Author`s Note:

Hello, hello, fanfiction lovers! This is my very first posted fanfic! Yay for me! *throws confetti* Anyway, I wasn`t planning to start off with this fanfic. This one just suddenly came to mind after perusing Quizilla and (yay for quizzes!) when I suddenly came upon a quiz that was titled "Which SpongeBob character would you date?" Allowing curiosity to get the better of me (as it always does…*rolls eyes*) I took it and BAM! Inspiration hit (I got Squidward and then SpongeBob the second time if anybody gives a crap…).

Anyway, I had another story on the go to come out before this one, but well, I might actually write this one in order rather than the other one. Now, I`m not going to expect a lot from this being my first fanfic and me being a late bloomer in the whole SpongeBob craze. I guess those anniversary celebrations are enough to awaken the hidden SpongeBob lover in all—or some of us. Yay for Ten Years of SpongeBob! Now, if I`m off in some of my SpongeBob info and related phenomena, don`t hesitate to tell me, but don`t flame please! I hope you enjoy this anyway!

Oh yeah, and for all my friends out there who are staring at the screen going, "SpongeBob? But WHY?" Honestly, I have NO idea. I DON`T KNOW. I don`t know…*sits in a corner and hangs head in shame*

DON`T ask.

Disclaimer: Oh, yes, can`t forget this! SpongeBob, Squidward, Plankton and all other characters and places and things related to SpongeBob are copyright to Stephen Hillenburg and Nickelodeon. If I owned SpongeBob Squarepants, I wouldn`t be writing this here, I`d be airing it as a Saturday morning TV special! Well, maybe if I didn`t have T as my rating…

Marlene Rose, June Lilly and Jane Daisy Clearwater, the Goodfins, Coral`s, Scallop Soirée and Clam Bake are copyright to Axe-lTheSystem

CHAPTER 1: THE SISTERS CLEARWATER

The tale of the Clearwater sisters isn`t a particularly happy one. Not much happiness or elation can be reaped from this dismal tale. If there were, these positive feelings would have been extremely short-lived and replaced with misery and despair in a flash. But the forced labour that accompanied this despair was far more comforting than remaining in the same room with their adoptive parents. Better yet, when the three girls had that small amount of time in their day to escape to the hidden broom closet in the basement of their dismal house to discuss their plan of escape that gave them the smallest glimmer of hope to go on. Because all the Clearwater sisters had were each other.

Marlene Rose Clearwater. She was the oldest, and at the old age of twenty-three, she was technically old enough to leave the nest, but because she was one of the main providers of the household and the fact that her little sisters were forced into the same position as her, she was forced to stay. Marlene, the first-born mermaid was also forced to do most of the household chores that would usually be delegated to the "parents", being the eldest of the three. Yet somehow, the "parents" didn`t acknowledge that the oldest sibling also had schoolwork and her own part-time job to deal with. But Marlene didn`t dare say a word in her defence as she would be refused meals for weeks and forced to clean the entire house all over again without a chance to take a breather. This turned her into a sceptical, no-nonsense busybody that annoyed her sisters to no end. But that didn`t stop her completely from having no personality. Her cynical outlook on life that came from her forced labour morphed itself into sarcastic humour and her anger translated into the laughing she often did with her sisters late at night. But nevertheless, she was the worrywart and protector of the three sisters as all good older sisters should be.

June Lilly Clearwater. At the sweet age of sixteen, the middle sister June was a typical teenager. She was boy-crazy, outgoing, boy-crazy, a party animal, and oh yeah, boy-crazy. She somehow managed to have three boyfriends at once, astonishing her sisters and earning glares from the other girls at school. It helped a lot that she was a beautiful mermaid, the most beautiful of her sisters, to gain the affections of the male species in the school. She would stun and strike awe into the hearts of her two sisters with the stories she`d tell about her love life. She was a brave one, so brave as to be the boldest of the three sisters in terms of standing up to the parents when she got sick of the constant chores and servitude. While she got plenty of praise from her siblings for being so courageous, she was punished often, made to eat food rationed by Marlene and Jane. She didn`t care much for authority which even got her and Marlene into fights at times. Yet she cared deeply for her sisters and she was the one to come running to after receiving an injury or falling ill. She was the nurse of the family and would stop everything that she was doing in order to help a loved one.

