A/N: Because I wanted a break from third person all the time, this is told from Sarah's POV. Also, Koran is now one of the main few characters out of the somewhat main characters. Basically, the rest of this story will be told from third person, Sarah's POV or Koran's POV.

Chapter Twelve

I guess I was happy for Koran. He had finally left his father's legacy behind him—and we were definitely going to make him feel at home with the Royal Rambles.

So why did I feel a little suspicious?

He was kinda quiet for the party, he didn't do karaoke like last time. He actually spent a lot of time with Rian, even though they weren't related like Nora, Silas, and Marcus were to their long-lost cousin. Maybe he just wanted to hang out with an older kid for a while.

But that's none of my biz.

I pretty much spent most of the party by the food. Then a great song came on—the kind where you just have to dance, or you're going to start running around in a toga yelling "MERRY HAPPY HANUCHRISTZAA!!" on top of the Wizard Tower. I saw Milo nearby, he grinned at me, and then all of us jumped out on the floor and started dancing.

I suppose we led the pack, because once we were out there, everyone was. You know, Koran's not a bad dancer. He's also a pretty good singer. And I noticed…he's growing out his hair. He hasn't cut it in weeks. Heh, I saw that a lot of girls were watching him. Another thing we can tease him about.

Milo and I were breakdancing, and then after we executed a pretty good coffee-grinder flip thing, we heard our names: "Hey, Sarah, Milo!" We looked over to see Rian standing at the edge of the crowd, a cocky little half-smile on his face. "Quit parking on the dance floor."

My mouth dropped open in mock anger and I punched him on the shoulder on the way off the floor. "Get outta town, kid." "Who's the kid?" he shot back with a smirk. I just grinned back and sat back to watch as Nora brought me a cookie.

A new song started, some kind of techno thing, and he just stood there until the beat kicked in; he started doing the robot, and I swear, I was having 'Star Wars' flashbacks.

It surprised me, suddenly, when the power went out. Rian's indignant voice broke the eerie silence after a few minutes as he grumbled, "Party pooper." I found myself laughing, and then the lights flickered and turned on as the music started back up; but this music was boring. It was slow, and school dance-ish. I felt someone tap my shoulder and I turned my head to see my Mum.

"I was looking for you" she said. "I wondered if you had seen your father somewhere. There was ale in the back, and I was hoping that he hadn't gone off with Sep and brought it in the room." I rolled my eyes. "No, you could ask Uncle Nicko." "Well, I'm worried that he might be with them." "Honestly, Mum. Okay, then ask Aunt Snorri." "That's my girl. Have you seen her?" "Last time I checked, she was over by the cushy chairs." "Okay, thanks, Sarah." My Mum looked around, then whispered, "That's odd; I thought I saw Koran. Dancing."

I snorted. "Mum, there's a lot of kids with black hair. And seriously, I don't think anybody our age who's actually sane would be out there." She eyed me for a moment, then shrugged and walked off.

I had always admired my Mum; she had good advice for me all the time, and respected my opinions. Not that my Dad didn't; he was the funny one in the family, but he was a good Dad. Heck, my whole family's pretty cool, well, my adoptive family. My real family, other than my father, mother, and brother, is dead, so yeah, I know them reeeeal well.

I pushed off the weird, slightly disturbing news me Mum had given me, and headed over to where Marcus and Silas were chatting, and greeted them. "Hey, guys. Have any idea where Koran went?" They looked at each other and shrugged. "I dunno, maybe he's eating somethin', somewhere" said Silas with a mouthful of cake. "Please, you two," I scoffed. "Is that all you think about? Food?" "No, dancing and playing pranks holds a great deal of importance to us" said Marcus cheerfully. "Thank God, otherwise I would have wondered why the heck you're a Ramble."

So, due to my better judgement and the proof of the ignorance of my two cousins, I decided to look for him myself.

I checked the drinks and food tables first; you never know. After that, I looked around the dance floor. Nada, thank cheez-its, 'cause the slow songs were still playing. Geez, put on some rock, or something! We're a bunch of kids hyped up on sugar and caffeine, the least you could do is work some of that off by dancing.

It turns out he wasn't manning the lights, either. I wondered where in the world he was, when he burst through the front door with about a million, random, 12-to 16-year-olds. Oh great.

I managed to push through the crowd, and grab him by his collar, and drag him over to the chairs, all with his complaints of "Ow, Sarah, what the cr—oh holy YOW! Geez, what is your problem?" "My problem" I stated stiffly as I stared him down, "is why in the name of whoopee cushions did you just let in a zillion crazy kids into our private party?" "It's hardly a private party" he snorted. "Can you please let go?" "Very well" I said in a dignified voice, pivoted slightly, and dropped him on the floor.

He staggered up with a bump on his head. "Hmph. Anyway, we have people we don't know here, and maybe this'll brighten it up a bit." I sighed. "I guess you're right. But honestly, where'd you get all these kids?" "Oh, out and about. Hey, where's Myder?" "Oh, I think he went to check on the lights; you know those stupid Christmas lights: when one goes out--" They both finished the sentence together. "—they all go out." "Okay" said Koran. "I'll be off, then. And for the record"—he tapped his head—"I blame you for ruining my incredible hotness."

I raised an eyebrow. "You? Incredible hotness? Please. I'll believe that when they make a seventh Star Wars movie.*" He just grinned and ran off, almost crashing into a kid holding a drink.

I sat down and grabbed a sandwich. As I chowed down—tuna, an okay sandwich—I thought about the RRs, but mostly about it's newest member and it's soon-to-be member. Rian, I knew, would have to be sworn in soon, for, unknown to the others, I was planning the best prank in the history of our pranks—which is a pretty long history, and I'm serious, I bored Uncle Sep just listing off our pranks for last year, and we've been doing this since we turned six—and I needed this seventh member.

Then I heard a cool song come on, and I finished my sandwich and dove back into the party.

I blinked my eyes open. I didn't remember going back to my own bed. But wait—now I do. For some reason I felt sore all over. And then I recalled that I had walked into at least 4 trees and 6 houses on the way back.

I hurried up waking the others and eating breakfast, but they must have noticed that something was on my mind, for Nora asked, "Hey, Sarah, what's up?"

So I made a decision. I was going to tell them about the prank. I grinned sneakily, looked around for any would-be-eavesdroppers, and whispered, "Okay, guys, this is the plan…"

*This doesn't make any sense to anybody but me and my friend Mcpooky.
How'd ya like that, hmm? Nice to see what's actually going on in Sarah's pretty little head all the time.
Alrighty, guys, here's the deal: you give me at least one review per chap (by more than just one person, wink wink) and I update. You don't, and I...don't update. This will be the thing for every one of my little cliffie chap endings.
Thank you all, reviews are shiny, until next update, whenever that might be:

Wolf |-D