Chapter 8
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not that I wouldn't love to.
A/N: Thank you first to BowieQueen my beta. Without you to wrangle my punctuation and capitalization I don't know what I would do.
Second, thank you to everyone who has read and especially those who have left a review to let me know their thoughts. Also to those who have followed and favorited, I am in awe each time I see it.
We are in the home stretch only two more chapters after this one.
So from the comments and reviews that I have gotten, it seems that readers have wholeheartedly approved of including Jareth in this little fic. As I said originally I was not planning on having him make an appearance. I wanted it to be goblin/Williams sibling-centric. I hope the addition of some tight pants doesn't change that focus too much.
Some have a problem with the adults not noticing that the goblins are goblins and not weird-looking kids. I have to say I am drawing inspiration for some of this from my childhood. One of my brothers (not the oldest) is eight years older than I am and he and I made a ton of mischief when I was young. And I will tell you when parents are stressed or trying to relax (like on vacation) they tend to miss details. Especially when they are in less familiar territory. Not that I believe that four to five goblins would not go unnoticed but I took a few liberties. It is supposed to be fun.
I hope you enjoy this chapter. It was actually the hardest one for me to write, and was rewritten at least twice. Again no experience on a charter boat or deep-sea fishing or whale watching. The best I have done was fishing in Lake Erie with my dad (it has a small beach in places). There is more Sarah/Jareth interaction in the last half. Someone noticed that he is acting too sweet. Maybe, when he elbowed his way into this uninvited I decided to make him behave himself. As much as he can.
Thank you for reading. Please review!
The next day Sarah woke with the sound of pounding on her bedroom door. She rolled over and checked the clock on her bedside table. She blinked, still looking at the digital display staring back at her. She looked at the red numbers in disbelief.
"Seven o'clock," she groaned trying to get her limbs to work, and she nearly crawled out of bed. Stumbling across the room she kicked the clothes from the previous night out of the way as she made her way to the door. She cracked it and peered into the hallway.
"Toby. What the hell," she croaked, her throat incredibly dry.
"Hey, Sleeping Beauty," Toby chortled a little too happily. "What happened last night that made you sound like that this morning?" He tried peeking through the cracked opening. "Are you alone in there, or do you have company?" He wiggled his eyebrows.
"Shut up, you turd. Of course, I am alone. I sound like this because I am being woken up at dawn by someone who does not want to see his fourteenth birthday. Now, what do you want?" Sarah tried to glare, but it was hard when her brain was still asleep.
Using his shoulder, Toby pushed and wiggled his way into his sister's room. With the state that Sarah was in it took very little effort. He took his time making a show of looking around, going as far as to look under the bed and in the closet. Toby then jumped onto Sarah's unmade bed grinning.
"Are you quite finished?" Sarah tried to glare at her brother, but she feared that the look came up short. "What or who did you think would be under the bed or in the closet?"
"Just wanted to be sure I wasn't disturbing anything…well, anything more than you. And honestly, Sar, what you look like now is disturbing enough." He pretended to shudder.
"Are you here simply to be annoying or do you have a reason?" Sarah wished she had a better comeback, but this was as good as it got before she had her coffee in the morning.
"Just wanted to let you know that everyone is already up, and dad sent me to wake you. Dad wants to take a boat out today. He said I could bring my friends with us. He said you could bring someone too." Toby eyed her.
"What friends? Who would I bring on a boat trip?" Realization suddenly hit Sarah. "Oh no, no, Toby! Not the goblins, they are not going on the boat. Hanging on the beach is one thing; we can shield them somewhat from mom and dad and everyone else. Being trapped on a boat with mom and dad is something else entirely." Sarah was afraid her voice would be heard throughout the small house.
"Why don't you ask the king to go too? He can make himself and them look normal. Mom and dad won't know the difference. And you can spend some time with you-know-who." Toby started to make kissy noises which earned him a pillow in the face.
"First of all Jar—er…the king and I are not like that." Sarah was still wary about using his name casually. The last thing she needed was Sparkle Pants to show up in her room with her dressed like she was, or not dressed as the case may be. "We may be getting along, but we are just friends and barely that. We still annoy each other most of the time. The last thing we need is mom and dad getting ideas about him and me. You are bad enough." Sarah's glare was a little more forceful.
