THE SHRILL RINGING OF PHONE INTERRUPTED HER DREAMS, and Jade woke up wild-eyed as she groped for her cellphone. Knowing that she wouldn't find it, she sat up straighter and glanced at the bedside table, grabbing the things which disturbed her sleep.

She tapped on the phone screen, causing her to close her eyes immediately and squint closely until her eyes adjusted to the brightness of the phone. It was at the lowest and Jade still found it too bright to look at.

She scrolled through the call log and found two missed calls from her mother.

Jade jumped out of the bed as she called back, and her mother lifted it even before the first ring started. Well, someone's worried, Jade thought to herself. She glanced at the bedside clock as she sat on the edge of the bed. It was ten 'o'clock. That was late for people like Rose and Shay, but it was early for Jade.

"Jade?" Her mom's clear voice filled her ear, soothing her. Jade nodded as she found herself relaxing and smiling, but realized her mother couldn't see her. "Good morning mom," she said. Her mother replied and talked to her, her voice steady as a lighthouse. She was the only mother Jade had ever known: loving, worried and caring. She wasn't her biological mother but was as good as one, even better.

Even in her morning haze, Jade could tell that her mother was trying to keep the worry out of her voice and to chat cheerfully, but was horribly failing at it. "Mom?" Jade interrupted her mid-sentence. "You sound worried. What is it? Is everything alright? Are you sick? Dad is? Should I—" With each question, Jade's voice rose higher and higher, thankfully her mother interrupted.

"No, no. Everything's alright. It's just that things at Blackwood are getting out of hand. All these suicides and kidnappings and mysterious disappearing, they are messing with my mind. I'm just worried about you." Jade tried to interrupt her but her mom cut her off. "I know what you are going to say. No. I want you to come back home, but I also want you to stay with Shay and Will. Just stay with them. Jessica and Nick are journalists and right now, they have more pressure and more work to do, and they have no choice but to work because that's what we have to do for a living. I'm very worried not only about you but about all of you kids. Jessica and Nick too would be worried sick about Shay and Will and I want you to keep them company but at the same time, I want you safe."

Again, Jade tried to interrupt her, but her mother didn't give her a chance. Her mom explained hastily, "Just stay with your friends. All the parents had a talk yesterday, you know? None of the parents had any problem with you guys staying at their house as we understand Jessica's and Nick's situation and turns out their boss is forcing them to stay for more time, as they are the best journalists in the team, and they have to stay away for more days."

Jade took in the news. It was hard on her friends. They missed their parents, and it would hurt them to know they wouldn't be home for more days.

Jade's mother sensed her feelings in the silence, just as she did every time. She sighed and explained patiently, "Jessica and Nick were devastated to know they can't be back for two more weeks and all the parents had no problem with our kids staying with Will and Shay because we understand the situation. Poor Jessica and Nick lost their loves and now, they can't even spend time with their children because of the pressure from their boss. Just stay safe okay Jade? All of you. Take care of Shay, Will, Theo, Kai, and Leo. Don't involve yourself into anything dangerous, please," her mother pleaded and Jade's eyes widened. Jade reassured her mother that they would be alright, wouldn't try anything dangerous.

The conversation then returned to a normal one, what are you eating, and stuff.

"Seriously, mom?" Jade screeched into her phone knowing how stupid her mother sounded. She asked if Jade was tired, and Jade replied that she had a slight stomach ache. Her mother disapprovingly commented: "Yeah, well, it's because you are on your phone all the time."

"It's because I ate a lot yesterday, not because I use my phone! Seriously, what's the connection there?" Jade exclaimed and heard her dad chuckling from the other side. She could picture them so clearly, her mother leaning against the dining table clutching the phone as her father sat on the dining table with a newspaper in his hand, amusedly listening to the conversation.

Her mom sighed, "Jade, take care. Take care of the others too, tell them I said hi. I love you."

Jade smiled, "I love you too, mom."

"Okay then," Her mom started but was interrupted by Jade and her father.

"Wait! Let me talk to dad—"

"Wait a minute, woman! I want to talk with my daughter—Here, give me that." There was a shuffling sound and Jade could picture her father scrambling to get hold of the phone hurriedly.