Jane Daisy Clearwater. As the youngest Clearwater sister at the age of fourteen, Jane was the most easy-going. She was the light of hope for her two older sisters. She was the one to always reassure them that things could be worse. The mermaid had one indelible spirit and an amazing sense of humour which got her sisters praying that no one would ever take that signature personality of hers away. Jane was never one to go with the crowd, marching to her own drum-beat. She hated the pressure and wrath of the "parents" that always came down hard on her for shirking her chores. At that point, Marlene and June would be hauling Jane away by the scruff of her neck because Jane had one nasty temper. She didn`t get angry much, but when she did, a bomb shelter had to always be nearby, otherwise the shrapnel that flew everywhere in her rage would strike passersby hard. That temper of hers lost her meals every time and gained her close surveillance from the "parents" during chores. Aside from that, she was the pillar of strength for the little family and kept the three laughing and hopeful for a brighter future when they could finally walk free of the chains that were the "parents".

The Clearwater sisters originally lived together as a peaceful, happy family with their original biological parents. How they actually came out as the same species was beyond any of them. Marlene`s only guess was that the three of them "were born from one frigged-up gene pool". But it was more or less true, as the girls` true parents were two completely different aquatic organisms. The father was a crab while the mother was a mermaid. The genetics of their birth made no sense at all, keeping Marlene up into the wee hours of the night drawing millions of Punnet Squares and researching the genomes of the two organisms that made up the girls` parents. It just didn`t make sense, because mermaids were extremely rare in the ocean and would usually get the short end of the stick in terms of the genetics. June didn`t worry much about it, it was "just as long as we`re sisters", while Jane adopted a "hey, whatever works!" attitude about it.

Back to the story at hand, it was when Jane was born that the three of them were thrown into the imbalanced world of orphan life. The Clearwater family was heading back from a dinner at the Scallop Soirée when disaster struck. Another boat carrying a bunch of drunken teenagers slammed into the boat carrying the family of five and killed the two beloved parents of the sisters. Fortunately, the three girls managed to make it out with minor injuries. Unfortunately, there were no relatives to be found anywhere in the town, so the three of them were sent to Coral`s Orphanage.

The Orphanage itself wasn`t all bad. Sure, a little dark and dreary but the women there took good care of the girls and the other kids there were like their siblings, but it was nothing like having a real family. Marlene was most hard hit by the loss because she was the one who lived with having parents for the longest amount of time. She refused to eat for days which turned into weeks. She became a recluse, hiding in her room and speaking to no one. She didn`t want to play with the other kids because she felt too guilty to have fun when her life was such a shambles. Her parents did so much for them so she felt she owed all those smiles and laughter and enjoyment of life to them. At least she was brave enough to acknowledge that they really were gone. Her parents were her entire world. And that world was shattered. Her tears never stop flowing, even as her eyes ran dry. Her only solace was her younger sisters. They were her only family left and she knew she had to treasure them. She made sure that both of them got the love that they needed and lost from their deceased parents. She had a duty to look after them and couldn`t bear to lose them either.

As for June, she was only a toddler, but she knew that something wasn`t right. She never saw the bright smiles and felt the loving arms of her mother and father anymore. She couldn`t find them hiding behind the doors in the bedrooms or down the hall when they played hide-and-seek. But she was happy that Marlene lingered in the doorway when she played with her blocks and drew pictures. When she convinced Marlene to draw with her, she didn`t understand why Marlene always wanted to keep the black and red crayons to draw the weird pictures she managed to pull out of Marlene`s thinning hands. June would look up at Marlene and watched as she ran into her room and started crying. June would run after her and give her a big hug and then tell her that they should go see Jane in the nursery.

