Jenna stood outside Garet's house the following morning, a frown etched on her forehead. This was Garet's fifth day of chores now and he still had not taken the time to explain to Jenna exactly why Kay was making him do them. Jenna was unimpressed to say the least. The excitement over Isaac and Mia getting together had been forgotten fast as everybody had expected it to happen anyway.
A wicked glint shone in Jenna's eyes as she started to formulate a cruel master plan in her mind. This excellent plan that the vindictive Mars Adept had cooked up in all of a second would surely involve a kidnapping. Yes, Jenna was going to practice the expertise of kidnapping right now, and she didn't care what anybody else might think of that. Grinning, Jenna strode up to the front door and pushed it open with a loud bang.
Garet, who was currently wiping the table with a dishcloth, leaped up in fright and yelled in shock as he heard the bang. Garet had clearly not been expecting to hear a bang and looked around furtively to see what it was. Perhaps he had put a bomb somewhere and forgotten about it, but Garet could not recall having ever done that before. Jenna came walking into the kitchen and Garet began to sigh in relief. His relieved sigh was cut off as he saw the demonic look on his girlfriend's face.
"Good morning, Jenna!" Garet smiled shakily, dropping the dishcloth on the table and taking a quick step backwards. "I'm just busy with my chores as usual. So, uh, what's up?"
"I think you know what's up," Jenna smiled, one eyebrow twitching dangerously.
'Oh, help!' Garet considered screaming for his mother at the top of his lungs but that was hardly going to impress Jenna. 'Perhaps she found out I wanted to propose to her... but would that really make her angry? Felix's the one who's going to be angry! Maybe I should shout for help...'
"No, no," Garet shook his head, still smiling. "I'm afraid I don't know what's up, Jenna, what is it?"
"Time and time again," Jenna walked around the table and Garet hurriedly walked around as well, keeping the table between him and Jenna. He sensed that he had to adopt survival tactics or suffer. "I've asked you why Kay is blackmailing you, what her motives are, yet you refuse to answer. If you don't tell me..."
"Th-then what?" Garet threw a glance at the dishcloth and wondered if it would make a good defensive unit. He quickly deducted that it was useless and sighed in despair. He was pretty sure that it was not fireproof.
"Oh, Garet..." Jenna spoke in a syrupy sweet voice, giving him the sweetest smile possible. "I couldn't possibly hurt you... you know I love you..."
"Really?" Garet stopped in his tracks, nervously allowing her to come closer. She didn't seem quite so harmful now. "Well, heh, course you do..."
"Exactly," Jenna nodded, grinning. "But... I... want you to prove it!"
'Oh no, it's crunch time...' Garet groaned inwardly. "H-how?"
"You either tell me what Kay's up to or come with me!" Jenna reached out and grabbed the dishcloth, although why she had done such a thing was unclear to her boyfriend. As far as he knew, she had not had a passion for hoarding dishcloths before.
"I'll come with you!" said Garet quickly. If it was a toss up between going with her somewhere or telling her he wanted to marry her too soon, he knew which one he would rather take. Despite not knowing where Jenna would take him.
"Fine, come with me..." Jenna took him by the hand and led him out of the house, leaving the kitchen dirty and untidy, as well as the rest of the house... well about as dirty and untidy as it could get in 24 hours at any rate.
"Can you believe Mom and Dad?" Isaac shook his head in amazement as he walked out of his house with Mia on his arm. "They acted as if we were getting married."
"Yeah, they were very... happy..." Mia cautiously phrased her sentence... they really had been somewhat overexuberant and even she had been taken aback by it all. "Have you never had a girlfriend before?"
"Not really," Isaac smiled at her. "There has never been any girl as special as you in my whole life."
"You're so corny, Isaac," Mia chuckled. "But that's sweet... thanks."
Isaac was almost dying after Mia said that, his face was going positively beetroot red. "I did mean it... however corny it sounds..."
"Yeah..." Mia leaned against Isaac, looking positively blissful. "I feel like everything's just perfect... now that we're together, what could possibly go wrong?"
"Mia," Isaac swallowed nervously. "Have you ever heard of the philosophy that says whatever can go wrong will go wrong?"
"You believe that?" Mia looked up at him with a frown. "But what could possibly go wrong?"
