Chapter 16: Continuing Stella's Story

With Stella...

FLASHBACK

Stella patiently waited in a large library for her father. Simon was supposed to come and see if she looked alright for the dinner tonight. Stella was wearing a heavy light pink dress with a necklace decorated with moonstones. She sighed as she remembered that the hamster Simon was talking to in the small shop was supposed to come to dinner, and she almost thought that he wanted him to be her suitor.

Bah, Stella thought. I'll find my own suitor one day. I'll just tell Father I don't like him and that I like someone else.

At that moment, Simon, in once again a fancy suit and with his monocle glaring brightly in the light, rushed into the room with two maids beside him. "Hurry, Stella," he said hastily. "It's almost six o'clock!"

Stella sighed as she walked over to her father. "Do I look alright?" she inquired as she brushed off her dress before looking up at him.

Simon stared at Stella for a moment before saying, "Yes, Stella, you look wonderful! Now, come along, Stella!"

Stella followed her father as he rushed out of the room. They went down a long, elegant hallway to a large parlor. Simon looked around before he began talking again.

"Stella, this is what I want you to do," he remarked. "You've got to impress this young man...his name is Jake. Be like a young lady instead of a teenager. I think he might make a good suitor for you." He paused for a minute. "Stella, after he leaves, I'll ask you what you think of him. Please tell me the truth."

Stella nodded in reply.

"When the doorbell rings, stay here, and I'll answer the door. You be all...elegant and stuff. Alright?"

"Okay."

Contiguously, almost as if it was planned to right then, the doorbell rang. Simon smiled slightly as he walked out of the room.

Stella glanced toward the coffee table as she sat down on a nearby couch. On it was the daily newspaper, but an article caught her eye. She picked it up and read carefully. It was about the robbery at the small shop the day before. Stella's eyes coruscated with admiration at the thought of witnessing the black hamster rob the store. He was so cute, and his voice was so romantic...

Stella didn't even realize Simon walked in with a beige hamster with four light brown spots until she had finished reading the article. Simon was talking to the hamster, and he suddenly turned toward Stella.

"Why, you finally finished reading that article!" Simon exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Jake, that we had to wait until she finished reading..."

The hamster named Jake blushed. "It's alright," he whispered shyly.

Grand, Stella thought to herself. He's shy. I want a guy who's confident, like that hamster yesterday! Sigh...

Simon nodded. "Jake, I want you to meet my daughter, Stella," he said as he walked over to Stella. "Stella, this is Jake."

"Hi," Stella remarked with dull interest.

"Hi, Stella," Jake replied as he blushed mildly.

Grand, Stella thought. He already likes me.

Simon sat down in a chair near the coffee table. "Jake, make yourself at home," he remarked.

Jake nodded and sat down in a chair also near the coffee table. He glanced at Simon, then at Stella, then at the newspaper article. He read it enough to get the point of it, and he remembered the shop mentioned was the shop he was at when he met Simon and Stella.

Stella continued staring at the newspaper article. She hoped she would run into the black hamster again, and maybe, just maybe, Simon would ask him to be her suitor. But for now, Simon was interested in this Jake guy. Stella didn't much like him because she already liked the black hamster, and the hamster didn't even know her name. She wasn't even sure if he had looked at her or what. Maybe the other two hamsters looked at her, but what if he was just looking to see if anybody saw him?

Stella wasn't listening to the conversation her father and Jake were having. She just kept on thinking about the black hamster and how cute he was. If only, if only...

"Stella, we haven't got all day! Now come along!" Simon remarked loudly as Stella came back to reality.

Stella realized her father and Jake were going into the dining room. Stella quickly stood up and followed her father out of the room. Jake just stared as he walked, almost as if he thought that if he blinked, he would miss something.

When they got to the dining room, Stella kept on thinking of the black hamster. She couldn't pay attention to the dinner, her father, Jake, or whatever they were saying. Stella wasn't listening, even though she pretended to. She was asked a few questions, and even though she didn't hear them, she just nodded her head with a dreamy look in her eyes. Stella didn't even know what she was saying yes to.

Stella didn't even know that Simon and Jake had gotten up from the table. Simon cast a scolding glare at Stella as she came back to reality. She jumped up from the chair she was sitting in and stood attentively. Stella tried to listen to what they were saying, but she couldn't understand what Simon and Jake were saying.

