The Final Year, The Final Show

Disclaimer - See ch. 1 dammit! Maroon 5 owns "Sunday Morning". And...I don't own 16 Candles. (Just read. Trust me. You'll see.)

A/N - Ok...let's see....This chapter should be fun. Jessica (the typical Guest Author) will be helping me with this chapter. It should be fun...but we have to TRY and make a step-up from Riley's birthday, right? I mean...it's RAY's birthday now. grin

Now that that's over...I'll let you read shoves her readers to make them read now Go read!

Renjview! You know what it means!

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Ch 13 - The Day That Some People Call DOOMED
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8/15/07 - 6:02am - Wednesday
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Ray jumped out of bed, threw back his covers and X-ed the date off on the calender. It was the sixteenth, his eighteenth birthday. Today was going to rock all kinds of... rocking. He slammed his hand on the radio, turning it on and then turned his alarm clock off.

"Sunday morning rain is falling," Ray sang along with Adam Levine's vocals. "Steal some covers share some skin," he snatched up his comb, holding it to his mouth. "Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable, You twist to fit the mold that I am in," he jumped up onto his bed, chest still bare, sleep pants hanging low. "But things just get so crazy living life gets hard to do, And I would gladly hit the road get up and go if I knew, That someday it would lead me back to you, That someday it would lead me back to you." Once that line left his mouth, badly pitched, he did a little jump, twisting around. Unfortunately his feet were caught in the blankets and he fell to the floor with a thump. Undaunted, he continued on with the song.

"That may be all I need," he sang as he pulled himself up. "In darkness she is all I see," he pointed to the picture of he and Lily sitting on his night table. "Come and rest your bones with me, Driving slow on Sunday morning, And I never want to leave." At that moment his door slammed open.

"Raymond Jamison Brennan!" Ray spun around, dropping his comb. An extremely annoyed and tossled looking Riley stood in his doorway. "What on EARTH are you doing? I had at least another hour of sleep coming and this racket wakes me up!"

"Come on Riles, it's my birthday."

"What?"

"My eighteenth birthday, it's today."

"Ray.... today is the fifteenth."

"Oh."

"I can't believe you forgot your own damn birthday!"

"I didn't forget my birthday...I'm just kind of a day ahead of myself."

Riley let out a groan of frustration, turned and muttering to herself, she went back to her room.

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8/16/07 - 10:02am - Thursday
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The next day, Ray had the feeling that he was in a very annoying eighties movie. He wasn't sure why or what movie, but he was sure he'd seen a movie like this before. His parents both left for work, not even saying a thing to him at all, except for the fact that they would be home late and to order a pizza or something. Riley wasn't home either. Something was wrong with this picture. Riley should still be in bed, it was only ten. Normally, Ray would still be asleep for another two hours at least, but this was a special occasion. It was his eighteenth birthday. He couldn't just sleep it all away, right?

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8/16/07 - 10:07am - Thursday
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Riley tapped her foot impatiently on the floor in front of the counter at Mickey's Disks as she waited for the others to come. She leaned back on her arms against the counter. This was starting to getting annoying. She told them to all be here at ten o'clock and it was--she glanced at her watch--ten after. Damn. There would be no point in scolding them all for being late. Dammit. "Life's a bitch and then you die, right?" She rolled her eyes, but quickly turned them towards the door when she heard the bell signaling someone coming in or leaving. Fortunately for Riley's patience, it was the whole gang minus Ray. "Took you long enough!" So much for not yelling at them.

"Riley...it's only ten after." Robbie pointed out, raising his eyebrows at the eccentric girl.

"Fine, fine, be that way. Don't let me have my great fun of berating you guys. But I did tell you guys to be here at ten o'clock." Riley said, a hand on her hip.

"So, what are we doing here exactly?" Lily asked, sitting on one of the stools at the bar of the little restaurant.

"We," Riley started, "Are here because of Ray's birthday."

Kim raised an eyebrow, "Well, if that's why we're here..." She glanced around, "Where's Ray?"

Riley sighed as if this whole thing should be quite obvious, "Let's just say...we're going to pull a Sixteen Candles on him...only it would be Eighteen Candles...except that sounds really bad and...yeah, but that's the basic thing we're going for." She nodded.

Travis, who was standing behind his girlfriend, looked down at her, "You have honestly got to stop watching all those eighties movies your aunt and uncle got you for Christmas last year."

"No! I couldn't do that! They're are great! But I don't really like Sixteen Candles all that much...but the concept is funny, especially since Ray is the one we're all going to pull it over on. It will be highly amusing to see him freak out."

"You're so sure that he will?" Kim asked.

"Trust me, Kim, he's my cousin and I know him very well. Not to mention the fact that he's been psycho about his eighteenth birthday since he was like...ten. He will totally flip and it will be absolutely hilarious!" Riley started laughing at the image that she found her mind.

