366Chapter 1: Just beyond the closet door.
Summery: It's one of THOSE stories, you know, girl falls into one piece, and destroys all of existence… OK… maybe not that last part… but she does irritate the hell out of Zoro.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with any legal rights to one piece in any form, I do not own one piece or any part of the merchandising, gaming, manga, anime, characters, or anything of the sort. Please do not sue me as I do not have any money. The only things that I own from this fic are my own original characters.
A/N1: I KNOW ZORO IS ALSO CALLED ZOLO,
A/N2: I HAVE DECIDE TO LEAVE THE PAIRING UP TO THE READERS.
Please note that this chapter was edited on a massive scale one 10/30/09.
'thoughts'
"Words"
(inner Kaede)
"Yes mom, I plan to eat out for the rest of my life, that's what college is all about anyway."
Hi, in case your wandering, my name is Kaede Tsuda Burnett. If you're wandering how to pronounce it, it's Key-aid-day. Not that hard, but very few people ever actually manage to get it right, so I usually just have people call me Kida, though that had a few jokes attached to it that I could do without.
I know, I know. You were probably expecting something like Miwazaki or something very Japanese at the end of that.
Well, to damn bad.
I'm only half Japanese, and my mom wasn't to keen on giving me the sir name of the lazy ass that ran off on her before I was born. So, she gave me her's. The rest of my name she picked because I don't exactly look like I'm white, and she correctly thought that if I went to school with a name that didn't fit, it would probably make my life a living hell.
But unfortunately for the whole 'name her something that will keep her from getting beat up' thing, I don't look Japanese either. Or at least I don't look like what most people think when they hear Japanese.
When I was about ten my skin darkened until it was dark tan, my eyes lightened over the years and started to look more golden then brown, according to my doctor, my body stopped producing the melanin in my hair, so it turned gray by the time I was eleven, and white by the time I was seventeen.
This, of course, confused everyone, including me, until my father showed up again on my 15th birthday and didn't seem to surprised about the color of my hair. Apparently, most of the women on his side of the family have white hair.
As for they eyes, I got them from the dead-be- I mean my dad. Yes... That's what I meant… Apparently he has some sort of mutated gene that gave him, and me golden eyes.
Oh. To. Joy.
The one thing I can say that I got from my mom is my height, just above average at five eight. Not tall enough to be a model, but I'm still taller then most the women I see in the street.
And I didn't get the one thing from my mother that all girls want, and all men want there girlfriends to have.
A chest.
My mother has one, I don't. Flat chested, and not proud of it. The major problems with not having a chest is a lack of a boyfriend and being unable to wear a good 80% of most clothes.. It also means that, with my plain Jain face, people tend to think I'm a boy at first glance.
Sad, isn't it?
Anyway, where was before I went off on my rant about my looks? Oh, that's right, my mother.
I was currently sitting with my head on the kitchen table of my new apartment near the campus of my new school with my mom tell me how miserable I'm going to be out here on my own away from her clutches... I mean her protective arms.
And what was her current issue with the fact that I am now living on my own?
Well, that would be the fact that I don't have a stove or oven yet, as well as a fridge, a heater, or even a descent view. But hay, it was a cheep apartment, so what did you expect? A five star hotel? They didn't ask for much, and I didn't have much either, so cheap was good.
How cheap is cheap you ask?
250 bucks a month.
Now, I know what your thinking. There is no way any apartment is that cheep even if it is completely empty, unless it's in a really, REALLY bad neighborhood, right?
WRONG.
It's in a great neighborhood, one that is so great because it is on the same street as the police station and no one is stupid enough to rob a house that is only about 100 feet away from a building full of cops.
Unless they're on a donut break, but hey, if the happens, I'll just start yelling free éclairs at the top of my lungs, that should get some cops to my place in no time flat.
Then again, if I do that, I might meet Oprah... and that would just kill me.
Anyway, the point is that the place is so safe, that none of the other apartments are even near as cheep, they all go for around 1200 a month, and in St. Louis, that's a lot.
So why so cheep?
Well... it might have to do with the fact that everyone that has lived here in this apartment, since the day the complex was built, has gone missing.
Poof.
Gone.
Without a trace.
No more candy-bars for you...
OK, so the candy part was a joke, but the rest is true.
So why would I want to rent an apartment where it's had so many problems that the city itself forces the manager to get a signed release form from anyone dumb enough to rent the apartment?
Freedom.
