Chapter 27: Cricket Clash

I watched the leaves twirl in the air as they descended from their home, an old tree just near Rusty's house that faced opposite of me. With my eyes locked straight forward in deep concentration, I waited just for the right moment with my fists up and ready, and as soon as the leaves neared my chest height, I shot my arm forward, fingers out spread and enclosing every time they touched a leaf, repeating the movement until I no longer saw any falling leaves in front of me.

In order to help with my training, I remembered one scene from a manga I once read about a teenager getting into boxing after a heavyweight champion saved him from a group of bullies. Said heavyweight had him go through this kind of training to improve the speed of his punches.

Counting the leaves in my hand, I nodded with a bit of satisfaction upon noticing I hadn't missed a single leaf. And I had noticed my punches were getting faster through this type of training, if only rather slowly.

"Ya really trying make winter get here faster?" A Red Kelpie that wore a white cap and was only a year older than I am asked jokingly with a chuckle as he walked up to me.

"Heh, nah. Just doing this to add to my training." I replied to Digger as I tossed the leaves away.

Digger was Rusty's older brother. In fact he was the oldest of his parents' children, thus was practically the one responsible for serving as something of a father figure for both Rusty and their youngest sister, Dusty, whilst their father was away serving Canistralia's military.

Those texts from Kurou had not left my mind since I had left Coco's house a week or so, and since then, I had been training outside of the dojo every chance I got, usually whenever both Bluey and Bingo were out at school. I made damn well sure that neither Bandit or Chilli or even anyone else, especially the kids knew about the real reason why I was pushing myself through more vigorous training.

But one thing still bothered me that I couldn't answer; Just how would Kurou's grandfather be able to contact human authorities if they wanted nothing to do with Canistralia's residents to the point of cutting them off?

The only way I would find that out if I was to ask Kurou myself, but lord knows where he is in this region.

That was also the reason why I hadn't shown the texts to Andrew or anyone in the CPIA, because who's to say Kurou wouldn't be watching in case if I tried that?

Speaking of Coco, Bandit and Chilli had noticed I had been getting along quite well with the families of Bluey's friends and decided it wouldn't hurt for me to keep making visits. This time, I got the chance to meet Rusty's, and they were just as friendly and welcoming as the others, Digger especially. Shame I didn't get to meet their father, Anthony, but oh well.

"Well come on, I think you've buggered up your muscles enough recently. Step back and have a bit of fun!" Digger urged me, practically tugging my arm to the front garden of his home where Rusty and Dusty were waiting.

Said garden had been altered into a small field for a specific sport Rusty and his family were big fans of called 'Cricket'. A horizontal line of dry pale yellow grass with one end having a single stick planted, the other end had three sticks with a top connecting them together.

It was currently Digger's turn as the pitcher with Rusty as the batter and Dusty serving as a fielder. I just stood by the fence and watched, having no experience with the game whatsoever.

Digger positioned himself before quickly rushing up and throwing the tennis ball in hand towards Rusty who swung, scoring a direct hit!

...That sent the ball flying right into the open window of their kitchen and directly whacked into a bowl their mom, Jane was washing at the sink, making her scream and drop said bowl as a result.

…

"Uh oh!"

"Ruuun!" Rusty and Digger exclaimed respectively as they and Dusty did just that, screaming as they ran for their dear lives as Jane rushed out of the front door, scrub brush in hand as she tried to chase after them.

Well… If they were playing Baseball, then they got the 'running for the hills' part right.

It wouldn't take even a minute for the three to fortunately escape the wrath of their mom, with Jane now bending over and panting, already gotten exhausted as I walked up to her.

"Ugh, those kids sometimes…" Jane groaned in the usual frustrated mom tone as she finally got her breath back.

"At least it looks like they didn't hit you, now that could've been bad. You okay?" I asked as I gently patted the Kelpie's back.

"Phew… I'm fine, just cactus. And yeah, fair point. Still gave me a bloomin' fright though!" Jane frowned but then smiled a bit on her muzzle, agreeing with the positive of that near miss.

"Actually, I think us two being alone right now is a good time as any to ask; was your husband involved in the New Zealand war?" Jane looked down in thought as I asked this before giving their answer.

"I don't think so. What I do know is that he's just serving as the border guard in case the other humans… well, you know. I think it's a miracle that you're here, that's probably why they haven't done anything. That is… If they even know you're here." Jane explained, her tone having a hint of relief as I nodded.

