Chapter 7. Intentions

~3~ A Heart-shaped Box of Sisterly Love

Kuki's stomach was in all kinds of knots. She'd get to see Wally again at the party tonight, but she was so nervous. Did he really mean it when he said their friendship, their...whatever they had, was over? Did he even want to see her again? Did he know that she was lying here, on her bed, clutching his jacket that she never returned, in total agony, thinking about him all the time? She sighed. Even if he didn't care about her the same way she cared about him, at least he didn't get kicked out of school and sent to military school.

She groaned to herself, and then there came a loud pounding on her wall.

"Can you quit moaning about him?" yelled her sister through the wall. "That's all you ever do! Mope, mope, mope!"

"Shut up, Mushi!" Kuki yelled back. "Let me whine in peace!"

There was a thud, angry footfalls, and then Kuki's bedroom door slammed open.

A tiny girl with choppy purple streaks in her hair, thick dark makeup around her eyes, and ripped black leggings stood glaring at Kuki from the doorway, like a queen scowling down upon a peasant.

"Your constant complaining is making it really hard for me to plan my world domination," Mushi said furiously. "How I am supposed to plot revenge on every living thing when you're always whining about that blockhead?!"

"He's not a blockhead!" replied Kuki crossly.

"Well, until he's honest about his feelings for you, yeah, he is!"

Kuki opened her mouth angrily but they were interrupted by a knock at the front door. Kuki and Mushi looked at each other and frowned. Their parents were never home that early.

Kuki slipped off her bed and tiptoed over to the door, wearing nothing but an old green jumper she had and some black leggings. She recognized the face on the other side of the peephole and slowly opened the door.

Ace was leaning on the door frame, one hand tucked into his brown leather jacket, the other running through his gelled hair. His sunglasses glinted at Kuki.

"Hey Cookie," he grinned at her, and sauntered into her house before she'd even gotten the chance to invite him in. The smell of cinnamon wafted over her as he walked past. Kuki followed him towards the living room, glancing over at Mushi who was spying on them from the hall.

Mushi glared at Kuki and Kuki shrugged her shoulders at her in an I-don't-know-he-just-walked-in! gesture.

"Cute," said Ace, holding up a picture of Kuki from when she was ten. In the photo, she was hugging a rainbow monkey, wearing a green sweater that was much too big for her, and she was grinning ear-to-ear.

"Hey!" said Kuki cheerfully, trying to hide how flustered she felt. "What are you doing here…?"

"Come sit," said Ace, running a hand down Kuki's arm and letting it catch her fingers. Kuki felt her face warm. He led her to the couch and they sat down.

"You weren't at school," he said. "I heard you'd gotten suspended. So I wanted to make sure you were all right-" He glanced at Kuki, and she fidgeted a little in her green sweater, doing her best to smile pleasantly at him. "-and to give you this."

He handed her a shiny heart-shaped box of chocolates. She sat there, awkwardly holding the chocolates, and her polite smile faltered. Suddenly this all felt so wrong, and she didn't want any of it. She didn't want these chocolates. She didn't want to be with Ace.

"Oh, um. Ace," she said. "Thanks, but I don't know…"

"Sh," he said, holding a finger to her lips. "You can save it for the party." He moved his finger away from her mouth, trailing her cheek until he cupped her chin, pulling her face towards his.

"STOP!" yelled Mushi, who'd jumped out of the hallway in front of them. "Don't do it, Kuki! He's a… a Don Juan! I saw him with two of those heart-shaped boxes at school today, and he gave one of them to that girl news anchor from the school news announcements! He's playing you!"

"It's true," shrugged Ace, looking from Mushi to Kuki, not embarrassed at all to admit it. "I gave one to the other girl, too. You know, where I'm from, when three beautiful people get together we call it a-"

"Ok," said Kuki, standing up so quickly that the box of chocolates tumbled back onto Ace's lap. "I think we're good here. Thanks for stopping by, Ace. Bye!"

