Rugrats AGU: Angelicas Nightmare (part 2)

At this, Angelica finally sank into despair, and began to cry once again. As she cried though, she could faintly hear a voice, this time, not in her head, but from what felt like far away, almost like miles.
"Angelica…"
She could feel herself shake.
"Angelica…" the voice said, this time a bit louder.
This happened many times, until finally….

~~~~~

"Angelica, honey, please, you need to wake up." Charlotte said, lightly shaking her daughter, who had the covers of her bed wrapped around her tightly.
Angelica's eyes finally opened and she looked up from her pillow, where her face had been buried. She looked up at Charlotte.
"M-mommy?" she asked her.
Charlotte was confused at her calling her this, as she hadn't called her 'Mommy' since she was a little girl.
Angelica looked at her pillow, and saw it soaked with her tears. She turned over and looked down at herself. Her blanket, under-sheet, and bed-sheets were all wrapped so tightly around her that they held her arms down, which were in a crossed-over position over her chest, her hands on the opposing shoulders.
"All of it was a dream…" she said to herself in relief.
She corrected herself.
"No, not a dream; a nightmare, an awful nightmare!"
Her mom hadn't heard her say any of this.
She sat at Angelica's side.
"You were mumbling in your sleep" she informed her "I couldn't understand you, though."
"But when I came in to check on you, you switched from mumbling to actually talking." she said "You were saying something like 'no' and 'don't go' and then said 'all I have left'."
"Then you started crying in your sleep and I woke you up when I saw this."
She looked down at her in full concern.
"Are you feeling okay, honey?" she asked, setting a hand on her cheek.
Angelica wiggled a bit.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine mom, just a nightmare" she told her, half-lying.
"What about?" her mother asked.
"Nothing, I can't remember" Angelica lied again.
She then wiggled a bit more.
"Uh, mom, could you help me out here?" she asked.
Charlotte snapped out of her concern.
"Huh?" she said.
She saw Angelica's coverings moving with her.
"Oh, okay" she said in realization.
She looked for openings to help her out of her restrictions.
"Stop squirming, Angelica" she told her.
And finally, after finding where all the openings were, she got her unwrapped.
"There you go" Charlotte told her.
Angelica sat up and stretched, finally feeling good about being able to move. Charlotte was about to walk out, when she remembered something.
"Oh, by the way, Tommy and Dil are here, along with Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi" she told her.
Angelica stopped in mid-stretch and turned her head sharply at her mother.
"Really?" she asked, excitedly.
Charlotte nodded, not noticing her excitement.
Angelica stood up and dashed over to her, invading her mother's personal space a bit.
"You mean you can see them?!" she asked.
Charlotte was confused by this.
"Why, of course Angelica, why wouldn't I be able to see them?"
She stepped back a bit again, and then crouched down a bit, putting a hand on Angelica's shoulder.
"Are you sure you're okay, honey?"
Angelica smiled, as she could faintly hear all of them talking downstairs.
"Super, mom!" she told her happily.
She hugged her, confusing her again, and then ran past her mother and fastly down the stairs, still dressed in her pajamas, and her hair still in a mess.

As they all continued talking, they heard stomping coming from down the stairs, and then saw Angelica running into the room. At first, they thought she was stomping in anger, all of them ready to storm out again, but when they saw her come in, she had the biggest smile ever.
"Guys!" she said "You're here!"
At this, she pulled them all off of the couch and got them into a big group hug.
"Huh, one argument and you guys already get her missing you, huh?" Dil said to all of them.
Angelica continued hugging them, feeling perfectly happy, making the hug last a bit to long, getting them all to feel a bit awkward. Tommy decided to break the tension then.
"Uh, Angelica, we came to apologize for what happened the other day" he told her.
Angelica snapped out of the state of bliss she was in.
"Huh?" she asked.
"You know, about the dress and how we yelled at you never seeing us again" Kimi reminded her.
"We realized it was a bit unorthodox to do so" Chuckie said.
Phil looked over at him.
"Say what?" he asked.
Lil leaned closer to him.
"It means wrong" she dumbed-down for him.
Angelica thought nothing of it as they mentioned the dress.
"Ah, water under the bridge guys!" she told them.
She smiled again.
"I'm just glad to see you all again!"
She shrugged.
"I got plenty of other dresses anyway, I don't need that one" she said.
All of their jaws dropped at that.
Kimi cocked her eyebrow.
"Angelica, are you feeling okay?" she asked.
Angelica continued smiling.
"Perfect, Kimi!" she answered
She looked straight at her.
"And it's great to hear your voice again!"
Kimi glanced at Tommy and Chuckie, who were next to her. They both shrugged, clueless.
Angelica stepped back a bit.
"In fact, I feel so great about you guys being back that I want to treat you guys to a day out; today we can go anywhere you want, my treat."
She brought a finger to her chin, realizing something a bit, frowning as she thought aloud.
"Although, if it's a bit farther than around the neighborhood, I might need to ask my mom to give us a ride, or at least come along, since I have my learner's permit…" she said to herself.
She turned around.
"Hey Mo-" she almost called out, until Chuckie got her attention.
"Uh, Angelica…" he said.
She turned back a bit.
"What?" she asked.
Chuckie pointed a bit at her.
"You might want to get ready to go out, unless you want to be at the mall barefoot in pajamas."
Angelica looked down and realized that she was still in her pajamas. She glanced at a mirror and saw that her hair was in a rat's-nest from moving around so much in her sleep. She blushed a bit in embarrassment.
"Oh, alright, I should take a shower and get some adequate clothes on" she said to herself.
She turned around again.
"But after that, if you guys wanna go to the mall, I'll try to convince my mom to take us, alright?" she asked them.
They all looked around at each other, a bit suspicious at why Angelica was so cheerful and offering stuff to them. But they all thought going to the mall sounded great.
"Alright, that sounds great" Lil said to her.
"Thanks Angelica" Phil said.
Angelica smiled at all of them, and winked. She ran back up the stairs.

As they heard the bathroom door upstairs close, they all moved around the room a bit so they could all talk to each other.
"Okay, that was weird" Lil pointed out.
