"Move? To Elizabeth?" Chloe asked skeptically.

"Yeah!" Brooke responded. "Think about it, Chlo, Trenton is sooo small. That Halloween party we had was nothing compared to some of the parties I've heard of."

Brooke had brought this idea up out of the blue the day after the play as the group sat down at their lunch table. Jeremy still felt horribly out of place, but his Squip had told him to stay as he wouldn't get a chance like this again.

"Moving sounds like a lot of work," Jenna pointed out, frowning.

"No one said you should," Chloe snapped. Jenna and Jeremy winced.

"I bet other places have a better theater program," Christine said dreamily. She squeezed Jeremy's arm fondly. She hadn't let go of him since they met up that morning. Jeremy didn't want to admit how uncomfortable it was making him.

"So?" Brooke asked excitedly. "You're all in, right?"

Chloe sighed. "Sure, Brookie."

Jeremy smiled sheepishly, nodding. Christine nodded as well, but to Jeremy it just seemed like an excuse to rub her cheek against his arm. Was getting what you wanted supposed to feel so... wrong?

Jake shrugged, catching M&M's in his mouth lazily. Jenna stayed quiet.

_________________

"You're what?" Jeremy's dad asked, sounding genuinely worried.

Ignore him. The moving people are coming in a couple days. You have packing to do.

Jeremy felt a small shock at the back of his spine. He barely registered it by now, his nerves numbed to it. He walked up the stairs to the attic, grabbing boxes to begin packing with.

"Jeremy!" Mr Heere continued. "You can't be serious-!"

"Optic nerve blocking," Jeremy muttered, his father's voice going quiet as he pushed past him.

He entered his room, unsure of where to start. However, the Squip took control, leaving Jeremy to his own thoughts for a while. His mind wandered back to how right this all was. Was he even happy like this? He suddenly remembered back in middle school when he used cheat codes on all of his games.

"Without the challenge, it's no fun..."

Who had said that?

"Michael..." Jeremy whispered quietly. The name felt almost foreign on his tongue now.

He felt another shock, this one a bit more severe. He shivered; sometimes he forgot the Squip could hear everything. A feeling of imprisonment pricked at him slightly, but it was soon lost.

Jeremy pulled out his phone, scrolling through his contacts.

"Hey... I thought you merged all my contacts when I changed my number," Jeremy started accusingly.

I merged all your necessary contacts.

"Why do you get to decide what contacts are 'necessary?' What does that even mean?" Jeremy was starting to get worked up.

Calm down, Jeremy, it's for your own good.

No. He was tired of having his decisions made for him. "Can you just shut off for a whi-" But he was cut off by blackness.

When Jeremy woke up a couple days later, that was the last thing he remembered.

Well. That's Jeremy's side so far. This update's a bit on the short side, so I apologize, but we'll get to the good stuff, I promise.

See you guys tomorrow, and thank you for reading :')
((Also Goddam thank you guys so much for 100k reads. That's amazing. Let us know in the comments if you'd like us to do anything to celebrate :)))
-May ♡