Miracle of Lights

Part II

Jamal was waiting outside by his tow truck when Dean walked the few houses up the street to his place. Dean gave him one of the sheets of paper, telling him they were the coordinates.

"I'm pretty sure I know where it is, but I'll plug this into the GPS, just to be sure," Jamal said. "Bad luck for those two girls."

"Yeah, but we'll take them in," Dean said. "Cinnamon is already planning they can spend the night. Do you think you'll have a chance to look at the car tomorrow?"

Jamal nodded. "Yeah, your wife told me that it's probably the alternator, and from what she relayed to me from the girls, that seems about right. I know they aren't made of money, either, your wife told me that, too. I have connections, I'll see what I can do about getting a used alternator and I won't charge them much."

"How would you like to make a hundred on top of what you'll be charging them?" Dean asked.

Jamal looked at him. "What do you have in mind, Mr. Ambrose?"

Dean grinned. "Make sure that their car won't be ready until either late tomorrow, or early Saturday morning."

Jamal looked puzzled, then nodded. "More labor for the Christmas Light Spectacular you're planning? To be followed by the Neighborhood block party?"

"Yeah," Dean grinned and rubbed his hands together briskly. "These are two small, but strong women. I can use them for this. So, we got a deal? One hundred dollars if they can't leave until Saturday morning."

Jamal looked across the street, where Pete Spencer happened to live. Already the blow molds were set up, the lights were put up too. This year he hadn't had Ka'eo helping, he had brought in a professional crew. Everyone in the neighborhood knew it. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that Pete Spencer, pain in the ass most of the time, became doubly so when it came to his precious Christmas lights. Dean's wild display last year had quieted him down slightly, but didn't shut him up. Maybe this year, Dean could shut him up. "No problem," he said. "The car will not be ready until Saturday morning. I'll just say that I can't get whatever I need until late tomorrow, so I'll fix it first thing Saturday morning. That fair?"

Dean nodded, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. "Let me give you the hundred."

Jamal shook his head. "I'm not taking your money, Dean. A couple years ago, my boy broke his arm falling off our back deck. JJ doesn't like strangers. Your wife came up and got him settled, got him into one of those inflatable casts, got him all set and then drove him and my wife to the hospital. I was working at the time, but she made a bad situation a whole lot better. JJ would have freaked in the ambulance. So, I owe her. It isn't the only time she's helped out, either. My wife calls her every time JJ is sick and she's always got good advice. And if that wasn't enough, if what you're planning tomorrow shuts Pete Spencer up? It's a double blessing. So, keep your money. And I promise, those girls will get the best price possible when I fix their car. But, we should go. If we're late getting them to your place for dinner, your wife will be fit to be tied."

Dean nodded. "Speaking of wives, I hope we're not pulling you away from your Thanksgiving dinner."

Jamal shook his head. "Lydia's mom took sick and she and JJ flew there last night. So, I'm just a happy bachelor."

Dean frowned. "You don't have other family or friends to go to for Thanksgiving?"

"No, but it's okay," Jamal said. "I don't mind."

"No, it's not okay," Dean said. "You'll come to our place for dinner. What one more person?"

"I don't want to be-" Jamal began.

"Dude, if I don't invite you and don't get you to come, Cinnamon will wring my neck," Dean interrupted. "You're coming. Now, let's get this show on the road."


Roman offered to go with Dean to pick up the girls so they could use the SUV Roman had rented, rather than Cinnamon's car, which she had parked by the side of the house to have more room in the driveway for other cars that would be coming later.

"This is going to be a huge Thanksgiving," Dean commented as he buckled his seat belt. Roman was giving the coordinates to the GPS system.

"Yeah, reminds me of some of my family get togethers," Roman remarked.

"Please drive to highlighted route," The GPS ordered them.


It didn't take long to get to the weigh station, and as they pulled up, they saw the two girls, sitting on the hood of May's car, which indeed was what could be called a "shit-box." Both girls were looking tired and dejected. But they looked up as Roman pulled the SUV next to their car. "Hey!" Dean called out, putting down the window. "How's it going?"

