.

Always does.

The hotel phone rang.

Judging by the orange light it wasn’t the only time it had. Stormer picked up the receiver.

[“It’s Rio. I have something I need to tell you about Kimber.”]

Stormer gasped. “Oh no! What happened?! Is she hurt?”

[“What? No, she’s not. Do you know who’s in the lead role with Jem in the movie they’re filming?”]

“Oh for god’s sake Rio, don’t give me a heart attack like that. And yes I know, it’s Sean.”

[“I’m sorry for a couple reasons Stormer…” Rio took a deep breath. “Kimber is playing his love interest.”]

“Yeah, I know. She told me. And I really don’t care.”

[“You should! Kimber kissed Sean earlier and it was not a stage kiss!”]

“They weren’t being filmed?”

[“No. They were.”]

“Sooooo… What’s the problem?”

[“Aren’t you even a little worried that Kimber might leave you for Sean?”]

“Not in the slightest. I trust Kimber, and I trust Sean.”

[“But!”]

Stormer rolled her eyes, not that Rio could see it. “Unlike you I’m not a jealous maniac.”

[“What!”]

“You got jealous of a fictional character. Look, I know you like Sean way more than me anyway. So I don’t get why you have such a problem with this.”

[“You are Kimber’s… partner. No matter how I feel about you or Sean cheating is still wrong. And I thought I should warn you that it could happen.”]

“And I’m telling you that it won’t.”

[“They’re constantly flirting with each other!”]

“So? That’s just their dynamic. Me and Roxy get a little flirty sometimes and that’s just because it’s fun.”

Pizzazz pulled the receiver towards herself. “God Rio, it's like how I flirt with Jerrica. It's just for the hell of it, don't mean nothing. Nobody's being stolen from anyone.”

A large part of Stormer felt bad for Jerrica for the shitstorm that was inevitably coming her way.

She took the receiver back from Pizzazz.

“Look.” Stormer sighed with exasperation. “Don’t call me again unless you see them passionately making out off-camera or talking about doing the nasty. You got that? I literally could not care any less about Kimber playing Sean’s love interest.”

[“But Mary!”]

“Good-BYE Rio,” Stormer slammed down the phone.

“Christ,” She said under her breath.

“What was that about?” asked Roxy.

Stormer pinched the bridge of her nose. “Rio’s being jealous on my behalf. It’s so stupid.”

“Seriously?” Roxy raised an eyebrow. “You already gave Kimber the okay.”

“I know,” Stormer groaned. “Why is Rio like this?”

“Like you said,” Pizzazz shrugged exaggeratedly, “he’s a jealous maniac.”

The phone rang again. Without thinking Stormer grabbed the receiver and shouted into it.

“WHAT?!”

All she heard on the other end was sniffling.

“Oh no Kimber,” Stormer’s heart pounded. Something was very wrong. “I’m so sorry. I… I just- hung up on Rio and assumed it was him calling back.”

The sniffling had turned into full-on crying.

“Kimber please, talk to me.”

[“Um-” Kimber inhaled making this terrible snotty noise. “So you and Rio just had a fight?”]

“It was stupid, not even worth talking about.”

[“I had a fight with Rio too,” Kimber’s breathing was starting to level out. “He’s mad about me and Sean. And I can’t help wondering, is he right? Should I have talked to you more about Sean?”]

“The day Rio is right is the day I tongue-kiss a man,” Stormer said flatly.

[There was a teary laugh on the other end.]

A laugh. A small win.

“No but seriously Kimber, Rio’s not right to be carrying on like he is,” Stormer said. “I have complete faith in you.”

[“I- I appreciate that,” a sniffle. “I love you so much Mary. I would never betray you.”]

“I love you too. And you never really betrayed anyone, that’s something Rio’s got very wrong about you. If you haven’t promised to be exclusive then there’s nothing wrong with dating around.”

This time Roxy grabbed the phone away. “He’s still giving you shit about that? That idiot.”

Pizzazz took the phone from Roxy. “And he’s a hypocrite. As far as he was aware he cheated on his girlfriend for years.”

“Wait it wasn’t an open relationship kinda thing?” asked Roxy.

“Do you think Rio believes in those?” Pizzazz shot back at her with a smirk.

Roxy shrugged. “Nope, not at all.”

[“The Jem situation was really complicated. I don’t want to talk about it right now.”]

“We shouldn’t even be talking about Rio and Jem and Jerrica or whatever,” Stormer took the receiver back from Pizzazz. “Other than Rio being… Rio. How was your day?”

[“Fine.”]

“Just fine?”

“What do you mean just fine?” Roxy loudly spoke up.

[“I think I made the director mad at me.”]

“How?” asked Stormer.

[“Had a disagreement about makeup. It’s dumb. I’m sure he’ll get over it.”]

“Would you like to talk about it?”

[“Nah. I’m fine. Just talking to you is all I needed. So how’s Ireland?”]

“It’s wonderful,” Stormer replied. “I took lots of pictures today and I can’t wait to show them to you.”

[“Did you have that magical stew that Aja did?”]

“I did have a pretty good stew.”

“So many potato dishes!” Roxy chimed in.

“Of course there are, dummy,” Pizzazz shot at her. “It’s Ireland! That’s their thing!”

[Kimber softly laughed at what she could hear of the Misfits antics.]

The next day at the movie studio involved a lot of people being introduced to the late comers, mostly stunt doubles. All the scenes the previous day were grounded ones. Today was full of action and drama.

Pam was back from Starbright as Kimber’s stunt double. Which worked well for them.

After everybody changed into costumes Kimber caught up with some people.

From just slightly away Jeff watched the conversation going on between Pam and a woman dressed just like her wearing cat-eye glasses who had short red hair.

“Hey Sean,” Jeff kept his voice down a little. “Who’s Pam talking to? She looks familiar to me.”

“She’d better!” Sean raised an eyebrow. “You almost married the girl.”

“Kimber?” Jeff stared at her. “Are those scars makeup or…?

“Oh they're real.”

“What? What happened to her?”

“It’s tragic, really,” Sean sighed. “A drunk driver hit her with his car. To put it in Kimber's words, he came flying around the corner and smoked her.”

Jeff put his hand over his mouth. “Those are from a car accident? That's horrible.”

“Can’t disagree with that,” Sean shook his head. “Poor girl needed multiple surgeries. When you talk to her do try not to dwell on it. Kimber openly talks about her accident but she also doesn’t want that to be the only focus.”

“Right. Of course,” Jeff didn't sound even remotely ready to his reunion with Kimber.

“Quick guide,” Sean tapped his left temple, “the scar next to her eye is from the accident itself, the rest are from surgery. And don’t crack a joke about going through airport security. Kimber is sick of that one.”

“Got it.”

Jeff gathered his courage and walked up to Kimber. “Hey Kimber.”

She looked up from the script and smiled. “Oh hey Jeff. Long time no see! You look great.”

“Thanks,” Jeff quickly scanned Kimber. “You look… Different. Wow.”

“Smooth,” Kimber said after a snort. She crossed her arms and cocked her hip out which only made her look more muscular and drew Jeff’s eye to the large scar on her right arm stretching from her wrist to her elbow.

Pam cracked up and whispered to Kimber. “I think you’re intimidating him right now.”

Kimber giggled. “Yeah maybe. So what’s up? How’ve you been?”

“Pretty good,” Jeff awkwardly replied, his eyes kept focusing on the right side of Kimber’s chest, near her shoulder. “Been keeping busy. You know. How are you?”

“Great actually,” Kimber replied, full of cheer. “After being on hiatus for like three years I finally got back to doing what I love.”

“Three years? That’s a long hiatus.”

“Well, Jem had a baby and then I got hit by a car,” Kimber stated simply. “My recovery took six months, and even after that it took some time for me to go back to being able to play my keyboard.”

“I thought you played keytar now,” Pam said.

“And you are correct,” Kimber said. “I can play keyboard. But unfortunately I ended up with some nerve damage in my arm or something so it's a little painful sometimes. I only need one working hand to play keytar.”

“Oh!” Pam’s eyes went wide. “That’s really too bad. Was it hard to switch?”

“Not really,” Kimber replied with a shrug. “Stormer just so happened to be teaching me how to play keytar before the accident. So it worked out pretty well.”

“Nerve damage?” Jeff was still stuck on that.

“Hm?” Kimber then did a little giggle and held up her right arm. “This scar isn’t for nothing. My arm broke in three places and… You’re not squeamish, are you?”

“No?”

“Well, my bone even ended up sticking outside of my arm. Yikes, right? I made the mistake of looking.”

All the colour left Jeff’s face.

“Well anyway, they had to put a rod in my arm to kinda keep everything in place while I healed,” Kimber finished her explanation. “You feeling okay?”

Jeff shuddered. “How are you so calm about that?”

“That happened years ago. I’m fine now though.”

Pam looked doubtful.

“Wha- Okay, fine.” Kimber pouted at her. “I have a little bit of arthritis in my one shoulder. But it’s not awful.”

“But it can get awful, take care of yourself Kimber, I've seen it happen to other stunt people,” Pam said.

“How… do you know about all this?” asked Jeff.

“Oh I caught her up already,” replied Kimber.

The director told everybody to get to their places.

“We’ll have to talk more later,” Kimber said. “It’s time to work.”

“Yep, duty calls,” Sean walked up to Kimber and offered his arm to her. She wrapped hers around his. “Now if you excuse me, I’m off with this lovely lady.”

Kimber giggled. “You’re such a sweet talker Sean.”

As the two walked over to their marks Jeff’s eyes fixated on the large scar on Kimber’s right shoulder blade.

“How did it go with Jeff?” Sean whispered to Kimber.

“Oh fine,” Kimber sighed. “Awkward, but I had a feeling it would be considering how the last time we talked went.”

“I hope he has worked on his issues since then; he shouldn’t have snapped at you for dating Mary.”

“It’s been years. He must be better now.”

“You would think. But isn’t there a man in your life who hasn’t made any attempt at improving?”

Kimber groaned. “Poor Mary. Getting those paranoid phone calls. She chewed him out, you know.”

“Good.”

The movie wasn’t entirely filmed in sequential order. The director took full advantage of having the stunt doubles around and dedicated the day to action scenes. It was positively exhausting, even for the people not doing any of the stunts. It was a lot of yelling and dramatic gesturing and hanging very safely off of ledges. You needed core strength for that stuff.

“Oh my gosh,” Kimber sighed out as she changed back into her tweed jacket and black patterned shirt. “Ow.”

“Ow?” Concern was immediately apparent in Shana’s voice.

“Just my shoulder,” Kimber grunted. “Today’s shoot was rough on it. Yesterday didn’t help either.”

“Will you be going to the doctor?” asked Shana. “You know, have it looked at.”

“Ugh, I just did.”

“Did you take your Aspirin?”

“Nope, totally forgot,” after giving her reply Kimber popped a couple into her mouth and took a sip from her water bottle.

“I hope they kick in soon,” Raya said. “It looks like it hurts.”

“Oh I hope so too,” Kimber said as she got her hair more to her liking.

“I like how you take the time to muss up your hair,” Shana said with a smile.

“I just think it looks cuter like this,” Kimber quickly defended her tastes. “Anyway, I think I’m gonna try to catch Sean and then I’m ready to head out. That cool with you Aja?”

“Sure, I’ll meet you in the parking lot,” replied Aja. “I have a couple things to check out.”

Everybody went their separate ways. Most of the Holograms did go straight home; they were exhausted and just wanted to spend some time resting and relaxing with their sweethearts. With the exception of Raya of course, she mentioned that she was planning on taking a nice warm bath.

Talking to Sean didn’t take long at all. It was really just discussing meeting up with Stormer for dinner after she returned from her tour. Not immediately after of course, the day she got back was reserved for Kimber and Purrscilla. After making their plans Kimber headed off to the parking lot.

She heard Jeff calling out for her.

“Kimber, wait!” Jeff caught up before she could get out the door. “We should talk.”

“Yeah, sure!” Kimber’s cheerfulness seemed a little forced.

“First, an apology,” Jeff quickly glanced away. “You know, for getting mad about you… ending up interested in women.”

Kimber snorted. “You mean for being bi?”

“Right,” Jeff rubbed the back of his neck. “I really shouldn’t have made that comment about you wanting to lead on half the entire population. That was awful of me.”

Kimber let out a breath. “Apology accepted. It sounded a little half-assed, but I know you meant it.”

“Half…what?”

“Half-assed,” Kimber realized something. “Wait. Have you seriously never heard me swear before? That can’t be. We’ve dated.”

“You… used to not swear.”

“Huh. Yeah I guess I didn’t. Well whatever, moving on.”

“Have you settled down with Stormer?”

“I have,” Kimber held up her right hand, showing her two rings to Jeff, the ring lower down on her finger had a sapphire embedded in the middle, and two diamonds on the outside. And the ring higher up was a simple amethyst ring. “Stormer got us matching rings for our fifth anniversary, and I got us another pair of rings for our tenth. It just felt right to arrange them like this. It kind of looks like I’m married. But of course I’m not.”

“You know, I’m really happy for you. I’m glad you finally found somebody who works for you.”

“Thanks Jeff,” Kimber smiled warmly at him.

“Hey, you want a ride home? We can talk some more on the way.”

“Aren’t motorcycles pretty loud?”

“I have a car with me today,” Jeff started to lead Kimber to it. “It’s getting a little older now, I’ve had it for four years.”

“Four years, that’s ancient,” Kimber said sarcastically. “Stormer sold our car when it was only ten—”

Kimber stopped dead in her tracks.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Jeff patted the hood of his car with pride. “I know I should trade `er in, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.”

“That’s…” Kimber swallowed. “a red convertible.”

“Huh?” Jeff scrutinized Kimber’s haunted expression. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s… It’s a little silly,” Kimber took a deep shaky breath. “The guy who ran me over was driving a red convertible. But it’s weird, I’ve seen plenty of them before. I live in L.A. for god’s sake. But this time feels different.”

“That is weird,” Jeff scratched his head. “Hey, I have an idea. Maybe if you drive it you’ll feel better.”

“Oh, uh,” Kimber backed up with her hands raised. “I can’t drive anymore. I’m really nervous behind the wheel now.”

“Don’t worry, there’s no way you’d get hurt again. What are the odds of that even happening?”

“I’m not afraid for myself. I’m afraid of me hitting somebody. I never want to put anybody through what I went through.”

“You’ll be fine,” Jeff pushed the matter, he took Kimber’s wrist into his hand. “You can’t let fear rule your life.”

“Jeff no!” Kimber shouted as she pulled her arm out of Jeff’s grip, her eyes swam with tears she wouldn’t let fall. “I know logically It’ll be okay but fear is irrational. Just stop pushing me. I can’t even drive my cat to the vet! It’s a ten minute drive and I can’t do it!”

“See? A great reason why you need to get over this.”

”I SAID NO!”

“What the hell is going on here?!”

Aja’s concerned shout boomed out. “Why is Kimber crying? What are you trying to make her do?”

”No,” Kimber wiped her eyes. “I’m sure Jeff means well. He’s trying to get me to drive.”

“Jeff!” Aja stormed up to him, her eyes burned with fury. “This is something that needs to slowly be worked on. Don’t force anybody to do something they’re this uncomfortable with. And if Kimber never drives again, that’s perfectly fine. She has friends, family, and a girlfriend she can rely on when she needs it. I’m driving Kimber home. Right now.”

Aja took Kimber by the shoulders and led her away before Jeff could say another word. And as soon as Kimber was in Aja’s car she let her tears flow.

“I can’t believe that man,” Aja spat out as she rubbed Kimber’s back. “You were clearly upset and he kept pushing you.”

“I mean this is Jeff,” Kimber took a shallow shaky breath. “This is the same man who threw himself into danger to upset me because I was dating Sean.”

“What!” Aja glared. “You never told me that! Does Mary know?”

Kimber nodded.

“Well no wonder she wants to clock him! So do I! If I knew he did that I would have been completely opposed to you marrying him.”

“That wouldn’t have done anything. You know that. I’m stubborn as hell and had way more of a rebellious streak than anybody would have thought. The wedding would have just happened even faster than it did. Just so I could rub it in your face.”

“Okay true. But still! I gave you two my blessing!” Aja clutched onto the steering wheel and glared daggers at Jeff.

Kimber cringed. “You look furious and like you want to run Jeff over.”

“Oh,” Aja released her grip. “Sorry. No, you’re right. I shouldn’t drive angry. We’ll sit here for a minute and calm down. Would that be okay with you?”

“Only if we hug first.”

“Of course, of course,” Aja gave Kimber a tight hug. “I will always love you, and support you. You can come to me for anything. You know that.”

“I do. But- Jeff isn’t completely wrong. I really should work on my fear.”

“And you have been. With Mary. And every time we visit Minnesota you take a detour to Jake’s farm and drive around there.”

“Yeah but, I really should be able to get behind the wheel without crying. There might be a day where there’s too much of an emergency for me to wait for a ride.”

“And one day you’ll get there,” Aja patted Kimber on the knee. “I just hated Jeff’s method, that’s all.”

“And now you just hate Jeff in general,” Kimber joked.

“I can’t exactly say I’m in love with the man.”

“We might be on the same page there.”

“Oh?”

“Jeff’s just had so many missteps with me,” Kimber glared. “I won’t go into detail, you know it all already. I kind of would be happy to never speak to him again. But of course since we’re working together I’ll stay civil and professional.”

“How adult of you,” Aja gave Kimber a silly little smirk.

Kimber cracked up. “I know right. I’ve come so far.”

After another hug Aja started the engine and went on her way to Kimber’s home. The ride to Kimber’s house was unusually quiet, Aja didn’t know how to get a conversation started. Kimber had seemed fine at the studio but once the car was moving she just went silent.

This told Aja that things might have been even more serious than it had seemed.

When they arrived Aja spoke. “Would you like me to come in with you?”

It took a little while for Kimber to give her answer. “No, I think I need some time alone.”

“Okay,” Aja breathed in. “But if you do need me, just give me a call, okay?”

“Okay,” Kimber then gave Aja a very slight smile. “Thank you, I love you Aja.”

“And I love you too, take care.”

Kimber slid out of the car and let herself into her home. Her small calico Purrscilla was at the door waiting for Kimber on the side table.

“Hiya Purrsey,” Kimber greeted her with some head scritches before depositing her keys in a small bowl. “Did you miss me?”

“Mrraw,” went Purrscilla before she lifted her front paw, the usual sign for wanting on Kimber’s shoulder.

With a fond chuckle Kimber obliged. Her reward for this was a tail in her face and almost losing her glasses. And Kimber wouldn’t have it any other way.

She walked towards the big comfy chair next to the phone. Then Kimber sat down and dialed the number for Stormer’s hotel. She twirled the cord around her finger as she listened to the dial tone.

The receptionist of the hotel answered the phone and patched Kimber through to Stormer’s room.

[“Hello?” However it was Roxy who answered.]

“Hey Roxy, is Mary there?”

[“What? You got nothing to say to me?” teased Roxy.]

“Sorry…”

[Roxy’s tone softened. “Is something up?”]

“Yeah… and I really need to talk to Mary right now.”

[“Okay, I’ll put her on.”]

[There was an audible shuffle of fabric before Stormer spoke. “Kimber? Roxy told me you’re not doing so good.”]

“Um,” Kimber teared up. “Yeah, I’m not great. But I’ll be fine. I just need to talk to you for a bit.”

[“Well sure, talk away.”]

Kimber’s tears started to flow. “Jeff is working with us. I don’t know why, but it really messed me up.”

[“Jeff huh,” Stormer’s feelings towards him were always clear. “No I get it, he’s an ass. I’ll never forgive him for losing it on you for dating me.”]

“It’s not even that,” Kimber’s words were interrupted by Purrscilla rubbing against her cheek, Kimber couldn’t help giggling. “Thanks Purrsey. She’s trying to make me feel better.”

[“What a sweetheart, tell Purrsey hi for me.”]

“Your mommy says hi,” Kimber immediately passed the message on and got complete indifference in response. “Purrsey says hi back.”

[Stormer chuckled. “I’m sure she did.”]

“But back to Jeff. Um, he apologized for what he said when I came out to him. Which was nice. He’s a little weirded out by how I’ve changed, I think my muscles scare him a little.”

[Kimber could tell that Stormer moved the receiver away before she laughed. “Good.”]

And Kimber joined in on the laughs. “He also showed off his car. And this is what shook me up so much. It’s a red convertible, and four years old.”

