Nothing ever goes to plan, and it just pisses me off so much.

*Flip*

*Snap*

*Flip*

*Snap*

A blond, middle aged, probably still attractive mother restlessly laid in her bed as she repeatedly opened and closed her flip phone like a fidget toy.

She was never any good with smart phones. Never really got the appeal of it. Maybe if she was still young and hip, she might've been swept up in all the excitement and learned to properly used one herself, but she was an outdated dinosaur when it came to technology at this point in her life.

It wasn't such a bad thing though. At the very least, she could do this all day if she wanted to, just flipping her phone open and close, hearing that satisfying clack noise all the time. See, smart phones couldn’t do that stuff. They could never recreate the magic of a satisfying clack. Probably never will either, which was why she was still happy with her old flip phone.

Despite distracting herself with random tangents on flip phones and what not, when she glanced over at her flip phone again right as it opened, she couldn't escape the sight of the home-screen picture of her family photo.

Seeing her kids on the screen, of Shelly and John, she once again groaned and flicked the phone closed again.

"Ugh... What the hell am I suppose to do right now?" She muttered depressingly to herself.

Repeatedly, over and over, the entire scene went through her mind again. She practically had the entire image burned into her memories at this point.

Her two kids, her little boy and girl, caught in such a... a... debauchery position. Shelly, completely naked while on her knees, right in front of a pantless John.

In her mind, she couldn't make any sense of it. How does a mother react when she catches her kids doing something... something like that?!

...

Unable to answer herself, she once again opened her phone to look at the picture again.

On the right, proudly snuggling against her and looking as handsome as he could possibly be for the photo, an amazing husband and lover. Johnathon Doe.

Ever since she met him, life had been almost perfect so far. Despite their first meeting together and the strange circumstances that continued on after that, agreeing to marry him was basically the best thing to have ever happened to her.

Then there were her two kids, the two bundles of pride and joy that pushed her to be the hard working mother that she could possibly be. Shelly and John Doe.

Despite not being their real mother, they accepted her with open arms and never once made her feel alienated. Most kids, especially at a young age, don't just accept a random stranger to join the family off the bat. But for them, they got used to her like fish in water, and it only became a matter of time before they started treating her as if she was their real mother.

Shelly was a bit of a loud rebellious punk sometimes. I mean, at her age, what kind of kid wouldn't?

And John was... well... kind of an emotionless robot sometimes. Sometimes, she wished she could peer into his head to know what he was thinking, since it seemed like he was having a much more engaging time getting lost in his own head rather than engaging with the real world.

But she couldn't have asked for a better family. She loved the Doe family to ****, and she was proud and happy that she was blessed to have them adopt her into it as well.

Yet now... Now, for the first time in her life, something really serious and life-shattering just came into her perfect family life and she didn't know how to react to it.

What do you do when you accidentally caught your daughter on her knees in front of your son?

She had been so embarrassed and mortified the moment she saw it, she didn't know what to say or do. Instead of doing anything about it, she was so flustered that she just tried to pretend not to see anything and kept on acting normal as she always did.

Snapping her phone shut, she laid her arm to cover her eyes and tiredly groan again.

Well, for one thing, there was absolutely no way she could just ignore this forever. She had to do something about it, but what?

She wanted to desperately believe that what she saw was just a misunderstanding, an unfortunate out of context moment that would make perfect sense if she really took the time to think about the situation a bit clearer.

But try as she might, no matter how many leaps and hurdles of logic she attempted to make sense of the situation, it all looped right around back to the most obvious and clearest statement.

****.

Jesus Christ, is that even real? Are her kids even capable of such things?

Shelly was a bit of a flirt, Glynda knew that much. Shelly never shied away from bragging about having a new boyfriend, and then whining about how she broke up with her new boyfriend a month later. Glynda never asked if she ever fooled around with any of them, since she trusted her daughter to be responsible enough to at least perform safe-sex.

John was the type of boy that kept to himself. Glynda was never worried about John getting into trouble since she knew he was the kind to actively avoid that sort of stuff anyway. Still, he was at the age when boys have their hormones in the highest.

But would they really be so perverted and shameless enough to look at each other, their own family, in such a way?

She knew Shelly was a knockout when it came to looks, but would John actually see his own sister that way?

She could definitely see the appeal in John since he takes after his own father so much, but would Shelly see her own brother that way?

God, she wanted to deny all these questions so badly, despite witnessing the evidence first hand.

What was she going to do...? How was she going to handle this?

...

