(Disclaimer: I do not own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. At all. So there. ))

Wow. I wrote this Chapter pretty quickly once I had time, (days wise, not hours...), I really had a flow going on with the whole chapter. Oh, since I got the DVD, I only have seen the moive twice, but, I'm sure I'll see it again soon. I plan to see the movie sometime this weekend, once the Midterm is over, good thing that this is a tad early, so updates will be normal during study hours.

This chapter has to be one of my favorties, I absolutly love it.

Warning, this Fan Fiction may contain Movie Spoilers: If you don't like them watch the movie then come back.

Chapter Seventeen Summery – Why does Willy Wonka hate Chewing gum the most? What are his reasons for such a bizzare hate? Even for a Chocolatier? Charlie want's to find out, and Willy can't exactly escape his pestering when they are sitting on a plane, several thousand feet in the air, with no chance of escape.

Chapter 17 - Chewing Gum You Hate the Most?

"Ew," Willy said, face wrinkling up with mild disgust. "I hate chewing gum. I would take popped ears any day over bubble gum, or any gum for that matter."

Charlie looked at Wonka, and searched his thoughts in confusion. He had often wondered about Wonka's distaste for the chewy delectable, but it really made no sense for a Chocolatier and a Candy Maker to hate gum. Charlie, as much as he hated to admit it, knew that Mike Teavee had a point, if Mr. Wonka hates gum so much, then why does he make it? Plus, why did he hate gum? There had to be a reason for his disgust.

"Mr. Wonka, why do you hate chewing gum so much?" Charlie asked. "I mean, I don't understand. Chewing Gum is candy isn't it? I would think that you'd like it," said Charlie sensibly.

Willy took a breath and then sighed, looking away from Charlie, "I don't want to talk about it. I just don't like it, that's it. It's a nasty habit, that's all..." He placed on a face of disgust, then it seemed to thin out to an expression of remembrance.

Charlie somehow couldn't believe his mentor; it couldn't just be the fact that he thought it was a nasty habit. But, Charlie decided to leave it at that, and not to bother Wonka any further about the subject. It seemed it was rather touchy subject with the famous chocolatier. Charlie knew that somehow he'd figure out about what the real reason was, but until then, Charlie would wait patiently.

The plane wasn't going to take off right away; first, the stewardesses had to explain all of the safety features and point to the safety escape doors. They did so quickly; and they constantly made sure that Wonka knew exactly what was going on, and where exactly everything was. Willy, not appreciating the attention from the stewardesses, just nodded numbly whenever they asked if he understood and turned away from them, looking at the back of the chair in front of him.

At the end, the one that did most of the door-opening demonstration, noticed Willy sitting in the seat and made a beeline towards him with a large grin on her face.

"Excuse me," she said in a high, sickly sweet voice, as she looked at Willy, totally ignoring the fact that Charlie was even there.

Willy turned away from the chair and towards her nervously, as if he just realized that she was speaking to him. Though really, who else would she be talking to? Wonka cleared his throat and he flashed his brilliant white teeth in a nervous smile.

"Y-yes?" Willy asked, his smile flickering.

"I was just wondering..." she licked her lips with anticipation and she looked closer at Wonka, as if she was trying to look through his sun-goggle-glasses, "are you Willy Wonka?"

Willy looked at her with his mouth slightly open, as if he really didn't know whether to answer the question or not, but he did so anyways. "Yes. I am Willy Wonka."

She stood up straight and clasped her hands together and made a loud, excited noise; Wonka cringed. "It is you! Oh my! The William Wonka, the very famous Chocolatier!"

"No. No I'm not," Wonka said flatly, looking at her with annoyance.

She looked a little hurt, and said in a small defeated voice, "But you said-"

"I said, that my name was Willy Wonka... not William or whatever gibberish you said," Wonka turned his head forward, really wishing that she'd go away and leave him alone, though, he still glanced at her from the corner of his eye through the goggles.

"Oh... I see."

The smile crept back over the stewardess's face and she continued, "I just want to let you know, Willy Wonka, that the show America Today wants to send best regards to you, and wishes you a safe flight!" She smiled again, "I hope you do, too, and the plane is going to take off, so buckle up."

With that said in her sickly chipper voice and with one last smile, the stewardess turned on her heels and walked down the hall to get ready for her first round through the plane.

