Alright guys, fair warning... I am so dumb when it comes to court scenes. I guess I just never watched enough of those kinds of shows haha but I did my best. I'm so excited to share the next several chapters with you! Things are getting pretty... well... you'll just have to read and see for yourself. Enjoy, and please leave a review! :)

Music: None for this chapter.

Chapter Twenty One

The Wrongfully Accused

And the lawyers are denying!

-The Once-ler in "How Bad Can I Be?"

With a tinny pop, Cindy broke into her brand new colored pencils. One by one, she carefully pulled each color out and set them on the kitchen table.

Hannah turned the sink off and turned to her, drying her hands with a bright yellow towel. "Whatcha buy?"

"Pencils," Cindy replied, turning in her chair and holding up the tin casing. "I needed more for my final project."

"Can you believe it's been a whole semester already?" Hannah asked, pulling a chair up and straddling it. "It flew by so fast!"

Cindy nodded, picking up a green pencil and examining it for no good reason.

"Kinda wish I had something to show for it."

Cindy glanced up at her. "What do you mean?"

Hannah shrugged. "Well, look at you! You've always been on top of your classes despite your craziness with this environmentalist stuff…. And you even got a boyfriend out of it!" She leaned forward, sweeping her bangs from her face. "Heck, and not just any boyfriend. And me? Slacking off, sleeping in til noon, partying… I've decided I'm going to clean up my act next semester." She grinned at Cindy.

Cindy smiled back encouragingly. "Good plan."

Hannah stood, picking the yellow towel back up. "So. How're you and dear old Once-ler?"

Cindy rolled the green pencil between her fingers.

Things had never been better.

Despite having to avoid all newspapers and magazines for the sake of her sanity, the last few weeks had been wonderful for Cindy. Once-ler had to work most of the time, and he promised her he was working hard on making new plans for running his business so he wouldn't have to harm the environment as much.

She would remind him that just replanting trees wasn't enough- he'd have to figure out a way to keep the air and water clean as well. But he was an inventor- she was sure he would come up with a genius plan. They were finally on the same page.

After work and on his days off Once-ler would meet up with her and they would hang out. Like a couple. She was still getting used to the idea of having the Once-ler as a boyfriend. But she enjoyed it. Immensely.

She'd only gone to see the Lorax once since Once-ler's change of heart. She had informed him that he needn't worry about Once-ler anymore because he was more than willing to change his ways. The Lorax came off as slightly suspicious, which made her a little upset. She decided to just wait and show him that he could trust her. Trust Once-ler.

The only thing that bothered her was Once-ler's reluctance for her to help him with his new plans. He argued that it angered his mom, so she didn't press it. She had to have faith that he was doing the best he could and that he would find solutions on his own. And if he needed any help or advice, she'd be there to give it.

In the meantime, she went to classes, let him work, and spent quality time with him every chance they got.

It was the best three weeks she'd had since coming to Greenville. Thneedville.

Once-ler had been right. Now that they were old news, the publicity was dying down. Cindy enjoyed being able to go to the store without being nearly bowled over by reporters.

Cindy began to put her pencils away. "Good. We've been good." She smiled at Hannah. "It's nice."

Hannah opened her mouth to say something, but paused when there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it," she said, throwing the yellow towel over her shoulder. She winked. "Maybe your beau is off work early."

Cindy highly doubted it, but hurried to put the pencils back in her case anyway.

She heard the door open, and then a small gasp from Hannah. "Oh! Um… can I help you?"

"Ma'am, we have a warrant to search this apartment." It was a very brisk female voice.

Cindy closed her pencil case with a snap, and stayed frozen that way, listening intently.

"Oh… uh, okay, but um…" Hannah was floundering. "Why?"

"We believe this apartment contains stolen property."

The door squeaked as it opened further and the woman stepped inside the apartment. "Where is you roommate?"

Cindy's heart jolted. Trying to act nonchalant, she stood and stepped into view of the door. "Hey. I'm right here." She sounded weak. Pathetic.

Before her stood a police woman, and next to her a shorter cop with a goatee. Hannah was twisting the towel nervously in her hands.

The police woman stepped forward, holing out a paper. "You're Cindy Lou Who?"

"Uh, yeah." What was going on?

"It has come to our attention that you are withholding an item of stolen property. We're here to search for it. Unless we can do this the easy way and you can just fetch it for us now."

Cindy was having troubles grasping what was being said. "I'm sorry… You think I've stolen something?"

"Hard way it is then." It was the first time the man with the goatee had spoken. He had a higher voice than Cindy would have imagined. In other circumstances, she would have been slightly amused. But now, it did nothing to calm her nerves.

She and Hannah could do nothing but stand numbly aside as two more cops entered the apartment and began to throw the cushions off the couch, dig through their backpacks, and rummage through drawers. Hannah glanced at Cindy. "What on earth did you do?"

"Nothing!" Cindy's heart hammered, making her angry at herself. Why was she so anxious? She hadn't stolen anything. They wouldn't find whatever it was they were looking for here.

"Rollins!" one of the cops suddenly called out. He straightened, waving a long rolled up piece of blue paper her found behind the couch in his hands. "I found it."

