A/N: First of all, I'm so sorry you had to wait this long for a new chapter. This should've come out during the May but graduating from vocational school was more tiresome than I thought so I didn't manage to write at all. Back in June I worked with Marie's segment of this chapter – as this chapter has two segments first being Marie's point of view and other being Gargie's point of view. Let's just say I had the worst summer vacation ever, so full of stress I wasn't able to write anything decent. Luckily I started night school (Finnish version of high school but for older people) and got back to writing after I wrote a paper for my English class.

So about this chapter, I tried to give small hints what the heck was with the ending of the last chapter, I don't know how well I managed to do it but I hope this clears up that Marie isn't some Frozen knock off but something else. In this chapter we also see she has some temper, but hey no one is perfect – at least Marie isn't.

Chapter 11 – By the river

:. Marie :.

You know I've always seen myself as pretty tolerating person. Sure there are few things I can't stand; you know – like everyone else does. Actually there are quite many things I dislike. Sometimes I dislike other people, especially grown-ups. Crazy grown-ups...

It was Sunday, the day when Gargie had invited me to their family dinner. I was looking forward to it, I really was, since I didn't have anything to do. I received a call from Madame during morning and she informed me about the current situation of our ballet classes, there would be none until the studio would've been cleaned up from all that broken glass and the windows had been repaired which would take at least couple of days. Then she asked me what happened, since I was – as she put it in the crime scene, as if I had blown up the windows or something. I told her I didn't know what caused it, because I didn't know, I had a hunch but if I'd tell her there were some aliens in robot suits included she'd never believe me. I wasn't sure if it was so, but since Greenie... uh, I mean Raph was included in whatever it was that happened I'd say there was most likely some evil robots included in the scene. Then she'd go and babble about ballets the company would do during this year.

"I already know about the Swan Lake", I told her. "Percy told me."
"Oh, that is a project for the next spring", Madame explained. "We start training for it after Christmas, of course auditions are held during November so we know who will play who, however we will soon have try outs for another ballet we will do around Christmas time."

I had bad feelings about this, considering she said the Swan Lake would be coming after Christmas would fall on us ... And there was only one ballet I knew people went to see during Christmas time for sure. It was the ballet I'd been stuck with ever since I started dancing. I sighed painfully.
"Mademoiselle Blomgren, are you alright?" Madame asked. "Looking through your papers it is assumed you are very familiar with the Nutcracker."
"Little bit more familiar than I'd like to be honest..." I sighed.
"That's good, so you'll know the story when you'll do the try outs."

Excuse me, I'll do what?

"I beg your pardon, I'm not going to..."
But apparently, "no" wasn't an answer.
"Oh but you are, everyone is!" Madame said being as cocksure as ever. "Mrs. Inoue told me about this, um humble side of yours."
What the fuck? I wasn't being humble! I just didn't want to do it, there is a big difference!
"If you want to do well in this area of work, you should forget your humbleness", Madame preached. Seriously, I started to get why she and Kiriko became friends, they had the same vibe going on with the preaching.
"How the audience is supposed to notice your talent if you do not show it?"
"I have a talent?" I asked.
"Seriously mademoiselle Blomgren, if you didn't have talent, you wouldn't be dancing with us." Madame pointed out indignantly.
"And Kiriko's word didn't do anything?" I asked sarcastically.
"Of course it has some weight to it, but that doesn't mean you aren't talented", Madame continued preaching. "And for one I've never seen any of our younger dancers to spend their weekends inside the ballet studio, that should say something."
"It says I don't have anything better to do at home", I corrected her. "And my pirouettes suck."
"Yet you haven't given up on perfecting them, that says a lot about you."
Or nothing at all.
"You are a dedicated dancer, Mademoiselle Blomgren, and in my books it weights a lot." Madame said. "Dedication is what makes a good dancer."
"And talent", I pointed out.