"Yeah, I haven't seen Angelica that cheerful since December after she saw all those Christmas movies," Tommy said.
"And then she had that cheesy holiday epiphany about 'what Christmas was really about'." Dil said, a bit of a laughing smile on his face.
"And then got over it the day right after Christmas at all the sales going on" Tommy finished.
"But this cheery mood of hers was actually a bit creepy" Chuckie said, a shiver going down his spine.
"Yeah, and what was that thing about hearing my voice?" Kimi asked them "She hears it every day."
"Not a clue" Phil told her.
"Got me" Lil said, shrugging.
Tommy realized something then.
"Maybe she's just trying to apologize for how she treated us yesterday" he said.
"But why can't she just say it?" Phil asked "I mean, we apologized, and she forgave us, so wouldn't we forgive her if she apologized?"
They all nodded a bit, answering his question.
"But," Kimi brought up "it is rare for Angelica to ever say 'sorry' in words, so she usually does it by doing something nice, thinking it'll cancel it out instead."
"From what I taught her about Karma, that's basically how she goes about these things" Dil said "and they do work in both her favor, and ours."
"For the universe is a wheel; round and round it turns." he said, in an old-time proverb-like voice.
"She probably thinks apologizing isn't enough, so she's going to do this for us, instead." Chuckie said.
Again, they all nodded in agreement.
"Well, still, let's not use this golden opportunity up to fast" Phil said with a smile, leaning back in the recliner he was sitting in, crossing his feet and propping them up on a foot stool.
Lil smirked at him.
"Greedy" she called him.
He sat up straight.
"What?" he asked, cocking his eye-brow playfully.
Lil smirked a bit more.
"You want to milk Angelica being nice to us, because you think she'll spend money on us" she told him.
That got the whole group laughing.
"Yeah right, Angelica wouldn't give you a buck even if it was to get a snack from a vending machine because you're starving to death!" Tommy said.
"Any amount of cash that girl gets goes to herself and herself alone!" Dil told them.
Phil shrugged.
"Still though" he said "it could happen."
"Yeah, true…" Chuckie started.
"Right after they come up with a cure for cancer!" Kimi finished.
That got them all laughing then.

A little over half-an-hour later, Angelica was finally ready to go out in public. She had also convinced her mom to give them a ride to the mall. Mostly because she had been wanting to go there herself.
"I'll leave you kids alone though" she told them as they all headed into the garage "you just come to me when you're ready to leave."
Angelica then noticed something wrong as they walked into the garage; Dil was walking a bit weirdly.
'Oh no!' she thought.
She looked down at her hands, expecting to see the blood, but they still looked the same. She walked behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Dil, what's wrong, why're you walking funny?" she asked him worriedly.
He stopped walking and glanced back at her.
"Huh?" he said.
Then he realized what she had said and looked down at his feet.
"Oh, yeah" he said.
He shrugged.
"I stubbed my big toe yesterday, and I wasn't wearing my shoes, so it got hurt really bad, and it feels weird to walk normally, so I'm trying to make sure I don't put to much pressure on my big toe." he told her.
He shrugged again.
"It's nothing Angelica" he said casually.
He then noticed Angelica breathe a sigh of relief.
"Well that's great, then" she told him happily.
Dil was about to ask her what was going on, but he was cut off as his aunt Charlotte clapped her hands loudly to get their attention.
"Alright teens and pre-teen; let's get in and get to the mall!" she said.

So they all got in Charlottes mini-van, and she drove them along.
Halfway there, Charlotte had called Didi and told them what was happening, then Betty, and then Kira to inform them as well. They were all fine with it, so long as they didn't stay out past their curfews.
"Good thing it's a weekend" Phil said.
"And summer time" Lil added.
"The ultimate weekend!" they both said at the same time, pointing at each other, smiling.
Most of the group laughed a bit at them talking at the same time, as they hated it when they usually did that. But when they were okay with it, they all saw it as a good joke for them all to laugh at.
But Angelica had stiffened up a bit. She glanced back at the twins through the rear-view mirror.
"Um, guys?" she said, getting their attention.
They stopped laughing at each other and looked at her.
"Yeah?" Lil asked.
"S'up Angelica?" Phil asked.
Angelica frowned a bit. She didn't see it as funny when they did this. But this frown wasn't in annoyance or irritation, but what seemed like fear.
"Could you, uh, try not to do that, please?" she asked.
They both glanced at each other, but then shrugged, confused.
"Uh, sure Angelica" Lil said, stopping Phil from saying it with her.
Angelica then smiled a bit, and relaxed in her seat.
The whole group looked around at each other, and were all confused at that, but decided to shrug it off. The rest of the ride to the mall was in silence.

When they all finally made it, they all split up.
Phil and Lil were heading to the arcade, to which Angelica had given them money for tokens, confusing the living daylights out of the whole group. Chuckie and Tommy headed for the tech department, Chuckie to see if he could get a World of Warcraft headset (he had really gotten hooked on the game since he didn't just play the starter edition anymore) and Tommy to see if he could find a digital film program to install onto his computer at home (he was really getting into making animated films lately.) Dil was heading for Spencer's gifts.
"Not for the perverted stuff though" he informed them, and set off.
Charlotte left for the book store, leaving Kimi and Angelica at the entrance of the mall.
At first, they both just walked around aimlessly, feeling a bit awkward. Wanting to kill the awkward vibe, Kimi smiled.
"Say Angelica, how about you come with me to the CD store?" she asked.
Angelica smiled back.
"Sounds great Kimi, let's go!" she said.
And she was already walking.
'Wow,' Kimi thought 'it usually takes a while to convince her to go anywhere with any of us.'
But she decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and went with her.

Upstairs in the CD store, Angelica was browsing through the racks in the popular music section, while Kimi was in the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal section, taking each CD out and reading all the song listings on the back.
Angelica glanced over at Kimi as she took a CD out that caught her eye. She saw that Kimi was mouthing words. This made her eyes go wide in panic.
'Oh crap!' she thought, putting the CD she was holding back and casually went over towards her, not trying to attract attention. But she was going as fast as she could.
