Welcome back everyone! Things are indeed getting pretty dramatic for the rebel teams in Panem…however, for most of this chapter, we'll be turning our attention away from them for a moment; you'll see why very soon. But before I present you with the next part of this fanfic, there's something I have to say.
Some of you might have guessed by now, but all of the objects Objectiva transferred magic into are technically from the Freaky Friday movies themselves; even the dagger that took Starpoint's life, which is from "Freaky," a version of Freaky Friday that's rated R. I don't own any of those movies (all credit goes to their true creators). But one reason why I wrote this fanfic was because I wanted to give all those enchanted objects the backstories that none of their movies supplied them with. And, well…let's just say you'll be seeing quite a bit of that in this chapter.
Just thought I'd let you know. Anyways, let's begin!
Once Upon An Object(iva)
Nessa's group and Golias's group wasted no time in telling each other their respective sides of the story. The successful plan to escape the arena, the whole story with Clove joining their team, the loss of Peeta and Sonia, and the sacrifice of Katniss. Then Yuri explained how Rue's siblings ended up in the Capitol by talking about his, Matt's, and Lili's misadventure in District 11, and the revelation that Lili had an aunt and a 12-year-old cousin who were from that district. And finally, Golias and Effie talked about meeting Wish-Trish and Objectiva (though they left out the parts about Golias's secret regarding the true duties of Big Big Friends, since Nessa was already overwhelmed by the whole Lili-getting-captured thing), the accident with Wish-Trish, Bongo and Objectiva having to go to the island, the mentors becoming involved with everything, Glimmer's interview with Caesar Flickerman (which they really only brought up to ensure the evacuees that Peeta was still alive), and finally, the tragic incident with the tracker jackers that had cost them Blight and Chaff.
Johanna, of course, didn't at all seem pleased with the whole "Wish-Trish getting squashed" situation. She didn't stay on that topic for more than a second, but at least half of her companions overheard her mutter the word "rookie" under her breath. And once she heard her doing so, Effie suddenly realized that Blight and Chaff were the second and third casualties to leave their team because Golias made a mistake that, in the mentors' eyes, was completely avoidable. Now that Johanna knew he'd also happened to be the reason why Wish-Trish was gone, well…she was going to do something about it, that was the only thing that was for sure. But what was that something? She wasn't going to urge everyone else to let her remove him from the team, was she?
Geolo, meanwhile, found himself in tears yet again today. He felt awful telling Cecelia about how they'd lost Sonia, especially because that was an avoidable event too. And his crying only increased when Thresh, fed up with continuously waiting for this moment to happen, lifted Clove into the air by her backpack when she least expected it. He then unzipped her backpack, grabbed a knife from inside of it, zipped it back up, and set the Career down again. Then finally, he held Geolo against his stomach, rolled up his sleeve, and cut out his tracker.
"Ow!" Geolo yelled, caught off guard. Then he realized what his ally had done, and as he watched him stomp on the tracker until it was crushed beyond repair, the tribute from 3 smiled meekly. "Yeah, I know. I should have done that as soon as we landed. But you've gotta trust me, I was not procrastinating!"
Thresh simply picked up the ointment he'd collected from the Capitol's hospital and rubbed it into his companion's fresh wound. "It'll be fine tomorrow," he curtly told him. "No driving problems."
Golias, who was using his right ear to block Yuri's view of Geolo's injured arm, was wide-eyed in fear. "W-why did you just give him a booboo?"
"He only did it to get his tracker off of him," whimpered Nessa, her mind still on Lili. "Trackers are stuff that tell the bad guys in the Capitol where we are. Every tribute comes into the arena with one. I really wish they didn't have to go inside their arms…"
"At least you don't have to worry about having a tracker yourself," said Geolo. "Same goes for the rest of you…"
Nessa sniffled again. "Are you sure Bongo's safe, Golias?"
"As far as I know, I am," the elephant replied. "But we'll know when we go to District 4 tomorrow."
Then, because it was getting late, Nessa needed more time to compose herself, and Finnick, Annie, Beetee, and Wiress weren't back yet (they would just have to trust that the foursome would be able to figure out where they were on their own), Seeder and Haymitch decided they should camp out next to the now-empty arena. Since Foxface was still resting and nobody felt comfortable with Clove's presence, sleeping arrangements were made almost immediately. Clove had to sleep outside the hovercraft with all the mentors and Golias surrounding her, while Nessa, Effie, Yuri, and the evacuated tributes stayed inside the hovercraft and joined Rue's present siblings and Foxface. In no time at all, everyone had fallen asleep, with Nessa thinking two final thoughts before she dozed off: her hope that Rue was right and Lili really would be okay, and her hope that Foxface would be fine too.
Because of how late everyone who was now by the arena had stayed up, the two united rebel teams slept in. So things weren't too eventful for a while…well, at least in Panem. For as the sun rose, while those of our protagonists who were in that nation slept, Bongo and Objectiva woke up, having landed in a city on the island the exact same moment that the evacuees had started watching the second series of projections of the Fallen.
