A/N – hello there! **Jumps out in front of you** How are you lovely people? Hmm??? Missing me? **Blushes** O me, o my. Right… that was odd. Meh. Just me I suppose. ^_^ Happy, happy. I finally decided to update. It was half term last week and I couldn't be bothered to update then. But, here I am! I'll shut up now.
Disclaimer: If I owned the Tamora Pierce characters would I really bother writing this when I could just lock them all in cages and torment them all day? And drool over Dom, of course.
Chapter 10 – Bye, bye **waves goodbye to… a character**
The next day Grace was ready and rearing to go.
She jumped up and down on the spot. "Fun, fun, fun. Lots of fun!" cried Grace.
Neal grinned and edged away slowly. Having been brought breakfast in bed Grace hadn't seen the others yet today. She could see them though, standing in front of Lord Padraig, or "Pad-wad" as Grace had nicknamed him.
"You take things easy today," ordered Neal.
Grace saluted him. "Yes sir!"
Neal just blinked. Grace marched off to the others.
~*~
Tat frowned, again. "It's too hard!" she wailed.
Daine rubbed her forehead. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Look, just concentrate hard. Think of Hippodrome. You can do this, I'm sure."
Tat sighed. "I'll try."
Daine had moved Hippdrome a much further distance away and was trying to see if Tat could still talk to him. He was chewing on a nut at that moment. (A/N- I have no idea what chinchillas eat so please forgive me for my ignorance. Hehe **sticks out tongue** I have a tongue.)
Tat tried listening. Hello? She tried. Hippdrome? Are you there? Hello? Hellloooooo????
Tat repeated herself again and again and again till finally an annoyed voice rang in her head, I can hear you! I'm not deaf Rat.
"My name's Tat!" she cried.
Whatever Rat.
With that Tat leaped at Hippdrome as he leaped off his log and ran. Daine burst into laughter and Tat totally forgot the fact that she had done what she was supposed to.
~*~
Emily rubbed her shoulder gingerly. "Ouchy," she murmured. "That hurt."
Jihui nodded, her head flopping. All of them sat on their own table in the Mess Hall. They all nursed bruised bodily parts. Grace was whimpering over her thumb, Jihui was just flopping, Stella held a cold cloth to her forehead and Hatty was…. Well, just being Hatty.
"Pad-wad really works us too hard," stated Grace. "He's a meany."
Emily giggled uncontrollably. "Ouch." She grasped her shoulder. "Don't make me laugh!" She then gave her raised eyebrow thing-a-ma jiggy whatsit (TM of The Mystic Fluffball corporation.) (Basically she raised an eyebrow.)
"'Pad-wad?'" asked Stella, perplexed. Not unlike everyone else who had heard.
"What?" demanded Grace. "It's a good nickname." Everyone continued to stare. Grace just shrugged and continued eating.
Jihui continued giggling but a bit quieter.
Grace suddenly felt two hands clamp over her eyes. "Ahh!" she cried. "I've gone blind!"
She heard a chuckle from behind her. Grace elbowed at the noise wildly. She heard a yelp. "That hurt you know," said a familiar voice.
Grace threw off the arms and spun round. "Frey!" she yelled and leaped wildly at him. (A/N – I haven't mentioned him for a while.)
Hatty coughed madly. Emily soon decided to join in. Frey, looking a little flushed, pulled back. "Um," he said, extremely intelligently (not.) "Let's go outside."
Grace nodded dumbly and followed, gripping Frey's hand. They made there way outside the doors of the Mess Hall. Frey kept leading Grace away.
Grace soon, predictably as her attention span lasts a millisecond, got bored. She decided to sing a song. "Little brown jug" could soon be heard ringing down the halls. Frey let go of her hand. Looked around and turned to face her.
"Grace, I need to-"
"Shh!" Grace motioned for him to shut the hell up.
Frey pouted. "Why?"
"Shh!"
Frey continued his mad pouting fit. Grace spun round. And round again. And yet again.
Soon she felt quite dizzy and stopped. "Cecily's gone." Then she chose that exact moment to faint.
"Great timing their Grace," muttered Frey.
A/N – there! It took me three days of writing to finish this. I know it's awful but oh well. If you liked it then you could always, hmm, well just click on the little box at the bottom of the page on the left hand corner. I'm sure you can figure it out. : ) Also you can blame all mistakes on my computer. Bad computer!
