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A short story for fans of Geektastic.

     Walking home from band is normaly pretty uneventful. I see birds, somtimes squirrels, and once I even saw a hawk. But that day I saw something I had never even thought was possible. Somthing I thought was a sign of apocolypse.

     I saw Mari Grendel, crying on the stairs of her house. And she saw me.

     She rushed up, and in about a milisecond she was holding my arms down and talking faster than I had ever heard a human talk before. she talked without spaces.

     "OhmygodWillIthoughtiwouldbeoutherebymyselfforever!Please-sniff-canyougivemeahug?Iknowyoudon'tlikethem,butIreally-sniff-needone."

     I blinked, and she hugged me without even waiting for my answer. At first I stared, bewildered. This was MARI GRENDEL! The girl who was always laughing! A varitable sea of calm acceptance when it came to crisis. She had talked me through a few breakups in the three years I had known her. Yet here she was. arms wraped around me and tears falling.

     I hugged her back.

     "Thanks," she said after she let me go. there were spaces in her words again. "I'm sorry. I forgot my key this morning, and I didn't realise until just now. and it's ben a really hard day. this was just like-"

     "The last straw?" I asked. She nodded.

     "Well, I can open that door for you." I said. She looked at me like I had a frog's head. "Sure! My borther tought me how to pick a lock. It's pretty easy." I walked up to the blue door that she had been crying agianst, and pulled out the lock picks that had been in my bag since last November. A gift from my brother, they got the door open in about thiry seconds.

     "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANLYOU!!!!!" Mari yelled, waking in and spinning in the hall, like she was in some movie. She had left the spaces out agian.

     "Come on in! You deserve to see what you opened." She said, waving her hand for me to walk throught the blue door next to her. I walked in.

     Her living room was much, cleaner, than I had always thought. Sure there were books on the table, and a bowl of popcorn on an endtable next to a pile of mail. It was lived in, but clean.

     "Ta-dahhhh!" Mari anouced from the kitchen door. She was smiling. I smiled, This was the Mari I knew. Smilling and happy.

     "This is where We live. My sister and me. She's 20, but she's almost never here."

     "She have a job? Or.." I started to ask.

     "She has a great job. But she just takes forever."Mari said flatly. I felt the conversation on the floor.

     "Mom pays for it." she said.

     "Hmm?"

    "Mom pays for the house. We just live here. Mom's in New York." She exsplained. This time I let the questions go.

     "I like it!" I said, trying to be cheery "It's cozy."

     "Wanna see the rest?" She asked.

     I nodded.

     She showed me The "Guest room"

     "Why air quotes?"

    "Because Will, we would need guests to call it that!" she exsplained. She looked a little sad when she said it. So I jumped on the bed.

     "I'm a guest right?! So now it's officialy a GUEST ROOM!" I yelled. She giggled. I smiled.

     Then she showed me her sisters room. (Very green) The bathroom with the dolphin wallpaper, and the kitchen.

     "Want a juice box?" She chirpped suddenly.

      "Uhh, sure? I guess. Why do you have-" She cut me off my placing an Apple and Eve juice box in my right hand and a Lunchable in my left.

     "Snack time!!" She annouced. She had her own Lunchable and juice box.

     "What now?" I asked.

     "Race you to that couch?" She sugested. I grinned.

     "Your on!" We raced. I leaped over the arm on the sofa just as she rounded it's corner. I rolled down the couch and she plopped down next to me, laughing. 

     For a while we snacked in silence, watching Animal Planet. After a minute I had to ask.

     "So, why were you crying?" I said. She looked at me. She sighed. And just as she oppened her mouth, a phone rang.

     "Hold on. Hello?" she said, flipping open her cell phone. I looked on, wondering who it could be.

     "Yes I got in. No there wasn't a burglary. Well I don't know!" Mari shouted, suddenly angry. I jumped. First crying and now anger? Where was the happy, laughing girl I had seen a few moments ago?

     "Well I wouldn't know that WOULD I??" She shouted. I winced. "Look I don't know ok? Just ask Megan or Amy. They're IN COLLEGE! they might KNOW!" And she slammed the phone down on the table. and then she was crying agian.

    "Um, Mari?" I asked. She kept crying.

    "Mari? are you alright?" She was till crying. I was running around in my head, wondering what to do. I flipped and flopped. I started about a thousand debates with myself.

     And then I hugged her. 

     "It's ok." I said. "Calm down. It'll be alright. What's wrong?"

     "I'm sorry." she finaly said. Her face was red and puffy, and wet from all the tears. "But my sister is taking classes over at Trinity University. She was never very, um, organised? So she askes me questions all the time about citations and files and teachers and just everything. I am not her secratary!" She yelled. I hugged her some more.

     "Is that what happened with the key this morning?" I asked. She nodded.

     "I was so busy proofreading a paper for her, I didn't remember to get them. It happens all the time, but then they did an ID check at lunch, and I didn't have my keys, so I didn't have my ID. And I had towait for everyone else to even get lunch. Then I couldn't eat it, and we had band, and I was just so tired I forgot about the keys again until I couldn't get in."

     I hugged her some more. then she decided that we better finish our snack. I spen the rest of the TV show trying to make her laugh. I made funny pizza faces with my Lunchable. I told jokes about the weird people on Animal Planet. I smiled when she did, and we laughed.

     Then she said "Time to finnish the Tour!" She leaped up from the couch and grabbed my hand.

     "I ned to show you my room!" She yelled.

      "You don't have to!" I said as she dragged me on. "I should probobly go anyway,"

     "Nonsense!" Mari crowed in a Monty Python voice, "We must see the room!"

     She led me past the dolphin bathroom, the Green room, and the guest room. Up the stairs and into a small room I had thought was an attic. She stopped at the door.

     "This is my Room. Please don't mes it up. And don't tell anyone I showed you. You know how people talk."

    She grinned. I grinned. Then she opened the door.

     "Woah." I breathed. It was golden. the room was lit by a huge window, catching all the afternoon light and sunset. It glowed like a gilded palace.

     "Do you like it?" She wispered. "I love watching the sunset." And I get to see the moon too!"

     "It's great!" I said. After the initial shock I looked around and saw that she had shelves and shelves of books, Notebooks and drawing pads. A desk with a blue laptop was neatly placed in the corner next to a blue bed.

    "Ok, there isn't much to it, but still, it's on the tour." She giggled.

     "It's so cool! Thanks for showing me!" I said. She smiled.

    A few minutes later we were back at the blue door.

     "See you in school tomarrow?" She asked.

     "Sure." I said.

     "Thanks for letting me in. Again." She said.

     "No big deal. But, here." I handed her my brothers picks. "Until you get your own. I'll show you how to use them tomarrow. Okay?"

     "Sure! Sounds fun." she laughed.

      And then she hugged me.

      And I hugged her.

Author's Note

Sorry about the spelling.

Reviews

[Douglas Keppol]

Very good. I can't help but love that his name is Will. :D And by the way, the ending is fine. You needn't worry. I still believe in you.