EPISODE 47: AMBER'S FAMILY

CHARACTERS

Dink

Amber

Scat

Flapper

Shyler

Forest

Amber's Father (OC)

Amber's Mother (OC)

Male Corythosaurus (OC)

Female Corythosaurus (OC)

"So, when do I get to meet your parents?" Forest asked Amber.

Amber hesitated. She didn't want to tell Forest that her parents were, well, weird. "Um, well…." she stuttered.

"What are they like?" Forest asked.

"Well, they're, well, different."

"Like how?"

"I don't know how to put it. They're just odd."

"I'm sure they'll be all right." He walked away, leaving Amber alone and unhappy.

"Ooooo I wish my parents could act normal for once!" she fumed.

A few minutes later, Amber arrived at her home. It was actually more a pile of huge branches fitted between three trees in order to keep rain and snow out. Unlike the families of Dink, Flapper, Shyler, and Scat, who lived in caves, her family lived In the open due to her father's allergies making him sneeze from all of the dust in caves. She disliked being in the open as she sometimes got wet from rain that made its way through.

"Hello Amber," said her father.

"Hello dad," she sighed gloomily.

"What's bothering you Amby?" he asked.

"Nothing," she lied.

"Come on Amber, don't lie. I can tell that something is bothering you," her father said.

She hated being called Amby. "You wouldn't understand," she replied.

"Come on, you can tell us anything." said her mother.

Amber wasn't sure how to break it to them that she thought that their weirdness would scare off Forest. 'I don't think that Forest would like you guys." she finally said.

"Why wouldn't he?" her father asked.

"He just wouldn't." Amber replied vaguely. She thought that they were weird and assumed that, once Forest met them, that he too would think they were weird. And then he might think that she was odd too. Then he wouldn't want to be her friend anymore. There was no way that she could allow that to happen!

She walked away from her parents. "If only I had another family." she said to herself. But how could she get another family? Perhaps she could convince a Corythosaurus couple to pose as her parents. As she stood there and pondered on how about with her scheme, ideas crossed her mind. They didn't seem quite right to her. She would need to tell all sorts of lies about her parents to pull it off. After a struggle with her conscience, her fears won out. She figured that as long as Forest didn't know the truth about her parents and as long as her parents didn't find out what she was doing, that it would work out all right for her.

Later that day, she approached a Corythosaurus couple. "Hello, my name is Amber. I was wondering if you could pretend to be my parents." she said.

"Why do you want us to pretend to be your parents? Don't you have any parents?" the male asked.

"I do, but they're horrible." Amber lied. "They yell at me all the time no matter what I do. I have a new friend that wants to meet them but I don't want him to meet them. So I thought maybe you could pose as my parents."

"Sure, we'd be glad to help you out." the male Corythosaurus replied.

The following day, Amber was with her family. "Wasn't Forest going to meet with us today?" her father asked.

"Oh, he had something that came up, and he couldn't make it." Amber lied.

"That's too bad." her mother said.

"Yes, I would have loved to have met him." her father said.

"He's upset that he couldn't come either."

"Hopefully we can meet him soon." her mother said.

"I do too." Amber lied.

Two hours later, she met with her fake mother and father. "I'm going to have you meet with Forest tomorrow morning," she said.

"When?" her fake mother asked her.

"About an hour after the sun first rises. My parents like to sleep in, and, this way, they can be out of the way."

"If you like dear, you can stay with us instead of your parents," her fake father offered.

"Thanks for the offer but I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Amber said.

"Why not?"

"I'm worried they'd hurt you if they found out." She knew that this was a terrible lie and normally wouldn't have told such a whopper if she hadn't already dug herself in so deep with the lies she'd already told.

"We'd fight back if they tried." replied her fake mother.

"I still don't want to create trouble by having a confrontation," Amber quickly said. The last thing she wanted to do was start a physical fight with her parents.

"Very well, if you're sure dear. If you change your mind, just let us know," said her fake father.

"I will."

"Well, see you tomorrow dear," said her fake father.

"Bye," said her fake mother.

