"Any plans for Thanksgiving?" Narwhale asked the squad one afternoon.

"Nah, not really. But I've been thinking about going to that Fall Fest outside of the city," Tommie replied as she scrolled on her phone.

"Wait, really?" The brunette perked up, hurrying over to her best friend. "I didn't know there was one nearby!"

Tommie looked up at her, surprised. "You didn't know?"

"No!"

"Oh. Well, I'm planning on going tonight."

"Sounds sweet, mind if I tag along?" Evan jumped in, intrigued by the conversation.

Tommie shrugged. "I was gonna ask anyways. I'd love to go with you guys."

"Hey guys!" Narwhale then ran over to the rest of the group, who had been minding their own business. "We're going to a Fall Fest tonight!! Do you guys wanna come?"

"No," Stratus said. Amy glared at him.

"Um, yeah!" Alister responded, jumping up from her beanbag chair. "I've been dying to find an excuse to wear a really cute fall sweater I just got!"

"Well, someone's gotta keep you little gremlins in line," Ash said. "I'm down."

"Forgive me for asking, but what is a 'Fall Fest'?" Dawn mumbled, her cheeks heating up as she looked down.

Ash gave her a pat on the back. "No worries. A Fall Fest is just a big fall celebration. There's typically a lot of fresh produce- pumpkins specifically- hay rides, corn mazes... and pumpkin spice lattes." Their orange eyes gleamed with hunger on that last part.

"Huh. I didn't even really realize that it was autumn already. It's impossible to tell when the weather never goes below sixty degrees," Dawn commented.

Amy snicked. "You're so right."

"So, we're all going then??" Narwhale's eyes lit up.

"No, I'm not," Stratus said, turning to leave.

Amy grabbed his sleeve and tugged on it. "Yes you are! You always avoid these things!"

"I'm not going," he objected.

"You can't stay in your little science cave all day every day! Touch grass for once in your miserable life!"

"I can assure you that I touch grass."

"You're coming."

Stratus looked her in the eyes, and seemed to then realize that he was fighting a losing battle. He let out a deep, defeated sigh. "Fine."

Amy pumped a fist in the air. "Yes!"

"Then we're all going!" Narwhale squealed. Her expression suddenly changed as she scanned the room frantically. "Wait, Jax isn't here!"

She pulled out her phone and quickly typed a message to Jax, to which he seemed to respond just seconds later based on the quick ding that came soon after. A big smile spread across her face as she read the message.

"He'll be there!" she exclaimed.

"Slow down, cowgirl. We haven't decided on a time yet," Tommie giggled, walking over and putting a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder.

"How about five o'clock?" Ash suggested.

Everyone responded in some form of agreement, to which Narwhale excitedly said, "Then five o'clock it is!"

"I'll send the details to the group chat," Tommie added, glancing down at her phone again.

Once the text was sent to everyone, Dawn squinted at her phone screen. "How do I...?"

"Just put it into the maps app," Alister advised, pointing to the icon on her home screen. "Copy in the address, and it'll give you directions."

"Ooh," the she-cat said, her ears pricking up at the idea of this revolutionary new technology.

***

"Finally! A slight breeze!" Alister cheered as she and Tommie got out of her car. She dusted off her cropped pastel orange sweater in a dramatic manner, her oversized cargo pants flapping slightly in the wind.

"You're f*cking hilarious," Tommie grinned, walking towards her cousin and giving her an affectionate punch to the shoulder.

Alister gasped, dramatically putting a hand to her heart. "Oh really?" She moved her hand to her forehead. "I couldn't tell."

Tommie laughed before her gaze latched onto something a distance away. "Hey, Jax and Narwhale are here! Guess we're not the only ones who like to be fashionably early."

"I told you that I didn't want to get here fifteen minutes early, you're the one who insisted!" Alister countered, eyes gleaming with amusement.

"But you still listened to me," Tommie smirked. Alister rolled her eyes.

"I thought we were gonna be the first ones!" a voice exclaimed. The duo turned to see Amy and Stratus making their way through the parking lot.

"Nope, we got here before you," Alister boasted. Amy scoffed.

Stratus seemed to sink deeper into his sweatshirt, making him look a few inches shorter as he seemed to become conscious of the amount of people nearby. "How long are we staying, exactly?"

"Oh some on, we're here to have fun! You're going to enjoy yourself," Amy told him.

"I never wanted to come along," he muttered.

