MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
Author's Note: Sorry I'm late in updating. I just got back from a scuba dive in Washington. It was freezing! But enough of that... here's the last official chapter... I'll have an epilogue up soon. Read, review if you could, and most of all...
Enjoy!
To hell with it…
That was Joey's final verdict on the matter before him. To hell with the Teens Next Door, to hell with Global Command and to hell with anything and everything that would keep him from doing what he had resolved to do. Wally had to know the truth, and Joey was going to give him just that, even if it cost him his own memories of the Kids Next Door and prevented him from entering the rumored Teens Next Door.
Sarah (Numbuh 40) was the only one who knew what he was about to do and what had been occupying his attention for the past two months. After Numbuh 7 was court-martialed for negligence and demoted to a low-level position at Arctic Base, Numbuh 4 had been promoted to Sector Leader, and this time he took it without objection. True he only had about a year left until his decommissioning and the position was more of a formality since he already was the effective commander of Sector V, but there were other reasons he took the position:
1) He needed to whip the team into shape,
2) He had train Numbuh 40 to be his first officer to guide the next leader, or assume that position herself,
3) He wanted to be able to suppress the
tyranny of adults, not just within range of the Treehouse but
wherever he wanted,
and 4) He wanted to use the executive access to the Archives and Code Module to gather information about Numbuhs 1 through 5 of Sector V and all their exploits.
Sarah had been adamant about telling Joey not to do such a thing, it would mean his immediate decommissioning if he were caught, maybe even a sentence in the Arctic Prison. Sarah had pleaded that Joey not commit such a reckless act, but he convinced her that it was necessary, and he did so with only four words:
I'm my brother's keeper.After that she had stepped aside. She was very understanding; it was one of the things he loved most about her.
Joey had collected just about every scrap of information about his brother and the old Sector V with which he had served. He'd printed their files off the Code Module, and gathered every picture from the Archives that had so much as a glimpse of one of the old team membuhs. He had made two large scrapbooks of it all. One he had made about the team as a whole, how they'd all come together and just how much they had all done with one another; from the time they were cadets in the Arctic Academy to their last mission against the DAFDTL when Joey had fought with them. The second scrapbook was split into five sections about the individual team members and what they were like and what they did while in service to the KND.
Christmas vacation was this week, so Wally was coming home. Joey had been able to track down the locations and get contact information about all of the other ex-Sector V members, he just had to give his brother the scrapbooks and the numbers and they would take care of the rest.
I'm my brother's keeper…Joey had made the phrase into something of a mantra to keep himself convinced that he was doing the right thing.
Stealing information, divulging secrets to the enemy. The worst kind of treason a Kids Next Door operative could ever commit! Was what Sarah had warned him about, she was very cautious, and her logic was undeniably sound. It was a risk, and if anyone found out, Joey would be disgracing many more people than just himself, namely the rest of his Sector, and the memory of his brother's in the Kids Next Door.
Still, he was resolved.
Wally came home Friday afternoon; he took a cab because he didn't have a car of his own to get him anywhere (he disdained cars as he did most modern conveniences he had learned to live without after spending time in Australia).
Mr. and Mrs. Beetles had been overjoyed to see him and let him know it through all of their group hugging and patting on the back as they brought him into the house. Joey knew Wally got a little annoyed with that sort of stuff, so he stayed in the house and waited for Wally to get to him. When he did though, Joey gave his big brother a firm, "feel-how-strong-I-am" hug. The kind of hug best friends give one another to see which of them will give up and run out of strength first, but since neither Wally nor Joey wanted to look like the weakling, this hug/contest went on for quite a space of time.
When it was over, both of them shook out their arms and Wally carried his suitcase upstairs to his old room and through it in, then came back down to go to dinner with the rest of the family. It was tradition. Wally was gone most of the year, then he'd come home and the foursome tried to do all the big fun family stuff that just wasn't the same when Wally wasn't around. Almost every first night that Wally was home, Dad would spare mom the tedium of cooking and take them all out to a nice restaurant. Wally would've liked to have some nice home cooked food, but he didn't mind going out as a family, so he settled for that.
