01<@Ardweden> [Day: Saturday, September 25. Time: 12:47, or at least that's the time on Syndey's clock when she wakes up in her own bed, the sound of doors blasting open and the Sorting Hat's words still ringing in her head.] 01<@Ardweden> [Light streams through her windows. It's a shiny new day!] 01<@Ardweden> [Start!] 06* Sydney sits bolt upright in bed. "Wait!" Then she looks around. "What? I'm... oh no. Oh, *shit*!" And she takes off running for Natalie's room, nearly tangling her feet in the covers as she goes. 01<@Ardweden> [Sydney RUNS for Natalie's room! The door is closed, as basically always.] 06* Sydney does not knock; she just opens it and runs in. 01<@Ardweden> [The door jams a little, but Sydney bursts in! It's... the first time she's been in Natalie's room in a while, she realizes. It's messier than she remembered. There are stacks of books at the foot of the bed, a laptop is on but in sleep mode and schoolwork or something like it covers her desk, and Natalie herself is sound asleep, with shorter hair than in her dream and looking as content as can be.] 06* Sydney rushes over and kneels by the bed. "Nat. Nat, come on, wake up." She taps her on the arm. 01<@Ardweden> [Natalie grumbles and hugs her pillow.] Nat, come *on*. Please don't tell me I'm too late. 06* Sydney grabs her arm, but not too tight. 01<@Ardweden> [She grumbles some more, batting Sydney away. "'lme 'lone," she mumbles into her pillow. "Saturday."] 06* Sydney exhales. "Oh, thank god." She doesn't leave just yet, though. 01<@Ardweden> [While Sydney waits (and Natalie starts to fall back asleep), she hears her cell phone ringing from down the hall!] 06* Sydney stands up. "Coming!" she yells, even if it's her cell phone and no one is going to respond to that. Then she dashes back to her room (go track practice!) and grabs the phone without actually looking at who's calling. "Hello?" "Hey Sydney, it's Hank. How's your sister?" "Hank! Hi! She's... kind of responsive? She woke up a bit when I went in and talked to her and nudged her a little, so... we aren't too late." "Good. That's good." "Guess we gotta go back in tonight, finish things." "Yeah. Yeah, we do." She waits a few moments and lets out a breath. "...I didn't mean for it to take this long. I mean... I didn't mean to take this long. Maybe we should've gone in, swords drawn and everything. I just wanted... I just wanted to try and work with it, this time." "Nah. We did it right. I mean, I don't mean t' get all preachy, but we don't know about the population of that world, do we? Like, if they're not other humans, what are they? An' if they are....." * Hank sighs. "Let's just stick with asking questions 'fore we shoot." "Right. Yeah." She pauses again for a bit. "Okay, look, can I just... can I just vent to you? Is it okay?" "Sure. Go on." "I'm really pretty mad at Tiffany right now. I mean, first she goes off and does something that she won't even tell us about, and then she comes in and tries to take charge and everything like she *didn't* skip out on us!" "You sure that even was Tiffany?" "What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be her?" "Well, I an't blamin' you fer bein' mad, what with her goin' off on her own in secret. But think about when she showed up again. Like ya said, real bossy, real aggressive, wanting to stab anythin' that looked at her wrong, wantin' to stab that teacher before we even knew fer sure if she was the problem... I'm thinkin' maybe it ain't the teacher we should be mindin'." "So, what, you think that was a doppelganger? Or something trying to fool us? That's... kind of scary. I thought we could at least trust that we were... well, us." "I dunno. Mebbe. Mebbe I'm just overthinkin' things. But I hope not. 'Cause I don't like thinkin' 'bout the alternative." "Gettin' late. Hey Sydney, I wanna do something with Susanna today. You wanna come? I'll buy ya lunch." 01<@Ardweden> [Before Sydney can respond to Hank's kind lunch offer, she hears her phone beep! A text message? This is followed shortly by another beep.] "Ooop, hang on, I'm getting a text!" 06* Sydney checks her texts! 01<@Ardweden> [While Sydney checks her texts, her finger slips and she hangs up on Hank. Oops?] 01<@Ardweden> [The texts are from Javy!] 01<@Ardweden> ["Hey Syd. My dad got a big wedding order, and one of our workers got sick. So he needs me to help. Sorry. I really want to help. But I can't get out of it."] 01<@Ardweden> ["If I get free later, I'll let you know. If you plan to go again, please tell me. Thanks. And sorry again."] 06* Sydney texts back! "No worries! :) Thanks so much for letting me know! I'll let you know about tonight. I think I definitely will be. Gonna tell Hank, too!" 06* Sydney hits send and then tries to call Hank back. "Hi, it's Sydney! Sorry, I really didn't mean to hang up on you! But I got a text from Javy! He needs to help his dad out today. But he'll be available to help out tonight if we're going. And I'm going. And, um, is that lunch offer still open?" "Sure is. We'll meet ya somewhere in town?" "Great! We could do the Bagel Bunch?" "Let me check with Susanna. She might wanna go somewhere. If that ain't too mcuh a bother." "Oh yeah, sure! Just let me know where!" Aight, call ya back in a bit. "Later!" 06* Sydney goes off to take a quick shower and get dressed, then stops in Natalie's room afterwards to check on her. 01<@Ardweden> [Natalie is stirring, veeery gradually kind of getting ready for the day. "Syd?" she asks, sleepily.] Yeah, Nat? 01<@Ardweden> ["Why's my door open?"] 06* Sydney looks at Natalie. "You getting up?" 01<@Ardweden> [Natalie just glares at Sydney.] I'll take that as a yes. We'll talk later! 06* Sydney exits and shuts the door! 01<@Ardweden> [Good job, Sydney! Way to be upbeat!] 06* Sydney waits for a moment on the other side of the door. Maybe she should have stayed... but Natalie wasn't really in the best shape to talk. "Love you, Nat," she says quietly. 06* Hank texts Sydney. "hey syd sus says bagel bunch is fine meet u in 1 hr" "Yay see you then!" 06* Tyler calls Sydney's phone. Twice in one day he's actually calling you people. 01<@Ardweden> [Does Sydney pick up? We'll find out later!] 01<@Ardweden> [End!]