{Forgotten about me yet? *GASP* I'm not dead, and neither is this story. Although, admittedly, it feels a little like resurrecting a zombie at this point, but I think it's only been a couple months since my last update. Anyway, more on what's been going on with me after the chapter!}

Chapter Thirteen

"So tell me about this Atlantica," I yawned.

Belle was driving me in her dad's rusty old car to a place we would be meeting Ariel. I could actually hear sirens in the distance, and the squealing of tires. No gunshots yet but I was keeping my eyes open. Imagine dying by a chance gunshot wound in the wonderful world of Disney! Let me get poisoned by a toxic apple, sure, or disemboweled by the claws of Shere Khan, fine, but don't let me be the idiot who bites it by getting capped in the face by a random street thug, Disney forbid!

"It's this big gated community in the nice part of town," Belle explained. "It's quite bourgeois. You don't have to worry about getting jumped by Pirates or robbed by Gypsies over there, believe me."

"Well that's good at least." I contemplated something. "So where exactly did Ariel say she was gonna put me?"

"She wasn't too specific but she said it was a place you could sleep and no one would bother you. It was all I could really find with such late notice."

"I'm not complaining."

"Good. Because you shouldn't."

"I mean, if at any point in the middle of the night, you get to feeling lonely or sorry for me…"

"Mm, that's not going to happen. Fortunately, I'm a real deep sleeper."

"So you wouldn't even notice if I snuck back in there then."

Her eyes flashed at me. "Well that's got to be high on the list of creepiest things you've ever said to me."

"You have a list?"

"Maybe."

"And to think we only barely know each other," I said. "We have so much time to add to it!"

"I can't believe I even have to say this, but don't be a total creep around Ariel, okay? She's so young and naïve and she really thinks you're something special. I haven't the faintest idea why…but she does."

I let out a long, wavering sigh. "I know she does, and don't worry, I'm not gonna be creepy. I just like messing with you because you can take it."

"That's right I can."

"Now that we're on the subject, you know what else I bet you could take?"

"Shane!" She slapped me on the shoulder, and I laughed and recoiled. Worth it.

Belle wasn't lying when she had said Atlantica was nice. If anything, that was the understatement of my journey so far. The front gates we rolled up to looked like they were made of solid gold, which actually stood out as pretty gaudy to me in the dark of night. She stopped next to a security box, typed in a code, and then they swung open without so much as a creak.

Belle drove in, turned on the first street, and immediately we were surrounded by huge, majestic houses on both sides. These places were fancy. Lots of different types of architecture-look on one side, see a New England style manor with white columns, black trimmed windows, and a porch swing. On the other, cast a glance to see a brick driveway leading up to a sort of tan colored mansion with an almost Roman coliseum type of entranceway in front of the front door and rounded wings of the house extending out on either side. There were lights lined up under all the sections of the roof just so we could presumably see the pricey monstrosity in all of its glory, but they were already turned off. In fact, most of the lights in these houses were off, except for the porch lights, on occasion. Maybe they were all early to bed types, but it occurred to me that a lot of the people rich enough to live in houses like these may not even live here all of the time. How many of these structural testaments to fabulous wealth were sitting here like empty suburban catacombs, each an individual Cave of Wonders?

We ended up going pretty deep into the neighborhood, and then turned into a little side road that drove past a grassy area. Further off, I could see a baseball field and a playground. Belle parked the car next to the sidewalk.

I looked at her apprehensively. "You guys aren't gonna make me sleep in the playground, are you?"

"What's wrong with the playground?" Belle asked, opening her door and stepping out.

I hurried after her. "No, but seriously. Not the playground, right?"

"Ariel said to go up the hill over here," Belle said, turning on a flashlight and beginning to walk up the grassy hill. I had no choice but to follow.

"Are you two gonna chop up my body, harvest my organs, and bury the rest of the pieces somewhere up here? Because I'm totally not okay with that."