Wonka sighed deeply, "I just remembered," he said to himself more than Charlie, mumbling under his breath, and rubbing his temple with his left hand, "another reason why I don't like to fly."

-All right, all passengers,- the pilot said over the inter-com, -The plane is going to start down the runway, Please make sure that all of you are seated and you are belted in.-

Once the pilot finished speaking the engines started up with a deep rumble, not all too different from the Great Glass Elevator starting up. Though it was much, much louder than the Great Glass Elevator would ever be. As the engines continued to rumble, both Charlie and Wonka felt the plane jolt as it began to move across the runway.

Charlie turned to Wonka, who was gripping the armrest of his seat tightly and looking forward with the most ridged expression on his face. He seemed to be trying to focus with all his might at the back of the seat just in front; Charlie knew that if Wonka would actually take off his goggles, his eyebrows would be furrowed in deep concentration. Charlie supposed that Willy was trying to keep his mind off the fact that he didn't trust the plane one bit.

As the plane started to slowly position itself on the runway, the stewardesses started to make some rounds. Thankfully for Wonka, the one that talked to him previously was not one of the ones on first class at that point. But soon his sigh of relief would turn to a sigh of annoyance and despair.

One of the stewardesses, who Charlie noticed as being one of the ones that helped with the demonstration, was working with the row that Charlie and Wonka were sitting in. As she walked down, it looked as if she was handing out something to everyone; most people took it after a few seconds of explaining.

She approached the row, and looked down at Willy. "Excuse me, sir," she said politely, and just as normally as she did for the other people.

Wonka turned to her. "Yes...?" Willy was really hoping that she wasn't going to pester him like the last one did.

"I was wondering if I could interest you in a piece of gum," she said cheerfully, pointing to the trolley behind her. "This can seriously reduce the uncomfortable popping in your ears as we take off and land. We have normal, mint, citrus-"

Wonka glanced at the gum briefly, then interrupted her, "-grape, cherry, spearmint, twisted mint, and cinnamon. Oh, and no thank you," after that said, he bristly turned and faced away from her.

"Oh... I see," she said politely. She then turned to Charlie, "Would you like a piece of gum?"

"Yes please."

"What flavor?"

"May I please have some Twisted Mint?" Charlie asked, smiling.

"Why of course!" She said and grabbed the piece of gum and handed it to Charlie. "Have a nice flight," she then walked off to tend to the next row of passengers.

As Charlie unwrapped the piece of gum and placed it in his mouth, Wonka turned to him briskly.

"How can you chew that?" Willy said with disgust in his voice, his face mirroring his speech.

"Well, it's going to keep my ears from popping, and I don't usually have gum," Charlie said, looking at Willy with confusion. He continued to think with confusion till a couple of seconds later, something occurred to him. "It isn't made by Slugworth, Flicklegruber, or Prodnose, is it?"

Willy sighed. "No. It's one of mine. But even then, it's still a nasty habit," Wonka said, still looking at Charlie chewing the gum.

"Mr. Wonka," Charlie sighed, "there has to be another reason why you hate gum so much. It can't be the fact that it is a nasty habit, or you'd say that about all candies. It just doesn't make any sense."

Wonka turned away and gave Charlie a sideways glare from beyond his glasses. "It is so my reason, Mr. Smarty-pants." Then Willy made a face in a childish manner and added a small, 'hmf,' noise, still looking forward.

Charlie frowned. "Sorry Mr. Wonka, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Well, you should have thought before opening up your mouth," Willy snapped back, but his voice lightened afterwards. "It's okay... I guess, just don't say I don't have proper reasons again, kay? You know nothing about me."

"Yes, sir." Charlie paused, he thought that maybe he could find out why he hated gum so much. "Mr. Wonka, have you ever had gum?"

"Yes... but I don't remember, I must have hated it," Wonka said briskly.

But, Willy did remember the very first, and last, piece of gum that he had ever eaten.

It was before the time where young Willy had even had his first taste of candy and Chocolate. Little Willy Wonka was sitting in his father's dentist office, reading a book. It was a day off of work for his father, and Wilber Wonka was out for the morning, letting Willy, for the very first time, to be at home alone. Willy flipped through the pages of the book warily, wondering when his father would come back.

