Hello. It's been over three years since my last update. Sorry about that. I hope you'll still enjoy this chapter though.
-8:00am Underground Storage Facility-
Mrs. Farron awoke suddenly and found herself hunched over the control panel to the hypersleep device. Her cheek was fused to the metal of the panel and the top of her blouse was drenched in drool.
"Ugh… What happened?" said Mrs. Farron in her groggy post-waking state. "What time is it?" Looking up, she discovered that it was 8:00am…Sunday.
"Eight AM on Sunday? It was only five PM like two seconds ago." And then it finally hit her. "Oh great Goddess Etro! I pushed it! I really pushed the button!" Mrs. Farron frantically sat up and mulled over everything that could have possibly gone wrong. "Oh dear, is my family okay? Did I accidentally on purpose kill them? No, they're all sleeping. Albeit in a somewhat frozen state, but nonetheless sleeping." This reassurance did nothing to quell her rather imaginative mind from thinking the worst.
"What if they're all stuck in a never ending nightmare and they soil themselves over and over again in agonizing fear? I'd have to clean it all up! And what if one of didn't make it to a bed before I pushed the button? They'll be wickedly sore when they wake up and it would be my fault! But, worst of all, what if I put them in a forever coma? They'd be asleep far longer than I'd be willing to wait for them to wake up! I'd have to embed my consciousness to the family computer to let them know that I had, regrettably, ditched them in favor of pursuing life not tied down by the agony of single-handedly putting my family in an accidental coma, but they should totally contact me when they wake up so we could totally go back to normal." Mrs. Farron took a moment to think about the last scenario. "No, I'm not that heartless. I'd take them with me on my adventures whether they were conscious or not because we will continue to be a normal family no matter what! Or, at least that is what I would like to believe…"
Mrs. Farron pondered all this while simultaneously spinning in her favorite swivel chair. When she came to a sudden stop, she had made a decision. "None of that is important right now! I have to focus on the very reason that I even riskily put my family in hypersleep in the first place… becoming a master chef!"
Mrs. Farron stood up from her chair and began pacing furiously back and forth. "Argh! Where do I even begin? Where do all masters begin? Cutting onions? Do I even have onions? Gah! This is all so frustrating! I wish that someone would just give me a sign!" At that moment, Mrs. Farron slipped on a piece of paper that happened to be on the floor.
"Whoa! What was that? I'm somehow on the ground now! Was that my sign?" said Mrs. Farron as she sat up to search for what had tripped her. "Aha! I found it! Let's see… is it a recipe for ratatouille? No, it's gotta be something more simple than that. It's probably a recipe for a nice warm bowl of vegetable soup." Actually looking at what was on the paper, Mrs. Farron discovered that it was neither. "Oh, it's just Serah's chocobo drawing… Chocobos, huh." She rather liked the idea. "That's it! I'll make myself some roasted chocobo! If it turns out anything like that moogle that I managed to successfully make that one day, it's sure to be good."
-Very Short Flashback-
"Ah honey you make the best food. What is it?" asked Mr. Farron.
-End Flashback-
'Yup, I sure do make the best food,' Mrs. Farron thought to herself. Upon closer examination of the extremely short flashback, she came to a realization. "Wait a minute… I'm the worst cook ever. Why did he compliment me back then when he hadn't even tried the moogle? Was he being sarcastic?" Mrs. Farron saw red. "I'll show him the best food. I'm gonna make this roasted chocobo so well, he'll think twice about preemptively complimenting my cooking!" she said while doing a rather energetic fist pump into the air. "There's just one problem... I don't have any chocobos lying around waiting to be slaughtered for meal preparation."
Mrs. Farron sat back down and stared at the chocobo drawing she had clenched in her hand. "But it was my destiny! How am I supposed to be a master chef if I can't even cook what has been foretold by the Goddess herself? …what if I'm looking at this source of inspiration all wrong? Maybe the chocobo picture is just a clue hinting at what I'm really supposed to make," she said as she got up and walked over to the fridge.
"Let me take a gander at what I actually have in the fridge before I come to any crazy conclusions like pizza or something." Letting her hand wander through the many crevices within the refrigerator, Mrs. Farron patiently waited for it to clasp onto something of interest. When said hand was done fiddling around with the contents of the fridge, it came back out with a carton of eggs. She didn't expect much inspiration to come from within the carton, but she opened it anyway to reveal rows of neatly placed eggs. "Well aren't you guys just cute? All nice and clean and white and a whole lot of boring! What am I supposed to do with such a conforming food?" It was then that she saw that one of them was stamped with the picture of a chocobo.
"By the powers of the Sanctum fal'Cie, I'm supposed to make eggs! Of course! Chocobos are birds, and what are birds famous for doing? Laying eggs!" Taking out a pan from the cupboards, Mrs. Farron proceeded to place it on the stove that she had heated moments before.
"I, Mrs. Farron, am going to learn how to fry an egg!"
Meanwhile…
-8:00am Farron's Tree House-
"Aaaawaaaaawh. What am I laying on?" Vanille asked herself as she started to wake from dreamland. She tried to sit herself up to assess her surroundings, but the pile of whatever she was on kept slipping away, causing her to continually roll back. "What is this?" She grabbed a handful of the mysterious substance that occupied the space below her body and found the answer to her question. She was laying on a pile of acorns that measured two feet high.
Now that she was fully awake, Vanille managed to get to a sitting position and searched around the room to see where Fang was. "Oh, that Fang! She roped me into picking up acorns so that we could throw them at Lightning and wake her up from her nap. But noooo! She got so caught up in it that we spent the rest of the day mindlessly collecting acorn after acorn. Fang, where are you?"
Just then, a hand shot out from beneath the pile of acorns. "I'm over here!" yelled Fang as she waved her tiny hand. "I need some help! These acorns are starting to- Mmph hmm!" Before Fang could finish vocalizing her plea for help, a handful of acorns invaded her mouth, rendering it useless.
"Oh fine!" Vanille relented. "Just keep wiggling your fingers or something so I can find you."
Vanille crawled her way closer and closer towards the area of moving acorns until she found Fang's hand. Once there, she began the process of digging Fang out of the overwhelming pile. She felt like an archeologist unearthing an ancient relic. Unfortunately, it was just Fang.
"Thanks a bunch Vanille," said Fang after she spit out a gazillion acorns. "I thought I was a goner!"
'This is it Vanille! Time to put on your angry face!' she thought to herself. "Well, Fang, what do you have to say for yourself?"
"What'cha mean?" Fang asked, puzzled at the sudden look of constipation on Vanille's face.