Cindy stared at it, then turned to Hannah. "What is that?"

Hannah gave a sharp look to Cindy. "Isn't that one of your art projects?"

Cindy shook her head, and watched as the police woman named Rollins snatched the blue paper from the other cop. She unrolled it, peered at it for a brief moment, then nodded once, pointing to the corner of the paper. "See?" she told one of the cops. "'Thneed Incorporated' stamped here."

Now Cindy was thoroughly confused. Was that one of Once-ler's… blueprints? What was it doing here?

Rollins rolled the paper back up and handed it to the cop. "I'm afraid this means you're coming with us, Miss Who."

Cindy stayed rooted to the spot. "Coming… where?"

Rollins stepped right in front of Cindy, fingering the handcuffs at her belt. "To court."

The slam of the mallet made Cindy jump. It also helped her mind wrap around the situation.

She was in court.

Being tried.

For stealing from the multi-millionaire company her boyfriend ran.

Funny enough, Once-ler wasn't even there.

The room quieted, and the trial began with some pointless questions that Cindy meticulously answered. Then the plaintiff stood. He was thin and pleasant looking, except for the fact that he was trying to prove her guilty. "Cindy Lou Who," he said, unrolling the blue paper and approaching her. "Have you ever seen this blueprint?"

This was the first opportunity she had to actually look at the contents of the paper. She leaned forward, and took it from him, eyes scanning the lines and scribbled words she knew were in Once-ler's handwriting.

Whatever she expected to see, it wasn't this.

Once-ler had drawn—in perfect detail—a large machine. It looked like one of his Choppers, but bigger.

And with more axes.

She blinked rapidly, willing the blueprint to morph and change its content into something different. Anything but this.

Finally, she answered him. "No."

"So you were never aware it was in your apartment?"

"Of course not."

"Just a yes or no answer, please."

"No," she nearly snapped. Now that she could see him up close, the plaintiff's nose was too long, and eyes a cold gray. Perhaps he wasn't so pleasant after all.

"To your knowledge, was your roommate aware that this blueprint was in your apartment?"

"No."

He nodded, once, before saying, "That is all," and sitting down.

Now the defendant stood. He was portly and balding. Somehow, Cindy lacked faith that he would get her out of this in one piece. "Cindy Lou Who, may I ask you to recount what you were doing yesterday, the 14th at 9am?"

Cindy tried not to let her mind turn to scrambled eggs. Come on, Cindy… It's a simple question. "I was in class," she answered. "In Art Education."

"And after that?"

Cindy again had to tell herself to remain calm and simply answer the questions. "The class ended at ten, but then I had another class that started at 10:15, so I went to that. Then… I went back to my apartment to have lunch." She swallowed, and it sounded much too loud in her ears. "I did some homework, and then at around 4:30 Once-ler came by…"

Her defendant held up a hand. "The Once-ler? CEO of Thneeds Incorporated?"

Cindy nodded. "Yes. We're… well. We're a couple." She felt herself blushing. "In case you missed it in the papers."

"I am well aware of what the media has been saying about the two of you." He rubbed his chin, looking down to the ground. "Go on."

"Well… He came, and we decided to walk around the town square."

"And about what time was this?"

"Uh…" What time was it? "Five, I guess."

"And what did you do in the 45 minutes between then and the Once-ler's arrival?"

Cindy shrugged. "Talked. Goofed off. Said good-bye to Hannah…"

"Your roommate left?"

"Yes." Cindy couldn't resist tucking a strand of hair away from her eyes. "She went to the mall with friends."

"I see." He waved his hand at her. "Go on. What did you and the Once-ler do at town square?"

"We walked. Went into a music store. He played a guitar and sang." She scrambled to figure out what they did after that. "Oh yeah! We had dinner at that Chinese place next to Rico's…"

He nodded his head slowly, as if taking in every word she said. The plaintiff was sprawled on the seat opposite, looking bored. She felt a pang of annoyance.

"Then at 7:30ish we stopped by a bookstore. We didn't buy anything though." She felt heat rising to her face as she remembered Once-ler wanting to play hide and seek amongst the bookshelves, and how she had mildly scolded him for being so childish. He responded by standing broodily over her shoulder, pecking her cheek every once in a while with that boyish grin he still had, making her lose her concentration as she tried to read the summary on the backs of books. She had begun giggling so loud they were asked to leave.

She went on.

"We went to the park, and went to the swings. We talked, tried to admire the few stars we could see in the sky…."

"Alright, and after that?" Her defendant clearly didn't want to hear any sappy young love stories. She felt her face, along with the rest of her body, heat up in an embarrassed flush.

"He took me home. He stayed until about ten, and then left. I did more homework, then went to bed. End of my day."

Her defendant didn't seem to enjoy looking up from the ground very often. Eyes still lowered, he backed away and sat down, giving up the floor.

It was asked if there were any witnesses. Hannah was brought in, looking like she were living in some sort of nightmare.

And behind her, Once-ler's mom strutted proudly in on the scene, her nose stuck in the air.

Trailing behind her, stone-faced, was the Once-ler himself.