"OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR!"
My eyes snapped open and into a glare at the wall across from me. Turning around to face the door I had been leaning against, I punched it hard. This in turn only caused the doorknob to rattle and the occupant of the room to go into another string of curses. Danny and Sunny, both sitting beside me, sighed in frustration. We were all three currently sitting cross legged on the floor, backs against the door of the downstairs bathroom; home to most injuries in this house. I looked up as the sound of footsteps padding quickly down the hall reached my ears. Evan came into view at the edge of the hallway and seeing the door still rattling and hearing Jojo screaming madly behind it, he sighed, continuing his way towards us.
"She still won't listen?" He asked as he sat down across from us, back pressed to the opposite wall.
"Nope," I sighed.
"We almost got through to her, but then SOMEONE just had to go and bitchslap her across the mouth," Danny growled, throwing an irritated glance at Marisol. All sets of eyes in the hall immediatley flew to the grumbling latina.
"What?" She growled, "She told me that the real reason Randy avoids me isn't because I'm underage, it's because I'm a vain bimbo of a makeup artist intern and a bossy wannabe stuck in my own conceited little world. Can you believe that?"
"Yes. Yes I can," Evan nodded. Marisol gaped at him, looking as though she were ready to jump over both me and Danny to wring his neck. Noticing the look, Evan quickly tried to correct himself, " I mean, I can believe how she said that. You guys know how she is when she's pissed off, she doesn't mean any of it."
That's not what he meant and he knows it...
"If she'd shut up and listen though, she'd have no reason to be mad," Marisol growled. All of us nodded in agreement. Danny sighed.
"What are we supposed to do? She won't calm down long enough to hear any of us out. Mikey, she was born from your imagination, can't you do something?" Danny asked. All of them looked over at me and I let my head fall into my own lap.
"Don't you think I've been trying? I can't tell her directly; every time I get near her, she nearly bites my head off. You and Sunny have tried to tell her, but obviously, sending the two of you in at the same time was a HUGE mistake since someone can't control their temper," Marisol fixes me with a glare as I continue, " All of the twinks have tried-"
"Not a twink," Evan said rolling his eyes at me.
"And we all know how well that went," I continue, remembering the fight that ensued almost immediatley between them all after Jojo managed to somehow convince Kofi that Alex stole his ipod to give to Cody for his birthday, who deleted all the songs on it, proclaiming that they were all crap, replacing them with disney movie soundtracks, only to have it stolen by Evan, who supposedly dropped it in the toilet then returned it to Kofi. The kid is slick, I'll give her that.
I'm guessing that you, the reader, are wondering what in the blue hell we're doing now, right? Well, Jojo has snapped. Which is why Danny and Sunny locked her down here in the bathroom. It happened right after took Making Sense Of It All down. In Jojo's corrupted mind, because I didn't immediatley repost it, I'm letting MSOIA and the rest of the fics in the series after it, crumble and die. Everyone involved in the series have been trying for weeks to tell her that the reason it hasn't been reposted yet is because I'm rewriting it. She just won't shut up and listen to me though, she won't listen to any of us. She has however, managed to put nearly everyone down. She mouthed off to me(okay, so that's kind of normal), Sunny, Danny, the twinks, Dave, Sheamus, hell even EK and some of her musi! I get it, she's po'd and she's scared, but everyone is getting tired of her acting like a bitch.
"This is so fricken aggravating..." I mumble, throwing my head back and accidentally hitting it against the door.
"Really? You find it aggravating? You're used to this, she's supposed to like us!" Sunny spat, irritated. I narrow my eyes up at the ceiling. Well, don't I feel loved...
"I'm going to ignore the last part of that comment and go on to say that yes, I do find it aggravating. And the reason, my dear musi, that I find it aggravating is because Jojo is making it extremely hard for me to write her parts of the story. She's just unstable. Sunny," I turn to my two oc's sitting next to me, "You, Danny, Serge, and AJ all have some type of solidity about you guys. Sunny, you're that fashion obsessed, into romance, crazy ex girlfriend type. Danny, despite you're apparent bipolar tendencies,"
The glare she fixes me with could have made a professionally trained ass kicker shit his pants, and the giggles that had started from Sunny and Evan's lips stopped abruptly. If I were a guy, I'd either have a huge set of balls or be an extremely idiotic jerk considering I continued speaking anyway.