"Well you're here and you will have fun or so help me god, I will MAKE you have fun."

Stratus blinked. "...Okay."

Amy gave him a big smile before seeming to notice Narwhale and Jax up ahead. "Oh, they're here too! Neat!"

"So we're all early?" Everyone jumped as Dawn seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

"I thought we were special," Tommie mumbled.

"You know what surprises me?" Alister asked. "That Ash isn't-"

"Oh, Ash is, and Ash has been for the last half hour," another voice cut in. They all turned to see the car next to them with its window rolled down, revealing a familiar orange-eyed person in the drivers seat, reading a book.

Alister sighed. "...I stand corrected."

"We're just missing Evan, then?" Dawn questioned as she scanned the group.

"He likes to be right on time," Tommie explained. "Or five minutes late because he forgot to run a comb through that disaster he calls hair."

"You think his hair is a disaster? It's literally a mini Stratus," Amy grinned. Stratus gave her a tremendous side-eye.

"You know, it's difficult to pull off a ponytail," he said defensively, running a hand through his thick dirty-blonde hair.

"Can't relate." Amy tossed her large, curly ponytail proudly.

"You're all making me sad." Alister faked a sniffle. "I want long hair."

"You'll get there eventually," Tommie reassured her. "At least your hair's longer than my dad's."

"...Your dad is f*cking bald, Taliyah Miriam Somerset."

"Not the full name!" Amy cackled, throwing a hand up to her mouth in surprise.

"Two can play at that game, Alister Isaac Somerset!" Tommie challenged.

"Hey!" Alister crossed her arms.

"I dunno what's going on, but fight! Fight! Fight!" Evan exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air as he came into view.

"You're early?" Tommie gaped.

"Okay, rude," he said. "I was excited! ...Well, I was mainly bored at home, but still."

"We're all here, great!" Ash put their book down and got out of their car.

The group made their way over to where Narwhale and Jax stood by a tree.

"It took you guys long enough to leave the parking lot," Jax commented dryly. "We've literally been watching you guys struggle to make it just a few yards."

"Ha, funny," Amy remarked flatly. "Not as funny as you struggling to tie your shoes."

"Hey!" he cried, stunned by what she had said. "It's not my fault I only ever learned that one version of the bunny ears! You know how much more embarrassing it would be to have shoe-tying tutorials in my YouTube history?"

"Leave him alone, Amy! He can tie his shoes perfectly fine!" Narwhale said, patting Jax's shoulder soothingly.

Ash's gaze shifted to something up ahead, and their posture immediately changed to something akin to a predator stalking its prey. "...they're selling pumpkin spice lattes."

"Oh no you don't!" Alister grabbed the back of Ash's sweater but failed to keep them from dragging her along as they began their trek towards the coffee booth.

"On the topic of drinks," Narwhale said, watching the two leave, "They have warm apple cider!"

Tommie grabbed her shoulders. "Show me."

***

Evan took a long sip of his cider. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff."

Tommie looked at him with disgust, but mainly disappointment. "Can you not say something weird for once?"

"Says the even bigger weirdo," he retorted. "You do show choir instead of theater! Now that's weird."

"I'll show you weird when I shove my foot up you a-"

"Hey! Hey, no, we're here to have fun!" Narwhale yelped, positioning herself in between the two. "Can we not go at each others throats for one evening?"

Tommie and Evan exchanged glances.

"...Yeah, that's too hard," Evan said.

"It's impossible not to," Tommie confessed.

"How about..." Narwhale's eyes scanned the farm grounds until she suddenly spotted something. "Hey, a corn maze! How fun would it be to do that as a group?"

"I mean, I guess it would help get Ash away from the coffee stand," Jax agreed, glancing warily over at where Ash was returning to the group, a steaming cup in hand. Alister seemed to have not only given up on her friend, but to have joined them in their quest as well, seeing as she was also sipping a drink.

Narwhale quickly filled the duo in on her idea.

"Yeah, sure. I'm awake now," Ash said.

Alister nodded. "I'm doin' whatever they're doin'."

"Oh, yeah, I'm totally down for losing our minds as we struggle to escape a maze crafted entirely of vegetation," Amy jumped in, Dawn nodding as she followed the brunette.

"Stratus? You coming?" Narwhale asked the scientist as the group approached the corn maze.

Stratus didn't say anything, just stared her down as he stepped next to the corn maze.

...he was taller than the corn.

