AN: Well, here we are, Chapter three. Eh, it would have been longer, but umm… I found a baby sparrow and it died, so I'm a bit depressed and not really in the mood for writing right now at the moment. But this is good right? Right? Well, even if it's not, the next chapter will be out by Saturday, or sooner, or something like that, and it's going to be long. Well, enjoy this for now.

Chapter three

Raven sighed, letting her mind release all the annoying thought bugs zooming around. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, she began to chant the incantation that she had learned right before she had started college. She had started meditating in high school to simply try something new but after meditating for about a week she had begun to enjoy it greatly and continued. In the summer of her senior year, one of her few friends had given her the incantation. Raven used it often and she had taken to saying it whenever she felt stressed or angry at work at a place she couldn't fully meditate.

"Azarath…. Metrion…. Zinthos… Azarath… Metrion…. Zinthos…." Raven murmured as she closed her eyes and a small smile slipped over her lips. Finally some peace and quiet she could use to her advantage.

X

Garfield stumbled into his messy apartment and in the process stumbled over one of his cats, got his legs tangled in a pair of blue jeans, fell over into more dirty laundry and dropped all of the bags he was carrying. Groaning, he pulled himself up to a sitting position only to be flung back down on the floor by a mob of furry bodies throwing themselves at him.

Laughing, he gently pushed his three cats off of him as he sat up and then gently reached out to say hello to them.

One small female tabby rubbed against his side, while his black-and-white tom pressed his head under Garfield's hand. At his feet sat his third cat, her silvery-blue eyes reflected the light that came through the window and her white coat shone with moonlight. Smiling, Gar reached out his hand that was not occupied to gently scratch the white cat under the chin. A small purr came from her and she gave a small mew before standing and going to the kitchen.

Pushing himself up, he stepped carefully over to the light switch and flicked it on revealing his apartment. He winced as he realized the full extent of the mess and made a mental note that he soon needed to a) clean it up or b) shove it all into his closet and try to forget about it. Moving back over to where he had dropped the his bags he picked them up and moved to the kitchen, the whole time having cats wind around his feet, mewing and purring.

"Alright, alright." He laughed. "I know you're hungry." He set the bags down and reached into the fridge to pull out the cans of cat food. "Some for Timber." He dropped some food into the small tabbies bowl. "Some for Crow." This time into the black and white cats bowl. "And some for Frost." He gave the white cat the rest of what was in the can and through it into the garbage can. "Enjoy guys!"

Turning back to the fridge, he pulled out a package of Tofu and started preparing some. The red light that blinked on his answering machine caught his attention, and reached over and pushed he playback button.

"You have 2 new messages." The automatic voice informed him as it began to state the time of the first message. "First new message, received at four-fifteen P.M." The message began to play and Garfield tuned it out as he realized it was not from one of his friends, something about a better internet connection, nothing urgent. As the message finished, Gar pressed the delete button and waited for the next message to play.

He mouthed along to the automatic voice; it got so boring after awhile, Garfield couldn't help wondering if he could convince Victor to change it.

"Hey Garfield." It was Richard. "I know that you're probably still at work so I'll call back later to confirm this with you, but Kori and I are going to the carnival tomorrow night. Kori said she would bring her friend Raven, and since I know how much you love carnivals, I thought it would be fun for you to come along. Vic's going to be there too, so you guys and chill together with Raven. All right, I hope you can make it; I'll call back later. Bye."

The message machine beeped, signaling it was done and Garfield grinned. He loved carnivals and was glad Richard had invited him. Grabbing his cooked Tofu, he kicked his way through the sea of objects that led to the couch and sat down. He flicked the TV on and flipped through the channels, landing on something that promised to be funny. Relaxing back into the sofa he half watched the show while he let his thoughts wander. He rubbed his right shoulder; it was still soar from trying to hold down a dog while it was getting stitches and when it had started trying to shake him off, it had injured his shoulder. Not that he blamed the dog though; he would try to get away from getting stitches too.

Clearing his thoughts, Gar tucked into his tofu and focused back on the TV show, it was slapstick comedy, Garfield's favorite kind. Sighing as the commercials came on, he once again let his thoughts wander, and this time, they surprisingly landed on Raven. Gar remembered the way she looked at the library, her hair pulled away from her face with two single strands framing it. Her rare purple eyes had stood out against her purple face. Shacking his head he wondered what was getting into him. He hadn't thought seriously about a girl almost a year. Not since….

The ringing of the phone cut off Gar's musings and he stood up to answer it. "Hello?" Garfield answered.

"Hey Garfield, it's Richard."

" Ah hey." Garfield said as he grinned.

"So did you get my message?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, I can come. What time are you guys going to meet there." Garfield twirled the phone cord around his fingers as he waited for his friends reply.

"Around eight. Kori doesn't get off work till seven and I know you get out around seven forty-five, right?"