I'm more afraid of my mother's attempts to keep me in her insane clutches - i mean under her protective eyes- then I am of spooky sleeping quarters.
"Yes mom, I know how to worsh my own clothes. no mom, I don't care that it's wash. Yes mom, you did too raise me saying worsh. No mom, I'm sure you did. If you say so. Yes, I'll be sure to go and buy an alarm system" I said, continuing to reply to my mothers non-stop and wonderfully boring advice while silently thinking that there was no way in hell that I was going to go out and buy an expensive alarm system when the cops were within throwing distance.
'If I need the cops, I'll just stick my head out the window and say I have donuts, damn it.' I thought, hoping that my eye wasn't twitching like it always did when I was annoyed, something that I got from my mother.
"Yes mom, I know he said I could have the mini-fridge. Yes, I plan to pick it up today, that's where I was planing to go before you called for the 30th time. Yes mom, you have called that many times today. Hey, does he still have that gun at his house? Do you think he would let me barrow it? No, I don't need it for protection, I just want to do a bit of target practice." The last bit I said with a cruel sadistic smile on my face that I was sure she could hear in my voice over the phone.
Taking the hint for what it was, my mother must have decided that two could play the smart ass game, seeing as she was the one I learned it from.
"You want to try it on a moving target? Huh?" I asked, looking at the phone, not sure I heard her right, my mother would never shoot at a living ani- oh. "hahaha, you're hilarious. I just moved here, so I'm a moving target, hahaha, funny." I said sarcastically, although I did think that it was nice to see that my mom was starting to get over her 'Oh my god! my baby is moving out of the nest' mood and getting back to her old smart ass self.
"Mom, you know I love you, but I really have to go. I have about a million and one things to do today." I said, hoping against hope that I would finally be able to get her off the phone.
"huh? Oh! That's right! I forgot you had to move your stuff today, and pick things up from your aunts." She said, though her voice suggested that she didn't really want to end the conversation.
"Yeah, so I really need to get going." I said, stressing the really in an attempt to get her off the phone faster.
"Well, I guess I should let you go... I guess I can call you later."
I would like to say that she hung up the phone and let be go, but that would be a lie. It took me almost fifteen more minutes to get her to finally hang up the phone, and by that time I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go out, I could always stay in.
This plan, however, never got it's chance to shine as the phone began to ring almost the exact moment that I hung it up. It seemed I was becoming very popular for some reason.
Taking a deep breath to calm my self so that I wouldn't yell at whoever it was, I picked up the phone and answered it.
"Hello?" I said, only to be answered by a strange song, one that I knew very well.
"As a kid, I never stopped, searching for a great treasure. I had a map in my mind, that I knew would lead me. I have to find my way to that place, before someone can-"
at this point I pulled the phone away from my head, wandering if I had heard that right. 'great, I bet one of my friends are just being stupid or something.' I thought, putting it back to my ear and asking if it was one of my friends.
There was no answer. None. Whoever it was that thought it was funny to call me and force me to listen to the 'One piece first English ending' didn't seem to want to let me know it was them.
'fine, if they want to be that way, I'll just *69 them.' I thought, hanging up though phone, fully intent on using the old call back method, only to be interrupted as the phone started ringing again almost instantly.
"What the hell?" I said when I answered it. There was no way that the same person had been able to call me that fast. They would have had to start dialing before I even hung up, which wasn't possible.
The reason why I say this is because the moment my ears touched the phone, this is what I heard:
"mirai dake shinjiterudareka ga waratte mokamowanaihashitteru jounetsu gaanata o KIRA meraserumabushi sugi, demo mitsumeteitaidokka 'bigaku' kanjiteruI'm really really stuck on you"
I instantly pulled my head away from the phone when I heard this. It was the second season opening of One Piece: Believe, but that was impossible. There was no way the same person could start dialing my number before I even hang up on them. It wasn't possible.
Not waiting to ask who it was, I quickly hit the little button that hangs up the phone, without setting the phone down on it so that there was no possible way for anyone to call me.
For the split second that my finger was on the button, the phone went silent , signaling that I had been successful in hanging up on whoever it was, unfortunately, the moment I took my finger off the button, I was met by the sound of another One Piece song.
"I'll keep believing in the future, not caring if anyone laughs at me The passion running within you makes you shine"
This time it was the English version of the second song, the second One Piece opening, only in English.
I quickly hung up, determined and desperate to get an out going call, this time though, the phone rang before I even got the chance to start dialing.