Wally tried to be of good cheer at the restaurant, but he had been a little uneasy as of late. The slight amnesia that had affected him when he was thirteen had just resurfaced. Fortunately, this time it only claimed his memories of the past two months, rather than of several years. Still he was afraid if it was foretelling the dangers of his later life. What if it was some kind of early onset of Alzheimer's?
Wally had also been shocked to discover an enormous scar on his back and had immediately sought medical help, though he couldn't say how or when he had gotten the wound, and when he was psychologically analyzed he couldn't recall anything of the first few months of college. Even when Wally had been voluntarily hypnotized he had been unable to discern any memories. It was as if they'd been erased.
After the Beetles family came home from dinner, the parents went straight to bed, but Wally stayed up to spend time watching movies and playing video games with Joey. After watching Violence: The Movie and playing several two-player games, Joey felt it was as good a time as ever to make the truth known.
"Hey Wally," he spoke after his brother beat him by a single point in a down-to-the-wire face-off, "I have something important I need to talk to you about. It's a brother-to-brother kinda thing…"
Wally heaved a slightly amused sigh. "Joey, man you aren't serious are you? You know you're way better with women than me. Take my advice… and that is take your advice about it…"
"No Wally it's not about girls or me, it's about you."
"Oh?"
"Come on up to my room. I'll show you."
Wally was a little confused about what Joey meant to show him. For a moment he feared maybe Joey was trying to gain his sympathy before he broke out some really personal truth; like he was doing drugs or something. But Wally quickly silenced such fears, this was Joey he was talking about. Sweet, well-mannered, charming, though admittedly clandestine Joey wasn't the kind of kid who would do such things, and it didn't take Wally long to convince himself it was ridiculous to suspect Joey of anything so stupid.
When they got into Joey's room, which was cleaner than Wally's (one of the key aspects of how they differed in personality), Joey dragged a small metal safe out from under his bed, opened the lock and pulled out two large three-ring binders. Wally was considerably confused.
"Uh… Joe are like a spy with government secrets or something, cause if you are, I think things like that are a little outta my league." Wally casually forewarned.
"No Wally… I doubt if you're gonna believe this, but… I know what happened to you… I know what happened those couple of months you forgot…"
Wally's eyes were had doubled in diameter.
"…and I know what happened in those years before your thirteenth birthday. I have facts on all the stuff that you don't remember."
"Well Joe I definitely agree with the first thing you said. I don't believe this."
"Let the pictures and the paper do the talking Wally." Joey replied as he handed the binders to his dumbfounded brother. Wally took them with trembling hands as he sat down on the edge of Joey's bed. He looked at the title on the first one, which read:
Sector V
Best of the Best
Wally spent more than half an hour pouring over every page and picture, he read each and every word slowly so as not to risk misreading the text or missing any of the facts. When he was done, he picked up the second book. This one read:
Sector V
Individual Profiles
Joey didn't take his eyes of Wally as he sat there reading. He didn't say anything either, feeling it was wisest to let his brother find out for himself and ask questions when he had any. Rediscovering several years of your childhood and a couple months of your adult life was a lot to take in.
It took Wally the better part of two hours to finish the two portfolios, mostly since he reread several sections to make sure he got every bit of info without any ambiguity of interpretation. Wally half hoped this was just Joey pulling some practical joke, but the books and pictures, they were airtight, foolproof and seemingly indisputable. It was all there and it appeared quite conclusive, but how were such things possible?
Kids Next Door…Sector V… Numbuh 4… hand-to-hand combat expert… legendary… decommissioned… Delightful Children/Adults From Down The Lane… Numbuh 3!
Wally's mind was abuzz with questions about all of these things.
