A/N: Eegad, I haven't uploaded for a while, have I? D:
Sorry for the long wait, homies, I've been really busy with school and choir and such.
In this chapter, we see what Koran thinks...and a really creepy metaphor 0.o
I've been kind of depressed lately, so if this isn't as funny as it usually is, blame the incredible amount of schoolwork my teachers are forcing upon me :P

Chapter 15

It was a cloudy afternoon, and everybody was inside their houses.

Unfortunately.

Jenna was sitting on the couch watching her soaps and eating popcorn when Sarah came running past. She stopped at the couch and asked, "We got any duct tape?" "In the top cupboard in the storage room" her mum replied, and Sarah took off again.

Minutes later Rian came stumbling down the stairs. His hair was smoking. He gasped out, "You have any GASP spare wires GASP?" "Second floor, third room to your left, filing cabinet three" Jenna answered. And Rian headed up the stairs.

Not long after, there was a yelp, and Silas fell down the stairs. "Ooow…" he complained, rubbing his head. "Auntie, do we have a spare gaming station and/or TV?" "Third floor storage room." Silas followed Rian up the stairs.

Then Nora came sauntering downstairs, carrying a wrench and a carving knife. She was wearing an apron that was spattered with oil. The smell alerted Jenna, and she finally turned around.

"What in the name of heaven are you doing?" "I can't tell you, sorry Auntie" said Nora, shrugging. "Can I go to the junkyard and take apart a car?" "Only if someone goes with you." Then there were sounds of a fight, and Marcus and Milo came crashing down the stairs, punching and kicking. Then there was a shout, and Koran flew down the stairs and landed on them. They were a fighting, yelling mess.

"BOYS!" They broke apart. "What are you fighting over?" "Nothing, mum" said Milo cheerfully, though he was clutching his left arm that now sported a brilliant bruise. Koran asked, "Can we take a few ice packs? We think that he might flame up again." "Again?! Kids, what are you doing up there?!"

They all glanced at each other. "We've sworn not to tell, but don't worry, you'll figure it out soon, Auntie" said Marcus. "Yeah" said Koran. "But please don't freak. Or he'll get angry." "He?!"

There was a shout from the third floor. "Hey, I need someone to help me carry this plasma TV out!" "I'll come!" Marcus yelled, and he ran up the stairs.

Two minutes later, there was a crash and a yelp. "Okay, we need one more person!" "I'll help!" responded Milo, and he too ascended the stairs.

Jenna pointed at Koran. "Nora needs to go to the Junkyard, but it's in the deeper parts of town. Go with her." He nodded. "Okay."

They headed out the door.

~~~~~~~~Koran's POV~~~~~~~~~~

I walked with Nora through the numerous streets. As I looked around, recognizing people (more of them recognizing me), my thoughts turned to my friends.

Milo…my best friend.

Marcus and Silas…the funny guys.

Rian…the slightly uncomfortable older kid.

Sarah…the insane psychopath.

Nora…the kid who holds the rest together.

I looked at her. She seemed quite serene. Her blue eyes were closed. I looked away.

Gah. Girls.

As if I didn't have enough problems with girls already.

No, seriously. I'm the Apprentice; all of these random Ordinary Wizard apprentices sometimes look at me like I'm God or something. It's freaky. Especially because they're all older than me.

Before you start, no I do not fancy anyone yet.

Weeelll….

NO.

I'm not even going to CONSIDER that. You'd have to be mad, crazy, brain-dead, or vocal cords larger than your head.

And I am not and have not any of the above.

Maybe sometimes I'm a little crazy.

But nothing else.

You'd be mental to do something like that. It would destroy my life (and probably my eardrums) if I did.

"There's the junkyard." Nora's voice broke though my thoughts. "Let's go."

And we turned in.

We scrambled through heaps of scrap metal until Nora found something. She tried to dig it out, and I passed the time thinking.

I thought a lot. I like to ponder on things and think about where I'm going in my future.

My future? Oh, I expect I'll spend many glorious years working with Septimus and eventually becoming the head honcho wizard. Then I'll take a promising apprentice and when I turn 70, I'll retire, leaving that apprentice in charge.

Yep, I've got a pretty good future ahead of me.

