Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I put them in. Therefore give credit and flames where they are due. Thanks very much for reading and please review as I'd very much like to hear from you.

Miss. Mido's Ace

Miss Mido's gift from above came early Sunday morning with a phone call from a friend of hers. She'd spent the entire weekend trying to find someone who had heard of the two current pains in her ass without any luck. Needless to say she practically pounced on the phone when her caller id informed her who was calling. "Did you find them?" She demanded to know.

"Well hello to you too."

"Yes, yes, hello, Monica. Now did you find them?"

"As it happens I believe I did." Her tone definitely miffed Monica continued, knowing that there wasn't any point in lecturing her friend on manners. All those years in the theater had destroyed what little the woman's mother had been able to install, Monica thought with a smirk. "Those names kept rolling around in my head and after a while I got the strangest feeling that I actually did know them from somewhere. It took me a day or so and your description of the boy before a favorite movie of mine came to mind. It's an old one and they would have been children but I looked it up and the names are right."

"They were in a movie?" Miss Mido repeated, her eyes wide with disbelief. She'd figured some kiddie commercials or a small theater part.

"Yup, a Hollywood Blockbuster at that. The only reason why I remember is that Brad Pitt was in it and you know how I do love that man's rear end."

"THEY WERE IN A MOVIE WITH BRAD PITT!"

"No need to yell, for God sakes. I'm not deaf or at least I wasn't until now." Wincing at the pain in her ears Monica was really wishing she'd just e-mailed her friend rather than calling to brag about finding these two kids for her. This was not the sort of thanks she'd wanted. "And yes they were. Or they were if these really are the kids you're looking for."

"What was the movie?"

"It was called Itchy's Place. There was this big hoopla because they were not only unknowns but English wasn't even their first language. They got the roles by chance when they were introduced to the director while he was in Japan." Monica informed her, reading off the print out she'd made of some of the information she'd collected.

"What kind of a name for a movie is that?"

"Well considering it was the surprise nomination for Best Picture the title wasn't a big factor." Was Monica's joking reply. "Anyways I'm going and you owe me." Hanging up Monica couldn't help but feel sorry for those two poor kids. She knew how their drama teacher could be when she was on a mission and it definitely wasn't pretty. She really had loved them in that movie too.

Now that she had a place to start Miss. Mido practically leapt into her computer chair and going online looked up the movie. Soon she was scrolling through all the information she could possibly need and it was time to see about finding herself a copy of that movie. She knew just how she was going to use it too.

Standing outside the school the next day Rika couldn't shake the sense of dread she was feeling. It wasn't even all the people staring and whispering as they looked at her and Matt that was throwing her off. There was just something in the air that foreshadowed the fact that this was not going to be a good day at all. "Are you thinking, what I'm thinking?"

"Are you thinking that you were a real bitch to draw on me with permanent marker?"

"Nope."

"Then no, I'm not thinking what you're thinking." Matt replied, absently rubbing his left cheek. All this staring was really unnerving him now. He knew he'd gotten most of the marker off using nail polish remover and other chemicals but his skin was still tender and it felt like it was still there because of the staring.

"I'm thinking I have a really bad feeling about this. That drama teacher didn't strike me as the type to beg until there's no other way out. She'll have something up her sleeve."

"Well what's the worst she could do to us?" Matt pointed out, though he wasn't exactly looking forward to the day either. "I mean we aren't in any of her classes and like you said, the principal doesn't have anything on us that he could use as leverage. Plus your mom's not stupid enough to try and make us be part of it, especially when we explain that it will be a flop and will damage the future career she keeps imagining for you."

"True, but I can't shake this feeling of impending doom."

"Well we have to go in if we want to get to our lockers before first period." Matt pointed out after consulting his watch. "Unless of course you want to continue standing out here so that everyone thinks we're too afraid to go on inside."

"Shut up." Sending him a dark look Rika began walking briskly towards the school doors with Matt following close behind with a smile on his face.

Of course everyone in their classes throughout the day wanted to talk about their stunt at the play auditions but neither of them were talking much and no one got much out of them besides the fact that no, they had no intentions of performing in the play. Unfortunately for Matt he had music second period so he had to deal with his music teacher who tried, in an obvious way, to influence him into joining the play. Since he liked the guy Matt did his best to let the man down easy. There was just no way they were going to be in that play. No way, no how. By lunch time they were both exhausted and meeting up at Rika's locker they trudged down the hallway side by side looking worn out despite the fact that it was only a little past noon.

"If one more person asks me why I won't be in her stupid play I'm going to snap. I've had drama club members ganging up on me all day." Rika muttered, a decidedly cross look on her face. She really, really wanted to hit somebody. Where the hell was Kazu when she needed him?

"If I hear where's your school spirit one more time I'm going to beat the school spirit out of them." Was Matt's peeve at the moment. He hated people trying to guilt him into doing things he obviously didn't want to do. People were always doing that because they knew he was an easy target for it.