"Yeah, all right, that sounds good. See you tomorrow." Garfield said as waited for his friends reply before he hung up the phone.

Another grin made its way across his face. He laughed as he realized that he had never really grown up. "Getting excited about carnivals? Geeze, Garfield Logan are you a man or aren't you?" he asked himself before he plopped down on the couch again and returned to his program.

X

Music filtered into the parking lot of the fair grounds as Raven and Kori made their way up to the front gate. "Where are we supposed to meet them again?" Raven asked as they stood in line waiting to pay their admission.

"Richard said that they would meet us by the fairs wheel." Kori said. She smoothed a hand over her medium length skirt.

"Hey!" The two turned at the sound. "What are you two doing here?" The owner of the voice was a girl just a little older than Raven. Her frizzy black hair was up in a bun at the top of her head and she wore a yellow and black-stripped shirt.

"Bee!" Kori squealed embracing the young woman. "It is so wonderful to see you here." Kori released her as the girl heaved for air.

"Hey Rae, it's been awhile." The woman greeted her friend.

"Yeah. I heard you and Kori and some friends went out the night before last. Was it fun?" Raven asked, more to be polite than anything else.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool." Bee replied with a grin.

"So, you are here by yourself, yes?" Kori asked.

"Yeah, my friends ditched, so I just came alone."

"Wonderful, you must come with us!" Kori said, grabbing her friend's hand. "Raven wants you to come too, don't you Raven?"

"Yep." Raven said as she paid for her ticket. "But Kori won't be with us for very long, she's kind of here on a date. I'm just here for the ride." Raven warned Bee.

"There they are!" Kori pointed out the three boys to Bee as she pulled her friends along behind her.

Richard turned at the sound of Kori's voice, and grinned as he saw her. "Hey! Right on time." He said as the girls reached them. Looking Kori over once he flashed her a smile. "You look nice."

Kori blushed and muttered something about she liking his clothes as well. Garfield caught Raven's eye and then rolled his eyes and nodded in the direction of the two blushing friends. Raven offered him a nod of agreement.

"Friends, this is Bee. We met up with her right outside of the gate." Kori bubbled and dragged Bee to stand next to her.

"Hey, nice to meet you." Bee said giving a small wave to the guys. Garfield gave her a small nod while Victor grinned and offered his hand.

"I'm Victor." He said as Bee excepted his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same goes for you." Bee laughed.

"Well, now that we're all acquainted, Kori and I are going to check out some games. We'll meet back here around ten, k guys?" Richard started before he turned to Kori. "Shall we go then?" He asked.

Kori nodded and the two headed off together in the direction of the games and booths.

"I haven't eaten dinner yet, so I'm going to go check the food stands they have." Bee said.

"I'll come with you." Victor offered and grinned as Bee smiled at him.

Garfield and Raven stood in silence; Gar playing with the ties to his sweatshirt while Raven looked down at her feet. After about a minute, Raven turned to her friend.

"As thrilling as this is, I think I'm going to go look around a bit." She watched him nod before she started to walk away when he called to her.

"Hey, since everyone else decided to abandon us, you wanna, umm, you wanna hang out?" Raven looked back over her shoulder surprised. It was rare that people took an interest in her and even then they often left her to do what she pleased while they went with people who were more open.

Raven hesitated a moment before giving Garfield a small nod. "Okay." Garfield smiled.

"Great! I mean cool." He walked over to her and gave her a small smile. "Do you like rides?" He asked.

"Sure, some are okay I guess." Raven replied as the two wandered around with no real destination. The night was warm for October and all the lights lit up the colored trees nicely. Feeling the strange need to talk, Raven turned to Garfield.

"You never told me what you do for work." Surprised, Gar looked up at her. He had already gathered that Raven wasn't the most talkative person in the world and was amazed that she was willing to start a conversation.

"I'm a vet. I've always loved animals, ever since I was a little kid, and I wanted to do something to help them." Garfield said as the two passed roller coasters and haunted houses. "I like learning about different animals too, what can help different diseases and how to identify what is causing problems. I guess I kind of take after my parents." He finished.

Raven nodded. "What do your parents do?"

"They were scientists." Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Were?" She asked.

"They died in an explosion at my fathers lab in my freshman year at college." He replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Raven murmured.

"Hey, no big deal or anything. It was a while ago. I'm over it." Garfield quickly put in as he watched Raven grow quiet.

Casting about for a different subject, Gar saw one of he game booths were a man with red hair sat answering trivia questions about movies and TV shows. "Hey, you see that guy over there?" Garfield pointed to the one he had noticed before. He watched as Raven nodded before continuing.

"Every time I've come he's here he wins at that game. He calls himself Control Freak, I don't know his real name, but he's obsessed with the TV. He knows like every movie, and I heard that he nearly trashed a video store because they didn't have on of his favorite movies on its Favorite. Movies List." He watched Ravens eyebrows lift.

