The next morning, Jenny woke up from another night without dreaming.
Gradually, she'd been coming to terms with the idea that she may never dream again. Or that even if she did, her dream-friend Top Moments may not be there anymore.
With her mind not at ease, she unplugged herself and opened a drawer in her room to grab a pen and a piece of paper. In a matter of seconds, she drew a complete picture of Top Moments the way she recalled him, now that he was still fresh in her mind.
Jenny grabbed a roll of tape, bit off a piece and stuck the drawing to the wall next to her big bedroom window. The wall featured other pictures, too, including a photo of herself with Saturn and Plural that she took during one of their lunch breaks. Jenny looked at the photo and smiled.
Circus and Tatters weren't featured on her wall yet, but that could be arranged tonight.
♦
That evening, Saturn left his apartment building and walked to his car. The summer fair was set up on the outskirts of the city—near the woods—and everybody agreed to meet there, so he expected he'd drive there alone. But to his pleasant surprise, he found Jenny waiting on the roof of his car. She was lying down and facing away from him, zoned out, staring at the sun, which was on its way back down the horizon.
When he came close enough, she looked back and immediately improved her mood, giving him a happy wave.
"You look excited," he said when he reached the car.
Jenny broke eye contact and rubbed her cheek with her finger.
"Yeah…"
Saturn leaned over to check out her face.
"Nervous?"
Jenny nodded.
Saturn unlocked the driver's side door and paused before getting in.
"Wait, you really are nervous," he said with an eyebrow raised. "Why?"
Jenny hopped off the car and took her spot next to the passenger door, suggesting she didn't feel playful enough to ride on the roof like that time on the van.
"Just nerves," she replied.
Saturn hesitantly sat down in the car and reached over to unlock the door on her side. Jenny got in, sat down and closed the door. Unremarkably, missing that playful nature with which she did everything. Right now, she moved like a normal person. Even nervous Jenny had been more fun to be with. This was different.
"Look, we don't have to go if you don't wanna," Saturn said, turning to Jenny without firing up the car. "You don't have to force yourself just 'cause we asked."
"I do wanna go," Jenny replied, facing him. "With you guys."
Saturn squinted his eyes and gave her facial expression a review.
"Okay…"
He moved his fingers to the edges of his mouth and pulled them down, like to imitate a sad face.
"Then what's with the…"
Jenny broke eye contact.
Saturn continued. "You're giving mixed signals."
Jenny twiddled her thumbs and looked out the window.
"There's gonna be a lot of people at the fair, and I usually avoid crowds."
"I guess so, yeah," Saturn replied as he took his fingers off his mouth.
"You've seen the posters, right?" Jenny asked timidly.
"Yeah…" Saturn responded. "The shitstorm?"
Jenny nodded.
"I'm definitely getting recognized tonight. Probably all night long."
"Hmmm… And you don't like all that attention."
Jenny looked out the window again.
"Sometimes it's fun, when they're friendly. But sometimes, people just wanna get a reaction out of me, and I don't know how to act."
Saturn rolled his tongue around his mouth, trying to think of soothing words to give.
"Also, sometimes…" Jenny went on.
"Sometimes?"
"Sometimes I wish I could just be normal like you guys," Jenny said, bummed out.
She looked back at Saturn, who looked surprised at her words. Jenny grabbed his hand and shook it around to wake him up, acting a little more like her usual self.
"C'mon! We'll be late!"
Saturn giggled, slid the key into the ignition and turned on the engine. Without speaking, he took out his sunglasses from the center console and put them on. Then, he smiled at Jenny, who smiled back, seeing them for the first time.
"Gotta say, I was starting to think you weren't letting all that bother you, J-cakes," he said like he had all the awareness in the world what he looked like.
Jenny looked startled at the new nickname, and Saturn shook his head and waved her away as if to tell her to forget he said that, then put the car into gear and drove off.
♦
"Sparkle Jenny! Oh, em, gee!"
Jenny's body froze as the imaginary stealth icon in the corner of her eyes went from hidden to spotted. A young girl, looking maybe sixteen years old,
"I am your—"
darted around her
"biggest—"
like she was viewing Jenny
"fan!"
from all different angles.
"See?" she held up her phone, which had a Jenny-themed case around it.
"See?" then turned on the screen, showing a Jenny wallpaper.
"See?" lastly, she held up her Jenny-themed backpack.