He was awaiting a special treatment from his father. For about a year, he had been fitted with slightly more-than-tolerable sized braces, and his father was thinking of making them better fitting, in about a month. On that day, Willy was waiting for his father to check if his braces were still intact, and if he could actually have them changed, and pre-plan the braces. Willy dearly hoped that his father would change his braces; even after a year, Willy could not stand waking up to cold, steel metal pressing against his face every morning, and it was still embarrassing to heel as though he had a cage around the sides of his head. At least... it wasn't headgear.

Willy placed down the book and slipped off the high, black stool that he sat on and walked over to the white counter where his father kept all of his dental equipment. He looked across its clean surface and started to count the cotton swabs that stood in a jar that stood by the corner of the wall. His eyes flickered down to one of the drawers. He'd seen it before, and his father often opened it after he was done tending to a patient.

It had to be the drawer where the little boy or girl was allowed to pick a prize. Willy looked around nervously; he knew that he was never allowed to take anything from there, but a peek wouldn't hurt anything, would it? -No...- Willy decided, -it wouldn't hurt anything...-

Willy pulled open the drawer and peered inside. The contents of the drawer were as much as Willy expected. Bunches of toy bracelets and tiny beanbag stuffed toys for girls, and small toy cars and jet-planes for boys. But one thing seemed to catch Willy's eye, a box filled with individually wrapped, teeth-cleaning gum.

Willy knew that it was tasteless; his father had explained to Willy before that, "It doesn't need to have taste, as long as it cleans your teeth." But, his father also said to him that he was basically forbidden to have any at all. Willy was told that, "Gum would get stuck in your braces, and you don't want that, do you?"

Willy looked around again. What harm would happen from taking -one- piece of gum? Surly, if he tried only -one- piece, that would give him a very -small- chance of getting it stuck. Even if it -did- get stuck in his braces, he could just pull it out anyway. It wasn't like he never got anything stuck in it before.

That's -it,- he would take the gum. He knew that his father, Wilber Wonka, would surely not miss one -single- piece of gum, and if he did, Willy would tell a small lie and say that maybe one of his patients took two by accident, or maybe a piece fell on the floor and he swept it up by accident. Which probably happened commonly anyway; lots of things dropped on the floor all the time, why not a piece of gum?

Young Willy reached into the drawer grabbed one of the strips of gum. He pulled away from the drawer, closing it, while examining the piece of gum close to his face. He looked around again before unwrapping it, then sticking the thin strip in his mouth.

It wasn't exactly -tasteless-, but didn't taste sweet either. At least it didn't taste bad. He walked back to his stool and sat on it, holding up his book to read it. Willy knew that if his father came in, he could just jam it on the inside of his cheek, then go to the bathroom to rid himself of it entirely. Wilber Wonka would never even know that his son tried a piece of gum; it wasn't like Willy would smell like mint afterwards.

Willy chewed the piece of gum for several minutes while reading his book, starting to enjoy just chewing the gum. He didn't really care if it didn't taste sweet, but, it was the closest thing to candy he had ever had, even though it wasn't really -candy-, so it really didn't count in young Willy's books. As chewed, he started to hear a strange metallic squeaking noise coming from his mouth, and he just assumed that it was the gum rubbing against the metal around his teeth.

Willy ignored the squeaking and went back on to reading the book, his mouth still working away at the gum. Then, the creaking became louder, and Willy looked around, thinking that it could maybe be from elsewhere, but once he stopped chewing to investigate, the sounds stopped as well.

Willy took another chew with precaution, and no notice coupled with it, excusing the soft chewing-squishy notice that gum generally made while being chewed. Willy thought that maybe it was just a moment where the gum was pressing against the metal again, so, he began to chew away once more, shrugging off the noise as a mere sound that came with gum.

He started to chew away for about a couple of seconds when he heard a sharp sound like a whip snapping, and something began pressing against the side of his gums painfully, locking his jaws completely shut. Willy shouted in surprised and he held his hand up to his face, in an attempt to stop the pain, as he slipped on the stood and dashed to the bathroom.

He tried to open his mouth to relive the extreme pressure on the inside of his mouth, but whatever it was, was also locking his mouth completely shut. Willy started to panic, and pulled on his bottom jaw in a feeble attempt to pry his mouth open. But the more he tugged, the more whatever it was pressed into his gums.

