CHAPTER 4
Andy’s POV
After we finished inspecting what tattoos we could see on Arsenal’s arm I decided to snoop around in her bag. Hey don’t blame me I'm curious as to what she carries with her and twitter & instagram are quiet at the moment, even Jake looks dead bored as he scrolls through his twitter feed before texting Ella.

Jinxx is texting Sammi, Ashley’s still looking at Arsenal and CC is sitting around anxiously. He probably feels awful about what happened and I don’t blame him. Heck even Ashley was antsy about it after his accident but we’d gone straight on tour which was insanely busy so we couldn’t really sit and dwell on it.

I laugh when I find a bag from the music shop that we went into this morning when Ashley, Jake & Jinxx got more guitar strings & picks and CC got new drumsticks.

Looking inside it I found a LOT of picks, maybe this gal is a serious guitarist... okay make that guitarist and bassist I mentally noted as I spotted strings for both bass and electric guitar lying on top of a receipt and a few bundles of drumsticks. Huh, looks like this gal plays 3 instruments I thought. Interesting....

“Looks like she plays three instruments” I say. “What makes you say that?” asked Jake, looking up from his phone, most likely texting Ella.

“She’s got strings for both guitar & bass, tons of picks and a heap of drumsticks from the shop we stopped into this morning... and it looks like they’re the same brand that CC uses” I said, inspecting them before putting them back into the bag.

“Way cool, we should ask if she’d like to jam with us sometime” said CC, grinning and bouncing around like a kid on Christmas morning, or maybe me when batman comes on TV. I laughed as Ash asked what else was in the bag, I look around again, but more carefully than I did earlier, I only glanced briefly when I found the bag from the music shop.

“Hmm let’s see... a wallet, keys, a hello kitty case with something in it, hello kitty body spray, phone, earphones, a folder of some sort, external hard drive, con- oh for the love of batman she’s reminding me of you more and more Ash, not just with the hello kitty stuff!” I broke out laughing as I found a packet FULL of condoms.

Holding it up I see Ashley roll his eyes (he often has girls over and shags them which makes the rest of us lose sleep – it’s a pain in the ass but meh) and Jake say “Good lord I don’t wanna know what she does with all that” while shaking his head in amusement. “What did you miss sex ed back in school Jakey?” said CC, laughing at Jake’s ‘seriously?’ expression.

I laughed and tossed them back into her bag and continued poking around.

“Ok moving on... iPad, toy cat I think, toy something that has overalls and black hair made from wool” “Oh I know what those are, one of my friends had one as a kid but I forgot what they’re called” said Jake. “What's with the ‘I think’?” asked Jinxx.

“It looks demented, stitch marks literally all over it. Oh hey a purple Yoshi is in here too and looks like that’s about it – oh wait never mind” I said going slightly red as I realised what the last object was. “Come on Andy what’s got you practising your tomato impression?” asked Ash, who was obviously trying not to laugh at me, red in the face from trying to hold it back.

I shot a glare at him and mumbled “tampons and other girly things” Ashley couldn’t hold back from laughing but soon we were all laughing and we calmed down after a few minutes and Jake & Jinxx went to get us all something to eat & drink.

“How you holding up C?” Ashley asked CC. CC’s expression turned grim as he thought.

“Physically I'm fine, mentally.... still shocked and on an adrenaline high. I keep seeing her body on the road in front of me, it was fucking scary man...” said CC, me and Ash gave him a hug as Jinxx & Jake came back in with food & drinks.

We ate and drank and sat around as we heard a small groan from Arsenal, looks like the anaesthetic’s worn off now. “Hey can you hear me? My name’s Jinxx” said Jinxx, gripping Arsenal’s hand again.

She groaned again and squeezed Jinxx’s hand a bit, her face contorted a bit, probably has a bitch of a headache poor girl. After a few seconds she opened her eyes slowly and winced from the brightness of the room. “Someone kill the lights? It’s too fucking bright in here” she croaked.

Jake turned the light down and returned to her bedside. “Are you ok?” I asked. “Ow... sort of” said Arsenal, holding her hand to her head and hissing quietly.

She looked around at us all with worried expressions and her eyes widened comically and gulped as she processed that we were here.

We laughed and she just rolled her eyes and pointed at a jug of water that was nearby.

Jinxx poured her a glass and helped her drink it then set it nearby when she was done. “Thanks Momma Jinxx, anaesthetics always make me super thirsty when I wake up” she said, sitting up with me and Ash helping her as her ribs hurt like a bitch – she was muttering curses about it as we helped her sit up.

Jinxx groaned and mumbled “Not another one...” “Get used to it Mr. Mystic, a lot of the army refers to you as that” she said, before pressing the nurse call button, probably for pain relief of some sort, that was the first thing I did when I broke my ribs.

“Darling, you’re awake!” she said in an overly sweet tone.

She scowled, rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, “Yeah yeah whatever Barbie doll, now can you get me some pain relief, my head and ribs ache like crazy” she said snarkily, rudeness leaking into her tone as an annoyed expression came onto her face. The nurse sneered then walked off after she flipped her off.

“Argh!” she complained, throwing her right arm up but minding the IV drip thing they jabbed into her hand, seeing as her left one is in a cast.

“What's wrong?” asked Jake, noticing her pissed expression. “I always wind up with the bitchiest nurses whenever I land myself in here, it’s so annoying!” she sat there and pouted cutely, hearing an ‘Aww’ from us, seriously she looked adorable when she pouted like that. “We haven’t introduced ourselves have we? I’m Jake Pitts” said Jake, extending his hand which I took.

“I’m Andy Biersack” I said, grinning and gently hugging her. “I’m Christian Coma aka CC” “I’m Jinxx” “I’m Ashley Purdy” we all introduced ourselves. “I’m Arsenal Jaxx” she said, grinning. “That’s a funny name” said Jake, voicing what we were thinking. “Yeah I know, but I like it. Better Jaxx than Grayson” she said, muttering the last sentence. “Why’s that?” asked Ashley.

“They were my adoptive family. Preppy snobs the whole lot of them. Me? The outlaw, freak, weirdo, emo etc.” she said, wriggling her toes and inspecting her fingernails. She frowned slightly, wincing as her right leg was probably a bit sore; she probably forgot it was broken. “You ok?” I asked, noticing her frown.

“Yeah, my nails need repainting – fingers and toes; and my right leg’s a bit sore, forgot it was broken” she replied, glancing up at me. “Hey Arsenal?” I heard CC say rather quietly. Arsenal looked up to see him with a nervous expression, “Yeah CC?” he sighed, “I just want to thank you for saving my life.

If you hadn’t shoved me out of the way, I probably would be dead” she smiled softly and held out her arms for a hug. “Your more than welcome C” she replied hugging him closely and kissing his cheek.

