The Legend of the Stones

Chapter Six: Mortal Dynamics

We kept staring at her. 

“Please! Stop looking at me like –”

“No way!” Jack suddenly yelled, nearly knocking over his own hot chocolate. “Liam, you never told me they brought out the Bulletproof: Code Nine game on the Stringspayo console!”

“What?!” Liam cried, getting up. “You’re kidding me. They said they wouldn’t bring it out on them, and so what do they do? They bring it out on them!”

“And the whole team has boarded that damned spaceship. Now we can’t get it.” Jack grumbled, chucking the magazine on the floor. There was a few seconds of silence, and suddenly we heard one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. 

Jess was giggling. 

Soon, we all joined in. Morganna’s, Rosanna’s, Lyssa’s and Llyra’s sweet-sounding giggles, my throaty cough (I still wasn’t feeling better) and Jack and Liam’s low chuckles, mingled with Jess’s amazingly high pitched laughter. After a while, we calmed down a bit, but then Liam kicked the magazine up and it landed on Morganna, causing us to go in to hysterics once again. 

But inevitably our laughter died out, leaving us with a dilemma. 

“So, Jess,” I said carefully. “Where are you going to go now?”

“I don’t know,” Jess said miserably. “I don’t have many friends in this area at all, and all my relatives have left Earth… I really don’t know.” 

“Well, you could stay with us, couldn’t you?” I asked, looking at the others. “Couldn’t she? I mean, we’ve got the space, and she doesn’t have anywhere to go…”

“Of course she can stay!” Jack exclaimed. The others nodded in agreement. 

“Really?” Jess cried. “Really really? I can stay here? With you guys? I promise I’ll be good. I won’t pester you, I won’t ask for anything, maybe just some food, but I promise I don’t eat much, if you want I’ll just stay in one room for the whole day –”

“Jess!” Lyssa cried, shocked. “You can do whatever you want! You are very welcome here. I think we already count you as family.”

Jess smiled. Her face literally lit up – it was like an extremely heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders. I smiled too. Lyss was right – I already counted her as family. 

Suddenly, Aaliyah squirmed in my arms. 

“Oops, looks like someone’s ready to get up,” Llyra grinned. “Not that she’s any trouble.”

“She’ll be hungry,” I murmured. “I’ll go feed her, if someone wants to take Jess upstairs and let her choose a room?”

“Oh, it’s okay, I can sleep on the couch or something,” Jess cut in hurriedly. 

“Nonsense! Of course you’ll be getting a room of your own! It’s not like we need those ten gazillion rooms upstairs or anything.” Liam rolled his eyes. 

“And if you don’t like the colour scheme, or want some new furniture, or anything, just let us know,” Llyra said, standing up and pushing Jess towards the staircase. “Because seriously, we have, like, a whole continent filled with furniture.”

“Really?” Jess asked. “Why is that?”

“Well, our mu –” Lyss stumbled slightly. 

“Our friend is an interior designer, and naturally she has a lot of furniture -” Morganna stood up quickly, walking towards the staircase too. 

“- and seriously, she has everything you would need to decorate a whole mansion.” Rosanna followed the parade. 

“More like two,” Liam muttered, getting up to follow as well.