“You smell like cigarettes. You go back to your uncle’s place today?”

“Yeah, sorry… I know you hate the smell.”

“It’ll wash out.”

When the two ‘miners’ came back home that night, Jade took her bath first as always. So Oliver was sitting in the kitchen in only his boxers and eating the dinner that Peridot prepared for him. Nothing particularly special, just a greenscale fish sandwich with some pickles and yellowish-white mayo.

“I’ll wait till you’re done… Hehe~! Unless you wanna take a bath with me?”

“We’re not little kids anymore, Peri…”

“Ain’t that the point?” She rolled her eyes and complained, “I’m gonna be fourteen soon. You’ll be fifteen. How long do you wanna wait? Till we’re in our twenties and dying?”

“We’re not gonna die that young…” Oliver sighed and shook his head, “I just… I don’t think I’m ready yet.”

“Fine, Ollie, but I can’t wait forever. I love you, but I don’t wanna die a childless virgin.”

“I know… I’m sorry.” He smiled wryly while eating his sandwich, “This is delicious, by the way… Thanks, Peri. I love you too.”

“So how’s it going with the Statue-Girl? She looked pissed, hahaha~!”

“She’s fine. I just said I liked her funny laugh-”

“Pft-ahahaha~! Dumbass! Hahahaha~!”

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way-”

“You should go tell Verna that she has a funny laugh, hahaha~!”

“Uh…” Oliver coughed a few times, “Um… The last time I did that, she got rid of my ‘friendship discount’ for a month.”

“And you still haven’t learned your lesson?!”

“I forgot!”

“Hahahaha~! *Snort~!* Ahahaha~!”

“What’re you guys laughing about?” The tall and skinny stone-skinned girl walked into the kitchen in a green bathrobe. Although her hair was wet, it was extremely short, so she didn’t need much effort to try it off.

“How much of a dumbass Ollie is?”

“Oliver isn’t stupid. He’s just… A little ‘special’ sometimes.” She stuck out her dark-gray tongue and giggled, “I’m done now. You can take a bath once the water drains.”

“I’ll just take a shower upstairs.” Oliver quickly finished eating the rest of his sandwich and asked, “Are you still full from earlier?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I really ‘need’ normal food anymore.” Jade sighed and shook her head, “It tastes good and fills my stomach, but… It doesn’t really give me that much energy.”

“Well, do whatever you have to do… Even Klein can’t help much with your situation. I’ll go take a shower!”

After the boy left, Peridot looked at her new friend and asked, “Have you been able to piss or shit yet?”

“Umm…” Jade looked away and complained, “Why do you care?”

“I care ‘cause I’m the one that cleans the damn toilets!”

“Uh… Sorry.”

“What do you mean ‘sorry’?! Damn it, Jade, what did you do?!”

“No, it’s just, I… I didn’t realize how heavy I would be and the seat cracked a bit. But don’t worry, I fixed it already.”

“You can fix toilet seats?” Peridot raised an eyebrow, “What else can you fix?”

“As long as it’s made of rocks or stones, I can probably fix it.”

“Is porcelain a rock or stone?”

“It’s just a type of ceramic.” Jade shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of Oliver’s half-empty glass of glowing green water, “Do you need me to fix anything around the house?”

“There’s a crack in the basement wall that leaks when it rains sometimes. The roof tiles are broken in a lot of places. The bricks on the patio are shattered…”