Flipping up her phone open again, she looked at the face of her husband, smiling happily towards the camera.

Maybe she didn't have to do all this alone.

Yes, yes! First thing that a parent should ever do after catching their children doing something they're not suppose to do is to discuss it with their significant other! After all, the responsibility should be shared between the two!

...

She snapped the phone shut.

Actually, no, this might not be a good idea... With Johnathon out of the state for his job, this would just be an unnecessary burden that'll distract him from his work. He'd never be able to focus with something this heavy on his mind.

...

But would that be right of her to keep a secret from him? He was their father... He has a right to know what his kids have been doing.

She flipped the phone open again.

...

Snapped the phone shut.

Maybe she's being presumptuous though? She was only just a step-mother after all, did she have any right to meddle in the affairs of her step-children's newfound relationship?

...

Of course she does! What was she thinking?! She might not be their real mother, but she was their godforsaken mother! What they're doing is wrong and using step-mother as an excuse not to do something about it is unacceptable!

She flipped the phone open agai-

...

Ooh, but maybe she shouldn't get their father involved if that's the case... As the mother, she has just as much responsibility to do something about it herself.

GOD DAMMIT WHY WAS SHE BEING SO WISHY WASHY ABOUT THIS- JUST CHOOSE WHETHER TO CALL HIM OR NOT!

Glynda, frustrated at her own ineptitude in decision making, roughly screamed out her frustrations into her pillow as she rolled around her bed like a crazed tumbleweed caught in a tornado.

After about a few minutes of this and letting the stress of the situation out of her system, Glynda sat up straight and took a deep breath to calm her nerves.

...

Screw it, let's just call him.

Knowing that she was not the type to think things through efficiently, she always favored charging headfirst into a problem instead of thinking around it.

Dialing the number in her contacts, she waited patiently for the call to go through.

...

Wait, actually no, this is a bad idea-

Despite favoring charging headfirst into problems, she also had the unhealthy behavior of quickly doubting herself and having second-thoughts about everything, making her main admirable quality completely worthless.

She hurriedly shut the phone off, hoping that it wasn't too late to back out now.

...

Sigh...

God, she was a terrible mother and wife.

Out of all the things that had to happen to her children, why did it have to be ****?! Why couldn’t it be **** or peer pressure or freaking depression or something? At least then, she’d have no hesitation in trying to take the matter seriously and do whatever she could to help.

This though? This was way beyond her realm of comprehension.

What if this was normal? What if she was overreacting? She never had a brother before, but she heard of rumors and stories about how most kids grew up sexually experimenting with their siblings in one form or another. The thought of it disgusted her, but what if she was making a big deal over nothing? What if this was just something as embarrassing but mundane as catching her son **** his chicken on accident?

Oh who was she kidding, there was no way this could be something so simple! She was just too scared to take responsibility and was making up lame excuses to get herself out of confronting the situation head on. For the love of god, her kids might be fucking each other behind her back this whole time! Who knows how long this had been going on?!

But then again...

Aksjdnwkxjsmakisoskxmwiw-

She couldn’t think straight...

Unable to think things through, she silently crawled up into a ball in order to give herself a moment to lament on the situation.

...

*RING RING RING RING RING RING RING BANANA PHONE*

Unfortunately for her, she had a mini-heart attack from the phone suddenly ringing, barely giving her any time to think. So startled was she, she nearly dropped the phone off the bed and began fumbling around to catch it.

Once she managed to keep a firm grasp on it, she breathed a sigh of relief before nervously looking at the caller ID.

"Ah crap..." She squeaked nervously.

It was Johnathon.

Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap-

What should she do? What should she do?! WHAT SHOULD SHE DO?!

Answer or ignore?! Acknowledge destiny or run from it? Salvage situation or pretend not to notice?!

Make up your mind already, woman!

...

W-Well, it would be rude not to answer at this point, especially since she was the one to call him first...

Tepidly, Glynda flipped her phone open and brought it to her ears as she nervously greeted, “H... Hi, honey!”

...

...

He’s not responding?

“Hello?” Glynda asked confusedly, before bringing the phone down to look at it.

Missed call: Johnathon.

“Ah, crap.” Glynda moaned in embarrassment.

In her state of panic, she took too long to answer and the call went to voice mail at the very last second.

Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid- Why was she so easily flustered like this?

...

Well, maybe this was for the best... She probably shouldn’t get him involved in her problems any-

*BANANA PHOOOOOOOONE-*

GOD DAMMIT GOD, WHY DO YOU TOY WITH ME!?