"How about that?" Isaac pointed at somebody approaching and Mia groaned as she looked at him, wishing the ground would swallow up her... or him. Perhaps she didn't really want the ground to swallow her up, it might swallow Isaac up too and the less chance her Isaac had of being swallowed up, the better.
"Isaac, tell me I'm dreaming!" She hissed in his ear, throwing a furtive glance at the person who had dared to come near her. "I was hoping he wouldn't return!"
"Well, if you're dreaming, I'm dreaming too..." Isaac muttered back at her. "Alex... which cave did you happen to come out of?"
"I was not in a cave, actually," Alex argued. "I was merely recuperating. Mia, I understand that you may have just felt a little stressed and I apologise if you were shocked by my appearance. I do hope you have had time to get over the glad news that I am alive after the Wise One's blatantly cruel treatment of me."
"Sad more like it..." Mia glowered at him. "Just what are you aiming at now, Alex? World domination? All the gold in the world?"
"The world and its gold cannot compare to you," Alex simpered, a dopey look in his aqua eyes. "You are the shining beacon I am forever attracted to you, I need nothing but you, my dear beloved Mia."
"Hey, back off!" Isaac cried out angrily, clutching Mia tight. "Mia doesn't go for slimeballs like you, why don't you just go and lurk in some hole in the ground? I'm sure you'd be quite at home there."
"Mia," Alex purposefully ignored the raging Venus Adept. He clasped his hands together and put on the most obnoxious smile he possibly could, as all the smiles he could ever do were obnoxious. For Alex was an obnoxious person. He just didn't get how obnoxious he was. "I have a very deep, personal question to ask you."
"Watch out, he's going to ask how much money you have," Isaac warned. "What else could Alex think is deep and personal?"
"Mia, will you marry me?" Alex fell to his knees and hit the ground with his hands. "PLEASE?"
Isaac and Mia both looked at each other, their looks clearly saying 'Can you believe the nerve of this guy?' Mia sighed, shook her head and looked at Alex who was gazing up at her with teary eyes, like a lovesick puppy. It was sickening, it made her want to vomit... right on him. A thought occured to her and she smirked evilly. Alex took this as a positive sign and immediately brightened.
"On several conditions... I'll think about it..." Mia said slyly, a perfect plan forming in her mind. Isaac blinked several times in astonishment, but Mia looked at him with an evil, knowing smile and he immediately relaxed, realising she was up to something. Of course she wouldn't even think about marrying him, that was about as likely as Feizhi turning into a man and falling for... no, bad thoughts! Isaac hurriedly stopped the current flow of thoughts and concentrated on watching the exchange between Alex and Mia.
"Ooh! What conditions?" Alex asked, his mouth stretching into a dopy grin. "What?"
"Hmm..." Mia immediately produced a pad of paper and a pen in a flourish and sat down on the grass, putting the pad on her knee and scribbling away at a speedy rate, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, while Isaac wondered where she got the paper and pen from and Alex almost hyperventilated in excitement.
"Felix," Picard approached the Venus Adept who was currently leaning against a tree and worrying. Felix was very good at that and proud of it too. Picard gave him a pleading look and clasped his hands together. "I have something to ask of you."
"Ask away," Felix shrugged wearily. He really wished people would just leave him alone to think and worry, he liked thinking and worrying sometimes. To the best of his knowledge, Garet never thought and he despaired that Jenna should see anything in an oaf like that. That was one thing to worry about. "But this better not have anything to do with those rabid fangirls. My back still hurts."
"Nonsense, Felix, your back can't still hurt," Picard brushed the trivial matter off airily. Felix just looked away, refusing to answer. "Anyway, after our quick work of those fangirls yesterday, I was wondering if you would like to be my own personal bodyguard."
"Your bodyguard?" Felix scoffed, amused by Picard's suggestion. So amused that for a moment he stopped worrying about incompetent oafs. "You've got to be kidding me... those fangirls can't kill you or anything! Besides, if they did, they would probably just flood the village with their tears. Maybe you should ask Garet to be your bodyguard, get him away from my sister for a while, huh?"
"You've got to be kidding me," Picard slapped his forehead. "Jenna would just tag along and then the fangirls would ask her if she loved me too... and since she loves Garet, she would... hopefully refuse... and then those fangirls would maul her!"
"Oh yeah..." Felix winced. "But look, the fangirls aren't around, that's a plus sign, isn't it?"