"I know me and my kids will miss you when they take you back home to your own land…" She then said, her relieved voice now replaced with a bit of sadness.

"That's the thing… I don't think I want to go back. I want to stay with the Heelers." No one would believe me if I told them just how good it felt to finally admit this to someone. Jane blinked upon hearing this as she turned to me.

"But… don't you have anyone else in your family back there? A nana?"

I shook my head. I had not seen any of my aunts and uncles since I was maybe four or six years old and I had only recently remembered something about my only surviving grandma that would make her unsuitable as a parental guardian.

"I do have a nana… But she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's seven months ago." I truthfully said, my voice not sad, but rather worried about how she was doing right now.

"…Oh honey, I'm so sorry." Jane said sympathetically as she gently put a hand on my shoulder.

"I really do want the Heelers to adopt me, I really do. They're great parents. And I'm sure my own parents would want nothing more than them to take me in. But I know that I just can't force them to make such a decision. It wouldn't be right."

Jane nodded understandingly before giving me an encouraging smile.

"Well, there's one thing you just have to do. Think positive. Rusty's always certain that Anthony will one day come home alive and well, and he's still writing to us." Jane instructed me. She did have a point, if Rusty was still optimistic about his father coming home safe from the army especially with him proving his status with written letters, then I should have as much faith as I can about the Heelers becoming my new family.

"Thanks, Mrs. Kelpie."

"Don't mention it, and please just call me "Jane"." Rusty's mom said with a grin before looking ahead, as if trying to see where her kids had run off to.

"See if you can find them, they might have run off to the nearest field to continue their practice."

With a nod, I crossed the road and headed off to find where the three had gone.

"Oh boy… How mad was she?" Digger asked me as I approached him at an open field surrounded by trees.

"Oh, she was royally TICKED. So ticked in fact, she said that when she catches you, she was gonna take that cricket bat and stick it where the sun don't shine!" I exaggerated in a playfully menacing tone just to tease him a little.

"Piss off, no she didn't!" Digger burst out laughing which got a laugh out of me as well as Rusty and Dusty soon joined us seconds later.

"Will you play Cricket with us, Nathan?" Dusty asked me, her eyes almost looking pleadingly.

"Well… I don't know-"

"Pretty pleeeeeeeeease!"

Oh boy… The almighty puppy dog eyes, or the "Please face" as Bandit and Chilli referred to it as such. Not even the hardiest of people could resist it. The fact that Dusty had her hands together in a pleading gesture as she kept her twinkling saucer eyes on me made it harder for me to refuse.

"Ha ha, alright alright, I can give it a try. I've just never played Cricket before, the only sport I've ever saw to be honest was Baseball."

"Baseball, what's that?" Rusty raised an eyebrow as he gave me the bat.

"Well…" I said, trying to explain the sport from what little I could remember of it. "It's kind of like Cricket… Buuuuut the batter uses a different bat and they hold it like this."

I got into position, legs bent a little and holding the batter over my shoulder behind my head before continuing.

"And when the pitcher throws the ball, the batter tries to hit it as hard as they can and when they do, they have to run around the field for their team to score before they're caught by the other team. Also, there's a person behind the batter to catch the ball in case the batter misses and gets a strike."

Dusty beamed a little and ran up, positioning herself behind me to serve as the catcher as Digger had the ball in hand.

"Can't I be the… uhh, the pigeon, Digger?" Rusty asked his older brother.

"Pitcher, Rusty. And maybe when you're a little bigger." Digger said before getting into position as Rusty crossed his arms with a bit of a grumpy frown on his muzzle.

Digger bent down a little, his eyes fixed in deep concentration before he made the pitch.

The ball was like a bullet as it flew towards me, but by some dumb luck, I swung just at the right time as the bat made contact and the next thing we knew, the ball was flying right over Digger, not landing until it hit the concrete just out of the field.

"Woah…" Was all Rusty could mutter out.

"I… think that counts as a home run." I said a little hesitantly with a shrug.

"What are ya, some secret bat prodigy?" Digger asked with a snicker before heading off to fetch the ball, only for it to fly back to him, making him quickly catch it just seconds before it would hit him.

"Thought you could play without me, Digs?" Another voice got our attention as we all turned to find another teenage dog. He was a great dane, but unlike Daniel, he was clay brown with darker brown markings around his eyes and muzzle with a single white strip across the top of his nose that looked almost like a band-aid and a single white wrist strap. He also had a bit of an accent that sounded Indian.

"How'd you even know we were here, Tiny?" Rusty was the first ask.

