ME: (Looks miserable.) Hey everybody.
CHIBI CHAO: Wow, who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?
ME: (Grumbles.) I've got exams...
CHIBI CHAO: Ah.
ME: So hurry up and get the disclaimer done before I'm forced to take out all my anger on you!
CHIBI CHAO: Eep. (Runs away.)
NO, DRAGON EMPRESS DOESN'T OWN GOLDEN SUN. GODDAMMIT, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT?!
ME: Right, and as is now the norm, before the story starts, it question time! Well, not just questions.
Nuva: (Gasps.) You lie! Jenna and Isaac are not an item, they can't be! I won't believe it! (Fingers in ears.) La la la, I'm not listening...
Mikaa: Wow, I've never gotten a 'prompt' review before. Thanks! But sadly, exams will ultimately slow up this fic's progress. (Is very sad about this.) And about all your questions (And there were a lot!), all will be answered in time. Mwahahahaha...
Lala: Oh please, let's not give Garet and Jenna too much credit. It's not just them that have driven Felix crazy, it's a whole host of things.
Storm Samurai (You've changed your name, good for you!): Drunk? Chibi Garet's far too young to be drinking! (Growls.) Damn it, stop corrupting my muses!
Lumino: Thanks, but with you I'm never quite sure of you're complementing me, or just keeping me sweet 'til you find a suitable mental institution to stick me in...
ME: Well, with that out of the way, let's get onto the next exciting (Cough, yeah right, cough.) chapter!
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Isaac was a little ahead of Ivan and Sheba as the three of them rushed along the bridge and down the path the led to Kraden's house. The explosion had alerted other villagers too, and people were crowded round the steps that led to Kraden's house, though too cowardly to go up and get a better look.
Isaac pushed past them all impatiently. "Stay back, everybody. This could be dangerous."
"Oh, cut the hero crap, Isaac."
"Shut up, Ivan. Jenna's involved, this really could be dangerous!"
"Ooh, good point." Ivan suddenly didn't look so keen to go into Kraden's house. "Maybe we should just let it all play out then, no need to get involved..."
Sheba tutted impatiently. "Ivan, stop being such a chicken."
"I'm not a chicken!"
"You are."
"I'm not!"
Isaac cut in impatiently. "Ivan, you're a chicken. Get over it."
"Well, thank you very much. Now at least I know where I stand among my frie- " His rant was cut off abruptly by another small explosion from inside the house.
Isaac looked slightly pale. "Uh oh. I think we'd better get moving!"
And so, in true hero fashion (With the theme from Indiana Jones playing in the background.), the three of them charged up the stairs and...
...came face-to-face with Mia and Jenna, both looking equally shell- shocked, for reasons Isaac was sure he just didn't want to know.
"What are you guys doing here?" Mia asked, not quite managing to shake the 'I just saw your dad naked' look of sheer disbelief and horror.
"We came to make sure Jenna didn't, uhh, y'know...kill Felix." Isaac said.
But Jenna didn't look capable of killing anyone at that precise moment in time. Hell, it didn't even look like she was capable of stringing a few words together to make a coherent sentence.
"Uh..." Ivan wasn't sure to be relived that the Mars adept wasn't on a mad killing spree, or worried for the very same reason. "Are you alright, Jenna?"
"Pretty orange stuff..." She muttered.
Well, that was informative.
"Please tell me she had the presence of mind not to drink anything Felix made." Sheba said suddenly, looking quite worried.
"Don't worry, she didn't. But Felix did, and it's had some...unusual side effects." Mia shuddered slightly.
Isaac's eyebrows went so high at this point there was a real danger of them disappearing into his hair. "Unusual side effects?"
"Oh, yeah. You really have to see it to believe it."
"Well them, comrades, shall we?" Ivan asked, indicating the door to Kraden's house with his staff.
His Jupiter intuition (It's a bit like women's intuition, only without the P.M.S.) was no longer telling him to run screaming for the hills for fear of incurring Jenna's wrath, and that it would probably be good for his self- esteem to go take a quick look at the crazy guy.
Well, I suppose it would be good for anybody's self-esteem to discover first-hand evidence that proves that no matter how snooker-loopy you may be, there's always somebody faring much worse in the sanity stakes.