"Wow, you really are a big sissy, aren't you?"

"I feel like an escaped slave in the Underground Railroad."

"Melodramatic much?"

"I think it's a pretty good analogy, actually."

And I did. I basically was a sort of refugee here. If the truth of my circumstances was ever discovered, my complete lack of identity in this world, who knew what the consequences might end up being? For now, I was going to have to bounce around from place to place until I found a more permanent living situation. Until then, I was completely at the mercy of those more fortunate than I. Which was basically everyone.

We ended up outside of a tiny little studio at the top of the hill that was partially hidden by a grove of trees. It seemed pretty isolated, which was cool, but a little creepy too.

"Is this it?" I asked.

Belle looked around. "I think so. It's what she described. Let's see if the door's open."

We walked over to the little front door and tried to open it. Locked.

"Huh," said Belle. "Maybe this isn't it."

"Call Ariel," I said.

"Hi guys," said a voice.

Immediately, a high pitched girlish scream pierced the air. I whirled around, terrified by the sound, and jumped into Belle's arms, only to see Ariel standing there behind us.

"Shh!" Ariel hissed at me. "Are you trying to wake up all the neighbors?"

"Belle's the one who screamed," I said in a mopey voice.

Belle pushed me off of her. "That was you!"

I frowned. Hmm. After a second of consideration, I came to the conclusion that, apparently, the girly shriek had indeed come from me.

"No matter," I said. "Moving on. Is this where you're gonna hide me?"

Ariel's head quickly bobbed up and down in a nod. "This is the place!"

"Cool," I said, looking it over. "Like my very own mini bachelor pad. Thanks!"

"Don't get your hopes up too much," she said. "It's pretty cluttered in there."

"Hey, I'll take cluttered over sleeping on the jungle gym any day."

"He thought we were going to stick him on the playground," Belle told Ariel.

Ariel giggled. "Maybe we should."

I let them laugh at me for a few seconds before sighing as audibly as I could. They stopped laughing and I stretched my hands high over my head, yawning.

"Golly gee whillikers, I sure am sleepy!"

"Okay, you big baby," said Ariel. "I can take it from here now, Belle."

"Good luck with him," Belle said. "Wow. I feel like I'm dropping off a little stray dog."

"Thanks," I said.

"Don't let him get into the garbage or he'll get sick. And remember to let him out every so often or he'll make a mess on the carpet."

"BYE, Belle!" I said, annoyed.

She grinned and then waved at us. "Okay, bye, sweetheart! Be a good boy for Auntie Ariel! Mommy will you see at obedience school in the morning!"

"Wow, you should be a comedian."

Belle just winked at me and then began walking down the hill to her car alone. We watched her disappear from sight and then it was just the two of us standing out there in the dark, Ariel and me, senior and freshman, the two of us all by ourselves with no one looking.

"Well I'll unlock it now," Ariel said suddenly, brushing past me.

She was wearing a lavender hoodie, tiny little shorts, and flip flops. It was a little cold to just be in shorts, but I figured she had been comfortable in her room before coming out here. She probably wasn't planning on being out here very long.

The door opened and I stepped inside after her. She turned on a light and I have to admit, my jaw dropped a little at what I saw.

The whole interior was filled with from top to bottom with a vast array of innumerable items. Most of it appeared to be art-related, but there were other random things too. Paintings were on the walls, as well as statues and ceramic figurines, music boxes, record players, dolls, and items that looked as though they belonged in a 4th grade classroom's storage closet. There were globes and mini whiteboards and blackboards and markers and maps and textbooks and even some furniture here and there, buried amidst the zillion objects and trinkets.

"Whoa, did, like, an old elementary school explode in here or something?" I asked.

Ariel instantly turned self-conscious. "It's a little cluttered but, I mean, I know everything that's here."

"There's no way you know everything that's in here. It would take a clean-up squad years to get through this mess."

