Disclaimer: Trying to think of a witty disclaimer… Can't. Think. Right. Now. Well, by now you should know that I didn't write Ella Enchanted, so I won't say it again.
Chapter Fourteen: 'Chats'Shean and I sat at the dining room table in silence for a few minutes, wrapped in our own thoughts.
"So, when are we leaving, again?" Shean asked.
"Whenever we see a door someplace we wouldn't expect it. So we should probably be ready to go whenever we see it, because my mother said we'll only have a few hours after we see it to get to it. When do you think you'll be able to have a list ready?"
Shean shrugged. "I can have it by whenever you need it. It should be pretty simple if you just want shotguns and that sort of things." I nodded. "Not even one little tiny grenade?" Shean suddenly asked in a mockingly pleading tone. I smiled and shook my head, knowing that he would be repeating this repeatedly until we left, just to see if it got on my nerves. After living with him for three years, I was wondering if half of his whole mission in life was to tease me and the other half to torment Kaet. Well, no, that wasn't fair. Maybe that should be one-third to tease me, and one-third to torment Kaet, because he had to have another one-third devoted to something else. (Though I couldn't think of what it would be)
Just then the three dogs came running in with their leashes in their mouths, begging to be walked. I stood up and clipped my double leash to my border collies.
"Come on, we'd better take 'em to The Field," I said as I walked towards the garage. The Field was a big abandoned field that dog owners who were 'in the know' would take their dogs to play in. The dogs liked to run around in the tall grass and chase bugs and stuff. Every once in a while, you'd run into another owner and their dog, but usually it was just you and your dog (or dogs in our case). If the dogs had good recall (ours had perfect recall), you could let them run off on their own. It was down an long dirt road that no one went down unless they were going to The Field, so there wasn't even much of a chance of them getting hit by a car while off leash.
We all piled into our car, the dogs buckled into doggy seat belts in the back seat, Shean driving, and me in the passenger's seat up front. Shean bombarded me with questions the whole way there and back. When we got back home, though, I found that Kaet had a surprise for me.
"Val!" She cried in her high cheerleader-type voice. "Guess what!" She continued, gushing. "When Mum told me that you and Shean are going to be leaving sometime soon, I got a bunch of the girls together and they're going to come over tonight for a going away sleepover!" I stared at her with stunned silence, so she continued. "It's going to be so much fun! We can chat and do each other's hair and put on makeup and stuff all night!" By now Shean was staring at her, too. "And the dogs can sleep in Shean's room with him and Éire so that they don't get in our way and – "
Here I cut her off, holding up my hands and waving them. "Okay, wait, wait! I can deal with a sleepover. I am willing to 'chat' and let you do my hair. I am not willing to be slathered with makeup or send my dogs into Shean's room for the night any more than you'd be willing to put Patches in Mum and Dad's room for the night."
Kaetlin shrugged as if to say 'whatever' and continued jabbering about how much fun this would be and all of the fun things we'd do, while Shean and I continued walking to his room to give the dogs their after-romp grooming.
Later that day the girls started arriving. I'd known them all for at least a year, many of them I'd met soon after I arrived here, but it was amazing how much a lot of them had changed since I'd met them. Kaet was now a peppy, makeup-oriented, popular cheerleader at sixteen. About half of the girls she had invited were her own friends (they sort my friends too, but more hers) and a lot like her. The other half were my friends and a bit more like me: very personable, sort of outcasts at school, with tight friendships rather than cliques where you'd be kicked out if you looked at someone the wrong way. Many of my friends did, however, like makeup (just not as much as Kaet and her friends), so they had fun when everyone did makeovers for each other. That was one thing I refused to get in on because I'm not a makeup person and plus, my dogs (whom I had firmly informed Kaet were to be let to stay with us) would lick it off immediately.
I let them play with my hair, though, and ended up looking half-decent for once. In fact, when I went downstairs to get more potato chips, Shean was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book and looked up as I started opening up cupboards to find where Kaet had stashed the chips, my back half turned to him.
