Chapter 9: Jenna's Birthday

Author's Note: Hello, everyone! As promised, Chapter 9 of Kind At Heart is finally here! What will happen in it? I'm sure that you can tell by the title, but if not, then read on! But first, let me respond to your reviews. :)

Matt, thanks for the review! Rather than hacking, I've always thought that "cracking the system" meant Mike 'cheating' his way into getting a Golden Ticket (in this case, using his brains rather than just mindlessly buying Wonka Bars compared to the others) rather than hacking. As for your guess, you'll find out later on in the story once the tour starts. Stay tuned!

Turrislucidus, thank you so much for your feedback. Using your review as a guide, I edited the chapter to give Daniel a completely original Ticket method, instead of relying on Mike's, and I credited you as well. As for the 'special prize' and Daniel, that'll actually be brought up in the story. Now, I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter, everyone!

It has been approximately two weeks since Daniel Sparkman won the fourth Golden Ticket. At the moment, Jenna Adams was asleep with Chris in his bed. Her arms were wrapped around him as the two were moving around in their slumber.

"Chris…" Jenna murmured.

"Jenna…" Chris murmured.

Jenna was dreaming. She was on a large stage, surrounded by her family. Looking down, Jenna realized that she had a bass guitar slung around her shoulders, and her mother was at the very front, standing behind a microphone, and a keyboard was close by. Her father was next to her, and he had a normal guitar slung around his shoulders, and a guitar pick in one hand. Her brother James was also close by, two drumsticks in his hand, as well as a nearby microphone.

The noise began to increase. She watched as a wave of people began rushing into the room. As they entered their seats, they began cheering and stomping their feet, shouting, "Wormhole Citadel! Wormhole Citadel! Wormhole Citadel!" Every single one of them were cheering and smiling and her and the rest of her family members, and this got Jenna all hyped up.

"Let's go!" she shouted, playing a riff, which only caused the crowd to get louder in intensity.

Then, her mother began to sing:

"It was a quiet morning on the first of September,

With seven children and every family member

Gathered around the gates of wonder!

It may have started off with a bit of blunder,

But everyone watched as the sights became alive,

And one of the children was hip to the jive!"

Jenna's mother watched her as she played a furious guitar solo, hitting every note at the correct tempo with zero mistakes. Then, James Adams began to play the drums to match with the beat as her mother began singing once again:

"It was a day filled with wonder and treats,

And of course, tons of delicious eats!

The one thing to remember, is this:

Always fill your lives with happiness and bliss,

And be on your best behavior,

'Cause in that factory, there is no savior.

There's only the decisions that one makes,

And the precious time that each child takes!"

The beat began to get faster and faster, and Jenna managed to keep up. Smiling and looking around, she noticed her father shredding his guitar, and James was playing the drums with a huge grin on his face. James leaned into the microphone and began singing, but strangely enough, she couldn't understand a word of it. To her, it sounded like gibberish, but nonetheless, the crowd began cheering louder and louder as Jenna and the rest of her family kept up with the beat.

The environment around her began to become distorted, and the words with it. However, as she looked into the fading crowd, she noticed none other than Chris and Isabelle cheering for her, which caused her to break into one final guitar solo before everything around her turned black.

Moving around in her sleep, she opened her eyes as she saw a ray of sunshine entering into Chris' bedroom. As she continued waking up, she began to panic- Chris wasn't next to her!

"What?!" Jenna exclaimed, not even bothering to wipe the sleep out of her eyes and straighten her hair. "Chris?! Where are you?!"

She tossed the sheets off of herself and rushed out of his bed. Without wasting another second, she hastily looked under it. He wasn't there.

"CHRIS!" Jenna blushed in fear, charging out of his room. "CHRIS, COME BACK!"

Tears were beginning to run down Jenna's face as she began rushing in and out of every room in his house, searching for her friend.

Eventually, she began to slow down as she became exhausted from running. Nearing the kitchen, she noticed something strange- the door was closed.

"Hello?" Jenna asked to no one in particular, slowly opening the door. "Is anyone there?"

"SURPRISE!" a voice shouted as rainbow confetti fell on top of her. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNA!"

What she saw took her breath away. Chris was by a wooden table in the center of the kitchen, and an enormous banner that read, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNA!" was hung on the ceiling. The boy himself was holding a black and white clarinet. Smiling at Jenna, he then used it to play an instrumental version of the "Happy Birthday" song. As soon as he was done, he placed the instrument down on the table and proclaimed, "Happy Birthday, Jenna!"

"Chris!" Jenna exclaimed, running towards Chris, picking him up and spinning him around a couple times before at last placing him back down on the floor. "I was so worried about you!" She looked around her environment in awe. "Did you do this all by yourself?"

"Of course," Chris smiled. "I got a phone call while you were sleeping that said your parent's aeroplane flight was delayed, so I had to set this up by myself. James is in the living room, snoring like a raging storm." he chuckled.