"Thanks you two," Amber said. After the two had left, however, she moaned "Oh what am I going to do now? This lie of mine just keeps getting more and more out of hand. And I have to keep telling more lies to keep them from finding out the truth."

When she arrived back home, her father noticed that something was bothering her. "You seem upset dear," he said.

Amber almost wanted to tell her parents the truth about what she'd done; however, she knew they'd be very furious if they knew how much she had lied about them. "I'm not upset," she lied.

"Are you sure? You looked troubled by something." Amber's mother asked.

"Yes I'm sure!" Amber lied again.

"You don't have to shout, Amber. We believe you," her father said.

"Thank you," Amber said, feeling guilty that they trusted her while she had lied so much about them.

"We love you Amber. If you have ever have anything that's bothering you, please let us know."

This remark made Amber feel even guiltier. "Thanks," she sighed.

Amber didn't sleep well that night. She tossed and turned in her sleep, having a series of nightmares. Her first nightmare was that her fake parents had attacked her real parents and she was apologizing over and over to them as they lay on the ground in pain. Her second dream involved Forest yelling at her for lying to him about her parents.

"Why did you lie to me? Why would you lie to a friend?" he snapped.

"I thought that you wouldn't like me if you thought my parents were weird." Amber said defensively.

"Well I don't like liars! We're not friends anymore!"

Her third nightmare concerned her friends Dink, Flapper, Scat, and Shyler. "Why would you lie about your parents like that?" Dink snapped.

"You are a terrible person Amber!" Shyler scolded her.

"Shame on you Amber!" Flapper scolded her.

"Scat not going to be your friend anymore!" Scat cried.

"Guys, I can explain!" Amber pleaded.

"We don't want to be friends with terrible liars! So long Amber!" they all declared, walking away from her.

"No, don't go! Wait!" she cried out, yelling in her sleep. She woke up.

"It was a dream. Just a dream," she sighed in relief. However, dream or not, she still was troubled by her conscience.

"What the matter Amber?" Scat asked her a few minutes later. The Compsognathus had sensed that something was troubling her.

"It's complicated," Amber sighed.

"You could try explaining it bit by bit then to make it easier, " Shyler offered.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Just never mind."

"Hey Amber, what's up?" It was Flapper.

"Not now Flap, I'm busy."

"I don't see you doing anything."

"Nose out!"

"Gee Amber, you're being awfully mean to Flapper," Shyler remarked.

"Sorry, really busy today, have to go!" Amber said quickly, before bolting away.

"What's up with her?" Flapper asked Shyler.

When Flapper and Shyler told Scat and Dink what had happened, Dink said "Maybe she just needs to be left alone for a bit. She seems pretty cranky today."

"Amber must be very cranky to act like that," Scat remarked.

"Amber's never been so cranky as to act like that before," Dink said.

Amber, meanwhile, felt awful for how she had treated her friends. "Oh, how did I ever get myself in this mess!" she moaned. Of course, she knew that she had brought this all upon herself. Though her friends, as far as she knew, had no clue as to the lies she had told about her parents, due to her nightmares and guilty conscience, she was afraid they would find out and not like her anymore. She had about an hour and a half before she had to introduce Forest to her fake parents.

She didn't see how she could back out now. True, she could tell her parents about Forest and Forest would be none the wiser that she had planned to use a pair of fake parents. On the other hand, her parents's weirdness might scare Forest off. Perhaps she could have Forest meet her fake parents just one for half an hour and then be done with it and he, her parents, and her friends would be none the wiser. Maybe her nightmares were just that, bad dreams, and she was being paranoid for nothing.

She headed off to go fetch her fake parents. "Hello Amber," said her fake father upon her arrival.

"Hi," she replied.

"Are we going to meet Forest now?" her fake mother asked.

"Yes," Amber said, though she was having more and more misgivings about the whole scheme. She had just realized that her fake parents looked quite different from her; would Forest be able to spot this and realize the deception? Even worse, there was the possibility that Forest may want to meet with her parents other times in the future.

Several minutes later, as Amber approached with her fake parents, Forest could tell that something seemed off about Amber. "Amber, is something wrong?" he asked.

"Um, just nervous having you meet my parents. I'm just worried that you'd think they were weird or something and not want to be friends with me anymore." she lied.