Willy tasted copper every-so-slightly in his mouth, and he knew that it must have slightly cut the inside of his mouth in the process of snapping and locking his jaws shut.

Willy looked in the mirror, whimpering in misery of the situation and the pain, running his hands over his bottom jaw as if he was trying to find a hold where he could just simply pull his mouth open. When he could find nothing, he ran his hands across part of small outer-brace, trying to maybe find a way to unlock his jaws.

Willy heard a clicking at the front door as his father came in from whatever he was previously doing, and Wilber called out.

"Willy, I'm home. I -hope- you have behaved yourself in my absence."

Willy started to panic and started to pull on the sides of his braces trying to maybe break his mouth free before his father was going to come upstairs.

"Willy?"

Young Willy shut the door of the bathroom quickly, and turned on the tap to drown out any muffles of pain that he might emit when pulling on his braces. Though, as if pulling was helping -anything-, the more Willy pulled, the deeper and deeper the metal tried to press into his gums, and the tighter and tighter he felt his jaws locking together. Willy started to feel that at that rate, he would -never- be able to eat again... let alone ever try candy for the first time.

Wilber Wonka's footsteps could be heard thundering up stairs, "Willy, what aren't you responding?"

Willy looked at the door again, and turned up the tap louder. Although, that only made his father more suspicious of what was actually happening in the bathroom. Wilber approached the door and knocked on it loudly.

"Willy? Willy...? What are you doing in there?" Wilber knocked again, "Willy! Come out here at once! I will not tolerate this nonsense!"

Willy half thought that he could just stay in there, to only delay the pain he was going to receive from his father. Willy shuddered, he really didn't know -exactly- what he was going to do, but he knew that his father was going to shout... a lot, then, he was probably going to take off the braces, and that would hurt too. But then again, that would not be an entirely bad thing... would it?

"Willy?"

Willy decided that he was going to show his father, no matter -how- much shouting he was going to be receiving from his father. For all Willy knew, he deserved it.

After Willy shut off the tap, he made out to call back to his father, but for the momentary second, forgot his braces where locked tight, and when he called back, a blight of sharp pain scoured through his mouth as the metal finally managed to cut into his gums.

Willy made a muffled shout in pain that Wilber clearly heard from the outside of the door.

Wilber's eyes opened wide. What was wrong with Willy? What was he trying to hide from him? He had to find out. Wilber gave the doorknob a rattle, and when it refused to open, he quickly produced a key and unlocked it with a satisfying swiftness. Wilber Wonka pushed open the door, and saw his son, Willy Wonka, leaning slightly over, holding onto his mouth in pain.

Making swift work, Wilber dashed to the side of his son and knelt down, trying to see beyond Willy's hands, his own holding Willy reassuringly against his side.

"Willy... what's the matter?" he asked, looking at his son with concern.

When Willy tried again to talk, all he managed as a short mumble, then another muffled shout when the metal pressed deeply again. Wilber immediately understood.

Wilber asked hurryingly, "Your braces?"

Willy nodded, tears starting to form out of pain.

"Are they... hurting you?"

Wilber received another vigorous nod from Willy.

Wilber looked at Willy straight and pulled Willy's hands away from his mouth.

"Good lord, Willy, you're bleeding!"

Willy was bleeding, but not by much at all. But by a dentists and a father's point of view, it was too much for any son to handle. Wilber quickly grabbed one of the grey towels of the bathroom and pressed it to Willy's mouth and guided Willy to hold it firmly with one hand.

"Willy, come with me, and keep that towel there. I'll get those braces off of you as soon as I can!"

Willy nodded again, and sniffed in sharply, he wasn't crying, but tears still dripped down his face in the pain of the situation. No matter what Willy tried to do, the warm tears still welled up in his eyes.

Wilber helped Willy up and led his son downstairs quickly to the dentist's chair.

Willy was flung quickly against the black leather of the chair, looking up at the ceiling warily. His father was pre-occupying himself by washing his hands, placing on white-rubber gloves and finding all the necessary equipment, and putting them on a trolley. Willy closed his eyes as his father clinked away in background, worrying about what would happen when his father was going to find the very-obvious piece of gum.

Wilber wheeled the trolley over, and he pulled up the dentist's chair and turned on the light, which caused a reaction from Willy, who opened his eyes. Wilber then kindly pulled the light-grey towel away from Willy's jaws and shined the light over the offending braces.