"Really? That seems a bit over the top." She commented. Garfield nodded.

"Yeah, but he's actually really interesting to talk with. We had a huge discussion one time about Wicked Scary Two. Good movie." Garfield laughed as he remembered the conversation.

"So, you work at a the library, right?" Gar asked after a moment's silence.

"Yeah," Raven replied. "I hate my boss, but I'm not really interested in anything else right now."

"There must be something you want to do." Garfield said as he glanced at the small girl in front of him. Hey eyes sparkled in the reflected light and a small smile played on her lips.

"Actually, I am interested in writing. I like reading other authors works and then pick up from them on techniques of writing, ever since high school I've wanted to become an author." Raven admitted.

"That's really cool." Gar chirped as he looked at the girl again. He realized that she would be perfect for that kind of job. Her way of talking, though however quiet she might like to be, was musical and light. He was sure that she would have a great sense of writing as well. "I think someone like you would be really good at that." He grinned.

"Really? You think so? I've never told anyone that before. I thought they would just laugh." Raven murmured.

"Why?" Garfield asked.

"Well, usually, I don't really get along with people, you know how dismissive I was of you guys yesterday, so people just tend to avoid me. And since I don't talk that much, people think I don't have anything to say." Raven Stated.

Gar cocked his head as Raven spoke. It was true what she had said. On first glance she hadn't looked all that social, and she hadn't spoken much around his friends. But now that she had opened up, it was different.

Raven looked over at the boy. "What?" she raised an eyebrow,

"Nothing, nothing. I just think it will be very interesting to get to know you." Garfield smiled as Raven rolled her eyes. "Hey, you want to go on the fairs wheel?"
The two seemed to have doubled back and returned to where they had originally started. Raven shrugged, then nodded in agreement.

"Sure." Garfield flashed her another grin before they headed up the ramp to wait in line. "You said before that you come here a lot. Why?" Raven asked after a moment's silence passed between them.

Garfield paused to collect his thoughts before he answered her. "I don't know. I guess I never really grew up. Besides…" he trailed off and Raven did not urge him to continue, some things were sometimes just simply left unsaid. Garfield's tone had that of one uncomfortable about a subject, and Raven knew the feeling.

As their car reached them, Garfield gently helped Raven in before he sat down next to her. Sighing, Raven leaned back against the seat and stared up into the night sky as the fairs wheel rose up into the night. "I've always liked the stars." Gar commented quietly to his friend. "They show that even in the darkest moments, there is always some light left, something to get us through." Raven stared at him. She had never imagined that he could be so poetic.

"What?" Garfield turned surprised to find her staring at him. "Did I say something wrong?"

Raven shook her head. "No, nothing." The two friends sat in silence for the remainder of the ride, happy and content to sit and say nothing, simply to share each other's company. Raven had never imagined that she could grow so friendly with someone in such little time. Maybe she was starting to soften a little, maybe she could move on, maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't be scarred for all of her life. Smiling slightly, Raven let herself relax and simply enjoy the moment, the ride, the night.

X

Raven yawned and stirred her herbal tea. It was still only six in the morning, but she had always been an early riser, just like her mother had been. Taking a careful sip, she let the steamy liquid roll down her throat to her stomach. Sighing in contentment, Raven grabbed her book and slipped over to the couch so she could read. Outside, the street lamps were beginning to dim and faint morning mists began to swirl and dance in the streets below the apartment.

Raven shivered and pulled one of the couches blankets closer to her and snuggled into it. For the warmth the air had possessed the night before, it was surprisingly chilly in the early morning air. From Kori's bedroom, Raven could hear snores filtering out from the sleeping girl and smiled slightly to herself. They'd both had a busy night. After she and Garfield had met back up with everyone, the six had decided to go and see a movie together, seeing how Kori and Richard didn't really want to part yet, and Victor and Bee were talking non-stop. (Bee had even given Victor a nickname in the short two hours they had known each other.) Garfield had been the one that had suggested the movie, and everyone readily agreed, even Raven had been interested.

A smile crossed the dark girls face as she thought about her friend. Unlike Kori, he understood and respected her quiet nature. He tried to bring her out a bit more and talk, sometimes quite pushily like when they had gone to get ice cream around midnight, but mostly he simply kept her company while their friends chatted loudly, Gar was always part of the conversation, but he never left her side.

Raven tried to push the thoughts away. It had been along time since she had ever really been interested in anyone and she wasn't in the mood to date at the moment. But a friend? A friend would be very nice.

To Be Continued…

Well, there you all go! I hope you enjoyed the third chapter of Blue Bird, I'm sorry if it was kind of boring towards the end, but I can almost guarantee that the next chapter will be better.Thank you to all my reviewers, I'm glad you all like the story so far. I love all you guys! Please review.

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