Disclaimer: Square owns Final Fantasy IX! Adidas owns Adidas! Abercrombie and Fitchs owns itself (I hate typing Aber- oh, well, you know) ! I own Vanessa and Jeremy and all other original characters!

A/N: Vanessa's new world emerges, Vanessa's new problem emerges, Vanessa's new fashion disaster emerges. What more can you ask for? Except the story...







Like, Final Fantasy IX - by ThingBling







Chapter II: Potato Sack


Let's just say Vanessa thought this was the coolest video game ever. The birds in the sky looked so real! The people were running madly to and fro, shouting about getting ready for the 'big event'. A little furry creature with bat-like wings toddled by, muttering some gruff words under its breath. What a wonderful-!

"Wait; sky?!" You see, Vanessa wasn't the quickest turtle in the pond. "Uh..."

And this is how it hit Vanessa: on the top of her perfect head. She let out a shriek of dismay as an acorn fell off of her head. She looked around in a confused rage. What she saw was less than pretty.

"Hey, lady! Toss that back up here!" A boy - wait, no! Not a boy - a freak of nature, with huge unblinking eyes and the twitchy kind of nose that only a squirrel could have, waved to her. From a rooftop.

She was frozen in place. She wasn't scared. She wasn't even fazed. She was beginning to understand...

"Oh! A virtual reality game!" Uh... perhaps not.

"A what's-a-huh? Does this look like virtual reality to you?" Losing all patience, the rodent hurled a few more of these nuts at the clueless beauty. "Get out of here, blondie!"

With a scream, Vanessa stumbled her way out of the alley she had been lingering in. "I'm not blonde! I have beautiful brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes, okay?! Get it straight!" Huffing and puffing, and hoping it was back all the way home, Vanessa slowed and eventually came to a stop in front of the largest woman she had seen in her life. Vanessa's "gorgeous" eyes bugged out.

"Excuse me, child, I'm in a hurry.."

"No! Wait!" Regaining her sense (or at least all of it she had ever had), Vanessa tugged at the ribbons fastened around the woman's generous girth, hoping to snag some attention. It was too late. The lady hadn't even noticed, and hustled over to the small stall in the center of the Village Square.

"Mr. Ticket man! I demand to know what the holdup is!" Vanessa watched, intrigued, from behind an overflowing flower basket. The rather well-padded aristocrat pulled back the veil that surrounded the stand. "When is the play scheduled?! I thought it was six o' clock sharp!"

"It, um, is," the odd looking man behind the curtains, as far as Vanessa could tell, was anything but human. His tongue lolled around as he held up a yellow piece of paper. "Ma'am, it's only ten after five. You should probably head up to the performance, so YOU'RE on time in time to get a good seat..."

Play? Performance?? Vanessa hurried over to the lady and the strange man. "What's this play-thing about?"





The slam of a door could be heard from he kitchen, where Mrs. Morrison was busily cooking dinner. Two very fancy Vans shoes were kicked out of the way, replaced by smudgy Adidas sneakers. A drop of a sloppy book bag, a wipe of the nose, and a sigh of relief. "Hey, mom! We got back early!"

"What...? Jeremy! You''ve returned so soon!" Vanessa's mother, or more at the moment, JEREMY's mother appeared suddenly out of the kitchen doorway and flew over to greet her son. "What happened, honey?"

"Ah, nothing. Just an escaped convict around the hotel's area." Nothing more had to be said. His mother shrieked and threw her arms around her adorable child. At least, adorable in her eyes. "Mom! Yer squeezing me to death! I'm okay!"

"Just think if something happened to you! Are you alright?! BABY!!!"

"MOM, I SAID I'M OKAY!! Get offa me!!" Released from the panicking woman, Jeremy shook the disturbed curls out of his eyes. "Geez, mom..."

Sniffing, his mother started wringing her hands, and looked him up and down. "So the field trip tomorrow...?"

"Canceled," Jeremy started walking towards the stairs leading to the family's bedroom floor. "I guess her highness won't be too thrilled..." A creak sounded as his left foot pressured the first wooden step.

"You're going up to your room now?"

"Uh, yeah. What else?"