Bongo sat up and yawned loudly, stretching his arms. He then opened his eyes, taking in the sunlight streaming in through the windshield of the hovercraft he and Objectiva had taken control over. Only a second later he gasped in excitement, leapt to his feet, and started bouncing up and down over and over again. "Objectiva! We're on the island! And it's morning! Time to look for those magic green amulets."
Objectiva, who had spent the night on the hovercraft's control panel, stirred and awoke as well. "Hold on," she murmured, "first we must check to see which of the island's cities we are in. It was so dark when we landed that it was hard to tell which area we reached."
"Oh come on!" Bongo groaned, clenching his hands into fists and impatiently throwing his head back. "Doesn't this thing have lights at the front that make it easy to tell?"
"How should either of us know? This is our first time commandeering a vehicle from Panem, and your magic changed its layout until we went to sleep."
The kangaroo realized her point and calmed down. "Eh, you're right. And we don't have time to find out if there really are lights at the front 'cause we gotta go get those amulets!"
"Indeed," said Objectiva. "Come, let us exit this hovercraft and plan our next steps."
"Okay!" Bongo excitedly chimed.
The two of them then left the vehicle, where Bongo used his layout-changing powers to make a disguise appear on himself: a large dark purple hat to hide his ears, a yellow scarf to hide his nose and mouth, a dark blue shirt with sleeves that went past his fingers, a green belt that was the same shade as his tail (the only part of his body that he couldn't hide), a pair of big sky blue puffy pants, and a pair of red clown shoes to disguise his feet. Objectiva hid inside the small pocket that rested on his shirt so that she could avoid being seen while still being able to observe their surroundings, before they began searching the town they'd landed in the outskirts of for someone to tell them which town it was. They didn't have to ask anyone anything though, because not long after they entered the city, they came across a building that read, Blissfield Bank.
"Blissfield," Objectiva whispered, recognizing the name of the town at once.
"Okay! Blissfield! What a name!" Bongo happily replied. He then frowned. "Wait…is this the city those two amulets are in?"
"No," said Objectiva, in a quiet voice. "It is not. But it is where…" Suddenly her voice trailed off, and in a second she was crying.
"Did, did I say something wrong?" Bongo asked in concern.
"No," whispered Objectiva, her crying increasing.
"Then why are you crying?"
Objectiva tried to reply, but she simply couldn't find the vigor to do it. The truth was, while Blissfield wasn't where the enchanted talismans were, she had technically been in it before. But why she'd been…well, it wasn't a pleasant memory.
"Do you wanna be alone?" Bongo asked. "Sometimes that helps Yuri feel better when he's upset. Except he's never really alone because Golias always goes with him. Until now anyway, since you and Wish-Trish didn't want Yuri to go to Panem."
Objectiva hesitated. That was actually just what she wanted and needed; a moment to herself. Yet she knew she couldn't leave Bongo by himself. She practically knew the entire island by heart, while this was only his first time on it. And even if Bongo was familiar with the island, leaving him by himself still probably wouldn't be a good idea because of his mischievous reputation. Who knew what kind of chaos he could get into here? Then again, now that Objectiva thought about it, Blissfield wasn't the only city on the island that brought back unpleasant memories…in fact, the entire island did, and it just hadn't crossed her mind that it would until now.
The truth was, there wasn't a single town on this piece of land that didn't house one group of objects with her powers given to them. And now that she was back here, her memories of planting her magic into those objects were flooding back into her mind. How Aunt Oonette had initially thought her decision to give her powers to those objects was a ridiculous decision that needed to be undone. How Wish-Trish and Starpoint had both disagreed with her—their own mother—and convinced her to let her niece initiate a body swap with her enchanted objects. If it succeeded in teaching both of the swap's victims a valuable lesson and if the victims were able to return to their original bodies, Starpoint had said, then that would prove Objectiva's decision had been a wise one.
Luckily, only a few hours after that ultimatum had been announced, Wish-Trish had discovered that two souls—a well-respected rescue team captain who was afraid to admit to his crew that he'd developed work-induced stress, and a princess who had locked herself away from the world out of fear that she'd accidentally harm her beloved sister—were going through dilemmas that could only be solved by a body swap. However, because neither of them were going to wish they could switch places with anyone or have a break from their lives, the swap could only be initiated if both of the souls came into contact with Objectiva's enchanted objects. So, the one-of-a-kind Freaky Friday Fairy who had a different way of using her powers had been able to prove to her aunt that her unique approach was worth being considered. And in the end, both the captain and the princess were able to learn that letting themselves fall deeper and deeper into their insecurities was not the best option; talking to their teammates/sister was. Even if they had those insecurities, that would never stop them from continuing to be loved.
