Before I do anything, I would like to say…I'm sorry. I should have updated this sooner and I really let a lot of my faithful reviewers down. I know you guys haven't seen anything new from me since Thanksgiving (when I last updated Sparkling Waters) and I really apologize for that. It's unlike me, but I have a lot going on and I'm kind of stressed out over a whole crap-load of things. Again, I am truly sorry, and for that, this chapter is quite over 1,000 words or so.
Please enjoy the long-awaited, and best in my opinion, chapter of Weirdness!
Chapter 8: Dance Fever!
Sirius' red van came to a slow stop in front of the girls' school. It was snowing lightly, but it was extremely cold outside. Students were walking out of cars meeting their friends as even more vehicles pulled up to the gym area of the building. Loud music could be heard from inside the gym and parent volunteers showed up to work on a few decorations, food preparation, making sure no one stays in the restrooms for an awfully long time, and checking to make sure students aren't making out with their significant others out on the dance floor.
"Hey, weren't we here earlier?" Wakka asked, jumping out of the van.
"No dip! It's our freaking school!" Hikaru obnoxiously reminded the blitz player.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, ya!" Wakka said, rubbing the back of his thick neck.
"Dude, can you even think?"
"No he can't" Lulu butted in.
"Hey, that hurt Lu."
"You don't appear to be in any pain, Wakka." Lulu said, I small smile tugging at her lips. Joking with Wakka was a great way to pass the time, because Wakka actually didn't know Lulu was joking around.
"I'm hurt on the inside, ya!"
"Tch" Lulu rolled her eyes and faced the opposite direction of the red-head. "So, are we even allowed in here?"
"Yes, are my guardians and I allowed inside?" Yuna asked, gracefully stepping out of Sirius' family vehicle. "I recall you and Sirius talking about Identification cards, Hikaru."
(A.N. Okay, I don't know about you guys, but our school requires you to have an I.D. card with you to go to dances and stuff. It has your school picture, homeroom number and grade. So, yeah, Hikaru and Sirius have their cards, but they totally forgot about their new friends' cards. Now, back to the story about love, hate, friendship, and total weirdness!)
"OH NO, NO DA!" Sirius shrieked. "We forgot about THEIR I.D. cards! DARN!" The thirteen year old stomped her foot on the ice-covered pavement as she emerged form the van. She slipped and fell right on her butt. (A.N. Okay, the no da thing means 'you know' in Japanese. If you've read the manga Fushigi Yugi, you know what this is. One of the characters adds a 'no da' to the end of pretty much every sentence he says, so Sirius started saying it. If it annoys you…too bad, because I hear it a lot, and from her actual mouth! Sirius, if you're reading this, which you probably are, please don't take any 'no da' comments personally. Sorry about all of the A.N. stuff. A lot has happened since October.)
"Are you okay?" asked Yuna.
"Aww, now the pavement hates me!" Sirius whimpered and clutched onto Auron. "Help me Aurrie!"
"Come on! Can we get inside soon?" complained Rikku. "It feels like it's getting colder! A lot colder!"
"Didn't you hear" Tidus said, hopping out of the van. "We don't have identification cards."
"So how are we gonna do this?" Rikku panicked, trying not to slip on the ice as well.
Hikaru looked at the doors of the school and out of her outstanding peripheral vision, she saw Kimahri get out of the van. He had a very strange expression on his face, a horrific expression accompanied by shaking fists and unsteady walking. Hikaru walked over to him with her eyebrow raised. "Hey, buddy, are you okay? Are you scared or something? Oh, I know! You saw a really hot Ronso woman and you fell madly in love with her, but before you could tell her your true feelings, Sirius' PS2 brought you here! Now, you're wondering if she's all right, or if she feels the same way about you! Whoa, Kimahri, I never knew!"
"Kimahri did meet Ronso woman, but that is not Kimahri's current problem" said the big, blue, clay-eating creature.
"Then what's the beef with you?"