"Now Willy, I'm going to have to give you a needle, because I don't think there is a way to remove the braces without pain," Wilber explained. He tried to make it sound very important, which it was. But he knew how much Willy hated anything to do with medicine, thermometers... needles. He knew that Willy was going to hate it. "This is -very- important Willy, -very,- this is going to get rid of a lot of the pain."

Willy looked up at his father with concern, but then nodded in a defeated manner, he would have to suffer getting a needle, but it would end up with no pain and the braces off. So with feeling of great regret, Willy nodded. Anyway, how could it -possibly- hurt more than what he was currently experiencing?

Wilber sighed with relief. "Good." Then he took out the needle. "I promise, this won't hurt for long."

----------------------

Wilber had been working on Willy's braces for a bit over a half an hour, and he was nearly done removing the braces from his face, so he could finally open his mouth and remove the hostile metallic offender in his son's mouth.

The whole time, Wilber went through thousands of scenarios about what Willy could have done to cause such a thing to happen, and the only possible solution that came to mind was that: Willy did something, and it -definitely- was something he shouldn't have. That could have explained why his son was trying to drown the noises of his predicament with the tap water, to hide whatever he was doing.

Willy had his eyes shut the entire time and he was none the wiser of what his father was doing. His whole mouth was numb, and he couldn't see what his father was doing. All he could sense was the buzz of dental equipment, and the warm smell of hot metal. But still throbbing in the back was the pain, although it was so distant that Willy didn't care anymore.

Wilber placed down his tools and wiped his forehead. Then, with slow, careful movements, he made to slowly remove the last bit of the brace that was in his son's mouth. He pulled on it gently, and with a light, forgiving 'click,' the braces pulled away from Willy's face, and his jaws were finally free of restriction.

Willy felt the light click, as his face felt less pressure in some areas, and as he opened his eyes, he saw his father pulling away the braces. His mouth was free.

Wilber sighed happily. "There. That's done with. Now, to remove the last bit that still seems to be in your mouth…"

Wilber levered down Willy's jaws lightly, and pulled out a sharp, snapped piece of metal out and away from his gums. Finally, the whole ordeal was done. Willy was free.

Willy sighed, but he knew if he tried to speak, he'd sound like an idiot because his mouth was still as numb as it was before. But he smiled as best he could up at his father in a big, grateful 'thank you'.

Wilber smiled back, happy to see that Willy was suffering no longer. But, he inwardly sighed sadly, now knowing –what- exactly happened, for, attached to the snapped bit of metal, was a piece of white gum, and he knew where it came from. He knew, as much as he knew it would hurt his son, he would have to punish Willy.

----------------------

Wilber stood in front of his son, the fire crackling angrily behind him. Willy was situated in a large chair, and the only thing that was between his father and himself was the coffee table that held the former braces that Willy wore.

Willy knew it was too good to be true. He definitely knew that he wasn't going to get off easily. Even though Willy thought that he learned his lesson anyways, Wilber Wonka wanted to make sure that Willy -did- understand.

"So," Wilber started, letting the word hang in the air for a few seconds before continuing, "you disobeyed me."

Willy nodded. "Yes sir," he said, his mouth much less numb now that it wasn't frozen anymore.

"And -why- did you disobey me?" Wilber said, turning to his son. "Because -curiosity- got the better of you."

Willy just nodded, listening to his father with an expressionless face.

"You didn't listen to me, Willy, and I am -very- disappointed in you," Wilber said, sitting down to face his son. "I -told- you that you shouldn't have any gum, that it'd get stuck in your braces. But did you listen...? No, you didn't. You took the gum anyways, and -look- where it you end up!"

Willy just stayed silent, doing nothing.

"I can't say I don't understand what you feel, but, I just can't let these things happen," he said, making sure that Willy was going to understand everything that he was going to say next, "Willy, I am going to place down some more rules for you. I wish I didn't have to, but seeing what happened today... obviously, I do."

Willy's insides twisted. -Oh no...- He knew that when his father set rules... boy, did he -set- them, and there was no turning back for years to come. Willy inwardly braced himself.

"First of all, you will -not- be allowed to have any candy, -ever-. That especially means gums, taffies and caramels. No matter if they are meant to clean your teeth or -not-. Second, you will not be allowed out of my presence until I know that you can function without doing something stupid. That means you will be attending all meeting with me. Thirdly... I am going to make a... change... to your braces. A -big- change."