He stood up and ran his fingers through his hair again, but still grinned at her with his impeccable dimples on his way to the door. "Well all right. But you know where to find me tonight, Cookie," he said as Mushi shooed him out the door.

"Go on! Get! She's already got a blockhead in her life!" Mushi slammed the door after Ace angrily.

"Oh wait, one more thing-"

Mushi opened the door again and grabbed the box of chocolates back from Ace's hands. "Thanks loser. Don't bother my sister anymore," she said, and slammed the door again, locking it this time.

"What?" said Mushi, scowling as Kuki stared at her. "I'm not sharing these chocolates with you-"

"Oh no, I don't care about that," said Kuki. "It's just that... you were looking out for me! That was super sweet of you. Thanks, sis!"

Kuki beamed and hugged Mushi tightly as her kid sister scowled, and that's when Kuki noticed something dangling around Mushi's neck. "Wait, what's that?" she asked, letting go. It was unlike any of her sister's other necklaces, which were normally black or spiky or covered in skulls, or all three. But this necklace had a single creamy white shell hanging on it. "Who gave you that shell necklace?"

Mushi turned violent red. "That's none of your business!" she yelled, and ran away to her room.

Kuki giggled softly, and decided that from now on, she'd try to be a little bit quieter when she was agonizing about Wally to herself in her room.

~5x2x4x3~ Outside

Outside, the night air was cooling, but inside, the party was firing up. Light spilled out from the windows into the dark gray twilight, the pounding music was muffled and intermingled with voices and shrieks of laughter.

Outside, Abby Lincoln leaned with her back against a pillar, checking her phone, but secretly scouting the partygoers from under the brim of her hat. She hadn't bothered to dress up, she was still wearing the same blue midriff-baring shirt she always wore, and somehow still managed to look cooler than all the other girls arriving in their skintight sparkly dresses.

Hoagie and Wally were the next to arrive, together, arguing about something. Wally's hair looked semi-tousled, as though he'd tried to comb it but lazily given up halfway. Over his bright blue-collared shirt, Hoagie was wearing a bow tie with the periodic table of elements on it, and it was the dorkiest thing Abby had ever seen.

"-too cool for me, anyways, so you can forget it," Hoagie was saying with exasperation. "And stop trying to change the subject! You gotta figure out exactly what you're going to say when you see her so you don't blow it-"

"Oh hey! There's Abby." Wally pointed over at her and the two teens walked over.

"Hey!" Hoagie was grinning a stupid grin at her again.

"Nice bowtie," she said, just barely glancing up at him. Hoagie grinned even wider.

"Yeah? See! I knew you'd like it!" Hoagie looked very pleased with himself. Wally hit Hoagie's arm with the back of his hand and gave him a look, tilting his head in Abby's direction, but Hoagie decided to ignore this.

Wally looked back at Abby.

"So, um… where's Kuki?" he asked and stuck his hands into his pockets, trying to look casual.

This time it was Hoagie who hit Wally's arm, smirking.

"Behind you," Abby nodded over the boys' shoulders, and Wally instantly spun around towards the girl approaching them.

Kuki's shoulders glistened ivory in the moonlight, the soft green fabric of her dress hanging off her shoulders, falling gracefully over her slender figure and black tights ending in petite green flats, silky black hair framing her smile outlined in bubblegum pink lip gloss, she was glowing like a star above the earth, lightly tiptoeing up the steps towards the mansion.

Wally couldn't stop staring at her the whole time floating towards them as though she was being carried in on a breeze, until she finally reached them and looked up at their faces, smiling radiantly. The emotions of their last conversation came flooding back to him, like a gut punch of feelings, and he dropped his gaze to his shoes. He had said some pretty means things to her when they last spoke.

"Hi everyone! Hi Wally!" she smiled, but her heart was thudding so hard it hurt.

"Hey." He didn't look up. He stared at the ground, his bangs covering his face.