"Hey, Kaet, can I have – " He started, and then stopped as I turned around, trying to smother a laugh. He looked surprised. "Oh, sorry, Val, you looked so prett – um, different that I thought you were Kaet for a moment." I laughed.
"Hey, no prob. I was just getting some chips," I added, triumphantly holding up the bag I had finally found to illustrate my point. "Want some?" He shrugged.
"Sure."
"'K, I'll get a bowl. Just a sec." I grabbed a bowl and poured him some chips.
"Thanks," he said as I handed him the bowl and gave me a quick grin.
"What're ya reading?" I asked, trying to get a glance at the cover of his book. He held it up so I could see it.
"Dark Journey."
My eyes lit up. "Ooh, Jaina! Wicked! Let me read it again when you're done!" I begged. He nodded, grinning.
"Sure thing, Miss Solo." I gave his head a playful thwack.
I was always pretending to be Jaina Solo, daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo: Jedi, fighter pilot, and mechanic extraordinaire. (My special introduction for Jaina) Whenever I saw Harrison Ford or Carrie Fisher's pictures or Han or Leia's, I would say 'Hi, Mom!' (or Dad if that was the case). I got plenty of confused stares for that, but anyone who knew me would just grin or laugh. When we would read one of the Star Wars books, I would read Jaina's lines if she was in the book (and/or Tahiri's if she happened to be in it too), and Shean would read whichever boy happened to be in the same chapter, whether it be Jacen, Anakin, Jag or Kyp (whom neither of us can stand). It was a lot of fun, and we'd tease each other a lot about it, calling each other 'Mr. Solo' or 'Mr. Fel' or whatever character he was, or 'Miss Solo'. If Shean were in a really playful mood (or wanted to get on my nerves), he'd call me 'Jaina Solo Fel'. I loved the name, but the way he said it ticked me off.
"Thank you, Colonel Fel. Well, I'm going back to my awaiting squadron," I said, referring to the time when Jaina commanded Twin Suns squadron. Shean made a play-bow.
"As you wish, Goddess." I gave him another good-natured thwack on the head and went back upstairs.
"Where were you?" Kaet asked as I came back in the door.
"I was getting chips, like I said!" I replied, a bit too defensively.
"You sure took your time doing it," Kaet said with a sly little smile.
"Well, you hid them pretty well and then Shean wanted some."
Her smile got a fraction larger, but she just said, "Well, we started a game of Truth or Dare and it's your turn."
"Um, okay, Truth," I said.
The other girls exchanged evil little smirks and I started to regret my choice.
"All right," Kaet said with a tone in her voice that put me on my guard. She looked like she had been anticipating asking me this for a long time. "Have you ever been kissed?"
I stared at her. "You – you – you –" I sputtered, "you've been planning this!" Kaet grinned and nodded.
"Well?"
I searched for a way out, and then grinned. "Yes."
Kaet stared at me, shocked. "What?" She asked, looking like she didn't believe me. "No way."
I nodded. "Yes, I have."
"By a boy?" Asked Marcella, one of my friends, knowing that I thought most boys were total weirdoes.
I nodded and everyone stared at me.
"How many times?" Kaet asked.
"Um…" I started to try to count on my fingers, but failed. I shrugged. "I dunno. A lot, though. At least once every day."
"On the lips?" Kaetlin asked incredulously.
I nodded. "Like I said, at least once a day."
"How come you've never told me?!" Kaet squealed.
"Actually, I can show you now if you want." Kaet nodded vigorously. "Keegy! Kisses!" Keegan came bounding over and started slathering my face with big, sloppy, wet doggy kisses, getting my lips, as well as my nose, eyes, and just about everywhere else. Kaetlin's face fell.
"Your dog?" She asked in disappointment. I still couldn't see what her problem was. Though she was a romance nut, so that was probably why.
I nodded, pushing Keegan off of me and sending him to go back and play tug with Cyd. "What's wrong with that."
"Oh, um, nothing – nothing," she quickly replied.
When it came back to my turn, I figured it was safer to take a Dare. Maybe that was ridiculously stupid, seeing how my Truth was, but I didn't think of that because I was laughing so hard over the last girl's turn.