Objectiva was still at a loss for words as she wept. Her cousins were the ones who had never stopped being there for her, trusting her. The reason why she'd been able to continue causing body swaps in her own special way…and now they were both dead, leaving those beloved memories as sad ones. No, there was no way the poor fairy would ever be able to stay as focused as she needed to be and therefore prevent her and the kangaroo's cover from being blown as long as they were here, no matter what city they were in. Bongo would have to get the amulets himself, and she would have to give him directions so he would be able to complete the mission. Luckily, thanks to the voice in her head that she always heard when a body swap caused by her enchanted objects was about to start, she knew exactly who those particular amulets were with, and which city they lived in.
"Uh, did you hear what I said Objectiva?" Bongo asked.
She nodded, flew out of his pocket, and finally spoke. "Bongo…I am very sorry to admit it, but…I just cannot do it. Everything here reminds me of my cousins…"
"Oh." Both of them remained silent for a moment, and then Bongo said, "Do you want me to get the amulets while you stay here and uh…cry?"
"It's what is best," Objectiva admitted. "Just…find the nearest city-to-city bus and have it bring you to the town known as Shady Grove."
"Got it," affirmed Bongo. "Shady Grove. Where the magic amulets are!" He then frowned. "Shady Grove. That's a weird city name."
"Well, do not say that in front of anyone who lives in it. The city, like every city on this island, was named after a city or landmark that resided in Panem, back when it was bigger and known as North America. The island itself used to be part of North America before it shrunk and separated this piece of land from it in the process, so…the people here tend to be very passionate about what life was like before Panem's birth."
"Okay," Bongo said. "Anyway, uh…"
"Oh yes," Objectiva nodded. "When you get to Shady Grove, you must go to its junior high school and find a 14-year-old girl by the name of Annabelle Andrews. Last year the two amulets were given to her and her mother, and they were the first people to be swapped by them. But in case she is already in class by the time you find her, you must be quick. And be sure to tell her that I am sorry she has to be bothered at school, but I do not know the location of her mother's work. So it must be her that we go to."
"No problemo," replied Bongo. "See you when I get back to Blissfield!" He then started to bounce away, when Objectiva called for him to wait. "What is it?" he asked.
His fairy friend hesitated for a moment, before saying, "One more thing…please stay out of trouble. If you grab anyone and shake them so insanely like you did in District 4, or cause any mischief…anything like that…then bad things could happen because of it. And being locked away in a zoo is only one of the possibilities that could be in store for you."
"Oh. Don't worry Objectiva! I'm not gonna get in any trouble."
"Really?" Objectiva doubted. "Honestly…I cannot imagine you honouring that particular vow for very long."
Bongo looked away from her in guilt. "Yeah, you're right. Sooner or later I'm gonna see someone eating candy or something, and I'm gonna try to find some way to sneak it into my mouth instead. Even if you said no." He then looked around the area of Blissfield they were in, and saw a sight across the street from the bank that made him bounce up and down in excitement. "Ooh! Candy store! I bet if I eat some of the candy in that store, my tummy will be so happy that it won't make me try to eat anything else until I get back from Shady Grove. Can I eat the candy, Objectiva? Can I?"
"Bongo," said Objectiva, "that is a store. You will not be able to eat the candy without any money."
"But I don't need money," insisted the kangaroo. "I've got a better idea! Watch!"
Objectiva sighed and watched as Bongo bounded towards the candy store. He went inside, and she discreetly flew over to the store's window and peered just beyond its edge, being extremely careful not to let herself be seen by anyone inside or outside the building. Right after that, she saw Bongo bounce toward the counter, look the female employee standing behind it in the eyes…and suddenly sway from side to side, placing his hand against his forehead in a dramatic way. He moaned "dizzily" so loud that Objectiva could hear him from outside the store, and then she didn't know what he said to the employee, but whatever it was, it made her panic, thrust a small box from the storage room into his hands, and allow him to leave the store without paying for the box's contents.
"See?" Bongo said to Objectiva as he left the store. "I didn't need any money. I got the candy, and all I had to do was make that lady think I was sick! 'Cause sick people always get presents."
"Bongo…!" groaned Objectiva, doing a face palm. Did he have any idea how lucky he was that his plan had worked? Or how much trouble he could have gotten into if the employee hadn't figuratively bought his story?
Caught up in the victory and thinking his friend was actually praising him for his skillful work, Bongo contently replied, "Oh please, please, it was nothing! I just got myself something to keep me out of trouble while I'm in Shady Grove! You don't have to say thank you."
"I wasn't…never mind." Objectiva then tried to fight back a fresh stream of tears as she asked him, "What exactly…is in the box she gave you?"
"Red liquorice," Bongo told her, opening the box to prove it. "It's my favourite candy! It'll keep my tummy happy for sure."
"Alright," the fairy agreed. She found herself beginning to cry again and quickly said, "You best be going now…we do not know how long we have to supply Nessa with those talismans…"
"Okay. See ya!"
Soon Bongo was bouncing off with the box, along the way stuffing strand after strand of red liquorice either into his mouth or underneath his disguise and into his lower pouch when nobody passing by was looking. Objectiva, meanwhile, slowly flew in the opposite direction, not really paying attention to where in the city she was going but making sure she stayed out of the pedestrians' sights. All she could do besides that was think about Starpoint and Wish-Trish—and hope Bongo would stay true to his word and avoid any trouble with anyone on the island.