[The laughter suddenly stopped, “Oh.”]

“It’s so dumb, it just- it really freaked me out.”

[“That’s not dumb at all. The accident really did a number on you,”]

“I know that, but like, I see that style of car, and that age too all the time. So why’s it suddenly so different?”

[Stormer thought long and hard. “I don’t know.”]

“You don’t think it was Jeff, do you? You know the guy who ran me over.”

[“I wish I had a good answer for you. There has to be something instinctual going on here. So we can’t rule it out.”]

“I don’t know what I’ll do if it is Jeff.”

[“Well I know what I’d do, punch the bastard.”]

Kimber laughed. “No, no I can’t do that. We’re working together.”

[“Then punch after you’re done filming.”]

“Since when were you so violent?”

[“Jeff just brings it out of me. There’s just something about that guy.”]

“You’ve never liked Jeff. And I can’t say I blame you.”

Kimber lost her train of thought when she felt two little paws on top of her head and a third one rubbing against the back of it.

“Purrsey, please.”

[“What’s with her?”]

“She’s trying to get on my head again.”

Kimber expertly reached around to pluck her cat up and put her down in her lap. That didn’t last long. Purrscilla jumped down and started to roll on the floor looking extra cute.

“Okay it is definitely playtime.”

[“I’ll let you go then. Goodnight Kimber. I love you.”]

“Night Mary, love you too.”

Chapter Text

The next several days of filming were just as difficult as the previous ones. Especially if you were one Kimber Benton. She knew she wasn’t being paranoid in thinking that the director had it out of her. Balancing the director with the awkwardness surrounding Jeff and the fight with Rio only made things worse.

Venting to Stormer every night didn’t feel fair so Kimber ended up keeping a lot of it bottled up inside. Or if she couldn’t keep it in anymore she’d complain to Purrscilla. And then follow the complaining up with lots of kisses.

Things slowly became easier with Rio and Jeff. But even then, the sight of Jeff’s car always sent a chill down Kimber’s spine. She did her best to not even look at it.

Do not look at it.

Do not think about Jeff.

And especially, do not think about how Jeff might have been that drunk driver.

It was so hard to not entertain the possibility, especially after the nightmares came back.

That bed felt so empty…

Things just got too hard for Kimber to keep to herself. She needed to let some of it out the morning of the first recording session for the soundtrack. It was nice being able to come into work wearing something totally garish with spiked accessories, different earrings, and side-swept bangs. Cute and punkish.

“I just have this awful feeling that Jeff was responsible for my accident,” Kimber said after a heavy sigh. “I’ve never felt so freaked out about a car before.”

“That is a bad sign,” agreed Jem. “But are you sure?”

“I’ve seen how many red convertibles since getting hit by one?” replied Kimber.

“That’s a serious accusation,” Rio said, his tone immediately getting under Kimber’s skin. “You need to give it some thought.”

“I know that,” Kimber clenched and unclenched her fist to try to not snap at Rio. “That's why I’ve only said something to the people closest to me. I’m not going to walk up to Jeff and tell him.”

“Rio,” Jem sounded almost as annoyed. “Kimber knows that this is serious. You need to have more faith in her judgment.”

“Look, I’m just saying that Jeff doesn't seem like the type,” Rio argued.

“And I’m saying that every muscle in my body was screaming at me to not get near that car,” Kimber raised her voice.

“The response was probably because Jeff has blond hair,” Rio continued to defend Jeff. “You only know three things about your accident and Jeff checked two of those boxes.”

“But Kimber has good intuition,” Jem jumped back in. “If her gut is telling her that something is wrong then we need to listen.”

Rio jabbed his finger at Jem. “You’re only taking Kimber’s side because you still feel sorry for her. You’ve disagreed with Kimber’s ‘good intuition’ more times than I can count.”

“And I’ve regretted it almost as many times,” Jem patted her chest, heat was rising in it. “You shouldn’t immediately write off what Kimber has to say.”

“I wasn’t! I was just saying that she’s making a serious accusation!”

“And she knows that! That’s why she’s said something to so few people!”

“Listen you! I just wanted to make sure Miss Impulsive wasn’t going to say something she’d regret!”

“Have more respect for Kimber! She’s matured!”

“I know she has!” Rio threw up his hands. “Whatever, I’m leaving.”

“FINE!”

“Um, Jem, thanks for taking my side,” Kimber said with the slightest smile. “But Rio was our recording engineer. What are we going to do?”

“I’ll call Ashley,” replied Jem. “She’s off work today and I'm sure she’d be happy to come in. We don’t need Rio. Frankly I’m starting to wonder if we’re better off without him.”

As much as Kimber agreed she knew that Jerrica was still caught up in the moment. “Ashley is easier to work with for me.”

“If I wasn’t married to Rio I’d fire him.”

Kimber bit her tongue, she knew Jerrica didn't mean it.

But it was still kind of nice to hear.

“Make sure to remind Ashley to wear her staff jacket and bring her Starlight Music ID,” Kimber said.

“I really don’t think she’ll need the reminder. She just likes to wear the jacket.”

“Yeah but sets have gotten a lot more secure over the years and nothing about Ashley screams ‘Starlight Music employee’ without the jacket and ID.”

“You’re not wrong,” Jem pulled Kimber into a side-hug. “Sorry about Rio.”

“It's not your fault,” Kimber always hated the way Jerrica would apologize for Rio. “It’s his.”

“I know. But apologizing is all I can do.”

“I know and I hate it. He doesn’t deserve you.”

Jem sighed with the weight of the entire world. This statement was becoming increasingly common in her life. She excused herself so she could use the payphone.

The walk to the phone gave Jerrica time to think.

Rio had his moments where he was the kindest and most loving man in the world, but he also had moments where he was completely insufferable; he was currently having one of those. Then it hit Jerrica, she’d have to tell Rio that Ashley was filling in for him. Which always went less than well.

She’d cross that bridge when she got there. The prospect did make her stomach drop. It was so easy to say in the moment that she’d be hiring Ashley for the job.

Jem put money into the payphone and dialed Ashley’s number. As the phone kept ringing she grew concerned that Ashley might not even be home.

[“Hello?” Ashley answered sounding incredibly groggy. “Ashley speaking.”]

“Hi Ashley, it’s Jem.”

[“Oh hi Jerrica,” Ashley yawned. “Aren’t you filming right now?”]

“No we’re recording the soundtrack today,” replied Jem. “That’s actually why I’m calling. Me and Kimber kind of had a fight with Rio.”

[“Say no more,” Ashley was quick to reply. And Jem could hear some metal rattling. Kind of sounded like a belt buckle…]

“You’re still in your pyjamas, aren’t you?”

[“Uhhh…” Ashley’s hesitation said it all.]

“You have one hour. That should give you time to take a shower. And don’t forget your staff jacket and ID.”

[“You got it. See you then.”]

“Yes, see you later, bye,” Jem hung up the phone. Then after hanging up she started to try to think of a way to tell Rio that he was “getting the day off” on such short notice.

He would no doubt call Kimber a child for not being able to work with him.

The entire reason everybody arrived so early was because Aja and Shana had some scenes they needed to be in. There were some revisions to the script putting them in more active roles in the story. With everything going on Kimber hadn’t bothered re-counting her own lines. Sean or Raya would have mentioned any major changes. Most of her scenes were with them, after all.

After a yawn Kimber seriously considered taking a nap in the dressing room. Curling up on the floor didn’t hurt that much.

But before she could make her escape to get some much needed rest she was caught by one of the last people she wanted to see.

Jeff.

“Hey Kimber…” He approached Kimber with a weird amount of hesitation.

“Oh hey, what’s up?” Kimber tried her hardest to sound like her old self.

Jeff wasn't quite sure where to look. His eyes fixated on a couple red stars on Kimber’s left collar bone.

And she noticed. “Oh it’s really cute.”

Kimber undid a couple more buttons on her shirt and opened it up a little to show Jeff her tattoo. “It’s part of a song dedicated to my dad. Well, officially it’s dedicated to Video's father. But I had mine in mind while writing it.”

“Yeah, it’s nice.”

“Ugh, don’t tell me you’re a prude,” Kimber said with mild disgust as she buttoned up her shirt.

“Huh? No!” Jeff was quick to defend himself. “Wait, ‘prude?’ Nevermind that. It’s just that you’ve changed.”

“Nah, not really,” Kimber adjusted the collar of her shirt. “Well, maybe I have. We haven’t properly talked in about seven years. It’s only natural.”

“God…” Jeff sighed. “Has it really been that long?”

Kimber crossed her arms and glared at Jeff, her dark eyes piercing through him. “You did kind of piss me off.”

Jeff shrank. “You had every right to be angry at me. And I really should have reached out and apologized sooner.”

With a heavy sigh Kimber clapped Jeff on the shoulder. “You’ve apologized a few times now. Water under the bridge.”

“…Hey… Are you okay?”

“Hm? Yeah I’m fine. Why?”

“You just look tired, that’s all.”

“Oh,” Kimber laughed reflexively. “I’ve had a lot on my plate lately. I finally started to put in a real effort to help out at Starlight Music. Lighten Jerrica’s load. I’m also helping out at Starlight Mansion more; I have a little basic life skills class that I teach. And this movie filming hasn’t been easy.”

“Wow,” Jeff whistled. “That is a lot. And you’re not having fun with the movie?”

“I made the director mad at me on the first day,” Kimber hated it, but she did appreciate having somebody new to complain to. “He’s being a total ass and making my life miserable.”

“It can’t be any worse than that Raymond guy during the Starbright filming.”

“You would think, but Eric more targeted Jem than me,” Kimber then put her hands behind her head. “Besides, I knew what I was getting into with Eric. But Kristov is all mad that I didn’t feel comfortable with my scars being covered for the sake of my character being pretty. He’s being so petty.”

“Well…”

“Do not defend Kristov here,” Kimber glared at Jeff. “I don’t care how you personally feel about it.”

“No, I- I mean,” Jeff raised her hands up to defend himself from Kimber burning a hole into him. “He’s wrong to mistreat you over it. But I kind of get it.”

“That,” Kimber jabbed Jeff in the chest, “sounds like defending him.”

“I’m not,” Jeff insisted. “Like I said he’s wrong. And I see now how important it is to you. It’s just risky is all.”

“It shouldn’t be!” Kimber the let out a guttural yell. “Sometimes I hate marketing!”

Jeff had no idea how to respond so he just let Kimber continue ranting.

“It’s all led by stuck in the mud old men! They’re so out of touch!”

This rant definitely was not about the movie anymore.

“I hate dealing with them! Jeff!”

“Huh?” He hadn’t expect his name to be called.

“Don’t you think it’s dumb how hardly anybody wants to take risks? Just so cowardly investors don’t pull out?”

“When you put it like that, it is dumb. But also—”

—Jeff was cut off by Kimber sticking her hand in his face. “No. I know. But just let me complain about old farts, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you,” Kimber then sighed. “And I’m sorry for snapping at you. I shouldn’t be taking out my frustrations about everything on you.”

“Hey don’t worry about it,” Jeff said with a shrug. “You’re frustrated and with good reason.”

“I also got in a fight with Rio this morning,” Kimber put her hands on her hips.

Jeff shook his head in a goodnatured way. “You’re always getting into fights with that guy.”

“That’s true,” Kimber giggled. “Just another Tuesday I guess.”

“So what was the fight about this time?”

Kimber’s heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. She tried her best to keep her breathing steady. “Sorry, that’s deeply personal.”

“Got it,” Jeff was thankfully understanding. “I won’t pry. But if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here for you. Okay?”

“I appreciate that,” Kimber gave Jeff a surprisingly genuine smile.

“Don’t mention it. I’d really like to rekindle our friendship.”

“I’d like that too.”

“Whadd’ya mean you won’t let me in?” A fairly short young woman with spiky blonde hair and several piercings was arguing with a security guard. “I got my staff jacket and my ID and everything.”

Her purple jacket emblazoned with the Jem logo stood out compared to the rest of her aesthetic. She made sure to also turn around to show off the word “STAFF” written in large white lettering on the back. Underneath “STAFF” it said in much smaller text “Starlight Music.”

“I’m Ashley Larsen, recording engineer for Starlight Music. Jem’s recording the soundtrack today ain’t she?”

Fortunately Aja and Shana happened to be passing by and heard the commotion.

“Just let her in,” Aja vouched for Ashley. “She’s with us.”

“Yeah that’s Ashley, we’ve known her for years,” Shana backed Aja up.

“Of course, Ms. Leith, Mrs. Julian,” the guard looked apologetic as he moved aside to let Ashley in.

Ashley grumbled all the way up until she reached Aja and Shana. “Thanks for gettin’ me in. Shouldn’t have been such a problem.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” asked Aja.

“Jerrica didn’t tell you?” Ashley seemed surprised at that. “Rio and Kimber had another fight and she asked me to step in for today.”

Shana sighed. “Of course.”

“I wonder what the fight was about this time,” Aja said. “Rio’s been pretty unbearable.”

“So what’s he been doin’?” asked Ashley.

“Getting jealous on Mary’s behalf,” replied Aja. “He’s just constantly on Kimber’s case because she’s been spending so much time with Sean.”

“And when Kimber’s with Sean they play flirt a little,” Shana added. “Rio doesn’t like that.”

“Nah,” Ashley rubbed the back of her neck. “Couldn’t be that. Jerrica sounded pretty upset at him too.”

“Jem,” Aja quietly reminded Ashley. “While she’s here she’s Jem.”

“Right, right.”

“But it is odd,” Aja crossed her arms. “What could the breaking point have been.”

Aja then spotted Raya out the corner of her eye and called out to her. “Hey Raya! I have a question for you!”

“A question?” Raya asked as she approached the small group. She waved at Ashley. “What about?”

“Do you know what this morning’s Rio fight was about?” asked Aja.

“There was a Rio fight?” Apparently this was news to Raya. “Are you sure it’s not just more of the same?”

“Pretty sure, Jem’s mad at him too.”

“Ah,” Raya then hummed in thought. “I remember Kimber mentioning something troubling to me about Jeff. Maybe it’s about that?”

“Jeff!” Aja and Shana shouted simultaneously.

“Of course!” exclaimed Aja. “Kimber told Rio about Jeff’s car!”

“What’s this about Jeff’s car?” Ashley spoke up. “I wasn’t here for that.”

“Kimber froze when she saw it,” explained Shana. “She was completely shook up by his red convertible.”

“It’d be dumb if Rio got mad at her about that,” Aja said. “Something else must be it.”

“Why don’t we ask instead of speculating?” suggested Raya. “We all need to meet up soon anyway.”

“Oh yeah,” Aja checked her watch. “It is about time for us to start our recording session. Me and Shana will change and then meet up with you guys.”

They split off into two groups of two. Raya led Ashley to where the soundtrack was being recorded and the two talked while on their way. Raya got Ashley caught up with all the drama, although she did leave out the part about Kimber’s shoulder. That was for Kimber to tell Ashley.

“Geeze I sure missed a lot,” was all Ashley had to say.

“Hopefully things will settle down,” Raya sighed. “But I did notice something troubling in the latest revision to the script.”

“Should there really be so many revisions?”

“No! There shouldn’t be,” Even Raya was sounding frustrated with everything going on. “It’s completely unprofessional of this director. Most productions with this many troubles end up doing terribly.”

“Huh,” Ashley realized something. “You’re a bit of a movie buff, aren’t you?”

Raya chuckled. “I am. I’ve always loved movies. And while we were on hiatus I got especially into the making of movies and found a lot of interesting articles, documentaries, all kinds of things about the process.”

“That’s really cool. I love seeing the back-end of things too. That’s probably why becoming a recording engineer really spoke to me.”

“It’s all so interesting.”

“And a little scary when you know the history. I hope this movie’s not a flop. If it is then all this hell won’t be worth it.”

“I feel like we’ll all be having a word with Howard soon enough. Aja said that if the director kept unfairly targeting Kimber we’d all have a little talk with him.”

“The Starlight family is there for you through thick and thin.”

“You can say that again,” Raya said with a laugh. “They’ve even gone up to bat for me.”

Ashley pointed at Raya. “Hey you’re part of the family too.”

“I’m well aware of it,” Raya chuckled as she opened up the door to the recording booth. “Kimber has made that extremely clear to me.”

“Lemme guess, when you’re feeling a little down she makes sure to cheer you up.”

“Almost every time.”

This recording booth wasn’t quite as nice as the Starlight Music ones. In a way it kind of felt like an afterthought. Everything was all there, just really dated. Clearly all of the studio’s budget went towards cameras and the talents who performed in front of said cameras.

Ashley waved at her old foster family and they waved back. After seeing Raya take her place on drums Ashley gave the band the go-ahead and they started to perform.

No matter how many times Ashley heard Jem and The Holograms she still found herself enamoured with them.

Even finding out that Jem was actually overworked and stressed foster mom Jerrica Benton didn’t dampen her love of the band. If anything Ashley had found herself even more impressed.

God could Jerrica sing.

The time spent working on the recording session just flew by. Ashley wished that she could be their dedicated recording engineer. But as long as Rio was on the Starlight Music payroll that would never happen.

Some time later Sean entered the room.

“Heya Sean,” Ashley greeted him.

“Hello, Ashley, right?” Sean greeted her back.

“Yep, nice to see you again. You need to talk to somebody?”

“I do need to go over a few things with Jem and Kimber.”

“Not a problem, they’re almost done recording this song then you can pop in.”

“Thank you.”

Sean waited until the recording was finished; he watched the performers and it was the happiest he had seen Kimber in days. She looked alive again.

And he was about to ruin that…

Once they finished he let himself into the booth.

“Wasn’t Rio supposed to be your audio engineer?” Sean asked, pointing back at Ashley with his thumb.

“We got in a pretty nasty fight with him,” Kimber replied.

“I wouldn’t say it was particularly bad,” Jem said.

Kimber sighed. “Whatever, nothing we can do about it now. Ashley’s great at her job. So what’s up?”

“Um,” Sean cleared his throat. “I just wanted to go over the script with you two quickly. The director has made few changes.”

When Sean gave her the script Kimber read it and something immediately became apparent to her.

“He cut my lines in half?!”

“Looks that way,” Sean said.

“This is totally retaliatory!” shouted Kimber. “Is he even allowed to do that?”

“Unfortunately he is, as long as the producer doesn’t mind the director can make any changes he wants. That’s the movie business love.”

“This isn’t directed at you,” Kimber said as she rolled up the script. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

She then lightly smacked Sean’s arm with the script. “Are you kidding me?!”

Sean jokingly rubbed his arm where Kimber hit it with the script. This successfully got a giggle out of her.

During the outburst the other members of the band gathered around. They all voiced their own frustrations with the director.

“Okay that’s it,” declared Aja. “We’re talking to Howard. This has gone too far.”

“I didn’t want to rock the boat more than I already have, but this really is ridiculous,” Kimber said with a grumble.

“You didn’t want to rock the boat?” Shana joked. “That’s rare.”

“This is serious,” Jem said as she saw just how much was removed from the script. “He’s picking on Kimber over what, a costume disagreement.”

“Well I did call him a coward,” Kimber said. “If anything this is showing just how much of a coward he is.”

“As soon as we’re done recording we’re going straight to Howard,” Jem said as she crumpled up Sean’s copy of the script. “Oops.”

“No worries,” Sean said with a shrug. “We’re gonna have another revision soon enough. By the way, come get me before you meet up with Howard. I’d like to back my girl up too.”

“That’s up to Kimber,” Jem gestured at Kimber.

“Yeah absolutely come with us,” Kimber said. “I know Howard isn’t gross like Kristov so he won’t make any comments about our history together.”

“What kind of comments?” asked Shana.

“Said we slept together,” Kimber and Sean replied in unison.

“Yeah that is gross,” Shana agreed with a look of pure disgust.

“I’ll let you ladies finish up, you’ll find me in the green room,” Sean then said his goodbyes to everybody before taking his leave.

The overall mood was slightly more glum but they had a job to do. A job that wasn’t about to be screwed with by some director with a grudge.

Aja handed her guitar over to Jem before picking up a violin. The movie’s soundtrack was more of an experimental one. The majority of it was fairly typical of the usual Jem sound but Kimber wanted to do some more serious pieces too.

From the other side of the glass Ashley realized that she had never seen Jerrica or Jem play a guitar before. She didn’t even know Jerrica could play.

