Disclaimer: Okay, if you thought I owned Alanna or Tortall, why are you in
the Tamora Pierce section? Anyways, Pembrook and basically everything in it
(no movies) belong to me. Anything you don't recognize is mine, as far as I
know. Especially Josh and Hannah.
"Okay, so, like, we have totally got to see Jersey Girl," Hannah said as she climbed into Melissa's car on the way to the movie theater. "Ben Affleck is soo hot!"
Snorting, Becca informed Hannah, "No way. Jersey Girl looks like the stupidest movie ever. And that's including Labyrinth."
Melissa shrugged. "Actually, I kind of liked that movie."
Becca and Hannah's eyes grew to about twice their normal size, as the frown of confusion on Alanna's face grew bigger. "No. Way," Hannah managed to get out in disbelief. "Ohmigod. That goblin king was wearing, like, lip gloss. And those really tight pants. And they were all singing. Like, all the time." Becca nodded in agreement.
"Mel, you feeling all right?" she asked, putting a hand on Melissa's forehead. "Cause no one in their right minds could actually... like that movie."
Rolling her eyes, Melissa said, "Do you want me to make a list?" As she began on the list of all the people that she knew who had liked Labyrinth, Alanna bit her lip, trying to figure all of this out. She was dressed like the other four girls in the Saturn now, but she didn't act like them. Alanna was just... different. Well, of course she was. Being from Tortall wasn't exactly the same as being from Pembrook.
Noticing Alanna's confusion, Becca tried to explain. "So, movies are like where you see moving pictures of people on a big screen. Like plays that they've recorded so that you can watch them over and over again. D'you get it?"
Blankly, Alanna nodded. Obviously Becca wanted her to 'get it,' and Alanna could certainly pretend. "So what's... Jersey Girl about?" she asked in an undertone.
"Well, you see, there's this dad, who's been raising a girl on his own since his wife died in childbirth or something. And he doesn't date or anything. Then he meets this video store clerk—Liv Tyler—and then they fall in love and the dad has to learn to trust and all that romantic crap," she quickly said.
Alanna thought she was keeping up. "So... if you don't want to see Jersey Girl, what do you want to see? Cause I don't think I want to see that. A little too close to home."
Smiling, Becca was happy to tell Alanna about her choice. "Well, I want to see The Prince and Me, where Julia Stiles is this college student and this prince comes and pretends to be just another college student, named Eddie. And then they like fall in love and make out and stuff, and all that romantic crap. But then Julia finds out that Eddie's actually the crown prince of Denmark, and she has to go get married to him and be the queen and all that jazz."
Alanna sighed. Just when I thought I understood... "So you don't want to see the 'romantic crap' in Jersey Girl, but you really want to see all of the romantic crap in The Prince and Me?
"Exactly!"
She sighed again. Maybe she would just give up and never understand. At the moment, it sounded like a much better plan.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
All five girls were standing outside, waiting in line for tickets to The Prince and Me. Naturally, Becca had won. Alanna had seen it coming and decided to not protest at all about a movie with a prince in it. However, from Becca's comments, Alanna gathered that this prince of Denmark wouldn't be jousting.
Stepping up to the ticket window, Melissa gave the cashier who was obviously a student at the local college her flirtiest smile, tossing her long hair. "Five for The Prince and Me," she said, still smiling. "Have you seen that? I've heard different things from different people—either it's really good or its, like, really bad."
The cashier was captivated and not only told Melissa his opinion on the movie (thoroughly irritating the others in line behind them) but gave them a discount so that everyone's tickets were just four dollars apiece.
"So that's why we keep you around, Mel!" Becca joked. Hannah and Lea joined in the teasing as Melissa blushed and insisted that she wasn't flirting that much.
Lea snorted at that. "Right, Mel. Just like Queen Elizabeth I didn't mean that much to have Mary Queen of Scots killed. Um, you so wanted the discount, and didn't care that that geeky college boy probably hadn't had a girl flirt with him since about fifth grade."