He let go and blushed slightly then sat down as the Doctor walked in. “How you doin there Ars?” “Can't complain, headache, sore ribs, sore arm, sore leg not too bad otherwise” Arsenal replied, laughing at our faces when the Doctor called her Ars. “That’s good; I take it you got another bitch of a nurse?” she groaned, “Don’t remind me, I always get stuck with the Barbie dolls that are so fake even China denied they made them” she said, making everyone laugh.

The Doctor chuckled and wrote something on the clipboard he was holding. “I’ll go get some morphine, that’ll make you feel better soon”

“So would a bottle of Jack and Purdinxx” she said, attracting confused looks from us guys. Doctor Jones laughed again and went to get the morphine. “Whiskey girl huh?” asked Ashley with a grin on his face. I was surprised he hadn’t tried flirting with her; he tends to do that to a LOT of girls. Then again, Ash suspects Arsenal is his missing sister so that would be kind of gross.

“Fuck yeah” she replied, fist bumping him. “What the hell do you mean by Purdinxx?” asked Jake, he looked incredibly mixed up, hell we were all confused by that. I think that Jinxx hoped it wasn’t another fan made ship name, ‘Andley’ was crazy enough.

“Oh that’s one of my 6 guitars I have at home. It’s body is shaped like one of Jinxx’ guitars, but decorated with your war paint Ash” Arsenal explained. Ashley and Jinxx grinned and fist pumped the air, making us all laugh.

“Hey Andy, pass me my iPad from by bag would ya along with stinky, Yoshi & Jeremy? Oh yeah I heard you guys snooping around too, but I'm not mad. And if I say something really weird, its either the drugs they put me on making me loopy or my perverted sense of humour” she said, snickering at the guilty expressions on mine, Jinxx & Jake’s faces and the innocent ones on CC & Ashley’s.

“Who are stinky and Jeremy? I'm pretty sure you aren’t talking about Jinxxy over there” I said, passing her the iPad and Yoshi, I wasn’t sure what she meant by stinky & Jeremy but I was pretty sure she wasn’t talking about Jinxx.

She laughed and said “Nah if I was I would have asked him to sit on the bed next to me. I was talking about my golliwog when I said Jeremy; I named it after one of my only friends. Stinky’s the ‘demented’ toy cat who I’ve had for almost my whole life” she explained, using air quotes for the word demented, Jake’s expression morphed into one of comprehension when Arsenal said what the overalls toy was.

Arsenal asked Jinxx for another glass of water and sipped it while unlocking her iPad, searching for the photo app (I think) as Jake put her toys on the bed next to her; she cuddled stinky closely with her left arm or as close as she could with a cast on.

She looked up to see us watching her curiously, “What? I’m a kid in a tattooed autistic/ADHD 25-yr-old’s body” she joked, poking her tongue at us, making us laugh. I saw Ashley & Jinxx shoot her a questioning look, she just shook her head slightly and mouthed ‘later, not now’. Opening the photo app, she started searching for something and seemed to have found it cos she said “Here, that’s Purdinxx” passing the iPad to Jinxx.

“Holy shit that looks cool” he said, zooming in and examining it closely before passing it to Jake. “Fucking hell that looks sick” “I know right? It’s one of my three fave guitars” CC’s, mine and Ashley’s jaws dropped when we saw the picture of her Purdinxx guitar. It looked so freaking cool!

Arsenal swiped the iPad off me (hey!) and looked for something else, then handed it back to Jinxx who passed it around after admiring the other 2 guitars, Janxx & Jeddie Van Pitts as she called them.

“This is another one, I called it Janxx, no Jake it doesn’t involve you, but the next one does. This is shaped like James Hetfield’s guitar but decorated like Jinxx’s recluse which is one of my faves and the base of another tattoo I got done last year as a part of something me & my friends were doing, it just took us a little bit longer than we expected with mine” she explained while we looked at them.

We all agreed that ‘Janxx’ looked cool then she partially explained the last one.

“This last one is called Jeddie Van Pitts. Why don’t you try and guess why it’s called that?” she said, seeming to wonder if anyone would be able to get it. “Shaped like Jake’s C-1, Van Halen stripe pattern, Jake’s colour scheme?” said CC. “Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!” We all laughed as Doctor Jones came back in.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, administering the morphine. “I was getting the guys to guess why one of my guitars was called Jeddie Van Pitts, CC got it right” Arsenal explained, sighing in relief as the morphine kicked in. “Hey Doc?” “Yes?” “How long do I have to camp out here for?”

“Two weeks then you can go home, but you’ll need to come back in to get the casts off in around a month or so and you can sleep on your side as long as you put pillows under you” he replied, answering the question she was about to ask.

“Ok” the Doctor walked out. “Hmm, not much different from last time this happened” she mumbled, staring at her lap. “What do you mean? And why’d he say to put pillows under you” I asked, concern written on my face. She sighed, this will be interesting I thought.

“With the pillow thing, I ALWAYS and I mean always sleep on my sides, I never sleep on my back, but when I’m battered up like this I have to put pillows under me” “Ah” I replied.

Then with Ashley’s & my help she adjusted herself so she was sitting more comfortably, swearing about various things along the way, earning a few laughs, she has quite a vocabulary when she curses, it’s pretty funny.

Once Arsenal was comfy again she kept explaining things. “Do any of you remember what I said when I ran to get CC out of the way, just before I got hit?” she asked, looking at us all.

“You said ‘Oh hell no, first Ashley now CC! Not gonna fucking happen!’” said Jinxx, wondering where she was going with this, hell I was curious as to what she means.

“I said that because I was involved with Ashley’s accident, except Ashley was the guy about to get smooshed, rather than CC” Arsenal began, looking at us dead in the eye so we knew she wasn’t lying.

Realisation dawned on Ashley’s face – “You’re the one who got me out of the way, weren’t you?” he gasped. The same expression was on Jake, Jinxx, mine and CC’s faces too.

She nodded, “Yeah that was me. I had a somewhat different appearance at the time though”

“I remember, fluro green streaks instead of blue, your hair was in a ponytail, you had a white Bon Jovi tee on, denim shorts and running shoes” said Ashley as he tried to remember her that day.

“Yup that’s me. I was the one that shoved you out of the way, same with CC today. I couldn’t let that happen to you, either of you” Arsenal said, sniffling a little and wiping away tears.

Soon she found herself enveloped in a hug from me. She hugged me back, not bothering to wipe away the tears which were staining my t-shirt but I didn’t mind. Then she got a hug from the other guys.

Arsenal noticed Ashley was looking at her with a curious expression on his face, he did that earlier a lot but now it seemed to be making her edgy.

“Ash, what are you looking at me like that for?” she asked, a little irritated.

“Oh I was just wondering about something. You kind of remind me of someone, though I'm pretty sure I’ve seen you at the tattoo shop I work at and a few other places. Didn’t I tattoo you once?” he said.

“Ha-ha I’m surprised you remembered that, and yeah you did the leviathan flail on my right side and we got a few done at the same time on occasion and have gone on snack runs, usually to McDonalds. But as for the ‘remind you of someone’ I’m not sure what you’re on about” she said, amused then confused.

