"Daddy's gotten pretty awful again, hasn't he?" Jasmine whispered under her breath to Monet, focusing her camera outside of the plane window as she spoke. Today they were finally getting out of their homes and school and they were all heading to New York for Jasmine's TV interview. Since the interview would take place on Jasmine and Monet's birthday, it didn't take much work to convince Melissa to let Mark and Monet tag along with them. That's why, for the first time in their lives, Mark and Monet were on an airplane. This was also the first time that they would be a part of Jasmine's vlog for a legit reason and not just because she wanted them to say hi.
At this point, Jasmine wasn't just an actress, she was also a YouTuber. She wasn't the best in the business, not by a long shot, and most of her following was because of her career as an actress, but she didn't seem to care. She had started it when she started acting, just to give her something to do, and by the time she got serious about it, she had a good fanbase going. And so, the fourth-grader was allowed to keep her channel, though her aunt helped her run it. Now, she was getting just as noticed from that as she was from her movie.
"Yeah, but I'm okay. At least you're not home anymore to get into trouble," Monet sighed, watching her hand her camera. She ran her hand through her now short hair and leaned against the seat. "You're not keeping that part in the video, are you?" Jasmine quickly shook her head and looked back at Monet with a small smile.
"Obviously not. I was planning on taking the voices off of this part of the video anyway," Jasmine replied. She turned back to the window and checked the video through her camera before shutting it off and turning back to face Monet again. "How come you cut your hair? I mean, it looks good and all but I thought you wanted it long like mine?" Monet shook her head quickly, fidgeting with her hands.
"People like to pull at it. I don't like it long if people are gonna pull it," Monet admitted, shrugging her shoulders. It wasn't the full truth, of course. She couldn't bring herself to explain the full truth, no matter how much she trusted Jasmine. If Jasmine were to find out, she would never look at Monet the same way. She couldn't let that happen. Jasmine just sighed and reached out and brushed back a few loose strands of hair out of Monet's face that the new pixie cut couldn't hide.
"Well, I think it's still pretty. Even if you still have you stupid-looking bangs," Jasmine teased, giggling slightly. She flashed Monet a smile and placed her camera back into her bag again. Monet smiled a bit and shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, Miss Rebecca said that she couldn't fix those even if I wanted her too," Monet laughed, pulling her knees up to her chest. Ever since she had decided that she was going to be a hairdresser, after being crushed when she found out knights didn't exist anymore, Monet had decided to practice on whatever she could get her hands on. That meant all her old dolls and herself. So, her bangs were her pride and joy.
"Well, I think that they add some personality to you," Jasmine shrugged, digging through her bag to find something to do. She didn't have much with her in the bag so there wasn't much for her to do.
"Personality's a pretty big word," Monet pointed out. Jasmine giggled and turned to face her, shaking her head slightly.
"You know I like big words a lot, Miss Knight. Personality is a noun that means all of the things that make you, you and me, me," Jasmine explained, kicking her feet back and forth in her seat as she pulled out a coloring book. She thought about editing her video now btu she figured she would much rather do that back in the hotel room. She grabbed some colored pencils and held one out to Monet to color with her as well.
"What do you mean by that?" Monet asked, tilting her head as she grabbed the colored pencil to color with Jasmine.
"Oh, I mean like how you're quiet and don't talk a lot and how I'm loud and like attention. Being quiet is your personality and being loud is mine," Jasmine continued to explain. "And like how Mark makes sure that we don't fight. That's his personality." She didn't look up from her coloring book, shading in the bear on the page, so clearly this topic was easy for her to talk about. Monet shouldn't have been surprised. Jasmine was the smartest out of all of them.
Monet turned around and looked at the seat behind her, standing on her knees so that she could see Mark, who was sitting right behind her with his mother. "Hey, Mark, what's your personality?" Monet asked, folding her arms over the top of the seat and resting her chin on top of them.
"Um... what do you mean?" Mark asked, tilting his head like he didn't completely understand.
"Oh, like how I'm quiet and don't like to talk much. What's your personality?"