"You really know how to be brutal when you want to be, Riley." Robbie grinned.

"What? You think I couldn't be? I'm a Brennan." She grinned and used her hands to follow her body as she spoke her next line, "Plus, when have you ever seen a halo anywhere near this Celestial Body?"

Just because he could, Travis leaned over towards her and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Well, you've got the Celestial body part of it right." He grinned and winked at her.

"Oh, Lord, help me," Lily sighed, "Really, it was way too early for that, don't you think?"

"Well, I don't think so," Riley smiled and inched towards her boyfriend, playing along and kissing him.

"Sooo," Lily turned away from her two friends and faced the other two sitting at the table, "Robbie, you were saying?"

"I was?" Robbie was confused.

"Yes," Lily said, a certain sharpness in her voice, "You were."

"Oh, right. The...thing."

"Yeah. That." Now that it had been two months since that night, Lily really understood why Ray had been so freaked out by the two's sexual trysts. It was absolutely horrifying and near inconceivable how overly-procreative the two acted. Sure, most of it was just that--an act--and usually started by Riley, but still! And somehow, when it was all started by Travis, it was just...worse.

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8/16/07 - 3:17pm - Thursday
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Ray was starting to wonder about his family and friends. None of them were paying a bit of attention to him. They should be! They all made quite possibly the biggest deal out of Riley's eighteenth birthday two months ago, what about him? "I guess they used all of their partying energy in June." Ray said bitterly as he flopped down on the couch. If no one was going to say anything to him, he would just watch TV. What else was there to do?

What had to be the strangest thing of all was a tie between a few things.

1.) His parents: They hadn't forgotten a single one of his birthdays, but somehow, all of the sudden, on the most important one for another three years, they hardly acknowledged the fact that he exsisted! What was wrong with that picture, huh?

2.) Riley: What was wrong with her freakin' BRAIN? Just yesterday, she told Ray that his birthday was the next day. She complained about being woken up almost all day. How could she forget? This just didn't seem right...

3.) Lily: She was his girlfriend! Even if no one else did, should she at least be the one to remember his birthday? Sure, he had nearly missed hers, but he really had made that one up, hadn't he? He got her a Fender Strat for Christ's sake! Didn't that count for something

4.) Everyone: How could everyone forget about HIM?!

However, Ray's brain didn't seem to make many connections to this. That, of course, was the problem. As he flipped through the channels on TV trying to find something to watch, Ray frowned. "I still feel like I'm in some kind of cheesy, annoying movie."

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8/16/07 - 4:38pm - Thursday
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Riley was in her room, lying on her back across her bed. She was talking on the phone to one of her very long-distance friends, but she didn't care. It was her cell phone and the mobile-to-mobile thing made it free. She had been shocked that it worked over countries. Oh, well! Riley laughed, "I know! It's hilarious! And he hasn't made one comment to me about not remembering. Not a single one!"

"Are you serious? With all the fuss you've told me he's made over it," Kerri's voice proved her grinning, "And his loudness, I have to say, I am honestly and throughly shocked."

"I know. It's sad! I know secretly seething in his mind, though."

"How?"

"He's my cousin and over the last year, we've practically become siblings. Plus, he's always had this...look in eyes when he's seething and angry. It's been there...all...day." Riley laughed again as she sat up, lying on the bed, length-wise on her pillows.

"Well, girl, we've already been talking for like, three hours. Meaning I've been in pretty much the same position for a while. I need to get off the damn phone."

"Not to mention I need to get back to my 'Get Ray Seriously Pissed Off' game." Riley grinned, "Anyway, later, girl!" She said before hanging up. "I wonder what Ray would say if I told him I told one of my best friends back home about this whole gig when it was over?"

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8/16/07 - 6:02pm - Thursday
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Riley had decided that to get a reaction--which she was very shocked that she had yet to get--she would have to get everyone to come over all at once. This was exactly what she did. At exactly six-oh-two that evening, all of the cousins' mutual friends-and-or-respective-boyfriends-and-or-girlfriends arrived at the Brennan house. This, Riley decided, was going to be the ultimate reaction from him. "Hey, guys, what's up?"

There were muttered greetings between the four as they came in. Almost instantly, everyone went to their designated "places" in the living room: Riley and Travis to her uncles extra comfy recliner (Riley in his lap); Robbie and Kim on the couch (simply sitting next to each other); and Lily was left standing in the middle of the living room. "Well," She said, looking around and not finding her boyfriend anywhere, "I would go to my place, but my boyfriend obviously isn't here."

"Ahh, he's up in his room." Riley said offhandedly, "Secretly sulking, no doubt."

