Jordan Hale stepped out of the Uber parked in the driveway of the Ramirez beach house and realized she might not have thought this one through. She had decided to come here after her mother's urging and some thinking she'd done yesterday — though now that she was here, she was beginning to have second thoughts. But because Jordan Hale didn't do regret, she forced herself forward through the front door anyway, where she was met with Ethan and Miguel.
"Hernández." She nodded. "Where's Reyes's room?"
They both blinked at her. Then Ethan pointed upstairs.
"Second room on the right," Miguel answered slowly.
And she was already walking past them.
When Alex opened the door, Jordan was on the other side, looking somewhere between wanting to punch somebody and preparing to run away.
"You wanna come in?" Alex asked, more out of courtesy than actual invitation.
Jordan shook her head. "I'm just here to say something, then I'm going."
"Okay," Alex said slowly.
"So I was thinking," Jordan began.
"You think now? That's not a good sign," Alex said automatically.
"Shut up, Locke! Anyway." Jordan looked away. "I don't want to become like my dad. I don't want to push people I care about away because it's awkward and weird to admit that. And what you said in the car two weeks ago—you were right. We've not had many normal conversations despite how long we've known each other. So maybe it's time I stop pretending that we're not…" She looked away and made a face like she was suppressing a gag reaction, then cleared her throat. "…friends." Another face like she'd bitten into something unpleasant.
Alex stared at her. "What the hell happened to you?!"
Jordan pointed over Alex's shoulder at Magnus — who had just walked out of the bathroom after his shower and frozen midstride, completely unprepared for whatever was happening — and said: "Your boyfriend happened to me! Put all these weird ideas in my head!" She snapped. "You know what? Forget I said any of that. This conversation's over."
She turned and walked away.
Alex was stunned long enough for Jordan to make it four whole steps before she started running after her.
"Jordan, wait!"
***
"Go tell everyone not to bring up the System truth around Jordan," Alex whispered as she ushered Magnus out of their room.
Behind her, Jordan was sitting awkwardly at the edge of the bed.
"Okay," he whispered back. "But I think we might have to consider telling her the truth soon."
Alex thought about it for a moment, then winced. "Maybe you're right, but not today."
Jordan coughed loudly. "Do you lovebirds need the room? Should I leave instead?"
"I'm going!" Magnus answered her. Then quieter, to Alex: "Talk about it later?"
"Yeah, now go!" She leaned in and pecked him on the cheek before closing the door behind him.
***
Five minutes later, they were all eating breakfast downstairs. The usual chaos of the beach house settled into place, now with the addition of Jordan Hale, who somehow managed to simultaneously look like she absolutely belonged here and like she'd been kidnapped against her will.
The reunion dynamics arranged themselves naturally, the way they always did in groups with complicated histories.
Sofia and Jordan greeted each other with the charged air of two people who'd known each other all their lives and been competing for the title of Alex's best friend for just as long without either actually admitting the competition out loud. Valeria, Camila, Nicole, and Priya settled into the comfortable wariness of childhood acquaintances who had grown up adjacent to Jordan Hale and knew exactly what she was capable of, socially and physically. Tori, Carmen, Miguel, and Jasmine carried themselves with the different ease of high school proximity — they knew Jordan as Jordan, not Vanessa, which turned out to matter.
Maya looked at Jordan across the table with the expression of someone finally getting to interact with someone they'd heard about for years from mutual friends but never quite orbited.
"So you're Vanessa," Maya said.
"Jordan," Jordan corrected her.
"Right. Jordan." Maya tilted her head. "You know, it's weird that we've never met before despite all the mutual friends we have, all of whom had told me a lot of things about you."
"Likewise, Torres." Jordan shrugged. "People wouldn't stop talking about how much of a disaster you were."
"So my reputation precedes me. Thank you."
"They didn't mean it as a compliment."
"I'm taking it as one anyway." Maya didn't miss a beat. Then, she pointed at Jordan and turned to everyone else. "Also, does she call everyone by their last name?"
"Yes," everyone who knew Jordan said in unison.