I was dedicated yes, I wanted to be a dancer when I grew up, but I was unsure if I was cut out for it. Have you ever even heard about a professional ballet dancer who can't do pirouettes? Well I'd be the first...
I ended the call and returned to the park, where I had been before my cellphone had started ringing. Roy was looking at me curiously. I took a deep breath and kneeled down to his level. I gazed upon the white dog and into his warm brown eyes.
"Roy, I hate my life", I told him and put my arms around his neck gently. I knew some dogs hated to be hugged, but Roy was used to it, I've been hugging him ever since he was very little. I buried my face on his fluffy white fur, I stayed like that for a moment until I lifted my head up and looked at the face of my dog.
"Would it be too late for me to become the classical nerd?" I asked of him. "You know get fat, play ton of videogames, read comics based on that awful TV show, it sounds nice doesn't it?"
Roy licked my nose and did what I considered to be his cheeky smiling face, with him sticking out his tongue as if he was showing it to me like a little kid that had just won an argument against his or her sibling.
"Silly you", I whispered to him and kissed his forehead. "Come on, let's go."
It was starting to be the time we should be heading to my friend's place, after all who'd want to miss a family dinner right?

Gargie lived in one of those houses that he called idyllic, it was quite large house made from bricks, with white door and window frames. They had a large yard and garage just like we had, but this house was one of those fancier ones unlike ours that was more like the simpler model of this house, some-what resembling our old house back in the country I saw as my home land. This house however was nothing like the simple Granberg residence back in our home town, where it had been cozy, medium sized house with yellow painted walls and red roof and a small yard. Well Dr. Granberg wanted to have a fresh start for one and this clearly was it. I looked at Roy nervously, I wasn't sure if I should've worn something better than my usual outfit of baggy pants and a jumper, but to me family dinners were just normal dinners with my small family where you didn't need a fancy dress, however I was unsure of how they did things in America. Roy let out a squeak, probably letting me know he was as clueless about the situation as I was. I sighed and rang the doorbell.

Upon waiting for someone to open the door, me and Roy shared a stare, I guess I was bit nervous, yes I had visited Gargie many times before but I wasn't expert on these family dinners, I just hope it's nothing like those dinners at Gargie's mom, when I stayed for the night and we'd have dinner together with Mrs. Granberg sulking and giving me death glares. I petted Roy's head.
"This is going to be nothing like it."

For few minutes of waiting someone came to open the door, that someone was Gargie's stepmother Irene, who like always welcomed me with a pleasant smile.
"Hello, Marie. I'm so happy you could come."
If there was something I liked about the new wife it was the fact she was sincerely happy and nice unlike Gargie's mom, who might've told me it was nice of me to come but she never meant it and kept looking at me like I had done something to insult her.
"I've learned never to say no when I'm ordered a free meal", I smiled at her. "Thanks for inviting me."
"You're welcome", She smiled at me warmly. "Please, do come in." Then she petted Roy and told him how gorgeous he was, Roy being such a gentleman waved his tail and licked her hand as thanks. I found Gargie sitting in the kitchen with awfully bored expression on his face.
"What's up?" I asked when I sat down on the other side of the table.
"You know, how I hate these family dinners, don't you, Marie?" He asked. "Remember that last one we had?"
"One with your mom bursting into tears and threating to sue your dad?" I asked. "Who could ever forget?"
"My mom was hell of an actress, wasn't she?" Gargie smirked, however he didn't sound too happy.

For my friend's sake, I'd like to say everything went smoothly, we had a fun time and the food was delicious, but why would I be telling you this story, if everything went perfectly?

It all went downhill as we sat around the dinner table, me, Gargie, Dr. Granberg and his wife. She had prepared baked potatoes and roasted chicken for us, that smelled wonderful. However, before we had a chance to start, Dr. Granberg said, out of nowhere:
"Marie, I contacted Kiriko quite recently."
"Why?" I asked, not suspecting anything. They were old buddies, and used to be in medical school together and remained friends afterwards so it wouldn't be totally out of character for them to contact each other at times.
"Well to be honest, I'm quite worried about you", he said. Gargie looked at me and opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't have time to say anything before his dad continued.
"You have had quite few accidents recently, that's enough to be alar..."
"I had TWO accidents", I corrected him. "And those have nothing to do with you!"
"Well as your doctor, it's my duty to inform your guardian..." He tried to explain.
"Kiriko isn't my god dammed guardian", I said slightly annoyed.
"I couldn't get in touch with your father..." He said, clearly trying to use it as an excuse.
"So you decided tattle little bit with your old friend", I snorted. "What was it about? Has little Marie been acting suicidal to you, since she has had two little accidents?"
"Well I.."
"Dad, will you just shut up?" Gargie asked, clearly annoyed.
"Come on, say it at my face!" I yelled.
"Well I think you might have hurt yourself by accident or not..."
"Are you saying I like to hurt myself on purpose?" This is where I got up.
"Well I didn't mean that..." Of course our good doctor tried to redeem himself, but it wouldn't be of any help as those words had already come out of his mouth.
"Dad..." Gargie tried to make his dad to shut up.
"Reima, couldn't this wait..." Even his wife was uneasy about this talk, argument whatever it was starting to be. I felt the anger bursting inside of my stomach just like a volcano.
"What the fuck gives you the right to put your nose into my business anyway?" I asked of him, even though I already knew the answer. Because I'm an adult, and you are not, you are just a stupid teenager!
That was when Irene stood up too, I could tell she was upset of how this was going to be.
"Please just calm down", she said, trying to make a peace between a random teenager who happened to be the best friend of her stepson. "You can discuss this later, let's have a dinner first."
"I'm not hungry" I said, I heard the chair behind me felling to the floor as I left. Roy followed me without an order, I heard my best friend calling out for me, but I didn't care, not now.

