“I’m not saying that she’s dead, but it has been a while.” Jessica said to Hannah as the redhead was pacing back and forth, glancing at the forest behind her house worriedly every now and then. The rest of the partygoers were cleaning up the mess from when everyone had started upturning tables in the chaos of the dog attack.

  “She is fine, but we should go after her!” Hannah said, frustration clear in her voice. She had been arguing about this point for a few minutes at this point, but Jessica and her gang had been trying to persuade Hannah to leave Diane to the hounds, so to speak.

  “Ugh, Hannah, just leave her to fend for herself and let’s finish the party.” Jessica piped up, followed by agreements from Jeremy and Jasmine. Hannah stopped pacing and glared at her fellow cheerleaders.

  “Well then, Jessica, If you are so impatient to end this, why don’t you just leave!” Hannah was done with their terrible attitudes. They have been terrible all day, and now they wanted her to watch a movie or something and just forget about her best friend? Jessica was stunned for a second at Hannah’s sudden tone shift, and was about to reply when a rustling came from the bushes. The group of cheerleaders who were talking closer to the forests stopped their conversation and looked at the bushes with caution, worried that the dogs had returned.

  “I appreciate the concern, but I’m alright.” Diane walked out of the bushes, brushing off some of the leaves that had yet to fall from the winter cold.

  “DIANE!” Hannah exclaimed in excitement, her previous worry and anger melting away and quickly replaced with joy. The redhead ran forward and all but tackled Diane in a hug that was once crushing, but with the Chosen's increased strength, It wasn’t as powerful against her. Diane managed to catch them from falling and she hugged the relieved redhead back.

  “Hey, I’m alright.” Diane patted her back and looked towards the house. Everyone who was cleaning had stopped and went to check the commotion after Hannah had yelled the name off the missing guest.

  “But what happened?” Hannah pulled herself off of Diane, but still held the Chosen's arms in front of her.

  “I managed to lead them away and lost them. Guess they found something easier to hunt.” Diane shrugged and looked towards the Mocking Jays with a smirk.

  “You guys miss me?” Jessica huffed at Diane's question and stormed off, followed by Jasmine and Jeremy.

  “Are you really okay?” Hannah asked one more time, and after receiving a nod in affirmation from Diane, the redhead hugged the Chosen one more time and pulled away, almost reluctant to let her go.

  Taking her eyes off her worried friend, Diane looked back towards the house and Party area. Jessica and crew were still stalking back towards the house where people were cleaning up. A lot of the tables had been knocked around and it was evident that snacks and drinks had fallen to the floor. However, there was barely a trace of the once large mess that Diane could recall being there when she had run away with the monsters. Thus was quite evident of how hard everyone had worked to clean up while Diane was also cleaning up, so to speak.

  Diane saw a few of them were talking on their phones, but after a few people caught the movement of the Mocking Jays they noticed that Diane had returned. Most of them stopped their call after learning this as the general public learned that the valiant hero had returned.

  Several groups of people that weren't immediately occupied with the last bit of clean up began to make their way over to Diane and Hannah. Instantly, Diane knew that she wasn't prepared for this. Faced with the inevitable coming of both a lot of attention and people, Diane had a strange moment of realizing that she handled fighting and killing the hounds much better than she would this social interaction.

  Should that be a worrying sign about what kind of person she is? No, it was probably fine. That was survival, this is an onslaught of people staring at her. One is obviously much worse. Definitely… Savu would agree with her.

  It was also at this moment that the concept of Diane's weird new life became apparent, especially compared to what used to be her biggest worry. Diane didn't have much time to digest all of these feelings as the crowd approached.

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  "Diane! Are you okay?? What happened?"

  "Are those dogs gone? Why were they so violent?"

  "Thank you so much, I was really scared!"

  "Did you get attacked? You're covered in dirt."

  The sudden wave of questions, comments and people left Diane stunned for a moment. Strangely enough, It was the last comment that shook her out of her stupor. Looking down, Diane noticed she was indeed covered in damp dirt and leaves. Thankfully the Shade Beasts disappear after being defeated, being covered in blood would raise more questions. She supposes that monster fighting is a rather dirty activity. Chuckling a bit at the notion, she managed to regain her composure and muster a response.