Jane was only too small to really know that anything happened, just that those faces that kept grinning and speaking in a strange language to her weren`t as warm as those ones that cooed and giggled with her beforehand. Marlene paid much of her attention to Jane, since she never really had her parents in her life. She needed that love and comfort that parents were known for. Marlene tried her best to give her this, but she wasn`t her sister`s mother, just like June scolded her even to this day.

Needless to say, the Clearwater girls had it hard. Despite being incredibly popular among the orphan children in Coral`s Orphanage because of the rarity of their species, they had a dark, menacing past that always crept into their minds even at the height of their enjoyment of the praise from their peers. And it was only about to get worse.

About two years later, a couple—a husband and a wife by the name of Goodfin—came to Coral`s in search of children they wished to call their own. They seemed nice enough; two joyful, smiling clownfish that just gushed over the mermaids once they saw them. They would come to visit them several times a week, bringing them gifts and candies every time. They were even sympathetic to how the girls were feeling about losing their parents and the possibility of getting new ones so quickly. This couple was so sweet and kind to the girls that it made all but one person elated about being adopted by these people—Marlene.

As friendly and inviting as these people were to her, Marlene couldn`t put her finger on it, but she sensed something wasn`t right about them. All of a sudden, this couple comes out of nowhere and fixates on the only mermaids in the orphanage and none of the other children, presenting the girls with gifts and affection. Perhaps it was the loyalty she still had for her biological parents, because as far as she was concerned, she was reluctant to let some newcomers replace the people she called mother and father so quickly. Yet despite all that, Marlene couldn`t help but feel a tad suspicious. As much as she tried to tolerate them as the parent-like figures that they so desperately wanted to be, she felt that these people were hiding something, maybe even putting up a façade to get the girls to live with them. It was as if they were luring the three into their trap, as would cheese entice a rat.

June, despite being only four at the time, recognized this in her eleven-year-old sister and trying to be open-minded to the situation, she tried to convince Marlene that maybe these people wanted to do something nice for them; by making the family that was so suddenly stolen from them. June knew her sister wasn`t keen on being adopted in the first place, but c`mon, they brought them toys and candy! That had to count for something, right? Even Jane, being roughly two years old, was soaking up all this newfound attention and goodies.

After some poking, prodding, coaxing and pleading from June, the women at Coral`s and the Goodfins, Marlene finally accepted joining this little family. But that didn`t mean her suspicions vanished. Especially when the little boat they packed with all the girls` belongings was filled up and they took the long journey to their new home. It was the seemingly joking tone that Mr. Goodfin said that since him and his wife used up so much money to buy the Clearwaters such good quality toys, candies and gifts that the three of them would have to do a lot of work to pay them back which got Marlene`s internal gears turning again. But young, simple June assured Marlene that it was just a joke, that the Goodfins really wouldn`t force them to pay them back.

Unfortunately, Marlene had good reason to be wary from the start.

The Goodfins forced the girls to bring everything in to the shabby little house hiding behind a neighbourhood of beautifully decorated and furnished homes. It turned out that the rich neighbourhood was only for bragging to friends about and perking up the girls` spirits before shooting them down when they approached the less-than-liveable shack of a house they were to live in. The place was a dark brown wooden two-tier house with rickety stairs, creaky floors and moaning, unpainted walls. The furniture was full of holes and incredibly tacky. So the three children hauled in their luggage up to a tiny room in the coldest part of the house, where the roof was missing much of its needed shingles. Their beds were rickety old cots with springs poking out of the mattresses. June asked about the state of the house and how the Goodfins could afford all those goodies for them, expecting them to give a heart-warming response like, "Oh, we saved up all of our meagre earnings to treat the three of you to some nice things, but unfortunately the house we have here isn`t as fancy as your gifts". But all she got as a response was, "None of your business, you little freak!" and a hard slap on the cheek. This sent her flying into Marlene`s arms, crying loudly. Marlene was shocked. Her sister being slapped by her adoptive parents? She had to do something about this! But once she approached them, she got whacked by a broomstick and given a pail and a mop to clean up the flooded basement. That was when it registered that Marlene was right all along. These people were hiding behind false images of themselves as she predicted! On the outside, they were a good-natured, loving couple who wanted kids. On the inside, they were horrible, abusive, angry people looking for slaves to do their work for them. And if the slaves objected, they would just be persecuted physically for their back-talk. Even Jane was yelled at for just simply crying.