"Oh.. well, dinner's almost ready. Would you mind peaking into Vanessa's room and telling her? Oh! And make sure to tell her to share," Mrs. Morrison smiled secretively at her son, and slowly brushed past him, traveling back into the kitchen.

"Share? Mom, what's going on?" A gentle melody seemed to reveal itself now, floating down from the upper hallway. A curiosity welled behind Jeremy's throat as he took the stairs two at a time, following the music to its very source.





"Yes, it's a celebration. Now do you understand?" Vanessa wondered how to respond. All this for someone's sixteenth birthday?! And all SHE had gotten were some measly clothes and a car!

"The princess's pretty spoiled, huh," Vanessa looked at the old clock behind the man. The overweight lady had left a few minutes before, satisfied with the night's plans. "Five-twenty. Sir, is this play supposed to be really good?"

"One of the best!" The canine creature puffed himself up.

"Then I want a ticket!!"

"Wh-what?"

"A ticket. Preferably pink," Vanessa stared at the man slowly shrink in posture. "...What's the matter? Can't you give me one?"

"I'm afraid I can't," he scratched behind his head. "Even if I had any left, I don't think a girl like you could afford it."

"Yeah, right. Do you know who I am?!"

"No, who are you?"

"Vanessa Katrina Morrison!" She smiled, showing off her glittering, straight teeth.

"Oh."

"And as for the money, just look at my clothes! These happen to be one-hundred-and-ten-dollar Abercrombie and Fitch..." Vanessa trailed off, bending over to stroke her beautifully overpriced pants. But something was wrong. "M-my capri's aren't- they aren't THERE!"

"What are you talking about? That's a very nice potato-sack dress!"

It was true! Vanessa was now clad in a rather shabby brown dress, pink and green flowers littering the edges. A white apron covered many holes, and the boots she had on... well! They were certainly not Abercrombie and Fitch!

To say that Vanessa screamed would be an understatement. Vanessa turned into an absolute siren.

"I don't! I can't! Mom, mom, mom, mom-" she howled. She stamped. She caught sight of a gigantic flying ship as it propelled itself over her head and towards the castle's crystal tower.

"Right.. well, you can always view from the rooftops, like all the other peasants do!" The man nervously gestured for the guards at the gate, but Vanessa quickly calmed down and hung her head.

What a stupid thing to do! "It's only a game! I remember now..." She walked off, back to the Alley that she had arrived at when she had first realized her transition of worlds.

The man sighed in relief.





"Vanessa! Dinner!" Jeremy violently kicked open his sister's bedroom's door, hoping to get a startled complaint. As the door stopped vibrating, he walked into the empty, glowing room. "What the heck?"

There the television was. There Vanessa's bed was. There Vanessa's $2000 dresser was. So, where was Vanessa?

"Hey," Jeremy suddenly didn't care 'what the heck'. Now he cared 'how the heck'. "HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET MOM TO RENT YOU OUT THIS??!" The holler seemed to echo despite Vanessa's all-sound-absorbent pink carpet. "AND WHERE ARE YOU?!!" Like he really cared!

Jeremy pounced on the Playstation, inspecting the cords and the smoothed gray top. He picked up the case of the game that was paused. He looked at all the funny characters on it. Man, that red-haired guy looked awesome!

"Sweet," he picked up the abandoned controller and flounced onto his sister's bed. As soon as he was thoroughly comfortable, he pushed into the dark gray, triangular button. "Where are we?"

He fiddled with the arrow buttons. What a weird-feeling controller! Hey.. a joystick. Wow! That thing on the screen moves!! But what is it?

Jeremy experimented for a while before figuring out how it worked. A townsperson told the digital creature in the blue coat and floppy hat to head over to the ticket booth. Where? Ah: there! A question mark in a white bubble appeared above the character's head.

"I'm sure Vanessa won't mind!"





"What to do now? What's the point of this?" Vanessa leaned against a wall, careful so as not to dirty herself. "A play from the rooftops.. and with peasants! I thought at least I could meet the queen.."

"Hey, kid." A hippo carpenter wiped his forhead and frowned down on her from the top of his ladder. The sign he was attending to hung forlornly from one corner. "Are ya just gonna sit there all day? Why don't you go find your little friends so I can concentrate, huh?"