After a few more minutes, Simon and Jake walked out of the room. Simon glanced back at Stella and signaled her to come, and she followed him quickly. The three walked to the front door, where Simon said, "Well, Jake, it was nice for you to come! Come again, please!"

Jake flashed a confident smile. "Of course, I'll come back!" he replied happily as he practically danced out the door. He turned around before the door closed and whispered, "Good night, Stella."

Stella frowned. What did they ask her at dinner? Maybe she shouldn't have said yes to anything they said.

Simon closed the door slowly. He turned back around toward Stella and asked, "Well, how do you like him? He's quite a charming young man, and I think he'd make a proper suitor for you, dear Stella!"

Stella frowned. He thought she liked him? But she couldn't say she didn't like Jake, otherwise she didn't know what Simon would do to her. Stella remembered clearly the last time she disagreed with Simon, he had beaten her with a club and locked her in a closet for three days. She gulped as she muttered, "He's okay."

Simon frowned with dissatisfaction. "What does that mean?" he inquired.

"He's alright. I mean, he's pretty cool."

"You didn't seem to pay much attention to him. What was wrong?"

"I don't know...I'm not feeling very well."

Simon continued to frown as he walked her up a set of stairs and then to her room. "Well," he mumbled, "I guess you should just get some rest. Are you feeling dizzy, or is your stomach hurting? I'll send up a maid to check you out. Just get undressed and get in bed. Do you need anything? A glass of water maybe? Hopefully you'll feel better in the morning. I'll be back up in a few minutes to check on you with a maid. Alright?"

Stella nodded with dull eyes. "Okay."

After Simon had walked away down the hallway, Stella slipped into her room quietly and shut the door. She turned on a bright light in the room and carefully slipped off her light pink dress and bejeweled necklace. Stella put on a hot pink night gown, turned on a lamp, turned out the lights, and crawled under the covers of a large bed. She waited patiently for Simon and the maid to come to her room.

After a few minutes of waiting, Simon and the maid came into her room. Simon stayed just a minute telling the maid what to do.

"Please find out what's making her feel bad and do everything to make her feel better," Simon told the maid before exiting the room.

The maid turned toward Stella and felt her forehead. She remarked, "You don't have a fever. Why don't you feel well?"

"I just feel somewhat dizzy," Stella mumbled as she glanced down at herself.

The maid looked at Stella and said, "I overheard your conversation at the front door with your father. He asked you if you liked that Jake guy, right? You didn't look as if you really liked him. I know I don't like him, and if Simon asks me, I'll tell him that I don't like him. He's sort of scary. Are you telling the truth when you say that you like Jake?"

"No," Stella whispered. "I don't like him at all. I like another hamster, but I don't even know his name and I've only seen him once."

"Oh?" the maid asked with interest.

"Yeah," she mumbled. "You know the newspaper article on the front cover? The black hamster? I like him."

The maid frowned slightly. "You like a criminal mastermind?" she inquired with interest. "And you said the black hamster? Which one?"

"Hmm...he had brown eyes, and he was very tall, and he had a very deep voice..."

"Are you talking about the Bad Ham leader, Mike?"

"...Yeah, that's him!" Stella's eyes sparkled. "Do you know anything about him?"

The maid shrugged slightly. "I only know that he's a vicious criminal that would do nothing but harm you and that your father would never allow you close enough to even say 'hi' to him! But, you never know..."

"But I was there in the shop when he robbed it!" Stella shouted. "He threatened the clerk, and he even hit the clerk with his gun... But anyhoo, he ran past me, and I think he looked at me! Sigh, he was so cute... I was really hoping that Father would stop him and ask him to be my suitor, but he was too busy talking to Jake." She rolled her eyes. "Maybe I might eventually run into him, and maybe Father might approve of him more than Jake..."

"Hmm...interesting version of a fairy tale," the maid remarked. "I'll be on the lookout for anything about him, but all I know is that he's the dictator of the Bad Hams, which, dear, you don't wanna get mixed with them. Trust me. They've killed hamsters before, they've tortured hamsters, they've kidnapped hamsters and killed them, they've even robbed some of the richest hamsters in the community! Dear Stella, I don't want you to get mixed up with them really. But, if you have to...I'll help you."