Jenny looked back in horror. Just the thought of there being this much merchandise of her, without her even knowing of it.
"Please sign it!" the girl begged, holding out her backpack with her head bowed down.
Jenny took a step back with her hands raised.
"I don't really have a—"
Then, Saturn wrapped his arm around Jenny's shoulders and handed her a black marker.
"She would love to sign your backpack," he said.
Immediately, the girl inhaled loudly.
"Saturn! I know you too!" she yelled at him. "You're so hot! I love you!"
Saturn looked surprised, yet couldn't hide his amusement and slightly bit his lip.
"You know me? Seriously?" he asked excitedly.
"Of course! You were there during the False Jenny incident! You live here, too?"
"I'm uh… gonna leave that to your imagination," he said less enthusiastically. "What's your name?"
While he was chatting the girl up, Jenny gave him an angry glare as she signed the girl's backpack. As much as she disliked the attention, this wasn't the first time she'd had to sign something before. She had a doodle prepared that she used for everyone. Although perhaps the doodle she was making now had pinch of resentment in it.
"Here!" Jenny handed the signed backpack back to the girl.
"Thank you so much!" the girl exclaimed and gave Jenny a tight hug, causing her to squeal. "You have no idea how much you mean to me! I wish everyone was as good as you!" she said as she shook Jenny left and right with each word she spoke. "Don't—let—the—news—bring—you—down!"
Each time, Jenny squealed again, until the girl stopped and looked Jenny in the eyes. Behind that clown show, Jenny surprisingly saw a good person. Whenever she read about herself online, against her better judgment, she'd always find people who defended her against all the hate, and it always lifted her spirits. Perhaps she was one of them.
"T-Thank you," Jenny said with her eyes wide.
Then, the girl finally let go of her and turned around but didn't get far before bumping into someone else.
"Tatters!" the girl yelled at the person she bumped into. "I can't believe it! I love you!"
Tatters, in turn, glared at the girl, then turned her eyes to Jenny.
"Is she bothering you?"
"N-No! She's good!" Jenny responded in a hurry.
"Hmmm," Tatters gave an investigative look to the girl who eventually turned her eyes to the last person to join.
"Plural! You're all here together! I—"
Tatters turned her look increasingly hostile the longer the girl rambled on.
"I… I've held you up long enough," the girl said as she backed away from the angry blonde, clutching her precious backpack to her chest. "Have fun!" she yelled as she ran off.
And with that, the two pairs had joined up.
"Geez, Tats… Wasn't that a bit harsh?" Plural asked her companion.
"I just have a bad history with fans wanting pictures," Tatters mumbled as she watched the girl in the distance.
"Well, you've come to the worst place for that," Plural said, poking Tatters' waist and smiling nervously.
Tatters gave Plural a suspicious scan.
"You're touchy today…"
Plural pulled her hands back like she'd suddenly been made aware of her behavior.
"Am I? Haha, I didn't even—"
Then, Saturn put his hand on her shoulder and changed the topic.
"Now that we're on our own again—Hi, by the way—Why don't we get going before somebody—"
"Jenny!" a familiar voice yelled, loudly, from a great distance.
Jenny didn't look, because she knew who it was. Instead, she jumped at Saturn and clutched his arm, pressing herself against his chest. But it was too late, almost everybody who heard the shout was now looking at them. A couple of seconds passed in silence while Saturn gave people a fake smile and a sarcastic wave. Tatters was the first to break the silence.
"This is gonna be hard."
After that, the attention went to Circus, who came running at the group.
"You guys made it! Have you been here long?"
Plural tried to respond. "We—"
"I have!" Circus continued. "Since noon! It's so big! Like people came here from all over the country!"
After that, she paused to let the others speak.
"You've never been?" Saturn asked. "Not even when you were a kid?"
"No, I only moved here last year," Circus replied.
"I didn't know that!" Jenny said, still clutching Saturn's arm.
"I knew that!" Plural proudly said.
"Oh! And get this!" Circus continued. "Someone asked me for a picture! They recognized me from the news!"
"Same here. We're all famous now," Saturn said reluctantly. "Even us lowly humans," he said while prodding Plural with his elbow.
Plural gave him an equally reluctant look back.
Unlike these two, Circus looked excited about the fact, and she was already fixing her hair for her next encounter.
