Fireflies

"I'd like to make myself believe

that planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay

awake when I'm asleep

'Cause everything is never as it seems"

~Owl City~

She was in her room, alone, finally. It was late, so her parents have been fast asleep a while now. Her father, Frank, always hates it when she gets home late, mainly due to the fact that Kevin is the one to take her home. It took a while to calm him down enough so that he'd actually go to bed.

The purple jump drive sat on her desk, in front of her computer. Her first order of business, before looking at it, is to find out if they were right. If her intuition was as good as she believed it was. Her only link to anything about her anodite self was her grandmother, Verdona.

Since Gwen was part anodite she could contact Verdona, but not at just any old time. It's only possible once every three months and only when the moon is new. There were a few other things, but Gwen had realized that the other conditions didn't really matter all that much. She had only contacted Verdona once, just to tell her how things were going with her life. Luckilly, she had meant to talk to Verdona within the next week, but seeing how things were, Gwen figured it wouldn't hurt to talk to her a little earlier. Besides, the moon was perfect.

She floated a foot or two above her bed with her legs crossed, her eyes glowing magenta. Grandma? Can you hear me?

Almost a minute passed of silence before there was any reply. Yes, hello?

Grandma?

Gwendolyn!! So nice to hear from you! Oh, hold on.

In a flash of purple light, Verdona was now floating above the floor, in front of Gwen, in her anodite form. "Well, well. Has someone turned a new leaf on me?"

Gwen, happy at first, was already stumped with her grandmother, she had that effect on a lot of people. "Umm... what?"

"You have decided to become a full anodite now, haven't you? You and Curtis get into a squirmish?"

Realization hit her like a brick. "Oh, no, no. I still like being human just fine, thanks... wait, who?"

Verdona straigtened up and looked at the ceiling, "I'm never good with names... Curtis, Kyle, Kenny.... Daniel...? What was that boy's name? Not Benjamin, the other one, the one you like."

"Oh, you must mean Kevin.... I don't like him!"

"Uh-huh, and a parsec is a length of time."

"Par-what?"

Verdona was shocked, "Seriously! You are human & you never watched Star Wars!?"

Gwen starred at her for a second, "I'd have to say no, never seen it."

Verdona still starred at Gwen, shocked, "wow. Never watched Star Wars. Wow."

Another thing that happened when Verdona was around, very easy to get off track. Gwen shook her head, "Uh, Grandma, there was something I meant to ask you."

"Who Harrison Ford is?"

"Who? Ah, nevermind. I was just wondering about an andotite rumor I heard today."

"Oh, well then. What is it?"

"Do anodites have a 'keen sense' of intuition?" she said making the quotation marks in the air.

"Well, yes," Verdona said, finger tapping against her upper lip, "especially female anodites. Kind of like humans do, except our men aren't nearly as dumb. Except for your grandfather, of course. Don't really know why it is that way, just something in the genetics, I suppose."

"But that is true?"

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Someone, who I thought was the enemy, wanted me to trust him & he gave the excuse that anodites are always good at making the right decisions."

"Not many species know that much about the anodites," Verdona said, leaning on her hip a little, "what did this fellow look like?"

"Well," Gwen thought back to as much as she could remember about him. They were all clad in so much armor at the time. "It was a group of them, about fifteen I'd say, umm... Short, they were all short. About two or three feet high, each." She paused for a second, "The one that talked to me, he had a Plumber's badge and told me he was part of a secret sector of the Plumbers. Is any of that true, or do you know?"

Verdona took a pause for thought, "There are secret deposits of the Plumbers that most of them don't even know about. Sort of like your basic military system."

"Aren't the Plumbers themselves secret enough?"

"Some things are so big, only a few people can handle it. You understand?"

"I guess so. Are you saying to trust my instincts with this?"

"Of course, Gwen. Believe in yourself, you'll know what's right."

Gwen smiled at her grandmother, not that many people understood her that well. Actually, she could only think of two at the moment.

Verdona began again. "Coinsidentely, is there anything I can do to help you with these small Plumbers?"

Gwen looked over at her desk, the drive sitting there. "I don't think so. They said something like 'it could only be me' or something like that. Thanks anyway, Grandma."

"Right, well. If you ever need me, I'm never far away. And keep up that meditating stuff, I think it's working."

Then, just as quickly as she came, she was gone.

Always a party to go to, I guess, Gwen thought, floating to the floor and walking to her computer.

Before she could touch the drive, her phone started vibrating. Gwen looked at the ID. Ben, of course, who else.

"Hello," she said, answering like she was exhausted.

Ben's voice came through fast as lightning, "Hey, Gwen, what flowers does Julie like?"