"Word gets around fast, heard you'd be chilling out with the humate." Tiny replied, his face turning to meet mine.

"Humate?" I rephrased, confused by the nickname.

"Yeah, you know, a mix of "Human" and "Mate"!" Tiny laughed a little as he looked me up and down. "So you're Nathan. Ace to finally meet ya!" He held his hand out to me with a friendly smile.

"Likewise!" I shook his hand, returning a smile of my own before we took our places back into the game, this time, playing Cricket the right way.

"Can I bat against Tiny now?" Rusty asked Digger, almost pleading.

"You know what happened last time, Rusty. You don't wanna get hurt again, do you? Let's let Nate go up against him." Digger replied whilst tossing the ball over to Tiny who got into pitcher position as I returned to the batter spot, now holding the cricket bat against the ground.

Rusty groaned in mild frustration before standing on the side as a catcher alongside Dusty.

"Alright, humate! Hope you're ready for this, because this one's a proper launch! Don't hesitate or you might end up in a leg cast!" Tiny encouraged as he took a running start before sending the ball, I swear it flew towards me way faster than when Digger had thrown it. I may have panicked a little as I quickly swung without thinking about it.

…

"OW!"

Crap, now I've done it.

My head darted to Rusty the second I heard him cry out as the ball had collided right into his stomach, knocking him to the ground. It didn't take me half a second to drop the cricket bat and run to the Kelpie's aid.

"Oh god oh god oh god… Rusty, I am so sorry!" Was all I could exclaim in panic as I carefully helped him to his feet.

"It's okay. I banged my knee once worse than that." Rusty said with a wince as he rubbed his belly.

"I think it'd be best for you to sit this one out, Rusty. Cricket's better for you when you're bigger." Digger suggested, much to Rusty's horror.

"What?! But that's not fair!" Rusty's voice cracked a little with sadness as he tried to protest, being the biggest fan of cricket in his family.

"Sorry mate, but he might be right. That looked like it really hurt." Tiny defended Digger's words, causing Rusty to turn to look at me, as if hoping I would back him up.

I could only glance aside, feeling conflicted. I know for a fact that Digger was only doing this for Rusty's safety, but the young Kelpie was still going to be left disappointed unless his older brother and Tiny changed their minds or if I somehow convinced them to let Rusty keep playing.

"Okay…" Rusty finally complied dejectedly after a few more seconds before getting up and walking away. I noticed Dusty watch her older brother separate himself from us with a look of worry on her face as she followed him, perhaps to keep him company.

"…I don't know, guys. I can't help but feel like we aren't being fair on him." I was starting to feel like I was some kind of mean sports coach that had just kicked one of the team members out just for being shorter than the others.

"It'll be fine, Nate. He'll eventually understand." Digger reassured me sympathetically as I felt his hand pat my shoulder.

"Come on, maybe playing a game or two will make you stop feeling bad." Tiny suggested, helping me stand up.

So here we were, with me as the batter once more, Tiny as the pitcher, and now Digger as a catcher. Tiny's eyes squinted a little in concentration as he rolled the ball in his hands, and after getting some focus, he took another running start and swung his arm forward.

The ball flew just as fast as last time and I swung just as soon as it left Tiny's grip, the bat making direct contact with the ball. It whizzed just past Tiny with a few bounces, as if it was going to reach the concrete again.

Or it would have, had a muscly grey arm not grabbed it. The arm belonging to a grey furred dog, the breed I'm not certain of, but I guessed on them being a Bully Kutta.

The Bully Kutta's fur around the neck was all scruffy like they hadn't bothered to brush themselves for a long time with what looked like a small scar on the side of their muzzle. They were joined by a dark chocolate brown mastiff that was bigger than even them and a skinny greyhound with faded patches of dirt on their body. The greyhound having their arm wrapped around something.

"Oh god… What do you want, Zeus?" Tiny said to the Kutta with an annoyed tone. However, I thought I sensed something else in his voice. A hint of… fear?

"Hey come on, am I not allowed to see my titchy cousin once in a while? And I see you're still hanging out with your army brat boyfriend!" The Kutta, whom I now knew as Zeus said with what was clearly a belittling voice as the other two dogs by his side snickered at his remark.

"Digger's NOT my boyfriend! Now can you please just leave us alone?!" Tiny barked at them with a snarl on his face, but the looks on Zeus and his cronies' faces made it clear they weren't even unnerved.