They were similar enough in looks that they could have been mistaken for twins, even though there were a few years apart in age. May though, wore her black hair in hundreds of tiny braids, while Raven's hair was tied in the back by a simple ponytail. Both girls looked anxious and impatient as if they had been waiting here for way too long. "Thank you," May said. "I know we're being a bother but-"

"-But nothing," Dean interrupted, getting out of the SUV, "Let's get your stuff in the car, the tow truck should be along soon. Jamal is good people, he'll tow your car to his garage and look at it tomorrow."

"We have some pies," Raven said, her voice glum as she slid off the car and headed for the trunk to get the girl's things, "Pecan pies. We decided to go through West Virginia to get home so we could stop at this place that sells the best pecan pie my grandfather ever ate. We wanted to pick a few up to surprise him." She shook her head, "Surprise, Grandpa, you ain't getting no pecan pie."

"Don't worry, it won't go to waste," Dean said.

Jamal showed up as they were putting the girls things into the back of the SUV. "See?" Dean said as the tow truck pulled up. "We're all set now, so just relax. We'll get you to our place and you can have Thanksgiving with us."


When they got home, Cinnamon took charge of May and Raven immediately, accepting the pies, brushing off their apologies, and leading them into the master bedroom. "You'll be spending the night in the guest room," she explained, "But I figured with you girls out on the road and all the waiting, you might want to take a nap and a shower, so I figured you could use the master bedroom for now. It has a bathroom off of it," she pointed to the door, "so you'll have more privacy. I've got fresh towels and all in there for you." She looked at the clock. "It's noon now, we're going to eat about four, I'll knock about three to make sure you're awake." Before the girls could object, she left the room, giving them their privacy.

When she came back into the kitchen, Dean looked at her. "Are you sure you want them sleeping in the master bedroom?" he asked, raising his brows.

Cinnamon shook her head, and frowned, but her eyes were sparkling. "I changed the sheets while you were getting them," she said, as if it should be obvious she had taken care of that.

Jessica and Kayla looked at each other, trying not to laugh.

"Good," Dean said, grinning, the paused as he remembered his earlier conversation with Jamal. "Hey, Jamal's wife and boy are out of town on a family emergency," he said. "I guess her mom is sick or something? Well, anyway, I invited him over for Thanksgiving. Is that okay?"

"It's fine," Cinnamon said. "I'll call him to let him know what time."


They ended up with over 30 people, but there was plenty of food. Cinnamon and the Wilson's had made plenty of the traditional dishes, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, dressing, and so on, while the Karume's brought several Hawaiian side dishes.

With so many people gathering, the tradition of everyone saying what they were thankful for, was dropped. Cinnamon did debate if she should have everyone mention the one thing they were most grateful for, but then seemed to remember that the Wilson's would be there and wrestlers from WVW, some who were bound to be a little too honest about what they were grateful for. So, instead they observed a moment of silence, giving everyone a chance to reflect on whatever it was they wanted to, or to thank whatever deity they served. After the moment of silence, Cinnamon suggested a toast to the health of Jamal's mother-in-law, which made the man go silent for a bit, then he wiped his eyes and thanked everyone. Then, the meal started.

Conversations were lively and plentiful, and Dean noted with some amusement that the younger wrestlers from WVW were keeping their talk respectful as possible, treating the Wilson's like surrogate grandparents, calling them "Sir" and "Ma'am." Dean had hung around with these guys before, and others just like them and knew that if it had just been them at the table, the conversations would have ranged to a variety of topics ranging from off color, to downright disgusting, but today, they barely left the range of pleasant. Even politics and religion were avoided in favor of more socially acceptable things.

May and Raven seemed shy at first, both of them feeling like they had intruded where they shouldn't be, but soon enough they too, relaxed when they realized that at least for today, everyone at this table was family. The size of the crowd didn't bother them, with a family of thirteen kids and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins always coming and going in each others lives, they were quite used to large crowd at the dinner table and soon enough, both of them were telling tales of their siblings that several times had people at the table laughing so hard they had to gulp at their drink to keep from choking. Raven, Dean soon discovered had a droll sense of humor and a gift for mimicry.