I picked up the phone, letting my nerves get to me, and shouted at whoever it was.
"Whoever this is, stop it!" I shouted angrily, only to regret it a moment later.
"Excuse me? Are you alright dear? What's wrong?" came the worried voice of my aunt Pinoka. She had apparently been trying to call me for the past hour, needing to speak to me about something.
"Oh, no! No. Sorry about that. I have a prank caller that's driving me insane." I said apologetically , going into an explanation of what was going on.
Aunt Pinoka was actually my great aunt, or something like that. She was my father's aunt from what I understood and could always give great advice when needed. She was one of the only people on my father's side of my family that I ever really talked to, seeing as most of them seemed to avoid me like the plague.
"A prank caller? Well, I bet that if you ignore the phone for a while, they will get bored, not having anyone to annoy, and then they'll just leave you alone. Why not just go out and do some errands instead?" She asked, causing me to sigh in defeat.
There went my plans to sleep, I would never be able to go off into dreamland with someone calling all the time, and I did have a lot of things that I needed to get done.
"I guess I should pick some stuff up from a few of my relatives places. They all seem to have something they want to give me. A book shelf from Aunt Lee, a mini refrigerator from Uncle Buddy. I might have to barrow my friend's truck to get it all here." I said, wandering how I was going to carry half of the stuff up the three flights of stairs.
"Well, there you go. If you leave for a while, by the time you get back the caller will have given up. Oh, and that reminds me!" she said, seeming to have remembered why she had been trying to call for over an hour in the first place. "I was calling because I have something I need to give you, and I'll be out of the country for a while after tonight, so I really need you to come get it sometime today." She said.
Now, I don't remember if I said this before, but if I have, you're going to hear it again. She may give great advice, but she always has the worst idea of what a good gift is. For instance, last year at my birthday, she gave me old musket from some trip she went on. Not exactly the best thing to give to a girl that just turned 18.
"Oh. Um? I guess I could stop by sometime today." I said, unable to think of anything that would get me out of it as I had already said that I would be going from relative to relative, picking things up to bring them to my new place.
There was another reason why I didn't want to go to her house. It always gave me the creeps. The outside was fine, it looked like a cool Asian shrine instead of a house, and the Koi pond was always nice to look at as it had two of my favorite kind in it, Hikari and Utsuri. They were almost complete opposites, as one was white with a slight hint of white gold on it's sides and the other was black with dark gold spots on it.
Now while I liked the outside, the inside always gave me the creeps because it was so out of place. The interior was more like the inside of a boat, and not a normal boat at that. It was like the kind that you saw on the inside of pirate ships in movies, all wood.
It also didn't help that on several occasions I could have sworn that the place seemed to be rocking, though my aunt said that it was just the house settling as it was still relatively new, and that some of the wood hadn't quite dried out yet.
Of course, if that was the case, then the wood had been drying for almost five years, and I seriously doubted that it was possible for wood to need that long to dry. Plus, I was sure that people only used wood that was fully dried.
"Good, I'll be waiting with it by the door so that you wont have to stay long, I need to get some packing done two, and if your friends are going to help you then I don't want to keep you waiting." She said, apparently taking the comment on me borrowing my friend's truck as me getting my friends to help. It wasn't a bad idea either, it would mean that I could get help with carrying up some of the larger things, like my couch.
"Ok, love you." I said, knowing that the conversation was over. She was never the kind that would drag on a conversation, I always liked that about her.
"Alright, love you too. Good bye dear." She said, waiting for me to say goodbye as well before she hung up the phone.
The moment I hung the phone up, I picked it up again and checked to see if my personal little pranker had already called back yet. They hadn't.
"Ok, I guess I'll start with Kally then." I said, dialing my best friends number to see if she would be willing to help me move everything today.
She picked up on the third ring, which meant that she was probably playing one of her games. 'god, I hope it's not a hentai game.' I thought in despair, worried that I might here two guys moaning if the background. I had once called her while she was playing GenMa 21, not a happy memory.
"P.E.D.A? Is that you?" She asked, knowing perfectly well that it was me and that calling me P.E.D.A would piss me off.
"It's Kida, not P.E.D.A you twit!" I shouted angrily. She always had to annoy me, it never failed. She knew what to say to push my buttons, and she liked using that knowledge to do just that.
"Alright, alright. Sheesh, I was just kidding. You really need to lighten up." She said, though I could tell she wasn't really all that sorry.