"Second, he is here on vacation himself and part of that is to get away from the goblins. I am not sure that he wants to be in close quarters with them on a boat." Sarah was surprised she was reasoning so well this early in the morning. "And finally his royal Sparkle Butt would be the last person I would be kissing. I would probably be picking glitter out of my teeth for weeks."
"That or other places," Toby muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Sarah tried to give a death glare.
"Nothing, nothing. Do what you want, but I've already told the guys and mom and dad and they are going. So let's hope that my old clothes are enough to fool mom and dad all day. You need to get moving. Dad wants us to be gone by eight o'clock." After saying that he scooted out of the door before the pillow that Sarah threw could hit him.
Sarah quickly showered to hasten the waking process, at least for her body. Her brain still required the caffeine that a cup of coffee would provide. Since the coffee would be to-go she needed to figure out what to do about the goblin problem without her morning pick me up. She went over her options.
The first was to leave them as they are with their regular disguises. She considered it but dismissed it quickly. She and Toby could be distracting, but it would be a long day, and while her dad was a shark in the courtroom, he could be blissfully ignorant around kids. Karen on the other hand would definitely notice the less than human features before the boat left the dock.
The second was to get Jareth to come and glamour them. While on the outside this seemed the best and easiest option, Sarah hesitated. She really was not ready to see him again yet. While she thought she sounded dismissive to Toby, something was going on between her and the king. She just wasn't sure what it was. Talking to him was easy, and they had been friends for a while, but seeing him now made her feel like she was in high school again. The feeling was unwanted, and she just wanted to go back to the teasing insults, but honest conversations they had before this trip.
Also, he may expect an invitation too. With the confusing feelings, she was having she definitely did not want to deal with the close proximity the boat would provide. And she told Toby the truth. The last thing that she needed was to have to explain Jareth to her parents. Then her dad would have to act all fatherly…Jesus, she was twenty-seven years old. And Jareth was always unpredictable. That's the last thing that she needed where her parents were concerned. No, definitely NOT asking Jareth.
The only other option was to try to improve on their disguises herself. She went to her closet and rummaged around hoping that she left some of her theatrical stuff from her youth here. In the back, she found the silver case she was looking for with a sigh of relief. She left it on her bed and walked out to the kitchen.
"Morning, Dad; Karen." She grabbed a cup of coffee and stood at the counter. "Since it takes a while for you to sign out a boat and get it ready Toby and I will walk down to the marina." She hoped there wouldn't be a fight. Her plan depended on it.
"If you are sure you won't be too long," her father said skeptically.
"Count on it, Daddy," Sarah said, kissing her father on the cheek. She drained her cup and put it in the sink. She then walked back to the bedrooms.
She knocked on Toby's door and walked in. He had the goblins all dressed in their usual costumes. She looked at them critically. The teeth she couldn't do anything about. The eyes were weird, but could be overlooked. The biggest problem was their skin tone that varied from greens to grays.
"Ok. Toby, I found my old makeup kit from when I was starting to work in the community theater. I left my old kit here when I got the better one after high school. Thank goodness I never let your mom in my room to throw stuff away," Sarah said in a rush.
"Why are you so excited about your old theater geek junk?" Toby asked, not impressed.
"Well, this geek is going to use them to try to have our friends not send your parents into an early grave with heart attacks," Sarah replied. "The makeup will help to cover their more…unusual features," Sarah explained.
Moving faster than Sarah would have thought, Sarah snuck the goblins one at a time into her room. She sat each one in a chair and used her makeup kit to tint their skin tones as much as she could. After the second goblin was finished and while she was working on Scoots she heard her parents leaving, calling goodbye, and reminding them to hurry along. When the final goblin was finished Sarah surveyed her results.
"It will be a long shot, but as long as we keep them out of the sun and water it may work. You have to help with that Tobes," she reminded her brother.