Kuki looked shyly at him, his maize-colored hair ruffled by the breeze, hands jammed into pockets, green eyes flickering underneath his bangs.

"You're here!" she said.

"Yeah."

"..."

"uh-"

"..."

"- you shouldn't have done that for me." Wally scowled at the ground. How could she have sacrificed herself like that for him? He didn't deserve it.

"Done what? Oh, that!" Kuki bit her lip nervously. He was talking about how she'd taken the blame for him to save him from suspension. "Well, I, I mean- I- I wanted to..." She didn't know what to say. Even though she still cared for him, it was clear he still didn't want to be around her. She was beginning to regret showing up to this party.

"I never asked you to-" Wally snapped but stopped when Hoagie bumped him sharply. "I mean, thanks, I guess," Wally finally managed to blurt, though it also came out angrily.

They fell silent. A mix of awkwardness and disappointment hung between them like a thick cloud, and neither knew what to say to cut through it.

"Well then." Abby broke the silence and lifted herself up from the pillar she was leaning on and pulled out something blue from her pocket. "Here's the situation, guys." She glanced briefly at the mansion behind them, windows glowing, music thumping, just to make sure nobody was watching them. She first showed them the text she got earlier, warning her about the party, and the three teens read it and looked around at each other with worried faces.

Abby looked grave. "Turns out, this party is a trap. And so far, all we know is that two of the people hosting this party, Bruce and Ashley, are trying to sabotage us. I don't know why, but this means we need to be very careful until we figure out what they're up to.

Luckily, I found this on one of my secret missions. I got a tip on this smarmy fellow called Mr. Fizz, and I nabbed it from him."

Abby unfolded a neon blue piece of paper that seemed to glow in the twilight. It looked like a map, but it was written in a strange language.

Kuki squinted at it. "What does it say? I can't read these symbols. They're like alien or something!"

Abby shook her head. "Abby can't read it either. But, it looks like it's a map to a secret location in the mansion. I bet you anything they're hiding something. Something big, something that could answer all our questions about the Kids Next Door, something that could tell us who we used to be, and who we are meant to be. And we better find it before it's too late."

She rolled the map back up into her pocket. "Ok, here's the plan guys. Wally, Kuki, why don't the two of you team up? On the map, there's a mysterious marking on the far side of the ballroom, but I don't know what it means. Can you guys go together to find out what it is?" She peeked out from under her cap at Wally and Kuki, watching them carefully.

"Ooh a mission! In the ballroom! Does that mean we have to go dancing?" squealed Kuki, grabbing Wally's arm.

Wally frowned at her. "Oi, didn't you hear what Abby said? The party's a trap! We don't have time for dancing, blech! We gotta keep our eyes open."

"Oh, okay, Mr. Party-pooper," Kuki rolled her eyes. "Well? C'mon! You heard Abby, we're on a mission!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. Wally turned pink and grumbled loudly but let himself get dragged along.

Abby watched them banter and smirked to herself.

"All right, Hoagie, why don't you and I-"

But Hoagie had turned around and was waving to someone inside the house.

"Yoohoo! Hey! Constance!" He started wandering towards the party and looked over his shoulder at Abby. "I'm just gonna go say hi, be back in a sec-"

He disappeared, leaving Abby alone outside.

"...or just Abby will keep an eye out for suspicious activity, all by her lonesome…"

She sighed and opened the doors to the warm, blazing, thumping party.

Outside, the stars shuddered in the cold black sky, some of them were growing larger and weren't stars at all, and then light raindrops began pattering on the mansion and its gardens, even though there was not a cloud in sight.

Inside, the party raged.

~1~ The Kids Are All Right

Nigel and the five children gathered in a circle in the grassy hills behind the mansion, the light of the party spilling out below them. It had barely been a few days since he had run away and met these vigilantes, but Nigel felt like he could trust this raggedy group of children. They were a lot tougher than he expected.

