Chapter Three

(Girl's just want to have fun)

Sarah couldn't help but feel both excited and nervous. Diane had been unsure about letting Sarah go to the lake but after Ari and the others had shown up she had agreed. Sarah had a feeling the tomboy could talk almost anyone into anything.

Ari was glad to see Sarah trying to hide her excitement. It was about time Sarah got out of the house and let loose. Sarah's stepmother had been unsure about letting the dark haired girl but after assuring the woman they would look after her she had been less hesitant. A private word that Ari wanted to help Sarah get a little innocent payback on some mean girls had made the woman involuntarily laugh. Ari had told the woman she understood her concern and was right to feel that way. She also assured the woman Sarah had friends now and would not be cast aside come Monday. With hope for her stepdaughter, the woman had agreed.

Brandy parked her white Tahoe in the designated parking area under a tree and the girls all got out. The air was warm but not hot. A gentle breeze blew that subconsciously made people relax.

"Shall we scout for our victims first?" Jenna suggested.

"Victims?" Sarah said a little concerned.

Ari laughed. "She means Delilah and her heard of sheep." Sarah let out an involuntary laugh at the girl's remark. She'd never heard of Delilah's group referred to as sheep before.

"Awe man. We should have brought cotton balls!" Lola complained.

"Cotton balls? What on earth for?" Jenna questioned.

"Actually that's a really good idea." Ari said getting a mischievous smile. Everyone but Lola looked at her questioningly. Lola took on a proud stance and smiled like a Cheshire cat.

"I'm almost afraid to ask." Sarah commented. Hearing a few snickers she looked at the other girl's.

"Yeah you'd be right to be hesitant on asking when Lola gets an off the wall idea and Ari agrees." Brandy remarked. Looking at Ari she said, "Am I making a run to the store?"

"Not just yet." Ari said.

"Are you at least going to tell us what cockeyed idea of Lola's we're being drawn into?" Jenna asked.

"What do sheep look like?" Ari asked.

"What does….cotton." Sarah said realizing. "You're going to throw cotton balls on them?!" She said with wide eyes.

"Throw?" Ari said. The tomboy sighed shaking her head at the dark haired girl. "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. You're very new to the art of pranks aren't you?" Sarah bit her lip.

"That's okay Sar. We'll teach you how to have fun." Brandy assured the girl dropping a supportive arm around her shoulders.

"They're sheep Sarah. Do sheep have their fur fall off when they walk?" Lola asked with a huge smile on her face.

"You're going to make the cotton stick to them." Sarah said realizing. The girls looked at her and nodded.

"You can watch or you can help." Ari told her. "It's your choice, but you can't tell them what we're up to."

"Why would I warn them about anything?" Sarah said cocking her head to the side. The basket ball team members smiled and nodded approvingly at her.

"Let's go take a walk and see who's here." Ari announced and they started toward the lake.

"Let us know if we run across any more of your tormenters." Brandy added. Sarah looked at her. "Might as well get as many as we can tonight." Sarah giggled and nodded.

Jareth watched from a nearby tree in his owl form. He couldn't help but feel pleased to see Sarah among a group of her peers. She'd been in the shadows for far too long. The King watched and listened to the girls with amusement.

It seemed Soren's daughter might have a mischievous side to her. He wasn't surprised exactly. The girl had dark elf blood in her. Still she had been raised in the mortal realm as a mortal. She had not grown up among the dark elves of who were as skilled at causing mischief as his goblins.

Once the girls had headed toward the lake, Jareth flew down to the ground and transformed into his Fae form within the shadows preventing anyone from seeing. Summoning a handful of goblins he waited.

"We play?" A short round fluffy looking goblin with a long tail that had a ball of orange fluff at the end asked in open hope.
Jareth smiled at the goblin named Whippley. "It is Ari and Sarah's night of fun." He watched as Whippley and the other goblins lowered their heads in defeat. "However you may help them." He added with a twinkle in his eye.

The goblins giggled and suddenly scurried away to help cause trouble wherever they could.

The King laughed at his goblins as they scurried away happily. Hearing a loud bang he absently thought of calling them back. "What's said is said." With a shrug the Goblin King transformed and took to the skies to find his Sarah and the Dark Elf King's daughter. He was looking forward to watching the girls have their fun.

The white owl landed in a tree and watched as the girls began walking past another group of girls.

"Ari? What are you doing with….her?" A girl with shoulder length brown hair questioned. She had two small pigtails in her hair but the rest was left down.

"What do you mean?" Jenna asked faking innocence.

"She's…"

"Her name is Sarah." Brandy hissed

"Mess with her Teresa and you mess with us." Jenna said in open warning.

Sarah had to fight the urge to laugh as the redhead's eyes widened in surprise. The dark haired girl also had to fight the urge to cry at her new friend's protectiveness. Any thought they'd abandon her come Monday vanished. She had friends. Ari, Lola, Jenna and Brandy knew about her fairytale addiction and were accepting of her. For the first time she felt happy around other people her age.