"Cool. Let's go." Toby headed out the door. Sarah grabbed her own bag and followed him, a line of goblins preceded her. They booked it the mile and a half to the marina where her dad had hired a boat. They arrived and Sarah scanned for the boat that her father always booked. Her eyes finally settled on one and saw her father on the deck looking for them. She waved at him and he waved back. Taking a hand he helped her on, and she, in turn, helped the goblins as her father made sure Toby got on ok.
"Hi Dad, great boat," she remarked as Karen came over. A young man came out and worked at untying the boat from the wooden pier and they were on their way. He went back into the cabin to help the captain. Since none of the Williams sailed, her father always hired a boat with a captain; this was the first time that Sarah regretted this. It would be much easier if her father was busy driving the boat, but oh well.
"Dad, these are some friends of Toby's." Sarah decided that introductions would be easier if she did it. She was afraid of what might come out of Toby's mouth. "They are all cousins visiting the shore together. Their parents dropped them off right after you left," Sarah was thrilled how quickly she could ad-lib the story. "This is Zak, Scott, Maxie, and Sam." She hoped that she, Toby, and all the goblins could remember their new names. They had gone over it several times during their walk to the marina, but the goblins and Toby for that matter were known to have selective memories.
Her parents greeted the "boys" and they replied normally enough. Sarah quickly ushered them to the other side of the boat away from the adults as quickly as she could. So far so good, she thought and let out the breath she was not aware that she was holding. They stood for a while looking at the ocean as the boat zipped along.
They would pull out to a prearranged spot. Her dad and anyone else really would be able to do some fishing. Sarah giggled thinking about her father's poor luck on these trips in the past Karen liked to stay on the boat and relax, avoiding her would take some planning, but was very possible. Sarah was as prepared for the trip as she could be, not expecting a relaxing or fun trip, but it will be interesting.
As she expected, as soon as the boat stopped the deckhand helped her dad, Toby, and surprisingly the goblins all got comfortable with fishing lines. She just hoped that none of them would be pulled overboard. Sarah would probably try her hand on a rod, but she knew from experience that fishing was not her thing. She would rather look for whales and porpoises, and enjoy the views out to sea.
The charter was a family-run business owned by the captain of the boat and the crew was two of his sons. Sarah's dad chartered this boat for several years, sometimes they would join a half-day outing, and sometimes they would charter it privately. Sarah had been friendly enough with the guys working that day, so she was convinced that if needed she could convince them not to notice anything different with their passengers.
The day passed rather quickly, and Sarah found herself having more fun than she thought. She stayed glued to their five little guests, doing so she made sure to defect any possible difficult questions. Karen was squeamish about fish, so she kept to the other side or inside the boat. Sarah found her dad seemed to enjoy the company of the goblins, this was the biggest surprise of all. He taught them about fishing, and their excitement at the task made him happy.
They had lunch on the boat. Sarah made a big deal of eating outside with the "boys" claiming the fresh sea air was better than being in the cabin. The picnic lunch went better than expected, and cleaning up was relatively easy, considering that she was looking after a teenage boy and four goblins.
Her dad filled the cooler with about seven fish that the group managed to catch. Sarah was able to get a few pictures of a pod of dolphins that she managed to see. Toby and the goblins talked, fish, and generally acted like boys. It was amazing how much like teenage boys the goblins acted. By the time they docked in the afternoon, everyone was tired but happy.
Sarah, Toby, and the goblins walked back and left the adults to pack the car and drive home. On the way back they decided to sneak the goblins back in through the window in Toby's room again. Sarah was afraid to think about how they got in and out of the house when they left on their own.
After getting back to the house, and retrieving the goblins through the window, Sarah sent Toby into the bathroom to have a shower. She decided after he was done to usher all the goblins into the bathroom, and herded them into the bathtub. After a good scrubbing, they looked normal, well normal for goblins. She shepherded them back to Toby's room and was finally able to relax in a shower of her own.
If her parents thought it strange to hear the shower twice and the tub they did not mention it. Sarah wasn't sure what excuse she would use if they did. She would probably say something about her being a girl, and a new beauty regimen, or maybe complaining that she still smelled of fish.
