Truyen is stealing this so imma just hope it's copying all of this (as in they copy it all and then paste it) and say: IT IS A PLAGIARIZING WEBSITE. FIND @AShizTonOfShip on WATTPAD not TRUYEN.

4 months later....
Thanks for being so patient 😭 I am the slowest writer on Wattpad. Also thank you for all the votes and comments you guys are the reason I still write this 🥲

Icicle used to be omnipresent in my mind because I feared her.

Now, her name was doing laps around my brain because I may have very well killed her.

"He lives maybe three miles away." Kinkajou had regained her voice.

"Great." I gave a pained smile. "Dammit."

"If we take the subway we might be able to get there..." she sniffled, rubbing her eyes furiously. We had cut the ropes on a pronged gate some minutes ago, so I could see the burns on her hands even more clearly.

I didn't want to know what Icicle did to her. 

"Alright. Let's do it." I grabbed her hand, warm in my cold fingers, and squinted in a disoriented manner. The streets were packed with cars as the weather cooled.

If we hurried we could catch the seven thirty train which would get us halfway there. Kinkajou and I ran as fast as we could, both weary from the past events. I ended up piggybacking her most of the way to the underground.

Cigarette smoke and the sharp scent pigeon droppings assaulted our senses as we slipped down the stairs. The train was just pulling in as the two of us rushed to get on. We just barely made it, hoisting up onto the steps.

It was slow going, but the ride finally ended and we got off at the last stop. We were about half a mile away from Turtle's neighborhood, Kinkajou told me, so I figured it was safer to walk than risk getting lost on a different subway system.

By the time Kinkajou told me she recognized the neighborhood, I was ready to ask her for a piggyback ride.

"This is it." She determinedly told me. I inhaled, pinched my arm, and rang the doorbell. I could already tell by the broad porch of the suburban area that this was a family of wealth. A gold inlaid knocker was clearly disused and most likely kept for the aesthetic. Sturdy, carved pillars supported what had to be three or more stories, easily give or take an attic. Sea foam teal made up the painted wood walls, all in all adding a very beach-house look.

"Wow...I knew the principle was stacked, but this is..." I whispered. It was easy to forget Turtle's mother was the J-MAY head of school.
"Shush. Mind your manners when we go in. His mom can get intense."

"You're telling me to be polite? What has the world come to." I scoffed. "and yeah I got it." Her glare wasn't at all frightening, but I was just too numb to care.

Kinkajou reached up—on her tiptoes—and obnoxiously spammed the doorbell. 

Loud footsteps stormed what had to be many flights of staircases, and alas the door peeped open. I could hear the numerous locks sliding out of place as a short girl peeked out. I recognized the pink-haired brat from the class below me; Anemone. This was Turtle's sister, one of the two he mentioned.

A moment after Anemone gave us the stink eye, a lanky pair of boys popped up from behind her shoulders. They were clearly twins.

"Hi stranger!" The taller one chimed.

"Here for Turtle?" The other one piped.

"No." Kinkajou bossily interceded, raising her voice a few girly octaves. "I came here to see Anemone. She and I go way back." Kinkajou cheerfully locked arms with the girl, but her supposed friend shied away in disgust.

I thought she'd push Kinkajou over, until the peppy teen leaned in and whispered something softly into her ear.

Anemone paused thoughtfully, and side-embraced Kinkajou. "To my room!"
I was about to step over the threshold after the two bright girls, but the boys jumped in front of me and clashed arms in a medieval manner.

"Ah-ah-ah. No boys allowed in Anemone's room."

But that's not her room, that's the house.
"Uh—" the awkwardness rose. "I'm gay?"
Wow, that was the first time I said it aloud. I wasn't actually sure if it was true, but it certainly wasn't wrong. I definitely fell in love with Qibli, but I think I used to have minor, fleeting crushes on Lynx when we were younger. Hm. I think she was my only friend and I overestimated what that meant. Given how I flipped out when I heard she liked me—

"Oh you're here for Turtle, ey?" They teased in unison. Parting, they each grabbed one of my shoulders and nudged me forcefully inside.

