Chapter Twenty Nine – STALKER!

It was winter break and Christmas was fast approaching. The girls finally left Irma alone, as they went out for family time with their parents (or in Will's case, her mom). Irma took this as her opportunity to go Christmas shopping. She still had to shop for all of her friends and her family.

Irma quickly made her way to Baubles, Hay Lin's favorite craft store, in hopes of finding the perfect gift for her best friend. The weather was just cold enough to turn Irma's red nose, and surprisingly, it wasn't snowing. There were only two days until Christmas. Usually, by now, Heatherfield would be covered in a blanket of snow. It would be a matter of time before the snow came down in great gusts, Irma guessed. She couldn't wait.

Even as a girl of 15 and a half (not to mention very pregnant), she soared with glee at the site of the sheer white falling from the sky. There was nothing like throwing a couple of snowballs at your friend and then running inside for cocoa.

As Irma neared Baubles, she couldn't help but give a little twirl in the air for finally being alone. The door jingled as she entered the store, alerting the clerk of her presence. Irma quickly scanned the store, to make sure none of her friends were there, before setting out to get the perfect gift.

It took Irma quite awhile, before she finally decided to get her friend a pack of 25 crayons that could be used on clothing. Then Irma went to the corner of the store to get her friend a charm for her bracelet, like she had done for her friend since they had met.

There was a wide variety of charms, many that Irma had looked at and some she had bought for her friend for various occasions. A new twirling rack caught her eye, which had many little heart shaped charms. Irma picked one up and read words inside the heart.

I
heart
Paul

Irma giggled, as she put it back, and then searched for one with Eric. She found the silver heart among the other names that began with 'E' and quickly took it off the hook. After examining it, to make sure it was flawless, she took it to the cahier to make her purchase.

For the next two hours Irma bought Will an adorable necklace with a little goggley-eyed frog, Taranee a basketball signed by some famous basketball player that she had never heard of, but was sure Taranee had, and her brother a pair of socks.

As Irma made her way to the toy store to get Cornelia a plush cat, she couldn't noticing a person dressed in a trench coat behind her a ways, and she couldn't help feeling that he had been following her for a while. Irma watched plenty of television, and on all the shows a man following you in a trench coat was not good news. Irma pushed her way through the late holiday crowd to get into the warm atmosphere of the toy store. Irma had not time to enjoy the comfortable mood in the shop, because the man was making his way into the store too.

With her heart pounding, Irma shifted all of her two bags (she had put some of the smaller bags in the larger ones) to her left arm, and went to the stuffed toy section, her eyes on the walking trench coat that was following her. Whoever was following her stayed a couple feet away from her, pretending to look at a Raggedy-Anne doll, their hat pulled over their face.

Irma quickly took a fuzzy gray and white cat, and took it up to the cashier to purchase. When asked if she wanted it wrapped, Irma asked to have a ribbon tied around its neck. The woman behind the counter politely obliged, tying a large pink ribbon around the cat's neck. Irma thanked her and left, stuffing the cat into the bag with Hay Lin's and Will's gifts.

The whoever also left the store, and tracked her down to a flower shop, where Irma was to buy her mom – her real mom – a bouquet of flowers. When Irma got to the front door, she changed her mind. She had to resolve her stalker problem right now, before she had a heart attack.

So she backtracked, and walked down a quieter street, with less people. If it ended up being guardian business, she really didn't want to end up explaining to her parents why she, on a regular basis, had gone out in skimpy clothes and saved the world.

The trenched coat man (she could only assume it was a man) backtracked too. Irma slowed her steps, and stopped by a vending machine, while the man continued walking, with his head down, not noticing Irma had stopped.

When the stalker stopped, Irma pounced. She jumped atop the man and pounded him with her fists, the best she could do. When his hat fell to the ground, Irma was shocked as she looked into the familiar face of…

"CALEB!"

Author Note – Such nice reviews I get. TT I love you all. Thank you for all the support! Cookies for all, because you all deserve it. -

And I am being dragged off for a stupid vacation. Help me. I will be back in time to update, so no worries to you all.

Also, I do plan to rewrite ALL of the chapters before I do the sequel, so please, please tell me if you find any problems with the story, tell me. I want to work out all the kinks before I do the sequel.