"Kimahri must relieve…Kimahri."
After a moment of hesitation Hikaru shouted "OH GOD NO! PLEASE NO!"
"What's the matter?" asked Yuna.
"The freaking Ronso has to go to the bathroom!" Hikaru said, pushing Kimahri toward the tree behind the van. "Pee, poop, then get your big blue butt right back over with us! Understand?"
"But, what if Kimahri's urine…freezes" asked the Ronso nervously.
"JUST GO! IT'S JUST ABOUT TIME FOR US TO GO INSIDE!" Hikaru shouted and turned around to give Kimahri some privacy.
"Kimahri go."
"Yeah, Kimahri had better be going."
After Kimahri relieved himself the group of friends began thinking more and more about how to get into the gym. Finally, Auron's light bulb (and voice) came on.
"I have a plan, and it just might work" he said grinning ear to ear.
"Hurry, what is it, ya?" Wakka asked impatiently.
"Here's what we'll do. Hikaru and Sirius will enter the gymnasium with their I.D. cards, just as ordinary students would. While they are heading inside, the rest of us will hide in the van, so we are able to see what they're doing and when they come out again. Plus, we can stay warm that way. The two girls will find some parent volunteer nametags and a good writing utensil from the front table when no one is looking. Then, Hikaru, since you claim to be a ninja, you will sneak out with the items and give them to us. While that is going on, Sirius will keep watch from inside. The seven of us will write our names on the name tags and enter with Hikaru as volunteers. From there, we can just head right to the dance floor."
Everyone blinked in amazement. What a brilliant idea! It just had to work!
Sirius squealed in delight and jumped into Auron's arms, nearly knocking the legendary guardian over.
"What a great plan, Aurrie-pie, no da! I knew you were brilliant! Yay!"
"Thanks," Auron said with his eye twitching. He peeled Sirius off of him. "Well," he began, wiggling Sirius off his left leg. "We just have to see if this plan will work. I'm getting really bored of just standing around out here. It's almost our turn to go inside, and I bet Hikaru the author is getting bored of writing this sentence." (A.N. Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about Auron! Dance Fever, here we come!)
So, Yuna and her guardians ran into the red van and watched Auron's plan begin.
The seventh graders walked inside and immediately began searching for a writing utensil and the name tags.
"God, where could they be?" Hikaru questioned angrily, searching one of the nearby tables.
"I don't know no da. What are we gonna do if we can't find any?"
"Use filthy scraps of paper and a rock or keep them out there for two hours."
"No! We can't do that! That would be mean, no da! Aurrie is out there and this is his idea. We should do our best!"
"Hey, I was joking about the rock and paper scrap thing. I wouldn't do that either!"
Sure enough, Sirius picked up a roll of name tags off of the floor and Hikaru swiped a pen from under a vending machine.
"Unbelievable…"said Hikaru, smiling.
"It's like a blessing from God!" Sirius exclaimed, pretending to pray. "It's just like in the movies. The heroes always find an answer to their dilemmas!"
Sirius stayed put while Hikaru snuck out behind a group of cheerleaders and sprinted back to the van. "Hey guys! I'm back with a pen and name tags!" she said holding up her prizes.
"Good" said Lulu. "You found some name tags."
"Some? We found a whole crap-load of 'em and the parents didn't even notice that I snuck out!"
"Let's not just stand in here and celebrate" Auron began as he picked up the pen and a name tag. "Write your stupid names on these and let's get the heck out of here and get in there! I'm sure Author Hikaru wants to get to the good part of this chapter! (A.N. You bet I do, Auron!)
Again, just like in the movies, the parents were totally oblivious to the fact that Hikaru re-entered and a strange group of people came in claiming to be parents of twelve, thirteen and fourteen year olds. Only heaven knows how Kimahri managed to get in there. One of the "smarter" moms actually noticed Kimahri's unique appearance. She walked over to him and said "Sir? Who and what are you? Are you sure you're a parent volunteer?"
