The New Guy in Town

Jake held the crumpled little piece of paper Kiwi had torn out of a random notebook. On the back, there were math equations mixed in with a recipe for chocolate-chip cookies, plus there was a random "CHUCK NORRIS PWNS ALL!!!" written near a multiplication problem.

On the front side, the side Jake was reading, there were the addresses and names of every BG in town - who lived with who, who lived where, who's pets ate only small male children and giant spider eggs . . . etc, etc, so on and so forth.

Jake squinted at the paper. Kiwi's handwriting was so . . . neat. But the paper was so crumpled, and Kiwi's dog had gotten dog slobber on the ink as Kiwi wrote down everything, so the letters were worn and blotched in areas.

Jake swore. How come Kiwi had to go on vacation before she could make Nima's profile? Now, Nima wasn't allowed in BG world until Kiwi came up with her profile, so Nima was crashing at Kiwi's house, while Kiwi went to NYC and Boston and Maine and Pittsburg and cool, foreign places while Jake was stuck fumbling around BG world with nothing but a backpack to his name.

Jake had already gone to Jessica's house, and Jessica, upon opening the door, had replied with a "You're much too dirty to stay here!" and slammed the door in his face.

Then, Jake'd gone to Cole's house. Some girl - Jake figured this was Venna, who was described on the paper as "blonde, punkish, and wearing bright colors" - opened the door. When he'd asked if he could stay, Cole had yelled from the couch that he'd had enough teenagers living with him for now. Then, the door had been slammed.

After that, Jake had gone to some girl Phoebe's house. Phoebe - who matched the paper's description of "short, pretty, brunette, and probably scowling or yelling. WARNING FOR NOOBS: DO NOT TICK OFF!!!" - had opened the door of a pretty big red-and-white house. When Jake had just barely gotten his question out, she'd said:

"No, no, no, no, no, nonononononononono!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You CAN'T live with me!! I've already got a fourteen-year-old, two cats - one of which is a shapeshifting one, and the other of which will most likely slit your throat while your sleeping then eat you - and two sisters dropping in every three months!!" Her voice had risen to a scream. "DON'T COME BACK!!!!!!"

Again, with the door slamming.

Now, Jake was at another house. The address was next to the names and descriptions: "Emerald - 14, a fox, wears green and emeralds a lot, is sort of nicish, I dunno, has evil cat" and "Emerald's dad: I don't know anything about this dude, but he killed his wife, so you should probably beware".

Jake sighed, shifted his backpack on his shoulders, and walked up to the door.

He knocked firmly three times.

((Actually, Emerald's dad told Emerald to kill her own mom, only then would he be proud of her, so she did, and they live happily together. XD But that works too.))

"Emerald, get the door!" Came a loud, yet smooth voice from inside.

"Father, I'm studying!" His daughter complained.

"I'm cooking, and you know I can't leave the pot alone. Remember what came out LAST time?" The man growled back.

The daughter sighed, knowing she was beat. She shut her book on Pixies and Trolls, then got up and opened the door to find a rather handsome young man on her porch.

"Umm... hi? Who are you?" She asked. He looked familiar, somehow.

"Tell them we don't want any potions OR cookies!" Yelled her father.

Emerald turned her head back. "Dad! It's not a witch scout!"

She turned her head back to the guy. "... You 're not a Witch
Scout, are you?" She asked hesitantly. Witch Scouts were the bad guy version of Girl Scouts, and they sold cookies and potions.

Emerald winced as she heard paper taring inside, knowing the sound of Spice using her books and important class notes as a scratchpad.

... Or worse, a litterbox.

Jake heard shouting from inside, then a pretty girl who seemed to be about his age opened the door, asking him if he was a Witch Scout.

He stared for a moment, not because her charmingly good looks caught him off guard (which they didn't, but I couldn't resist putting that), but because, for a split second, he felt he knew her somehow.

Then, his sense of dry humor kicked in.

"No, actually. I'm a Hunting Scout. Also a member of The Organazation of Werewolves Seeking Civil Rights. Commonly known as TOWSCR," he said jokingly.

Hunting Scouts were the Bad version of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts. Taken away from their family at a young age, they roamed the forests of evil and dark magic in the world, learning to servive in the evil magic wilderness, and gaining money by selling magic survival items and random magical creatures caught in their traps, such as fairies, trolls, leprechauns, a smaller variety of goblins, and the occasional yellow-bellied tree-sucker.

Also, the TOOWSCR is . . . well, an organization of werewolves seeking civil rights.

Then, he rolled his eyes. “Actually, I’m none of the above. I’m a new Bad Guy, one of Kiwi’s. My name’s Jake. I need a place to stay, since I’m new, and I was wondering if . . . I could live with you?” He was hesitant – a headache was already kicking in from all the slamming of doors, and he didn’t want it amplified.

“You wouldn’t have to do much!” he added quickly. “I could get take out every night, and I’m starting high school this year, so you probably wouldn’t see me much, and this backpack’s all I got.” He gestured to the bag. “I’d just need a place to sleep at night.”

"Oh, um..." Emerald said, turning. "Hey dad!" She called, about to ask her dad about him when she realized he was right behind her.