The strangest part about all of this, was that until a few days ago, Nigel had forgotten all about children. It was hard to explain- it was as if he was so busy growing up, that he had forgotten all about his childhood. Plus, with all the kids under 13 locked up and getting tortured in boarding schools, he didn't realize how bad the situation had gotten until the vigilantes told him about it.

Is this what it means to grow up? Nigel wondered. The second you forget about your childhood is the second you become an adult.

This reminded him of his own parents, who still didn't seem to notice that Nigel had run away from home.

Nigel knew one thing for certain. There was something horribly wrong with adults in this world. He didn't know how to fix that, but at least he start with these five kids.

"If we want to sneak into this party, we have to blend in and pretend to know what we're doing there," said Joey, twirling his staff and scratching his chin. "So tell us, Nigel, what exactly is a party? Is it like the torture dungeon at boarding school?"

"Absolutely not!" explained Nigel. "A party a place you go with your friends to have fun."

"What's fun?" asked Jessica skeptically, clutching her rabbit tightly to her faded pink dress. "Is it when they cancel sleep time and force you to make cottage cheese throughout the entire night?"

"Or when they serve cold asparagus for breakfast again?" asked Raya, sticking out a pick tongue and shuddering disgustedly.

"Or when they tell you to alphabetize all the numbers from one to a buhmillion by hand?" asked Sammy.

"No, that's the opposite of fun! Just imagine, what if you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted? No bedtime, no work, no making cottage cheese, just eating whatever you want, playing any game you want, hanging out with your friends whenever you want-" he could see the children's faces glowing and felt like he was finally getting to them.

"That's the freedom the Kids Next Door used to fight for. So that kids could be free, have fun, and party!"

Nigel looked around at the five faces grinning at him and felt a flicker of hope. Did they finally understand what it meant to be a kid? Did they finally understand what the Kids Next Door used to fight for?

Jackson excitedly pulled out a match and pointed at the mansion.

"Boom," he whispered, eyes glowing under the brim of his beanie.

"No!" Nigel dropped his face into his palm. So close, and yet, so far. "We want to infiltrate the party, not burn it down!"

Joey shrugged apologetically. "Maybe we can focus on the mission for now, and later you can teach us what the Kids Next Door fights for."

Nigel nodded curtly. Below them was a mansion full of teenagers who didn't know the trap they were falling into, and everywhere else there were millions of children who were imprisoned to make cottage cheese night and day. And Nigel was the only person who knew how to save everyone.

"Listen up, gang. Here's where we need to go…"

~3x4~ Inside Pt. I

The mansion was crowded with teenage bodies, who were sugar-hyped and chattier than usual, all bumping together, laughing loudly over the thud of the music, pressed up close to each other, sweaty with excitement, bouncing to the beat. Kuki squeezed through the crowd, pulling Wally through by his hand.

People were chattering, and Wally caught snippets as he navigated the crowd.

"I hear there's gonna be birthday cake later-"

"-why were we never invited over before? It's a MANSION!"

"So-da! So-da! Sooooood- urp!" burped someone into his ear.

And Wally wrinkled his nose as that familiar sickly-sweet scent washed over him, heavy on the breath of a clearly sugar-high teenager. Ugh, not tonight. It took all his willpower not to retch.

They finally made it to the ballroom, but it was just as jam-packed with flailing bodies. On the far side of the room was a giant bookcase, shelves full of mysterious tomes. If there was anything secret about this room, it would have to be on that bookcase. They took one step into the mass of dancers to cross the room and were immediately pushed out by the crowd of dancing teenagers.

"Hmm," said Kuki, looking slyly at Wally. "The only way we're going to make it across to the bookcase is if we-"

"Nu-uh!" said Wally, suddenly feeling déjà vu. "I am not dancing with you!" And he crossed his arms sullenly. He was not about to make a fool of himself on the dance floor.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a certain Latino boy in sunglasses standing a few feet behind Kuki, talking to a redheaded girl. Ace glanced up and saw Kuki, then grinned, slicked back his hair, and began walking towards them.