"Joey how did… where… it's not…"
"Wally I'm breaking a lot of rules to tell you this, and I'm putting us both at a lot of risk as well. But we're brothers, you'd do the same for me, and you need to know the truth. All of that stuff is true. I know it looks crazy and if I were in your place I'd think it was crazy. But it's true."
The older Beetles brother ran his hands through his hair and placed one hand over his face… how could it be? All those years, all those friends, all those things? Wally brought himself back into the present and composed himself as he began to ask questions of his little brother.
"Ok Joey, so… this is really for real? I went all those places and did all those things?"
"Uh-huh."
"And I was… famous for it?"
"You were and you still are Wally."
"And this…" he picked up the Best of the Best portfolio and opened to the section entitled DAFDTL, "This is what I was doing those first few months, the ones I don't remember?"
"…'fraid so."
Wally turned the pages until he came to the collection of pictures of him and some beautiful Japanese-American girl. Codename: Numbuh 3. Alias: Kuki Sanban. The pictures were from the Rainbow Monkey World Theme park; Wally couldn't believe he had been to such a place, or doing such things with a girl.
"…and this girl? Kuki, right?"
"We confiscated those pictures when we raided the DAFDTL base in New York. Took me forever to get those, the KND Archives were gonna have it all jettisoned into space…"
"But, she… and I… we…?"
Joey nodded, smiling for the first time since the conversation began, "…In love."
"Joey I don't… don't know what to say… why did you do this? I still don't remember any of this stuff or any of these people, and I doubt if they remember me."
"But now you know that you guys were all friends, Wally. You can find them; make friends all over again if you have to. And that's what you should do Wally. Those three are the best friends you've ever had, and that girl is the love of your life."
"But I don't even remember her Joey. You show me these pictures and tell me about all these things I should feel and remember but it's all in a foreign language to me. I don't know any of these people, I don't remember any of these things it says I did, and I don't know who this girl is. And if I don't remember her…"
"Don't bother about memories Wally. I didn't expect memories to just come flooding back to you. I don't think I expected you to recognize any of these people, I just meant for you to know who you used to be and whom you used to know. And now you can go find them and rediscover it all. You and the others may not remember each other, but you may still be able to be friends again. I think it'd make you happy Wally, Mom and Dad said you were always a little cheerier when these guys were your friends."
"Mom and Dad knew about this?"
"No… in fact they were pretty surprised when you turned thirteen and didn't spend time with your friends anymore. They thought you just drifted apart, they didn't know you'd been forced to forget them."
"So what now Joey? I just go and find them?"
"That's what I'd do if I were you Wally. And there are phone numbers and other ways to contact them in the Individual Profiles binder. Call them, get them all together again and show them this stuff. Trust me on this Wally."
Wally was still flabbergasted by all this and wasn't sure if he should follow his brother's advice. After all it's kind of hard to just walk up to someone and say something like: Hey we used to be friends when we were kids we just don't remember it, look here's all the crazy, fantastically unbelievable proof in these books my brother made, do you wanna be friends now?
The prospect of trying to meet Kuki again was even more daunting: Hi, you don't know me and I don't know you, but it turns out we were both in love and somehow forgot each other, you wanna go out some time?"
Wally said goodnight to Joey and walked back to his room, but his thoughts kept him awake for hours more…
The next morning, Joey had to get back to his Treehouse and see to the duties of being a leader, while Mr. Beetles went to work and Mrs. Beetles went out to do some shopping. Wally told his parents he had some homework to take care of, but he spent most of the morning thinking about the previous night. Joey had attached a paper with cell numbers; email addresses and even college addresses for all the old members of Sector V. Wally went over the names again:Nigel Uno…
Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr.…
Kuki Sanban…
Wallabee Beetles…
Abigail LincolnHe sat for a long time, wondering if he should try to get online or call them up. It took two hours for him to work up the courage to call Nigel, Hoagie and Abby and it was all pretty awkward, but he managed to set up a meeting at the Neighborhood Coffee shop. Wally got Hoagie to go easily, Nigel was skeptical and cautious, and Abby had something of an attitude, but eventually he got them all to agree on meeting at the shop on January 3rd, after all the holiday hullabaloo, but before they went back to school.
