Author's Notes: Aww… I think this chappie is lame. Oh, well. Read it anyways, k?
Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H. The story, I do own. The title and the summary… not really. Well, kinda… somewhat… sorta?
Credits: Eh… Sokai wrote the title and summary for me. Well… the original title and summary, I wrote, but it sucked real badly, LOL. So Sokai tweaked it up for me. :)
Will Vandom sighed absently.
She was at some sort of lecture about animal abuse and how pollution was affecting them, yet she just couldn't seem to pay any attention to the short man talking. Will had scolded herself numerous times, asking herself to pay attention, but she just couldn't.
It wasn't like her at all. Will still loved animals, after all those years, and still had a soft spot for a certain amphibian. Hey, she was the one who begged the short conservationist to come all the way to Heatherfield and alert them about pollution and all that, yet she was the one spacing out.
"Ms. Vandom?"
Hum, that voice sounded a lot like Taranee's. Wonder what she's doing right now…
"Um… hello?"
Twirling her hair absently, she smiled at the cloud in the sky. Hum… that cloud looks a lot like… Phobos. What a weird coincidence.
"Um…"
I wonder how Cornelia's doing at the camp she's working at. The redhead smirked. Who knew Cornelia Hale made such a good camp councilor?
She was startled to hear another voice in her head. Hey there, Will. Care to lend me your attention for a few minutes?
"Will!"
Will blinked. "Wha-? Did someone say something?"
She found Taranee peering at her queerly. "You sure you're okay, Will? I've been standing here for a good couple of seconds, and you didn't even notice me until I…" At this point she lowered her voice due to the large amount of people around. "… contacted you via telepathy."
Will blushed. "Oh… sorry, Taranee. I guess I spaced out…"
Taranee cocked her head. "Uh, well, you do know Mr. Garth, our conservationist, has finished and that everyone is waiting for you to go on stage and conclude, don't you?"
"What!"
Taranee nodded, her face reflecting sympathy and… a hint of amusement detected by Will.
Turning her head, she noted that everyone was staring at her oddly. "Ah, yes… sorry to keep you, uh, waiting." she stuttered.
Walking onto the stage with her face matching her hair and stumbling over the steps, she smiled weakly. "Uh, well, I'd like to thank Mr. Garth, our conservationist, for taking the time to come and, uh, deliver such an amazing… uh, speech!"
"You weren't even listening!" came a random voice from the crowd.
Will bit her lip. "Uh… anyhow, I hope you all take into account the, uh, speech and its importance."
"No, really, you weren't listening!" Again the random voice. But this time Will recognized it. Oh… it's him.
She sighed.Uriah Dunn. He really had nothing better to do, did he? No one cared about him anymore. Even Kurt and Laurent left and found jobs working at some auto-repair shop. But Uriah was still unemployable. Not that he even wanted a job in the first place.
"Yes… well, uh…. see you later."
&&&
"See you later?"
Will frowned at Irma's incredulous voice when it came through her cellular.
The brunette kept talking. "Did you really say that? To half the population of Heatherfield?"
The redhead rolled her eyes. "Yeah…"
She could imagine Irma just trying to keep from laughing. "B-but why? Didn't you have some sort of speech prepared?"
"Um… yeah, but I… kind of forgot it."
"Kind of? How?"
"I don't know." she defended herself. "Well… there was this cloud in the sky that kind of looked like Phobos…"
She heard her friend sighing from the other end of the phone. "Relax, Will. It was just a cloud. And I thought Hay Hey had an overactive imagination. But really, didn't you spend, like, forever writing that speech?"
"Hum… Anyways, where are you?" she asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"Oh, I was just shopping for a new tank to put Leafy in. Headed to the apartment now. If we're lucky, Hay Hey hasn't burned it down yet. Oh, wait, she'd be more likely to summon a tornado." came the sarcastic reply.
Will raised an eyebrow. "O-kay… what happened to Leafy's tank and what did Hay Lin do?"
Sarcastic laughter on the other end of the phone. "Ever since her parents went on vacation without her and she was left in charge of the Silver Dragon, she's been pretty frantic. Add that to the fact that the deadline for the comic strips she's been working on for extra cash is tomorrow and… well, the point is; she's busy."
"I see… but what does that have to do with Leafy?"
"Patience, Will, I was getting to that." replied her friend matter-of-factly. "Anyways, this morning, after you left to attend the weird speech thingamajig you messed up, Hay Lin came running out of her room screaming something about being late and her alarm clock not ringing. Then, a few minutes later, she was blabbering about keys. Turns out she had misplaced the keys to the Silver Dragon."
"What!" Will couldn't help but say.
