Okay, they’re in a library at night, after everyone else has gone to sleep.

As Rae snuck on top of one of the bookshelves, she noticed something glowing beneath her. Surprised, she stopped moving and squinted, trying to get a closer look at the glowing thing. She leaned over, barely balancing on the shelf.

Rae (thinking): so there’s somebody else in here! That throws a wrench in our plan. We’ll have to retreat for now. Rae tries to back up, but Jay is behind her, and they collide on the bookshelf! Jay: *falls off of the bookshelf with a loud clatter*

Jay quickly gets up. Jay: Oh yeah, I’m fine! Just— falling off of bookshelves for fun! But hey, let’s not worry about me, what are you doing here? You, uh, come here often? *he winks*

Jay: riiiight... (thinking: okay, this girl’s freaky. Abandoned houses?) Rae rolls her eyes, then gracefully jumps down beside her brother. Rae: so sorry to bother you on your night walk then, please forgive my idiot brother.

Rae and Jay look at each other briefly. Jay: hey, I could be your friend ba— *he gets elbowed in the ribs by Rae* Rae: oh dear, how terrible. Well since we’re here, why don’t you tell us all about it?

Jay: You really ate a dude? That’s hardcore. Rae: of course you shouldn't be blamed for that, I mean, you would never do that now... right?

Jay (sarcastically): that happens to me all the t— *Rae steps on his foot* OW! Rae: Right, we get it. Say, we could be your friends, since we understand that you aren’t defined by your past! You seem perfectly sweet!

Rae returns the hug, but Arcy can’t fee the sly smile on her face. Jay just has a shocked expression. Rae: awesome! So, now that we’re friends, can you help us with something?

Rae held out a can of paint and a paintbrush. Rae: the truth is, we came in here because we’re going to pull a prank. This is ultra-permanent paint, and we were going to use it to cover the titles of a ton of these boring books! Don’t worry, I have extra cans and even spray paint if you need it.

Rae: lovely! I knew we could count on you, pal. *she hands the can and paintbrush over, then walks off to another shelf and starts painting.* Jay (whispering): are you sure you want to help? I assumed you liked books, since you!re here so late.

Jay blushes slightly and hesitates before answering. Jay: well, you can always save a few of the books you like best. Not even I would cross my sister!

After an hour or so, the trio had covered most of the book titles, but they had run out of paint. Rae: haha! The librarians and all those nerds who visit libraries will get a real shock when they see this in the morning! Jay: you really are evil, sis. Rae: I prefer the term mischievous. Anyway, we couldn’t have done it without our new friend! *she held out a hand to Arcy*

Rae frowned and put her hand back down. Rae: well then, all those lovely smart people will get a real shock. Why defend them now? We’ve already ruined the books. And you helped us. Jay looked fretfully from one girl to the other, unsure of what to do

Rae: ugh, don’t cry. It’s not that deep. Jay: well, what did you expect to happen Rae? You’ve manipulated her and used her loneliness against her to make her do something she didn’t want to do! Rae: I didn’t force her to paint with us! Jay ignores Rae and puts an arm around Arcy.

Jay: look at what you’ve done! You could have just told her to leave and not tricked her into helping. Rae: I could have. But she was raised by Eggman! I though she’d be less sensitive. Jay: did you even really want to be her friend? Rae: hmph... Rae and Jay both run after Arcy.

After some argument, Jay and Rae decide that Rae should be the one to approach Arcy. Rae steps forward, putting on her best sad face. Rae: um, listen. If you didn’t want to paint the books, you could have told me. We could have painted the walls instead, or put the cans of paint on top of some door frames so they would fall on whoever opened the doors. From behind a nearby tree, Jay shakes his head in disappointment. Rae’s apology sucked.

Rae: oh... Jay decides to intervene. Jay: Why don’t you leave, Rae. Arcy, would you like to be left alone right now?

Jay and Rae look at each other, unsure of what to do. Jay: well she said no, so maybe I should stay here with her? Rae: she’s sleeping, you creep. I’ll stay here, YOU get her a decent pillow and blanket. Jay: I’m hurt that you think so lowly of me. But fine. *jay leaves to find a blanket*

Rae tried to fight her curiosity, but after a minute she picked up the picture to look at it.

The picture seemed like sensitive material, so she put it back into Arcy’s tail. Why had she seemed happy in that picture, Rae wondered?

Jay arrived back with a pillow and a warm quilt. While he put the blanket over Arcy, he realized she was slightly awake. Jay (whispering): Why’d you wake her up, Rae! Rae (whispering): I didn’t try to! A picture fell out of her tail and I just tried to put it back! Not my fault. They both stepped back from Arcy tentatively to try and see if she would fall asleep again

Jay and Rae sat down under a different tree, outside of her earshot but still able to keep an eye on her. Jay: is it even worth it to stay here? We should go home. Rae: Weren’t you the one who was oh-so-worried about her? Jay: It’s late, I’m tired. Besides, last time I checked it didn’t sound like she wanted to be friends with us. We can leave her our phone numbers. Rae: fine, let’s get out of here. Rae and Jay wrote their phone numbers on a slip of scrap paper and put it into Arcy’s fluffy tail. Then they left.

[over text] Jay: Arcy! So you got my number. Feel free to hit me up anytime, for anything ;) Rae: Be sure to return that quilt when you can. Need our address?

