AN: Yeah, I know I haven't updated anything much in a while. I blame school. Over 100 faves? Have I mentioned that you readers are simply awesometastic? The beginning of this was supposed to be short…but then I got carried away…as usual. This chapter is like…filler. I apologize. I'll get a good one up later. There was supposed to be actual important stuff in this chapter, but I decided to cut it out because you'd never get this chapter if I tried to put everything I wanted in. And this chapter is relatively short as well. Sorry.

If I have to listen to any more classical music, I'm going to strangle someone. Seriously. Who knew Kyle was such a huge fan?

Classical music is so not my thing.

I'd always known that, but I didn't know how absolutely I detest it until now. It's just so freaking boring. Give me Linkin Park any day. And not the crap they're making now either. I was just sitting here, bored out of my mind, when I realized that Kyle had brought along his iPod. So I had grabbed it from him, thinking that he would have some music that I would be able to at least tolerate.

Boy, was I wrong.

But I couldn't stop listening to it because classical music kind of takes over your brain and renders you unable to do anything about it. And when you force yourself to change the song on the iPod (which was difficult, by the way), you find that EVERY FRICKING SONG ON THE FRICKIN IPOD IS FRICKIN CLASSICAL.

Then you sigh and just surrender to the crappy music, even though you hate its guts.

…How did I start talking in second person anyway?

At least Kyle seemed to be having a good time making fun of the look on my face.

"TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR…" Kyle sang. I groaned and buried my head into my pillow to muffle the noise. We were in a hotel room in Virginia, trying to think of our next move. Sure, we were trying to get to Phoenix in the long run, but what if we got there and found out that the diabolical plot we were trying to prevent from getting carried out wasn't taking place there after all, but in some hick town Texas? That would just suck. Becci was in another room. I was actually surprised that we could afford two rooms, but I was so glad that she wasn't in here. Wouldn't you be glad?

"Will you stop?" I asked, throwing a pillow at him.

"What else are we supposed to do in here?"

"I dunno. Watch TV or something," I grumbled.

"But there's nothing good on TV."

"Find something to do other than sing a song about a little star in the sky."

"What do you have against little stars in the sky?"

"I have nothing against them. I have a problem with your crappy singing."

"At least I'm not the one who writes in a freaking diary," he retorted.

It took a full minute for his words to dawn on me. I widened my eyes. "I—I don't write in a diary," I denied nervously. Yeah, if he had any doubts that he was right, they would probably have disappeared with my stuttering. I smiled, hoping that would convince him that he was utterly wrong. Ha, probably just made me look constipated or something.

He pointed an accusatory finger at me, which was just plain mean. "Ha! You do have a diary."

"Didn't I just say that I don't?" I replied. I spied your leather-bound cover sticking out of my backpack and willed you to hide yourself with my awesome telepathic powers. You didn't obey me, man diary. You're not a very good friend, are you?

"LIES," Kyle yelled.

"Do you think I would really have a diary? Those are for girls."

He scrutinized me. "Well, you're emo, right? And don't emo people like to whine and complain about their lives? And girls do the same thing with diaries…" He trailed off, leaving me to imagine what he was going to say next, which was probably along the lines of "Nico is a girl and writes in a diary. Whoa, he's even more of a loser than I thought. Is that even possible?"

Apparently, it is.

"Why does everyone think I'm emo?"

"Well…"

"I don't cut myself nor do I wear tight pants like most emo guys!"

"Well…there was that one time with those jeans…" he mused.

"That was a freaking dare."

"But still…" he muttered. I realized that we had stopped talking about my journal, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. Maybe I could somehow dump Kyle in the river Lethe one day and then his memories would be erased. Yeah…that may actually be feasible. I just had to get massive amounts of rare Mythomagic cards to lure him into the Underworld in the first place. Then when he fell into the river, I'd be able to keep the cards. Score!

Wait…man diary, do you think that's too mean? Because I think that might be too mean. Is it? IS IT? Answer me, you inanimate piece of crap!

"Can I read your diary?" Kyle asked, completely out of the blue. I had spaced out for a minute, and his question jolted me back into reality. Seemed like I had thought too soon when I said that maybe he had forgotten about the diary. Or maybe I had jinxed myself…

I looked into his eyes (ew, not in the way that stupid people in romance novels look at each other), and realized that there was no point in denying that I had a diary. He would probably call me out on my lie. "No, of course not. Why would I let you delve into my thoughts?"

"Er…good point. I just thought I'd give it a try." He stood up and began throwing stuff into his backpack.

I was mildly surprised. "Aren't you going to make fun of me and call me a girl?"

"Because well…" He bit his bottom lip and stared at the floor. "I wanted to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone because if you do, I'm going to tell people about your diary. But I kinda want to tell someone, so—"

I cut him off. "Tell me already."