No excuse this time. She had to pick up now, or else Johnathon will get needlessly worried about her...

Phew...

Taking a deep breath, Glynda didn’t hesitate to answer the phone this time.

“Hello, honey.” She greeted, trying her best to sound natural.

“Hey sweetheart!” She could hear a very groggy but concerned voice over the phone. Despite sounding so tired, she could feel that he was pushing on through for her sake, “Is something wrong? You just called me a moment ago and I missed it.”

“Oh, uhh- No, everything’s fine!” Glynda nervously replied back, “Why would you think something was wrong?”

“You called me at 4:32 AM...” He started obvously.

...

STUPID STUPID STUPID GLYNDA YOU STUPID-

“You okay, baby? It sounds like you’re smacking the phone against your forehead again.” Johnathon asked, concerned.

Pausing from smacking herself in the face with her phone, she quickly reassured him with an improvised, “No no no- I’m fine! Haha, no, I’m just uh... making breakfast while calling you! That was the noise of my whisking stick!”

“...okay.” He responded back with obvious doubt in his tone, but moved on, “So, why’d you call?”

Glynda took a moment to try to really think about.

This was her final decision to make as a mother right now. Does she try to get her busybody of a husband involved with their personal problems at home, even though he was too far away and busy to really do anything about it? Or does she hopelessly fumble around in trying to solve the problem herself, despite having no idea what to do and having no help at all?

What was the responsible decision here?

“I... um...” Glynda trailed off, frowning with guilt. Guilt from bothering her husband in the middle of the night, guilt from being so pathetic that she couldn’t do something by herself, guilt from not being strong enough to ask for help when she desperately needed it-

What should she do...?

“...honey?” His voice called to her, “You remember what I said earlier right? Before I left?”

Glynda perked up, “Huh?”

“If you’re in trouble, don’t be afraid to call me back home. I don’t mind leaving early if it’s an emergency. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll take the fastest plane ride there and help you with whatever.”

...

She really did have such a great husband...

GAH- THIS IS ONLY MAKING HER FEEL EVEN MORE GUILTY- WHAT WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO DOOOOO?!??!?”

...

Sigh.

With an unnatural calmness, Glynda suddenly composed herself and laid back down in her bed.

“No... nothing’s wrong. Really.” Glynda smiled sadly, “I just got lonely and missed the sound of your voice. I forgot it was the middle of the night though... sorry about that...”

“Nah, don’t worry about that.” Johnathon responded, feeling much more at ease now. “To be honest, I missed you too. I wish I was back home with you, instead of sleeping at this cheap motel... Beds here are such a pain in the back...”

“You poor thing.” Glynda giggled, “I’ll have to massage you when you get back and make you feel better.”

“That would be such a godsend.” He chuckled back, “I would kill just to have one of your happy endings right now.”

Glynda couldn’t help but blush and give an embarrassed smile, “Don’t be such a dirty old man all of a sudden. It would just be a normal massage, nothing else!”

“Tease.” Johnathon said playfully, “Guess I’ll have to let out my stress and **** you to give me one when I get back.”

“Jesus, John...” Glynda shyly covered her face up, but still smiled despite it all.

“Oh, not to be a topic changer, but speaking of Johns- How are the kids?”

Glynda paused for moment, before breathing in deeply and stating, “Yeah, they’re fine too. John’s history teacher personally reached out to tell me that he might be slightly behind in school, but she offered to take time out of her schedule to tutor him on Sundays and Mondays. Other than that, nothing else has happened.”

“That’s good then. Heh, I guess I got nothing to worry about. Nothing exciting ever happens with the Doe family, huh?” Johnathon chuckled.

Glynda frowned for a bit, before forcing herself to smile again with a simple, “Yeah.”

In the end, Glynda decided that it wasn’t necessary to get her husband involved just yet. She was an adult woman who could handle herself just fine. Tomorrow morning, first thing the moment they wake up, she was going to call them both down to the living room to have a serious discussion about all this. Then, depending on how serious the situation actually is, she’ll consider getting her husband involved with their kids.

Until then...

“Hey, listen honey. I love hearing your voice, but I gotta wake up soon to get to work on time. I’m gonna go back to bed, okay?” Johnathon asked, before giving a long yawn at the end.

“Oh, sure.” Glynda murmured shamefully, “Seriously, sorry for being selfish all of a sudden and screwing your sleeping schedule. I won’t do it again.”

“Like I said, I don’t mind. It’s nice, talking to you like this sometimes. A big change of pace from having to listen to five old grody guys all the time.” He reassured her again.

