Been a while, eh? Well, writer's block and business have contributed to that. Story's almost done. We'll be there soon, there are only a few chapters left. It might just take us a while to post them. Anyway, happy reading! –Kristine and Cimmy

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Chapter 35: Monster Goodbye, Monster Mess, Monster Coaster
By Cimmy and NYgoldfish54

Chris's POV

We all gather in the lobby, despite the early hour. It's only 8.15, and honestly, I'm just here because Anthony forced me out of bed. Just because he has a crush on that freaky nut-case doesn't mean that I have to be thrilled about being up this early.

The whole team is there too, of course. I walk down together with Sammie, Anna, Matt and Anthony. Jeff and Lex have already joined the Ducks, and we feel a bit misplaced, since we're not part of the team. Although we all feel obligated to say goodbye to the two feuding love-birds, since we probably won't see them again…not that it's not a completely bad

Charlie is very hyper today, skipping around like a maniac, trying to help out with everything in sight. When Cecilia shows up from the restaurant, he dives right at her.

"Are there anymore luggage?" he wonders, spinning around like a dog chasing its own tail. There are three bags on the floor, and I'm pretty sure that they aren't that heavy.

"No, it's okay," Cecilia answers with a smile. "Thank you anyway. Why are you blinking so fast?" Charlie shrugs and Adam has to hold him back while Cecilia picks up one of the bags from the floor, to avoid Charlie from knocking her over with excitement. Is he happy because they're leaving, or upset because they can't stay?

Fred also shows up, and he takes the other two bags. "Are you ready?" he asks Cecilia, nodding towards the bag she carries. "You want me to take that?"

"Nah, I'm doing fine, thanks."

I'm beginning to get bored with all of this. Is it because of the time, or is this conversation really boring? Luckily, Charlie cuts them off. "So, you're really leaving, huh?"

"Yeah, I've done my share of mayhem around here," Cecilia laughs. "Don't you think?" She smiles at Lex, and Lex grins back, giving her a hug. I'm glad they're friends again.

"I was fine with it, as long as I wasn't the one paying for the destruction," Charlie replies, also laughing. "Where are you taking off anyway?"

Fred looks up with a smug smile. "Well, I figured that I could just as well follow my Dad's order in the Caribbean, now when he's so eager to get me the hell away from here. I can do the same amount of nothing there, as I can do in Washington."

"You're a real hell raiser, aren't you?" Portman snickers. "Your Dad wants you to go to Washington, and you elope to the Caribbean instead? Oooh, call the CPS."

"I'm not eloping," Fred points out. "He won't know where I'm spending my paid vacation, as long as I'm not here. He's got a real problem with me being content, somehow."

"Does he know you're bringing Psycho?" Russ asks.

"What he won't know, won't kill him," Fred grins. "I can't just leave her, can I? Besides, what harm can she do?"

Eh, I can mention at least ten things without thinking at all. The rest of them snort and laugh, making Cecilia throw her hands into the air. "Hello? I wasn't that bad!"

"Let's see, like 75 percent of the time you were either drunk, high or pissed," Charlie shakes his head. "I'm not saying that you were the only bad apple among us, but you were definitely one of the worse."

"Bad apple?" Adam smiles.

"What? I'm hungry!" Charlie exclaims. Then he turns back to Cecilia. "But you were entertaining, I have to give you that, kid. Don't get into trouble down in the Caribbean now."

"I've never been there!" she cheers and gives Charlie a hug. "But I'll miss you guys."

"Oh, tornado Cecilia is about to terrorize the Caribbean Sea. Go blow them away. Oh, right, you don't give head," Portman howls, jumping out of the way of Cecilia's foot. "Don't kick, that's beneath you."

Fred points to the door. "I'll go pack this into the car. Come out when you're done," he says, kissing Cecilia quickly on the cheek. "And the rest of you; don't cause hell while I'm gone."

Connie skips up to him and gives him a hug, so he has to stop to avoid dropping the bags. "When are you coming back?" she wants to know.

Fred shrugs, obviously not quite sure of the answer. "When school starts again, probably not any sooner."

"That's almost a whole month away!" Connie whimpers, while being torn away by Guy. "Are you gonna call me?"

"It sounds like he just dumped you," Guy points out. "You're very needy." They all begin to talk at once, their murmuring makes my head spin. When I think about it, it sounds a lot like quacking. This must be why they're called the Ducks.

Lex also gives Fred a hug, without receiving any angry glares from Cecilia. "I'll call you," he promises, disregarding Connie's objections.

