It was the night of the party, and most of Meg's guests had already arrived. Just then, the last four stepped out of the darkness and approached the gate.

"You're...joking, right? She lives HERE?!" Akane gasped, her eyes as big as saucers.

"Yep! Pretty impressive, huh?" Ranma replied.

"Is big house! How you friend afford this too too expensive house, Airen?" Shampoo asked.

"Hey!" Akane whispered to Ranma. "Remind me again why she had to come along!"

"Beats me..." Ranma whispered back. "I guess for the same reason you brought Ryoga with you!"

"He was lost!" Akane protested. "It would've been mean to just leave him wandering around in the train station!"

"That moron could get lost in a phone booth!" Ranma remarked. Cutting the conversation short, he pressed the buzzer on the side of the gate.

"Hey! This is Ranma Saotome. Meg invited me and any friends I wanted to bring along to her party, so let us in."

A harsh voice blared out of the intercom: "Never heard of you! Get lost, you little turds!"

"What?!" Ryoga yelled. "How dare he disrespect us that way!"

Suddenly, the sound of a struggle and yelps of pain came out of the intercom!

"Father! How many times do I have to tell you to quit harassing my friends?!" Meg's voice screamed.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" her father's voice replied.

"Stupid old man... AHEM. Come on in, Ranma!" Meg said sweetly.

Akane grinned. "Now I see what you meant about having a lot in common..."

The gate opened, and the four walked in.

-----------------

The party was being held in the front yard, and several people were milling about. In the center of the yard was a large fountain, water spurting gently from the top. There were lights hung on poles, several white tables scattered about, and a big table filled with snacks. In the very center of the festivities was the "jewel in the crown", a huge white birthday cake sitting on a small table of its own.

"Hey, Ranma! Glad you could make it!" a voice greeted the Nerima crew.

Ranma turned around to see Meg, dressed in a white skirt and blouse, walking toward them with another girl. The girl accompanying Meg was petite, fairly pretty, and had short black hair; from the description Meg had given him a few nights ago, Ranma guessed that this must be Miki.

"I never miss out on free eats, Meg!" Ranma replied with a smirk. "Especially if I can enjoy 'em with my friends."

This brought a smile to Megumi's face. "Thanks..." Just then, she remembered something. "Oh! I'm being rude! I haven't yet met your friends. My name is Megumi Amatsuka, and this is my best friend, Miki Kabanain."

"Meg's told me a little bit about you," Miki winked knowingly at Ranma. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Saotome."

"Likewise!" he replied with a slighty nervous grin. "What was with that wink? Did Meg tell her about my curse?! Oh, well... I told Akane, so I guess we're even."

(Silence)

"Ahem!" Akane elbowed Ranma, irritated. "Don't you have a little introducing to do, chump?"

"Oh, yeah...right!" he laughed, embarassed. "This is Akane Tendo. The guy behind me is Ryoga Hibiki, and this girl that's glued herself to my arm is Shampoo."

Meg's eyes went wide in alarm! Weren't these two the psychos Ranma had warned her about?! Still, they seemed normal enough; the boy was really polite, bowing at his introduction, and the girl, while a little overpossesive, looked really happy. "Ranma doesn't look very worried about them being here, so I guess it's okay... I just can't get over the fact that that's Akane! She's not ugly; she's kind of a looker, actually, and nice too! Ranma really made her sound like a witch..."

Akane was surprised, also. Ranma's tale of meeting a beautiful girl living in a palatial mansion had sounded far-fetched, but he didn't tell the half of it! Her thoughts raced wildly: "This house must have cost a fortune, not to mention its upkeep... And Megumi...even I can see she's a knockout, probably the cutest girl I've ever seen! Could she really have been a guy once?!"

They suddenly noticed that they were staring at each other.

"Wh-what?" Akane asked, blushing a little.

"I'm sorry!" Meg apologized, embarassed. "It's just that--you weren't what I was expecting! Ranma made you sound a little...different."

Akane's eyes narrowed. "Really?"

Turning toward her fiancee with a "her words may seal your fate" look, she sarcastically requested, "DO go on. Just what has he been telling you?"

As soon as Akane looked back toward Meg, Ranma started sweating profusely and making "X-nay on the uncute-ay!" motions with his hands. Getting the hint, Megumi and Miki both realized that this could get real ugly, real fast!

Megumi nervously laughed, "I thought you had brown hair, (haha) and... stuff. Yeah! Hahaha!" Turning toward Ranma, Meg said, "Let me introduce you to the guys! Okay? (desperate 'nudge, nudge, hint, hint' motion)"

Ranma looked like a man rescued from the guillotine. "YEAH! Great idea!" he enthusiastically laughed, following her away from Akane (and certain doom). While Miki amiably chatted with Akane, Meg led Ranma to a nearby table surrounded by four boys, one wearing street clothes, the others in school uniforms. The tallest one (the one in street clothes) had a bit of a thuggish look about him, including a scar on his face and had spiky hair that was black on bottom and white on top (RANMA: "It kinda looks like a pineapple..."). Another one, about the same height, looked very clean-cut, a real boy-scout-type. The third guy was...average. REALLY average. Neither ugly nor handsome, neither tough-looking or an obvious wimp; he was just your average Joe. The last guy was a short, slim, little guy with glasses and a somewhat nerdy appearance in general. They all eyed this newcomer carefully.

"Hey, guys!" Meg said sweetly, "This is my new friend, Ranma Saotome. I've got a bit of a situation here, so please introduce yourselves and make nice-nice, okay? Be back in a second, Ranma!"