"You're obviously, the flirty, sugar coated sweetheart. Serge has his whole soldier thing going on. AJ, she's like the rebellious, long lost Hardy sister. I made Jojo, yet to be frank, I have no idea who the hell she is. I can't write about someone I don't know."
"It looks like Jojo was right, then," Evan sighed, "Jojo and Danny's books are the first two in the series. If we can't get her to listen, then the whole fricken series could die."
Everyone in the hall went silent. Danny started pulling lightly at strands of her hair. Sunny's eyes traced the swirly patterns on her nails. Evan knocked his head softly against the wall over and over again. I stared down at my shoes. There was another option, but I don't know exactly how well it could work. It was really Chris' idea, he told it to me of course before he went M.I.A. I had been struggling even since chapter four of MSOIA and that's when he told me that maybe Danny and Jojo's story wasn't the right fic to kick off the series with.
"Not exactly..." I start, immediatley regretting the words. They all looked up at me, expecting more," You see, I had been thinking for a while now that maybe...we replace MSOIA?"
The chorus of confused and angry shouts and groans and moans and curses and shoes that hit me were too many to be counted. Bastards.
"What do you mean, replace MSOIA?" Danny spat.
"You're seriously that sick of us?" Sunny asked.
"Mikey, I think you're overreacting, just-"
"WILL YOU ALL THREE JUST SHUT DAFUQ UP?" They all quiet down and stare at me like a bunch of deer caught in the headlights, " We need to talk. Now Sunny, go get your brother, Randy, Rey and Dave. Danny, get Jojo out of there in a few minutes. Evan, you go get the rest of the twinks. I have to go find Wade. I want all of you to meet me in the kitchen, got it?"
The three looked from me to each other before slowly nodding. Sunny and Evan reluctantly passed me, heading out to go find the others. Danny looked away, turning for the door to let Jojo out. Growling, I started to head upstairs. I needed my laptop and my binder and no doubt a whole lot of aspirin.
XoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoX
I sat at the kitchen table, my fingers moving rapidly over the keys of my laptop. It was quite useless for me to be typing so fast though, as for every right letter I pressed, I got about eight more wrong. I continued anyway though, my eyes staying glued to the screen. I was working on a document titled My Characters. There were five different paragraphs on the page, all of them profile descriptions. All but one of them were completed. In the room, someone cleared their throat loudly. Not that I looked up. A few more minutes went by before someone actually spoke.
"What the hell am I in here for?" Wade growled, sitting next to me at the table. Ignoring Wade, I look up and scan the room, making sure everyone needed is present. They were all scattered across the kitchen, for once, serious looks on their faces. My eyes land on Jojo, sitting atop the counter as usual. She glares back at me, eyes icy and bright, arms crossed tightly over her chest. I turn the laptop around so that all of them can see.
"Do you guys know what this is?"
Serge glanced over the laptop screen, his brow furrowed, "Our profiles. Yeah, what about them?"
"They're all finished," I explain. He stares at me cross eyed.
"That's good..."
"No, it's not," I sigh. Serge glances over confused at Rey and Dave, who both shrug. He turned back to me, stammering.
"Uh...yeah, you're right, that's terrible!"
I stopped, glancing up at him.
"Do you know why that's terrible?"
"...No..."
I sigh, "It's terrible because all of them are finished, but one."
Serge still seems lost, but he just nods his head in agreement as he sits back. I look back at Jojo; she's turned away from me and is now playing with her bracelet. I wonder if she'll get po'd if I call her out.. Now's my chance to see.
"Can you guys guess which one of my five oc's doesn't have a solid, finished profile?" I ask, staring straight at Jojo, even as she continues to ignore me and the looks being flashed at her from the others.
"I know, I know, I know! It's Jojo, isn't it?" Alex screamed, raising his hand. He yelps as Kofi, Cody and Evan all land a few good hits to the back of his head, Evan whispering harshly at him to shut up. Hiding a grin that so would not be appropriate for this moment in time, I glance back over at Jojo.
"Jojo?" She looks up, sending me an irritated glance before going back to play with her bracelet."You want to know all what I have written for your profile?"
The girl simply rolls her eyes, looking unconcerned. Danny glances nervously from Jojo over to me. I tell her anyway.
"Jojo Hebert, Age:13, Hometown:New Orleans, Louisiana, Height:5'6, Brand:Smackdown. And for your personality traits: blunt, jokes around a lot, and quick to anger. That's all."