"What about me?" Cecilia smiles. "Are you gonna call me?"

"Nah, hell no. I'm stuck with you for the rest of the month. May I have some sympathy?" he teases her. She smiles and slugs his arm. "Or, you could keep abusing me, that's fine too."

They both walk over towards the doors, but Cecilia stops, whispers something in Fred's ear and waits for a respond. "Yeah, go do that. I'll just carry these bags out, I'll wait outside."

He disappears, while Cecilia lets go of her bag and walks over to us. She smiles at Sammie and Anna, so they walk up to her to say goodbye. I feel stupid, since I never really talked to her or got to know her.

"Go talk to her," I instruct Anthony, who's hiding behind me. "This is your last chance. You might never see her again." He seems to think over that statement for a while, but doesn't move.

"Anthony, come on. If you don't tell her now, she'll never know."

"Sounds like a plan," he mutters.

Matt and I exchange a look. He's usually not like this when it comes to a girl. What's wrong with him? "Do you really want to regret this for the rest of your life?" I exaggerate. He'll probably forget about her once he's out of high-school. Or college. Or next week. "Do you want to obsess about her and whimper every time someone mentions her name?"

"Nooo..." he says pointedly. "I'm just not going to do anything."

I look up, just to see that the object of Anthony's affection is right in front of us. "Hey," Matt says. "So, you're leaving? Is it inappropriate to say 'good riddance'?"

"Nah, I thought the same about you," she grins widely.

"Just kidding, of course," he says with a fake smile, even though I know that he's just teasing her. He extends his hand and pokes at one of her bruises. "Does that still hurt?"

Cecilia slaps his hand away from her chin and wrinkles her nose. "Yeah! Ouch!" Then she smiles, obviously not in that much pain anymore.

Matt really seems to be in the mood for teasing her, so he grins at her. "But I have to admit, you were pretty amusing."

"Thanks."

Anthony is still not moving, so I step up to her instead. "I guess this is it," I smile at her. "Unless we ever bump into each other in some distant future, but I don't know."

"Maybe," she replies. "I'd agree to that if I believed in destiny. But I don't, so I'll probably never see you again." This time she laughs, and hesitates for a second before she gives me a hug. "It was nice to meet you, Chris."

Anthony gives me a suspicious look when I let go of her, but he has himself to blame. He could've talked to her on his own, you know. "Lost chances," I whisper when I walk past him. "Last chance."

Last or lost chances don't matter, Anthony still won't move from the spot. Cecilia looks at him with a nervous and anxious expression in her eyes. "So, I guess I'll be going now," she mumbles when no one says anything. "Fred's waiting."

When her boyfriend's name is mentioned, Anthony straightens himself up. "Wait, Cecilia!" he exclaims and hurries up to her. She turns around, surprised but excited. "I have something to say."

"You do?" she smiles happily.

"I just want to say goodbye. I really had a good time with you, at the beach, and all the other days we hung out. I'll miss you," Anthony says quietly, while Matt and I try to wave at him to declare his feelings for her.

"I'll miss you too," Cecilia mumbles, looking sort of sad.

"Maybe I'll see you again. If I ever come to visit Lex and Jeff at Eden Hall or if you come to New York sometime."

"Really?" she brightens up.

"Yeah, sure. Consider that as some sort of invitation, okay?"

"Yeah," she grins, still looking nervous. "You can come to Minneapolis, that'd be great."

Cecilia gives him a hug too, and I try to come up with something smart to say to Anthony to make him express his feelings. God, he's annoying when he's like this. When he finally lets her go, she gives him another grateful smile, and then she releases his hand and walks back towards the door.

"For the love of God," Matt loses his short temper with Anthony. "You'll never see that girl again; could you just go for it?"

Anthony puts one hand over his mouth; my first thought is that he's going to smother himself. Then he makes a little jump, just so he can dash off in the next second. "Cecilia, wait!" he shouts, making her stop. "I really do have something to tell you!"

"What?" she asks, waiting for him to catch up. He stumbles into her, slips his arms around her waist, pressing his lips against hers. At first she gasps, but doesn't push him away. Instead she places her hands on his shoulders, returning the kiss. I see that everyone around them just stops dead, without moving or talking.

Anthony leans his head against hers, slowly pulling away. "I shouldn't have done that. I just don't want this to be one of those things I end up regretting every day for the rest of my life. I just wanted to say that I have feelings for you too. You have to go, Fred's waiting."