Behind her, was a tall, lean fox. He wore all black, with a long black cape with a hood that was down. He was a shadowy grey fox with darn green eyes with black slits in them. All around he looked very intimidating, and when he spoke, two sharp teeth were visible as though he dared you to ask him if he was a Vampire.

"Eek! Dad! Don't scare me like that." Said Emerald.

Her dad ignored the comment. "You may stay, young man, so long as you stay out of my way." He said, grinning slightly.

"And he likes cats." Murmured Emerald, wincing slightly at the sound of at least three books hitting the floor.

"Whatever that thing is, it's not a cat." Said her father as he walked away. "Oh, by the way, call me Seto."

"Umm... so yeah, I guess you can stay... Jake, was it? You'll have to sleep on the couch tonight, I think we have a spare room that I have to move a few things out of."

"Um, okay . . . Seto," Jake said, borderline gawking at the older fox. Then, he regained his senses and shifted his gaze back to Emerald.

"Okay. The the couch works. Thanks. You're . . . Emerald, right?"

He still had that sense of strange familiarity with Emerald. Jake tried to shake off the feeling, telling himself firmly: I don't know her. She's a total stranger to me. Stop feeling all . . . familier and close and . . . family-like with her. It's probabaly just because she's letting me sleep on her couch. Yeah, that's it. There's nothing else to it.

But still, he felt like he knew her.

And somehow, he knew about her pikachu birthmark on her butt.

((Wasn't that where the Pikachu birthmark was?))

((I forgot about the birthmark! I think it's on her butt. XD I'm gonna change it to lower back, though.

Oh, and don't worry, I haven't forgotten about J&DD, I made a response then killed it by accident, so I'm working on a new one.))

"Yes, I'm Emerald." Said Emerald, beginning to step back inside, gesturing that he follows her. She almost gasped at the sight of a huge pile of papers and pencils, with an off-white partially blood-stained cat on top of them.

"Ummm... Jake, this is Spice. Spice, Jake." Said Emerald.

Spice looked up at him with a glare, unmoving.

((What if Spice hated Jake? For like, no reason? XDDDD))

((YES YOU MUST MAKE SPICE HATE JAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!))

Jake stepped inside with her, and looked at the cat. Why was it glaring at him like that? He was tempted to ask if it had fleas, but then he remember that Seto liked cats, and might get ticked if Jake got the cat angry.

So, he just said, "Er, hi, Spice."

((Seto doesn't actually like cats, he just allows them. XD))

A low growl came from Spice, then he lept from the pile of papers, and into Jake's face with claws outstretched and a screech.

"SPICE!!" Screamed Emerald, trying to find a way to grab hold of the cat without losing her face.

Jake yelled, "Owowowowowwww!!!!" Then froze time. He was the only one moving - he saw Emerald, frozen in time, with her fingers grabbing at the evil cat's fur.

Very carefully, swearing under his breath, Jake grabbed each claw of the cat and, wincing, yanked it out of his face. Then, he threw the cat at the wall, and unfroze time.

((By the way, other BGs don't know he's frozen time. I mean, they can't feel it or know it when it's happening, they only know it when all of a sudden[to them] something has moved.))

Spice fell to the ground.

Emerald turned her head. "What the heck!?" She said. "What did you do to my cat?!" In the other room, you could hear in the same second time came back glass shattering across the floor.

Seto pushed the door open. "Alright... whoever did that owes me more Unicorn's blood." He said, angry that now his potion would spoil.

Spice jumped for Jake's face again, but this time a hand that looked more like a spirit came out of the floor and grabbed his tail. If anyone had been looking, they would have seen Seto's hand disappeared for a moment, but then it was back.

Jake stood still. "Oops. That was, er, me. Sorry."

Jake couldn't help freezing time. It happened whenever he got freaked out.

"Well then you owe me a jar of unicorn's blood." Said Seto, closing his door again.

"Wow, he must like you. He was light on that, though Unicorn's blood is kind of expensive..." Said Emerald. "Wait, you can freeze time?"

Jake nodded. "Yeah, I can. Plus a few other things. Sorry about the feline." He said the last two words with distaste, as if he'd rather say, the demon spawn.

He looked at the door Seto disappeared into. "Er . . . do you know where to buy unicorn blood?" he asked Emerald. Seto didn't really act like he liked Jake much, but Jake took Emerald's word for it, and he didn't want to tick off Seto so soon.

"Don't worry about it, not like anyone can actually injure him. And yeah, but you're going to want to wear..." Emerald walked over to the coat rack, grabbing a dark grey cloak and throwing it to Jake, then grabbing a dark green one for herself. "This, it's not safe to walk around that part of BG world, so it's better to make yourself look like you could have killing powers.

She put on the cloak, carefully placing the hood over her head so her muzzle stuck out but she could still see. It did make her look like she could actually hurt someone.

Jake put on the cloak the same way. He actually did look rather vicious.

Before they could go, though, Emerald's home phone rang. On impulse, Jake answered it.

"Oh, hey Nima!" he said. "Yeah, I found a house. You probably should find a house too. Cole, Phoebe, and Jessica are all no's. Everyone else is free game. I'll call ya later, kay?"

He hung up. "How a blind girl can figure out to call the house I'm staying at before I tell anyone I'm even staying here . . . " he trailed off.

Jake turned back to Emerald. "Lead the way."