"Will! Don't interrupt! So we searched the entire apartment. She finally found them in my room, surprisingly - no, I didn't steal them, she had left them there – on the table where Leafy was resting happily. She squealed really loudly and pounced on the table before I realized what was happening. Yes, she pounced, Will. Pounced."
Will blinked and nodded even though Irma couldn't see her.
"Poor Leafy found himself flying through the air. Fortunately, Hay Hey had the reflexes to levitate the poor turtle. Somehow, she got the turtle and not the tank, which fell with a satisfying smash. Leafy was traumatized. And Hay Hey was all like, 'Ohmigosh, what have I done?' and I was like, 'Leafy!'."
The redhead blinked. "Oh… how's Leafy now?" she asked.
"I don't know. It's not like I took him with me so he could pick out his new tank himself."
Will nodded. "Uh-huh… well, I'll be going now."
"Bye."
Will turned off her cell with the push of a button. According to her, ever since Cornelia left for her summer job, Irma's attitude started becoming increasingly like Cornelia's. Or, as Irma called her, Corny. It wasn't exactly a pleasant change…
The redhead then mentally kicked herself while placing the cellular in her pocket. It sounds like I'm saying Cornelia isn't pleasant… Well, she can get annoying sometimes…but she-
Will Vandom, Keeper of the Heart of Candracar, continued walking along the sidewalk, musing silently about Cornelia, Leafy, and the weird cloud.
&&&
"Ah… where'd I put my keys?"'
Will reached into her left pocket. "Nope, not there… Ah, here they are!" Her hand retreated from her pocket holding a set of silver keys.
Smirking, she stuck the keys into the doorknob, and turned. Didn't work. Frowning, she turned the keys the other way. The doorknob clicked and she was granted access. She pushed the door open, and what she saw was immensely confusing.
There was stuff everywhere, the apartment was a mess. Hay Lin was digging for something under the leather couch, and Irma was yelling something at her.
"Um… what's going on here?" she dared to ask.
The Water Guardian answered her, and boy was she angry. "Hay Lin let Leafy escape and now I've lost him!"
Wow, Irma sure was attached to that turtle. "Okay… And I assume you've turned the whole place upside down in the search for your beloved turtle?" she asked needlessly.
"Yes!"
Hay Lin's head poked out from under the couch. "He's not under here, Irma."
"Well, then look somewhere else! I've got to find Leafy!"
Hay Lin looked like she was about to protest for a moment, then got to her feet and headed to her room, presumably to look for the turtle escapee. On her way there, she whispered something in Will's ear. "She's in a really bad mood today…"
"Uh-huh. But you can't really blame her, first you break the tank, then you lose the turtle." replied Will, before retreating to her room, mostly to escape the wild wrath of Irma Lair, but also to go place a phone call, and leaving Hay Lin feeling somewhat guilty.
Slumping down in her comfy frog-themed chair, she reached for her silver and blue cell and turned it on. Dialing a number quickly, she placed the phone near her ear and waited.
It rung.
And rung again.
And once more.
'Hello, this is Matt Olsen, and you've successfully reached my voicemail. I can't answer right now, so leave a message.'
She shook her head. Matt had Caller ID, so he knew exactly who was calling him. She didn't want to admit it, but there was always the possibility Matt wasn't answering on purpose. He seemed to be avoiding her… or maybe she was just being paranoid. Sighing, she switched off the phone instead of leaving a message. What would've been the point?
"Leafy's not in here either!" Hay Lin's voice rang along the hallway.
"Well, search somewhere else!"
Will blinked, and called out to her friends from her room. "He's a turtle, he couldn't have gone that far!"
Hay Lin answered her. "He's got to be somewhere in this apartment! Oh, no, what if he fell out the window?"
The redhead blinked. "Hay Lin… how could a turtle jump out a window?"
"You never know!"
Will heard Irma's footsteps as she joined Hay Lin in her room. "Leafy better not have jumped out the window!"
The redhead sat upright in her comfy chair. "It's a turtle! Turtles can't jump!"
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure! What kind of turtle is Leafy anyways?"
Silence.
"Uh… that's a good question, Will…"
The redhead completely forgot about Matt and opened the door. Poking her head into the hallway, she spotted both Irma and Hay Lin standing in a room, door open. "You mean you never bothered to find out?"
"Uh… yes?"
She shook her head in exasperation. "Alright, but I'm sure your turtle is still somewhere in this building. Calm down."
Irma nodded. "Yeah…" she muttered, unconvinced. What she didn't know was that Leafy wasn't in the building at all.
Author's Notes: LOL, there you go. I absolutely hate the way I ended it but… I just couldn't find anything better, you know? LOL, review anyways!
