Okay. If you are reading this and you're like "where the heck did the puncuation go", then READ THIS. This website (it won't even let me put f f . net because it's being stupid) won't upload a lot of things. So it's not my fault. There. Just had to say that first.
Ashley: Little story here. Well, my notebook with this story in it was lost. I looked in my backpack, at the computer desk, in my room, in the spare bedroom, and it was nowhere to be found. So, where did I finally find it? Come on, I'll give you one good guess. Come on, you can guess, I'll wait. Got your guess? Do you know where the notebook was? Well...
I still don't know where it is. SO I HAVE NO NOTEBOOK-dies- I need to it continue. So, I'll just wait to get it back. I WAS FINALLY GONNA TYPE IT AND IT'S NOT HERE! ...I wonder where it is. I am now into my hour of searching. I believe it is nowhere to be found.
And I never found it. It's been "MIA" (Missing in Action, as my Biology teacher would say) for about two months.
Oh, and there's a Clay Aiken pun in the chapter. I'm sorry, but I had to add it! If you see it, CONGRADULATIONS. If you don't, then...you're a loser. ...Sorry, that was a bit mean. If you don't see it, then...GO BUY HIS CD. There.
Disclaimer: I don't own Holes. Don't own Wicked. I don't even really own this disclaimer, since I didn't come up with the word.
Chapter Ten: How To Drive Someone Crazy
I looked toward the door, and saw the second person I'd least expected to see. Yes, send everyone to help Kristina. She is helpless and needs everyone's help with this case. Sometimes I just hate the agency.
A girl stood in the doorway, wearing a light blue blouse with a khaki skirt, and light colored high-heels. Formal-looking for her. She brushed her sunglasses back, brushing her hair back at the same time. I watched as she looked around and stopped on Matt, hiding back a smirk. I basically held back a sigh at everything. Why the heck does this happen to me? No other agents get interrupted in the middle of their case. She calmly walked over, and stopped in front of Matt.
"What happened to you?" Yes, great first impression. Where will this lead to?
"Why are you here?" Matt asked. Great first question, Matt.
"Are you okay?" she said. Reasonable question.
"Why are you dressed up?" Wow, Matt and I think alike. Weird.
"What's happened to you?" She has no clue.
"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" Matt asked, strongly but quietly. There, assertive Matt. That's what we need more of.
She stepped back, looking around at everyone watching. About everyone in the whole cafeteria was watching the little fiasco at our table. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. "I'm here for school. I'm here for a report," she explained, trying to avoid the gazes of everyone. School report. Sure, no one will buy that.
She turned around and noticed me. "Hey Kristina." Finally noticed. I was beginning to think I was invisible. Oh, wait, I already am.
"Hi Ashley." I said back. I really wanted to say "What the hell are you doing here?" but I decided that would stir up some questions. Mustn't let everyone know.
I seriously had nothing to say after that. So, I decided to just introduce her to everyone. "Ashley, this is Zero, Caveman, Zigzag, Armpit, X-Ray, Magnet, and this idiot is Squid."
"Stop being a brat, ma petite." Squid said loudly.
I rolled my eyes. "Brat? Is that the best you can do?" Squid didn't respond, so I just looked at him weird, and then turned back to Ashley. "Here, sit down." I made a seat for her between Matt and me.
I really, really, really wanted to know why the heck she was here, but I couldn't ask, not with everyone around. It bugged me to death.
I looked over at Matt and he looked quite pissed. It made me smile to tell the truth. The reason why he was here didn't even matter anymore. Yay.
"So, you're here for a school report," X-Ray asked. No, actually, she's here for me, but you wouldn't know that.
"Yeah," Ashley answered, "I had to check out a place and then write a paper on it. I got this when we were assigned random places."
"So what you're saying is that they let you come into Camp Green Lake for a report," Magnet asked.
Yeah, it was quite shocking. Oh, wait, it wasn't true. But, seriously, Ashley needs better lies.