A quick exchange of thumbs-up later and the recording started.

It was for a scene during the climax of the movie. When all the chips were down and the villain revealed his big plan. His plan, and his connection to the spy agency. It was clear that Jerrica wasn’t as confident on guitar as Aja was but she still did great. It was largely an instrumental piece so all her focus was placed into playing. The closest thing to lyrics was a melodic humming.

Watching this entire session convinced Ashley that she was going to buy the soundtrack CD.

Not that she needed much convincing.

After picking up Sean it was time for the confrontation with Howard Sands. He was always a very understanding man. Some would call him passive. But he was in control of most of the funds so he should be able to overrule the director.

In theory anyway. Whether or not he would was a little up in the air.

“I’m sorry ladies,” Howard said from behind his desk. “We’re already deep in production.”

“Exactly!” Kimber snapped a bit more than she intended. “The director keeps making changes even though we are late in production. He shouldn’t be doing that!”

“You do have a point,” Howard gave Kimber that much. “I’ll talk with Michaels and ask him to go back to the previous revision.”

“That’s fine,” Kimber said through grit teeth. “I can live with that.”

Jem put her hand on Kimber’s shoulder. “I can’t. This isn’t the first time Kimber’s lines have been cut. He’s targeting her specifically.”

“Well, I’m not sure how far back I can ask the crew to roll back the script,” Howard argued with Jem. “The old copies have probably all been thrown out.”

“Seriously Jem, it’s okay,” Kimber placed her hand over her sister’s. “I mostly just want Kristov to stop giving me such a hard time.”

“That’s not good enough,” Aja barely kept her voice below a shout.

Kimber whispered into her ear, “My shoulder can’t handle much more.”

This was enough to pacify Aja before she once again addressed Howard. “Okay, the revision before this one will be good enough.”

“Then we’re in agreement,” Howard wrapped things up. “I’m sorry this filming isn’t going as well as we hoped. Michaels is a master of the genre. I just didn’t expect him to be so bullish.”

“Well you put two bulls together and you’re bound to get a mess,” Kimber joked in reference to herself.

Or at least she hoped it came across as a joke at her own expense.

“Hey, can I talk to Howard in private?” Kimber asked her family, and Sean. They all agreed to give the two of them some privacy.

After they left she made a request to Howard. “I think we should see with Kristov if we can get most of my scenes done as soon as possible.”

“What’s the rush?”

“I’ve been having problems with my shoulder for a while now and it’s getting to the point where I can barely move it.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Yeah and the doctor wants to operate on my shoulder sooner rather than later. I told him I was in the middle of making a film and he didn’t like my three month estimate for how long it’ll take to finish all my scenes.”

Howard sighed heavily. “Sure I can talk with him. Does your band know?”

“No,” Kimber replied with some hesitation. “Aja does. But nobody else before now. I wanted to see if I could make an arrangement before telling them just how serious it is. The only reason Aja knows is because she drives me home at the end of the day.”

“I guess this means you’ll be out of commission if any re-recordings need to be done.”

“Unfortunately yes. It’ll take at least a few months for my shoulder to heal enough for me to get back to such physical work.”

“Oh,” Howard was at a loss for words. “That sounds like a major surgery to me.”

“Total replacement,” Kimber stated. “Frankly we should have done that from the get-go instead of trying to salvage what was there.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to handle the extra labour?” Howard’s voice was full of concern.

“Hey I’m tougher than I look,” Kimber said, completely forgetting about her current ensemble.

Something Howard couldn’t hold back a snicker at. “No I believe you’re tough.”

“I’d rather tough things out now and get my shoulder fixed as quickly as possible.”

“So you want the director to not pick on you, but also for him to push you harder than he probably should.”

“It’s a difficult balance,” Kimber knew exactly where Howard’s head was at. “But he should be able to achieve it by not making snarky remarks about me and telling the crew that I’m a prissy little princess.”

“I had no idea he was doing that,” Howard looked stunned. “Has it been during the entire filming?”

“Since day one.”

“Okay, I’m completely convinced now. Something needs to be done.”

“Thank you Howard.”

“If this happens again please come to me sooner,” Howard warmly looked Kimber in the eyes. “You’re my friend, Michaels is my employee. Friends mean more to me than employees.”

“Alright,” Kimber smiled at Howard. “I hope it doesn’t come to this again. But if it does I will see you sooner.”

Kimber turned on her heel to head out the door and Howard told her to take care of herself.

When Kimber caught up with everybody else they crowded around her and asked how things went. Only one member of the cluster knew what exactly Kimber was discussing with Howard and she was less pushy than the others.

Kimber assured them all that it well, everything was fine. They would hear back soon enough.

Realizing how late in the day it was the crowd dispersed leaving just Kimber and Aja.

“Now that we’re alone, wanna tell me what actually happened?” Aja attempted to pry and answer out of Kimber.

Not much prying was required. “It legitimately went well. Howard basically told me that I should have gone to him sooner.”

“And the extreme schedule?”

“Oh it’s going to be hell on earth,” Kimber didn’t even remotely hide that fact from Aja. “Howard said he’ll help me arrange for it. But I really do need to get it done and out of the way. I can barely even pick Purrsey up with my right arm.”

“So you’re sure Jeff ran you over, right?”

“I know where you’re going with this. Yes. But no, you can’t kill him. We did kind of reconcile this morning and it would look bad if my ex suddenly turned up facedown in the ocean.”

“Nah I wasn’t going to kill him. Too sloppy. I just wanted to yell at him some more.”

“Go for it,” Kimber lazily gave Aja the go-ahead. “Make sure you yell for the both of us.”

“I thought you reconciled.”

“We did. But I think I’ll always be a little mad at him.”

“With good reason,” Aja then clumsily changed the subject. “Before we head out are you planning to raid the catering table? I think I saw some fruit tarts.”

“You just said the magic words!” Kimber was practically salivating. “I’m definitely getting some treats! Recording music is still work. Especially when you’re the one writing it all. I deserve some goodies.”

“I’ll meet you in the parking lot.”

“Okay, see you then.”

Most of the food was all picked over but there were still enough tarts to satiate Kimber’s hunger for something sweet. She ignored the crew staring at her as she gorged herself. It’s been a rough few months.

Sure the filming had only been going on for a whole two and a half weeks, it sure felt like longer. But taking her place as co-owner of Starlight Music took its toll on Kimber. And so did spending so much extra time with Rio. Not to mention Stormer being out of town since before the hellish filming had started.

Sweets fix everything.

Sweets and cats. Sure Purrscilla didn’t ever want to cuddle Kimber, but her cuteness did the soul good.

The sound of Jeff clearing his throat put an end to Kimber’s bliss.

“Hey Kimber, we need to talk.”

The longest “no” ever ran through Kimber’s mind. The last thing she wanted was to talk to Jeff. And judging by his tone it was about something really serious.

After taking a breath Kimber put on the most cheerful face she could manage before turning to face Jeff. “Well sure, what about?”

Jeff swallowed the lump in his throat. “I talked to Rio earlier and he told me that you think I’m the one who ran you over.”

“What!” Anger flashed on Kimber’s face. “After he got on my case about thinking you were responsible he went and told you! What happened to ‘Oh Kimber that’s a serious accusation. Keep it to yourself.’ I can’t believe that man sometimes!”

“Um,” This did not go the way Jeff expected.

“Yeah, what you said,” Kimber pinched the bridge of her nose. “That’s more important. I need to know. Are you sure? Think carefully.”

“Yes,” Jeff sighed heavily. “I don’t remember that night. I woke up the next day in a haze and saw some red on my bumper. I thought I scraped somebody’s car and just scratched it off before I went to work. But knowing about what happened to you is making me see that in a different light.”

The air filled with silence.

“I’m so sorry Kimber,” Jeff plead. “Is there anything I can do to get you to forgive me?”

Kimber took a deep breath before giving her reply. “No.” It was a blunt one, she continued. “Jeff. I’ll be living with what you did for the rest of my life. I am in pain every single day. I am legally blind in my left eye. After we’re done filming I will be going into surgery to have my shoulder replaced. I just cannot see myself forgiving you.”

“That… is fair,” Jeff swallowed another lump. “But I can’t just leave things like this. At least let me pay you back for your medical bills. I owe you that much.”

“You owe me twenty grand then,” Kimber’s voice was cold.

“Twe-twenty thousand?” Jeff couldn’t believe his ears.

“I rounded a little, we’ll just say you’re also covering the cost of my glasses.”

“Um, I can’t manage that, only about half,” No part of Jeff expected the medical bills to be so… much.

“That’s fine,” Kimber said, frankly she didn’t want any money from Jeff, but she knew him. She knew how stubborn he could be.

“Here,” Jeff wrote the cheque and then gave it to Kimber.

She took it and read the number. Then she made direct eye-contact with Jeff before speaking in a surprisingly authoritative voice. “Do you want to know what the hardest thing is for me about this?”

“Sure,” Jeff replied after some hesitation.

“I almost married a man who is capable of running somebody over. And then not stopping for even a second to check if they were alive. Even at her worst Pizzazz would have at least waited to see if I was breathing. You didn’t. That is the main reason why I can’t forgive you.”

Jeff shrank under Kimber’s gaze. He couldn’t find any words good enough for the situation.

All he could say was, “I’m so sorry.”

“I’ll continue to maintain a professional relationship with you. And if you'll let me take my leave I have to meet up with Aja so she can drive me home.”

Kimber didn’t wait for Jeff to say anything before she left him alone to think about what just happened.

Aja was waiting for Kimber near the parking lot, she looked like she was about to find Kimber, and when she saw her she knew something went wrong.

“You okay?” asked Aja.

“Um,” Kimber’s throat felt tight. “I’m… going to be ten thousand dollars richer.”

“Huh?” Aja scrutinized Kimber. “Care to explain?”

“Heh, well,” Kimber broke down crying and Aja immediately ran up to comfort her. “I was right. It was Jeff.”

Aja silently hugged Kimber as she sobbed.

Eventually Kimber’s tears turned into hiccups. “I hate that I was right. Why did it have to be Jeff?”

“I… I don’t know,” Aja quietly said as she rubbed Kimber’s back. “I wish I had more to say. I think Jerrica is still here. Do you want to talk to her?”

Kimber nodded into Aja’s shoulder. But she didn’t let go of her adoptive sister’s shirt.

“You need to let go of me first,” Aja said with a slight chuckle. “We physically can’t walk like this.”

After she shook with a few more sobs Kimber let go of Aja and wiped her puffy red eyes. Aja offered her hand to Kimber who took it. The two walked hand-in-hand to where Jem said she would be, Sean was also with her. They were discussing the Michaels problem and what to do if Howard couldn’t get the job done.

Jem saw Kimber and immediately knew something was wrong. “Kimber, what happened?”

Once Kimber started to cry without saying a word in response Jem ran up to her and hugged her tight. In the moment Jerrica didn’t care who she was. “It’ll be okay.”

Sean stood back until Jem released her hold on Kimber. And then he gave her a hug too.

“I think I know,” he said with a sigh. “I’m so sorry.”

Once Kimber had calmed down she explained everything to Jem and Sean and they both hugged her again.

“That is terrible beyond words,” Jem said as she held both of Kimber’s hands.

“Sean, you said that you knew what happened,” Kimber looked into his eyes. “What did you mean?”

Sean awkwardly glanced up at the ceiling before giving Kimber the answer. “Jeff talked to me this morning. He said that he was sure he was responsible for the accident and that he was going to tell you. I didn’t expect him to do it today.”

“I kind of wish he waited until we were done filming,” Kimber was starting to sound like her usual self again, so Jem let go of her hands, and Kimber crossed her arms. “It’s going to make things even more awkward between us.”

“He’s Sean’s stunt double so you two don’t have many scenes together,” Aja said. “So chemistry isn’t a concern.”

“Yeah but we eat lunch and dinner together,” Kimber tapped her toes. “I guess it’ll be fine as long as nobody thinks we had a one night stand.”

“What!” Jem couldn’t hold back. “Wh-why would- Why would anybody’s mind go there of all places?”

“Let’s be real here, I have had a lot of boyfriends, and sometimes multiple at once. Wouldn’t surprise me if people did think I would cheat on Mary. And me and Jeff have history.”

“We already have Rio thinking that,” Aja unfortunately brought up he who shall not be named.

“Thankfully Mary chewed him out, and as far as I know there haven’t been more phone calls,” Kimber said.

“Good,” immediately came out of Aja’s mouth.

“I still can’t believe Rio told Jeff!” shouted Jem. “He lectured you just this morning! I’m going to give him a piece of my mind later!”

“Maybe you and Jerrica should team up on him,” On the surface Aja made a simple suggestion, but Sean was not in the know and Jerrica briefly forgot that fact.

“Right yes, Jerrica and I will talk to Rio,” Jem awkwardly tried to cover her tracks.

Whether or not it worked was a little up in the air.

Seeing her older sister flounder did help cheer Kimber up a bit. She marvelled at the fact that only Raya had found out by accident.

Although she did suspect that Sean was starting to put the pieces together. He was just polite enough to not say anything.

The small gathering decided that going out to eat would be nice. Just the four of them, before leaving the studio Aja made a quick call to Craig to let him know that she would be home late.

Jerrica did no such thing for Rio.

Whatever Howard said to Kristov Michaels worked. He was doing exactly what Kimber wanted. Giving her more scenes while not constantly insulting her. The two of them even managed to hash things out and came to an understanding. It was a shaky one, but Kimber’s stubborn nature and drive to do her job well left a good impression on the director.

He even apologized for saying that Sean only stood behind Kimber because of their old relationship.

The next two weeks of filming were tough and Kimber’s evenings were spent nursing her shoulder.

Her shoulder wasn’t nearly as hard to deal with as Jeff was. He was so damn mopey and apologetic. It made Kimber a little sick seeing him like that.

Not guilty sick, seeing a man so pathetic sick.

At least she had Stormer coming home to look forward to. One more filming and she would be greeted by her darling wife, then they would spend the entire evening cuddling on the couch joined by Purrscilla purring away.

“Kimber you’re up!” A member of the film’s crew called her for a scene with Raya.

In a previous scene Agent Holly Hawkes got in touch with May Daye and they struck a deal. They would dig up dirt on Capt. World. Agt. Hawkes had heard that there were some old files on him. The pair dug through the old filing room in the dark, May held a flashlight for Hawkes.

“I can’t believe it,” Agt. Hawkes breathed out. “No, it can’t be.”

“What? What?” May looked over her temporary ally’s shoulder. “No way!”

“You don’t think our director knows this, do you?”

“How could he not? Just look at this!”

“It does seem to be in his handwriting.”

“But! Nathan has been put through hell because of Capt. World! How could your leader do that to him?”

“I don’t know,” Agt. Hawkes said she she flipped through more files. “Help me look so we can figure this out.”

“Right,” Kimber put the end of the flashlight in her mouth and helped search.

“Cut!” The director called out. “Kimber don’t do that!”

“Okay but how else would she be able to see?” Kimber argued with the director. “It’s supposed to be dark. That’s why I’m holding the flashlight.”

“Hold it in one hand and look through the files with your other.”

“Ugh, fine,” Kimber rolled her eyes and got back into position. Stupid having to be pretty at all times… That’s how she holds a flashlight while doing maintenance on Stormer’s car.

“We’ll pick up from where we left off, right after Holly Hawkes tells May Daye to help,” Kristov gave directions. “Action!”

“I don’t know,” Agt. Hawkes said she she flipped through more files. “Help me look so we can figure this out.”

“Right,” May switched which hand she was holding the flashlight in before starting her search.

The files were all incriminating but the ones that would be the final nail in the coffin were completely missing.

“Where could they have gone?” asked Agt. Hawkes. “We’re so close to unravelling this web of lies!”

“I’ll talk with Nathan and see if I can feel out what might have happened,” May offered.

“No,” Agt. Hawkes quickly shut down the offer. “Neither of us want this but he might be in on it.”

“I know my boyfriend, he can’t hide a thing like that from me.”

“Trust me, if spies are good at anything it’s keeping secrets.”

“I guess you would know,” May snarked.

“We can’t rule out Chase or Winters. So I think we should work on our own.”

“Okay,” May huffed. “I’ll keep it from him for now. But what’s gonna be our next step then?”

Agt. Hawkes gave her options some thought. “I’m not sure. I have some contacts outside of the agency. I’ll talk to them.”

“Sounds like a plan,” May offered her hand to Holly.

The deal was sealed with a handshake and the scene ended.

“Cut!” For the first time since the filming had began Kristov was actually happy with Kimber. “But we should do a few more takes just to be safe.”

That was the usual arrangement and it was a very low action scene so there were no complaints from Kimber.

It was now lunch time and everybody stuck in their usual cliques. Kimber was still stress eating a bit and loaded up her tray. She got a few looks and didn’t care.

“You should probably slow down a bit,” Jem did say something to Kimber. “You have another tough day ahead of you.”

“Yeah I know,” Kimber said as she dug into her potatoes. “But I also need my energy.”

“If you throw up I won’t feel sorry for you.”

“Wouldn’t expect you to.”

“Are you sure this new schedule isn’t too much for you?” asked Raya. “You were already telling me about your shoulder grinding.”

“It probably is too much but the sooner I’m done the better,” replied Kimber.

As the Holograms were all talking about the new arrangement Jeff passed by looking as mopey as usual. He also looked like he wanted to say something to Kimber but left before he could.

Once he was gone Kimber slammed her fist on the table. “I hate this.”

“He could be handling things better,” agreed Jem. “I know it’s a delicate subject but acting like that is only making things worse.”

“Hey that reminds me,” Kimber felt a slight mean streak coming on. “What’s Rio been up to?”

“You be quiet,” Jem frowned at Kimber. “He’s still upset at us for not letting him handle the soundtrack recording.”

“Him and Jeff are made for each other,” Kimber took a bite of meatloaf. “They’re both being big babies. I’m the one who got run over.”

“Even so you should talk to Rio and try to make up with him. Things are too tense at the mansion.”

“Fine.” Kimber bit into her fork. “I’ll talk to him. Don’t know why I always have to be the one to take the first step.”

“You know how Rio is,” Jem said simply. “I’ve gotten him softened up at least.”

Things still didn’t sit right with Kimber but she agreed to talk to Rio, to try her best anyway.

At least Rio was never so ridiculously pathetic and mopey as Jeff was.

Lunch was finished up in relative peace, the subjects were all far more positive ones like excitement for upcoming scenes.

Especially the major reveal. But that would be recorded on a different day. After lunch was dedicated to tightening up previously recorded scenes now that the cast was more acquainted with their characters.

They worked until late into the night.

After the next day of filming wrapped up everybody changed back into their casual clothes and congratulated each other on a job well done. Although Jeff did hang back and only spoke with his fellow stunt performers.

Something that drove Kimber a little mad. And that clearly showed on her face because Sean went over to Jeff and had a word with him. As the two of them talked somebody who Kimber loved dearly made a surprise appearance.

“Mary!” Kimber squealed her name and ran up for a hug.

“Hey Kimber,” Stormer hugged her beloved back. “How are you holding up?”

“Way better now,” Kimber and then kissed Stormer on the lips. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too,” Stormer gave Kimber a kiss too.

It took a little time for the two to separate. But once they did everybody started catching up with Stormer. During the conversation Sean and Pam led Jeff up to Kimber.

WHAM!

Before anybody knew what was happening there was screaming and Jeff falling backwards.

Stormer stood over him shaking out her hand. She breathed heavily as she glared down at him. Jeff was dazed as he felt his jaw.

“You,” Stormer breathed out. “You have caused Kimber nothing but pain.”

“I know,” Jeff said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

“What happened?!” shouted Pam.

“I dunno Jeff,” Stormer spat at him. “What happened?”

“Okay okay, we need to calm down,” Sean put himself between Stormer and Jeff. “Stormer I understand why you’re upset, but this isn’t the answer.”

“Pam I’m fine,” Jeff waved off her efforts to aid him. “I deserved it. I have been really awful to Kimber over the years.”

He then steadied himself and looked Stormer directly in the eyes. “I’m sorry. For everything.”

Before she could give her response Stormer found herself surrounded by security. They grabbed her by the arms and started to escort her off of the premises. “Yeah yeah I know, I’m not welcome here.”

She didn’t know the best thing to do so Kimber just followed her heart. She quickly trotted after Stormer and the security guards. They wouldn’t allow her to get near this “dangerous” individual until they were safely in the parking lot.