"What do you guys wanna do first?" Circus asked.
Plural tried to respond. "We—"
"I can't really stick around, though. Gotta work! Lotsa calls coming in!" Circus said while bouncing in place.
Jenny let go of Saturn's arm and hopped forward, taking Circus' hand instead.
"Before you go, I wanna take a photo!"
Then, she looked back at the others.
"Group photo!"
"Good idea!" Plural said.
Jenny took her phone and viewed herself with her friends through her front-facing camera, tilting her phone left and right to get a good look at all of them, then held it out in front of her. Her friends snuggled themselves against Jenny to fit in the frame. On one side, Circus put her hands around Jenny's waist and pulled herself close. On the other side, Plural did the same, with the two touching their heads against Jenny's. A slightly panicking Tatters did the same thing with Plural, and Saturn positioned himself behind Jenny, popping his head out above hers. Jenny, beholding it all through the camera feed, had no trouble smiling for the photo.
"Here's to growing old together," Jenny said, somewhat embarrassed, and pressed the shutter button.
♦
"Uhm, I gotta wee!" Plural said, looking around nervously until settling her hand on Saturn's arm and pulled him along. "Accompany me, bestie!"
Saturn surrendered and let himself get dragged along with an amused smile on his face as the two disappeared, leaving the two remaining heroines perplexed.
For a moment, they stood there, watching the other two fade into the crowd, saying nothing. Eventually, a stumped Tatters turned to Jenny.
"Do they always pee together?"
"I dunno," an equally stumped Jenny replied, "I hope not."
Tatters looked back in the direction the two disappeared in.
"She's never asked me to join her before," she said with a jealous tone.
Jenny turned to her brooding friend and studied her mood.
"Isn't that kinda weird?" Tatters asked with her arms folded.
Jenny could definitely spot a jealous look in her eyes.
"Maybe she just wants to talk to him in private. That's what girls normally do when they go to the bathroom together, I think…"
"He's not a girl," Tatters responded, "and you're making it sound like we're not real girls."
Did Tatters consider herself to be different from everybody else? Perhaps the two were more alike than Jenny thought.
"Maybe we're just special," a pleased Jenny said.
Tatters turned to Jenny with a frown.
"I've heard that before. It's not a compliment."
Before Jenny could respond, the other two had already returned, far too soon for Plural to have gone to the bathroom. Tatters immediately addressed the issue.
"Did you even go—"
Plural did not let her finish and grabbed her hands. "I wanna go into the haunted house!"
She pointed in the direction the two had disappeared just moments ago.
"O-Okay," a surprised Tatters obediently replied.
"Oh, man. I'm not good with scares," Saturn followed up.
He grabbed Jenny's hand and pulled her towards him, away from the other pair.
"Let's go do something else!"
As the two pairs split up, Saturn and Plural waved at each other suspiciously, and Jenny and Tatters gave each other a look of mutual confusion.
After walking for a bit, Jenny started feeling self-conscious about the fact that since Saturn had pulled her along, he hadn't let go of her hand. Lots of other people around them walked hand-in-hand, and Jenny naturally assumed they were couples. Did others assume the same thing about them? Jenny looked down at their interlocked hands, then up at Saturn, who'd noticed the tension she exuded.
"I can let go if you're not comfortable," he said, uncharacteristically flustered.
"No!" Jenny said and grabbed his hand tighter.
"Ah! Ah!" Saturn uttered in pain. "Jenny! Tight!"
Jenny gasped and immediately let go of his hand, watching him flap his hand around with a guilty look on her face.
"Let's just…" but Saturn took her hand right back, "relax, okay?"
"O-Okay," Jenny submitted happily and rubbed her thumb softly against his fingers.
As they moved on, Jenny constantly felt eyes on her, like people were clearly recognizing her but keeping quiet out of politeness. Sometimes, children would call out her name or nickname, and sometimes people in groups would do the same. Saturn seemed to be aware of it.
"I've got an idea," he said as he took her to a nearby stand.
Jenny examined the stand. Moving targets and rifles, and…
"Hats?" Jenny asked him.
"Yeah," Saturn leaned over to check all the prizes on display. Hats, most of them animal themed. They were flamboyant and covered most of your head. "You know, maybe people won't recognize you so easily with one."
He looked at Jenny to gauge her reaction. "And you like animals."
Jenny looked at the hats, then back to him.