"I wouldn't stop being friends with you just because your parents might be a bit weird. Where would you ever get such a silly idea like that from?" Forest laughed.

Amber was dumbstruck. She would never have gone through all of this trouble of getting fake parents to fool him if she had known this. All of her lies had been for nothing. And now she was stuck continuing to have to pretend. "Oh, that's good to know," she replied.

"Amber, there are you, we've been looking for you," came Flapper's voice.

Amber was even more worried now. Flapper would know that these were not her parents. She couldn't let him come in. "Not now Flapper, I'm with my parents."

"Odd. I could have sworn there were still at your house. They were when I went looking for you anyway," Flapper said., flying off.

"Amber, I thought these were your parents," Forest said, raising his eyebrows.

"They are," Amber lied, hoping that Forest would believe her over Flapper.

"Amber, your parents look so very different from you," Forest said.

"I was adopted," Amber lied.

"Really? You never told me that before," Forest said.

"You never asked."

"Well, I'm glad to have met your parents," Forest said.

"Glad to have met you," said Amber's fake father.

"Me too," said Amber's fake mother.

"And I'm glad to have met you guys," said Forest.

Amber couldn't take it any longer. "They're not my parents," she sighed n resignation.

"You mean you lied to me?"

"Yes. I thought you would think they were weird and not like me," Amber said.

"I'm so disappointed in you," Forest said, and without another word, he walked off.

Amber turned to her fake parents. "Thanks for your help. I must admit that it wasn't only Forest that I lied to. I made up all of that stuff about my parents abusing me so that you'd help me. I thought you wouldn't if II had told you that I just wanted your help because I didn't want Forest to meet my real parents because he'd think they were weird and not like me," she said.

"That was a terrible thing to do, lying about your parents like that!" said Amber's fake father.

"I know. I know. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry I used you two," Amber said, hanging her head in shame.

"You need to go make things right with your real parents and your friend Forest," said her fake mother.

"You're right," Amber said, before turning and leaving.

She felt terrible now. Her lies had been exposed and it was all for nothing. Forest would have still liked even if he thought her parents weird. But now he knew she had lied to him and it was likely he'd never want to speak to her ever again. And her parents would no doubt be furious too when they found out all the lies she'd told about them. Yet her fake parents were right, she needed to set things right with her parents and Forest no matter how they reacted.

"Hey Amber," Dink called as she walked past.

"I'm busy Dink. I'll talk to you later,"' she said.

"You've been in a strange mood lately," he said.

"I know. I've bene lying to so many people. Trying to impress Forest by having fake parents pretend to be my real parents and telling my fake parents that my real parents were awful to me so that they'd feel sorry for me and agree to help me."

"It's not like you to tell so many lies."

"I know. And that's why I was so grumpy. Deep down, I knew I was wrong and it made me feel bad."

"You need to go set things right."

"That's what I'm going to do."

Amber approached her real parents. She was sure they were going to yell at her for lying so much about them. "Mom. Dad. There's something I've got to tell you," she said nervously.

"What dear?" asked her father.

She explained, hanging her head in shame the whole time, all the lies she had told about them and how she had gotten fake parents to impersonate them. When she was done, she said "And I suppose you're going to yell at me now."

"No, not yell. But we are disappointed. We thought we'd taught you better than to tell lies," said her mother.

"I'm so sorry," Amber said.

"I hope you've learned that telling lies never helps in the end," said her father sternly.

"I have, believe me," Amber replied.

"And you need to apologize to Forest to," her mother said.

"I will."

She approached Forest a few minutes later. He had his back turned toward her. "Forest, I have something to say to you," she began.

"Is it another lie?" he asked, not even turning to face her.

"No, it's the truth. I'm so sorry I lied to you. I've made it right with my fake parents, my real parents, and now I've come to make it right with you. I suppose you won't want to be my friend anymore."

Forest turned around. "I can't' be friends with someone who lies and won't make things right. But I can still be friends with you, even if you've lied to me, if you've admitted you were wrong and owned up to it," he said.

"I'd like you to meet my real parents right now," Amber said.

"I'd be glad to," Forest said.