Disclaimer: I'm sure you all know by now that I'm not Mrs. Levine, so I obviously don't own Ella Enchanted. Thank you.
'Gone' belongs to Switchfoot. Lord of the Rings (the greatest book ever) belongs to JRR Tolkien and will forever and ever!
A/N: Okay, first of all, I'm sorry it's been taking so long to update. I've got more chapters finished, but I write my stories for myself and if no one seems to care if they're updated (i.e. no one reviews), I'll just wait for a while until I feel like updating, because it's kind of a pain bringing the stories up from my laptop in my room to our computer that has Internet.
I need feedback on what how you think all the characters are developing, too. I'm going to try to make all the next few chapters relevant to the story once Val goes back, so I'll try not to have too many more in our world. But in a couple of updates, I will NEED feedback on Chapter Ten or else I won't update. I'm not sure how I'm going to have everything develop, so without feedback, I might not write any more for a while. So have all your friends review! There will be a lot more in Val's world, but I won't you what happens. (partly because I don't know myself and partly because if I tell you, you won't review, and I need reviews so I know how people think the characters are developing)
Thanks to all my reviewers! I take everything you say into consideration, and I wanted to say thanks to Gayle for her comment that I should bring Val back soon, which I will do.
A/N2: And now, due to popular request, a view into Ella and Char's world. Dun, dun, DUN!
I got tired of the 'actions' in my songs (I'm sure you are too) and since the brackets don't work on and they were just plain complicated, I just took them out. So on the song, the text in bold is Val's lines, and the italic text is Shean's lines, and the regular text is when they sing together. If for some reason that I could never guess in a million years, anyone wants the actions back like I had in the other songs, go ahead and say so, but I won't expect anyone to say so, hehe.
Chapter Eight: SurprisesThat night Kaetlin and I were sitting on her bed chatting. I suddenly remembered my promise to myself and decided to ask her now.
"Kaetlin?"
"Hmm?"
"What's a crush?"
She sat up from where she had been lying with a jerk. "Huh?"
"What's a crush?" I asked again.
"You mean like a personal crush?" I nodded uncertainly. "Uh... uh... I guess it's like when you're in love, but you don't know if the other person feels the way."
I narrowed my eyes. "You think Shean and I have a crush on each other." Technically, that should have been a question, but I spoke it as a statement.
Kaetlin choked and spluttered. "Well... I... um..."
I rolled my eyes and all but glared at her. "Oh, come on, I know you do!" She hung her head. "Well, before you go spreading any rumors or anything, you'd better know you're way off track." She looked up at me, almost looking surprised. I rolled my eyes again. "Oh boy, you actually thought we did, didn't you? Well, the thing is... we don't! We are friends, the same as you and me and Amanda and Jenny. You know, I could just as well say that you have a crush on Dave as say that I have a crush on Shean. Neither of them is true. See?" She nodded silently.
She was probably at least a little startled by my outburst, but I didn't want any rumors to spread that 'Val has a crush on Shean' or vice versa, because Shean would eventually find out and then he'd confront me and I did not want to deal with that. So decided I'd squash it now. She might be a little hurt now, but it was better than a tirade of questions from Shean later. Besides, knowing Kaet she'd forget it by tomorrow or the next day.
I rolled down onto my bed and went to sleep as fast as I could.
Kaetlin never peeked on any band rehearsals again and in about a month, we decided we were ready to take on some gigs. Our first one came on a Saturday at a party for one of the kids at school. They said they didn't want to just play some dumb CD or have a DJ who would be even more expensive. So we got to play at our first 'professional' engagement.
We didn't even have to play dance music specifically. We just got to play our Christian music, some on request, the rest on impulse. One of the favorites of the night was when Shean and I sang a duet of 'Gone' by Switchfoot.
