Terra led them through the sea of students, making her way to what seemed to be the center of the party. Everyone around them was dancing, drinking, and laughing as the music played loudly in the background. Even though Amber knew Alfea better than most of the people there, she had no idea where they were.

Bloom shared her unspoken thought and asked, "This is what exactly?"

"The east wing of Alfea. It used to be used for war preparations, but since there hasn't been a conflict for a while, no one comes down here." Terra answered and then smile with an excited twinkle in her eyes, "Except for tonight."

"You two need a beer." Aisha simply told Amber and Bloom, noticing the uneased look on their faces.

"I need a beer." The redhead agreed while Amber just went along with it.

Bloom pushed through the crowd as the three of them tried to find the drinks table. When they did, Bloom grabbed the nearest one, barely looking at the glass bottle before taking a sip. Aisha grabbed one, too, and looked at Amber who was just observing from the side.

"Not in a mood for a beer?" Aisha asked with a frown.

"I've actually never had one before," Amber replied truthfully, eying the brown glass bottle in the girl's hand.

The water fairy gave her a reassuring smile, "Do you want to try?"

"Sure." The blonde replied, and Aisha handed her a beer. She took a quick sip but immediately grimaced at the taste. She looked at Bloom, who just took another sip as well. "That's gross! How can you drink it?"

The other two girls laughed at her reaction.

"Yeah but a few more of those will help you loosen up a bit," Aisha said and raised her bottle to clink it.

"I'll hold you to that," Amber said and the three clinked their drinks together.

Bloom glanced around the room, looking like she was trying to find someone but when she couldn't she turned to Amber and Aisha, "Hey, I'm just gonna go and check out the rest of the place. I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

Aisha told her to have fun while Amber stayed indifferent to the conversation. She still didn't like Bloom, but she tried to remain civil.

The blonde scowled after taking yet another sip and Aisha let out a chuckle and looked at the table, "Let's find you something else to try, some of them in certain flavors so maybe we can find you something you would like more."

After trying each drink Aisha had handed her, Amber took another cup, the last one she had to try.

"That one was the worst one yet!" She exclaimed and Aisha raised her eyebrows.

"You said it about every single one of them," The dark-skinned girl reminded, and Amber raised the cup to take another sip, "Yet you're still drinking it!"

"It's kind of growing on me, in a weird way," Amber shrugged and gave her a light grin. "The third one was not so bad. Which one was it again?"

Aisha laughed and handed her the drink, "You've never tried any alcohol before that?"

"My sister sneaked a bottle of wine for us once, it was strange but nice."

"Your sister sounds like quite the person," Aisha noted and the blonde girl nodded.

"If she were here, she'd definitely steal the spotlight. I would have loved to see the look on Stella's face, it would have driven her mad!" Amber smirked at the thought.

Aisha looked puzzled and slightly worried, "You two really don't like each other, do you?"

"Not my fault she's a bitch." Amber shrugged and put her empty cup on a nearby table.

"You aren't so nice either," The water fairy commented.

"True, but at least I'm not a backstabber," Amber replied but didn't elaborate. She could see that Aisha was left with even more questions now, but she wasn't going to spend the entire party complaining about Stella, so instead, she changed the subject and moved on.

After a while, Aisha said, "I think I'll try to find Bloom and make sure everything's okay. Wanna come?"

"No, I'm good. I think I'll stay here for a bit." Amber replied, waving her off.

More and more people joined the party and while Amber felt a bit unincluded, she was content she took a break and didn't follow her suitemates. This whole socializing thing was still new to her, but part of her was willing to give it a try.

However, she wasn't entirely happy with being watched and some guy standing at the corner was glancing at her occasionally, quickly turning his gaze away from her when he was caught. She instantly thought back to Jaden, who had the same habit of blending in while keeping a careful eye on her.

At some point, it crossed the border of annoying, and Amber marched over to him.

"Are you with Jaden or something?" Amber snapped, her green eyes narrowed in accusation. The last thing she wanted was another babysitter who watched over her.

"What?" The guy replied with surprise, a hint of red dusting the color of his cheeks. He threw a quick look at the group of guys behind him that was looking at him with smug expressions, one of them even gave him a light pat on the back, before he returned his gaze back to Amber.

"Because you've been staring at me for a while and it sort of making me feel uncomfortable," Amber continued to press, crossing her arm across her chest in what she hoped was an intimidating act.