“Kimber I’m sor—”

—Stormer’s apology was cut off by Kimber deeply kissing her; she even managed to lift Stormer slightly off of the ground in the process.

“Thank you,” Kimber said after the kiss. “Thank you thank you.”

“Um… Y-yeah,” Stormer found herself flustered. “I just sorta lost it there.”

“I know.” Another kiss. “I know.”

“I hope this won’t make things too awkward between everyone,” Despite all of Kimber’s affection Stormer found herself a touch full of regrets.

“Trust me, it couldn’t get any more awkward than it already was,” Kimber loosened her tie and undid the top three buttons of her shirt. “When we get home…”

“Huh…?” This reaction completely flustered Stormer. “Oh my god. I think I’m learning something about you. Down girl.”

“No it’s just hot in here.”

“Yeah I don’t think the location has anything to do with that.”

“God I missed you.”

“I really missed you too.”

Before things went much further the moment was interrupted by Kimber’s family pushing past all the security guards and coming into the parking lot. They all had something to say about Stormer punching Jeff. It was hard to make it all out. It seemed like they were about fifty-fifty on whether or not it was a good thing.

“I wish it didn’t go like that,” Jem couldn’t keep the disappointment out of her voice. Or rather, Jerrica couldn’t. “Though I hate to admit it, that was a little cathartic.”

“Jeff deserved it,” Aja didn’t even pretend to deny that.

“I think I saw blood,” Shana was one of the ones who wasn’t thrilled.

While Raya was at a loss for words. Such violence, but probably a little deserved.

“Hey Jem, pass an apology to Jerrica for me, alright?” Stormer looked through Jem’s eyes and into Jerrica’s. “I bet this’ll be bad P.R. for Starlight Music. And I’m sorry for the headache.”

“Well,” Jerrica thought about her answer. “As long as Jeff doesn’t press charges this shouldn’t get out.”

“And I don’t see Jeff pressing charges,” added Kimber. “He’s been too mopey and self-punishing to do that.”

“Well okay,” Stormer didn’t sound fully convinced.

“Even if it did cause P.R. problems Jerrica would be able to smooth things over,” Jem calmly said. “Besides, Rio has his own history of punching people on set.”

“True,” agreed Stormer. “I remember him punching that actually famous actor.”

“Which actor?” asked Raya.

“Nick Mann,” replied Jem.

“Oh no,” Raya put her hand to her chest and addressed Jem. “I’ve heard things about him. He didn’t do anything to you, did he?”

“He tried, but nothing serious happened,” Jem assured Raya. “Just a kiss.”

“Even that’s too much,” Raya said.

“Maybe so, but that’s put behind me,” Jem then continued with confidence. “And nobody has tried anything recently.”

“Seems like the ring and kid have been keeping the creeps away,” Kimber said.

Jem had a small chuckle. “And to think, Ashley called me a MILF.”

The parking lot erupted upon that statement. Chaos broke out, Kimber and Stormer wheezed with barely contained laughter and held onto each other for balance. Raya shouted “NO!” while Shana whispered to Aja, “What’s a MILF?” only to get a shrug in response.

Once everybody had calmed down they went their separate ways promising to catch up more some other time.

After getting into the car Kimber kissed the back of Stormer’s hand, the one she had punched Jeff with. “You have no idea how much I missed being able to do this.”

“This tour felt way longer than usual,” Stormer admitted with a blush. “I really wish I could have been there for you.”

“I wish you could’ve been here too, but at least most of my problems have been solved now.”

“I probably made the Jeff one worse,” Stormer said as she turned on the car.

“Trust me, that isn’t possible.”

“That bad huh?”

“Take those moments where Rio’s being pouty and multiply it by a-hundred,” Kimber then sighed. “So annoying.”

Stormer grimaced. “Yikes. No wonder we almost did it on the car.”

This got a hearty laugh out of Kimber. “I’m serious you know, after you put your luggage away…”

“Jesus,” Stormer couldn’t bring herself to protest. Not that she even really wanted to. “At least you’re giving me time to say hi to Purrsey.”

“I would never rob you of Purrsey time,” Kimber faked offence at Stormer implying otherwise. “She’s totally gonna do that cute little stuttery meow as she runs up to you.”

And sure enough, Purrscilla did.

“Mrrraw-aw-aw-aw-aw.”

It was good to have life back to normal.

A break.

A much needed break.

After over a month of filming until late at night everybody got a few days off to rest and recharge.

Kimber had errands that desperately needed to be run. Stormer did too so the two created a plan, divide and conquer. Make up for neither of them being able to restock the house for so long.

While running her errands Kimber saw somebody wearing three baggy layers of clothing just down the block. Her hair was done up in a messy bun as if to look as boring and nondescript as pink hair could possibly be. The prominent cheekbones and eyebrow piercing quickly gave it away. This was Raya.

A Raya whose hands were stuffed in her pockets and was looking completely miserable as she marched down the street.

“Raya! Hey!” Kimber called out to her. She tsk'd when Raya picked up the pace.

Kimber walked as quickly as she could in an attempt to catch up. “Slow down! I’m holding like a million bags!”

This only made Raya walk even faster.

The solution to this problem was simple. Kimber put down her shopping bags and took a deep breath before shouting as loud as she could.

“I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!!!”

That sentence was what got Raya to stop in her tracks.

“God,” Kimber cursed as she caught up. “We’re going to the park. You need to talk with me. And get some hot dogs or ice cream. Your choice, my treat.”

Raya gave in with a sigh. “Okay, we can talk.”

As the two of them walked it became increasingly clear to Kimber what was going on. She used to see Raya wearing things like this far more often than she currently did. Raya still wore baggy clothes here and there because they were comfortable. But this was the type of outfit to hide in.

When Raya first became a Hologram she wasn’t terribly confident. She had a lot of small insecurities and one big one. Her frame. For as long as she could remember Raya had started to build up muscle more easily than the other girls. She was constantly told by her peers that no boy would ever want to date a girl who looked stronger than he was.

Things were made worse by Raya’s mother who couldn’t convincingly disagree with the notion. Raya’s father did his best to reassure Raya that she would find a wonderful boy someday. One that saw her inner light shining through.

A sweet gesture, but not terribly helpful when it came to body image issues.

What started convincing Raya that she was fine the way she was ended up being a certain redhead who had no idea that she was attracted to other women. The compliments felt genuine and really nice.

And now Raya was seated next to the same spunky red-haired woman who now knew she was super into girls. Both of them eating hot dogs surrounded by shopping bags that no doubt contained food which shouldn’t be sitting out in the sun for too long.

“Okay so what happened?” Kimber kicked things off.

The subject was still raw and sore. But Raya knew Kimber wasn’t about to drop it. “My mom set me up with a ‘nice young man.’”

“And I take it he wasn’t so nice.”

“He was, for the most part,” Raya took a bite of food before continuing. “Said I need to go on a diet and stop hitting the gym so much.”

Kimber wrinkled her nose “Gross.”

“It,” Raya sniffled and wiped her eye with the palm of her hand, “it just brought up all these old feelings.”

“And that’s understandable,” Kimber spoke as she rubbed Raya’s back. “You’re a wonderful person and freaking gorgeous. I know someday you’ll find someone you connect with who likes you the way you are.”

“Maybe I should give Maggie another shot,” Raya then sighed. “I like her but, well…”

“Maggie’s best in small doses. Mary’s her cousin and loves her dearly and even she can only handle so much Maggie.”

“I don’t think my mom would be happy about me coming home with a girl anyway,” Raya sounded so vulnerable. “I know she’s not homophobic, but she really wants grandkids.”

“You’ve got three brothers who can give her those. She’ll just have to deal.”

“Two.”

“Oh neat, is he out?”

“No.”

“Gotcha, won’t pry then.”

“Do you really think I’ll find someone?”

“Of course!” Kimber was extremely quick to assure Raya. “I did! You need the patience of several saints to last in a relationship with me.”

Raya quietly laughed. “You’re not that bad.”

“Not anymore, but I used to be.”

Kimber then circled back to a previous point, one she had, then lost, then found again. “Don’t you go changing yourself for some guy… or girl… or whatever else is out there.”

“What?” Raya wasn’t even remotely on the same train of thought as Kimber.

“What I’m saying is that I speak from experience. I have tried changing myself for boys more times than I can count. I went through so many dumb phases trying to impress dumb boys. Did you know I smoked for a whole month?”

“You? Kimber?” Raya couldn’t believe her ears. “Why?”

“I thought he was the coolest boy in grade eight and through some Starlight connections I got my hands on a carton of cigarettes to impress him with. Hated every minute of it. And when Jerrica caught me she gave me the lecture of a lifetime. In exchange for flushing all the smokes and breaking up with that idiot she never told Daddy.”

Kimber fidgeted in her seat before continuing. “Every so often I do still get a little twitch in my fingers telling me that a cigarette should be between them.” Kimber then gripped Raya by the arms and looked into her eyes. “Don’t ever smoke Raya! It’s horrible!”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Then there was this bad boy with a car he kitted out and spray painted. It was so cool looking, at the time. And then there was this jock who liked vapid girls. I come across as an airhead so on the surface I didn’t change much. But my soul died a little trying to act dumb as a post.”

“Where… were you going with this rant?”

“Oh yeah I had a point,” Kimber quickly ran through her scattered thoughts to remember where it all started. “Right! Point is! Be yourself! All of those romantic escapades only lasted a couple weeks. My longest lasting relationships were the ones where I was true to myself.”

“Don’t worry I wasn’t planning on changing myself for some guy,” Raya said.

“Well you’re five whole steps ahead of my high school self.”

“I appreciate the advice and kind words. I think my problem is that I don’t know where to look.”

“I think what’s more important is whether or not you want to look.”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you happy single?”

Raya thought long and hard about her answer. “I think I am. Or at least I don’t want to settle down right now. And I definitely don’t want kids of my own. Not at the moment anyway.”

“Then why seek out a boy? Just to get your mother off your case?”

“It’s,” Raya chewed her bottom lip. “Pretty much.”

“That’s silly,” Kimber leaned back on the bench with her hands behind her head. “I know I don’t have a mom so I don’t know what it’s like. But my dad’s love for me was always unconditional. He even stuck with me through all the phases and figuring myself out as a person. Rosa should be doing the same for you.”

“Maybe that’s just a dad thing, I know mine will always be there for me,” Raya then pondered. “My mom was even against me being a drummer. She said that no young girl wants to be a drummer.”

“So behind the times.”

“Completely,” agreed Raya,

“You feeling any better?” Kimber asked rather abruptly. “You look better at least.”

“I am, thank you,” Raya replied with a warm smile.

“Good, because I see a little puddle forming around my frozens.”

With a laugh Raya sent Kimber off and thanked her for a second time.

“Okay guys, all my scenes are almost done, my surgery is in only a week and a half, let’s do one last jam session before I’m stuck in another sling.”

Were the words that led to the current gathering. Not that any of the members of the group needed much convincing. It had been too long since they all got together.

Before any jamming took place Stormer and Roxy talked about their latest tour. Stormer recounted a tale of Pizzazz adding another bra to her collection.

“Oh my,” Raya said with a head shake. “How many does that make?”

“Too many to count,” Stormer replied with a chuckle.

“Say if I ever got a bra thrown at me would you be mad if I kept it?” Kimber asked, half jokingly.

“You’ve never gotten mad at me,” Stormer replied with a shrug. “So go ahead.”

“Wait that happens at your concerts?” asked Roxy.

“No, no no no,” Raya was quick to inform Roxy otherwise. “Well, it happened once.”

“Oh yeah!” exclaimed Kimber. “That was hilarious! And it was before Rio knew Jem was Jerrica so when he got mad she immediately shut him down.”

“Do you think Jerrica kept the bra?” Roxy found herself way too invested in this.

“Huh,” Kimber had to think about that one. “Yeah she probably did. It’s not framed or anything. But Jerrica does keep every gift she gets from a fan. So it must be in her collection somewhere.”

“Do you think we could—”

“—No.” Kimber knew exactly what Roxy was about to ask. “We are not going through Jerrica’s collection of gifts to find a bra.”

“Aw but it’d be fun,” whined Roxy.

“No way,” Kimber kept her foot firmly planted on the ground. “End of discussion.”

“Fiiiine.”

“Would you like to start playing?” Raya decided that since it was her family’s garage she should get things on track.

“Well sure, if you don’t mind I still have some Jeff feelings I’m working out,” Kimber said before the started strumming her guitar, a very aggressive sound.

Roxy quickly picked up on what Kimber what going for and joined in, then Stormer, and then finally Raya. They sounded good together, like a well oiled machine.

Kimber started to sing her song, one that she had clearly written ahead of time to vent her frustrations. It was harsh and about owning up to what you’ve done. How your actions affect others, and having to live with what’s been done to you and working past it to make a better life.

It was raw and reminiscent of Kimber’s original drafts for the songs she wrote after the accident all those years ago.

The group played a few more songs together, not all of them full of venting frustrations about some idiot who the lead singer almost married.

Halfway through a song a young Hispanic man walked into the garage, “I see you’re practising with you band Carmen.”

“Oh,” Raya stopped drumming. “No, we aren’t all in the same group, only our lead guitarist is a Hologram.”

She then got out from behind her drumkit and met up with the man. Raya then led him outside of the garage, just out of earshot of her friends. “Matías what are you doing here?”

“I didn’t hear from you after our date,” Matías explained. “I thought it went well and I was surprised to not hear back from you.”

Raya couldn’t believe her ears. “In what way did that go well?”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“You insulted me!”

“I did?”

“Yes!”

Matías thought back to that night. “Oh I guess I can see how that would’ve been taken that way. I was just saying my preferences.”

“If I said mine, would you have felt fine?” Raya shot back at Matías.

“Um- Well…”

“Didn’t think so.”

During the dressing down Roxy whispered to Kimber, “Who’s that guy?”

And Kimber whispered back, “I think he’s the guy with bad taste Raya’s mother set her up with.”

“The hell is he doing here then?” Roxy barely kept her voice down.

“Well…” Kimber looked at the scene unfolding. “Getting yelled at.”

She then slightly raised her voice, possibly barely loud enough for Raya and Matías to hear. “Oh buddy, you better get out now.”

“Yeah man,” Roxy joined in. “Dude you are in way over your head. Raya does not play.”

“Sunk cost fallacy is called that for a reason,” Stormer added her own “advice” to Matías.

“What does that even mean?” Roxy asked Stormer.

“Fallacy means that sure you think it’s worth it, but the argument for it being so doesn’t even remotely make sense.”

“Oh,” That makes sense, Roxy snickered. “That cost has sunk so far it’s in China.”

Not quite what Stormer was going for but she found it funny and gave Roxy a high-five anyway. A for effort.

“Look,” Raya put her hands up. “I’m sure you are nice but I don’t see us working out. Please don’t come after me again.”

“Okay,” Matías sighed. “I understand.”

He then left the premises and as soon as he was away Raya sighed heavily.

“You okay?” Stormer asked Raya. “That looked pretty rough.”

“I’m fine,” Raya replied with a groan. “I can’t believe he didn’t see what he did wrong.”

“It’s depressingly common in my experience,” Kimber said as she strummed her guitar, just a few random noodlings. “Hey, I know you have some pent up feelings to work through. Why don’t you take lead for this next song?”

“Oh I couldn’t possibly; I’m not a songwriter,” Raya instantly rejected the offer.

“Ha!” Roxy chimed in. “You think I am? I can barely even write period.”

“Aw you’re not being fair to yourself,” Raya gently argued with Roxy.

“And you are?” Roxy was quick to turn Raya’s words around. “Come ooonn, it’ll feel good.”

“Yeah!” Stormer had now joined in. “Trust me, I’ve worked through so many feelings through music.”

“Aja even gave you guitar lessons so you can take over for me,” Kimber already had her guitar strapped pulled over you head. “Come on Raya.”

“Raya! Raya! Raya!” Chanted Stormer and Roxy.

“Okay, okay,” Raya finally gave in with a chuckle. “I’ve never ad-libbed a song before.”

“That’s fine, we’re not exactly playing professionally here,” Kimber patted Raya on the shoulder before taking her new place on drums.

Nerves immediately struck Raya; she was there standing in a garage playing lead guitar for three guitarists. And two of those guitarists wrote lyrics as a profession. She faintly made out the sound of more chanting of her name, this time with Kimber in the mix.

After a deep breath to gather her thoughts and to steel her nerves Raya started playing the guitar, she wasn’t terribly experienced so it was a much more simple sound than the one all the others in the jam session were able to get out of the instrument. But it felt right. Before Raya knew it the lyrics poured out of her mouth turning into a song about life and taking control and making your own decisions for yourself.

Once the song was finished Raya found herself feeling the lightest she had in ages.

Everyone was right, singing our your feelings was wonderful.

“Oh my gosh Raya!” Kimber gushed. “You did great!”

“You really did,” Stormer said as she clapped Raya on the back. “Feel better now?”

“I do,” replied Raya. “I really really do.”

“Told ya!” added Roxy.

“But that’s about it for me,” Raya held the guitar out towards Kimber. “I feel much more comfortable on drums.”

“That’s fine,” Kimber circled around the drumkit and took her guitar back from Raya. “I’m just happy you gave it a shot. And if you ever want to vent through music again you know who to call.”

“Thank you, all of you.”

A few weeks later the final scenes of the movie were being filmed. Despite everything that had happened the cast and crew were a little sad to see the project end. Between takes there was a slightly melancholy air.

The scene took place on the rooftop of the spy agency at night.

“Wha-you?!” Agt. Winters couldn’t believe her eyes as she saw the head of her spy agency pull a gun on Agt. Chase.

“Don’t worry about me,” Agt. Chase said, rather calmly. “Just get out of here before you get hurt.”

“I can’t leave you!” shouted Agt. Winters.

“Oh yes you can,” came Capt. World’s voice from behind her.

Agt. Winters felt a small pressure on the small of her back. She knew what it was and raised her hands.

Things looked hopeless as a wind blew. This wind covered up the sound of a door on the rooftop opening. Agt. Hawkes snuck through the door and approached Capt. World from behind.

The scene was briefly put to a halt as the stunt doubles stepped in taking the place of Raya and the actor playing Capt. World.

The director called “action” and Agt. Hawkes tackled Capt. World from behind knocking the gun out of his hands. One more swap later and Agt. Hawkes picked up the gun and pointed it Capt. World as Agt. Winters gathered herself before taking Capt. World hostage.

“You think I care about him?” Dir. Cross laughed derisively.

“No, but you care about yourself,” Agt. Winters nodded towards Agt. Hawkes “A quick word to her and you are done for.”

Dir. Cross’s grip briefly loosened on his gun and that was enough of a window for Agt. Chase to take advantage. He broke free from his captor’s grip and stood over his former boss and glowered down at him.

“Why?” Agt. Chase breathed out. “Why would you do all this? To what end?”

“Well,” Dir. Cross smirked. “Isn’t it obvious? Money. People pay us to save them; especially when somebody as dangerous as Capt. World is prowling around.”

Capt. World laughed. “It was a sweet deal.”

He then effortlessly disarmed Agt. Winters. “Did you really think I would go down so easily?”

“Of course not,” Agt. Winters radiated confidence. “I have two partners watching my back. And you have none. Face it, it’s over.”

“It’s never over,” shouted Capt. World as he backed towards the door off the roof keeping his gun trained on Agt. Winters. “So long suckers!”

BANG

“I don’t know why he thought that would work,” Agt. Chase said with a headshake, smoke drifted out of the muzzle of his gun.

“Chase look out!” shouted Agt. Winters as she saw Dir. Cross start to rise up

“Oh no you don’t!” Agt. Chase said as he ran towards Dir. Cross.

One last switch to stunt doubles for this movie. Sean’s new stunt double took down Jim Hindsyte’s double in a fist fight and left him hanging from the ledge. And then, one more switch before Sean delivered his final piece.

“All greed will do is drag you down,” Agt. Chase stamped on Dir. Cross’s hand sending him falling down to his death.

“Cut!” called Kristov. “Great job everyone!”

“Oh phew,” Raya shook out her hands. “I know it wasn’t a real gun but it felt so heavy.”

“I know what you mean,” agreed Jem. “I kept telling myself that it wasn’t loaded but my heart almost pounded out of my chest.”

She then laughed nervously. “I’m not sure if I’ll be in any more spy movies. My palms are still sweating.”