After I finish, the room stays quiet for a good five minutes before she looks up at me. I sit quietly waiting for her to speak.
"So what? It's not like it matters what you have for my profile. You're killing the story off anyway," She bit out coldly.
Now I've been described by more than one person as sarcastic, a bitch, and maybe just an eensty bit mean. I find that those accusations are a huge stretch from the truth, but if in some alternate universe where they were true, I'm still not an idiot. Jojo could try and act like she's pissed off and ready to scalp me all she wants. She could try and hide her feelings and mask her voice, but as slow as everyone says I am, I can tell when these guys are really mad at me, and right now, Jojo isn't really mad at me. In fact, she rarely is. She's just very argumentative. But right now, more than anything, she's upset.
"And here is where the problem comes in..."I start, sitting up straight. Jojo shoots me an irritated look, but I ignore it, "I've tried over and over to tell you that I'm NOT killing MSOIA or any of the fics after it. You just won't listen. I've tried, Danny's tried, Sunny's tried, the twinks have tried. All of us had but you'd rather sit in your little corner and chew peoples' heads off instead of just listen to what we're telling you. No matter what, Making Sense of it All is going to be back on , okay?"
"Then why haven't you put it back up y-"
"Because of you!" I spat, irritated, " You won't cooperate with me. I have nothing on you! Your character is worse than a Mary Jane! You're like a...a...I don't know, like a banana left in the heat for too long; you keep changing and NOT for the better! And like I said before, you don't listen. I've been trying to tell you for weeks that I changed some stuff in the story and I basically kinda restarted it! You wouldn't know that though, because again, you don't listen!"
Looking over at her, she's still glaring at me with that icy front. But she knows and I know, that that's all it is; a front. She slides off the counter and her feet hit the floor. She starts to push past Randy and Dave to get through the doorway. Before she goes, she turns around.
"You ever stop to think that maybe I don't listen to you because you never tell me anything worth hearing?" She bit out. It was probably an attempt to piss me off, but there was currently only one thing on my mind.
"Well here's something that should be worth a little something to you: I'm replacing Making Sense Of It All!" I yell at the back of her head. She freezes in her spot and all the rest of my musi start to bombard me with questions.
"Y-you can't replace Making Sense Of It All!"Serge stammered. I looked over sympathetically at him.
"Yeah. I can," I said solemnly, "And I will if I have to."
"But, what about us? I thought you said that no matter what MSOIA would be back on ff." Sunny asked.
"And it will. Later. When I have the right amount of characters needed for it," I say, throwing a glance at Jojo. She stayed frozen in the doorway, her back to the rest of us, "For now...We're going to have to start off with Serge's fic."
"Like Toy Soldiers? Isn't it like the third book in the series?" Rey asked, looking at me confused.
"It was. We're going to have to change a lot of it. It's the only way though that everything will get out on time,"I explain.
"That makes no sense, though," Randy started, "By the time MSOIA would enter the series, Serge would be 19 then and your plans for-" He stops, glancing over from Serge to Danny , "You know what...to take place, he can't be over eighteen."
It takes me awhile to figure out what the hell he's talking about, but when I do, I nod, irritated. He was absolutely right, but by the looks of it, I have no choice. I close my eyes, rubbing circles on the sides of my head.
"Then we'll have to push them back, because I'm not trashing that angle." I conclude.
"What?" Serge looks at me. I can see it in hs face that he knows exactly what I mean, but he doesn't want to believe it.
"I'm pushing your ages back. Randy, what do you think would work?" The siblings throw a helpless glance over at the Viper.
"Probably 15 and 14?" He estimated, throwing me a glance.
"Alright, then you guys are-"
"No! I can't be 14!" Sunny wails, " Do you want me to never make the cutest babies with Randy?"
"YES!" Rey, Dave, Serge, and Randy all quipped. Sunny set them all with a death glare before going into a low string of curses and marching out the room. She brushed past Jojo, still motionless in her spot and I sighed.
"Okay. Then it's covered. Wade, I need you to take note of all the angles we trashed," he nods, flipping to a page in my notebook.
"Remind me, about how many was that?"
"Honestly, I think that just ruined all but two," I sighed. He nodded as he wrote, " Now, Like Toy Soldiers is the first book in the series, Making Sense of It All will be the third. Or whatever number it ends up being. It all depends on whether or not Danny can get a tag team partner."