Dean had thought nothing would ever beat Thanksgiving last year, his first Thanksgiving with Neil, his first Thanksgiving with his son, and in many ways that always would be a special Thanksgiving, but this one had its points too. It was big and noisy, and there was something comforting about all these people, gathered together under this tent in his back yard, enjoying each other. Today, he thought, we are not just the Ambrose family, the Rollins family, the Reigns family, the Wilson's, the Karume family and some outsiders. We are not a group of young wrestlers, or a guy whose family has to be elsewhere. Today, we are a tribe. We are all one people, bound together for one purpose. To eat too much.


After the main dinner was over, everyone was too full for dessert, so people divided themselves between watching TV in one of the three living rooms, or helping with the dishes. Mrs. Wilson had borrowed dishes from her church, smart enough to grab enough plates and silverware for more than thirty people, and all three dishwashers went into service to wash. Dean and Neil brought the clean plates from their own dishwasher over to the Wilson's, where they helped pack it neatly into boxes. Ka'eo and Makaio brought the ones that had been washed at their house over, and the four of them packed it all up securely and loaded it into their car so they could return it on Sunday.

"If you want to return it Saturday morning, I'll tag along so you won't have to unload the boxes," Dean offered.

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," Mrs. Wilson said, smiling. "There are plenty of strong young men at church to get the boxes out of the car."


It was dark outside by the time they had desert, but it was still relatively warm. As they were eating from the various pies available, Dean having to admit the pecan pies brought by Raven and May being one of the most delicious he ever tasted, Dean looked at the wrestlers. "Okay, how many of you can come over tomorrow?"

A couple of them begged off, saying they had jobs to go to, but several nodded. "What's going on?" one of them asked.

"We're going to have a house decorating party," Dean said. "To be followed by a block party."

Cinnamon looked up from her pie, head tipped to one side. "Dean, I know Ka'eo is having some of his friends come over, how many people are we going to have? You did the house last year in a few hours."

"That was last year," Dean said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "That was amateur compared to what I want to do this year." It was time to let Cinnamon in on this, he knew it. He had everything down, planned everything with a lot of help from Ka'eo, because he knew if he'd told Cinnamon too early, she would have worried about it.

"The yard isn't that big, do we really need all these people?" she asked.

"Yes," Dean said nodding. "We need as many people as we can get. Because this isn't just our yard we're doing. The Wilson's and the Karume's are donating their yard. We are going to do a three house lights extravaganza that will put last years display to shame." He paused to take a sip of his coffee and grinned. "If Pete Spencer was upset last year, he's going to be freaked out this year. We're going to make his house look weak."

"We don't have that many lights!" Cinnamon protested. "We have the ones from last year, I put them all away, but-"

"-but yes we do," Dean interrupted, his grin getting broader. "Ka'eo's been picking up lights like crazy and storing them in his shed."

Ka'eo nodded. "He's been ordering stuff online and Makaio and I have been picking it up at Home Depot and some other places. We've got a shed full of stuff." He looked at Dean, "And all the kids that came last year are coming this year, more, even!"

"Good," Dean nodded.

Cinnamon's eyes were wide. "This is going to be huge," she said, shaking her head. "And they'll be here all day, how are we going to feed them? I mean, they'll be here all day! I know people on the street are going to bring things for the block party, but we're talking a lot of people and a long time. We'll need a lot of real food, not just party snacks!"

Dean grinned. "Again, I got it covered," he said. "Remember the company we hired to cater our wedding? Bob's BBQ? Well, I hired them. They'll be here tomorrow around noon and we've got them until nine at night."

Cinnamon shook her head, looking caught somewhere between laughter and aggravation. "I suppose there is no sense in arguing with you about this, is there? It's too late, right?"

Dean grinned. "You're learning."

"Well," Cinnamon said with a wry grin, "My mother always told me that marriage is a constant learning process."