"Ihaveapinkblankie," he said in a rush. He looked at me expectantly.

Well…this was kinda weird…and awkward. And when guys get nervous…well…

"Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding." Yeah, in times of distress, make a Chuck Norris joke! Great job, Nico. Really great job.

"I just told you one of my darkest secrets and you make an irrelevant Chuck Norris joke?" Kyle asked in disbelief.

I fixed him with my scariest glare. "A Chuck Norris joke is never irrelevant. It's impossible."

"Aren't you going to call me a girl?"

I shrugged. "Well, we both do things that may be classified as 'girly' or 'childish', so I guess we're even."

"And we can't tell anyone, especially Becci."

"Right," I agreed.

"And for the record, I still think having a diary is girlier."

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" I asked Becci. We were walking through the city. We had taken a bus from a stop near our hotel and were now…somewhere…I stared at the sign. Danville. Wow…someone had been extremely creative when thinking of the name for this city.

We had our bags swung over our shoulders and weapons concealed in our clothing or bags like good little questers. Well, my sword was tucked into a sheath at my side, but it probably didn't look like a sword to mortals, so it was still technically concealed. I wondered what it looked like to them. Hopefully not a pink purse. Though with some of the looks that people had given me…it might as well be.

"I'm telling you, we need to find a way to get across the country fast or we're gonna run out of money soon," she replied through gritted teeth. It seemed like she was slightly annoyed with us. Ya know…just maybe.

"What do you want us to do? Magically find a magical creature in the woods my some magical means and hope that it can magically transport us across the country?" I asked, shifting the weight of my backpack from one shoulder to the other uncomfortably.

"You said magical a lot," she said.

"That was kind of the point."

"And besides, I wasn't going to say that we should look for a 'magical creature'," she said, agitated. "I just think we should travel some of the distance on foot to avoid having to spend too much money."

"I'd like to make it there and back before I'm 20," I pointed out. I brushed the sheath with my fingers to make sure that it was still there. Seemed like I had been doing that a lot in the past few minutes. I hoped that I wouldn't have to use it, but at the same time, wanted some action. This quest was probably destined to be the most boring one in the long list of boring quests.

"Only part of the trip. Were you even listening to me?"

Before this could segue into another argument, I interrupted her. "Hey, where's Kyle?"

Both of us looked around frantically, in all directions. When we didn't see him, Becci let out a frustrated sigh. She turned to me, her eyes blazing. "You lost him?" she hissed.

"What? I was supposed to keep an eye on him?" I asked sarcastically. "Because a human being is so easy to keep track of every freaking minute."

"I don't need your sarcasm right now," she snapped. Was it just me or did she sound like a math teacher?

Teacher: Give me your homework, mister.

Student: My three-headed dog named Cerberus ate it. Sorry. Blame my dad for making me feed him without a red rubber ball to distract him if I have to.

Teacher: I don't need your sarcasm right now.

Student: I wasn't being sarcastic…Look, I even have the scars to prove it! Wanna see?

Teacher: o_O

"Do you have any idea where he is?" I retorted.

"Well, there are two things he likes. He'll probably be somewhere where he can find those things. Mythomagic and…"

"Hobos," I completed. Right then, I wished I could do a *foreheaddiary* (that was either genius or an epic fail).

"Should we just walk into a dark alley and hope we find some hobos?" Becci asked worriedly. Her eyes scanned the area, presumably looking for a dark alley that Kyle may have disappeared into. But unfortunately, there were none in sight and she groaned. "Can we please just abandon him?" she said in defeat. There was a hopeful glint in her eyes though, which spurred me to start walking in the direction we came from, hoping to find Kyle along the way. She seemed kind of glad that he was missing and well…I have a bit of a defiant streak.

"We're going to look for him. He's our friend," I said in a determined voice. Becci muttered something that sounded like, "Your friend is more like it," but I ignored her.

After 15 minutes of walking, I was ready to give up.

"Seriously? Where can a 14-year-old geek HIDE here?" Becci growled.

A little girl with blonde pigtails and an unwrapped lollipop in her hand accidentally walked into Becci. She started apologizing, but the glare Becci gave her stopped her mid-apology. Becci wordlessly took the lollipop out of the girl's hand, unwrapped it, and stuck it in her own mouth.

"Beat it, kid," she mumbled with the lollipop still in her mouth. The girl's lower lip trembled and tears started to fill her eyes.

"MOMMY! The mean lady stole my lollipop!" she wailed as she ran off, presumably to tell her mom about how her lollipop was stolen. Becci seemed unconcerned that she was the "mean lady" in question. She closed her eyes and just continued sucking on the lollipop.

I glared at her. "Was that necessary?"

She widened her eyes in an imitation of innocence. "What? I needed some sugar!" she protested.