Magnus was a special case for Jordan. He'd known her for just over a month, which put him well behind most people in the room chronologically. By every other measure — the training sessions and everything that happened afterward, leading up to and including the threesome they had at the kickboxing ring — he was closer to her than most people who had known her for over a decade. Jordan didn't acknowledge this directly because Jordan didn't acknowledge things directly. But she'd sat down at the table within arm's reach of him, which she hadn't done with most people.
Everyone else had only met Jordan briefly on the beach the other day, so they were mostly observing for now. The only exception was Ethan, who was already cracking jokes and asking Jordan about her track record.
Jordan didn't respond to him. Instead, she turned to Magnus. "He's your kind, isn't he?"
"What?" both he and Ethan said.
"That sounds racist," Ethan added.
"Not Asian, you moron. I meant you're both annoying, making jokes and blurting out random things whenever you're uncomfortable with the silence, and probably dating someone just as annoying as you are."
"Hey!" Alex and Camila both protested.
"See?" Jordan gestured at them. Then she jabbed her thumb at Tony, who was perched on top of the fridge. "Also, you even brought him along, Chane?"
"I didn't bring him along. He stowed away."
"Riiiight…" Jordan turned and looked at Tony. He looked back at her before nodding once — though whether that was a greeting or confirmation of what Magnus had said was hard to tell with Tony. It honestly could have been either.
Then he looked toward Magnus and shook his head grimly. "Sacrifices are rarely appreciated in their times."
Magnus chose to ignore this.
"So," Camila said, apparently having regained enough composure to take a jab at Jordan. "A little bird told me that you, Vanessa Jordan Hale, are finally trying emotional sincerity now. Even going as far as calling Alex your… f-f-friend."
Jordan narrowed her eyes at Camila. "Keep being annoying, Ortega, and I will end you."
Camila flinched despite herself.
Alex put a hand on Camila's shoulder. "In Jordan-speak, 'you're annoying' means she likes you enough to see you as a friend."
"It does not, Reyes!" Jordan snapped. "Don't put words in my mouth."
"Really? Because you called both me and my boyfriend annoying and we both know you care a lot about both of us. I mean, we've even had a threesome together."
"That doesn't mean anything."
"It means there's enough mutual trust and understanding there."
Jordan opened her mouth. Closed it. Then proceeded to glare at Alex.
Ethan chose this moment to open his mouth. "Wait, you also called me annoying. Does that mean you already see me as a friend?"
"Shut up, pretty boy."
"Aww, you think I'm pretty?"
Jordan scowled at Ethan, then turned to Magnus. "Why do you both react to the word 'pretty' the same way?"
It took Magnus a few seconds to get what she meant. Then: "I mean, you told me to 'sit there and look pretty'—that sounded like a compliment to me."
"Well, it wasn't," she snapped, then added, pointing at Ethan: "And it isn't."
Priya actually put her phone away willingly for a change. "Well, emotionally honest Vanessa is surprisingly entertaining."
"I will leave," Jordan said.
"You won't," Alex said. "You literally just said you were done pushing people away."
A pause.
"I hate this."
"No, you don't."
Another pause, slightly longer.
"No," Jordan admitted, at approximately the volume of someone not admitting anything. "I don't."
Camila clutched her chest. Nicole, without looking up from her coffee, said: "Someone should document this. Preferably with a camera, so we can rewatch it every time we get together."
"Try it and I will end you, Park," Jordan said pleasantly.
"I love you too, Vanessa," Nicole said.
***
After breakfast, they collectively decided — or rather, Maya decided — they should all play Exploding Kittens.
Everyone gathered around the living room table. Considering the game was designed for six while there were nineteen of them, even with some people sitting out and watching, it was still chaotic.
"Exploding Kittens is basically the Uno of our generation," Ethan proclaimed while shuffling.
"No," Aaron said. "Uno is the Uno of our generation."
"Most of us here were born between 2014 and 2016. Uno has been around since 1971. Exploding Kittens came out in 2015. Do the math."