"That's typical of him," Jenna giggled. "Did the call happen to mention how long the flight would be delayed?"

"Unfortunately no," Chris responded, shaking his head. "But I was able to contact your mother. She told me to wish you a happy birthday, since they wouldn't be able to do it themselves. My parents are sleeping, but yesterday, before I got into bed with you, they gave me permission to set all this up, and they even gave me a bit of money so that we can go out together! Oh, and by the way, Isabelle wanted me to give you this."

He handed Jenna a white envelope, and written on it was her name in extremely sloppy, almost unreadable, handwriting. Using her finger, she opened the flap on it and pulled out a piece of paper. She unfolded it, and Jenna was looking at a drawing. It showed six stick figures together, all of them smiling as they were playing various instruments and standing on a very simplistic stage. They were labelled in the following order: "MOM", "DAD", "BIG BRO", "BIG SIS", "ME", and finally, "CRIS."

Jenna giggled.

"At least she tried," Chris giggled back, then Jenna folded the drawing, placing it gently back in the envelope. She then placed the envelope back on the table, then stared straight into Chris' eyes.

"Let's go have some fun!" she cheered, then the two of them ran towards the door of Chris' home.

"Happy Birth-!" the voice of James was heard, and a few seconds later, he entered the kitchen, just beginning to awaken from his sleep. Unfortunately for him, the two of them were long gone. "-day," he sighed. "Dang it! I'm always late for everything!"

Outside, Chris and Jenna were as happy as horses in a hayfield. They were holding hands and running down a sidewalk leading to town, cleverly snaking around people as they were filled to the brim with happiness. Eventually, the two of them slowed down, but they still had wide grins on their faces. Chris patted his pocket with his free hand.

"I have my portable phone with me," Chris told his best friend, "so that I can call your parents and keep them updated on where we are. I told them that we'd be doing this yesterday, so I'll do it in a little bit."

"I have mine too," Jenna said, showing Chris a black phone covered by a case with the picture of a guitar and lightning bolt on it, and placing it back in her pocket.

The two of them looked around, and they noticed that they were in the same section of town where they had found the Perrys. Cars were honking, people were talking, and it was extremely noisy throughout the area.

Once again, they looked up at the sky, and they could see colored leaves fluttering down and landing on the grass surrounding the highways. They were left in awe by the whole thing. Despite it being a seemingly typical Fall day, it wasn't often when Chris and Jenna had opportunities to go off on their own in order to see sights like they were viewing at the moment. To them, it felt almost surreal, as if they were in a dream that they didn't want to wake up from. Suddenly, Jenna's tummy rumbled, and she gripped it embarrassingly.

"Oops!" she laughed. "Silly me!"

A few seconds later, Chris' stomach growled as well, and the duo laughed.

"Let's get ourselves some food, shall we?" Chris suggested.

"Great idea!" Jenna smiled.

The two of them looked around for a place to eat, but surprisingly, they could find nothing. Suddenly, Chris pointed something out- there was a small sweet shop just a few feet away from them.

"Hey, how about we go there?" Jenna asked.

"I thought you don't like candy," Chris said.

"I do like candy, Chris," Jenna smiled, "it's just that I think I can live without it. I like to have it once a year on my birthday to celebrate, though."

"Well then," Chris said eagerly, "let's go!"

Chris and Jenna entered the sweet shop. Operating at the front, behind the counter, they saw a Caribbean man that looked rather well fed. He was wearing a dark blue shirt, as well as a tan hat. In fact, that man just so happened to be the very same shopkeeper that Charlie won his Golden Ticket from forty years ago.

Chris and Jenna walked up to the counter.

"I'll have one Wonka Tinglerz, please," Chris said, taking the money he had out of his pocket and handing it to the cashier.

"Sure," the cashier responded, handing the boy the product he asked for and giving Chris the change. "Here you go!"

"Thanks," Chris responded, tearing open the wrapper and beginning to eat the chocolate. He saw chocolate-covered balls, and as he ate them, they made a delectable popping sound in his mouth. "Which bar would you like, Jenna?"

"Umm…" Jenna stroked her chin with a thin finger. "How about...Wonka's Chilly Chocolate Creme?"

"Coming right up!" Chris smiled, handing the shopkeeper the money, who in return gave Chris the bar, who handed it to Jenna.

"I'm really excited," Jenna grinned, opening the Wonka Bar. "This is one of my fav-!"

Jenna suddenly froze in place, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. She saw a flash of gold...

Author's Note: Woah-oh! Has it happened already?! Jenna, with the fifth Golden Ticket?! How exciting!

You see, in the original, Chris and Jenna weren't introduced until their respective interviews, and I thought that introducing the reader to them beforehand would increase the attachment to the duo.

Overall, what did you think about this chapter? It certainly was a crazy one! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the review section, and stay tuned for the next chapter!

Until then,

Gabe S. :)