She sat down in the chair and starred at the wall, "Why would I know that? You're her boyfriend."

"I know, she told me, I forgot. Gwen this is serious, please!"

"I don't know, Ben. What did you do?"

Ben sighed on the other end and slowed down, "She's mad that I keep bailing on her. She understands the whole alien thing, but it's like I never have extra time anymore."

"I know how that is," Gwen said, glancing at her mountain of homework.

"On top of that," Ben continued, "when I do have time I'm always late! Which is still the omnitrix's fault. I mean, how does it not tell time! Oh, wait, I have another call."

Before Gwen could say anything, Ben clicked off. The thought of hanging up flashed through her mind, but she knew he'd just call back anyway. Besides, it was probably Julie on the other end, and Ben needed advice on how to tie his shoes half of the time.

His voice clicked back. "--told you I'd put us on three-way! Now, shut up! Gwen?"

She didn't like this, "Still here."

Kevin's voice came through the other end, "would you please explain to the almighty savior of worlds that those aliens knew how to teleport."

The last thing Gwen expected to hear was Kevin, which made her heart skip a beat, but she soon recovered. "Oh, yeah! One second they were there, the next, gone. If you blinked you would have missed it."

Kevin's voice came through again, "Thank you, Gwen."

Ben came in, "well that sucks."

The group was silent until Ben said, just as fast as before, "Oh well, Gwen, those flowers?"

"Oh, well? That's it?"

Gwen pitched in, "Ben's having a mid-life crisis. Speaking of which, Ben? I didn't know ten seconds ago, I'm not going to know now."

Ben groaned pretty loudly and Kevin asked, "What's going on?"

"Ben keeps getting Julie mad by bailing on her all the time. You know, the alien stuff."

"Ah. Don't do roses, that's too tacky for this. Try something like, I don't know, lilacs or maybe daisies."

Gwen almost dropped the phone. Ben was unphased though, "Really? I know she's allergic to something, I can't remember what."

Gwen decided to be sarcastic, "Penicillin?"

"Yeah, that's it! What do those look like?"

There was a silence on the other two ends.

"Hello?," Ben said again.

Kevin's voice came through and Gwen could tell that he had his jaw clenched either from (A) trying to deal with Ben on a daily basis or most likely (B) trying not to laugh too hard. "Penicillin," he began, "is a medicine."

"So what? They make the flower into pills? I don't see how this helps me."

Gwen knew Kevin didn't catch that last part due to the thud of his phone hitting the floor and his laughing in the background.

"What I say?" Ben whined on the other end.

"Forget it, just get some flowers."

Kevin's voice came back through, "Sorry, I dropped you."

"Ok," Ben said, apparently about to buy his flowers, "should I get lilacs or daises?... I'll just get both."

"What? That'll clash! Stick with one thing."

"Which one!?"

"You're her boyfriend, not me!"

"Ben," Gwen said, actually exhausted this time, "get the lilacs. They're prettier and they smell nice. If Julie doesn't like them, tell her it's my fault."

"Alright! Thanks Gwen!"

"I was obviously no help at all."

"... Thank you, Kevin."

"You're welcome."

Gwen had a thought flitter past, "hang on, I have a question."

"Yeah?" they said at the same time.

"Who's Harrison Ford?"

At the same time Ben said, "Han-Solo" and Kevin said, "Indiana Jones."

She caught no part of that. "What?"

They did it again, except this time Kevin added, "shut up, Ben. I'm talking."

"Oh, please. Han-Solo is WAY cooler than nerdy old Indie."

"What? Ok, Han-Solo is cool, but Jones is way better at... everything. It's Indiana Jones!"

"What's he gonna do? Use his 'lasso of truth' to force Han into intergalactic debt?"

"First of all, it's a whip. Second, at least Jones has a brain."

"Just because he's a college professor doesn't make him a genius. Han would whack his arm off with a light-saber, anyway."

"..... Did you even watch these movies?"

"At least, Han was in Star Wars!"

"Jones and Han are the same guy."

"Not in the movies he isn't."

Gwen was sorry she said anything, "well, I'm gonna go now guys. Lots of homework."

At the same time, Ben said, "Bye Gwen" and Kevin said, "See ya, tomorrow."

Then just more arguing. Gwen hung up, still not knowing who Harrison Ford was.

---

Another Chapter!

I asked a few friends today if they knew Harrison Ford was and no one knew. It was horrible. And a lot of people are allergic to penicillin, including myself.

Alright, next chapter, we're going to start getting a little angsty and be prepared for an adorable Gwevin moment.

=3 Read and Review!!!