"Hey dad," Jade said, a smile creeping up her face. "Jade! I talked to you last night, so I won't take up much of your time now,"

"No, it's alright. You can talk—"

"I just wanted to say, don't get scared by what your mom said. Have fun, enjoy to your fullest. Don't listen to what mom says," he added jokingly, whispering the last part. She heard her mother whacking the back of her father's head and chuckled. "Kidding! Have fun with your friends and Theo. Enjoy with Theo, but not too much." Another whack on his head.

"Dad!" Jade whined. She heard her mother whispering, "Don't listen to him, have as much as fun you want."

"Mom!"

"Hey! Don't you dare encourage her!"

Her parents whispered to each other about something, then finally her dad chuckled, "I love you, Jade. We both do, remember that. Bye!"

"I love you too, dad. Both of you. Thank you. For everything you did for me. For taking me in. For giving me a life I don't think I deserve. I don't deserve you guys. Love you both, so much." Her voice shook with raw emotion.

"Jade—" Her parents started, alarmed.

"Bye, mom, dad. I love you guys so so much. Please take care. Bye!" Jade cut the call, knowing that her voice was slowly going high pitch and tears would stream out of her eyes if she talked to them even longer. She stared at the phone.

She remembered the dark days of her past and the light days that came after they took her in. Her biological parents were teens. Both of them left Jade in an orphanage after her mother gave birth to her.

The orphanage was not so bad. They took care of her well, but couldn't stop the elder girls bully her. It might have had to do with the fact that they didn't know she was being bullied. Even Jade didn't know she was being bullied, she didn't know about the term itself. She had been that young.

Then she was adopted.

Her new parents took care of her, loved her. Or she thought they did. Little did she know all of that was fake. She was happy and content with her life. She had a mother and a father, and a grandfather who loved her. Jade had never experienced happiness till then, only read about it and knew it as if it were a spiritual being.

Then the grandfather died. Her new parents started treating her badly, and Jade couldn't help but think she did something wrong, and she saddened them. She tried her best to correct herself and make them happy, making drawings of her new parents and herself holding hands, which would always end up in the dustbin and in little pieces. Her heart felt like that too.

She reached her breaking point when she was deposited into the orphanage again. She came back even more broken and lost hope in life. Afterwards, she learnt that they had only adopted her because their father wanted a child and play with their grandchild before he died, and they were unwilling to have one. But then they were struck with an idea. They thought, hey, why not adopt a kid and let the old man play with her until he dies, then we would get all his properties. After he dies, we could throw her back in the orphanage and even get money and properties.

They were happy. They didn't deal with the child they didn't want. The old man they were supposed to look after died, they no longer had to fake being happy and loving him so that they could get his money. Get a child, let the old man play with her, wait for him to die, take the money and properties, throw the useless girl back.

She wasn't bullied this time like she was. Her bullies sympathized her and left her alone. That's how she felt. Alone. Alone and broken. Useless. Two sets of people threw her into an orphanage. Was she that bad? That useless?

She remembered the hope in her heart, the happiness and excitement making her feel like a balloon. Soaring high in the sky. But what she felt when her new parents no longer cared about her was really hurting. What she felt when she was returned to the orphanage was even worse.

Jade never trusted people from then. She would never let people inside her heart. But a young couple came to the orphanage one day, and they liked Jade immediately, though Jade had no idea why. Jade had felt a moment of happiness then, which was sucked out almost immediately.

They spent time with Jade every day, before adopting her. They wanted to get to know her, and Jade slowly warmed up to them. She was adopted. She was happy again, her parents were loving and caring and amazing. But every time a smile had crept up to her face in the first three months, a cold fear gripped her heart. What if they left her?

But they never did. They mended Jade's broken heart with care, nurturing her with unconditional love. They moved into Blackwood along with Jade, enrolling her into a middle school.

Where she met the rest of her life's miracles. People along with her parents whom she could call her people. Always ready to catch her. Her first day at the middle school had fairly been a bad one because her previous parents who faked caring about her wanted to adopt her back again.

Her biological parents were rich, and they died when someone tried to rob them. The robbers killed them both. And there had been quite a debate at the time, whether Jade could claim their properties or not. But as soon as they came to know that the answer was a big no, they dropped their efforts telling they didn't want her any more.

Some random guy decided to make it even worse. He made a perverted comment and was about to grab at her. Just when Jade clenched her jaw and was ready to throw a punch she didn't know how to, another guy stepped in and punched him instead. Will.