Lily nodded and made her way up the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. She made sure she was going to be extra careful at being stealth-like when she got into the hallway. She slowly crept up to his door and opened it as quietly as she could. She entered the room to no Ray. She frowned. This was strange. She was in his room, yet there was no boyfriend in sight.

However, this was soon fixed as the door to the bathroom connected to his room was suddenly thrown open, fog everywhere. Ray shaking his hair free of water as he came out and was suddenly very, very, very, VERY glad he had put that towel around his waist since he hadn't locked his bedroom door. His eyes were wide as they could be to find a confused--and now even slightly shocked--Lily Randall in the middle of his room. "Wha--What are you doing here?"

"Riley...asked me over." Lily smiled.

"Right. So, uh, yeah...we've really got that...timing thing down, huh?" Ray tried to turn it all into a joke, as usual.

"Yeah. We've got it down real well, Ray." She rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

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8/16/07 - 9:10pm - Thursday
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After a whole two hours of pizza and some random movie on PayPerView, the six teenagers started to get bored. They were all still sitting in their designated places around the living room, staring blankly and unseeingly at the TV, which was currently playing the music video to 1985 by Bowling For Soup. It was a shock that even Riley wasn't paying attention to the video. Riley sighed, "Can we please do something!"

At that moment, Ray picked Lily up from his lap and set her down in their chair. "I'll be back."

"Where are you--"

"I said I'd be back."

Lily rolled her eyes, "You were saying, Riley?"

"I was saying that we need to do something! I'm bored!"

Travis looked at her, frowning slightly, "Riley...you're always bored."

"Which is exactly why we need to find a way to fix it!" She grinned and looked around at the others, "So, any takers for ideas here?"

After a few minutes, Lily's face lit up and she broke into the biggest grin on the face of the earth. She laughed a little before saying: "Ok, I know exactly what I can do, but you guys...you can't be here. It would just....It would ruin everything."

"Lily..." Riley sing-songed, "What are you planning?"

"Not saying a word."

Robbie decided to chip in, "I don't know what she's planning, but I think that Riley's contagious." He looked at his girlfriend, "Kim, you can't hang around her so much when your home, ok? The world doesn't need a Riley-overload. That...would make the world a very scary place."

"The world is a scary place, Robbie." Riley rolled her eyes.

"If there were three of you, there would be no world! Simply...an Apocalypse."

"Guys, really! I need you to go before he gets back. I don't care where you go--Mickey's, the theater, Wal Mart--just....please go now!" Lily begged.

"Will you pay?" Riley joked.

"No! But go, please! He's going to be back in like...thirty seconds, and I want all four of you gone...before then."

"Thirty seconds?" Riley grinned.

"Yes, and I'm guessing."

Everyone slowly got up, "Isn't there a new movie in the dollar theater that we would all want to see, anyway?" Kim said.

"Probably." Robbie and Riley said at the same time. They looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and shrugged it off.

"Thank you, guys. Really, I...will totally find a way to make it up to you." Lily grinned and watched the four of them walk out of the door, out of the house. When she knew that they were gone, Lily's grin widened as she started to go up the stairs towards her boyfriends room again. She opened the door, quietly, but not like before. Lily was starting to wonder about Ray. This was the second time that she had come into his room and she had seen no sign of him. "Ray...where in the hell are you?"

There was a shout and the sound of things crashing before Ray fell to the ground on his back. His body was protruding from the entrance of his closet. Ray rubbed his forehead and as he got up, his back as well. "Ooww..."

Lily bit down on her lip to keep from laughing. "What were you doing?"

"Trying...to find..." Ray blinked a few times, "Actually, now I don't even remember." He laughed a little.

Lily tilted her head to the side slightly as she walked towards him, smiling the whole time. She pulled him towards her by the collar of his shirt and kissed him, long and passionately. When they separated, Ray looked a little shocked and confused. "What? Didn't like that?" Ray was speechless, so Lily continued. "All right, if you don't want it," She turned and started to leave the room.

Ray snapped back to reality, "Wha--No! I just...Wow."

Lily smiled and turned back towards him, head tilted to the right a little. "Are you sure?" She teased.

"Trust me, I don't mind at all." Ray grinned and walked towards her.

Before Ray could do a thing, Lily guided him towards his bed and shoved him onto it. She stood just barely a foot away from him, looking at him, smiling. Lily crossed her arms over her waist and pulled her shirt over her head revealing a black bra. "Happy birthday, Ray."

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Notes - OMG! I know! It's been like THIRTY YEARS since I last updated! As many of you can stand by and attest to, but! The new season started, so, I kind of got a bit of inspiration. Not so much really from the latest episode, but still! Totally NOT the point! I hope to every god in the universe I don't take so long again.

Still wondering if any of you have any ideas on how the Final Show of RFR might go for this fic. Everything between the beginning of this and that final chapter is just...filler, mostly. lol!

Give me a buzz!

Later days,
PFB