"We spent the rest of yesterday doing nothing but collecting acorns!"
"Yeah, but wasn't it fun?" Fang asked while continuing to stare at Vanille's facial metamorphosis. Right now, it looked like a fishy.
"Fun? Yesterday wasn't fun!"
"Sure it was! We went to Snow's house, Hope's house, Sazh's house, and even Mrs. Bresha's house!" exclaimed Fang while still staring at Vanille's ever changing facial expressions. This time it seemed Vanille was going for the I-smelled-something-terribly-rank-oh-yeah-it-was-your-stinky-sandals face.
"If you mean that we visited their backyards in the middle of the night scouting for acorns and hiding from patrolling PSICOM officers, then yeah, we sure did visit lots of friends last night!" Vanille sarcastically replied. "And Mrs. Bresha…"
"Then what's with all the fuss?" asked Fang as she watched Vanille's face suddenly morph into that of a deflated balloon helplessly drooping towards the ground.
"You know what Fang, I just don't know how I ever could've thought that what we did last night wasn't fun. I mean, I was forced to carry the many bags of acorns while you frolicked along to pick them up. And it wasn't like it was exactly boring vaulting the many fences with my unending bags of acorns. Remember when I got stuck in one? It was so much fun trying to get out of it before PSICOM had the chance to arrest me for trespassing. What was I thinking? Of course it was fun! It was just so life-changingly fun!"
"Well, I'm glad to know that you agree with me," started Fang. "I don't know why you were angry earlier, but I guess you put that behind you. Anyways… let's go wake up Light and Serah so we can go play!"
"Yeah, I want to ask Serah what she was looking for yesterday. It seemed important to her," said Vanille.
"Well, let's go then!" Fang said jovially before realizing their predicament. "Um, Vanille?"
"Hmm?"
"Where's the door?"
"It's somewhere under these acorns. I'm sure that if we spend a little time looking we'll find-"
"Let's just jump out of the window," said Fang, already halfway through it.
"But, Fang! It's dangerous. We could get hurt!" Vanille exclaimed hoping to change Fang's mind.
"Nonsense! Just roll when you're almost to the ground and everything will be fine!"
"What do you mean just roll?"
To her unpleasant surprise, Fang was already safely on the ground. "Come on! Don't be a wimp Vanille!"
"Well, here goes nothing…"
Taking a few steps back, Vanille started a run towards the window and jumped out of it once she reached the sill. She still didn't know what Fang meant by 'just roll' halfway through the fall and, as a result, she failed to prepare her body for the imminent contact to the ground. When she landed, it was straight up and down on both feet.
"Hey, I did it!" Vanille exclaimed to Fang.
"See, who needs doors? Now go wake up Serah while I wake up Lightning." Fang said to Vanille as she ran towards Lightning's window.
"Sure thing!" said Vanille as she attempted to take off in a sprint towards Serah's respective window.
Attempted.
As soon as she lifted her right foot off the ground, it felt as if it was caught in a bear trap. Whatever those were…
"Oh maker, what did I do to my foot?"
She tried testing it out again, but was only met with excruciating pain. "I knew I'd get hurt! Why doesn't Fang ever listen to me? And now that I actually need it, what happened to the cane from the toy store yesterday? I know I left it around here somewhere…"
Vanille frantically searched the area for the cane only to find it against the base of the tree. She made her way towards it by dragging her body with her arms. "Almost there…" she said as she was mere inches away from the cane. She had barely grazed the cane when the most majestic bird she ever saw suddenly swooped down and stole it.
Vanille felt like crying. "You've got to be kidding me!" she said in frustration and anger. "What am I going to do now?" Right after she spoke those words, the same bird came flying back with a pair of crutches and dropped them in front of Vanille. "Wow, the universe must really be listening. I want some cupcakes please!"
Nothing.
"Eh, maybe I'll get them later. I should go and wake up Serah."
She made her way towards Serah's window and knocked repeatedly to try and get her attention. "Hey sleepyhead! It's time to wake up now." No response. "Come on, Serah!" Still nothing. "Huh, maybe I should just open the window and lightly shake her awake." She tried to open the window but it wouldn't budge. "This window is usually easy to open, considering Serah never locks it. Maybe I should just break it." She slammed one of her crutches into the window only to see it bounce right off. "I guess there's a barrier or something. I should go tell Fang."
-15 minutes earlier-
Without looking back at Vanille, Fang ran straight for Lightning's window. She put her hands and face against the glass to see if Lightning was still sleeping. "Yup, she's out like a kitten that just slurped up a nice bowl of creamy gravy."
Her first plan of action was to open Lightning's window since knocking was for losers. It didn't work.
"Hey, what gives? Why is your window locked?" she yelled intending Lightning to hear it.
Silence.
"Oh, so you're just gonna ignore me?" she shouted, angry that Lightning, her best friend would do such a thing.
More silence.
"Please Light, open your window!"
More silence with cheese oozing on top.
Fang was getting desperate. "I-It's okay if you found a new best friend and all." It wasn't. "I totally understand." She totally didn't. "Just, uh, open the window, yeah?"
And still, Lightning wouldn't reply. Well, more like she couldn't.
Getting angry again, Fang resorted to punching at the window with her fists. "So you replace me with a new friend and you don't bother to defend yourself or nothin'? Where's the honor in that? Who could be so much better that you would straight up ignore me for? Is it Hope? Don't tell me you got all buddy buddy with Lebreau? Just because she can make the best apple juice drink, doesn't mean you should be best friends!"
The silence was so deafening, it made Fang cry.
"Please Light," said Fang as she pawed at the window with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Open the windoooow!"
Unsurprisingly, there was still silence.
Picking herself off the ground, Fang wiped away her tears. "You know what Lightning? It's fine if you don't want to play. I get it, I really do get it. I'll just have fun without you," said a sniffling Fang as she turned to go find Vanille.
She actually didn't have to move from her spot as Vanille was conveniently coming towards her.
"Hey, Fang. I think there's some sort of barrier around the house or something suspicious like that."
Not listening to a single word Vanille had said, Fang spoke up. "Lightning's so mean."
"Oh, you actually spoke to her?" Vanille asked in surprise.
Trying to stitch up her torn up pride, Fang began to tell Vanille all the things Lightning just said to her. "Yeah, and she was all like 'I don't want to play with you Fang. We're not best friends anymore. Get lost. Don't come back. I don't want to see your face again. I'm totally replacing you with Lebreau.' And some other things that are too mean to say."
"I find that hard to believe Fang…" Vanille said skeptic of Fang's tale.