Karen with Sarah's help cleaned, scaled, and cooked the fish. Sarah actually enjoyed the time in the kitchen with her stepmother. One thing that Karen could do well was cook, and Sarah had learned a lot from her. Fixing a simple salad and sauce for the fish was Sarah's contribution.
The family sat down to eat together and had a great time enjoying the meal. Not much was said as the family focused on their food. After the food was finished Sarah and Toby cleaned up, while their parents decided to take a walk on the beach. Toby went back to his room to hang with the goblins, and the phone rang. Sarah answered it and made plans for the evening with her friends on the beach.
When her dad and Karen came back and Sarah let them know that some friends of hers were coming by and they were going to hang on the beach having a small get-together. Her father reminded her that nighttime beach parties were frowned upon and not to get too loud. She assured him that they had no intention of it, and an acoustic guitar would be the only music that would be played.
Sarah gathered up some beach chairs and towels. She took them out to the back porch to wait for people to show up. Molly and Evan came to the beach first. They helped Sarah move down to the beach but they set up close to Sarah's house. They went back and were getting the fire pit ready to move. It was not exactly allowed to have a fire on the beach, but as long as they were safe and stayed by the house it would not be a problem. This was not the first time they had one of these get-togethers on the beach. Jon showed up with Ashley and they helped with the heavy lifting.
"So Sar, where is the man candy you were with last night?" Lindsey asked pointedly
"Lindsey, don't call him that, especially to his face," Sarah groaned. "For your information I invited him, but I don't know if he is going to show or not." Sarah tried to look unconcerned, but she was hoping that Jareth would show up.
The group sat on the chairs and blankets. Jon brought a cooler with coolers, beer, pop, and water. Lindsey was going to drive him and herself home so she didn't plan on drinking. Evan brought his guitar and had it sitting next to him. They got comfortable and started talking. Molly talked about the plans for her and Evan's wedding. Evan didn't seem to care much about any of it.
The topic that most wanted to know about was Sarah and Jay. Sarah parroted the story from last night. They had known each other for some time. For some reason, they both chose this week to go on vacation, and they both ended up at Point Pleasant. They had hung out some, but it wasn't a daily thing, and she had no idea what he had been up to while he had been here.
"So, do you mean that hunk of man meat is on the market?" Lindsey said unbelievably.
"That's a mature adult way of putting it," muttered Sarah "But yes, we aren't dating or anything. I don't know if he is seeing anyone at home. You will have to ask him that."
Sarah had just settled down with a beer, and Jon had sat next to her when the look on Lyndsey's face told her that either Leonardo DiCaprio was standing behind her, or Jareth showed up. She glanced over her shoulder…no Leo, only Jareth with tight jeans, a dark blue t-shirt, and bare feet.
"Lynds, close your mouth, you will catch flies," Sarah said dryly. "Have a seat Jay." She turned her attention to the newcomer.
Lyndsey scooted over letting him know in a not so subtle way that there was space next to her. Sarah sighed and rolled her eyes. Then she chided herself. What do I care if she goes after Jareth? If she wants to deal with that glittery peacock it's her funeral. But Sarah could not deny the feeling of victory when Jareth chose to drop down next to her.
Evan passed Jareth a bottle of beer that was accepted with a thank you. Sarah couldn't help but notice that with the human glamour, the slightly shaggy blond hair falling loose to his shoulders, face free of the marks around his eyes and glitter, and the more regular-looking eyebrows, how normal he looked sitting on the beach with them. Part of her, and she hated that part missed the fae looks that the glamour hid.
"I would like to thank you all for allowing me to join your little soiree." Jareth tilted his head toward the middle of the group.
"Oh, you are welcome anytime," gushed Lyndsey, batting her eyes. This earned another eye roll from Sarah.
"So Jay, how do you know Sarah? I mean we've all known her for years, she never mentioned you," Jon asked a little too pointedly. This earned him a glare from Sarah, as well as one from Jareth. Sarah was annoyed that he was being rude; Jareth, not used to being examined as King, didn't like being questioned by this boy. But he recovered quickly.
