Happy Birthday to Nate! 14 yrs. old on 04-20!!!!!! Yay! Ooh, he's so going to hate me for posting this…well, celebrate Naynay! Not a great story, but FUN to write! SEA WORLD!

Nathan woke up feeling even crankier then usual (which is almost impossible). He was tired and sore and he had forgotten to do his homework (yet again). His cereal was soggy, his clothes smelled and he had punched a hole through his door that made his mom mad. Finally somewhat ready for school, he opened the door and got a huge shock.

Tohru Honda and the Zodiac gang (discluding Ritsu, Kureno, and Rin, they weren't up for it.) were standing on his porch.

"What the hell?!"

"We're here to make you're life bright and cheerful!" cried Tohru.

"Whatever…this is stupid…"muttered Kyo.

"Shut up, you stupid cat," shot Yuki. "If you thought it was stupid, why did you come along?" Kyo blushed and tried to look anywhere but at Tohru.

"Let's go!" said Tohru brightly.

"Um…I have to go to school," said Nate. For any other reason, he would have gladly jumped at the chance to skip school, because he was in a grumpy mood, and who wants to go to school when their in a grumpy mood? But…these guys were weirdos.

"Will-Are they high?" thought Nate staring cautiously at the freaks from the Japanese manga/anime. He shifted nervously.

"Or, I could just do this…" said Nate, who slammed the door in their faces.

THE END

No no, my dear Nayman! That is not how the story goes!

Well, now to continue on with the story Nate does like and is trying to change…

"Will there be high school girls there?" Shigure asked eagerly, eyes gleaming.

"Yes, will there? It would be absolutely fabulous to give them the honor of wearing some of my beautiful gowns!" Ayame said with flair. Hatori whacked them both sharply over the head.

"Stop it, both of you," he said. "Honestly, you'll both be arrested one of these days."

"Um…I'm gonna go now," said Nate, trying to close the door. Momiji blocked his way.

"Come on, Naynay! Let's do something fun!"

"No. And never call me that again."

"What, Naynay?"

"Yes. Now piss off." Momiji grabbed his hand.

"You're such a sourpuss, Naynay! Let's go, let's go!"

"Fine," sighed Nate, resigned.

"So what do you DO around here?" asked Hiro. He had a point. The town Nathan lived in was kind of small, and there weren't any big attractions.

"I sit around and eat junk food and write weird stories."

"Oh." Even Hiro couldn't think of a comeback for that one. Honesty is the best policy, children!

"Any ideas for something fun to do?" asked Tohru unfazed.

"We could go see a movie," said Yuki, but there was nothing good playing.

"We could go get hamburgers!" cried Momiji, but Haru snuffed that one out, saying it was slightly on the cannibalistic side.

"Let's go TP houses!" said Nate, but everyone agreed they should go for something less destructive.

"Um…we could go…to Sea World?" suggested Kisa.

"Yeah, let's go to Sea World!" cried Tohru and Momiji.

"I guess that would be okay," said Yuki. Kyo winced. He hated water.

"Sea World…?" Nate was very, very confused.

"Yeah Hatori, drive us to Sea World," pouted Shigure. "Please? You might even meet a cute female seahorse there!" Hatori punched him in the nose but otherwise consented to drive them to Sea World.

"But, the school will call my mom to ask where I am," said Nate, hoping this was enough of an excuse to leave.

"Gotcha covered!" said Shigure with a wink. He whipped out Hatori's cell phone (much to Hatori's displeasure) and dialed the schools number. "Hi, my name is Shigure Sohma and I've come all the way out of a manga to see Nathan. We're taking him to Sea World, so he won't be here today. Bye!" and he hung up. They all stared at him in shock.

"You idiot," sighed Hatori, snatching back his phone. He redialed the number. "Hello, I'm so sorry about that. I'm Dr. Sohma, and that was Nathan. He's very sick and hallucinating, as you can tell. Yes, his voice is very funny at the moment. His throat is terribly sore. You won't mind if he misses school today? Thank you so much." He shut the phone and glared at Shigure. "THAT is a cover story."

Everyone stared at Hatori. They had no idea he could lie that well. Indeed, it seemed almost as if he was used to telling stories like this. On the other hand, he grew up getting Ayame and Shigure out of trouble, so maybe they shouldn't be so surprised.

With no further excuse, Nate found himself squeezed in the back of the car with Yuki, Kyo, Kisa, Hiro, Momiji, and Haru. Kisa perched herself on Haru's lap, much to Hiro's chagrin. He was sitting almost literally under Momiji with Kyo and Yuki shoved to his left. It didn't sit well with the boys, but Yuki shut up after Ayame's suggestion that he should come up to the front and sit on his lap. Nate was forced between the boys and Tohru, so that no one would transform (let's hope hee hee) Ayame sat on Shigure's lap shotgun and somehow Kagura managed to squeeze between them and Hatori.

"Um, I think this is illegal…very much so," said Nate, but they were already on their way. After a very long time in the car, full of sweating, whining, and annoying driving songs, they FINALLY arrived at Sea World. The walked up to the ticket counter, stretching their incredibly sore limbs. Hatori paid for their tickets, even though Tohru insisted she pay for her own ticket, and they started to file in.

"Aw! You two are so cute!" said the ticket lady as Hiro and Kisa walked past.

"Thank you!" said Kisa smiling. Hiro looked at her disdainfully.

"Cute? What are you playing at? Do you honestly think we like to be called cute? Next thing you'll do is give us stickers or something idiotic. Honestly…"

"Um, maybe we should go, Hiro…"

"Why do all adults insist on treating us like little kids? When you were little did you like it? Did you like stupid ticket ladies at Sea World?" Haru rolled his eyes.

"There he goes again. Lets just leave him, he takes forever to finish when he gets like this."