When I was like this, I shouldn't be around other people. Like I said I consider myself being pretty tolerating person. I don't get mad that often, but like many people, there are few things I can't tolerate, one of them being other people, especially grown-ups putting their noses where it doesn't belong.

I felt it in my gut as I ran pass the street, Roy by my side, that I was going to explode. Or rather, something was going to explode, something that I may or may not have a control of. That's why I shouldn't be around people, not when I was like this.

I heard the water purling inside my ears, it felt deafening. Roy looked at me anxiously, because he knew what it was that was wrong with me. Then I stumbled and fell right into the puddle filled with dirty water.
I cursed loudly, people passing by me kept staring at the foreigner girl yelling strange words, but being as the busy people often were, they wouldn't stay and watch, luckily. Luckily this city was a busy one, so no one would notice a simple puddle filled with frozen water. Roy sat down beside me and licked my face. I guess it was his way of saying it's alright, no harm done. I stood up, my jacket was wet from the dirty water, but that didn't matter, I just needed to get myself somewhere away from here.

The question you are probably thinking is, what the heck is going on? Or: just what is wrong with this girl? Let me just say one thing: I wish I knew.

Soon I found myself sitting in the safest place, or rather a place people didn't come to, because they either knew about the place beside the river and didn't care about it or they didn't like the place. But I liked it, I liked the sound of water flowing, unless it tries to deafen me. I sat by the water as I always did, Roy sat next to me for a minute until he decided it was too boring and went to run in the water instead. I sighed as I looked at my dog fooling around, I wonder if he worries about anything. I placed my hand around my chest, where my jacket was the wettest from felling into that puddle. I started to think about warm things, which wasn't completely easy since during that moment I mostly thought of dark thoughts. What was wrong with adults? Seriously, if my dad thinks I can manage on my own, end of the business! I don't understand why he had to mix Kiriko in all of this anyway. Can't he understand how difficult person she can be? She just nags, nags and nags and when she finds out little Marie has lied to her about her dad being home she's pretty much going to kill me. Or worse: She's going to come here and live with me. I'd rather take on those aliens than Miss. Inoue Kiriko living in the same house as I did.

Roy let out a surprised squeak and hurried out from the water. I sighed.
"Sorry, Roy", this is just what happens when I get bit too angry. I need to calm down, before I'd froze the entire place or something. Luckily this time it was only ice water, not an actual ice. Still, this was no good. I needed to do something. Something to get my mind off of things. I opened my bag and took out my worn out ballet shoes, I always carried them with me, it was a habit of mine. Ballet was the one thing that got my mind out of things, so I just wanted to do what I always did. I changed shoes and stood en pointe.

Come on girl, you need to calm yourself down, now. Just breathe, in and out, in and out. Clear your mind. Think of happy thoughts. Or don't think anything at all.

Kagome, Kagome. The bird in the cage, when will you come out?
In the evening of the dawn, the crane and the turtle slipped-

"What are you doing?" Someone asked, shattering my concentration for the memory that popped into my head. I lost my balance and my knees started to tremble and I began to fall. I opened my eyes and noticed I was on my way down to the river but someone pulled me – probably by the hood of my jacket, away from the edge.

