5th Generation

Episode 12: The Sleepover (Part 4)

Paz woke with a start from another nightmare. She gave her closet an accusing look, and slipped out of bed. There was no point trying to sleep anymore. Not with THAT in her closet. It, the definitely evil journal, was hers for the time being. Her close friend Sandy had found it in a bookstore a few months earlier. At first it had sounded kind of cool, what with it's magic powers and all. (Anything written in it came true, and to reverse it, all you have to do is rip the page that was written on.) Paz saw it as more of a curse than a blessing. She closed her eyes briefly and she could see it. A blue spiral notebook, and a skull with blue roses for eyes on the cover. The same as in her nightmares. Of course no one believed her. Her friends, especially Sandy, would follow it to the ends of the earth. She couldn't understand what her friends saw in it. If someone possesses it for more than a week, it starts to corrupt and bring out the worst in them. If that isn't evil, what is? Her friends traded off the journal every Friday to cancel out the evil effect. Just yesterday, She had gotten it from her friend Hazel. Now it sat in solitary confines in her closet. 

She sighed and made her way downstairs so she doesn't wake anyone up. According to the clock on the wall, it was 8 in the morning. That was more sleep than she's gotten on other weeks. She had been going to quietly turn on the TV when she reached the couch downstairs, but now all she could do was think about her friends. Why couldn't they see what she did? None of them were stupid...Sandy especially was attached to it. Sandy had wavy brown hair and a constant bright smile and flow of words. She never shut up. Or took her flower wreath off. Hazel also liked the book a little too much. Hazel had messy blonde hair and a fandom obsession. Then there was Jacqueline. She seemed to get it at least a little, but even the goth didn't understand completely. Nobody did. 

Just then, she heard her phone ring. Loudly. She quickly turned off the volume and looked toward the stairs. Nothing. The text she had received was from a girl named Amber. Amber was one of the popular mean girls in the school. Second in command to Pacifica, the dumb rich girl who apparently paid people to be her "friend". At least that was what Amber had told her. A while ago, the two girls had gotten locked in a closet together by accident and had bonded a bit. At first, Amber had seemed like just some annoying airhead, but it turns out, she's actually really smart. And nice. Paz had learned that Amber fakes being an idiot so that Pacifica will keep giving her money to stick around. In reality, Amber was jealous of Paz and her friends. Paz had told her that she could be her friend and they had traded numbers. This was the first time they had ever made contact, besides a few discreet nods in the hall, though. (Amber didn't want Pacifica to know.) The text read: "Hey! Srry I couldnt text earlier! This is like, the 1st time in a while ive had the chance!! How r u?" Paz smiled and answered back. "Hi, I'm good. How are you?" "pretty good! Pacifica had a sleepover last night and everyone else is still sleepin. Thought id talk to someone with brain cells 4 1ce." Then she sent a picture. It was a selfie. Her reddish auburn hair was messy and she looked tired, but she was grinning happily. Something compelled Paz to save the picture, so she did it before responding. "I love the photo. You look like you're having fun" "I am now" They ended up texting back and forth for a few hours. Paz talked about her friends, and Amber complained about hers. Then, Amber had to go. "Ppl r wakin up" They said their goodbyes, and then Paz went upstairs. Her parents should be up by now.

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A few hours later, Paz had the house to herself. Her parents had gone out shopping for a little bit and she had voluntarily stayed behind. All she did was draw while listening to music without headphones until she got a video call from her group chat. Hazel had set it up fairly recently. It had her, Paz, Sandy, Jacqueline and Sandy's friend Mason. Mason had popped up just around the same time the journal, also known as The Tome, had. He was nice and all, and he lived in a bookstore, but she couldn't help but be a little suspicious....She propped her phone up so she could keep drawing and answered the call. "Sup" was the first thing Jacqueline said.