So, this is it. (No I'm not putting up the Michal Jackson movie!) My last actual chapter! I actually came up with this chapter when I was at Show Chior Camp. Don't really know how, but hey, I think it worked out fine. I promies, no one's gonna bust into song and dance in this chapter.
When everyone got back to the Tower, they went straight to the main room. Lily was laying on Titan, asleep in front of the TV. Claire was sitting on the couch as she flipped through a magazine. When she heard the door open, she turned and put the magazine down.
"How'd it go?" she asked, looking at Joey.
"She got away," Mari said, trying to get the stick out of her hair. Cam was right beside her,
"We might have to cut this out, Sweetie." She started to pull on the stick. Mari was trying to pull her hair out of the ponytail, but the stick was in the way and around the hair at the base of it. Rachel went over to Lily, picked her up, and left the room to put her to bed. Claire stood up and walked over to Joey.
"Are you okay?" She touched a small cut on his cheek. He pulled away from her like she was contagious. Mari was sitting on a chair while Cam was sitting on the counter with a pair of scissors. Elle was sitting in the booth with a piece of paper she found with Kevin. Richard was talking to Kori while Vic and Gar where fighting over what to cook. Everyone stopped to look at Joey and Claire. "What's wrong, Honey?"
"I'm not your honey." Joey looked at her right in the eyes.
"Look, can't we talk about this later?" Claire said, trying to grab Joey's hand.
"No. We already talked about this. You can't talk to one of my friends like that and expect me to stay with you."
Everyone watched the fight but Mari. She was looking down on the floor when Titan walked over and sat in front of her. "My friends come first. My team," he looked over at Mari, "comes first."
"What, you're going to pick some chick that you've known only a few weeks over me, who you've known almost your whole life?" Claire retorted angrily. Rachel had reentered the room by this point and was standing next to Rich and Kori.
"Yes."
Claire turned from Joey to Mari. "You've ruined everything! You've come here and just took everything over." She started getting right up in Mari's face. Mari just stood up. "You think that you're in charge of this place. You know what you are? Queen of the Freaks. All you do is just tell a bunch of weird freaks what to do. You went and almost got all of them killed."
"Get out of my tower."
Claire stopped mid-rant. "What? Are you trying to tell me what to do?"
"Yes. You can yell at me, make fun of me all you want. But when you started making fun of my friends, I'm drawing the line. Now, I'm only going to say this one more time: get out of my Tower," Mari said. Everyone looked at Claire and Mari.
"You know what? I'm gone." She grabbed her bag. "But you'll be sorry." When she reached the door, she turned back and looked around the room. Titan started to growl. Mari sat down when Claire left.
"Don't cut a lot off. Only the stuff necessary." Cam just blinked and grabbed the scissors.
"Fine. But your hair would look really cute short," Cam said. Mari looked over at Elle, whose head was bent over. Mari got up right before Cam was about to cut a bit of hair off. Mari sat down next to Elle.
"You okay?" Elle lifted her head up. She had tear stains, but she was laughing.
"I'm fine. I just can't believe that I was friends with her." Kevin and Joey nodded in agreement. Mari was about to say something when she heard her dad start to yell.
"No! I won't let her!" All of the parents were huddled together. Kori grabbed Richard by the ear and pulled him down so she could whisper to him. All of the kids looked at each other. Cam came over with Ivy and snipped off a small part of Mari's hair. Mari jumped and looked at Cam, who had a small amount of hair and the stick in her hand. Mari was about to say something when her father cleared his throat.
"Mariand'r," he said as he pointed in front of him, "now." Cam and Ivy got up to let Mari out of the booth. Mari walked up to her father with her chin up. When she got up to him, all of the other adults moved back, even Kori, though she was still in arm's length. "You disobeyed an order. Not only did you put yourself in danger, but others too. You could have been severely hurt or worse." Mari took a deep breath and looked him right in the eyes.
"I…" she began. Rich just put up a hand to stop her.