“What do you remember about when you were 2?” he asked, a serious expression on his face. Arsenal’s expression turned to one of deep thought as she went into memory lane.

She snaps out of her trance and looks at Ash, “I remember having parents that loved me, and I remember a boy that looked similar to me, most likely a brother. I think he was around 6 and he liked hello kitty... a lot like you” she said, frowning slightly before continuing. “I don’t remember much after that, which was when I was kidnapped by the Grayson’s. They abused me and all that and I tried to forget about it so that’s a bit fuzzy. I was told my real family was dead” she explained, crying at the last sentence. Ashley put his arms around her and held her while she cried.

“Andy, you mind explaining?” Ashley asked while he cuddled Arsenal closely.

I sighed, “Arsenal, the reason that Ashley’s asking you about it is because he suspects that you might be his missing sister. The police that investigated her disappearance ruled her out as dead as they couldn’t find anything. Ashley never believed she was dead, he knew he would find her one day. He had a good look at your ID card and said that you have similar features to him along with the same chocolate eyes. Then he saw your birth date was the same as his sisters” I began explaining. “18th July 1988” she choked out. I nodded, “Then he told us to look at your picture on the card, then at him and we saw what he meant”

“You really do look a lot like him Ars, just a bit more feminine and with blue & chrome in your hair” said Jinxx. “R-Really?” Arsenal asked quietly. “Really really” said Jake & CC. She nodded and sniffled, then looked up to Ash. “Do you think we could get a DNA test done?” she asked him, he nodded and I went to get Doctor Jones.

Soon after, Ash & Ars had DNA samples taken so now we had to wait for the results. To calm herself down she went onto her iPad and looked up something, I just went onto twitter and see if there was anything going on, then I texted Juliet (love you my dragonfly!). Arsenal was soon laughing her head off at something. “Something funny?” said Jake, who was scrolling through twitter.

She giggled and indicated to her iPad, and then passed it to Jake who read through the comments, laughing at some of them. “Oh my god some people are from planet idiot! And the ‘eargasm’ thing is hilarious” he laughed, passing it to Jinxx. He laughed too and asked what the video was. “Scroll up to the top and play it... on high volume” she said, smirking evilly. What is that girl up to...?

We all crowded around Jinxx who pressed play and the sound of Arsenal screaming what we recognised as the intro to 'Perfect Weapon' filled the room. Arsenal laughed at my baffled expression at her vocal ability – Screamo wasn’t an easy skill to master, it’s even rarer that you find a female who actually can do it.

When the video finished, we all stared at her with our jaws on the floor. Arsenal couldn’t hold back her laughter then she grabbed her phone and took a picture of our faces. “Damn girl you are good, I didn’t know you could scream like that! It’s rare to find a girl that can do that” I said in amazement, shaking my head.

She snickered, “What my voice that’s deep for a girl didn’t give it away?” she said, mimicking one of Ashley’s expressions in an interview we did once then laughed again, Ashley’s face was priceless.

“Any other covers?” asked CC. “Yup, on my channel I have a heap of them. Some are all the instrument tracks, some just vocal, just drums, just bass etc” she said as Doctor Jones came back with the results. “Ash, doc’s back” she said. Ashley then sat on the bed next to her after she scooted over.

“So what’s the result?” asked Jinxx; Ars and Ash were too nervous to say anything, heck so were Jake, CC & I. “Congratulations Ashley, you’ve found your long-lost sister” said Doctor Jones, handing a copy of the results to Jinxx – our jaws all dropped in surprise and joy.

“So that means Purdy Porn next to me is my brother?!” Arsenal exclaimed. “Yes Arsenal, Ashley is your brother” he said, smiling then leaving the room. “YAY!” She and Ashley exclaimed simultaneously as they hugged each other tightly, then let go so they could breathe.

“I found you, I finally found you!” Ashley said, tears flowing down his face, he was grinning crazily too, I'm happy for him. “Aww come here you crazy outlaw, I want a hug from my brother” she said, getting another hug, breaking down in tears too.

We all got our phones out and Jake, CC & I took photos and tweeted about it, Ashley managed to tweet something with Arsenal still in his arms. Jinxx was talking to someone on his phone, probably Sammi while me, CC & Jake typed out tweets welcoming Ars to our family then Jinxx typed up something.

“Hey Ars, what’s your username on twitter?” asked Jake. “LadyDeviant88, capital l & d” she replied, hugging Ashley to death. Then her phone got a few tweets at once from us all. She unlocked her phone and read them all, laughing at CC’s – he often posts funny stuff, Ash does too but more on the perverted side.

Then our phones beeped signalling we’d been mentioned in a tweet. I unlocked my phone to read “@LadyDeviant88: thanks for the welcome @AshleyPurdy @JinxxBVB @JakePittsBVB @AndyBVB & @ccbvb – GROUP HUG!” Next thing Arsenal knew, we surrounded her in a BVB sandwich.

“Guys...need...air....broken...ribs...just avoided...a punctured lung!” she choked out and we let go, and she gasped for air. “You ok Ars?” I asked. “I’m ok Batmandy” she replied, laughing at the HUGE grin that broke out on my face.

“YAY SHE LIKES BATMAN!” I shouted happily dancing around the room, making all of us laugh. Arsenal laughed and said “Andy, I called you Batmandy, that doesn’t necessarily mean I like it, even though it is pretty cool” My grin faltered momentarily then I grinned like a kid on Christmas day and poked my tongue at her and crossed my arms. She just poked hers back at me and crossed her arms.

“Holy shit I haven’t let Deltora, Matt, Jeremy and Mariah know what happened! Then the guys at the music shop will be wondering what’s goin on, I drop in at least every 2 days” She exclaimed, diving for her phone.

“Who are they?” asked CC. “Deltora’s my housemate; the others are my closest friends. SHIT! I was going visit Jeremy this arvo! Fucking hell” She cursed. Then she dialled Deltora’s mobile and she answered pretty quickly. “Hey Arse, what’s up?”

Arsenal looked up and said “The gradually yellowing ceiling of a hospital room that I’m camping out in for a few weeks” then yanked her phone away from her ear and put it on speaker as Deltora yelled “WHAT?! ARSENAL NEYTIRI JAXX WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME?!” we all cringed and blocked our ears – that girl can scream loud as hell without a mic!

Arsenal seemed to be used to it, she just rubbed her ear a bit with a bored expression. “Bloody hell Ars, can she scream any louder without a mic?!” I asked in a ‘what the hell?!’ tone. “Probably Andy” she replied.

“Wait a minute. Was that Andy Biersack or am I hearing things?” said Deltora. “Yup. The others are here too” she said and we all blocked our ears for Deltora squealed loudly again, just louder this time if that was even possible. “Owww my ears” said Jake, rubbing his ears. “Holy shit was that Jake Pitts?!” “Hi there!” “OMG CC!” “How you doin?” “OMMFG ASHLEY PURDY!” “Heya” “HOLY SHIT JINXX!”