What she didn't know was that Kimi was just mouthing the words to the song titles on the back of the CD cases. Kimi groaned silently and put the CD back.
"Man, all of these have songs I already have, even the live versions and remakes!" she said to herself, tilting her head back, looking up at the ceiling.
She then saw Angelica at her side out of nowhere. She put a hand on Kimi's shoulder.
"Kimi, are you okay?" she asked worriedly.
Kimi looked up at her.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine Angelica" she said.
She glared a bit at the CD rack.
"It's just that I can't find something here that I don't already have, I want something new" she said.
Angelica nodded.
"Okay, but what about earlier?" she asked.
Kimi looked at her, cocking her eyebrow.
"Earlier?"
Angelica nodded again.
"You were moving your lips, but you weren't talking" Angelica said worriedly.
Kimi kept her eyebrow cocked.
"So?" she asked.
Angelica looked insistent for an answer.
Kimi shrugged and took a CD off the rack.
"Well, you know me Angelica" she said, looking down at the case in her hand "Sometimes when I'm really focusing on what I'm doing, like when it's reading something, my lips start moving to match what I'm reading."
Angelica sighed in relief.
"Okay then, you're fine" she said happily.
Kimi nodded, but was confused at Angelica being so worried about something so casual. She set the CD back, turned around, and then noticed something.
"No way…" she said, her eyes widening.
Angelica looked up from the CDs she was looking at, realizing that she was actually looking at heavy metal, which she didn't care for.
"What?" she asked Kimi.
Kimi took a CD off of a shelf on the other side of her, her hands were trembling a bit as she lifted it.
"They have it!" she said giddily.
Angelica looked and saw a large box set of CDs in her hands.
"The Metallica collection!" she said.
She saw the plastic wrap around it.
"In mint condition!" she said, her voice going a bit high.
She turned it over and pointed at the back.
"All the way from 'Kill 'em all' to 'Death Magnetic'!" she pointed out "Plus three live songs from the 'Live in Live Earth' concert!"
She then noticed something else as well. It was a DVD case.
"Shut. Up!" she said, grabbing it.
"The Big 4!" she said.
Angelica looked at it curiously.
"Huh?" she asked.
Kimi turned it over.
"Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica live from Sophia, Bulgaria!" she informed her giddily.
She put it in her other hand with the Box set.
"I'm used to seeing the watered-down one hour version on VH1 Classic, but THIS has over eight hours of concert footage, and a behind the scenes documentary, interviews, and rehearsal footage of all the bands practicing Diamond Head's 'Am I evil'!"
Angelica nodded a bit. Kimi always got a bit to excited about metal, even though everyone else didn't. This was normal.
Kimi then looked at the sides of both the DVD case and Box set to look at the prices. Her face fell.
"Aw man, but both of these together would cost 125 dollars with tax included!" she said sadly.
Even though Kimi was a metal-head, she was a whiz at math, disproving the stereotype of metal-heads being stupid. Kimi looked in her purse and took out her wallet after saying this.
"And I only have a hundred" she said sadly "that isn't enough for the box set, and this is what I really want!"
"But I could get the DVD set, but who know knows how long the box set will still be here in this good of condition?" she thought out loud "Of course, I could ask to put it on layaway, but what if they don't do that here?"
She looked at both of the items.
"Man, which one do I get, which one do I get?" she said urgently.
Angelica smiled, patting her on the back to calm her down.
"Aw, no worries Kimi, I'll help you with them" she said.
Kimi looked up in surprise.
"Really?"
Angelica nodded.
"Of course, it's the least I could do" she told her.
So they went to the cash register and the employee scanned them. But as Kimi opened her wallet to get her money out, Angelica stopped her.
"I'm paying for these completely." she told her.
Kimi's jaw dropped.
"Seriously?!" she said.
Angelica nodded as she handed the employee her cash, who put it in the register and put the items and receipt in a bag, handing it to Angelica.
She handed them to Kimi.
"There you go, Kimi" she told her.
As they walked out, she turned back a bit.
"And don't worry about paying me back, that was the least I could do" she told her.
Kimi just shook her head in disbelief.

"She seriously paid for it all herself and didn't expect you to pay her back?" Tommy asked her.
She and Angelica had met up with him at the food court. He had met up with them after failing to find what he wanted to find, but had found a flash drive with enough room to hold all his films that were on his computer instead. Chuckie and he had split up, as he still wanted to browse through the stores, and he wasn't hungry yet.
Kimi had gotten a burger and fries from the McDonalds, and Tommy had gotten a couple of burritos from Taco Bell.
Kimi nodded her head, still looking at the bag that was at her side in disbelief.
"Do you think we freaked her out that much?" she asked.
Tommy shook his head.
"Angelica has been stuck dangling over a river on a broken bridge with a mob of monkeys on one side and a giant wolf on the other, she's flown through the air over the Eifel tower, and she's been stuck at the bottom of the ocean in a submarine that was running out of air" he recalled.
Kimi didn't bother that she had been there for two of those events; involved in one of them, and at risk herself during another one.
"And all of those put together and multiplied by ten wouldn't make her shell out 125 bucks for someone other than herself" he told her, smirking.
"Well then what do you think made her do this?" Kimi asked him.
As he was about to answer, Angelica came back from the hot dog stand, a corn dog in one hand and a water bottle in the other.
"Hey guys" she said to them with a smile.
"Hey" they said, cutting off their conversation.
Angelica nodded at what they were eating.
"Hurry up and finish, Dil just called me from at the sports store, and he wants to show us something" she told them.
They nodded and continued eating, able to eat a bit faster since they weren't talking anymore.

They finished off their food and went to the sporting goods store.
They looked around until they finally found Dil at the wrestling supplies section. Mostly because he had actually found them first.
"Hey guys" he said to them, as he was behind them.
They turned around and both Kimi and Tommy started laughing. Dil was wearing a one-piece garment that covered his legs and chest, but the top part was like a tank top, so it exposed his arms. His sandals were off, and he was also wearing a wrestling helmet.
"I've been thinking of going out for wrestling when we go back to school, and that's when I found this stuff." he told them, as he stood on a mat, barefoot, acting like he was facing an opponent.
