A/N: Well I've still got writers block, but I'm putting up a new chappy because I want to keep my head attached to my neck. Thanks, peeps. I've been getting anonymous death threats, so again: feel the love.
"We need to knock some sense into her," Akako said abruptly.
She, Yuki, Chiho and Ariana were huddled in one corner of the bed. At the other end, Kaede was lying on her stomach, arms stretched out in front of her like a cat, and chattering happily to a sleepy Ruri. Ruri was slumped against the end of the bed, half-asleep. But Kaede was taking the nodding head as agreement, not sleepiness, so she kept going.
"Whatcha mean?" Chiho asked. She was sitting cross-legged, hands clutching her ankles so she wouldn't fall backwards and fall asleep.
"I mean, listen to her!" Akako insisted. There was moment of silence as they listened to Kaede:
"Oh, yeah! Did I tell you? Oh, no, I don't think I did. Allie got a brand-new fuzzy wuzzy little puppy! The Rusties called her breed Pomeranians, I think. I don't know. All I know is, I couldn't live with dog hair all over everything in my room, ya know? Oh, but she's just such a little puff-ball, absolutely adorable, right? Oh, here, I'll have the wallscreen pull up a pic!" Kaede hit her wall with one tiny fist, waking it (and the people on the other side of the wall), and said, "Room, can you pull up a pic of Allie-san's puppy? She-the dog, I mean- is just SO cuuuuuute!"
"Yes, Kaede-sensei," the room said, and she squealed.
"Oh, I'll never get used to being called Kaede-sensei! I mean, how much respect that implies, and it's just so nice-sounding, ya know? Kaede-sensei? Kaede-sensei." Kaede giggled and rolled over onto her back. "I love it! It's so happy-making!"
Akako gestured towards our friend. "See? She speaks bubblehead!"
"So? I do that sometimes," Ariana argued.
"Sarcastically," Yuki put in.
"True," Ariana admitted. "But still. I think she could be acting right now. Pretending to be a bubblehead, maybe?"
"OH! You know what else? Anna just got a miniature poodle! He's awfully fluffy-wuffy too, but not as much as Allie's puppy is." Then, upon discovering the tiny black dots on her crackers (and in her omelet) were not, in fact, tiny berries: "Ew, fishy!" She picked up a champagne flute from the hovertray next to the bed and chugged it. She began using a dollhouse-proportioned fork to try to scrape the caviar off of her food, but gave up in the end. She winced when she took the next bite out of a cracker. "Fishy!" she repeated, frowning bitterly. "Ugh."
"Okay no. That girl isn't pretending anything. She is so Pretty!" Chiho finally fell over, but she rolled over onto her stomach and propped her head up on her hands. "Damn it! We lost our best."
"Hey!" Ariana said, pouting like she'd just been seriously offended.
The others ignored her offended protest.
"So," Yuki said slowly. "Now what?"
"Now, we make her un-Pretty-fied!" Chiho said enthusiastically.
Akako frowned. "The question is, how do we do that?"
A/N: Okay, NOW I know what to do for the next chap! Keep looking for that, kay?