Chapter 11: Inter-Species Relationships

Soooo, this chapter is pretty much superrrr long. I don't know if you'll like it completely, but a lot of stuff happens in it. I could cut down some stuff if that's a good idea. I don't know. Feedback?




Inter-Species Relationships

When Friday came, after what felt to Blue like about a thousand years, she and Teddy snuggled into Teddy's room, since Alec had refused to leave his perch and Kendall was surprisingly accommodating to Blue and Teddy and offered to sleep in Blue's room. Teddy warned Blue that might be because Kendall was either a straight guy or a lesbian and he'd never figured out which, and Kendall might be slightly attracted to Blue. Or just friendly and extremely socially awkward, which Teddy believed to be the real reason, no matter how creepy Kendall could be. So it was that Teddy and Blue dressed up in their best pajamas and sat around on the floor of Teddy's room, trying to decide what to do first.
“I've never had a sleepover you know,” Blue stated, matter-of-fact.
Teddy gasped, bolted upright, and declared they would have to do a number of things, “First, we will...paint our toenails...? Because even I am not feminine enough to paint my fingernails. Then...Gossip. Then...Blanket fort. Then...Truth or dare, followed by more gossip. Then we will play some sort of game involving boys.”
“Yay!” Blue cheered, “I always wanted to do those things...”
Teddy then went on a search to find fingernail polish, though Blue was understandably shocked Teddy didn't have any in his slightly less sparkly pink than Blue remembered room. After Teddy tracked down some nail polish, apparently borrowed from Rashida, he painted Blue's toenails for her. Unfortunately for him, Blue wasn't very good at sitting still and twitched her leg so many times Teddy just painted her foot and called it good. For some reason Blue wasn't “trustworthy” painting Teddy's precious toenails, so he opted out of that one. They then had to move on to gossip. Because that's basically what slumber parties are for, according to Teddy.
“Sooo guess what I heard?” Teddy asked, and Blue gasped.
“WHAT?”
“The math teacher...He had an affair...with an eighty year old woman.”
“Oh ew!” And so they worked their way through their first round of gossip, until they figured it was time to build a blanket fort. They had to pool their resources for this one, and split up door to door to find people with blankets and pillows they could use.
Blue ran into her own room while Teddy knocked on Malik and Kip's door. Blue noticed some strange talk between the three of them until Teddy returned with an extra blanket and two pillows. They didn't get a lot of other help from others, most of them claimed to be “using” their blankets and pillows “to sleep” because it was “past midnight” or something. Whatever that meant. Blue was pretty sure they were just grumpy and probably had to pee. Sometimes she was mean to people when that happened to her. Niceness was the number one cause of weak bladders. At least, Blue was pretty sure, since all the nice old people she used to know seemed to pee quite frequently. The mean ones never seemed to pee, so...Well, Blue was grossed out thinking about pee until Teddy pulled her back to his room.
They made a magnificent blanket fort then and hid out underneath it for some time, where they decided to throw out the schedule and go ahead and gossip at the same time.
“Sooo what's going on with Radish and the Alien?”
“Dating I think,” Teddy replied, “but not facebook official. Apparently Radish has some religious hang-ups in relation to their relationship.”
“You say that word sometimes and I'm still not sure what it means,” Blue replied slowly.
“It's like how you're Jewish,” Teddy attempted to explain.
“I thought that was called 'race' or 'ethniii something,'” Blue replied.
“Yeah,” Teddy replied, “Judaism is both a race and religion though.”
“Oh,” Blue mumbled. “Maybe I'll never understand.”
“Yeah, that's just fine,” Teddy stated, “so how's Shelly? I haven't heard about him in a while.”
“HER,” Blue corrected with a glare. “Shelly is transgendered, and she would prefer to be called a 'she.'”
Teddy smiled at Blue, “Yeah, all right. How is she?”
“Well she's doing pretty well,” Blue replied. “Sometimes I think she likes Scamps as more than a friend. They stare at each other a lot like they're talking...I figured they have a forbidden romance, so I had a long talk with Shelly about inter-species relationships...But I don't think she listened.”
“Yeah, those are pretty bad,” Teddy stated, “I mean, with an inter-species relationship between a horse and rhino might make some kind of horse with a horn on it. And no one wants one of those.”
“WHAT-NO-I-WANT-ONE!” Blue shrieked.
Teddy smiled at his friend, “See? Don't be so quick to dismiss them...Though I can't say I would support an inter-species relationship...”
“Yeah, but since I love Shelly I guess I should be supportive of her, huh?” Blue mumbled. “And Scamps used to freak me out, but now I get the feeling Scamps would be my best line of defense if another zombie apocalypse happens.”
“That's probably true,” Teddy shrugged.
“I have a question,” Blue mumbled, then stared into Teddy's very blue eyes.
“Yes my darling?” Teddy asked, and Blue scowled.
“Kip isn't really an alien, right?” Blue asked, blinking a few times.
“Nah,” Teddy replied, “as far as you'll ever have to know he's not.”
“Doesn't that mean he is?” Blue gasped, and Teddy shook his head.
“He's not, don't worry,” Teddy insisted, and Blue sighed.
“Thank Uni,” Blue said, “not that I don't like aliens or anything, because I don't mind them I guess, but if him and Radish get married and have babies I don't want them to be half-alien. That'd be a tough life for them.”
“I see your point,” Teddy replied thoughtfully.
“Are there any other friends we have who are in weird relationships?” Blue asked, poking at the top of their blanket fort.
“Gerda and Hakan, I'd say,” Teddy stated. “Weird.”
“I don't think that one's that weird...But it is inappropriate that they share a room.” Blue nodded to agree with herself.
“Yeah,” Teddy replied, then predicted Blue's next question, “and no, I still haven't caught them sneaking in there to do anything inappropriate during the school day.”
“Good,” Blue stated, scowling slightly. “Anyone else? Like who else are our friendsss?”
“Well, in our acting class we're just missing Austin, who you think is named Ginger. I think she might actually have a boyfriend who goes to a different school. Hammy and Reg, I guess. Those two are...”
“Awesome for each other,” Blue filled in, “but your boyfriend is an evil assassin.” Teddy stopped and stared at Blue then.
“If I admit you're right will you stop bringing it up?” he sighed at last. Blue was so flabbergasted with excitement she just started twitching and left her mouth hanging open for a few minutes, until it dawned on her what that meant.
“He's going to come after me soon!” she shrieked. “I need to hire a bodyguard!”
“No, he's supposed to assassinate—,”
“OH MY UNI, who could protect me? I don't know anyone with more muscles than your terrifying boyfriend! OH MY UNIIII!”
“Me...,” Teddy mumbled, shifting slightly uncomfortably.
“WHAT DO I DO?” Blue gasped, and Teddy smiled at her.
“Ask Malik,” he suggested, “he'd work hard to protect you. Remember his six-pack?”
“Oh yeah,” Blue replied, eyes filling with delight at the memory of Malik shirtless.
“Speaking of Malik,” Teddy muttered, trying to figure out how to phrase his question, “how do you feel around him?”
“Safe and happy and warm right in my belly,” Blue replied without missing a beat.
“Good,” Teddy said. Blue didn't figure out why that mattered, but they gossiped for a while more until Blue's eyes shut on their own and she just couldn't stop herself from falling asleep.
The rest of the weekend Blue spent trying to catch up on missed sleep, and wondering if Teddy was plotting weird things, since he was acting strange. Monday rolled around, and nothing had really changed between them, despite their late-night gossiping, as Blue had expected it to.
On that particular Monday, Blue stumbled through her day until Improv, where Hammy skipped into the classroom, a grin plastered on his face. “Let's start...Heehee...Let's start class!” he apparently couldn't keep the smile down.
“I'll take this bait,” Teddy stated. “Why the ridiculous amount of happiness?”
Hammy grinned at Teddy, before waving his hand around in the air too fast for anyone to see what he was trying to show them. “I'm engaged!! Oh my God that's the best thing I've ever said in my life I'm so in love with that man!”
“And such a little girl,” someone side-remarked, and Hammy shot the boy a serious glare.
“You. Will. Leave. My. Room. Of. Happiness.”
The boy rolled his eyes, but replied, “Nah. I'd like to hear how this big engaygement came about.”
“OK,” Hammy replied. “It's the best thing ever, so be prepared for that. Mind BLOWN!” He jumped onto his desk and sat on it to make himself more comfortable, “OK, so, as some of you know, Reg, my now fiance's, parents came to visit us from England this weekend. We cleaned up the house and everything and I was really nervous and everything. Everything went all right, and all that. So Saturday was Reg and I's two year anniversary, though, and his parents were still around and stuff and things...I didn't really know why he chose that weekend to have them visit, but now I think I understand. ANYWAY! So on Saturday night we had a date at this fancy restaurant for our anniversary, so I got all nice and dressed up and went to meet him at the restaurant, since he was out with his parents during the day. So I got to the restaurant, told them about my reservation and whatnot and went and sat down. So then I sat there and waited for Reg to show up. I sat there for so long it felt like an hour, but since I was so eager to see him I figured it was less. When I looked at my cell phone clock I noticed it was actually an hour and a half later than Reg was supposed to get there. I figured I was either being stood up on my two-year anniversary date, or Reg did something stupid and was lost somewhere, and I neglected to notice I had two voice mail messages. So I decided to give him another half-hour, and then I was going to go home and cry to Today—er, Miss Allberry about how heartbroken I was. After that half-hour came and went I stood up and went to leave.