Rae texted back her and Jay’s address. Meanwhile, Jay stared at the reply he’d gotten. As much as he flirted with girls, he’d had no luck with them. They had never answered his texts before, and certainly none of them had called him “cutie.” Part of him thought this might be a result of Arcy being naive and ready to connect with anyone who showed interest. But another part of him wanted to believe that there really was a chance with this girl. After a few minutes, he texted back. Jay: you’re pretty cute yourself! Did you get home safely last night?

Jay didn’t bother replying, he rushed to fix his hair and put on some pants. In a few minutes, Arcy was at the front door. Rae opened it, since Jay was still prepping. Rae: hey, nice to see you again. I hope you can overlook that whole, uh, incident yesterday. You don’t have to do any pranks with me to be my pal.

Rae: sure, make yourself at home. The house was large, with high ceilings and a modern interior. The color scheme was mostly white and the furniture was simple, but tasteful. There was nothing else like the colorful quilt that had been lended to Arcy. As she stepped inside, Jay rushed to meet her.

Jay: not as beautiful as you! *pause* is it? We inherited this place recently, and I think it feels cold. It’s so much bigger than our last place. Jay leads Arcy to the living room, and Rae returns with some snacks

Rae dropped the snacks and Jay blushed so hard you’d swear he was naturally a red axolotl. Jay: oh, is that so? Uh. Wow. Okay, I can do that. Rae: *shoves the two apart from each other* first of all, gross! Second, Y’all just met yesterday, so can you hold back just a little? Geez!

Rae: and don’t be so sensitive about everything! I’m not saying you should leave, just both of you hold back on the grossness while you’re in my line of sight. As if I want to see anything about my brother’s love life. Jay: Don’t mind her, Arcy. She’s just jealous that she’s single. Jay stuck his tongue out at Rae and scooted closer to Arcy anyway.

Jay wraps an arm around her waist, looking smug, Rae: great. I love it when nobody listens to me. Well whatever, see if I care. *she picks up the snacks again and sets them on the coffee table, then sits on couch as far from the other two as possible* Jay: by the way, Arcy, since you left Eggman where are you staying?

Rae: you seem to like quiet things. *under her breath* can’t imagine what you see in Jay, then...

Rae makes an immediate grab for the phone, but Jay catches her arm. Jay: that’s an invasion of privacy! Rae: bug off, she’s your girlfriend, not mine. Rae checks the phone

Rae didn’t notice that Arcy returned. Rae: *laughing* would you look at that, she has more friends after all! “Demon friend,” sounds cool. Guess she doesn’t need me after all. Jay, however, notices Arcy and throws his hands up. Jay: I had no part in this, I totally told her not to touch that.

Rae: oooh, wouldn’t want you to eat me. Whatever. She tosses the phone to Arcy. Jay gets up and makes some space between him and the girls, thinking this may get messy.

Rae: geez, what put a bee in her bonnet? It’s fine if she has other friends. Not like I care. Jay: that was super suspicious. Maybe this “demon friend” is something else? Something serious? Rae: she did majorly overreact. Okay. *she gets a mischievous look on her face* maybe we should keep an eye on her for a while, just to make sure she’s okay, Jay: will this involve another invasion of privacy? Rae: several. Jay:... I’m in. Jay and Rae wait for Arcy to be a good distance ahead, then they follow her discreetly.

Jay and Rae peek in through a window, careful to not be seen. Jay (whispering, angry): who the heck is that guy?

ok im back

is there a window in her room?

Jay tries to climb through the window, but Rae pulls him back, gesturing toward the silhouette and then putting a finger to her lips to tell him to be quiet.

I’ll be honest I have no idea how to respond to that

Rae: hey, that shadow thing left! Looks like nothing’s happening, let’s go home. Jay: you stared inside Arcy’s window for an hour to just... go home? Rae: and what, you suggest we go in? Jay pulls out his phone and texts Arcy [texting] jay: mind if I come over?

Jay knocks on the window

Rae looks irritated. Rae: I’d like to tell HIM to shut the f— up! Jay offers to help Arcy out of the window, rather than him going in.

Rae: are you kidding me? There’s some jerk yelling at you and you’re crying! Like we’re supposed to just let you stay here!? Jay: or is there a reason you have to stay?

Jay helps her climb out of the window. Rae [yelling]: SHUT THE F— UP, DRAKE! Jay and Rae grab one of Arcy’s hands each and start running.

They run to a nearby park and collapse exhausted by a creek. They take a minute to catch their breath. Jay: you had to yell and alert him we were leaving, didn’t you? Rae: I don’t regret it

Jay: look at that, her eyes change color. How am I supposed to write poems about their color? Rae [ignoring him]: glad you thought it was fun. But, like... you can probably never go back there now... we probably messed up.

Jay laughed. Jay: you didn’t really have to answer! Now I’m going to have to really write a poem!

They sit in silence for another minute. Rae:... Seriously, what just happened? Who was that guy, and the shadow thing, and why were you even living there and what’s the deal with you!?

Rae: wait a second, so you’ve been lying to us from the second you met us! The whole Eggman thing was made up, just so you could hide that your brother is a freaky demon thing and your real dad sucks? Jay: calm down— I’m sure she had her reasons to lie. Rae: you be quiet! Just because you want to get in her pants doesn’t mean I have to sit here and accept everything she does. She could even be lying again right now! How can we trust her word?

Rae: haha! A playful kitten huh? Then you won’t have any trouble finding different friends. Come on Jay, we’re out of here. Jay’s gaze switched between the two girls. He sighed, but got up to leave with his sister.

I am not honoring that with a response