"Yeah, alright then." Isaac said, smiling slightly. "I always do enjoy a good laugh." He turned to Mia and Jenna. "Are you two coming as well?"
Mia shuddered again and shook her head, while Jenna just stared blankly off into space.
"Pretty orange stuff..."
"Uh, we'll take that as a 'no' then?" And so, giving Mia a quick kiss on the cheek, Isaac approached the door cautiously, Ivan and Sheba following closely.
"Well, good luck, Isaac." Ivan pushed his friend forward. "Now, when you get in there, first make sure it's safe for me..."
"Oh, no chance, this was your idea. So therefore, you go in first!"
"That's not fair!"
"Adventurer's code: rule number three, Ivan." Isaac quoted, pulling a small brown leather book from his back pocket. "The man/woman who suggests the expedition/suicide mission/trip to Tolbi red light district always has the privilege of leading the party/group/posse/drunken rabble."
"Damn that book!" Ivan yelled. "It's been nothing but trouble since you found it in that jumble sale in Bilibin!"
"Ah yes, the Bilibin jumble sale." Isaac put the book back into his pocket, a slightly wistful look on his face. "Good times."
"So Ivan, are you going in or not?" Sheba asked, irritated. "'Cos as much as I love standing around outside the homes of lunatics, there are many other ways I could be spending my afternoon."
"Well, someone's not in a good mood today..."
"Ivan, just go, before I'm forced to pull a Jenna and break your legs."
"No, not my legs, I need those to walk places!"
"Well then, get moving!"
"Oh, alright then." Shifting his staff to his right hand, he reached out and turned the handle. The door opened with a loud creak, and Ivan suddenly felt as if he was at the point in a book where the kid enters the haunted house, and is never seen again. (Spooky dramatic music this time, please.)
Unfortunately, he never had time to muse over this for long, as he was quickly shoved through the door by Isaac and Sheba, who followed him in nervously.
They scanned the room quickly, half-expecting to find Felix bouncing off the ceiling...
But they didn't. In fact, there didn't seem to be anybody here at all.
Over by the window there was a large, wooden table covered in jars, bottles and tubes of various colours and descriptions. In the corner furthest away from them, there was another, smaller table also with bottles on it. But all of these bottles seemed to be filled with the same thing, a strange, sparkly orange mixture...
"Hey, what are you three doing here?" Asked a sharp voice from the left.
Everybody jumped and turned in the direction of the sound, only to see that standing over y the window (They were positive there had been nobody there before.) was...
"Felix! What the-What the Hell have you done to yourself?!" Sheba exclaimed, though her shock was completely understandable. Isaac and Ivan just seemed lost for words by this point.
For Felix's hair was bright, peroxide ...blonde?
What the Hell?!
"Felix...what the..."
"It was an accident!" He snapped irritably. "I was testing one of my potions, and it had some...unusual side effects."
Unusual side effects? Hmm, that was what Mia had said earlier. Of course, she hadn't elaborated on just how unusual these side effects were.
"But..." Isaac still seemed to be having trouble getting words out. "But why?"
"It's a long story." Felix said, looking thoughtful. Well, as thoughtful as someone so blonde they could put Barbie to shame could look. "I needed a place to stay, and this old place was the only house in town where I wouldn't have to pay rent or anything, 'cos nobody dares go near it!"
"But what about the potions?"
"Ah, well, alongside getting myself a house, my second objective was to get my revenge on that blundering cretin, Garet." He scowled. "And seeing as I live here now, why not put all the excellent materials at my disposal to good use?"
"So what happened with your hair then?"
"I needed a guinea pig for my 'baby'." He picked up a bottle of the orange stuff and patted it lovingly, an action that made everybody else in the room move away from him nervously.
"But wait!" Isaac was suddenly struck by a horrific realisation. Turning to Ivan and Sheba, he said, "Didn't Garet say he drank the 'pretty orange stuff'?"
Ivan nodded his head slowly, not catching on. "Yeah, but so what? That only means that...oh!" He glanced at Felix, who was currently cradling the bottle of orange stuff as if it were an infant. "Oh dear Jupiter, no..."