Even though Thanksgiving had taken on a party like atmosphere, everyone helped clean up and left by nine o'clock at night. Most of the wrestlers from WVW agreed to come over the next day to help with the decorating and to join the block party. A few even offered to "bring something" which Dean was pretty sure meant "beer." He was fine with that. He had a couple kegs being delivered the next day along with various other alcoholic beverages, and the Karume shed, along with lights and decorations, also contained cases of soda and juice. Cinnamon had several plastic barrels, originally sold as trash containers, but she only used them to fill with ice to keep drinks cold.

He was given the honor of tucking Neil into bed. And though Neil was quick to protest he was too old to be tucked into bed, he didn't really make any effort to stop Dean, either.

"Remember last year, you told me the Jack and The Beanstalk story?" Neil asked, as Dean walked around his bed, making sure all covers were evenly distributed.

"You mean, Neil and the Giant Tomato Plant?" Dean asked, remembering the alterations he had been forced to make to the story to please Neil.

"Yeah," Neil nodded. "That was fun. Of course, I'm too old for that now, I suppose."

"Yeah," Dean agreed, wanting to acknowledge that Neil wasn't a child, but when he saw the look of disappointment flash across Neil's face, Dean sat down on the edge of the bed. "Maybe you are too old for Neil and the Giant Tomato Plant, but maybe I can tell you another story."

"What?" Neil asked, a little too much eagerness in his voice.

"How about..." Dean said slowly, thinking of the fairy tales he knew and how to alter them to suit his son. "...The Four Clever Wyatts?

Neil moved over on the bed to make room for his father to lay down next to him. "That sounds good."

Dean laid down next to Neil, on top of the covers, propping himself up on the headboard. "Once upon a time, there was an old man named Vince, who had four sons..."


Even though Dean had told everyone to be over around ten, to give himself time to sleep in, he found himself waking up at six in the morning, even beating Cinnamon up. He wanted to let her sleep until eight, so he decided to go for a run. He knew he'd be skipping gym time today, no time for that, but he figured running was cardio, which counted, and it would give him some time to clear his head and prepare for the day. They had a treadmill on the porch, a nice one, but Dean preferred to run on the streets, to see the scenery pass.

His phone told him it was forty degrees Fahrenheit, 4.444 Celsius, so he put on shorts and a t-shirt. He would be cold to start with, but he knew he'd soon warm up. He went to the kitchen to start the coffee, amazed at how quiet the house was. So far, May and Raven were proving to be almost silent house guests. They had gone to bed about the same time Dean had tucked Neil in and no one had heard a peep out of them.

When he got outside, he was surprised to see May, also wearing shorts and a T-shirt, doing stretches on the lawn. She looked up when she saw him, and grinned. "let me guess," she said, her voice quiet. "Running?"

"Yep," Dean said. He did a couple stretches, nothing major. He had read a few articles on the subject and most of them were of the opinion that you didn't need to stretch, that the myth that not stretching would cause damage was just that, a myth.

As he started running, May fell in along side of him, both of them starting at easy path. "I hope you don't mind having a running buddy, but I figure you know the area. When I run I can get into the zone and forget how to get back."

"Nope, it's cool," Dean said, although he hoped he was telling the truth. He'd found that some people were great to run with, they left you with your thoughts and let you enjoy your running. Other people could be annoying, thinking that they could multitask running and socializing and wanting to keep the pace slow enough so they could talk. That wasn't why Dean ran and he was hoping May was of the former, not the latter.

He was pleased to find out she was of the first group, not saying a word, just running along side of him. They started slowly, then gradually increased their speed, running through the mostly silent neighborhoods, the silence not making either feel alienated, but instead bringing a feeling of kinship. Dean knew the area by now, knew all the twists and turns the streets in the complex took. He would occasionally point left or right, silent indication of what direction they would take when they got to the end of the street. May would give a short nod, indicating that she got the message.