"Sarah and I have known each other since she was in high school. We met in the park near where she lives. Both of us had an interest in fantasy and the theater. Kindred souls as they say." He glanced down at Sarah. Jareth gave himself a mental headshake, this sounds like he was interested in Sarah, he was definitely not interested in a whiny brat like her, was he?
"No offense," Jon continued. "But you seem more than a bit older than Sarah. isn't it a bit strange that you would be hanging out at the park with a high school girl? I mean it sounds like all you are missing is the white van?" He tried to make it sound like a joke but fell flat.
"Jon, cool it." Sarah could feel Jareth's ire as if it were a tangible thing. She was not going to be in the middle of a pissing contest. "You are my friend, and I know you are concerned, and I love you for it." Jon gave a grin that was aimed at Jareth. "But you don't have the right to make those kinds of accusations. Jay gave me some very good advice that helped me grow up when I desperately needed to. Stop acting like he was the creepy old guy hitting on young girls. It wasn't like that."
Jareth sat a little taller at her words.
"Your accent doesn't sound like one from anywhere on the west coast or the east coast of this country at least. Where are you from?" Evan tried to steer the conversation toward safer topics, and Sarah was grateful.
"Yes, well, I grew up in London but came to the States for university. Now, however, my business keeps me moving around quite a bit, so I've traveled all over the world for my work," Jareth explained smoothly.
Sarah almost snorted her into her beer bottle at his description of his "job".
Evan grabbed his guitar and started playing. Sarah found herself singing along to a few of the songs. He then took requests and played if he knew it. The group settled into an easy simpatico.
Lyndsey continued to blatantly hit on Jareth whether he was aware of it or not. How could he not be aware of it? A dead man could be aware of it, Sarah thought. He did not play along but was friendly and respectful. It annoyed Sarah but she worked to ignore it as much as humanly possible.
Jon and Jareth would send thinly veiled insults at each other. Sarah deflected or ignored most of that too. She was still confused about their behavior. Jareth never treated her in any other way than as an annoyance that he was forced to deal with because she had the power to force him to listen to her when she called. Jon had been her friend since they were kids, he never sent out the jealous vibes that he was showing tonight.
Then there were these new feelings that she was having where Jareth was concerned. She didn't know if they started because of the way he was acting, or if they were developing on their own. Whatever the reason she was not thrilled with their emergence, and she drank another bottle of beer to try to drown them. She decided that her best bet was to ignore it all and have a good time.
The group laughed and sang late into the evening. She talked to Molly more about her and Evan's upcoming wedding, ignoring the drama behind her. Happy that everyone was still alive and dressed when she returned to her previous spot. When all the drinks were gone, and the moon was high over the ocean they decided to call it a night.
The group broke up. Jon and Lyndsey hauled the empty cooler to her car. Molly and Evan walked down the beach holding hands and leaning into each other. Jareth offered to help Sarah collect her belongings and take them up to her house. Working together it only took two trips. She decided to just leave everything but the towels just sitting on the back deck, and she would reset it up in the morning.
They stood looking at each other for some time. When the silence became awkward, they said their goodbyes. Jareth disappeared with a shimmer of glitter, and Sarah went into the house. When she entered her room after showering off the sand and changing in the bathroom she was met with Zot sitting on her bed.
"What are you still doing up Zot?" she asked, looking at her gray goblin friend.
"Kingy here," Zot said.
"Yes, the king was here. We had a get-together on the beach," Sarah did not want to go where this might be leading, but she also didn't want to brush off her friend.
"Kingy like Lady. Lady like Kingy?" Zot looked at her hopefully.
Sarah sighed, she really didn't want to go where this was definitely leading. "Yes, I like the king. I like him, I like you guys, I like Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo. I like all of you," Sarah hedged trying to deflect the question, so she could go to sleep.
Zot smiled. He got off the bed and walked to the door and opened it. "Kingy like Lady, Lady like Kingy. Lady like goblins. Lady going to be Queen," he said and walked out and shut the door before Sarah could do anything.
"Well," Sarah said to no one in particular, "That's a headache for another day." She fell into bed and was soon asleep.
A/N: Thank you for reading. Please review I live off of them.