I looked behind my shoulder, and saw, I guess my new green friend.
"If it ain't my new friend mad man in reptile costume", I said.
"You managed to forgot my name already?" Green eyed turtle asked.
"Not really", I said. "I just didn't think I'd bump into you today."
"Well I didn't plan for it either", he said as he took a step back because my dog was too excited to see someone he apparently liked. Roy started barking joyfully as if this was the best thing ever. Like Roy often did when I'd return home, he started jumping all around him.
"What's with him?" The turtle asked of me.
"I guess he just likes you", I said. "So what's up? Don't tell me aliens are attacking again."
"Not that I know", he said while waving his arm carelessly. "I was supposed to meet up with Casey, but he got grounded or something."
"I see", I said and sat down. "So you were just in the area?"
"I kind of heard you when I was passing by and since you were just standing here I thought..." The turtle explained.
"That you could sneak up on me?" I guessed with a smiling face.
"I just wanted to know what's with standing on your toes and singing", he defended himself. "I just wanted to see if your head was doing alright."
"Aw, how sweet of you", I said probably sounding too dramatic that I meant to. He was about to answer me and judging by his slightly annoyed expression it was probably going to be something less nice, however Roy got between him and his words.

Roy was still happily jumping all over him, waving his tail and all. It seemed to annoy the green guy the most so he went and growled:
"Cut it out will you?"
And Roy did, in his way. Kind of. He jumped on him, so the green eyed turtle fell down to his shell.
"And so he did", I smirked. Roy looked at me happily, as if he had just done something amazing. However, Raph being under the hyper active dog, didn't look like he approved so I made a hand gesture, for Roy to understand to come back to my side. He knew these hand gestures so he did leave the poor turtle alone and ran towards me.
"Sit", I told him, and obediently the white dog did, never releasing his gaze from me.
"Well would you look at that, he actually did what you told him to", I could detect a tiny tint of amazement on Raph's voice.
"You didn't think he would?" I asked, smiling.
"It seemed so, after all he seems to do the opposite you tell him to." Raph noted.
"You aren't wrong there" I admitted. "Roy can be difficult at times, but usually he behaves."
"What's usually?" The turtle asked.
"When we go for walks, he likes to explore but he doesn't really mind other dogs. He only acts this way around the people he likes." Roy of course had to make this point clear so he let out a little bark. I laughed and petted his head. Raph looked us a while before he decided to sit down as well. He didn't come and sit right next to me but kept his distance.
"Shouldn't you be on your ballet lesson or something?" Raph asked.
"We don't have lessons during weekends, but I kind of do go there just to practice", I admitted while smiling awkwardly. "However since that thing happened with the windows the lessons are cancelled until they have been fixed, so I couldn't go there today."
"So why couldn't you just take it easy for a day and stay home?" He asked.
"Because I don't like staying there", I admitted.
"Is it because of that one night?" I knew he meant the night while back with the brainy aliens appearing at my front yard.
"Well some-what. But mainly I just would be there alone", I sighed. Of course Roy thought different, he squeaked and licked my cheek as of saying:
"Don't be stupid, you human, I'm there with you, so you are not alone!"
"It's just I don't have anyone to talk to or at least anyone that can reply."
"Where is your dad in all this?" Raph asked.
"Doing work in Russia or something", I told him.
"Aren't you bit too young for living all by yourself?" He asked.
"This is the first time I've been living by myself for this long", I said. "I didn't mind it at first after all dad said he'd be home soon but then it was another week or two and another one, and yet another one."
"Well can't you just ask some friends to come over?" Raph asked as if it was that easy.

I was silent for a moment.

"Don't tell me you don't have any", Raph added to his sentence.
"I do", I said quickly. "But they are all guys and dad kind of said I couldn't ask guys to come over when he isn't at home."
"Why not?" Raph asked.
"It's a general rule he made", I told him. "I guess he just doesn't want me to get hurt or the house to get trashed."
"So you're just supposed to stay at home all by yourself?" Raph asked. "If that was me I would been driven mad at this point."
"And here I thought you weren't actually a people person", I said, or joked, or at least tried to.
"I could say the same about you, you know", Raph threw it right back at me.
"Well you aren't wrong", I admitted. "I do like my own space but there's a limit for everything."