“Good night then, sweetie. Love you.”

“You too, baby. Sweet dreams.”

With that, Glynda hung up the call and gave another massive sigh.

“Sweet dreams, huh? Yeah right...” Glynda scoffed depressingly. “I never have any good dreams sleeping alone...”

Turning over to the side, she put her flip phone away and hugged the pillow that her husband always slept on. Settling herself in a good spoon cuddling position, she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, hoping it’ll be another dreamless night for her instead of getting the same nightmare she’s always been having.

---

Past John was minding his own business yet again, shuffling through his locker as he got ready to leave school.

Just as he finished and went to close his locker though, right behind the door was Traci out of nowhere like a god damn teleporting Slenderman.

“Please be friends with my sister!”

“JESUS CHRIST, WHAT-"

"Agh, shit!"

Both you and Past John both jumped at the same time in fright at the sudden appearance of this crazy girl, causing you both to simultaneously grab your chest in a state of shock.

Holy crap that managed to scare you for some reason...

Alright, sooo... this was memory number- what- something something fifty?

At this point, you’ve completely lost count on how many memories you’ve traveled to get here. You’ve must have spent the entire night doing nothing but sift through memories, just to find any hint of knowing who Tiffany Brian is and how you and her became friends.

Personally, you felt like this has been going on for months and months now instead of just a single night. You're almost on your lasts wits end trying to figure out the mystery behind your strange lack of memory involving Tiffany.

Despite it all though, how tired you are, how much you want to just give up and try to do something else, some part of you was still stubborn or **** enough to see this through just for some kind of hint, sign, calling, message, whatever that might relate to Tiffany in any way. You didn't want this night to end up becoming a complete waste of time...

After all, without this hint of Tiffany Brian's true identity, you'd have no idea where to begin in terms of purging her inner demons...

"I'm begging you, be friends with my sister!" Traci asked desperately, repeatedly bowing at you as if you were the face of Buddha himself. "Please please please please please-"

Past John, caught off guard from this new disturbance in his life, proceeded to back away as he shouted, "Whoa, hold on- Slow down for a second!"

Unrelentingly forceful, as was Traci's nature, she kept on pushing forward in her attack, "Look, I get that maybe she's not that appealing or pretty or charming- But I swear she has, like, tons of other positive features that everyone always overlooks! If you just give her a chance and hang out with her, I'm sure you'll see that she's totally sweet and-"

Despite the pressure put on him out of nowhere, Past John seemed to recover quickly enough to regain his composure and make sense of the situation he was in. Furrowing his eyes, he recognized Traci and said, "You're that same girl from last time."

"Yes! I am!" Traci paused in the middle of her spiel to smile and introduce herself, "Sorry, I forgot that you probably have no idea who I am. I'm Traci Bryant, nice to meet you!"

You blinked for a second as a small tick jolted in the back of your mind.

Huh... Bryant? Traci Bryant? Didn't know that was her last name... It felt familiar, for some reason...

Actually, why wouldn't it? It's been so long since you last saw Traci, hearing her last name again after all these years should bring some sort of familiarity to it, wouldn't it?

...

You don't know why, but you don't think that was it... Her last name being Bryant sounds familiar for an entirely different reason, and you couldn't seem to wrap your head around it at the moment. Whatever, you'll come back to this later once you solve your current mystery case.

"Uh..." Past John couldn't seem to keep up with Traci's rapid whiplash personality but does his best to trudge on and keep up despite it all, awkwardly greeting back, "J-John... Doe."

"Sweet! Now that we know each other's names-" Traci then immediately went back into groveling mode as she bowed her head over and over again, "Please become friends with my sister!"

Past John blinked confusedly, his mind slowly trying to keep up with the pacing of the conversation before asking, "You mean that quiet girl with the glasses that you were hanging out with last time I saw you? Tubs or whatever?"

"Yes! That girl!" Traci broke out into another smile, "Glad to see you still remember us! So, will you be her friend?"

"Hold on- Slow down! Seriously." Past John grunted, softly pushing the older girl back a few feet before being able to regain his bearings. With a deep breath, Past John then said, "Look, I don't even know you two. You popped up out of nowhere and nearly gave me a heart attack, and in our first meeting together, you basically **** me into an awkward confrontation with your sister without any time to prepare. No offense, but you seem kind of crazy and I'd really rather not get involved with you anywhere within five meters."

"Boooooo!" You jeered, "Worst main character ever! Shit like this is the reason why nothing exciting ever happens in your life!"