"Kimahri is the Magical Christmas Blue Thingy" said Sirius, smiling at the Ronso. "It's a new tradition in some foreign country. He's just here to share cultural information about this tradition!"
"Oh, all right. Just, be careful and try not to mess anything up" the mother replied as her eyebrow raised. She quickly turned around and headed to the snack and drink table.
Hikaru waltzed over to Sirius and Kimahri with a cup of soda pop in her hand. "Nice one guys! Magical Christmas Blue Thingy…HA! That's pretty clever!"
"Thanks" Sirius looked around "But where did Kimahri go?"
"What? Kimahri?" Hikaru looked around as well. "Where in the world did that bid 'ol ball of fur go?"
"Does this answer your question?" Sirius pointed to the ceiling. "It seems Kimahri got a hold of some duct tape…"
One of Ken's friends was taped to the ceiling, staring at Kimahri as the Ronso pointed his spear at him.
"KIMAHRI, STOP THAT!" Sirius shrieked and dragged Kimahri to the dance floor and left Ken's buddy on the ceiling.
"Where have you three been?" asked Yuna as Hikaru approached with Kimahri. "We thought you got lost."
"Nah. We can't get lost here. It's where we go to school!" Hikaru said happily.
"We're glad we found you!" Rikku piped up "because we haven't seen Auron and Sirius anywhere. They just walked off somewhere! And Auron-"
"Actually" Lulu interrupted, kicking one of Ken's goonies who was trying to look up her skirt. "Sirius dragged Auron into a dark corner on the other side of the gym. I saw it all."
"Why didn't you tell us that before, Lu?"
"No one asked about it until now."
"Oh, be quiet you two! I'll go get Auron and Sirius. You guys stay here and dance" said Hikaru as she ran off into the sea of dancing students. Minutes later, she found Sirius on Auron's lap in a corner of the gym.
"Oh, Hikaru! Thank Yevon!" Auron shouted as he got up. Sirius slipped off of his lap and fell to the hard ground on her butt.
"Someone's unusually happy to see me…"Hikaru raised her eyebrow. "What happened, Auron?"
"This woman" Auron said extremely angrily, pointing his finger at Sirius "will not leave me alone! Get her away from me! There is something majorly wrong with her!" Sirius gave him her puppy-dog face as her eyes watered.
"A-Aurrie-pie, I thought w-we had a-a special r-relation-sh-ship, a special b-bond" Sirius wept.
"Listen, Sirius" Auron tried to comfort her. "I see you as a good friend, because I think a thirteen year old and a thirty five year old is a really weird couple. Is it okay if we're just good friends?"
Sirius wiped her eyes and smiled. "That's just fine, Auron."
Hikaru rolled her green eyes and made her way back to Yuna and the others. Sirius and Auron followed right behind her. When they got back to the group's original area, Wakka was the only one there.
"Okay, where the crap did everyone go?" Hikaru exclaimed, smacking Wakka across the face.
"Hey! I didn't do anything, ya!"
"EXACTLY!"
"What happened, Wakka" Auron asked calmly.
"Okay, a bunch of jerks came over and took Lulu and Rikku. Yuna and Tidus went off somewhere together, and Kimahri…only Yevon knows where he went."
"This can't be happening" Sirius said, cupping her hand to her head. "Here's what we'll do…find everyone…now!"
"I found Rikku" Wakka pointed behind Hikaru and saw Rikku being pushed against a wall by one of Ken's goonies.
"Eeew! Get away from me, you piece of crap!" Rikku shouted, trying to punch him, but he pinned her wrists against the wall.
"No way, babe. You're too hot to be in middle school. What's your name, hottie?"
"GRENADE, YOU SON OF A SHOPUFF!" Rikku kicked him where the sun doesn't shine and grabbed one of her grenades from the pocket of her skirt. He backed away and Rikku threw the grenade at him.
"RUN AWAY!" he shouted, sprinting toward the other side of the gym.