~~~~Mija's POV~~~~~~

I am smirking as I type this, for I have torture planned for Koran! He will wish he was never born! HA HA HAAA!!

No, or course I'm not telling you. Only I know.

Sorry for breaking in, I just wanted to disturb the peace, goodbye.

~~~~~Koran's POV~~~~~~~

"I got the stuff, let's go" said Nora as she leapt down from a broken car. I was about to follow her when I noticed something.

There were two bugs on the ground, I couldn't remember quite what kind. One was bigger than the other, but they were the same species. They were fighting.

I was absorbed. They buzzed in and out around each other, striking with their mandibles and kicking with their tiny feet. The buzzing got so loud it hurt my ears.

And then it stopped. The bugs looked away from each other. They didn't move for a few seconds.

One of the bugs went over to the other one and flapped it's little wings. The other one did as well. And then they flew in a circle together, and took to the sky, flying beside each other until I couldn't see them anymore.

Well, that was odd. It was a metaphor, probably, for something.

I shook my head. Metaphors are nonsense. What would the bugs have been a metaphor for, anyway?

I had a suspicion.

I shook my head. That was ridiculous. To clear my mind, I dug around in my pockets and found one of my iPods; it was one of my spare Shuffles.

I put the headphones in and heard Nora's annoyed call. "Are you going to come some time this year, Koran?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming" I called. I clicked the play button and a song started to play.

I hate everything about you, why do I love you; I hate everything about you, why do I love you…

Only when I stop to think about you, do I know…

~~~~~~Third Person~~~~~

Nora strode farther along, a wicked smirk on her face. She had seen the bugs, though she had first dismissed them as coincidence, she was now convinced that something was going on.

Looking flustered, Koran caught up to her. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You like insects?" "Wha—oh. Yes I do."

They got back quicker than they expected, and they heard an explosion from upstairs, and shout. "Quick, get the bucket!" "Where is it?!" "In the bathroom! Hurry, or the whole thing might implode!"

Nora and Koran looked at each other, then raced up the stairs.

They stopped at the table. Koran's jaw dropped.

On the table lay a robot.

The robot was silver-plated, with closed eyes. It had movable fingers, and it could even twitch its nose.

"Oh…my…wow" breathed Nora. Sarah grinned proudly. "It took a while, but now he should be fully functional."

"What should we call him?" asked Silas, who was staring at the robot.

"Hmmm…how about Jason?" "Steve?" "Bob?" "Joe?" "Carl?" "Matthew?"

Sarah decided. "Behold the robot wonder that is Steve!"

"STEVE STEVE STEVE STEVE STEVE!!!!" everyone chanted as they ran around the robot.

They all fell silent as he sat up. His eyes were dark blue.

"Ahh, life! Hmm, where am I?"

His eyes rested on each of the seven kids. "Children, kindly tell me who built me."

"We did" said Sarah. "We built you to have a companion. Oh, and we can play video games on you."

"Really?" mused the robot. "And what is my name?" "You are Steve" said Sarah clearly.

"Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Now, what exactly did you put in me?" "An old Playstation 3 and a bunch of stuff from a plasma TV, as well as sound, brain, and personality chips."

"What personalities?" asked Steve, still looking around the room. "Let's see…sarcasm, friendliness, cheer, cynicism, intelligence, defiance, hyper-ness, rebellion, and wit" listed off Sarah.

"Basically, everything we have" put in Marcus.

"Interesting" said Steve. Sarah went to the door. "Come on, Steve, Mum wants to see what we've been working on the whole day."

And so the kids and their new robot went downstairs.

"Hey, Mum!!" called Sarah. Jenna raised her head and—"AAAH!!"

"Mum, please don't freak out by Steve" said Milo.

"STEVE?! WHAT IS THAT THING?!!"

