Two weeks later....

"Hello?"

"Nick, It's Heidi, we really need to talk....in person, Nick....This is so serious..."

"What? God, you haven't called me in weeks..."

"Nicholas...please...." She began to cry, "Please......for me....please...."

The slate haired boy hung up the phone and got on his bike.

"Vash....C'mon, We're about to go pick up Ellie!" Rem shouted impatiently. Knives was already waiting in the car, along with legato, who seemed bent on going. "Why should I go Rem? Why?" He said standing in the doorway. "Because, your foster sister would like you both to be there." "I don't want to deal with it." He responded and headed upstairs. "Fine Vash.....be an asshole!" Rem shouted angrily, and slammed the door of her car.

Meryl's eyes watered as her father's silver BMW loaded up with all of his belongings pulled out of their driveway. Her mother smiled and placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Good riddance to bad rubbish!" she said cheerfully. Meryl rolled her eyes and went inside. She missed hanging out with the guys. She missed the unity she felt when with Midvalley and vash, even knives. Everything had changed miserably in the past two weeks. She sighed and threw herself on her bed, crying.

Midvalley stared at the walls of his room. All he could think about was Vash. "Vash..." He murmured, "Vash....I....." he put his hands over his face and began to cry. He looked around his room again, wishing he could change things, wishing that he could turn back time and fix things with Vash. The ringing of the phone startled him. He answered is cautiously, "Hello?" The voice on the other line was one that seemed to be in as much pain as his own. "Yeah....I'm sorry too....Yeah, I'll be right over." He dried his eyes and got ready to leave.

Millie was sitting at the table thinking about how she could make the best out of the past few weeks. Yes, her three best friends were no longer talking, at all. Yes, the person who she thought would be her first real girl-friend had left the country. And she'd been turned down by her longtime crush. She blinked. "Pudding!" She exclaimed to her two brothers. They looked at each other "that's your answer to everything!" She grinned. "I'll make them all pudding." She grinned and went upstairs. She shut her door very very tightly, and locked it.

Nick pulled into Heidi's driveway. He ditched his bike, and knocked on her door. She answered it, with eyes the most bloodshot he'd ever seen. "Heidi.....what......what happened to you!? Are you ok?!" He asked stunned. She found her voice and took his hand "Nick, you'd better come in..." She closed the door behind him, and led him over to the couch. He felt a sudden familiar pain in his heart. She looked him in the eye. "Nick...I'm........" She began to cry, so he pulled her into his lap and held her close. "It's ok...." he whispered to her. "No! It isn't!! Nick...I'm Fucking Pregnant!!!!" She screamed and buried her head in his shoulder.

Vash watched the cars go by. He stared out and took another long swig from the bottle. He looked around him, everything was so dull. He was so numb. He didn't want to deal with any of this, anything at all. He'd shoot himself if he had a gun. He didn't, he had nothing in this world anymore. He had a bottle, a guitar, a drum kit, a brother, and a mother. He'd soon have another brother who thought he was a girl. Perhaps he'd think differently about all of this if he still had Midvalley. He kicked the script off his bed. He had thought about dropping that class anyways.... No Midvalley, no legato, no nick.

Meryl ran downstairs when she heard the car pull in. "Middie!!!" She screamed and jumped into his arms as he got out of the car. "Hey there Strife! How are you!? " he said, catching her and giving her a hug. She mumbled something, and then jumped down. "I've been better...want to come in?" She asked. He nodded and she led the way in. "Meryl, who's here?" Her mother called form the kitchen. "A friend mom....We're going upstairs, don't bother us."

Rem smiled at legato and Knives. "I'm going to go get her, you tow wait here, ok?" Knives held a teddy bear, and Legato held some roses. "ok." they both chorused. As soon as she was gone, legato leaned over and licked Knive's ear. "Stop that!" Knives growled. Legato pouted playfully. Knives took on a serious face for a minute. "Do you think that seeing us makes vash miserable?"

"Why do you ask?" Legato purred into Knive's ear.

"Well...He seems to hate everything, I find it quite beautiful..."

The two slightly morbid lovers looked each other in the eye, and smiled.

Nick stared off into space. Nothing he could say or do could change this.

Millie pulled her pants off and went over to her bookshelf. She pulled out a book called "The world within" and opened it up. The hollow book held her one little secret. She pulled the package of blades out, and sat cross-legged on her bed. She pulled a single blade out and ran her finger over the top. She smiled to herself. (*This isn't as gross as you think it is...S-S*)

Meryl dried her tears and looked across the room to Midvalley. "Thanks for coming over, I really didn't need to talk to you about my parents.... but......Vash! Vash...He needs us. "

Midvalley lowered his eyes.

"I need him." He said quietly.

She smiled a little, "I know Midvalley, we all do.."