"Val, Truth or Dare?" Kaet suddenly asked.
"Dare," I replied, still laughing. Kaetlin started whispering with a couple of the other girls and got a devious look on her face which immediately cut my laughter short.
"Go give Shean a kiss," she instructed, looking utterly evil.
I stared at her, and then laughed. "You're joking, right?" I asked, hoping against hope that she was. She wasn't. I sighed. "Fine."
I got up and started walking towards the door and the other girls at once started whispering again. I walked down to the kitchen, dreading what I knew I should have refused to do, but there were too many of them and they'd tickle me awfully hard if I didn't (they'd already done it to one of the other girls). Then I had an idea which pulled me back from despair.
I walked into the kitchen, opened a drawer and pulled something out, and then walked over to Shean, who was still reading Dark Journey.
"Hey, Shean, close your eyes and pucker up," I instructed. He did so reluctantly and slowly, his brow furrowed. "Here's a Kiss," I said as I popped a Hershey Kiss into his mouth and went back upstairs.
"Did you do it?" Kaetlin asked eagerly. I nodded. Just then, there was a knock at the door and Shean's voice came through.
"Can I come in for a moment?" Kaet and her friends giggled and I called, "Sure, come on in!" I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but I knew it'd be worth it.
He took one step into the room, said, "Hey, Val, here's a Kiss and a Hug," tossed me two somethings and left. Everyone else was staring at me as I took the wrappers off the Hershey's Kiss and Hug candies and ate them.
"What was that all about?" Kaetlin asked.
"Oh, Shean was just returning the favor," I said calmly, chewing on the Kiss.
She stared at me a moment, then her eyes widened. "You gave him a chocolate Kiss!" She cried. I grinned and nodded.
Kaetlin grabbed a pillow and started pummeling me, so I grabbed one, too and tried to pummel her, but she ducked and I hit Jenny, which started a huge pillow fight. Shean came up to see what all the ruckus was about and got hit, so he grabbed his pillow from his own room and got in on the action. We all ended up on the floor, panting and laughing. Then Kaetlin noticed Shean and shoved him out, crying, "Get out, traitor!" We all just laughed, though we had no idea what she meant.
The rest of the night was rather uneventful, except for when Cyd crept out of bed to go see Éire and I had to go bring her back, because otherwise she got in Shean's bed, where she wasn't allowed to be. I ended up waking up Shean by accident and he jumped on me, thinking I was Kaet coming in to play a joke on him, so I found myself on the ground with Shean on his knees next to me and holding down my shoulders with his hands, glaring down at me. But he let me up when he realized what I was doing since Cyd decided to come over and pounce on my face at that moment. It was rather funny, I have to admit.
But other than that, the night was rather uneventful.
A/N: Okay, I now have a pretty decent loose plot, but I still would like input on what you think the characters will do in the next chapter, etc. if you have any and how you think the story is developing. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far; you keep me inspired to write! Please review, I really need to know how you think the characters are developing because otherwise I'm going to be kind of hung up for some of the coming chapters and I might have to pause in writing them until I get some feedback. Thanks!!
A/N2: Thanks for all the reviews, guys! It makes me feel so good! Thank you to my new reviewer, fineflyer, as well. Yes, I agree that she got 'into Earth' too easily, but everyone seemed to not want to spend as much time in Earth as back at Kyrria (I agree, since that's where most of the action will happen, and most of the gags are on Earth), but that's something I'm going to fix when I revise. By the way, any suggestions for the revision are welcome. And I'd REALLY like some input on how the characters are developing. Thanks. And I am SOOOOOOO sorry that Val doesn't get back to Kyrria in this chapter, but it was too funny to pass up and she goes back in the next chapter, which I have written and will hopefully update in a few days. (maybe after a few reviews? hint, hint I won't hold the story hostage for reviews, though, or hold my breath, either, heehee.)
And for those who aren't registered on , but would like notification when I update, you can add a little note in you review and your email and I will email you when I update. Or you can email me, but don't forget to tell me you emailed me in your review. Thanks! I love you guys!