I gazed upon the sky, it was already getting dark. I have no idea how much time had passed since my arrival here but I guess I should be getting back home soon. When I was at home I'd call Gargie and let him know I was okay and that nothing out of interest had happened to me after my little... outburst.

"So what was with the singing and toe dancing anyway?" Raph asked.
"Do you remember my persistent doctor from the other day?" I asked.
"The one you told not so big lie to?" He recalled.
"Yeah", then I sighed. "His son is my best friend and all, and they invited me to the dinner."
"It didn't go too well?" I was going to ask how did he knew but I guess if it did go well I wouldn't be sitting here and he knew it, so I shook my head.
"Right now I hate grownups with their 'I have a right to put my nose into your business because I am an adult and you are just a stupid teenager!' though he is my doctor he doesn't have a right to wrongly speculate that poor me is secretly hurting herself just because one bite mark and one accident!"

I felt the anger boiling in my gut. Just thinking of what happened made me want to go crazy on that stupid man! If he only knew he would keep his stupid mouth shut! Then my more reasonable self interrupted these thoughts. Reasonable self said:
You don't really want him to know. Come on calm down. Count to ten. One, two, three...
Then I sighed again.
"I just couldn't go telling the man that I was bitten by an alien and that I was hurt because those same aliens were trying to shoot a human sized turtle right?"
"Right term would be a mutant turtle", he corrected.
"It doesn't make this sound any less crazy", I sighed. "It's not even the worst part..."
"Then what is?" The turtle asked, though I doubted the matter really interested him.
"He goes and calls Kiriko of all people. In worst case she comes to live with me and starts making these stupid rules of how I should live and nags about what kind of person I should be", at this point I could tell I was whining and I realized how stupid I made myself to sound.
"But mostly she's just giving me one hell of a headache."

We were silent. I took a careful glance at him. He looked just like I thought he would, uncertain as he didn't know what to say. I felt embarrassed. Here we go Marie, just go on and whine about things to a person you barely know, just watch him run away.
I took a deep breath and congratulated myself in my mind while looking up to the sky that started to show the color of orange, painting the clouds visible into purplish blue.
"So what was with the singing?" Raph asked. I guess he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"I was trying to calm myself down", I told him.
"Don't you do that with dancing or something?" He pointed out.
"I do, usually but today the studio is closed so I just found myself here", I said.
"Singing?" I could swear he sounded at least bit amused.
"I didn't think anyone would be here to hear", I defended myself. "I was only trying to get something else to think about."
"So you started singing?" I could hear taunting in his voice so I just went and frowned at him.
"It's a part of a memory I decided to think about if you must know."
"Did it include doing karaoke with weird voice by any chance?" Raph taunted me.
"No", I said firmly. "Just a kid's song they all kept singing while circling around me. It was a game of some sort, and not even a funny one at that."
"So why did you play it then?" Raph asked, clearly unimpressed.
"Because I was the smallest one and easiest to push around", I sighed. "I hated that game, I could never say who was standing behind me so the game would go on forever, that's why they always made me the oni."
"The what?" Green eyed turtle asked.
"Sort of demon in old Japanese stories", I told him. "They would place someone in the middle of the circle to be the oni she or he would have to guess who was standing behind him or her when that god damned song ended."
"If you hate it that much why do you sing it?" Raph asked.
"Because it's one of my earliest memories, I always look back to it, even though I know I shouldn't", I sighed. "It reminds me of the life I had once."

Or rather, it reminds me of the life I had before I got those scars on my back.

"Do you miss your old life then?" Raph asked.
"Not really. I miss some things but my life was kind of horrible so I'm happy I have this life now", I said. "I know I sound ungrateful whining about my dad not being around."
"I guess", he said silently.
"So what about you?" I asked to change the subject. "Do you have early memory of some kind?"
"Sure", the turtle replied. "It's bit fuzzy but I remember kind of loud crash of glass and that I was hurt."
"So what happened?" I asked.
"I can't remember", the turtle said. "I guess that's when I got this", and so he pointed on to the lightning shaped cut on the right corner of his plastron, which I hadn't noticed before. I looked more closely to it which I guess bothered him a bit since he moved himself farer away from me.
"What are you doing?" He asked. I could hear the slightest tint of surprise in his voice. "That's disturbing you know!"
"Oh sorry", I smiled at him. "But it does look pretty cool, doesn't it? The cut you got there."
"I suppose", he said after a small pause, gazing up in the sky.