Ten minutes went by, and when he still couldn't find a bus that could take him to Shady Grove, Bongo stopped searching the city and started groaning in impatience. "Still no bus? Ohhhh…I hope I find it soon! I wanna get those magic amulets so we can switch Nessa and Effie back! Gee, where's a city map when you need one?"
After looking left, looking right, and not finding a map, Bongo sighed and continued bouncing forward. He reached the edge of the sidewalk two seconds later and turned to the right, where he saw a little boy walking toward him accompanied by a woman he assumed was the boy's mother. Unfortunately, somehow Bongo didn't notice the puddle in between him and the two people, and he wound up bouncing right into it. Before he could blink, the little boy was completely soaked by the water from the puddle, and so was his mother's skirt.
The boy instantly started crying, and Bongo quickly said, "Oh! Sorry! Didn't uh…see that there…"
The boy's mother frowned at him sternly, so Bongo did what was now the only things he could think of doing: gazing at his two companions sheepishly (even though most of his face was hidden by his disguise), chuckling nervously, and quickly walking past them and away from them. He then crept into an alley and stood against a wall in it, where he stayed silent until he heard the boy's mother sigh and say, "Let's go home, darling."
Bongo waited for a few seconds before peeking out of the alley with a nervous smile. When he saw the still-crying boy and his mother just disappearing from view, the kangaroo darted back into the alley and smiled, relieved. Okay—now he knew. He needed to look before he bounced; if Matt were here to see what had just happened, that would have been exactly what he'd told him to do. Not even half an hour had passed, and he had already broken his word to Objectiva! It had been an accident of course, but still. He had to be careful!
After stuffing more red liquorice under his disguise and into his lower pouch, Bongo closed the box and looked around. He then began bouncing forward again, but this time he did so much more slowly because, having learned well from the puddle incident, he kept examining the sidewalk before he bounced. This went on for half a minute, until he began to approach a police car parked on the side of the road closest to him. A police officer was standing in front of the car's open back door, carefully putting box after box into the back seat. She was unknowingly right in Bongo's path, but because he was so busy examining the sidewalk before he bounced, he was just as oblivious to her presence as she was to his. Then, just as she was about to put the last box into the car—a small one that happened to look identical to his red liquorice box—Bongo bounced forward, noticed her too late, and accidentally knocked her down.
"Char!" exclaimed the worried voice of a teenage girl.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry!" Bongo yelled, as he landed on the ground, his fall softened by the police officer. As they fell, they each dropped the box they'd been holding at the time, and both boxes tumbled off the curb and stopped halfway under the car.
The officer groaned, gently pulled him off of her, and sat up. "I'm okay, sis," she said. Then, to Bongo, she frowned and said, "You have to watch where you're going, sir! You don't know what's in those boxes. The evidence inside them could have made you get seriously hurt!"
"Evidence?" Bongo asked.
The officer, a young woman with blonde hair tied into a tight bun, stared at him. "Didn't you see the news? The police station caught on fire after our freshest rookie couldn't handle a firecracker the right way. We were able to save some files and everything inside the evidence cabinet, but the station itself went through a lot of damage. Until it can be fixed, I have to transfer all this evidence to the police station in Sunset Ridge. And well, since my mom had to go to work early today, I'm dropping my sister off at her school on the way."
Bongo sat up and looked at the car's windows. He noticed a teenage girl with long blonde hair sitting in the seat next to the driver's seat, watching them worriedly. "By the way," she told the officer, "the bell's going to ring in like, five minutes."
"I heard you the first time, Millie," said the officer. She then stood up, and suddenly grimaced. "Ugh…sir, is that your breath that's stinking so much?"
"Eh, could be," shrugged Bongo, grabbing his red liquorice box from next to the curb. "I was eating a lot of red liquorice on the way here."
The officer silently nodded, then picked up her own box and put it in her car's back seat. "Well," she then said to Bongo, after closing the door to the back seat, "you might wanna brush your teeth as soon as you get home. I'd better get going now. Try not to make me reconsider not giving you a ticket for jumping on a cop, okay?"
"Okay," replied Bongo. The officer smiled in response and started to step off the sidewalk so she could enter her car and access the driver's seat, when a thought occurred to the kangaroo. Quickly before he could lose his chance, he called, "Wait! Uh, since you're gonna be leaving Blissfield anyway, do you think you could take me to the city Shady Grove? I have to find someone there, and I don't have a lot of time."
"Shady Grove," repeated the officer. She then shrugged. "Meh, why not? It's on the way to Sunset Ridge."
Bongo victoriously raised his fists in the air. "Yippee!"
The officer's sister, Millie, stared at them in surprise. "Char, there's no room for him in here. The back seat and my seat are full, and it's not like he can sit in the driver's seat!"