"It doesn't give you the right to steal a lollipop from a little girl," I reprimanded. I looked around and I saw the girl whispering in the ear of a very angry-looking woman. I decided it was time to get the heck out of there. Fast. I grabbed the lollipop out of Becci's hand and threw it on the ground.

She looked at me in shock. "Give. Me. Back. My. Lollipop," she said menacingly.

"For one thing, it wasn't your lollipop. And for another thing, you can still get it yourself…if you want a bunch of dirt on your lollipop."

We looked at where the lollipop lay on the ground, where I had actually thrown it on some gum that someone had spit out. Becci made a face. "No, thank you."

"Didn't think so," I said.

"Why'd you have to do that anyway?"

"Because we're supposed to be finding Kyle and not stuffing our faces with lollipops," I said exasperatedly. "I know you don't exactly like him, but he's my friend, and he's on this quest with us, so we're not going to leave him behind to hang out with hobos."

"I wasn't stuffing my face," she protested. But nonetheless, she followed after me, trying to keep an eye out for Kyle. I looked around to see if there were any hobos who just happened to be conveniently placed near us.

"Where is he?" I mumbled to myself.

"Dude! You're like the most hobo-iest hobo I've ever met!" I heard someone near us yelling. Was that… "Almost better than Mythomagic!"

I shot a look at Becci. There was annoyance layered with amusement in her gray eyes. "Yeah, I think that's him," she decided.

"You think?" I replied. I started to walk to the right, where I had heard the voice.

And sure enough, there was Kyle, who had seemed to have cornered a hobo on the street. The guy had a dirty jacket over a ripped t-shirt and frayed jeans. His hair was greasy and matted. Typical homeless guy. He had an uncomfortable look on his face and seemed like he wanted to get the heck out of there. Too bad Kyle wouldn't let him. He had him cornered against the wall of a building and was looking at him eagerly, asking him random questions about the hobo lifestyle. When the poor guy saw us, he looked at us like, Hey, get me out of here. Your crazy friend is going to drive me to the brink of insanity. Help or you'll be shunned by the entire hobo community!

I approached them hesitantly and tapped Kyle on the shoulder. "Um…what the heck are you doing?" I whispered angrily, so as to not attract more attention than we had already attracted.

"Uh…I'm talking to someone," he said in a matter-of-fact kind of voice.

I gave him a look. And another look. And yet another look…

Yeah, well, okay, you probably get the point.

"Look, kid, can you find another person to annoy? I really have to go um…steal another little girl's lollipop or something," the hobo said, edging away from Kyle. Becci's eyes lit up when he mentioned stealing lollipops. Looks like someone had found her soulmate.

"B—but…I thought we were friends!" Kyle wailed. I sighed, and grabbed his wrist, dragging him away. He tried to break free for a bit, but when he realized that I was a tiny bit stronger than him (understatement…not to sound egotistical :P), he didn't object to be pulled along, which I was grateful for, since if he had struggled for another minute, I was about to let him go and help him interrogate the hobo myself.

What? Kyle wasn't the only weird person around here.

We glanced back at the hobo one more time, only to find that he had run away. Not that I blamed him, but still. This could be my only chance to interrogate a hobo.

Yeah, I totally didn't blame Becci for dragging us by the ears and pulling us away, which she did when she noticed my lack of resolve in pulling Kyle away. Even though it kind of hurt.

Kyle rubbed his ear, irritated. "DUDE! That hurt!"

"That's what you get for leaving us when you should've been following," Becci argued.

"I had a good reason!"

"Yeah, let's hear your great reason for leaving that made us waste an hour. Because you can definitely think of a reason to justify that," Becci said sarcastically.

Kyle paused, and it looked like he wasn't going to answer. But then, he blurted out, "There's someone stalking us."

…

Awkward silence.

"WHAT?" Becci yelled. She grabbed Kyle's shoulders and shook him. "What. The. Hell? Why didn't you tell us this earlier?"

"Because I had to make sure! That's why I left you guys!"

"Wait…why would someone want to stalk us?" I wondered.

Becci stamped her foot in frustration, which was 1 part cute, 2 parts just plain annoying. "It can only be a monster."

If my life was a movie, there would be ominous music playing now.

"What does he look like?" I said.

"You remember that random hobo we saw at the train station?"

"The one who looks like a pedophile?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. "It's him."

FML

AN: I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE FILLER CHAPTER!

Anyway, for those of you who are reading my other stories, you've probably already guessed that I'm not really updating (even though I'll try soon). Life is so hectic that I barely have time to think, much less write. Don't worry. I'm not going on hiatus without giving you an official notice. I just had the worst Geometry take-home test ever (okay, it's the first one we've had this year, but so what?). It took me about 8 hours to do, and I'm actually quite good at math. I have to present a speech on cloning in English class next week. And the president of the school board will be there. I get to almost cuss in front of her. Sweet.

Latin chanting makes any song sound more beast, huh?

Review?