Mary-Sue: Ah, it's been a while since Tiger let me out. Something about ruining the emotional vibe of his stories or some other lame excuse.
Tiger: As much as I love your romance ideas, Mary, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be very helpful when writing my emotional stories.
Mary-Sue: Are you saying I can't do emotional stories? I'm aghast that you'd ever think that about me. In fact, just to prove you wrong, let's make this chapter an emotional tragedy.
Tiger: I like the way you think. The-lovely-anomaly suggested that idea in a recent review. You think we could do that one?
Mary-Sue: Oh, yeah, it will be awesome.
Gary-Stu: Wait, you two are agreeing. Everybody run for your lives!
Mary-Sue: But remember to read and review first!
Gary-Stu: These two nut-jobs would like to thank Elianna22 for betaing and TLA for the idea.
Chapter 7: Farewell, Cruel World
'When passion colors everything
The songs I sing, from way out there to deep within
The face I wear behind my grin
The mess I made to the original sin
Everything, everything, everything'
Passion Colors Everything, Poets of the Fall
It was a beautiful day on the ship, with as many suns singing and birds shining that you could shake a stick at, but Cody Martin was ignoring all this, choosing instead to confine himself to the library where he was doing everything he could to ready himself for the Yale classes he'd be taking in less than a year. He knew he didn't have the understanding of bio-chemistry that he would need, so he'd committed himself fully to memorizing how the two branches of science combined.
"Cody, we have a letter for you," Moseby called from the door of the library, but he was quickly met with a disapproving 'Shhhhhh' from the librarian.
"Who's it from?" Cody asked, looking up, glad to give his eyes a rest from the dense material.
"Yale."
Cody's heart beat harder and faster than it ever had before. He hurried over to Moseby, his body trembling so violently that he could barely stay on his feet. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally got hold of the plain white envelope that held the paper that held the fate of his entire future.
"Thank you."
He took the envelope, gently pressing his finger against the seal, and tore open the top, careful not to destroy the contents. Inside was a neatly folded paper with the Ivy League institution's seal printed upon it. He opened the paper and slowly read the words that would change his life forever.
Dear Cody Martin,
We are sending you this letter to inform you of our decision in regards to your application. After careful consideration of your grades, recommendations and test scores, we have come to the difficult decision that you are not one of the students chosen to attend our campus this fall.
Cody dropped the letter like it had scorched his hand and ran from the library. All he wanted was to get away from that evil piece of paper.
…
He made his way back to his cabin, longing to hide in there and sulk, but his attention was caught by Bailey's voice.
Coming from Zack's cabin.
'What's going on?'he wondered as he gently pried the door open
There sat his brother and his girlfriend, both of them on Zack's bed.
"Oh take me, Zack, take me now!" she exclaimed, a wild smile on her face.
"As you wish."
Cody slammed the door, unable to believe what he'd just seen. After months and months of being faithful to her, no matter what had happened, how could she just cheat on him with Zack like that? He'd taken things slowly for a reason, not wanting to go farther until they both knew they were ready, and there she was, throwing herself at his brother. His very own twin brother!
That would teach him to trust her again. Could his day get any worse?
He shuffled to his cabin and swung the door open, to discover a sight more terrible than anything that had happened to him so far today.
All of his stuff was gone – and replaced with penguins. They were on the walls, the bed, the closet door. Even the floors were covered with hideous images of the bird that couldn't fly!
Cody rushed to his desk to grab his laptop, one of his most important possessions. When he flipped up the screen, a penguin screensaver greeted him.
"No!" he screamed, fleeing the cabin like it was on fire (which he would have preferred to the penguins).
…
Mary-Sue: Here it comes…
Tiger: Finally, time for the violence!
Mary-Sue: Sheesh, what's with you? Does every story have to have some sort of action scene in it?
Tiger: Only the good ones.
…
Cody found his way up to the Sky Deck, where the night sky made a serene contrast to the rollercoaster of his heart. He looked down at the dark waters before him. The murkiness of the sea mirrored his future. He had no idea how far it would go, he couldn't see into it at all.
That's when he came to his decision.
He lifted himself up onto the rail. No longer could he live with such painful uncertainty, such devastating betrayal and heartbreak. He grabbed hold of his laptop, deciding to take that to the grave with him. After all, it contained all his essays and papers he had written so he'd have the grades to get into college along with those hundreds of love poems he'd written for Bailey. A fitting end to the things that had been rendered useless.
