I do not own Ratchet and Clank!
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Chapter Nine
"I wish I was there!" Leia took a brownie off of the plate sitting in the middle of my bed, her 4th one for today since Ratchet and I got back from the mall. Mom and Lacy were at Wal-Mart shopping and had let Leia and us stay home alone, leaving a plate of brownies on the kitchen table downstairs for us to enjoy.
We had told her everything from Ratchet's reaction of the inside of the mall to the red-headed-jackass-being-shamed-at-Rock-Band-2-by-Ratchet scenario, making her laugh like crazy, almost spewing brown crumbs all over my bed.
Ratchet blushed a little and I nudged his shoulder. "Come on, you deserve the praise!" I took a bite of another brownie. "Don't look so modest about it." He looked over at me and gave a half-smile. He then chuckled.
"Yeah," he finally said. "I was pretty good, wasn't I?" I giggled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He then frowned. "Are you sure-"
"For the tenth time, if the outfit was too much money, I wouldn't have bought it. Don't worry about it."
"Besides, you look good in it." Leia added with a smile.
He shrugged. "Just seems that it would have cost less in bolts, is all."
I blinked and removed my arm, confused at the new term. "Bolts?"
"Currency. From my galaxy."
Leia and I looked at each other, then returned our stares back to Ratchet.
"...Bolts?"
"Bolts."
It was silent for a moment. Ratchet looked on at us. "What?"
Leia sighed. "You're lucky we're good with weird."
Amanda leaned against the sofa downstairs, relaxing and watching House.
Cece, Leia and Jason were already asleep when she had gotten back. She chuckled while remembering the sight: Jason resting his head on the pads of the drum controller for the Wii and snoring, the sticks on the floor. She had guessed that he dropped them when he fell asleep from exhaustion. CeCe had been sleeping on her upright with the guitar resting against her chest, her arms wrapped around it tightly and mumbling something along the lines of "Ratchet" in her sleep. Must have been the name of some video game character she liked. Leia had her head resting on CeCe's small desk, the microphone still close to her mouth, like she was going to continue singing at any moment. After putting some blankets on the sleeping teenagers, she sent Lacy up to bed.
CeCe and Jason sharing a room together...
Now that she thought about it, she never really seemed worried about her daughter sharing her room with him. She didn't know why, but something about him made her put trust into the 17-year-old. Plus, CeCe wouldn't be irresponsible enough to try something with him. Plus, she was happy to have Jason around. For so many years Sam was the only friend CeCe seemed to have. All the other kids would tease her, push her around. She even had to deal with this one girl bullying her physically and verbally for four years in elementary school. And no matter how many times Sam was there to comfort her, it hurt CeCe to be bullied so horribly. All the tears she shed, the cuts and bruises she received... Was that why she had become such a dark person?
Amanda wiped her eyes, not allowing herself to get emotional during her one time of relaxation.
But CeCe did seem happier. She laughs more now. Her smiles are wide and brighter, not dull and short like when she used sarcasm or her strange and dark sense of humor. Her eyes sparkled when she's around Jason and her attitude was now more lighter. It was like he was the best friend Amanda had always wished for her daughter to have. Like God had let him fall from the sky just for CeCe's happiness. She smiled.
Having Jason here was the best thing that had happened for both her and CeCe in a long time.
"Ratchet?" His voice didn't come from my dark surroundings, making me anxious. Where was he? "Ratch? C'mon this isn't funny! Where are you?"
This was so weird. One minute I was in my room, the morning sun shining through my window, waking up with my Guitar Hero controller in my arms. I had heard voices coming from downstairs, dishes clanking, telling me that there was breakfast waiting. But as I walked downstairs, the voices started to fade, like I was getting farther and farther away from the them instead of getting closer, as I had hoped. When I had finally reached my destination, no one was there. Wondering if maybe they had gone outside to get some air, I ran over to the front door and opened it- and everything was different than what I had seen out my bedroom window. The morning sun had disappeared, the grass of my front lawn was gone, the porch to the house was no longer under my feet. Everything was a black background. And it was so quiet that I could hear my breathe as I inhaled and exhaled. Not knowing what to do, I decided that I'd try to find everyone.
I hadn't found anyone yet.
I knew this was a dream. And I knew that dreams really shouldn't bother me, especially dreams like this, but something about this dream made it seem... so real. The vibes coming from the atmosphere was giving me unbearable chills, making cold sweat run down my arms and face. But what was it that made it seem this way? Was it because I couldn't find anyone? I always knew I had a certain fear of being alone for the rest of my life, but was it really so bad that I would have these dreams all the time, starting now?
Or was it because that the thought of Ratchet leaving when his ship was repaired was always on my mind? Now that I thought about it, I really liked being around Ratchet. He may have been a pain in the ass when he first came here, but having him around was a nice change. I was bored with only hanging around with Sam, just walking around the neighborhood and going swimming every once in a while. I liked it better when we were younger, when we could find more fun things to do and act like we had all the time in the world. But growing up isn't exactly an option for us. Plus, Ratchet seemed to know me better, despite the fact we haven't know each other for long.
But where was he now? And everybody else?
"CeCe."
I turned around in a hurry, not caring if it wasn't someone I didn't need to see, and there stood Leia. After a few seconds Lacy appeared next to her, along with Sam. Finally, Ratchet came and stood up front. With a smile so big it started to hurt, i trotted towards them, reaching out with my right hand- and frowned as Ratchet backed his body away from my hand. It wasn't that kind of dream illusion, either; the kind where time slows and as you get closer to something you just seem to get farther away from it. He had physically backed away from me.
"Ratch?" I tried again, but he just backed away again. Leia, Sam and Lacy mimicked his actions. They got as far away from me as possible as Ratchet's mouth became a scowl.
"Disgusting," he said in a snarl. "Piece of trash- stay away from me."
With that being said, he and everyone else turned around and started walking away from me. Their forms began fading into the darkness as I again reached for them, yellow hair sprouting from my arm-
I didn't spring up in shock. I didn't scream or gasp as I awoke. I only felt sweat running down my face and tears having yet to be released stinging my eyes.
Jesus Christ- I'm so sorry guys!
I know I haven't updated since the middle of November, and I wish I had a better reason than a giant writer/artist's block since then. If you're reading this, thanks so musch for being patient enough to wait for this chapter to be posted up. I really am sorry for taking so long!
If some things might not make sense in this chapter, I apologize; when my writer's block went away, all these things for the chapter just started pouring out and it was a bit confusing for me to type all this in.
Read and review! ^_^