She was pouting. "Well if you don't like it, you can just-"

Not wanting to appear ungrateful, I quickly said, "No, no, it's fine. It's better than fine; it's great, really, thank you. I'm just…where do I sleep?"

"There's a futon," she said, as though I were both blind and retarded. She walked over to what looked to be nothing more than a nondescript pile of junk, and after a quick burst of hard-to-follow rearranging, she managed to excavate a dusty old futon.

I went over to it and gingerly sat down. Almost immediately, a spring popped through a small patch of fabric next to me like a chestburster in one of the Alien movies.

We stared at it.

"Hello there," I said to the spring. "Please tell your friends not to follow your example."

"Maybe we can duct tape that back down," Ariel said, looking around. "I know there's some duct tape around here somewhere."

Before she could start digging around anymore and potentially kill us both, I grabbed the sleeve of her sweatshirt and yanked her back.

"I'll take a busted spring over death in a junk avalanche any day," I told her. "Just chill."

Glaring, she sat down next to me and said, "It's not junk!"

"If you try to fit anything else in here, you're gonna forget where the door is and have to live out the rest of your days as a trash hermit."

"Are you kidding me?" she asked, suddenly jumping up and holding her arms out. "Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?"

"At this point," I said thoughtfully, "I'd have to think your collection's complete."

"Wouldn't you think I'm the girl?"

"What girl?"

"The girl who has everything!"

"Whoa!" I said, jolting back in my seat after realizing what we had just been loosely reciting. "I did not even do that one on purpose!"

"What are you talking about?" Ariel asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. Carry on."

"You have to understand," she said, "I know it looks like there's a lot of random stuff in here. But-"

"You've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty," I couldn't help but add.

"I've got whozits and whatzits galore!" she agreed.

"You got thingamabobs?"

She nodded eagerly. "I've got twenty!"

"That is an impressive amount of thingamabobs," I admitted. "Hey, is that a pet rock?"

Ariel let out a loud sigh. "But seriously, who cares? I mean, it's no big deal. I just…"

I looked up at her, knowing where she was going with this. "You want more."

Ariel's eyes lit up and she darted back onto the futon, sitting really close to me. Like, uncomfortably close. I tried to scoot away a little bit, but there wasn't really any escape from her.

"You're right, Shane!" she said. "You're so right! I knew you'd understand! None of this is enough for me anymore!"

"Was it ever?" I asked, twisting my head back away from hers.

She looked around dreamily. "When I was a little kid, I loved this place. It was my mom's art studio. She used to draw and paint and make all kinds of cool things in here. It was like a little arts and crafts center, and she let me come in whenever I wanted to. I would lay on the ground and color and look up, and my mom would be right there, hard at work on something awesome and creative."

I didn't really know anything about Ariel's mom. The movie didn't ever cover it, to my knowledge, so I had no idea what her real-world counterpart would be like. From the way Ariel was talking about her, though, and from what I knew about Disney's track history with parents, I was guessing that her mother was probably as dead as Belle's was.

"So, was your mom, like, some kind of artist?" I asked.

"Not in any, like, official sense," she replied. "She was an elementary school teacher. She was super creative."

"Wow, a teacher. Were you ever in her class?"

"No," Ariel said with a sigh. "Now I wish I had been. People are too suspicious of preferential treatment and all that. It's hard enough now for us with my dad being the superintendent. People always think my sister and I get good grades because teachers aren't allowed to fail us, which is not at all true."

"Whoa, your dad's the superintendent?" I questioned, suddenly feeling very vulnerable.

Ariel waved her hand. "Yeah but it's no big deal. He's too busy with all the other schools in the district to worry about just ours. But it's annoying because, it's like, he's so incredibly busy all the time that he almost never sees us, but at the same time, he tries to make up for it by being all way over-protective, and it just gets on my nerves! Like, let me live my life and stop pretending that you care all of a sudden just because Mom died!"

