FicWad

Hey there, Atlanta again. You know, back there when Herry was coming at me and Archie grabbed me from behind and all- thanks a lot for helping me out. You know, you were such a big help.

Anyways, now I'm slung over Herry's shoulder like something he hunted down, no doubt getting various looks from other people as we parade down the streets. The guys sure think its funny though, and they keep making little comments here and there or pointing and laughing so that their faces turn red. Even if they're already red from the cold. But they are smart enough to stay out of reach, though I dare one of them to come and make a remark to my face.

"Comfy? Can I get you anything?"

"How's the Herry express?"

"Stop scowling Atlanta- your face will freeze that way"

"Aww, you get to snuggle up to Herry-poo to stay warm."

And people wonder why I seem to have these alleged 'anger issues'. Also, it also goes to prove more just why I can't date any of these guys. They're all so immature. Except Jay... but he's like... off-limits. Think back to a while ago, when Herry told us that jay and Theresa had headed out after finishing early. You probably bet they went to party because they were done early and wanted some time before the 'Brats', also known as Herry, Neil, Odie and Archie. Hey, if you add all their first initials together you could spell Noah. Funny.

Well, back to the topic at hand, Jay and Theresa probably went out and had some cute, flirty moments at some little café with hot coco, and then headed home and cuddled up on the couch but the moment Noah and I walked in, or in my case, got carried in, they'd spring up and pretend nothing had ever happened. But Theresa would crack eventually and spill everything to me. Oh, the benefits of being the only other girl.

Though it wasn't all that great. With three floors, only two of them were used for sleeping arrangements, though Odie slept in the basement, but the guys leave the toilet seat up all the time. Let me tell you, when you drank too much at dinner and it's the middle of the night and you're dead tired; you don't have time to notice little things like that. I can't count how many times I've fallen in.

Anyways, I share the lower of the two bedroom-floors with Archie and Herry. I still haven't figured it out, but one of those two can stink up the place like they've eaten fifty stink bombs and they all come out and set another fifty off at the same time. I swear I've nearly died and preferred to hold it and nearly wet myself than dare go in there when it's that bad. Lucky Theresa gets to share with Jay and Neil, the cleanest and most tolerable guys, hygiene-wise. I think I keep getting the short end of the straw here.

Punching at Archie, who dared come close enough, I obviously missed and he easily stepped out of the way. Stupid jerk. Oh, how I wish I could tell him I've liked him all this time, but we've gotten so close- as friends- that I'm a little reluctant too.

Herry starts whistling a tune and I groan as I recognize the song 'Do Your Ears Hang Low'. Guess I'm his Hunter-man's Bow. Hey, what's that sound? Is someone dieing? Oh no. No, no, no. Why me? Why me?

The Noa of the Noah is singing.

Don't bother pitying me, I'm just going to burry my face into Herry's nice, big poofy coat and slowly die away. Hey, maybe Herry could get hit by a car, since it probably wouldn't hurt him, and it'd send me flying and I'll hit the ground so hard that I'll get amnesia or stay asleep until my true love wakes me up with a kiss. That'd be nice.

"Ohmygosh! Is she alright?" I heard a woman cry. Surprised, I turned my head so I could see around Herry's bulk.

"I thought I heard someone screami- oh." She stopped when she saw me looking at her.

Oh, Archie, Neil and Odie's singing sounds like a dieing person's screams? Now that is something I won't let them forget anytime soon.

"Naw," Herry laughed, "she was just complaining about walking home so I'm carrying her."

"Home? She lives with you? Where are her parents?"

Suddenly, I wasn't laughing anymore. Parents? Was I that small? Did she think I was some kid? Thanks a lot lady, I'm almost done high school for your big-fat information.

"Huh? Oh, no, we're all going to highschool together. We live in a Brownstone just a few minutes away," Herry tried to explain.

Remember back when I explained how Herry is like a teddy bear? You see, he's so cuddly and gullible in lives in this sense that there's good in everyone. And he always brings out the good in people too. It's impossible for people to hate him. Impossible unless you were the most heartless, cruel, spiteful inhuman thing on the planet- no, in the entire universe or even all the universes if there were more.

