Okay, last chapter of ML!
Yeah, I know that all of the ones involving Chris tend to be short. Sorry!
Tori and Matt were waiting at the lunch table. The girl was grinding her teeth.
"Where are they?! They were supposed to be back five minutes ago!" She ranted irritably.
"Calm down, Tori. They just had to talk about something first. It's probably taking a little longer than they thought." Matt placated.
"Yeah, well if they're not back here in two minutes…" She began to threaten, but stopped suddenly when said teens came around the corner.
They both seemed a little edgy, but were hiding it fairly well. The two sat down on the bench side by side.
"What's with you?" The huntress questioned, her irritation melting after seeing her shaky friend.
"Huh?" Jake uttered. "Oh, nothing."
Tori eyed him disbelievingly, especially when he kept glancing around, as if expecting something to pop out of nowhere and come flying at him.
"Anyways," Matt interrupted, noticing the tension "have you seen Abby? Actually, have you seen Tiffany? She's been dragging Abby all across the school trying to figure out who gave her the flowers."
Jake let out a small laugh of relief. "Oh, yeah! Last I saw, she was interrogating the AV club!"
"I wonder where she is now." Matt continued, scanning the area.
"Who knows?" Tori joined in "Maybe she's checking the chess team."
The whole group started to laugh, but stopped suddenly when an exhausted Tiffany literally dragged an embarrassed and even more exhausted Abby behind her.
"Matt, did you send the flowers?" The red-haired girl panted.
Matt started laughing hysterically. "Of course not! Why?"
Tiffany sighed. "Because we've asked every guy in the school and no one has confessed to doing it."
"And she means every guy." Abby added, rubbing her sore arm. Apparently, Tiffany had been pulling her along by the arm the whole day. "You know, it's times like these when I pray for a ghost attack, just so I can hit something!"
At that very moment, the twins' ghost senses went off. Luckily, no one was really paying attention to Jake.
The female half-ghost smirked. "Finally." She transformed into her ghost form and took off; ready to beat the crud out of whatever unfortunate ghost had come.
Chris looked at her Goth friend. "Aren't you going?"
"In the mood she's in? That ghost doesn't stand a chance." He whispered back.
Cade suddenly appeared right next to Chris. She screamed at the sudden appearance.
"Aw, don't scream." He urges with a hint of cruel humor. "There's no reason for you to be afraid, it's just me."
Chris' face twisted into a scowl. "Oh, that's real comforting."
Cade's amused smirk fell. He was about to retort, but he was suddenly knocked from behind. Abby floated over him, a smirk on her red lips.
"You know, you might want to pay a little more attention." She ridiculed.
Cade flipped so that he faced her and growled. His icy eyes glowed brightly and he shot blue beams out of them. The beams knocked Abby back and onto the ground. Her opponent pushed himself up and stood, ready to fight. Abby got up as well. She growled menacingly.
"Is that all you got? Trust me, I can do much better." Cade sneered. He transformed into his wolf form and tackled her to the ground. He then let out a loud, long growl.
Abby threw Cade off of her. She floated upward so that she was levitating in a standing position. Cade changed back into his normal self quickly and lunged, shoving her farther into the sky. For the next few seconds, the two exchanged numerous ecto-blasts and dodges.
Chris was watching carefully. "Hey, Jake, maybe…" She started, but when she turned to him, he was already gone.
Up in the sky, Cade finally landed a blast on Abby, causing her to hurtle to the ground. She wasn't able to stop herself and was about to hit the ground when a blond-haired boy ran up to the spot she was falling. He caught her just before she made impact. It was Erik.
"Woah, thanks." She breathed.
He smiled and put her down. "Well I wasn't about to let you splat."
She smiled back. Then, a look of determination crossed her face. "Now to finish off that jerk."
Erik chuckled. "I think that's being taken care of."
Abby looked up at the ghost only to find Shadow fighting him. She growled. "And now I have two jerks to finish off." She sped up to the fight.
Erik watched her fly up with a smile planted on his face.
"Why can't you just give up?!" Shadow groaned.
"Why can't you?" Cade hissed back. He tossed an ecto-blast toward the black and red clad ghost boy.
Shadow deflected it with a shield.
Cade seemed like he was going to attack again, but then looked to the side where he noticed Abby charging up to them.
"Looks like we'll have to finish this in a more…private location." He snarled.
"No way!" Shadow shouted back. "This ends now."
The male half-ghost lunged at Cade, grabbing his jacket. He turned them both invisible and hurdled them away from the school area.
"Hey, I wasn't finished with you!" Abby shouted, waving her fist in the air.
In a clearing a short distance from the school, Shadow turned the two of them visible and slammed his opponent onto the ground.
"What is your problem?!" Shadow barked. "Why can't you just leave Chris alone?!"
Cade fired an unexpected blast, knocking Shadow into a tree. He pinned him against it.
"My problem is you!" He shot back. "Before you came along, Chris and I were so close, that not even death would have been able to keep us apart!"
"Especially since you tried killing her!" Shadow spat, using a ghost ray to thrust Cade off of himself.
"Well, there was that minor setback." The ghost admitted with a cruel smirk.
Shadow's face twisted in fury as he released one of his signature ghost zappers. Cade had no means of escape and was hit. He clenched his teeth as the pain seared through him. When it finally ended, his body fell limp, excess energy drifting off of him in what appeared to be smoke. Shadow marched up to him and the ghost barely summoned enough energy to partially open one eye, still gritting his teeth as he did so.
"Now for the last time; leave…Chris…alone!" With that, Shadow whipped out the Fenton Thermos 2.0 and sucked Cade inside. Once he completed the task, a triumphant gleam lit his blazing red eyes. He flew off back toward the school.
"Where's Jake?" Tori demanded, looking around, but not spotting her best friend.
"How should I know?" Chris retorted irritably. "I'm not his manager."
"But what if that ghost kidnapped him?!" She suggests worriedly, but with an angry tone.
"I'm sure he's fine." Matt assured tiredly.
Tori didn't seem convinced. "Okay, you two can sit here doing nothing, but I'm going to go look for him."
She started walking away from the school and was about to turn a corner when she smacked into none other than Jake.
"Where were you?" She interrogated.
"Jeez, calm down! I was just going to the bathroom. No need to have a panic attack." He lied seamlessly.
Chris and Matt laughed from a few feet away.
"Told you he was fine." Matt mocked.
She glared at him before turning back to Jake. "Come on, let's go back to the lunch table."
They began walking and met with the group, but Chris grabbed Jake's arm.
"You guys keep going. We'll meet up with you in a minute." She called.
They held back as the two African Americans reluctantly walked away. Chris turned to Jake when she saw that they were gone.
"What's the hold up?" Jake questioned curiously.
"I…I just wanted to say…thanks." Chris admitted embarrassedly. She turned her face away slightly, afraid that she might be blushing.
"For what?" He wondered.
She sighed. Why was he making this difficult? "For…you know, being my friend and helping out with Cade."
"Oh." He uttered, feeling very awkward and glancing away the same way Chris had. "Then it was no problem. It's not like I could just not help. Besides, you're a great friend."
She smiled and looked up. They both did. Suddenly, a Valentine's Day card drifted by their feet. It looked much like the one that Cade had seen earlier. Jake bent down and picked it up, holding it up so that Chris could see what it was. They both quietly laughed.
Valentine's Day…such a strange time.
Grrr. Cruddy ending. I'm sorry, that's the best that I could think up.
It was either this or a group of kids is watching from a hill a little ways away and discussing how Tori has competition and making bets.
Or maybe Tori just watching them, but that would be kind of predictable and boring.