There was an awkward silence. She sat there breathing hard, a little worked up by her rant. I didn't really know how to respond, so I didn't. I just sat there quietly, until Ariel suddenly grabbed her sweatshirt.

"I'm hot," she said, and then she pulled it off over her head, tossing it carelessly aside next to her.

"Whoa," I said, feeling very nervous. This was the definition of jailbait sitting here, in a teeny-tiny tank top and teeny-tiny shorts, and a wrathful, powerful father somewhere in the very nearby house. If someone were to walk in on us, things would not look good.

Oblivious to my anxiety, Ariel looked at me with a pensive expression. "When my mom died, my dad was just gonna get rid of all of her art materials, and the stuff from her classrooms and everything. I didn't want him to, so I had them put it all in here, and it's kinda been my secret place ever since then."

"Nobody else in your family comes in here?" I asked.

She shook her head. "My dad never came in here even when my mom was alive, and Aurora is too scared of black widows, she says."

I quickly picked my feet up off the ground. "There are black widows in here?"

Ariel shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Don't be a baby."

"I'm not a baby, I just don't usually like to sleep with spiders. Or beetles or cockroaches, or any bugs, really. Rats and snakes too, for that matter."

"Yeah well you don't have a choice so suck it up," Ariel said. "I've never been bitten by anything out here except mosquitoes, so I think you'll survive."

"So what's your hang-up with this place then?" I asked. "If you're not worried about the dust or the bugs."

"My sister's always been, like, perfect and popular," Ariel said, her expression annoyed just at the mention of her beautiful older sister. "She never gets in trouble or anything. She's kinda like my dad; they both care about what people think about them. Like, super uptight sometimes, you know? My mom was a free spirit; she didn't care what people thought about her, and that's how I am. Or, at least, that's how I used to be. But it's different now that I've entered high school."

"It's only your first day of high school," I said disbelievingly. "How can it already be different?"

"It is!" she protested, turning again to face me. "I can already tell! I'm not a little kid anymore, I'm a young woman now."

"Come on," I said. "You're still just a kid. You're not gonna be legal drinking age for like a decade."

"That's not true! I'm fifteen! I'm gonna be sixteen this year!"

"Sixteen? That's sophomore age."

"I started school a year late," Ariel said, rolling her eyes. "I was kinda wild as a little kid. They thought I had ADD or something. My dad held me out of school until he was convinced I was emotionally mature enough to handle it. So I've always been a year older than everyone. That's why Alice always makes fun of me that I'm 'retarded,' like I was held back. But I wasn't held back. I just started late is all."

"You sound like you have a lot of angst," I commented blandly.

"It's hard being fifteen and a girl, okay?" Ariel said. "I have all these thoughts and feelings and no one to share them with!"

"You have friends…"

"They're all so young," Ariel said. "I can't stand people my own age. Alice always has her head in the clouds, I feel like she's never listening to me half the time. And everybody else is way too immature for my tastes. I like older people! They have way better conversations, about way deeper stuff! And I'm totally a deep person!"

All I could do was chuckle. "You need to just chillax and enjoy being a teenager while you can. Trust me, you're gonna miss these years. You never get them back." I paused and then added, "Well, unless you piss off some all-powerful animation icon and his demonic cat."

Ariel was staring. "See, I never understand what you're saying half the time."

"Nobody does," I muttered.

"But I want to!" Ariel exclaimed, getting up on her knees next to me. "I used to be happy running off playing in the woods and the grass and stuff, and coming up in here, but now I want to be out there, living and breathing and getting the most that I can out of being alive! I want to make high school the best years of my life! But all the people my age are so lame…especially the guys."

Uh-oh. She was staring at me now with her big blue eyes, looking like a red-headed teenage Alyssa Milano, all lost and hopeful and vulnerable. This was trouble. This was definitely trouble, for me, for her, for everyone.

Ariel grabbed my hands. "You think I'm pretty, don't you?"

