Recap:  Our whole PARTYGURLS / FIVE excursion was in shambles.  The evil
voice/entity that haunted us ever since the concert turned out to be a
harbinger of imminent disaster.  There were three signs, signals for how
much closer we got to…Armageddon?  A cataclysm beyond our wildest dreams?  It was hard to imagine what could be so…bad.  And it was hard to
rationalize that whatever the disaster was, we would be the cause, and I
was the only one who knew about this-therefore the only one who could stop it.
     The trip started out so simply.  Us five, the incognito pop group PARTYGURLS, were finally able to meet the icons of our pseudo-obsession:  FIVE.  Five hot and recently available lads with tasty accents.  Five of us, and five of them.  It should've been so simple!  So easily we should've matched up
one FIVE member to one PARTYGURLS member.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  And now that I thought of it, it was probably all the voice's fault!  I'm sure I
wasn't the only one to hear it's not so silent urgings and manipulations!
     And so, Scott and Abs were ready to kill each other, all over Jules, who couldn't stand to have just one sweet guy fawning over her and had to have two.  And there was J, who didn't just want two, but three girls.  Only who he chose was what none of us expected!  Poor Jen and Shelbs were being led on all along!  It was Laura, of all people!  Laura!  So full of surprises!  First she comes up with a story about a relationship with JC of N'Sync, which turned out to be bogus.  It ended up that she had an eye on J all along.  And apparently, so did he!  And this craziness has to include my love triangle!  Sean was there, I was there.  And we both liked each other.
     But Ritchie had to come along and mess it up!  Why did his eyes had to
dazzle like that?!  And why did I have to kiss him?  Wait, I knew why.
Because besides the bad haircuts and the extremely red lips, (not to
mention his…um…femininity), he was in fact, one of the sweetest guys in the
world.  And since none of us were into polygamy, it had to be a choice
between Sean and Ritchie.  Only I didn't get to choose!  Accepting defeat
that wasn't defeat, since I came to my senses and wanted him instead of
Ritchie, Sean turned away and went for Jen instead!  *Sigh*  And none of
this boded well for our relationships with each other!
    After the bouts of violence and anger, everyone sat quietly, smoldering
inside most likely.  Laura sat quietly besides her new man J, not engaging
in any PDA's for fear of offending.  Jen sat at the other end of the room,
glaring at J and Laura as if her will alone would allow them to spontaneously combust.  Sean sat besides her, sometimes looking between her and J.  He said nothing, but would occasionally pat her hand in gestures of consolation.  Jen allowed this, but showed no sign of acknowledging his affections.  Shelbs sat, looking neither mad nor sad as I expected her to be.  She didn't seem hurt nor dissapointed that J chose Laura over her and Jen, but rather concerned and wary of what was going on around her.  With good reason too!  Jules sat besides Scott, who sat unwilling to face Jules or Abs for fear that his anger would get the best of him.  Jules seemed like she thought it important to salvage whatever she had left of a friendship and/or relationship with Scott.  Abs sat close by, unwilling to
relinquish whatever grasp he had on Jules.  All this quietly interpreted by
the looks they gave each other.  And lastly I sat besides Ritchie.  Only
moments before he was sure of the relationship we had with each other.  But after all the piercing stares I was giving an unnoticing Sean, evidently ignoring Ritchie in the process, I'm certain he wasn't so sure anymore.  And that's when we arrived at Davis.
     Jen got up first, and stormed out of the bus.  As if it were a signal,
everyone else got up and filed out.  And quietly mind you.  Not a word was
spoken between the lot of us.  Matter of fact, I don't understand why we
were still blindly going along with the plan.  I mean, the tension was so
palpable you could cut it with a chainsaw!  I don't know, maybe we all held
on to the hope that things would work out, maybe since we were all mates
before this catastrophe, we didn't want to let it go that easily.  Or maybe
none of us had anything better to do.
     Jen got to the door first, unlocked and opened it, and made as if to slam it, but thought better of it, and didn't.  She disappeared inside.  The bus was parked on the street near our apt.  It was miraculously devoid of parked cars, but considering it was summer break in a college town, maybe it wasn't so miraculous.  I looked around, but our bus driver Bob conveniently disappeared.  We all slowly made our way from the bus to follow Jen into our grand apartment.  We had forgotten the rest of the world, but alas the world hadn't forgotten us.  A small car suddenly pulled up behind the bus, and four erratic girls suddenly pulled out.  They screamed in recognition of not PARTYGURLS, but FIVE.
     One of them, the driver, screamed, "Ahh!  I was right!  I knew if we
followed long enough, they'd stop!  AHHHH!   It's FIVE!"
 And with that, the four teenyboppers broke out in hero-worship.  You know, the "we love you; will you sign this; I have all your CD's" thing.  But
Scott wasn't having it.

"No, I'm not having this!  We've had a bad day, so please go away!"  He
bared a scorning look at the girls, which seemed to deter them.  But not
for long.

     They couldn't stop bugging the guys, no matter the harsh words Scott, then J volleyed.  Even sweet Ritchie was getting red in the face with anger.  The rest of the girls and I stood dumbfounded.  We weren't used to this.  This is exactly the publicity we wanted to avoid.  What could we do?  Jen wasn't here, and she was the one who would most likely scare off these pre-pubescents.  Laura was too nice, Michelle too polite, and Jules-well Jules was Jules.  And then there was me.  Wait, there was me!  And I was upset enough to want to take it out on something, or someone!
     I gestured to the guys to move aside, "I'll handle this", I said with
confidence.  I walked up to the group of annoying brats, and said, "Enough.
We don't need this right now.  Believe it or not, these guys have a life
outside of FIVE, and thus they also have real life concerns-all which have
absolutely nothing to do with you.  So I suggest you turn around, get your
asses back into your Rabbit, and go home to your parents-cuz I know you're
not old enough to be this far away from home."

