I told you guys I'd update again! Tibki is back, and with a newfound vengeance to finish this thingy!
Unfortunately, this is depressingly short. ~dodges flying fruit~ Dang, you guys throw a lot of food. Let me know when we get to the top of the food pyramid, okay? Snickers bars are my favorite!
Seriously, though, when I wrote it in 2009, this chapter was IMMENSE. Like, not even funny huge. So I split it down the middle and rewrote it. Next chapter will be long, I assure you-and in my current writing style, too! :) Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: Did I say how good it feels to be doing these again? Well, it lost its novelty. W.I.T.C.H. ain't mine.
Will was having trouble. The wind was up, no matter how much Hay Lin tried to stop it, and was nearly blowing the tent over. That's basically all the Silver Dragon's booth was, anyway, a tailgating tent with heaters on two sides, one covered with a counter, and one open towards the restaurant.
As if the gusts weren't enough, the heaters themselves were on the blink. Taranee had asked what was wrong and quickly got a surprise-it was a Japanese brand of heater. Will had been attempting to translate for her (her mother once invited a Japanese coworker to their house in Fadden Hills and he taught her a little Japanese), but their conversation had quickly gone way over her head.
Hay Lin and Irma were carting food out from the building, still warm in their platters, even if they were cooling rapidly without the working heaters. Cornelia was busy hanging paper lanterns on the edges of the tent, using a chair and an impeccable sense of balance.
"Any luck, T?" the Earth Guardian asked.
"Something about a bad flame," she replied, with Will's nod. "That could mean anything. Something could be wrong with the pilot light, the tube could be clogged, we could be out of gas…"
All 5 girls winced as a storm of Japanese yelling came into their ears from the heaters. "Ok, they're out of gas, apparently," she finished, rubbing her left ear. "Hay Lin, do you have another can?"
"Somewhere here," the girl said perkily (did she ever say anything unperkily?). "Be right back!"
Will, now with nothing to do, sat down and checked Ed, her phone. No calls, no texts, and Matt was late. She groaned and sat back in the little chair.
"He still hasn't called?" Cornelia asked. Will shook her head. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're fine." In actual fact, she was worried too, but not for the same reasons. Matt had promised to get Caleb from Meridian (some Lurdon uprising had taken him back), but with Matt missing, he couldn't come. "Right, Mira?" she asked the old Chinese lady as she came outside. "You... are Mira, right?"
"You got it," she said, winking. "And you should listen to her, Will. In my experiences—well, Yannie's experiences—friends of ours in the know are usually all right unless there's a mushroom cloud or a number of screams coming from one direction."
They all stared at her, but she didn't say another word.
"Well, I don't see any mushroom cloud, but they're still late," Taranee said, breaking the silence. "Did you call him yet?" she asked Will.
"I don't want him to think I don't…"
"It's been half an hour, he'll understand," Irma said. "I want you guys to leave with your boys the same time I do!" Stephen had called to say he would be late, at least.
"Maybe just one call…" Will relented. She pulled out Ed and said, "Ed, can you call Matt for me please?"
"Finally! I thought you'd never call that boy!" The girls giggled as Will blushed. "Speaker or headset?"
"Speaker. It's not like we're going to be talking about Nerissa over the phone." The buzzing noise came over Ed, and after 2 rings, another noise wafted over the crowd of people on the sidewalk.
What I've done! I'll face myself, and cross out what I've become! Erase myself, and let go of all…. I've…. Done!
The girls froze at the implications of the song. Though admittedly a great song, Matt had always winced at the way the inner meaning affected him, and rarely did any of them play it. "You don't think…?" Hay Lin asked.
"Of course not, Matt got over all that, didn't he?" Cornelia said, hating that it sounded like a question.
"I don't think anyone could," the fire Guardian said quietly.
"Yeah, being turned into a hate demon isn't exactly something you forget," Irma added.
"I don't think he put that on there," Taranee told them. "I mean, of all of us, it hit Matt the hardest. He was there the whole time, even when we didn't know it. Hearing this song starts making him feel guilty. Putting it as his ringtone? I don't think so. Maybe one of the boys put it on there."
But even though his phone was ringing, Matt was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a man in jeans and a shirt, with a purple vine waist bag was holding Matt's phone, looking at the word 'Will' on the screen.
Will saw this and ran over, snatching the phone from the man. He jumped at the girl, surprised.
"Thief!" she said, pointing at him. "This is my boyfriend's phone!"
"So you're Will?" he asked almost calmly.
"Darn right I am!" she said. "What are you doing with Matt's phone?" She looked in his eyes.
The man had soft brown irises, like Matt's grandfather, and black hair like Matt. He sort of looked like a mix between Mr. Olsen and his grandson, at about 35. "Who are you?" the redhead demanded.
Mr. Olsen saw a single spark run through the girl's cherry red hair and smirked. This was Will, all right. "Peter Olsen," he said, holding his hand out to the shocked girl. "You're Will, right? Mattie's girlfriend?" She nodded carefully. "I'm his father, nice to meet you."
"Um… likewise… where is Matt?" she asked.
"That's a long story," he said, smile gone. "One I don't think I should tell out here." Will raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry, I know the big secret. At least a little bit."
The Quintessence Guardian gasped. "He told?" she hissed.
Before he knew what happened, Mr. Olsen was inisde the Silver Dragon and forced into a booth by five teenaged girls. A girl he recognized as little Irmie, 5 years older, slammed her fists down on the table.
"Hay Hay, hit the lights, we're gonna do this my way."
Rut roh. Mr. Olsen in trouble now!
I have the next chapter up, too! And the one after that! But I'll only update once a day, sorry. So, barring death and horrible injury, or the dreaded summer courses, you'll have a new chapter tomorrow and the day after!
If you liked it, hated it, think I'm insane, or discovered the meaning of life through my so-called "works", then tell me about it by pressing this button...
HERE
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