"Everyone's bombarding us to talk you guys into it too." Takato informed them as he popped up beside Matt. "I tried to tell them that there's really no changing your minds once you've decided something but they don't seem to want to listen to me. A friend of mine who's in the drama club told me to tell you guys that you'll want to watch your backs. Apparently Mido's on the war path where you two are concerned. He thinks maybe Mido's cooking something up to make you guys join. He didn't know what that something was though."

"Well tell him thanks anyway." Rika said with a shrug, not surprised in the least. "She'll show her hand when she's ready. She just doesn't realize that she's playing poker with some professional gamblers who aren't in the habit of losing to washed out divas."

The ace up the drama teacher's sleeve was discovered at the end of the second last period as the students found their hallways flooded with flyers advertising a movie night that was to be held in four days featuring none other than Rika Nonaka and Matt Ishida in supporting roles. Tearing one off Rika scanned it before crumpling it in her hands. "She even managed to find a copy with Japanese frickin subtitles." She hissed, heaving the crumpled ball into the nearby garbage can. "Damn her, how the hell did she find out about that? It wasn't on our school records and we did the damn movie almost a decade ago!"

"You guys were in a movie?" Reading another one of the flyers Henry looked over at her with interest while Alice read over his shoulder.

"It was really no big deal." Looking annoyed and flustered Rika was seriously getting pissed off without an appropriate outlet in sight. "And now this is going to be all over the school and then I'm going to have to come in here and blow the entire school population away so that they can never speak of this again."

"Well you know, no one comes to these stupid movie nights." Alice pointed out, though in her gut she knew that wouldn't be the case this time. Once word got out that Matt and Rika were actually in it people would flock to see it. The gym would definitely be packed to capacity. She was even itching to see it, unloyal as that was. What kind of a movie was it anyway? It certainly had a weird title.

"How big is your role anyway? I mean a couple scenes is really no big deal." Henry pointed out, wondering what it was that happened in the movie that Rika didn't want anyone to see. It was pretty obvious how upset she was about this.

"Matt and I are the supporting actors. We're in the whole damn thing!"

"Oh." Alice said with a wince, looking at the poster again. "Well in that case...you're screwed, aren't you?"

And indeed they were. They went to the principal and he made it quite clear that the only way that movie night was going to be canceled was if they agreed to be in the school play and act to the best of their abilities. Miss. Mido said the same. With no one else to go to to try and get the movie night canceled Matt and Rika had to admit that in this case they were good and screwed. They could try to sabotage the thing but that would be just the ammunition the principal needed to force them into the play or even worse, use as an excuse to suspend or expel them since Rika had no illusions as to how much the principal disliked her. He wouldn't wait for proof she'd done it anymore. So they were stuck counting down the days until the movie was shown, doing their best to discourage everyone possible from going without any real success. From the sounds of things everyone wanted to be there. And so four days later Matt and Rika found themselves heading to the gym along with their friends to watch the movie. They'd figured it was better to know just what version of the movie she was playing and whether or not she intended to show the DVD extras if she'd gotten ahold of that version. God help them if she did.

Finally it was show time and Miss Mido taking center stage she gave a quick speech about how thrilled she was to present a movie starring two of their very own students before the lights went dim and the movie began. The screen flickering to life they were soon going past the companies involved as the theme music began to play and Rika's seven year old voice joined it, speaking in English with Japanese subtitles.

'Every year teachers ask you to give a dumb report on what you did during your summer vacation. I always thought this was really stupid because we live in one of the most boring towns in the world and nothing ever really happens here. But this year I actually have a story to tell so you all better shut up and listen. A lot happened to me this summer and it all started with my house. Not the one I live in, but the one I planned to live in when I grew up. Ask anyone about that house and they'll tell you it's mine. My story begins on the day someone else tried to move into it without my permission.'

The screen went from forest scenes to focus on an old, two story house that was in need of a paint job. Bursting forth from the house was a girl of about seven wearing overalls and a bright blue T-shirt under it. Her reddish brown hair was caught up in pigtails and you had the sense that she was anxious to get somewhere. Coming out of the house behind the girl came a woman that resembled her slightly looking more than a little frazzled and pressed for time.

"Now, Itchy." The woman said, her hands going to her hips. "You go straight to your grandmother's and no dawdling this time. You hear me?"

Rolling her eyes the girl looked like she wanted to pout but thought better of it. "Can I at least stop and check on my house on the way?"

"Fine, but straight to grandma's afterwards." Once she had the girl's word she quickly hugged her daughter then getting into her car sped off with the girl named Itchy waving her mother off before heading into the woods that surrounded her house. The screen was filled with images of the little girl making her way through the woods with names of the people who were part of the film flashing across the screen.

"Did that just say that Brad Pitt was in this movie?" Jeri hissed, staring at Matt and Rika like she'd never seen them before in her life.