Jade knew that she should've thanked him, but her mood was very bad. Jade snapped at Will even though there was no reason to snap at, and Will accepted it with an amused chuckle. She met her other friends through Will, though the relationship between Will and Jade remained like that of an elder brother and a younger sister, always fighting and bickering but caring for them.

Jade snapped out of her reverie and hopped downstairs, her heart jumping a little just as it did every time she saw Theo. She smiled when Theo bent to kiss her cheek, but Kai interrupted them. Theo and Kai seemed to be in the middle of a fight, which was a scene which repeated every day. They had pointless fights every day, on small matters like 'Coke or Pepsi?'

They would usually end with both of them offering food to each other. The previous day, they came up with a rather creative question: Will sticky glue stick to a non-stick pan? But they never found out, because Rose didn't allow them to ruin the cooking vessels.

Jade poked her head out of the house and spotted Shay in the backyard, playing with a little cat. Shay always cooed about how cute the cat was, but Jade could swear she always saw an evil glint in its eyes. It would make a satisfying sound whenever Jade stepped on its poop, stare at her with superior and evil eyes. But as soon as Shay would come near it, it would let out an innocent meow and rub against Shay's leg.

The cat caught sight of Jade and hissed at her. Jade had no problem in hissing back.

She went back into the room with a slightly sourer mood, but it went down when she looked at Theo, and she remembered what had happened the previous day. When Theo had gone to the bathroom, Jade hid below the bed, wanting to scare him. But she saw him come out of the bathroom all excited, hiding inside the closet as he giggled.

Will was reading the newspaper filled with no news at all, Rose sat on the couch reading a novel. Jade sat beside her, peeking into what Rose was reading. Rose looked over surprised and smiled at her. "Who are you and what have you done to our Jade? Jade waking up this early, wow!"

Jade opened her mouth to reply but shut it when Kai shouted loudly at Theo. Jade groaned, "Not again. The first thing I see after waking up is seeing these two bickering like a married couple. What is it about today?"

"Just see," Rose said, nodding at them and Jade paid attention to their argument. "What kind of goddamn maniac pours the milk first before the cereal?!?" Kai exclaims pointing at Theo with an accusatory finger. Theo swats his finger away and fires back, "What kind of psychopath pours cereal before milk?!?"

Jade shook her head, "This argument is getting a little old, don't you think?" Rose nodded, "I absolutely agree."

"You know what? Let's deal it like men do," Kai said clenching his fist, and Theo smiled at him and tilted his head slightly, cracking his knuckles. Jade turned away, knowing what would happen.

"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS!" Both of them shouted at a time and Jade heard Kai groan and Theo shouting out in victory. Kai let out a sound which seemed like a mix of a groan and a scream and whined, "No, it's not fair, let's have a match of three points." Theo covered his ears and said in a sing-song voice, "La, la, la. I can't hear you!"

"Breakfast?" Jade asked, looking at Rose expectantly. Rose let out a breath, "Don't ask me. It's Kai who is supposed to do it today." Jade sighed as she got up and pushed Kai over to the kitchen, hitting him with a spoon. Kai looked at Jade, alarmed. He muttered under his breath, sounding like a wildlife commentator. "The creature is pretty hungry today, we need to be careful folks. It's her territory so... ow! Ouch! Fine, fine, I'm going!"

Kai wandered into the kitchen which was gorgeous, looking around as if its his first time seeing the kitchen.

He smiled at Jade and Theo who were watching him, "Welcome to Cooking 101. Today, I will be teaching you the basics of cooking." He paused, smiling at the imaginary camera.

Kai smiled patiently again, "This is the one thing you need to remember while cooking. The key to cooking well is to avoid cooking badly," he said brightly. "Wonderful," Jade muttered under her breath.

Kai took the cheese and stared at it for a minute, then searched for something. Jade came in too, looking at him, "The cheese grater?"

Kai clutched his heart, fake staggering back. "Oh my god, the creature's gone telepathetic." Jade stared at him evenly, "You mean telepathic."

Kai shrugged as he corrected, "Telepathetic." He looked over and shouted, making Jade clutch her ears in agony. "Willlllllll"

"Whaaaaaat?" Will asked, mimicking Kai.

"We neeeed you. Come to the kitchen." There was a sigh, and the sound of a chair scraping against the floor. "What?" Will asked again as he was just entering the kitchen. That was when Theo shouted, "Found it!" And chucked the cheese grater behind without looking, which hit Will.

