Disclaimer: Nothing has changed since the previous chapters…
Chapter 7
"WAKE UP!!" Suddenly, Quistis was aware of the sound of an air horn being blown into her ear. As she jerked upward it caused Laguna's black hair fell into her face and she looked wildly around the room. The digital clock said it was just about ten minutes until four in the morning. On her right Kiros and Ward stood, Ward holding the air horn and Kiros beaming from ear to ear.
"It's not even four yet!" she complained, pulling the blankets over her heard.
"Today's the day!" Kiros said, excitedly.
"What's happening today?" Quistis said into her pillow.
"It's the bun squeezing contest!!"
"Oh Hyne…no," Quistis complained, burrowing herself even further into the blankets.
"Oh yes! Ward! Grab his ankles and throw him out of bed!"
The big man did as he was told, and no matter how much training either Laguna or Quistis did, nothing would have been able to stop him from achieving his goal. Quistis suddenly found herself sitting on the floor, utterly defeated.
"Come on! We have approximately twelve hours until the preliminaries start! Are you ready to sweat!!?" Kiros said, throwing a fist into the air. Quistis now thought that maybe some of Laguna's traits had rubbed off onto the dark skinned man. She never remembered him being this obsessive about anything when she went into the 'dream world'.
"No, I'm perfectly fine with being sweat free at the moment," she argued climbing back into the warmth of her sheets.
"Too bad!" Kiros chided.
Ward pulled Quistis back out of bed and dragged her to the doorway.
"It's twelve hours away! Let me sleep for another six of those hours! I will be happy then!"
"There's no way. You're going to be training, extra hard!"
Quistis' eyes widened and she desperately began clawing at walls and any other protruding objects so that she could maybe grab on to them to stop her procession down the hallway.
"The roster this year has grown considerably! Even that Quistis Trepe of Balamb Garden has entered!"
"Qui-Quistis? She entered!!?" Quistis exclaimed. Maybe, just maybe she could talk to Laguna and figure out a way for them to switch back.
"Yes, and as well as someone else from that region. Can't remember the name though," Kiros shrugged.
Quistis continued to struggle in vain attempts to get Ward to drop her. Finally she was successful, though once he did lose his grip she plummeted to the ground. "Thanks Ward, thanks a lot…" she griped, rubbing her butt as she got back up.
"No time for gratitude!" Kiros shouted, grabbing Quistis by the arm and dragging her to the kitchen. "The first part of any winner's day! BREAKFAST!"
"But it's still 4 a.m…"
Kiros shot her a glare that meant, 'eat or I'll force it down your throat.' This look, however, disappeared when he placed a plate of eggs in front of the scowling Quistis. The food had been made into a pathetic smiley-face design.
Almost as if she had no control over what she did, Quistis clamped her hands together excitedly and squealed, "My favorite!!"
Ward beamed and sat down across the table as did Kiros.
Quistis snapped out of her 'Laguna-state-of-mind' and scowled wide-eyed at that annoying face that continued to smile up at her, completely oblivious to its fate. She wanted to gobble it up just so that it would stop staring. Then again, she also wanted more sleep. So, angrily she flipped the bacon upside-down to make the face frown then stabbed one of its 'eyes' with a fork and watched the yellow goo ooze out.
"I'm going to back to bed," she yelled, pulling herself up from the chair.
Kiros stared at her, his left eye twitching, and then looked back at his precious meal that he had cooked all by himself. He had not resigned himself to giving up just yet. Ward jumped out of his seat and ran around the table so that he could block off 'the president's' progress down the hall.
"Out of my way, I'm tired!" she griped, pushing to no avail at the taller man.
"….!" And with that, he held Quistis' arms behind her back so that she couldn't move, Kiros approached with the plate.
"Here comes the airplane!!" He buzzed his lips and made aerial circles with the egg-laden fork, finally forcing it into her mouth.
*Meanwhile in the Classroom*
"And so, when the brave hero, Laguna Loire, lead the resistance against the sorceress…" Laguna continued lecturing the class on the Sorceress War, his favorite subject since he got the opportunity to mention himself many times. The students however, were slowly beginning to hate it because they had heard about it too many times.
Instead of listening to the instructor, most of the students were talking to each other on their study panels.