"Fine, whatever. I need some help moving today, and I was wandering if you would help." I stated, though I already knew the answer. I knew she would jump at the chance to help, all my friends wanted a chance to stay the night in the famous apartment, and she was no different. "Anyone that helps gets to stay the night if they want, I was kind of thinking about having a small party and letting everyone stay the night." I said, knowing that she would jump at the chance.
"Cool! I'm in! I'll call Mike and Alice, and see if they want to come help too." She said, though through the excitement she seemed a little annoyed about something.
"OK, thanks, but what are you so annoyed about?" I asked, wandering what was pissing her off.
"It's this stupid game, I can't seem to beat it! It's the new One Piece game, and bugger the clown wont stop beating me!" She growled.
Well, at least it wasn't a hentai game, though the mention of One Piece made me remember what the songs that were being played by the pranker had been.
"Hay! Wait a sec, you weren't the one that was calling over and over again and forcing me to listen to all the One Piece songs, were you?" I accused, narrowing my eyes even though I knew she couldn't actually see them from the other end of the phone.
"Huh? What? Someone was pranking you?" She asked, honestly confused.
Apparently it hadn't been her, she had never been a great liar and wouldn't be able to be so convincing if her reaction had been fake.
"Yeah, some bozo kept calling, and every time I would answer it would be a different One Piece song, it was really annoying. I thought it was you for a minute when you said you were playing the new One Piece game, but I guess I was wrong, sorry about that." I said apologetically, though I was still wandering who it could have been.
"Well, it wasn't me. I've been to busy trying to beat the clown, but Zoro's attacks don't seem to do anything, and Luffy isn't at a high enough level to do any damage." She explained.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you. Zoro's attacks aren't going to do anything no matter what you do, so you're going to have to level up Luffy somehow. Did you get Nami yet? Or is she off stealing treasure?" I asked, wandering if it was the new RPG or the new action game.
"Yeah, she ran off from the party, so I'm guessing it's probably to steal crap, but I bet I wont get any of it when she rejoins." She said in an annoyed voice. Definitely the RPG.
"Well, I don't know what to tell ya then. Anyway, I need to get this stuff done today, so call the others for me. Oh! And call John and Mandy too, I might not be able to call anyone if the pranker starts up again." I explained, knowing that it was a possibility. For all I knew, the pranker would start calling again and I wouldn't be able to make another call for a few hours.
She agreed to call everyone and told me that they would be at my place in an hour. After we said our goodbyes we both hung up. The moment I hung up the phone, it started ringing again, I picked it up to see if it was the pranker or of it was my mother.
"Come aboard, and bring along, all your hopes and dreams! Together we will find everything that we're looking for!"
It was the pranker.
Now, on the one hand, I like Vic Mignogna, but on the other hand, the pranker was starting to get on my nerves.
I quickly hung up the phone and decided to ignore it and start reading up on mechanics for my engineering class.
Why am I taking an engineering you ask? Because it looks good on a resume for a job engineering position in marine biologist jobs. Basically, I want a job designing better tanks, ships, and sand sumps that are safe for marine animals. I've seen way to many manatees get sliced up by boats in documentaries. It's kind of sad to think that a creature that is so gentle, that it never harms anything but sea grass, gets cut up by boats all the time, and people don't even seem to care.
So, I plan to be both an engineer and a marine biologist. Animals deserve to live just as everything else in existence does.
Oh, I am by no means a saint, I like my meat and don't plan to give it up either. I'm also not apposed to killing something that's trying to kill me, I just think that if a death can be avoided, then it should be.
Ironically, the first thing that I saw when I opened the new course book was a diagram of how to build a propeller system, as well as the concepts on how it worked.
This was how I spent the next hour and a half as Kally and the others were late for some reason. They didn't show up until about two, and by that time I had already gotten tired of reading and had put everything back into my backpack and thrown it into the living room closet along with my camping crap.
"What took you guys so long?" I asked in an annoyed tone when they finally came through the door.
"Oh, don't give me that! It's not my fault! Mike was taking to long, he wanted to pack something to bring over, though he wont tell us what it is." Kally said, practically throwing poor Mike under a buss to save her own hide. Poor Mike, he knows not what he does.
"Gr!" I simply glared at him and grabbed my jacket and keys, forcing the others back out into the hall as I did so.
"Alright, alright already. I take it we're not going to waist any time hanging out?" John asked as i practically threw him and the others through the door, following them and locking it before shoving them all down the steps.
i really didn't feel like sitting in my boring apartment any longer then I already had.