"I knew it. I knew all along you weren`t what you said you were." Marlene snarled once Mr. Goodfin whacked her with the broom.

"Well, it`s just too bad that no one believed you, isn`t it?" Mrs. Goodfin giggled nastily.

"I`ll make them believe! Then you`ll be exposed for the evil people that you are!" Marlene shot.

"Ha! Good luck with that, you freak!" Mr. Goodfin sniffed. "Everyone outside this house thinks we`re the nicest people ever. We just happen to be poor and so they have pity on us. We`ve got everyone fooled! Besides, no one ever believes children! Now get to work before we take away your meals for tomorrow too!"

"But what about today`s meals?" Marlene questioned.

"Your little back-talk just cost you your eating privileges for today. Now get out of our faces, you worm!" Mr. Goodfin barked, taking another swipe at the oldest Clearwater child with the broom, and then throwing a mop and a pail into her hands. "You can start with the basement."

Marlene would trudge away, a glare full of hatred pasted on her face. She knew that the not-so-Goodfins were right. If everyone the family knew was under the assumption that the Goodfins were the poor, angelic people down the street and these three mermaids started complaining about being abused by them, it wouldn`t be entirely convincing. So all the three of them could do was just bite their tongues and take the pain.

The girls were given plenty of chores and tasks never meant for children to do every day while the Goodfins would go out and socialize or sit around and do nothing. Things like fixing the toaster or patching up the roof in the "parents`" room were the easier things that were asked of the children. They wouldn`t be taught how to do everything, their only means of learning included breaking the object that needed fixing to know it wasn`t the right way to fix it. But when they broke something, they had to go out and make money by mowing people`s lawns or washing the monstrous windows to get paid to buy a new object. When the neighbours asked, they were "just trying to learn what it takes to make a living". Once Marlene hit twelve years of age, she was put to work in a factory that made jellyfish nets, working for less than minimum wage to pay for the bills. The Goodfins had quit their jobs once June hit twelve so the girls had to work extra hard and long along with doing their homework and cleaning the house just to keep their shady home and have food on their plates. The two eldest Clearwater sisters became the sole providers for the house because their guardians were just too damn proud and lazy to do any work. And if the girls so much as blinked an eye in irritation at their "parents`" demands, they would be smacked around and forced to work overtime, allowing no time to sleep. Worse yet, they were expected to achieve top-notch grades at school despite all the work they had to do on the side, otherwise consequences were grave.

School was one of the only solaces for the three girls other than going to bed at an ungodly hour of three in the morning and talking amongst each other at the time. School was the one place they could unwind and really be themselves, free from the shackles of home life. They could socialize, eat and study without the nasty Goodfins breathing down their necks until they got home of course. Being able to actually go to school was a miracle and the girls couldn`t believe that the Goodfins were actually doing something about their education. However, according to the not-so-Goodfins, the girls were only going to school so they could get better jobs with better money to pay for their expenses.