"Hey, you're not the one who has to put up with him all the way into another city," the officer (apparently named Char) told her sister. "Just tolerate him sitting on your lap until we get to your high school, alright?"
Objectiva continued wandering through Blissfield, her tears drying on her cheeks. It was a bright and beautiful city, she had to admit, but that fact didn't make her feel any better. After all, this wasn't just a city that happened to house one of her enchanted objects. This was the city where she'd hidden the Knife Witch's dagger after transferring Starpoint's powers into it.
The poor fairy sniffled as she once again recalled that heartbreaking memory. The body swap caused by that dagger only five weeks ago was the one and only body swap that neither Wish-Trish nor Aunt Oonette had ever even known about. It had technically saved Blissfield from a murderer (one of the dagger's body swap victims, nicknamed the Blissfield Butcher) who had been even more sadistic than the Knife Witch was described as, and it had given a teenage girl (according to Objectiva's intuition she was the other victim, and her name was Millie Kessler) a needed feeling of self confidence, but the whole thing was a secret that Objectiva hoped no other Freaky Friday Fairy would find out about. The body swap in Blissfield had saved several lives and taught Millie a valuable lesson, but it had also given the Butcher many opportunities to successfully and unsuspectingly kill a person. Of course none of his victims were kindhearted people, but their actions could never be as cruel as his.
As reluctant as she'd been to doing so, Objectiva had kept the whole transferring-Starpoint's-powers thing a secret for a reason. She hadn't told Wish-Trish because the news would have made the latter too emotional, and if she'd told Aunt Oonette, she would have forbidden her from allowing her enchanted objects to cause body swaps again. Body swaps were supposed to teach people lessons, but they weren't supposed to do so at the cost of anyone's lives. It was part of the rulebook Aunt Oonette had written about the jobs of Freaky Friday Fairies. The rule that Objectiva personally valued the most. It went to show that despite being so strict when it came to their jobs, her aunt was truly a good soul who wanted the best for others.
Sniffling, Objectiva turned a corner and froze, almost fainting. She had just arrived in front of a mansion—one that, until now, she'd only seen once. The last time she had seen it was in a vision she'd received shortly after returning from placing the Knife Witch's dagger in Blissfield. In the vision, which she had witnessed four hours after her return, a young woman found the dagger and, having lost all of her kitchen utensils to a burglar, decided to use it as a kitchen knife until she could gain a real one. Yet a day later, the burglar returned to her house for more, and out of fear for her life, she stabbed him in the finger with the dagger. However, right before she stabbed him, a series of storm clouds appeared on the ceiling, and the floor temporarily turned into the very top of a Mexican pyramid for some reason. Then right after she stabbed him, an identical wound to his mysteriously appearing on herself. She quickly became traumatized after that, and determined to have the dagger out of her house forever. The next morning, her mood worsened when she ended up becoming permanently trapped in the burglar's body, and learned from a nightmare she had the next night that it was because she'd never even considered finding the burglar and letting him stab her in return within 24 hours after the switch had happened. The only way for them to switch back.
Truly miserable, the woman turned to her cousin, the man who lived in that very mansion, for support. Since the man happened to be an art collector with a museum-like basement (that was why Objectiva had called the mansion itself a museum when telling Effie the truth about Starpoint's fate), he decided to try and help ease the woman's trauma by letting her give the dagger to him for keeps, and studying. She accepted his offer, and once he claimed the weapon, he tested it out on himself and his wife, with them succeeding in switching back before the 24-hour deadline. They also ended up discovering the dagger could somewhat talk, since while they were giving it test runs, it kept whispering to them, sometimes in a creepy voice and sometimes in a gender nonspecific voice, and saying incomprehensible words—something that had confused Objectiva, since the talking part wasn't an ability that any of her enchanted objects had gained before.
Then in the vision, the art collector, not wanting the dagger to harm anyone else, tried to warn the public about the dagger's magic, but when nobody believed him or his wife, he decided to warn them another way.
He then carved some Spanish writing explaining how the dagger's magic worked into the weapon after carving some elaborate designs into the very end of the dagger's handle, making it look like a skull whose face was half one person's and half another person's. Then the art collector posted a page about the dagger on the internet, hoping people would see the new touches and want to avoid going near it. And finally, as he did with all the artworks he owned, he built a special case for the dagger and even named it La Dola. As soon as he did that, the dagger's handle's new right eye glowed bright red for a moment, which he guessed meant that the weapon's slightly new appearance "satisfied it."
The vision had then ended, leaving Objectiva to piece together those of the dagger's new characteristics that she hadn't planned. Why did the ground suddenly and temporarily turn into the top of a Mexican pyramid every time a body swap was officially scheduled? Why did it seem to have a mind of its own—a seemingly sinister one at that? She guessed the Mexican pyramid part might have been because, at least centuries before the Knife Witch's family gained possession of it, it had technically started out as an ancient Aztecan dagger used in ritual sacrifice. Though the second part was a mystery that still remained unsolved now.