Will shook his head, "I should've known it was about this." He turned on his heel and walked away, but Theo shouted, "Come back here, you ungrateful man!" Kai's eyes shone with an idea, and he shouted, "Come back here if you have a shred of decency!"

Theo and Kai rushed after Will, the former clutching Will's shirt to stop him. Theo apologized gravely, "I did it for your grater good."

Kai looked at Theo, impressed. "This is grate." Rose whistled, "Cheese," she said, and Theo and Kai looked at her with happy eyes, knowing she meant 'Jeez.'

They looked at Jade now, with expectant eyes. Will looked at her pleadingly, not wanting to hear another pun. Jade didn't want to do it. But if it meant that she was on the side which was against Will, she would do it. She sighed again, looking up. "This is so cheesy."

Theo and Kai squealed with happiness, the former wrapping her in a tight hug. The things she does for her boyfriend and best friends...

Kai was pushed back into the kitchen, who did it with an impressive amount of excitement. She watched him go, his excitement reminding her of his sister, Emily. Emily was someone who was very cheerful and optimistic. Just yesterday they talked to her. When she was talking to Kai, she told that there was no way she was missing his annoying presence and that the house was much better without him, but admitted to Rose that she did miss her elder brother, even though he visited her every two days.

She added that she did miss her brother but told that it would be better if Kai stayed in the house because she didn't want Will and Shay sad and lonely.

Jade looked at Will to see if he was alright or not, but he seemed to be intensely staring at his sketch. "What are you doing?" she asked. Will looked up but Rose answered her before he could. "Isn't it obvious? It's what he does every time after he draws something, staring at it until he hates it."

As if on cue, Will tore the paper into little pieces and threw them into the trash can, taking a new paper. Theo stood in front of Will, posing. "Draw me like I'm one of your French girls, Will."

Kai appeared out of nowhere, holding a spoon to his chest. "Wearing this."

Theo grinned at Kai, "Yes. Only wearing this."

All of them stared at each other before bursting out laughing. Jade had trouble breathing as she laughed, trying her best to catch some air. She knew that she would be happy as long as she was with her friends. They would always find some way to make her laugh, make her smile.

Almost everything she looked at made her remember a memory with her friends. Jade looked at the headphones lying on the table. She remembered how they had bargained for the headphone. So much that the shopkeeper started crying and bid them a farewell, swearing that he would never let them back into his shop.

Jade also remembered the previous night when Theo and Kai were fighting about which pizza was better, cheese or peperoni. But they sulked for hours when Will and Rose told them that they weren't ordering a pizza, and didn't eat the dinner. Jade caught them stealing food from the fridge past midnight. Theo had been hugging the fridge and kept telling it that he could no longer stand the long-distance relationship and that if he had a choice, he would smuggle the fridge into his room. Jade was biting at her lip to hold back laughter and burst into fits of laughter after going back into Shay's room.

Just imagine this, she thought. It's past midnight and you feel thirsty, you come down to drink water and see your boyfriend hugging the fridge telling he couldn't manage the long-distance relationship after eating food and one of your best friends throws cornflakes into your boyfriend's hair, saying he understands his problem, saying that they should probably make a secret room to keep the fridge in their room and eat food whenever they like.

After laughing loudly and successfully waking Shay, Rose and Will in the process, they went downstairs and asked them why they were awake. The answer they received was even more ridiculous.

Both of them had the same nightmare and came downstairs sleepwalking.

And they even had a reason why they were snacking, Theo hugging the fridge and Kai throwing cornflakes into Theo's hair. Apparently, the villain had been fighting them and these both too were fighting bravely, but their energy was low and a good citizen called Mr Fridge offered them snacks to build up their stamina. Who gives out snacks for stamina?

Anyway, Theo had been hugging Mr Fridge in gratitude and Kai saw SnackMonster, yeah they told the villain had a name and it was SnackMonster. Kai saw SnackMonster sneaking an attack at Theo and threw cornflakes at the monster which lead to its death because one of the cornflakes hit monster's forehead and it was the monster's weak point. And, yeah the story's still not done, after the death of the monster, the monster's soldiers turned good and made Theo and Kai the kings of SnackLand.

And when we all came down and turned the lights on, Theo and Kai were out of their dream and when they saw each other they were shocked. Theo gave Kai a hug for saving his life and Kai said, "Anytime man," and were exclaiming about how the dream felt so real.