Anyway, the girls were popular among the students just like with the kids at Coral`s Orphanage because they were the only mermaids that attended the elementary and high schools. Marlene developed herself into a brainy academic that eventually found her musical fancy with the saxophone in music class. June was the outgoing, flirtatious type that managed to see three boys at once (yet only on school lunch, of course). Jane was the overall amiable and funny character that everybody couldn`t help but like. School was the only place they could look forward to every day and they fervently wished that school lasted longer than six hours so they didn`t have to deal with their tortuous lives back home.

This tormenting lifestyle went on for the next eleven years. Marlene started working in a cubicle doing finances for a paper company once she hit sixteen while June still worked the conveyer belt in the jellyfish net factory. Once Jane was twelve, she joined June in the factory. With all three of them working, more money came in which was splurged on fancy clothes for the Goodfins and very little pocket money for cheap clothes for the girls. The Goodfins were slowly achieving the life they so very much wanted due to their slave children. But one thing was kept secret from them.

Ever since Marlene started working for the factory, she secretly set aside a tiny percentage of her pay check each time. She and June and Jane planned to save up all the money they could over the years so that one day, when they were old enough and had enough saved up, they would hightail it out of that good-for-nothing shack of a house and away from the slave drivers they were forced to call their parents. Of course, not much could be reaped from these tiny pay checks because the Goodfins demanded all the money on payday, so what was taken from the checks had to be so tiny that it was but a few dollars off the total. But these few dollars grew over the years into a sum that became large enough to buy themselves a small condo.

Marlene had it all planned out. It was during her final year at Clam Bake University that she decided to skip class one day (because every minute she wasn`t in class she was either working at home, in the office or studying), she went to the library and looked around for potential homes that the three girls could escape to. She managed to find some tiny, but cozy condos in a far-off town called Bikini Bottom. It was a long way to get there, but the monthly costs were pretty low and once the girls didn`t have to give their wages to their "parents" anymore, buying furniture and other accessories wouldn`t be a problem. According to her calculations, Marlene and her sisters would have enough money by Jane`s fourteenth birthday. Marlene spoke to her sisters about this late at night and when they could escape the Goodfins in the broom closet. The three of them finally had something to hope for.

After Marlene`s twenty-third birthday, she got a hold of the landlord and managed to make a deal with him that they could move in on Jane`s birthday. Unfortunately, the other half of the deal required the girls to make their down payment the week before they moved in. The only way they could pay the down payment would be if they took half their wages from the previous payday and put it all towards the down payment. That would cause a major problem. The Goodfins would immediately become suspicious if half of the money didn`t come in that week. The Clearwaters kept their plan under wraps for so long and after all this everything would be exposed! But they had no other choice.

So came the payday and Marlene sent the money to the landlord as needed, coming back home with only half of the girls` pay checks. Once the money got into the not-so-Goodfins` greedy hands, the storm began to blow.

"Where`s the rest of the money?" Mr. Goodfin demanded, shaking the bills in his oldest adoptive child`s face.

What is he, my pimp? Marlene thought. "We kind of got in trouble at our jobs…Jane and June broke the conveyer belt by letting the machines clog up because they got tired and everything…and I input the wrong numbers in the financial portfolio for the company--"

SLAP.

"I expect double next payday. Do whatever it takes to get that money or the three of you will go without meals for two weeks in a row! Do you understand?" Mr. Goodfin snapped.

"Yes, sir," Marlene said solemnly, a bright red finprint on her face. Too bad we quit, though…

"No! I`m your father! Say it again, properly!" he yelled.

"Yes--" Marlene began.

Then June stepped in, tired of watching as her sister was undergoing this awful treatment.

"Back off! You`re no father of ours! How dare you speak to her like that!" June shrieked.

SMACK.

"I am your father and you have no right to address me in that manner! I don`t care if you don`t sleep for the next week, you`re getting that money for us one way or another! Hide your faces you miserable, unruly brats!" he cried after punching the two girls hard on the shoulders.

Quickly and angrily, the two retreated to their room, but as they did so, Mrs. Goodfin stopped them. She had a bundle of letters in her hand with one of them open. She waved the open letter at them, screeching, "What is this?! What is this?"