Things continued in this vein for a while until finally Hannah looked around and asked, "Where's Alanna?" * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Alanna was, in fact, inside the movie theater, completely lost. Somehow she had gotten separated from the others when they were entering the theater and getting in the line for concessions. Since Alanna had never even heard of a movie theater before, she was totally hopeless on finding the other girls again. Looking both ways for them as she hurried across the lobby, Alanna ran straight into a guy about her age with dirty blonde hair and a big smile.
"Whoa!" he said, laughing as he steadied her by the shoulders. "You okay? Are you new in Pembrook?"
Embarrassed, Alanna said, "Um. I'm fine. Kind of new here. Look, have you seen Melissa Peikmik? And Becca, Hannah, and Lea? We're here together... oh. My name's Alanna, by the way."
Putting out a hand for Alanna to shake, he introduced himself. "I'm Josh Nevem. Mel and the girls? They're nice; I've known Becca since the day she was born. I'm basically a foster older brother at their house, except that I live down the street. But I don't think I've seen them... c'mon, we'll go look." Grabbing Alanna's hand, he pulled her across the lobby to the concessions booth. "What movie are you seeing?"
"The Prince and Me," Alanna said as she looked up at him to study his features a little more. He had hazel eyes and a strong chin, which was good. Alanna couldn't stand weak chins. Josh was considerably taller than her, but then, everybody was.
"Oh, yeah, of course, you've got Bec with you. I forgot. She always gets her way, as you might have noticed," Josh grinned. "There they are!" he said, pulling Alanna toward them. "Hey BECCA!" he called, noticing the girls frantically looking around. "Looking for someone?"
Becca saw him and screamed, running toward him. "Ohmigod! I haven't seen you for like two months!" Melissa, behind her, gave Becca a jab in the ribs. "Oh, and thanks for finding Alanna for us."
With a heart-stopping grin, Josh said, "No problem. It was a pleasure. See y'all around." He turned to go.
Pulling on his shoulder, Hannah told him, "Oh no you don't. Now that we've found you, you have to come to The Prince and Me with us cause you ditched all of us for two months. So come on now, surely the wonderful Regal Cinemas employee can take a couple of hours out of his busy schedule picking up popcorn to watch Julia Stiles make out with some guy?"
He sighed. "Hannah, do I even have a choice?"
Hannah grinned. "Did you really think that you did? Now come on. I want a good seat, since I don't get to see Jersey Girl."
Josh gave a snort that he was trying to disguise. "Um, why would anyone pay money to see that kind of crap? Even if Liv Tyler is in it. I mean, come on, Ben Affleck should have stayed in his little drama with J.Lo. He had much better publicity then." Hannah gave a shriek and pretended to punch him.
Alanna laughed inwardly. She could definitely see that either his opinions had rubbed off on Becca, or hers on him. Either way, two Beccas would certainly be interesting. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Somehow, Josh had ended up sitting next to Alanna in the darkened movie theater, with Becca on his other side, much to Hannah's disgust. Hannah had been half in love with him for a couple of years, and he never seemed to treat her more than as a little sister who was ignored most of the time.
Melissa watched the movie thoughtfully, her mind more on Alanna's dilemma than Paige and Eddie's. Turning to glance at her, she saw Josh looking down at Alanna with that gleam in his eye again. After knowing Josh for as long as she could remember, Melissa knew by now what that certain gleam in his eye meant.
Josh had a new girl in his sights. And that girl was very possibly the strangest, most mysterious in Pembrook.
Naturally. Josh never could settle for second-best, perhaps why he had a long string of ex-girlfriends following him around, many of them still in love with him—or they thought they were anyways, much to Melissa's bewilderment. Sure, Josh was charismatic, but he wasn't that great. At least not in her eyes... but then, he was like a big brother to her.