"If Garet drank the same stuff as Felix did, then he's bound to experience the same effects." Sheba said, eyes wide. "And that means..."
"That means Garet is gonna wake up on my kitchen floor, as blonde as the sun in the morning." Isaac said, nodding grimly. "And boy oh boy, is he gonna be pissed about it!"
An hour or so later:
"Garet! You're gonna have to come out of there eventually!" Isaac thumped on his bathroom door. "You'll need to eat sooner or later!"
There was no reply.
"Oh, come on Garet, we promise we won't laugh at you." Jenna added desperately. "Please, just come out."
The door cracked open slightly. "You promise you won't laugh?"
"I swear it on my wedding dress."
"Oh, alright then. If you...hey, wait!" Clearly Garet had found a flaw in his fiancée's oath. "You haven't even bought it yet!" The door slammed shut again.
"Damn. Almost had him there." It seemed that although the female Mars adept had once again mastered the skill of coherent speech, she still wasn't back up to her Garet-manipulating standards.
"Oh, you guys are useless." Sheba said, before turning her attention to the locked bathroom door. "Garet! I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow this damn door down unless you come out of there right now!"
Garet didn't even bother to open the door this time. "You don't scare me, Big Bad Wolf. I'm never coming out!"
"Gaah!" Jenna pushed Sheba out of the way, hands aflame. "That's it, I'm burning it all down!"
"Jenna, no!" There was a scuffle in the hallway as everybody else rushed to hold back the angry young woman with the burning hands.
"Venus, Jenna, calm down!" Isaac said, once his friend was safely restrained. "We'll get him out of there. But burning my house to cinders is not the answer!"
"It's always the answer!"
"Jenna, calm down." Mia put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I think I know how we can get him out."
The fire dimmed a little, but was not quite extinguished. "I'm listening."
"This works on Isaac all the time. All you do is tell him that you'll..." The Mercury adept whispered something in Jenna's ear.
"But how would...ah, I see...with raspberry sauce? Yeah, I thought so..."
Sheba and Ivan looked on in bewilderment, while Isaac didn't look surprised at all.
"Uh, raspberry sauce?" Ivan enquired, looking at Isaac for confirmation. "Is this something I want to know about, or will it scar me for life?"
"Oh, this one's pretty damaging, mentally I mean. Although it's not quite as bad as the one involving a bucket of water and a fireman's outfit..."
Ivan shuddered at this, and made a mental note never to ask questions about his friend's (Very.) private lives again.
"So, you know what to do then?" Mia asked Jenna suddenly. Her friend nodded. "Then get to it."
Jenna went and knocked on the bathroom door once. It opened about an inch or so with a loud 'creak'.
One amber eye glared at her. "Can I help you?"
"Garet," She began, smiling sweetly. "If you come out of there now, I'll..." And she leaned in and whispered something into the gap between the door and the frame.
From inside the bathroom, Garet chuckled goofily. "Really?"
"Uh huh."
"With raspberry sauce and everything?"
"Yup."
"Oh, fine." The door opened further. "But you promised you wouldn't laugh, remember?"
Isaac rolled his eyes impatiently. "Yes, we promised. Now, will you please come out there?" He shifted from foot to foot. "I really need to pee."
"Right, okay. Deep breaths, Garet. Nobody's gonna laugh at you, they promised..."
"For Venus' sake, stop talking to yourself and get out of there!"
"Alright. Here goes..." The door opened fully, and out stepped one very, very blonde (And thoroughly pissed off.) Garet.
Naturally, everybody fell to the floor laughing.
"Garet!" Mia said, through her fit of laughter. "At last, your hair matches your I.Q.!"
"But it isn't even blonde!" Ivan gasped, clutching his side for fear of dying of all the hilarity. "It's practically luminous yellow!" Everyone fell back laughing again.
"No, this is cruel. Stop it you guys." Jenna got up and gave Garet a hug. "I'm sorry sweetie." She said, patting him on the back comfortingly. "But tell me, do you glow in the dark?" This, of course, only made everybody laugh harder. Jenna included.
But obviously, Garet didn't find any of this funny. "I hate you guys." He muttered, watching with anger as his so-called friends picked themselves up off the floor. "Especially you, Isaac."