And this woman happened to be one of them.

"A young girl lives with you? Alone? She's barely a youth- nothing more than a child! You are sick men taking advantage of her like that! I should call the cops on you unless you hand her over to me right now and I'll take her to a good, caring home."

Excuse me? Barely a youth? Hardly more than a child? This woman had crossed the line big time. Adding on to that, I could feel Herry stiffen under his thick coat. He was insulted and confused, not knowing what to do faced with this.

"Herry, put me down," I growled. He did as I told him to, carefully. I turned to glare at he woman as menacingly as I could.

"You have no right to accuse my friends like that! We were goofing around and Herry was just nicely explaining the situation to you! But you won't listen and are convinced that they're doing wrong! You are a heartless person and you're really mean and stupid! For your information I am fifteen years old and perfectly capable to take care of myself! In fact, me and my friends are saving the wo-"

Who dares cut off my rant? I was on a roll! From the lack of nervousness of closeness to my body, considering I can feel his breath on my ear, it's an easy guess to who cut me off from letting out our secret and sounding like a total freak. Archie.

"We'll be leaving now," Archie replied, freakishly calm. And yet, his body is rigid and I bet that he's prepared to fight this woman if she 'threatens' us anymore. Oh, he's very angry. Maybe he secretly likes me and is really angry at the thought of losing me? And if this woman took me away he'd go to all lengths to rescue me and finally confess his love as we rode away on his motorcycle into the sunset and-

Whoa, Atlanta, get control of yourself. Dramatic situation here.

The woman was startled, staring unbelievably at us, and most likely because Archie had slapped his hand over my mouth and prevented me from blurting something out. Without any warning at all, and believe me I would have seen it coming, the woman lunged forwards and grabbed my wrist, almost jerking me completely from Archie. He grabbed at me and grabbed my wrist, and for a brief moment, my hand, but this woman was unbelievably strong! She must've been, like, an ox in a past life!

Ox-Lady had a heavy build, black eyes and brown fuzzy hair that almost curled up into horns. Wow... she was an ox!

I was jerked away from Archie and the Ox-Lady kept pulling me towards her. Oh geeze, she was going to eat me! Hey... it's a lot colder without Archie or Herry to warm me up.

"You'd better stay away from her if you know what's good for you!" she shrieked at the guys. And then in a whisper to me, "I know you aren't fifteen- you're too young. Don't worry, you don't need to lie about your age. I'll take good care of you until we find you a good home or your real parents."

"Me-what, no!" Take care of me? Medium-rare or well-done Oxy? I know what you're planning!

"Let go of me!" I pulled against her, bracing my feet against the icy ground.

"No, you can't go with those... men! I know what they've done to you! I can help!"

I heard many gasps and 'What's' from around me. Great, now a whole bunch of people had stopped by to see me get eaten by Oxy-Lady.

You know, I'm really quite fine with my body and happy with my overall self. But this was one of those times where I was loathing being small. Oxy was winning this tug-of-war and that meant foster homes and adults who weren't my parents!

"You won't take me alive!" I screamed, and kicked her in the shin. She howled and dropped my wrist promptly and the law of gravity kicked in. Have I told you how much I despise science? Hold on, give me a moment to say hello to the ground. Everybody now.

Hello ground.

I felt extreme pain from where I'd hit the ground before, rolling off Herry, and I had a feeling I was going to bruise and probably not be able to walk for a while. That'll really, really suck. And it'll be all Oxy-Woman's fault! That makes Atlanta angry.

"Just get away from me! I don't need you! My friends are taking good care of me and I bet my parents would like to have a good word with you too!"

The woman starred at me a long while, then flipped her scarf around her neck and galloped away. Stupid Ox.

Archie helped me up again and I felt definite bruising on my bum. I was so angry I was shaking, or was I just cold?

"Hey, 'Lan, you okay?" Archie asked quietly.

I nodded quietly, and unexpected tears were springing to my eyes. Quickly I blinked them away, how stupid would I look if I suddenly started crying, especially in front of the Noah. I'd never live it down.