"Nope, we'll hang out tonight, I want to get everything done as soon as possible." I said, shooting him an annoyed look as i did so.
On our way down the stairs, Mike called shotgun for Kally's truck. It seems that he wanted to sit next to his girlfriend on the way to my relatives house.
If only I was that nice, or at least in a good mood.
Once we got to the parking lot, I quickly got into the front passenger seat of Kally's truck, ignoring Mikes shout of indignation when I took his seat.
"Hay! I called shotgun!" He said angrily, only to whimper slightly and shrink away from the car when I turned my deadened eyes to look at him. I almost expected him to take off running down the street in fear with the way he was acting. I'm told that my deadened glances and my glares were scary, and I guess Mikes reaction just proved it.
Mike quickly turned away and headed for John and Alice's van, knowing that he wasn't going to get into the truck anytime soon.
"Yeah, I might have to apologize to him later for that." Kally said, her lips twitching slightly as she did so. "But there was no way I was going to get killed with one of your glares for him. As much as I love him, I fear that glare more." she said, trying to change my mood with her little joke. It only worked a little.
"Gr. You guys know how much I hate seeing all my relatives in one day, and he made me wait for it, meaning I had a whole extra hour to dread it." I said, pointing out that she already knew how much i hated seeing having to deal with more then one of my relatives in one day.
All of my friends knew that i couldn't stand having to deal with more then one of my family members in one day, mostly because of how almost all of them tended to talk way to much. A half hour visit usually ended up lasting a whole day, with them talking the entire time. it never failed. i love them all deeply, but i just can't handle a bunch of people all trying to get me to stay longer then i really want to.
"Oh, come on. You know he's going to suffer enough with Alice in the van with him, she always talks everyone's ear off. " Kally said, pointing out the fact that our other best friend was a bit of a chatter box, something that made her a kind of oddity to everyone in our group.
Not including her, we were all very quiet people.
"Yeah, but John will steer his sister onto topics that Mike will like. Not exactly a good punishment when your talking about martial arts." I pointed out, causing her to nod in agreement.
Martial arts was kind of how we all met. I had gone to a competitions, thanks to my aunt Pinoka's insistence that I would enjoy it after she found out that I was taking lessons in a couple of fields, and had ended up losing in the semi finals to Alice, who had kicked my ass in less then two seconds. ever get your ass kicked by a girl that could pass as short mop? It sucks, trust me.
After a few more competitions, I finally met Kally, who I managed to beat in the final round, though only barely.
Anyway, she never held it against me though, she was always a big sport like that and didn't seem to get to mad when she lost to someone.
After the win, I ended up meeting her friends, and we've been hanging out ever since. That was around three years ago.
"Well, you're going to have to get over it sometime because there is no way I am lifting a couch, and John is still recovering from getting slammed at the last competition, and I don't think it would be a safe idea for you to try to help carrying it up a few flight of stairs when you can't even walk without stumbling without something heavy in your arms." Kally said, causing me to glare at her for the slur on my walking abilities.
She was right, of course, but that didn't mean I had to like it. I might be an accident waiting to happen, but I was an accident waiting to happen that just happened to be waiting in denial. It might be sandy, but I rather liked my river.
After shrugging my shoulders, we drove the rest of the way to the first stop in silence. Neither of us were big talkers, so it was a comfortable silence.
When we finally reached my Uncle Buddy's house, Mike picked up the mini refridge and put it into the back of the van while I talked to my uncle, wishing that I had gotten my lack of conversation skills from him.
He went on for almost thirty minutes about how he was so glad that he had finally found a place for the old fridge as he had been trying to get rid of it for a few years now. After he had finally finished talking about it, he had then changed the subject to my new apartment and how he was so happy that I had managed to get my own place, but how he was worried about the place I had gotten. Apparently having a famous apartment that eats people tends to get brought up a lot.
It took me almost thirty minutes to get him to end the conversation, though I only managed it when Mike came up to us and mentioned the fact that we had a lot of places to go to today. I had a feeling though that he only did it in an attempt to apologize to me.
It worked.
With Mike and Alice taking turns saving me from hour long conversations, it only took use three hours to stop by every house that we needed to, which was a record. About half way home though, I finally remembered something.
"Oh crap!" I said, smacking my hand to my forehead as a thought came to me.
"Huh? What is it?" Kally asked, wandering what could possibly be the problem. I now had everything I needed for the apartment, so that obviously couldn't be it.