She told him she'd rather fix her makeup/
Than try to fix what's going on/
But the problem keeps on calling/
Even with the cell phone gone/
She told him that she believes in living/
Bigger than she's living now/
But her world keeps spinning backwards/
And upside down/
Don't say so long and throw yourself wrong/
Don't spin today away 'cause today will soon be/
Gone/
Like yesterday is gone/
Like history is gone/
Just try to prove me wrong and/
Pretend like you're immortal/
She said, he said, live like no tomorrow/
Everyday we borrow/
Brings us one step closer to the edge. Infinity/
Where's your treasure, where's your hope/
If you get the world and lose your soul?/
She pretends like she's immortal/
Don't say so long, you're not that far gone/
This could be your big chance to make-up/
Today will soon be/
Gone/
Like yesterday is gone/
Like history is gone/
The world keeps spinning on/
You're going, going/
Gone/
Like summer break is gone/
Like Saturday is gone/
Just try to prove me wrong and/
Pretend like you're immortal/
We are not infinite/
We are not permanent/
Nothing is immediate/
And we pretend like we're immortal/
We are so confident in our accomplishments/
Look at our decadence/
Gone/
Like Frank Sinatra/
Like Elvis and his mom
Like Al Pachino's cash/
Nothing lasts in this life/
Gone/
My high school dreams are gone/
My childhood sweets are gone/
Life is a day that doesn't last for long/
Life is more than money/
Time was never money/
Time was never cash/
Life is still more than girls/
Life is more than hundred dollar bills and/
Roto-tom fills/
Life is more than fame and rock and roll and thrills/
All the riches of the kings end up in wills/
We've got information in the information age/
But do we know what life is/
Outside of our convenient Lexus cages?/
She said he said live like no tomorrow/
Every moment that we borrow brings us closer/
To a God who's not short of cash/
Hey Bono, I'm glad you asked/
Life is still worth living!/
Everyone started to move to the music as the song started and then erupted into applause when we ended. At the end of the night, we got many, many compliments on the song. All in all, it was a marvelous night.
After that night, we became a bit busier as a band because word spread quickly through school and the students' friends. Somehow, we still found time to start Irish step dance classes again, or in my case, start for the first time.
Shean and Kaetlin had been taking it for several years and were more advanced, but they had been showing me several of the steps and I had learned them rather well, if I do say so myself.
However, on the first night, I was doing the easiest dance ever, the beginner reel and I tripped on a change-2-3. It's the most basic step, the very first one you learn and somehow I messed it up. Everyone laughed, which was rather annoying, because I was the oldest in the class by a couple years, but other than that, I was pretty good. A couple weeks later, the teacher asked me to join the intermediate class because one of the intermediate students had had to drop out because of homework or something. I gladly moved up and after that, I just kept going until I got to Shean and Kaetlin's level after several months, which was just about as high as a teenager could go.
The classes were always lots of fun. Our teacher had a great sense of humor and she was really nice. Whenever we made a mistake or did something like accidentally wearing blue jeans (which we weren't supposed to do) because we had just gone on a trip or something and they were our only clean pants, she was very understanding about it.
We were a non-competitive school, which meant that we didn't compete against dancers from other schools at competitions called 'feises' (pronounced fesh-es). We did still do shows and stuff for an audience, though, and those were always great fun. We also did a quarterly show with tap and ballet dancers, too, but the Irish step dance always got the most applause. (Val's Note: Sorry to any tap or ballet dancers reading this, but this does actually did happen a lot when I danced)
Months later, Shean came to meet me after my hour at the pet store where I volunteered a few times a week. When I came out of the store, he had my scooter all set up and he had Éire with him by his own scooter. I tilted my head at him.
"I was taking Éire out for a run at the park and I wanted to see if you wanted to come?" He replied in answer to my silent query.
"Well, I was just giving the puppies their exercise and I have to..."
"Great, let's go!" He exclaimed, popping my helmet on my head and snapping it closed, almost catching the skin on my chin in the latch. Then he sped away with Éire running happily beside him.
"Oh... oh... Shean, wait! Wait up!" I made up my mind to follow him even though I still needed to finish up a little bit of studying. He slowed down slightly and I caught up with him.
"What was that all about?" I asked curiously. His eyes darted around as if looking for an answer.
"Uh, uh... well, you see, I just thought you might want to go play with the dogs after you had to do all that work."
I snorted. "Shean, volunteering at the pet store is pretty much playing, except for when I clean out cages and stuff!"
He shrugged as if trying to ward me off. "Come on, let's go!" He cried, pushing off hard. I followed, but only because I wanted to know what his problem was.
We got to the park and let Éire run off to play. Then a wet tongue suddenly slathered itself all over my face.
"Hey, hey, Jaime, down! I love you, too!" I cried, pushing the exuberant dog down off of me. Her owner came running up.
"Sorry, Val, but you know how she is when she sees you!" The girl called, grinning. I nodded and vigorously scratched the black fur behind Jaime's ear as Sair came running over to us.
"Sorry 'bout that," Sair said again as she joined in on scratching Jaime. The border collie wriggled with pleasure.
"Hey, it's fine!" I reassured her, moving down to scratch Jaime's chin. "You know how much I love her." I sighed. "I wish I had my own border collie." Sair looked at me as if she was hiding something.
"Hey, you'll get one sometime. Everyone knows how much research you've been doing on the breed." I eyed her, but nodded.
"So how're her puppies?" I asked. Jaime had had puppies several months before I met her. They were the most adorable little bundles of fur, although I hadn't seen them for a few months because they'd all been finding homes.