At one point, he found his body slipping into the zone, the place where his body just took over and nothing was an effort, when he no longer found himself thinking about his running, he just did it. When his brain cleared of thoughts and for awhile, he just was. He glanced over at May and saw a look of serenity on her face, and knew she was in the same place.

Meditation, he thought. When you run and you get into this spot, it becomes meditation.

He guided them both through the streets, through the maze of houses, a run he had taught himself last year, when he'd taken all that time off. Eventually, he guided them both towards the house again, and as they got closer, they slowed the pace down until they were walking, going into cool down.

"I'd run with you, any time," May said softly. "You get it."

"So do you," Dean said.

"Yeah, I found the zone," May admitted. "But I didn't find the heart beat."

"The heart beat?" Dean asked, puzzled.

"I grew up running in the city," May said. "I'd get up really early in the morning, when the city was quiet. They say New York is the City that never sleeps, and yeah, that's true, but it does get quiet. Four in the morning and it's just running on essential power. I'd run along, and when I fell into the zone, it would feel like the city had has a heart beat and I was running in time with that. Run for awhile, and as I picked up the pace, the city would be coming to life and I'd pace myself to match the heartbeat." They were walking by then, able to talk easily and she grinned, her face flushing. "You probably think I'm crazy."

"No," he said, and he was honest. "I think it sounds cool. I'll have to try it the next time I'm running in a city."

"I think it's easiest when you do it in the city you were born in or spent a lot of time in," May observed. "At least I always found it was easiest in New York."


When they got back to the house, Dean saw Ka'eo and a girl, standing on the street, right in front of the house. The girl looked to be about Ka'eo's age, thin but not skinny, with shoulder length hair that looked red in the light from the early morning. Not a copper red like Cinnamon or Neil, but a deep, rich red. Auburn, Dean thought. She was studying the house intently, not frowning, but her brows were furrowed and she kept pushing on the nose of her glasses, even though they didn't appear to be slipping.

"Hey," he said, walking over to them. He had met a lot of Ka'eo's friends last year when they decorated the house, but he was pretty sure he hadn't met this girl.

"Hi, Dean," Ka'eo said, then motioned to the girl. "Dean, this is Chrissy, Chrissy, this is Dean Ambrose."

She turned and looked at him. "I know who you are," she said, an impish grin coming to her face as she held out her hand. "It's an honor to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too," Dean said, taking her hand and shaking it. "You folks are here pretty early, this officially doesn't start until about ten."

"She wanted to come over early," Ka'eo said.

"Er, do you have any plans for this?" Chrissy asked, making a sweeping motion that indicated all three houses. "Ka'eo said it didn't seem like it, he said you were just ordering a lot of lights."

"Chrissy is smart," Ka'eo proclaimed, nodding and looking impressed, as if he might be responsible for the young woman's intelligence. "She moved here this year and she's like, the smartest kid in the school."

"Stop it!" Chrissy said, flushing faintly pink at all the praise, which made Dean grin. She looked at him, and tried to look serious. "What I mean, is do you have a theme for the houses? Ka'eo said you'll be doing three houses, that you're trying for a huge display, and I get that, but are you going to have a theme? Some way to tie these three houses together, so people will realize it's one magnificent display, not just three separate ones?"

"Uh," Dean began and realized that he hadn't really given it much thought. All he had done was order all the lights he could get his hands on. "I thought we'd do the houses similar," he finally said, not wanting to appear as ignorant as he now felt. Why hadn't he thought of this? "Last year, the kids did this thing where they outlined the roof shingles in lights. I've never seen it before, but it looked really cool. I figured we'd do that this year. Pete Spencer didn't do that."

"He did this year," Chrissy said. "We were just looking at his place."

"Asshole," Dean swore softly, then bit his lip and added, "uh, sorry."

"It's okay, I've heard worse," Chrissy said, waving her hand and dismissing the swearing. "To be honest, I've said worse. But, you have to expect anything you did last year that he thinks will improve what he's doing, he's going to steal from you."

"Yeah," Dean said glumly. I should have thought of that.