"Nah, don't think we will, see! We came 'ere for a different reason anyway!" The greyhound then spoke up, having a very profound Brooklyn-sounding accent.

"Yeah, Hopper and I found 'dis lil twerp by herself near her home and decided we'd mess wit' her a little! Funny how she almost looks like 'dat spotty sheila Zeus' dad feed those net spiders to!" The Mastiff added, having a baritone voice that made me think of a pitched-down Rodney Dangerfield. The greyhound, Hopper stepped forward a few steps, giving us a good view of his captor.

"C-Chloe?!" I stammered out upon recognising the small Dalmatian, squirming and trying to scream for help with Hopper's arm covering her mouth, letting only muffled squeaks come out of her.

"Wait… Your dad's the one who bullied her mom as a kid with those spiders?!" I then figured out as Zeus' eyes widened with realization.

"Ohhhh, so this little bitch is Misty's daughter, eh? What a hell of a coincidence!" Zeus proclaimed as he glared down at Chloe, flashing his teeth at her in a sadistic grin.

"Alright, you bloke, drop her! Picking on your cousin is bad enough, but you're going way too far by tormenting a little kid!" Digger reprimanded with protective anger in his voice as he approached the bullies.

"Ain't that adorable, your boyfriend thinks he's tough stuff!" The Mastiff mocked before sending a fist right into Digger's face, knocking him to the ground.

"DIGGER!" Tiny and I both exclaimed as we rushed over, the Kelpie struggling to get up. One of his eyes was now black and swollen.

"We chose this place, 'cause we thought we'd be alone, but since we have an audience… Hopper?" Zeus signalled to the greyhound who grinned before digging around himself before pulling out a huge spider that looked like a dark brown tarantula, dangling it by a leg with a pair of tweezers.

"I 'eard these things could whistle, see! Why don't you see if that's true for us!" Hopper said to Chloe, very slowly lowering the arachnid down towards her, making her muffled screams slightly louder and more fearful.

I don't know what came over me next, whether it was protective instinct or just the strong desire for them to leave Chloe alone, but the next thing I know, I had rushed forward and threw an ura-zuki, or an inverted punch towards Hopper, hitting him directly in the gut whilst Zeus and the Mastiff were distracted.

The blow must've been hard enough for Hopper to loosen his grip on not just Chloe but the spider as the Dalmatian scrambled away from the trio as the eight legged offender latched itself onto the greyhound's chest.

"GAH!" Hopper yelped in a mix of panic and disgust as he smacked the tarantula off of him to which it scampered away without hesitation.

"HEY! Where do you get off spoiling our fun?!" Zeus snarled at me with resent in his eyes as both Hopper and the Mastiff glared at me with as much ferocity.

"If you think traumatising children and hurting other kids is fun, then you're all just messed up!" I fired back, trying to glare back to hide the slight feeling of intimidation.

"Humph! We'll show YOU what "messed up" really means, see! Rex! Kick that hairless douche's ass to next Friday!" Hopper commanded to the Mastiff, who growled whilst cracking his knuckles, easily towering over me.

I really didn't want to have to engage in violence again, but knowing that I would have to use my martial arts to not only defend myself but any of my friends from any threats, I had no choice.

Rex wasn't going down without a fight.

Bringing my fists up defensively, the hulking Mastiff would charge forward with a fist pulled back before throwing it forward as I leaned aside, the fist just missing me as I quickly countered with an axe kick straight to his stomach.

To my shock however, Rex didn't even flinch as he just smugly grinned at me before delivering a hard kick to my ribs, knocking the wind out of me and causing me to stagger to the ground. He then rushed over and lifted a leg over me to stomp hard as possible on my chest, but I rolled out of the way just in the nick of time and sprang back up. Hopper was already cheering Rex on as he then tackled me like an American football player, trying to pin me to the ground before I immediately swung my elbow back as it struck him in the side.

This time I heard a faint grunt from him, but he still kept his grip on me as I was struggling to keep myself standing, until I got the idea to do an Aikido roll, just managing to drag the heavy Mastiff with me, the hard impact of his body hitting the ground causing his grip to loosen, giving me the opportunity to turn and deliver another elbow strike, this time to his cheek.

I think I heard a very faint crunch as Rex yelped in mild pain, pushing me off and feeling the inside of his mouth, his fingers now stained with a few drips of red as he looked at this hand.