"Hey, what did I do?!"
"You promised me you wouldn't laugh!"
"So did Jenna!"
"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to hate her the most."
"You're not?"
"Nope. Unfortunately."
"And what do you mean by that?" His fiancée's dark eyes flashed dangerously.
"I didn't mean anything by that." Garet said quickly. "You both suck. Isaac just sucks more."
"Well, if you know me as well as I think you do, we both know that's not true..."
"I didn't mean it like that!" The male Mars adept shouted, frustrated. "But man, you really do have a one-track mind."
"It's more fun this way."
Garet shook his head. "You really need a hobby, Jenna. I mean, what're you gonna do all day when I'm at work?"
"Work? You mean you got a job?"
"Uhh, yeah..."
Jenna hugged him again. "That's great, Garet!"
"Yeah, good for you." Ivan nodded. "But you know you can't turn up for work looking like that!"
Garet's face crumpled. "Son of a bitch! I'm gonna kill Felix! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him..." And this quickly turned into a rant about how much he hated Felix, occasionally throwing in insults about Isaac, Alex, and those kids on the other side of the river who used to make fun of him about his crush on Jenna when he was twelve. Rotten little gits they were...
"Hey, didn't Felix say that the potion only lasted for twelve hours?" Sheba asked, barely making herself heard over Garet's angry tirade.
Ivan nodded. "Yeah, he did. But ssh, don't tell Garet that!"
"Why not?"
"It's much more entertaining to watch him suffer."
"Ah." Sheba nodded knowledgably, and then the pair of them took a step back and watched Garet's rant.
"Got any popcorn?"
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
ME: Jebus, this chapter took forever to get out. But like I said in my response to Mikaa's review, exams are evil and time consuming. So for a while my updates will become very infrequent. Erm, sorry 'bout that...
CHIBI GARET: (Looking at reviewers.) Do you think they'll be pissed off?
ME: Nah, I doubt it.
CHIBI GARET: Yeah. You're right.
ME: C'mon, let's go. (They leave, oblivious to the rabble of angry reviewers with pitchforks approaching the castle.) I mean, who's afraid of reviewers anyway?
CHIBI CHAO: Wow, who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?
ME: (Grumbles.) I've got exams...
CHIBI CHAO: Ah.
ME: So hurry up and get the disclaimer done before I'm forced to take out all my anger on you!
CHIBI CHAO: Eep. (Runs away.)
NO, DRAGON EMPRESS DOESN'T OWN GOLDEN SUN. GODDAMMIT, HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT?!
ME: Right, and as is now the norm, before the story starts, it question time! Well, not just questions.
Nuva: (Gasps.) You lie! Jenna and Isaac are not an item, they can't be! I won't believe it! (Fingers in ears.) La la la, I'm not listening...
Mikaa: Wow, I've never gotten a 'prompt' review before. Thanks! But sadly, exams will ultimately slow up this fic's progress. (Is very sad about this.) And about all your questions (And there were a lot!), all will be answered in time. Mwahahahaha...
Lala: Oh please, let's not give Garet and Jenna too much credit. It's not just them that have driven Felix crazy, it's a whole host of things.
Storm Samurai (You've changed your name, good for you!): Drunk? Chibi Garet's far too young to be drinking! (Growls.) Damn it, stop corrupting my muses!
Lumino: Thanks, but with you I'm never quite sure of you're complementing me, or just keeping me sweet 'til you find a suitable mental institution to stick me in...
ME: Well, with that out of the way, let's get onto the next exciting (Cough, yeah right, cough.) chapter!
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Isaac was a little ahead of Ivan and Sheba as the three of them rushed along the bridge and down the path the led to Kraden's house. The explosion had alerted other villagers too, and people were crowded round the steps that led to Kraden's house, though too cowardly to go up and get a better look.
Isaac pushed past them all impatiently. "Stay back, everybody. This could be dangerous."
"Oh, cut the hero crap, Isaac."
"Shut up, Ivan. Jenna's involved, this really could be dangerous!"
"Ooh, good point." Ivan suddenly didn't look so keen to go into Kraden's house. "Maybe we should just let it all play out then, no need to get involved..."
Sheba tutted impatiently. "Ivan, stop being such a chicken."