"But, you followed your gut well. You kept your head on straight when in trouble and were quick to think on your feet. You also stood by your team. With a little training, you could become a great leader." Everyone's face lit up with pure joy. Mari looked at her mom, then to her dad.
"I can be a Titan? Really?" Mari looked back at her friends; Elle was hugging Kevin and high-fiving Joey. She smiled back at them.
"What about us?" Cam asked. Ivy nodded. "I really don't think my mom would let me move out here by myself." Rich just smiled.
"Talk to Tim. He'll set you two up." Cam and Ivy both high-fived each other. The kids started to cheer until Rich began to talk again, loud enough so everyone could hear him. "This is a lot of responsibility. You'll have to train hard, work hard. You have‒"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about our uniforms?" Elle interrupted. Everyone looked at her. She had a serious look on her face.
"Do you want to make them?" Mari asked, slowly. Elle's face lit up. She started hopping up and down like crazy.
"Oh, please, please, please, please."
"Sure, just don't make a mess," Rachel said. Elle started to do a dance while sitting down. The kids all started to talk about how they wanted their uniforms to look until Elle changed into a mouse and ran away. Mari looked back at her dad.
"There's also a lot of paper work and research and things like that," Richard continued. Mari looked at her mom and smiled. "It's a lot of hard work. Are you sure that you want to be the leader?" Richard asked with a smile. Mari looked back at her friends. Everyone looked at Mari and smiled. Soon, Little Mouse Elle appeared on her shoulder and nodded as she squeaked.
"I'm in," Mari said. The mouse jumped off her shoulder and changed back in mid-air.
"Alright!" she yelled. Everyone laughed. "If you have any specific needs, tell me. But I'm coming up with the designs myself. So get over it!" Joey and Kevin started to yell at Elle while Cam and Ivy were telling her what they "needed". Mari turned back to her father.
"There are a few more things you have to do as leader," he said. Mari smiled.
"Is reffing these fights one of those things? 'Cause I think I can," Mari replied, laughing.
"Well, that, and you have to do press conferences." Mari's face twisted a little.
"No prob. A little fear of public speaking isn't gonna stop Nightfire." Mari said, rubbing the back of her neck.Kori laughed and hugged Mari.
"You will do fine, my little Bumgorf." Mari was about to say something when she heard yelling coming from the kitchen area.
"Meat! These kids need some protein after their first big fight," she heard Cyborg yell.
"Tofu is protein too. Plus you don't have the death of those poor little animals' deaths on your consciouses." Soon Elle and Kevin started in with them. Richard looked at Mari.
"You're on," Mari heard as she stepped up. Ivy had jumped in and was helping Gar and Elle. Joey trying to quiet Titan, who had started barking with the fight.
"Guys!" Mari yelled. No one seemed to have heard her. "Guys!" She yelled a little louder. Still everyone continued to fight and yell. Mari rolled her eyes as she hopped onto the table. She took a deep breath, put two of her fingers in her mouth and whistled. The whistle was loud and high. Titan stopped barking and laid down, whining. Gar and Elle stopped and covered their ears. Everyone else just stopped and looked. "Let's just go get some pizza." Everyone just shrugged and started to walk out to go get some pizza. Mari just watched everyone laugh and talk until she saw a hand come up to help her down. Mari looked to see Joey. "What, are you trying to just be Mr. Helps-A-Lot?" Mari took his hand and jumped down.
"So, think this will be the end of all things normal?" Joey asked as they walked through the doors, trying to meet up with the others.
"When have you ever been normal?" Mari asked, laughing. Joey just smirked and chuckled a little. "Nah, I don't think it's an end. I think it's the greatest beginning of our lifetime." Mari said, smiling. They walked a few more feet till they heard Elle yell.
"Hurry up you guys. We'll leave with or without you." Mari looked over at Joey.
"Race you to the team." She started to run ahead of him, not waiting for an answer.
"You're on," Joey said, running up to follow her.
So people, there is the last actual chapter. I have a epilogue that will be up soon. I'm about to leave for Steamboat Springs today to go down the Yampa river. So much fun! See you all in a few days. Review porfavor!