He growled at me, now even more angry as I could almost see that I had just managed to crack a few of his teeth, the damage lines leaking with blood before he rushed at me again and tried a second kick but I instinctively swung an arm up to block his leg, countering with a roundhouse kick that struck him in the shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing, Rex! HURRY UP AND SKIN HIM ALREADY!" Hopper exclaimed, getting impatient as Rex briefly rubbed his shoulder before catching me off-guard with a firm grip on my wrist as he swung me towards the ground, trying to slam me down.

But thankfully, I was able to react quick enough by quickly pushing my own body weight towards him and thrusting my head forward, headbutting him square on the nose. The headbutt must've been hard enough to make him stagger in place somewhat dizzily.

Seeing a window of opportunity and given the circumstances, I saw no reason to obey the martial arts rule of "No punches to the face" as I quickly delivered a swift punch to the side of Rex's face, followed by another to the other side, repeating with punches left and right, left and right.

It was like I had just become Little Mac and was wiping the floor with Bald Bull's face, the punches I threw just seemed to lock Rex in a state of dizziness as he couldn't do anything to stop my barrage of punches.

Ten seconds must've passed until I finally decided to stop, any longer and I would've ended up exhausting myself. That, and I didn't want to end up beating Rex to death.

Speaking of which, the Mastiff staggered back some more, groaning as he rubbed his bruised roughed up face, making it clear that the multiple jabs had more of an effect on him.

"Ugh… No… How can this be...?" Rex asked as his rage was now replaced with stunned shock.

…

"Open your eyes… Maybe you'll see."

After giving my response, I finished it all by shooting my leg upward, giving Rex a yeop chagi kick.

Everything seemed to play in slow motion as the Mastiff stumbled backwards, his eyes rolling dizzily as he was trying to reorient himself. Even the stunned outcry of "CRIKEY!" coming from Tiny sounded like it was slowed down until at last, Rex's legs gave in and he tumbled backwards onto the ground with an audible thud.

Zeus and Hopper just stared down at their defeated brawns of the group, mouths hung open in deep shock like they were still trying to register and accept what had just happened until the Bully Kutta slowly turned his head up at me and tried to stammer something out.

"W-W-What… H-How… I… H-HOW?!"

"Heh. That's what ya get for messing with someone who's a blue belt." Digger chuckled with a crap-eating grin on his face.

That was when Hopper snapped out of his shocked stupor as his glare returned, now looking enraged.

"H-Hopper, let's just go." Zeus tried to pull Hopper away, only for the greyhound to stubbornly pull his hand away.

"HELL NO! We ain't leaving until we've settled this score, see! If that big brown dolt won't put these pricks in their place, then I will! Starting with the naked mole rat here!" Hopper snarled, grabbing a small stick and holding it like a pocket knife as he charged towards me.

But he wouldn't get the chance to even graze me with the piece of wood as a tennis ball suddenly whacked him right on the nose.

Turning around, I spotted Rusty with the cricket bat, with a glare directed towards Hopper that evidently said "Get away from my human friend!" with Dusty stood by his side.

"Bonza shot, Rusty!" Digger praised his younger brother as I couldn't help but give the little Kelpie an impressed smile of my own.

"Grrrrr…! I'LL GET YOU, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" Hopper roared with rage as we all agreed just to turn and haul our butts out of there away from the rampaging greyhound who was already on our tails.

Tiny directed us to run towards some outgrowth surrounded by bushes and plants in order to outrun Hopper as he and the Kelpie kids ran through one by one, leaving me the last to rush in.

But as soon as I reached the foliage, I felt Hopper's skinny arms clutch onto my back, making me fall to the ground before he tried to pull me away from the greenery.

I quickly gripped onto a nearby branch with as much strength as I could muster, even with Hopper's skinny arms, he was proving to be quite a struggle. I had to use something to get him off of me, but what?

…

That's when I saw it.

A familiar looking spider had walked up to me with what I could see were a cluster of smaller spiders on it's back. The set of eyes, fangs and the brown colour looked familiar.

...But it was what was on one of her legs that made me immediately recognise her.

Back when I first spotted that Wolf Spider back in Chloe's house that Misty had freaked out over, I remembered spotting the tip of one of it's legs had a few stains of what looked like blue paint which it must've had walked over by accident.

The one I was looking at still had the blue stains on the same leg, making it very clear this was the same spider I had set free weeks ago.

The Wolf Spider craned her head up a little, as if looking at Hopper. And then, seeming to somehow understand the situation I was in, she made a beeline for one of my arms, ran up along it and I watched as she used all her leg strength to make a short leap, landing onto Hopper's snout, as her children began skittering all over his face.