“As I was walking out, I ran into someone who was soaking wet. I was tearing up by that point because I was upset that Reg would screw something up that was so important, and I was in mood to be run into by someone who felt like he'd been river diving.
“'Watch where you're going,' I sniffled, and the man gasped. Oh, I'm paraphrasing here, by the way.
“'I AM SO SORRY!' he shrieked in an adorably British accent. 'Can you ever forgive me? I swear I have a good reason.' I didn't even consider who he was though, I just kept walking, thinking that apology was a little much for just running into me. I exited the restaurant, but he followed me. 'Hamilton, I love you so much please don't ignore me.'
“'Oh,' I mumbled, as it occurred to me he was Reg. I looked up into his eyes and he looked sooo guilty and remorseful I decided to give him a chance to explain himself. So he started this ridiculous story that was so Reg.
'OK, so my parents and I were out shopping like you know and all of that. We were buying your anniversary gift, because I wanted their help to pick it out. So, we got it all picked out and ready to go, and I was walking out of the store we were in with your gift in my pocket.' I noticed he was wearing a tuxedo when he said that. A tattered, pretty much completely ruined tuxedo. Anyway, he continued on, 'But then this vicious mutt of a dog came out of nowhere and stole it! He bit straight through my pocket. I don't know why he attacked me like that, but he ran off with my pocket and with the r—gift. So I chased after him, because that thing was important and expensive. I followed him so far that I was panting, and sweating, and he ran into a bog! A bog! I stumbled through some pokey bushes, tore my tux, and ended up immersed in swamp water, but I stood back up and kept chasing that stupid dog to a creepy swamp house. The dog went through a doggy door, so I knocked on the door. No one answered, so I climbed through the doggy door after the dog, which was a tight and awkward fit.'
“So then he went on, 'Inside was empty, but I saw the dog scamper into the basement, and then I followed it, but my foot went through one of the floorboards. I spent a long time trying to climb out of there, and once I got out I went down and finally caught the dog. This weird little old lady apologized to me from in the corner. Said her dog was trained to kill love and she was trying to break him of the habit. I told her that wasn't a real thing and left to come here. I ran the whole way and would've called you but I ruined my phone in the water. I told my parents to call you though, and they promised to leave a message and explain the situation. Didn't they? God, I hope they did.' I looked at my phone after that and nodded to tell him they did call me but explained I hadn't listened to the voicemail or noticed them call. We'd been walking for a while as he explained this story, and we eventually arrived at this really pretty spot by the lake in town, where you could see everything. I decided to forgive him for being an idiot, since he's really not clever enough to make up a story like that. I was still curious about the gift he'd worked so hard to get back, but he refused to tell me about it until we got to that pretty, relatively deserted place. Then he spoke to me really softly, and I almost meltedddd.”
Hammy grinned to himself and shut his eyes, “So he said, 'I know I look like shite for this...I had this night planned out perfectly, but it went so terribly. I can't wait to do this, though.' Then he knelt down and I almost died because I was so happy. Then he pulled this box out of the pocket that hadn't been torn off of his tux, and he held it up and said, 'Will you marry me?' And so I jumped up and down a little bit and hugged him and told him, 'Of course!' He gave me the ring and it was so awesome. Not a woman's ring, like I might have expected from him, but pure gold with a pair of diamonds in it, and our names inscribed in it. It is the most awesome thing ever. So then we kissed and, you know, it was so awesome that night. I was soooo happy. So we went home and told everyone, except Reg's parents already knew and they're awesome and they made me feel like I had real parents again and then I crieddd!” he probably only added the last part because he'd started crying again. “Happy tears...”
The class sat quietly, a relatively small class much like Miss Allberry's, and the boy who'd spoken before stated, “Gayest story ever.” He laughed, “But congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Hammy gushed, wiping his eyes. “I just needed to tell somebody.”
Jennifer, Malik's partner for their two-person improv scenes spoke then, “I hate to rain on your parade but same-sex marriage isn't—,”
“If you hate to rain on someone's parade don't do it,” Malik snapped. “That's an awesome story, Mr. Paddington, Hammy...When slash where is the wedding going to be?”
“We're going to get married in a couple months,” Hammy said with another brilliant grin, “In England. They won't recognize it here, but in England they have Civil Unions, which to them I guess is closer to marriage than it is here. And since Reg has dual citizenship I like to think that also gives me dual citizenship.”
“Congratulations, seriously!” Teddy cheered, and he and Blue ran up to the front of the room to whisper. “We're invited to the wedding, right?” Hammy nodded to them.
“Of course. I hate to say it, but you're some of my closest friends. All of you are invited,” he announced to the room. “But it's in England, so I understand if you don't come.”
“Yeah,” a couple people agreed, “might be tough.”
“We'll be there,” Blue insisted, pointing to Teddy, herself and Malik. For the rest of the class period they just talked to Hammy about his wedding plans and were all pretty excited about it, even if he might not be legally married for a while. After class was over Teddy told Malik and Blue he needed to go talk to his boyfriend, so the two of them went to Malik's room to hang out together for a while. Blue noticed something weird between them, though, since Hammy's story, and was actually a little relieved Kip and Rashida were also hanging out in Malik's room that day.
“No way!” Rashida gasped when they told them about Hammy and Reg's engagement. “That's pretty awesome for them, I guess.” Kip nodded and shrugged.
“I'm indifferent, I guess,” he stated, “great for them, but still illegal here.”
“Yeah,” Malik agreed, “that kind of sucks for them...So I have a question about the two of you...You're dating, right?”
They looked at each other for a moment, before Rashida replied, “Yeah. But we don't want a ton of people to know. My parents might not be so keen on us dating. They're pretty traditional...”
“We do really like each other and everything though,” Kip explained, “we're going to tell our parents eventually.”
“I know what religion you are, Rashida,” Malik mumbled, and Rashida nodded. “But what are you, Kip?” he asked, as Blue tuned them out and thought about Uni charging around through a forest with her new boyfriend called Pega.
Kip blinked a couple times, then stated, “I follow the ethereal words of our one true ruler Higlork.”
Malik stared at him for a minute, trying to decide if he joking, until finally deciding to just move on. “And your parents wouldn't approve of...that?” Malik mumbled, and Rashida nodded with a light chuckle.
“Yeah,” she replied. “They wouldn't approve of that.”
Malik sighed and snapped his fingers to try to bring Blue back to reality, and Blue grinned at him as she reeled in her daydreams. “Uni and Pega might be getting married someday too,” she said. “Even though Uni is a unicorn and Pega is a pegasus, they're sure they can work it out. Because Inter-species relationships can work out sometimes,” Blue explained, “like with Radish and Alien, since that's an obvious difference. And Hammy and Reg, since Reg is British and Hammy is an ex-Amish...And lots of other people. Even Shelly and Scamps,” she finished with a gleeful smile. Malik smiled at her in response as Kip spoke.
“It seems like love is in the air, as they say,” Kip said with a shrug.
“Yep,” Rashida agreed. For a while the four of them just talked about random things, until Teddy ran into the room, looking absolutely frazzled.
“Oh my God!” he yelled, and Rashida and Kip glanced at each other.
“Should we go?” Rashida asked, and though Teddy shrugged, she took it as she and Kip's cue to leave, and pulled her boyfriend out of the room. Teddy flopped onto Malik's floor as they left and leaned against his bed.
“What happened?” Malik asked, as he and Blue both shifted so they were sitting at better angles to him.
“He admitted it!” he shouted. “He admitted he was a f—”
“Beep!” Blue interjected.
“—ing assassin!” Teddy finished.
“Oh my God,” Malik mumbled, “what happened?”
“Well, I went to visit him because I was wondering what the hell we've been doing in this relationship of ours, and then I asked him if he was an assassin, he said yes, held up a gun to my head for a minute, told me he couldn't kill me because he accidentally fell for me, but he was leaving and never going to come back, so we broke up. And I'm pissed!” Despite his protests of anger, tears started falling from his eyes, and he whimpered and covered his face.
Blue and Malik sat in silence, until Blue loudly declared, “I KNEW IT!” Malik gasped very loudly, and pushed Blue into a corner of the room and told her to think about what she'd done. So Blue did think about it, but all she could think was that she should really watch out for that Steel Kilmeistah, in case he came after her next, since she'd certainly never struck his fancy like Teddy had.
“What reason does he have for assassinating you?” Malik mumbled. “I mean, not to be rude, but wouldn't it be 'murder' in your case?”
“Shut up you dickface!” Teddy retorted cleverly.
“He's a potty mouth when he's upset,” Blue stated to the wall. “Don't worry, I'll get the beep next time.”
“Can't you just let me have this f—“
“Beeeeep.”