“You gals did good work,” Sean said. “I couldn’t even tell how nervous you were.”

Jem and Raya both thanked Sean simultaneously.

Then they all shook hands with and thanked their stunt doubles telling them that it was a pleasure to work with them.

It was a long morning and lunch was well welcomed. As everybody ate together for the last time an unexpected guest made an appearance.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” It was Kimber. Her right arm was in a sling and she was wearing extremely casual and comfortable clothes.

“Kimber!” Jem called out in excitement before running over to give her little sister a gentle hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Well I just thought I’d pop in and see how things are going,” replied Kimber. “It’s your last day of filming after all.”

“Say where’s Stormer?” asked Sean.

Kimber rolled her eyes. “She’s still not allowed back on set. Said she’ll meet up with me later, there’s a Misfits meeting going on anyway.”

“A Misfits meeting?” Jem couldn’t quite keep the Jerrica out of her voice. “What about?”

“Beats me,” Kimber shrugged with her good shoulder. “She told me it’s top secret.”

“Ooohhhh,” Jem rubbed her temples in a very Jerrica-like fashion. “As long as it doesn’t cause any trouble for me.”

Aja cleared her throat. “They haven’t sabotaged us in ages. So I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

“Yeah you’re right,” Jem recomposed herself. “I’m just happy Kimber was able to make it. How are you feeling?”

“Driven mad by my sling, so nothing new,” Kimber replied with a giggle. “But seriously, they’ve got me on some major painkillers this time so I’m hardly noticing it. By the waaayyy~”

Kimber looked very sweetly at Aja.

“What is it?” asked Aja.

“When I need to take my next dose can you open the bottle for me?”

“Did they seriously give you a childproof cap?”

“Yep,” Kimber pulled her pill bottle out of the pocket of her hoodie. “Real mean of them isn’t it?”

“That’s just wrong,” Shana immediately opposed to the pharmacy’s decision. “You can ask any of us to open it for you.”

And Raya nodded in agreement.

“Thanks guys,” Kimber said as she put her painkillers away.

“Have you already eaten?” asked Jem.

“Yeah I did before coming here,” replied Kimber. “And honestly my appetite isn’t doing so hot right now. So I probably won’t even raid the catering cart.”

“Wow that’s bad,” joked Aja.

Kimber looked around at the cast and crew. “Where’s Jeff?”

“He hasn’t shown up for about a week,” Sean replied with his arms crossed. “He didn’t even say a word to me beforehand. Judging by how much Kristov complained it wasn’t easy finding a replacement on such short notice.”

“I’m surprised you asked about him,” Aja said. “I thought you’d still be mad at him.”

“Oh I am,” Kimber said bluntly. “But I still wanted to congratulate him on a job well done. I am a professional after all.”

“Unlike him,” Aja snidely remarked. “He couldn’t have waited until we were done before storming out?”

“Be nice,” Jem took back the reigns. “Jeff did find something terrible out about himself. He’s probably left so he could reflect on things.”

“Ugh,” Kimber grimaced. “Yeah you’re right. I guess I can feel a little sorry for him.”

“Oh you don’t have to,” Jem shrugged. “I’m only speculating anyway.”

“Thanks Jem,” Kimber held back the words, “You’re the best Sis.”

The cast was given their ten minute warning for lunch ending before filming the final scene of the movie.

Hearing that warning put everything into perspective. They were all almost done.

With the death of Director Cross a new head of the organization needed to be chosen. Agt. Chase was not one to be tied down to one place. He was called into the office for his next mission.

“Thank you for coming,” Agt. Winters was seated behind the desk. She rested her chin on her hands. “Where is your partner?”

“I’m here!” Agt. Hawkes called out she entered the office. “Sorry, I got held up in the hall.”

“It’s fine,” Dir. Winters said. “The important thing is that you’re both here. I have a new mission for you. There’s been a chain of disappearances in Monaco and I’d like you two to investigate it. Early intelligence tells us that it’s the dangerous criminal Tusks and his men.”

“Oh Tusks, he’s always fun,” Agt. Chase looked keen for his next mission. “Ready, partner?”

“I’m ready,” Agt. Hawkes replied with a grin.

“Good luck agents,” Dir. Winters got the last line of the movie.

There was a brief pause after the scene ended to give the cameras time to stop rolling. And once the actors were sure they were in the clear they celebrated a job well done.

They knew they’ve have to retake the scene a few times but they were finally at the finish line!

Once the filming was wrapped up for the day everybody gathered for one last meal together. The air was charged with pride and excitement.

A week later Jerrica was upstairs at Starlight Mansion in her bedroom with Rio. She was preparing to go the after party of the spy movie’s filming. Even though Jerrica herself wasn’t going to be there she still liked to dress nice underneath the Jem hologram. Made her feel good. Besides, it prevented awkward moments like if somebody were to touch Jem’s bare shoulder only to feel a soft comfortable sweater. So a nice lowcut dress it was, Jerrica’s dress was in a dark blue. She also wore a pearl necklace and simple metal bracelets. The plan was for Jem’s outfit to not differ too much from Jerrica’s, she’d just be wearing a bold tight-fitting magenta dress instead of Jerrica’s looser blue. Paired with a delicate diamond and silver necklace, and bracelets to match.

“You know, the after party has already started,” Jerrica said with a smile. “It would really mean a lot to me if Jem’s husband spent the night with her.”

“Why are you putting it like that?” asked Rio.

“Well, you would need to disguise yourself if you were going as her husband. I think it would be fun to figure out what Mr. Jem looks like.”

“I refuse!” Rio threw his hand to the side. “I shouldn’t have to disguise myself to spend time with the woman I love.”

“But you didn't marry Jem,” Jerrica argued with him. “You married Jerrica. We did it this way so people wouldn’t think there was any adultery going on. Please Rio, just for tonight.”

“I really don’t want to. This whole thing is ridiculous.”

“Fine!” Jerrica didn’t have time for this. “Showtime Synergy. Well I have an after party to get to. If you decide to join me then I’ll be happy to see you. You can come as Rio if you want, but it’ll have to be strictly platonic. No kissing Jem unless you look like her husband.”

Jem stormed out of the room and then composed herself before she walked out the front door, and into her car.

The party was a formal event, mostly black tie but a lot of the talents wore more playful attire than what one would see at the Oscars. The suits came in a variety of colours, and the dresses came in a large variety of styles. Everyone was different, but still fit in. The only person who truly stood out was wearing a basic black immobolizing sling with her pink pinstripe suit jacket draped over her shoulders. This was of course Kimber. She was with Stormer who was in a bold blue dress that showed off her curves well, her breasts especially, remarked Jerrica. Although she would never say such a thing out loud. 

“So you’re saying that instead of disguising himself to celebrate with you Rio decided to just sulk instead?” Kimber asked and then took a sip of her drink, there wasn’t enough wine in the world to make sense of Rio’s decisions.

Jem sighed. “Yes. I was hoping to be able to share this with my husband. But he’s being so stubborn about it.”

“That’s stupid,” Stormer bluntly stated. “You’d think it wouldn’t matter as long as he was with you. If Kimber was doing the secret identity thing I would disguise myself and be right there with her.”

“I mean we kind of did,” Kimber shrugged. “Our little ‘incognito’ dates we used to have. You know, before I was out of the closet.”

“Oh yeah… we did do that. So yeah, Rio’s being stupid.”

“You seem a little mad at him,” Jem said.

“Well, yeah, he kept annoying me while I was on tour,” Stormer scowled. “Kept calling and calling, saying that Kimber’s going to cheat on me with Sean. And hey guess what, she didn’t. I trust Kimber, and I trust Sean. I knew nothing was going to happen between them.”

“Rio really was unfair to you,” agreed Jem. “I’m sorry he acted like that.”

“Don’t apologize for him!” spat Stormer. “He’s a grown man and can own up to it himself.”

“Oh my,” Sean’s voice entered the conversation, he was wearing a nice crisp midnight blue suit. “Judging by dear Mary’s face a certain man was brought up.”

“Hey Sean,” Stormer was the first to greet him. “Yeah Rio was brought up. He’s being his usual bullheaded self.”

“That’s a shame,” Sean said with a shrug. “And where is your husband Miss Jem?”

“He’s…” Jerrica struggled to think of a reason for the absence. “He’s feeling under the weather and decided to sleep it off. But my husband insisted that I come to the party and have fun. Just as long as I bring home some leftovers for tomorrow.”

“That’s too bad, give him my regards.”

Sean didn’t look like he bought it but was at least polite enough to not pry. And Jerrica appreciated that about him.

Although a part of her wondered if he thought something was up.

“Hey guys,” Aja entered to the group along with Craig. She noticed somebody was missing and opted not to say anything. Especially with the way Kimber and Stormer were scowling.

“Well someone has to change,” Aja joked to Stormer, she had also put on a deep blue dress, although Aja’s showed off a bit less skin than Stormer’s.

“Hey I was here first,” Stormer lovingly retorted.

“How’s the party been?” asked Craig.

“I just got here,” replied Jem.

“Oh my gosh, this venue is great, there’s so many cool people here,” Kimber spoke with enthusiasm. “And the catering company is amazing.”

“I’ll have to check out the food,” Aja said with a chuckle. “Glad your appetite is back.”

“That’s a rave review,” Jem said. “I’m glad the movie company booked a place and hired caterers. It’s less work for the girls and Jerrica. Which I’m sure they’re appreciating.”

“No way they aren’t,” Kimber said. “Jerrica always has to run her butt off at these things. I mean I get it, parties are expensive. But geeze.”

“I think that’s what surprised me the most after getting to know you guys, the penny pinching,” Stormer said. “I always just assumed you had the girls cater everything because it was convenient and cooking’s a valuable skill.”

“Nope,” Jem held back a chuckle. “We can afford caterers, but the budget is very tight.”

“Sometimes I’m a little glad Pizzazz had that brief stint of owning Starlight Music. I saw myself just how tight the budget is.”

“What!” Kimber pouted at Stormer. “If you understand why we know how to stretch a buck then why do you hate it when I cut mould off cheese?”

“That’s different!” Stormer retorted. “It’s just us and Purrsey! You don’t need to be so cheap.”

“My god Kimber,” Sean looked positively appalled. “That’s disgusting.”

“If it’s hard cheese it’s fine,” Kimber continued to defend herself.

“She’s right you know,” agreed Jem. “I wouldn’t feed it to my daughter, but if cheese ever does last long enough in my house to mould I have cut it off here and there. Old habits are hard to break.”

“I had no idea you grew up in squalor,” Sean said.

Aja jumped in. “No we didn’t. It just was a big family with a lot of mouths to feed. We lived in a nice house.”

“Um,” Craig cringed. “Please tell me you haven’t been doing the same without me knowing about it.”

“What?” Aja looked over at Craig. “No of course not. I never even got behind that as a kid.”

“So it’s something in the Benton gene pool,” Craig said with relief. “Good to know.”

Elsewhere in the venue was Shana and Anthony, they had just walked through the door and were quietly talking to each other. Shana in a deep purple dress, paired with an elegant white shrug, Anthony was in a basic black suit.

“I don’t know what I should do,” Shana said as she held an envelope. “I feel like it’ll really upset her and I don’t want to ruin the mood.”

“It is a difficult situation,” Anthony looked over at Shana’s friends and loved ones. “You know how to handle her better than I do. All I know is that you shouldn’t wait too long.”

“That goes without saying,” Shana said with a frown. “But just look at her, so happy.”

“Um…” Anthony wasn’t entirely sure if he’d call that happy, but it did look like Shana’s sister was having fun. “Yeah maybe you should wait. It took him years to say or do anything.”

“And it’s all just written in a letter.”

“A certain someone would call him chicken,” amusement was clear in Anthony’s voice.

‘Well,” Shana slipped the envelope into her purse. “I think it is best if we wait.”

She and her husband approached the Holograms along with their partners, and Sean and were warmly greeted. They effortlessly joined into the current conversation. And eventually Raya joined with the others. One of the few Holograms to not coordinate with their hair colour, her dress was primarily white but with a thick diagonal gold stripe crossing over the waist.

“Oh there you are,” she said. “I’m a little surprised you all have been huddled up in the corner.”

“You’ve been here this whole time?” This revelation shocked Jem.

“Yes, I was mingling,” replied Raya. “I talked to a couple members of the crew and before I knew it I was whisked away into the crowd.”

“Well we were talking about some sensitive things, y’know,” explained Kimber.

“Ah,” Raya took another look at the group and noticed an obvious absence. “I see.”

“I’m glad to see you’re all here,” Howard’s voice boomed out as he addressed everybody at the party. “Before we continue our festivities I’d like to invite our three stars up. Jem, Sean Harrison, and Jim Hindsyte!”

Howard handed the mic over to Jem and she delivered a short speech.

“Thank you everyone for being here tonight. We have produced a movie that we can all be proud of. And tonight is a night to celebrate that.”

Sean took the mic from Jem. “Let the festivities begin!”

Chapter Text

The hall in Starlight Music was filled with humming as Kimber made her way to Jerrica’s office. She would occasionally quietly sing the word “stop” and stop in her tracks. It was one of the songs from the soundtrack for her latest movie. The sling got a little in the way of dancing but it wasn’t too bad all things considered.

The reason for Kimber’s cheery mood was actually why she was meeting up with Jerrica. She had (mostly) patched things up with Rio and had some great ideas for the basic life skills class. Of course the sling needed to come off first, but that was going to be in only a week.

Yet another thing contributing to Kimber’s great mood, spending more time with Mandi again at physical rehab. The two had kept in touch after Kimber finished her first round of rehab but it was nice seeing each other every day again. Although it was a little hard not to break the movie’s NDA. Fortunately it was set to release before Kimber’s physical therapy was over.

“Hey Jerrica, you got a minute?” Kimber greeted her sister as she walked into the office.

“Oh course, I always have time for you,” replied Jerrica. She watched as Kimber walked up to her desk to lean on it. “What’s up?”

“I had a terrific idea for my life skills class,” Kimber’s voice radiated pride. “I’m gonna take a trip to Home Depot, and some other stores that sell lumber and ask if I can strike a deal with them to get some cheap wood.”

“Okay?” Jerrica then prompted Kimber to continue.

“I was thinking about teaching the older girls some carpentry. Once my shoulder’s healed of course. But I want to start my wheeling and dealing early so I can build up enough materials for the class.”

“I like that idea. I think Rio should help supervise it. We don’t want any of the girls to get hurt and well…”

Kimber finished Jerrica’s thought, “If they’re on my left I might not see them. Don’t worry, I’m used to factoring that in. I do during our cooking classes.”

“Yes, but a saw is far more dangerous than a kitchen knife.”

In all honesty, this was probably the last thing Kimber had wanted to consider. “Sure, Rio can help out if he wants. But can I at least come up with the curriculum all on my own?”

“Of course, it’s your idea,” Jerrica sounded mildly offended that Kimber would assume Rio would take over the whole affair.

And Kimber found herself mildly annoyed that Jerrica hadn’t seen that as a possibility. “I’ll talk to Rio about it. I guess I should before talking with the suppliers.”

“Oh, and he can help you with that,” suggested Jerrica. The fire in her died down when she noticed Kimber’s lips pressed into a fine line. “Or… not.”

“I’m sorry,” Kimber wasn’t, “I just really want to do this all on my own. I want to build up a good relationship with these stores so I could maintain the carpentry course throughout the years.”

“Wow you’re really serious about this. I understand, Rio will only help you supervise the class. Everything else will be fully under your control.”

Kimber held back the thought, “In theory anyway.” Rio couldn’t not meddle, she knew that, Jerrica apparently didn’t.

“Okay I get it,” Jerrica raised her hands. Apparently Kimber’s thoughts were coming through loud and clear. “Rio can be a handful; I’ll let you decide when to tell him about the new class.”

“Yeah that works for me,” Kimber was visibly deflated.

And Jerrica was about to make it worse, she reached over to another part of her desk and slid an envelope over to Kimber, her name was handwritten on the front of it.

“Wait,” Kimber picked up the envelope. “That looks like Jeff’s handwriting.”

“That’s because it is,” Jerrica sighed heavily. “It was recommended to me that you read it at home with Mary and Purrscilla.”

“So it’s nothing good then.”

“It would seem not.”

“And that coward dropped this off with you instead of with me!” Kimber threw the envelope back onto Jerrica’s desk with disgust. “He couldn’t even work up the guts to stick in on my desk?!”

“Oh, uh, Jeff didn’t drop it off,” Jerrica quickly debated how she should disclose. “It just arrived here, and our mail usually goes to me.”

Kimber pointed at Jerrica. “You suck at lying. Where did it actually come from?”

“I’m a little afraid to tell you right now.”

“Okay,” Kimber took a deep breath. “I promise I won’t get mad at whoever gave the letter to you instead of me. Unless it was Jeff.”

“Mmm… Well…” After much personal debate Jerrica made her decision. “It was Shana.”

“Shana?”

“She knew you’d be mad and I’m usually better at dealing with it than she is.”

Kimber stomped her foot. “So Jeff gave it to Shana? When?”

“Oh,” that was a different reaction than Jerrica had anticipated. “During the after party. He met her outside the door.”

“I was there. I was already in the building.”

“You were,” Jerrica said with a slow nod.

“He couldn’t even bring himself to walk the ten feet to talk to me?”

“No, he couldn’t.”

With a growl Kimber snatched the envelope back off of Jerrica’s desk. She was tempted to just tear it to shreds. Rip it up and put Jeff as far behind her as humanly possible.

Then she took a moment to compose herself. Think things through a little. Follow Jerrica’s advice and read it at home.

And then shred it, or burn it.

Or both.

“Hey can I leave early?” asked Kimber.

“Yes of course,” Jerrica’s reply was immediate. “Would you like a ride?”

“Nah,” Kimber shook her head. “I think I need to take a walk. Clear my head a little. You have no idea how close I am to starting a fire.”

Jerrica sat up straight. “That is extremely concerning.”

“And that is why I need to take a walk.”

“I’m tempted to pat you down and make sure you’re not carrying a lighter. You haven’t picked smoking up again, have you?”

Kimber stuck out her tongue like a petulant child. “Oh ha-ha.”

Jerrica softly chuckled. “I’ll let you go for your walk.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

After that Kimber left her sister’s office. She walked into her own office and gathered up her belongings to take home with her, making sure to put the envelope in her bag too. While waiting for her shoulder to heal Kimber had taken to using a messenger bag for her work stuff. With only one usable arm she really appreciated anything that would keep it as free as possible.

Once Kimber left the Starlight Music building she took a deep breath and started walking. She didn’t go straight home, she wandered around the city and checked out a few shops. Doing anything at all to get her mind off of Jeff. Bumping into a few cute puppies certainly helped. Oh and their owners too. But the dogs were the real highlight. And the stray cats too. Kimber wouldn’t ever admit it out loud but stealing one of them was awful tempting. It was a very chatty little grey tabby. And this conversation made Kimber miss her own kitty-cat.

So she decided to finally head on home.

Kimber opened the front door to hers and Stormer’s home. The fact that it was unlocked told her that Stormer made it home before her. Kimber wondered just how long Stormer has been waiting.

“Hi, I’m home,” Kimber called out.

The second the words left her mouth Kimber hear a soft thud and the jingle of a small bell, and following the jingle was Stormer’s soft footsteps. A part of Kimber felt a little weird for knowing that it meant she had put on some slippers. High heels really were a killer on the feet, that’s why flats and loafers had become more of a staple of Kimber’s wardrobe.

“Hey Kimber,” Stormer gave her greeting with a smile and a kiss. “Jerrica told me you were coming home early. I take it you walked home.”

“Yeah,” Kimber knelt down and pet Purrscilla. “I looked around downtown for a bit too. Had to clear my head.”

She then stood up straight and pulled the envelope out of her messenger bag and handed it to Stormer. “Jerrica gave me this letter from Jeff. Told me to open it at home.”

Stormer’s eyebrows furrowed. “Jeff huh? Chicken.”

Kimber giggled. “I know right?”

Once the envelope was passed back to her Kimber opened it and pulled out the letter inside. On one hand she couldn’t wait to read it and find out what Jeff couldn’t even work up the courage to say to her. But on the other hand, her heart was pounding. She found out who was responsible for that accident and he had more to say to her about it. All Jeff had been able to do in person was apologize and beat himself up over it. Which was disgusting; making it so much about himself.