I would never forget the very next thing I heard come out of Hopper's own mouth.

"EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

If I wasn't so focused on getting away, I would've burst out laughing from hearing Hopper screaming like a girl as he immediately let go of me, his attention completely drawn to my eight legged savior.

I struggled to stop myself from even snickering as I kept hearing more high pitched screams and squeals from the greyhound as I ran. The best part was that he sounded exactly like one of the robbers from an old Christmas movie I had seen called 'Home Alone' when he was treated with a spider to the face.

As soon as I knew I was in the clear, I finally let it out. I must've laughed so hard, I nearly coughed out my lungs as I rejoined the Kelpies and Tiny, all of whom were laughing almost as hysterically as I was. Hopper's scream must've been loud enough for them to all hear it.

"I wish I had recorded him scream! What even happened?!" Tiny exclaimed between laughs, he had been laughing so hard his eyes were starting to water.

"I had a bit of help from a little friend." I answered, managing to calm down to a little chuckles.

"And their faces when you bashed up Rex! They are NEVER going to forget that!" Digger said, trying to calm himself down.

"You were great out there, Nate! He didn't leave a scratch on you! You're like a real Super Saiyan!" Rusty said, beaming up at me. Mackenzie had no doubt told him about the amount of Dragon Ball Z I had shown him. I looked at myself, despite a few soil stains on my clothes, I really did win with little to no injury.

"I really did, didn't I? But we can't forget how you struck Hopper out." I reminded, recalling how Rusty had managed to score a direct hit.

"You know what? Maybe I was wrong. I think Rusty here is just ready to keep going for Cricket!" Digger then said, patting his younger brother.

"Really?!" Rusty and Dusty both exclaimed happily, their tails wagging.

"Yeah, welcome back to the team, Rusty!" Tiny confirmed, making Dusty cheer for her brother.

I would've cheered for them too had we suddenly not heard what was clearly distressed and upset howling from a distance. And it only took me a second to know who it was coming from.

"You guys should go on home, I'll take care of this." I reassured the Kelpies before exchanging goodbyes with them and Tiny before heading to where I think the howling source was located.

It fortunately took me only a minute to find the source. Chloe was sat on the ground, clearly still distressed about her awful experience with Zeus' gang and was likely howling to try and let her emotions out.

"Chloe, that is some sad howling…" I said sympathetically, sitting on a rock opposite of her. The young Dalmatian quickly running over the second she recognised me and wrapping her arms around me to which I returned the gesture.

"It was so scary… I think it was going to bite me…" Chloe said, her voice having a bit of a fearful shiver.

"I think it would have had I not done anything. But you're safe now, and I don't think those jerks will even think about bothering you or anyone else ever again. Not with me around." I told her reassuringly as I gently rubbed her back to comfort her. It seemed to work as she looked up at me with a smile.

"You're my hero, Nathan." Chloe said before climbing up a little and giving me a small kiss on the cheek before getting down and heading off home in a clearly better mood.

…

Man, just when I thought the kid dogs couldn't get any cuter.

Author's Note:

I'm proud to say I actually had a bit of fun writing this one. I hope that one moment with Hopper made you laugh like it did with me.

On a more serious note, I had been getting a few reviews since the previous chapter, where most of you were wondering if there was perhaps any chemistry between Nathan and Megan.

Well, I might as well clear the air and talk about my thoughts on the possibility of such;

To be honest, I'm actually very indecisive on whether or not Nathan and Megan should become a couple, not just because of Nathan's first failure in romance but because I'm personally not a fan of Fanon X Canon shippings and for good reason.

I know for a fact those types of ships are often viewed as "cringe", especially when the very few fanfictions I've read in the past that contain such ships have obviously no effort put behind the relationship building because the author otherwise only wrote the ship just to cater to their obvious crush for the canon character in question. (Looking at you, Harry Potter fanfic writers who have no doubt simped to no end for Draco Malfoy).

It's otherwise very rare to see a fanfic with a Canon and Fanon ship that's actually executed in a well-done manner and because those ships are often viewed as the "gross" part of a fandom anyway, I don't know if I should go through with Nathan and Megan tying the knot.

But you know what, screw it, instead of trying to decide for myself, I'll leave it up to you guys to decide, as popular demand will very likely help me make a choice.

So what do you think? Should Nathan and Megan become more than friends? You decide.

See you all next chapter in October. Just remember to bring an extra pair of pants when it comes, because we'll be going into spooky territory.