June and Marlene exchanged uneasy glances and then spotted Jane`s angry, bruised figure in the corner at the top of the staircase. Jane was responsible for fetching any letters that would`ve come from the landlord of their new home before the Goodfins got to the mail. But today, it appeared as though she wasn`t quick enough to intercept their "mother". They listened in horror at their adoptive mother reading the letter out loud.

"Dear Miss Clearwater,

I hope to receive your final instalment of the down payment in the next week. Your condominium is waiting for you next Wednesday. I hope to see you and your sisters then.

Sincerely,

Robert Guppie

Landlord of Angelfish Condominiums

"Is this what you`ve been hiding from us all this time? You were planning to move out on us? And you`ve been taking money out of your pay checks to buy this house? You little freaks think you could trick us?"

The two Goodfins shook furiously in anger as they figured out the girls` plans.

"Moving out was certainly a better idea than staying in this hell-hole…" June muttered under her breath.

"That`s it! We are barring you from ever leaving this house again outside of your work and school!" Mr. Goodfin spluttered with rage.

"Uh, isn`t that the case already?" June questioned blandly.

"Honey, get in the boat! We`re going to the hardware store and physically locking these freaks of nature in this house once and for all!" Mr. Goodfin cried, grabbing his coat and keys. Mrs. Goodfin followed him with a final glare at the girls as they left.

"Well, now what do we do?" Jane asked stiffly, rubbing her purple cheek as her sisters followed her into their room. "They`ve found out our plan…and it`s all my fault! I`m so sorry, guys…"

Marlene patted her youngest sister`s shoulder in comfort, unsure of what to do either. "It`s OK. I mean, I sent in the last check today, so the place is ours come next week. That is, if we can get out of here…"

Suddenly, the light bulb went on in June`s head. "I`ve got it! Remember those five guys I dated back in the eighth grade?" she asked excitedly.

"Oh, of course…how could I forget the other tenth of the eighth grade boys you dated in Junior High?" Marlene replied dryly, rolling her eyes.

"What about them?" Jane asked.

"Well, I still happen to be friends with them," June stated. "What`s more, I know they have a penchant for breaking things. So I think if I can convince them to bring their boats around here, they can somehow bust us out and bring us to the nearest bus station!"

"Oh, brilliant," Marlene said dismally. "You`re getting a bunch of overenthusiastic teenage boys to come break the house down which is already broken down enough as it is while the parents are going to lock us up with every lock, key, cage and door money can buy?"

June let the words sink in and then nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, I`m game!" Jane said brightly.

"But how do you know that it`ll work? What if the 'parents' catch on to this scheme too?" Marlene questioned sceptically.

"Well, look at it this way," June said. "It took them eleven years to finally catch on to our plan to buy the condo. And they didn`t even give us any chores to do as they left to go for the locks just now!"

"Oh, they`re going to be so mad once they find us gone and missing the next morning!" Jane giggled.

"I knew I shouldn`t have encouraged your multiple relationships with guys like that…" Marlene told her middle sister.

***

"I can`t believe this worked! I don`t believe I`m saying this, but you`re a genius, Juney!" Marlene cried over the roar of the boats of June`s friends.

The boys and the Clearwater girls` laughter rang through the night as they looked back and saw the Goodfins missing a good portion of their upstairs level and the Goodfins screaming loudly at the retreating boats.

June managed to flirtatiously convince her old friends to break her and her sisters free from the metal bars that literally caged in their room the next day. They graciously consented to follow through with the pretty mermaid`s request. The following week, the five rambunctious boys brought ropes to tie onto the back ends of their boats and onto the bars of the window and drive off forcefully tugging off the bars as they did so. The noise that followed was enough to wake up the entire ocean. The girls swiftly tossed their luggage into the boats and jumped down along with them, speeding off to freedom. Needless to say, the Goodfins, who woke up and had to fumble with a ring full of keys meant to unlock the girls` door before they could get into what was remaining of the room, were absolutely infuriated. But they had no idea about the escape. Perhaps the couple were a lot dimmer than Marlene expected.