Chrissy could see his dismay and reached out and patted him on the arm, a gesture that surprised him, coming from someone younger, but he knew she was just trying to re-assure him. "Don't worry, we can still do it. And it will still look really good. But like I said, we were looking at his place and he's got a lot of everything there. He's got nativity scenes, he's got angels, Santa Clauses, snow men, he's got lots and lots of stuff, but it's all just packed in there. There's no reason or logic to it. It's big and when it's lit, I'm sure it's flashy, but it's like… a garage sale. It's haphazard."

"Yeah," Dean agreed, nodding. "It's stupid." This was safe ground.

"I think that if you have a theme, something that ties all three houses together, something that show this isn't just lights and stuff, it's telling a story, that it'll be much more impressive. I-I have a few ideas, if you want to hear them," she said, sounding almost timid, as if she was worried she might be overstepping her boundaries.

"Sure," Dean said. "But can we do it with the stuff we have, or do we have to run to the store?" He thought about Cinnamon, making breakfast and knew he was hungry, but if he had to go shopping instead, he'd do it.

"We can use what you bought," Chrissy said, confidently. "I saw what's in the shed, we can work with that. I'll be honest, Ka'eo told me about this awhile ago, told me that you didn't seem to have plans beyond lots of lights, so I've been thinking about it."

"Last year some girls set up a pond made of lights," Dean remembered. "Right in the center of the yard. We had those zombie reindeer drinking from it."

"Zombie reindeer?" Chrissy's head tipped to one side and her brows furrowed.

"You know, those white wire deer with the little white lights all over them?" Dean grinned. "I have a bunch of those and a few of the trees."

"We'll use that," Chrissy said. "And the deer, too. And one long stream of lights that will connect all three yards. That would help to show that it's one big project."

Dean nodded, feeling less embarrassed at his lack of thinking. "So, uh, what else did you have in mind?" he asked.

Chrissy explained her idea for the houses and as she did, Dean's grin got wider and wider. It was great, no, more than great, it was fantastic, it was-

"Perfect," Dean said. "Can we do that? All of that?"

Chrissy nodded. "We just need some wire and colored tape. Ka'eo and I can go pick that up, but we should go now before Home Depot gets too busy. They're probably in a lull, the early shoppers are done and going to breakfast, but the late sleepers haven't stumbled in, yet."

Dean nodded. "Hang on a sec, let me get my wallet, I'll give you my credit card, you can use that to buy everything you need."

"Oh!" Chrissy looked pleased and Dean had the feeling she might have raided her piggy bank or brought a stash of money she had saved, thinking she'd have to buy the stuff and have Dean reimburse her. "Thank you, we'll bring the receipt back."

"Good," Dean said, turning to go into the house. He paused and looked at them. "Uh, do you guys need breakfast? I should have asked."

"Nope," Ka'eo said, shaking his head. "Mom gave us pancakes."

Dean nodded and went into the house. There was a lot of activity going on in the kitchen and Cinnamon told him he was just in time for breakfast. "I'll be right there," he said. He hurried into his bedroom, found his wallet on the nightstand. Grabbing it, he hurried outside and gave Chrissy his credit card.

"Ka'eo knows my number if there are any problems. And if you find other things you think we'll need when you get there, just grab them and put them on the card. Don't short yourself, if we get too much, we can return it."


It was about 9:30 and they were just finishing breakfast when Roman, Seth, and their families showed up. Neil was happy to see Leah and Payton and proudly announced that his friends Cory, Marcus, Javier and Samantha would be coming over too, and he was anxious for all of them to meet.

Kayla had barely said hello, when she eyed the coffee pot. "Are you sharing?" she asked.

"Help yourself," Cinnamon said.

"Rough night?" Dean asked.

"Wonderful night," Kayla responded, grabbing a cup out of the cupboard and filling it. "Just not a lot of sleep."

Seth beamed.


People from the neighborhood started to gather around 9:45, bringing ladders, hooking poles, and anything else they thought might help. Ka'eo and Chrissy returned, the back of Ka'eo's father's pick up truck loaded with spools of wire. She sought Dean out immediately and gave him back his credit card and the receipt.