Really, Melissa was feeling sorry for Alanna. Unlike Alanna, she knew that recently Hannah had decided to go after Josh and get him as her boyfriend no matter what it took. Stupid as that decision was to Melissa, Hannah definitely followed through on her promises.
It would be an interesting time... and the funniest part was that Alanna probably didn't have a clue what was going on.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Melissa was right in her assumption that Josh was the last thing on Alanna's mind. Well, maybe not the last, but he was certainly down there. Currently, her focus was on Paige, Eddie, and how on earth that movie screen worked. She was sure that there had to be someone Gifted involved in the process of making it, but how? Maybe Jonathan could figure it out, once she got back to the palace.
Alanna gave an inward sigh. It always came back to that—how to get home and to the palace again. Fascinating as Pembrook, Texas was to her, Alanna couldn't stay there forever. She had other priorities.
I wonder what Jon and George are doing right now... * * * * * * * * * * * *
At that moment, Jonathan was riding to the Dancing Dove, in his "Johnny" disguise. What had that crazy mage been doing, making Alanna disappear? And where on earth had he sent her?
It had been three exhausting days for Jonathan since Alanna had mysteriously disappeared, and still there was no clue what had happened to her. The crazy mage, as Jon had been referring to him, was actually named Polin Machewell, and was exceedingly frightened on this sudden occurrence. He had no more idea than Jon about what had happened to Alanna. So in desperation, Jon was going to George. If anyone knew what to do about Alanna, he would.
Reaching the gates, he went into the inn and ordered a pint of lemonade. Being intoxicated from alcohol would not be a good way to greet George. Somehow Jon knew that he wasn't going to be terribly pleased about this.
George came in at that moment, greeting Jon warmly. Returning the greetings, Jonathan was then at a loss of what to say. "Er... George? T- three days ago, Alanna sort of bumped into this mage. And..." he paused.
Waiting patiently for a moment, George then said gently, "If there's somewhere you're going with it, you might want to get there soon. Because I can tell that this wasn't just Alanna being clumsy."
"No, not exactly. You see, this mage, Polin Machewell... he shouted something at her, even he has no idea what is was... and Alanna just disappeared. Three days ago. And we don't know where she is."
There was a lull for a moment before George exploded. "What do you mean you don't bloody know where she is?" he shouted. Jon winced. This was going to be a very long explanation. Perhaps he shouldn't have waited so long to tell George...
George was still ranting and raving five minutes later. Jon had the feeling that this was going to take a while, so he signaled for another pint of lemonade. Might as well stay hydrated.
To be continued...
A/N: Thanks to all my awesome reviewers! Here we go... Fred: lol, you had me scared until I kept reading! Thanks for reviewing though and KEEP REVIEWING... or I'll make baad things happen! ( Robynwyn: Thank you! Lol, thanks for not saying "Melly," she's very... possessive about that. Mel's mom is kind of odd—she's a very big success with her business, but totally gullible when it comes to her daughter. And Becca's had years of experience sucking up to her. The girls are going to start asking more questions soon, but they still kind of are taking the explanation that they're crazy, because they're more into Teen People than Tamora Pierce. That's what I've decided, anyways. I don't mind rambling at all! Kasuima: Wow, your username's really cool and I like it a lot, but I have no clue what it means. Thanks! I try to make it as realistic as I can, and I use myself and my friends as examples. Hope you review again! Anonymous miss: Thanks so much for putting me on your favorites list! I updated, so I'm hoping that I'm staying there. Thank you, I try to make it as individual as I can. Divine-Bovines: Thank you! Keep reviewing! MistyFox14: Aww, that's so nice. I love it when you all tell me that you love my story. I hope I see your name again!
All of you tell your friends to review this and you review too!! Look, I updated faster than I ever have before... which is kind of sad, considering how long it took me. Oh well! Also thanks to MistyFox14, kasuima, and pranksterqueen, who put me on their author alert. I'll try to update as soon as I can. In the next chapter we're going to have more Josh, my new character... he's based on my cousin, who's actually named Josh, so he should be easy to write, but I can't promise when an update will come. Hope to see your name on my review list!