The ride to the bus station was exhilarating, with the joy of freedom rushing through the Clearwater girls` veins. Grabbing their tickets they managed to scrounge up from the extra money they put aside, they made a quick farewell to their rescuers, June`s being the longest of them all, promising to never forget them and emailing every day. Marlene and Jane had to physically pull June onto the bus so they wouldn`t miss it. Seeing the destination point on the scrolling marquee on the overhead of the long-distance bus, the girls could finally breathe easy. They were finally doing it. They had escaped the torture that had haunted them for the long, twelve years of their lives and finally making their own lives with their own rules with no one to boss them around or abuse them anymore. Of course, there was Marlene going over the important things that had to be done once they finally got to Bikini Bottom: school enrolment, new jobs, buying new furniture, looking for a boat of their own, among other things. As June tolerated listening to Marlene`s consistent worries and memos, Jane just sat back and inhaled. This was the best birthday of her life. A couple of hours until Clam Bake was far and long gone behind them. She reclined the plush seat backwards and got comfortable. She fell asleep almost instantly.

I could get used to this! She thought with a smile.

A few hours later, Marlene, June and Jane finally arrived at Bikini Bottom bus station and they took the transit way to get to Angelfish Condominiums. They stood before the building and finally met Mr. Guppie, who seemed like a darling old man. He kindly brought the girls to their new home and handed them each a set of keys. The three walked in and smiled pleasantly.

Although it didn`t look anything like a five-star hotel, it was certainly better than the shack they lived in for twelve years. The walls were creamy-off-white in colour; the main floor was hard wood which stretched over the dining room/living room while the tiny kitchen had marble tiles and furnished cupboards and cabinets. They were even lucky to gain a fridge and an oven. The upper and lower level each had bedrooms and bathrooms. Once they dropped their baggage on the ground, assuming their old childish antics, they cried together, "I get the biggest room!" Laughing, they ran around and found three bedrooms in the basement, all equal in size, so there wasn`t much to fight over. Despite being void of any furniture, the soft, blue carpet was certainly better than the old lumpy cots they slept in previously.

Marlene lay down on the carpeted floor and closed her eyes, grinning widely for once. Her plan had worked. The torture she and her sisters endured for so long was finally over. She had never felt so alive. Even though she dealt with being told she was wrong all the time about the Goodfins and that her good intentions to remain loyal to her biological parents was useless, she felt that she could get over that in a heartbeat now that she had fixed her and her sisters` lives. She wished her parents could see them now. Laughing, playing, living for themselves and not for others. But she knew deep down inside their parents would have been proud. And that little thought kept that giggling smile pasted on her face.

Well, that and the fact that she could actually feel comfortable sleeping on a carpet.

*breathes sigh of relief* My God, it`s done! The freakishly long tale of the Clearwater sisters is now done! Be honest, does it sound promising? If it doesn`t, well, there are other stories to come…uh, eventually! You know, I`m not incredibly used to writing something so dark and dreary as this…but well, practice makes perfect, right? I sure hope so!

Anyway, yeah, that scene that had to do with caging in the three of them and using boats to pull them free was inspired by Fred, George and Ron freeing Harry from the Dursleys` prison of a room for the poor kid in the Chamber of Secrets. I guess you could sort of say that the Goodfins are like a terribly morphed, evil, physically abusive equivalent to the Dursleys…but I`m sure the Clearwaters would rather be out of water and living with them than staying another minute with the Goodfins.

Anyway, it`s going to get lighter after this, so if you`re expecting angst and drama and crap like that…you`re going to have to wait a while, unfortunately! In the meantime, let me know what you think and please no flaming! Thanks! Peace!

-ATS