"I'm not a chicken!"
"You are."
"I'm not!"
Isaac cut in impatiently. "Ivan, you're a chicken. Get over it."
"Well, thank you very much. Now at least I know where I stand among my frie- " His rant was cut off abruptly by another small explosion from inside the house.
Isaac looked slightly pale. "Uh oh. I think we'd better get moving!"
And so, in true hero fashion (With the theme from Indiana Jones playing in the background.), the three of them charged up the stairs and...
...came face-to-face with Mia and Jenna, both looking equally shell- shocked, for reasons Isaac was sure he just didn't want to know.
"What are you guys doing here?" Mia asked, not quite managing to shake the 'I just saw your dad naked' look of sheer disbelief and horror.
"We came to make sure Jenna didn't, uhh, y'know...kill Felix." Isaac said.
But Jenna didn't look capable of killing anyone at that precise moment in time. Hell, it didn't even look like she was capable of stringing a few words together to make a coherent sentence.
"Uh..." Ivan wasn't sure to be relived that the Mars adept wasn't on a mad killing spree, or worried for the very same reason. "Are you alright, Jenna?"
"Pretty orange stuff..." She muttered.
Well, that was informative.
"Please tell me she had the presence of mind not to drink anything Felix made." Sheba said suddenly, looking quite worried.
"Don't worry, she didn't. But Felix did, and it's had some...unusual side effects." Mia shuddered slightly.
Isaac's eyebrows went so high at this point there was a real danger of them disappearing into his hair. "Unusual side effects?"
"Oh, yeah. You really have to see it to believe it."
"Well them, comrades, shall we?" Ivan asked, indicating the door to Kraden's house with his staff.
His Jupiter intuition (It's a bit like women's intuition, only without the P.M.S.) was no longer telling him to run screaming for the hills for fear of incurring Jenna's wrath, and that it would probably be good for his self- esteem to go take a quick look at the crazy guy.
Well, I suppose it would be good for anybody's self-esteem to discover first-hand evidence that proves that no matter how snooker-loopy you may be, there's always somebody faring much worse in the sanity stakes.
"Yeah, alright then." Isaac said, smiling slightly. "I always do enjoy a good laugh." He turned to Mia and Jenna. "Are you two coming as well?"
Mia shuddered again and shook her head, while Jenna just stared blankly off into space.
"Pretty orange stuff..."
"Uh, we'll take that as a 'no' then?" And so, giving Mia a quick kiss on the cheek, Isaac approached the door cautiously, Ivan and Sheba following closely.
"Well, good luck, Isaac." Ivan pushed his friend forward. "Now, when you get in there, first make sure it's safe for me..."
"Oh, no chance, this was your idea. So therefore, you go in first!"
"That's not fair!"
"Adventurer's code: rule number three, Ivan." Isaac quoted, pulling a small brown leather book from his back pocket. "The man/woman who suggests the expedition/suicide mission/trip to Tolbi red light district always has the privilege of leading the party/group/posse/drunken rabble."
"Damn that book!" Ivan yelled. "It's been nothing but trouble since you found it in that jumble sale in Bilibin!"
"Ah yes, the Bilibin jumble sale." Isaac put the book back into his pocket, a slightly wistful look on his face. "Good times."
"So Ivan, are you going in or not?" Sheba asked, irritated. "'Cos as much as I love standing around outside the homes of lunatics, there are many other ways I could be spending my afternoon."
"Well, someone's not in a good mood today..."
"Ivan, just go, before I'm forced to pull a Jenna and break your legs."
"No, not my legs, I need those to walk places!"
"Well then, get moving!"
"Oh, alright then." Shifting his staff to his right hand, he reached out and turned the handle. The door opened with a loud creak, and Ivan suddenly felt as if he was at the point in a book where the kid enters the haunted house, and is never seen again. (Spooky dramatic music this time, please.)
Unfortunately, he never had time to muse over this for long, as he was quickly shoved through the door by Isaac and Sheba, who followed him in nervously.
They scanned the room quickly, half-expecting to find Felix bouncing off the ceiling...
But they didn't. In fact, there didn't seem to be anybody here at all.