“Finished fangirling yet?” Arsenal asked, laughing at our amused expressions. “Yeah I think so... anyway what did you do this time?” “Oh you know, just shoving rock stars away from idiot drivers so they dont go bye-bye, same thing that happened with Purdy porn, this time with CC” Ars casually replied, picking her nose out of boredom.

Deltora just laughed and said “Bring in the usual stuff? Boxers, crop tops, nail polish, laptop, chargers etc?”

“Yup, you know me” “Hehehe I’ll be up there soon” “Cool; I’m in room 23 orthopaedic ward. Make sure Stacee’s eaten and Hammet’s filled up and all that checking stuff I do’s done” “Sure thing, see ya soon” “Bye quest” “By asshole!” She hung up and looked up to see we were confused again.

“Who are Stacee and Hammet?” asked Ashley. “Stacee is my kitten; he’s a black kitten with blue eyes, I nearly named him Andy seeing as their eyes a similar tint of blue, but I picked Stacee. Hammet however, is my motorbike that I named after Kirk Hammet, lead guitarist in Metallica which is one of my three fave bands” she explained, probably finding a pic of Stacee to show us.

“This is my baby boy Stacee, isn’t he a cutie?” she said, showing us her kitten. I couldn’t help but squeal when I saw her kitten, he was freakin adorable! Ars had dressed him in a bandana & a cowboy hat, kind of like what Ash does onstage. “I take it Andy loves cats?” Arsenal said, taking her phone back and locating a picture of Hammet.

“Yup, he has a cat named crow, he loves him to death” said CC, I just rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, I sometimes see people posting pics of Andy & crow on twitter & instagram” she said, showing us Hammet.

Ashley let out a low whistle his eyes wide in awe, “Damn that’s a sexy bike” we all laughed, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ash came in his pants then and there, he LOVES motorbikes and Arsenal’s bike Hammet was pretty sexy…

Arsenal said “Yeah I ride it a lot, you can sometime if you’d like to when I get out of here in a few weeks” then she texted someone, laughing occasionally.

“What's so funny?” I asked. “J5 – that’s my friend Jeremy’s nickname – he loves my little pony and is now going to watch it surrounded by my little pony plushies” said Arsenal as someone walked in the door, I guessed it was her friend Deltora. “Hey quest!” “Asshole, how you doing?” said Deltora, snickering at Jake’s expression at her calling Arsenal ‘Asshole’.

“Not too bad at the moment, the morphine’s doing its job... anyway, these guys are Andy, Ashley, CC, Jake & Jinxx” said Arsenal, introducing us. Deltora’s eyes widened to dinner plate size, making us all laugh and her mouth opened & shut goldfish style. “That’s not even the best part quest”

“What now?” she asked, glancing at Ashley – she seems to be a HUGE fan of Ash, though Arsenal was constantly sneaking glances at CC, who also looked at her from time to time.

“You want to tell her Ash?” Arsenal asked Ashley who nodded and grinned. “Arsenal here is my little sister!” “OMG really?!” she squealed, thankfully way quieter than she did on the phone earlier. “Yeah we had a DNA test done and everything, Jinxx has the results right there!” exclaimed Arsenal.

“Congratulations Ars, you too Ash” said Deltora, hugging them both, blushing slightly after letting Ash go. “Thanks quest” Ash & Ars said at the same time. “Hey girls,” Jinxx began to ask.

“Ya?” they replied, looking at him. “Where’d your nicknames come from?” “Well my name’s Deltora. I have no idea where my parents got the name from; I still think they were high or drunk when they picked it. Anyway me and asshole love the anime Deltora Quest, so my nickname quest came from the title. Sometimes Ars calls me Forta, Honora, Fortuna, Fidelis, Hopian, Joyeu & Veritas after the dragons in the 3rd book”

“What do the dragon names mean?” asked CC, we were all curious now and the names sounded pretty cool.

“Well each dragon’s name comes from the gem it represents. Forta is the diamond dragon and diamonds stand for strength. Honora is the emerald dragon and emeralds stand for honour.

Fortuna’s the lapis lazuli dragon and the lapis lazuli is luck, fortune etc. Fidelis is the topaz dragon, and topaz stands for faith. Hopian is the opal dragon and opals stand for hope. Joyeu is the ruby dragon and rubies stand for happiness. Lastly Veritas is the amethyst dragon and the amethyst means truth” Deltora explained.

“My nicknames are pretty easy to guess. Ars is what you get when you shorten my name, asshole just adds hole onto the end. Sen is another one, it’s from an anime movie ‘Spirited Away’, Sen is the name of a character, but I’m called Chihiro more than Sen which is a snippet of my name. I don’t like to be called Ari, but I'm not gonna get into that now” Arsenal briefly explained her nicknames, frowning slightly for some reason.

“I noticed you said you were autistic earlier” said Jinxx. “That’s because I have autistic spectrum disorder, specifically asperger’s syndrome, which affects my social skills as far as I know, I haven’t really researched it much. It’s kinda why I don’t make eye contact very often. I was also bullied for it at school cos my adoptive siblings told everyone and the bullying I usually got worsened.

I also have ADHD, but I'm not medicated for it. I used to self-harm, but I’ve been clean a few years now, and I never had an eating disorder” she explained, adding the self harm & ED history. She seemed to know that we were gonna as about it, probably noticed our expressions that were most likely questioning ones.

Well mine definitely was, Ashley’s too... “Hey Veritas, can you ask flying Dutchman whether I can put on comfy clothes and whether I can visit J5 and if we could possibly stay in the same room? Solitary confinement sucks” Arsenal asked Deltora. She nodded and walked off.

Arsenal stretched out as best she could then ran a hand through her hair, which looked like it was in need of washing. She grimaced and we snickered at her expression as Ashley kissed her forehead – she pulls the funniest & cutest expressions, seriously! She’d rival CC & Ash with the faces they pull!

“Any chance you’s could repaint my toenails and fingernails please? Maybe brush out & plait my hair too? I couldn’t be bothered washing it out tonight” she asked us.

“Sure” we all replied as Ashley dug around in the bag Deltora brought and handed us all a bottle of nail polish. Jake & Jinxx got black, CC & I got chrome and we got remover to get it off as well. Ash found a hairbrush & a hair tie to use so he started to brush Arsenal’s hair. As we got to work Arsenal sighed with a content expression on her face as she shut her eyes. Looks like she enjoys it when people brush her hair.

“Feeling any better Ars?” said Ashley as he brushed the knots out of her hair and attempted to braid it, her hair looks pretty layered. “Yep... I like it when I people brush my hair. Don’t get that polish on my skin whoever’s doing my feet. Even wiping it with remover doesn’t fully work” she said as Jake & Jinxx started painting her toes, me & CC had finished her fingers and were blowing on the polish to dry it quicker.

“Nice foot ink” Jake commented as he carefully painted Arsenal’s toes. Arsenal opened her eyes to see Jake was inspecting what looked like a quote on her foot, and a funny triangle symbol thing on her ankle (I was sitting on the same side Jake was).