"Friends?"

"Yeeeaaahh.. people little girls like you paint your nails with and stuff! I got a job to do; scram!"

"Rowr," Vanessa itched her collar and started to walk away. Swinging her hips was the only thing that made her feel comfortable in a world so unfamilliar! "But what kind of friends would I find in this dump?" Trying to keep her head high and look as if she knew what she was doing (may I add that she was an expert at this), Vanessa overlooked one thing...

And stepped on its tail.

The cat that had been cleaning itself clawed out in alarm, frightening the little boy that had just trotted into the alley. Only being able to concentrate on one thing at a time at his age, he slipped and fell on his face. The cat bolted and Vanessa gasped. "Are you alright?!"

"Little klutz! Look what you made me do!" The carpenter had descended his ladder to shake a fat finger at the shy youth. "Look where you're going... geez."

Vanessa tried to help up the boy by the cleanest part of his coat. After she aided him, she looked back up to see the carpenter finishing up his job. "You could be nicer, you know!"

"Psshh. What would a blondie know?" The infuriating hippo had come back down again. His job was done, evidently, for he strutted down the alley, negatively muttering about the new generation.

"Whatever! Like I'm ever gonna care about world hunger now!" Vanessa daintily stamped her foot. "And I'm not blonde!"

"U-um..." Vanessa turned around. The boy was brushing himself off. He looked into her eyes.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" Now she had had enough! Squirrels: okay. Obese women: unavoidable. Dog-like men and hippo-carpenters: gotta love 'em ... BUT A YELLOW-EYED DEMON?! "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

The boy backed away, scared and a little hurt. He started to walk away.

"No, wait!" Vanessa's heart was pounding. It was the same guy on the game's cover! Now she remembered... probably the star. If she didn't get on good terms with him- "Uh, uh, really sorry! You just-- just look like someone I used to know!"

"...really?" Good; she had caught the creature's attention! Now to butter him up!!

"So, hmm, what's your name?"

"..."





"What a dumb girl! Dissing my question-mark man!"

"JEREMY!"

"Uh.. WHAT, MOM?!"

"DINNER!!"

"OKAY!!!" Jeremy put the controller down and hurried out the door. Man, was he hungry!








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A/N: REVIEW PLEASE! It's really only fair since you've read it this far, and...
ALL REVIEWERS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED!!



Reviewer Thanks:

gamegurl mirai So glad you liked! And yeah, major prep! Abercrombie and Fitch was a tip-off for the slow.. ^^ Hehe. Do you know anyone like Vanessa. Please come again, and thanks for reviewing!

Quistis88 Is there a chapter of anything I've written that you HAVEN'T reviewed?! ^^ Wow, you're a GREAT friend! And sorry bout the wrong age guess.. but you sound so.. smart!! ::shrugs:: Thanks for reviewing (like, times 20)!

chimera86 I love when people dare to read new authors' stuff.. including poetry and whatnot. I hope I live up to your expectations! Keep on coming ::smiles:: Thanks for reviewing!

Gazing Dreams Sorry that I kinda MADE you come ::whistles innocently:: hey, I posted some stuff on your forum! Maybe you'll get to see it.. until then! Thanks for reviewing!

Mimi-kins I think we all know someone like her ::sighs:: And thanks for reviewing my lyrics, too! I won't get any more up tonight (homework blah.. -.-) but please come back when I do! Your story rocks... Thanks!

Sparks I read your Zidane! A murderer?! Before, but under a different name. Can you guess who (that's right! I'm not completely new!! my email just died O.o) ... did it happen yet?? Thanks again!

Nocturne And the story will continue! Hope this chapter was as good as you were hoping, or as "nice" ^^ Thanks!

CherryBlossomMercenary Love your name. And YES! REVENGE OF THE GAME NERDS!!! LOL that's too funny. Funnier than this story by far, and I claim it to be under the 'humor' category.. well, it'll get funnier when it's all warmed up. Thanks!



TO BE CONTINUED, if you review! I know I like writing it, so if you like reading it, PLEASE-please-please spend a minute for my, what, two hours spent working on it (I'm not the fastest typist)! That is all, and thanks for considering..