"Okay, so, like, we have totally got to see Jersey Girl," Hannah said as she climbed into Melissa's car on the way to the movie theater. "Ben Affleck is soo hot!"
Snorting, Becca informed Hannah, "No way. Jersey Girl looks like the stupidest movie ever. And that's including Labyrinth."
Melissa shrugged. "Actually, I kind of liked that movie."
Becca and Hannah's eyes grew to about twice their normal size, as the frown of confusion on Alanna's face grew bigger. "No. Way," Hannah managed to get out in disbelief. "Ohmigod. That goblin king was wearing, like, lip gloss. And those really tight pants. And they were all singing. Like, all the time." Becca nodded in agreement.
"Mel, you feeling all right?" she asked, putting a hand on Melissa's forehead. "Cause no one in their right minds could actually... like that movie."
Rolling her eyes, Melissa said, "Do you want me to make a list?" As she began on the list of all the people that she knew who had liked Labyrinth, Alanna bit her lip, trying to figure all of this out. She was dressed like the other four girls in the Saturn now, but she didn't act like them. Alanna was just... different. Well, of course she was. Being from Tortall wasn't exactly the same as being from Pembrook.
Noticing Alanna's confusion, Becca tried to explain. "So, movies are like where you see moving pictures of people on a big screen. Like plays that they've recorded so that you can watch them over and over again. D'you get it?"
Blankly, Alanna nodded. Obviously Becca wanted her to 'get it,' and Alanna could certainly pretend. "So what's... Jersey Girl about?" she asked in an undertone.
"Well, you see, there's this dad, who's been raising a girl on his own since his wife died in childbirth or something. And he doesn't date or anything. Then he meets this video store clerk—Liv Tyler—and then they fall in love and the dad has to learn to trust and all that romantic crap," she quickly said.
Alanna thought she was keeping up. "So... if you don't want to see Jersey Girl, what do you want to see? Cause I don't think I want to see that. A little too close to home."
Smiling, Becca was happy to tell Alanna about her choice. "Well, I want to see The Prince and Me, where Julia Stiles is this college student and this prince comes and pretends to be just another college student, named Eddie. And then they like fall in love and make out and stuff, and all that romantic crap. But then Julia finds out that Eddie's actually the crown prince of Denmark, and she has to go get married to him and be the queen and all that jazz."
Alanna sighed. Just when I thought I understood... "So you don't want to see the 'romantic crap' in Jersey Girl, but you really want to see all of the romantic crap in The Prince and Me?
"Exactly!"
She sighed again. Maybe she would just give up and never understand. At the moment, it sounded like a much better plan.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
All five girls were standing outside, waiting in line for tickets to The Prince and Me. Naturally, Becca had won. Alanna had seen it coming and decided to not protest at all about a movie with a prince in it. However, from Becca's comments, Alanna gathered that this prince of Denmark wouldn't be jousting.
Stepping up to the ticket window, Melissa gave the cashier who was obviously a student at the local college her flirtiest smile, tossing her long hair. "Five for The Prince and Me," she said, still smiling. "Have you seen that? I've heard different things from different people—either it's really good or its, like, really bad."
The cashier was captivated and not only told Melissa his opinion on the movie (thoroughly irritating the others in line behind them) but gave them a discount so that everyone's tickets were just four dollars apiece.
"So that's why we keep you around, Mel!" Becca joked. Hannah and Lea joined in the teasing as Melissa blushed and insisted that she wasn't flirting that much.
Lea snorted at that. "Right, Mel. Just like Queen Elizabeth I didn't mean that much to have Mary Queen of Scots killed. Um, you so wanted the discount, and didn't care that that geeky college boy probably hadn't had a girl flirt with him since about fifth grade."