“Ah ‘not all those who wander are lost’. I got that done soon after my 20th birthday, and the deathly hallows one I got after I saw the last Harry Potter movie” she explained, looking a bit sad.

I inwardly groaned, another Potterhead or whatever they call themselves... looks like she’ll get along with Matt Good I thought. “But my fave ones that I’ve got are the ‘OUTLAW’ one on my chest, just in a different font and the leviathan flail on my right side” she added, wriggling her toes again.

“Purdy fan there huh?” said Jake. “Yeah, nowhere near to the extent that Deltora is. She’s definitely a Purdy girl and also has the outlaw tattoo, even her bike has outlaw on it” said Arsenal, laughing slightly. “Hehehe cool, so who’s your fave one out of us?” She blushed slightly and bit her lip, not really wanting to answer.

“Oh my god Arsenal’s got a crush! Come on Ars, who is it?” said Jinxx, tickling her toes which didn’t seem to be a good idea as he suddenly ducked when Arsenal kicked out at him, seeing as he’d been painting her toes on the foot that was in the cast. And by the looks of the casts Ars & CC had on, they were rock solid; CC was laughing his head off on the other side of Arsenal, he sounded like a hyena.

“If ANY of you tickle my feet, I am not responsible for what happens to your face or whatever’s in range of my foot. Good reflexes though Jinxx, there aren’t many who’ve successfully avoided a kick in the head” Arsenal snarled angrily, looks like she absolutely hated being tickled.

Jinxx shrunk back a little then remembered something. “Hey Ars, do you wanna meet the girls sometime?” “As in Juliet, Sammi & Ella?” “Yeah. Now come on tell us who you like, we wanna know” said Ash as he tied her hair after somehow managing to braid it, it was extremly layered from what I could see.

“Sure I'd like to meet them sometime. Pass me my laptop from the bag Fidelis brought would ya? Persistent little fuckers” she said, muttering the last sentence, though I'm pretty sure Jinxx heard it as he passed her laptop to her while snickering, even I laughed a little.

She started it up and searched around for something and shut the top down when she found what she was looking for. “See if you can guess first” she said.

“Well it wouldn’t be Ashley” said Jinxx, Arsenal snorted. “Nooooooo way. Sure he’s hot as hell and easy to stare at for extended periods of time but nope, it’s DEFINITELY not Ashy” we all laughed and she just rolled my eyes. “Andy?” Jake guessed, Arsenal shot him a look that clearly said ‘seriously bitch?’. “Why does everyone automatically assume it’s the lead vocalists?? Anyways it’s not Andy either, though its easy stare at him for a while too. Hell it’s easy to stare at all 5 of you for a while”

“Fine we give up” I said, I was itching to find who Ars liked. She laughed, opened up her laptop and double-clicked on a video. She laughed as we figured out that was her way of telling us.

It was her drum cover of ‘The Legacy’ from our ‘Set The World On Fire’ album, which meant that Arsenal has the hots for CC and she was dressed pretty much exactly like was in the music video! CC grinned when he realised it was him she liked. Ashley wasn’t terribly happy, must be the protective big brother thing coming into play, CC better watch his back, Ashley is fiercely protective of those he loves, now including Arsenal.

Arsenal suddenly scowled and shifted constantly for some reason and she couldn’t seem to figure out why. “You ok Ars?” I asked, seeing her squirm around. “NO. My back’s itching like crazy and I can't for the life of me figure out why!” she whinged.

I walked over to her and looked at her back while she leaned forward and held onto Jinxx to support herself so I could see if I could figure out what was going on. I saw that she had a bandage covering her lower back.

“You’ve got a bandage on your lower back Ars” I said to her. “Far out I forgot that was even there” she said. I carefully removed it to see a colourful tattoo that looks like it was done recently.

“Oh wow, nice ink you got here” I said and Ashley leaned over to see what I was talking about and his expression turned to one of awe. “That looks pretty cool, I’m guessing you got it done very recently?” said Ashley.

Arsenal thought for a moment then said “Oh yeah I got that filled in last night. I completely forgot about that. Can one of you scratch that? It’s itching like crazy and I can't see what I'm doing if I try it myself. Oh and the cream for it’s in my bag too” Ashley scratched the area around it and Arsenal sighed in relief, slumping forward and Jinxx caught her as I found the cream she mentioned in her bag and handed it to ash to put on.

“What other tattoos have you got?” asked Jinxx after we sorted out Arsenal’s tattoo itchiness & cream stuff.

She grabbed her laptop and searched for the folder that has the photos of her tattoos. Then she opened the first photo and let us scroll through them.

“What was your first one?” asked Ashley.

She thought about that then said “I had settled into an apartment and gotten unpacked & set up completely but I was bored and didn’t want to go to bed, even though I couldn’t despite it being like 9 or 10 at night, so I went for a walk down the sunset strip and came across a tattoo place. I went in and had a chat with whoever was on at the time and then she took me out back and did the chrome Metallica ninja star on my left hip, 8 years ago now” she said, showing us the photo on her laptop.

It did look pretty awesome to me, the others thought so too. “Nice and I'm guessing the one on your lower back is the most recent one?” I said before mentally face palming, good one captain obvious!

Arsenal nodded and brought up the picture of it to show us, it looked amazing! “Way cool” said CC, Arsenal grinned and nodded. “I’ve been intending to get that since I was 18, I just finally got around to it. One of my favourites would definitely be the leviathan flail on my right side; Ash did that if I remember correctly, both outline and the fill-in” Arsenal said, glancing at Ashley.

He nodded and said “Yeah I did, and then we ended up getting food afterwards as well cos the outline took a fair bit of time, what with all the details on it. Though you were pretty hilarious too” “Oh shut up Purdy” Arsenal said exasperatedly as she remembered what he meant as he smirked evilly at her, she eyed him warily.

“Are we missing something here?” said Jake, looking between them.

I was a bit confused but hey so were Jinxx & CC, not just me & Jake. “Let’s just say that Ars isn’t very fond of needles or at least not with the leviathan flail and complained the whole time she was getting that done, I couldn’t stop laughing at her so that tattoo took a while to get done and we were hungry afterwards so we went and ate, her appetite could seriously rival CC’s!”

“Oh shut it Ash. You weren’t all strong and badass when you got the one on your side done! I remember that day clear as vodka, you were even holding my hand tightly and that was only the outline! Getting the filling in done was even funnier!” Arsenal retorted, laughing at the memory. CC, Jake, Jinxx & I all cracked up laughing.

“That was when he came home crying, with a bag full of McDonalds and a huge ass bandage on his side along with a giant hello kitty plushie!” I managed to choke out, literally rolling on the floor laughing and holding my sides.

Ashley just went lobster red and flicked us off.

“And yes guys I was a bit unnerved when Ash did my leviathan flail tattoo... god I have two sleeves, a bunch on my back, some on my front, my hips & my feet and I still get a little unnerved.. God help me” Arsenal said, laughing as Deltora and Doctor Jones came back in.