"I just remember, I have to stop by my Aunt Pinoka tonight. She's going out of town for a while and wanted to give me something before she leaves." I said, causing Kally to grown in annoyance. After meeting my family members and seeing how talkative they were, she could understand why I didn't like seeing them all in one day, and she wasn't to keen on the idea of going to see another one. "Don't worry, she isn't the talkative type. We'll probably only be there twenty minutes at most." I said, calming her down instantly.
"Fine, call the others and tell them how to get there while directing me." She said before telling me where her cellphone was as I didn't have one myself.
"Actually, I think I'll send them to pick up some food from the store for our party tonight and have them meet us back at the apartment. the chances of my aunt giving me something big is about the same as me loosing a fight against John in a competition." I said, dialing Alice's number and telling her the plan.
It took us only a few minutes to reach my Aunt's house as it wasn't that far from where we had been when I remembered I needed to stop by her place in the first place. I told Kally to wait in the car while I went to get whatever it was that she wanted to give me as I didn't really want her to see just how strange the inside of my aunts house was.
Plus, I seriously doubted that whatever it was she wanted to give me was heavier then a doorknob.
I stumbled up the front steps and over to the front door, tripping only about 20 times, which was a record low for me, and only came close to falling into the Koi pond once, which was also a record low amount for me. I wasn't exactly the most graceful person outside of martial arts, and jumping around wasn't exactly the best way to get from place to place.
Reaching the door, I took a deep breath, silently wandered why I hadn't just turn down her offer, and knocked on the door, waiting to be let in. it didn't take long for her to answer either. almost as soon as i started knocking on the door, the door started to open.. As the front door opened I was greeted by the smiling face of my great aunt Pinoka.
'Great, I'm betting this isn't going to go good for my sanity, not one bit.' I thought, knowing that she had a very strange sense of humor, something that I was told I had gotten from her.
"Sweety! I was wandering when you were going to get here. Please come in, I need to add something to the bag before you get going." she said, the weird smile on here face saying, quite plainly, that I wasn't going to like whatever it was that she was going to give me. She obviously thought it was a very good gift, and that was never a good sign.
"OK, but remember my friends are still waiting." I said reminding her that they were helping me move today.
Like I said, she's a really nice aunt, and gives the best advice, but she also gives the worst gifts and her house always gave me the creeps. It always felt like we should be on an ocean somewhere with cannons firing in the background.
"Oh, then you should probably hurry up and get back to them, so I'll make this quick." she said, walking off to another part of the house to get whatever it was that she wanted to give me. As she left the room, I let my eyes roam over every inch of the room i was standing in, wanting to see if anything had changed since I had last visited. She tended to change the furniture a lot, something that I was never able to understand.
This time was no different from all the others. The coach that used to be up against the far wall was gone, replaced by a new one that look like it belonged in a beach house instead of a house in the city. it wasn't exactly out of place for her house as she always seemed to have strange furniture like that, but it still felt a little weird to me.
then there were the pictures. While the pictures that had been above it were still there, there were also a few new ones hanging up with them now, all of which were of random people that my Aunt Pinoka, and all of them had the ocean in the background.
There had also been a rug on the floor the first few times i had been to the house, but the last time i had been in the room, which was only a few months ago, it had been missing for some strange reason. Now though, there was a new one to replace it, though there seemed to be sand in it for some unknown reason. it was most likely tracked in from her Zen garden, but it still gave me an odd feeling.
Then there was the coffee table, which looked like it came from one of those old ships that people used to sail in back in the 1500's. i
'Sheesh! She has boating issues.' I thought, wandering if she had been born on a boat or something. That was the only thing i could think of that could explain why she would decorate her house they way she had. Kind of like a really weird tribute to her own birth or something.
"Here you are dear." A voice said from behind me, causing me to jump and spin around in shock and surprise.
There should be a law against people moving around that quietly.
"This bag is what I wanted to give you. It has everything that you could possible need for your new... Home. Now be sure not to lose it as it is very important." she said, acting as though she had not noticed my strange reaction as she handed me little a bag that I could not believe i was seeing.
The first thing about it that was just plain wrong was that it look like it was made to be a shoulder bag. Now for most girls, this wouldn't be a problem, but as it's me, I hate purses. I can't stand putting my money in anything but my pockets. don't ask me why, but I just do. I also hate the fact that purses always seem to magically eat anything you put in them that you might need later. And I do mean ANYTHING. I once put a three year old boy in one and never saw him again.