“—ing assassination thing? It makes sense, you just don't know why!” Teddy shouted, wiping away what had turned into angry tears. “Just tell me this sucks and you feel bad for me and shit!”
“Oh, missed that beep,” Blue stated to the wall very seriously. “I'm very very sorry, I won't let it happen again.”
“I'm really sorry Teddy,” Malik mumbled. “That was inappropriate of me as your friend. I'm sorry for what happened. That sucks. Would you like a hug?” Teddy nodded, and leaned forward to hug Malik, as Blue got up from her corner with a declaration that she loved hugs. So the three hugged for a moment, before Teddy gave them both serious looks through his tears.
“So since my relationship just shattered into a million sucky pieces, I'm going to be frank with you. You're into each other. Don't start dating right now, though, or I'm going to be upset with you both,” Teddy stated, and shut his eyes, causing him to miss the looks that passed between Blue and Malik, Malik of slight embarrassment and Blue of confusion.
“That's a little selfish,” Malik stated through a blush.
“Oh my God I just got you over the hurdle you've been standing behind and dancing around for weeks, be grateful,” Teddy snapped, then leaned his head back into the couch. “FINE God you have my permission to date! But I reserve the right to be whiny and angry about it! I'm going to my room to vent to Kendall since we're terrible buds!” With his declaration, Teddy stood and left the room, leaving Blue and Malik all alone.
“That was awful,” Malik stated softly.
“Yeah,” Blue agreed. “What did he mean, though?”
“Huhhh?” Malik replied, looking at Blue with a light flush.
“Something about you and me?” Blue asked.
“Yeah, he-he was saying we could go out...?” Malik mumbled. Blue still looked confused, so he went on, “Like on a date...?”
“But why would the two of us go on a date?” Blue asked, and Malik looked momentarily horrified.
“N-never mind! Let's do something else,” he said, standing up and running for the door. Teddy was outside, Kendall by his side, staring at the door. Malik and Blue both gave him similarly sad looks, and he grinned at them.
“Company in my misery! Let's go play some violent video games to release our upset-ness!” Teddy said delightedly. Malik and Blue nodded, and Teddy invited Kendall to play as well.
“No,” Kendall replied, “I'd rather just watch...”
So the three of them went to play a violent video game while Kendall watched, and Malik and Blue were both surprised by how good Teddy was at the game. Eventually they quit and retreated to their rooms. Teddy decided to do his friendly duties then, and tend to each of their rooms to figure out why Blue and Malik both looked moderately upset. He started out with Blue, despite the fact that he certainly loved having company in his misery.
He knocked on the door and waited for it to open up, and was surprised to see Alec open the door instead of Blue. “Welcome to our room, Albrecht,” Alec said slowly, then muttered under his breath, “don't touch anything.”
Teddy walked over to sit on Blue's bed, where she was sitting and petting Shelly, much like the turtle was a cat, as it furiously struggled to get away from her. “Blue, what happened?” Teddy asked, as Alec went back to his computer to do something.
“It's just, I...I just wanted him to say 'Cause you are so awesome, lovely, and super cute, Blue,'” Blue replied, and Teddy tilted his head to side.
“In reply to what, exactly?” Teddy asked, and Blue sighed.
“I asked why the two of us should go on a date,” she explained. “I just asked him so he would tell me he liked me...”
“Yeah,” Teddy replied. “I get where you're coming from, but I would probably take that as a rejection if that was me. You need to tell him you really do like him...One more thing I'm going to say...Do not break that kid's heart. He has been my best friend for years, and though you're my girl besty, he's my straight guy besty. That's a sacred bond that shouldn't be broken. And I can't stand seeing him hurt. Because he's so fricking nice.” Blue nodded as Teddy continued, “And I promise he really does like you that way. And you like him that way, don't you?”
“I do,” Blue admitted.
“So find a way to apologize for pseudo rejecting him, and tell him that,” Teddy said with a smile. “Now I need to go talk to him...I love you, Blue. Don't worry, he's pretty understanding. Everything will be fine.” Blue nodded and gripped Shelly's shell tightly as she pondered what she should do. Teddy left her room as she stared at her Uni poster and wondered what Uni would do.
Teddy ran off to his other best friend's room then, knocking on the door in case Malik wasn't alone in the room. Malik opened the door fairly quickly, and Teddy let himself in and jumped onto Malik's bed.
“Blue is an idiot and you know that,” he stated plainly. “She can make this up to you...” Malik looked at Teddy with a sad face, and Teddy smiled. “Let's just be sad together tonight. Once you two start dating you're going to have to deal with even more stupidity like this.”
“Once we start dating?” Malik echoed.
“I promise you will soon,” Teddy replied, as Malik crawled onto the bed next to him. Teddy leaned against Malik and made an unhappy face. “So can I be sad about breaking up with my boyfriend now?” Malik nodded, and the two spent the rest of the evening being sad together, like Teddy planned.
The next morning, Blue had a super awesome plan. It was super awesome. She got dressed in the closet again, and this time Alec didn't even care. He didn't ask if she was being attacked or point out they had a bathroom attached to their room, as he normally would have. Apparently he'd gotten used to Blue's strange behavior, just as she'd gotten used to his.
Once she was looking super pretty in her new skirt and leggings and long sleeved shirt and boots, she ran out of her room to head to class with Miss Allberry. As she sat in her seat in class Miss Allberry told them all about how Hammy had asked her to be his best man, and she was totally flattered and really happy.
Blue interrupted her with a raise of her hand, “I have something really important!”
Miss Allberry stared at her, “Something very important what...? To say? To do? To be?”
“To say slash do,” Blue declared, standing from her seat and walking to the front of the room. “Now as some of you know, when you feel certain things, it means you're attracted to someone. Like if your heart hurts when you accidentally upset him. So I accidentally upset somebody really important to me, and though I would like to say it was Teddy since that would be funny, it was Malikkkkkk. So, Malik, I drew you this picture to make up for it and tell you I want to go on a date with you. Will you go on a date with me?”
“I would love to, Blue,” Malik replied with a smile, standing up to go look at the piece of paper Blue was holding up. He stared at it and tried to figure out what it was, so as not to hurt Blue's feelings. Unfortunately, it looked like a duck sitting on top of a horned mountain (which he'd learned through experience was a unicorn) next to some kind of flying fish-like thing with an octopus on it.
Blue saved Malik the trouble of guessing and explained, “See that's you sitting on Pega, and there's me sitting on Uni.” Malik nodded and smiled at Blue. “And I signed it with a heart. Cause you're my ca-ca-crush.”
“Oh Blue,” Malik laughed, “let's sit down. This is shockingly embarrassing.”
“Wait, go out with me tonight?” Blue asked. “I'm going to cook, the cook ladies and men said I could.”
Malik smiled in a way clearly showing a slight fear for his life, but agreed, “That would be awesome, Blue.” The rest of the class was happy, Blue decided, but she was too busy thinking about her very first date ever that was going to happen that night. Suddenly her stomach started doing crazy flips and she was worried she was going to get sick. So she tried to focus on something else, until she got to improv class and Teddy told Hammy about Blue and Malik's date, since he figured he ought to. After class ended that day Blue was still just thinking about her date, and Teddy stayed behind to talk to Hammy about “stuff,” as he called it.
Blue was a little upset at him, since she was counting on him to help cook, but she got to work on dinner as soon as she got a chance. By six o'clock she'd had a few practice rounds and finally perfected her macaroni and cheese, so she brought the pan of it up to Malik's room, which Kip had promised to stay out of.
The look on Malik's face as she poured some macaroni into his bowl, which she'd stolen from the kitchen, made something inside her chest go “lub-dub” and so she smiled at him. The whole time they ate was strangely silent, since Blue had never been more nervous in her life, but after they finished eating Blue challenged Malik to a game of War, which somehow turned into Slap Jack when Blue forgot the rules. Malik didn't seem to mind, but insisted they stop playing after a while.
“So Blue,” Malik mumbled, and Blue's heart was once again doing weird things because Malik was sitting really close. “I really...I really like you, OK? Teddy told me that's why you asked me why we should go on a date. I can't help it, and I don't want to help it. I thought I would ask you two things. One. Will you be my girlfriend?” Blue's face got all hot and she worried she had a fever, but she nodded emphatically, “Two...Can I kiss you?” Blue stared at Malik, and then she got lightheaded, and really happy. She nodded again, so Malik leaned close to her and pushed his lips against hers lightly, causing her to grin at him, sigh, and bury her head against his shoulder.
They certainly would have done more kissing if Teddy hadn't burst in the room at that very moment and insisted that he had waited long enough and he was lonely, since, “Hammy left, and talking to Pablo is fun and all, but now that I'm single he hits on me even more than he did before and maybe I just want to be single for a little while since I had a gun held up to my head yesterday.”
So Malik and Blue did their friendly duties and welcomed Teddy into the room despite what they wanted. Blue found herself blushing again when she felt the comforting presence of Malik's hand on her own, and the three spent the rest of the evening together, though a few things had certainly changed between them this time.