“How are you feeling at the moment Arsenal?” “Pretty good at the moment” “That’s good. I just came to tell you that yes you can put on comfy clothes and you and Jeremy will be able to stay in the same room, some nurses are going to move you both into room 5 in around an hour”

“Yahoo!” Arsenal cheered. Doctor Jones just rolled his eyes and walked off.

“Hey Ars I’m gonna have to get to work, I’ll see you tomorrow?” “Sure quest, later!” Arsenal said, giving her a hug. She waved at us and walked off. Barely five minutes later she got a text from someone and laughed at it. She showed it to Ash, he laughed as well.

“Any chance you lot could help me change? These hospital gowns are not comfy at all, itchiest things ever aside from knitted sweaters & newly done tattoos” Arsenal said, fidgeting with the annoying gown.

“Sure” said Ashley & I simultaneously. I got a pair of boxers and a crop top from her bag that Deltora brought in and we shut the curtains around her bed. Slowly we got the hospital gown off Arsenal and eased the crop top on then her boxers and she lay back down on her bed.

Then Ash & I opened the curtains and we saw CC playing around with stinky while Jinxx inspected Yoshi and Jake played with Jeremy. “Christian. Coma. Put. Stinky. Down. NOW” Arsenal said in a low dangerous voice.

CC paled and carefully put him on her lap. “Thanks! It’s just I’ve had stinky since I was a baby I think and he means a lot to me and I’ve had to stitch him up a lot over the years. An idiot ex from a few years ago nicknamed him ‘frankenkitty’ which I wasn’t too happy about” she explained, smiling at CC to let him know she wasn’t mad at him. Kind of reminds me of how er ‘protective’ I can get over my batman collection...

“Argh I’m bored, you lot want to do anything til I’m relocated to another room with bro #6?” “Why don't you tell us about yourself?” “Why’s Jeremy in here?” in response to that Arsenal sighed and got her folder out of her bag and searched for something.

“If you guys think that what happened to me is bad, you’re dead wrong. I got off fairly easily compared to him. A broken arm, leg & a few ribs isn’t too bad compared to what he got” Arsenal said in a tone that told us she was dead serious as she handed us the folder.

“Holy shit, this guy’s been through a lot” said CC. Our jaws all dropped as we read about what happened to him.

“Yeah he has. What he’s got is worse than this. He has shoulder fractures, a broken knee, more broken ribs than I do, a punctured lung and a broken pelvis with screws holding it together. Me, I just have 3 broken ribs, Ow, a broken arm & a broken leg with scratches & bruises here & there. Last time this happened to me I had the same injuries just 4 ribs broken instead of 3. You guys went straight on tour after that accident so yeah we never met back then and I’d gone on a trip to Australia with Jeremy; Fidelis and Matt were too busy” said Arsenal, fiddling with her hello kitty boxers.

“Damn you are a lucky girl Ars” said Ashley, hugging her. “Anyway enough with the sad talk, what do you lot want to know about me?” “How old are you?” “25, nearly 26 so sorry not sorry Andy, you’re still the youngest” she said in a teasing tone. I pulled a mock annoyed expression and pouted. Arsenal laughed and took a photo of it. “Where did you live before moving to LA?” asked Jake.

“Well after I was kidnapped the Grayson’s moved to Australia, taking me with them and we lived in Brisbane, a short drive from the beach, and pretty close to the gold coast so we travelled there frequently. After I finished primary school as it’s known over there we moved back to the US and lived in Florida. Then when I turned 18, I packed everything I owned, swiped some stuff off the Grayson’s and went to LA with a few friends that were also looking for a fresh start and we moved into apartments next to each other, now me and Fidelis live together and J5 and Matt share a house nearby, within walking distance” Arsenal explained.

“Cool, how long have you been playing for?” I asked. “Bass, drums or guitar?” “All three” “Bass since grade 3, guitar since grade 6 & drums since freshman, though I also did violin, at first to fill up my schedule then I started enjoying it so I got into it a bit more but I prefer bass over the others, like bass #1, guitar #2, drums #3 and violin #4”

“What do you do in your spare time?” asked Ashley. “Hmm let’s see... I ride my motorbike Hammet, play video games, play with Stacee, jam in my music room, jam on the stage I have set up in my backyard, record covers, record game sessions, sometimes record game shortcuts, cover songs, tutorial videos, go surfing at the beach I live really close to, bake cupcakes, eat, design stuff and yeah”

“You surf?” asked Ash, he sometimes went surfing at the beach whenever we went there in our downtime.

“Hell yeah! Whenever I go to Australia when its summer there I bring my surfboard with me, and when I go when it’s winter there I hire a snowboard. Speaking of which it’s nearly snow season there too” “What’s snowboarding like?”

“Almost the same as surfboarding and I love wakeboarding which is kind of a combo of the two” “What sort of stuff do you design?”

“cupcakes, instruments, clothes that are fandom based, sometimes I come up with band shirts and stuff like that and I like to think of new versions of monopoly”

“Cool, where do you work?” “By day I work at a cupcake shop and by night I work at the Bourbon Room on the sunset strip” Arsenal said, in a proud tone. She must really enjoy it there, it’s a pretty good place to go and they’re always playing great music too.

“No way! That’s one of our favourite places to go! It’s always awesome as hell there” exclaimed Jake. Arsenal laughed, “I know, I see you guys there a lot when I’m onstage or if I’m serving you drinks, sometimes I drop in on my days off and you guys are slamming down shots”

“Oh yeah we see you onstage sometimes, you sing our songs a lot” CC commented. “Yeah they’re a crowd favourite especially Perfect Weapon, Knives And Pens & whatever else has screaming in it, I just don’t do it too often otherwise my voice will screw itself up which would suck” said Arsenal. I mentally agreed with what she said, I didn't scream onstage either as it would mess my voice up.

“So what do you actually do there?” asked Jinxx, curiosity evident in his tone. “I’m mostly performing onstage, staff members are always onstage, sometimes bands play there, or I’m serving drinks as I’m also a bartender – got my RSA in school, and sometimes we combine it. I remember once when Andy was drunk he tried to use his ‘have you seen how hot my mom is’ pickup line on me” Arsenal said, laughing as she recalled the time I was completely wasted and tried that on her.

My face flushed red and I groaned in embarrassment as the guys and Ars laughed. “I just grinned and gave him a bottle of soft-drink, he was completely wasted right then and there” Arsenal added Ashley was laughing his head off, the guys were standing within earshot at the time, Jake filmed it too.

“Oh I haven’t forgotten about you Purdy Porn. You’ve done some pretty funny & stupid things while I was on shift too” Ashley went lobster red and the guys had thoughtful expressions as we tried to remember what happened when we were at the Bourbon when Ars was on shift.

“Didn’t you flirt with her like crazy and make out with her at one point?” said Jinxx, Arsenal and Ashley’s faces mimicking tomatoes – that was hilarious to see, seeing as they were both smashed after downing a heap of Jack Daniels & vodka... I think one of us videoed it but were too lazy to upload it.

