Chapter 22: Second Closing

Later...

Caitlin, Natsu, and Megan ran down the staircase in the entrance room. They had lost track of time, and it was five minutes until dinner was served. When they arrived with only one minute to spare, the maids were already coming out and serving the other Bad Hams. Caitlin, Natsu, and Megan sat down quietly at the table with Mike, Becky, and Roger.

Mike glanced over at Caitlin with a playful grin and remarked, "Lost track of time, didn't you?"

Caitlin nodded as she blushed slightly. "Yea..."

Megan and Natsu nudged Caitlin in the elbows and whispered, "Haha..."

With Stella...

"Hif...what did I do? Why me? Why not someone else? Hif, hif..."

Stella raised her head from the pillow she had thrust it in. It was completely dark in the room now, and the rain came down even harder now even though it seemed it couldn't rain any harder. Tears were still rolling down her face, but there were less now.

"Hif...I miss Mike... Why did I run away in the first place? It's all my fault...hif, hif..." Stella whispered with such low volume that she could barely hear herself.

Stella lowered her head again into the pillow. Contigueously, the door cracked open. She didn't look up but supposed it was Jake. Stella waited for him to say something, but by how long she waited, he would've said something by now if it were him.

Stella felt a large hamster sit down beside her. She felt it gingerly sit her up and bring her close to its side. Stella barely looked up, and she realized it was the voiceless and nameless hamster.

The hamster with no name brought out a white cloth. He wiped Stella's face off with the cloth and gave her a glass of water. Stella sniffled and slowly sipped on the water. She was wondering why the hamster had come into the room.

While still sipping on the water, Stella leaned closer toward the nameless hamster. She felt that he was actually sweet, but he was forced to do Jake's bidding. Stella knew that the hamster most likely cared for her and had a heart, unlike Jake.

Stella carefully handed the nameless hamster the glass back. She looked down at the ground and whispered, "Oh, Jamie, you've got to run someday from this place..."

The no name hamster looked sympathetically at Stella.

"You don't wanna be here, or do you?"

The voiceless hamster looked at Stella with a puzzled look.

"Hmm...ah welly..." Stella sighed as she sat in thought.

Her thoughts popped when she heard Jake's haunting voice shout, "Big Friend! No!! Bad Big Friend!" Stella looked up as Jake stood at the door of the room. He looked angered at the nameless hamster, and the nameless hamster jumped up and ran out of the room. Jake glared at Stella with a look that said "What the bloody hell did you just do?" and left the room while closing the door sharply behind him. Stella gritted her teeth angrily and said, "Well, just grand! Now I have three problems. Mike's not here, I'm stuck, and a voiceless hamster has run into the night."

Later with the Bad Hams...

Caitlin, Megan, and Natsu walked down one of the large hallways that made up the place where they stayed. Caitlin sighed as the group approached the staircase. Once the three girl hams had walked down the staircase, they paced into the dining room, where some of the Numbers and Mike were talking.

Mike glared at the three girl hams with malice. Megan frowned with a look of dissatisfaction, walked up to him, and smacked him right across the face. Mike paused stunned, and the Numbers that were present just stood there incredulous.

"What the bloody hell is YOUR problem?" Megan roared. She had totally lost all control of her anger, which could make her lethal.

"What do you mean, what the bloody hell is my problem?!" Mike shouted back. "You're the one who just slapped the future ruler of the world!"

"Now you listen here, and you listen good. I do hope we never have this little talk again." Megan began. "I realize you have all these uberly big dreams and such and think you're Mr. Hot and Whatnot, but you're really nothing! You are a nothing, and if it weren't for the loyal idiots at your side, you would live in a box. You're nothing but words and insults, and sorry to disappoint you, King Mikey, but those aren't effective, they just make people mad.

"I joined the Bad Hams because I wanted to stick by my best friends and because I was sick of being such a goody-two-shoes with the Ham-Hams, not to suffer from verbal and emotional abuse."

"Bitch, once you're through with your little sermon you're gonna wish I did show you verbal abuse after what I'm going to do," Mike cut in.

Megan went on as if she didn't hear him. "Now listen, boyo. We are not your slaves, we are not your servants, we are not your employees, we are not your maids, and we are not the foremen in one of your mills that you can command. We are your friends and your partners in crime. You cannot go anywhere, do anything, or get anything if you're going to be a cruel, heartless, manipulative bastard, which is how you are right now.

