Not just yet. Go check on Jane instead

You don't have to, but you want to. If Pearl wasn't so fun to tease she wouldn't be in this position.

"Not yet," you say. "I want to hold onto it a little longer."

Pearl makes a frustrated sound and grips the railing. "Come on."

"Why? It's not like you're planning on going anywhere with it. I'm letting you use my attitude again so you should be able to enjoy the party like before, right?"

"I was enjoying the party a whole lot more before you started claiming pieces of me," Pearl shoots back.

You consider the words. "Technically pieces of me now," you correct her. "The most important part of your personality is mine too. Your words. If anything, you should be grateful I'm letting you use it however you want."

Pearl rolls her eyes. "This is going straight to your head, Chase."

"Agree to disagree," you say. If this was going straight to your head, you would've claimed the house and everyone in it by now. "Come with, I want to go see how Jane's doing."

"Probably so you can claim her beanie or something," grumbles Pearl, darkly. But she follows you without further word.

--

You come upon Yutong and Jane, Pearl trailing behind. The two are still dancing on the floor. 'Dance' in this case is a loose definition - Yu's merely shifting her weight foot to foot real fast, while Jane's chugging a half-sized bottle of Gatorade while bumping her hips from side to side.

Mingled in with other members of your graduating class, the music this close to the speakers is all but deafening.

Pearl's focus goes straight to Yu.

Your mutual petite Asian friend is swimming in a well-worn black hoodie.

Pearl looks betrayed. "You're wearing my hoodie?"

Yu halts in place and gives her a guilty look. "Chase asked me to hold it for him.”

"And he owns your help," Pearl finishes, defeated.

"It's not your hoodie anymore either," Yu says. "You have five of these things, it'll be fine."

"Assuming he lets me go home," Pearl says.

Yu snorts. "Don't be crazy. Chase is still Chase, whether or not he has omnipotent claiming powers. I doubt he'll tell you to go jump off a bridge or something.”

Pearl scoffs. "No way he'd tell me to stand on the ceiling either, I bet."

"Huh?” she asks, quizzically. “Oh, by the way, where did Sully and Indigo go? Do you know what happened after Chase took them aside to talk?"

"Chase did something to Sullivan too?" asks Pearl, utterly demoralized. “He’s his best friend…”

Your attention's on Jane as she dances, though. Tank top, shorts, and a beanie. Freckles and red hair. The way she moves draws your attention to her toned arms.

"Pearl, stay with Yutong till I'm done," you say. Then you step over to Jane.

"Yo Chase," says Jane. She pauses to free-throw her empty Gatorade bottle. The bottle sails toward a neglected trash bag tied to the side of a folding chair. It bounces in, but just barely. Jane wasn’t even looking though, her attention is already back on you, while she continues still sorta dancing.

"Any luck figuring out the whole claiming ownership thing yet?"

"You could say that," you say. "So far, I’ve claimed Yu's help, Sullivan and Indigo's relationship, and Pearl's hoodie, snarky attitude, and where she goes.”

Your work ethic impresses Jane. "Wow, you've been busy. All stuff from us, too?"

"So far," you say, rubbing the back of your neck. "Though I was thinking about getting a date before the party's over."

"Nice," says Jane. "If I was you I'd get a car and a new laptop too."

"If you want things I can get those for you," you offer, remembering the possibilities that exist outside of messing with your friends. "It wouldn't even be hard."

Jane forgets about dancing. "Wow, really?" she asks, flabbergasted. "That - that’d be awesome!"

You swell with pride at Jane's reaction. Is this what being rich feels like? You could give yourself and your friends a total life of luxury if you so chose. All you'd need to do is lay claim to a yacht or half of some old scrooge's fortune.

"I promise I’ll look into it, soon as I figure this out," you say, flying high.

Jane grins and affectionately slugs you in the arm - nowhere near hard enough to hurt. "Thanks Chase, I owe you."

"Don’t mention it, I haven’t even done anything yet," you chuckle.

But, rubbing your arm where Jane punched you, you can't help but wish she'd do it again. You've always had a crush on your tomboyish friend. Always thought she was cute. You never had the guts or the disposition to do anything about it, but right now you're surging with confidence.

What if you claimed Jane as your date? The temptation is great, and you know there'd be little to stop you.

"So what are you going to do with everything you claimed so far?" asks Jane, before you can make up your mind.

It's not a question you expect. "What do you mean?"

"Yu's help, I totally get, she's super smart," says Jane. "One thing I'm not excited about is going to college without her around to help me do my homework. But what are you going to do with Sully and Indy’s relationship?"

"I fixed it," you say, waving a hand. "They weren't seeing eye to eye on some things. They're in it for the long haul now."

Jane is astounded. "Jesus. You can do that? I mean it makes sense, their relationship's yours if you claimed it, but still - that's crazy," she says, in disbelief. "I'd have bet for sure they'd split after graduation. How'd you do it?"

"You'll have to ask them," you say, cagily. You may have taken things a bit too far on that front but they did seem happy, and you did prove your point to Indigo... "Maybe it's my relationship, but they deserve some privacy."

"Right, right," says Jane, nodding. "What about all of Pearl's stuff?" She glances over your shoulder at your edgy friend in black, who's joking about something with Yu.

"To be honest," you say with a smirk, "I was just messing with her."

Jane is surprised. "Ah. I guess you don't have to claim something with a reason," she says, more to herself than you. "You can just claim anything for whatever. That's insane."

You agree. “It is.”

Looking down at herself, then up to you, Jane tenses, as if preparing for something. Suddenly, she asks, "So what are you going to claim from me, then?"

The question confuses you. “I don’t follow.”

Jane explains. "You claimed something from Yu, Sully, and Pearl already," she says, counting off on her fingers. "That's all our friends. Oh, and Indigo. So you came down to claim something from me too, right?"

You didn't necessarily plan it out that way, but you acknowledge that Jane's not necessarily wrong. She's always been good at reading you. Yet, claiming something from Jane when she's talking about it point-blank like this feels awkward.

"Sort of," you admit, shifting uncomfortably in place like your skin’s a size too small.

Jane puts on a brave face and nods. "All right. Might as well get it over with then."

She squeezes her eyes shut and turns halfway away from you, shoulders tense and hands balled into fists at her sides. It's more like she's preparing for you to throw a punch than make a claim.

"Don't claim my skateboard, don't claim my skateboard..." Jane chants under her breath.

You question all the choices that led up to this point. Can you really just keep stealing things from your friends when they can't even fight back?