It wasn’t long after they retreated from that conversation with Brie, when Sky heard a light knock at his bedroom door. “Please go away,” he called through the door, though without much weight behind his words.

“It’s me, Sky,” Star stated with a heavy sigh.

“Now, now, mom said we weren’t allowed to be in each other’s rooms” Sky scoffed.

Star just rolled her eyes and pushed the door open anyway, “yeah well, she doesn’t remember making us so we can’t stay away from each other even if we wanted to,” she told him wryly as she closed the door behind her.

“Should we tell her that too? Let’s just undo this whole fucking mind-fuck of a world. Why don’t we?” he replied sarcastically as he turned his attention back to his computer.

“So, you really would rather them not know how we feel about each other? You liked it better when we just had to hide and deny our feelings every second of the day?”

Sky sighed, “like I said; that I know how to do.”

Star scoffed again as she pulled the other chair up next to him, “actually, no you don’t. If you did... if either of us did... if either of us could just deny our feelings, then we never would have done any of the things we did, and we’d still be in that other world, and who knows what else our lives would be now?”

“Yay, a third alternate dimension. We aimin for that one next?” he scoffed.

Star shook her head sadly, “you’re all over the place, Sky. You went from sobbing in the car over hurting me, to not even having my back down there with mom.”

Sky sighed, finally casting his eyes down from the computer screen. “I always have your back, Star. I just don’t know how to have that conversation at all. Let alone, with her. She’s sitting there asking us about our sex lives? How the fuck do I even try to talk about that? I tell her the truth and, if it doesn’t kill her, it still makes no sense in this world. Or I have to come up with some mildly believable pack of lies which I don’t wanna talk about with her anyway. It’s a no-win. I just wanted outta there.”

“Well, she’s gonna keep wondering; keep asking. We have to figure it out.”

“And how do we do that?”

“We have to at least figure out what to say to her next time it’s brought up” Star sighed sadly.

“So, pack of lies it is then” he mumbled, then looked back up at her, “do you realize what’s happened?”

Star was a little caught, narrowing her eyes, “you’re gonna have to be more specific than that.”

“In this world, you and I are the ones trying to make up an entire web of lies to hide the truth from our parents... Ironic much?”

Star looked down, hurt by the thought that making up any lies at all would indeed turn them into the version of their parents that they hated so much. She let out another sigh, “well at least some of what happened in our world had to have happened here. I mean, aren’t we living proof of that? We obviously still have abilities, and we know how that had to have happened. So where exactly did these two worlds diverge?” she took a breath, “and if Brie and Connor don’t remember making us, then is it cause we made them forget, or... I mean it had to have been them that did this to us, right? Even in this world, right?”

“You’re asking the wrong guy” Sky sighed again.

Star then looked up at the ceiling in desperation, “oh my god, this whole alternate world thing is just hurting my brain.”

“Watch out. You know what happens when we get too stressed to wanna be in the situation we’re in anymore. And now, we don’t even have to get naked to wish ourselves off to some other place.”

“And would another place be any better, really? The problem is what’s in our heads now, and that won’t go away, no matter what world we’re in” Star admitted sadly.

“Well our soul better hurry up and tell us what we need, cause I have no fucking clue right now” Sky stated with another hopeless sigh.

Even though the clock struck midnight to mark the end of their first day of managing to survive, just barely, in this new world; neither Star nor Sky were even close to sleeping just yet. Sky was still busy at his computer as the numbers on the clock rolled over to a.m., but he was still easily distracted away from his mindless web browsing when he heard Star moving items around her room with obvious agitation.

He sighed as he looked at the clock, hoping his parents in this world still never ventured out of their own downstairs bedroom at this hour. He then pushed himself up from his seat and moved toward the door.

“Looking for something?” he stated the obvious as he tapped once on her door before pushing it open to see her angrily moving her belongings around in irritation.

Startled a bit from her frantic search, she looked back at him, “sorry, did I wake you?”

“Not hardly” Sky scoffed, “what are you looking for anyway?”

Star sighed in frustration as she pushed some errant locks from her face, “doesn’t matter.”

Sky narrowed his eyes at that, continuing to watch her skeptically as he leaned against her doorway, “well if it doesn’t matter, then why the midnight search?”

Star sighed as she looked back at him, then moved to pull him into the room by his wrist, closing the door behind him. Dropping her voice, she answered, “my pill: I always take it at midnight.”

“Pill?” Sky raised an eyebrow.

“You know, the pills she gave me... after the flood... and the condom wrapper” she added pointedly.

“In the other world?” he asked her pointedly.

Star just scoffed, “well, why wouldn’t I be on birth control here too?”

“Cause she never found out about us fucking and flooding the house here... I guess, since it never happened here” he added as he gestured back toward the door.

Star sighed as she sat at the foot of the bed in defeat, “I need my pills, Sky.”

