Chapter 9

Jerks or Jocks

Even though Maggie had fallen through the ground, she fell out of the sky. "Ahh!" Maggie screamed as she kept falling and eventually landed in a tree. "Ow! Oof!" she said as she hit the branches.

To stop herself, she grabbed onto one of the branches with both hands. "Where am I?" Maggie said as she looked around to see that she was in a tall peach tree; in fact, she had fallen into a huge peach orchard with the same tall trees all around her and a path that kept running somewhere off in the distance.

She looked down and saw that she was high up. Maggie closed her eyes and then looked up. CRACK! The branch that Maggie hung onto was breaking off and Maggie knew she had to do something. "Maybe I can climb down." she thought as she extended one hand to reach another nearby branch. CRACK! Maggie quickly put her hand back and gave a small whimper. Even the slightest move would send her tumbling down and she couldn't hold on forever….

"Do you need help up there?" called up a voice. Maggie looked down to see Hunter and noticed that he had changed again. Now he was wearing black knee high boots, dark grey tights, and a black poet's shirt with black gloves. "No, I don't need help." Maggie called down as the branch gave another loud crack. Hunter chuckled. "Why don't you just climb down?"

"I can't. If I move, the branch will break off." she replied. Hunter put his hands on his hips. "So?"

Maggie sighed. "So, if it breaks, then I'll break my leg or hands or something. And I need my hands so I can play my guitar." CRACK! "Well, that branch looks like it's going to fall off any minute. How about you jump and I'll catch you?" Hunter said as he extended his arms in front of him. Maggie looked at him as if he was crazy. But what choice did she have? Maggie squeezed her eyes shut. "Okay", she thought, "1, 2, 3!"

She let go just as the branch broke off. Hunter caught her in his arms and stepped back. The branch fell with a muffled thud and shook loose some leaves and peaches. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Hunter said lightly as Maggie had her head buried in his neck. He could feel her rapid breath against his skin. "Look at that, you actually have her in your arms. Way to go Romeo." his inner voice said giving a thumbs up.

Maggie opened eye, the other still squeezed shut. She blushed. "I think you can put me down now." Maggie said as she leapt out of his arms. "Hold on, what happened here?" Hunter said as he grabbed Maggie's wrist. She didn't even notice the bloody cuts on her palms.

"Nothing." Maggie said as she tried to pull away but failed when Hunter grabbed her other wrist. "Oh I think something defiantly did happen." he said as he examined her palms. "Well, no shit Sherlock." Maggie rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to help you or not?" Hunter asked as he looked up at Maggie.

"Oh come on! You can't resist an offer from him. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?" Maggie's inner voice said and Maggie tried to force away a blush.

She sighed. "Okay, but don't try anything funny." Hunter smiled and lightly kissed both her hands. Maggie watched as the cuts healed and the blood vanished. "There", Hunter said as he let go and crossed his arms, "You know, you should really trust me." Maggie looked up from examining her hands. "You really expect me to trust you after you completely rearranged part of the labyrinth?"

"Hey, I helped you get into the labyrinth." Hunter retorted. Maggie rolled her eyes and looked around before walking onto the path. "Well, thanks. But I have a castle I have to get to." she said as she started walking and then stopped, not exactly sure where she was going.

"You don't know which way to go, do you?" Hunter said as he walked up next to her. "Come on, this way." he explained as he started walking up the little hill and onto the main path, Maggie running to catch up.

"Why are you helping me?" Maggie said as she walked up next to him.

"Because I want to get out of geography class."

"Oh, so your ditching?" Maggie smiled.

"Yeah, so? It's not like I haven't done that before."

"I'm not saying you haven't. I even ditch class myself."

Hunter turned to look at her. "You? But you have easy classes. You don't have to learn about war strategy or royal politics or magic or anything of the sort."

"No, but I have to learn about things like math and science that I will most likely never use outside of high school. It's just…."

"Boring?" Hunter smiled.

"Yeah. Class just goes by so slow, you know?"

Hunter chuckled. "Yeah, I know. That's why I'm not doing so good at my studies."

Maggie looked at him. "How do you expect to be king if you keep failing?" Hunter looked on ahead. "I don't know, I like to think I'll figure it out once I'm king. Learn by doing, I suppose. And what about you? How do you expect to be a knowledgeable adult if you keep failing?"

"Well, I figured I'll understand things better when I'm older", Maggie replied, "Besides, I rather be hanging out with my friends then sitting in a boring classroom."