"Sorry, Lan," Herry mumbled.

Aww, poor big, strong baby. He was probably pretty upset with being yelled at by Oxy.

"He, no problem, Big Guy," I gave him a grin despite the fact that I wanted to storm off. In fact, I tried to do just that and get everyone moving again. But a sharp pain shot up my leg and I winced. Something in the back of my mind was whining at me like another protective adult. Immediately I dubbed that voice 'the Mother'.

'Work that leg any more and you could have a major tear going on! You won't be running for a few weeks!' the Mother cried.

"Atlanta? You coming?" Odie called. The guys, heads down, had started walking again.

"Uhhh," I wondered what to say, "my leg... really, really hurts. Seriously."

(((((((0o0))))))

You have to love these guys.

As annoying at the Noah can be, they all do have big hearts. And some of them even bigger ego's to match. Not pointing any fingers at, say, Neil and Archie, but I'm not saying anything.

Anyways, Archie gave me a piggyback home and I nearly fell asleep with my face buried in his hoodie. When we got back, Theresa and Jay were chatting in the kitchen, just as I predicted they tried to separate when we got back. Herry and Odie explained what had happened on the way back while Archie deposited me in the living room.

"Thanks," I smiled up at him.

"Not problem," he nodded quickly. Did he look out of breath? Before I could ask him if he was okay, Archie turned and limped towards the staircase and most likely up to his room. I hadn't seen him limp in a while. Must have put a strain on his heel or something today or-

Oh no. He did something to it by carrying me! Archie's not all heavy-built like Herry or the Ox. He's a lightweight, like me, and has a terrible heel that he keeps reinforced with his ankle brace, but it often bothers him and so it's better if he doesn't stress it out. We still don't know if it'll kill him and no one wants to find out. And walking in the slippery ice and snow, while carrying me? Not good for him at all.

Stupid Atlanta. You should have seen that coming. It's been bothering him for a while now, but Archie's such a nice guy and you were only thinking of yourself. I went to get up to crawl or limp my way up to Archie to apologies, but I got stopped by bright orange-yellow hair and a yellow-purple polo shirt. So bright! My eyes burn.

"Are you okay, Atlanta?" Theresa asked worriedly as she sits down beside me.

Theresa's my best girl-friend. She has insanely long orange hair, streaked with gold-yellow. Today she was wearing a favorite outfit of a form-fitting red tank-top and blue bell-bottom jeans. She was also the resident psychic of the group and the descendant of Theseus. You know that guy who killed the minotaur.

Jay was stock-still as Theresa and I talked quietly and I kept glancing at him out fo the corner of my eye. He was way too mature for his age, always with a solemn expression on his face and gazing out into nothing. Usually his thoughts were, in this order:

Cronus, Cronus, Cronus, Theresa, Cronus, Cronus, Cronus, Theresa, Cronus, Cronus...

I think you get the idea. His usual outfit was his yellow-with-purple-stripes polo shirt and dark blue jeans. He has nice, I assume fluffy, from Theresa's descriptions, brown hair that seems to be streaked with light and dark shades. Altogether, he's a rather attractive young man, but I won't hurt Theresa by trying to get his attention, and besides, he isn't really my type.

Jay sighed, finally speaking up, "well, let's hope that's the last we see of her. I'm sorry you had to go through that Atlanta." He talks so quietly it's a wonder anyone actually hears them with all the racket the Noah and myself can make.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." I wave them off, in my mind still thinking back to Archie and wanting to go apologize to him for hurting his ankle and I just feel really annoyed, and a little freaked out about the encounter with Oxy.

"I- I think I'm just gonna go lie down for a bit, kay?" I told them with a half smile.

Getting to my feet is a little tricky, but with one step I realize that I am going to be limping for a long time, and even that hurts a lot. Jay and Theresa watched me worriedly as I shuffled my way over to the stairs and then began to pull myself up.

For once, I'm glad I live on the lower bedroom floor. It go past Herry's room and open Archie's door without knocking. He was lying on his bed, bad foot propped up on a pillow with the brace off, and reading some book while listening to... no way.