Over by the window there was a large, wooden table covered in jars, bottles and tubes of various colours and descriptions. In the corner furthest away from them, there was another, smaller table also with bottles on it. But all of these bottles seemed to be filled with the same thing, a strange, sparkly orange mixture...
"Hey, what are you three doing here?" Asked a sharp voice from the left.
Everybody jumped and turned in the direction of the sound, only to see that standing over y the window (They were positive there had been nobody there before.) was...
"Felix! What the-What the Hell have you done to yourself?!" Sheba exclaimed, though her shock was completely understandable. Isaac and Ivan just seemed lost for words by this point.
For Felix's hair was bright, peroxide ...blonde?
What the Hell?!
"Felix...what the..."
"It was an accident!" He snapped irritably. "I was testing one of my potions, and it had some...unusual side effects."
Unusual side effects? Hmm, that was what Mia had said earlier. Of course, she hadn't elaborated on just how unusual these side effects were.
"But..." Isaac still seemed to be having trouble getting words out. "But why?"
"It's a long story." Felix said, looking thoughtful. Well, as thoughtful as someone so blonde they could put Barbie to shame could look. "I needed a place to stay, and this old place was the only house in town where I wouldn't have to pay rent or anything, 'cos nobody dares go near it!"
"But what about the potions?"
"Ah, well, alongside getting myself a house, my second objective was to get my revenge on that blundering cretin, Garet." He scowled. "And seeing as I live here now, why not put all the excellent materials at my disposal to good use?"
"So what happened with your hair then?"
"I needed a guinea pig for my 'baby'." He picked up a bottle of the orange stuff and patted it lovingly, an action that made everybody else in the room move away from him nervously.
"But wait!" Isaac was suddenly struck by a horrific realisation. Turning to Ivan and Sheba, he said, "Didn't Garet say he drank the 'pretty orange stuff'?"
Ivan nodded his head slowly, not catching on. "Yeah, but so what? That only means that...oh!" He glanced at Felix, who was currently cradling the bottle of orange stuff as if it were an infant. "Oh dear Jupiter, no..."
"If Garet drank the same stuff as Felix did, then he's bound to experience the same effects." Sheba said, eyes wide. "And that means..."
"That means Garet is gonna wake up on my kitchen floor, as blonde as the sun in the morning." Isaac said, nodding grimly. "And boy oh boy, is he gonna be pissed about it!"
An hour or so later:
"Garet! You're gonna have to come out of there eventually!" Isaac thumped on his bathroom door. "You'll need to eat sooner or later!"
There was no reply.
"Oh, come on Garet, we promise we won't laugh at you." Jenna added desperately. "Please, just come out."
The door cracked open slightly. "You promise you won't laugh?"
"I swear it on my wedding dress."
"Oh, alright then. If you...hey, wait!" Clearly Garet had found a flaw in his fiancée's oath. "You haven't even bought it yet!" The door slammed shut again.
"Damn. Almost had him there." It seemed that although the female Mars adept had once again mastered the skill of coherent speech, she still wasn't back up to her Garet-manipulating standards.
"Oh, you guys are useless." Sheba said, before turning her attention to the locked bathroom door. "Garet! I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow this damn door down unless you come out of there right now!"
Garet didn't even bother to open the door this time. "You don't scare me, Big Bad Wolf. I'm never coming out!"
"Gaah!" Jenna pushed Sheba out of the way, hands aflame. "That's it, I'm burning it all down!"
"Jenna, no!" There was a scuffle in the hallway as everybody else rushed to hold back the angry young woman with the burning hands.
"Venus, Jenna, calm down!" Isaac said, once his friend was safely restrained. "We'll get him out of there. But burning my house to cinders is not the answer!"
"It's always the answer!"
"Jenna, calm down." Mia put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I think I know how we can get him out."
The fire dimmed a little, but was not quite extinguished. "I'm listening."
"This works on Isaac all the time. All you do is tell him that you'll..." The Mercury adept whispered something in Jenna's ear.
"But how would...ah, I see...with raspberry sauce? Yeah, I thought so..."
Sheba and Ivan looked on in bewilderment, while Isaac didn't look surprised at all.
"Uh, raspberry sauce?" Ivan enquired, looking at Isaac for confirmation. "Is this something I want to know about, or will it scar me for life?"
