I do not own Maximum Ride! I own my characters.
Salem and I slid back into the diner and next to Tarzan and Kitten. Eric and Tarzan looked at one another and burst out laughing. Salem and I looked at one another and shrugged. Boys...
"No, when you think it about it, it must be really horrible," Kitten said looking serious.
"What is?" Salem asked.
"Dr. Kandi's name is Sandra. Her name is Sandy Kandi," Kitten said. I smiled.
"No wonder she's evil," Eric giggled. "It's like her parents wanted her to be a stripper or a porn star." I gave Eric a look, but couldn't help smiling in my own immaturity. He looked away still snickering.
"I should look that up on the internet," Salem thought aloud.
"Please, don't," I said unable to stop myself from laughing a little bit. Salem rolled her eyes.
"No. Not to see if she's a porn star. But to get information to on her. We found out some weird stuff about Itex," Salem said. She repeated the information that she'd explained to me. How Itex had been destroyed and was coming back to life with this company merging, aided by the government. Once again our good mood disappeared with the bearing of bad news.
Man, we could never catch a break.
"How do you know all this?" Eric asked.
"Internet," Salem and I chorused. She slammed down on the table. "Oh! That reminds me. I better warn the Flock."
"The who?" I started to question. At that moment a happy family walked into the diner and walked up to the cash register. The crying baby in the mother's arms distracted our conversation.
"I want to get a doggie at the pet fair! No! A kitty!" the young daughter said jumping up and down beside her father.
"We'll see honey," the father said. "Four ice cream cones please. And could you please hurry? We're going to the fair."
"Certainly," Sunshine said. The fair was starting now. Itex was going to merge with Matron and who knew how many more kids that would bring suffering to.
"What are we going to do?" Eric asked.
"Is it really any of our business? Or should we ignore it?" Tarzan asked. That was an excellent question.
"Maybe its our turn to save the world," Salem said from beside me.
We had to get into the car quickly (accidently forgetting Salem's and my to-go containers in the process) so that we could follow this family to the Itex Pet Fair. Tarzan tailed them expertly. Meanwhile the rest of us were quiet. The family rounded the corner to the fair and that's when we found out we probably didn't have to follow them.
The fair was so massive that we had completely missed it. The ferris wheel was bigger than any ferris wheel you've probably every seen. I you, because I haven't seen many, but you might have. This thing had two be almost three times the size of the one at Santa Monica Pier and had twice as many carriages swing on it.
"How did we miss this?" I asked everyone.
"Wow," Kitten said. "School has never been so tempting."
That in itself was creepy. It was just like they were trying to lure a bunch of kids in. The perfect bait for baby snatching and finding orphans like us.
"It's a company merging. It's a big deal. Maybe they just wanted to go big?" Salem offered. Eric shrugged. Who knew the reasoning behind these people who were so clearly THE SOURCE OF ALL EVIL! Anyway, Taz seemed to like it. He started screaming with delight when we pulled into the parking lot. I sighed. This was no place for any kid. I wished Tarzan and I could investigate this ourselves, but we were not separating ourselves from the kids again. Not after our last ordeal.
Everyone got out while I unstrapped Taz from the carseat, barely able to keep him from jumping out of my hands straight towards the fair.
"Yeah, yah, yah!" he screamed.
"Okay, okay. Chill out. We're going inside," I said. He jumped. "Whoa!" I caught him in midair. "Stop squirming little man!" Tarzan held out his arms. I handed Taz to him.
"Thanks," I said to him. Tarzan gave a nod.
"Okay guys. Try not to get separated. This is just like wandering around in the School and you would not want to be caught alone in the School," I said.
"Yes Mom," Eric teased. "I mean, ma'am." I scruffed up his hood.
"Okay, let's go," Tarzan said leading the way. When we paid for our tickets getting inside was easy. There were performers on a stage. A rodeo contest was being held somewhere else. There were at least fifteen rides. It was the grandest fair Idaho's probably ever had.
While I was looking on with disgust, I realized Tarzan was gone. My heart went wild.
"Where's Tarzan?" I said looking around.
"Right here," Tarzan answered from my other side. He approached with Taz in one hand and a corn-on-the-cob in the other.