Things continued in this vein for a while until finally Hannah looked around and asked, "Where's Alanna?" * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Alanna was, in fact, inside the movie theater, completely lost. Somehow she had gotten separated from the others when they were entering the theater and getting in the line for concessions. Since Alanna had never even heard of a movie theater before, she was totally hopeless on finding the other girls again. Looking both ways for them as she hurried across the lobby, Alanna ran straight into a guy about her age with dirty blonde hair and a big smile.
"Whoa!" he said, laughing as he steadied her by the shoulders. "You okay? Are you new in Pembrook?"
Embarrassed, Alanna said, "Um. I'm fine. Kind of new here. Look, have you seen Melissa Peikmik? And Becca, Hannah, and Lea? We're here together... oh. My name's Alanna, by the way."
Putting out a hand for Alanna to shake, he introduced himself. "I'm Josh Nevem. Mel and the girls? They're nice; I've known Becca since the day she was born. I'm basically a foster older brother at their house, except that I live down the street. But I don't think I've seen them... c'mon, we'll go look." Grabbing Alanna's hand, he pulled her across the lobby to the concessions booth. "What movie are you seeing?"
"The Prince and Me," Alanna said as she looked up at him to study his features a little more. He had hazel eyes and a strong chin, which was good. Alanna couldn't stand weak chins. Josh was considerably taller than her, but then, everybody was.
"Oh, yeah, of course, you've got Bec with you. I forgot. She always gets her way, as you might have noticed," Josh grinned. "There they are!" he said, pulling Alanna toward them. "Hey BECCA!" he called, noticing the girls frantically looking around. "Looking for someone?"
Becca saw him and screamed, running toward him. "Ohmigod! I haven't seen you for like two months!" Melissa, behind her, gave Becca a jab in the ribs. "Oh, and thanks for finding Alanna for us."
With a heart-stopping grin, Josh said, "No problem. It was a pleasure. See y'all around." He turned to go.
Pulling on his shoulder, Hannah told him, "Oh no you don't. Now that we've found you, you have to come to The Prince and Me with us cause you ditched all of us for two months. So come on now, surely the wonderful Regal Cinemas employee can take a couple of hours out of his busy schedule picking up popcorn to watch Julia Stiles make out with some guy?"
He sighed. "Hannah, do I even have a choice?"
Hannah grinned. "Did you really think that you did? Now come on. I want a good seat, since I don't get to see Jersey Girl."
Josh gave a snort that he was trying to disguise. "Um, why would anyone pay money to see that kind of crap? Even if Liv Tyler is in it. I mean, come on, Ben Affleck should have stayed in his little drama with J.Lo. He had much better publicity then." Hannah gave a shriek and pretended to punch him.
Alanna laughed inwardly. She could definitely see that either his opinions had rubbed off on Becca, or hers on him. Either way, two Beccas would certainly be interesting. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Somehow, Josh had ended up sitting next to Alanna in the darkened movie theater, with Becca on his other side, much to Hannah's disgust. Hannah had been half in love with him for a couple of years, and he never seemed to treat her more than as a little sister who was ignored most of the time.
Melissa watched the movie thoughtfully, her mind more on Alanna's dilemma than Paige and Eddie's. Turning to glance at her, she saw Josh looking down at Alanna with that gleam in his eye again. After knowing Josh for as long as she could remember, Melissa knew by now what that certain gleam in his eye meant.
Josh had a new girl in his sights. And that girl was very possibly the strangest, most mysterious in Pembrook.
Naturally. Josh never could settle for second-best, perhaps why he had a long string of ex-girlfriends following him around, many of them still in love with him—or they thought they were anyways, much to Melissa's bewilderment. Sure, Josh was charismatic, but he wasn't that great. At least not in her eyes... but then, he was like a big brother to her.
Really, Melissa was feeling sorry for Alanna. Unlike Alanna, she knew that recently Hannah had decided to go after Josh and get him as her boyfriend no matter what it took. Stupid as that decision was to Melissa, Hannah definitely followed through on her promises.
