Chapter 3:  The Girls and their Dolls

- Several weeks have passed since that fateful day in Cherry Hills Temple -

"Ho-hum."

Ami covered her mouth with her dainty little hand, trying to stifle the yawn coming out.  She looked at the alarm clock beside her and was surprised to see that it was already a quarter past midnight.

"Oh my, it's really late." She stood up from her desk and went to her closet to change clothes.  In the process of removing her shirt and changing into a night dress, she glanced at her bed and almost did a double take.

She squinted her eyes one more time, hoping that she wasn't imagining things. 

atop her bed was her doll that Darien gave several weeks ago, whom she thought, just a few moments ago had its eyes sewn shut while she was changing her clothes.

Ami shook her head and let out a small laugh.

Staying up late sure could make your mind a bit,. . . unstable.

Ami walked back to her bed, reached out to her doll - whom she fondly called Zach - and curled in her bed while hugging the doll from behind.  The name was embroidered in its lapel and Ami seemed to think that the name suited him well.

Amazingly, she found herself reaching for "her Zach" not only when she was about to go to sleep, but also at some points throughout the day - while reading a book, lounging on the chair, or even when talking to Serena on the phone.  Her mom was quite amused by her actions, considering that Ami was not really the type of person to be so cuddly and affectionate, and with a cute stuffed toy at that.

For the first few days, she told herself that her excitement with the doll would eventually wear off.  As days passed however, instead of getting tired of the doll, it instead grew on her.    

Ami turned her doll towards her to look at its face.  The constant blush at first puzzled her, but then decided that it must be a special attribute given by the manufacturer of the doll.

Doesn't matter,. . .I liked it anyway

She stared into the green eyes of the doll and found herself slowly being lulled to sleep.  She really found it amazing that by just looking at her doll, that she could feel so calm and...safe, protected even.

With a final yawn, Ami hugged Zach closer and rested her face against his, nuzzling her nose against its softness before giving into blissful sleep.

The doll in her arms lost its blush, and in its eyes, was a mysterious sparkle.

Lita was humming a song in the kitchen as she was preparing her hot chocolate before going to bed.

"hmm,...hmmm,...yeah, just my imagination,...oh, oh,...running away with me..."

The tall brunette brought her mug of chocolate and went upstairs to her room and sat on top of her doubles-sized bed as she listened to the evening news on TV.

After taking several sips of her hot cocoa, she slowly put down her mug on the night table beside her bed.  Lita instinctively reached out behind her and pulled something out and put it in front of her as she continued to watch the news. 

Unconsciously, her hand started playing with the hands of her doll, Nate, and her chin rested on its small head.

As the end credits of the news started rolling, Lita turned off the TV and lied down on her bed, embracing her doll, as she started singing in a soft voice.

"...each day through my window I watch him as he passes by...and I say to myself I'm so lucky he's so fly...to have a boy like him is truly a dream come true, and of all the girlies in the world, he belongs to you...but he was just my imagination, running away with me..."

Sigh.  All just my imagination…

Lita faced her doll, Nate, towards her and sighed deeply as she looked into its eyes, continuing her song,

"...he doesn't even know me...just my imagination...hmm," Lita closed her eyes, and tried conjuring up an image of the man of her dreams,

"Well, he would be tall, nicely-built of course, with...gorgeous brown hair," Lita opened her eyes and looked at her doll with a smile, "...just like yours...and of course, he would be thoughtful and kind, a perfect gentleman, affectionate and cuddly!...just like you Nate...giggle."

Lita laughed at her silliness before letting out a delicate yawn and looked into the doll's aquamarine eyes. 

"Someday, I'm going to find a man with eyes like yours and marry him!"  Lita declared happily.  Ever since that day that Darien gave them the dolls, Lita had never parted with her "Nate." 

Lita found it strange, and even confusing, that she became attached to the little thing.  She was never really into stuffed toys before and in fact, would prefer to tinker with her stuff in the kitchen.  But now, she even brings her doll to the kitchen whenever she concocted something up for the girls to eat.

It goes to show how lonely and desperate I've become for male companionship.  Sheesh!

Lita then shook her head to clear her mind of sad nonsensical thoughts and turned over on her stomach - for she liked this position best when sleeping - as she hugged her doll to her side, near her face and gave it a kiss on its tiny nose.

"Night, Nate."

And before long, Lita was already breathing deeply, asleep.

Night, Thunderheart.

"Argh! Now where did Serena put it?"

Rae was seen making a lot of mess in her room, rummaging through whatever bins or places where a certain "idiot of a girl" could misplace one of her stuff.

"Ugh! Never mind! I can go ahead and sleep WITH or WITHOUT it anyway!"

And with that, she hopped towards her bed, wrapped her blanket around her, and lied down on her side, closing her eyes tightly.

For a few minutes, the night was still, crickets were making their usual lullabies in the night, the wind outside was flapping the curtain in an enchanting dance, the...

...figure on the bed suddenly stood up and ran towards the phone - dialing a number and waiting for the other line to answer.

"click. . .ho-hum. . .uh, hello?"

"SERENA!!!"

"Owww!  Rae, do you really have to shout on the phone?  And why are you calling at such an awful hour? You know I need to sl..."

"Where is IT?"  Rae asked in a soft and deadly voice.