Suddenly, in the present time, the mansion's front doors opened. Objectiva quickly flew behind a tree trunk and watched as two people wistfully left the building together: the art collector and his wife, exactly as she remembered them from back in her vision. They were both silent, looking as though they'd recently lost someone close to them. A feeling that she could relate to ever so much.
The couple walked towards a bench, where they sat down together, still in silence. For a while the only sounds heard were the chirping of the birds, until finally the art collector quietly said, "Three days until the very last day of high school. I guess…I guess Ginny will just be graduating in Heaven instead."
His wife nodded. "Our poor sweet daughter…" Tears flowed from her eyes, and she pressed her head into her husband's shoulder.
Objectiva had to fight back a gasp. How many souls had to die so young in such a short period of time?! Both of her cousins, this couple's teenage daughter, all those tributes who were forced into the Hunger Games…
The art collector shook his head. "I was such a fool to keep La Dola in our house. From what it looked like, the Butcher came here in the first place to steal it. Then Ginny and her friends tried to stop him, only to all get killed…man, who knew there were so many ways to get murdered? Who knew a toilet could count as a weapon even without its toxic chemicals?"
"Don't blame yourself, honey," whimpered his wife. "Blame whatever kind of dark, twisted, sadistic sorcerer gave that dagger its very personality…"
Personality. Somehow, that word triggered a part of Objectiva's intuition. The dagger now had its own name and personality, and the latter had clearly partly been made up by Starpoint's power itself, and partly by the fact that it had started out as ancient Aztecan dagger, used purely due to beliefs in Aztecan religion. Which just left the final part of its personality: sadism that probably had nothing to do with what was simply known as sacrificing souls for the good of the Aztecan spirit world. Based on everything that crossed her mind, that part of La Dola's personality could only have come from one source: the Knife Witch herself. But how?
Then for some reason, Objectiva found herself remembering the heartbreaking moment when Starpoint had officially died, and she'd pulled the freshly-enchanted dagger out of her body while Wish-Trish sobbed harder than ever before. How the dagger's handle had felt damp in her grasp, though she'd been too sad to really pay attention to that factor. Damp…like sweat. The Knife Witch must have had a very strong grip on that thing…could it be that when Starpoint's magic entered the dagger's insides, it mixed with the Knife Witch's hand sweat and part of the material the Aztecans from long ago had used to first create the weapon? Mixed with them enough to ultimately turn the dagger into a truly evil weapon?
Yet another group of tears forming in her eyes, Objectiva shivered. That could very well be the case. After all, when she'd first given her own magic to those talismans, including the ones Bongo was currently on his way to find, because of the ancient Chinese writing already imprinted on them, they had actually gained way more than just the ability to make whoever wore them swap bodies. In English, the ancient writing translated to, Mind is everything. If you claim to thought with will, it assumes outward form. When you employ your will, you control your own destiny. Sunset most auspicious time for movement in firmament. The change will be permanent.
Objectiva had always assumed that message had been written to give the Chinese feelings of self esteem, and stop them from stalling whenever they came across a chance to push their confidence past limits their own emotions had created. Yet once her magic entered the talismans, the phrase took on a much different meaning, and started bringing their wearers' greatest desires to life in the magical way; even when it wasn't a matter of two people wearing a talisman simultaneously and wishing they could swap places with each other. It was all due to personality; the thoughts within the amulets' original creators' minds when the necklaces had been made, and the ancient writing itself.
As she watched the couple sit together, still mourning the loss of their daughter Ginny, Objectiva remembered how the art collector had said "I was such a fool to keep La Dola in our house." Was. That meant that when La Dola had been reclaimed after the body swap it had caused was undone, the police had taken it to their station. Not back to the art collector. Now she knew for sure where it was now…and all she could do was hope that the police station in Blissfield was where that weapon would stay.
Two hours later, the police car of Officer Charlene Kessler (as Bongo learned was the full version of her preferred name whenever she wasn't talking to a family member of hers) pulled up in front of Shady Grove Junior High School. Millie had already been dropped off at her own school back in Blissfield, and now it was time for the second drop-off.
"Are you sure this is where the person you have to find is?" Char asked as she stopped her car. "Because I don't want you pulling anyone out of class if we're at the wrong place."
"No, I know this is the right place," reassured Bongo. "Hey, thanks for helping me get here."
"No prob," said Char. "Now, I've really got to get to Sunset Ridge, so uh…just get out now and do what you need to do."
"Okay," Bongo replied. He made sure he still had a firm grip on his box, and then Char unlocked his door. He then bounced out of the car, closing the door behind him, and waved to Char as she drove away. Once she was gone, the kangaroo turned, bounced up the school's steps, and entered the school.
Alright…now all he had to do was find Annabelle Andrews and get the amulets. The problem was, she was in class and he had no idea what classroom she was in, or even what she looked like. He would have to interrupt every class in the school and ask if she was there until he found her! Just what he didn't need; yet another opportunity to risk getting in trouble with someone on this island. Then again, if he didn't do it, he wouldn't be able to find the amulets that were Nessa and Effie's only hope of switching back.