"...Well, I guess you're supervising, 'cause you're my ride home." Amy clapped him on the back before grabbing the scruff of his hoodie and pulling him in towards him. "You better be here when we get back, you little sh*t."

Stratus blinked before clearing his throat. "No need to worry about that. I'll be here."

Amy gave him a curt nod before giving a thumbs-up to the rest of the group. "Now that we've got a backup plan if things get corny, we should be good to go."

Tommie narrowed her eyes. "You did not just make a corn pun."

Amy held her gaze, a flicker of triumph in her eyes. "I did just make a corn pun. Keep up, Tommie."

Evan burst out laughing. Tommie crossed her arms and glared down at the ground, clearly trying to come off as unamused but failing due to how obvious it was that she was trying not to smile.

"See ya on the other side, mate," Alister said to Stratus as the group began to enter the maze.

"Unless you're going to hell too, then I don't think so," the dirty-blonde responded.

Alister rolled her eyes. "Easy up, edgelord. You're not fooling anyone."

***

"Let's go right!" Narwhale insisted as the group trekked through the maze.

"You've said that five times already," Jax reminded her.

"Right is always right! Duh."

"As a lefty, I'm offended," Ash said, motioning with their left hand, which held their nearly-drained coffee.

Alister peered over at the almost finished drink her friend was holding. "Ever heard of 'slow and steady'?"

"What if we just keep going right until we hit a dead end?" Tommie thought out loud.

"Honestly? I'm totally down," Evan agreed.

Dawn's ears swiveled every few seconds as her attention was drawn to any and every noise. "It sounds like there are people nearby, perhaps a few rows down. It sounds like they're going back towards the festival. Perhaps that's the way out?"

"You're a f*ckin' genius," Amy told her, and the she-cat's face flushed at the compliment.

The group, following Dawn, made their way through the maze until they finally stumbled across the people Dawn had been talking about- a brunette couple who seemed to be in their mid-30s.

"Sorry, kids, we're actually on our way out," the man said before anyone could ask.

"We're trying to go back the way we came," the woman explained, glancing around at the maze surrounding them. "Emphasis on 'trying'."

"I'm telling you, we took a left back there," the man muttered to her. "So we should've gone right. We're only getting ourselves more lost, Kristen."

"Well, um, we better get going. Thanks anyways!" Alister smiled, waving as the two continued their trip back to the beginning of the maze.

"That was a bust," Amy grumbled. "Let's just keep going, then."

***

Stratus checked the time on his phone. It had only been about ten minutes, but he had a feeling that the squad was still nowhere close to their final destination. That was fine- he had no faith in them anyways. Oh, sure, they'd get there eventually. Some time within the next three to four business days. They had the collaboration skills of a colony of bats; they were fine with navigation but were terribly annoying to listen to. And small. All of them were small to him.

The good thing was that he could no longer hear them, meaning that they had been making some progress. But even more importantly, that meant he had some time to himself now. That included unintentionally scaring a small child who was passing by with her parents.

"Mommy, why is that man so tall and scary?" he heard her ask.

A thousand retorts flew through his head, but he kept his mouth shut. While Amy would've most certainly jumped at the poor kid, Stratus was actually concerned about his social life. He didn't want people to look at him any longer than they already did, which was the main reason he hated being tall... next to bumping his head on every doorframe. He definitely held the Chaos Club record for 'most concussed'.

With this newfound free time, he decided to go explore a little on his own.

***

"So clearly trying to find other people doesn't work," Tommie reminded everyone. "And at this point, trying to go back the way we came is hopeless, too."

Alister shook her head dizzily. "Too many sharp lefts and sudden rights."

"How about we play a game?" Narwhale piped up. "One person leads until we hit a dead end, and then we switch off!"

"So literally what we've been doing the whole time," Amy said.

Narwhale paused for a moment. "...Yeah."

"Let's put on some music to get pumped!" Evan pulled out his phone and went to play music when he frowned. "Dangit. No reception."

"Yeah, we're literally in the middle of a corn field," Ash remarked, finishing off their coffee. "Nobody really decides to start surfing the web on their PC at the dead center of a corn maze."

"...That sounds kind of fun," Tommie said quietly.

"Oh! Let's play 'Would You Rather'!" Narwhale exclaimed. "Would you rather-"

"-Not play this game? Wow, you're so right, Narwhale! I totally agree!" Amy cut her off.

"...I actually kind of want to play," Alister mumbled.