Squall was talking to Selphie on his study panel, Seifer was talking to Rinoa and Zell was constantly entering and exiting other people's conversations.
I'm glad we're leaving Garden early today! Selphie's message popped up onto Squall's screen.
Yeah, don't tell too many people… Squall typed.
I'm so excited! Our first vacation together!!
It won't be a long one.
Shh! Stop spoiling my excited-ness! Selphie scolded him.
Zell had typed something into his study panel to the Trepies in the front of the room about how boring Quistis' lecture was that particular day, and in response he was getting several death treats. As he read through them, laughing at himself, he glanced over at Squall's panel to see 'Ahh! You're such a sweet bunny!' pop onto the screen.
"Bunny?" he snickered, extremely close to Squall's ear. Squall jumped and looked over at Zell. "Ooh, that's so cute! It's like shmoopsie-poo or something!"
Squall flushed red and used all the willpower he had available not to pummel Zell into the ground. "Can I call you 'bunny' too? Or would you prefer snooky-ookums?" the martial artist cackled. Squall didn't respond. "Do you have a pet name for her?"
"No," he whispered back, and typed another message to Selphie.
"Why not?"
"I don't know, I just never thought of it. I was never one for pet names anyway."
"Well, that's no fair on her part! You should come up with a pet name for her!"
"Yeah? Like what?" Squall sighed, he really didn't like where this conversation was going.
Zell only thought for a split second before responding with, "Hotdog!"
Squall rolled his eyes, "No."
"Oh, c'mon Squall! A hotdog is what every man wants in a woman! First of all, they smell so good! Whenever you're around them, you can't think straight, all you know is that you have to have one! One bite is never enough, they're low maintenance, not to mention they're in high demand and short supply."
"Maybe that's the case with you, but if that really is the case, you need to get psychiatric help."
Zell shrugged and went back to his computer see Seifer leaning over it.
"What the hell are ya doing man!!?" Zell whispered harshly.
Seifer smiled deviously and went back to his own computer. Zell's eyes followed him, and he uneasily sat back down in his own seat. He shook his head and typed, I don't care what you people claim, Quistis has set a new boring-ness record, and probably even a 'most number of students fallen asleep' record. Once he sent it to the Trepies, he realized just what Seifer had done. The bastard had changed Zell's username from 'HotdiggityDog' to 'Chickenwuss', so when the Trepies responded to him, they were mocking non-stop at his choice of a username.
Zell made a mental note to kill Seifer once class was out, err…or have Squall do it for him.
Seifer leaned back in his seat and put his feet on the panel's keyboard. He was running out of things to do, so instead of messing with other people's keyboards, he began throwing random objects and paper airplanes at 'Quistis'. Just as he was running out of paper, he heard the sound of a door closing on his computer and noticed that TonberryKing had signed off. Quickly, he glanced over at Squall to see if this was really the case.
Indeed, instead of talking on the Garden network, Squall was sitting with his arms folded, looking like he was on the verge of falling asleep. Seifer chuckled and signed back on the network.
Please type in the username you will be using during this session, the type scrolled across the top of the screen. Sniggering, he typed in TonberryKing. Right when he signed on he received a message from LuckyCharm. He knew this to be Selphie.Decided against taking a nap?
Nah, I wanted to talk to you more.
Oh, you're too sweet! ^_^
So, about tonight… he typed, smirking. You wanna get busy?
o.O Selphie looked up from her computer and glanced around the room. Squall was over in his corner snoring quietly. Who is this? She typed into the console.
Your lover, who else?
Now extremely confused, Selphie continued to look frantically around the room. She noticed Seifer sitting at his panel snickering and she knew immediately that it had been him. Forgetting the fact she was in class, she got up and stormed over to where he sat.
"Ms. Tilmitt!" Laguna said over his book. "Hey, what are you doing?"
Seifer looked up just in time to see Selphie and her 5'1''-ness standing over his computer, her hands on her hips.
"Hiya, Selph. Whatcha up to?" he asked innocently.
"You perv!"
"Huh? Me?"
Rinoa now looked up from her study panel to look at what was happening.
"You're gonna get it!" Selphie exclaimed, raising a fist into the air.
"What are you going to do? Spank me?" Seifer pretended to pout.
Selphie narrowed her eyes and began to crawl over his desk, "Why you…big…fat….MEANIE!"