Stella smiled slightly as she thought of what the Bad Hams looked like. Maybe they looked like the other two hamsters that the black hamster-Mike?-was with. She thought she heard them referred to the Numbers before. Stella could have sworn she had heard a bit about them from hamsters she knew. She just knew that she'd seen something about them before...

"Well, thanks for telling me all you knew," Stella remarked as she smiled brighter.

The maid nodded. "Good night, Stella," she whispered as she turned out the lamp and walked out of the room.

END OF FLASBACK

Stella remembered that night clearly. She was lying down on the bed with her eyes closed. She remembered how she had felt then about the Bad Hams, that they were so amazing, so charming, so...bad. Stella remembered all her life she had always wanted to be a criminal mastermind, and she remembered how she dreamed of what it was like. It was a bit awkward to remember it now that she was one.

She sat up and pulled her suitcase out from underneath the bed. Stella set the suitcase out in front of her and unlatched it. She took out the laptop and turned it on. Stella read the clock, which said it was almost noon, which was what she thought. She turned off the laptop and uninterestedly rummaged through her suitcase.

Stella sorted her ribbons which were disorganized when she had abruptly thrown it under the bed the night before. With bored eyes, she rummaged through all of the unused pockets of her suitcase. When she least expected it, Stella felt a hard, square picture frame at the bottom of an unemployed pocket. She frowned and took it out carefully. She gasped and almost dropped the picture frame.

Inside the picture frame was a picture of her and Mike at Christmas time. Stella stared at it and remembered all that happened at that time. She had gone through everything to figure out what to get him for Christmas, and Stella also had been caught under the mistletoe with Mike. She blushed brightly as she remembered the precious memories, which also brought back memories of Roger, Becky, Caitlin, and the Numbers. She smiled as she remembered.

"Having fun, Stella?"

Stella turned pale as she fleetly shoved the picture frame in her suitcase. She hadn't realized anyone else was in the room. Jake was in the room with his no-name friend, and he was staring at her. She stared back at him with questioning eyes.

Jake inquired, "What were you looking at, Stella?"

"Uh...," Stella mumbled. "...Nothing. Nothing at all."

Jake nodded and rolled his staring eyes. He asked, "Do you need anything at all?"

Stella glanced down at the floor and muttered, "I am hungry, I must say..."

Jake grabbed her paws and stood her up. Stella had to grit her teeth to keep from kicking him in the stomach and knocking him to the ground. He led her out of the room and into the small dining room again. The off-whiteness of the room seemer more off-white than normal, but maybe it was because it was dark in the room. Stella frowned. It had to be raining outside, unlike yesterday, where it had seemed to shine until the dark of the night came. Jake pulled out the chair again, and Stella sat down in it. She watched him as he ran into the other room again.

Stella stared at Jake's voiceless and nameless friend as he stood at the doorway, where he usually stood. He just watched her with silence in his eyes. Stella wondered if anyone had given him a name before. She wondered if he even knew his past. Stella held in doubt if he knew a world other than being around Jake. She knew she did.

When Jake came back with a basket of sunflower seeds, Stella kept on wondering about Jake's no-name friend. Jake watched her with interest in his eyes as she nibbled on the sunflower seeds and kept on looking at the dark brown hamster.

After Stella finished the last seed in the basket, she stood up out of the chair and walked over to the dark brown hamster. She whispered, "Dear, what's your name?"

The dark brown hamster stared at Stella and mouthed a word. She looked at him with interest and whispered, "Could you write it down?"

"But he doesn't know how to write!" Jake remarked. "He can't!"

The dark brown hamster nodded and grabbed Stella's paw. He grabbed a pen from the table and wrote 'I was never given a name' on Stella's paw. She looked at it and whispered, "Do you want me to give you one?" She knew she wasn't supposed to like anyone in this place, but she did feel sorry for the nameless hamster.

He nodded with a starry look in his eyes. Stella thought a minute and said, "How about I name you Jamie?"

The dark brown hamster nodded with satisfaction. Jake stared for a minute before he puffed up his cheeks and retorted, "I was supposed to name him!"

"Well, too frickin' bad," Stella returned sharply as she walked down the hallway and back into the room she was in.