“Yup.... pretty much mimicking Luke & Leia from Star Wars” Ashley muttered as the rest of us all looked at each other and our jaws dropped. “No way....” I said, my jaw practically on the floor, much like CC, Jinxx & Jake. They grimaced and nodded.

“Yep...” Arsenal said, dragging the word out and popping the ‘P’. “Mate tattooing your sister then making out with her?! Bloody hell!” said Jake. “Hey we didn’t know at the time!” Ashley & Arsenal protested in unison their hands in the air.

Thankfully the nurse came in to relocate Ars and the awkwardness was gone as we all joked around and laughed as she was moved down the hall to room 5, Jeremy coming in shortly after us.

“J5!” “A18!” “How you holding up?” “My knee is still being a dick, how about you??” “Can't complain, sore chest, arm & leg but not too bad otherwise, oh this is my bio bro Ashley Purdy. Ash this is Jeremy aka J5” Arsenal said introducing Ashley to Jeremy who was a little starstruck.

“And this is Andy Biersack, Jake Pitts, Jeremy Ferguson mostly known as Jinxx and Christian Coma aka CC” she finished as J5 came back to his senses.

“I can't tell you how fucking awesome it is to meet you guys! Arsenal doesn’t usually shut up about how awesome you guys are, ow!” Jeremy cut himself off when Arsenal prodded him.

“Is that true Ars?” I said, grinning crazily, as were the others. “Yup” she replied with an embarrassed half-grin on her face.

“Hey Ars, wanna play Mario kart?” “Hell yeah, gimme my bag Andy” I passed it to her and she dug her game case out and got out her Nintendo DSi (which was black) and loaded the game and did all the setting up stuff.

“Prepare to eat my dust asshole!” J5 taunted her. “Nuh-uh brony boy!” Arsenal retorted with a sassy tone with an expression to match, CC commented how much she looked like Ash when she did that. Soon they had started racing and we starting betting on who would win the cup at the end of the 20 race thing Ars & J5 set up.

Jake, CC and I each bet $20 that Jeremy would win – Ashley & Jinxx made the same bet, but Arsenal would win. This would be an interesting match I thought as we all stood around them so we could see what was going on.

Soon after Arsenal’s character Mario crossed the finish line, only just ahead of Luigi who J5 was playing as in the final race – they’d done 20 races on random courses. “Ha! In your face bitch!” Ars cheered and did a mini victory dance as best she could, J5 just pouted; Ashley, CC, Jake, Jinxx & I almost pissing ourselves laughing as Jinxx recorded the event. “Pay up bro” Ash and Jinxx said, as me, Jake and CC grumbled having bet that J5 would beat Ars.

“Aww is Batmandy sad?” Arsenal teased me in a mocking tone. I poked my tongue out at Ars and tickled her.

She squealed and wriggled away as far as she could without falling off her bed. “Oh ho ho! Ashley’s sister is ticklish!” I announced, me and Ash getting evil grins. Ars paled and muttered, “Fuck me” That shut us up for a minute as Ashley mumbled “No thanks”, I just shook my head.

“Help?” Ars squeaked at Jake, Jinxx & CC who looked like they were gonna piss themselves laughing again.

Then Ashley and I advanced on Ars, hands outstretched ready to tickle her into oblivion. Arsenal shot an evil grin at Jinxx, who seemed to know what she was going to do and grinned, getting his phone out to record the whole thing (AGAIN) while Jake, CC and J5 made a joke about having drinks & popcorn nearby.

Arsenal waited until I was close enough to her arm and Ashley close to her leg then she whacked us away from her, cringing slightly as the impacted jolted the broken bones.

But poor Ashley & I squealed like girls, swearing insanely and clutching our arms while the rest of us laughed as Ars said “Ow” somewhere along the line. Ashley glanced at me – we had completely forgotten that the casts they put on broken limbs here are rock solid.

Jinxx finished recording the whole thing and was almost rolling on the floor laughing.

“You two completely forgot that the casts they put on are solid as hell didn’t you? Even CC’s cast is rock-hard. If I succeeded in kicking Jinxx in the head earlier he’d probably have a nasty headache right now or be knocked out” said Arsenal, snickering at the last part.

We mock glared at her then carefully hugged her as the pain in our arms died off (Owwww! Bloody rock hard casts….). Shortly afterwards while we were all chattering about random crap the nurses brought in J5 & Ars’ dinner, Arsenal’s face fell when she lifted the lid on her dinner tray.

“Oh Yay, hospital food, my favourite!” she cheered, her sentence dripping so much sarcasm, we were almost swimming in it – Jinxx and Jake laughed again, as did Ashley, CC & I when we picked up the sarcasm, then Ash went off somewhere.

“Back again Arsenal?” asked one of the nurses who she seemed to get along with really well.

“Yep Constance, here I am again... oh Yay, chicken with potato and beans” Arsenal said as she looked at the food in front of her. Constance laughed and said she’d be back with dessert and at the end of her shift she’d bring some first aid stuff for Ars. “Thanks Connie!” She said, giving her a hug and glaring at the beans as she gave J5 his food and Ars her dessert then she left. “I take it you hate hospital food?” said Jake, noticing Ars was glaring at the beans, probably setting them on fire in her mind.

“Yup, we both do. And I hate beans with a passion. They always overcook the chicken so it’s all dry. At least the potato is edible” Ars explained as J5 explained his meal which was steak with some veggies – we beg Deltora and Matt to bring us McDonalds or food from home.

Arsenal scowled and ate the potato then about a third of the chicken, then drank the juice that was given to me as well then she pushed the plate away, pulling a face at how gross the chicken is. “Aren’t you going to eat that?” asked Ashley, concern on his face as he returned from wherever he went.

“Not when it’s overcooked. Besides I don’t eat much when the weather gets hot, it makes my appetite shrink or disappear, I can still drink though, it just makes eating a problem” Ars explained. “Ah I bet that’s annoying” “It sure is... anyway what’ll we do now? I’m bored again”

“What do you do at the bourbon?” “Well I’m either serving people drinks, I’m playing onstage when we haven’t gotten any bookings or an open mic running, or I’m doing both. It’s pretty fun serving people drinks while singing. The easiest way to describe it is Rock Of Ages come to life, which is funny cos the place opened up a few months after the movie came out and it’s one of my fave movies alongside Mamma Mia and Legion Of The Black” Arsenal explained.

“Cool, what sort of music do you play?” I asked. “It varies, mostly BVB, Metallica, Bon Jovi, 80’s stuff, PTV, OM&M, BMTH, FIR, D.R.U.G.S, ETF all that sort of thing, sometimes a few other genres but mainly that stuff. Most of the time I’m on bass, but I also play guitar and drums sometimes.

Usually around half or 2/3 of the time we’re not actually onstage while playing, cos we’d like have the headset mics almost all the time and whoever’s on bass & guitar would interact with the crowd while playing which is pretty fun. Sometimes we stand on the bar benches and play up there. Other times I’d be behind the bar, belting out song after song taking a break now and again while serving customers.