"She tried to make me cry! Of course, I didn't! But still! What kind of a best friend does that?" exclaimed Fang.
"You know, Fang, this is all starting to sound like it's made up or something… I mean, we really should try and figure out what's going on with the whole barrier thing."
"Never mind that! Today, we're going to have fun without the Farron sisters since they obviously don't want to hang out anymore. We're going to have a party!"
"But, where? Our tree house is incapacitated right now."
"I know just the place," said Fang as she looked down the row of houses on the street.
-8:57am Snow's House-
Ever since Snow got home from the Farron's yesterday, he couldn't stop himself from looking in the mirror. He was waiting for his hair to go back to normal. Snow figured that if he stared at his reflection long enough, his hair was bound to grow back. He huffed at the mirror as he tugged at his hair, willing it to grow longer. So far, it wasn't working.
"Maybe I should go to one of them salon places to get, uh, whatchamacallit… hair extensions!" said Snow as he walked away from the mirror and towards his toy bank. "Hair extensions are expensive though… Can I even afford them?" He reached inside to see how much gil he had. "Five gil. I knew I shouldn't have splurged on candy last weekend!"
Snow's mother was a health nut. If he wanted to eat something overflowing with sugar, he had to buy it himself with the gil he found lying around the house. Every other weekend or so, he would go out and buy only his favorites: Moogle Ranger Bars and Sour Chocobo Chews. This time, he was regretting it.
"I guess I'll just have to search around the house for more gil."
Starting with the laundry room, Snow rummaged through all of the dirty laundry for loose money. He found around fifty gil, a hairy sugar-free lollipop, and a tube of lipstick. "What a great find! Well, except for the hairy lollipop. Cotton candy pink is so my color." Pocketing his treasures, Snow continued. "I'll throw away the lollipop later."
Moving on to the living room, Snow thoroughly checked the many couches for any hidden goodies, preferably gil. "Why do we have five couches again? Oh, yeah, so I can find a lot of gil!" He failed to procure any. "Or not…"
His next target was the coffee table that was littered with drawers. He didn't actually have to search through all of them, or rather he didn't want to, as the first drawer that he opened contained exactly ninety gil. "Well, obviously none of the other drawers have any gil. If they did, I would have opened them!"
Snow sat down on his favorite couch and began to count his riches. "Okay, so, if my addition is correct, I have one hundred forty-five gil. Now I'm just blurting out a random number here, but I believe that hair extensions cost exactly one hundred fifty gil." Letting out a huff, Snow continued to ramble to himself. "I've practically searched the whole house! Where am I going to find exactly five more gil?"
Scanning the area for something worthy of searching, Snow's eyes landed on the sight of his deluxe fish tank decked out in both pirate and castle themes. From across the room, he could see a tiny treasure chest gleaming with light and beckoning to him.
Taking a huge risk, Snow stood up on the couch, vaulted over the coffee table, did a proper roll, and landed right in front of the fish tank within three seconds flat.
"Okay fishies, time to see what treasure you be hiding." After thinking about his statement, Snow quickly corrected himself. "No, mommy taught me better than that! What I really meant to say was, time to see what treasure you are hiding."
Snow submerged his hand into the calm waters of the fish tank. As soon as his hand was beneath the water, the fish started to nibble on it. "Stop kissing me fishies," said Snow as he swatted them away. They weren't kissing him. Soon after, his hand reached the treasure chest and unfastened the latch. There was only one gil.
"One gil? There should be more!"
Next to the chest was a decent sized pirate figurine. It was holding a removable one shot pistol. Snow swiped it.
"Alright Popo, where's the rest of the loot?" started Snow as he aimed his newly acquired aquarium pistol at a particular fish. "Don't tell me you fenced it to Cloud so that Squall could make a profit!" Snow obviously did not understand the concept of fencing. "I bet him and Warrior of Light are hiding out in the castle rolling in the money!" He took a moment to ponder his next query. "Come to think it, why do fish even need gil? Oh wait, to breathe!" Snow paused. "…no, that's gills." He averted his eyes and caught sight of a sad looking handicapped fish with a deformed fin that only allowed it to swim in circles. He instantly felt guilt over demanding more gil from its brethren. "Oh, I'm so sorry Alexander the Decrepit. You deserve a normal fin just like all the other fishies, but my hair extensions are way more important at the moment."
Just then, Popo came at him with what looked like the intent to avenge Alexander the Decrepit's honor and brutally bit Snow's hand.
"Yeouch!" exclaimed Snow. He quickly retracted his hand and dropped the single gil on the ground. "That's what I get for neglecting the fact that there are disabled fish. You were in the right Popo, I deserved your vengeance. I was being pretty selfish." Snow stooped down to pick up his fallen gil. By sheer coincidence, there was exactly four gil next to his fallen prize. "Awesome!" said Snow as he scooped the money into his pocket.
"I guess now that I've found all the money I need for my hair extensions I should write about it in my diary."
Snow thought about his previous statement. Nothing came up at first, but something was definitely wrong with it. Using all the power of concentration that he could muster, Snow pushed his brain into overdrive. "…journal," he started slowly. "Oh no, I said diary instead of journal!" Pinching his nose, he continued. "It's journal, Snow! Journal! That's the manly way to describe the thing you record all of your thoughts, hopes, and dreams in! …and the occasional fanfiction." The last part was whispered quietly to himself, but Popo heard. Popo hears all.
"Pull yourself together, Snow! You have things to do! There's a lollipop in your pocket that has far too many hairs on it! It must be thrown… away." Snow then proceeded to march himself to the nearest waste disposal to throw away the hairy lollipop that was still in his pocket. He was almost there when he heard a series of small knocks coming from the front door.
"What was that? Is there someone at the door?" Not wanting to be rude, Snow went to go answer it. "I'm coming!" he shouted politely to the would-be guests.
As he neared the door, the soft, delicate knocks suddenly changed into harsh, brutish ones.
"Golly, I said I was coming!"
When he opened the door, Snow was hit squarely in the forehead with a rock, causing him to stumble backwards from the doorway.
-6 minutes earlier 9:36am sidewalk-
"Come on, Vanille," Fang complained. "We've been walking for, like, eleven minutes now! It only takes five minutes to walk to Snow's house!"
"Well, gee, I wonder what could possibly be hindering our advancement to Snow's house?" Vanille replied sarcastically.
"That's what I want to know! We've been to Snow's plenty of times before. At this point, Vanille, I'm just dragging my feet so you can keep up with me."