"You bought Itex corn?" I questioned. Tarzan shrugged.
"That's evil corn," Kitten said innocently.
The crowd we were standing in suddenly erupted in applause. We all turned to face the stage. A man wearing an old fashioned mayor out (the one with the little top hat, coat-tailed jacket, and a sash across his chest) stood at the podium.
"Remember guys," I whispered. "Get ready for anything." Kitten reached for my hand and squeezed tight. My sixth sense was going crazy. I could sense the bad mojo in the air. I'm sure everyone else could too.
"It's great to have you all here," the mayor said. "I hope you'll stop by and look at the pets. They all need loving homes. Without further adu, I'll introduce you to Itex CEO, Dr. Sandra Kandi." Everyone clapped respectively. Almost everyone. The pride didn't even blink with recognition.
Dr. Kandi walked out with her blonde hair pulled back in a stylish pony tail. Her glasses were sensible and her business suit encentuated every perfect curve. If I didn't hate her already, I would hate her for being so freakin' pretty. Self consciously I looked at Tarzan, then everyone else to make sure they were paying attention.
"Thank you Mayor Tisdell," Dr. Kandi said and gave him a quick dry peck on the cheek.
Slut. She probably was a porn star, I thought venomously.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," she said with that wicked smile.
"Cat," Kitten tugged my arm. I looked down at her. "Look at all the police." I looked around and that's when I noticed that there sure was a lot of police around. I looked to Salem.
"The government," she said. She leaned toward Eric and informed him who informed Tarzan beside him quietly.
Dr. Kandi went on. "Itex's hardship was a catastrophe. No one expected what would happen. A silly fictional blog turned into a devestating world wide epidemic effecting children everywhere. If people have learned anything from the Itex Riots last year, I hope it is that parents should watch what their children are doing online more carefully," she started. Salem glared and folded her arms across her chest. "I hope the children who broke the law learned their lesson." I swear her eyes fell on us. She smiled the slightest smile that could only be noticed with cat eyes.
The adult men and women clapped.
"Suck up," Eric whispered. I smiled.
"Matron and Itex is a union that we've all been waiting for. The drug and research companies need all the help we can get and we have plenty of experienced biologists to offer their assisstance. Plus it will be a huge financial opportunity give us the chances we need to offer bigger donations to charities such as pet fairs and other animal friendly organizations!"
The crowd erupted in applause. She had the people wrapped around her pretty, slutty finger.
"So now that Matron and Itex has officially merged, I give you our new company...," she stepped aside and the people on the sides of the stage pulled the ropes tied to an Itex banner. A new banner dropped over it with the new company name. "Itron!"
Balloons flew up in the air, confetti fell to the ground. The band started to play and Dr. Kandi led the applause from the podium. She leaned into the microphone one last time. "Thank you folks! Enjoy your evening and remember to stop by the pets!"
"This is disgusting!" Tarzan shouted over the noise of the band. I nodded in agreement. "It doesn't look like they're doing anything here. Maybe this fair's just making a statement?"
"I want to go on the ferris wheel!" Kitten said tugging on Tarzan's eyes.
"Kitten, we really should-" Tarzan was cut short by Kitten's making her eyes big glassy green orbs that could convince someone to take a bullet for her. Tarzan sighed and rolled his eyes. I shook my head.
"I'll be right back," Tarzan said tiredly. "I'm taking Kitten on the ferris wheel. I'll take Taz with me."
"Dah!" Taz agreed jumping up and down in his arms excitedly.
"You want to trap yourself in a box and dangle a hundred feet in the air?" I asked Kitten astonishedly.
"Yeah! You wanna come?" she asked. I rolled my eyes.
"No thanks, kiddo. Salem, Eric and I will go check out the pets. Maybe we'll find something weird there," I said.
"If you find a talking dog buy it for me!" Kitten said taking Tarzan's hand and running off in the other direction. I looked at Salem and Eric. We all shrugged.
"Okay. Let's go check out the pets," I said leading the way. Even though everything seemed normal, aside from the fact that this was probably the most giant fair in the world in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't get rid of that bad mojo feeling.
Is it weird that now I really want to go to a fair?
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