Just that simple blunt rejection was enough to knock the wind out of Traci's sails, causing her to visibly deflate. But then, like a bipolar disorder, Traci suddenly smiled again, adorning a brand new pair of mischievous eyes to go with it.

"Would you change your mind if I said I'll be your giiiirlfriend~?" Traci asked in a cutesy way, tilting her head and pressing a finger against her bottom lip almost as if she was posing for a girly model magazine.

Past John raised an incredulous eyebrow, before bluntly stating, "No."

Traci then flinched back in shock at the quick and emotionless response, surprised at his audacity to reject her despite knowing how hot and attractive she was.

"B-But why not?"

"I couldn't keep up with someone like you, even if I was interested." Past John answered simply, "Also, I don't like older girls."

"BULLSHIT!" You found yourself shouting out of instinct. "There's a history teacher out there whose body is covered with DNA that has your name on it, buster!"

"But, I mean, don't you think that I'm pretty cute or something?" Traci still pushed forward in her seduction tactic, "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You won't get another chance at a girl like me that often, you know."

"Do you really think I'm that ****?" Past John grunted as he slowly grew impatient, "I'm not some prepubescent dumbass that you can just manipulate by winking and blowing a few kisses at me. Frankly, I'm more pissed off at the insinuation."

Despite knowing that your personality has basically stagnated throughout your entire middle-school and high-school years, you were at least glad to know that your values in dignity and integrity remained intact for as long as it did from your young age up to now.

Personality was still a goddamn plank of wood though, in your personal opinion.

"Tch. Figures I'd get the only boy in school that can't be strung along with tits." Traci bitterly clicked her tongue, before giving a deep sigh, "Alright. In that case..."

Traci pulled her backpack out and began rummaging around in it.

"Oh hey look, she had a Princess of Popstars backpack just like Tiffany's." You noticed.

Just as you said, the backpack in her possession was a pink backpack, decorated in sparkles and fake red rubies which spelled out the words Princess of Popstars.

It practically looked identical to the one Tiffany had in one of your later memories.

...

Huh... That's a... weird coincidence...

...

Is... Is Traci actually...?

With this new information in hand, you slowly crouched down to Traci's level and took a deep look at her, multiple theories running around in your mind like a pack of skittles being jumbled around.

Tiffany Brian...

Traci Bryant...

Princess of popstars backpack...

No... It couldn't be... It's literally and physically not possible.

Sure, the brunette hair checks out, but that was basically it. There were no other clues or details about her that held up any of the theories you had.

Tiffany was the same age as you and was in the same grade. Traci was the same age as Shelly, and was also in the same grade as her. That made her two years older than Tiffany.

Personality-wise, that doesn't check out either. Traci was way too kooky and crazy to be even remotely similar to Tiffany in any way. Tiffany was the popular girl type, one who followed trends and go with the crowd. Traci was the type that would sneeze on what current trends were in order to be her own fun self and accidentally wreak havoc in whatever was her way.

Lastly, Tiffany's boobs now were not nearly big enough to match what Traci was packing back then.

So, unless Tracy literally got held back and went down a grade, cut her hair, lost a few cup sizes, and entirely wiped her old personality by the time you first saw her in your second year in middle school, which was just a year away from this current time in memory- there's no chance in hell that she was Tiffany.

Most likely everything was just a huge coincidence.

Bah, and for a moment there, you felt like you almost had something concrete...

You stood back up in disappointment just in time for Traci to pull out an envelope with a quick, "Ah-ha!"

Standing back up, Traci went up to Past John and brought her head down while handing him this envelope as seriously as possible. "Please accept this offering as a sign of tribute."

Past John, with a comical 'dafuq' face, hesitantly accepted the envelope and opened it up. Inside revealed a small stack of cash neatly wrapped in a money band.

Past John frowned as he counted the bills one by one, before asking, "A hundred dollars?"

"I've been saving up my weekly allowance. I wanted to spend it on a new phone, but I figured this would be a better investment down the line." Once again, in complete seriousness, Traci took a knee and brought her hands together as if praying, "Please please please, be friends with my sister. If you do, I'll give you the same amount for every month you guys hang out together."

Whoa, she actually looked **** here...

A sense of nostalgia went through your mind as you watch this scene play out.

You haven't thought back to this moment in a long time, but yeah. You definitely remember this day.

You never liked being manipulated. Worse than that, you actually hated it when people looked down on you and thought that they could do whatever they want with you as if you were stupid enough to go along with whatever they say.