That will teach that brat to call me fat.
'…'
OK, so that didn't happen, but you know what I mean. They are always bottomless, and you can never find anything you need in them. Well, unless you let a few years pass and the exasperation date passes, then you fine it.
Anyway, the second thing that was wrong with it made me want to burn it on the spot. The purse itself seemed to violate my one rule of everything.
It was cute.
I don't do cute. The only cute thing that I am willing to deal with is my cat, and that's because she makes up for it with attitude.
But this thing was a cute froggy purse that looked like a giant version of the one Naruto had in the anime. I seriously doubted that I would ever like it, even if it had an attitude. Which, as it is an inanimate object, is impossible.
Seeing that she was waiting for me to say something, I quickly covered up my unhappiness at seeing the Naruto froggy purse, replacing my badly covered look of horror with a look of joy, though I think that it was probably more scary then anything else.
I took the gift and thanked her for it, even if I was planing to use it as a ritual sacrifice the moment i got home, though she didn't have to know that part.
"Thank you. It's very... lovely!" 'Oh my god! My head didn't explode! Miracle do happen!'
"Your welcome dear." she said with a smile, though we both knew that she saw right through me, but I guess she chose not to acknowledge that fact.
"Now, be sure to keep this on you at all times for luck. It is very important that you do this! For traditions sake, I mean." she said, seemingly adding the last part as an after thought.
"Yes Ma'am, I'll be sure to do that." I said, still keeping the fake-ass smile on my face. It was best to be polite so that she wouldn't keep me for all eternity as her slave to dress up in pink and fluffy things with rainbows and flowers and dresses and 'I CAN'T BREATH! The walls are closing in on me, there getting closer and closer and closer and-'.
"Are you alright dear, you seem to be hyperventilating. "
Snapping out of my slight moment of panic, (yes, that's my story and I'm sticking with it, you can't prove a thing, and if you can, I'll go all Gaara on your ass and take you out of the picture!), I looked up to see that Aunt Pinoka was looking at me oddly.
'are the corners of her mouth twitching? Nah, I'm must be imagining things.' I thought, shaking my head at the thought.
Putting my fake-ass smile back into place, tried to look as calm as possible so she wouldn't know I was having a panic attack.
"No, everything is fine. Just got a little excited, that's all." I said, giving her a quick hug to cover up my momentary laps in thought.
"Oh, I understand. Anyway, I'm sure your friends are waiting for you, so I'll let you go on your way. I have my own packing to deal with." she said, walking away and leaving me to show my self out.
"Alright. Well, good bye." I said, opening the door and stepping out.
"Good bye dear, and be sure to remember what I said!" and with that last comment from my aunt, I closed the door and hurried to my Kally's.
Two hours later found me, my friends, and my really pissed-off cat all sitting in my now furnished, and slightly mismatched, apartment. (in case your all wandering, my cat might be angry for any off the following reasons.
One, there are people breathing her air.
Two, there are people alive near her.
Three, she just had to get into a car, which she hates, and be near people that were alive, near her, and breathing her air. (I had to get her from my mom's house)
Four, she hasn't gotten any since she was two years old. Yep, no loving for the cat, muhahaha! Teach that bitch to eat my cookie... OK, so she just hasn't been around any boy cats... but still... that's not the point...
Anyway, the moment we all got everything up to the apartment, everyone seemed to crash.
'Please let that be the end of the party plans, please let them be to tired to want to do anything...' I thought desperately, not wanting to have to get up from my position on my couch again.
Unfortunately for me, my prayers were not answered as Kally, ever the party girl, got up and started getting things set up for the party, forcing me to help her in her attempts to make things a bit more festive. Of course, she only managed to force me to help by threatening to shove something very painful up my rear if I didn't help. In the meantime, the guys just slept.
'lazy bastards... remind me to find a big enough stick to beat them with...' I thought as my eye started twitching in annoyance.
Getting up, I grabbed the first few things that I could find, which just so happened to be my backpack, my camping gear, and my new ugalicious froggy bag,
-It looks like a freakin frog... I swear to god it has to be a complete replica of Naruto's money bag, I can't believe she gave me this damn thing!- I thought, wishing that i could burn it, but knowing that it would upset my aunt if she ever found out.
Well... that and i was afread that it might just show up undamaged under my pillow or something...