His friends snickered behind them, and he shushed them and shoved them away, taking a small step toward Amber.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel that way, I swear." He said, brushing a hand through his short dark curls almost shyly, but Amber was still waiting for an explanation, "I didn't mean to stare, I've just been stuck in my head trying to figure out how to approach the prettiest girl in the party,"

Oh. Oh.

"Sorry, was that too straightforward?" Curly Hair asked with a nervous smile on his face.

"Uh, no. No!" Yes, it was. That was something Amber hadn't predicted to happen. "That was nice," Amber stumbled over the last part of the sentence, feeling her face getting warm.

He rubbed the back of his head timidly, "Good. Who's Jaden anyway?" He laughed.

"That would be me, mate." Jaden's confident voice was heard from behind her and when she turned to look at him, he suddenly placed his arm around her shoulders, "She's with me – and we were actually just leaving."

She heard Curly Hair awkwardly muttering something along the lines of "Right, sorry." as Jaden led them away to a more secluded part of the room.

Once they were far enough, Amber pushed Jaden's arm away from her, glaring at the brunet, "I'm not leaving!"

"Yeah, I figured. But it was a nice way to get away from him. I could see you were getting uncomfortable from all over across the room."

"I wasn't uncomfortable, he just caught me off guard." Amber argued and Jaden raised his eyebrows in wonder.

"Is this your first time being hit on? You're welcome for saving you." He said and smiled a cheeky smile that sent waves of anger toward Amber in a way that made her want to drop the ceiling on him. She could feel her magic starting to awaken at the unspoken wish. Jaden noticed the colors changing in her eyes and quickly spoke. "Calm down, Hulk."

That certainly didn't help.

"I don't need your help!" Amber snapped, almost shouting. She saw one of the drinks tables shaking and instantly realized she was the one causing it.

She whipped around, wanting to get away from the party and mostly from Jaden, but he grabbed her arm after only taking two steps. "Wait, wait!" He said, his voice pleading, the teasing melted into urgency.

He quickly let go when he realized how much Amber was irked by the way he was holding her in her place. "I know you don't need my help. I actually need to talk with you. I wanted to apologize."

Amber took a step backward and gawked at him in disbelief. The look on his face seemed genuine enough.

Amber was a bit cautious but intrigued, "Go on."

The corner of his lips lifted up with what nearly counted as a weak smile, "I have realized I went a little bit over the top with the guarding duty. I'm sorry for that. I know you need your space so, how about we make a deal? I won't bother you and you'll just text, or call me, or something before doing something dangerous or stupid so I can be there."

Amber glanced away from him, pondering his suggestion. It seemed fair if she was being honest.

"Do you really trust me enough to let you know that I'm planning to do 'something dangerous or stupid'?" Amber couldn't help but ask.

"I guess I just hope you'll trust me enough to do so."

Mutual trust. Seemed like a fair idea, too.

"Okay," Amber nodded and lifted her hand to shake his, "Deal?"

"Deal," His hand shook hers, sealing the agreement.

When he leaned closer to shake her hand she noticed a discoloring beneath his left eye, one she hadn't noticed before under the room's dim lights.

"What happened to you?" Amber questioned, her eyes fixed on the bruising on Jaden's face.

Jaden lifted his hand up to touch his face, like he wasn't sure what Amber was talking about before the recollection seemed to come back to him.

"Riven." He answered, before raising his eyebrows nearly sarcastically. "But you wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?"

"Not a clue," Amber had no doubt he knew she had some sort of relation to whatever happened, but he didn't look mad. He seemed annoyed but also almost amused. And even though she tried to hold back a (very guilty) smile, she couldn't.

"I'm pretty sure that's the first time I saw you smiling since I met you,"

"Are you going to say my smile is pretty now?" The young princess mocked, tilting her head.

"Oh, no, I'd rather have another run against Riven. Might even get a real concussion this time." He joked in return.

"I'll definitely drink to that." Amber cheered before looking around with a puzzled expression, "If I knew where I left my drink."

He laughed and Amber realized it was the first time she saw his smile as well. Not his sardonic and smug smile, just a content smile. One without ulterior motives, genuine enough to bring out the dimples on his cheeks.

"How about we go and find your friends." He suggested instead, "I think I saw them playing beer pong?"

"Sounds awesome except for the fact that I have no idea what beer pong is."