Archie listens to opera.

He jumped at my sudden appearance and I stagger over, taking the spinny-chair from his desk and sitting down in it. He hid the book, hoping I hadn't seen the cover but I did. 'The Iliad', but I didn't really feel like teasing him right now. Maybe another time.

"Hey" I started off.

"Hey," he replied slowly, a little nervous because he'd been caught reading poetry and listening to opera.

"How's your heel?" I looked at his foot. His heel did look a little swollen and was probably painful as anything.

"Okay, I guess," he flashed me a sheepish grin. What a man, doesn't want the girl to know he's in pain but he's probably been complaining about it to the guys the whole day.

"I'm sorry- it's my fault it hurts, isn't it?" I blurted out before I had a chance to think over the words.

Archie blinked stupidly at me, like some brain-dead cat. Nice, Atlanta. First you feel sorry for him, then you're comparing him to a retarded cat.

"I'll be fine, just need to take it easy for a while."

I spin the chair in a complete circle in relief. When I get up, the stinging pain in my leg is back and the crawl to my room seems a whole lot further away than it was before. Before Archie could say anything though, I flopped down right beside him, careful of his heel. He sorted and moved over so I could fit on the bed.

"My leg hurts," I muttered and stuck my foot up by his.

"Suck it up, princess," he replied with a smile.

I gave him a punch in the arm, "So what screamy, non-English junk is this?" I motioned to his stereo which was letting out some for of rock and roll and high-pitched voices.

"Phantom of the Opera. Quite a masterpiece actually," Archie rattled off as he went back to his book. He held it close to his face, trying to block me out, but I could see the embarrassed blush on his cheeks. Hah!

I spent a while bothering him by trying to 'help him read' his book, poking him in the side or trying to sing along to this Opera-Phantom thing. I think I'm starting to get sick because some of the words are actually making sense!

After a while though I just got tired and closed my eyes. Today had been a fairly normal day, but I just felt exhausted. It'd be cool to spend more time with Archie, like this, just the two of us. But then that'd mean we were probably dating. Heck, it'd be nice just to actually be dating someone.

That's it! I'm going to get a date before Christmas Break is over. That'll be my new-years resolution or whatever.

Problem is, I have no idea who I want to date.

((((((0o0))))))

It's kind of funny how you never realize you're asleep until someone's waking you up and you only think you closed your eyes for a second. In this case, it was Herry waking Archie and I up. Turns out we both fell asleep, Archie still had the book on his face and I'd wound up going spread-eagle and draping and arm and leg across him. Herry was forced to swear on his life not to tell anyone.

My leg, and myself overall, was feeling better after that nap. Everyone was gathering downstairs for some planning on how we were going to spend our Christmas Breaks. I knew how I was going to spend mine, looking. Should be something fairly fun to do.

Archie was still limping a bit, but I was walking much better. It just hurt to sit down I found out soon enough.

As the meeting progressed, I found I was still fairly tired and didn't pay much attention to what everyone else was saying. Everyone kind of wanted to hang around for our first Christmas together, which seemed like a pretty good idea to me. I was debating whether to fall asleep against Archie or the couch when Herry and Odie stood up. They'd been acting odd for the past couple of days, disappearing into the basement and writing lists of stuff they would let us see and going out and buying boxes of stuff we weren't allowed to know.

Odie cleared his throat, "We are pleased to announce that this year we will have our first ever..."

"Christmas Party!" Herry cheered, "everyone's going to come. The gods, Calypso, Aolus, everyone!"

Dead silence filled the room, and I found my voice to be the first to cry out.

"Our What?"

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Suspense! So now everybody's coming out to visit, thanks to the loveable Herry and the easy-to-annoy Odie.

Just to address some questions-

Archie does like Atlanta, except she is ignorant to his feelings. From her point of view though she thinks he's the oblivious one.

And onus is a real word. I flipped open my dictionary to find it. I just don't think I've really used it correctly here, but that's okay, Atlanta doesn't know any better.

Demenior