So.

I get really worried when I realize that people (aka family members of mine) have read/can read this. So...That's part of why I deleted it before. The other part is something that still concerns me, and is a bit more pressing at the moment than my family reading this. I stopped posting links to this place on facebook though, so that should hopefully cut down on my random family members reading this. So if you're family reading this subtly and not commenting, please don't judge me, OK? I'm not ashamed of who I am, but I do get ashamed of the things I do sometimes. If that makes sense. Like, I like to learn from my stupidity and I hope people forgive my blunders, you know? I try not to prejudge, but I'm slowly becoming cynical even though I'm trying not to. So sorry for anything I've done that's stupid.

Other than that little statement, I wanted to share this new song. Firework by Katy Perry. I'm not into popular music generally, but I'm not going to ignore a good song just because it's popular. I legitimately don't enjoy a majority of popular music (mostly because of shoddy lyrics) but this song is absolutely lovely. To get the full feeling of it you should watch the video too. :)

Firework by Katy Perry

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?

Do you ever feel already buried deep?
Six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you?

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby, you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go, oh
As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go, oh
You're gonna leave 'em falling down

You don't have to feel like a waste of space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe your reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it's time, you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
Just own the night like the 4th of July

'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go, oh
As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go, oh
You're gonna leave 'em falling down

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time to let it through

'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on, show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go, oh
As you shoot across the sky

Baby, you're a firework
Come on, let your colors burst
Make 'em go, oh
You're gonna leave 'em falling down

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon"

Firework ~ Katy Perry

Chapter 10: Cleaning and Death

I wrote a new chapter. I'm not sure I like it very much. I think I ran out of happy a little bit...I don't find it be that funny. I kind of finished it quickly-ish. You know...I'm not sure. But it's a bit of a lead in to the next chapter in a way I don't think many of the other chapters have been. So...Read it, I guess...?