"Huh? What IT? You must have lost your head Rae, I don't kno..."

"Where is it?!  Serena, if you won't tell me where the heck it is in a few seconds, I swear..."

"But Rae, I don't even know what you are talking about? I swear I would tell you, ...yawn...if you would just calm dwown an' twell me what et cyould be..."

At the other end of the line, a certain shrine keeper was not in the least bit "calmed" down.  She just wanted "IT," and she wanted IT right now.

"Serena,...where's..." Rae paused and spoke in a small voice, "...where's Jade?"

"J-jade?...Oh, THAT JADE, he's below the night table near the bed,...it's click."

Rae didn't wait for the rest of Serena's sentence and rushed towards her bed and looked under the night table.  As much as she tried to refrain herself from doing so, she can't help but feel relieved to have found her doll.

She reached towards the blonde doll and pulled it out, dusting off some dirt from its shirt in the process, and glared at it for a few minutes.

If one looked closely however, the dark-haired beauty's features softened quite a bit and a small sigh was emitted from her lovely lips, before the usual scowl returned to her exquisite face.

She threw the doll on her bed and lied down, the doll resting beside her on her pillow, as Rae kept on muttering about a certain "stupid blonde" being messed up.  It really annoyed her whenever the scheming Serena tried hiding her doll and baiting her to find "Jade" just to show that indeed she cared for the doll despite her cool façade and pretense of not giving a hoot for the "pesky little thing" as she called it.

Rae snorted and turned towards the object of her thoughts and gave him an intense glare.

"You are indeed a pesky little thing," Rae muttered at the doll before turning her back towards the doll.

Silence again resumed through the night.  The crickets continued on with their musicale that was rudely interrupted moments ago and the gust of wind can be heard flipping the curtain on the window...

...a restless body reached out a hand and caught a small object to bring it in front of her chest, nuzzling her face against the doll and then finally, gave out a big sigh.

Sweet dreams, Firefly.

A beautiful blonde girl sat on her bed as she carefully removed her stockings and threw away her shoes, after which, lied down on her back, still on her corporate suit.

Mina closed her eyes for a moment and gave out a big sigh.  She wasn't able to get the part that she wanted in the production she was auditioning for.  Again. 

For one thing, she was late in the audition this morning. 

But it wasn't entirely MY fault!

She was able to leave home early but was stalled when sweet old Mrs. McDowell, an old friend of Mina's who was sitting on a bench across the street suddenly fell from her seat while waving at the blonde and had a stroke.

Mina dropped her documents and credentials and ran to aid the woman, who fortunately, was able to get to the hospital in time and whose condition, Mina later learned, was now stable. 

Unfortunately however for the girl, not only was she late for the audition, her resume and credentials were nowhere to be found.  The producer was definitely not cordial, and her concentration was a bit off because she was still worried of her old friend's condition.

Mina rolled to her side on the bed and curled her body in a fetal position.

A few minutes later, a soft sniff can be heard followed by a sob.  A wet spot on the bed sheet was spreading at an alarming rate and the girl's form was trembling.

Mina felt utterly wretched.

She wanted so much to get the lead part not only because she loved acting per se, but also because she fell in love with the script, and most especially with the lead character that she was planning to role play.  She truly believed that they shared the same passion and had similar qualities and she would have loved personifying that character. 

Now, however she's sure that they won't even consider her as an extra for the play because of her "wretched" acting.

Fresh tears again filled her eyes and she brushed them away quickly.  In doing so, she discovered she was staring straightly into Keith's eyes and gave a wobbly smile to her doll.

She reached for her doll and brought it in front of her where she buried her tear-strained face in the crook of its shoulder and breathed in its scent. 

She discovered that this often calmed her.  Somehow in the process of doing so, her tears were wiped dry.  She drew her face away again and looked into the doll's face. . .

...and suddenly burst out laughing.  She laughed so hard that she clutched her stomach in the hope of making it stop.

For you see, Keith, despite the very masculine pet name and countenance, was still sporting the same red ribbon which Mina let it wore since the day Darien gave it to her.  Not only that, it was also wearing a silly looking pink doll dress, with ruffles on the sides.

"...chuckle...no doubt the girls had fun with you this morning," Mina spoke to her doll as she started undressing Keith.

The "girls" Mina was referring to were the Thompson twins that lived next door.  Mina and her family sometimes took care of the twins whenever their parents were not home. 

As Mina was dressing the doll again, this time with its uniform, and still chuckling under her breath, she noticed the growing blush that was spreading in the doll's face.

"You know, Ami was right, you DO blush!" Mina declared.

"Amazing that the manufacturers were able to let you do that at the most appropriate times, like getting cuddled and kissed, and getting dressed..."

Mina looked at Keith closely once more and noticed the blush disappearing and instead a shadow of a scowl came into its face.

Mina shook her head and blinked her eyes real hard, and then laughed at what she was thinking.

I'm beginning to imagine things.

She lied down again, hugging her doll, and suddenly realized that she didn't feel bad anymore.  She felt comforted.  And all because of her "Keith."

Filled with gratitude, she brushed her lovely lips against the doll's own, and gazed into its eyes,

"Thank you, love."

Then Mina closed her eyes and slept.

Mina...