Whether it was being bribed, seduced, or whatever, you could always see past the sugary coated words and find the hidden message underneath.

When Traci handed you that envelope full of her allowance money all those years ago, you remembered being so pissed off at that moment that you were almost willing the slap the bills across her face.

It was the sort of rage that was slowly building up from her insistent badgering and outlandish behavior. You almost had it with her, thinking that she was treating you like a joke or minion.

But before you could do anything serious, you had given her another look and found yourself surprised to see that there was a desperation in the way she looked at you. Despite the crazy personality, you could tell that she wasn't doing this maliciously. There was a true sense of **** worry, and it was all aimed directly at you as if you were the magical unicorn trump card that could fix all problems she had. If you didn't accept her, she'd truly be lost.

So instead of blowing up in her face, you calmed down, and for once in your life, let your empathy out to hear her problems.

Past John flared up in anger for a brief moment as he held the wad of cash in his hand. But after looking up at Traci, he paused for a bit and then gave a relented sigh.

"Why me?" He decided to ask, this time without any hint of snark, "There are plenty of other kids in this school. You could ask anyone else to be your sister's friend. So why come to me?"

Traci stood back up with an anxious smile, as she began to explain, "W-Well... Um... I guess it's because you said that you weren't any good at making friends either. I mean, you seemed pretty lonely sometimes. The only other person I've ever seen with you was that one other kid in your lunch table, and even then it feels more like a one-sided relationship than anything. So, um... I guess I was hoping that maybe my sister would see that loneliness and relate to it, making it easier to talk to you."

"You've been following me?"

"Don't make it sound so weird." She giggled shamelessly, "Think of it more like I was doing some Reconnaissance on you. To make sure you were a good match."

Past John mulled it over, before asking a different question, "Why so **** to get my help that you'd even give me money for it? Is it really the end of the world if she doesn't have any friends at the moment? Not like you can **** a natural friendship."

In a rare moment of solemness, Traci gave a genuine sad frown for the first time as she glanced away, "Tubs, she... She can't seem to talk to anyone. She never even bothers to try anymore. I know that she wants friends, but... it seems like she's taken up a stance that it would be better for her to be lonely forever than to get hurt." She gave a frustrated sigh, "It doesn't help that she recently started getting bullied by some girls in her class... Now she won't even look anyone in the eye ever since. I'm worried for her, as an older sister. I'm scared that this might negatively impact the rest of her life, so I... I just want her to get at least one friend, someone to talk to, someone that she can relate to, before it's too late and she ends up giving up on having a social life forever."

...

Well... That's a problem that you still sort of relate too...

You never did make the effort to try to make friends... You were just lucky enough to have a handful of friends dropped into your lap by sheer luck during your middle school years. After that though, once you went to high school, you were back to being all alone again.

You didn't like other people that much, so you felt no reason to seek out anyone else.

And while things have changed a tiny bit due to how you've been using your dream powers to help out others with their personal problems, it's not like you were doing it just to seek out more friends.

Despite it though, you could empathize with Tabitha's problem and Traci's reaction towards it. Especially at a young age.

So yeah, you weren't too shocked to see Past John casually throw the envelope of cash back at Traci's face with an indifferent, "Eh. Alright."

Traci had to blink a couple of times, shocked at Past John's answer yet confused as to why he threw the envelope back at her.

"Wait, uh..." Looking back and forth between the money envelope and Past John's wooden face, she asked, "So, is that a yes?"

"Sure." Past John shrugged.

"As in, you'll agree to be her friend?"

"Yeah. You and her seem interesting after I thought about it. Why not?"

Holding up the envelope, she trailed off, "So then, you don't want...?"

"Someone once told me that to get something out of anything, you need to be willing to put something else back into it. Real friends will actually like me for my personality, not for my looks." Past John explained in a bored tone, "Granted, instead of my looks, you were going to pay me cash- but I'm pretty sure the concept still remains the same. I can't be a real friend if I'm only doing it for money, so might as well take it out of the equation altogether."

"Wow." Traci blinked in awe, "Your friend sounds really wise. Think you can introduce us to them at some point?"

Past John blanched, before obviously stating, "You were the one that said that!"

"I did? Since when?" Traci asked, genuinely confused.

"Since last week! When you forcefully grabbed me over to your sister!"

"I think I would remember saying something so cool to you..." Traci mumbled as she closed her eyes to try to remember.

"Never mind. Whatever." Past John scratched his head with an annoyed sigh, before telling her, "Next time I see your sister, I'll try to strike up a conversation."

