Hello again! I've got good news! You'll all be very happy to know that my author note ends right here. ;-P
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Chapter Nine-The News
A young boy jumped anxiously into the awaiting lap of a young man, and they both smiled exuberantly, savoring the gleeful moment. The boy soaked up every last drop of attention from the young man as he was held and read an exciting story. Then the towering grandfather clock in the room struck 8PM. The boy reluctantly yet obediently went to bed. He then got snuggled up all nice and comfortable in his roomy bed when all of a sudden lightning mercilessly pierced the sky. Thunder rumbled viciously in the boy's delicate ears as a terrified scream escaped his lips. Then a dark shadow appeared to be rising in front of him.
It was then that Danny's head shot up from his pillow. He looked around expecting to see something horrific, but he found himself staring at a dark and vacant room. As he instinctively wiped his forehead, he realized that he was breaking a sweat. He scanned his eyes over the room once more, then was terrified to find that the door was open. Suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder which triggered him to let out a yelp.
"Danny, it's alright," the voice confirmed. "It's me." Danny turned his head to find the worried yet kind face of his uncle.
"Oh...it's only you," Danny replied bringing his head to the pillow once more. "Why are you here?"
"I heard you scream."
"I screamed? Oh..."
"What?"
"I must've screamed because...well, I had a nightmare."
"Really?" Rick's eyes transformed to the size of saucers. "What about?"
"...I'll tell you later. I'm too shaky right now."
"That's fine. You don't even have to tell me if you don't want to. You just go back to sleep." Then Rick returned to his room. Danny quickly glanced over at his clock. It read: 4:00AM. Aw man, Danny thought, I'm never going to get back to sleep now. Oh well, school starts at 8:00AM anyway so I'll just get ready. And get ready he did. Infact by the time he was all ready for school, it was only 5:30AM. Bored with sitting alone in his room, he went outside to watch the chickens. Of course that wasn't very eventful either because all the chickens did was sleep, but he decided to stay there and in a few minutes he dozed off against the chicken coop.
One Hour Later
Nikki jauntily pranced out the door to wait for Aaron to "accidentally" drop by when she noticed Danny leaning against the chicken coop asleep.
"Danny wake up!" she yelled. "It's time to go to school!" Danny jumped up at the shrill sound of his cousin's voice.
"Nikki!" he replied irritated. "I don't think you could've yelled any louder! Come on let's go."
"What were you doing out there anyway?" Danny responded with one of those grouchy don't-ask looks and she immediately layed off. They were about to exit the Poultry Farm when Aaron came around the bend. And yes, you guessed it, Nikki's cheeks turned deep red once again. Danny was about to go on ahead of them when Michelle came up to him.
"Hi Danny," she shyly greeted. "Um, well...want to walk to school together?"
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" So they went up ahead of Aaron and Nikki and talked on the way.
"So has my brother been bugging you a lot."
"No, not me." He quickly glanced over at his lovesick cousin. "Nikki." Michelle let out a quaint laugh.
"Yeah, he thinks he's a Don Juan."
"A what?"
"A lady's man."
"Oh... Say, you seem to know a lot of stuff."
"Well, that's what happens when you're stuck in a library all day... Books seem to be my only friends. It gets lonely."
"Well...if you want, I could stop by the library sometimes."
"Really? Would you? I mean, um I'd like that very much." At that point they'd reached the church so they quickly scampered inside before they enraged Miss Dalton by being '30 seconds late and counting.'
Luckily this time Aaron and Nikki were on time, which Miss Dalton wasted no time in pointing out as an 'example' to the class. But other than that the rest of the school day passed along in the regular routine: Miss Dalton yells at someone else for taking too long to do a math problem, Aaron gets sent to the corner, someone spills milk on themselves at lunch, Aaron gets sent to the corner again, then everyone goes home.
After school Michelle was about to walk home, but Danny stopped her.
"Michelle!" he called out to her. "Wait up!"
"What is it?" she questioned with a quizzical expression on her face.
"Want to go to the library together?" A smile instantly played upon her lips as she bashfully nodded.
"Let's go!" So at that point they began to make their way to the library down the path that went into the center of town. As they approached the clinic, Danny attentively noticed that his Aunt Karen just entered the building. It seemed reasonable to him. After all she had been complaining about nausea for the past season, but he quickly shoved the thought out of his mind and concentrated on his walk and it wasn't long before they reached Mary's Library.
"Hi Mom," Michelle happily chimed as she and Danny walked through the door.
"Hi Shell," Mary replied with a bright grin. "Oh, who's that you have with you?"
"This is Danny, my friend."
"Oh yes, you're Popuri's boy, no?" Danny timidly nodded. "Well, you're certainly welcome in the library. I'm sure Shell will be delighted with your company."
"Come on, Danny. I want to show you the book Mom wrote about Dad." Mary reminisced on her own colorful childhood as she watched the two children hover around a bookshelf labeled "Mary's Books."
"Wow," she expressed to herself, "I can't believe how rapidly time flies. It seems that just yesterday I was within the dawn of my life, and now my own children are running all about Mineral Town... It's amazing."
"Wow! Your mom really wrote this?!" Danny exclaimed in the midst of Mary's pensive thoughts.
"Yep!" Michelle vividly replied. "It's real good isn't it?" Mary heartily chuckled to herself as the kids went on.
Danny and Michelle examined many of Mary's books for about two hours until Nikki suddenly came bursting through the library doors.
"Danny!" she shouted. "I've been looking all over for you, and...you've been at the library the whole time?" Danny nodded with an indignant glare. "Well anyways, Mom sent me to come get you. She's got some important news to tell, and she wants everyone to be there when she announces it."
"Well, um bye Michelle. I've got to go now. See ya," Danny expressed as he slowly followed Nikki outside.
"Bye Danny!" Michelle exuberantly replied.
"Oh boy," Nikki remarked rolling her eyes, "you think me and Aaron are bad. Heh, well you should see how star-struck you are when you're around Michelle." Danny's usually soft eyes filled with a fiery fury, but it soon ceased when an idea came to mind.
"Okay, okay, you got me," he heavily confessed. "Truce?" he requested extending his hand.
"Truce," Nikki agreed shaking it. "Finally you've come up with something reasonable. So...Michelle is Aaron's sister..."
"What are you getting at?"
"Oh...nothing, except-"
"We're home," Danny interrupted
"So we are." Then the two proceeded into the house where everything seemed to be going haywire.
"Karen!" Lillia shrieked shrilly. "Don't let the water burn!" Nikki and Danny looked into each other's eyes and gave each other one of those "cousinly" looks.
"Mom has never been much of a cook," Nikki stated shaking her head knowingly.
"Rick, what are you doing just standing there! Do something!" Karen demanded irritably.
"Okay, okay. Calm down, Karen," Rick surrendered. Then finally after much chaos and confusion the dinner was set on the table and everyone sat down.
"Okay, now my news is-" Karen began.
"Excuse me, Danny, could you please pass the corn?" Rick interrupted.
"Anyway, as I was saying-"
"Nikki, the potatoes?"
"I am-"
"Uncle Rick," Danny requested oblivious to Karen's announcement, "please pass the butter."
"QUIET!" In a split-second the whole room silenced until it was so quiet you could've heard a pin drop. "As I was saying before everyone so rudely interrupted me, my news...is that...I'm pregnant!"
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Yay! I'm done. Okay I know you're probably thinking 'why did I put the dream in the beginning?' Well, that'll fit in the story later so that's why. Anyway thanks for reading and thanks so much DrippingInk and Lightning-Dono for reviewing chapter eight. I'll update as soon as I can. Bye!