She grit her teeth and flipped open the letter in a motion she had no choice but to practice while living in a sling for several months. The letter was handwritten by Jeff. Kimber remembered his handwriting well from when he penned wedding invitations for his friends and family.

Kimber

I don’t know any way I can possibly redeem myself in your eyes. What I did to you was unforgivable. I plan to get clean, to stop drinking and reflect on my life and my decisions. I know that you don’t owe me forgiveness and if you never forgive me I will understand.

But I hope that someday you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me.

-Jeff

Kimber read, and reread the letter. Her initial reaction was anger, of course Jeff made it about himself. But after a couple more passes Kimber calmed down. She still didn’t forgive Jeff, she wasn’t sure she ever could. But his actions were weighing heavily on his mind. That much was clear.

At the end of the day, Kimber was still alive and relatively well, all things considered.

She got lucky.

And Jeff knew this. And that is why he wants to make sure such a thing would never happen again.

But still, Kimber just couldn’t forgive him. She appreciated the planned effort but the constant reminders made it difficult.

Kimber silently wished Jeff luck with getting clean.

“You okay?” Stormer’s voice broke through Kimber’s mental fog.

“Oh,” Kimber hadn’t realized that she was crying. “Well, not really. But I will be.”

Stormer offered Kimber a hug which was quickly accepted. Stormer when whispered into Kimber’s ear, “I know you will. And I’ll be there with you every step of the way.”

“I love you so much Mary.”

“I love you too.”

All that was in view was Jerrica Benton, her sky blue eyes smouldering like there was a coming storm and a coy smile on her lips. She had her hand on somebody’s shoulder, somebody positioned far lower than her. She ran her tongue along her slightly crooked but sparkling white teeth.

“So, you ready to begin?”

Nothing was said by her partner, but Jerrica reacted as if she was given the go-ahead. It was at this point the focus on Jerrica drifted downwards to her bare chest, a little larger than it used to be, motherhood could do that to a person. Then the line of sight climbed back upwards in anticipation.

Jerrica leaned in and whispered something that couldn’t be made out. Whatever is was, it felt breathtaking.

And then, Jerrica moved so that she could kiss whoever she was talking to.

Just as their lips met Pizzazz shot up straight in her bed. Her breathing was fast, and cheeks were flush.

“I thought I got over it when she had her kid!” shouted Pizzazz.

She then let out her frustration with a growl and made a mess of her hair in the process. “What the hell is wrong with me?! She has kids! I hate kids!”

And yet…

Pizzazz’s cheeks turned bright red. For some reason Jerrica's soft stomach and c-section scar made her all the hotter.

This was all because of that stupid swimsuit shopping trip.

“AAAHHHHH!!!” Pizzazz let out a guttural noise before she buried her head under her pillows with the hopes that it would somehow make the dream go away.

She then heard a knock on her bedroom door and before Pizzazz knew it one of her maids had let herself in.

This maid was Mathilda, a generally unpleasant woman who frequently acted above her station. Which was normally something Pizzazz appreciated about her, but not in this particular moment.

“Miss Gabor I have a message for you from a Mrs. Benton-Pacheco.”

Pizzazz’s stomach flopped when she heard his surname tacked onto Jerrica's.

“That’s right dumbass, she chose that asshole,” rang in Pizzazz’s mind.

She pulled her head out from under the pillows and looked at Mathilda. “So what’s the message?”

“Mrs. Benton-Pache—”

“—Jerrica,” Pizzazz had cut Mathilda off. “When you talk to me you need to call her Jerrica. That’s an order.”

“Of course,” Mathilda’s annoyance was extremely clear on her face. “Jerrica called requesting an emergency meeting with you in her office at Starlight Music.”

“Great,” said Pizzazz, her voice dripped with sarcasm. “What time?”

“In about an hour,” replied Mathilda.

“An hour?!" screamed Pizzazz. “Why didn’t you get me up?!”

“Because the last time I woke you up you threatened to feed me to the dogs.”

“You know I can’t do that. Those dogs are more likely to eat me than you.”

“I know,” Mathilda suppressed a laugh. “But I took it to mean that I can’t wake you up anymore.”

“Yeah well, you can if I have a meeting. You know it takes me way more than an hour to get ready.”

“I know,” and with that, Mathilda dismissed herself.

Bitch.

After her shower Pizzazz didn’t have the time she needed to truly get herself ready so she decided to try to coordinate with not being able to do her makeup properly. Something scrappy but in a cool grunge-ish way. Not that Pizzazz was into grunge music, but on a day like this, the fashion made for a nice option. No crisp eye makeup for Pizzazz and barely passable hair on top of that. She took the time to make it look intentional and not like it was purely because she was in a rush. Most grunge musicians and fans didn’t wear several jangly bracelets or tie a bandana around their thigh but the outfit still needed to be Pizzazz.

After getting ready, and debating giving Mathilda the middle finger Pizzazz hopped into her monstrous Misfits van and drove to Starlight Music.

Once she collected her thoughts in her van and shoved every urge she had to bed Jerrica deep back into the recesses of her mind Pizzazz sauntered into Jerrica’s office. “You called for me?”

“Yes,” Jerrica replied as she gestured to the couch across from her desk, “Thank you for coming.”

Rather than sit on the couch like everyone else Pizzazz opted to instead sit down on Jerrica’s desk. “Hey you’re the boss.”

“I’m not-” Jerrica shook her head. “That’s not important. Kimber told me that you and the other Misfits have been getting together for meetings.”

“Yeah? So?”

“I just need to know if it’s going to be a repeat of the Eff Riot Tour, or you keying Eric’s car.”

“You worry about every little thing,” Pizzazz smirked at Jerrica. “Can’t you not expect the worst out of me for once?”

“Seriously Pizzazz, do I have to worry about these meetings?”

“I guess I can tell you,” Pizzazz poked Jerrica between the eyebrows. “I can see how much you’re stressing about it.”

After removing her finger from Jerrica’s face Pizzazz looked at her with a genuinely sweet expression. “We’re planning something for your baby sister.”

This took Jerrica completely by surprise. “You are?”

Pizzazz shrugged. “I like the kid and she desperately needs some cheering up. Her ex is the jackass responsible for her accident and even I can tell how much that’s affected her.”

“Oh, that’s very sweet of you.”

“Yeah well,” Pizzazz looked at her nails, her cheeks were oddly pink. “Even I can be nice sometimes.”

“I’m guessing you won’t let me in on this until you’re done the prep.”

There was a pause as Pizzazz further considered things. “I was thinking we could grab lunch and talk about it. Pretty much everything I don’t need you for is done.”

Jerrica perked up. “Oh that sounds great! I just have a couple more things to do and then we can head out.”

“Take your time,” Pizzazz did her best to sound as blasé as possible.

Once Jerrica was done whatever it was that she was doing on the computer, it involved a lot of typing, she stood up and grabbed her purse before joining Pizzazz. Then the two of them got into the Misfits van.

The only way to travel, in Pizzazz’s opinion. Plus Jerrica’s mom van had way too much baggage attached to it.

“Hey whatever happened to the Rockin’ Roadster?” asked Pizzazz during the drive.

“I put it in storage along with the Glitter n’ Gold Roadster,” replied Jerrica. “They were getting too expensive to maintain. Besides I felt silly driving them around casually as Jerrica. They’re a bit much.”

Pizzazz snorted. “You’re saying that to the wrong woman.”

And this got a laugh out of Jerrica. “Oh I know. The bigger and more ostentatious the better in your eyes.”

“Ex-CUSE me for being a rock star.”

“That’s exactly my point. I’m not a rock star. Jem is.”

“I’ll never understand how you can keep making that weird distinction. I think I’d go postal if I tried that.”

“I’ve come close a few times,” Jerrica said under her breath.

“I heard that,” Pizzazz snickered.

“Jem does still drive a convertible by the way.”

Upon this revelation Pizzazz nearly crashed her van head-on into a car. “What the hell! Why haven’t I seen it?”

“It’s pink, red, and gaudy and you’ll love it.”

“Don’t hold out on me! Show it to me the next time I’m over at your house!”

“I can’t believe you haven’t noticed it,” Jerrica said with a giggle. “I’ve taken it out a few times. I guess you’ve just been too focused on your own career.”

“Damn, well at the movie premiere I’ll see it.”

“You’ve become quite the Jem fan.”

“Oh shut up,” Pizzazz’s face felt like it was on fire. “I ain’t a Jem fan. Only reason I’m going is because of you.”

“Huh,” the look on Jerrica’s face was hard for Pizzazz to place.

She mentally swore and backpedalled. “You know, because we’re friends. Friends see friends in movies.”

“Yes of course.”

The rest of the drive was more than a little awkward.

Just friends.

Fortunately by the time Pizzazz and Jerrica made it to the restaurant things felt slightly less awkward. The restaurant was Pizzazz’s choice, a dive with the best burgers money could buy. And the best fries too. You could get them smothered in gravy and as far as Pizzazz was concerned everybody needed to do that. It was just that good!

Pizzazz made sure to order for both herself and Jerrica, much to Jerrica’s displeasure. She hadn’t wanted such a large meal.

“Trust me!” was shouted at Jerrica several times. “You’ll like it! You like burgers and fries.”

“But a double burger is just too much for me to eat,” argued Jerrica. “And I don’t really like gravy.”

“You’ll like this gravy.”

Jerrica pouted at Pizzazz. “You’re so pushy.”

“I know you, and I know that I have to be pushy with you.”

“I’m picking where we eat next time.”

“Works for me,” Pizzazz rested her head in her hand while waiting for the order to arrive. “Give me some credit. I remembered ask them to hold the mustard.”

“And I appreciate it.”

“I still can’t believe that’s an allergy people can have.”

“You’d be surprised, one of my girls is allergic to grass.”

“What!” Pizzazz shot up straight. “Kids need to roll in grass! It’s good for ‘em! Helps them grow!”

Jerrica giggled that sweet little giggle of hers. “Because of the chlorophyll?”

“The what?”

“Nevermind,” the sparkle vanished from Jerrica’s eyes. “It was a dumb joke.”

“Explain it.”

“You always say that a joke is bad if it needs to be explained.”

“Explain. It.”

“Fine,” Jerrica rolled her eyes. “Chlorophyll is what plants produce to better absorb the sunlight and helps them grow.”

Yeah the joke still fell flat, but Pizzazz was feeling oddly nice. “Actually that was a good joke. I just don’t care about plants. Stormer woulda got it.”

Pizzazz patted herself on the back. “Good job, me.”

Before anything else terrible could happen the burgers arrived at the table. They were a mess and Jerrica looked less than enthusiastic. After thinking about it for more than a half-second Pizzazz somewhat understood why. Jerrica had to go back to work after lunch and probably had some boring meetings or something.

Although upon further inspection the look on Jerrica’s face was more directed at the fries than the burger.

“Excuse me, may I have a fork?” Jerrica asked the waiter, and he pulled one out of his apron and handed it to her. “Thank you.”

Now Pizzazz on the other hand didn’t have any meetings with stuffy old business guys to worry about. She didn’t need no fork and dove into the gravy-smothered fries with gusto. They were as good as always even Jerrica seemed to like them despite not being a fan of gravy.

“Told ya!” Pizzazz said to Jerrica between bites.

“You did,” Jerrica said before removing her wedding ring set. She placed it onto the table before she picked up her burger. “This is so big.”

“Stop complaining and start chewing,” Pizzazz accentuated her point by biting into her own burger. It dripped onto the plate.

“That’s why I took off my rings,” Jerrica sighed before trying the burger for herself. Her eyes lit up. “Oh~”

“See? Best burgers money can buy!”

“You were right.”

The most magical words anybody could say to Pizzazz.

“So,” Jerrica took another bite and switched over to more a businesslike tone. “About Kimber’s party.”

“We were planning on getting together tomorrow while Kimber’s in physical therapy,” said Pizzazz. “You can invite Aja if you want. Stormer’s been debating bringing her onboard soon. Might as well since I told you about it.”

“Okay, and where’s the meeting?”

“Wherever, usually my place. But if you want we can do it at yours.”

“Right, and the only girl you’ll have to worry about is Jill. The others will be at school.”

“Jill’s no worry of mine.”

Jerrica looked positively stunned and Pizzazz wasn’t sure what to make of it. So she quickly tried to think of something to say to explain herself. “Look, she’s pretty calm and it’s a mansion so if I need to I could just leave until she gives up on bothering me. How old is Jill anyway?”

“She’s four.”

“Jesus already? I still remember when she was born.”

“I barely do,” Jerrica said with a soft chuckle. “I was so full of painkillers it’s all a blur. But I remember how I felt when I first held Jill in my arms. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.”

“Love at first sight, huh?”

“That’s the perfect way of describing it.”

The light and warmth radiating from Jerrica threw Pizzazz into a tizzy, she even started to lose her appetite. Not since Riot had Pizzazz felt like this. Jerrica and Riot couldn’t be any more different from each other. Even beyond their opinions on children; if anything Riot’s feelings aligned far more with Pizzazz when it came to ankle biters. But there was just something about Jerrica that felt just as appealing. Even as she wrinkled her nose before each bite of her burger because she just didn’t like the mess it made. Riot would never make such a face. But then again, Riot would never eat anything like that in the first place. Jerrica at least entertained Pizzazz’s ideas in a genuine way.

Riot was perfectly sculpted, his smile, perfect, his nose, perfect, his velvety voice, perfect, hair, couldn’t be more beautiful.

Jerrica was not perfectly sculpted, her teeth, slightly misaligned, her nose, cute and round but nothing you’d see in a magazine, she spoke in a warm matter of fact way, but pronounced some words weird, hair, always in place but safe and a little boring.

Then Pizzazz started comparing Jem to Riot, and Jerrica. Jem was somehow even more perfect looking than Riot was. And the more Pizzazz thought about her the more disconnected Jem felt from Jerrica. Everything was too perfect. It made her look weird. Almost uncanny. A total turn-off.

“Your burger’s falling apart.”

Those words snapped Pizzazz out of her trance. She felt her entire body heat up; she had no idea how long she had been staring for, and judging by Jerrica’s concerned expression it had been for a while.

“Shit,” Pizzazz put her toppings back into the bun. The ketchup and mustard were a lost cause though. But that’s what dipping’s for.

“Are you feeling okay?’ asked Jerrica. “You’re very spaced out.”

“I’m good, just thinking about the party,” lied Pizzazz through her teeth.

“Hmm,” Jerrica didn’t sound convinced. “What will the meeting be about tomorrow?”

“Probably if we’re doing a cake and if we are, what it’ll look like. I have a hilarious idea. Roxy agrees with me, Stormer doesn’t like it.”

“Humour is subjective.”

“It’s been an argument between us so it’ll be nice to bring in more opinions.”

“Would you like my opinion now?”

“Nah, let’s wait. Get Aja’s too.”

“Hm alright,” Jerrica then looked directly into Pizzazz’s eyes. “The burger’s good by the way. And I have to admit the gravy is delicious.”

“Right!” Pizzazz shouted enthusiastically. “If you ever want to get a good burger find a dive. No fancy crap. They don’t know burgers like people who run places like this do.”

“I’ll keep your advice in mind.”

Stormer arrived at Starlight Mansion to help out with the “Sorry your ex ran you over” meeting. She let herself into the mansion with the key she got as a part of an exchange with Jerrica.

Jill ran up shouting in excitement, “Aunt Mary!!!”

“Hey Jill,” Stormer greeted her with a warm smile, and before Jill knew it she was being swept up into her aunt’s arms and getting a hug. “It’s so good you see you.”

“I’m happy to see you,” Jill happily returned the hug. She squeezed tight and smiled.

“So how are you doing today?” asked Stormer.

“Good,” was Jill’s predictable answer. She then squirmed a little. “Can I get down? I wanna show you stuff.”

“Stuff huh? Sure I’ll let you down.”

Stormer gently lowered Jill to the floor and then watched as her niece ran off to god knows where. And then, he entered the front hall, Rio.

“Hi M-Stormer,” Rio greeted her, and then scowled. “How come I'm the only one who can’t call you by your real name?”

“You know why,” Stormer replied, her eyes dark like her namesake.

“Okay yes, we don’t get along, but it just makes things awkward for me," argued Rio.

“Poor you.”

“I’m serious! This is stupid!”

“And pretty much your own doing. There is just one sentence you need to say to me.”

“I refuse to.”

“Then you can’t call me Mary,” Stormer stuck to her guns and stood up even straighter and glared into Rio’s eyes.

Rio returned her glare. “You can’t intimidate me.”

“You keep calling this stupid, but you’re the only person I can’t stand. There’s a reason for that.”

“What?” Rio sneered. “You’re saying I rank below even Eric and Riot?”

“Yes actually,” Stormer crossed her arms. “As awful and sleazy as they are I do respect them on some level. Besides Riot never treated me like human trash, and Eric wasn’t actively hostile towards me.”

“Eric exploited you!”

“I’d rather that than how you treat me. Pizzazz, Roxy, and Jetta all exploited me too. Pizzazz and Roxy apologized and meant it.”

With the way Rio was glowering over Stormer, and the way she was making herself look at large as possible it seemed like the two of them were about to literally butt heads. Fortunately Jerrica came into the room just in time to break them up.

“Okay you two,” she pushed Rio back. “I don’t know what’s going on here. But we’re having a meeting for Kimber.”

“Not with him we aren’t,” Stormer spat.

“Okay, okay,” Jerrica put her hand onto Stormer’s shoulder. “No Rio today.”

“Whatever,” Rio threw out his hands and then turned around and left.

Jerrica sighed heavily. “What happened this time?”

“Same old, old,” replied Stormer.

“I wish I could get you two to have a proper talk,” Jerrica shook her head. “You need to work this out.”

“Hey,” Stormer pointed at herself. “I’m open to patching things up. Rio just needs to do one small thing for me. And he’s being a stubborn ass about it.”

“Rio can be like that,” Jerrica looked so exhausted as she said that.

Stormer put a stop to the conversation when she heard tiny excited footsteps. “Let’s just move on, ‘kay?”

She then knelt down and grinned at her niece who was holding far too many things for one little girl to carry. “Wow you do have a lot of stuff to show me!”

“Uh-huh!” Jill dropped a few things onto the floor and started by showing some drawings off to Stormer. They were of various animals, and what Stormer assumed were more Pokémon.

And then after the drawings was a small craft project made out of household materials, sponges, toilet paper rolls, cheap paints, and so on.

“It’s a turtle!” Jill happily declared while holding a rounded yellow sponge with green toilet paper rolls sticking out of it.

“And it’s a cute turtle,” said Stormer.

She gently took the turtle out of Jill’s hands and pressed it up to her niece’s nose and made a kissing noise. This got a shy giggle out of the little girl. Watching this made Jerrica’s heart ache. There was so much love between the two of them.

Once Jill was done showing off all her crafts to Stormer it was time to start the meeting. But of course Jill could come along. Jerrica had already prepared a drawing area for her in the dining room.

“Aja’s already here,” said Jerrica as she led Stormer to the dining room; she was walking with Jill’s hand in her own.

“Roxy should be here soon, she said she had to buy a couple things,” Stormer then sighed. “And judging by what I know about her and Pizzazz’s idea the one is going to be in extremely poor taste.”

“Poor taste? Does this have to do with the cake?”

“You got it. So darn tacky and horrible.”

“I’m a little afraid.”

“You should be.”

“Hey Mary,” Aja greeted her from the table. “And I see Jill is joining our meeting.”

“Just as long as Pizzazz and Roxy can keep their language clean,” said Jerrica before she ushered Jill off to the drawing station.

“So all of two minutes then,” joked Aja.

“Pizzazz has been doing better,” Jerrica quickly defended her. “She’s been making a real effort.”

“It’s still weird to me,” sighed Aja.

“What is?”

“Everything.”

“Aja we’re had our truce for several years now.”

“Not what I meant.”

“Huh?” Jerrica stared blankly at Aja.

“Nevermind.”

There was a ring on the doorbell and Jerrica ran off to get it before Rio could.

“I take it a certain someone was unbearable,” Aja asked Stormer under her breath. Hoping that it would be quiet enough that Jill wouldn’t hear.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“You Phillips have your tell. I’ve seen Craig make the same face.”

“All Rio has to do is apologize to me,” Stormer said through clenched teeth. “That’s it, that’s all.”

“I think at this point that won’t be enough. And it shouldn’t be. Give yourself more value than that.”