…
However, as must happen in any story like this, Zack, Moseby and Bailey were all strolling to the Sky Deck at just the right time. But due to Tiger's required action quota per chapter, we also find the unnamed old lady who likes to hit kids with her purse filled with bricks.
"Hey, I'm not a kid!" Zack contradicted, unaware that the old lady was lurking in the shadows.
Although she's so old that anyone under 100 would be a kid to her, and it's probably a good thing she's not here, otherwise I'd be in some serious pain. Anyway, back to the story…
"I'm afraid I cannot let you pass," she said, stepping out to swing her purse at him like a pair of nunchucks.
" Moseby, if I stop her in the interest of protecting other people, I can't get in trouble, right?"
Zack didn't wait for Moseby's answer, choosing instead to run at the old lady. If he didn't hear a no, he couldn't be wrong.
He ducked under her purse, before giving her a good uppercut to the jaw, but she merely back-flipped and landed on her feet with astonishing agility for a senior citizen. She ran at him and this time her purse connected with his face and sent him crashing through the wall into the ship's kitchen.
Bailey then stepped in, leaping through the air and kicking her in the stomach, while Zack scrambled out of the kitchen, eating a tasty and conveniently located brownie. Bailey didn't last long, though, soon knocked unconscious by the old lady's martial arts prowess.
"What do we do?" Zack asked. He had to do something! Bailey was out cold, and Moseby was cowering in the corner muttering something about Grama Moseby flashbacks.
"Here, Zack, take this," an unfamiliar blonde called out from the hallway. She tossed Zack a weapon unlike any he had ever seen.
"It's pink!" he said with disgust.
"It's an AK-47," the stranger replied.
"Works for me!" Zack took aim with the deadly pink weapon and after all these years finally brought the old lady down.
"Thanks," he said, tossing the assault rifle back to the stranger.
…
Somehow, no time at all had passed for Cody during the action sequence. He held his legs over the edge of the rail, feeling the cool breeze tickle his calves as if begging him to fully succumb to the embracing cold of the ocean.
"Cody, what are you doing!" Zack cried out, rushing to his brother's side.
"You wouldn't understand," Cody said in tones of despondence. "I've lost everything. First I found out I wasn't accepted to Yale."
"Wait, did you not read all of the letter?" Moseby asked him.
"What's the point?"
"Let me read the second paragraph," Moseby said, taking the wretched letter out of his pocket.
Instead, you have been selected to be part of a new program we are developing where you will be studying aboard the International Space Station, giving you the educational experience of a lifetime. In exchange for helping us with this trial program, we also award you a full scholarship.
"Oh wow," Cody breathed, a wide smile spreading across his face.
But as much as he wanted to focus on the good, he couldn't forget what he'd seen in Zack's cabin. "What about you two?" he accused the back-stabbing pair. "Betraying me in the worst possible way?"
"Huh?" Zack asked, while Bailey just gave him a dumb look.
"I saw you two in Zack's cabin and Bailey asked you to take her and you both seemed really giddy."
"Oh, I was telling her about the new cabin you're getting," Zack replied. "Apparently they're giving some of the upperclassman their own cabins and I was going to show her so we could decorate it for you and surprise you."
"So that would explain why all those penguins were in my room?"
"Yeah, I already moved most of your stuff out and the new kid must have started decorating right away," Zack said.
"Yes, and that was my laptop you were about to take overboard with you," the random kid said before yanking the computer away, dawning his pimp hat and disappearing as mysteriously as he appeared.
"I can't believe how I just jumped to conclusions," Cody said, shaking his head. He couldn't believe how dumb he was for someone who had just been accepted to Yale.
"That's okay, just never do it again," Bailey said, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend.
"I won't," he promised.
"And what about the obligatory moment of overly emotional brotherly love?" Zack asked.
"I thought you didn't like sappy things like that though."
"Cody, you're my brother, my twin, my best friend. I love you man."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I couldn't imagine life without you. No matter how bad things seem, don't do something stupid like that."
"Okay Zack, I promise." They hugged, reaffirming their love for each other that would survive even the darkest of days. Moved by the affection, the other soon joined in the embrace
And after the big group hug, and the required 'awww' that rippled through the audience, they all lived happily ever after.
…
Mary-Sue: Please review and I have lots more ideas of how to torture Cody.
Cody: Wait, when did I agree to this?
Tiger: We never asked your permission.
Cody: Great, now I have two mentally unstable people who have way too much fun torturing me.