Adjusting her crutches, Vanille prepared her indignant response. "Fang, there were so many things wrong with what you just said. First of all, we've only ever been to Snow's house in the camouflage of night. As you can see, there is clearly an abundance of daylight at the moment. I'm pretty much confused! Secondly, look at my foot! I am quite literally dragging it along the sidewalk because I continue to still not know what you meant by 'just roll' when I was plummeting to my doom. Obviously, I did it wrong!"
"You didn't even do anything…" Fang cut in.
"Did I give you permission to speak?"
"No…" said Fang as she bashfully swirled her perfectly healthy right foot on the sidewalk.
"I didn't think so! My probably broken foot is all your fault! If we had just looked for the door to the tree house, my foot would be fine and I wouldn't be taking so much time dragging myself to Snow's house on these crutches that I barely even know how to use! And that leads me to the third reason that I'm currently lecturing you on this very space of sidewalk. You made me carry this ridiculously heavy bag of acorns! It's making me even slower!"
"About that… the bag seems to have dramatically decreased in size from the time we left to now. I think there's a hole in it," said Fang.
Vanille turned around and saw a surprisingly neat row of fallen acorns leading up to a pile that was accumulating behind her. "Oh… You know," she sighed. "I think we're almost at Snow's house anyways. I'll grill you for being an idiot later."
"I can roll with that!"
"Stop saying roll!"
A few steps later, and they were in Snow's lawn.
"Vanille, hand me the bag."
Vanille did as she was instructed.
When handed the bag, Fang proceeded to throw the remaining acorns at Snow's door. She managed to throw four handfuls of acorns before running out. "Oh, shoot. What am I supposed to throw now? Snow hasn't even opened the door yet." Eyeing the terrain around her, she spotted a nice looking rock garden. A sign with a badly drawn happy face was next to it. The name 'Snow' was under the picture. It too was poorly drawn.
"Sweet, rocks. These'll definitely do," said Fang as she scooped some up and started hurling them at the front door.
"Fang, do you think that's such a good idea?" Vanille asked with concern.
"What'cha mean?" Fang asked, oblivious to any repercussions her rock throwing might have.
"Well, what if the door opens and he gets hit with a-"
Just then, the door opened and Snow was knocked backwards from the impact of getting hit with one of the rocks from his precious rock garden.
-9:42am Underground Storage Facility-
Putting her book down, Mrs. Farron went to go check on the status of her egg.
"Oh, fedashgr. This one turned into green goop. I guess I'm going to have to adjust the chemicals for the thirty-seventh time."
Instead of using oil, butter, or even cooking spray, Mrs. Farron decided to come up with her own chemical concoction to cook the egg with. So far, it hasn't worked in her favor.
"What could I be doing wrong? There has to be a scientific way to cook this egg into fried perfection!" said Mrs. Farron as she pondered her next course of action. "Maybe I should just add more of the chemical G-7 to the solution as well as lower the temperature a few degrees." After making the adjustments she picked up her very distracting book and resumed not paying any attention to the status of the egg.
Little did she know that in her very distracted state, something peculiar was happening to the egg thanks to the addition of chemical G-7.
"You know, why on Cocoon am I even reading an actual book? These things are just downright archaic." She still continued to read the thing anyway.
Meanwhile…
-Snow's house… More specifically, the doorway to Snow's house-
"Was I just hit with rock number fifteen from my collection?" asked Snow as he felt his face for damage. There was a sizable lump on his forehead. "My face! There's an abomination protruding from it!"
"What'cha talking about? I threw a random rock at you that came from a random pile of other rocks that was next to a random sign with a random name on it. And by the way, that sign was so randomly ugly, my eyes bled from the sight of it, randomly of course. Oh, and your face is fine." said Fang effortlessly lying through her surprisingly perfect teeth.
Snow was trying to hold in his tears. "I worked hard on that sign and the garden that went with it! Daddy said it was a masterpiece for the ages! But then again, he was cringing when he said it…" He wiped off his tears with the sleeves of his black, casual long sleeve shirt. "What are you guys doing here anyway?"
"Well you see, we went to go wake up Lightning and Serah and boy did they have a lot of mean things to say to us! Lightning replaced me as her best friend but I have this nagging feeling that it's Lebreau. She said 'I hate you. You're ugly. I'm prettier than you. I'm replacing you with somebody else as a best friend but I'm not telling you who… even though it might be Lebreau. Oh, and you don't wash your hands!' Well you know what? I do wash my hands! Every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday is hand washing day."
Thinking about what Fang just said, Snow spoke up. "Oh, goodie. It's Sunday… Would you be offended if I directed you to some hand sanitizer every now and then?"
"Of course I would silly! I just need some good ole' fashioned spit. That usually does the job. Oh, and not to mention that wiping my hands on my shorts seems to help as well."
Both Snow and Vanille paled at the thought of how many times Fang's hands had come in contact with them.
"Anyways, Lightning just wouldn't stop saying mean things like 'Odin is so superior to Mr. Dead Squirrel and you have raggedy hair. I live in a castle, you live in a doghouse… whatever those are. You also have bugs living in your hair.' The nerve of her!" said Fang as she scratched at her scalp.
"I doubt Lightning would've said any of that to you, Fang…" Snow said voicing his doubt.
"Of course she did! Don't even get me started on what Serah said to Vanille! You know what, I'm gonna get started anyway!" Fang said with full intentions of carrying on her bashing of the Farron sisters.
"Serah didn't actually say anything to me at all. Like, no words came out of her mouth. In fact, there was a barrier preventing any communication. Barrier, Fang. A BARRIER. There was also one at Lightning's window. You know, a barrier."
Ignoring everything Vanille just said, Fang started her rant on Serah. "Serah said even meaner things to Vanille than Lightning said to me! 'You're terrible at drawing fake ids and your hair is the ugliest shade of orange that I've ever seen! Your positive attitude about life is terribly dreadful. It makes me sick to be friends with a person such as yourself. You should make like a stray cat and just leave Vanille! In fact I'm pretty sure you are a stray cat. Go meow somewhere else, because there's no place for you here!' And that's the truth!" Fang said seemingly done with her rant.
Attempting to change the subject, Vanille turned to Snow. "So, how's your house?"
"What do you mean?" asked a confuzled Snow.
"I'm asking about your house, Snow. There's nothing to it. Are you going to answer me or what?" Vanille said tapping her good foot while clutching her crutches for support.
"Um, the foundation is still pretty good… I think. The structure is still stable… And all the walls are… up. It's pretty livable if I say so myself… which I do." Snow managed to meekly say.