He stepped off the mat and slipped his sandals on, standing up straight.
"So; what do you think?" he asked them.
Kimi and Tommy were still laughing, tears now coming to their eyes.
But they hadn't seen Angelica's reaction. Her eyes had gone wide in shock at seeing Dil wearing the helmet. She finally stepped forward, unclipped the strap below his chin, yanked the helmet off, and throwing it onto the mat with all her might, making it bounce and roll off the mat. That got Kimi and Tommy to stop laughing, and Dil to step back a bit in surprise. But then, he looked at the helmet, and then at Angelica, who was breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping through her veins. He crossed his arms and put an annoyed look on his face.
"A simple 'I don't like it' would have sufficed, Angelica" he told her.
"Yeah, what was that all about?" Tommy asked her.
Angelica bit her lip.
"Uh, well…" she said nervously.
She then instantly thought up a lie.
"Well, it's just that, Dil's so light, and if he started wrestling, he'd get squished" she told them "Besides, he's just going to do this for a bit, and then pursue something else after a week."
"Besides, with how much your toe hurts, you aren't exactly able to practice." she told Dil.
Kimi and Tommy both agreed, but were still weary of Angelica doing this. Dil was also really confused at this though. Yes, she was right about how he would end up giving up on this after a week, and pursue something else totally different the next, but the way she had yanked the helmet off, it was like she was trying to save his life or something!
He got changed back into his regular clothes, put the stuff he had picked out back where he found them and left the store with them. But he kept his distance from Angelica.

They were all upstairs, as Dil had run into Phil and Lil at Spencer's, who had left the arcade after playing a few rounds of fighter-pilot games and Guitar hero (beating the high score together at both of them.)
As they headed there though, they saw Phil and Lil coming towards them. And they were holding hands for some odd reason.
"Hey guys" Lil said, trying to sound casual.
They could see that both she and Phil were trying to pull their hands away from each other, but were unable too. Tommy pointed down slightly at their hands.
"What happened?" he asked.
Lil stopped pulling, but Phil continued.
"Well" she said "Phil tripped over something as we were walking out of the store, and I helped him up, but it seems he fell in something really sticky, so our hands got stuck together."
Phil stopped pulling, knowing it was impossible to break free.
"You guys think you can help us?" he asked.
They all looked around at each other, trying to come up with something that could help, when Kimi remembered something.
"Angelica's water bottle" she said, snapping her fingers.
"What about it?" Dil asked her, confused.
"She could pour the water over their hands so they could break free."
Phil and Lil smiled in relief at hearing that.
"Good idea Kimi, but-" Lil started
"-where is Angelica?" Phil asked.
They both looked at the space in between Kimi and Dil, where Angelica had been, and saw that she was gone! Lil looked ahead and could just see Angelica's arm behind a map of the mall.
They all ran over and saw Angelica bracing herself flat against the other side of the billboard, as if she was hiding.
"Angelica!" Tommy said, making her jump in surprise.
Phil and Lil took over.
"We need your help" Lil said.
"I fell in something sticky and Lil helped me up." Phil said.
"But we got stuck together" Lil said "so we need you to pour your water over our hands to help us!"
Angelica slowly scooted step-by-step from the other side of the map and in front of them. She took a few deep breaths and looked at the desperate twins.
"Fine," she told them "but both of you close your eyes."
Lil put her free hand on her hip.
"Angelica, if you're gonna try to pull our hands apart so you don't have to waste your water, trust us, it's not going to work" she told her.
"We've already tried that" Phil added, tugging on his arm.
Angelica frowned a little.
"Guys, I'll buy ten bottles of Fiji water and use them all on your hands if you want." she told them "Just PLEASE just close your eyes!"
Seeing her in this frustration got them to comply.
"Fine Angelica" Lil said cautiously, closing her eyes.
"Whatever you say" Phil said, closing his.
Angelica had them stand as far apart as they could, then crouched down. She took the cap off of her bottle and then poured the entire thing over their hands. She made sure that the water seeped in between the small space in between their hands. She then grabbed both of their hands, rubbed them together, and with one strong pull, they were separated!
"Yes!" Lil said, pulling her arm up and raising it in the air in triumph.
"Finally!" Phil said, moving his fingers, feeling ultimate relief.
Angelica stood up straight, tossing her empty bottle into a recycling bin.
"Thanks Angelica!" both Lil and Phil had said at once.
Angelica stiffened up a bit at them talking at once, again.
"Please" she said, trying to relax "don't do that."
They both remembered the same moment in the car earlier that day.
"Okay, we'll stop" Phil said.
Angelica nodded.
She then put her hand over her eyes, like she was trying to see something far off. But she tilted her head down, blocking the view of them.
"Now" she said "j-just go to those bathrooms over there and wash your hands, you might still have that sticky stuff on your hands."
She stuck her hand out and indicated the bathrooms near an entryway. They both complied and went to do so.
All of them were still a bit creeped-out at how Angelica had freaked out, and even looked scared at what had just happened, and were completely confused why.

Later on, they had met up with Angelica's mother, who was relaxing in a chair in the book store, casually reading, saying they were all ready to go.
They all went downstairs to find Chuckie, but he found them. He was holding sunflowers in his hand, and he had a few scrapes over his face, his glasses bent.
They all asked what had happened, except for Angelica, who had actually stepped back and stopped walking towards him with everyone else. She sat on a bench as they all went towards them. Chuckie got them all to back off a bit as they crowded around him.
"I'm fine" he told them "I was just in the flower store when I got near some flowers I was allergic to, and I sneezed."
"I sneezed so hard that I fell, and as I fell, I scraped my face on some roses" he told them.
"Seriously; don't they de-thorn those things?" he asked them.
"Well, in the words of Poison; "Every Rose has it's Thorn", Chuck" Kimi told him.
"True" Chuckie said.
"And that's why I have these" he said, holding up the sunflowers.
"The people at the store saw what happened and begged me not to press charges" he said "I told them it was fine, but they offered a free bouquet of flowers, so I got these."
He looked at Charlotte.
"Do you mind if we make a quick stop on the way back home?" he asked her.