With that, Bongo took a deep breath and bounced toward the first classroom he saw, where he burst into the room and called, "Hey kids! Is Annabelle Andrews here? I need to talk to her right now!"
"She's not in this class," said the woman teaching the students he did see. "Not anymore at least…thank goodness for that."
Some of the students giggled, and one of the boys said, "I still can't believe my brother said she called you by your first name. I mean, out of the blue!"
Smiling awkwardly, Bongo backed out of the room and apologized for interrupting the class.
Char drove further and further down the highway leading from Shady Grove to Sunset Ridge. She was thankful for the fact that there weren't many vehicles on this particular road today; she really needed to get this evidence to a safe place. It was even one of those rare occasions where the phrase "this time it's personal" suited the situation, since one of the daggers in the evidence cabinet had recently been used to stab Millie in the shoulder. Her own sister, and for no reason besides the enjoyment of watching a teenager die in a horrific way.
It sickened her that some guy would have the nerve to give that weapon a name along with keeping it out in the open within his house, which she'd found out about after the dagger had been taken to the police station for the second time. La Dola. Really, Char didn't understand what all the hubbub was about. She got why that art collector had added the dagger to his stash, with it being so old, but naming it and announcing its name online? Come on. He'd practically asked the Blissfield Butcher to steal it, even if his teenager-killing reputation made it clear that the dagger hadn't been the initial reason he'd broken into the art collector's mansion. The collector's daughter and her three friends had been. He'd only broken in to kill them, and happened to notice and steal the dagger on his way out.
The point was, the Butcher himself might be dead now (thanks to Millie, who had given him some payback and saved her life in the process the night after he'd attacked her), but La Dola had still caused a lot of trouble in Blissfield. Something about it seemed to hypnotize pretty much everyone in town into trying to steal it (even Millie's best friend, who'd gone to the police station and broken into the evidence cabinet to get it), and ever since her ordeal with the Butcher, Millie had especially hoped that that particular weapon would never end up in the wrong hands again. So now one thing was clear: while everything else from the Blissfield police station's evidence cabinet would be temporarily staying in Sunset Ridge, La Dola would be staying there permanently. If that didn't get the city to stop being so obsessed with it, nothing would.
Suddenly the truck in front of Char screeched to a halt in the middle of the road, forcing the cop to slam on her own brakes. The last thing she wanted was to be involved in a vehicle crash as a victim…thankfully, no vehicle crash happened right then and there at all. However, something much worse did happen. As soon as Char hit the brakes, one of the boxes containing the evidence cabinet's contents—the smallest and easiest-to-recognize box—was sent flying forward. It broke through the glass separating the front seats from the back, sailed into the front of the car, and bumped into the windshield. It then fell onto the seat next to hers and landed on its side, causing its flaps to flip over. The next thing she knew, at least twenty strings of red liquorice had been spilled all over the seat.
Char stared at the scene in confusion. Red liquorice?! She swore she'd put La Dola in that box! Where did…how did…and then all at once, the pieces fell into place. That guy she'd dropped off in Shady Grove had been eating a lot of red liquorice before the two of them first met, he'd even said so. And the box he'd been keeping his liquorice in, now that she thought about it, did look pretty similar to the one she'd put La Dola in…oh no. Oh no. After he'd run into her…and they'd dropped their boxes off the curb…had he unknowingly grabbed her box instead of his?!
It sure seemed that way to her. How else could that many red liquorice strings have ended up in her police car, and still be there after he'd left?
Bongo sighed in exasperation as he opened a classroom door for the eleventh time. "Hey kids," he said, also for the eleventh time, "is Annabelle Andrews here? I need to talk to her right now…"
A girl in the back row of the classroom with long dark brown hair perked up. "I'm Annabelle…but hold up. Who are you?"
"Uh…a friend of your mom's," lied Bongo (it was the only believable excuse he could come up with, really). "She uh…asked me to talk to you about an…an emergency that really can't wait. Not even for school." He chuckled nervously, hoping nothing would go wrong.
The man teaching the class frowned in slight uncertainty, but said, "Alright. You're excused, Annabelle."
Annabelle got out of her seat and left the classroom. Once she closed the door, she turned to face Bongo and gazed at him suspiciously. "Okay, first of all, how do you even know my mom? Don't ask how, but I've met everyone who's got something to do with her job, and none of them have your voice."
Bongo did a face palm. "Ohhh…guess I should have thought of that before I said I was friends with your mom. After all you were in her body…"
"What?" Annabelle asked, surprised to hear that comment. "I…I thought no one believed me except her boyfriend. And even he needed a lot of convincing."
"Oh, believe me," chuckled Bongo. "I always know magic when I see it." He then shook his body vigorously, causing every piece of his disguise to fall off and onto the floor.