"Do you hang out with your friends often?" Hunter asked.

"Sometimes. Honestly, I don't have many friends. I don't click with many people in my school. I'm sure you're very popular, though."

Hunter shook his head. "No. Everyone else is either too old or too young. So I don't really have any friends."

Maggie felt kind of sorry for him. "You mean you've never went to the movies or a concert or something with anyone?" Hunter shook his head again. "Nope. But I've watched people in the Aboveground. I guess I've always felt jealous of them. My parents don't really trust me to go Aboveground yet."

Maggie thought about it. "I would feel jealous too if I saw friends laughing or couples smiling."

"And do you have, um….?" Hunter said, flustered.

"A boyfriend? Oh, no. But there's this one guy. His name is Tony and, like, every girl in school has a crush on him. He's on the football team; number four to be exact."

Hunter could feel a little jealousy rise within him. "She even knows his jersey number?!" he thought. "Sounds like you really like him."

"Well, I did until today. He pushed me into my locker and called me a freak. He never even apologized. He just kept walking while laughing and high fiving his friends."

"We'll see who's laughing and high fiving after I'm done with you." Hunter thought. He could already count a dozen ways he'd get back at Tony.

"But it's not like I really care and besides, he's the one that's missing out." Maggie continued. "It's whatever. All the guys at my school are either jerks or jocks." She sighed. "Well, I guess I have to get going. How much time do I have left?"

The two stopped walking and Hunter waved back the silver clock. "Six hours. But you still have some ways to go." He waved the clock away. "Six hours?! Dammit!" Maggie said as she started to run ahead then abruptly stopped. She turned around and walked back up to Hunter. "And thanks for catching me." she said softly as she kissed him on the cheek before taking off down the path again.

Hunter put a gloved hand where she kissed him. He was glad Maggie couldn't see him or she would laugh at his dumbfounded face. "If you thought that that was amazing, imagine if she actually kisses you." he thought. Hunter could feel his heart do cartwheels as he stood there with the biggest smile on his face.

Jareth, Avalyn, Sarah, and Mark sat at a round table in the castle's main garden while drinking delicious nectar from one of the labyrinth's many plants. They were looking into one of Jareth's crystals and saw the whole scene between Hunter and Maggie.

Avalyn gave a little laugh. "How cute!" Jareth smiled and looked at Sarah. "Well it looks like your daughter has a crush on my son." he said as he took a sip of his drink. Sarah put down her cup. "What?! Jareth, please. I think your son has a crush on my daughter." Mark stared at the crystal. "Personally I don't like any of it. I'm too young to have a daughter that has a boyfriend." "But they connect on so many levels and they make such a cute pair." Avalyn said as she took a sip. Sarah gave a chuckle. "See, I told you that they had a thing." she exclaimed as she nudged her husband. "Well I still refuse to believe it." Mark said as he looked into his empty cup.

"Do you need more?" Avalyn asked. "Yeah, that would be great." Mark said as Avalyn waved her hand and the cup magically refilled it's self. "Do you guys always do that? I mean, use magic to do things?" Mark said as he took a sip. Jareth put down his cup. "Yes. It's quite handy; especially when you're too lazy to do it yourself." He and Avalyn chuckled.

"Magic would be helpful to have around the house." Sarah said. "And where do you live?" Avalyn asked. "Well", Sarah smiled, "It's a white house, two stories, and I planted a rose garden in front…." "Do you like to garden?" Avalyn inquired with interest. Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I do. I don't get to garden too often though because of work and all. But I'm guessing that all this was done with magic?" Sarah said as she looked around.

Avalyn smiled. "Most of this garden was already here before I got married. I just planted a few things, but by hand of course. It's one of my many hobbies." "Oh, I see…" Sarah said as she took a sip. "I imagine you have a lot of time to have many hobbies when you're not taking care of your son or subjects." Mark said and Avalyn smiled as the conversation continued.

"Well this is nice", Jareth thought as he sat there and watched the three laughing and getting along, "I think I can finally say that a beautiful friendship is going to bloom."

He watched Sarah who was actually genially smiling for once. Just then Sarah turned to him. "And what about you Jareth? Do you have any hobbies?" she said with a friendly smile. Jareth returned that smile. "Does kicking goblins and bogging things count?" he asked. Sarah gave a little laugh while Mark and Avalyn smiled.

"Yup", he thought as he took another sip, "I think I have finally been promoted from villain."