Willy gulped; he knew he was not going to like his father's next words. Something just told him that.

"I can see now the braces I designed for you can break and hurt you easily, so, for your safety and teeth correction, I will have to give you head-gear to keep it from ever happening again."

Willy shuddered.

Wilber continued, "And don't think that -that- is the only reason why. I was already planning to give you head-gear, this just proves that you need it more than I thought." Wilber paused, leaned in close to his son. "Do you understand, Willy?"

Willy nodded as his father got up and left the room. He felt hot tears once again well up in his eyes, but they never fell. All Willy knew was now that he hated gum; it had caused him so much trouble, pain, suffering, and even more horrible braces that would stay on till he was an adult.

Willy thought darkly in his head, -I hate gum.- Willy furrowed his eyebrows angrily. -As long as I live, I hope I will -never- eat another piece of gum. I can't -believe- people like it...-

"Mr. Wonka?" Charlie said, looking at Wonka, who, after responding to Charlie's question with a simple, Yes... but I don't remember, I must have hated it,' suddenly slipped off to la-la land and had remained that way for the past several moments.

"Mr. Wonka?" Charlie looked at Willy, whose face was still looking down.

Wonka blinked a couple of times, clearing his head. "Eh... what?" Willy then briskly looked around the plane, and realized that several minutes had passed and the airplane must have just taken off, for his ears were starting to ring. He looked back at Charlie with an embarrassed grin, "I'm sorry... I was having another flashback..."

"I could see that," Charlie said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, of course," Willy said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, recently, when you are having a flashback, you seem to be bothered by something, or what you are remembering wasn't very good."

"Well, how do you know?"

"That's just it, I don't. You never tell me."

Wonka looked at Charlie. Should I? No... I couldn't...

Willy then said, "Why would I?"

"Because, I want to know. I could help." Charlie inwardly prayed and hoped that Willy would tell him what the problem was. Maybe then he could help Wonka, in a small way.

"I was just remembering how awful it felt to have in my mouth, how icky and sticky it was, that's all," Wonka half-lied. It did feel awful in his mouth; well, at least when it was hurting him. "There. Does that settle the matter?"

Charlie sighed. "I suppose, Mr. Wonka. Everyone has their preferences."

"You're gosh-darned right about that. Even a chocolatier hates at least one kind of candy."

"If you say so, Mr. Wonka."

Willy turned away and pulled up a newspaper that seemed to have fallen on the floor from the past flight, and began holding it up as if he was reading it. Charlie will never understand, he would probably think it's a stupid reason. But I bet even if that never happened, I would still hate it… gum is gross… sticky and icky, -why- do people like it..? Ew.

"I do say so."

Authors Thoughts – I really enjoyed writing and reading back this Chapter, even though, I say that for most, but, I really do like this Chapter as being one of my top favorites. I really don't know why. But, I really, really, really hope you love this chapter as much as I seem to do.

Wonka-Land Info –

Tastless Gum - The only resemblance to candy is the fact you chew it like gum, and that's about it. That's why, when Charlie asked (back when he was getting a tour from Willy), "Can you remember the first candy you ever ate?", Willy thought of the Chocolate, and not the gum.

Flight 486 - Hehe... Wow... nobody got it yet. S'okay, I bet I wouldn't even get that if I where reading the fanfiction. I will give you one clue, other than this entire chapter, but, think... telephone.

Willy's braces - Wilber was allready planning to give Willy the full-headgear in the first place, and before then, and in this chapter, Willy only had a strip-support that went around the back of his head, and definatally not as a cage around his head. His teeth are not as extravigantly shown as the head-gear.

Chapter Eighteen Preview – It is near the end of the flight, and both Charlie and Willy are more comfortable with talking on the plane, and both Willy and Charlie get a chance to catch the news, and you'd never guess who happens to be on it.

About the Reviews – Merci pour les reviews mes amies!

My Beta-Reader – I thank my beta-er so much, plus, I thank her for saying that this was one of her top favorites too.

Important Note: Please Review. I want to know if any of you liked it. Plus, I may feel like updating faster if I know that people actually read what I write. (No flames... I'll only feed them to Gloop, although, I don't think even he likes flames. I think I'll dip them into Chocolate first.).