"Yeah, he plays my dad in this. Keep quiet or you're going to miss seeing Rika at her best. Or worst depending on how you want to look at it." Matt whispered back, giving Jeri a teasing wink.

"I can't believe you were in a movie with Brad Pitt and you didn't tell me." Suzi said out loud, glaring at Rika like she'd committed some horrible sin. "You know how much I like him!"

"He's married and if you don't shut your trap you're going to miss the first scene with him in it." That, thankfully, shut Suzi up as the sight of Itchy, the girl she'd played in the movie, came to a grinding halt as she stared through the thinning trees at the sight of movers moving boxes and furniture into a rather ancient looking three story house that none the less was quite beautiful and stunning, if in need of a lot of repairs.

"What the hell do they think they're doing!" Eyes flashing the little girl went running up to the movers, obviously intending to cause them to quit what they were doing. She changed direction though when she caught sight of two men standing by a car, deep in discussion. One of them, the younger one, was a man any woman in the world would recognize. You just didn't forget a face like Brad Pitt's, especially when he was smiling, "Mr. Thatcher!" The girl yelled, loud enough to damage eardrums. "What are these men doing moving things into MY house!"

"Oh damn. I'd hoped to have you moved in before she came by." The old man, obviously Mr. Thatcher said to the other man as he pasted on his best relator smile for the girl. "Now, Itchy, you know this isn't your house. You're too young to own a house of your own."

"You liar." Drawing back her foot she kicked the man sharply in the shines, the other man preventing the relator from falling backwards. "This is my house and you said it was mine! You said once I'd saved enough money I could buy it from you! You good for nothing, ugly son of a bitch! How dare you let these people live in my house without asking me first! I'm going to kick your fat ass black and blue."

"So you're Itchy." The character played by Brad Pitt said as he bent down so that he was more on the girl's level. "I saw your name on the stairs." He added with a smile as he pointed over to the wooden stairs that led up to the front porch. In the very middle of the steps was her name in bright, black letters. She'd gone to a lot of trouble to carve Itchy's Place there and had even colored inside it with black permanent marker so that it would show up real good. "How old are you, Itchy?"

"What's my age got to do with anything?" Itchy demanded to know, her hands going to her hips and sparks practically shooting out of her striking purple eyes. "What matters is that you're in my house and you aren't wanted!"

"Now you hold it right there, girlie." Mr. Thatcher ordered, now that he'd recovered his composure enough to shake his finger at the little hooligan. "I let you get away with putting your name there but I won't stand here and let you talk to Mr. Logan like that. This is his house now and there's nothing you can do about it, young lady. And don't even think about scaring him off like you did the last people that lived here."

"You can't prove I did anything." Was her stubborn reply.

"We'll I'd guess you were about seven or eight." Mr. Logan, aka Brad Pitt said nicely, like he wasn't dealing with a belligerent kid on the war path. "I have a son about your age and I think you and I could make a deal concerning this house. Will you hear me out?"

After a few moments of silence the girl finally nodded. "I'm listening."

"Well like I said, I have a son named Will and he doesn't know anybody here yet. So if you were to agree to be friends with him and show him around once school starts then I'll let you buy the house from me once you're old enough to afford it. How does that sound? And before you say no realize that this house is going to cost a lot of money to fix up. Money I'd spend fixing it up while I was living here. "

Eyes narrowing it was obvious she wasn't feeling especially trusting, the relator lying to her obviously having made an impression. Finally she lifted a hand and spitting on it held it out to him. "You gotta spit swear. Mr. Thatcher wouldn't and he lied to me. And if you lie to me I'll make your life a living hell as long as you live in this town. I can do it too. Ask anyone and they'll tell you that Itchy Maxwell isn't someone you want to have as an enemy. My uncles are real big too and they'll beat you up if I tell them you were mean to me."

"Now, see here young lady." The relator began, only to stop as he watched in shock as the man copied her action and shook hands with her, spit and all.

"It's a deal then. And you can call me Adam, Itchy." She was told as he let go of her hand. Turning to face the house he cupped his hands together and yelled for his son Will. Moments later a small blond boy of about eight came trudging out, looking absolutely adorable in his rumpled clothes and glasses just a little bit too big for him. "Will, this Itchy. Itchy, this is my son Will."

"Are you the delinquent who carved her name into our stairs?" The boy wanted to know by way of introduction.

"Are you a nerd because I don't hang out with nerds." Was the girl's reply, a fierce look coming onto her face. "I have a reputation to keep up you know."

"I'm not a nerd." Was the boy's quick resort, obviously not liking that label at all. "And why would I want to hang out with a tomboy like you?"

"Because your Daddy says I gots to be friends with you or else I can't have my house back when I have enough money." Itchy informed him, a don't even think about messing with me look on her scrunched up, adorable face. "So if you are a nerd I'm going to have to beat it out of you and make you man enough to be seen with me."

"I'm only eight! It's physically impossible for you to make a man out of me yet!"

"Wanna bet?"