Cleaning and Death

“So, class...How's it going?” Hammy asked, lounging across his desk.

“Everyone else is gone,” Malik stated, glancing between himself, Blue and Teddy. For whatever reason Hispanesbian was also in the room, which was weird.

“Yeah,” Hammy agreed, then sat silently.

Blue stared at Hammy and tried to figure out what he was doing, “Are you selling us into slavery because we're all so attractive?”

“Uh...Only sort of,” Hammy replied. Blue gasped and began fleeing from the room.

“Runnnnn!” she declared to the rest of the group. Unfortunately Miss Allberry walked into the room as she tried to leave and turned her around.

“Did you tell them yet?” she asked. Hammy shook his head. “I'll do it!” Miss Allberry cheered. She then turned to the group, “How would the four of you like to make a sound investment in your futures?”

“Are you selling us a timeshare?” Hispanesbian asked.

“Nooo,” Miss Allberry replied. “Now I forgot what I was talking about...”

Hammy picked up where Miss Allberry left off, “So here's the deal. Today and I live together, right? And Reg lives there too. So, Reg's parents are coming for a visit from England...But we're not so great at keeping the place clean. So we thought we'd ask if you guys would like to help us clean. We'll owe you.”

“Will you pay us?” Hispanesbian countered.

“Uh...We'll pay you in love?” Hammy replied.

“We're teachers,” Miss Allberry replied. “We don't have a lot of money.”

“We're not just going to work for free,” Hispanesbian said. There was a sharp pause that made it clear that the pair of teachers weren't about to offer any money.

“...What about you three?” Hammy asked Blue, Malik, and Teddy.

“You know I'm going to say this isn't really something you're supposed to be doing,” Teddy said. “But I'll help. Since we're gay bros.”

“Awesome,” Hammy said, then turned to Blue and Malik.

“I don't mind,” Malik mumbled. “But you'll have to find some way of payment.”

“I've never cleaned before,” Blue declared. “It'll be like an adventure!”

“Not so much,” Hispanesbian replied, “and I'll do it too. I just want something for my work.”

“Hooray!” Miss Allberry declared. “So tonight?”

“What?” Teddy replied. “I'm pretty booked solid tonight. Sitting and such.”

“But they're coming tomorrow! They have to like meeeee,” Hammy said.

“Why?” Blue asked.

“Because I love Reg and I want his parents to approve of our relationship?” Hammy replied, surprised Blue would ask.

“...Cleaning in the name of love?” Blue asked, then glared at Teddy. “The name of LOVE, Teddy! You're a disappointment to your father's father's great uncle's cousin's mother's father.”

“That's probably true,” Teddy shrugged.

“Why me, by the way?” Hispanesbian asked as Miss Allberry and Hammy led the group out of Hammy's classroom. “I mean, these three are like the three stooges, but me?”

“You look like you have strong arms,” Hammy replied. Hispanesbian blinked, then fell into step beside Blue.

“By the way,” she stated to Blue, “I do have a name. It's not 'Hispanesbian' though I am a Hispanic lesbian. My name is Estela.”

“Stella?” Blue repeated back.

“Estela.”

“All right,” Blue replied. “Stella.”

Estela tried to repeat her name to Blue again, but Blue had tuned her out. Estela was a bit afraid she'd always be “Stella” to Blue, but she decided she didn't really care.

“Teddy, Teddy!” Blue called, catching up to Teddy. “Guess what I learned.”

“What?” Teddy asked casually, tilting his head to the side.

“Hispanesbian's name is Stella!” Blue shouted.

“Estela,” Teddy corrected, but Blue had already run off to tell Malik.

“Malik, Malik!” she called. Malik turned to look at her as she interrupted some sort of conversation he was having with Hammy and Miss Allberry, then turned back to continue that conversation.

“Yeah, the first time I read your name I though it was 'milk,'” Miss Allberry said as Blue swooped over.

“Well my parents wanted to make sure everyone knows I'm not white, I guess,” Malik explained as Blue slapped at his shoulder to get his attention.

“Malik Malik!!!” Blue screeched, causing Malik to finally look at her and keep his attention on her.

“Yeah Blue?” he asked, and Blue grinned.

“Hispanebian's name is Stella!” she cheered, and Malik smiled. Smiled in this way that even Blue, dense as she was, noticed wasn't quite the same as how he smiled at other people.

“You mean Estela,” he stated, and Blue nodded.

“Yeah, Stella,” she said. Her cheeks felt hot then, and she didn't know why...

“Sure,” Malik replied, “that's fine. She's been in class with us for a while now. You know Hammy takes attendance every day, right?” Blue appeared to not be listening again, clearly searching for a new person to tell her new found information to. She went ahead and walked over to Estela.

“Hey, I learned your name Hispanesbian,” she informed Estela.

“Yes,” Estela agreed, “or for the most part, you did.” Blue nodded and smiled.

“It's Stella,” she stated, as Estela smiled and laughed.

“Wow,” she stated, “I thought you acted like this during improv for laughs. You're pretty entertaining there, Miss Color Name. Your parents were on drugs when you were born, though, that does explain a lot. Have you ever taken an IQ test?”

Blue nodded eagerly, “Yeah. My favorite is chocolate, but also I like all the others flavors.”

“Oh really?” Estela laughed as Teddy fell behind to walk next to them. Estela turned to him with a smile then, and asked, “Say, you're a genius, right?” Teddy nodded and blinked at Estela, curious as to where she was going with her question, “Why?” she asked asked simply, pointing at Blue.

“Why are we friends? Why is she the way she is?” Teddy replied, “Well. How can you resist such charm?” he asked, as Blue ran off to tell Miss Allberry Estela's name. “And parents shouldn't do drugs when their babies are little or before they're born. But I can hardly get mad at them for it. I mean, can you imagine her being normal?” Estela shrugged.

“No,” she replied, “I suppose not. So how's life for you, Teddy?”

“Interesting choice of question,” Teddy replied. “Life is treating me as well as anyone else, I suppose. And how's life for you, Estela?”

“Good,” Estela smiled. They kept walking, making idle, adult-like chit-chat the way only they seemed able to at the moment, until Blue ran back to them.

“Is Malik sick?” she asked suddenly, and Teddy and Estela glanced at each other. Estela seemed to understand the situation of Malik and Blue, but she couldn't hold down a light chuckle.

“No,” she said.

“He's not sick,” Teddy stated, “maybe you'll understand someday...If you're more mature...”

“He's got the hemorrhoids?” Blue gasped.

“Whoa what?” Teddy asked, as Estela burst out laughing.

“I'm sorry to hear that Malik!” she called out, running away from Teddy and Estela to console Malik.

“Where did she get hemorrhoids?” Estela laughed, as they finally reached the cars of Miss Allberry and Hammy. Blue and Malik got into the car with Miss Allberry, leaving Hammy with Estela and Teddy, who happily obliged to riding with their more sane teacher. They rode the short (relatively, of course) drive to Hammy, Miss Allberry, and Reg's apartment talking to each other casually again.

“So Malik,” Estela said, “he has a thing for Blue, yeah?” Teddy nodded. “That's hilarious. How does he feel about that?”

“It's kind of weird,” Teddy shrugged, “he seems, like...resigned to it. But he definitely likes her. He can't work his way out of it.”