"Hey! I resent the 'fat' part!" he yelled back.
"No physical assaulting in class!" Laguna spoke up, but everyone was ignoring him at the moment.
Squall woke up to see Selphie about ready to…he wasn't sure what she was getting ready to do to Seifer, but it didn't look good. Rinoa continued to watch in interest.
"Selphie, Selphie--what are you doing!?" Squall asked, jumping up from his seat and grabbing her around the waist to pull her off of Seifer.
"He's being a poo-head!" she yelled, arms and legs flailing as Squall struggled to restrain her.
"Seifer, what'd you do?" Squall huffed, continuing to drag Selphie away.
"I have no idea!" he answered, putting his boots back on top of his computer, making sure his heel hit the emergency shut down button, to hide all evidence of what he had done.
Squall rolled his eyes and finally managed to pull Selphie back to her seat.
"Now…where was I?" Laguna thought aloud. The students groaned and Zell slammed his head against the keyboard of his computer. "Oh, yes! The sorceress memorial! Now, you see, the real reason why it's there-" he was interrupted when the alarm on his wristwatch went off.
The contest is starting in three hours! I need to head to Esthar! "Uhm, class is dismissed!"
"Thirty minutes early?" one of the Trepies asked.
"Yes, think of it as a…um…reward for listening so well," he said as he gathered his belongings off his desk and threw them into a bag.
The Trepie looked around the room at the countless people sleeping or chatting on the Garden Network, but he didn't say anything.
"Hey, Quisty! Where ya going?" Zell asked, running down the center aisle.
"Esthar," he replied as he continued to frantically pack. "Hotdog bun squeezing contest," and with that he ran out the door.
"H-Hotdog? WAIT! Quistis! Wait up! I wanna go too!" Zell yelled and ran after her.
"C'mon, Selph," Squall mumbled. "Maybe we can beat them to the Ragnarok."
"Yah! I'm so excited! Aren't you Squally Wally! I've always wanted to go back to Esthar! Maybe we can even visit your dad!"
"…Yeah…maybe…"
*The Preliminaries!*
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the 21st Annual Esthar Bun Squeezing Contest, brought to you by the United Bank of Esthar. And everyone please welcome last years returning champ, who has held the title Ultimate Bun Squeezer for the last 15 years, President of Esthar, Mr. Laguna Loire!!"
The crowd erupted in cheers as Quistis was pushed onstage by Kiros. She stood there, scowling and waving mechanically at the audience. "President Loire, you have held the championship title for fifteen years now, are you going to seize it once again this year?" A reporter approached her and shoved a microphone in her face.
"Well, I wasn't exactly planning on it…" Quistis spat, but she was elbowed viciously in the ribs by Kiros. "Yeah, sure, I'll seize it again," she said forcefully, and grimacing began rubbing her side.
"You heard it folks, President Loire, aspiring to be the Bun Squeezer champion for his sixteenth year in a row. This has been Kate McCoy, signing out for Channel 6 News." The woman beamed at the camera and turned around and shook Quistis' hand, "Thank you so much for the interview, Mr. President," then she walked away.
"I hate my job," Quistis murmured into Kiros' ear.
"Contestants! Please step forward," one of the judges shouted. About thirty men and women stepped up to a table. Quistis began looking frantically around for Laguna and spotted him all the way at the other end of the long table.
And what was it that he had done to her!!?
Mortified, Quistis saw that Laguna had taken her hair out of her usual professional bun and instead wore it in two long pigtails, thus making her appear to be about ten years younger than she was. Also, he was wearing the most outrageous clothing ever, as a matter of fact, she didn't even know if the clothes he was wearing even belonged to her.
Next to Laguna, stood a very excited looking Zell. The blond man was looking in all directions, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like some sort of dog. Finally he looked back to Laguna, "Where are all the hotdogs at, Quisty?"
Laguna smiled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head, but before he could answer someone else spoke up.
"It's a bun squeezing contest. No hotdogs, just buns."
"You lied to me!" Zell yelled.
"Well…I didn't want to come alone!" Laguna yelled back. "It's a very long trip from Balamb to Esthar and if no one came with me I would be forced to talk to myself, and the last time I did that people were staring at me funny!"
"Well, I don't blame them," Quistis said quietly, joining the two. "Zell, do you mind? I'd like to talk to your instructor alone."
