Chapter Twenty Nine

Megan took a deep breath to brace herself for the madness ready to ensure.

The first couple of minutes consisted of all sorts of people-News crews, police officers, civilians-asking her over and over again how the explosion happened. Fortunately, Megan was clever enough to give enough details without giving away the direct involvement of animals in the fiasco.

"I heard something squeaking in the basement while I was getting a cup of water. The nanny is a light sleeper and I didn't want her to wake up and be tired all the next day, so I went down to take care of the noise myself."

Then she gasped in dread when she spotted the nanny stalking towards her and the reporters with definite rage in her beady eyes. The old woman jabbed a fat finger at the little girl.

"You," she barked "I heard noise in the basement right before the alarm went off! The only thing capable of causing such an explosion was the boiler! And the first one I saw the moment I came out of the building was you! YOU were the one who caused it, weren't you?!"

Megan started to take a step back at the interrogation, severely rattled. There was no way she could say a raccoon was the culprit. Even if it was the truth, who would ever believe her? Unless...

An idea suddenly occurred to Megan. An extremely clever idea.

She knew exactly how to dodge this bullet. With that in mind, she succeeded in regaining her composure and posed her hands behind her back in an innocent fashion "Like I told all the nice people here, I heard some squeaking down in the basement and thought it might've been mice. I was worried they might wake everyone up and I didn't want to wake you, so I decided to shoo them away myself."

A newswoman suddenly appeared next to the nanny, shoving a microphone into Megan's face "Excuse me, young lady, but do you expect us to believe that someone your age had access to such a dangerous area?"

Megan nodded "It's not that hard to believe, actually. Our nanny never locks the door to the basement at night, or any door for that matter because she always expects us to stay in our rooms unless it's to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. Which I had to."

The newswoman and her associates all settled a glare on the nanny, who stepped back timidly now that the attention was all on her.

"Um, w-well," the nanny stuttered "I-I keep a room near the door to the basement and I'm a light sleeper, so that something like this never happens. Also my boss has been meaning to fix those door locks but never got around to it, since everyday is always so busy and we never thought something like this could happen to us."

"Yet, it DID." A police officer retorted in a menacing tone.

The nanny only had enough time to gulp before the entire news crew came down on her like a flock of vultures. Megan hastily backpedaled to avoid the sudden throng of people, but smirked once she got out of range.

Surly was going to be so proud of her.

Wait a second, Surly! Megan looked around frantically. Where did he go? Where did the others go?

"Megan!"

The young girl turned at the familiar call and discovered Sofia and her father running her way, faces full of concern. Once they reached her, Sofia wrapped her in a tight hug, one Megan gladly returned. Once the kids finished their embrace, Mr. Jacobs got down to one knee and gave Megan a once-over to make sure she wasn't injured "Are you alright? We saw the news and came down as fast as we could."

When Megan nodded, Mr. Jacobs sighed in relief hen glanced up at the smoldering remnants of the orphanage "Um, how on earth did this..."

"Megan waved a dismissive hand, "It's kind of a long story. Um, would it be alright if we arranged for me to stay at your guys' house for a while?"

Mr. Jacobs shared a look with his daughter before looking back at Megan with a hearty smile "Well, I can imagine worse places you could be."


After a whole eventful week came and gone, so much change had happened to Megan. When the orphanage burnt down, the adults who ran it had no choice but to give up every single child to the first available families who wanted them and for the bullies, who always got what they wanted, had the tables turned when they received severe punishments for the first time in their lives and they weren't happy about it. And neither were Kylie and her mother, the nanny, who were put in serious trouble trying to explain what happened to the original owner of the orphanage that the building would take years to rebuild from scratch, and boy were they in DEEP trouble.

The other children were thrilled to have parents at long last and are even happier to see that one of their own, Megan, had become the official adoptive daughter of Mayor Jacobs, the new mayor of Oakton who kept his promise on good deeds and great things and Sofia was happy to welcome Megan as her new sister, which Megan returned with so much happiness... but something wasn't quite right.

Where were Surly? And his friends? Were they alright? Megan was worried that something bad had happened to them when one day while she was in her new bedroom she got her answer.

She heard a noise by the window and looked up to see Surly, Andie and Buddy waving to her from the window seal. Megan smiled and pulled the trio close for a hug as she cooed "Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Buddy! You're alright!"

"Yeah... of course now you have a real daddy now." Surly said "Sorry we had to leave but there was a large crowd and we had to leave before anyone saw us, sorry we had to leave you in the dark about that."

"It's okay." Megan said "And no matter what I have for parents, you guys will always be my family."

"That's sweet, and next time we'll bring our babies so they can see how your doing in your new home." Andie said "It's probably for the best that you have a proper human home anyway, to be honest I was afraid of what we would've done if you had gotten sick or severely hurt."

"Well, no matter what family is family and friends are friends... and I'm proud to know you guys as both friends and family." Megan said

Buddy was so happy he climbed up Megan's arm and gave her a great big smooch on her cheek. Megan giggled as she snuggled her rat friend close and said "No matter what Buddy, you will always be my Uncle. I'll never forget any of you."

"And we will never forget you baby." Andie said "Now we better get going before our other babies get into trouble."

"See you later kiddo." Surly said before he blew her a kiss and scampered off back to the park.

Megan watched the trio scurry all the way back to the park and out of sight before she went back to her school homework.

She was going to miss her time in Liberty Park but she knew that deep down the park will always be her home and the animals who took care of her and had many adventures with and rescued her from the clutches of the wicked Raccoon will always be there and will always be her family. Just as she will always be known by all as the Human of Liberty Park.

The End!