And that was how Amber found herself twenty minutes later, teaming up with Riven as they were playing against Terra and Jaden. She had missed a few cups at the beginning but after Riven helped her with her stand and aim they were almost in a tie.

Two cups left on their side, three on Terra and Jaden's side.

"Don't think much, focus on your target and throw," Riven leaned closer and guided her. Amber nodded, not taking her eyes off the cup she wanted to land the ping pong ball into.

With a swift shot, Amber's ball landed successfully inside the cup. Jaden groaned and chug down the beer in the cup.

"Not bad, Barbie. You sure you don't want to switch to be a specialist?" Riven asked, grinning at Amber, "You've got good aim. Might be a decent shooter."

"Just decent? Okay, the next cup to drink is yours,"

"Fine with me, I've got a new benchmark to set this year," He said and took the ball when Terra missed her shot.

Soon there was only one cup on each side of the table, and Amber's turn was up.

"You okay? You seem a bit dizzy. I'm not sure you'll make this shot." Jaden spoke, trying to undermine her self-confidence and distract her. She was dizzy but if landing the shot meant she would officially beat Jaden herself (well, with the help of Riven once again, but the details didn't matter) there was no way she was going to lose.

"I'm okay, I will," she claimed and took the shot.

The ping pong ball flew in the air...

And landed straight in Jaden and Terra's last cup.

Both she and Riven cheered loudly, high-fiving each other while mocking the losing team.

But Jaden wasn't wrong with how dizzy she was, she felt like she was second from completely losing her balance, and she could feel the sweat tickling down her neck – It was just so awful hot all of the sudden.

Some group of specialists asked if they could join, and Terra responded quickly, "Yes, of course. Dane, you can be with me! Is this okay with you, Jaden?"

But Jaden ignored her, focusing his attention on Amber, whose eyelids were slightly dropping as she leaned on the side of the table.

"Amber?" Jaden asked, watching her reaction but he only got a soft, unfocused hum from her in return. "I think Amber and I going to take a break outside."

Before she knew it, or more like realized it, the chilly air hit her skin, cooling her warm body down slowly. There weren't so many people outside, most of them were still raging inside the party. But it was quiet and peaceful.

Jaden handed her a cup which she quickly denied, "I'm done with the beer for tonight. Or for the rest of my life."

"Although I do think you are much much nicer when you're drunk, this is just water. Trust me, you're going to thank me later." Jaden stated and they both found a free bench to sit on.

There was something familiar about Jaden, but she couldn't place her finger on it.

"Have we met before? Back in the palace?" She asked and heard the boy next to her let out a sigh.

"We did. Once or twice."

"I don't remember it."

"I'm glad you don't. I was a different person," He confessed, "I... had a buzzcut."

The blonde let out a laugh mixed with a snort, "Oh, the horror."

She slowly drank her water as the buzzing in her body started to fade away with each passing minute outside. A part of her wanted to go to sleep but another part was wide awake, a million thoughts coming and going with the speed of light. However, one of them stuck the most.

"I know why you're really here," She started, with a bit hesitation, "What you're really doing."

"What?" And if Amber had been a bit soberer, she might have noticed how the pitch of his voice seemed to rise in the slightest, "I don't..."

There was a chime sound coming from her side.

"You weren't sent here to just keep me safe. They sent you to protect Alfea from me." Amber said, not looking at Jaden.

From the second she had known about Jaden, she realized what it meant. Her parents didn't want to protect her, they just didn't trust her. They needed to watch over her in case she went out of control. And since they couldn't do it while she was in Alfea, they sent Jaden for it.

Another chime— It was Amber's phone.

"Amber, it's n—"

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Her phone was getting blown off with notifications and she let out a groan, finally pulling it out of her pocket to check it. The suite's group chat had 3 new messages.

Bloom:

Emergency.

Burned One.

Stone circle.

Jaden noticed how Amber quickly straightened up, "What's going on?"

Another two messages came through just a second later.

Its in the forest.

Me and sky r chasing it.

Amber finally caught his gaze, suddenly feeling much more alert than she was a few minutes ago. Her suitemate and her best friend were in danger.

"Remember how you said to tell you if I'm going to do something dangerous or stupid?"

_______________________________________________

I guess we all know what's coming next right? Or do we? 😏😏

Also I barely edited it lol so sorry for any mistakes I've missed

Once again, I hope you liked this chapter and if you did make sure to drop your thoughts in the comment section. I love reading your comments!💕💕