"Oh, um... I dunno. Maybe how I like everything to be peaceful and no one to fight. Like how I don't like to take sides." Monet nodded her head and sat down in her seat again, grabbing her colored pencil and going back to work on the coloring page she had been working on.
"You were right," Monet said. "It's how he doesn't like people fighting." Jasmine nodded her head in agreement and the two of them were silent for a minute. Monet thought about grabbing her book to start reading again but that's when Jasmine interrupted her thoughts.
"How about bruises?" Jasmine whispered to Monet quietly, seemingly out of nowhere but that was how Jasmine worked. "Do you have any?" Monet stopped for a minute, the question turning in her head. Slowly, she nodded her head yes. Jasmine would probably want to see later but it wasn't a big deal. Monet was good at making excuses for the marks that Anna left at this point anyway. "Okay, so, we'll just tell Aunt Melissa that we don't want to go swimming this time. Because I don't want to go swimming and now we have an excuse."
"I guess that's okay. But you don't want to go swimming? Because if you do, I can hide my bruises. I'm getting good at it now," Monet replied. She didn't think that Jasmine just didn't want to go swimming. Swimming was one of Jasmine's favorite activities and so to hear her say that she didn't want to just made her think that she was only saying that because of Monet.
"Nah, not this time. I've heard that there are so many super cool things in New York. I kinda want to check them out instead," Jasmine replied with a shrug. Monet sighed but nodded her head. If that was what Jasmine wanted, she wasn't going to judge her.
"That's okay. That sounds fun," Monet agreed, shrugging her shoulders. Jasmine smiled at her and went back to coloring the page again. They were silent for a bit, coloring in the page with a small hum and a smile. Then, Jasmine spoke again.
"I never got to thank you for when you took those beating for me a few months ago when I had to stay home with you again while Mom was in the hospital and Aunt Melissa and Uncle Henry were out of town," Jasmine whispered quickly, her voice dropping so that they wouldn't be found out by Rebecca and Mark in the seat behind them. Monet only shrugged her shoulders in response, not looking up from her coloring page.
"If Mom had found out about it, we would have been in big trouble," Monet replied, trading out her color for a new one. "It's not that big of a deal anyway. I just wanted to protect you and make sure that you were okay." Jasmine frowned and shook her head, dropping her colored pencil and looking up.
"No, it's not. This is a big deal. I wish I could do something, anything, about it. It's not fair to you to leave you alone like that," Jasmine pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. She tried to look like she was mad, or anything to get Monet's attention, but since they were whispering, all attempts were futile.
"It's fine, really," Monet repeated, shaking her head. She still refused to look up and Jasmine groaned, getting frustrated with her slightly. That was when Mark leaned over the seat with a smile.
"What are we whispering about?" He asked with a small laugh. Jasmine looked up at him and giggled, her smile returning, and she shoved him lightly.
"None of your business, duh. Secrets between sisters, stupid."
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
"So, I just told Mark and Monet my plan and so we're going to go downstairs and look for my friend because he said he was going to come with us to walk around New York together so this is going to be a lot of fun!" Jasmine said, walking down the stairs and holding her camera out in front of her. Mark and Monet were visible behind her, not saying anything, and farther than them was Rebecca and Melissa, who were just chatting. The hotel elevators would have been much faster and more efficient but Jasmine prefered the stairs and so, they were taking the stairs now. Pushing open the door to the stairs, Jasmine rushed out into the lobby and started to look around, trying to find her friend.
"Jassy, where did you say you were meeting your friend?" Monet asked, walking over to Jasmine's side like she was unaware of the camera. Jasmine only shrugged her shoulders in response and looked around the room, standing on her toes to try to find her friend.
"He never said. Maybe we're supposed to meet him outside or something," Jasmine offered, looking back at Monet and Mark with a sigh. That's when she heard someone shout "Merry Blumer!" from across the lobby. Excited, Jasmine turned around again, eyes scanning for her friend. There was only one person who called her Merry Blumer, after all.