I pulled them away. "Ariel, you're only fifteen."

"So?" she demanded. "What are you, seventeen?"

"I think I'm eighteen," I said. "I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?"

"Look, Ariel, I appreciate you putting me up for the night," I said, "but I'm really tired. I can tell you've got a lot on your mind and I'd love to talk to you about it all, but-"

"The least you can do is hear me out right now!" Ariel cut me off with surprising gusto. "Nobody ever listens to me!"

"Okay!" I said, exasperated. "Answer me this one question."

"Only if you answer mine first!"

"Answer what?!"

"My question! Do you think I'm pretty?!"

"Questions usually have question marks at the end of them. What you just shouted definitely had an exclamation point."

"Stop stalling with grammar lessons and answer me!"

"Okay, fine, jeez, YES, you're pretty. Happy now?"

She glowered suspiciously at me. "Are you telling the truth or are you just trying to get me to shut up?"

"Both," I answered with complete honesty. "Now you answer me."

"Okay."

"Are most of these age-based insecurities stemming from some unrequited crush you have on Eric?" I asked.

Ariel gasped and scrambled back a bit so that there was some space between us. "Who told you about Eric?"

"Every time I've heard his name mentioned, you get this look on your face," I said. "It's obvious you have feelings for him. But you know he was dating Belle, who I know you admire. That had to feel like a bit of a betrayal. And now, after they've broken up, he's with Jasmine, one of the richest girls in school, a girl even you yourself said should be cheer captain over your sister because she's so glamorous. With him dating two of the hottest and most high-profile girls at Disney High, that's probably left you feeling like you're trapped in some state of limbo, huh? Too pretty and 'mature,' apparently, to be much interested in the boys your own age, but too young and new to the scene to get noticed by the guy you really have your eyes on. Am I right about all this?"

To be honest, Ariel looked a tad overwhelmed. I guess she really hadn't gotten to talk this directly about her dilemma. But the good thing was that now, I was in control.

"Look, Ariel," I said when she failed to muster up any words. "I know it feels like high school will last forever. But you're only your first day in. And Eric might seem like the coolest guy ever, but there's gonna be plenty other fish in the sea."

"I'm so tired of fish!" Ariel sighed.

I decided to let that one pass. "The point is, there are more important things than worrying about impressing teenage boys. And as far as they're concerned, teenage boys are a dime a dozen. There will be other guys besides Eric. And who knows? Maybe before it's all said and done, you two will end up together in the end."

It seemed like an hour Ariel was sitting there going over my words, but in reality, it was probably only a minute or so of silence. (Catching Ariel in a moment of silence is about as rare as seeing Halley's Comet so forgive me for my hyperbole.)

Finally, she said, "I am so glad I met you, Shane. You're able to, like, look right into my soul, and see all the secrets I try to hide."

Incredibly, it seemed my attempts at diffusing any sexual tension by embarrassing her with the mentioning of her not-so-secret crush had backfired. If anything, she seemed to be even more enamored with me now.

I had never felt more like a genuine Mary-Sue.

"It's not that hard, Ariel," I said. "Teenage girls aren't all that complicated."

"If only all guys agreed with you! We're not that hard to understand! If only any of them tried like you do-"

"OKAY," I said, having had enough. "Seriously now, Ariel. It's late. If your dad or anyone notices you're gone, we're both gonna be toast."

Ariel rolled her eyes. "He won't notice."

"Well you might be willing to risk that, but I'm not. And I'm really tired. So thank you for letting me crash in your mom's old art studio, you're a great friend, I owe you one, and now I'm gonna go to sleep. We've got school in the morning."

She had a saucy little look on her face. "Did you say you owe me one?"

"Oh my god," I groaned. "Ariel. Child. Little girl. Go to sleep. Please."

"I really wish you'd stop calling me 'little girl!'" she said, standing up in a huff. "That's so annoying! You're not that much older than me!"

