Chapter 9: No Wonder She's A Leader

                                    

                                          



"I-I promise, I can explain." Jesse pleaded, knowing how caught red-handed she was currently. 
"Explain how you're not who you told us you were?" Lukas looked hurt, almost like he wanted to walk out of that room right now. 
"Lukas," She tried to grab for his arm, "I wanted friends, not a pity party that would only talk to me about my family issues."    
"That doesn't mean you had to lie to us," Lukas said softly, his voice no longer holding its calm tone. 
"I didn't lie, I just never dared to tell you- to tell anyone." She swallowed a growing lump in her throat, her voice shaking a little. 
"I thought we had trust." The blonde pushed her arm away. 
Jesse shook her head at him, "We do have trust." 
"No, Jess, not anymore." 
"You have to realize how hard this is for me, Lukas." Her voice started to rise.
"Well, it's hard for me as well when my friend is keeping things." He yelled. 
Jesse's eyes widened. "Please, don't pretend as if you haven't been keeping stuff too!" 
"Nothing as major as this!" 
The raven-haired girl bowed her head, avoiding his gaze as she sighed, "Can you blame me for leaving the life of a princess?" 
He didn't say anything, his fists clenched. He seemed to raise one directed at her but dropped it before disappearing outside. 
"Lukas, wait!" All she could do was call after him, a small tear sliding down her cheek.
"Give him the space to wrap it around his head," Olivia suggested. 
"Can't you understand my reasons to hide this?" She asked, her heart seeming to break little by little. 
"You brought this upon yourself, Jessica." Isa rolled her eyes, scoffing.  
Milo just nodded. The doors in the room seemed to shut, chains and locks wrapped around the door handle. Her parents had disappeared, and Lukas was thrown into the room by the Sky City Guards. 
They were trapped.
"This is exactly why I didn't tell you how messed up my life is!" She mumbled, turning away from them, the handcuffs still wrapped tightly around her wrists. 
"Didn't see that coming. Milo is your dad?!" Petra spoke for the first time since they entered. 
"Apparently, yeah. But of course, I didn't know that until like seven hours ago." She snapped, anger replacing her sadness. 
"Well, at least we know what was bothering you." The other girl murmured.
"You guys shouldn't have to deal with this." Jesse sighed, her shoulders slumping as she threw herself to the ground.
 They didn't say anything, but Olivia sat down next to her. She gently grabbed her, pulling her frame into her embrace. The raven-haired girl just pushed her friend away, placing herself in the corner. 
"Jesse, you have to talk to us." She coaxed from where the girl had left her. 
"No." 
A blatant response. Not surprising though, for she would always do this when they tried to bring up a sensitive topic.  
"Fine. If you won't talk about that, let's at least try to discuss the prank Petra pulled." Olivia huffed, glaring at the warrior. 
"Hey! It was a good prank!" She defended.  
"Exactly, I still don't know what happened!" Lukas exclaimed, but he wasn't happy about it. 
"Oh, yeah. Petra thought it was a good idea to pretend to be me. She faked the note, and used that potion to turn you into something that would exceed her every command." Jesse started yelling a little, seeming heated more than she had been before. No one could blame her though, a lot of stuff has happened. 
Lukas decided to mock her, for he was angry too. "Then tell me, Princess. What did she make me do?" 
"Let's just say a reenactment of Sleeping Beauty." She replied sarcastically. 
"Petra! I told you we're just friends!" 
"Ok, Lukas you can tell you and I are just friends, but with Jesse, it seems more than friends."  She explained, before adding. "Since I'm Jesse's best friend, I was the closest to figuring it out." 
"Oh great, so you told Petra, and not us?" He shot. 
This made their leader face them. "No! I haven't told anyone my secret since I left the stupid place. Besides, all I said to Petra was that it was stuff from my past, that's it!"  
"Guys, come on! We don't need to argue. So what is your problem with our Wither-Slayer being a princess?" Axel tried speaking, popping some cookies in his mouth. 
"Haven't you been paying attention to anything, Axel?" The blonde hissed. 
"Guys, please, just stop," Jesse whispered, her head buried in her hands. 
"If you want us to stop, you have to kiss Lukas," Petra smirked, trying to stifle her laughter.
"We did not agree to that," Olivia argued. 
"Ok, then you have to deal with obnoxious Petra until she does." The redhead shrugged. 
"Petra, you're already obnoxious." Lukas spat. 
Why did her friend seem to detect how badly she wanted to do that? 
"Ok, ok. Whatever!" She groaned standing up and placing a small kiss on his cheek. "Are ya happy?" 
"Hey! That doesn't count!" The girl started to glare at Jesse, and she just narrowed her eyes. 
"In my defense, you did not say where." She went back to sitting in the corner, her back facing them. 
"Petra, you are the worst member of this group," Axel said in between bites of his cookies.  
"She's the coolest member," Jesse said plainly.
"I don't even know why we are all friends," Lukas said defeatedly. 
"We just need to calm down for a while, and we'll talk about this later." The leader stated. 
It became complete silence after that. 
Even though she'd never say it out loud, Jesse couldn't lie. She felt her heart flutter when she gave Lukas a peck on the cheek. 
Even though it wasn't a real kiss, it still felt really good.  Too bad she wasn't awake for the real kiss Petra set them up to have. 
Though she wondered if her wish would ever come true. If she could finally have the happiness she has waited for all her life.   
Though after some time, she seemed to be the only one still awake. The rest of the group somehow managed to fall asleep on the stone floor. How they did it, Jesse didn't know. 
So, unable to sleep, she waited for their next conversation.