     Their leader, and spokesperson scowled at me, "Who are you?"  She looked from me to my female companions, "You'd better not be their girlfriends…or else-," the rest went unspoken.  Her vocabulary probably wasn't large enough.

 "Yeah," her companion chimed in, "you better not be with my Ritchie."

 I heard Ritchie hiss, and laugh, "What if she is?"

     Their eyes said it all.  Outrage and…murder spoke in their expressions.  I knew then that this wasn't going to end lightly.  Thanks Ritch-meister.
 My companions got to laughing, seeing these girls' anger unfold before
them.  And momentarily our personal situations were forgotten at the face
of this comical scene.  And it WAS quite comical.  They all had
distinguishing features, that when scrunched up in to anger, made them look
rather horrible.  One had humongous glasses that seemed about to fall off
her small nose, one had a humongus Blossom nose, one had big teeth, and
then there was their leader, the only okay looking one among them.  One
thing for sure, they were pretty damned angry!  There was going to be a
fight, I could smell it, and I was the only one!  But girls don't usually
pick fights.  Maybe these girls had testosterone flowing in their blood.
It would explain the way they looked!  No one understood the gravity of the
situation, other than me. Maybe it was the revelation of the VOICE giving
me acute powers of observation, but I was the only one that saw the girls'
hands ball into fists.
     The first strike came towards Shelbs, since she wandered into thieir
range.  They were fast, but I was faster.  I parried the glasses-girl's
fist easily, but I expected my martial arts prowess to come as a surprise.
It was the other way around.  She quickly countered with a punch to my
stomach, which I disgracefully left open.  Winded, I hesitated, and it was
enough time for the rest of them to join in the fray.  They circled me,
testing me, taunting me.  I remained alert to their movements, allowing
them to make the moves, testing them in my turn.  I was sorely outnumbered,
but the question was, was I outskilled.  I risked a glance at my comrades.
They all held back and watched.  Shelbs, Jules and Laura wisely held back
the guys, especially a protective Ritchie, allowing me my room to fight.
They knew that I had the best chance of protecting them all.  And anyways I didn't think the guys could stand to hit girls.
     Suddenly Big Nose lunged at me.  She kicked, but I dodged easily.  I
struck towards her face, but she blocked.  She knew the dynamics of
fighting, but she was no fighter.  I gave her a barrage of high punch, low
punch, fast and powerful.  She blocked every one, but I did enough for her
to get used to the pattern, and when she did, I got close enough to kick
her away.  She fell, one down three to go. Big Glasses came next.  She was a little smarter, and came in trying to sweep me.  But I saw it coming, and it was a risky move to begin with.  Her weight shifted as she swept, and it allowed me to kick her landing foot from beneath her.  She fell, and rolled out of the way as Big Teeth, anger all aflare came at me.  She was fighting angry, which isn't a smart thing
to do, but she was the one that made that Ritchie comment-no wonder!  She
was nothing but flailing arms and feet, and I wondered when she would get
serious and fight for real.  But she was only a distraction-they were all
distractions because the real fighter of the group was waiting her turn.
She was observing me all along, finding my weaknesses, and waiting for me
to get weary.  Big Teeth got out the way, and the Leader came at me when I
was still focused on Big Teeth.
     She caught me with a punch to my ribs.  And I staggered back, out of her range.  She allowed me to catch my breath, waiting.  She wanted a
challenge, I knew it.  I lunged at her, and she came at me at the same
time.  We met at the middle-she attacked, and I attacked, but we blocked
each of the other's blows.  And we went at it for a while, neither of us
gaining ground, neither of us losing ground.  We were matched, skill for
skill.  I even got to bound off the side of the bus, do some flips, and
double kicks, but she followed me each time in kind.

 Between breaths and blows, I told her, "You're really good.  Who was your teacher?"

 She laughed, "He is a great master, and you have no chance in hell against me," and she proudly blurted out a name.  I gasped in surprise, and with that she knocked me to the ground, and stood over me, proudly displaying that she was toying with me all along.  "Do you yield?" she asked.

     I hunched on the ground, and tasted blood on my lips.  I looked up, and met
her eyes.  "Ah, but there is something you don't know.  The one whom I
studied under was the one who taught your master!"  I knocked her feet from under her to her surprise, and she landed with a dull thud.  I stood, it was over.  The rest of the girls pulled their stunned Leader into the car, and hurredly drove away, like dogs with their tails between their legs.  I watched them go.  My companions started clapping behind me.

     I turned around to see expressions of awe and respect.  I even saw that
during the fight, Jen came out to investigate the commotion.  It was all we
needed to forget that a moment ago, we all hated each other's guts.
 Still talking about what just transpired, we all walked towards the
apartment.  I don't know why, but it seemed just like a Brady Bunch
resolution.  Everyone seemed ready to drop their former vehemence, and was
ready to talk things out.  Jules even offered to cook!  So maybe it will be
a little bit more bearable to endure the night in one apartment together.
There was still the intrigue of who's with who between us, but at least no
one is willing to tear out each other's throats anymore.

 "Go Grace, go Grace!"  That was Abs.  He was jumping around like a
hyperactive kid.  God-why was he SO annoying sometimes!
 

     Grace kicks butt...WHAT THA HELL?   CLICK HERE for Chapter 23
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