:. Gargie .:

Smoothly talked dad. Really smoothly. You just go and tell that old witch hag your crazy theories about my best friend. Seriously he should know by now that Marie hates it when a grown up starts to treat her like a kid. I know she hates when overly curious adults put their noses into her business and I can't really blame her after this.

"Are you sure there isn't anything going on with Marie?" He asked as if I was being interrogated by the cops, few weeks back when Marie was staying in our place with Oliver over the night.
"Not that I'd noticed", I told him. My dad is an idiot for most of the time and I can barely stand him. He should just keep his mouth shut and no one would get hurt.

Now that I think of it, I should have said:
"For fuck's sake, dad! Her best friend died couple months ago, how do you think she's feeling?!"
Yep, Liisi. Everything should've gone well, her mom had decided to come here after some old friends had suggested it and take her kids with her but. There's always but. Her crazy husband found out and it ended with Liisi dying. Apparently she was trying to make the fighting stop but she got hit or tossed or whatever but she took a bad landing and that was it. Marie doesn't talk about it much, and I don't ask. My dad wasn't even there during that night, if he was instead of fooling in this country with that woman Liisi could've been saved.

And now he dares to accuse Marie for being suicidal or whatever. He doesn't even know her.

You see Marie has a style of her own. She might be graceful on the stage when she's dancing but when she's not she can be pretty clumsy. That's one of the things I like about her, sometimes she can be easy to figure out, but other times – when you think you got her all figured out, she shows another side of herself. Then there's one thing about her not many know of...

Marie is not like others. If my dad knew about it he'd choose his words very differently.

That's why I went looking for her, after I gave my dad a death glare. He doesn't know but I do. When she's like that things could get pretty freezing. Marie knows about it, that's why she left. But she shouldn't be alone when she's like that. I could at least tell her that my dad is an idiot and that I don't believe him. Only problem is we aren't in Loppi anymore. If we were, I knew exactly where to look, she would either be at home, or in that old playground that was so out of repair barely no one bothered to go there and then there was old abandoned lake side, which should've become a beach but it never did. My first instinct was to go and check her house, but then I remembered I didn't know where she lived. Knowing Mathias Blomgren she probably resided farer away from the city center. I knew there was even couple of parks nearby but she probably wanted to be alone so she would be somewhere without that many people.

Now if I were Marie, where would I hide?

That was actually pretty easy one. Of course she'd be at her dance studio. Every time she'd be upset she'd go to let out her steam in some place she could dance. While back in our not so beloved home town, she would go to whatever places possible for dancing, like that out of repair playground since our small town didn't exactly have a ballet studio of its own unless you count the middle school gym hall which wasn't always available. But this was N.Y the big apple, nothing to compare with that pitiful small town we grew up in. This city probably had many dance studios, but Marie, she would only be in that one studio. I had been there many times before, since I'd like to walk Marie there before going home. It was pretty near to our school too, so I take that's where she'd run.

Expect not. As I took my bike and pedaled to the fancy building, only to see bunch of repair men moving back and forth on outside, some went inside the building in hurry. The building and its yard looked like a mess once I got closer I noticed that almost all the windows were broken and the glass was shattered on the yard. What the hell had happened here? Don't tell me she was inside. I left my bike on the other side of the street since I didn't want to risk getting my tires broken. I walked to the other side of the street and waited for all those men to go and turn their backs on me so I could sneak in and look around. It didn't take long for them to do so, so I just moved myself to the door, luckily the glass on the door wasn't shattered.