"It's fine! I'll think of something else to pass the time," Narwhale shrugged.

"I'm sure you will." Jax smiled at her, glancing over at Jackie, who had paused to sniff at a corn stalk. She then lifted up her leg and-

"HOLY SH*T, SHE'S PISSING ON THE CORN!" Evan yelled as he pointed.

"Shut up! Give her some privacy!" Jax jumped in front of his dog, waving his arms protectively.

"SHE'S PISSING ON THE CORN, THOUGH!"

"If we're out here for much longer, I might have to piss on the corn," Amy grunted.

"Can we not say the pee-word, please?" Narwhale begged.

Everyone stared at her for a long moment.

Tommie gave a sly smirk. "Don't you mean the piss-word?"

"No! Language!" Narwhale screeched, reaching up to cover her best friend's mouth with her hands. "It's the pee-word!"

"Oh, she really doesn't say piss," Alister chuckled.

"For the love of god, say 'piss', please," Amy insisted.

Dawn silently took it all in, clearly wanting to ask questions but mustering up the strength to avoid doing so.

"I will not say the pee-word!" Narwhale was declaring.

"Say piss!" Tommie started chanting. Evan and Amy quickly joined in.

***

Stratus sensed that somewhere out in the corn maze, chaos was ensuing. He just had that feeling. He'd developed the ability to tell when the squad was up to no good simply by being around them enough to just know. He really hoped that it didn't make him the mom-friend. He hated the title and wanted nothing to do with it. He was not a mom-friend. Period.

He took a sip from his coffee- just another scenario where Ash's love of caffeine had rubbed off on him- as he strolled past the produce stands. Nothing new, just the same old pumpkins and apples and whatnot. Maybe he'd get something to bring home before he left.

"Hi! Can I get you anything?" a girl standing behind one of the stands asked. She had boxes of mini pumpkins in front of her, making it increasingly obvious what she was selling.

"I'm alright, thank you," he responded. He would've wanted to keep going, but this girl seemed to want to hold conversation with him.

"I like your goggles! Are you a cosplayer?" she asked, strands of her blue hair falling in her face as she tilted her head to the side.

Stratus shook his head. "No, these are real. I'm a scientist."

The girl's brown eyes lit up. "Really? They're so cool and steampunk-y! You use them for experiments?"

"It's really not as cool as it sounds. But yes, I use them to shield my eyes whenever I'm experimenting or working on a project." He was hoping that being vague would give her a hint that he was not in the mood to converse with random people. However, she seemed to be the exact opposite.

"Are you kidding? That sounds so cool! It must be hard, being a scientist. Do you, like, try to cure cancer?" She leaned forward, seeming even more intrigued.

"No, that's not really my field. I work more with biotechnology and engineering than anything else." Stratus regretted saying that as soon as the words came out of his mouth. Great, now this girl seemed to be bouncing off the walls with excitement.

"Engineering?!" she repeated. "What do you build? What's your favorite thing you've made?"

Stratus sighed. He was going to be here a while.

***

"Ninety-one bottles of milk on the wall, ninety-one bottles of-"

"Shut the F*CK up or I'll tear each of you limb from limb," Amy threatened, whirling around to glare at the chorus of children. "Stop trying to sing that STUPID song. Hell, it's not even a real song."

"EXCUSE ME?" Evan gasped. "I'll have you know that the iconic song 'One Hundred Bottles of Milk On The Wall', more commonly known as 'One Hundred Bottles of Beer On The Wall'-"

"Is that even the name of the song?" Tommie suddenly questioned.

Everyone went quiet for a moment, as if this sudden thought had thrown each and every one of them off of their rhythm.

"It could be, or maybe it's just 'One Hundred Bottles of Milk'?" Jax suggested.

"You mean beer?" Evan corrected. Jax looked uncomfortable.

"What if that's right, but it's just 'Bottles of Beer On The Wall'?" Ash offered. "Because the number changes so often?"

"Or just 'Beer On The Wall', if we wanna simplify it like that," Tommie jumped in.

"On The Wall," Alister challenged.

"The Wall," Evan countered.

"Wall," Amy said.

"What I wanna know right now is who came up with it and why, because no sane person randomly decides 'Hey, I'm gonna make up a song that takes at least an hour to sing and drives everyone crazy in the process'," Jax commented.

"Maybe once we get reception again, we can look it up," Ash said to him.

"What year do you think it was created too?" Alister suddenly spoke.

