Lightning-Dono: Good grief, look at all those reviews! o.o I'll answer them here as to not cheat and raise the review count. =P

Cassie - It's okay. It's happened to me before and my computer is awfully slow, so you don't have to feel alone and stuff. Yes, you are making a lot of sense. I love doing that, bringing someone's character out. It's fun. (By the looks of most writers, they think Rick is like a talking board. I disagree.) Oh, and I'll try and add in what happened to the dead animal, okay? =) Most likely in the next chapter...Jack doesn't make an appearance in this one.

Xero - Not to be offending, but I've seen that plot many times (with different characters, of course). Maybe you could open up an account and use it? I don't know, but I -will- take it into account and I might even use it sometime later on and put it into the original plot! (Rick -was- going to sink into depression because of Karen, though. =) Thank you for the idea!

EM - She sure does! But you know, I always imagined her as pretty hot-headed (especially after I saw this one heart event between Rick and her) and I had to put it that way. And yes, I will keep writing! =D

Evil Scientist - Yeah, I'm going to change my pen name to 'Update Machine'. Heh, thanks! I didn't think it was too good, but I've got inspiration!

Ann Fan - Aw, it made you want to cry? It's okay, I couldn't make it tear-jerking enough, though. =P

Whew! That was quite a lot of reviews for...updating once or twice a day. Oh, well, on with the show!

Since this fanfic is rated PG-13, will you guys allow me to let the characters have some language issues when they're angry? Just minor ones. I'm not going to put the eff word in or anything. o.o

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"What!?" I spluttered, watching as the head of the chicken popped through the hole at the bottom.

"What do you mean 'What?"? This is the moment of fame we've been waiting for!" He gave the handle a practice jerk which made my heart stop.

I knew I shouldn't talk to my own father this way, but I had to. "Maybe you've been waiting for fame, but I haven't!" I ran over to him and yanked his hand away. "Get away from my pets!"

My father laughed, which annoyed me greatly.

"Pets? Chickens are hardly considered pets, Rick! They're tools of business!"

I frowned, considering this with thoughts of disbelief clouding my mind.

"I won't let you."

"Aw, come on! You can't cuddle these chickens forever!"

Mom had obviously married the wrong man. Whatever made her marry him to begin with? The last thing I wanted to deal with today was some chicken murderer that lived in my house. I couldn't even look up at him and call him 'Dad'. He was more like 'stranger'.

"Please? Just don't do it."

He sighed in a pitiful way and let the chicken out. I gathered it up in my arms and set it back into the pen.

"Whatever you say, son." He smirked at me and went into the house. When he was out of sight, I gave the machine a kick, which proved useless as my toes throbbed for the rest of the day.

After dinner, I went up into my room, carrying the useless rucksack.

Pulling out the jagged shards carefully, my hand shook slightly. Stupid Karen, ruining the moment like that. She fought with me too often to be natural. Everyone argues sometimes, but she dragged me into quarrels several times a week. I arranged the three shards in a semi-circle on my night table, admiring it for a bit. For a reason. Those three shards represented the three parts of my life. The innocent part, where I had run free and wild with my friends without a care in the world. The painful part that I was living through now where nothing goes the way I'd intended. And the future that I had so carefully planned out. I guess the future part was my problem. I couldn't plan my future like that - it just didn't happen that way.

My door creaked open, a curl of pink hair appearing from the crack. Popuri stuck her head in. Who had given her permission to enter my room? What if I had been changing or something embarrassing?

"Dad says he wants to talk to you," she informed me pleasantly. She had the makings of a successful businesswoman, being persuasive and informative like that. Plus, she was social butterfly.

"I'll come down in a bit," I replied, sitting down on my bed with disgust. Blinking down at the diamond shards sleepily, began to wish that my dad had never even come back.

"Rick, what has your mother been teaching you?"

It was another lecture about respect, manners, and responsibility. Incase he hadn't noticed, I had to be responsible in his place while he was gone getting medicinal herbs and morphing into a goofball.

"She taught me how to be friendly, respectful, and grateful," I recited like a school boy.

He attempted to raise one eyebrow, which made him look like he was squinting with one eye. "That's all?"

"Yup." I kneed the table, pretending to be bored.

"Did she ever teach you about a word called 'permission'?"

What was this getting at? Did he think I was some kind of dope? "She didn't have to teach me, actually. I went to school," I said coolly.

"Now, don't you get all smart on your father, Rick."

I was glad that my mom was upstairs in bed, reading a book. She did this every evening so she could get in some time for herself. But my father's voice could penetrate through anything - concentration, daydreams...anything.

"What? That's the truth!"

"Well, then, what gave you the permission to dent my machine?" He cast me a frightful look, leaning his face closer to mine. We were sitting on opposite sides of the dining table.

I had to think of something to counter this and fast. "Who gave Popuri the permission to peek into my room?" I asked indifferently, copying his look.

"Enough with your attitude. Tell me!"

"How would you know if I had done it or not?" I was weakening.