Lying had a limit. Cross that limit, and one lets others know that you are actually lying. If Jade told this story to a three-year-old, he too would identify you are telling a lie. Jade wouldn't be surprised if the three-year-old patted Theo and Kai on the shoulder and tell, "Get a Life, Man."

Theo was now looking at Will who took another paper and started drawing. "Say, Will?"

"Hmmm?"

"I already asked you this question long back, but I forgot what you answered back. You never take any of us as a model and draw us. Why is it?"

Will straightened his shirt, staring outside the window. His eyes were fixed on Shay. "Well, you might not get a perfect answer, but this is my opinion. Drawing a person is capturing them forever. Taking a picture is different, because in that case, you capture and preserve the memory. But here, you capture the person. In my opinion, if you love someone, you allow them to change. You love the changes in their personality just as you love the bits and pieces of their old personality. If you capture them, you don't allow them to grow. You are just loving their old personality, not their new one. A person changes every second. Every second they evolve into something even better. And either, I will keep drawing you guys every second to capture every change, or I won't draw you at all." Will said smiling faintly, looking at each of them.

Everyone held in their breath. What Will said was so deep, and it made so much sense. Theo ran towards Will, "Will, my man! I love you, too!" He said, hugging him tightly. Will returned the hug as he laughed. Kai was smiling until he remembered the breakfast which was cooling down and beckoned all of them towards the dining table.

Rose caught Jade's eye as they sat down, "I heard you shout out 'seriously mom' this morning. What happened?"

Jade told them about how her mom had a tendency to blame everything on phones. All of them laughed out loud. Kai smiled as he launched into a story. "Do you remember we went out of station for climbing mountains? When we were a part of that mountain climbing camp?" Kai asked, and all of them nodded excitedly. They had so much fun.

Kai continued, "After we climbed the largest mountain there, I mean it was quite an achievement cause we were one of the few people of our age to manage climbing that thing, anyway after we climbed it and we took a photo, I showed that photo to mom after we came back home."

They nodded slowly, kind of remembering that Kai had told them this earlier. But no one stopped him. Kai said, "I expected her to launch into a burst of applause or something but did you know what did she say? ' Why were your clothes so untidy and your hair a mess?' I almost fell off the couch you know, I mean we managed to climb one of the mountains teenagers can't climb and what reaction do I get? You should have washed your clothes and combed your hair," He said sadly, and they guffawed out loud.

Theo held Jade's hand as he said, "When I come to think about it if I tell mom that I am one of the people in that newspaper picture, her first reaction might be 'The colour combination of your clothes is horrible' then all that Why did you commit a crime, Theo McCallister?'"

Kai looked at him with disbelief, "What the hell? My parents would immediately disinherit me and throw me out of the damn house." Theo shrugged, "I mean, you know my mom is a fashion designer, she gets absolutely pissed if the colour combination or clothes selection is not good."

Before anyone could say anything, Theo's ringtone starts playing. Jade watched as he dug his phone out of his pocket and answered, "Beth!" He said cheerfully. He stood up and walked away, saying something about their school giving them holidays.

Jade smiled. Blackwood High School had finally realized that the situation in the city was bad and gave them holidays.

Theo came inside, sensing six pairs of eyes on him. Leo was pawing at his feet. He sat beside Jade. "Dad asked Beth to run an errand for her, and she asked if we could look after those kids she babysits on weekends." There was a chorus of answers, all of them saying yes.

They ate quickly and walked outside, wearing their shoes.

"What the hell?!?" Kai exclaimed out loud looking at Theo's shoes. Theo narrowed his eyes as he defensively said, "What?" Theo wore a puzzled expression on his face as he turned his shoes over.

"What kind of person wears shoes in that sequence, sock-shoe-sock-shoe?" Kai said, looking at Theo with horror. Theo fired back, "Wait, don't tell me you wear shoes in the sock-sock-shoe-shoe sequence. I've lost my respect for you Kai." Both of them launched into a fierce argument containing wild hand gestures. Theo, who was still arguing with Kai reached out for Jade's hand and held it.

Jade interlinked their fingers together, but he removed his thumb out and brushed it against the bare skin of the back of her hand.

He flashed her a quick smile before turning back and continuing his argument with Kai as they walked.

+++

A/N: This was a long, filler chapter. Hope you had fun reading it, just as I had writing it!

Thank you!