  "Heh, yeah. I, uh, ran away for a while. Honestly I don't think I've ever run that fast," Which was true. Not the whole truth, but still true. "Uh, anyway, I found a tree with some roots I could hide in as they passed. Hence the, uh, everything." Diane said as she gestured to herself, brushing away a leaf she noticed.

  A few more answers to various questions about what happened, assurances about her safety and a bit more expressed gratitude towards her, the crowds dispersed, leaving Diane alone with Hannah. She was able to get through the questions easily enough, even if she might have stumbled over her words a little. Sighing a bit, Diane looked back towards her friend.

  Hannah had been looking at her friend throughout the entirety of her crowd pleasing, so Diane was greeted with Hannah's worried gaze that practically bore into her. Blushing a bit at the intensity of the attention from her friend, Diane nervously patted away some more dirt.

  “What's up Han?” Diane asked, only looking at Hannah with her peripheral vision. Which she just noticed was also better than it used to be. The benefits of being Chosen just keep growing, she thinks sarcastically.

  Hannah just sighs and plops down on the grass, sitting on folded legs while looking back towards her house and the various guests cleaning the ruckus and trying to salvage everything they can.

  “Sorry about this Diane, I pressured you into coming and you had to run into the forest after we were attacked by dogs! Not a good party for being your first.” Hannah lamented while fiddling with some grass, regret heavy in her voice.

  Diane did not know what to say. Granted, being attacked by monster dogs and then having to kill them was definitely not on her list as a good way to spend her night, but seeing as how she was apparently “chosen” and this was not changing, it wasn’t really Hannah's fault, or even under her control for that matter. Thinking about it, Diane probably feels like it’s her fault for putting off the chosen notification for so long.

  If she had accepted way sooner, she would probably have already hunted down those monsters or shade beasts or whatever they were and dealt with them. Then, the party would have been uninterrupted and Hannah wouldn’t feel guilty.

  Letting out a little sigh while falling down into a cross legged sitting position way easier than she ever has been able to, she just chuckled out loud and nudged her shoulder into Hannah's, surprising the other girl.

  “Nah, it’s fine. Now I can definitely say I got my steps in for the week! Maybe even the month…” Diane said with a huff before looking back at Hannah with a slight grin. Hannah just shook her head at Diane's dumb joke with a small smile that formed against her will. Seeing it was working, Diane continued.

  “I'm serious, I definitely beat my record. I guess three terrifying beasts chasing you is an excellent motivation. Maybe I should start listening to ‘dogs barking’ audios while at the gym.” That caused Hannah to let out a stifled laugh in surprise as she smiled a bit more.

  “Stooop.” Hannah said through the chuckle while lightly pushing Diane away. Letting the silence stretch a bit, Hannah looked back towards the party one last time while her smile faded.

  “Are you sure? This was supposed to be a good time…”

  “I am sure. Before the… Impromptu gym class I was having fun. Maybe you’ll just need to make it up to me at the next party.” Diane said casually while also looking up towards the house. And she meant it, she did. Thinking about how she could have taken care of the monsters early, she realized that she regretted the interruption.

  Looking up in surprise and shock, Hannah stared at Diane's stupid grin for a moment before letting out a small squeal of happiness and almost tackling Diane with a hug.

  Diane let out a small shout of surprise, once again grateful for her enhanced chosen body keeping Hannah from overpowering her, as if this was yesterday then the two girls would definitely be sprawled out on the ground. Instead, Diane just stumbled back a bit as she was forced to catch herself and Hannah, slightly hugging her back a little.

  Hannah just laughed a bit into Diane's side before letting go and helping her sit back up. Then, she just rested her head on Diane's shoulder after scooting closer. The contact caused Diane to stiffen in shock for a moment before relaxing into the touch.

  “Thank you for coming, Diane.”

  “A-Anytime.”