Without another word the group of teammates and Sarah walked away leaving the other well known girl and those around her speechless.

"I'm adding Teresa to the list." Jenna said as they continued on.

"She'll get hers." Ari assured her. She glanced at Sarah and was pleased the dark haired girl was walking with more confidence.

"I got Delilah covered but…I'm not sure about Teresa," Lola admitted.

"Not to worry it's covered." Brandy announced. Even Ari looked at her. "Well it will be on Monday."

"Monday? Why wait?" Jenna asked. Brandy smiled without a word.

"What did you do?" Lola asked knowingly.

"Let's just say she's going to find a surprise in her locker come Monday." The brown haired girl said, openly pleased with herself.

"You're not going to tell us are you?" Jenna said.

Brandy openly shrugged. "Why ruin the surprise?"

"Glad I'm not Teresa." Ari commented. Sarah looked at her questioningly. "The last time Brandy said that is when a certain car turned up in many pieces around the school."

Sarah gasped knowing exactly what car they were referring to. Everyone had shown up at school to find one of the Math teacher's cars in pieces all over the school.

"How did you do it?" Sarah asked with open amazement.

"That would be my part." Jenna admitted.

"Well Ari and I helped out by keeping others distracted." Lola told her.

"You do a lot of things together don't you?" Sarah commented.

"It's called always having an alibi." Brandy said. Sarah looked at the girls and shook her head. There was no way she was going to ask them to explain.

"Hey Ari!" The group looked over to see Mark Bryson and a group of other popular boys from school.

Sarah watched as Mark got down from the picnic table top and walked over with two of his buddies Doug and Brian. Sarah couldn't help but feel a little uneasy as the three boys approached. Doug Starks had taunted her several times in the past. In fact it had only been a few days since the last time he'd teased her. Bracing herself, she waited to be humiliated yet again.

"Nice game Thursday." Mark said looking the blonde girl over. "I have to admit I don't think I've ever made the shot you did."

"I guess I'm just more skilled." Ari said smoothly. It was both teasing and taunting at the same time. It was playful, but bordered arrogance as well.

Mark smirked. "You might have better skills on the court but I can show you some moves."

Ari inwardly groaned. Why was it Mark always felt the need to hit on her? The last thing she wanted was a guy annoying her with crappy lines. "Like you did Mary Sawyer? How many stitches was it?" She asked. Without waiting for a reply she walked away taking the group of girls with her.

"Was that Sarah Fantasy with her?" Doug asked concerned. He knew if Sarah and Ari had become friends that Sarah would have to be left alone. He enjoyed taunting Sarah but not enough to want to incur Ari's wrath.

The girls made their way around the lake and found Delilah and her girls but didn't approach.

"We found them but we still don't have any cotton." Brandy said.

"No but that doesn't mean we can't do something else." Ari said.

"Sarah!" The group looked to see Doug walk up with a couple other people. Instantly Sarah braced for impact.

"What do you want Doug?" Ari asked flatly.

"I just wanted to apologize for being an ass the other day." He said holding up his hands in defense. Looking at the dark haired girl he said, "It won't happen again."

"Looking to make restitution?" Ari asked leadingly.

The three teenage boys looked at each other before looking at the basketball captain in a somewhat defeated manner. "What do you want us to do?" Doug asked dreading what she might say.

"Don't worry, nothing bad." Ari said. "We just want you to get Delilah's attention for a couple minutes, five minutes from now."

"Delilah?!" He said looking fearful.

"Come on Doug it won't be hard," Brandy said. "She's been trying to get your attention for two weeks."

"Why would… what are you up to?" Tim said, knowing they had to be up to something.

"Why ruin the surprise?" Sarah quipped. The three boys looked at Sarah openly surprised.

The third boy, Jason, actually smiled at the dark haired girl. "Alright we'll do it." Ari and Sarah nodded in almost unison. The three guys turned and started to walk away.

"Why did we agree to this?" Tim asked.

"Keep our ass out of trouble." Doug said.

"We'll get a good laugh out of it." Jason added.

Ari waited till the boys were out of hearing range and looked at Sarah. "You ready?"

Sarah reached over to the concession stand and picked up a packet of sugar and tossed it at her. "You know, I think I am."

"Alright!" Jenna said and smacked hands with Brandy.

"Sarah you're a genius!" Ari said taking the packet from her.

"I am?" Sarah asked.

"Yes. Brandy you and Jenna get the left over water from the back of the Tahoe." Ari told them. They didn't question her and immediately headed for the truck. "Sarah, gather some sugar packets. A lot of them."

"Okay," Sarah replied. The dark haired girl had no idea what the blonde girl was thinking but was certainly curious.

"What about me?" Lola questioned.

"Get something that's slippery. Or at least if stepped on will offset a person's balance."

"Gobstoppers?" Lola suggested.

"That'll work." Ari said. Immediately the girls went to work.

They watched as the boys got Delilah's attention and went to work.