"I know you did it, Rick!"

Sighing and pushing my glasses tiredly up my nose, I gave in. "Yes...I kicked it."

"Ah-ha!" He stood up and pointed at me like a madman who had just won the lottery. "You are grounded, young man! No nightly outings for you! And you can't protect your chickens from me!"

I wanted to get up and run around screaming that there was a lunatic in the house. "All right, then." I plodded back up the stairs, ignoring my dad's persistent grinning. Feeling sympathetic for my mother, I went to bed, hoping that the pain would soon end.

"Rise and shine, Rick!" The curtains were opened wide and my mom was surveying my dresser with a critical eye. "Hmmm...We need to get you some new clothes. Would you mind if I went shopping with you this afternoon after you're done with the field work?"

I reached blindly for my glasses, put them on, and frantically got out of bed. "Field work?"

She nodded. "Father checked with Barley last night if you could go and work there for today as punishment for ruining his," she shuddered involuntarily, "machine.".

I groaned as I waited for her to leave before changing out of my pajamas, which were a creamy sea green made from soft fabric.

Breakfast was as dismal as ever. I tried to look cool and sophisticated while father grinned at me with more energy than ever before, if that was quite possible. I was about to leave when someone stopped me and laid their head on my shoulder. Popuri. Her hair tickled my neck, but I let her hold that position.

"I feel sorry for you, Rick," Popuri whispered seriously into my ear, looking at me understandingly through those clear, ruby-red eyes.

"Thanks...I hope I can handle it," I whispered back, waving to her as we parted.

"Rick, your task today is to clean up the cow dung!" Barley told me as though this was the most thrilling thing in the world to do. Or maybe he was just glad that someone was finally going to complete the job.

"Uh...Okay," I said in a small, overpowered voice.

And let me tell you, this job was not fun. The oldest cow, a haggard one with fatigued-looking eyes stepped away from the brown goop lightly, like she was welcoming me to pick it up. I gingerly clasped the stuff in one gloved hand and dropped it into the bag.

When I was done, I carried the bag filled with the revolting substance back to Barley for his approval.

"You're doing fine!" He choked, shooing me away and coughing.

By the end of the day, I smelled like someone who lived in horse manure. But what was even worse was what I saw once I arrived home.

Only two of my five chickens remained. My rage returned as I saw my dad pluck the feathers from the body of a perfectly healthy chicken and throw them roughly down onto the ground, humming all the while. But he had grounded me, and I couldn't do anything about it besides want to resort to physical violence.

"Do you think you've massacred enough chickens yet?" I asked pleasantly over dinner, watching father innocently. He paused, fork halfway to his mouth. It was coated with mashed potatoes without any of the familiar sauce that people usually at it with.

"No," I replied. "I'll wait until they hatch chicks and then I'll kill the mothers once the chicks are at a reasonable size."

Once again, I wanted to scream, but this time I wanted to jump on him and yank on his hair as hard as I could.

"They don't deserve it," I said, my voice cracking in my attempt to keep calm. My heart started to beat much harder, making my face flush an unhealthy red.

"Now, now, calm down, boys," mom said worriedly, watching my facial expression and the way my hand was shaking as I tried to eat something. I managed to get the fork into my mouth, but while I was chewing I bit my tongue. She knew how much I loved the chickens - why wasn't she defending me? "Rod, dear? Let's not talk about chickens right now. You know how upset it makes Rick." She reached over and patted my shoulder. I let her do it.

Over the next few days, I grew into a feeble state. I was constantly moody and refused to go outside and make amends with Karen. I knew that she wasn't going to appreciate anything I attempted to do. In my boredom, I dubbed this mood a 'Jack mood'.

There was a small knock on my door.

"Come in."

In walked Karen, anxious as ever.

"How come you haven't come out to talk to me lately?" She asked, looking down at me with unknown concern.

"I...I don't know," I admitted. It felt really stupid, actually. I should've come out and talked her out of her bad mood and start to make up again.

"You don't? You look depressed to me." She leaned down and divided her hair evenly.

I shrugged. "I suppose so. I've been wanting to...I mean, um..." I couldn't really put it in a good way to make her understand.

"You're been wanting to do what?"

"Remember when I took to you the area by Gotz's house?" My thumbs itched to start twiddling as always, especially when I got nervous.

Karen nodded in a confused way.

"I was going to..." I swallowed hard. "...propose to you."

"You were?" Karen asked nervously, not knowing how to react. She looked out of place for a moment, as though she were an ant floating on a solid cloud.

"Um...Yes." I indicated the broken Blue Feather lying in the trash can. Watching her glance down at the discarded feather, hope filled my heart. I started feeling warm again.

Karen smiled mischiveously at me. What now? The mischiveousness faded almost immediately to fill with fervent feeling.

"You don't need to propose. I accept."

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Oh, that was torture to write. x.x I've been having Writer's Block lately, but I pushed myself to write this because I want to continue it at a steady pace.

I understand if you hated this chapter. =)