#jopril

She got out of bed, stretching as she walked over to the dresser and grabbed a shirt and some shorts. It might have been winter but it was hot in their home since someone in the home wanted to tinker with it. It was bearable, and it made Jo happy.

She slid the door open, keeping an eye out in case Bubbles or one of Ripley’s critters was lying on the stairs.

“What are you going to do?” She heard Jo ask. An exasperated sigh followed.

“I don’t know, with everything that she’s done to me, and how it kept going until the day I left, I think she just wants something from me,” Molly replied. The TV was on some show about ghosts that was a hot debate whether was faked or not in their house. Molly was sitting at their dining table, staring at her phone as she gently stroked Bubbles. Jo was in the kitchen, making something that may or may not be edible.

She reached the landing of the stairs, almost tripping over a stray shoe that had wound up there. She slammed her hand against the wall to keep from falling, causing Jo to turn around in surprise.

“I am the embodiment of beauty and grace,” She muttered. Jo laughed.

“Yes, dear.”

“Morning.” Molly smiled at her, then looked over to Jo. “Now we just need Ripley and Mal, then we can go visit Jen.”

“I forgot Jen wanted to see us. Did we do something or just to make sure we didn’t commit any crimes again?” she asked.

“Ripley accidentally summoned a demon when we found that book in the closed building on campus, and Molly’s guardian was Jen so she got called,” Jo explained.

“I still can’t believe they just accepted that, Molly you’re twenty-one and Jen is twenty-nine. She’s not even your legal guardian, you just said she was.” Molly shrugged.

“Their fault they didn’t check. She said it was fine. I would’ve done Nellie but she doesn’t have a phone.”

“And she is much less responsible.” She hadn’t even heard Mal come down the stairs and jumped slightly when she spoke. She moved down the stairs to sit on the couch, walking lightly so Ripley wouldn’t wake up from her footsteps. Mal sat across from Molly at the table.

“You just don’t like Nellie.”

“That’s true, but she also is like a dictator in anything she controls. She’d yell at them like she owed the college.” Jo nodded in agreement.

“Also, Jen like appointed herself our mother? She had us for, like, a week, before she decided that she had to take care of us,” Jo added.

“So, do we want to bring her the book?” she grinned. Mal picked up on what she was doing and flashed her a smile.

“Definitely, she’d love to read it,” she said.

“Are you two crazy? No way!” Molly stated.

“No, she is not even allowed to see that book. She will flip.” Jo rapped her fingers against the counter.

“I don’t know, I think like she’d it.”

“You are insane, April,” Molly mumbled.

“Thank you, my dear Molly, for stating the obvious.” April stood up and bowed dramatically, practically hearing Jo’s eye roll.

“We’re keeping the book, I’m the only person who can read it without summoning anything or starting the apocalypse.” Molly put her finger in the palm of her hand. 

“We know babe, we’re just messing with you guys.” Mal smiled at her fondly. Jo pressed her palm against her forehead.

“How did I not realize that,” she mumbled.

They talked for a while longer, playfully bickering and discussing where they wanted to explore next. They kept up discussing random matters when a dog bounded up the stairs and went directly to Molly, startling Bubbles.

“Bindi! Calm down, girl!” she commanded weakly. The boxer dog listened, deciding to lick her knee.

Ripley came up next, tightly gripping a tabby cat.

“Loki accidentally headbutted the stairs on his way up, so I decided it would be best to carry him!” she grinned.

“How’s Maize?” Jo asked.

“A lot better! I think she just needed to get used to her new home.”

“Hey, Mol? I think we should get a bearded dragon,” Mal said. 

“This house is turning into a zoo,” Jo muttered.

“We should like, turn the sunroom into a pet room,” April suggested. Jo thought about it.

“We would need to hook the furnace up so it would be warmer in there since it’s freezing right now,” Jo pondered.

“We could do it though, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Awesome, until then we can just summon some demons and-” Mal started saying.

“I swear on Calamity Jane’s ghost if you two don’t stop talking about summoning demons I will flip.” Molly ran a hand through her hair and Mal placed one on her shoulder.

“Still just messing with you hon,” she smirked.

“Okay, is everyone ready to go?” Jo asked. April scanned her body.

“I should probably shower.”

“Same.”

“Same.”

“Advantages of getting up early, we already did,” Molly boasted.

“Ripley can be done in like five minutes, Mal you take like fifteen, and April takes like thirty, and we have two showers but Ripley’s is hers alone, so we’ll be out of here in like an hour? Think you guys can do that?” Jo figured. The group nodded. “Hop to it then, let’s get there before Jen comes here.”

After they showered and finally piled into the car, they took at most twenty minutes to make it to Jen’s apartment. When they knocked on the door, a very unamused Jen opened the door.

“I get a call from the college saying you got caught in an out-of-bounds area, then that you stole school property, and now you take hours to get here and I still need an explanation!” she asserted. Ripley lurched forward and grabbed Jen in a hug, despite having grown she was still shorter than Jen, at five foot four, so it was rather comical.

The rest of the team joined the hug until she sighed and slipped out.