He told her where, and she was curious as to why. He didn't exactly want to answer, though. He looked sad. Tommy and Kimi pulled her aside at this.
"Sometimes when Chuckie does something he regrets, after he's redeemed himself, he likes to go to his mother's grave and say he's sorry to her." Tommy told her.
"He knows that she's watching him, so he wants to make sure that she forgives him, too." Kimi told her.
Charlotte completely understood, shredding a tear a bit at that. She went back over and told Chuckie that they could, but then she realized something.
"Oh no, I left my purse at the book store!" she said.
"You kids just hang out here for a bit while I run back up stairs to go get it" she told them.
She ran off.
They all decided to grab some sodas for the road, and went to the nearby pretzel stand. But they forgot that Angelica was still on the bench on the other side of the mall lobby. Mostly because they didn't see her.

As Angelica sat there, she finally looked up.
'Huh' she thought 'how long have I been sitting here?'
She looked around.
'Wait, where is everyone?' she thought.
He eyes widened.
"Oh no!" she said.
She put her head in her hands, looking down, her eyes still wide in shock.
"I can't believe it" she said "it's all true!"
"They all disappeared on me because they're just figments of my imagination!"
She started to cry.
"I'm a psychopath!" she stated.
She continued to cry even harder, burying her face in her hands.
She then heard a few voices.
"Hey Angelica, what's wrong?" said one voice.
"Yeah, why're you crying?" another one said.
She looked up, her eyes still blurry with tears. She wiped them away quickly and saw them all there, holding cups in their hands. Tommy had two.
"Chill out, Angelica" Phil told her.
"Yeah, seriously, we were just getting some soda's" Kimi said.
"Nothing to cry about" Chuckie said, still holding the bouquet of sunflowers.
Tommy held out one of his.
"We got a Cherry Pepsi for you," he told her "because we know it's your favorite."
Angelica took the soda gratefully. She then stood up and hugged him. Tommy stiffened up a bit at this, almost spilling his soda. She then let go.
"What was that for?" he asked her.
Angelica smiled, a few tears still in her eyes.
"I'm just happy to have you guys in my life" she told him.
She set her soda on the bench and held out her arms.
"Bring it in guys" she told them all.
They all stood there, confused.
"Come on…" she told them, putting her arms out wider.
They all set their drinks down, and complied, all of them giving Angelica a big group hug. She squeezed them all tightly, as if she never wanted to let go, until they all finally made a good enough effort to get her to let go.
They all picked their sodas back up, and then chilled around the bench. Charlotte returned with her purse, and they all went to the car.

They passed by the park, which was near Chuckie's moms grave.
Charlotte parked the car and they all got out. She relaxed in the car with a book she had bought, while they all went out.
They headed towards Melinda's grave, which was atop a hill underneath a tree. When they all got there, they all stood in straight line. Chuckie stepped forward and laid the flowers down in front of the tomb stone.
"I'm sorry, mom" he said, as he stayed crouched down in front of the stone "I hope you can forgive me."
Kimi walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, a tear going down his face. Kimi brushed it away with her finger.
"I think she forgives you Chuckie, so long as you're sorry and have made amends, there shouldn't be any need to apologize to her."
Chuckie stood up and they both hugged.
"But I know why you do this and I respect that" Kimi told him.
They all stood there in silence, honoring where they were, not feeling the need to talk.
Chuckie noticed Angelica was moving around a bit as he and Kimi stopped hugging. She looked like she was looking around for something, like something was missing.
"Um, Angelica" he said, getting her attention.
She looked over at him.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"What're looking for?" he asked her.
Angelica looked around a bit again.
"Wasn't there another headstone right next to your mother's?" he asked her.
Chuckie cocked his eye-brow.
"Why would there be?" he said.
"Yeah, our parents have set up a different plot somewhere else, so Chaz doesn't have one reserved here anymore." Kimi told her.
"Uh, guys, could you not talk about things like that here?" Phil said, his eyes darting from one side to the other in fear.
Lil rolled her eyes.
"Wimp" she called him, nudging him.
The whole group left the spot though, as Chuckie felt better now. But both he and Kimi were both suspicious about why Angelica had asked such an odd question.

They all got back in the car and Charlotte dropped them all off at Tommy and Dil's place.
Angelica hopped out with them.
"See you guys tomorrow" Angelica told them.
They all hugged her before they went into Tommy and Dil's house.
"Thanks for the day out Angelica" Dil called over to her.
"Yeah, it was really nice of you" Tommy told her.
She welcomed them all to the treat she gave them, and then got back in the car with her mom.

That night, Angelica went to sleep feeling so great about what she did. Unfortunately, no matter how great she felt, it didn't stop what went on next.
Right after getting to sleep, the nightmares came back.
They became even worse, because she was seeing other events, such as Suzie pretending to see the whole gang along with her, but all along, knowing the truth. She could see doctors, her parents, and her relatives once again trying to convince her that they weren't there, but she denied it, as she could see them. And once again, she was thrown into a mental institution, Kimi, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil fading out of her sight, leaving her alone in the padded room.
She awoke abruptly at that.
"AH!" she shouted out.
She looked over at her alarm clock (which had the alarm off, since it was summer) and saw that she had only been in bed for half an hour.
She kicked the covers off of her, turned her lights on, and sat on the side of her bed, placing her head in her hands.
"How come it happened again?" she asked aloud to no one.
"I mean, I was super nice to them all day, I helped them out, and treated them all to great day." she pointed out.
She looked up, seeing her reflection in her make-up mirror. She slowly shook her head.
"It wasn't enough…" she subconsciously thought aloud.
She stood up, beginning to pace across her room.
"One day of being nice can't overpower more than ten years of treating them like servants, making their lives hell each and every day, and never helping them unless it benefited me."
She looked back at her reflection again. She pounded one fist into her open palm.
"I am turning over a new leaf" she said to her reflection.
"From this day forth, I shall set out to make their lives the greatest" she declared.
Adrenaline was pounding through her veins in excitement then. She couldn't get back to sleep then. So she grabbed her laptop instead.
"I wonder what time Slosh Mountain opens…" she said, opening up the internet and looking that very fact up.