“Why? Got a hot date planned already?” he asked wryly, still averting his eyes more than he could keep them on her.

“But why wouldn’t I be on them here too?” she repeated, “I mean, we’re still soul-mates, in any world, and in this one, we don’t even have the twin-guilt bullshit. Why wouldn’t we be...” though she just shook her head.

Sky looked down again, “so you’re trying to figure out the same thing as mom: What have we actually done, been doing, with each other? Here, in this world?”

“Well, wouldn’t you like to know that too?” Star returned.

“Of course I wanna know, but...” he just shrugged slightly, “if you’re not on the pill, and we have no kids running around that we know of, and the bathroom never flooded...” he just shrugged again.

“So, you really think that in this world, where we never even thought we were truly related, that somehow we’ve managed to resist giving in to how bad we’ve always wanted each other? For three years longer than we could there?” she added for weight.

“Well, that’s what all signs point to” Sky shrugged again.

“But I don’t get it. The guilt was the main reason we fought it so much, in our world. If we don’t have that to anywhere near the same extent here, then...”

“Believe me, I’ve got plenty of guilt” Sky mumbled as he moved to take a seat a few inches from her, “it’s just not over you being my twin anymore.”

Star sighed as she looked over at him sadly, easily recalling their earlier conversation, “again, that guilt you’re feeling, misplaced as it is” she had to add, “that’s about what happened in the other world. We still have no idea what led us to where we are in this world, and what we may or may not have done here.”

“Well, at least in this world, you’ll eventually be able to tell if you actually still are a virgin. I’ll just never know that about this version of myself. More trauma, yay.”

Star scoffed, “I’ll be able to tell? What? Should I go ask some perverted doctor or priest to finger me so they can tell daddy if I’m pure or not?”

Sky shook his head, “I mean, when you do eventually have sex again... I’m pretty sure it’ll be painfully obvious. Pun intended.”

“Great, so I have that to look forward to” she scoffed again.

“I seem to recall that the morning you lost your virginity, it wasn’t exactly terrible. Aside from every single thing that happened afterwards” he had to add.

Star scoffed again, allowing herself an extra moment to remember that morning in the shower before shaking her head and moving on, “so, maybe that’s the secret to this world. Maybe I really am still a virgin here; and as long as I never lose my virginity this time around, all will be right with the world-- this world” she rolled her eyes, “so, do they still have convents I can move into, or does that only work in movies?” she added with another scoff.

The next afternoon before lunch period, Star was startled more than a bit when she turned from stowing her books in her locker to find a freshman girl staring at her expectantly. The girl was named Crista, and Star only even knew that much because she was the one freshman who stood out that year. She was one of the only other so-called ‘freaks’ in school. Crista was of the bubblegum goth persuasion, complete with pastel blue hair and other pastel pinks and blues scattered throughout her dark black clothing and makeup.

Star’s breath caught a bit when she turned to find the girl looking at her with a nervous smile, “um, I’m not really a good person to sneak up on, Crista” Star told her to cover her own very severe case of nerves at just the reality of being in the same building as Curt again; not to mention a few other factors that were currently fraying her nerves since arriving in this reality at all.

“Can we have lunch together?” Crista asked with that same nervous smile.

Star was caught again by that question as she thought on it. She then glanced across the hall at where Sky was also stowing his books in his locker. Star then looked back at Crista. It was obvious this girl was most likely more of an ally than an enemy, and she definitely didn’t want to risk being cornered alone, nor was she sure Sky would be much of a conversationalist that day, all things considered.

But before Star could ponder her answer, Crista spoke again, “I know you’re a senior and I’m a freshman and all that, but I figured you might actually not mind me hanging around you and your really, really, really... gorgeous brother” she added nervously as she also cast a glance across the hall at Sky.

Star quickly forced a blank expression in reaction to those words as she cast another nervous glance at Sky as he closed his locker. She then looked back at Crista, “so is it me that you wanna have lunch with, or Sky?” she couldn’t help asking.

That was when Crista let her eyes move over Star with what almost looked like appreciation, though it was hard to tell if it was only appreciation of Star’s fashion sense, or something a little more. Crista then smiled back up at her, “aren’t you two sort of a package deal?”

“I suppose that’s one way of putting it” Star spoke, but more to herself.

“Besides, I really do wanna hang out with both of you, and maybe find out for myself.”

“Find out what for yourself?” Star asked Crista with narrowed eyes.

“My sister graduated last year, and because of the way I look, she always talked about you and Sky” Crista offered furtively.

“Talked about us?” Star narrowed her eyes further, another glance at where Sky nodded to her from across the hall before heading into the restroom.

“Yeah, and she’s a bitch, so I honestly don’t know how much to believe. So, I figured, now that I’m here, with you guys, I can maybe find out the truth for myself” Crista explained with another nervous smile.

“The truth?” Star took a ragged breath, “guess that’s one thing we all really want, isn’t it?”