Rikku giggled as she picked up the grenade and shoved it back into her pocket. "Works every time! I jus love bluffing!"
Hikaru and Wakka ran over to the clever Al Bhed girl.
"Nice work, Rikku!" Hikaru complimented. "Now, have you seen the others?"
"No I haven't" she said. "Let's go look for them!"
Meanwhile, Auron and Sirius were in the middle of the crowd of dancing students.
"How are we going to find them in here?" Sirius asked Auron loudly, so her voice could be heard over the loud music.
"What?" asked Auron.
"HOW ARE WE GOING TO FIND THE OTHERS IN HERE?"
"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU SIRIUS! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPEAK UP!"
"I SEE THEM! I SEE YUNA WITH TIDUS!"
The loud music died down as a slower song came on and couples began to sway with the soft music. Yuna and Tidus were one of those couples.
"I'm sure they won't find us in here" Tidus told Yuna sweetly.
"Yes, but what if they find us? I don't want them to find out about our relationship" Yuna said to him, laying her head on his shoulder.
"They won't, I'm sure." Tidus smiled and leaned in to kiss Yuna. She leaned in as well. They were about an inch apart, but they were interrupted by a loud voice.
"Here you are!" Sirius shouted and jumped on Tidus' back.
"What were you two doing" Auron asked Yuna.
"Nothing! We-we-we we were…we…um…you see…me…Tidus…were…um…" Yuna stuttered.
"Don't worry about it" Auron said. "Just try not to wander off again."
Hikaru, Rikku, and Wakka reunited with Yuna, Tidus, Sirius, and Auron and began searching for Lulu and Kimahri.
"Where could they be?" Tidus asked himself, peeping his head over the huge crowd.
"Look its Lulu with Kimahri" Rikku pointed to the drink table. Lulu rushed over to them with Kimahri right behind.
"Hi folks!" she said happily.
"Lu, is everything okay? You ain't yourself, ya."
"Shut up Wakka" was Lulu's reply, followed by a swing of something in a can.
"Oh my God" Hikaru shouted, grabbing the can from the usually stoic black mage. "Is this stuff spiked or something?"
"I dunnnnoooooo!" Lulu giggled and spun around. "It makes me hyper!"
"The drink isn't spiked. It's just Lulu's first time having pop. Besides, why would parents hand out soda cans with alcohol in them?" Sirius explained.
"You're right. No more pop for Lulu" Hikaru looked at Lulu and frowned. "Forgive me." She smacked Lulu on the head, returning her to her natural, stoic state.
"What happened" asked the black mage, scratching her scalp.
"Sugar high!" said Rikku.
"Well, let's just pretend that never happened, ya!"
"Whatever, Wakka."
"Hey, Lulu!" said Sirius, grinning evilly.
"Oh Yevon, what now?"
"Do you want to dance?"
"With you, Sirius?"
"No! With…your good buddy Wakka!"
"WHAT?"
"Hey Wakka, can you please come over here?" Sirius asked.
"Sure, ya!" he came over to Lulu and Sirius. "What's up?"
"Come near me, please." Wakka obeyed and Sirius jumped on his back and tied duct tape around him and Lulu.
"What is the meaning of this?" Lulu asked angrily, struggling to break free. "I demand an answer!"
"Oh…just a little game! I want to see how you two look together!"
"I hate you, Sirius…" Lulu nibbled at the duct tape while Wakka stood there motionless.
"Dance together!" Sirius clapped her hands as a slow song played.
Wakka and Lulu swayed back and forth to the music.
"What is the purpose of this?" Lulu asked Wakka angrily.
"The girls are just having fun, ya! Let them have fun, okay. Besides, it's only for one song."
"True, I guess this won't hurt."
After the song ended, the duct tape was unraveled, torn off, and destroyed. After the group got together again, someone came up behind Sirius and poked her.
