Gentle Moonlight

Chapter 10

"This is serious, guys." Jenna stood with her hands planted firmly on her hips, facing the two blonds and not about to stand for any nonsense. "If we don't get the diary read soon, Mia's going to suspect us as the culprits. You don't want that, do you?"

They shook their heads furiously.

"Just as I thought," she said, beginning to pace back and forth across the floor like one of those mustachioed generals who conquers nations. "Then we'll finish it tonight!"

"Tonight!?" Ivan choked. "But don't you think—"

"I never leave thinking up to a mind reader, that's my motto. The diary has to be read tonight, otherwise we're dead meat. I just know something's going to happen..." Jenna locked the door behind her and turned to jump up and join Sheba and Ivan on the bed. She wriggled, plopping the diary on her lap, and scowled at her partners-in-crime. "You ready to do this?"

Sheba pouted. "If you're going to make us... then fine. But I don't see why we can't take read it at our own pace. We might miss something good!"

"Don't worry; there will be absolutely no skipping allowed. And you know... if this is going to be a problem, maybe we should have, uh, strategerized ahead. Did you know that if you give Piers something shiny, in return he'll give you a free speed-reading lesson? I tried, and now I'm the fastest reader around." Jenna smiled pleasantly.

"Fastest liar too..." Sheba muttered to herself.

Ivan, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, didn't seem to hear that comment. But after listening to Jenna's strange advertisement—perhaps Piers had paid non-shiny currency for her to do it?—he began scribbling on a notepad pulled from his pocket.

"What?" he demanded once he noticed that both girls were watching him. "Piers' program might help broaden my academic horizons."

The girls frowned at each other.

"You're hopeless," Jenna said.

"And brainless," Sheba added.

"And cureless," Ivan sighed.

After their little spat ended, Jenna looked around and said, "That's enough fooling around for now. Are you ready?" She smirked at her companions and propped open Mia's diary on her lap and began to read.

"Once upon a time... there lived a Mia. This... is her story. Erm, diary."

Entry 15

The countdown begins: 10 days until my birthday! I'm very excited about it. Yay! I'm hoping that Mother will take me to Mercury Lighthouse as a birthday treat. Maybe that's what she's been putting it off so long for... I sure hope so. Grandpa says that I have a one-track mind.

Thankfully, I've been seeing a lot less of the Worm than usual. Maybe it's a good omen. I had lunch in the Inn the other day because there were travelers from Bilibin staying there for a bit. Apparently, the man and woman were newlywed tourists gone to visit Mercury Lighthouse to ask for a blessing from the "Goddess" of the tower. But the couple only talked about mundane things like weather and livestock when I heard them in the Inn. Anyway, I was surprised not to see Daryn hovering around the place.

Speaking of the Worm, he wrote me a letter the other day. Maybe that's why he hasn't been around as much; he's probably busy hiding in shame. Such atrocious spelling! And grammar! Where did he learn to write like that?

Flipping to the next page, Jenna found a wrinkled paper stuffed into the crack of the diary's pages. As she picked it up, the dusty remains of a flower sprinkled down onto the page. "This must be the letter Daryn wrote to Mia," Jenna said as she held it in her hands.

"Go on and read it," Sheba said.

"Have a look yourself," she replied, setting the flimsy paper down onto the diary's surface. The paper fairly stunk of homemade perfume. Large and messy and gross was the letter's handwriting—it looked like sort of like chicken scratch. But from an actual chicken.

It read:

DEAR MEA,

THIS IS FROM UR SECRET ADMIRER. I AM HEAR TO SAY I L0VE U. HEAR IS A POEM.

UR HAIR IS BLUE.

MY LOVE IS TRUE.

PLEZE MERRY ME.

DAIRY MEAT.

O YA ALSO PLEZE WRITE BACK S00N!!

PS IF U DONT ILL JUMP IN A LAKE.

LOVE, UR SECRET ADM1RER

The eldest girl snorted hard.

"What is it, Jenna?" Sheba asked.

"Reminds me of the first letter I ever got from Garet," she mused. "Except Garet misspelled 'lake' as 'leak.'"

"Why am I not surprised..." Ivan rolled his eyes.

"Well!" Jenna cried, snapping out of her fond remembrances. "Let's move on to the next entry, shall we? We have to keep up a good pace." She tucked the letter into the crease and leapt to the next set of entries.

Entry 16

My birthday's tomorrow... My birthday's tomorrow... Mybirthday'stomorrowmybirthday'stomorrowmybirthday'stomorrow...

Entry 17

Well.

That's all I have to say. Well.

I am just speechless. Guess it's a good thing I'm writing in a diary, huh? I wouldn't be able to put two spoken words together. If Mother were to ask me how I'm feeling right now, I'd probably just flap my mouth and try to make sense at her. I don't think I even have to say it, but... I'm shocked!