Elendira walked out, linked to Rem's arm. "Where's Vash?" She asked as soon as she saw Knives and Legato. Rem looked at the two boys. "Well, he thought being home alone, depressed, and drunk would be a better way to welcome you into the house." Knives stood up and handed Elendira the bear. "For you, sis..." He smiled a little. She stared right past him and at legato who seemed slightly uncomfortable. "And who is this?" She asked, an air of raw sexuality to her tone. "This is Legato, Legato Bluesummers, My boyfriend." Knives said finally. Legato stepped forward, and bowed, then kissed her hand. "Charmed..." She said sounding slightly bored. "These....are for you..." He said, thrusting the roses forward. She looked at them, biting down on her perfectly glossed red-lips. "I hate roses." Rem looked at the three teenagers, and sighed nervously. " Why don't we all go get some lunch?"

Vash stared at the script. Paper or Plastic...Who the fuck wrote this? No one ever falls in love in a grocery store...why is there a musical devoted to this? Why are we doing this? So WHAT if some stupid senior wrote it....I have to drop this class. He looked at the mirror on the back of his door. He looked like shit. He decided to take a shower, since he reeked of things he couldn't even identify.

Nicholas finally found his voice. "So, what are we going to do?" Heidi pulled herself away from his shoulder. "Did you say 'we'?" Nick looked at her solemnly. "Yes, I do believe I did." She looked at him. "You're going to stick by me in this?" He lifted her chin, so his eyes met hers. " Do I need to say it?" She laughed. " You're not going to leave me pregnant and fat?" He smiled. "That's not very noble now is it?" He held her close and kissed her cheek "So, are we going to have a baby?"

Millie put the blade away, and dabbed the blood off her leg. She put her pants back on and stopped in the bathroom to wash her hands. She headed downstairs, opened the cupboard and pulled out 6 boxes of instant pudding. She pulled the milk out of the refrigerator and noticed the blood soaking through her pant leg. "Shit..." She murmured.

Rem pulled into "Eden" The local Vegetarian restaurant. The four of them filled a window booth. Elendira looked pleased when the waiter acknowledged her as a girl. Legato winced when the waiter thought he too was a girl. Knives stared straight ahead while legato, rem and Elendira discussed drama. "So, what's the musical called?"

Legato rolled his eyes "Paper or plastic."

Rem smiled. "Sounds charming, what's it about?"

Legato looked as if he had been attacked by a flock of bunnies. "A love story that takes place in a grocery store."

Knives burst out laughing.

Meryl looked at Midvalley. "You sure this is a good Idea?" she asked. He nodded. "Vashu loves live music."

Vash was nicely getting out of the shower, he was beginning to feel sober. He looked out his window and noticed a blue car he'd never seen before, unloading some instruments onto a front yard. Probably some new college students moving in...maybe they have a band,....maybe they need a roadie.... he sighed and headed over to his closet to get dressed.

Meryl helped Clay set up his drums. She smiled when he patted her on the head. She hated being short. Midvalley growled. "He's going to have to come out sometime." Everyone was in their place. Suddenly the door opened and a blonde blur appeared across the street. Midvalley and Meryl hid behind a tree. "Hi, I'm Vash!!!" the blur said happily. "I'm Clay..." and he began to drum. "Hey that sounds like the drum line to.." Vash got drowned out by Midvalley and his guitar. "You fell down of course, and then you got up of course and started over..." He sang looking a the blonde. Meryl watched Clay as if he were a god. "Same boy you've always known, well I guess I haven't grown, same boy you've always known, same boy you've always known" Midvalley continued, playing his emotion. "And if there's anything good about me, I'm the only one who knows..."

Meryl watched the two boys. Vash looked at Midvalley. "I'm..." he started, Midvalley walked over and kissed him. "Yeah, me too," he said pulling away. Meryl hopped up and down happily. "So we can finally all be friends again!!"

~The next day~

Elendira waltzed down the hallway, arms linked between legato and knives. They looked almost like some kind of twisted wizard of oz parody. Today was the day of the auditions. Legato looked at Elendira. "How was your first day?"

She smiled. "Fabulous."

They turned into the theater.

Vash and Midvalley sat in a corner, surrounded by a flock of senior girls. Nick looked surprisingly sober, and was talking to Ms. Gould. Legato took Elendira by the hand and led her to the front table, while knives tried to blend in with the crowd as much as possible.

The room quieted, and Ms. Gould took the stage. "Thank you very much for coming." People clapped. "We'll begin our auditions as soon as the playwright arrives. As you all can see, arriving late is very enough now." People giggled. A door swung open, letting lights cress the audience. A slender teen dressed in a white shirt with red pinstripes cuffs rolled up past the elbows, and black dress pants walked on stage. The teen's Red hair glinted in the light.

"Well, thank you for joining us Seb."

The teen stepped towards the microphone, as if to speak, and solely nodded.

"LET THE AUDITIONS BEGIN!!!" Screamed Mr. Neon, the music director.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

S-S: who is this SeB?

Vash: I dunno, but he sure is dreamy...

Ellen: HE?! Hardly, Seb is 100% woman

Legato: Who cares what Seb is?! Seb is walking sex!

S-S: Yeah pretty much.