𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍.
jake stood directly behind her.
eva had called her over to hopefully sort out their issues under the guise of helping sort under their old stuff.
it wasn't really working.
"oh, look at this picture of little jake!" eva held out the photograph to aria. "so glad you grew out of your awkward phase."
"please don't." jake begged, and glimpsed at the picture. "that's amy."
"hopefully you're a late bloomer." eve searched through the basket.
"man, look at all this loot we scored back then. almost as if being a villain was far more rewarding than our current lives." vic thought aloud.
eva dug through the box.
jake motioned towards the seat, wordlessly asking to sit. aria didn't answer, just shrugged and slightly moved over.
the empty space was filled, jake internally jumping up and down.
"ooh, my purple diamond! i have been looking everywhere for this! this is my most prized possession. mostly because it was once someone else's prized possession." eva held up the beautiful diamond.
"eva, do you have any idea what i went through to swipe that for you?" vic questioned. "and you just threw it in a box?"
"to be fair, i was trying to hide it where no one would look. along with these hideous photos of our children. i'll put it somewhere safe."
"oh no, i'll hold onto that! clearly you can't be trusted."
"clearly you are gonna be sleeping on the couch tonight."
jake whispered bummer to himself, causing aria to laugh and immediately shut her mouth and give him a blank stare.
thankfully, the awkward moment was healed in an instant.
celia welcomed herself in as she always did.
"celia! do you really need to burst in like that?" vic hid the diamond. "i could've been naked!"
"are you trying to make me throw up?" celia frowned.
"no, i'm trying to make you run outside and throw up."
"i just came to warn you before i steal your wi-fi. hartley said it was the polite thing to do. the new season of my favorite crime podcast, cold trail, drops later today, and i can barely contain myself!" celia grinned.
jake and aria looked at each-other.
the pair had spent the longest time binging that podcast together on repeat, especially when they baked.
listening to gorey details about murder cases seemed to help them decorate their pastries.
"you're a traily? me too!" jake grinned.
"i listen to that podcast! but if never call myself a traily." aria eyed jake.
"then i won't do it ever again." jake raised his hands in surrender.
vic had no idea what was going on.
"they're hosting a contest this season where listeners can try to solve the cold case from home. whoever figured it out first gets at fifty thousand dollar reward." jake explained. "we should team up."
"fine, as long as i get all the money." celia turned to walk out the door.
"why would i agree to that?"
"ninety-ten."
"now we're talking."
celia walked out of the house.
"did you say the winner of this thing gets fifty thousand dollars?" vic questioned. "jake, who better to help you solve a crime than one of the shadiest people you know?"
"yeah, that's why i picked celia." jake shrugged.
"i'm talking about me! we'd have the clear advantage. i think like a criminal mastermind, which means we'd be able to solve the cold case before anyone and get that reward."
"would you give me more than 10 percent?"
"well if you're gonna be greedy about it, i'll just do it on my own!"
vic grabbed his box of stuff, and stormed off,
aria sat on the couch, not too interested in the conversation.
"do you wanna join celia and i?" jake offered, as aria stood up to leave.
"i guess." aria sat back down.
jake called celia back to the house.
the trio listened to the podcast as soon as it dropped, but celia's heavy commentary which only consisted on questions of 'what'd they say?' ruined most of it.
jake and aria were put to work.
together, they mapped out the plan onto the hardwood floor.
they got it wrong, and had to map it out again.
"okay, so according to the blueprint, this represents the vault where the crime took place." jake pointed to the floor. "we just need to figure out how the thief got in."
"well they clearly needed something to blast through all that steel." celia pointed out.
"they could've come in through one of the vents?" aria suggested.
"you're so smart. it must be that." jake agreed immediately
"please, no vault can be accessed through the ventilation system. that's vault 101." celia spoke, with a know it all tone.
"my fault." arias eyes widened. "you never know."
"wait.. the floors. do it again you had it right the first time." celia frowned.
she tossed the rolled up blue prints into arias hands.
"that's all you." aria shoved the roll into jakes hand, earning an annoyed groan.