"Apparently I am a combination of plasma TV parts and a Playstation 3" said Steve in his voice that did not sound at all like robots in movies.

"AAAH! It spoke!"

"Mum! Don't worry, he's fine. He'll be our buddy and help us with stuff. Look, he can even teleport—" Suddenly Steve vanished.

He appeared a few feet away. "Interesting" he remarked.

Sarah turned back to her mother. "So he can go places when we don't want anyone to see him."

"Yeah, I mean, if people knew we knew how to build a robot, they'd be knocking down the front door! Everyone would want their own," Marcus added.

Jenna thought for a moment. "Okay. You can keep him." "He's not a pet, Mum" said Milo indignantly. "We were going to keep him anyway."

She rolled her eyes. "I have some conditions." Everyone groaned. "One, you keep him in the TV room on the third floor when we have guests over. Two, you don't tell any of your friends or cousins unless you know they'll keep their mouths shut. Three, don't take him out in public. You want to get somewhere, have him teleport there when you're about to get there and then he has to stay by you. He cannot go wandering off." Everyone nodded.

Jenna narrowed her eyes. "One more thing…" Everyone groaned again. "You will not use him to scarw people in pranks." "Aw, Mum!" complained Sarah.

Then Koran's ringtone sounded from his pocket. "With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes, hit em'—" "Hello?"

He listened and then said, "Yeah, okay. I'll be right over."

He closed his phone. "I have work to do" he explained. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

They all said goodbye as he left the building.

~~~~~~~Koran's POV~~~~~~

As I strode along the streets, I found myself thinking again. I grinned as I had a wild fantasy of Sarah and Steve getting into a huge argument over the game controller.

Then I sighed.

To be honest, I was having some internal turmoil. I was reminded of my encounter with Rack last week.

We had run into each other as I was fleeing from the extremely awkward first webshow. We both had fallen over. Rack seemed apologetic at first, but then he was kind of cold.

I suppose he's got something against me. I think I know why.

No. You'll laugh.

Then I asked him, "Why haven't we seen you in a while?" And he had replied, "Well, I've been busy down at the boatyard, you know."

But I had seen right though him. It was almost winter; we had to bundle up when we went outside now. Nobody wants to fish in freezing weather.

I had lied and said, "I see." Then a silence, and then he muttered something that sounded like, "Mumble grumble Koran, mumble grumble rival."

Oh please.

I think I know what he means by rival, and I was torn between shouting at him and laughing my arse off.

Good god.

So I said quietly to him, "Rack, listen, I don't want to be your rival." He looked at me, surprised, and asked, "Seriously?" I nodded and promised, "Seriously. I swear by anything you hold sacred."

He held out his hand. I shook it. "We're agreed" he told me. Then he grinned. "Let's bury the prejudice, then."

I nodded again. Then I had walked away.

One week later, and that conversation still doesn't make any sense.

At least Rack's not my enemy anymore.

And we agreed on…something.

That's good, right?

I think so.

God help me; I think either I ruined my life or saved it.

~~~~Mija's POV~~~~

Oh, Koran, you have no idea….

MWA HA HA.

A/N: Well, that was...interesting, right?
Koran's trying to work out his feelings. I remember doing the same thing around his age. It was no picnic, believe me D:
Well, who's got Syren? I got it the 29th of September, and I think it was one of the best yet. Especially introducing "Banana Man" as I call him XD
Oh yeah, I have a new obsession.
I know you guys will kill me, here it goes...

I support JennaxMerrin.

Now my public is going to slowly fade away. You all will hate me and want to murder me.
This shipping will show up in an upcoming SH story called Nightmares. It will take place when all of the main characters are 16 years old, someone has been corrupted, broken the heart of his lover, and now he wants to kill...
Oh, wait.
I will only post it if it will not be flamed.
But I'll probably be flamed anyway D:

Please no torches,

Mija

EDIT: I forgot to name Koran's ringtone. It is You're Gonna Go Far, Kid by The Offspring. Also, the song on his iPod was I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace.