Sparkly

Vibrate

The phone in Jade's pocket vibrated. Mom had insisted she borrow one so her family could find her, after a few days of Jade being mostly invisible.

Being invisible had decreased people complaining about her quickly, but it also didn't take long for Mom and Brian to start getting worried. Jade had walked around visible to show them she was okay, but she hadn't predicted the phone.

Len had texted her a video. It seemed to be security camera footage of a hostage situation.

Jade's eyes widened as the Gem Squad showed up, minus Diamond, and Quartz proceeded to do what Quartz did best, though in the video it was censored with a blurring effect.

Crystal said something to her with a horrified expression, though there was no sound, and Quartz ignored her to talk to Amethyst.

After a few more moments of tense talking Quartz and Amethyst disappeared in a flash of blue light, followed by Crystal.

Jade wondered if Crystal would continue to stick to them after this, or if killing humans was crossing a line even for her.

Whatever. It was none of her business.

Len didn't send a message along with the video. Jade hoped her mother hadn't seen it- there were videos out there of Jade with the Gem Squad, and she didn't want to be interrogated about that.

She hadn't thought about the Gem Squad in a while. Good thing she'd left so early on.

It didn't seem like they'd really turned to the dark side yet. Perhaps they were killing and traumatizing more people than they were saving, but the trio of toxic mean girls didn't seem to want to rule the world yet.

Jade wondered if Diamond wasn't with the Gem Squad anymore. Jade hadn't been keeping up with the latest videos of the Gem Squad since she'd left, but on a spurt of curiosity she started doing some searching.

Boredom made a lot of time for morbid curiosity.

There were a few clips of them, but not as many as Jade had expected. There were way more conversations about Torian and clips of him and his family.

It was public that they were staying here now.

Jade scrolled through the comments of a video of him and his family. Some people thought they should be doing interviews. How annoying, as if it was Jade's family's responsibility to be some kind of public figures just because of Jade's powers.

Other people felt sorry for them. The thought of random strangers feeling sorry for Jade made her uncomfortable.

And of course there were people making fun of Jade's frilly dress and pretty appearance.

Was everyone in the world just awful, seriously? Fake pity, callous nosiness, and people just there to make jokes at someone else's expense.

She clicked to a video that was recommended after that one.

Lotta Bucks. Jade generally tried to avoid the girl.

She complained about how her mother was spending so much time with that woman, how Torian was insufferably snooty and she was worried about him spying on her in compromising situations-

Jade paused the video to unclench her jaw and breath deeply.

She'd never once teleported into someone's private rooms or bathrooms. She might spy on people for her and her family's safety, but she had limits.

Lotta made her out to be some kind of perverted villain when Lotta had always been the one making trouble with her.

She scrolled down to the comments, half expecting everyone to be siding with Lotta, and that half of her wasn't disappointed.

"Okay, of course they're siding with her. They are her fans, if they're watching this video." Jade said to herself.

She put a hand over her mouth, hoping nobody had heard her. She was hiding out in the attic, and she'd rather nobody knew where she was.

She'd started getting into the habit of talking to herself after days of not talking to anybody.

The phone vibrated again. It was a message from Prina.

'hey, wanna hang out with me? I asked Brian but he was on the phone with his friend and Len is being annoying so I won't talk to her :(:('

"Nice to know I'm your last choice." Jade muttered.

Well, not really her last choice. She hadn't asked Mom or any of the Bucks. Or the maids or mages or guards.

'sure. where are you?' Jade texted.

She needed something to think about besides the endless, depressing world of the internet and her bad public image.

'my room'

They're each been given a room to stay in, even the twins. Jade didn't spend much time in hers because she didn't want to be easily findable.

Jade teleported into Prina's room.

Prina was sitting on the bed, phone in hand.

"It's been ages since I've seen you!" she said.

"Well, that was kind of the point. People don't like it when I'm around too much." Jade said, sitting next to her.

"Too bad for them." Prina said. "Have you been exploring the mansion? It's really cool, isn't it?"

Jade nodded, but before she could say anything Prina continued.

"Len's been really annoying. She's always glaring at me and saying I'm annoying when she's the one acting like the world is ending. She's so gloomy."

She paused.

"I miss her." she admitted. "But don't tell her I said that!"

She looked at Jade.

Jade nodded.

"I promise not to." she said.

Prina smiled.

"I downloaded a really cool phone game. It's free so you don't have to ask the Bucks to buy it for you if you don't wanna talk to them which I can kinda understand since they've been making all those videos about you and all..." Prina trailed off, glancing at Jade.

"Oh... I actually only saw one video about me and I didn't even watch it all. But I assume it's bad." Jade said, rubbing her forehead.

"They've been saying all sorts of awful things. I tried telling them they're wrong and they shouldn't be making assumptions like that, but they just treat me like a kid." Prina frowned. "I guess you get used to treating everyone like a kid when you're a billionaire."

"Yeah. And they donate to charities, so everyone assumes they're great people and right about everything." Jade said sourly.

"Well, I've seen a lot of people who hate them, but it's more about the hating them than the defending you. A lot of people seem to be jealous of their money and honestly I can relate." Prina said.

Jade sighed. She just wanted to get out of this place.

"Hey, what if you made videos defending yourself? I mean people might not agree with you but you could at least tell your side." Prina said uncertainty, as if worried she'd offend Jade.

Jade felt a rush of annoyance at the thought of having to deal with the huge mob of faceless people who hated her before even knowing her.

But what else was she going to do with her time? And when she thought about it, making some attempt to get people on her side could be helpful for her safety in the long run.

"I guess you're right." Jade said after a long pause. "I'll have to think carefully about what I say, though. I don't want to jeopardize our situation here."

At the same time, she hated the thought of kissing up to Lotta and the rest of the cloying Bucks either.

Prina smiled.

"I'll help you if you want." she offered.