"Well why didn't you say so? The boy's been down ever since he came home. Maybe you're the one for him, hm?"

"Oh god." I shuddered. "Don't put that image in my mind. Turtle? The lonely dweeb who'd marry the Harry Potter books? Yeah, no thanks."

"That's rough. Well I'm Octopus," the shorter brother introduced.

"And I'm Fin!" The taller announced.

"We're Turtle's older brothers."

As we walked down the decorated halls of Turtle's house, I could see there were many, many, many sleeping areas. I counted three bedrooms plus a kitchen, bathroom, living space, and washing room on the first floor alone. Fin and Octopus led me upstairs to the second story, where I saw two bathrooms, one ginormous closet, and five bedrooms. A rickety basketball hoop had been attached to the wall, and makeshift markers lined out a competition of sorts.

"How many of you are there?" I whispered.

"The basement has three people in it. First floor's got four of us. That's where the eldest brothers sleep. The second floor is me, Octopus, Cerulean, Turtle, and five others. The third floor is our sisters' and our parents'. And the attic," Fin carefully guided me to the room at the end of the hall, presumably Turtle's. "Is all storage. We alternate, though." He pointed to a long, paper sheet taped on the wall. I saw the same thing posted downstairs twice: in the kitchen, and the doorway that had to lead to the basment. Again, it appeared dangling behind the hoop, and on another brother's door.

Internally, I was calculating, though. "Wait," I whispered. Three in the basement, four on the first floor, eight on the second, and two on the third." My mind: OFFICIALLY BLOWN. "You're telling me Ms. Coral has...seventeen kids?!?!"

"L-O-L." Octopus deadpanned. "Genius, half of us are adopted. Finn, Turtle, the girls, Cerulean, and I are the only ones she birthed."

"Your mom adopted eleven kids?"

"Oh, most of our siblings were family before us though. Like," he began rattling off names and pairings, but I was more fascinated by their room cycle.

"It wouldn't be fair if you always had to sleep in the basement, or always had to sleep up top. So every few weeks we swap out with this intricate plan. Turtle's actually the one who came up with it when Urchin kept complaining about the poor AC on the second floor."

"Damn." Suddenly, I remembered Turtle's words. We'd gotten into a feud shortly before I, well, caused Carla to pass. My stomach performed a skillful aerobatic performance at that thought.

He'd said something about no one remembering his name. Now, surrounded by these 14 boys, I realized what he meant. Recognition not even to the barest level. I bet his mother couldn't bother to remember her children's names.

"I know what you're thinking." Finn slung an arm across my back in a very sloppy manner. "How do we even get family dinners if all of us can't fit at the table? How do you buy Christmas presents for seventeen kids? How do you pay tuition and manage school? How do you remember? A lot of people think that just because Mum doesn't keep us in order means she doesn't care. She cares, a lot more than you'd think. But it will always be more about her two precious girls than us. We're okay with being in the back though. We don't need praise to know how much love Coral emits. So don't feel sorry for us, okay? Or else I'll kick you in the gut."

"And then somewhere else," another voice added, and I whirled around to see Turtle.

"Hey," my voice trembled. "Can I talk to you? Um. Alone?"

Fin and Octopus snickered at my expense, but walked off jauntily.

"So..." Turtle shut his bedroom door softly, awkwardly stumbling back to his mattress.
I stood in the center of the room, fidgeting with my hands at the tense atmosphere. There were two beds in the room, so I presumed this was shared with the kid Octopus mentioned; Cerulean.

"I need your help." I informed him as steadily as I could. But a burn was already building up behind my eyes, pulsing with tears.

"Really. Suddenly Winter needs Turtle's help?"

I cringed. "I got Kinkajou back, you know."

Turtle froze. "Wh-where is she? I-is she here? Right now?" He burst out as I nodded. I blocked him from sprinting out the door, though, despite the hope lit on his face. My good arm across his chest, my broken one floating limply at my side.