"Hey guys! What's up?" It was Misha, Excel, Shockwave, Ha-Chan, and the girls' other friend Suzuka, A.K.A. taybay500.
"Whatcha doing?" asked Shockwave.
"Oh, just having a jolly good time!" Hikaru replied, smiling. "When did you guys get here?"
"About five minutes ago. We didn't come right when the dance started. We went to the movies" Excel explained.
"Suzuka, are you familiar with the game Final Fantasy X?" asked Sirius.
"Yeah, I borrowed your copy of the game, didn't I?" She turned around to see Yuna and her guardians standing right behind her.
"Oh…my…HOLY-" Hikaru covered Suzuka's mouth before she could say any more.
"Pretty cool, huh?" said Ha-Chan.
"How did this happen?" asked Suzuka.
"A little PlayStation 2 accident" Rikku said smiling.
"They talk too! Wow!"
"Of course they talk!" said Misha. "They even came to school today! Don't tell me you missed that!"
"I wasn't there for half of the day. I wouldn't have seen them."
The conversation was interrupted by loud, cheery music.
"Hey! I actually know this song!" Hikaru shouted.
"It's really loud!" Yuna covered her small ears.
"This song is called the Cha-cha slide…and we're all dancing to it!" Sirius said, pulling everyone onto the dance floor.
"How exactly do we dance to this song" asked Tidus.
"Listen to what the dude says in the song!" Sirius explained.
At the singer's command, the group moved along the dance floor. The guardians and Yuna seemed to really like the song, rather than the other crap that was played all throughout the night. The song ended, followed by some really weird rap song.
"Enough dancing!" said Misha, holding up her hands. "This song sucks, so we'd better stop…for the moment."
"Sounds like a plan!" said Yuna. "How can people stand this music? It's awful!"
"Exactly why we hate it so much" Excel told the summoner. "I didn't pay three dollars to come into school for an extra two hours to listen to this crap. A complete waste of three bucks. I could have saved this money up to buy a manga volume or something cool, but no, I waste my three dollars standing around and walking through our school's large, unsanitized gym . Why do I even bother coming to these events? They're all a waste of time, food, and decorations. I mean, the decorations will probably only be used once and then thrown away! Our school wastes so much money on unncessasary things, we don't get decent cafeteria food, supplies, and updated text books! I should report this…" With all that said Excel turned around and headed to the money collection table.
"What was that about" Yuna asked herself. "She sure likes to talk a lot." Yuna fainted and fell to the cold, hard floor. She was being trampled by a bunch of rude, stupid, somewhat homosexual, popular kids when Hikaru rushed over.
"Have you no respect for Spira's one last hope!" she shouted at the annoying group and helped Yuna up.
"You don't have to yell, Hikaru" Yuna told her sweetly.
"I have to, though. Our school is a total jerkfest filled with complete jerks…hence the name jerkfest. If we weren't here to help you guys, I'm sure you'd be dead right now."
Before Yuna could say something, the DJ spoke up. "Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming tonight! Here is tonight's final song! See you at the Spring Dance!"
Another annoying rap song played and the group of fourteen headed for the doors, but Hikaru noticed and ominous sight and stopped walking.
"What's the matter" asked Shockwave, looking at her frightened friend.
"IT'S THE COPS! THEY'VE COME FOR THE ZHUGE LIANG CARDBOARD CUT OUT!" Hikaru screamed as the group ran outside passed the cops.
"It's just a damn piece of cardboard! What's their problem?" Sirius said, running to the van. "Misha, you guys hold the cops off while we get out of here!"
"Okay! Go!"
With that, the group of nine drove off in the snow, barely escaping the wrath of the cops.
"Step on it Auron! We have to get back to Sirius' house!" Hikaru shouted.
And so, the van zoomed off through the snow-covered streets, leaving the girl's school and their friends. Will they get back without killing themselves…only Author Hikaru knows.
Yay! What did you think? Please review and tell me! I WILL UPDATE SOONER NEXT TIME…and that's a fact!