It was near late afternoon by the time Wally worked up the courage to call Kuki, and he only spoke long enough to invite her, saying it was an unofficial high school reunion. As soon as she had agreed to come he hung up.
A week and a half later, Wally was sitting on a comfortable parlor chair in the corner at the Neighborhood Coffee Shop. He'd put the binders on the coffee table in front of him, ordered a cup of hot water and prepared some tea that he'd gotten from his old Master for Christmas. While he sipped peaceably, an attractive young black woman walked in the door, looked around and upon her eyes meeting Wally's she came over and sat across from him on the large sofa.
"Would you be Wally?"
He nodded.
"Abby, nice to meet you." And they shook hands. "So what is this meeting about? Or are we waiting for the others before we get started?"
As always, Wally couldn't work around a subject, he asked direct questions and expected direct answers.
"Abby do you remember much of your childhood?"
Abby furrowed her brow, thrown off by the question: "Well… no not really, why?"
"I can't remember hardly anything of my childhood either. And my little brother gave me these about a week ago," he said, holding up the binders. "You might wanna have a look."
Abby was a little weirded-out by the whole premise and direction of the conversation, but curiosity got the better of her, and she took the Individual Profiles folder and started going through it. She skimmed pretty fast, and then near the end she stopped as she came across the section headed Numbuh 5. Wally watched as her eyes started growing wider and her focus became glued to the page. For about ten minutes she was completely engrossed in her profile.
While Abby was reading, the door opened and in walked Nigel Uno. Now that he actually saw the man himself, Wally could see why this guy had been the leader. He didn't look particularly strong or physically imposing, but he had a swagger in his walk and a cold aura, or air of authority that he seemed to radiate. This was a man who demanded respect, and only a fool would deny it.
Nigel looked around for a moment, caught sight of Wally and walked over.
"I'm guessing you would be Wally?" The authoritative man spoke with a powerful British accent as he extended his hand. Wally shook his hand with poorly concealed deference.
"Nigel Uno? Yeah, have a seat…"
Abby was still ensconced in reading and didn't take notice of Nigel. He seated himself on the parlor chair directly across from Wally. As soon as Nigel had seated himself, the door opened and in walked a man who Wally recognized as Numbuh 2: Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr…
…my best friend.
Hoagie spotted the three people in the corner but continued to look around the shop to see if they weren't the people had been expecting to meet. When he looked satisfied that there weren't any other potential Wallys in the shop he walked over to the group. At first he expected the thin man sitting in the chair with his back to the door was the one named Wally who had contacted him almost two weeks ago, but when he saw the fitter, blonde haired man stand first he interpreted it to mean that the he was Wally.
Can't believe I'm doing this, Hoagie thought as he stuck out his hand.
"Hoagie, I'm Wally." The blonde man said.
"Uh, hi… should I know you, cause I don't recall having met you before?"
"Um…well Hoagie you should probably have a seat. Nigel," he nodded toward the thin man, "just got here as well so I'll explain to both of you. And Abby here," he nodded at the young woman nearby who was reading with a stunned expression, "can attest to what I called you here for."
Hoagie sat down next to 'Abby' on the side nearest Wally, this left Abby between him and 'Nigel'. He looked to his right and nodded to Nigel and when he turned a little more to say hi to Abby he felt a moment of astonishment at seeing her. She was beautiful! But Wally quickly called his attention away from her.
"Well… not sure exactly how to start this… well, um, I called you guys here because I think I used to know you, and you used to know me…"
Hoagie was a little taken aback by that comment but he let Wally continue.