"S-Sure thing, President Laguna!" Then he walked away, thinking to himself, Wow, he remembered my name!!
"Greetings, Ms. Trepe, it's been a while," Quistis said venomously.
"Uh, h-hey Quistis! H-How've you been? Things have been going great at Garden! Your friends are very….interesting."
"Yeah, well I'm sure they think you're acting more interesting than they are."
"Huh?" Laguna looked at the floor then back at her, then to the side, placing a hand on his chin. He eventually said, "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
Quistis grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it upwards. "What the hell have you done to my hair?" she asked, through clenched teeth.
"Are you alright? You seem quite grumpy. Did you not have breakfast?" Laguna asked, pawing at her hands and trying his hardest to get her to drop him.
"Answer my question!"
"It was getting in the way! Every time I tried to write something, your bangs would just fall right in front of my eyes. It was getting annoying! This way, the bangs are out of my face and I can SEE again!"
"Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'one must suffer for beauty'?"
"Yeah, but who said anything about anyone being 'beautiful'?" Quistis hardened her grasp around the collar. "I-I-I just w-wanted to be able to s-see again!"
She probably would have thrown the poor man across the room if Kiros hadn't stopped her at that moment. "Laguna!" he scolded, "What have I said about beating up the other contestants!?"
"You know what? There've been many times when I thought about getting your hair CUT! You know what that means!!? Snippy, snippy! Away it goes!" Quistis screamed at him as she was being pulled away by Kiros. Then, at a loss for words, she began dragging her finger across her throat, signifying 'DEATH!!!!!'.
"Cut it out, Laguna!" Kiros said as he pulled Quistis to a booth. "Now calm down, take a few calming breaths, feel the air…see the buns, become the buns!"
Quistis rolled her eyes and followed him nonetheless.
"Now, the preliminaries are starting in a few minutes. Be a good boy and play nice with the other contestants, and SQUEEZE BUNS LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SQUEEZED BEFORE!!!"
"…." Ward smiled.
"He said good luck," Kiros translated quickly, then pushed Quistis into her seat.
Pursing her lips together, she glanced around the table for anyone who she may know. Her eyes landed on Laguna, but the sight of herself in pigtails embarrassed her so much that she quickly looked away. Zell sat at the table beside Laguna, chin resting in his hand.
"I can't believe there aren't any hotdogs," he was mumbling to himself. "Where there are buns, there's got to be hotdogs… They're hiding them from me. That's what it is. Maybe that's the prize! If you win this contest…whatever it is…you get a lifetime supply of hotdogs!" He looked deviously around the table, "I won't allow them to win!" he smiled evilly to himself.
Quistis couldn't help but laugh slightly. There was someone else who looked somewhat familiar at the table, though she couldn't place it exactly. Whoever he was, he wore a cloak with a hood, and it appeared as if he were wearing glasses with a big nose and mustache attached. She shrugged, not being able to place who it was. Yet, that was all she seemed to know in the contest.
Only Hyne knew who all was actually watching. Quickly, she prayed that the contest wasn't televised.
"Welcome everyone from all over! This is Esthar's 21st annual Bun Squeezing contest!" the crowd roared with applause. "Now, many of you know the rules, but for those who do not, they are very simple. Here in a moment, each person will have two bowls set in front of them, one full of hotdog buns and the other completely empty. The contestant must then pick up one of the buns and squeeze it until either the bun is no longer squeezable, or until they can't squeeze anymore. If the bun is no longer squeezable, they will then place it in the empty bowl and move on to their next bun.
"Those who can no longer squeeze forfeit. The last person standing wins."
" 'The last person standing wins…'" Quistis mocked the judge. "It's a bun squeezing contest for crissakes! How much energy can it possibly take out of someone?" She said it quietly, not expecting anyone to hear, and she figured no one had until she felt someone hit the back of her head. Surely enough, Kiros was standing right behind her, arms folded across his chest and glaring down his nose.
"Contestants, are you ready?" the judge asked picking up his stopwatch. Everyone around the table seemed to nod consecutively. "Then, on your marks, get set…GO!"
Everyone was attacking their hotdog buns, squeezing with all their might. As much training as Quistis had to endure, she realized that it was not nearly enough to keep up with everyone else. Laguna, from the other side of the table had already finished his first bun and was moving on to his second.
