Sparkle (KOTLC) {Completed}

32

After a few days of Sophie skipping school, she showed up again, with bags under her eyes and fake smiles. But she was trying, and that's what mattered to Janessa. As long as she kept trying, they would be fine.

Finals season came, and Sophie was not emotionally present throughout them. Even as Janessa celebrated passing all her finals, watching her friends all be hugged by their parents while she was alone, told by Mr Forkle as Magnate Leto since Livvy had to stay home with Amy, she couldn't try to be happy seeing Sophie's dead face. When Grady and Edaline congratulated her and hugged her, Sophie stayed dead.

She was only able to be distracted as Dex pulled her away from staring at her sister towards his family.

"Come celebrate with us, Nessie." 

The nickname dragged her out of her lost mind and she followed him with a slight smile on her face. When they reached his family, Janessa greeted Kessler warmly, thanking him for the ointments he'd given her.

Juline Dizznee was smiling as she watched the interactions. "Congratulations on passing, JJ."

Janessa's head snapped up and analyzing Juline's eyes, recognition filled her. "Squall." She whispered.

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you. Biana figured it out back when you were still... you know." Dex commented offhandedly.

His eyes widened as Janessa hugged his mom tightly, her smile wide as Juline kissed the top of her head.

As they pulled away, Juline asked, "Have you opened any gifts yet, JJ?"

Janessa shook her head, her eyes still wide with wonder. She pulled out her thinking cap, which had a gift from each of her friends and realized with a jolt that she hadn't given Dex his present yet.

"Oh! I almost forgot to give you your gift!" Janessa exclaimed reaching into her pocket and pulling out a medium-sized box. "Sorry it's not much."

As he opened it, his three siblings peered into the box, trying to steal from it, which Dex skillfully dodged. The first object he pulled out was a smartphone.

"It's just a collection of human technology. I didn't really know what to get you, but I remembered Sophie said you fixed up her old iPod, so I thought you might enjoy playing around with these. There's all sorts of movies and games downloaded on them too.." Janessa fiddled with her fingers nervously as a smile slowly stretched on Dex's face.

"This is really cool. Thanks, Nessie!" Dex bumped his shoulder against hers and she grinned back at him.

"Now, open your presents, JJ." Juline insisted, smiling to herself. Kessler shook his head at his wife, mumbling under his breath, "Stop meddling, woman."

Janessa pulled the first gift off the pile and opened it, finding a vial of stomach bacteria from Ro and Keefe with a note saying, For future pranks, partner. Janessa laughed while reading it, before looking through the gifts to find Dex's. "Which one's yours?"

Dex seemed nervous as he picked out a box wrapped in green paper and gave it to her. Janessa analyzed it from all angles, trying to guess what it was, before meticulously tearing off the paper. As she opened it, she almost dropped the box. Inside was a family crest, but it was one Janessa hadn't ever seen before. The main object in the circular crest was the jewelled Panakes tree, under which lay a phoenix and a black swan. Despite its size, the detail was incredible, and clearly a lot of time had gone into it. 

Noticing her eyes water, Dex started apologizing, "I'm sorry if it's overstepping, it's just, the other day, you looked so sad—" 

Before Dex could finish, Janessa had tackled him in a hug, her arms around his neck and her feet hovering above the ground slightly. 

"Thank you." Janessa's voice cracked, but her face was happier than it had been in months. Too excited to tune out his emotions, they came rushing over her. Warmth, happiness, relief, some nerves, and that fuzzy feeling she could never place. As Dex placed her back on her feet, her head leaned against his chest, not wanting to end the hug just yet. She could feel his heart racing beneath her and her eyes shot wide open, her cheeks flushing as she realized hers was pounding just as strongly as his was, if not more.

There it was. That fuzzy feeling she'd never placed. She could feel it in herself and in him and deep down, part of her knew exactly what it was, but in that moment, she didn't care. All she cared about was how amazing his gift was and how happy she was in his arms.

Eventually they pulled away, and Janessa was beaming as if she'd never had anything to smile about in her life.

"I take it you like it." Dex grinned, his dimple prominent.

"I love it. It's the best gift I've ever gotten." As if to prove it, Janessa immediately fastened it onto her half cape, getting rid of the empty pin she'd been wearing. "How did you make it?"

Dex shrugged innocently. "I had some help."

"Psh, name one person who helped you." Juline retorted. "Don't listen to him, JJ, he did the whole thing himself."

Dex blushed, glaring at his mom, who just looked away as if she'd said nothing. Janessa nudged his arm, smiling somewhat shyly at him. "I really, really love it. It's perfect. Thank you."

Dex grinned nervously back. "You're welcome, Nessie."

Juline and Kessler were smiling down at them too, making Janessa blushed as she remembered—Squall had bet that she and Dex would date, and now, Squall was Juline, Dex's mom. She didn't know how to feel about that, but, since it seemed to be the root cause of her blushing, she just ignored it in favour of opening the rest of her gifts.

None of the other gifts got much of a reaction out of Janessa, and Dex proudly noticed her constantly looking down at the pin and smiling. 

As she was glancing at it again, she frowned as she noticed the subtle detailing around the edges. A moonlark feather, a heart, some gears, and more all lining the very edge of the pin. Janessa felt her eyes tearing up again, but she pushed it back into a smile. 

"Did you... include everyone on this?" Janessa asked shakily.

"Well... yeah, I mean, we're all family, right? Did you think you just had those weirdos from the Black Swan?" Dex responded, grinning back at her.

"Hey!" Juline exclaimed, though she was smiling.

Unable to stop herself, Janessa pulled Dex into another hug, this time letting her tears fall freely. Words bubbled up in her throat, but, as easy as they would be to say to Sophie, Biana, or Keefe, she for some reason couldn't tell them to Dex. I love you. Why were they so hard? They're just words, but Janessa's heart pounded at the thought of them.

I love you. But she didn't say them. She just thought them as hard as she could and hoped the message got through to him through their hug.