Cecilia stares at him with wide eyes. When she doesn't say anything, Anthony moves a little. "Don't tell your boyfriend about this," he whispers, still with his head against hers. She just nods, and then she takes a deep breath and pulls away. She doesn't look up when she walks past the Ducks, and she ignores Connie's questioning eyes.

Anthony gazes at her when she walks over to grab the bag again, and suddenly Fred comes back. I almost forgot about him. "Hey, are you coming?" he smiles at Cecilia, taking the bag away from her. "The car's waiting."

Cecilia nods without speaking, so he kisses her on the cheek and walks out through the first door. She spins around to look at Anthony one last time, before Fred turns around, takes her hand and leads her out through the front doors.

They disappear down the stairs, and Fred goes over to the driver's seat. I guess he's driving to the airport, even though he doesn't have a driver's license. It must be good to be rich. Cecilia opens the door on the other side, gazes up to us and looks for Anthony. The she gets into the car, and Fred drives off.

And I wonder. Will I ever see those two ever again?

***

Fulton's POV

Well, I'm relieved. Our two main trouble makers are gone, the car has just driven away, and the rest of us can enjoy one stress free day until we leave tomorrow.

Anthony is watching the car drive away, and Sammie puts a hand on his shoulder. Jeff, however, slugs his arm. "You shouldn't have done that, idiot."

"Yeah, I know," he sounds rather depressed.

"Then why'd you do it?" Jeff asks.

"I'm never going to see her again, Jeff, what does it matter?" he says irritably.

"I have to see them again. So does Lex. So do they," he nods back at us. "Are you trying to make things hard on us?"

"Get off my back, Jeff," Anthony snapped. "I'm going upstairs."

Chris threw Jeff a 'shut the hell up' look, and then followed Anthony. Matt rolled his eyes.

I was going to go find Portman and maybe make-out, but I hadn't noticed until I turned around that there was a very angry looking man talking to Lex.

"Either clean it all up, or you'll have to pay!" the man said and stormed off.

Lex made a groaning noise, then whined, "Guys, come here, guys…"

"What's up?" Adam asks.

"We've got to clean up our floor or I'm paying a lot of money."

Goldberg, standing next to me, said, "And this effects us how?" I elbowed him. "Ouch," he whined. "Fine, fine, we'll help you clean up."

Everyone sort of grumbled in agreement, and we went up to begin.

I surveyed mine and Portman's room. It wasn't too bad. Mostly just our stuff and empty bottles tossed around everywhere.

"It's not too bad," Portman says, echoing my thoughts.

"Yeah, let's just fold some stuff and throw out some bottles and it'll be good," I decide out loud at start to fold some of my shirts.

"God, Fulton, do you own any shirts that aren't black or white?" Portman groans, watching me fold.

"Of course. I also have this bright yellow one," I hold up a bright yellow t-shirt, and Portman smirks.

"Dude, we need to get you some colored shirts that aren't bright yellow," he grins.

"Hey, leave me alone. You own a lot of black and a lot of leather jackets," I say.

"I have purple," Portman says. "I've outdone you," he says and I sniggered a little. "What?" he asks, looking surprised.

"Growing up, purple was always the flaming homosexual color," I laugh, thinking back to when I was about eleven.

Averman was wearing this bright purple shirt with a rainbow on it, and Charlie burst out laughing to ask where he got it.

"I got in from an uncle who got it from a guy selling them at clubs," Averman had said.

"Was he gay?" Guy laughed. Everyone laughed, come to think of it.

"Might have been. How should I know?" Averman asked.

"That shirt... I'm telling you, flaming homosexual!" Charlie said and we all continued laughing. Averman never wore the shirt again, but it became known as, and I quote, "The Purple Flaming Homosexual Shirt."

I didn't know at the time I was gay, so I see no harm in laughing at the time. I still don't see any harm in it. I still laugh sometimes, mainly because nobody with any self respect –gay, straight or otherwise- would be caught dead wearing that shirt. And if you can't laugh at yourself, in good fun, who else can you laugh at?

Portman brought me back from my thoughts. "Last I checked, I was a flaming homosexual?" he grins.

"Yeah, I thought so too," I smile. "Unless it was all bullshit."

"Nah, you're one hot piece of ass, dude!" Portman laughs.

"Thanks, man, and you make my loins burn," I grin.

"People have loins?" he asks.

"Pigs do," I shrugged. "Why shouldn't people?"

"Point well taken."