After throwing my backpack, my camping gear, and my new ugalicious froggy bag into the closet, i turned around and started looking for something else to put away, only to freeze in horror the minute i saw what Kally was trying to do.
She was holding my special shirt way to close to the trash-can, almost as if she was going to throw it away.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Put that shirt down now and no one will get hurt!" I demanded, causing the guys to wake up, and getting everyone's attention.
"Oh, come on! Please tell me that you're not really keeping this thing!" she said exasperatedly, looking at me as though I was nuts, something that I would never argue with, but that's not the point.
"What's wrong with it? It's the greatest shirt in the world!" I said, walking over to her and snatching it out of her evil shirt destroying hands. There was no way I was going to let her destroy it, she would have to pry it out of my cold dead hands before I would ever let that happen.
The shirt in question was what I think might be the greatest shirt of all time. It had two of the t hottest anime men on it without any clothes on, both of whom were covering themselves with just there hands.
"Oh, come on! It's not like you can wear it in public! And if your mother ever finds it, she'll kill you. You know she will." she said, clearly thinking I was crazy for keeping it.
"I don't care, it's still not something I plan to ever get rid of. And if you even try to get rid of it, then I can't promise you your safety." I stated sternly, taking the shirt into my room and hiding it under my bed.
After that little argument, everyone joined us in trying to get the place ready so that we could party, and once it was ready, party we did.
Now, before I go on, I think I should mention something. I hate alcohol and have never drank any before, so it took me a while to realize that someone had spiked the punch, and I have a feeling that it was Mike because that would explain what it was he wouldn't tell Kally about.
The first clue I got was the fact that I hadn't tripped over anything in the past few hours, but was still stumbling around like an idiot.
"Gines! I vink sumfings wong wit meh." (translation: Guys! I think something is wrong with me.) I said, wobbling over to the closest thing that might be able to keep me upright.
The second clue I got was when Kally seemed to start whispering something angrily to Mike, causing he to grin sheepishly. If I was able to come up with coherent thoughts, I might have been able to connect the dots, though I wasn't able to do so at the time, and wouldn't figure it out for a while either.
"Yeah, I think there is something wrong with you, you can't hold your liquor with a shit!" Mike said, only to get hit by a very angry Kally.
"Wafs at gonta do wit anyfing?" (translation: What's that got to do with anything?) I asked as the room started to spin, making me feel like I was going to hurl.
"Well, you have been hitting the punch kind of hard, and I put a couple of things in it. All for flavor of course, for flavor." Steve said, smiling at me as though it was perfectly normal to do something like that. (and I guess in collage it kind of was, but that's not the point)
"Huh? She doesn't drink?" Mike asked, apparently being told so by Kally, though I have no idea how he wouldn't know that little fact as I had told him that when he asked me if I wanted a bear over two and a half years ago.
"I dun dink ew batard!" (translation: I don't drink you bastard!) I said, falling over and causing the thing I was holding on to, which turned out to be the closet door, to swing open.
Thanks to my drunken state, it took me several minutes to realize that everyone had gone silent and was staring at something behind me in horror. The looks one their faces were of pure horror, all of them staring at whatever it was that was behind me, mouths hanging open and eyes popping out of their heads.
"Wahs wong wit ew gines?" (translation: what's wrong with you guys) I asked, looking at them, unable to understand was was going on thanks to my drunken state.
"b-be b-be behind y-you!" Kally said, pointing behind me at something.
I Turned my head to see what everyone was freaking out about, only to see something that, had I been sober, would have had me running out of the apartment faster then humanly possible, but as it was, I wasn't sober.
"Pwedy!" (translation: Pretty!) i said, staring at the large... pool of light.
Blinking a few times, slowly reached out my hand and did the unthinkable.
I touched it.
Whatever it was, it rippled. There was nothing that would ever fully describe it, but floating water would have to do as that was the closest thing anyone would ever get to describing it. it kind of reminded me of the way the Stargate looks in stargate sg1, though the 'glowing water' seemed to be free flowing and didn't have anything around it to hold it together.
Unfortunately, while it might have looked a little like the stargate in stargate sg1, it didn't act anything like it.
The moment my hand touched 'the floating water, the water itself, or whatever it was, lashed out and wrapped a strange blue light around my arm and pulled me and the closest thing to me (which just happened to be my cat Lilfoot) into it.
The last things I saw and heard were my cat screeching, my friends screaming, the door slamming shut, and a blinding blue light rushing past me before everything suddenly went black.
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