Sair sighed. "Well, she still has that one little baby, the brindle, and they're such an uncommon color for border collies that no one wants him because he doesn't really look like a border collie. He's already house trained and he'll probably be totally past his teething stage in just a little while, I've had him so long, but no one wants him."
"Keegan? But he's such a sweetie!" He had been my favorite of all the puppies. He wasn't quite as big as all the other males, but he wasn't a runt by far, and he was the sweetest, cutest of them all, I thought. His coat wasn't quite as long as a rough coat, either, but it also wasn't as short as a smooth coat. He was a little oddball, but I liked him so much.
"Yeah, well, that's the way it goes."
"Val, come on, let's go back!" Shean suddenly yelled, running over with Éire. I looked up at him from where Sair and I were now scratching Jaime's belly.
"Why?"
"Uh – because! We need to get back." I growled, but got up.
"Bye, Sair. See you later!" I waved as I grabbed my scooter and followed Shean out of the dog park. He suddenly slowed down and I sped past him. Slamming on the brake, I backpedaled to him.
"What was that for!?" I yelled at him. I was completely exasperated with the guy, just about to the breaking point.
"Oh, I just remembered I wanted to stop at the grocery store and get some candy and... stuff." I growled deep in my throat.
"Make. It. Quick," I snarled. "A second ago, you had to get home as quick as you could, so you better make your next excuse pretty good."
"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure thing," he muttered. Whew, that was close!
It took me a minute to realize that I had just heard a thought. I almost groaned aloud. I hated this! Geez, some 'Gift'. I was almost ready to hate fairies and their dumb gifts, except that Mandy was one. Thinking of Mandy made me think of home... and Mother... and Father and... my little brother? I suddenly had a vivid vision.
"Oh, Char, do you think she'll ever come back?" I saw my mother sitting on her bed, sweat glistening on her forehead and hair, holding a little bundle. She turned slightly and I saw a perfect little baby boy's face. My brother. He was as cute as I was when I was a baby (or so I was told).
My father came into view and sat on the bed as my mother handed the baby to Mandy and sank back into her pillow.
"She'll come back, Ella. I'm sure of it. Remember what she said in her note that the guard gave you?" I almost sighed with relief that it had gotten to them. "It was definitely her hand, too, so she wasn't kidnapped."
"Are you sure it was hers?"
My father chuckled. "No one has that same style or quite the same messiness."
"But what if it wasn't? What if someone somehow forged it?" She suddenly broke down and sobbed into my father's shoulder.
"Easy, easy, Ella. She'll come back. She promised and we both know Val doesn't ever break her promises. Three years is all."
"But it's already been so long! What if she's dea..." She broke off and sobbed.
The vision suddenly disappeared and I could feel a single tear in my eye. I hadn't realized how much my mother would miss me that much. I hadn't really had that much of a choice because the door had almost literally pulled me towards it and when I tried to resist, it had hurt so badly! And when did I get a baby brother? She hadn't said anything before I left, so I had to have been gone for... at least four months!? I knew I'd been gone at least three, since I'd celebrated Christmas and the a thing called 'New Year', but I hadn't realized I'd been gone that long. Unless she had been meaning to tell me and –
Shean was shaking my shoulders, which jerked me out of these thoughts.
"Val! Val, are you all right?" He asked in a hurried, anxious voice. I could tell he was genuinely concerned. I pulled myself back to the present and nodded.
"Good." He looked relieved and smiled at me. "Let's go see if they have that game, then."
I looked at him and cocked my head. "I thought you said you wanted to get some candy at the grocery store?"
"Uh – well – I, uh – oh, did I say that, hehe? I had meant to say that I wanted to go see if the game store had any good games for XBox or Gameboy."
I rolled my eyes and gave up. Boys are so weird.
We got to the store and to my surprise, he actually bought a game called 'Lord of the Rings' for his XBox. He had been raving about going to see the movie again since he went to the opening night when it came out in December. He still hadn't gotten his drivers license (his parents are kind of overprotective), so he couldn't drive himself. The game looked pretty interesting, though. He'd told me everything he could about the movie without giving it away and now I wanted to see it as much as he did.
We got back on our scooters and rode back home. We put them in the garage and hung up our helmets before going inside. When we walked into the living room, everything was pitch black.
"Ugh, why doesn't anyone ever turn these on?" I muttered under my breath as I flipped the switch.
The second the light came on, people exploded from all over the room yelling, "Surprise! Surprise!"
I must have jumped three feet up and back. Shean grabbed my shoulders from where he'd been standing behind me and I caught his knowing smile as he pushed me into the room. I was suddenly engulfed with people asking if I had been scared (I couldn't help but think that it had to be obvious that I was) and yelling, "Happy Birthday!" in my ears.