I didn't think that the villagers would do that for me. I said already that I've met most people in Imil by now, but I never said how many people there were. Apparently there used to be over a thousand people living here. Now there's just a few hundred. Grandpa says that the number of people is going down every year.

Anyway, there are a few hundred and I've met a lot of them, and that's what I've been trying to say. Since my mother found a place to work in the herb shop nearby, I can talk to most people on a pretty regular basis. It is winter and everything, so I've made lots of friends. The thing is, I underestimated them.

These friends of mine, you see, helped me out big time. Thanks to them, my fourteenth birthday is going down in history as a full-blown holiday. When they found out that on this great and wonderful day I was turning fourteen, they got together and wrote me cards and gave me presents and made me food and it was simply... historic.

Needless to say, Alex was good and jealous. So jealous, I suppose, that he didn't even try to pull any pranks on me. Now I'm no expert on Alex (eww, the very thought of it gives me a headache) but that was very out of character of him. No presents? Not even that fake spider? Come on! I have to say... this was the only disappointing part of my birthday.

But the rest was fabuloooous!

"Hm, I wonder what was wrong with Alex..." Ivan mumbled.

"Keep reading," Jenna sang.

Entry 18

I gathered herbs with Mother today. It was just like old times. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and everything was perfect.

GAH. Who do I think I am kidding!?

I pestered Mother again today about not taking me to Mercury Lighthouse—since she didn't take me for my birthday and all—and she didn't listen to a word I said, just condemned me to work outside today. And she was so cold! What an injustice, and all I was doing was, uh, reminding her of her duty to me. She seems to forget that I just had a birthday, and that I am now fourteen instead of thirteen. I'm much more mature now.

But, ooh, sometimes Mother makes me so angry!

"Yeah, real mature, Mia," Sheba giggled.

Ivan coughed a little and held one finger up as if to make a point. "At least she doesn't spy on people."

"Grr! What does that have to do with anything?"

"She may have acted immature when she was younger, but at least Mia doesn't create problems for other people."

"And what makes you think you're so innocent of that?"

"Well, technically, this mess is really all Jenna's fault..."

"Ivan!"

"It's true."

"Is not!"

"You jerk!"

"Airhead!"

"Weakling!"

"Hey..."

"Grah!" Jenna cried, flopping over on the bed, clutching her head. "You guys! COOPERATE!"

The three of them were all quiet for one glorious minute. But, unfortunately, it was not the quiet of conciliation. More like the quiet of imminent death and destruction. They stared at each other, trying to read each other's thoughts (though in this case, Ivan and Sheba were actually able to do so) and realizing that maybe something was wrong. Maybe... there too many ill feelings between them for them to work in a team.

Teamwork, Sheba ground out in her mind, is about not insulting your friends.

Teamwork, Ivan shot back, is about paying attention to their feelings.

"I agree... Throwing Ivan overboard is a good idea," Jenna said cautiously, trying to follow along by the expressions on their faces.

"Ugh. Don't you mean throwing that diary overboard is a good idea?" Ivan asked, pointing to the book on Jenna's lap. "I think it's doing something to us. We haven't been acting like ourselves ever since that thing came along."

"It's what happens when you sneak around, Ivan," Sheba sneered.

"It takes one to know one," he grumbled.

Jenna groaned at the two of them. "Listen. This is worse than I thought. Maybe we should take a short break, and figure out what's eating everyone all of a sudden."

"If that's the case, then Garet—" Ivan started.

"Be quiet. Obviously there's some kind of barrier between us. We need to figure out what it is, but can we at least read one more entry first? Please?"

She stared at her partners-in-crime hopefully. Ivan glared at Sheba, who was busily summoning mental meteors on him. At last, the two pulled their eyes away and faced Jenna, nodding at the same time.

"I agree," the blond girl began imperiously, "on one condition."

"What now?" whined the other two.

"We use Ivan's head as a footstool!"

Five minutes later, Ivan leaned miserably against the side of the bed, his lovely little blond locks flattened beneath the boots of the girls above. They giggled to each other, settled in, and began to read the diary together. Ivan folded his arms grumpily, listening in as Sheba read aloud in her mind.

"Here we go again," he muttered.

Entry 19

What a mess. I can't believe he was so stupid. And here I thought that age breeds intelligence.

Well, I've counted the number of days and enough time has officially passed for me to begin worrying about him.

Alex... DUN DUN DUN ...is gone.

"What!?" all three cried at once, and despite Jenna's order, frantically turned to the next page of the diary.

Yugi: Sorry for the delay, peeps! Haven't had much inspiration for Golden Sun lately, sadly enough... Maybe I should go play the games again, eh?

Anyways, I got a review the other day pointing out that Jenna, Sheba, and Ivan are more than a little OOC in this. Well, yeah. They kind of are. But I can't change their personalities right in the middle of the story, so I'll try to apply some kind of method to the madness. Beware, and look out for some new relationship development in future chapters.

...In the meantime, have a lemon meringue pie!