In the doorway, Jojo goes rigid. Good, now I know she's listening.
"You guys can go," I say quietly. The rest of them file slowly out the door. Jojo stays behind. As the last person, Danny, passes by her, she stops, talking low enough so only Jojo can hear. When she's done, she straightens back up, looking down at her little cousin and waiting for a response. Jojo though, doesn't react. Danny sighs and continues on down the hall. The door swings shut behind her and Jojo's shoulders drop. She turns around in my direction, but keeps her eyes low as she canters over to the table, taking a seat across from me. I turn my laptop back around and open my folder for Captive. Pulling up chapter 17, I start typing, waiting for Jojo to speak; if she plans to at all. Minutes go by and not a sound is able to be heard from the kitchen, only the soft clicks from my laptop keys.
Captive is going well. I've finished about two and a half pages when Jojo clears her throat. I glance up and she's staring back at me though not as hard as before. After a while when she doesn't speak, I go back to typing. Seconds into it, she coughs again and I look back up. She's staring at me, expectantly now. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stare back at her, also refusing to speak.
"Aren't you going to say something?" She starts after a bit. I shrug.
"What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know..."
I go back to typing up the next chapter of Captive. I don't try and think too hard on what to write for it right now because I know, that any second, she's going to-
"Say something? Anything?" I sigh, sitting back in my seat.
"What did Danny tell you?" Jojo glanced down and she suddenly looked very uncomfortable. For a long while she didn't speak.
"She said...She told me that she didn't care how long it took us... That if I wasn't her tag team partner in the fic then she didn't want to be in it." She looked up at me, a tired expression on her face. I guess after fighting us for over three weeks she should be...
"I'm ruining my cousin's career," She sighed, looking down. I looked away. I rarely ever feel bad for any of musi, and when I say rarely, I mean a Michael Cole getting laid kind of rarely. Yet somehow, I find myself partially wanting to blame myself for Jojo looking all lost puppyish.
"No you're not..." I assure her and she looks up at me with big doe eyes, "You're ruining her's, Sunny's and Serge's."
Okay, so maybe I didn't feel too bad after all, but that's alright because the glare she fixes me with lets me know that I did something right. (What that something exactly is, I don't know, don't ask me)
"Ha ha, funny," She bites out.
"Bruh, calm your nerves, I was kidding...Somewhat,"
"No! You're right! Nearly all the angles you had planned out for the series got trashed, the whole lineup has been rearranged and now Sunny's never going to get Randy and it's all my fault!" She growled, pushing up from her chair and storming over the counter, facing away from me. I sigh. Damn, why are all my musi so dramatic?
"If it makes you feel any better, Sunny was never going to get Randy..." I yawn. A silence settles over the both of us and I look back over to Jojo.
"Hey?"
"What Mikey?"
"How does it feel knowing your friends are all having to suffer because of you?" I ask. I know it seemes mean, but just keep listening and you'll find out I'm not a total jerk, in fact, it's quite the opposite. She spins around, glaring at me and I can see her eyes red and puffy even if she won't let any tears fall.
"You're a bitch, you know that, right? It sucks, okay? And it makes me feel even shittier that none of them are mad at me for it! What the hell kind of friend am I?"She snarled, roughly pulling out the chair next to me and sitting back down.
"I think that depends on what you're willing to do about it," I reason. She glances up at me, frustrated.
"Everything! Hell, even if it takes sitting here with you for the rest of time trying to fix the damage I've made, I'd do it for them!" In Jojo land, spending over an hour in my presence is like the ultimate punishment, "You made me, can't you do something?" Slowly, I shake my head.
"I don't think so. I mean, you're already made. Unless I like, kill you off and bring you back to life. But you might come back as a cockroach..." I muse. When I glance back at Jojo, she's giving me this look like she's gonna stab me or something. Then suddenly her eyes soften and she looks down, playing with loose threads on the tablecloth.
"Mikey? Are you really going to change the series?" She asks quietly. Looking up, I don't miss that she refuses to meet my eyes. I sigh.
"No. I'm not. For as much as the others might want to kill me when they find out, I'm not," Her head snaps up and then the unthinkable happens: The beast smiles, "But, I will if your profile isn't finished by the time band camp starts at the end of July." She nods briskly.