"You see I've… well, when I was about thirteen something happened to me. Some strange form of amnesia caused me to forget several years of my childhood. And then the same thing happened to me again just about a month ago, and I lost my memories of a few months before…"
Now Hoagie was getting interested… the same thing happened to me!
"Well my little brother gave me this, wild, explanation about what happened to me, and he wrote it all out in these binders, Abby's reading one of them now…"
Hoagie took the moment as an excuse to look back and get a better look at Abby. Wow… she's stunning… he thought.
"…and it says… well, to shrink it down and give a quick summary of it all… we all knew each other as kids. And we were part of some… club or something that fought adult tyranny…"
Wally was shaking his head as he spoke, as though he didn't believe it either.
"…and when we became teenagers we had our memories erased and… you know maybe you should just look at the binders." He concluded hastily and pointed at the binder on the table.
Hoagie cringed away from it as though it was something repulsive and Nigel stood up rather suddenly.
"Sir, I haven't the foggiest idea of what this nonsense is all about, but I have no time for your practical jokes, I'm a teacher and I have a class of students that start school again in two days. So if you'll excuse me, I think I'll be going…"
"It's true," Abby spoke for the first time since either of the other two guys had come in. Nigel turned to her with the same disbelief and Hoagie was enraptured by her raspy, though somewhat sensual voice.
"I just read this whole thing about me… it says I was in this Kids Next Door thing, and my codename was Numbuh 5. I mean… yeah a lot of this stuff looks crazy, but it all seems to come together."
Nigel was still adamant about being done with this nonsense, but Hoagie, partly for wonder and curiosity, partly for his desire to make a good impression in front of this girl, picked up the second binder. He looked at the title: Sector V: Best of the Best, opened it and started to read.
Nigel sighed. He didn't know why he couldn't bring himself to walk out. After all he had other things to occupy his mind right now, but what if it was for real?
It's batty and insane… his mind snapped.
But what if it's true?He resolved to just sit back in his chair. Abby passed him the binder and he reached to take it. Without meaning to, he touched her finger as he withdrew the binder from her grasp, and he could swear he saw her turn away with a smile the denoted she was blushing.
He opened the book: Sector V: Individual Profiles, and started to read. Numbuh 1 was the first section, and he was startled to see a picture of him as a ten-year-old boy, wearing those dark black sunglasses he kept in his room at home.
Whoa… freaky… he thought.
He skimmed the article, and as Abby said, everything was matching up. He could remember up until the day it said he first entered the Arctic Academy, and everything in his memories were blank up until the date he was decommissioned.
What a record he had!
He'd fought dozens of enemies, had been hailed as a hero, and made history time and time again. Kids everywhere had looked up to him as a role model, and whoever these kids were, they still looked up to him and tried to learn from his lessons.
But how?While Nigel poured over the events of his once life, the door opened again and Hoagie and Abby looked up from the binder they were reading to see who it was. Wally looked up with hesitation, and when he caught sight of her, he felt his heart skip a beat.
Beautiful…Kuki walked in, looked around but didn't see anyone she remembered from High School. When her eyes fell on the group over in the corner and her eyes met a handsome blonde man she thought it was worth checking out. She walked over and found them all looking at some binders.
Ooh, yearbooks. Maybe this is them…Wally tried to speak from where he was sitting, but it seemed his mouth wouldn't form words and the result was an awkward period of staring and half-syllables. Kuki finally decided to break the awkwardness.
"Hi, I'm Kuki. Are you Wally?" Cause you're pretty cute, she thought.
"…YEAH!" Wally shook himself out of his stupor. "I mean yes, I'm Wally. Nice to meet you… Kuki."
Smooth Walls, real smooth, he mentally chastised himself.
"So this is the reunion? Are we expecting others?" she asked.
"Uh Kuki… yes this is a reunion of sorts… but uh… it's a little complicated."
Kuki's smile began to fade.