The next day, Angelica had gathered the whole gang, along with Suzie, waking them up early, telling them that she was taking them to the water park for a day of fun. She had them get their swimwear, passes, and to get to the car. But as they were all ready to set off, she realized that her father's car didn't have enough room for all of them. So her Aunt Didi, after hearing what a nice gesture Angelica had set up for them, said she'd take them in her mini-van instead. Stu went to drive Drew's car back to her parent's place, and they left.

Once they made it there, they were all in a daze at such a crazy event happening. Angelica was going to use their passes to get them in, and had them wait near the line for the entrance, as only one entryway was open what with it being so early.
"Seriously, wasn't taking us to the mall enough?" Lil asked, taking her sunglasses off and draping her towel over her shoulders.
"I mean, I'm grateful for this, but what do you think she's playing at?"
Phil nodded in agreement, yawning.
"I know, and why'd she have to get us up so early?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
Chuckie rolled his eyes.
"Oh, c'mon Phil, you don't have to sleep until noon every day just because it's summer" he said.
"Well Angelica get's away with it" Phil retorted.
"Not today" Chuckie shot back instantaneously.
Kimi noticed that Tommy seemed to be moving awkwardly.
"Tommy, are you okay?" she asked him.
Tommy put his hands against his back, and then leaned back a bit.
"I don't know, I think I slept on my back wrong last night, so I feel kind of stiff" he said to her.
He saw his reflection in the closed window of one of the entryway booths. He stepped closer to it and looked at it.
"And I guess I didn't get enough sleep; I got these huge bags under my eyes." he said.
He groaned.
Kimi laughed and came up at his side. She kissed him on the cheek.
"Aw, Tommy, you look fine" she told him "I've known you for years, and you've never looked bad to me."
Angelica was coming back at this time, having gotten their passes verified. She noticed Tommy pointing out the bags under his eyes, and then move a bit stiffly. She moved a bit quicker then.
She handed them all the passes to everyone in the group and then asked Tommy if he was okay.
He nodded, laughing a bit.
"Yeah, I'm fine" he told her.
He leaned back again.
"I just feel a bit stiff" he told her.
Angelica looked firmly at him then.
"Well that's going to ruin your day at the water park" she told him.
She had him stand up straight, put his arm out and rubbed his back until he finally heard a 'crack' and felt much better. He sighed in relief.
"Thanks Angelica" he told her.
She smiled, and nodded, handing him his pass back.
"No prob, cous'." she told him.
She then pointed out the entryway near them that was just opening.
"Alright guys, let's get in and have some fun!" she told them all.
At that, they all went running in.

That day was more fun for them than the last. They had the greatest day, going down the water-slides, enjoying the rides, eating junk food, and even just relaxing in the lazy river that took up half of the park. And this all was happening because Angelica was making it more enjoyable for them.
She helped Kimi get Chuckie onto the faster and higher slides, but not by scaring him or making fun of him the way she usually did, but by persuading him into it by taking the smaller and smaller slides until they finally got him onto 'Whiplash Mountain'.
She made sure that they had plenty of sun block on, making this the first time they went there without any of them getting sunburn.
And even when Phil and Lil got her into the kiddy area, making the giant bucket atop the play structure spill it's whole contents on her as well as them, she didn't even get mad at them. She actually laughed and let it spill over her.
They had a great day then, and thought that maybe afterwards, Angelica was finally finished with being nice to them and treating them to things like this. They thought that she got over what they had did to her then, or had burnt herself out with the whole 'nice act' and would slowly go back to her old ways. But it didn't happen.

The week following she made sure that they had the greatest times with her; she took them to the movies, to a local ball game, and refused to let them just sit around and relax, but get out of their homes and go places.
This took place over the week and into the next weekend. They were enjoying it greatly, but when it stretched into the next week, they started getting a bit disturbed over it. After all, it was one thing for Angelica to take them places, but for her to refuse to just let them sit around and chill, which they would find ways to enjoy themselves even in those times, they just didn't get what was going on with her.

"This is getting to be to much!" Kimi proclaimed, groaning.
They had come from another day out on the town and were trying to relax at Phil and Lil's place. Angelica was currently trying to find them, and they were hiding in the garage (since they were all to big to hide in closets anymore.)
"What is up with her?" Phil said to Tommy and Dil, keeping an eye on the door.
They shrugged.
"We've seen her do a lot of nice things over the years, but this surpasses all of it" Dil told him.
"Do you think what we did scared her that much at losing us?" Lil asked, sitting on the weight bench.
Tommy shook his head.
"We've made threats to her over the years, and while those may have scared her, she never carried on this long to make it up to us" he said.
They all groaned.
"So how long do you think we'll have to deal with this?" Chuckie asked, sitting on the chair behind Betty's old drum-set, the drumsticks in his hand.
Again, Tommy and Dil shrugged.
"I don't know Chuck" Tommy told him "we've never had to deal with her doing things like this so long."
"Wait a minute…" Kimi said, getting everyone's attention.
She stepped forward into the center of the room.
"Maybe there's something going on with her mentally that's causing her to do this." she predicted.
She turned to Tommy.
"After all, you've raised your voice to Angelica over the years, but you've never really yelled at her" she said "so when you and her got into the argument, that was probably the first time you ever yelled at her, right?"
He nodded.
Then he hung his head in shame.
"And how I told her that we were her only friends may have been cutting to deep." he said to them, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.
Dil put a hand on his shoulder.
"Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you ever regret" he told him, once again speaking in an old-time proverb-like voice.
They all nodded in agreement with Dil.
"But, seriously, we're not Angelica's ONLY friends, are we?" Phil asked.
They all thought that over a moment.
"Well, in the traditional style of friendship, yes" Kimi answered.
"Yeah, what with those fake 'friends' she has at her high school who she's hanging out with at one moment, then hating their guts and seeking revenge the next, we're really the only ones she can depend on." Chuckie added, supporting his sister's answer.
"I can confirm that" a new voice said.
They saw Suzie standing in the open doorway leading against the side.
Phil fell back in surprise, having not kept watch, and Dil managed to catch him by putting a hand up and getting him to stand up straight before he hit the concrete floor.