When she saw the person who had pulled her out of class wasn't a person at all, Annabelle screamed in fear…well, until Bongo covered her mouth with his furry green hand. "Shhh!" he said. "Not so loud! If anyone else in this school knows who I really am they'll put me in a zoo forever and ever! And I'm a nice kangaroo! I shouldn't be trapped inside a cage! Please…trust me, I'm not bad! I'm good! And I'm here because I need your help!"
Annabelle took a step back in disgust, freeing her mouth. "FYI, normally guys who need help don't put their hand on someone's mouth like that."
"FYI?" Bongo asked. "What does that word mean?"
"It's three words, you goof."
"More like three letters."
"Yeah, all of which stand for something!"
"Oh. So…uh…were you just trying to say, 'fix your…fix your…'"
Annabelle stared at him in confusion. "Did you switch bodies with your son or something? 'Cause you look old enough to know what FYI means, and…you don't."
Bongo rolled his eyes. "Oh please. If I'd switched bodies with someone I would have freaked out WAY more than I did just now. Really! But Annabelle, you have to believe me. I am a nice kangaroo, and—"
"You said that already!" Annabelle snapped. "Just get to the point. How do you know my name, and why do you want my help?"
"Because one of my friends switched bodies with a lady from Panem and she could get in even bigger trouble if we don't do something NOW!"
"Panem?" Annabelle asked, shocked. "The only continent we aren't supposed to learn about in junior high?"
"Yes," sighed Bongo. "And I know your name because the friend of mine who made those magic green amulets told me. And that's why you have to help me, 'cause you and your mom are the ones who have the amulets! And no, don't ask more questions 'cause I don't have much time. My friend's in the Hunger Games and—"
"Alright," Annabelle calmly cut in, "alright. Chill."
"I CAN'T CHILL! NESSA'S IN TROUBLE!"
"Just do it for one flipping minute, so I can give you the amulets, or talismans, you're talking about!"
Bongo groaned, but obeyed her request. Annabelle then reached into the pocket of her jeans, and now in a more empathetic manner, said, "Thankfully, you're in luck. I've been keeping both of them with me ever since the day after Mom and I switched and switched back. Since our thoughts were what made the switch happen, well…" she then pulled the amulets out of her pocket, "we can't be too careful as long as these things are around our necks."
"Amulets!" Bongo squealed. He snatched them out of her hand, put them in the small body pouch on his neck, and ecstatically bounced up and down. "Thank you thank you thank you thank y—"
"But be careful with them, okay?" Annabelle instructed. "They were a gift to me and my mom from her boyfriend. It's the only reason why we didn't completely get rid of them."
"Of course I'll be careful with them!" Bongo said. "They're the only way Nessa and Effie can switch back! Once they're back in each other's bodies I'll come right back to Shady Grove and give the amulets back to you. I promise."
Annabelle nodded, and finally smiled at him with genuine kindness. "Can you also promise to tell me everything about your adventure when you come back?"
"You betcha."
"Good," said Annabelle. "Because I could really use a new scary story to tell my brother." And with that, she turned and headed back into her classroom.
"Alrighty," Bongo smiled, quickly putting every piece of his disguise back on. "Now I just need to find a way back to Blissfield so I can—"
Suddenly the sound of weird, angry whispering was heard, snapping him out of his victorious mood. That was scary, and strange…it sounded like the whispering was coming from his red liquorice box! Quickly becoming more and more nervous, Bongo shakily opened the box…and almost dropped it in surprise. All the red liquorice in it was gone, and in its place was a very old-looking dagger. Its blade was the colour of burnt crust, and its handle was gold, with what looked like a double-faced design at the very end of it. Even more strangely, the right eye of the design was glowing a bright shade of red…
Bongo gulped. Memories of what Char had said right after they'd bumped into each other flooded back into his mind, along with the fact that her smaller box looked a lot like his. They must have accidentally grabbed each other's boxes when they'd gotten to their feet!
"Oh boy…" the kangaroo whispered. Now he had to go all the way to Sunset Ridge, find Char, and tell her what happened…or did he? This was technically a knife, and as much as Objectiva had denied it, Wish-Trish did say there was a chance they'd have to face the Knife Witch during their quest to find Nessa. Maybe they would need this knife to stop the witch—if Bongo was imagining her the right way, she probably wielded a magical knife that could only be broken by another knife! Which he knew his friends didn't have…and besides. Maybe if he somehow used this knife to stop the Knife Witch, he'd finally officially redeem himself after his vulnerable moment with the Peacekeepers earlier! Show them he really wasn't so weak…
Bongo smiled sneakily, closing the box with the dagger still inside. "You never know."
And with that, he left the school and began searching for a way back to Blissfield.
Oh. NO. Will Bongo's plan benefit the heroes, or inadvertently sabotage them? And will he even be able to convince Objectiva to go along with it? Stay tuned for more…
Note: Guest-starring in this chapter were Annabelle Andrews from the "Freaky Friday" 1995 movie version, and Millie and Charlene Kessler from "Freaky." Also, the city Sunset Ridge is a reference to the "Freaky Friday" 2003 movie, since that was (based on the name of the school featured in it) presumably the name of the city it took place in.