"Here have a seat," Wally beckoned her sit in a chair across the coffee table from Abby and Hoagie. "Well, um, I'm Wally (already said that) and this Nigel, Abby and Hoagie."
"Hi, nice to meet you!" she announced; her characteristic cheeriness blossoming again.
"Good day to you, Numbuh 3." Nigel replied. Kuki gave a confused look.
"Sorry I think you have me confused with someone else, my name's Kuki."
"Um… here, why don't you have a look under the file that says Numbuh 3." Nigel said with a somewhat baffled expression. Kuki was a little confused and thought maybe Nigel was of questionable mental stability, but she took the binder anyway and turned to the section he had suggested. As Kuki read, her smile began to fade again, and in its place came a look of perplexing shock and almost fear. How can this be? She thought.
Kuki tried to fake a giggle as she responded: "Um, what is this?"
"It's the truth Kuki." Wally replied. "All that happened in the years you forgot and the months past, it's all real."
She stared in wonder at her file and continued to shake her head in disbelief. "No, it can't be. I don't remember any of this. Who created these… files?"
"My little brother, apparently he's a part of this club we all used to belong to. He said he wanted us all to be friends again. That we deserved to know the truth."
For another half an hour the four aside from Wally continued pouring over the binders, looking at facts about themselves and each other. Kuki was shocked at the things they had done, particularly during their service in the DAFDTL. Nigel held himself stolidly as he looked through the files. Hoagie kept flipping pages quickly as if he expected the words would change if he stopped looking at them. And Abby just look on inquisitively but without fear or wonder.
When it seemed everyone was satisfied that they had had enough of the stories of their past, they all sat back in their seats and just blinked their eyes in amazement. They had all been friends? Knew each other? Fought together? Bled together? Laughed and cried together? And somehow all those seemingly wonderful moments were gone, and these few pages of data were all that remained of years and years of friendship, hardship and love?
It couldn't be…"I don't believe it," Abby declared. But it came out like something of a declaration that she would try her very hardest not to believe it, rather than that she already didn't believe it. "It's not possible."
Wally defended, but he didn't sound very convinced of his position either. "I admit it sounds pretty wild but how else do you explain it? I mean I can tell by all your reactions you don't remember any of this stuff. Can you remember what did happen to you, all those years ago, or what happened just a few months ago?"
They all wanted to believe that this was impossible. It was easier to assume that a random coincidence like a bump on the head or some sickness had simply given them amnesia and erased all of their memories. It was easier to think that Joey had just doctored all these photos and there was nothing in their pasts to miss or regret. In some ways it seemed much easier than the alternative of believing that so many unfortunate things had befallen them and so much had been lost. Like how someone would prefer knowing that their misfortune was just some random accident rather than some kind of offense specifically targeted at them.
But here was the evidence, it didn't look doctored, it matched up with where their memories began and ended, and it explained so many scrapes and scars on their bodies. How could they refute it?
"Well all right, but what does this mean?" Nigel asked.
"It means we were all friends once." Kuki replied, taking Wally's side.
"But we don't know… we don't remember. And now what difference does it really make? I mean we've all got our own lives and goals and dreams. Let's be honest, even if every bit of this is true, all our roads parted a long time ago."
"That doesn't mean we can't try to pick up where it left off." Hoagie spoke up.
"What if it is all a hoax? How do we pick up from something that might not ever have been?" Abby asked. She wanted to believe, but she was too stubborn to believe so easily.
"Listen guys…" Wally began, "My brother said I should go find you because he thought it would make me happy. Now I don't think Joey would've gone to all the trouble to make such an elaborate story. And I don't know, maybe this is the truth and maybe it's all b.s. All I know is that that boy…" he pointed to himself in a team photo when they were all graduated from the Academy. "…is me. And those people all around him are all of you. And he looks happier than I can ever remember being. Maybe this thing is a hoax; and maybe we are too different to make an effective friendship. But that doesn't mean we can't give it a try."