“He's pretty normal, right?” Estela asked, and Teddy nodded.

“Basically,” Teddy replied. They continued on in their conversation, Hammy chiming in eventually. They stopped and bonded over their shared homosexuality (“Everyone in this car is gay!”) for a while, before they all fell silent as they watched Miss Allberry run a red light. A lot of cheering (“Oh my God you really did it you're awesome Miss Allberry!” “You know it! Whoooo!”) came from the car, followed by a desperate shout from Malik (“We could have died! You're crazy!”) through the open sun roof. Hammy laughed off his house mate's crazy behavior, as they all started to worry about Miss Allberry and Blue being together in a car with a sane boy who was too enamored to stand up for sanity.

Soon they were at the apartment, where they were all slightly disappointed to find Reg was not home. Teddy explained that he actually had a day job, so he didn't come home until at least five. Blue whined that it was a British Conspiracy, but everyone ignored her as they evaluated the state the apartment was in.

“What happened?” Malik asked softly. “Burglars?”

Hammy and Miss Allberry just stood in silence for a while as Malik reflected on their desks at school. Neither seemed to have any semblance of order, so this probably made sense. They literally had to walk on things to get through the rooms. According to Miss Allberry and Teddy there were three rooms, including Teddy and Reg's, Miss Allberry's, and the kitchen. They would all help with the living room after they ate dinner. The bathroom didn't need to be cleaned, though it might be a good idea if they had time. They decided to pair off, and Miss Allberry and Hammy insisted they should clean their own rooms. Teddy offered to help Hammy, and Estela quickly jumped on the chance to help Miss Allberry and leave Malik and Blue alone.

“You know this isn't a good idea,” Malik stated, but everyone ignored him as they ran off to their places to clean.

Teddy stared at Hammy and Reg's room, then laughed at a picture by the bed. Hammy questioned his laughter, and Teddy smiled, “You two are awesome together.” He motioned the picture, which showed Hammy and Reg dressed as Burt and Ernie, managing to kiss and look at the camera at the same time.

“Thanks,” Hammy laughed. “And you know Burt and Ernie are on the down low.”

“Yeah,” Teddy agreed softly, as he picked up a pile of clothes. “Before we start...I have to ask something...” Hammy tilted his head as he waited for Teddy's question, “I'm not going to find anything, uh...inappropriate?”

Hammy laughed and grinned at Teddy, “I can't guarantee that.” Teddy stared at him as if mildly shocked and disgusted, then Hammy winked at him. Teddy sighed and continued cleaning, wary of anything and everything that looked even mildly inappropriate.

A bathroom separated their room from Miss Allberry's, where things were going in a different manor. Estela spoke slowly, “Can I toss this used tissue?”

“NO!” Miss Allberry shrieked. “That goes in my used tissue box.” Estela stared at her for a moment as she set it in the box.

“Why do you think you need those?” she asked calmly, with a certain degree of patience even Teddy wouldn't have been able to muster.

“For the apocalypse. The Mayans predicted it,” Miss Allberry stated, “it's coming fast. I'll need those tissues for something then...I just know it...”

Estela laughed, “Whatever you say...What were your parents like?”

Miss Allberry smiled, “They were hippies.” She grinned to herself. “Late bloomers, though, cause I was born in the late eighties...” Estela smiled and continued helping Miss Allberry sort her useless stuff into boxes for use during the apocalypse.

Malik and Blue sat on the kitchen floor playing paddy cake, until Malik managed to pull himself away from the meaningless game. “OK,” he stated, “so let's take care of these dishes first.”

“They go in the dishwasher,” Blue declared with a smile. Malik nodded as he began collecting up the dishes strewn throughout the entire kitchen carelessly. He handed them to Blue, who offered to put them into the dishwasher. Once they rounded up all of the dishes Malik went to look over Blue's work.

“Shiz, Blue!” Malik gasped. “You don't just pile them in! There are slots for them to go in!” Malik and Blue then took all the dishes back out of the dishwasher, and Malik arranged them so they actually fit. He shut the dishwasher and sighed as he looked around the still filthy kitchen.

Every team cleaned for a couple hours, until Reg came home and shrieked something along the lines of, “There are strange teenage cleaning burglars taking away the dirty! I'm scared!” Hammy stopped cleaning to calm him down, and Teddy finished up cleaning their room in that time. Estela and Miss Allberry finished in due time as well, and they helped Blue and Malik finish with the kitchen. After Reg cooked something he called “food” and everyone scarfed it down politely, Hammy even managing a compliment.

“It tastes...Better,” he stated, and Reg grinned. After they finished eating they began working on cleaning up the living room, and Blue stared at a couple pictures on the wall as everyone else cleaned.

“When did you meet?” Blue asked as she stared at the pictures. “And what is wrong with you in this picture, Hammy?”

As the rest of the group cleaned, Hammy replied, “Well...Where to begin? I met Today when we were what, seven?” Miss Allberry nodded as she filed an empty pizza box into the correct place. “You remember me saying I grew up in Amish country...?” He didn't actually look for any acknowledgment as he continued, “It's more like I...Grew up...Amish...” He mumbled.

“Oh,” Blue gasped, “that's why you're dressed crazy.” Everyone stopped to look at the picture of a young looking Hammy and Miss Allberry. Hammy wore what looked like homemade clothes with suspenders, and stared at the camera in a way that reminded everyone of old time pictures, while Miss Allberry was wearing overalls over a flowery shirt. She was barefoot, and had clearly been walking through some serious mud.

“Seriously, though?” Teddy echoed. “Amish!”

“Yeah,” Hammy mumbled, “this is the only picture of me from that age...You can thank this chick that I'm even here at all...” Everyone sat on the couch for apparent story time, so Hammy went on. “So, uh...Today sneaked over to where we Amish people lived. I hadn't ever met someone quite like her...We were fast friends, and nothing has really been the same since. When I had rumspringa I left and I just...Didn't come back to the Amish community.”

“But that means...,” Teddy mumbled, “you're shunned from the community, right?”

“Yeah,” Hammy mumbled, and even Blue could sense a bit of sadness in his voice, “I might as well be an orphan with no siblings.”

“Do you have siblings, then...?” Teddy asked slowly, and Hammy nodded with a sad smile.

“A few of them,” he stated with a sigh. “Amish, you know. God said 'Be as the rabbits are and make lots of babies.'”

“How old?” Teddy asked, since no one else seemed to have comprehended that Hammy grew up Amish. From what Blue knew of the Amishes, Hammy wouldn't have fit in anyway. A gay vegetarian...Definitely wouldn't fit into the Amish world.

“I guess my little sisters would be...Twenty, eighteen and fifteen...My little brother would be sixteen. My older brothers are, uh...Older. There are three of them and I actually can't...remember,” Hammy replied with a shrug. “Umm...If I'm twenty three...I really don't know...They're some age.”

“So I have to ask,” Teddy mumbled, “since the whole concept of being Amish is based on religion...what are your religious beliefs?”

“...I guess I believe in...Something?” Hammy replied. “Someone, something, someones or somethings...Whatever, you know. But I thank whatever that is for introducing me to this young woman here.” He motioned Miss Allberry, who grinned at him.

“Oh,” Teddy replied, with a smile, “I can respect that.”