I tried to pull the door open but as I did that, I noticed the door didn't budge. It was locked from inside.
"Hey boy, what do you think you are doing there?" Someone shouted at me using that kind of tone as if he was thinking I wanted to break something or use bit of spray paint to redecorate the place. I don't understand why people always assumed that.
So I turned around and told the guy:
"I'm just looking for my friend. I think she might be inside."
"There's no one inside expect some workers", grumpy worker man with a mustache said. "This place has been closed since yesterday night."
"This place is a mess", I commented without thinking much about it. But it was a mess, something really big must've happened here.
"Tell me about it", the worker sighed.
"What happened here?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Some kind of showdown between gangs", mustached man said.
"Gangs", I repeated silently. This is what you get for living in a small town for all your life. I'm not saying we didn't have any gangs. We had some like those so called tough boys from our middle school who did smoking on the school yard and pretended to be bad. Or that high school gang whose members drove their mopeds, smoked and at least claimed to beat up people and steal their stuff but the biggest thing they ever did was to break into their high school and paint some walls with spray paint. This on the other hand was something out of their league. I didn't know anyone who could do this much destruction, but then I needed to remind myself – this is America all kinds of crazy things happen in here.
"Was anyone hurt?" I asked, just because.
"There was one dancer inside during the showdown, I heard", the worker said. "She wasn't seriously injured though. Another dancer found her and took her to the hospital."
Well that sounds like it could have happened to Marie. Sometimes she's just is out of luck.

I had no choice but to leave, there was no reason for me staying here. If the place was closed which I don't wonder at all after seeing what kind of shape it was in, Marie surely wasn't hanging out here. But where could she be? I didn't know where she lived and some friend I was too for never even asking about it. I wonder if Oliver knew about it, he probably didn't but it was worth to try anyway.

Surely I could call Marie but she probably had turned her cellphone off...

So I took out my cellphone and looked for Oliver's number. I just hoped he hadn't lost his cellphone this time. It was a thing with Oli, he just tended to lose the cellphone every time I tried to call him. But luckily this time he answered rather quickly.
"Yeah?"
"Hey there Oli, how's-"I started talking pleasantly but of course he interrupted me.
"Don't call me that", he said.
"Sorry, sorry", I laughed nervously. "So what's up?"
"Returning from countryside with my uncle and aunt", he replied. "And you?"
"Let's just say I had kind of awkward family dinner and my dad even managed to piss off Marie", I explained.
"Pissed off Marie?" Oliver repeated. "Is that even possible? She is always so calm..."
"Yeah but my dad has a talent of pissing everyone off", I sighed. "You don't happen to know her address by any change?"
"Address? Why would I..." Oliver wondered.
"I just thought you might know", I said. "I don't know where she ran off to and I really want to check if she's okay. I don't know where she lives and she's not in the ballet studio."
Oliver was silent for a moment until he spoke again.
"I may know where she could be", he said. "This one time she took me into some place that had abandoned warehouse, there was almost finished brick wall and it was by the river."

I should have known. Being near the water was her thing, especially in these situations.

Oliver gave me instructions about how to get to that place which wasn't much because all he knew it was pretty far from the city center. I had to look for abandoned almost finished warehouses and I found few good candidates by using internet. It was starting to get dark, so where ever Marie was I hoped I'd find her soon.

As I was pedaling towards the place Marie could be, I started understanding why Marie always had a dog with her. She did end her ballet lessons pretty late at night and didn't want to risk running into some weirdos. People usually didn't bother people with dogs – especially if it was as mean looking as Thorin. I'm not saying I was a coward, it's just that I had heard and read bunch of articles about people who were robbed and mugged in some dark alley or some other dark place and I wasn't keen on a thought of that happening to me.

Still I got to get to my friend.

Actually the place wasn't that hard to find. Marie had always liked more private places with some sort of shelter, it didn't have to be anything big just something where a girl could rest her mind. And something that wasn't noisy. Now this place actually wasn't that far from the city center but I take it this was one of those places no one cared about. It was a place behind some buildings, it looked like a very big yard or something that could have been a yard to a detached house but was never completed. I think that wall of bricks standing near the water line was supposed to be a wall to a house but that's all they ever made. Then there was indeed something that looked like a warehouse, very groggy one at that.

Yeah, this could be a place Marie would come to hang out if she needed to calm down.

"Seriously does your dog have to be this friendly?" The person I didn't know said. It was definitely a guy.
"Does it bother you?" Marie asked amusedly. "If you'd prefer my other dog, the one that bit you that one time, I can bring him out next time."
"What's with him growling at people all the time anyway?" The guy asked.
"Oh he doesn't. He usually just ignores most of the people who haven't tried to attack me." Marie said stingingly.
"Don't tell me you are still angry because of that", he said.
"I was never angry because you just started following me and randomly accused me of being someone else", Marie said.
"It wasn't that random", he seemed to try and lower his voice but Marie heard it anyway.
"The point is you saved my neck and it wasn't even the only time", she said.
"So are you saying you are grateful?" The guy asked.
"I wouldn't be if I'd lost my head during that night", amused Marie said.
I felt like I was doing something wrong. It's not okay to eavesdrop, and besides this conversation made me to feel kind of awkward. I didn't understand the thing they were talking about and part of me didn't really want to. Now if that was just Marie and someone I knew, no problem but I didn't recognize that voice.

