Something's Wrong With the Different Realms

Twenty-Nine: Final Edits

Jasper Jennings

"Wait... which one of you was supposed to write the epilogue?" I asked.

I whipped my head to look at Isla first. She was clutching her chest and hyperventilating. Her narrow, dark chocolate eyes widened in horror. She shook her head. Then, my medium brown eyes met Allaira's amber ones. She narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

"I had a track meet, remember?" she grumbled.

"Oh, sorry," I muttered.

When I looked beside her to meet Horizon's tanzanite blue eyes, he shook his head as well. I sighed, then flicked through the pages of the book. Everything else seemed well put together, we even had a cool cover but we didn't have an epilogue.

"You know what?" I threw my hands up, "I'll write the epilogue. I mean, I started on a version of it. You guys just double-check all the edits, okay? I mean, we still have the rest of the class to finish up the book and we can work on it when we get home as well. I mean, it's due at 11:59 PM."

Isla stopped hyperventilating. "Thank goodness," she finally breathed, "I'll make sure there are no plot holes and stuff and work on the developmental stuff. Allaira and Horizon check the grammar by using the spell check or whatever. Oh, and congrats on getting 5th place on regionals by the way."

Allaira nodded. "Thanks, but let's get to work."

For the rest of the period, I typed so fast that I was sure my fingers would fall off. While I was typing, Allaira and Horizon fixed all of my plot holes. Isla checked to make sure that the epilogue was satisfying and concluded the story well, tying everything together nicely. When the bell rang, I'd finished just over half of the epilogue. It was a long epilogue and I wasn't the fastest typer.

I still had the rest of the day to finish it though and it's a good thing I didn't have a ton of homework from my other classes so I could just focus on finishing the epilogue. Isla told me to text her when I was finished writing so that she could go over all the editing. And she said that she'd text the group chat when she was finished with the last of the editing so we could submit the book together and celebrate.

Before we left, Ms. Valance came over to our group to check our progress and to remind us that we still had until the end of the day to hand everything in. We promised Ms. Valance that we'd hand in our work on time before exiting the classroom.

When I got home, I immediately hopped to writing after fixing myself a nice cool glass of milk. I texted Isla as soon as I was done then watched an episode of some lesbian witch show with my little sister. Just as the credits started rolling, my phone just. I clicked it open, then headed to the dining room. It was a text from Isla.

Isla: I'm done with all the editing!

Jasper: whooo!!! 🥳🥳🥳

Harry: 🤗

Alexa: Yay!

Isla: I'm going to call you guys now, get ready...

Jasper: ur gonna hand it in, right?

Isla: Yes

Isla's face appeared in the frame, then Horizon, then Allaira's. I could only see Horizon's forehead and Allaira's nose.

"Alexa, I can only see your nose. Harry, I can only see your forehead," I stated.

"Sorry, I'm eating," Allaira said before adjusting the camera to show her entire face and her bowl of raspberries. "These things actually taste good...."