“...You?” Hammy mumbled in reply, and Teddy shrugged.

“I'm an atheist,” he said plainly. “You know. Give it to my man Stephen Hawking.”

“Wow, now everyone is uncomfortable,” Malik declared. “I mean...Now I'm uncomfortable.”

“Though religion may be important to some,” Estela stated, “and a nuisance to others...It's certainly a point of contention for most. Let's not talk about it too in depth.” The girl smiled casually at everyone, while they managed smiles in reply.

“You make a valid point, miss Hispanic lesbian,” Teddy replied, as he went back to cleaning up the house. “Let's stop this discussion in case of any repercussions.”

Everyone nodded and got back to work, save Blue. “What about this one?” she asked, pointing at the picture next to the one of Hammy and Miss Allberry. It showed all three of the occupants of the apartment, looking like they all hated each other completely.

“Oh,” Reg mumbled, staring at the picture. “See, I met these two at a party...When they were having a fight. They were fighting over the last cup of pudding and flung it onto me. They both refused to apologize, then a mutual friend of the three of us introduced all of us to each other. She claimed we'd all love each other eventually, but we didn't believe her...I guess she was right.”

“She was, wasn't she?” Hammy mumbled bitterly.

“...Bitch,” Miss Allberry muttered to finish off the group.

“Whoa,” Teddy gasped, “language!”

Miss Allberry stared at him for a moment before declaring, “I'm going to slap you.”

“Noooo!” Teddy whined. “Child abuse. I'mma tell my momma.”

“You're a bitch too,” Miss Allberry declared, then folded her arms and kicked at the air in front of her.

“Ouch,” Teddy replied. “I do recall being called that by someone else in this room as well...” he mumbled, looking at Malik.

“Oh yeah,” Malik mumbled, reflecting on their reality show, “well...I stand by that. You told me I got my first period. Sometimes I wish you didn't have such a ridiculous store of random knowledge in your brain...”

“Yeah,” Teddy replied, “me too. Anyway, this whole Amish thing. Is that why you're absolutely terrible with computers?”

Hammy's eyes widened as he simply stated, “Witchcraft.”

“Oh,” Teddy replied, “what about cars?”

“...Witchcraft,” Hammy agreed with himself again. “Definitely witchcraft.”

“Well, you're pretty good at not letting on with those things,” Teddy commended.

“He didn't used to be,” Miss Allberry mumbled, before flopping onto the couch. Apparently she'd been struck with a sudden fit of narcolepsy.

“He cried the first time he used a computer apparently,” Reg stated with a grin. Hammy gave him a playful punch to the arm, causing a flirty moment to happen between the two. In a flash Teddy noticed Malik glance at Blue, Blue fidget with her fingers, and Estela look momentarily unhappy. While Reg and Hammy shared their little moment, Teddy urged Estela, Blue, and Malik to continue cleaning.

As Blue and Teddy (always manly) lifted up the couch so the others could clean underneath it, Blue shrieked and dropped her end of the couch. Although Reg managed to catch the couch with his back and a groan, everyone turned their attention to Blue.

“I'm dyingggg!” she shouted, jumping onto the couch (and the still sleeping Miss Allberry). Teddy gasped, but continued holding up his end of the couch. Reg sighed and worked his way out from under the couch, and Teddy couldn't stop himself from admiring the Brit's muscles. Even though Reg wasn't willing to wrestle largely obese women at laundromats on behalf of his boyfriend's students, he was well-built for certain. Not quite as well-built as Steel Kilmeistah, of course, but Teddy's boyfriend was just plain muscular...Blue interrupted Teddy's stream of thoughts, “Guys! My brain is leaking water!” Reg and Teddy set the couch down as everyone surrounded Blue.

“That's called sweat,” Estela cooed to Blue, and Blue screamed.

“It's a known disease!?” she shrieked, running away from everyone toward the bathroom.

“No it's totally normal,” Estela stated, “everyone sweats.”

“I'm dead!” Blue cried as she lay herself on the floor and covered her face. “My brain leaked all of its water out...Without his water Brainy will die...And soon I will follow.”

“You think brains are made of water?” Hammy asked.

“Your brain is named Brainy?” Malik asked.

“Your brain is male?” Teddy asked. Blue moaned and told them to go on without her, so they did. They made her promise to come home with them if she was still alive when they finished cleaning and believe them that her brain was perfectly fine.

Reg took the opportunity to sit on Miss Allberry while everyone else abandoned Blue on the bathroom floor. Hammy jumped onto Reg and nuzzled the Brit's neck, and the both of them then rolled onto the floor, somehow managing not to wake Miss Allberry up. The others watched in what they pretended not to be jealousy as Hammy and Reg realized they were in a room full of high schoolers and ceased what they were doing. The students continued cleaning as Reg and Hammy started drawing things on Miss Allberry's face and giggling like they were ten-year-olds making a prank call.

At some point late in the evening, they finally finished cleaning, and Hammy offered to drive them all home if they were willing to squish into his car, since Miss Allberry had yet to wake up. Estela sat in the passenger seat, and Malik, Teddy, and Blue sat in the back. Everyone was strangely silent as Hammy promised some soft of reward for helping them clean.

“You can have some compensation once I figure out what to give you,” Hammy promised.

“Thanks,” Estela mumbled softly.

They got back to the school then, and Hammy spoke to them as they pulled into the parking lot, “Sorry...You all seem...unhappy...did I do something...?

“No,” Teddy replied with a charismatic smile. “You and Reg put me off a little, honestly.”

“...Wow,” Hammy replied. “That hurts a bit...”

“No! Because you're so...happy. My boyfriend and I hardly even talk,” Teddy mumbled. “I think it's the same with these guys...”

“I'm just lonely,” Estela admitted, “but it's inconsequential. Congrats on being happy.”

“I just...have...feelings...,” Malik mumbled.

“I think something's wrong with me,” Blue offered. “And not just my brain leaking...”

“See?” Teddy said with a smile. “It's nothing personal. You and your boyfriend actually seem...Perfect for each other. Maybe we're just jealous teenagers.”

“Well,” Hammy mumbled, “you'll be happy someday. I promise.”

“Thanks for that reassurance,” Teddy said, as the students piled out of the car. “Go get those sort of in-laws! Good luck!”

“Thanks,” Hammy replied with a wave.

The group walked back to their rooms together, waving goodbye to Estela a few rooms down the hall from their own cluster. They all stopped near the doors to their rooms and glanced at each other.

“My brain is OK,” Blue informed her best friends, “don't worry...Guys...” Teddy and Malik blinked at Blue as she spoke, “Let's have a sleepover!”

The guys smiled at each other, then at Blue, and Malik took the time to speak. “You two should have one. I'm no good for sleepovers.”

Blue looked disappointed as Teddy spoke, “Let's do it tomorrow. Tomorrow's Friday, and we can tell our roommates in advance, OK?”

“Yay! Good night!” Blue cheered, waving goodbye to her friends. Teddy looked over to Malik and smiled.

“There's hope for you yet, young Jedi,” he stated. “Now go to bed. Cleaning apparently makes people extremely tired. I'm beat. Good night.”

“Night Teddy,” Malik replied, as both walked into their doors and shut them for the night.

So I have a question. Do you like having more serious moments in the story or should I keep those to a minimummm?