"You don't even know anything about me," I told her. "I could be a psycho serial killer for all you know."

"Like I'd be afraid of you."

I let out a loud yawn. "Okay, time to go night-night. Thanks for everything. Good night." I settled down on the futon and closed my eyes, hoping that playing possum would cause her to lose interest and leave on her own accord.

Ariel stood there like she wasn't sure whether she wanted to leave or jump on top of me, but after a few moments, she let out an irritated sigh and spun on her heel.

"You're so annoying."

And with that, she actually left the cluttered little studio and closed the door behind her.

It was quiet for all of about five seconds before I heard that old familiar feline voice say, "Well aren't you just a giant weenie."

"Of course you'd be here," I said, not opening my eyes. "I'm trying to go to sleep, if you don't mind."

The Cheshire Cat said, "She was right there! Ripe for the picking! And you let her walk away."

"She's fifteen."

"So? She's not real, according to you."

Annoyed, I opened my eyes and sat up to see him sitting atop an old globe in the dark, looking quite disappointed in my lameness.

"Just goes to show you how easy this will be," I said. "I can take my time with them. If I don't feel like starting off with a fifteen year old, that's my prerogative."

The Cat rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe I should have made you fifteen…"

"No!" I said, panicking a little. "I mean, just, chill, okay? I'm gonna do what I have to do. She's just one girl, and my tastes skew older anyway. Sue me, jeez."

"Very well," said the Cat. "We'll see what you're made of soon enough. I hope you don't think you're gonna hide out here all year, do you?"

"Well I'm not planning on being here for a whole year," I said. "Unless you know something I don't."

"I'm just making the observation that you're not gonna have an easy time of completing your task if you're bringing girls back to this dump."

"I will GLADLY upgrade to the penthouse apartment you've failed to give me," I said, my voice rising a couple octaves.

"Well we can't make it that easy for you," sniffed the Cat. "Just remember, we did this for our own amusement, so we're hoping to see at least some action soon."

"Sorry I'm not satisfying your perverted appetites, you and whoever you're with."

The Cat started to laugh as his body began to disappear into the shadows until all I could see was his leering grin.

"There are a lot more perverted appetites hoping to get satisfied by witnessing your adventures than you know..."

And then, even his grin was gone.

{So, WOW. It's been awhile. I don't even know if this has an audience anymore, but that's okay. I'll still try to update it whenever I can, if I can.

So where have I been and what have I been up to, you ask? (I assume someone's asking. Maybe this is just me talking to myself. No matter, I'll talk to myself all I want.) Well, my school semester ended and I decided to try and make some things happen for myself this summer in the writing world. It pays to live in the greater Los Angeles area, so I have definitely been trying to go into Hollywood to find some opportunities and take advantage of them. The good news is, I may have quite a few exciting ventures coming my way very soon. I've written some feature-length scripts (none of them Disney-inspired, unfortunately) to try and get picked up, and I may possibly get the chance to be brought onboard to write professionally for television. (I can't say for what…I'm not sure that even if I do get the jobs, I'll be able to say. Much of the appeal of fan-fiction is through its anonymity, so I may or may not ever make my identity publicly known, especially if I actually start getting paid to write soon. I'm a nobody right now, but who knows where I'll be in a few months. I guess we'll see!)

Anyway, as far as the story goes, I do remember the various storylines and I hope to write in this thing whenever I have time. Unfortunately, since this is just an anonymous online fan-fic, it's ultimately just a hobby, and I've had a lot of other writing stuff on my plate that's taken priority. If everything goes right, my plate will get even more stuff, so while it'll be tough balancing this with material I can actually get paid for, I will do my best to continue this tale of the accidental Mary-Sue and his shameful task!

Thanks for reading, everyone (…anyone?), and let me know what you think in the reviews if you can. Interested to know if anyone's left (haha). Can't promise when the next update will be, but hopefully it will be soon! Until next time…}