"I knew you guys would be hiding in here from how Angelica's in pursuit of you" she told them "And I heard what you were talking about."
She went and stood at Kimi's side.
"With what I've learned in my psychology class this past year, I wouldn't be surprised if the argument you got into with Angelica may have traumatized her psychologically." she told them, taking over for Kimi as the center of discussion "So maybe the case of her believing she lost her true friends must have caused her to set out to make things better."
But then she crossed her arms.
"But hiding from her isn't going to make her stop; only talking with her about these things and confronting the situation will!" she instructed.
They all slowly agreed with her at that, and then decided to stop hiding. It was time to confront the issue.
"She's probably looking for us at our place" Tommy told them, indicating him and Dil.
"So let's get over there and talk to her" Dil said.
They all then left.

As Tommy had predicted, Angelica was at the Pickle's household, trying to find them. She had checked both Tommy and Dil's rooms, their parent's room (none of the group as well as Stu and Didi were in there anyway) the garage, and even the closet.
"Why'd I check here though?" she asked herself.
"They're to big to fit in there anymore" she told herself.
"Wait, why am I talking to myself?" she questioned.
She just shrugged and continued looking around. As she continued looking, she heard the front door open, and she looked behind her, seeing all of them come in.
"Guys, finally I found you!" she told them.
She pulled something out of her pocket; a map.
"So, I've been thinking, and since we haven't been to the zoo in a few years, maybe it would be nice to go tomorrow, but-" she told them.
They ignored this.
"Angelica" Tommy said, cutting her off mid-sentence.
"We want to know what's going on" Kimi said.
"We're kind of worried about you" Dil said.
"You've never been this nice to us for this long" Chuckie said.
"And to tell you  the truth-" Phil started.
"-it's getting kinda creepy." Lil finished.
Suzie moved forward a bit.
"They really want to talk to you about this, and I believe it would be a good idea for all of us to sit down and talk it out." she told Angelica, putting one hand on Tommy's shoulder and the other Chuckie's shoulder, as they were all grouped together, and Tommy and Chuckie were on each side of the group.
Angelica stepped back a bit.
"Well, the thing is…" she said, rubbing the back of her neck.
They all focused on her. She stopped talking, the silence overtaking the room.
"Is what?" Suzie asked, trying to get her to talk again.
Angelica turned around, facing away from them. She folded her arms together. She shook her head.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you…" she said quietly.
They all walked forward, getting around her.
Lil put a hand on one shoulder, and Kimi on the other.
"You can tell us anything Angelica" Lil told her.
"With all that you've been doing this past week, we owe it to you to listen" Kimi said.
Tommy went in front of her, and tilted her head up to have her look up at him. Dil was at his side.
"So just tell us, we'll completely listen to what you need to tell us" he said.
Angelica sighed, and then slowly nodded.
They all went into the living room. Dil went and grabbed a box of tissues; he could tell by the way Angelica talked, and by the look in her eyes, that she was going to be crying.

They all sat around in the living room, giving Angelica space, as they believed crowding to much around her would make her uncomfortable and unable to explain. They all just waited for her to finally talk.
After what felt like a long time, she finally looked up at them.
"The thing is…" she started.
She looked up and saw all the caring look in their eyes. Her eyes watered a bit then. Dil leaned forward from the chair she was on and held out the box of tissues. But Angelica didn't take just one, she took the whole box.
She removed a tissue and wiped her eyes. She continued.
"Okay, after we got into that argument, and with me being the jerk that I am, I ignored what you had said, thinking that you all should just see it from my point of view, not caring how you all really felt."
She looked up.
"And I apologize for that" she told them.
They all nodded, and indicated for her to continue. She nodded back.
"But while I was in my room, my mom came in and talked to me, she heard every word." she continued.
She put a small smile on her face, and looked over at Tommy.
"She agreed with what you said, Tommy; you are all I've really got."
Tommy smiled back, but shook his head.
"Technically, that's not what I said…" he told her.
She nodded again.
"Even so…" she said.
She was finally getting to the issue, and a shiver went down her spine. But she recomposed herself and went on.
"But when I went to bed that night, I started wondering what my life really would be like without you guys, then I wondered what it would be like if you all had never been there at all."
Tears came to her eyes again, and this time, she couldn't hold them back. They began streaming down her face.
"I started dreaming that we were at my house, and we were all young again; you all were toddlers, I was a pre-school kid, and Dil was a baby."
She shuddered.
"But this dream turned into a nightmare!" she said, wiping her eyes with another tissue.
"It was raining outside in my dream, and when lightning struck, you all changed."
She looked up at Tommy.
"You looked sickly pale, and had bags so big under your eyes that stretched until they were right above your mouth" she told him "and you moved so stiffly."
Tommy cocked an eye-brow at that. But as he saw the fearful look in Angelica's eyes, he could tell this was the truth.
'No wonder she didn't like seeing me so tired!' he thought.
Angelica turned to Chuckie.
"You were covered in bandages and gauze, but you still had gashes and cuts that were covered and you were bleeding badly."
Chuckie moved back a bit in his seat at that. He hated anything bloody, especially if it involved him.
Angelica turned to Phil and Lil.
"You both didn't have any pupils in your eyes, they were just blank white." she told them.
They squirmed a bit, but she wasn't done.
"A-and you were both holding hands, and every single time I blinked, you switched places." she added "And when you talked, both of your voices were mixed together.
'No wonder she didn't want to look at us!' Lil realized, remembering the incident at the mall.
'THAT'S why she didn't like hearing us talk at once!' Phil thought, remembering as well.
She then turned to Kimi.
"And you looked even paler than Tommy" she told her "you were like transparent, like a ghost."
Kimi blinked a few times in confusion, but then shuddered once the image came in her mind.
"And every time you talked, no noise came out of your mouth." Angelica said.
She covered her eyes.
"And then these horrible things started happening!" she said, tears leaking through the edges of her hands.
"I learned that Tommy was a stillborn; he died while he was still in the womb."
Since she described the meaning of the word after saying it, Phil didn't have to ask what it meant.
"Chuckie died in a car crash with his mother-" she said.