"You know, on second thought, let's dance." Wally hastily uncrossed his arms and tugged Kuki's elbow towards the dance floor, whisking her away before Ace had a chance to say hello.

Kuki giggled and Wally felt his cheeks grow hot as he glared at her.

She lifted her hands around his neck and held them there; he jammed his into his hoodie pockets.

"Wally!" she scolded.

"...fine." He roughly pulled out his hands and grabbed her waist. He was, if this was even possible, glowering even more now.

They glided across the dance floor, nobody forcing them out this time, while Kuki tried to smile pleasantly and Wally muttered curse words under his breath.

"This is so stupid. I can't believe we have to do this. Are we there yet? I can't take it any- " Wally's back bumped against something and he looked startled. It was the bookcase. "Oh, we're already here…"

"See? That wasn't so bad," she huffed, letting go of him, and Wally felt a twinge of something in his stomach as she slipped out of his grasp, as though he didn't want her to let go.

~2x5~ Inside Pt. II

Abby made a face. The soda at the party wasn't even that good, it was too sweet and it burned unpleasantly as it went down. But as long as it was fizzy and full of sugar, people at the party would drink it. They didn't know any better, but Abby did.

She leaned against a keg, bored, having seen absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in the past hour, unless you counted teenagers stumbling around with lampshades on their heads, Fanny yelling at everyone dramatically before bursting into tears, or Virginia pulling along a skittish Bartie, looking for an empty room. Not even Bruce or Ashley were seen lurking around, but that's when something strange caught her eye.

From underneath the snacks table, she saw a hand reach up, grab a bowl of chips, and then disappear below the tablecloth again.

"Who-?" She shook her head, leaned down, and peeked under the table to find Hoagie Gilligan curled up underneath, munching on chips and crackers. He yelped.

"Abby!" he whispered loudly. "Oh, thank god it's you. You haven't seen Constance around, have you? Get in here before she sees us!"

He pulled her under and lowered the tablecloth to cover them.

"Are you hiding from Constance?"

"No! I mean, yes!" he said with a mouthful of chips. "You were right about her being creepy, Abby. She- she scares me. She took me to her room and she had posters of adults all over her room. And no, I don't mean like celebrities, I mean like random people in business suits, holding briefcases, doing their taxes, eating vegetables. Who has posters of stuff like that hanging in their room? And then she tried to give me an empty jar. And I was like, 'why are you giving me an empty jar?' And she's like, 'So we can start a collection together,' and I'm like, 'a collection of what?'... And that's when she showed me her own jar full of toenail clippings." Hoagie shuddered. "So I told her it wasn't working out for me and I ran out of the room."

Abby rolled backwards, snorting with laughter and shaking her head. She was practically ecstatic. "Hoagie, this is the part where Abby says I told you so! What are you still doing here, if you're trying to run away from Constance?"

"Uh, I'm here for the free food, obviously?" He scarfed down a plate of mini chili dogs. "Wow, these are so good, I've had like 16 of these-"

"So you and Constance, that's over? There's nothing going on between you?"

Hoagie fervently shook his head. "No way, she was too weird, even for my standards! I should've listened to you Abby, you were right all along. I would've…I would've... why are you looking at me like that?"

Abby was back to her half-smile, smirking as though Hoagie had just told her a juicy secret. But he was still very confused. She moved towards him. One of her hands crept forward and rested its fingers over Hoagie's.

"Hoagie," she said, still grinning boldly, and he realized he had forgotten how to breathe as he watched her approach. "Do you want to know what a real kiss feels like?"

Her other fingers grabbed his shirt collar just above his bowtie and pulled him in slowly.

~3x4~ Inside Pt. III

Kuki and Wally had made it to the far side of the ballroom, but were now stuck.

"Well, the map led us here, but I have no idea what we're looking for! It's all just books!" Kuki browsed the shelves and saw nothing but the most boring titles imaginable. Business Analytics in the 1700s, 101 Ways to Make Your Tax Income Returns Take Longer, A Detailed History of Suit Pants… It seemed hopeless.