"we don't even know what was stolen! celia talked through the entire podcast." jake complained.
"it was a purple diamond."
"purple diamond?"
"yeah. oh."
"oh."
vic sauntered into the room as celia pulled up a picture of the missing diamond.
aria searched the couch for the purple diamond from earlier.
sure, the idea of doing anything to help jake angered aria, but..
she couldn't help but care about him.
"i already know who the criminal is. he stole this." jake pulled his father to the side, showing him the picture of the purple diamond.
"oh, that looks like the necklace i swiped for- oh, boy." vic gasped.
"where'd you put it?" aria questioned anxiously.
someone's phone chimed.
celia giggled.
"ooh, it's a text from robert!" celia grabbed her phone.
"as in robert, your chief of police boyfriend?" vic questioned.
"yup! i asked him to get us a little inside info. oh, here's a description of the suspect. male, five eleven, brown hair, brown eyes, one eye covered with a patch, wearing a king white coat."
"oh boy."
"i know, right? eye patch and long white coat. this guy sounds like a real freak!"
jake glared at the floor. "if only you knew."
aria rubbed her head, disappointed.
inspection on the floor continued, while jake and aria whispered to each-other.
"i haven't seen so many white lines on this living room floor since- nevermind." celia walked around.
vic paced back and forth, wondering if he'd look good bald when he was caught for being a villain.
"we can't let her solve this." jake whispered.
"yeah, you'd go to jail and be someone's bitch." aria whispered back.
"please be serious."
"i am being serious! this is a real concern. not for me, because i don't care, but-"
"please, aria. we could get caught."
"okay, look. there's no diamond, right? no evidence."
"yeah, but where's the diamond?"
vic searched his pockets for the necklace.
there was nothing.
maybe it was because his jeans were tighter than any pair of horrible fashion nova bottoms, but vic didn't have the bbl to match.
that was his lesson for not wearing normals pants.
"villains!" celia yelled out. "that's who did it! that description robert sent me is clearly a villain. i mean, who walks around in a weird white coat and an eye patch?"
"no!" aria defended immediately. "it could be a doctor!"
"those freaks get away with everything- what's this?"
"uhm, it's nothing. you're crazy."
"it looks just like the diamond that was stolen."
"is your eyesight deteriorating?"
vic snatched the necklace out of celia's hands.
he clutched it as tight as he possibly could, trying to improvise a good, believable reply.
"no, that's just some costume jewelry that jake wears. not me. it's definitely jakes." vic shoved it into his sons hands.
"i don't want it!" jake shoved it back.
"let me have the necklace!" celia demanded,
suddenly, jake squeezed down on the purple diamond.
when he opened his hand, all that remained was a lavender powder.
aria grimaced, thinking about all the money they'd just lost.
"you see? if that had been a real diamond, jake would've never been able to crush it." vic pointed out.
"that's for sure! you should've seen him struggle to move the couch. plus, who would destroy a 46 million dollar diamond?" celia laughed, and made her way to the front door. "i almost thought you might've been the thief!"
celia opened the door.
"you have a good night, celia!" vic called out.
"roberts coming over tonight, so you know i will!" celia grinned.
"good for you!" aria cheered, picking up her bag.
jake watched as the girl in front of him picked up her things.
eva and vic were arguing about the destroyed diamond in the other room.
"hey!" jake called out, before the girl could leave. "could i.. could i see you tomorrow?"
"i don't think so, jake." aria turned, following out the door.
"i love you."
"i know."
« ───── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ───── »
cherry walked down the stairs the next morning, yawning.
she'd taken a couple days of from school simply because her and aria were feeling pretty avoidant.
jake was insistent on seeing aria.
he had no idea how he was gonna make up his disappearance to her, but he knew he had too.
even if aria wouldn't take him back, he still wanted to be friends.
he couldn't stand her hating him.
now, cherry was back at colby's house.
angels advice was actually pretty good; cherry just had to figure out what to say to colby.
she'd been avoiding having the conversation for a while, but at least she wasn't avoiding all conversation with him.
for the most part, the pair were actually friends again.
there was just the occasional awkward silence when they were left alone.