"The math doesn't change what Uno is."
"Well, we can play both," Sofia said. "But Exploding Kittens first."
"Or, we could just play at different tables," Miguel offered reasonably, jabbing his thumb at the dining table. "We don't all have to play one game."
"Nonsense! This is more fun." Maya announced. She had already been inventing new house rules for the past five minutes and presenting them with the energy of someone announcing legislation.
"Loser of each round gets blindfolded for the next one," she said. "And has to make decisions based purely on what other people tell them. Which may or may not be accurate."
"That's a terrible rule! It's just chaos with extra steps," Aaron said.
"Yes," Maya agreed. "Those are my favorite kind."
Jordan looked at the blindfold Maya had produced — where she'd gotten it this quickly was clearly not a question anyone in the room wanted answered — and said: "I have no objections to this rule."
The first few rounds sorted themselves out. The blindfold moved around the table. Chloe lost a round and spent the next one in dignified, slightly anxious darkness while Maya helpfully misdirected her at every opportunity. Aaron lost a round and played the next one with the methodical focus of someone running a scientific experiment under adverse conditions.
Then Magnus lost a round.
"You know," he said while tying the blindfold on. "If I had a nickel for every time I had to tie a blindfold that's clearly made to be used in the bedroom for purposes that are not even remotely sexual in this very room, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it's happened twice."
Ethan immediately snorted. "I understood that reference!"
"We all do," Sofia said. "That meme was widely popular."
"Sure, but did you know the show it originated from?"
"Yes, it got revived while we were kids," Aaron replied, "so I imagine a lot of us streamed the older episodes."
"Oh. Right. I know that."
The game continued. Magnus reached for a card. Jade told him it was safe. Camila immediately counterclaimed that it wasn't. Magnus hesitated.
Outside, the wind picked up. The front door, which hadn't latched properly all week, swung open. Salt air rushed in, and as soon as it hit him, Magnus felt a vague sense of déjà vu. Then, he heard it.
"Alex, how could you?" Sofia said dramatically.
"I didn't do anything!" Alex snapped.
"Oh no, Reyes! You cheated!" Jordan said gleefully. "You definitely cheated!"
"I'm sorry, okay!"
"Oh, you should say that…" Maya said even more dramatically than Sofia, "…to your boyfriend, not us!"
Magnus burst out laughing on the spot. Everyone turned to him.
He put his cards face-down on the table, slightly lifted his blindfold over one eye to find Alex, then pulled her into a hug. She was stunned for a second before hugging him back.
"Okay, what's with the emotional outburst?" Tori eyed them.
Jordan shrugged. "Isn't this just normal for them?"
Alex ignored their teasing, but she was curious herself.
"Not that I'm complaining," she began, "but what's brought this on?"
"Remember that premonition I had at the beginning of the week that sounded like you were cheating?" he whispered. "It was about just now."
She froze for half a second, then burst out laughing, too. "See? I told you there was no way!"
"I know. I should have known it would be about something like this!"
"Okay." Valeria cleared her throat. "Somebody break up those drama queens and explain to me what's going on!"
Sofia raised her hand helpfully and filled everyone in on Magnus's premonition at the beginning of the week, which Alex had confided in her — worried about what it could have meant.
Jordan barked a laugh. "And he thought it was about her cheating on him? Please, I'd sooner believe Reyes had hit her head and gotten amnesia before she'd even consider cheating on him."
"I mean, between all the death threats and the System quests, getting a little paranoid over that kinda premonition is understandable—" Ethan said before Aaron clamped a hand over his mouth.
"What?" Jordan turned to them, confused.
"What he meant is," Aaron began, "Magnus having all these superpowers makes him look like one of those heroes who go on quests, facing down death threats and fighting against the System—you know, authoritarian monarchy and… things like that."
Jordan looked between them like she had noticed something she couldn't name yet. Then she shrugged.
"You two are weird." She concluded, pointing at them.
"Alright!" Maya clapped her hands together three times. "Back to the game."
Magnus pulled the blindfold back into place as the game continued.