There was her friend. The one and only Kyle Revere stood on the other side of the lobby, waving his arms at her like he was trying to flag down an airplane. Jasmine giggled and waved her free arm back at him, trying hard not to jostle her camera too much. The blonde boy quickly ran over to her, dragging someone who was definitely his mother with him.
"Hey!" Jasmine smiled, hugging him tightly when he got close enough. Kyle hugged her back tightly, laughing as they pulled away. "It's Joshua Jack!"
"It's only been, like, forever!" Kyle replied, taking her hand excitedly in his own. The two of them had been in Miss Blumer and Mr. Jack 4 together so being able to see each other again was quite exciting. The two of them had gotten really close over the course of filming and hadn't seen each other in a while, much to their disappointment.
"I know!" Jasmine giggled, giving Kyle's hand a squeeze. Then, she let it go and turned her camera off, slinging it over her shoulder and fixing the strap on it. She gestured to the two friends that she had dragged her with her, who hadn't said anything since they found Kyle. "Kyle, this is Mark and this is Monet. They're my best friends in the whole world. They came because we're gonna celebrate my birthday here tomorrow."
"And it's Monet's birthday today," Mark pointed out gently. Monet sighed and shook her head slightly.
"And mine," Monet replied with a shrug. Clearly, she didn't care about it as much as Mark did.
"And Monet's. We're twins so we have the same birthday. Isn't that cool?" Jasmine said with a small giggle. She turned back to face Kyle, who smiled and nodded his head at them.
"Hey guys! I'm Kyle! Jasmine and I worked on the movie together!" Kyle said with a smile, holding out his hand to shake Mark and Monet's. The two of them smiled at him and shook his hand. He was a little gentleman already. Kyle smiled at the group before looking over at Jasmine again. "Hey, Jasmine?" He asked, catching Jasmine's attention again. She looked over at him and tilted her head slightly. "Who is she?" He glanced over at Melissa. Jasmine formed an O shape with her lips.
"That's Aunt Melissa," Jasmine said with a shrug. "I live with her and Uncle Henry and Tommy now." Kyle tilted her head in slight confusion.
"Why don't you live with your mom anymore?" Kyle asked with a confused look. Jasmine froze, her body going stiff and her happy look disappearing at the very mention of her mother. Mark reached over and grabbed her hand quickly, giving her hand a tight squeeze.
"Miss Clara died over the summer," Mark said quietly, filling in the words that Jasmine and Monet couldn't bring themselves to say. Ever since Clara had died, neither of them even so much as spoke her name when they were around him. He knew that the death was going to be hard for both of them but it was hard to help them when they couldn't talk about it. It was like the twins were in denial about it, refusing to accept what had happened. Kyle froze, his smile fading and a slight look of shock covered his features. Instead of saying anything right away, he reached over and pulled Jasmine into another hug. Jasmine gave a tight smile and hugged him back, though she didn't let go of Mark's hand.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know that," Kyle said quietly. He felt bad for bringing it up because clearly it was something that she didn't want to talk about right now. Jasmine shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"It's okay, I guess. I have Aunt Melissa and Uncle Henry and Miss Rebecca now. And I still have Mark and Monet. I'm doing okay," Jasmine smiled at her friend again. "Anyways, I thought we were going to explore New York, remember?" Kyle smiled and nodded his head.
"Yeah! Of course! It's going to be so much fun, isn't it?" Kyle laughed and Jasmine bounced up and down on her toes excitedly. She held her free hand out to Monet, trying to get her sister to take it so that she could hold both of her best friends' hands.
"Come on, Miss Knight! It'll be just like exploring a new place in Blaten! Isn't that right, Good Sir?" Jasmine exclaimed, looking over at Mark for confirmation. Mark nodded his head and Monet sighed, taking Jasmine's hand and nodding her head softly.
"Just like Blaten," Monet agreed. Kyle smiled at the exchange but his confusion was clear on his face.
"What's Blaten?" Kyle asked, tilting his head to the side. Jasmine, Mark, and Monet exchanged looks and smiled.
"It's only the best place in the world."