"But my mom died of cancer…" Chuckie told her, almost silently.
Angelica nodded, uncovering her eyes and wiping her face with a wad of tissues.
"I know…" she said.
She continued.
"Phil and Lil had been aborted" she said "And for some reason, I had never even met Kimi."
"But I still imagined that you were all around, and didn't care how you looked." she told them.
She looked over at Suzie.
"You played along with my twisted imagination though, but I could tell that you knew they weren't there" she told her.
Suzie looked around at all of them, and wished she could tell Angelica that she wouldn't be able to; her imagination wasn't that great. But she held her comment back.
At this, Angelica blew her nose into a tissue, and had to stop for a moment. After a minute or two of silence, Dil worked up the courage to ask something.
"What did, uh, I look like?" he asked.
A horrified look came over Angelica's face. She shielded her eyes and look away. But it didn't get her to not explain.
"You were mentally retarded, and you wore wrestler's safety helmet." she told him.
"As a baby?" he asked, confused.
Angelica shook her head.
"No, I was thirteen and you were ten." she told him.
She went on.
"But I had a flashback and realized that it was my fault you were like that." she told him.
"I was…"
She stopped, continuing to cry, but forced herself to continue.
"I was the one who made you that way, because you wouldn't listen to me like the rest of the group did, because you were actually the only real one there. The rest of you were all just figments of my twisted imagination."
"So I hit Dil so hard on the head that he was bleeding."
She started shaking and looked down at her hands.
"There was blood on my hands, but I wasn't little anymore, the flash-back had ended and I was still thirteen."
She put her hands on the side of her head, and closed her eyes tightly.
"So many things went through my mind, I kept wondering if I was a princess or a psychopath, and that's when I snapped in my dream; I ignored what was the truth and sank into my own perfect world."
"So many things happened then; you guys kept disappearing and reappearing, I could see myself in therapy sessions and yelling at the doctors, I could even see myself going through shock therapy, and in the fetal position in the cafeteria, unable to find you guys."
She was beginning to sob, and the rest of the group finally stopped backing off and all got around her, trying to comfort her. But she wasn't done.
"The dream finally ended with my parents putting me in the nut house, and I was in a padded room in a straight-jacket."
She looked up and around and everyone around her.
"But then you guys all started floating away, saying you were tired of me."
"I tried to get you to stop and to come back, but you were already gone."
At that, she finally broke down crying, unable to hold back anymore. Her friends just comforted her now, tears now coming to their eyes. Angelica had already used up the tissues, though.
After almost fifteen minutes of crying her misery almost taking up the whole room, Angelica was able to talk again.
"So these past two weeks these nightmares have been coming, and I've been trying to make them go away by being nice, thinking it'll solve everything, but it hasn't been."
She looked around at all of them.
"Two weeks of being nice doesn't make up for over ten years of making your lives hell."
Tommy brushed the tears off of his face and spoke up.
"Who's to say that you've made our lives hell Angelica?" he asked.
She looked at him, but was unable to answer.
"We've never said it, so it could only be you." he told her.
Kimi hugged her closely.
"We all care about you Angelica, you're a big part of our lives." she told her, then let go.
"If you had just come to us in the first place, we would have helped you solve these problems right off the bat." Lil told her.
"Seriously, don't hide these things from us, we're here for you" Chuckie told her.
Suzie smirked.
"And I can confirm to you Angelica that they are all here, 'cause let me tell you; I am NOT that good at pretending something like that!"
Dil let out a laugh then.
"And you know it takes more than a bump on the head to screw me up," he told her "besides, you never hit me, and I doubt seriously if you ever will."
Tommy got her full attention then, as he brushed the tears off of her face that were still falling down.
"Never doubt this Angelica; we'll always be here for you." he told her.
They all smiled, and for what felt like the first time in so long, Angelica smiled back. Even though she had been happy all week in making their lives fun, she felt happier now. She put her arms out behind her and pulled them all closer to her, hugging them as much as she could. But since they had all crowded around the three seat couch, it caused them all to lose their balance and fall onto the floor.
But, that just got them all to laugh. And when they all saw Angelica laugh with them, they were finally reassured that she was better now.

Later on, Angelica had cleaned herself up, as not only did the tears make her make-up run, but it had caused the make-up to leak onto her shirt and her hands were messy with runny make-up. Once she came back though, by the way she was walking, they could tell that she was back to the way she was.
"Alright pre-teens, you need to pay for something!" she said, looking down at them with an evil smile.
They all backed up a bit, but Angelica just laughed a bit.
"I'm not going to do anything bad to you guys, I just need you to pay up" she told them.
"Pay up for what?" Phil asked although he (along with the rest of the group) already pretty much knew.
Angelica put her hands on her hips.
"I've spent tons of cash on you guys these past two weeks, and I don't care what I said then, but I'm telling you this now; you're paying me back!" she nearly ordered.
Suzie stood.
"Alright Angelica, I know that you spent a lot of money on them to make-up for it, but just because you're going back to your old ways doesn't mean you should try to squeeze the money they all owe you out of them" she said, thinking things were now going back to the old ways.
But the teens were all standing by then, though.
"It's alright Suzie" Tommy told her.
They all head their wallets out.
"Chuckie's been keeping track of the money we owe Angelica on that PDA he got at the mall" Kimi said "luckily we all went down to the bank earlier today."
They all got out the exact money they owed Angelica and handed it to her. Angelica then put it in her purse.
"Well that's new; she didn't count it" Dil said.
Angelica smiled.
"Hey, I'm not going completely back to my old way, I trust you guys." she told them.
As she slipped the money into her wallet, she then sat down on the couch.
"So, from what I can gather, you guys must be pretty tired from all the stuff I've been getting you to do and the places I've been dragging you too so let's all just relax" she told them.
They all sighed in relief and took seats around the room.
"Well, looks like things are gonna get better from now on" Tommy said, as he reached for the remote and turning the TV on,
Angelica snatched it out of his hands, and then changed the channel.
Phil shrugged.
"Mostly…" he added.
But, luckily Angelica had changed it to a good channel, and they all began to finally relax, the whole group now at peace.