Maybe it was some new friend from her ballet classes or something.

In any case I decided to hide – yes what a fine idea, I know but what else was I supposed to do? I couldn't just go there and be like: "Hey what's up? What are you guys talking about?"
So I just hid myself behind the warehouse. I didn't have to stand there for long. The person she was talking with suddenly stood up.
"Going to see if Jonesy has freed himself?" Marie asked.
"Yeah", he answered.
"Well I guess I see you around", Marie said.
"I guess so", the guy said.
"And Raph?" Marie said as he was about to leave. "I'm sorry about whining about my problems."
"Don't mention it", he said sounding like he didn't care. And then he ran towards the warehouse. And the only question I could think of was: What the heck was that thing?

It was completely green and it had a shell. It wasn't human although it was as big as one, actually it was around as big as Oliver and shorter than Marie. And it jumped to the rooftop. From there I'm not sure where it went but it vanished into the darkness.

What the hell? Was I losing it? Did that just happen or did I just imagine it?

Yet there was Marie sitting by the river with her dog running back and ford. She seemed to be as calms as ever. There she was her fingertips in the water, as drops of water started to rise from the river slowly like a rain drops but without the cloud and drops falling into the ground but raising from the water.

Now you may think: What the heck is going on in here? I don't know how she can do this exactly; she doesn't know either but it's cool as long as she doesn't lose her cool. I took a breath and slowly came out from my hiding place. Of course it didn't take long for Roy to notice me, he barked and ran towards me. And then he just jumped on me like always.
"Luckily you are all white fur ball", I said. "I'd see you even if it was pitch black." Then I just pushed him off of me and stood up. Marie was already looking at my direction.
"Hey, frostbite", I greeted her. "It's nice to see you've calmed down."

Then Roy found my bike behind the warehouse and somehow managed to make it fall by greeting it. Apparently he got so scared of the sound the falling bike made when it reached the ground that he ran straight to his mommy. Marie laughed. As I reached her she smiled and said:
"Sorry for leaving like that."
"Don't worry about it", I said as I sat next to her. "If that was me I'd probably done the same. I'm sorry about my dad. He just doesn't know when to quit."
"I just hope Kiriko doesn't take him seriously", she sighed while petting Roy's white fur.
"You can always tell her my dad was just making it up", I suggested.
"And she'd believe me how?" Marie asked. I knew someone as sharp as that old hag wouldn't, especially if it came from a friend whom she had known for years. And Kiriko was like my dad, she worried too much.
"Luckily Kiriko's imagination doesn't get the best of her", I said.
"So you don't believe what your dad said about me?" Marie asked.
"Did you actually doubt about it?" I asked. "I know you better than he does."
"That you do, G", Marie said as she started rising the water drops from the river once more. "That you do."

Still...

"But if something was up", I started. "You would tell me right?"
"Of course", Marie said. "But why are you asking?"
Because I couldn't help thinking about one thing. Or well two but who's counting?

One: What was that thing? And two: What was that talk about him saving Marie's neck more than once?

I could ask but how would that sound, Hey Marie I kind of saw this creepy looking guy leaving here, what's his deal? No, I just couldn't go asking it like that. I wasn't even sure I saw what I thought I did. It could have been a cosplayer or something. After all the world is full of weirdos – myself included.

With one hand gesture and all of the water drops fell back to the river where they came from and Marie smiled at me like she always did. Her serene smile would always calm me down.
"If something was up, you'd be the first to know", she said. "After all you are the only one who I could talk to, you know that right?"
"I know." I said.

But still I couldn't stop feeling like something was already up with her. And I was worried.

A/N 2: There you have it. I think this was rather nice chapter. Surely not action filled, there was meant to be a fighting scene at the end but as the chapter was beginning to be too long I just skipped it after all the next chapter will be more action filled. Oh and if someone's wondering where did I get the translation for Kagome Kagome I found it on Youtube – not necessarily the best place to look for translations but oh well...