"Basically. What? Is that strange or something?" I had to stop myself from laughing. Of course it was strange. School report + Camp Green Lake strange. It was a fact. Like 2+2 4.
"Are you going to start your report now?" Caveman asked.
Ashley hesitated for a second, and then just said "Sure, sure. I'll even quote some of you." She took a notebook out of the bag she had with her and also got out a pencil. "So...um...what do you guys do here?"
Big mistake to ask that. All the guys looked at each other, as if afraid to say it. What? Would you get in trouble for actually telling someone? What freaking idiots. They thought they would get in trouble for something like this. Or they might just be trying to pick a person to tell Ashley. Fun.
"We dig holes." I turned around in my seat to look at Matt. "That's all we do. We dig holes. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Doesn't it sound thrilling?" Matt said this all with a note of sarcasm in his voice. Did I mention he was pissed? I think I did.
Ashley looked at Matt, and I could tell she was holding back from just yelling at him. Instead, she just said softly, "Okay, I think I'll go and interview some other people." Then Ashley just got up and left.
"You're so friendly, Matt," I said to him as soon as Ashley left. I got out of my seat, and without a word, left the Mess Hall. I wanted to know why Ashley was here, and I knew that this was going to be a little complicated.
She probably didn't go to talk to other guys, since she wasn't actually here for a school report. Knowing her, she was probably outside walking around and yelling, or writing something to vent her anger. I turned the corner and started to walk to the tents.
And there was Ashley, sitting by one of the tents, with her notebook out.
I walked up to her and asked, "Do I want to see?" Usually, stuff Ashley wrote when mad would be...well...pretty interesting.
"He acts like it's my fault. It's...not...my...fault!" She started to scribble out what she was writing. "It's not my fault I was sent here"
I sat down next to her. "Why are you here?"
Ashley sighed. "I know." That's all she said. Okay then.
"What do you know?"
"I know who's after you. I know the name of the person who is trying to kill you."
My eyes widened, and I tried to process what Ashley just said. The name of the person. What if it was someone I knew? What if it was one of the boys I had come to know? I was almost afraid to ask whom, but eventually, it came out. "Who?"
"John Holdenstein."
Wait. Was there a John Holdenstein here? If there was, how come I never heard of him? Why did he want to kill me? And why was Ashley sent here to tell me this? I decided to start out with the simple question.
"Why did they send you to tell me? Why just send a letter or something?"
"It might have gotten intercepted. Too risky."
Good point, but I had a better one. "Then you could have used a code."
"Well, then it might have taken you too long to find out. It was urgent. You needed to know the moment the agency did."
Urgent. What did she exactly mean by that? "So, I'm in danger, right now?" Ashley just nodded. That was not good. How could this John be? Could someone here be telling me a false name? Could someone I knew actually be John?
"Are you going to stay and help me?" I swear, as soon as I said that, Matt walked up.
Ashley looked over at him and then looked back at me. "What do you think?"
"Hey! You're the one that came here," Matt said.
"Yeah, because I had to. It wasn't a choice. Like me going up to them and going "Oh yes, I want to be sent to Camp Green Lake to make Matt all mad at me."" She rolled her eyes.
"Well, now that you're here, there's no reason for me to be here!" I sat back and just watched them argue. I needed some popcorn.
"Then sorry that we got information after you left. For now on, we won't let anyone have new information. We'll just let them die!"
"Just to let you know!" I spoke up. "I'm glad you both are here. You both can help me, and I appreciate that."
They both just looked at me with blank faces. Okay, maybe I shouldn't have spoken up.
"Yeah, we should be helping her, not arguing," Ashley agreed. Yay! "Even though I could win the argument."
I sighed, as Matt looked at Ashley with a glare. I could really use an interruption right at the moment. "Hey!" I looked up at Squid running over. Well, maybe I should have clarified that "interruption".
He stopped in front of us and asked, "What's up?"
We just all looked at each other, and finally, Ashley stood up. Yay, I think they're done arguing. We started walking over to the Wreck Room. I started to wonder how much I had exactly missed in my friend's lives.