Past John was then startled as Traci suddenly tackled him with a ferocious hug that nearly broke his neck, as the older girl squealed out a girly, "Yay~! I can't wait! Thanks for doing this for me!"

"ASCLAHLWKAJD" Past John said while gasping for breath against the girl's chokehold.

You know, from how often you get physically attacked by girls older than you, you're surprised that you never ended up with a **** fetish in your later years. Especially considering that the lucky bastard's face was about chin-deep inside Traci's cleavage.

"Sigh... I can't wait until I get to see Bella again..." You lamented in pent up horniness.

Actually, now that you've realized it, you've been extremely horny all of a sudden in the past few minutes. Your buddy down there seemed erect despite the fact that there wasn't anything to warrant it. It was almost like it was craving to be put inside a girl's mouth or something.

Dear god, you seriously hoped you weren't getting turned on from middle school Traci. That was not an idea you were willing to entertain, NO THANK YOU SIR.

At that moment, the bell decided to ring, signifying that school was over.

Traci released Past John from her deadly mounds and quickly picked her backpack up, "Alright! I'll see you later than John! Hopefully, the next time I see you, it'll be while you're hanging out and getting to know my little sis, okay?"

Gasping for breath, Past John waved her away, "Sure-Sure-Whatever- Fucking hell, I already get enough of this at home from Shelly constantly bullying me."

Traci didn't stick around to hear his response though, as she was already sprinting down the hall to make way for the exits.

Sigh... and that left you with absolutely nothing. Again. You were really hoping that this memory would somehow be related to Tiffany Brian in a way, but it seemed to be nothing more than a waste of time.

Sure, it was nice to go through the memories of your old friends again, but you've been really wasting a lot of time making absolutely no progress at all here.

Pulling out your remote, you prepared yourself for the next memory with a tired, "And now on to the next segment, with no commercial breaks!"

Before you did anything though, you faintly heard Traci's voice in the background, saying something that made you absolutely froze in place.

"Hey! Tiffany, there you are!"

...

Tiffany?

She just said Tiffany.

Traci's voice called out to Tiffany.

Traci knew a girl named Tiffany.

TRACI KNOWS TIFFANY.

Like a flash of lightning, you turned around and immediately tried to follow after Traci to see if you can catch her before it was too late.

And while you technically did catch up to her, to your absolute frustration, she turned a corner and disappeared from existence.

Since this was just a memory, there was no way to follow after her since you never did back when you were still Past John. Past John was still recovering from her **** hug, which meant that he still stuck around in the hallway while everyone else had already left.

Fucking worthless.

With nervous fingers, you fumbled around with the remote as you rewinded the memory back, "Come on, come on!"

The scenery around you reversed like an old video cassette tape.

You saw Traci run backward into sight again, her arm in the air as she waved to someone. But try as you might, the memory refused to show you who was on the other end of the side. No matter how desperately you rewound and forwarded the memory, over and over, just for any glimpse at all that Traci was talking to Tiffany Brian and not some random girl who happened to be named Tiffany by coincidence, the memory didn't show a god damn thing. You couldn't even hear anything else Traci said since she was out of earshot from Past John.

Fuck.

FUCK.

At this point, you were convinced that there was some cosmic being out there trying to mentally **** you. Here you are, about fifty million memories in, you finally get a small possible glimpse of Tiffany Brian showing up during the first years of your middle school, a year before you even knew she existed- Then this fucking shit happened.

GAH, YOU FUCKING HATE THIS!

With an angry shout, you threw the remote on the floor, making it shatter into pieces.

"WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU LET ME FIGURE OUT WHO TIFFANY BRIAN IS?!"

You didn't know who you were shouting at, to be honest. This whole entire thing was your fault anyway. As much as you would like to blame this on some third-party entity trying to screw with you, you knew that this was all mostly bad luck, bad timing, and your own damn fault that you were this frustrated...

...

...

...

Hol' up a sec.

This might actually be a hint...

If Traci knows who Tiffany is... and that Tiffany happens to actually be Tiffany Brian herself, the girl you've been trying to learn more about this whole time...

That means Tiffany Brian knows who Traci is.

Tiffany might not be willing to admit to you that you both knew each other back in middle school, but what are the chances that Tiffany will deny knowing Traci if you happened to ask?

Or even better, have Traci appear in Tiffany's dreams to try to trick her into admitting she knew her.

...

"This... might be another wild goose chase..." You muttered depressingly.

You've been going around in circles this entire night after all.