Today today.

Well, yesterday I took a nap and when I woke up I was officially sick. So that's that, I guess. I'm sick. So I stayed home from school today, which wasn't very exciting. Also my mom is currently in/on her way to Chicago, so she's not around to do everything for me in my being sick time...Sigh. It's all right, I guess. (I do not live with my dad, nor do I see him on more than a weekly basis very often, mmmkay?) Anyway. I'm feeling particularly sore throaty and sniffly and weak today, and I'm not exactly sure what to talk about. I sneeze a lot, too...My temperature has been hanging out between 96.8 and 97.5. I'm not really sure what that means, but it sounds to me like a reverse fever. Since my temperature is normally extremely average (98.6).

It's been a while since I wrote an update for my story, but I just haven't...been in the mood? You kind of have to be in a certain mood to write it. So I've worked on it some, but not a ton. I'm actually working on it right now.

In other news, though sometimes I don't think it will, life goes on. At an alarming pace. The play is over now, which means it's time for speech to start. And I adore speech, I really do. But being a senior is sad. I'm going to miss people more than I probably realize now, I'm sure, and though I'm excited about college I'm also terrified, you know? I'm not sure I really want to go as far away from home as I want to, but it's an exciting thought. I guess I'll just see where life takes me to.

Glee has been awesome lately. Sad, but awesome. I may be partly in love with Chris Colfer. That boy is such a great actor. Absolutely amazing. <3 I mean, sure he's gay...But my love for him is straight girl to gay guy love. Not romantic, but hardly platonic. ;) When I read things about him when he's not on Glee he seems like an awesome guy too, so... <3 Chris Colfer. Glee's on tonight, so that kind of makes me feel better. But hardly cures my cold.

Other good parts of my week include other good shows. Next week is Thanksgiving, which means no college classes and only three days of high school classes. So hooray to that. :) Um...I'm out of things to say. Breathing feels weird. Peace out.

Shame

When you follow blindly, you can't see the detrimental harm you're causing those trying to help correct you on your path. Someone ought to have said that at some point. I'm ashamed to be an Iowan tonight. I'm ashamed to be an American tonight. I'm ashamed to live in a country that is so ignorant and easily manipulated. What happened tonight is in contempt to the American government system. To vote out three Supreme Court Justices for DOING THEIR JOBS is absolutely and positively incorrigible. Incorrigible means hopelessly bad. And the fact that I think I have to explain that in such simple terms? Incorrigible (definition: not corrigible; bad beyond correction or reform). I can't believe how stupid and I mean absolutely positively stupid most people in this country seem to be. Do you have any idea what it is you're voting for? Who you're affecting? Whose lives you could be harming beyond repair? Do you take the time out of your "busy" lives to think that maybe everything you hear isn't right? Maybe two years isn't enough time to fix a country that was horribly tattered and damaged. Maybe your stupid bias are as unfounded as your completely random beliefs and points of view that appear to come off the top of your head. Maybe you should take the time to learn the facts about things before jumping, and I mean giant leaps, to unfounded conclusions. As of right now, this country is incorrigible. I don't know if it will ever get better. I'd like to leave it, but I'm afraid if all the sensible people leave there will only be those stupid members of the majority to push the last nails into the nearly finished coffin of a once great nation.

It's hard to remain hopeful when you see the true nature of the majority of humans. Selfish. Hypocritical. Ignorant. And it doesn't matter to most of them. They'll continue on in their ignorance, completely unaware of the harm they're causing, the joy they're missing. The lives they're destroying.

Stop and think. Always think. Think for yourself. Think for your neighbors and loved ones. Think of every possibility as valid until you come to understand the only thing you should rely on are facts and truths. Not your pastor. Not Glenn f***ing Beck. Not your parents. Listen to the people who actually know what they're saying and have real, not biased, facts to back it up. Though this will get nowhere despite how strongly I feel this, I'm sure something will have to give someday. Karma has to come around to help those who are suffering.

People are stupid. If you don't want to be considered stupid you should probably start using your brain instead of blindly following people you think are using theirs, when they're blindly following someone who sees the world through extremely skewed views.

I am disturbed and disgusted tonight. I have lost most of my already diminishing faith in humanity.

October!

It is almost Halloween. Though Halloween is enjoyable, I suppose, I don't care that much. Saturday is also the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive. So I'm excited for that. Everyone watch Comedy Central on Saturday!

In other news, local channels are so irritatingly saturated with political ads that I can see why people just don't care about politics sometimes. I am NOT excited, though, if Branstad gets elected. If he tries to take away same-sex marriage I will be so utterly pissed. Also, the way they're trying to get rid of some of the Iowa Supreme Court Justices...It just reminds me that people are ridiculous. I find it funny how people fixate on stupid things. Why can't we try something different and see if it works before deciding it's a disaster?

Still, I value those people who are struggling in their lives. The people who need help. Those people who would love to have health care offered to them. I'm not saying I understand what economic sort of system runs best (I'd have to do research for that) but I do think the system in the US is rather flawed. I don't know, though. I hate how everybody seems to blame Obama, who has been in power for two years and has actually helped the country with its whole financial crisis, for everything. It's very disrespectful. When Bush was president I tried my very best not to badmouth him, because, whether I liked it or not, he was still president. So why can't we just support our president when he/she (it'll happen someday) is in power and is actually helping the country? I hate hate how parents influence their children, also. You can tell many of the people who share their political views are practically saying their parents views verbatim. I just wish people would think for themselves instead of falling to this political zombie-ism so many people follow. It's just plain idiotic.

That said, I have honestly developed my own views, so I'm not being hypocritical. My mother used to make me cover my eyes when the lesbians kissed on ER. She, when I think about it, used to be homophobic. After my sister came out she's learned a little bit more of the truth about homosexuality, so she isn't so much anymore. She's also Catholic, and I'm not so much, so...I have formulated my own views. No base hypocrisy here. Though I'm sure some of my beliefs stem directly from my parents, but I try my very best to see things from every situation and learn all the information before I make judgments. Everyone should.

Moving on, the other day in Government we took this test. I got the result "Rational" this time, though back when my sister was in Government I got "Idealist." I tried to make it say Idealist for a while, but I only managed to manipulate it into Guardian. So I decided I was definitely Rational. I guess I'm just no longer an Idealist? It's a bit sad? I'm betting I was always a Rational, though. Anyway, I just like these tests. They're fun to take to see how accurate you perceive them to be. :)

Finally, I want to address something that also pisses me off to no end--ideas about body image. Whoever is reading this--you are fine just the way you are. You'd be fine if you gained a little weight, even. Standards for body type are so annoying. I understand wanting to be healthy, but simply wanting to fit in to society is not a good enough reason. Society shouldn't be pressuring young women and men (however less likely "men" is) to hurt themselves and their bodies just to fit in. It's unacceptable. You're probably thinner than you think you are. Be content with yourself and love who you are, and for frick's sake, stop starving yourselves. Being super thin is unhealthy.

Thank you, that is all for my blog posting today.

Hey

So I just thought I would address why I haven't updated this much. I've been busy. And unhappy. So...That's pretty much it. I have some stuff to say, but I'd rather just go to bed. Maybe I'll try this out tomorrow, because I really do have things to talk about. Good night, though.