"you three! what did you do to ralph?" vic pointed at his computer.
"you mean your stupid bot?" colby questioned.
"super-bot!" vic corrected.
cherry giggled.
her laugh caused colby to start laughing too, but then they both completely stopped to remain unsuspected.
"i know you wanted revenge. what did you do?" vic questioned, raising a brow.
"nothing. wink." hartley smiled.
"did you just say wink and not wink?"
"nope. wink."
"there. you did it again!"
"okay, fine! i can't wink! but we didn't do anything. wink."
cherry wasn't listening to the conversation at all.
she was busy staring at colby.
his hair looked really good, and they'd purchased the jacket he was wearing when they went to the mall together a couple months earlier.
"i can't this anymore. dad, we put mustard in your shampoo." colby began.
"that was your revenge? eh, makes sense. my morning shower was particularly bold and spicy." vic was interrupted by a computer chime. "you have been hacked by sneaker queen two five two! who is this evil genius? no one's smarter than me!"
"except me." eva appeared on the staircase, with bright new shoes.
"ooh, i like your sweater! and your shoes! how did you get those?" cherry questioned, confused.
"thank you! it is i, the sneaker queen! and your royal highness has been in the sneaker game for ages." eva walked down the rest of the steps.
colby and cherry shared a confused look.
"but, why?" hartley questioned.
she looked between the two adults.
"well, back when i couldn't keep a job, i realized i needed an easy way to make money, so i looked online and discovered sneaker bots." eva explained.
"i can't believe i was outsmarted by the woman who still uses a landline." vic huffed.
"it turns out if you electorally charge a computer, you can make your bot run faster than anyone elses. until your father came along, and i had to take him out."
"yeah, well too bad for you, i already have plenty of product! that's right. i may have spent a lot of money buying these, but i'm gonna make a huge profit."
"uhm, vic, darling, did you inspect these? because i don't think they're the right sneakers." eva giggled.
cherry perked up.
the trio of teenagers made their way to the giant tower of shoe boxes.
"she's right! the boxes say mike, with an m!" hartley pointed out,
"who the fuck is mike?" cherry resisted laughter.
"you weren't even on the right website! oh, this is delightful." eva giggled.
vic ran over to his computer.
he'd been on the wrong website the entire time.
as he was having a meltdown over getting a second job to pay off his debt, colby remembered something.
"wait, mom, did you get any of the actual sneakers?" colby looked up.
"of course! i'm the sneaker queen!" eva laughed.
"well, do you have any in our sizes?" hartley perked up.
"in fact, i have one for each of you. for the low, low price of five hundred dollars each!" eva grinned, staring at the computer
cherry gasped.
"okay! do you take cashapp?" cherry unlocked her phone.
1,500 dollars later, the trio each had their own pair of sneakers.
while cherry's two friends giggled about their new shoes, jake ran down the stairs.
"have you guys seen aria? i haven't seen her in 3 days! i'm freaking out!" jake looked around.
"yeah, she's at home. i think she's hanging out with a friend." cherry tried to think that aria had texted her that morning.
"oh. like.. what kind of friend?" jake questioned. "i don't care. yes i do. please tell me."
cherry shrugged.
jake ran back up the stairs, preparing to blast taylor swift and cry himself to sleep over jealousy as he screamed out the lyrics.
colby would probably do the exact same, but with cherry, to one of her playlists.
cherry giggled with hartley.
colby thought of the past, and his future.
being a villain was almost as important to him as valentine was.
but he could see himself in her eyes.
she'd changed him for the better, no matter how sick it made him feel to say.
even if it went against all he grew up learning.
she was burned into heart.
they both had reputations. they both had things expected of them from both communities.
cherry was constantly being watched by her superhero colleagues.
she had a reputation to protect, and a job to uphold.
how would the people she was supposed to be protecting feel if they knew cherry was dating someone she was supposed to be protecting them from?
even if he was harmless, his family wasn't.
they were now, but there was no way anybody could know that.
it would be their secret.