One of the best parts is giving the customers their drinks and suddenly screaming. It’s so hilarious seeing them jump about a foot in the air, one time this bloke pissed himself and slopped his beer down his shirt. Then again I was doing Perfect Weapon at the time” Arsenal said, laughing at the memory, we were all laughing too.

“What about you J5, you play anything?” asked CC.

“Yeah I play guitar with asshole here, our friend Matt likes playing drums. He’s pretty good at it too, despite being deaf” J5 said while Ars & I pulled funny faces at each other as she read through her emails on her laptop.

“What about at the cupcake place?” said CC, who was subtly glaring at me which Arsenal, Ashley and I noticed. “Hmm?” Ars responded as she was reading through something intently. “What do you do at the cupcake shop that you work at?” CC repeated his question, elaborating a bit.

“Mostly working on the orders we get, sometimes I help at the shop but their kitchen’s too small to do much in aside from shop stock so I do the orders at my house where I have a huge kitchen with the equipment we use so we get orders done quicker”

“It’s true, her kitchen is MASSIVE and she orders in lots of ingredients, like big boxes of fondant, eggs & butter and big bags of cake mix & caster sugar, big bottles of colouring and flavouring and all sorts of cool things” J5 chimed in as Ars absentmindedly sipped another glass of water grinning at something she’d been sent.

“Cool, do anything awesome recently cupcake-wise?” asked Jinxx. “Well you know the cupcakes Lava Records had recently? They tweeted a picture of them, tagged you guys in the photo as well” “Wasn’t the pic one of the people that works at Lava Records and the other person someone that works at the cupcake shop and they were both holding up a giant cupcake?” said Jake as he recalled what Ars was talking about.

“That was one of the photos they had up, they also had one of the cupcakes all arranged and stuff as well, you lot photo bombed both photos too if I remember correctly” Ars said, in a tone that suggested she knew something that we didn’t.

“Oh yeah, wait how do you know about them?” I asked, suspiciousness in my voice, catching onto the fact that she knew something we didn’t. “One, I follow them on twitter and get notifications from them and two, I made those cupcakes” “No way” said CC, his jaw on the floor.

“It’s true, I was over at her place when she was making them, I even helped a little” said J5. Ars just smirked and pulled up a photo.

“Remember these bad boys you ordered for Halloween last year? You wouldn’t shut up about them on twitter or instagram, I nearly turned my phone off you were posting so much about them” Ars said, showing us the photo she found.

“Hey we got those for Halloween last year! They were the best cupcakes ever!” said Jake, recalling the superman cupcakes he’d had for his part of the order. Arsenal just grinned and said “I’m the mastermind behind them too. They weren’t terribly hard to make, just insanely time consuming”

All five of us had our jaws on the floor; Ars and J5 laughed their heads off. “Those cupcakes were THE BEST things I’ve ever had!” said Ashley with a huge grin on his face. Ars giggled and fist bumped him.

“If I remember correctly, Andy’s had black wrappers with dark grey batman logo’s on them, the cake itself being banana flavoured, the icing vanilla & dyed yellow, fondant batman shapes with the edges sprayed gold rather boldly I might add, and black sprinkles around the edges” “That’s exactly what mine were!” I exclaimed – those cupcakes were heavenly!

“Ashley’s had neon pink wrappers, Neapolitan bases with a strawberry centre – the cake part that is we just refer to it as bases, marbled pink & white vanilla bean icing, pink sprinkles & Hello kitty fondant faces which were so adorable in my opinion, I didn’t want to give them away but I sadly had to”

“Those were sensational!” said Ash. “Hehehe... CC’s were neon green wrappers, bubble gum bases with marshmallow middles” “How did you manage that?” asked CC, it puzzled him a fair bit and as you could tell, hadn’t figured it out.

“I’ll show you when I get out of here, fuck” Ars replied and swore as her ribs, arm and leg started to hurt again, so she got more pain relief from a nurse. “Where was I, neon green wrapper, bubble gum/marshmallow bases, ah yeah plain buttercream with 100’s & 1000’s mixed in and fondant unicorns on top” “Yummy! Can I have more?” CC asked.

“Hehehe not now, but you can when I get home. Jake’s had red wrappers, raspberry bases again with a marshmallow centre, blueberry icing, yellow sprinkles & fondant superman logos, soft gold edges”

“Heaven right here on earth!” “LOL, Jinxxy had black wrappers, blackened vanilla bases with a blackberry centre, blackened vanilla icing, jack skellington fondant faces and edible black glitter” “I was wondering what that sparkly stuff was” said Jinxx, grinning insanely.

“Hehe its edible glitter, not hard to make either but spotlight sells it” me & the guys turned away and had a whispered debate for a few moments – Arsenal just looked at J5 in amusement, he laughed quietly and went on Facebook.

“Ars?” I said, trying to get her attention. She looked over at us, “Can you please make more of those cupcakes?” we asked, all 5 of us begging on our knees, hands in the air and all. “I will when I get home so you can see how those cakes came to be” Arsenal replied, laughing and yawning.

“Tired sis?” said Ash. She nodded, “Can you help me to the bathroom so I can brush my teeth and er go?” she asked, her face tinging slightly. Ashley laughed and nodded, getting her toothbrush, cup and toothpaste and setting it on the bench in the bathroom as she carefully got her legs over the edge of the bed.

He came back and helped her up, gently supporting her. “Jinxxy? Can you, Andy, Jake & CC put a bunch of pillows on my bed so I can lie on my side when I get back? My phone also needs charging, my laptop and iPad will be ok overnight” Ars asked as Ashley led me over to the bathroom.

A few minutes later Ashley carried Arsenal out of the bathroom and we helped her lie on the pillow pile we’d made while Ashley helped her out. She asked Jake for her toy cat stinky and cuddled to him once Jake handed him to her. CC pulled up her blankets over her and kissed her forehead, making Arsenal blush and duck under the covers momentarily, I could have sworn she squealed quietly when she did that.

The rest of us hugged her goodnight and kissed her forehead but only CC made her blush. She pressed the nurse button and she & J5 got some pain meds to help them get through the night.

Reminds me of when I broke my ribs trying to ‘fly’. I could barely get any sleep, my ribs were just aching and aching.... anyway after taking the meds Ars & J5 both went to bed (a nurse helped J5 out). “Night everyone” Arsenal said as she snuggled to get comfy.

“Night Arsenal” we all replied, getting comfy for the night as we’d all been permitted to stay while Ars is in hospital. Ars sighed happily and went to sleep with her thumb in her mouth, stinky close by.

I heard Ashley chuckle softly, I couldn’t help but ‘Awww’ at the sight, the others did too (pretty sure at least one person took a photo of that), it was an adorable sight. *sighs* may as well get comfy, it is like 10pm now and I’m starting to get tired. “Night guys” I said, settling in for the night. “Night Andy” was the general reply from all of them.

*revised 30-10-2014*

Notes