“Well no, if it was some half-baked ‘I’m sorry’ I won’t accept it. Especially not after it’s taken this long.”

Aja leaned back in her chair with her hands behind her head. “If you ask me he doesn’t deserve your forgiveness. He had his chance to get over things.”

“Thanks,” Stormer smiled at Aja. “I really mean it.”

“Don’t be silly, I’ve liked you ever since that ‘Back to Back’ stint. And barely had a problem with you before then.”

“And you’ve liked Rio even longer.”

“Meh, at this point I only tolerate him for the two J’s sake.”

“I wish I could be as laid back as you.”

“Aunt Mary! Auntie Aja!” Jill called out to her aunts, and when they looked at her she showed off her latest drawing. “It’s a doggie!”

“Looks like he’s running really fast,” commented Aja.

“He is!” Jill positively glowed, and got to work on her next piece.

“Hey by the way,” Stormer put her hand on the back of Aja’s chair before continuing. “You can’t be leaning like that with Roxy around. She will tip your chair over.”

Aja was unfazed. “I’ll take my chances.”

Jerrica walked into the room with Roxy and Pizzazz. Roxy was holding a plastic bag.

“Roxy you remember Jill, right?” Jerrica gestured.

“Yeah I remember,” Roxy sounded just as disinterested as she looked. “Hey kid.”

There were stars in Jill’s eyes when she looked up at Roxy. “Which auntie are you?”

“I ain’t your aunt!” immediately came out of Roxy’s mouth. And then she saw it, the look of Jill’s heart being torn out of her chest and stomped on. “Okay I’m sorry. I’m Aunt Roxy. That was mean of me.”

“Aunt Roxy!” Jill appeared to get over her sadness quickly enough. “Look at this.”

“Uh-huh,” Roxy had no idea what she was seeing.

“That’s a very nice dog,” Jerrica fortunately was there. “And that cat looks like Purrscilla. Have you shown Aunt Mary yet?”

“Nope,” replied Jill before she held out her drawing towards Stormer.

“It does look like Purrsey!” Stormer played along, the markings were very off, but it was a calico. Close enough.

Roxy took a chair next to Stormer, she looked over at Aja leaning back and smirked. It was so tempting to tip her over.

“I know what’s in the bag,” whined Stormer. “Please don’t pull that out during the meeting.”

“Oh no way,” Roxy smugly said. “Me and Pizzazz are suggesting the best cake ever.”

“It’s horrible.”

“In your opinion.”

“Let me see,” Aja interrupted the conversation.

The bag was passed over to her and she looked into it and despite her best judgment Aja snickered. “That’s pretty awful. But really funny.”

“Oh my god!” exclaimed Stormer. “Am I the only sane person in this room?!”

“Do you have something to share with the rest of us?” Jerrica addressed the trio.

“Later, Boss,” Roxy replied with a smirk.

Jerrica took a deep annoyed breath upon being called boss. “Do you know what’s holding Pizzazz up? She literally lives across the street from me.”

“Knowing Pizzazz, she slept in,” replied Roxy. “Her head maid likes to mess with her and doesn’t always wake her up.”

“She might also just be in one of her moods,” offered Stormer.

“Right, the Pizzazz mood,” nodded Roxy. “We never know when one of those will strike.”

“That woman is going to be the death of me,” Jerrica said under her breath. “I’ll be back in a minute. I’m dragging her here myself.”

Stormer exchanged a look with Roxy, they both knew what the “Pizzazz mood” really was. They weren’t sure if they should tell Jerrica. Either way, Pizzazz needed to come to the meeting. So they silently agreed to not say anything.

And if anybody could get Pizzazz out of her funk it was Jerrica. A strange truth that the two Misfits had accepted a long time ago.

“Mood, huh?” Aja asked.

“Sorry, we shouldn’t elaborate,” Stormer gave Aja an apologetic look.

“Got it,” Aja understood. “Say no more.”

About ten minutes later Jerrica returned to the mansion with Pizzazz. A Pizzazz who was looking more bashful than usual. Or at least she did to her bandmates. Something happened between those two.

“You don’t think…” Roxy whispered to Stormer.

“No, can’t be,” Stormer whispered back.

Aja didn’t appear to see anything as off with Pizzazz. “Hey Pizzazz, what took you so long?”

“Ha, you forget? I’m never punctual,” boasted Pizzazz.

“Hi Pizza!” Jill greeted Pizzazz.

All the adults in the room except for Pizzazz failed to hold back their laughter.

“You still haven’t got her to stop doing that?” Pizzazz snarled at Jerrica.

“I can’t, its too funny,” Jerrica replied through her giggles. “Besides, ‘pizzazz’ is a hard word for a girl her age.”

“Then Pizz or something, anything other than Pizza.”

Jerrica cleared her throat before whispering into Pizzazz’s ear. “Pizz can sound like ‘piss’ when said by a child.”

With Pizzazz’s cheeks thoroughly flush Jerrica leaned away with a shrug. “It’s your call if you want to go with Pizz.”

After much grumbling Pizzazz gave her answer. “Fine. Whatever.”

Although things still didn’t feel settled. She knelt next to Jill and got her attention. “Kid, my name is Pizzazz. Repeat after me. Pizz-azz.”

“Piss-ass,” was what came out of Jill’s mouth.

The entire dining room erupted with laughter at Pizzazz’s expense.

“No.” Pizzazz bit back the ‘god dammit’ she wanted to say. “It’s with a Z, like pizza. Not an S!”

“Mmm,” concentration was all over Jill’s face. “Pizza-ass.”

“Jerrica!” Pizzazz screamed out her name. “Help! You’re good at that whole enunciating thing!”

“I told you, ‘pizzazz’ is a hard word,” Jerrica wiped a tear from her eye. “Give her time.”

Pizzazz clenched her jaw and rose. “Forget it.”

“What I wanna know is why Pizzazz isn’t an auntie but I am,” said Roxy.

“Who knows?” Jerrica, despite being an expert on little girls shook her head. “Sometimes it’s best not to question children.”

She then addressed Pizzazz. “For what it’s worth Danse is Gazelle.”

“Oh,” that actually did take away some of Pizzazz’s annoyance. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, Giselle became Gazelle. Danielle is Count.”

“Who the hell is Danielle?”

“Countess Danielle Du Voisin, a designer who works with us.”

The name actually rang a bell. “Oh! Her!”

“And don’t forget, watch your language around my girls,” the warning wasn’t as soft as Jerrica’s tone would suggest.

Pizzazz knew this fact well. Despite her small stature Jerrica could one-hundred percent force Pizzazz to leave. There was some serious strength underneath the pastel cardigans. And Pizzazz had learned that the hard way.

Her face started to warm up and she knew that everybody noticed it. She scrambled. “Okay I lied. I was late because I have a fever.”

“Oh that’s too bad,” Aja clearly didn’t buy it. “I hope you get over it soon.”

In an attempt to seem more believable Pizzazz forced out a cough. “No I’m serious, I’m getting sick or something.”

“We won’t keep you for too long then,” said Jerrica.

Well at least it worked on the person where it mattered the most.

Jerrica pulled out a chair next to her for Pizzazz and after her friend was seated Jerrica started the meeting. “What all have you planned?”

“We’re having the party at mine and Kimber’s house,” replied Stormer. “It’s just less suspicious that way.”

“Right,” nodded Jerrica. “You pretty much only come here when you’re picking Kimber up. But you also drop her off here on weekends.”

“Here’s the thing,” Stormer paused to think. “Kimber wants more earrings and we were thinking that after physio I’d take her out to lunch, and then get her piercings done. Maybe buy some groceries afterwards. We’d have no reason to come here after that.”

“She wants more?” Jerrica closed her eyes with frustration. “She’s in marketing so I’ll trust her judgment. If you ask me it’ll be too many.”

“Guess she hasn’t told you yet,” Stormer stared blankly at Jerrica. “Well anyway, I’ll show you guys where you can park so you’re out of view. Roxy’ll use the front because her letting herself in isn’t exactly unusual.”

Pizzazz took over. “All we got left to do is finalize the guest list and figure out the cake. And that is where Roxy comes in.”

“No!” Stormer argued before Roxy could even put the plastic bag from a toy store onto the table. “We’re not doing it!”

“Let Jerrica decide,” Pizzazz said with a sickeningly sweet voice. “You might be the odd one out. Roxy, do it.”

And Roxy did it. She pulled a toy of a red convertible out of the bag and put it into the middle of the table for all to see. Horror was on Jerrica’s face, and the horror only intensified when she saw Aja struggling not to laugh.

“Absolutely not!” shouted Jerrica. “That’s sick! It’s- it’s twisted!”

“I told you!” Stormer had never felt so vindicated before in her life. “It’s wrong!”

“It’s funny,” argued Roxy.

“Hilarious, if you ask me,” added Pizzazz. “And Aja thinks so too.”

“I do,” she admitted it. “But we have to take Kimber into consideration. I don’t think she’d find this funny. Kimber’s legitimately traumatized by the accident.”

“I brought it up to Raya yesterday and she agrees with me,” Stormer pushed the matter. “You three just think it’s funny because you have a dark sense of humour. Frankly Aja, I’m shocked by you.”

“Hey I’m on your side,” Aja defended herself. “It’s not appropriate. Funny, but not appropriate.”

“Promise me you’ll return the car after our meeting,” Jerrica said, making direct eye-contact with Roxy.

“I promise,” Roxy gave Jerrica the “scout’s honour” pose.

“I mean it, you need to return the car,” Jerrica jabbed her finger against the table with every word. “I can’t trust you not to sneak it onto the cake.”

“Got it Boss,” Roxy gave Jerrica a mocking salute.

“So the guest list,” Jerrica moved to another subject. She knew dealing with Roxy was often a losing battle.

“So far it’s our two groups,” Pizzazz was the one who started listing them out. “Ashley, Craig, Shana’s hubby, and I forgot who else.”

“Danse will be in town so we’ll invite her,” added Stormer. “And I think Kimber would want Techrat to come.”

“Techrat’s not a partying guy.,” Pizzazz grimaced. “Why does Kimber like that weirdo anyhow?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” Stormer let out a small sigh. “But she does. And he likes her so there’s a non-zero chance Techrat would actually stay for a few minutes.”

“Um,” Jerrica shyly rose her hand. “I can’t help noticing a name missing from the guest list.”

“Yeah Jill can come,” Stormer “conveniently” ignored who Jerrica was actually referring to. “We all love her.”

“Mary please.”

“Okay fine. But if he makes a scene he needs to immediately leave. I’m not playing Jerrica. One stink raised, gone.”

“Holy shit,” Aja couldn’t hold her amazement in. “Sorry. Language, I know.”

“I’ll make sure he’s on his best behaviour,” Jerrica gave Stormer a sympathetic look. “I’m so sorry about earlier.”

Stormer crossed her arms. “I don’t need the apology from you. I need it from somebody else.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Jerrica said lamely. “We’ll have a long talk about things.”

“I’d really appreciate that,” Stormer reluctantly said. It wasn’t Jerrica’s fault Rio was like that after all.

The mood of the room took a downward turn. Aja took it upon herself to try to bring is back up again. “You never did say what day the party was.”

“Oh,” Stormer perked back up. “Four days. Should be anyway. I think that’s when Kimber’s been given the okay to stop wearing her sling.”

“That’s not much notice,” said Aja. “I can do it. But I’m not sure about the others.”

“Raya’s on board, oh wait,” Stormer looked at the clock. “That reminds me. Roxy you gotta head out.”

“Already?” whined Roxy.

“You promised me you’d keep Kimber busy,” pushed Stormer. “Now get.”

“Fine,” Roxy rose from her chair with a groan. “I’m not even sure what we’re gonna do. Gimme ideas.”

“Kimber’s usually ravenous after rehab so do lunch, then take her clothes shopping.”

“How’re we supposed to do that? The sling’s still on. She can’t try anything.”

“She can take it off to change. She’ll just need help getting it back on. It’s not hard. Raya can help you.”

With that Roxy grumbled and started her way out of the dining room. But not before saying a quick “bye” to Jill and ruffling her hair.

“So… Roxy and Raya?” Jerrica trailed off in confusion.

And Pizzazz matched her confusion. “That’s an odd pair.”

“Said Jerrica and Pizzazz,” Stormer was very quick to point out the odd pair sitting right in front of her.

“Yeah fair enough,” Pizzazz said with a shrug.

“I suppose, but it’s still weird picturing them together,” Jerrica seemed far less convinced than Pizzazz did.

Pizzazz nudged Jerrica on the arm with her elbow and once she got Jerrica’s attention Pizzazz made a scissoring gesture with her hands. Jerrica’s face immediately turned crimson and then she swatted at Pizzazz’s hands to get her to stop.

“Stop that!” scolded Jerrica. “There’s no way it’s that. You’re so immature!”

“I can a… ssure… you…” Stormer’s words died in her mouth. She then thought, “Wait, can I assure them of that? Me and Kimber always leave first because we have Purrsey waiting for us.”

Her mental crisis came through loud and clear to Pizzazz who looked highly amused by this turn of events. And Jerrica was still blushing up a storm. The cogs in her brain seemed to be turning, but judging by her increasingly troubled expression the cogs were moving her into some horrible death contraption.

Not that Stormer could blame her, cross-band dating did complicate things a little. Her and Kimber were living proof. At least it wouldn't add a third band into the mix.

Jill had been watching this exchange and started to copy Pizzazz’s inappropriate gesture. “Mommy what does this mean?”

Panic flooded Jerrica’s entire body. “Jill, please don’t do that. Pizzazz shouldn’t have. Nobody should. It’s very rude.”

“Oh okay,” Jill clearly didn’t understand. But if it upset her mommy this much when it must be really bad. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Jerrica assured her daughter with a kiss. “You didn’t know. We all make mistakes. Just promise me you won’t do that again. Okay?”

“Okay!” Jill smiled at Jerrica.

With that crisis averted more party discussions took place. Food, drink, decorations, and all the little things.

It was the day of the party, Stormer had already dropped Kimber off at physical therapy. The couple said their goodbye with a kiss before Kimber ran off to work with Wes. Once the drop-off was complete Stormer returned home and started to get party decorations ready.

Before too long Aja and Craig arrived to lend a hand, then Shana with Anthony, and with them a surprise addition; Jerrica.

“Huh?” Stormer stared at Jerrica. “You didn’t bring Rio and Jill?”

“Rio will come by later with Jill,” explained Jerrica. “I felt that she might get in the way of decorating.

“I see,” Stormer just couldn’t hide her disappointment at the addition of Rio.

“Mary,” Jerrica put her hand onto Stormer’s shoulder. “I know you and Rio have your problems. But this is for Kimber.”

“Right, Kimber,” Stormer swallowed her words. “I guess I’ll just send you and Shana off to hang a banner for me.”

Stormer led Jerrica and Shana to the banner she had prepared earlier, and pointed them towards where it was supposed to hang. The banner was simple, it just said “We Love You Kimber” in block letters. Stormer weighed all the colour options for the sign and decided that perhaps red was a poor choice for commemorating somebody not dying in a horrible car accident caused by somebody driving a red car. So she went with a cuter and safer pink on a teal background instead.

After that Stormer went into the kitchen to prepare drinks. She decided to prepare some fruit punch for the party. A nice huge bowl of it. There was a debate amongst the Misfits in the early stages of the party planning on whether or not one of the punch bowls should be alcoholic. They had decided to have an alcoholic option, but then the Holograms were brought into the fold and they vetoed it. Saying that it would be inappropriate, and that they aren’t afternoon drinkers. So the party became more of a BYOB type of deal.

In Stormer’s opinion Kimber likely would have poured herself a cup of boozy punch later in the party.

But “family knows best.”

“Who’s on cake duty?”

Aja’s sudden voice started Stormer.

“Oh gosh,” Stormer quickly collected herself. “Um, yeah. Cake. Raya’s picking it up. I was going to ask Roxy to do it but then I remembered,” a shudder, “the toy car.”

“That would be risky,” Aja said, holding back a snicker. And then she turned more serious. “Hey, you doing alright? You’re a little on edge.”

“Huh? Is it that obvious?”

“Extremely.”

“Okay, I’m gonna level with you,” Stormer locked eyes with Aja. “I’m not the party planning type, and a certain inclusion on the guest list has me all worked up.”

“I’ll keep him away from you,” promised Aja.

“No, it’s not even that,” Stormer quickly caught herself. “Thanks by the way.”

And then she returned to levelling with Aja. “Yes, that’s some of it. But there’s ‘the thing’ going on and no part of me wants to deal with that either.”

“Oh no,” Aja grimaced. “Right, ‘the thing.’ This is going to be awkward…”

“What thing?” asked Shana, she had overheard only part of the conversation. “You mean your fight with Rio? I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Okay first, I did not have ‘a fight’ with Rio; that was just a continuation of constant nonsense going on with him,” Stormer spoke through grit teeth, trying her best to not get mad at Shana.

“I don’t get why Rio has it out for you, you’re a complete sweetheart,” sympathy was all over Shana’s face.

This sympathy caused Stormer’s heart to melt a little bit. “Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Shana pulled Stormer into a quick hug.

“That issue’s not really what we were talking about,” Aja started to clarify things.

However Stormer had other plans and shot Aja a look that questioned the wisdom of letting Shana in on ‘the thing.’

“What’s wrong then?” asked Shana. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

More looks were exchanged before Stormer gave in and let Aja decide what to do. Shana was her sister after all.

“So there’s this thing going on between a couple people in our friend groups…” she trailed off while she tried to think of a good way of putting it.

“You mean Jerrica and Pizzazz?” asked Shana, knowingly.

“You noticed?!” shouted both Aja and Stormer.

“Girl, I wasn’t born yesterday,” Shana said with a headshake. “I have no idea how or when. But something is up with them. And I don’t blame you for feeling stressed about it.”

“Stressed is an understatement,” sighed Stormer. “I’m kind of banking on Pizzazz not wanting to deal with Rio. But that’s unrealistic. You know how she loves to stir up trouble.”

“Let’s just hope the allergy meds are so strong they mellow her out,” Aja said with a playful shrug.

“It’s about fifty-fifty on that front,” said Stormer. “Sometimes Pizzazz ends up passing out on the sofa, and other times she’s perfectly fine. Pesters Purrsey a bit, but is it really Pizzazz if she isn’t pestering somebody in some way?”

“Nope,” both Aja and Shana agreed to that statement.

“Let’s hope it’s the latter…” groaned Stormer.

She then put plastic wrap over the bowl of punch and opened up the fridge to put it away. It was a pretty big bowl so it was awkward and barely fit.

“Okay, punch made… banner hanging…” Stormer went through her mental checklist under her breath. “Balloons. Kimber loves balloons. Once sec, I’m gonna go check on the guys.”

With that, Stormer ran off leaving Aja and Shana directionless in the kitchen.

“The guys” being Craig and Anthony. They were tasked with blowing up balloons and placing them around the den. Going off of their own personal taste. Purrscilla was circling around Craig’s legs which made it a little difficult for him to walk around.

“Mary, can you do anything about her?” he asked while he pointed at Purrscilla. “She woke up from her nap and has just been my shadow ever since.”

“I think it’s cute,” said Anthony. “She likes you.”

“And yet, when I’m catsitting she glares at me the entire time,” said Craig, he then crouched down and looked into Purrscilla’s eyes. “What’s up with you?”

The calico's only answer was to flop onto her side and roll around.

“I think she glares at you because she’s mad her owners aren’t home,” said Anthony. “Just look at her, she’s all over you. She’s not all over me.”

“Huh,” Stormer looked down at her beloved pet. “Nah this is weird. But I don’t know what I can do about it. I can’t exactly walk around with Purrsey under my arm all day.”

“Yeah you have a point,” Craig reluctantly agreed with Stormer. “So what do you think of the room?”

“Looks fine,” Stormer gestured at a couple places. “These feel a little bare to me, but I’m not sure what colour goes with the balloons there.”

“I told you it looked bare,” Anthony said to Craig.

“You did,” sighed Craig.

“What colours do we have left?” asked Stormer.

“We have, purple, yellow, green, and white,” replied Craig.

“Well…” Stormer took another look at the pink and sky blue balloons already stuck to the corners of the room. “White’s out because it would make them look too much like baby colours. Yellow is probably out too. Green is really tempting but I gotta have some self control. Would purple be too obvious?”

“We did pink and blue,” replied Craig.