You had no evidence to prove that Traci was calling out to specifically Tiffany Brian. In all honesty, the chances that it was another girl with the first name is more likely.

Still...

There's been a lot of coincidences lately.

It wouldn't hurt to try. If it ends up being a dead-end, you'd just need to go back into your memory scape and keep pushing forward until you find another hint again.

Ugh, it'll definitely be a huge waste of time though, if that ended up happening.

But at least you have some sort of plan for the next time you decide to visit Tiffany's dream again, however fruitless it might potentially be.

...

You hate this...

You hate this so much... You're so tired and frustrated right now. This feeling of helplessness and lack of control.

It was like, despite the fact that you had all these amazing superpowers where you could manipulate dreams and all that, it still felt like you couldn't do anything significant in order to solve even the simplest of problems.

What the hell are you going to do if you end up finding out nothing about Tiffany again? What the hell are you going to do if all these memory-searching isn't going to turn up jack shit about Tiffany at all? That you've been wasting your time for nothing?

What are you going to do if you can't help Tiffany with her inner demons?

...

Fuck, man. How are you going to help Tiffany if you can't do this?

...

Whatever...

Nothing else to it, other than to push forward... Push forward until someone gives up, I guess.

Time to keep going onto the next mem-

"OOoaoOoaoaaoohh" Your body suddenly tensed up before a wave of ecstasy washed over you. You kept convulsing and jittering, to the point where you had a hard time balancing yourself on your feet.

You nearly stumbled over before the ecstasy disappeared as fast as it came. You found yourself breathing heavily in afterwards, laying against the wall to keep yourself propped up.

What the fuck was that?

Did... did you just... cum?

Why the fuck did you just cum?

Why the fuck are you still so horny?

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SO HORNY?!

---

You opened your eyes.

The first thing you noticed was your sister, Shelly, right on top of you. Completely naked. Her eyes were closed as she was breathing heavily, like she just finished running a marathon.

The second thing you noticed was a familiar wet sensation on your crotch.

Shelly was on top of you. Familiar wet sensation on your dick.

You put two and two together fairly quickly.

"What the fuck?" You groaned tiredly as you began to push yourself up.

When Shelly realized that you were awake, she had a look of utter terror and regret in her eyes as she stared back at you.

"J-John..." She mumbled, before tears began leaking, "I-I'm so sorry, John. I'm sorry! I just... I couldn't help it!"

"Did..." You gulped, before finishing, "Did you have sex with me while I was asleep?"

Shelly's lips were quivering, but she didn't bother to lie. She nodded yes rather than saying anything at all.

...

Sigh... God dammit.

God dammit!

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!

This was literally the one thing between the two of you that you didn't want to do yet. Not without mentally preparing yourself first.

And what does she do? Even after everything that happened with Mom yesterday?

She went ahead and did it without your consent.

"You're one selfish bitch, you know that?" You grunted.

Shelly flinched at your hard tone, knowing she screwed up badly.

You have absolutely no idea why, but you were just soooooo freaking pissed off and annoyed at everything. Whatever dream you were having before you woke up, it definitely did not put you in the right mood. Especially not for this shit.

"Was it not enough that you managed to get us caught by Mom yesterday? You seriously wanted to risk it even further by sneaking into my room and having sex with me, despite the fact that I've told you numerous times that I wasn't ready or even willing to do it yet?"

"I... I'll get off now," Shelly muttered pathetically as she tried to remove herself from you.

Before she could though, you roughly grabbed her hips and clenched onto her tight.

Shelly squeaked in surprise, not expecting your rough touch holding her still. She tried to move, and even gently pushed your arms away, to no avail.

"You just keep doing whatever it is you want to do, don't you? Never stop to consider my feelings maybe? Never take a moment to step back and think about how your actions might affect others?!"

"J-John?"

Fuck, for some reason you are just so pissed off!

For some reason, you just can't help but feel like nothing was ever going to plan! Like every single time you did something, there was always something getting in your way and distracting you or making you screw up!

You need to get rid of all this pent up stress and get rid of it soon, because you are about to fucking blow a gasket in this damn place!

...

Shelly wants to be selfish? She wants to do whatever she wants to you just because you're her little brother?

Maybe it's time to show her what happens when she pushes you too far.

"J-John?" Shelly nervously mumbled, "Are you a-angry? I-I'm really sorry, so please let me go. Let's talk about this."

Shelly then suddenly squeaked again as you got hard inside of her.

With a heavy blush, Shelly looked down on you in shock, "J-John?"