"That is just fantastic, Snow. Your house must be very valuable on the market." Vanille responded.
"I wouldn't know," Snow started. "We're not selling."
"That is just fantastic, Snow. So, as an obvious change of subject, how are you?"
"I was just about to throw something away and then write in my diary."
"You write in a diary?!" Vanille asked excited that Snow had indirectly revealed to having a sensitive 'I have to record my feelings' side.
"Well, uh, you see…" Snow said trying to explain himself. Before he could do so, Fang decided to voice her opinion.
"You have a diary?! What are you, a girl?!" Fang said accusingly.
"That's what I was trying to say!"
"What, that you're a girl?"
"NO! I meant to say that I was about to write in my journal since journals are manly and stuff!" Snow defended.
"Journal is just a codename for diary, Snow." Fang said smartly. Deciding to cut him a break for once, Fang actually changed the subject. "Let's forget about your diary for now, Snow. We're going to have a party without the Farron sisters!"
Relishing in Fang's graceful relenting of the previous subject, Snow quickly agreed. "Yes! Let's have a party without the Farrons. It's not like it's wrong to have a good time without them. In fact, I am sure that they would fully agree with this decision if they were here. So, let's not disappoint their wishes and all. Who should we invite to this spur of the moment shindig?"
"The rest of NORA of course! And Sazh! And Hope…" said Fang thinking of all the friends that they could possibly invite. Mrs. Bresha briefly popped up as a potential candidate, but Fang quickly brushed that thought aside. "Yup, that's everyone that should totally attend."
"Great, why don't I go and contact everyone while you and Vanille make yourselves comfortable within my home."
Snow stepped aside to allow Fang and Vanille entrance to his home and then promptly shut the door. He then went to go contact the rest of their friends to inform them of the rather impromptu Sunday morning party they were just invited to. On his way to the contacting device, Snow passed by the fish tank and couldn't help but send a glare towards Popo. His hand still hurt from the earlier attack on it even if he totally deserved it.
Popo sent him an even more menacing glare in return. This spurred Snow to high-tail it to the device in fear that he would get attacked again.
"I wonder what Snow did to that fish," Vanille whispered to Fang as she adjusted her crutches.
"He probably did some weird things to it, Vanille. Weird things," Fang replied at a normal talking volume.
Popo heard her remark and swam in a yes formation. Remember, Popo hears all.
"Can we cover that tank with a blanket or something? That fish is weirding me out, Fang," Vanille said surprised at Popo's apparent sentient ability.
"You're overreacting, Vanille. It's just a fish. What could it possibly do?"
Before Vanille could respond that the fish was clearly sentient, Snow popped back in having just finished inviting all of their friends. "Hey guys. I'm done with the thing. Everyone actually said that they would come. So, what'd you guys bring for the party?"
"Ourselves," Fang blankly stated.
"Oh. So, you're not carrying anything on yourselves like food or drinks?" asked Snow.
"Nope, just ourselves. We have clothes on if that counts. We also have an empty bag with a hole in it," Fang answered.
Snow huffed. "You know what? I'll take care of the food." He left Fang and Vanille to their own devices to assess the food situation.
As he walked into the kitchen, Snow noticed that his mother was cutting up broccoli. Now seemed an appropriate time to bring up the whole party thing. It was time to spill the beans.
"Hey mommy," Snow greeted. It was a perfectly appropriate greeting for a young boy such as himself. He wasn't quite old enough to start calling her 'mom' and he wasn't about to start spouting the word 'mother' either. Mommy was just right.
"What was all that about at the front door?" asked Mrs. Villiers.
Snow remained silent. Instead of outright answering his mother, he moved to the pantry and pulled out a can of beans. He pulled off the lid and slowly poured some of the contents onto the ground. "A couple of my friends came over."
Mrs. Villiers gave her son an odd look, but continued on with her questioning as if he wasn't doing something cryptic and weird. "Oh, is it Yuj and Maqui again?"
Pouring out more beans, Snow answered, "No… it's not."
"Are they some of your other friends? Oh! It must be that nice Gadot fellow and that Hope boy," said Mrs. Villiers continuing to cut up massive amounts of broccoli while trying to not look at her son as if he just sprouted another head.
"It's not them either…" Snow said as he shrank into himself a little while holding his hands behind his back and kicking imaginary rocks. The can was still clutched in his hand and thus made a trail of beans that snaked along the seat of the chair he was standing on. Some of it got on his pants.
Snow's mother paused. "It's not Lebreau is it? She's always in trouble with the principal over endangering lives on the bus every morning. I don't think you guys should hang out anymore."
He was starting to run out of beans at this point. The idea of having to get another can didn't sit well with him. This whole beans business just wasn't what he expected. It was so terribly messy. He had to hurry this along. "It's not Lebreau either."
"Then who are these friends that I've never met, hmm?" Mrs. Villiers asked with her full attention now on her son and not the mountain of broccoli next to her.
Snow watched as the last bean dropped out of the can and onto the chair. It slipped off and slowly slid away from the rest of the contents, away from its family. It was time. "Well, that's the thing, you've never met them! But, anyways, the thing is that they came over and… can I have a party?"
Mrs. Villiers stared quietly at her son as realization dawned on her. He was quite literally spilling the beans. Her son's obvious misunderstanding of the age old saying was a bit endearing, but, Etro, the mess. She let out a sigh. "A party? Now? It's Sunday morning and you want a party now?"
"Yes, please!"
"What would your father have to say about this?"
"Daddy would say to party while I'm still young because once you get old, life isn't fun anymore!"
Thinking about how dull life actually is now that she has almost reached her prime, Mrs. Villiers had to nod her head in agreement. "That is a valid point. You know what, Snow? You can have a party. Invite anyone you want."
"Gee, thanks mommy!" Snow exclaimed.
Then there was silence, lots of silence. Snow just stood there staring expectantly at his mother.
"Is there anything else that you wanted, dear?" asked Mrs. Villiers, rather uncomfortable with the way her son was just standing there, looking at her with unblinking eyes.
Fumbling around for words, Snow managed to spew out a few incoherent sounds. "Blerg. Ungh. Mer. Feh. Uhh. Mmm."
Years of raising this boy taught Mrs. Villiers how to decipher his code. He wanted her to buy food for the party. "You want me to buy food."
Delighted at the fact that he didn't have to verbally request such a thing from his mother, Snow smiled up at her and said, "Yes, please!"
