CHAPTER 8…

FUNERAL OR CHOICE

It was three days later and the Jackson's attended Kathy's parents' entire funeral to make her feel comfortable. None of her other family had come, not even her grandparents. It made her angry inside. Her guts twisted knowing that her family didn't even care enough to attend the funeral. What made her feel worse was the fact that she still had no clue who she wanted to stay with and she only had four more days to decide. Everything was going across in her mind. Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this? Why are they gone? Thoughts racing through when she suddenly felt a hand touch her shoulder. She looked back to find Prince, Paris, and Blanket standing there looking worried.

"What? I'm fine." She turned back around and shut her eyes tightly so no one would see the true pain.

"The funeral is over." Paris said to her surprise.

"Oh, well, I guess my cabby should drive me back to the hotel then." She stood up.

"Kathy, we wanted to thank you for saving our dad." Prince said.

"And we're really sorry about your parents." Blanket said. Kathy turned to face them.

"Sorry? They're dead. There's nothing you could've done to stop it. Unlike your alls dad." Kathy felt bad because she did have a slight jealousy of him now. Why did he survive and her parents not? Why did they have to suffer? It didn't make any sense.

"We just wanted to let you know," Prince said as he grabbed her hand. "We're always here for you." Katherine looked down and slightly blushed. It wasn't her fault that she had a slight little crush on him. He was a nice kid. And he was only 5 months younger too.

"Thanks, but I got to go." She turned to leave when she saw Michael out of his wheel chair. He'd been getting better since that day. She didn't know what she did to cause it. But he seemed normal, and that made her feel good inside. She smiled at him and got into the cab.

************

"Where to Miss'?" The driver said. She looked at him.

"You know where, where you always take me."

"Ah yes, my apologies." He started to drive.

They were half way there when she saw an oddly looking car. It had very tinted glass. So tinted that you couldn't see a thing. Like you were just wondering around at night looking for a flashlight. It was unusual but she didn't pay much attention to it. This was LA for gosh sakes. Good ol' Hollywood some people would say. But so far, it wasn't good to her. The only time they really had fun was on MJ's birthday. They got him tons of stuff. I guess it wasn't his fault. He did practically come back from the dead the day before.

The red light turned Green, but something strange happened. Where the odd car was at, the light was still red, but he went anyways. The same time they went. BOOM!

Katherine opened her eyes a little and everything was blurry and slow. There was a figure over her that turned into being Michael. She looked side to side and saw glass, beat up cars everywhere. She looked down and saw that her clothes were torn and she had scratches, but that's it. Then, she saw bodies. Dead bodies, limp, fragile, grossing bodies. She started to tear when she felt that she had a grip of a cell phone. She looked to see that indeed a cell phone was in her hand. She cried more when she suddenly heard a voice in her head.

"We're always here for you." She heard and she saw Michael. He and his kids, his family, were there for her.

"We're here right now Kathy! Can you hear me?" Mike said. She nodded her head and started to get up. Everything was normal now. The ambulance finally got there and took her away.

**************

"What's the official cause officer?" Mike said as he was sitting with Kathy.

"A hit and run. We don't know how the driver escaped it, but he did. It was probably an accident, but then he probably didn't have his license or insurance so he ran." Officer Melt replied.

"Why would they do that? I could've died." Kathy said. They looked at her. "Just like my parents did."

"We don't know young girl, but we promise, we're going to find him." The officer then turned and left.

"Ah, don't be too down Kathy, be glad you at least survived." Mike said.

"That man needs to pay." Mike held her close when the doctor came up to her with Mike's kids behind him. A lady was there too.

"Katherine, this is your lawyer Mrs. Sheinklehier (shh-ene-kle-higher)" The doctor said. "She wants to speak with you all." The lady smiled and came up to her.

"Hello Katherine, I'm Luna Sheinklehier. You can just call me Luna."

"Hi."

"I know the doctor said have your decision in a week but with everything that's going on, you need protection." Kathy looked at her.

"Protection? You mean, you think someone's trying to kill me and my family?" She nodded. Everyone was surprised at this new information.

"We need you to make the decision now." Everyone looked at her.

"It's going to be ok. Just choose wisely." Michael said. Katherine nodded and closed her eyes.

"We're always here for you." The voice said again. She opened her eyes and smiled.

"I know who I want to stay with." She said.

"Who?" Katherine smiled at Mike and his three children.

"I want to stay with Michael Jackson." Everyone went into shock.

"Kathy you can't do that!" Luna said.

"Why not?"

"Mr. Jackson can not take care of you, it has to be one of your family members!"

"The law don't say that."

"Well, it's just not-"

"No." Mike said. "I'll do it. I'll be her guardian." Katherine smiled.

"Mr. Jackson you don't have to do this."

"But I want to. Maybe having another girl around will be good for Paris. Besides, Prince did say he wanted to try being a younger sibling once."

"I did?" He said.

"Shush dad's talking." Luna looked at him and sighed.

"Alright. Just sign these papers and she'll be yours." He signed and Kathy hugged him. She was never more happy. She was an older sibling now, a superstar, and had a dad that was the nicest man in the world. She had a reason to be happy.