Kuki eyes were filling with tears, Hoagie was smiling the kind of smile you give when you feel your heart's been touched, and even Abby and Nigel were beginning to form some slight smiles at what Wally was saying.
"If it's the truth then I don't want to go another day without these friends in my life. And even if it's not, some new friends wouldn't hurt."
Abby sat back and exhaled heavily. She looked to her right at Nigel, marveling at his cool demeanor so akin to her own and fascinated by his natural authoritativeness. She turned to her left to look at Hoagie, who had casually turned to face her as well. He was smiling warmly, and Abby had to admit he had some cute dimples.
And Abby made her decision by extending her hand to Hoagie.
"Abby Lincoln, nice to meet you."
Hoagie took her hand and gave it a slow, firm shake.
"Hoagie Gilligan Jr. It's a pleasure."
Nigel smiled, lowered his head and shook side to side. Then he introduced himself as well; first to Abby, then Hoagie, then Wally and finally Kuki.
For several minutes, everyone acted very cordially, just introducing themselves to each other. They ordered drinks and talked at length about what they did these days, what they were majoring in, if they had boyfriends or girlfriends and what crazy stuff they'd done on New Years Eve. The whole day they spent in that corner of the coffee shop, talking, joking and getting to know each other. They were all rather surprised when one of the staff came over to tell them they were closing; it was already 5 o'clock.
The group walked outside, still laughing at one of Hoagie's jokes (a successful one for once) and exchanged phone numbers, emails and addresses before each headed in the direction of home. Abby, Hoagie and Nigel left in three different directions, but as Wally and Kuki started to walk home they discovered that they were both headed in the same general direction. So they walked together.
"A whole year in Australia, huh?" Kuki was rather impressed with Wally's early college stories. "What was your old master like?"
"Well…" Wally paused for a little dramatic effect, "He was humble, immensely powerful and hated just about every modern convenience except plumbing."
Kuki laughed.
"Maybe I'll introduce him to you someday. I'm sure he'd like you."
"I'd like that Wally."
A little further on they stopped in front of a reasonably big house, Kuki's.
"Well… guess this is goodnight." Wally said very simply. There were so many unanswered questions and burning feelings inside him and he wanted answers, but he also didn't want to jeopardize a new friendship by probing for deeper feelings that may not even exist. He would do his best to refrain from asking.
"So much has changed Wally."
"I know."
"I mean… this morning I got up and got dressed thinking I was just going to see some people from high school. And I was scared cause I was such a loner most of my high school life I never really made any friends…"
Wally nodded; he had been a loner too.
"And now I read about all these things that I never knew happened… about friends I never knew I had… it's just so much to take in."
"Yeah, it is a lot."
Kuki chewed her lower lip. "So… Wally, you go to MUO?"
"Yeah… well the Physical Therapy department, but yeah."
She smiled coyly as she looked away before continuing. "Well…" She took out a pen and took his hand. Feeling his heavy callused hand on the smooth skin of her fingers gave her such a feeling she almost stopped just to savor it. But she didn't want to look creepy or anything, so she proceeded to write some numbers on his palm.
"Here's my room number, cell phone number, and my email address. Come see me sometime."
"Ok, but I thought all five of us were going to go see a movie tomorrow night." He answered, a little perplexed at how forward she was.
"I know… I meant if you wanted to come see me. Just me."
Kuki felt her heart swelling with excitement. She was being so flirtatious it was driving her wild, and under the surface, he was feeling much the same thing.
"Thanks Kuki… I'll, um… I'll see you tomorrow."
"Looking forward to it." She replied as he started walking down the sidewalk toward his house. He waved goodbye, then skipped and clicked his ankles together.
She giggled.
Author's Note: OK folks... the epilogue is next. Let me know what you thought of the story and if you think I should try a different genre or different style in my writing... or if you just want to say something about the story that'd be nice as well...