Surprisingly, she immediately relented. "Fine. A party does need food I suppose. But, I will not be buying anything oozing with sugar. I will buy a cake, but it is going to be a completely organic, gluten-free, sugar-free, carrot cake with extra raw carrot slices on top! For drinks I am only going to purchase raw, organic coconut water and synthetically enhanced regular water! And the only snacks that I will be purchasing are an assortment of organic, fresh from the cow, cheeses and gluten-free crackers. And I guess I can pick up some cheeseburger sliders as well."
Snow forgot everything his mother had previously said at the mention of cheeseburger sliders. "Oh, thank-you mommy. You're, like, the best mommy ever!" He jumped off the chair and dashed out of the kitchen, stopping only to say, "Oh, and also, I love you!"
Mrs. Villiers was stunned at her son's apparent glee over the healthy snack choices that would be available to him and his friends during the party. She soon got over the sudden welcome of her healthy campaign when she brought her attention to the mess left by her beloved son. "Looks like it's up to me to clean this up... and then go shopping."
-10:50am Underground Storage Facility-
It had been over an hour since Mrs. Farron had torn her eyes off the pages of her book to check on the status of her egg. By all means it should have burned by now but, through the miracle of science, it hadn't. Instead, the egg had turned into another glob of green goop. This time though, the goop had grown stubby arms and legs and was in the process of growing a face. Mrs. Farron was completely oblivious.
"Wizards are awesome!" she exclaimed. That old book was a real page turner.
Unbeknownst to her, the creature that was forming in the pan took its first breath.
"I hate those evil unicorns! Someone should just wipe them out of existence. That'll show 'em. Go wizards!"
Still in the dark about the events taking place, Mrs. Farron didn't notice that the green goop creature sat up in the pan and started to assess its surroundings.
"Man, those VAMPS need to chill out. Well, I guess if my friends were killed by ogres I'd be pretty mad too. Then again, Jessikha totally deserved it. So, they should just chill. Go wizards!"
The green goop creature had already climbed out of the pan by the time Mrs. Farron had mentioned Jessikha's apparent deservedness of her demise.
"I can't believe all the wizards were just obliterated. I said those VAMPS needed to chill out but noooo they just had to go on a killer rampage, killing everything in sight. The wizards had no part in killing Jessikha and her friend who didn't deserve to die. It was those no good ogres! Those Visually Appealing Malicious Persons with Snake-like features just killed off my favorite team in the whole book. I guess I'm team evil unicorns now." Satisfied with her new appointment of a favorite team, Mrs. Farron continued to read.
By now, the green goop creature was exploring the ins and outs of the underground storage facility. It took a liking to a misplaced shoe and crawled in to take a nap.
Mrs. Farron grew weary of her reading adventures. It was then that she remembered she was actually cooking something. "Oh no! My egg! It's probably burned to a crisp by now!"
Mrs. Farron jumped to her feet and made a bee-line for the stove. To her surprise, there was nothing there. "Huh? I was sure I had an egg cooking in this peculiarly empty pan. Yeah, I added more G-7 and lowered the temp. Did I just imagine that thirty-seventh egg? I must've, otherwise I wouldn't have dared to put more G-7. That stuff turns organic material into living creatures when you use too much." The thought was off-putting. Who knows just what kind of sick creature she could have created if she had slipped up. "That book must have me hallucinating on account of how old it is. There must be some dangerous spores in the pages." After taking a moment to gather materials to try for a 'thirty-seventh' attempt, she continued, "Oh well, let's see how the real thirty-seventh egg will turn out if I lower the temperature and add more G-5."
-11:13am Snow's House-
While waiting for their guests to arrive as well as for Mrs. Villiers to return, Snow, Fang, and Vanille played a card game for the past half hour. They were still playing.
"Fang, do you have a moogle?" asked Snow.
"Uh, let's see… no." She totally did have a moogle, but she wasn't about to let Snow take it from her. It was her moogle. He'd have to fight her to the death for it. "Go file more paperwork."
Snow picked up another card. It was Vanille's turn now.
"Fang, do you have a mage's staff?"
"No. Go file more paperwork, Vanille."
Vanille was suspicious. Every time either her or Snow asked Fang if she had a certain card, her answer was always no. The odds couldn't be that much in her favor. Fang must be cheating. She picked up another card anyway while absentmindedly caressing her injured foot. It hurt. A lot.
"Okay, it's my turn! Snow, do you have a broadsword?" Fang asked.
Begrudgingly, Snow replied in the affirmative. "Yes…"
"Awesome, hand it over! Go me!" Fang said excitedly as Snow forked over his card. "Hmm, Vanille, do you have a…" Fang was in quite the predicament. Her only card left was the moogle that Snow had asked her for two turns ago. If she asked Vanille for one, she would be busted for cheating. She had to lie. "Do you have a behemoth?" 'Please don't have one. Please don't have one.'
"No. Go file more paperwork."
Success! She could go on cheating, and hopefully win the game. Fang picked up another card.
It was Snow's turn now and boy did he look excited. "Say, Fang."
"Hmm?"
"Do you have a behemoth?"
'Oh maker!' What was she going to do? If she said no, he'd call her a liar. If she said yes, he'd see that she had a moogle all along. She had only one option, the honorable one. Fang tried to eat the card.
"Hey! Fang, what are you doing?! Give me the behemoth card! Don't eat it!" Lurching forward, Snow snatched the card from her mouth. "Eww. It's all wet now! Oh well, at least it's still intact." Flipping it over, Snow went to pair the card with the one he was holding. Something was wrong. "This is a moogle card, Fang. I asked if you had one a couple of turns ago. You lied to me? You were cheating this whole time?"
Fang grew bashful and drew random shapes on the table with her finger. She remained silent.
"You didn't know?" Vanille asked.
"Wait, you knew she was cheating?" Thinking more about it, Snow continued, "And you let her?"
"Fang cheats all the time. It's actually more satisfying to beat her at her own game. In fact, I was going to cheat my very next turn." Vanile answered.
Snow was appalled. "What do you have to say for yourself, Fang?"
"Uhh. You know, Snow, I don't want to talk about this anymore," Fang said as her embarrassment grew.
"No, Fang. You gotta know that cheating's bad and that-"
Before he could finish reprimanding Fang, there was a knock on the door followed by a ruckus as the door was swung open. The rest of team NORA was pushing and shoving their way through the door and had barely managed to take off their shoes. Lebreau was the first one to reach Snow. "Hey Snow! We knocked! Thanks for inviting us to this party!"
Snow got up and closed the door after his careless friends. "Thanks for knocking I guess…"
Fang was furious. She stomped her way over to Snow and grabbed his arm. "Hey, Snow. Can we talk? In private?" she said as she dragged Snow over to a secluded corner.