"Oh, this one's pretty damaging, mentally I mean. Although it's not quite as bad as the one involving a bucket of water and a fireman's outfit..."
Ivan shuddered at this, and made a mental note never to ask questions about his friend's (Very.) private lives again.
"So, you know what to do then?" Mia asked Jenna suddenly. Her friend nodded. "Then get to it."
Jenna went and knocked on the bathroom door once. It opened about an inch or so with a loud 'creak'.
One amber eye glared at her. "Can I help you?"
"Garet," She began, smiling sweetly. "If you come out of there now, I'll..." And she leaned in and whispered something into the gap between the door and the frame.
From inside the bathroom, Garet chuckled goofily. "Really?"
"Uh huh."
"With raspberry sauce and everything?"
"Yup."
"Oh, fine." The door opened further. "But you promised you wouldn't laugh, remember?"
Isaac rolled his eyes impatiently. "Yes, we promised. Now, will you please come out there?" He shifted from foot to foot. "I really need to pee."
"Right, okay. Deep breaths, Garet. Nobody's gonna laugh at you, they promised..."
"For Venus' sake, stop talking to yourself and get out of there!"
"Alright. Here goes..." The door opened fully, and out stepped one very, very blonde (And thoroughly pissed off.) Garet.
Naturally, everybody fell to the floor laughing.
"Garet!" Mia said, through her fit of laughter. "At last, your hair matches your I.Q.!"
"But it isn't even blonde!" Ivan gasped, clutching his side for fear of dying of all the hilarity. "It's practically luminous yellow!" Everyone fell back laughing again.
"No, this is cruel. Stop it you guys." Jenna got up and gave Garet a hug. "I'm sorry sweetie." She said, patting him on the back comfortingly. "But tell me, do you glow in the dark?" This, of course, only made everybody laugh harder. Jenna included.
But obviously, Garet didn't find any of this funny. "I hate you guys." He muttered, watching with anger as his so-called friends picked themselves up off the floor. "Especially you, Isaac."
"Hey, what did I do?!"
"You promised me you wouldn't laugh!"
"So did Jenna!"
"Yeah, but I'm not allowed to hate her the most."
"You're not?"
"Nope. Unfortunately."
"And what do you mean by that?" His fiancée's dark eyes flashed dangerously.
"I didn't mean anything by that." Garet said quickly. "You both suck. Isaac just sucks more."
"Well, if you know me as well as I think you do, we both know that's not true..."
"I didn't mean it like that!" The male Mars adept shouted, frustrated. "But man, you really do have a one-track mind."
"It's more fun this way."
Garet shook his head. "You really need a hobby, Jenna. I mean, what're you gonna do all day when I'm at work?"
"Work? You mean you got a job?"
"Uhh, yeah..."
Jenna hugged him again. "That's great, Garet!"
"Yeah, good for you." Ivan nodded. "But you know you can't turn up for work looking like that!"
Garet's face crumpled. "Son of a bitch! I'm gonna kill Felix! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him..." And this quickly turned into a rant about how much he hated Felix, occasionally throwing in insults about Isaac, Alex, and those kids on the other side of the river who used to make fun of him about his crush on Jenna when he was twelve. Rotten little gits they were...
"Hey, didn't Felix say that the potion only lasted for twelve hours?" Sheba asked, barely making herself heard over Garet's angry tirade.
Ivan nodded. "Yeah, he did. But ssh, don't tell Garet that!"
"Why not?"
"It's much more entertaining to watch him suffer."
"Ah." Sheba nodded knowledgably, and then the pair of them took a step back and watched Garet's rant.
"Got any popcorn?"
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ME: Jebus, this chapter took forever to get out. But like I said in my response to Mikaa's review, exams are evil and time consuming. So for a while my updates will become very infrequent. Erm, sorry 'bout that...
CHIBI GARET: (Looking at reviewers.) Do you think they'll be pissed off?
ME: Nah, I doubt it.
CHIBI GARET: Yeah. You're right.
ME: C'mon, let's go. (They leave, oblivious to the rabble of angry reviewers with pitchforks approaching the castle.) I mean, who's afraid of reviewers anyway?