"Everyone has been telling me that you and I are more alike than you and Stella, the 'Golden Couple Whose Relationship Is So Bleedin' Perfect'. I will have to agree that you and I are pretty similar. But I have a conscious mind, which means that I feel bad when I do horrible things to people or when I see people get hurt. If you really value me and my inquisitive mind, and Cait and Natalie too, then you need to be more sensitive and really think about it before you do or say or as you like to say, command it. We're not your servants, we're your friends. And friends don't treat other friends that way.

"Oh yeah, and two more things: I don't take bullshit from anyone or anything, no matter how much money they have or who their daddy was and I haven't yet shown you all that I am capable of physically and mentally." Megan finished and took a deep breath to calm herself. Her voice was hoarse from shouting at the top of her lungs and her knees were shaking so hard that she had to sink into a chair to keep from reducing to a puddle on the floor.

Mike scowled and shook his head. "Tsk tsk tsk...," he muttered. "Girls. They never understand anything important. That's why I, a man of importance, am here."

"A man of importance? Please, Mike...," Caitlin mumbled as she sighed. "Why the heck do you want to take over the world anyhoo?"

"It's not really like you're gonna get anything out of it," Natsu added.

Mike shook his head with distaste. "You wouldn't understand. As I said, you're girls, and I'm a guy."

"Then what about Stella?" Caitlin challenged. "She's just like us, except more prissy, but that's alright. Anyone would be capable of seeing things in other people's views, and..."

"What does that have to do with this?" Megan inquired.

"I don't know... The point is...I don't know."

"Riiight... The point is that Mike needs to grasp a few concepts here, firstly being that he needs to learn how to really respect his fellow comrades, secondly that he needs to respect women and realize that some of the greatest minds in the universe have been those of women, thirdly he needs to realize that he is not the only person walking and breathing this planet and needs to think about other people, and if he doesn't, then I, Megan Fallon Lowe, aka Dilla Shoxxi, will knowingly and willingly beat him down."

"...Riiight..." Mike rolled his eyes. He pointed at the door and mumbled, "Get out of here."

Megan shook her head. "No, we don't want to. We should protest."

Mike grimaced and shouted, "Get the hell out of here before I make you leave!"

"Oh, really? Well, we're not leaving."

"Get out, you brats!"

"Brats? You should call yourself that. You need a spanking from your mama!"

"My mom's dead, FYI."

"So? Well, we're full grown women, we're strong, and judging by how red your face is, we slap pretty good, so we could do it."

"Get out, now!"

"Make us!"

Mike spun around toward the Numbers that were standing behind him and shouted at them, "Get them out of here!"

"What do we do with them?" one of the Numbers inquired.

"Just lock 'em in a cell for tonight. Now get them out!"

"Yes, sir!" the Numbers shouted in unison.

Caitlin and Natsu turned pale and started to back away while Megan stood her ground. She hissed at Mike and ran toward him, but two of the Numbers seized her by the wrists and yanked her out the door. Two more of the Numbers seized the other two girl hams and followed the other Numbers holding onto Megan. Megan bit and kicked one of them, and he let go. The other two girl hams were dragged to the front room, where they were dragged to the door where they weren't really allowed to go. The two Numbers holding onto them thrust open the door and dragged them in. Even the single Number holding onto Megan shoved her in barely. They were taken down a long, dark, and gloomy hallway that seemed to have no end. After a minute, one of the Numbers kicked open a door, and they practically threw the three girl hams in the door and locked the door behind them.

Caitlin got her balance back and glanced around. They were definitely in the prison. She muttered, "Well, this is just great...we're stuck in here for a night. This is one of the cells, isn't it?"

Natsu sighed and mumbled, "Well, at least it's just one night..."

"I am so sorry for getting you guys into this. You guys didn't deserve to suffer the consequences of my anger. I got fed up with Mike, and I'm sure you were too, but it didn't show as much. I have almost no control over my anger, and I really don't, but I have a feeling that if given the opportunity to take it back, I wouldn't. Someone needed to say that to Mike, and that happened to be me," Megan remarked.

Caitlin leaned back against what she thought was a wall and replied, "It's alright. We're stuck in a cell for a night, but that's alright."

"Everything's alright to you," Natsu pointed out.

"Uh..." Caitlin stood a minute. "Well, true..."

"So what do we do here?"

"I dunno... There's not much choice, is there?"

"Nope," Megan replied.

"Well, then, we just make up something." Caitlin glanced around the room and frowned. "Ehehe...not much to make up with, is there?"

"Nope," Megan and Natsu responded in unison.

Caitlin shrugged and said, "How 'bout we just sit here and have a staring contest?"

"...Alright, I guess," Natsu replied.

"Okay," Megan remarked.

Caitlin sat down on the floor and said, "Akay...1...2...3..."