Everyone stared at her in shock. Amy was the first to speak.

"Alright, let's make bets," she decided.

"A free coffee on 1850s," Alister offered.

"Oh I'm getting this f*ckin' right, then," Ash insisted. "Early 1900s, around 1920s."

"I feel like you guys are overthinking it. 1970s," Evan said.

"Hear me out- early 1800s. Whenever cowboys existed," Tommie guessed.

There was a pause.

"Uh, you do realize that cowboys still exist, right?" Alister asked her. "They're not extinct."

Tommie turned red and buried her face in her sleeves.

Evan's eyes suddenly lit up. "You know what we should rename the song? 'One Hundred Bottles of Dog Piss On The Wall'."

Jax glared him down as soon as the words sunk in. "Don't you f*ckin' DARE."

Evan gave him a big grin. "Ninety bottles of dog piss on the wall-"

He narrowly avoided getting punched.

***

"...and that's how, uh, it's engineered," Stratus finished. He'd been talking for the last five minutes and wanted nothing more than to stop. He hated talking more than he needed to.

The girl seemed absolutely captivated. "Wow. I wished I'd studied more science now. Instead, I tried an art career and, well, look at me now. Selling pumpkins."

"I don't blame you. Science a lot of work," he reassured her. "You have to be completely committed if you want to pursue it, otherwise it's just not worth it."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," she sighed. "I feel like it's too late now, though. Which sucks."

Stratus thought for a moment. "I mean, they could always use volunteers at the science museum. Helping with the kids and whatnot."

Her expression instantly brightened. "Really? Maybe I'll try that. Thank you, uh..."

"Stratus."

"Stratus?" she repeated. "That's, uh... I've never heard a name like that before. But it's cool! I'm Sophie."

"Nice to meet you," he responded before finally seizing the opportunity to disengage from the conversation.

As soon as he was a few yards away, he let his shoulders slump, and he let out a deep sigh. Social interaction was exhausting. Every inch of him begged to leave, but he knew that he had made a promise to stay and wait for the rest of the group. He managed to find a bench somewhere by the barn and finally gave his legs a rest as he reflected on what life choices had led up to him being here.

***

"Eleven bottles of milk on the wall, eleven bottles of milk," half of the group mumbled under their breath tiredly.

"How the hell did we get down to eleven?" Amy groaned.

"The sun is setting," Dawn observed, glancing up at the sky. "We've only got a few minutes until it gets dark."

"Is this how we die?" Evan wondered aloud. "Doomed to forever walk the rows of the corn maze?"

"Oh f*ck, he's monologuing now," Amy complained. "I'm gonna punt him."

"We are nOT PUNTING ANYONE!" Narwhale exclaimed way too loudly. "NOBODY IS BEING PUNTED."

"I'm getting tired," Tommie yawned. "My weak-*ss body is built for scary video games and watercoloring, not wandering a maze aimlessly."

"Wait, what if we try sending a morse code message?" Jax asked.

Amy stared at him. "And how do you think the tiny light on a phone's gonna get all the way back to the festival? Wait, scratch that- who the hell actually knows morse code??"

"I do," Ash said from a few feet up ahead.

"NOBODY ASKED YOU!" Amy yelled to them.

"Actually, you did ask."

"F*CK YOU!"

"Language!" Narwhale yelped. "Can we please tone down the swearing? There might be kids nearby!"

"Aren't we technically kids?" Jax reminded her. She went silent for a moment.

Evan burst into laughter.

***

Stratus could not believe how long the group was taking. All of their phones had gone straight to voicemail, and he was too tired to leave a message. He checked the time on his phone. It was nearly seven o'clock. Meaning the group had been wandering that stupid maze for nearly two hours. The sun was almost finished setting, which made him nervous no matter how much he tried to deny it. What if they were lost? What if they needed help getting back and he didn't realize it? Uh oh, the mom-friend instincts were kicking in.

He finished off his second cup of pumpkin spice coffee and tried not to fall into a caffeine-induced slumber. He had made a promise, and by god he would stay true to it. But to keep himself busy, he decided to keep exploring the festival. He tried not to run over small children as he walked around, trying to hunch into himself in hopes that he could appear a few inches shorter than his actual giraffe of a height. He was getting sick of the staring.

"Holy sh*t," he heard someone say for the fourth time.