Even though the contest really wasn't the most important thing to her, she new she had to make it to the finals. She had to talk to Laguna again and this could be their last chance to see each other for a while.
"Rookie, Quistis Trepe, seems to be going to town with her hotdog buns! Just three minutes into the match and she has successfully squeezed a grand total of five, count them folks, five buns! Mr. Trahnoel is making a close second!" He referred to the cloaked man.
At the sound of her name, Quistis looked up. "Will our champion President be able to catch up? Or is he going to allow the youth beat him this year?"
"ARE YOU CALLING ME OLD!!?" Quistis and Laguna both shouted at the same time to the judge. For a second he switched his microphone from hand to hand nervously, then continued as if nothing ever happened.
"Whoa, folks. Zell Dincht, another rookie is doing very well also! It must be the Balamb youth. Mr. Dincht, when did you start your bun squeezing training?" the judge called out over the audience.
"Uh, I didn't learn the rules until about ten minutes ago, and I never trained."
The judge looked at him confusedly, then decided he heard him wrong, "Wow, that's true dedication, Mr. Dincht. He seems to be catching up with the lead squeezers!"
Quistis was starting to sweat. "How long does a typical contest last, Kiros?" she asked.
"You should know!"
"I've never paid that much attention!"
"The longest bun squeezing contest ever was approximately twenty minutes."
Twenty minutes? I'll never win! I can't keep up, she thought as she desperately grabbed another bun.
Everywhere, people were dropping out. Cries of agony could be heard from down the table as a particular man fell out of his chair clutching his hand. "I can't go on!" he yelled upward.
"Get up, get up Sanders! Don't resign yourself to losing yet!" his trainer scolded him.
"I c-can't!" the man cried. "I can't do it! You'll have to go on without me!"
"…? Go where?"
"……"
His trainer looked as if he was going to say something else, but soon paramedics rushed to the scene to pick him up on a stretcher.
"Aren't they over-reacting? It's just his hand. It'll be better in a little while."
"…Well, aren't we condescending?" Kiros said, putting a hand to his hip.
"Wow, what stamina!" the judge interrupted their quarrel, "Never in my life have I seen such stamina! At this rate, I wonder whether President Loire will ever catch up!
"My hand!" Quistis yelled, panting.
"What about it?"
"It….hurts!"
"What!?"
"I…can't do this for much longer!"
"No, Laguna! You can't quit now! You must endure the pain! The championship! It WILL be yours!"
"I don't want it!"
Kiros gasped. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that."
"Ms. Trepe and Mr. Trahnoel are neck-in-neck. Ten minutes have passed and we've had eight forfeits."
"I can't go on much longer!" Quistis warned Kiros. She felt the muscles in her hand tightening up the more she used them. "At this rate, I'll never be able to use my hand again!"
"Maybe not, but at least you'll have the title."
That was it. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Quistis promptly stood up, threw the bun at Kiros' head and stomped off, yelling, "I FORFEIT!"
"L-Laguna!" Kiros ran after her. "You can't forfeit! If you forfeit, it makes me look bad!"
"Too late!" she spat, massaging her hand. "I'm sitting out for the rest of the contest, I'll watch from here on out."
She plopped down in an open seat and continued to watch the contest. The chair was actually pretty close to the table, so she got a good glimpse at what was happening. There weren't many people up there. Laguna was left, along with Zell, the cloaked 'Mr. Trahnoel' guy, and another girl.
Zell was the next to go down. His face covered in sweat, he looked at the judge and said, "I forfeit. Not even a year supply of hotdogs is worth this."
"A year supply of hotdogs…?" The poor judge. He would be leaving with a very big headache at this rate.
With a big smile, Zell stood up, bowed a few times to his cheering fans, then walked to a different unoccupied chair to watch the rest of the contest.
"This is sure getting exciting folks! Balamb Garden's Instructor Quistis Trepe is just barely in the lead; Mr. Trahnoel is slowly catching up! Ms. O'Malley is coming in third place."
With a squeal, the girl fell out of her chair, panting. "I can't squeeze anymore!"
"Ms. O'Malley is down. Now we're down to the final two. Who is going to win!!?"