Sarah giggled as she, Ari and Brandy began to disperse amounts of sugar water around the area Delilah and her friends were hanging out. The girls were so distracted by the boys they didn't notice what was going on behind them. Lola placed the gobstoppers so they wouldn't be seen while Jenna dispersed random packs of sugar. Finished they backed away.

"I think they need saving." Jenna commented.

"Yeah. You guys head to the other side. Sarah and Lola and I will meet you there." Ari said. "Get ready for the next prank." The two girls nodded and walked away.

Ari walked toward the group with Sarah on her left and Lola on her right. "Hey Doug." The trio of boys turned toward them and she knew the boys were relieved to see her.

"Hey Sarah." Jason said as if they'd always been friends.

"Wait you know…."Delilah started. As far as she knew Jason and Sarah didn't have any classes together.

"Sarah? Yeah." He said with a shrug. "What about it?"

Ari ignored Delilah or even the fact Jason had addressed her and said, "Are you up for playing a game against us during practice on Monday?"

"Yeah sure." He replied.

"Good." Looking at Doug she said, "Can I borrow your tire jack?"

"Uh. Sure." He said. Without even saying bye, the group of guys walked away from Delilah and her friends and went with the trio of girls.

"Ari, why do you want to borrow my jack?" Doug asked once they were far enough away they wouldn't be heard.

"Why would I need your tire jack?" Ari asked. "Brandy drove."

Jason smirked. "Thanks for the save."

"Sure." The blonde haired girl replied. They waited till they were out of view and headed their separate ways. The girls had more pranks to set up.

Jareth sat perched in a tree watching his goblins and the group of girls Ari and Sarah were part of. His goblins were becoming impatient wanting to cause mischief of their own but Jareth kept them at bay. That is until the first scream sounded.

"AHHHH!" Delilah screamed.

Instantly her and her girls started screaming as they were attacked by both mosquitoes and ants. The girl laughed as they frantically tried to get away from the bugs and began slipping on the hidden gobstoppers and an assortment of other things she'd found, including a couple pieces of plastic.

Jareth watched in such amusement as the girls became so frantic they even began to run into each other as they tried to escape. It was only a few moments more and another series of screams erupted further away. The goblin king didn't even try to stop his goblins as they suddenly got into the act. Internally Jareth sighed. It was going to be a late night.

Jareth enjoyed his goblins mischievous tendencies, but once they got riled up it usually took a while before they wound down, especially in the mortal realm.

Three seconds later more screams ripped through the night air. The only thing the Goblin King wasn't sure of was which screams were created by his Goblins and which Sarah and her new found friends were responsible for.

Sarah was still laughing as they arrived back at her house. By the end of the night they had brought about a mosquito and ant infestation, caused two guys to end up glued to a table together, unfortunately for them it, didn't look good. They'd caused a few people to get covered in ice cream, disconnected a fellow student's car battery, were responsible for letting some air out of a few tires and had bombarded several people with water balloons. Sarah couldn't remember a time when she'd ever had more fun.

The girls were responsible for many of the pranks pulled, but had no idea how Delilah's car had ended up in the lake. Jenna had gotten mad that she hadn't thought to put it there, but after Ari pointed out that could get them caught and potentially kicked off the basketball team, she decided it was okay someone else had done it.

"Thanks. That was a lot of fun." Sarah said just before she got out.

"You're welcome. You ride the bus normally right?" Brandy said.
"Yes." Sarah said nodding.

"Bus is way too early." Jenna said. Sarah nodded. She hated riding the bus.

"Don't ride the bus Monday. I'll pick you up after I get Jenna." Brandy told her.

"You will?" Sarah asked surprised.

Brandy smiled. "Sure. Jenna is only two streets over from you and you're on the way. I'll be here about 7 okay?"

"Alright. Bye." Sarah got out of the car and walked into her house.

"Sarah." Diane said pleased to see her. "How was it?"

Sarah smiled. "It was the best!" She said and hugged her. "Thanks for letting me go."

Diane smiled at her step daughter. "I'm glad you had fun. I have to admit I wanted to say no but... there's just something about that girl Ari. I think she could be a good friend to you."

"Me too. I'm wiped."

"Go get some sleep." Sarah nodded and headed up the stairs still smiling. "Thank you Ari." Diane told the empty room. Maybe now Sarah would come out of her shell.

Jareth stood next to a tree and, no longer in his owl form, shook his head. Sarah and Ari had certainly caused mischief, but his goblins had caused their own. He watched as Delilah stomped her foot in anger at her car being in the lake. Anyone the girls had played pranks on his goblins decided to prank as well. Unfortunately they'd also caused a few mishaps with a few of the fires that were supposed to be there and lit a few fires of their own. One fire in particular had caused a panic but had eventually been contained. There were also several teenagers now trying to find missing keys.

"Ready to go home?" The Goblin King inquired as Whippley appeared at his side.

"Like Ari. She fun. Lady Sarah learn to be fun too."

"I do believe you're right." With that the Goblin King and his goblins vanished to the Underground.

***The next Chapter will focus more on Jareth and Soren and Less on Ari and Sarah. A new Character will also be introduced.