Thinking that she wanted to continue where they left off from their previous conversation Snow said, "Oh, so you want to finish talking about how cheating at Go File More Paperwork was bad?"
"Something like that," Fang started. "I, uh, noticed that you invited Lebreau." She paused to click her tongue in mock contemplation. "Why is that?"
"You said to invite the rest of team NORA, didn't you?"
Fang reluctantly shook her head yes.
"Lebreau's part of team NORA, Fang."
"That was my bad. Snow, honestly, I'm sorry for that. Why don't you hurry up and uninvite her to fix this whole situation." Fang said as she glared daggers at Lebreau.
"Well, first of all, it's kind of rude to uninvite someone I've already invited… who's already here. Secondly, what's going on with you and Lebreau? I thought you guys were friends or something."
"You got the 'or something' part right. We were never friends… just rivals." That was false. Fang and Lebreau were good friends until very, very, very, very, very recently.
"I'm sorry to hear that Fang, but I'm not going to uninvite her. You guys will just have to resolve your problems or just ignore each other."
Fang saw red. "Okay, fine. Just don't blame me when something, you know, awful happens to the best friend stealer."
"Fang, you should know that I will lay the blame on you completely."
"Oh, but Snow, I'm not going to do anything," Fang said as she went to seemingly hang out with Yuj.
"I really hope not…"
Moments later there was another knock at the door, and Snow went to go open it. It was Hope.
"Hello Snow! Thanks for inviting me. I brought cupcakes!" The cupcakes were topped with a very particular shade of orange icing. It was reminiscent of a certain someone's hair color.
Snow was more than happy to let him in, especially at the sight of Hope's scrumptious looking cupcakes. "Come on in Hope!"
"I hope that the party hasn't gone in full swing yet. I don't want to miss out on all the inside jokes tomorrow."
"Nah, you're good Hope. The rest of team NORA just got here not too long ago. And Vanille, Fang, and myself were playing cards until Fang cheated. I'm not going to get into that particular situation with you Hope, but trust me when I say no inside jokes were made."
"Well, that's great Snow. Where can I put these cupcakes?" asked Hope.
"Just put them on that table next to Vanille," said Snow as he pointed towards it.
Hope swooned. Last night he had a dream. He and Vanille were totally kissing in it. Ever since, he's been obsessed with her. Fifteen hours and counting.
"Okay, I'll just put them… over there… next to… Vanille." Hope said as he staggered into the house with a lovesick smile on his face.
"I wonder what's gotten into him?" Snow pondered aloud. Just as he was about to head back inside, an old fashioned car pulled up into the driveway and out popped Sazh.
"Hey Sazh! Glad you could make it!"
"My parents were on the way to the opera and they conveniently only purchased two tickets. So it was either this or stay home."
"Well I'm glad that my party was a choice, if not the choice."
"My parents said it wouldn't be nice for me to come here without bringing anything, so I brought this backpack full of a variety of juice boxes."
"Thanks Sazh, that's awfully kind of you. Come on in!"
Now that everyone was inside, the party was really jumping. Or so Snow thought it would be. In reality, everyone was standing around looking at him for guidance.
Maqui was the first one to pipe up. "Sooo, what do you have planned Snow?"
"Well, I was sort of hoping that when everyone got here stuff would start happening on its own."
"You mean to tell me that we were all invited to a party that wasn't painstakingly organized from start to finish?" asked Lebreau.
Fang visibly cringed at Lebreau's words. What did she know about parties? "Get off Snow's back will ya? This is my party. I'm just borrowing his house, okay? I'm the reason you guys are all here about to have a great time instead doing what you normally do on a Sunday morning."
"You mean watch cartoons?" replied Maqui.
"Yeah, I mean, I'd be watching cartoons with Maqui," said Yuj.
"I'd be lifting weights while watching cartoons… with Yuj and Maqui," said Gadot.
"I'd be at the opera with my parents because child tickets are heavily, heavily discounted on Sundays," said Sazh.
"But Sazh," Snow interjected, "you said your parents only bought two tickets today."
Sazh sighed. "Let's not talk about that Snow."
"I'd be building robots while watching cartoons by myself," said Hope continuing the conversation. 'And thinking of Vanille.'
"I guess I'd be doing laundry by now," Snow piped in.
"Um, I'd still be hanging out with you, Fang. Like I do every day. Seven days a week," said Vanille as she struggled to get up from her sitting position since her foot was still very much broken.
"And I'd be making my special apple juice drin-"
"Nobody cares about what you do on a Sunday, Lebreau!" Fang shouted. "Look, if you guys are bored, I know a game we could play. It's called Seven Minutes in…" Looking outside towards the sky, Fang continued, "…Eden."
"Isn't it called something slightly different?" asked Maqui. "Like Seven Minutes in Heaven?"
"No, no, no. It's Eden." Fang stubbornly replied.
About four seconds passed, bringing an awkward silence.
Not wanting their impromptu party to go stale, Vanille turned to Fang, albeit a bit awkwardly, and asked, "So, how do you play Seven Minutes in… Eden?"
"Well that's easy! All you gotta do is shove two people into a very small closet," said Fang.
"And then what do you do?"
"The people in the closet have to do stuff for seven minutes."
"Then… what do the people not in that very small closet do for those same seven minutes?"
"We make animal noises of course!"
At the mention of animal noises, everyone perked up and was suddenly excited for the game.
"How do we pick pairs?" asked Vanille.
"You're good at drawing pictures. So, why don't you draw everyone's picture and stick them in a bowl and we'll pick them randomly," said Fang.
"Okay, that'll do," Vanille started. "In the meantime, why doesn't everyone enjoy one of Hope's scrumptious looking cupcakes? They are a lovely shade of orange," she said while twirling a lock of her hair. She accidentally let go of one of her crutches for such a gesture and, incidentally, almost fell.
-12:20pm Underground Storage Facility-
The "real" thirty-seventh egg turned out to be a bust, along with the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, and all the subsequent ones leading up to the forty-third. Mrs. Farron was fed up.
"That G-5 did nothing but turn the eggs pink instead of green! What am I missing?" Looking down, Mrs. Farron spoke again, "Oh, apparently, one of my shoes." This realization at a lack of foot coverage spurred her into searching for it.
The search didn't take that long as the missing shoe was only a few feet away, peeking out from between two storage lockers. "Well, that was quite anticlimactic. I was positive that my search would include, at the very least, an epic journey." Mrs. Farron sighed. "I guess my expectations are a little warped on account of that rather enchanting book I've been reading." Lazily stretching out her arm, she took hold of the shoe. She immediately attempted to slip it onto her foot but instantly paled when her toes were met with a squishy substance.