I looked up and saw a banner that said 'Happy Birthday!' and I realized that I had forgotten my own birthday! I hadn't ever done that before, so this was almost fun. I looked around at everyone standing around me, smiling at me, all wearing the ridiculous cone hats we'd had left over from Shean's birthday in January and wishing my happy birthday. Éire was racing around and licking everyone and some people were blowing paper things that rolled back up after you blew them at each other.
Sylva suddenly started herding us all out to the yard and we played some outside team games and then some inside games before we had cake and ice cream. Looking at the sixteen candles, I realized that this meant that I was old enough to get a drivers license now, too, but I doubted I'd be able to since I'd only been here for a few months. After cake and ice cream, everyone herded me back into the living room to open presents. I pulled off all of the paper and exclaimed over every present as Kaetlin noted who gave me what so I could write thank you notes later.
Shean handed me his present himself. I opened it to find a paper promising two tickets for Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring for later that week. I jumped up and gave him a quick hug. He knew exactly what I'd wanted. He blushed, but smiled back at me. I started to thank everyone, but Kaetlin surprised me by pulling over a medium size box and handing it to me.
"This is from me and Mum and Dad," she said shyly.
I quickly opened it and stared at the contents. There was a dog leash; food and water bowls; another longer, 40-foot dog leash; and several dog toys. I looked at her quizzically.
"Why do I need these?"
She was looking at her toes, but looked like she was also trying not to laugh. Suddenly something jumped on me and started licking me wherever it could. I looked down and practically collapsed. The second I hit the ground, Keegan jumped on my chest and started licking my face
"He's yours," said a new voice that I recognized as Sair's commented softly.
I tried to sit up to look at her to see if she was joking, but had to settle for staring at her from my prone vantage point.
"You're serio – uck! Keegan, get your tongue out of my mouth!" He'd started licking my mouth when I started talking, but went back to my cheeks again.
"You're serious?" I asked again. She nodded and grinned.
I hugged Keegan and he yipped happily. Several tears of happiness ran down my cheeks along with his slobber. "You're mine, you're mine, you're mine!" I whispered to him repeatedly while hugging him. Kaetlin finally came in with a towel and handed it to me to wipe off the slobber after helping me get Keegan off me. She clipped his new leash onto his collar and handed it to me.
"This is one of the best days of my life!" I announced. "Thank you to everyone who came to make it that way! I love you all!" Everyone laughed and gave me birthday wishes and slowly trickled until the only ones left in the house were the O'Connors and Sair, and me.
Finally letting go of Keegan, I hugged Sair tightly. "Thank you so much!" I whispered. Then I went and repeated the gesture with Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor. The just smiled at me and told me I was part of the family now, and if the others got a pet, I was sure responsible enough. Then I went and hugged Keegan. Then we all trickled out of the room and we kids went up to Kaetlin's room.
Éire followed us up, trying to get a good sniff of Keegan, who was trotting along in front of us and looking back as if to say 'hurry up, you slow two leggers! Let's go!' I grinned. Border collies always have to go and even though Keegan might not look like one, he still acted like one!
I flopped onto my bed and grunted as Keegan landed next to me and put his paws on my chest. "Keegy, c'mon, off!" I grunted at him and moved his paws over. He moved and licked my face once. Éire jumped up on the bed too and started sniffing him all over. I grinned at the two dogs. They seemed to like each other well enough, although I wasn't sure what Kaetlin's cat, Patches of Fantasy would think of Keegan. Well, she'd been living with Éire her whole life, so as long as Keegy didn't try to herd her, she'd probably be fine with him.
"Wow, he's pretty," Kaet commented, lying on her bed to dangle her arm down to my bed to pet Keegan. "He doesn't look like his mom, though."
I shook my head. "Nope. That's why I like him." He licked me and I laughed. "And his personality!"
Shean must have felt left out of all the kisses, because he suddenly came over and started scratching Keegan behind the ears where he liked it. Keegan twisted around and started kissing Shean all over his face, then rolled onto his back for Shean to scratch his tummy. He started wriggling and kicking in pleasure, then caught Shean under the chin as he leaned over so he could scratch him better. Shean stopped scratching when he got kicked and Keegan rolled over, looking concerned. Then he 'kissed his boo-boo' as if to say that he was sorry. We all laughed.
Yep, this was one of the best days of my life.
A/N: Do you think you know what happens next? Tell me! Since I write this freehand (no outline), I don't know what's going to happen next either. So if you think that so-and-so's going to do this, or this-and-such is going to happen, post it in your review or email me. There's a good enough chance I might put it into the story!