Stratus wanted nothing more than to whirl around and snap at them to mind their own damn business, but he was a professional. He wouldn't let anything seem to faze him on the surface, even if he was pissed off internally. He pretended to be interested in apples and whatever to avoid having to look at other people. The festival was a bit more populated than he'd realized, although it might've just been the effects of the caffeine taking a toll on him. It was getting a bit loud. Too loud, really.

He needed some space to breathe. He began retreating away from the produce stands, looking around for somewhere to relax for a moment.

He couldn't find one.

But he did find something else.

***

"How about we tell some scary stories?" Tommie suggested. "I'll go first. Once, there was an abandoned pizzeria-"

"I can give you a scary story in one word," Evan interrupted, looking at her. "Spiders."

Tommie stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him for a long moment.

Amy turned around, shining her phone flashlight in both of their eyes. "No fighting."

"Need more light?" Alister offered, turning her phone light on as well. "It's pitch black."

"My senses are not providing any additional assistance," Dawn admitted, her ears flattening against her head. "I do wish that I could be more helpful in getting us out of here."

"No, no, it's okay! We're just glad that you're here with us. And we'll find a way out at some point!" Narwhale stood up on her toes to put a hand on Dawn's shoulder. The she-cat gave her a small smile.

"Okay, but what if we don't get out of here? I mean, Ash is already basically dead." Alister turned her neck slightly to look at Ash, who was slumped against her tiredly.

"You don't get to attend my funeral," they mumbled sleepily. Alister put on a fake pout.

Amy, who had just been lifting Jax up, gently set him down. "Any sign of anything?"

Jax shook his head. "I mean, I can see the lights and whatnot back at the festival, but not where we have to go. We're kind of screwed."

As if in response to his words, the rows of corn around them suddenly began to rustle. Narwhale squealed, grabbing onto Jax's arm.

"Probably a squirrel or something, don't worry," Dawn told her, pausing to sniff the air. "Odd. That doesn't smell like a-"

Then, a dark figure burst out from a path to the group's right, causing everyone to scream until the phone flashlights revealed-

"You're literally five turns away from the exit. What the hell is taking you all so long?" Stratus narrowed his eyes as he looked away from the lights being shined directly at him. He turned off the flashlight on his own phone and tucked it back into his pocket.

"Good to know you haven't left yet," Amy commented.

Stratus shrugged. "I was about to, which is why I came to get you."

He then paused before adding, "Well, that's one of the reasons."

"What's the other?" Narwhale asked.

Stratus gave her a small smile. "You'll never guess who I ran into."

He moved to the side just enough to reveal the much shorter person standing behind him. The newcomer was almost entirely obscured by a baggy blue hoodie, but waves of their fluffy auburn hair and their face of freckles were immediately recognizable.

Amy's face lit up instantly. "Holy sh*t! We thought you weren't coming!"

"He came with their grandma, and we just so happened to run into each other," Stratus explained. "I figured that we'd both come searching for you all."

The figure's face flushed from all the attention, and they ducked their head in embarrassment.

Amy laughed. "Yo, Row, you don't have to be shy, little buddy! We're just all really happy to see you."

"Yeah! We're glad you're here, Rowan," Narwhale squealed.

Rowan smiled sheepishly before moving their hand in a brief motion.

Thank you.

"Alright, now that the gang's back together, let's get the hell out of here," Alister said. "'Cause I sure as hell don't want to see any more corn as long as I live."

***

Rowan basically collapsed on their bed after getting home. They had not expected to run into Stratus, of all people. But introverts attract, apparently. They exhaled deeply, staring up at the ceiling for a long moment before looking across the room at their desk, the music box sitting comfortably on one of the shelves.  Next to it sat the note from Amy, Dawn, and the rest of the squad wishing them a happy belated birthday.  While it had been a few weeks late, they had still appreciated the sentiment and were surprised that the group had actually remembered.

They leaned back again and started to think.  Everyone had been happy to see them at the fall fest.  It wasn't as if they didn't hang out at the warehouse- they were there quite frequently.  They just missed all of the big stuff, apparently.  Which sucked, because the stories Rowan heard along with the texts in the group chat made it all sound amazing.  Maybe they needed to get down to the warehouse more often, then.

Yeah.  They would do that.  Satisfied with their resolution, they slid off of their bed and made their way to the bathroom to wash up.  They knew that they were going to have a long few months, if not years, ahead of them.

***

(5082 words)

So uh that's the most words out of any part I think- or at least it's up there-

Anyways WOOOOO I FINALLY GOT THIS DONE-