"Well, if I was gonna hide something from children, I would put it where no kid could reach it." Wally pointed up at a lone novel sitting on the top shelf. Standing on his tiptoes, Wally could just reach it, and from there he wiggled out the book (called Flaming Patriarchs: A Collection of Biographies) as far as it would go.

There was a dull grinding noise, and the bookcase slid backwards just far enough to reveal a narrow, dark passageway to the right.

Kuki squealed and threw her arms around Wally. "Ohmigosh, that was so brilliant, Wally! Let's go tell Abby and Hoagie!"

He squirmed out of her grasp. "All right! You can let me go, I've had enough of that stupid dance, and now this-" he said, but that was evidently the wrong to say because tears welled in her eyes and she stamped her foot angrily.

"Oh come on! I know how you really feel about me, you already proved you don't care for me, but it can't be that bad just being around me," Kuki screwed up her face and glared at him.

"No, it's- I mean- I just…" Wally desperately tried and failed to find the words he was looking for. That familiar feeling was rising within in, that feeling that he had something important to say but he couldn't remember it.

"Well, if you have nothing to say, let's just go. Just because we're on a mission doesn't mean we have to talk."

"Fine." scowled Wally.

"Fine."

They glared angrily at each other when suddenly a chilling ensemble of voices cut through the house.

"Hello, teenagers." The voices were icy, eerily monotone, and broadcasting throughout the mansion on speaker. Wally instinctively held out an arm to block Kuki from the mysterious voices and she instinctively grabbed onto his hoodie.

"We hope you have been enjoying our birthday party this evening. Now, come join us in the dining room where we will be serving our delicious birthday cake."

Kuki squealed. "Oooh, that sounds so good, let's go eat cake!"

She started to tug on Wally's arm but he held her back, his brow furrowed.

"Nah, I got a bad feeling about this. I think we should find Abby first…"

And so while the rest of the teenagers swarmed towards the dining room, eagerly chatting about cake, Wally and Kuki took off towards the living room to find Abby, just barely missing the bald boy and the five children running through the crowd towards the far side of the ballroom.

~2x3x4x5~ Inside Pt. IV

Kuki and Wally ran into the living room, now almost empty as all the teenagers flocked towards the dining room, where Kuki squealed as they spotted Abby and Hoagie crawling out from underneath a table, looking a bit disheveled.

"Well, nothing suspicious under that table," said Abby, quickly adjusting her cap.

"Nice," said Hoagie woozily.

"Did you hear about the cake?" Wally asked them anxiously. "We heard some rumors on the way here that it's going to be huge and delicious, and that they want everyone to be there." He paused, frowning. "There was also a rumor about some people making out underneath the table… You didn't see them while you were down there, did you?"

Abby was trying her best not to smile. "Nope, can't say that we saw anybody else down there."

Hoagie glanced at Abby with a sly grin. "I dunno, maybe we should go back down there and, uh, look for them some more?"

She had to stifle a laugh. "Later," Abby whispered to him.

Kuki was giggling and Wally was suddenly feeling very confused.

"I think they're hiding something," he whispered to Kuki and she just giggled in reply.

And with that, Abby loudly cleared her throat. "Ok, now it's seriously time to focus, guys. This has to be the trap that I was warned about, and I'm almost certain that the cake is a lie. We're not going anywhere near that dining room… Kuki, Wally, find anything useful?"

They told her about the secret passageway, and Abby nodded, pleased. It was decided that they would check it out and see where it led.

And so stealthily, the four friends made their way back to the ballroom and ducked into the secret tunnel.

And meanwhile, just about every other teenager was packed into the dining room, where its two big, oaken doors swung shut behind them with a heavy, ominous thud.

WOW thanks for bearing with me through all this! Honestly YOU, yes YOU, dear reader, are the reason I keep doing this! I love getting your feedback, it keeps me going :D :D :D

Last few chapters coming up, so hang in there!