"I'll stay with Hiro." said Kisa quietly. "Maybe if I stay we'll leave sooner. We'll meet up with you soon." So they left them there, Hiro just hitting his stride, Kisa trying to gently persuade him to leave. They walked through to the park and immediately Hatori and Yuki were mobbed by girls (and several guys, who had mistaken Yuki's gender). Kyo would have been too, but he had been run over by a girl who transformed him into a cat, and who hadn't noticed amidst the confusion and her eagerness to reach Yuki. Tohru quickly grabbed his clothes and stuffed the cat in her backpack. Haru just hid behind a strategically placed dolphin shaped bush. The other two quickly ran to the safety of the boy's bathroom (though Yuki wasn't entirely safe, even in there).

"Well, this has been a load of fun so far," said Nate.

"No need for sarcasm," said Haru, extracting himself from the bush with difficulty.

"Who said I was being sarcastic?"

awkward silence

They decided to get moving again.

"Do you want to see one of the shows, Nathan-san?" asked Tohru eagerly.

"Sure," said Nate with a shrug. Even he could not find it in his heart to be cold to Tohru. They reached the gate and walked through. The dolphin show was pretty cool, even Kyo had to admit (don't worry folks! He had already changed back and dressed behind another strategically placed bush.). Tohru stood right on the edge of the fence, staring with wonder at the water below. Kyo walked up behind her.

"Pretty cool isn't it?" he said, right in her ear.

"Ah!" cried Tohru, startled. She whipped around…knocking Kyo (who had been leaning too far over anyway) right into the water below. There was a huge splash, and some people screamed.

"Aw, come on! Dammit!" he yelled angrily. He climbed out of the pool as fast as humanly possible, avoiding all the security people, and somehow managed to find a way up onto a nearby building's way out of sight. After trying and failing to reach him, Tohru unhappily admitted that maybe they should go on and let Kyo have some time to cool off. Kagura however, stubbornly waited on the steps, though this probably made Kyo want to come down even less.

They were walking over to where the rides are when Tohru made an observation.

"Hey! Where are Shigure and Ayame?" At that exact moment, they saw Shigure being escorted to the Sea World headquarters by two security guys, being followed by a cheerful Ayame.

"I swear, it was an accident!" Shigure was complaining loudly. "I didn't know she was underage! It was an honest mistake!"

"Hello!" cried Ayame with a wave. "Shi-chan has landed himself in a bit of trouble here but don't worry! I, the most marvelous Ayame, will save him! Go, enjoy yourselves youngsters!" He laughed and turned back to the proceedings.

"Sensei is such a perv," said Haru with a grin. "C'mon lets go. Don't worry," he added, addressing Tohru. "It's not the first time. He'll be out in no time, you'll see. He and Ayame are such smooth talkers." Finally, with some more gentle encouragement, Tohru was finally persuaded to continue on. Soon enough, the rides were in sight.

"A merry-go-round!" squealed Momiji in excitement. "Let's ride it Tohru!" So they rode it. And they rode it again. And again. Momiji could not be persuaded to leave his leaping orca. Eventually, much to the protests of Tohru, they left him there. Tohru sort of resigned herself and followed the two remaining boys. They walked over to the nearest roller coaster.

"Do you want to go on?" asked Haru more to Tohru then Nate.

"S-sure! I'm u-up for it!" she cried hysterically. If Kyo or Yuki had been there, they might have noticed her obvious panic, but Haru was somewhat oblivious and Nate…is Nate. They got on line and made it all the way to the access gate. Haru and Nate got in the front car and waited for Tohru to get in.

"No, you go ahead," they heard Tohru say. "You go, I insist!" Nate craned around to look. Tohru was letting everyone else go ahead of her. Nate rolled his eyes. Sometimes this girl was too nice for her own good.

The coaster began to move. They climbed the first hill slowly. When they finally reached the top, Nate looked over at Haru grinning. The smile almost immediately slipped off his face.

"HARU, YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PUT ON THE SAFETY BELT!"

"Oh." But it was too late now. The dropped at an alarmingly fast rate and Haru literally flew out of his seat, landing relatively unharmed with an almighty splash in the seal exhibit.

"Idiot," muttered Nate. When the ride finally coasted to a stop, Nate walked off, past Tohru who was still letting people on the ride ahead of her, past Haru, who was being escorted out of the park, past Momiji, who was STILL on the merry-go-round, past the office, in which Ayame was now going off on a long far-fetched tale to get Shigure the heck out of there, past Kyo, who had apparently got off the roof and was now being mauled by Kagura, and into the boys bathroom where Yuki and Hatori were still sheltering in fear for their lives.

"You know, I think I'll take the bus home," said Nate to Hatori. Hatori sighed.

"That's probably a wise idea. We might take a while." So, Nate went on the bus (past Kisa and Hiro, who was still lecturing the ticket lady) and rode back to his house. It was just getting dark when he got back.

"Sorry Mom, I went to the library," he said. "I should have called, but I was really busy with homework and stuff."

"Nate, please pay more attention next time," his mother sighed. "We were getting worried." Nate nodded and trudged into his room. He collapsed onto his bed and smiled. It had been a fun day. Weird, and completely demented, but fun nonetheless. As long as it never happened again.

The next day Nate opened the door to find them back on his doorstep yet again.

"I am so sorry about yesterday, Nathan-san," said Tohru. "We want to make it up to you!"

"Yeah! Today we're going to DISNEYLAND!" cried Momiji. Nate slammed the door and went back to bed.

Um…the Sea World in this is completely fictionalized. I'VE NEVER BEEN TO SEA WORLD!!!! sob and Nate really did write that alternative ending. He caught me writing it in Spanish…Hope you likey Nate!