The next day turned out fantastic, as if to belie Ms. Honey's fears. The lines were shorter, and so they were able to do more rides, and they spent the day racing around the park, running from ride to ride to ride. At the end of the day, they took the Monorail back to the Hotel, this time to change into fresh clothes and return for dinner at the Blue Bayou Restaurant, an expensive New Orleans themed restaurant featuring Cajun Style fine dining and live Blues.

They rode the hotel elevator up to the 8th floor, and then raced each to their room at 829.

"First one there gets the first shower," Matilda shouted, having a marginal lead. But Jenni, with her long legs, touched the door seconds before she did. They both fell against it laughing and catching their breath, then Jenni fished her room keycard out of her purse, swiped it and let them both in. Matilda threw herself onto her bed (the one nearest to the balcony.) Jenni dropped her purse on her bed, and went to the closet where she had placed a blue dress that was nicer than usual. The top was white, and it had no sleeves. It had a blue belt around the middle, and fell to just about her knees in pleats, the bottom which edge was tinged a light blue. The effect was rather like a blue morning glory. It was rather like Ms. Honey herself, feminine without being sultry. It had - against all odds - managed the trip without getting wrinkled, to her relief.

Matilda, finally having caught her breath, sat up.

"I think I'll go get a can of soda."

"Kay, don't spoil your appetite," Jenni said, without looking.

"Yes, mother," was Matilda's deadpan reply as she passed Jenny and exited the door. Jenny stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

As she pulled off her clothes, she considered the problem of Matilda. The girl had shown no signs of errant telekinetic energy all day. She had been as free and easy as she had used to be, back before that same telekinetic energy had begun to show itself. In fact, Ms. Honey couldn't even say for certain that Matilda had caused the cup ride to spin so fast. And if she had, there was no reason for that to mean that Matilda had a secret crush on her. For goodness sake, she was 15 years older than the girl. Besides, Matilda had been sitting right across from Jerry, who had been rather pretty herself, with curly black hair, and a nose that could be best described as a button-like. Cute, if you liked that sort of thing. By the time Ms. Honey was testing the shower water's temperature with her hand, she had nearly completely convinced herself that it was foolish to think Matilda was nursing feelings for her. Before she stepped fully into the shower, she noticed that she had forgotten her shampoo and conditioner in her bag. Knowing the trip down the hall to the Soda Machine was a rather long one, she stepped out the door without even wrapping a towel around herself.

Her self delusion might have continued longer had Matilda not forgotten something as well. She had forgotten her wallet, which was in her jacket, which she had shed at the foot of her bed. Not 40 seconds after leaving, she slipped back into the Hotel room to retrieve it. She had just pulled it out of the jacket pocket and turned to leave when Jenny stepped out of the bathroom, breathtakingly naked.

"Oh," Matilda gasped, the strangled sound leaving her mouth quite against her will. A T.V. remote, lying on the counter next to the television, rose up and slammed against the wall so hard it exploded into plastic pieces and batteries, leaving a small dent. There was a complete stunned silence in the room, as neither of them moved. Then Jenny took a small step forward, less than a step, a motion. It was enough to galvanize Matilda into action. Screwing her eyes shut, she ran past Jenny and fumbled the door open, slamming it behind her.

And leaving Jenny alone in their room. She stood still for a second, scarcely even breathing. Then, making up her mind, she hurriedly dressed in the clothes she had just divested herself of. At the last minute, she saw Matilda's jacket and picked it up as well. By the time she left the room, the hallway was empty. It took her about 10 minutes to find Matilda. She was hiding in the rather whimsical gardens that surrounded the three towers of the Disneyland Hotel, sitting on the edge of a foot bridge, looking down at the coy who inhabited the pond below. As Jenny drew closer, she saw that she was skipping a rock across the water in impossible zig zag patterens. The coy seemed to think it was food, and kept chasing it, trying to eat it. It would have been cute, had Matilda not been crying. They were silent sobs, only noticeable by the tears that steamed down her face and the heaving of her shoulders.

As Jenny stepped onto the bridge and Matilda heard the sound of her footsteps, the stone dropped beneath the water. A large coy bit it eagerly, then spit it out.

"Oh, it's you," she said dully.

Jenny bent down and wrapped Matilda's coat around her shoulders, then sat down beside. Matilda didn't put it on, but pulled it closed in front of her, her arms within.

"So, I guess you know now," she mumbled in a voice completely at odds with her usually precise diction.

"Know what? That a healthy teenage girl reacts in a natural way when suddenly seeing someone nude?" It was an out, if a weak one.

Matilda smiled, a bit wryly. "If exploding things is a natural reaction." But she bravely refused to take the out given her. "No, you know that's not what it was. I like you. I love you. I love you so much I think it's making me crazy." It was the sort of thing a person usually said while looking passionatly into their amore's eyes. But Matilda only hunched over into her jacket some more. "I must be sick. Your practically my mother," she spat the last word out as if it was something disgusting she had eaten on accident.

"That's not true," Jenny said gently. "That's not the sort of relationship we have had at all. Oh, perhaps in the eyes of the law, but not to me. You are my friend." She said the last word with an intensity that surprised her. "I've never limited you in any way. I've barely even guided you. You're too... you've always been too self sufficient for that. You were grown up before I even met you. In a way, you are my mentor. You've taught me that happiness is not making the best of a bad thing. It's demanding what you need from the world, and if the world won't give it to you, its changing the rules and leaving that world behind. Maybe I should have tried to mother you a bit more, maybe I was wrong to insist that things be equal between us. But I didn't do that, and you know what Matilda?"

Matilda couldn't help but finally look at Jenny; the challenge in her voice was so insistent.

"I'm not sorry at all."

Hearing a statement like that, looking into Jenny's eyes that flashed with such intensity, Matilda couldn't help it. She moved across the distance between their two heads and pressed a kiss onto Jenny's mouth. Jenny froze for an instant, then pulled gently away, her hand firmly pressing Matilda back.

"Fuck!" Matilda bellowed, stung and frustrated. She whipped her head around, and focusing on one of the large bread-loaf sized rock that marked the boundary of the pond , dislodging it so that is splashed into the pond, scattering coy in all she dislodged another one, and another. Scared by all the noise she was making in a public area, Jenny grabbed her shoulder and hissed urgently, "Calm down, Matti, it will be all right!"

Matilda shrugged her away and stood up, continuing to toss rocks into the pond with her eyes. "Not if you keep touching me it won't. Go away, I'll work this out on my own."

Now it was Jenny's turn to be affronted. "Don't let anyone hear you, or see you. We don't need THAT right now on top of everything else."

"Don't worry, I won't let anyone know what a freak I am," Matilda bit out, but already the rocks she was tossing into the pond were smaller.

Jenny forced herself to walk away, and when she stepped off the bridge she looked back and saw that Matilda had returned to skipping a single flat rock, like a water strider, across the stilling pond.