"Hey, did you tryout for musical?" I asked Ashley, turning to her.
"Yeah, and I had purple hair."
"And I missed it!" Ashley with purple hair. That would have been a sight to see. Just like Matt getting arrested.
"It was cool," Matt chimed in. "She should have kept it in."
"Oh, and I had a green face with a witches hat."
Aha. Now I know what musical she did. "Let me guess. Elphaba aka the Wicked Witch of the West."
"Yep."
I started laughing. "I can't believe I missed that! That would have been priceless."
"You." Squid turned to Ashley and looked at her with disbelief. "You were the Wicked Witch of the West?"
"Well, yeah. But she really wasn't all that wicked. In fact, it was never her fault that everyone started the rumors about her being wicked." Ashley explained.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you talking about? That's not in The Wizard of Oz!"
"Wicked," I said at the exact same time as Ashley and Matt. Oh goody, we get to teach Squid here all about the wonders of the musical Wicked. This was going to be fun.
"It's a wonderful musical," Ashley said.
"About what happened in Oz before Dorothy came and screwed it all up," I added. Amazing what one musical can do to change your views on everything.
"With some great songs," Matt added.
The instant Matt said that, I knew what was coming up. Ashley turned to me and we began singing, "There's nothing that can stop you from becoming popu-ler..." Ashley and I looked confused and then said, "...lar." We immediately started laughing at our little inside joke.
Squid looked at us as if we were crazy and then said, "I'm confused."
"Good. Stay that way," I said to Squid, then turned back to Ashley. "Now, what song did you do?"
"Defying Gravity."
Defying Gravity? Which one was that? Wow, it's been too long. "Which one is that?"
"The "so if you care to find me, look to the western sky" one."
Oh yeah. I love that song. Especially the background music. "Oh yeah. That's cool. How good did you do?"
Ashley started laughing. "My CD started skipping. But other than that, okay."
Squid sighed deeply and looked over at us with the most exasperated face ever. "Anything else you wish to discuss and waste my life away?"
There was a short silence, as I thought about something to say to tick Squid off again. Hmm...I couldn't think of anything. Then Ashley burst out laughing and said, in the middle of her laugh, "Fiyero is so ugly."
I about fell over laughing at the look on Squid's face. I decided to continue. "Did you see that picture of him? He's just...so..." Ashley and I both shuddered and then started laughing again.
I don't know if Matt decided to join in or just to do his random singing. "Poor Galinda, forced to reside with someone so disgusticified..."
We all started to join in, and I found it extremely amusing to tick Squid off like this. "We just want to tell you we're all on your side! We share your loathing, unadulterated loathing..." Squid just continued to watch in...well...utter confusement? It was pretty funny to watch him.
We continued to sing all the way to the Wreck Room, with Squid looking like he would just burst out screaming at any random moment. "There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation. It's so pure and strong! Though I do admit it came on fast, still I do believe that it can last. And I will be loathing, loathing you my whole life long!"
"We're here!" Squid shouted, running into the Wreck Room. All of us began laughing again.
We walked in to see the whole gang staring at Squid as if he was crazy. My mission was complete.
"What did you guys do to him?" Magnet asked.
I put on my most innocent face. "What are you talking about?"
Magnet just looked over to Squid, and then back at me, as if he couldn't tell who was actually telling the truth. He probably didn't know what to say, so he spoke to Ashley. "Can you interview us now?"
Ashley, who was writing down stuff in her notebook, looked up. "Why not?" She flipped to a new page, and paused for a second. "Uh...how close is everyone here?"
"Close?" Magnet looked around at everyone.
"Yeah, like how well do you know everybody. Do you know them all by name?" Suddenly, I understood. She was helping me through a direct source.
"Umm...most. There are some people-"
"And do you know any Johns?" Ashley cut him off.
Magnet gave Ashley a weird look. "Just one."
