NiGHTS: Back to Earth

Actuality 5

To find a place for NiGHTS to stay was very easy for the humans. Helen's mother was happy to let NiGHTS stay in her house. Yet Madeline, Helen's mum, referred to NiGHTS as "Nicholas." it seemed like everyone who were at the events three years ago had forgotten that NiGHTS and Reala had cover names. They had all decided to call the nightmarens by their cover names. Yet the true problem wasn't the names, it was finding a place to live for Reala, or Ren.

Will gnawed on a sandwich, hungry from football practice. He was at the lunch table waiting for his friend to grab their own lunches. Will had already asked his father if Ren could stay at his house, but his father said, "No." Everyone else said that they would ask their parental units.

"What's up?" Devin came to the table with a bagged lunch, "hopefully you have good news, because I don't have any."

"Nope," Will said with his mouth full, "both of my parents said, 'no,' they said that I didn't even know him."

Devin sat down; he began to explain his situation; "my parents don't have any room in our house to admit anyone else. Yet then again, I explained that Ren was, 'my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.'"

"I thought you broke up," said Will.

"No, we're back together," Devin responded, "we didn't really have a good reason for breaking up in the first place."

That was when Helen and Pammy came to the table with their lunch trays. Helen had spoken out, "so, what are your parents' responses?"

"We discussed it before you got here," Devin explained, "Both of our parents didn't like the idea."

"So, Pammy," Helen looked over at her friend, "what were your parents' responses?"

Pammy looked at her César Salad with sadness in her eyes, "I didn't ask them."

There was an appalled look on Will's face, "why didn't you?"

"I just feel uncomfortable with Reala living with me." That was Pammy's explanation it was simple, and understandable.

"That good news is," said Helen "is that my mum said that if Ren is just as well behaved as Nicholas, he could stay in May's old room."

Everyone remembered May. She would visit a few times a year until she graduated from college recently. She was immature for a fully grown woman, but delightful to talk to her. She had decided to 

permanently stay in America to find an acting job. She had nothing stable yet, but she was only looking for a job for a few weeks. So there was definitely room at the Cartwright residence.

"That's great," Will exclaimed, "as long as Ren stays well behaved…."

Pammy interrupted Will with some sarcasm, "Oh yeah, like that would ever happen."

"We could just tell him not to be his rude usual self," Helen suggested. She knew that it might have been difficult for Reala, but it was worth a try.

"So the bathroom is across Helen's room, and your room is here," Madeline had just finished the tour of the house. "It's a pleasure to have you stay with us, now Helen said that you are Nicholas' older brother?"

Ren knew if he wanted a place to stay, he had to stay polite to Helen's mother. Yet since she was a grown up, she was much less annoying, so this would be easy. "The pleasure's all mine, and yes, I am the older brother of Nicholas."

Soon enough Ren opened the door to find a very feminine looking room. It was pink, with a small white bed on the side. Across from the door was a vanity where Ren approached to look at his sexy self. His hands went right onto the table, when it hit a white box with a pink bow.

Immediately when he spotted the box, he opened it. Inside was a ballerina spinning to an unfamiliar tune. Along with the ballerina was a bunch of jewelry made from plastic. The whole box reminded him of that Labyrinth movie that he saw with NiGHTS the first night they came to the Waking World. He rummaged through the pile of plastic when he grabbed onto something round. When he pulled it out, it was no other than a white Artificial Ideya.

In reaction, Ren just smiled. He knew what the right thing to do was, it was to tell Helen and Nicholas right away, but he knew it wasn't the smart thing to do. He placed the Artificial Ideya back into the back; then closed it.

Ren's mission was to permanently place NiGHTS into the Waking World, so NiGHTS wouldn't get in the way of Wizeman's plans. That didn't mean that he was going to help NiGHTS get back to the Dream World. Ren was only trying to get himself back to the Dream World. Not to help his traitorous brother. Once Nicholas and his friends find all five Artificial Ideya, he was going to take them for himself to use to get himself back where he belonged.

There was a knock on the door, Ren closed the box, "come in."

It was Helen, "are you getting comfortable? I know that the decoration isn't your style, but I think you can make yourself at home here!"

"Nightmare is my only home," Ren said, "this is only a place to stay until I…and NiGHTS get back to our original positions."

"Well, I primarily came to your room to tell you that it's time for dinner," Helen came to tell Ren, "We're having spaghetti tonight."

"I'm not hungry," Ren was about to shut the door, but Helen grabbed it before it shut.

The truth was, Helen knew a little bit about Nightmarens, "Nicholas told me that you never get hungry, but mum would like to talk to you."

"Fine," Ren just rolled his eyes, Helen did tell him to be better behaved than he usually was, which meant that he had to eat this "food" that humans needed so much. He knew that this was only temporary, for him at least.

By the time Ren and Helen came downstairs Nicholas and Madeline were already at their seats. Helen sat down, and then served herself some spaghetti.

Ren looked at the odd supplement, as Helen gave him some, he just had to ask: "how do you eat this?"

Everyone just stopped in silence; Nicholas just said in reaction "Ren, you never had spaghetti before?"

"We don't really come from a place where we eat spaghetti," Ren told his brother, "you should know that."

"Well, yeah, but we've been here before," said Nicholas, "let me show you." Nicholas picked up his fork, "you twirl it around with your fork," Nicholas did as he said by twirling the spaghetti, "then you eat it." Nicholas put the warm spaghetti in his mouth.

It took a short time until Ren had the twirled spaghetti into his own mouth. It was actually very good; the sauce had a slight spiciness to it, yet, satisfying. This was actually the rare time when Ren liked a food item. He twirled another fork full of spaghetti to eat.

Madeline made a little giggle, "you seem to enjoy this spaghetti, even though you have never tried it." She found Ren very amusing. He was as much as a character as Nicholas according to her.

"Well," Ren dabbed his lips with a napkin, "it must be your cooking."

Nicholas wanted to make a groaning sound from that complement. It seemed like Madeline would like Ren much better than him if he kept on with those complements.

"Why thank you," Madeline exclaimed, "I should teach you sometime."

Ren took a deep breath; he knew that he was not a good cook, since he failed on Bridget's eggs, "cooking isn't for me."

"Fine, fine," Madeline nodded her head, "But it's nice that you and your brother are living with each other again, you must be excited."

"Oh," Ren smiled, "Nicholas must be much more excited than I am." He made a laugh as he glanced at Nicholas. Neither of them liked their presence, but they would have to live the human life together.