Quistis was putting her money on Laguna, but she silently hoped that he didn't. If he did win, she would never get the chance to talk to him. The reporters would be swarming around him.
"We are closing in on twenty minutes! And still, our two finalists are going head-to-head. What stamina!"
Shouts of, "Qusitis! Quistis!" were coming from the audience. The real Quistis sighed. Laguna had ruined her image. The infamously stern prodigy was gone; she was going to be replaced by rookie Bun Squeezer.
Suddenly, to everyone's amazement, Laguna fell out of his chair, clutching his leg. "Ow! Ow! My leg's cramping!"
"It seems that Ms. Trepe is having difficulties with her leg! According to the Book of Bun Squeezing, that is a forfeit. Mr. Trahnoel is this year's Bun Squeezer!"
The crowd erupted with more cheering as the cloaked man stood up, his arm was held above his head by the judge. Paramedics rushed to pick up the fallen 'instructor', who was still rolling around clutching his leg.
"Mr. Trahnoel, excellent job! Now that you've won the title of Ultimate Bun Squeezer, what'll you do next?"
Before the contestant could reply with a, "I'm going to Mesmerize Land!" (or something along those lines) the judge patted his back so hard that the Groucho glasses he had been wearing flew off.
Quistis' jaw dropped open. Now she knew who he was, and even at that she couldn't believe it. She rubbed her eyes, squinted at the man, then rubbed them again. From behind her, she heard someone say, "Oh well the secret's out. Wahoo! GO SQUALL! You're the best Bun Squeezer ever! I'd know!"
Quistis turned around to see Selphie jumping up and down on top of her chair a few rows back. Squall turned a bright shade of red but said nothing.
Zell stood up from his seat in the crowd, pointed at the red Commander and laughed hysterically. "Snooky-ookums comes in two colors!"
"That's it, Dincht! You're going down!" Squall yelled at him. Zell's eyes widened and he ran away into the crowd, hiding within the mass of people.
Even as interesting as it was that Squall had entered and won the Bun Squeezing Contest, Quistis was more concerned with finding Laguna. They really needed to talk.
"Hey, Kiros!" she yelled, pushing her way through the crowd. "Where do the paramedics take the contestants?"
"The local hospital. Why?"
"We need to go pay Instructor Trepe a visit!"
"President Loire! Would you mind if we interviewed you? Very quickly?"
Quistis gave Kiros a look and he nodded. He grabbed her hand and led her away from everyone. The two hopped into a taxi and sped away. Even as crazy as Kiros was about some things, Quistis couldn't help but feel thankful that he was at least nice. Crazy, but nice.
The ride to the hospital wasn't very long. Still rubbing her sore hand, she walked in and walked up to the receptionist.
"Hello, Mr. Loire!" the woman beamed. "What can I do you for?"
"I need to see Ms. Trepe. She was brought in here not long ago."
"Ms. Trepe…?"
Pursing her lips, Quistis shook her head and said, "She has blond hair in pigtails, very beautiful young woman…"
"Well…there was a woman with blond pigtails that came in…"
Quistis could have ripped every hair out of her head, one by one, after that comment, but she said nothing.
"It was a false alarm though. She never actually saw the doctor. She seemed to have recovered on her own. I believe she said something about taking the next flight back to Balamb."
Utterly defeated, Quistis walked back out to where Kiros kept the taxi waiting. "Damn it! Barely missed her!" she cursed, kicking at a stone on the ground. "Can we go to Balamb?"
"Is this one of your spontaneous vacations?"
"No!" she answered defensively.
"Then can't it wait until tomorrow? You should come back to the Presidential Palace to recuperate."
Reluctantly, Quistis followed him back into the taxi. "To the Presidential Palace!" Kiros said to the driver.
Haha! Well, we know that we've been making everyone wait a very long time, and we're very sorry. On the bright side, we're going to try to finish this story up within the next month or so. So hopefully updates won't be so slow. (Hopefully being the keyword here). Anywho! We are in need of Beta-Readers for some of our future fics! (We have two future stories: Crazy De Chocobo (FF7) and an untitled Gravitation story). If anyone is interested in it (details are in our profile) then email us! But, these are FUTURE fics, so they won't be started for a while. (We're just trying to get plot lines straight at the moment, and Beta-Readers situated). Review away! We're looking forward to what everyone has to say!