"What in the blazes is in my shoe?!" shrieked Mrs. Farron as she quickly retracted her toes and threw the offensive footwear clear across the room. "Oh, was it a spider? By the Goddess Etro, I hope it wasn't a spider."
Mrs. Farron took a peek over to where her shoe had landed just in time to witness the green goop creature clumsily stagger its way out of it. It was strangely cute.
"D'aww, you're definitely not a creepy eight-legged arachnid." Mrs. Farron strode over to the creature with the overpowering urge to poke its tummy. However, just when her finger was about to brush against the soft, plump surface of the creature's belly, it dodged away from the imminent contact and latched onto Mrs. Farron's face. That was so not cool.
"MMMRPH!" Mrs. Farron recoiled from the sudden attack and was now frantically gripping at the goopy creature to pull it off her face. She was not successful.
'I can't breathe… or see! I take back what I thought earlier. This thing is definitely not strangely cute! It's pure evil incarnate and needs to be put down!'
That was easier said, or rather thought, than done.
-1:00pm Snow's Hizzle-
Vanille took forever to finish drawing everyone's picture. Instead of doing quick sketches like Fang thought she would, Vanille took on a more photo realistic approach. If she weren't so mad at her, Fang would have taken the time to appreciate just how beautiful each and every picture turned out to be. They really were works of art, but this was neither the time nor place for a frivolous concept such as appreciation.
"Vanille, are you done yet?"
Said girl in question was just about to add rosy cheeks to Fang's complexion, but thought better of it. An impatient Fang did not deserve rosy cheeks. "Now that you mention it, I am done. Right now, in this very moment, everyone's portrait has been drawn to completion." Glancing down at Fang's un-rosy cheeks she continued, "Not a single detail is missing."
"So, does that mean you'll give them to me now?"
Vanille was highly offended. Not only was Fang completely unappreciative of her efforts, she had the gall to suggest that Vanille should go out her way to physically bring them to the complete opposite side of the room.
"Fang, you're on the other side of the room."
"…yeah."
"Can't you come to me?"
"But, the bowl's over here... and stuff."
"Does saying 'and stuff' really give you more of a reason not to come over here?"
"Well, yeah… and stuff."
"My foot's broken! I haven't even properly attended to it! Fang, stop wearing your Fang goggles for just one day and be at least a tiny bit helpful."
Fang responded by stomping her foot, puffing out her cheeks, and looking the other way.
'Did she… Did she just? GAH!' Vanille pulled at her pigtails in utter frustration.
The atmosphere was just downright awkward now.
Prior to Fang and Vanille's disagreement, the rest of the party goers were chatting amongst themselves and having a decent time for an impromptu Sunday morning, now afternoon, party. They munched on Hope's cupcakes and indulged in Sazh's various juice boxes. They even played a friendly game of hot potato with Snow's beanie. Albeit Snow legitimately tried to snatch it back at every opportunity to hide his bowl cut and the lump on his forehead that he was positive was actually there. But then the incident happened.
Fang was a jerk to Vanille.
All of a sudden, the once pleasant atmosphere grew tense. The silence that followed Fang's outright dismissal of Vanille's plea was terribly uncomfortable. If only Lightning was there. Fang would've been less of a jerk because the older Farron would've been just as difficult right back until the Pulsian native ceased her jerky ways. Without Lightning, there was almost no hope of reasoning with Fang.
Hope, the brave soul, stepped forward with the intention of diffusing the situation. "Vanille, why don't I just hand those drawings over to Fang for you? It wouldn't be any sweat off my back. And, um, I'm sorry about your foot… the broken one."
Vanille let out a genuine smile. "Oh, Hope. Aren't you just the loveliest boy in town? Thank-you for offering your assistance. Please, if you wouldn't mind, well, I guess you don't since you offered, hand these drawings over to Madame Jerkington."
"It would be my honor, Princess Vanille, to carry out such a task for you," Hope said as he gently took hold of her masterpieces.
Vanille swooned. 'Someone's actually being nice to me today!'
Just as promised, Hope made the voyage over to Fang's side of the room and delivered the portraits into her outstretched hand. "Here you are, Madame Jerk-"
"Finish that sentence and consider your life null and void."
Hope dared not utter another peep. Instead, he quickly scampered off to a safe distance.
Fang eyed his retreating form with a smirk on her face. 'Heh, what a wuss.' She quickly scanned the portraits to see if all was in order. 'Hmm, let's see. Snow, Sazh, Yuj, Maqui, Lebreau, Gadot, Hope, Vanille, and, of course, me.' She paused. 'They're all here but, something's not quite right.'
If Fang was a more patient person, she would have noticed Vanille's act of passive aggression. But, with Fang being Fang, it went right over her head.
'Oh well. Whatever it is can't be that important.' Fang thought as she unceremoniously crumpled all the drawings and stuffed them into the bowl. If one listened close enough, they could hear the tiny screams that came from the once pristine drawings.
"Alright guys, when I call out your names, get in front of the very small closet located just down the hallway to my left. Everyone else, form a group behind them and then proceed to push them in and close the door." Fang plunged her hand into the bowl and fished around until she clamped onto a ball of paper that was crumpled in a weird way. She pulled it out and then dove her hand back in for a second one. "Alright," she began. "Here is the first pairing." Fang unwadded the paper balls and took a gander at the faces. "Hope and... Vanille."
At the mention of his pairing with Vanille, Hope grew both nervous and excited. 'I get to spend seven whole minutes in a cramped closet with Vanille?! Oh, I wonder, are we gonna... No, we shouldn't. Maybe we could... No, that's very improbable. Should I tell her about my dream?'
While Hope was busy freaking out in his head, Vanille was having thoughts of her own.
'Phew! Thank goodness I wasn't paired up with Fang! Who knows what I'd do if I had to stand in a very cramped closet with her for seven minutes. I'd probably would have strangled her or at the very least poked her various times with my crutches. But the real problem is how am I gonna maneuver myself in that very small closet with my foot all broken-y and stuff.' She paused. 'Huh, I guess Fang really did have something going on with that saying. It's really vague and noncommittal... and stuff.'
Whew! I've actually had this chapter written out for a while now. *cough* two years *cough* I suddenly had the urge to write today only to find that I never posted this one. Whoops. Reviews are encouraged and would be very welcome. IN FACT, they would just warm my heart.