"Hang on. I brought her here cause I needed to talk to you, and it was coincidence I got knocked out in the same closet as her.

"Knocked out?" Turtle fell back, quiet. Only then he realized the ugly stain of dried blood on the side of my head, which I had haphazardly covered in hair.

"I have some explaining to do," I brushed a hand through my tangled hair, crossing my legs on the floor. "You should sit down."

"So... your sister is the manifestation of all things evil."

"Yeah." I shrugged. "Like that's new."

"What are you gonna do about this?" He peered at me.

"Nothing." I lied. "Just, I need one thing."
If I was going to get behind the mystery of Hailstorm, this town, everything, I was gonna need something They couldn't resist. Something the DM would love to have.

"What?" He asked.

"Look, I know you get asked this a crap ton of times, but your mom is the principle. And I need help with something school related."

"The blue book?" He may have been timid, but Turtle was no idiot.

I nodded, fighting back more tears. The next step would be so morally cruel even I could feel it.

He brushed himself off to snatch a copy from his bookshelf, proudly presenting it to me. He must have felt pretty useless if this much gave him purpose. I smothered the guilt that rose at that thought, training my mind on the task ahead of me.

I flipped open the flimsy handbook.

My fingers skated across Sanderson, Qibli and Tidal, Tsunami. Tidal, Turtle. I blew through most of the T's with just Ms. Coral's family. No wonder they used their first names more; with so many kids of that family it would get confusing.

I froze over Xi, Leroy.

When I first met him, he was crying. Crying over the explosion that Sora, Clay's kid sister, had caused.

The bomb set by a girl trying to kill my sister.

There had to be a connection. I slammed the paper book shut with more force than necessary, gripping the binding hard.

Think. Think!

He could have been crying because death made him sad, or there could have been another reason. This was nothing to go on; humans were sacks of emotion.

That, was something my sister and I could agree on.

Yet, there was a small chance Leroy had some other tie to the explosion. A tie to my family, to the strange people trying to murder us, to literally any of the events to the last few weeks.

"Is there anyway you can drive me here? I know you already been a big help and you're probably busy, but—"

"Yes. I can't, but my sister can."

I winced. Dragging more people into your mess, Winter? "Thanks a bunch."

I sat on Turtle's creaky mattress as he went to to retrieve Tsunami. Fin and Octopus gave me suggestive looks through the ajar door when they saw me on the bed.

I hardened my expression into an icy glare, and they backed up.

I could hear Tsunami's heavy gallop as she stormed down the stairs, landing outside the door with a loud thump!

"You?" Tsunami scoffed, then turned to her little brother, who cowered in the back. "Seriously? Winter? I can't believe your first friend is—"

"I'm here you know," I thought to intercept.

"God, Turtle." She grumbled.

I almost expected her to stomp right back up to her room. Instead, she shoved one hand into her pocket and held the other out to....me.

Turtle sighed loudly with relief in the background, and the hammering of my heart quieted. "Thank you." The words flooding from my mouth. "Thank you, oh thank you."

"Whoa, slow down." Tsunami fished out her car keys, presenting the gleaming switch to me. "If we're doing this, we're doing it my way, okay?"

"The last time someone tried to take this over they ended up...." Turtle energetically added, only piling more shame onto the Winter-Sucks-Big-Time train by bringing up Hazel.

"Whatever. You're way. I don't care. Just take me here." My fingers dramatically pinched the address under Xi, Leroy.

"How far do you want me to—okay." She gave an affirming nod, and some part of me defrosted. It was nice to have someone so strong and...reliable. I missed falling back on people, even though I never really had someone.

I could've, of course.

But I was already a heap of anger and fear, and I really didn't need more guilt, so I cut that thought down.

Bundling my hands into fists, tucking the blue book into my back pocket, and rising to my feet, I nodded at the siblings. "Let's go kidnap Leroy!"

Oops...

New chapter coming asap.

Should I make my own fan art for these chapters instead of just putting in random stuff? I'm gonna draw the characters soon so we'll see. Comment please ily all.

Sneak peak at the next chapter!
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