"Until then, Captive is my main fic. And maybe finally the twinks will get their oh so delayed multichap..." I mumble," And now, since Chris is still missing, my mind is blank when it comes to Captive, and AJ's still avoiding me, you are stuck with me for the rest of the day and we're going to try and figure you out. Got it?"
She groans loudly, rolling her eyes and muttering something about how if she knew I'd take her up on the offer, she would have never said the thing about sitting with me for the rest of time to fix her mistakes. Well at least now I know what to add to her profile:Biggety...
"Can't you do something? You're the author, just fill in the blank spots of my profile with the first thing that comes to mind," Jojo reasons. I blink. We've been in here for about two hours and with most of my musi, I would've been sick of them by now, but Jojo's actually been pretty cool to hang with for a while. Surprising, I know.
"You're kidding me, right? This isn't soduku, you don't just fill in the blanks. Besides, I might be the author, but you're the muse, can't you muse yourself a stable personality?" I ask, pulling her profile back up on my laptop.
"Why the hell should I have a stable personality when you don't even have a stable mindset?" She quipped, throwing me a sideways glance.
"There are 28 people plus a dog living in my head. Unstable is as stable as I'm ever going to get..." I mumble as I reread her profile over and over again. It isn't that hard considering there are only about four words in each of the three lines of it...She sighs, leaning back in her chair and blowing at the strands of hair hanging into her face.
"Me and Danny still need an actual stable name..."
"I've got one already," I nod. It came to me while playing SvR. Albeit in the middle of the night when I couldn't even remember what my own name was, but I personally think it's a pretty good name, "You guys will now be known as The P.A.C.K or the Pop A Cap Krewe."
She stares over at me dismissively, thinking it over. After a moment of deliberation, she slowly nods muttering that it was fine.
"Eventually, it's going to grow, but for now, it's just the two of you. You know, if you actually get hired for the WWE. There's always that chance that you might not be, you know? At least people will have seen you at OWE," I joke. Jojo looks over at me, brow furrowed, before she rolls her eyes, slightly grinning.
"Whatever. Even if I 'don't' get hired, I'll make sure that those bitches never forget the one, Jojo Hebert," She stated smugly in the middle of a yawn. I furrow my brow. This is the absolute longest Jojo's ever helped me write something. I look down at my computer screen. We've actually made a lot of progress on her profile. It's not done yet but I feel like I can finally work on the story now.
Jojo's got her head down on the table, eyes closed and I flick her behind the ear. She growls incoherently at me and sits up.
"What?"
"You can go," I decide, taking pity on her. As soon as the words leave my mouth, there's a gust of wind, the door slams shut and I'm all alone. Damn. Am I really that unpleasant?
"Hey," I jump about a foot in the air at the sudden voice. Spinning around, Mike is smirking at me all smug like. I hate it.
"What the hell do you want?" I growl, irritated. His smirk only grows as he pulls out a seat next to me.
"I don't like you." He states in a half laugh kind of voice. I narrow my eyes at him. This is a fact that I already knew, so why he bothers to waste my time with his stating the obvious, I don't know.
"Do you need anything, Mike?"
"Actually, yeah. I'm bored,"
I don't know why they all feel the need to come to me when they get bored. What am I supposed to do, give them a map to the magical land of legally obtained weed and alcohol? I mean, it's not that I can't, in fact I could drive them there myself(you know, if I had a car or if it were legal for me to drive), it's only about two parishes over. Or I could take them downtown, but technically, that version isn't legal...
"Do you expect me to do anything about that?" I ask. He nods quickly.
"Yeah, I do. Write me a fic,"
"You're seriously demanding that I write you a fic?" He nods, "Not even a 'Can you please write me a fic, Mikey?' Just a staight up. 'Write me a fic.'?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?" I glare at him, irritated but he only stares back at me, awaiting with those baby blue eyes.
"You know the twinks still don't have a fic?" It's true. Me and the guys have been planning it since Icky, but I haven't really gotten anywhere with it. It really doesn't help that I can't get them to sit still long enough to help me either. Mike just shrugs.
"What the heck does that have to do with me?" I raise a brow at him.
"Nothing," I conclude. He leans in grinning expectantly at me. I sigh, "I'm probably going to regret asking you this, but what do you want it to be about?"
His grin widens into that of evil proportions. Definitely going to regret it.
Well, Jojo and I are finally getting long somewhat...MSOIA should be back up soon. Oh, and the name has changed, NO ONE KILL ME!