I noticed that as we talked, we'd done all the cleaning we really had to do. I throw away the last two bottles, then say, "Let's go see how we can help the others."

Portman follows me down the hall to Kenny, Russ, and Goldberg's room. Or really, what's left of the room. The whole team plus the band is crammed into that suite, cleaning. And it's still a mess beyond my wildest dreams.

"Nice of you guys to show up," Julie says, wiping her forehead.

"Yeah, well, we had a lot of bottles to throw away," I smile, taking the trash bag she was holding. "What the hell has been happening in here?"

"We've been cleaning for half an hour, and I swear there's been no improvement," she sighed, and just then I heard Banksie yell, "Shit!"

"What's up?" Kenny asks, looking up.

"Cut my hand on a piece of glass…what the hell? There's a whole pile of it here! What the hell happened!?"

"Oh, uh, that was me and Goldberg's suitcase. I think," Portman said.

Lex, only as tall as Portman's bicep, whacked it with a bottle of cleaning spray. "What the hell did you do!?" she exclaims.

"I…don't remember," Portman said, rubbing his arm.

"Bullshit," Lex grins.

"I remember," Jeff says. "He was mad that he couldn't hang upside down, and he vented his frustrations by throwing Goldberg's suitcase at that glass vase."

"I did not!" Portman exclaims. "I threw it at the top of the closet, it bounced off, and hit the vase!"

"I thought you didn't remember what happened?" Lex laughs.

"I…uh…well…"

"Good job, Portman…EWWW!" Connie howls, emerging from behind a bed with some real treasures –including some sticky, fuzz covered lollipops and a half eaten chocolate bar- that went straight into the trash.

"How did you guys sleep in here?" Charlie asks, sounding amazed. He had just finished wrapping up Adam's bleeding hand with some gauze from who knows where.

Russ thinks deeply for a moment, then says, "You know, I don't think we slept."

"What did you do then?" Guy asks, while wiping God-knows-what off the wall.

"I think we passed out," Kenny sniggers. "We didn't care at that point."
"Yeah well it's pretty damn gross now!" Sammie says, looking at some sticky stuff on the nightstand near the lamp.

"I agree," I said, cleaning up some…whatever this pink stuff is.

About an hour of hard work went by before the suite was cleaned. It's sort of amusing, actually. Chris left earlier to get changed into clean clothes. He was giving Matt a hard time, and as retaliation, Matt tossed him into a puddle of puke. Matt's pretty big.

"Yuck…glad that's over," Dwayne sighs with relief and slumps against a wall.

"Yeah," Russ agrees, "So what should we do now?"

"ORGY!" Averman yells bouncing up and down. The rest of us stare at him. "Or not," he says.

"Uh…any other suggestions?" Russ asks the rest of us.

"Well, we could go back to one of the parks or something," Goldberg suggests. Connie suddenly starts that bouncy thing again that she does so well.

"Let's go!" she howls, tugging on Guy's arm. "It'll be fun! We haven't been to Sea World yet, and they have a monster coaster there! Biggest one in Florida, I think! Can we go, please, Guy, please?" she yowls at Guy like it's his decision completely.

Guy doesn't look like he knows what to do, but Portman answers Connie instead. "Yeah, let's go. Monster coasters and dolphins! It'll be great!"

"Sounds good to me," Sammie decides, jumping onto Matt's back. They both go toppling to the floor.

"What the hell are you trying to do!?" Matt yells. Sammie just laughs hysterically, then looks at me and says, "Hey, Fulton, will you ride the coaster with me?"

"Sure, why not?" I say.

"Well," Charlie says, "let's get going, we have to be back at a normal hour cause our plane home leaves at ten tomorrow morning."

"Lex, you want to ride with me?" Jeff asks.

"Yeah…but I want to change first and maybe shower or something…can we leave in about an hour?" Lex looks at Charlie.

Charlie looks like he's going to say no, but looks at Lex again and decides against it. "Yeah, in an hour we'll meet up in the lobby," he says.

We go towards our separate rooms. Portman slams the door shut to ours and flops on his bead, trembling with excitement.

"Monster coaster," he mutters excitedly. "Fast, speed," he twitches again.

"Glad to be going, I see," I grin.

"Thrilled," he answers.

"Well, we've got an hour to kill. I think I'll take a shower," I say.

"No, I want first shower," he says, standing up.

I make a break for the bathroom, but he trips me up and sends me flying.

We end up deciding to wrestle for the first shower. I think we're crazy…crazy in love.

Oh, and I won.