It would be an interesting time... and the funniest part was that Alanna probably didn't have a clue what was going on.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Melissa was right in her assumption that Josh was the last thing on Alanna's mind. Well, maybe not the last, but he was certainly down there. Currently, her focus was on Paige, Eddie, and how on earth that movie screen worked. She was sure that there had to be someone Gifted involved in the process of making it, but how? Maybe Jonathan could figure it out, once she got back to the palace.
Alanna gave an inward sigh. It always came back to that—how to get home and to the palace again. Fascinating as Pembrook, Texas was to her, Alanna couldn't stay there forever. She had other priorities.
I wonder what Jon and George are doing right now... * * * * * * * * * * * *
At that moment, Jonathan was riding to the Dancing Dove, in his "Johnny" disguise. What had that crazy mage been doing, making Alanna disappear? And where on earth had he sent her?
It had been three exhausting days for Jonathan since Alanna had mysteriously disappeared, and still there was no clue what had happened to her. The crazy mage, as Jon had been referring to him, was actually named Polin Machewell, and was exceedingly frightened on this sudden occurrence. He had no more idea than Jon about what had happened to Alanna. So in desperation, Jon was going to George. If anyone knew what to do about Alanna, he would.
Reaching the gates, he went into the inn and ordered a pint of lemonade. Being intoxicated from alcohol would not be a good way to greet George. Somehow Jon knew that he wasn't going to be terribly pleased about this.
George came in at that moment, greeting Jon warmly. Returning the greetings, Jonathan was then at a loss of what to say. "Er... George? T- three days ago, Alanna sort of bumped into this mage. And..." he paused.
Waiting patiently for a moment, George then said gently, "If there's somewhere you're going with it, you might want to get there soon. Because I can tell that this wasn't just Alanna being clumsy."
"No, not exactly. You see, this mage, Polin Machewell... he shouted something at her, even he has no idea what is was... and Alanna just disappeared. Three days ago. And we don't know where she is."
There was a lull for a moment before George exploded. "What do you mean you don't bloody know where she is?" he shouted. Jon winced. This was going to be a very long explanation. Perhaps he shouldn't have waited so long to tell George...
George was still ranting and raving five minutes later. Jon had the feeling that this was going to take a while, so he signaled for another pint of lemonade. Might as well stay hydrated.
To be continued...
A/N: Thanks to all my awesome reviewers! Here we go... Fred: lol, you had me scared until I kept reading! Thanks for reviewing though and KEEP REVIEWING... or I'll make baad things happen! ( Robynwyn: Thank you! Lol, thanks for not saying "Melly," she's very... possessive about that. Mel's mom is kind of odd—she's a very big success with her business, but totally gullible when it comes to her daughter. And Becca's had years of experience sucking up to her. The girls are going to start asking more questions soon, but they still kind of are taking the explanation that they're crazy, because they're more into Teen People than Tamora Pierce. That's what I've decided, anyways. I don't mind rambling at all! Kasuima: Wow, your username's really cool and I like it a lot, but I have no clue what it means. Thanks! I try to make it as realistic as I can, and I use myself and my friends as examples. Hope you review again! Anonymous miss: Thanks so much for putting me on your favorites list! I updated, so I'm hoping that I'm staying there. Thank you, I try to make it as individual as I can. Divine-Bovines: Thank you! Keep reviewing! MistyFox14: Aww, that's so nice. I love it when you all tell me that you love my story. I hope I see your name again!
All of you tell your friends to review this and you review too!! Look, I updated faster than I ever have before... which is kind of sad, considering how long it took me. Oh well! Also thanks to MistyFox14, kasuima, and pranksterqueen, who put me on their author alert. I'll try to update as soon as I can. In the next chapter we're going to have more Josh, my new character... he's based on my cousin, who's actually named Josh, so he should be easy to write, but I can't promise when an update will come. Hope to see your name on my review list!