"Did you get everything you needed?" he asked.

She nodded. "We bought some more lights too, just in case. I don't think we'll need them, but I wanted to make sure. They can be returned, I made sure to ask."

Dean nodded. "Smart idea." He tipped his head to one side. "You know, since the theme and all is your idea, I hope you don't mind, I'm going to put you in charge of making sure it happens. I mean, I've got people doing the decorating on my house and stuff. I guess some of the kids got most of the Wilson's and the Karume's house done already, but our house hasn't been done. But we can handle that. But I want you to grab everyone you need to do the other stuff. The only thing is that Jasmine is here, and she's the one who did the whole lake and Reindeer thing last year. I don't want her to feel like she's been pushed aside."

"She hasn't," Chrissy said, "If she thought of the water with the lights, I'll have her do that for all three yards. She can even set up the same scene. Don't worry, Mr. Ambrose. I won't let you down."

"I'm more worried that you're calling me Mr. Ambrose," Dean said, a smile playing across his mouth. "I'm Dean."

Chrissy flushed slightly. "All right, Dean," she said. "Don't worry, I'll handle it. I have strong organizational skills."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me at all."


Dean would soon discover that Chrissy not only had strong organizational skills, she was also a natural born leader. She gathered up the kids from the high school that had come along, there were a lot of them, many more than last year, and started organizing them into groups. Ka'eo stuck close by her, obviously taking the role of second-in-command with good grace. Although, Dean had a feeling Chrissy could have told him to put on a pointed cap and be the Court Jester for the day, and Ka'eo would have done it.

"I think he likes her," Dean murmured to Cinnamon.

"Gee, really?" Cinnamon said, her eyes sparkling. "What gave you the first clue?"

"Do you think she likes him?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure," Cinnamon admitted. "She's very cool, very collected. Rare qualities in a teenage girl. But, I don't think she'd be adverse to the idea of Ka'eo asking her to go out for pizza or something."

"Hmm," was all Dean said.

End of Part II


Author's Notes: Yes, I have brought May and her sister into this world. While they won't be making a huge splash in this story, I wanted to do this because, well May is my character. There is no reason to believe she wouldn't exist in this world as well as in A Wrestling God's world too. Of course, the May in this world would have never dated Seth and thus her life here could end up taking on a very different path. But I wanted to leave the option open. It isn't that I didn't enjoy playing in AWG's world, I did and I'm honored he let me do it, but he has his plans and his ideas. I realize that having May only exist in that world was restricting myself to what I would like to see in May's future. And, I was taking the risk of restricting him. So, I've brought May and her sister into the Cinnamon universe and I hope that in the future I'll be able to write about both her and her sister in this world, too.

Special thanks to:

AeonBlue: I should have thanked her in Pt. One, but better late than never. Girlfriend, I'm thanking you in two ways, and you know the second since you've read this far. I hope you like it. But readers, you don't know how much help she's been, especially for this part and the following parts. She's held my hand and given me ideas that I desperately needed. She's a brilliant writer, you should check out her stuff. Seriously, she's one of the best writers on this site and you owe it to yourself to check out her work. The story she just finished, The Tau Hypothesis is an emotional journey and is easily one of the best things I've ever read. Not one of the best things I've read on this site, or even one of the best piece of fanfiction I've ever read, it is one of the best things I've ever read, period. And trust me, I have done a lot of reading.

To Everyone who Read this: Thank you.

To Everyone who Favored or Followed this: Double thank you.

To Everyone who Reviewed: Triple thanks with a side of fudge. (I make mean fudge, so yes, I'm telling you that you are wonderful) I said this story had no strings attached, and I continue to follow that, so the fact that you took the time out of your busy days (Holidays are coming, so I know how busy you likely are) to write a review means so very much to me. I appreciate it, and I will write and thank all of you individually, but sadly, I have to work today and I wanted to get this up before I left.

To Everyone reading this: Thank you again. You're awesome.