There was a John here then. Could he be the one after me? "What do you know about this John?" Ashley asked.
"Why do you want to know?" Magnet asked. I knew that question was coming.
"Just a random name I picked to really get to know one of you here." Fair excuse. "Now, what do you know?"
"He...umm...is in B-Tent and he's been here longer than me. I think he came here because...of theft of something. He's kind of quiet. Doesn't speak much, but when he does, he never stops talking."
Ashley hastily wrote all of this down. "Okay, that's all I wanted to know." Ashley got up to leave.
"Hey! What about me?"
Ashley quickly sat down again and asked, "What is your favorite color?"
"Red?"
"Thank you!" Ashley jumped up again, and went outside to sort through the new information. I looked around and couldn't find Matt anywhere. Where the heck was he?
I sat down on the couch, thinking about why anyone would want to kill me. Nothing came to mind. Maybe if someone really hated people.
"Your friends are interesting..." I glanced to my side to see Squid there. "Making me seem like a psycho is sure hard work for some people."
"Not really. I do it everyday."
I never got an answer from Squid because Matt grabbed me. "Kristina, I need to tell you something," he whispered in my ear. I turned around, waved goodbye to Squid who was just sitting there with another confused look on his face, and then walked out of the Wreck Room with Matt. Ashley was standing by the door, with a folder in her hands.
And not just a folder. The black one.
"How-" I started to ask.
"Don't have time. The answers are all in here Kristina," Ashley said. "We know everything now."
I was right. The black folder was the answer to why I was here. Matt continued. "Everything about the John we know about, why he wants to kill you, and-" Suddenly, he stopped. I gave Matt a confused look, and then looked over at Ashley to see her looking at something behind me. I turned around and saw the one person I really didn't want to hear my conversation.
Squid was standing there. He shook his head and just said, "Can you explain to me what's going on here?"
Ashley: Okay, okay. I have some things...well...a lot of things to say. First, Ashley got down with this chapter on the resolution of getting done the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. Haha! I didn't go!
Next, I know you were reading this chapter, and thinking that everything was FICTION. Well, I have to tell you that the thing about musical tryouts was true. I was Elphaba, I did have purple hair, my face was green, I had a witch's hat, I did sing Defying Gravity, my CD did skip during my song, my friends do burst out singing random songs all the time, Fiyero is ugly...
And to prove this all to you, I have pictures and sound clips...If you go to my bio page, you will see a bolded statement at the top saying that the links are on my homepage. Go to the homepage. And there you will find links. A link of a picture of the guy who played Fiyero (UGLY!), link of me singing "Popular", and a link of me singing a part of What Is This Feeling (both songs are found in this chapter). Yeah. So please please please go and check that out!
-sigh- I love Wicked. Anyway...here are the comments to people who reviewed the last chapter:
ZiGgI: Yay! You were my 50th reviewer! Rock on! And I didn't stop. See. NEW CHAPTER! Yay!
Starcaoe: YAY! YOU LIKE CLAY AIKEN-hug- You rock.
XxTwitchyxCharmxx: That last chapter was like, the only one I updated fast. And then I went back to my slowness. And if I do get into musical, I will never have any time to write. Wow. Yeah.
Nosilla: "I wonder who that could be" IT WAS ME! Whoa, that rhymed. I RHYME! Umm...I finally updated. Heh.
Xylem: No romance for me. -cries- I need a Fiyero...except cuter. Not ugly Fiyero. A cute one. So I won't have to sing the Fiyero/Elphaba duet from Wicked alone. -sigh- Going off subject. Umm...I made myself just be the "information getter" in this story. Heh. Yeah.
THANKS EVERYONE FOR REVIEWING!
I will have the next chapter up...by...May. WAIT! Before musical. That's my goal. -nods- Until then. -leaves-
Squid: Did she forget about us?
Clay-shrug-
Takato-blink-
Ryan-blink-
Liam-walks in- Review to this story. -walks out-
Everyone: O.o (which secretly means "REVIEW OR ELSE!")