"Unless you don't want one," he quickly added. "That's okay too, we can move on." Once again, uncharacteristically nervous. Although there was one thing about the way he acted today that wasn't uncharacteristic at all.
"You don't have to keep second-guessing yourself like that," Jenny turned and looked him in the eyes.
"O-Oh…" Saturn responded. "I just thought maybe I'm pushing something onto you that you don't—"
He fell silent looked at Jenny in shock when she covered his lips with her finger.
"That's… new…" he muttered with her finger still pressed against his lips.
"You should just go with the first thought you have. Because you're sweet and thoughtful, and you can read my mind," Jenny spoke, making herself blush at how corny that sounded.
"And I want…" She turned to the hats and pointed her finger, but before she chose the bear, the image of the severed head of Mr. Cuddles flashed by, and she changed her choice to her second pick. "The whale."
After taking a second to regain his cool, Saturn smiled and went to the clerk to pay for the shots. Jenny joined him at the counter as he received the rifle.
"I guess you'd hit these with your eyes closed, huh?" Saturn remarked.
"That's why you have to do it," Jenny teasingly replied.
He rolled his eyes and pointed the rifle at the targets.
"I see we're all just zoo animals to you."
Then, he fired his first shot, hitting one of the targets on the top row, the farthest away.
"Nice!" he uttered while lowering his rifle and looking at the disabled target. "I thought this thing would be rigged."
"Good human," Jenny teased him.
Saturn gave her a bashful glance after that comment, and Jenny could swear she saw him blushing.
He raised the rifle again for his second shot. Jenny mischievously hopped behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, giving him a tight hug. Saturn lowered his rifle and giggled.
"H-Hey! Don't you want me to win your hat?" he asked with a shaky voice.
"You already won the whale hat when you hit the far target," Jenny said while rubbing her cheek on his back.
"Yeah, well…" Saturn raised his rifle again and tried his best to aim while Jenny was doing what she was doing. "I'm obviously gonna win a second hat for myself, or else you'll look like a fool."
He fired his second shot, missing the target.
"Tsk," Saturn annoyedly prepared his third shot.
Jenny let go of him. Now that he'd mentioned it, she decided she actually wanted him to win the second hat.
As he aimed, he slowly exhaled, pulled the trigger and shot, hitting one of the far targets again. Saturn lowered his rifle and sighed in relief.
"Would've been your fault if I missed."
He looked at Jenny, who excitedly hopped in place and subtle clapped her hands.
"You get two from the top row, kid," the clerk said.
Saturn placed the rifle on the counter and pointed at the first hat.
"The whale…" and then at the second, "and the frog."
Victoriously, the two walked away from the stand wearing their respective hats. Jenny's whale hat was blue, with two round eyes on the front and two fins at the side, covering the side of her head.
"Can still kinda recognize you," Saturn said as he checked her out.
He grabbed her hand and took her to a bench, sitting down and prompting her to do the same. He removed the hat from her head and moved his hand behind her ear, then paused.
"Uh, may I… touch your hair?" he asked.
"Of course," Jenny replied, wondering what he wanted to do.
Then, he gently swept her hair back over her ears as much as possible, gathering it all into a ponytail at the back. Jenny closed her eyes and turned around, enjoying the sensation of his hands on her head. Eventually, he held the ponytail in one hand, and with the other, he took a rubber band out of his pocket. He wiggled the rubber band around his wrist and continued on Jenny's hair, which he started braiding.
"You know how to braid?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah," he responded. "Ex-girlfriend taught me how to do hers."
It did not take him long to finish the braid all the way to the end, and he finished it up using the rubber band as a makeshift hairband.
"There," he said as he put the hat back on Jenny's head.
Jenny took out her phone and used the camera to look at herself. Indeed, her signature long hair style was no longer visible from this angle, and only the two flaps of hair at the side remained. She moved her arm to the side to view the braid and was surprised at just how different she looked.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"I… don't know what to say," Jenny replied.
Inside, she was over the moon. The last time anybody had ever done her hair like that was years ago, when her mom did it. It was one of the few things about her that she didn't dislike. Jenny sat there, speechless, but Saturn knew that he'd done a good job from looking at her face.
"I'll take that," Saturn said and stood up. "C'mon, let's try it out."
♦
Two hours until Crawling Chaos finds Jenny's world.