“Fair enough,” Stormer took another look. “I’ll get a couple more opinions on this.”

With that, she grabbed a few balloons, one of each potential colour, pink, blue, green, and purple and as she left the room Purrscilla had lost her interest in Craig and followed Stormer out of the room. Although to Craig and Anthony it more looked like Purrscilla gained an interest in the colourful balloons being held by her owner.

“Huh, I guess that explains it,” Craig said with mild amusement. “She just wanted the balloons.”

Stormer entered into dining room and walked up to Jerrica with balloons in hand. “Hey Boss, what do you think of this?”

Jerrica turned around looking defeated. “Mary not you too…”

Stormer chortled. “Sorry I couldn’t resist. Seriously, I want your opinion on these colours together.”

“These colours” were Stormer’s first choice of green with the pink and blue.

“They look good,” replied Jerrica. “I have to ask. Did you guys call Eric ‘Boss?’”

“Nah, he woulda liked it.”

“Good to know I’m fun to annoy.”

“I’m gonna level with you,” Stormer placed a firm hand onto Jerrica’s shoulder. “We like you, we respect you. Genuinely. That’s why Pizzazz and Roxy keep ribbing you. We didn’t like or respect Eric all that much so we just made his life stressful to get a laugh.”

“I’m not sure I get it.”

“As weird as it sounds, that’s probably a good sign. You forgot how obnoxious us Misfits can be.”

“Huh. I guess you’re right. Pizzazz used to outright torture me. Now she just mildly annoys me.”

“Too bad I gave away the secret. Now calling you Boss won’t bug you.”

Jerrica glanced away with annoyance. “No. Roxy still will. It’s just the way she does it.”

“Yep, that Roxy for you,” Stormer returned to an earlier issue. “Okay I feel like you were distracted. Purple is another option.”

“I think I like the purple more. It’s a nice deep purple; it’ll give the balloons a nice pop of colour.”

“Alright, sounds good,” said Stormer. “I’ll also get Shana’s opinion.”

With that, Stormer was off to do more party management.

Pizzazz arrived fashionably late as usual, sporting a brand new outfit for the occasion consisting of a purple leather jacket with spiked shoulders, a bright green shirt cinched at the waist by a white belt, and black skinny jeans. She looked at Jerrica and patted her own butt. “Like what you see?”

“Those pants do look nice on you,” replied Jerrica, she did not seem too in a rush to look away.

From inside of the kitchen Aja whispered to Stormer. “They have to be doing this on purpose. They’re messing with us now.”

“I…I don't know,” Stormer whispered back. “It doesn’t seem like something Jerrica would do. Pizzazz, maybe. But not Jerrica.”

“Oh come on, they know we think something’s up between them!”

“I don’t think they do. They’re just like that.”

“No. There’s no way.”

“Jerrica and Rio are married. And Jerrica wouldn’t cheat on Rio.”

“Riot.”

“Well, yes, but that before she got married. And it was as Jem.”

Aja groaned. “I guess. None of this makes any sense unless it is on purpose.”

“Okay you need to take off your tinfoil hat and get back to work.”

“Work? All I’m doing is taste testing.”

“It’s a very important job,” Stormer said as she handed a spoon with a meaty paste in it to Aja. “I never made this before.”

“Hmm,” Aja tasted the paste. “What am I eating?”

“Tuna with some chives and lime,” replied Stormer. “I know you guys aren’t really tuna people but I think it’d be nice to mix it up a bit.”

“It’s alright, probably would taste better on a cracker. I think it needs more lime.”

“More lime, got it,” Stormer was about to add some more citrus juice to the mix when she saw Jerrica and Pizzazz checking out the snacks. “Jerrica, taste. Pizzazz, you too.”

Jerrica accepted the spoon that was practically shoved into her face. She gave the tuna mix a try and passed it over to Pizzazz who finished it off. They both agreed that it could use a little more flavour. Didn’t specify what flavour, but that was what Aja was for.

The doorbell rang and Jerrica perked up; it was clear to everyone around her that she was expecting it to be Rio and their daughter Jill. And sure enough, when Shana opened the door it was revealed that Jerrica was right. She ran over to her beloved husband and daughter and gave them both kisses hello. Stormer hung back with Aja and the two of them quietly spoke to each other about Rio and how to handle his inclusion.

Of course they agreed to be civil towards him. However, how things went was truly up to him.

Craig practically stormed up to Rio as soon as Jerrica and Jill were in the dining room visiting with Stormer. Stormer gave Jill her full attention and offered to show her all of the fun decorations that were put up.

“We need to talk,” stated Craig through clenched teeth. “Outside.”

“Fine,” replied Rio, he knew exactly what the talk would be about.

Craig led Rio outside of the house onto the deck and closed the sliding door behind him.

“What’s your deal?!” Craig’s voice was just barely below a shout.

“You know what,” Rio shot back.

“I can’t believe you!” Craig shoved Rio. “Mary hasn’t done anything bad in years!”

Rio shoved Craig back. “I don’t care!”

“You’re just a jackass!” Craig somehow managed to keep himself from getting more physical. “Do you realize that this stupid grudge is hurting your family?”

“How so?” Smugness radiated from Rio.

“Are you kidding me?” Craig gestured towards the house. “Your daughter adores Mary. And Mary adores her.”

“I’m not keeping your sister from coming to the mansion.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Craig couldn’t hold back anymore; he gripped Rio by the shirt. “The hostility is keeping her away. You can’t just be a normal person around my sister!”

“Maybe she shouldn’t have messed with my friends and family,” Rio was now clutching Craig’s shirt. He glared daggers into Craig’s eyes.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be so bull-headed! I even managed to forgive the people who dragged her into all that mess.”

“Why? What reason do you have?”

“Because they’ve been trying to be better people. Unlike you!”

The slam of a car door temporarily put the fight to a stop. Raya and Danse had just arrived with the cake. They stared at the scene in front of them. Raya knew what it was about, and the disappointment in Danse’s eyes told Rio that she knew too.

Raya whispered something to Danse that didn’t sit terribly well with her. And in fact it sat so poorly with Danse that she strolled up to Rio and held herself tall and met Rio’s eyes. It was at this point the two men had let go of each other.

“Rio I can’t believe you,” scolded Danse. “Are you still picking on Mary?”

“Even you!” shouted Rio. “Even you can call her be her real name! I’ve hardly even seen the two of you together!”

“Of course you haven’t, poor Mary can’t stand to be around you,” Danse cut Rio off with a wave of her hand before he could interrupt her. “She’s often at Haven House helping out with the kids, and bringing in donations. And whenever I call Kimber over for some repair work Mary is right there with her to lend a hand.”

“You call Kimber to help with repairs?” Somehow that was the part that offended Rio the most. “Why her?”

“Because you’re busy with Starlight House,” replied Danse. “Kimber’s usually free and she does a perfectly fine job.”

“Are you still stuck on the name thing?” asked Raya. “Of all the problems to have with someone…”

“It’s not just that,” Rio found himself on the defensive. “It’s everything.”

“So you’re still blaming her for Kimber breaking up with Sean over the phone?”

“The phone?” flew out of Danse’s mouth.

“Exactly!” said Rio, feeling vindicated. “Who breaks up with someone over the phone?”

“That’s not the issue,” and Danse stomped all over Rio’s vindication. “How you feel about that shouldn’t have anything to do with the way you treat Mary.”

With a sigh Raya reluctantly took the reigns. “I know we’re all feeling a little on edge. But we have to get along this afternoon. We’re here for a party to celebrate our friend and help her feel better.”

“You’re right,” all of Danse’s animosity towards Rio just suddenly left her body. Or so it seemed. She let out a calming breath.

Craig glowered at Rio some more before he sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Fine. We’ll deal with this later.”

“I’ll help you with the door,” offered Craig. He slid it open so Raya could get inside with the cake. Then shortly after Raya entered the house Danse followed her with a “thank you," and then Craig shortly behind them.

The only one left outside was Rio. He walked over to one of the cushy chairs that Stormer and Kimber would sit in every morning while they drank coffee and read the paper. Not that Rio knew. All he knew was that it took every fibre of his being to not throw one of those chairs. He instead collapsed into one of them and tried to gather himself.

He had never been ganged up on like that before.

It felt horrible.

And it was about to get worse because Roxy had just rolled up.

“Go away Roxy,” Rio shooed her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know Stormer un-invited me,” Roxy said, and then she flipped Rio off.

Roxy let herself into the house.

Somehow Roxy barely saying anything felt worse than if she had just picked a fight.

Rio peered in through the glass door and saw everybody getting along and celebrating. It made him sick to his stomach.

While he was staring inside and debating just leaving Rio saw Raya come back outside to move her car.

“Oh Rio, stop sulking so much and come inside,” she said.

“Why? Everybody hates me.”

With a gentle sigh Raya sat down in the chair next to Rio. “None of us hate you Rio. We just don’t like the way you’ve been treating our friend.”

“I think Stormer, Craig, Pizzazz, and Roxy all hate me.”

“Well,” Raya shrugged, “every rule has its exceptions.”

“Aren’t you mad at me too?”

Raya softly hummed in thought. “I think that’s an exaggeration. I’m upset about how mean you are to Mary. All of this just upsets me.”

“I guess…” Rio huffed out a breath. “Maybe I’m wrong. Even Danse dressed me down.”

“Yes, Danse is a very peaceful woman.”

“It’s just that every time I look at Kimber and Stormer my blood boils. I think about all the wrong the Misfits did, and I think about poor Sean and just start to see red.”

“Sean has never had a problem with Stormer.”

“That’s crazy, there’s no way he’s always been okay with things.”

“He was probably upset at first,” reasoned Raya. “But he never held it against Stormer.”

“I suppose,” things were finally starting to sink in for Rio. “I’m good at getting mad for other people, aren’t I?”

“A little.”

“Thanks for talking to me Raya,” Rio rose from the chair. “I’m feeling better now.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Raya also stood up. “I have to hurry up and move my car. You should do the same.”

“Right, gotta keep it a surprise.”

Once it had become time to pick Kimber up Stormer left all the party guests in her house. She hoped that the last two people on the guest list would show up while she was gone. Although Techrat’s attendance was probably very unlikely, but Ashley would definitely show up. The plan was the same as before, take Kimber out to lunch, and then to get some ear piercings to celebrate losing the sling.

And once the deed was done Stormer and Kimber walked up to their front door to head inside, Kimber with two new silver piercings directly under the previous two in her left ear.

“SURPRISE!”

Kimber took in all the sights in the den, the decorations, the cake, and all her loved ones, and Rio.

“Wait… What is all this?” she asked.

“Well,” Stormer took Kimber’s hand into her own. “We know how depressed you’ve been with all the Jeff stuff going on. And we wanted to show you that we all love you, and care for you, and you can talk to us about anything. We’ll always be there for you, and we’re happy that you’re still here with us.”

“Aw Mary,” tears welled up in Kimber’s eyes. “Thank you so much.”

“It was actually Pizzazz’s idea.”

“Pizzazz?”

“I just wanted to cheer you up somehow,” Pizzazz said, her cheeks were faintly pink, “Stormer added in all that love and caring crap.”

Jerrica elbowed Pizzazz in the stomach.

“I really appreciate it,” Kimber said warmly. “You’re right, I did need some cheering up.”

“I knew it’d work,” boasted Pizzazz.

This got a giggle out of Kimber.

“How does it feel to have your sling off?” asked Danse.

“Great!” Kimber replied cheerfully, and she held the dreadful thing above her head in triumph. “It’ll be at least another ten years before I need this thing again!”

“Hey that’s great!” cheered Pizzazz as she pulled Kimber under her arm. She then whispered to Kimber. “Your family’s a bunch of squares so we have no boozy punch. I brought some wine coolers with me.”

Kimber whispered back, “I’ll have one later.”

Once her and Pizzazz separated everybody else at the party gave Kimber their congratulations, Ashley had shown up while Stormer was away picking Kimber up.

The only one who didn’t hug Kimber was Rio. A lot of sore feelings between them still sat unresolved.

He did still greet Kimber. “It’s nice to see you without the sling.”

“Yeah thanks, it’s great,” Kimber couldn’t quite sound touched by Rio’s words.

Rio looked sheepishly at Kimber. “I know I’ve been… hard to deal with. I’m sorry.”

This apology and admittance at being a huge pain in the keister was probably the best gift Rio could have given Kimber. And frankly, it left her stunned.

“I appreciate that,” said Kimber, she then placed her hand onto Rio’s shoulder; neither of them could remember the last time they had even made physical contact.

After that everybody else came up to greet Kimber and congratulate her on being out of her sling. There were a lot of hugs involved, even one from Roxy, and the atmosphere was joyous.

Once the celebration of Kimber’s recovery was over everybody spread back out and mingled with each other. They drank punch and ate snacks that were lovingly prepared by Stormer, or brought in by some of the party guests. The air was light and made every bad thing feel like it was years in the past.

There was a knock on the back door and Stormer left Kimber in order to open it. Standing in the doorway was an awkward looking Techrat.

“I won’t be here for long,” he said. “Just gonna say hi to Kimber and give her a gift.”

“Well sure, come on in,” Stormer invited Techrat into the house but he stayed put.

“Okay,” Stormer sighed. “I’ll go get Kimber.”

It didn’t take long for Kimber to arrive at the back door.

“Hey good to have you,” Kimber greeted her odd friend with a bright smile. “You’re not the partying type.”

“No, I’m not,” Techrat said flatly. “That’s why I’m just dropping this off.”

He handed a small wrapped box over to Kimber. It was surprisingly heavy. She opened it up revealing what looked like a chunky picture frame. She turned it over and saw what she believed was called a circuit board underneath some clear plastic and a wall cord coming out of the back. Look, electronics were not her forté.

“You know those digital picture frames they sell now?” asked Techrat and when he got no response he continued. “Well they make digital picture frames now. But I read their features and found them disappointing and there isn’t enough storage space for somebody as sentimental as you. They also don’t play music but mine does.”

“Oh wow that’s super sweet,” gushed Kimber. “Um, I might need some help with it.”

“Yeah I figured. Stormer gave me some pictures to put onto it for you. And a few songs too. If you want more just ask me.”

Kimber could barely contain her squeal and vibrated in place while looking at Techrat with glee.

He rolled his eyes. “You get one hug. But not too tight. And no kiss.”

Naturally Kimber immediately took Techrat up on the offer. She made sure to not hug him too tightly, or for too long. And she even managed to not keep her hands on his shoulders after putting the hug to an end.

As Kimber stared at the picture frame Techrat continued to talk to her. “You can put it in either portrait or landscape mode. I wrote down the controls and put them in the box. Read them later so nothing gets broken.”

“I still can’t believe you made this,” said Kimber.

Techrat scoffed. “I made a working time machine and you’re amazed by a picture frame.”

“Well yeah, I know it’s not as technologically amazing as your other stuff. I’m surprised because it’s so sweet.”

“Ah that,” Techrat blushed. “We all have our moments.”

“I’m going to take good care of it,” Kimber said she she held the picture frame to her chest.

“I know you will, that’s why I like you. You respect my genius inventions.”

“I know you’re not into parties but this one’s pretty chill,” Kimber pointed into the den with her thumb. “The main wild party girl is about to pass out on the couch from her allergy meds.”

“And Roxy?”

“Oh who knows, I just know that Aja and Raya are on ‘cake watch’ whatever that is. All I know is that it has to do with Roxy. So I’m guessing Roxy is prowling around trying to find an opening to get to the cake. Oh hold on, about to get loud.”

Techrat braced himself for the noise before Kimber gave a shout. “Hey I heard about a cake watch! That means we have cake! When’re we eating it?!”

Stormer shouted back, “Ten minutes!”

Kimber returned to using her inside voice. “You hear that? Ten minutes. How ‘bout you stick around for cake?”

“Well…” a great debate took place in Techrat’s mind as he looked at the party guests. “Sure. I can do cake.”

“Oh yay!” cheered Kimber. “I’ll go put away the picture frame while you go and mingle.”

“I don’t mingle.”

“Well go talk to Jerrica or Mary then. And Ashley’s here too”

“I like Ashley.”

This was enough to convince Techrat to poke his head into the den. He looked around for Ashley but instead a little girl ran up to him excitedly shouting “Uncle Techie!”

Dread filled his body as his hand was grabbed by Jill. She positively beamed at him and dragged Techrat across the room. No part of him looked pleased.

“Remember Techrat,” he spoke to himself. “A stable income and benefits means less worrying, and less worrying means easier inventing.”

The little girl smiled up at her “Uncle Techie,” and he did his best to smile back, it was more just pulling his lips back to show his teeth. It was very clear to the adults in the room that he did not like kids one bit.

Which was not exactly a shock.

What was a shock was “Uncle Techie” Aja was the first to ask who even started that one.

“Yeah Kimber!” He glared at her as she was about to go into hers and Stormer’s bedroom. “Who started it?”

“It’s cute!” Kimber gave her usual argument before she put away her gift.

Jill’s final destination for Techrat was Jerrica and Rio. Jerrica found it hard to hide her amusement at the whole situation. She did however mouth “I’m sorry” to Techrat.

A small thing that he did appreciate.

Ten minutes later everybody learned that some how, some way Cake Watch was successful and no additional decorations were put ontop of the white cake with white icing. All that was on the top were colourful icing flowers and the words “We love you Kimber.” Between the layers was a raspberry filling.

A compromise that Stormer made because she knew for a fact that Pizzazz and Roxy would never budge on having a red filling. Fortunately Kimber did like raspberry filling in her white cakes.

“So why was there a cake watch anyway?” asked Kimber.

Jerrica sighed heavily. “Because Pizzazz and Roxy had a terrible idea.”

“Ex-CUSE me,” Pizzazz shoved Jerrica with her elbow, apparently the sugar had already revitalized her. “We had an awesome idea.”

“Yeah!” agreed Roxy.

“No it wasn’t,” Raya chimed in. “It was so terrible!”

“Well what was it?” Kimber pushed for an answer.

“We wanted to put a toy red convertible on the top of your cake,” Roxy gave Kimber the answer.

“Oh gosh,” Kimber said through her appalled giggles. “Of course you would. You’re awful.”

“That’s really dark,” said Ashley. “That might’ve taken things a bit too far.”

“Aw even you?” Roxy pouted at Ashley.

“Hey now, with humour you gotta know where to draw the line.”

“Kimber thinks it’s funny.”

“No I don’t,” Kimber shook her head. “I just have no words for how horrible it is. I’m so glad you didn’t pull it off.”

Roxy rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess if you’re happy that’s what matters. By the way it’s literally impossible to get past Aja and Raya. They had every angle covered.”

“I bet Raya did,” Pizzazz whispered to Jerrica and got a light smack on the arm in return. “What? I’m just saying that Raya could easily distract Roxy.”

“We don’t know that about them,” Jerrica harshly whispered back. “We shouldn’t speculate that type of thing. It’s inappropriate.”

“Lady, ‘inappropriate’ is my middle name.”

“Oh shush.”

“We had a system,” said Aja. “We took shifts because I’m not about to spend the whole day guarding the fridge and Raya shouldn’t either.”

“And when both me and Aja were away Shana took over,” added Raya.

“You just didn’t notice me; I took a more stealthy approach” finished Shana.

“Sheesh, you Holograms are ridiculously careful,” complained Roxy. “But I guess you were right to keep an eye out. I did bring the car with me.”

“I knew it!” shot Stormer. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to leave it at home!”

As the lively conversation continued Techrat politely said goodbye to Kimber before he dropped his plate off in the kitchen. He had more than enough socializing for one day. Although Ashley did follow him and gave Techrat a quick and appreciated bye before he went out the door.

With the cake eaten everybody once again dispersed, Stormer offered to take all the cake plates from them, and Kimber helped carry them to the kitchen to start soaking them in the sink.

“Hey, Mary,” Kimber spoke softly to her beloved. “Pizzazz took the credit, but I know like ninety percent of this party was you.”

Stormer shrugged. “Yeah you got me. I did most of the hard work.”

“Knew it,” Kimber took Stormer’s hand into her own and gave her a soft smile. “You’re so amazing Mary. I love you so much.”

“I love you too Kimber,” Stormer gazed into Kimber’s eyes. “And I mean it when I say this, I couldn’t be happier that you’re still here with us.”

“Next party, try to take some of the credit for yourself, ‘kay?”

Stormer softly chuckled. “Sure.”

And then, the two shared a kiss.