With that, she ran off, leaving Ranma alone with the four youths. "Um...yo!" he said awkwardly. He tried to smile, but before he'd managed the facial movement, Ranma was almost bowled over by the immense battle aura coming from the four boys! If the phrase "staring daggers" was literal, Ranma would have already bled to death from the evil looks these guys were giving him!

"ACK!" he thought, confused. "What the heck did I do?! These guys are furious!"

"So, you're Meg's 'new friend', huh? " the little guy asked threateningly. "Care to clarify what that's supposed to mean?"

Ranma blinked, confused. "Well, it's like thi--"

"Look, we don't care!" the average Joe butted in. "There's enough competition in this market; find your own girl, man!"

Suddenly realizing what the problem was, Ranma blushed and tried to explain. "H-hey! It's not like that! We're--"

"Did we ask your opinon?" the pineapple-haired guy snapped. "Just stay away from my angel, okay?!"

Ranma was turning red again, but this time, it wasn't from embarassment.

"GrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR!!! NOW YOU LISTEN HERE!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "I'm DON'T want to go out with Megumi! I've already got two girls that are trying to marry me; I'm NOT about to go looking for another girl to get hitched to! Do ya understand, you stupid jerks?! I'M--NOT--INTERESTED!!!"

Taken completely by surprise by the violence and volume of Ranma's outburst, the four stared in shock at the infuriated pigtailed boy. Ranma waited to see what their reaction would be: angry, apologetic, annoyed; what? To his surprise, a huge smile spread over all of their faces!

"Well, why didn't you say so?" chuckled Mr. Average. "If that's the case, great to meet you! My name's Ichiro."

"The name's Yasuda. Pleased to meet you!" the little guy said politely.

"Saotome, eh? Nice meeting you. I'm Genzo Soga, the toughest guy around and Meg's future husband!" the thuggish guy grinned, ignoring the "why-you-little-sonova!" looks this statement provoked from his friends.

"You can call me Ichimonji," the clean-cut guy said, extending his hand. "Look, I'm really sorry about that! As you can see, passions run high in this bunch, and sometimes we can get carried away."

Ranma was still a little annoyed, but decided to let it be "water under the bridge" and shook Ichimoni's hand. "Ah, don't worry too much about it. I've had worse greetings, especially from that idiot Ryoga."

WHAM!

A large bump quickly sprouted on Ranma's head, lifting up the solid-titanium umbrella resting on it! Ryoga glared evilly at his rival.

"Hey! Who's an idiot, you loser?!" Ryoga shouted, aggravated.

"Speak of the devil..." Ranma grumbled, rubbing his head. "Guys, this is Ryoga Hibiki, my rival in the martial arts. At least, that's what he keeps sayin'..."

"Martial arts, eh?" Ichimonji brightened. "I'm a student of karate myself. What fighting style do you use?"

Ranma proceeded to explain, and as they talked, the two Nerima-based fighters quickly "hit it off" with Genzo, Ichimonji, Ichiro, and Yasuda.

Meanwhile...

Akane, Megumi, and Miki were all having fun, too. They soon realized that everyone in the group knew both Ranma's and Megumi's secrets, so that "cleared the air" between them. Although the three had just met, they were soon chatting just like old friends! Only Shampoo remained standoffish, keeping both eyes and ears on "her Airen", just in case some girl had the gall to come within ten feet of him...

"He did what?!" Miki gasped, trying not to laugh (rather unsuccessfully).

"Ranma put on a pink dress and posed as Dr. Tofu's girlfriend so the poor M.D. wouldn't have to get married! Hahahaha!" Akane whispered, cracking up.

The three girls laughed at the retelling of that little misadventure until they had tears in their eyes.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Ha ha ha--hoo, boy! Poor Ranma!" laughed Meg, wiping her eyes with a tissue Miki handed her.

Still giggling a little, Megumi took a look skyward, only to have her heart skip a beat. On top of Meg's house (and this is a three-story house), Miki's cat was strolling around on the edge of the roof!

"Kyoko?! What the heck is she doing up there?!" Meg thought, her heart racing. "In this heavy wind, all it'd take is one big gust and... Better not think about that. Oh, man, if Miki sees her up there, she's gonna freak! Maybe I can get her down before she notices..."

"Heh heh! Listen, Miki, I've gotta go to the girl's room," Meg said with a fake laugh. "Be back in just a minute, okay?"

With that, she slowly, calmly turned around and... took off running toward the house like her butt was on fire.

"Wow! She must have to go really bad!" Miki thought out loud. "Well, Akane, what do you say we join the boys?"

"Sure! Sounds like a plan to me," Akane agreed.

------------------------------

Ranma and Ryoga were laughing hysterically at a somewhat-dirty joke Yasuda had just related. Turning toward Ryoga, Ranma gave one of the few truly happy smiles that had crossed his face since Shampoo had arrived in Japan.

"Y'know what, Ryoga?" he said happily. "Just hangin' out like this is great. In fact, I think I just might get through one night without something going horribly wrong! I've got a really good feeling about it..."

Meanwhile...

Meg was still making her mad dash toward the roof, dashing under ladders, knocking a mirror off the wall, knocking over a salt shaker, and scaring a black cat so badly that it ran back and forth in front of her several times before it finally made its escape...

This, dear readers, is why Ranma Saotome is a fighter, not a fortune-teller.

END OF CHAPTER 7

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