"Are you kidding me?" Picard wailed. "They are watching me from their windows, hiding in the treetops and the bushes... waiting to ambush me! Then when there's a good time they somehow flash a signal to each other and then they appear, coming out of the ground and materialising from the trees!"
"You just have an overactive imagination," Felix exhaled deeply. "I've got my own troubles..."
"What, worrying about Garet proposing to Jenna?" Picard raised an eyebrow. Felix nodded. "You really need to lighten up."
"Lighten up? Me?" Felix frowned. "Yeah right."
"You're hopeless, Felix," Picard said despairingly.
"Yeah? Same goes for you!"
"And you!"
"Wimp!"
"Misery guts!"
"Washed out Mercury Adept!"
The squirrels in the tree started to get tired of Picard and Felix shouting at each other and started flinging apples from the tree tops at the shouting Adepts. They promptly screamed and fled from the fruity missiles. Felix was beginning to get tired of being hit by apple-flinging squirrels and considered forming a plan to get rid of the Evil Squirrels that Fling Apples... he would just need a lot of people to help him... and it probably wasn't likely.
Feizhi nervously stepped into the village of Vale, not sure what to expect. Last time she had been here, so many things had happened including a scary old man trying to talk her to death. At least now she knew to avoid roofless cottages. How could she have been so idiotic? Her escorts trailed behind her, asking her so many questions particularly about why she had come back to Vale after running out so fast yesterday morning... but of course Feizhi ignored them.
In the plaza, everything was quiet, and Feizhi bade the tired escorts get to the inn before she used Kung Fu on them. The terrified escorts immediately fled for the inn and hid underneath the beds, shortly after booking, quaking all over at the thought of Feizhi using her impressive Kung Fu skills on them. They would rather wrestle alligators. Now Feizhi had peace and she was happy.
"Come on, get it in! Yeah, that hole there..."
"Ugh, I can't even see the stupid hole properly, why did we have to do it here?"
"Because it's private!"
"Who's going to have a problem with this?"
Feizhi frowned and inched closer to the bush, wondering who it was talking behind the bush. Where she came from, people did not often talk behind bushes.
"There might be a law against this sort of thing... you know how uptight this village is!"
"Okay, okay, I've found it... so I just stick it in?"
"Haven't you done this before?"
"... Not really..."
"Well, neither have I but I have learnt a lot of things off Kraden. Just push it in and make sure it's secure."
"Like that?"
"Further in!"
"Now?"
"Yes, lovely! You're doing a good job... pack it tightly around there so it won't come out..."
"No way! You do it! I'm so out of here!"
"Get back here, you-"
Ivan did not stop to hear whatever Sheba was about to say as he leaped out from behind the bush and collided with Feizhi, almost knocking her down to the ground. Feizhi stared at him with wide eyes. Ivan stared at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"
"Wh-what were you doing behind the bush?" Feizhi asked hesitantly, doubtfully. At first she had suspected one thing but visual evidence was now beginning to make it not seem quite so believeable.
"Oh, we were planting trees," Sheba popped up from behind the bush with an irritated look on her face. She held up an unplanted, small tree. "Me and Ivan were a bit bored and we went out of the village to uproot some baby trees and take them back here, just to try it out. However, Ivan's being bratty about it."
"Oh..." Feizhi shuddered, going pale. "I just... okay..."
"You weren't thinking anything wrong were you?" Ivan asked narrowly, squinting suspiciously at the Xianese girl.
"Um, bye!" Feizhi immediately disappeared, hurtling off to the inn before the Jupiter Adepts could pose a threat to her.
"Weird girl... seriously, does Vale have a problem against tree planting?" Ivan looked sceptically at Sheba.
"Ivan..." Sheba said in a patient tone. "This is the village that won't even let people out, they get mad if you even get within a one mile radius of Mt. Aleph. They don't even like it if you show Psynergy in front of outsiders and non Adepts can't even see it!"
"They didn't know that," Ivan said defensively. "Maybe we could just ask Garet's grandfather, he's the mayor and-"
"Ivan," Sheba interrupted. Ivan broke off and gave her a questioning look. "Are you finding this really boring as well?" Ivan nodded and looked down at his dirt stained hands. "Yeah, me too. It was so interesting when we were being evil to Garet and Jenna... but that's over. I bet even going to Kraden's cottage would be more interesting than this..." Ivan gasped, clutched his throat and fainted. "... On second thoughts, perhaps not."
