Ok, I'll give in. You've all been begging me to update, but the good part won't come until Christmas, ok? Do we have a deal? Here goes:

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Carols echoed through the streets of Piccadilly. Snow drifted in from up top through unused manholes. Human sized Christmas lights hung from the rooftops and shops. Branches from artificial Christmas trees were sold in little lots. Rats were scurrying about, buying gifts for their loved ones. Rats had little carts to put their bags in. A female rat walked these streets, bundled up in a Union Jack print coat and gloves, holding a male rat's hand, who was wearing a black coat.

Rita Malone and Roddy St. James walked the main branch of the Piccadilly Shopping Complex. Rita was smiling at all the adorable sights, like a young, four year old rat sitting on Father Christmas' lap. She imagined her future children sitting on his lap, quoting what he or she desired for the holiday. Rita looked inside another shop, a toy shop, and saw a few children with their mothers, showing them what was on their Christmas lists.

Roddy St. James watched Rita as she obseved these sights with a smile on her beautiful face. He was holding her hand, and put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She snuggled up to him and sighed in contentment. They had been together ever since the incident with the Toad, and the couple was always closest during Christmas. Rita stayed close to him all the way to the parking lot, where they fought to find their way to their boat, the Jammy Dodger Mark II. The docks were crowded with rats going to their boats or leaving to shop. Rita and Roddy finally made their way to the parking space and get on. The new Jammy Dodger had a decent and readable dashboard, a better joystick for the crane, and an actual steering wheel, not a faucet handle. This made steering a whole lot easier.

Rita started up the engine and carefully steered out of the space. Parking was tight, and the Dodger was a rather large boat, if someone compared it to other scavenging boats. Rita got the entire boat backed out and into the lane in about five minutes, and was now stuck in traffic to get out. She sighed in contempt. She despised traffic jams. She wasn't good at patience, so this was gonna be a problem if they were stuck for more than twenty minutes. By then Rita would be fed up enough to try and weave through the the boats.

They managed to get out of the traffic and took a back route. It wasn't near as quick, but there were only a few boats on this stretch. Rita sped along the waterway until the Little Soho drive came into view. Her family had bought a new house, and it was on ground, not a houseboat. Rita was grateful it was attached to something solid. No more restless nights from being seasick, the family could all have seperate dishes, and Fergus could skate around as much as he wanted without effecting the house. He broke a board every now and again, but that was fixable. There were plenty of boards in Piccadilly.

Rita sided up to a dock close to the Malone house and tied the Dodger to a post. She double knotted the knot and walked across the plasa to the house her family had bought. It was a bit run down, but Rita's father was fixing it up. He was suspended on a little platform, working on the siding. Rita called up tp him.

"Oi! Dad! Is Mum back?" she yelled.

"Nope! She's still shopping, I think. She might have gone over to Geraldines' house to wrap things. You know mum, everything must be done before the time comes!" her father yelled back. "Oi, I could use some help with this, ya know, Rita. I'm not gonna ask Roddy because I know he's afraid of heights!"

Rita laughed and agreed. She and Roddy walked inside the house. Rita changed into a thicker coat and walked up the stairs to climb out the window and help her dad.

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THE NEXT DAY

"Wake up, Rita! Wake up Rita! Wake up, Rita! Wake up, R-" Rita's alarm clock screeched. Rita was sebmerged in her blankets and reached out a hand and smacked her clock. She curled up back under her blankets. A few minutes later it screeched again. She smacked it. About 20 minutes later something spoke gently in her ear, in the direction of the alarm clock. She instinctively reached out a hand and went to slam her hand on the snooze button, but instead slammed into someone's snout.

"Ow! What was that for?" Roddy whined. Rita shot up from under the covers. She looked at Roddy, who was rubbing the end of his snout with a grimace on his face. Rita covered her mouth with a hand as she apologised.

"Roddy, I'm sorry! I thought you were my alarm clock!" she said. As if on cue, the alarm clock went off.

"Wake up, Rita! Wake up, Rita! Wake up, Rita! Wake-" it squawked as Rita picked it up and turned it off. Roddy nodded with a smile.

"That explains the hit, but wow, I should've known you packed a punch before this. After all, you did punch me after I proved that the first ruby was fake." A smile spread across his face.

"I try to do someone a favor and-OW!"

Rita caught on. "Favor?! That jewel, was from Queen Elizebeth's crown! It fell down the drains from Buckingham Palace!" Rita threw pillows at him while they remembered the moment.

"Well, maybe the queen wears fake jewelry!"

"Keep still!"

"Can we just talk about this?"

"Real or not, that ruby was gonna CHANGE, MY LIFE!!!"

Rita and Roddy engaged in a pillow fight, both on their pajamas. Rita smacked Roddy and He smacked her back. They were having a load of fun. Rita was wearing a tight yellow shirt which read 'Dream' and lowrise blue pajama pants. She had slipped a pair of black slippers on and was now doubled over laughing. ROddy was wearing a pair of black pajama pants and a loose blue T-shirt which read 'I come with my own background music' on the front and 'I do all my own stunts' on the back, with a stick figure slipping and falling. He was also doubled over in laughter. Rita dropped to her knees as she laughed, and Roddy fell backwards. They both regulated their breathing after about ten minutes and got up, still laughing a bit. Rita's hair was messy, and Roddy's looked like a wheatfield before harvest-messy and unorganised. They both looked bad. It was all funny though. Rita got up and grabbed the hairbrush she had salvaged and began brushing her hair. She tossed Roddy another brush she had salvaged for him and he brushed the mess out. Rita's hair shone as she put it on the generic ponytail. She alked over to her closet and chose her Union Jack jeans and a red T-shirt. Roddy went to get dressed, and Rita gathered all her shower stuff and went into her bathroom.

Rita got out of the shower and dried her hair, brushed it, and put it back in the ponytail. She slipped into the jeans and fastened the Master Cable belt around her waist. She put the T-shirt on and grabbed her white sweater. Rita bounced downstairs and into the living room, were all the boys were watching Mythbusters. Rita loved the show. She sat down on the couch between Shockey and Shamus. Shockey gave his sister the regular good morning hug he always did. He was the one who was a suckup to his big sister. The others just respected her.

Rita decided to get off her butt and have breakfast. She opened the pantry door and grabbed a box of cereal. She poured a bit into a bowl and put the box back. Rita then went to the fridge and grabbed the milk and poured some in. She put it back and opened a drawer and got a spoon, then sat down and ate her breakfast. Roddy walked down in a pair of jeans with Union Jack peeking out ofthe pockets. He had allowed Rita to put a touch of Union Jack on all his clothes, and she put the patches in all the right places. Like on the pockets, along the zippers of jackets, and etc. He was wearing a black Aero shirt he had salvaged himself. He had the same breakfast Rita had, and after they both finished they slipped their boots, coats, gloves and hats on and walked out the door to finish shopping for the holiday.


There you have the official first chapter. ENJOY! The real plot won't come until Christmas, though.