Almost 4 months later

"No more science experiments," Katie groaned to her roommate, Ann. Ann had just finished building some "great" machine she'd been working on for the past few months, turned it on, and the machine had thrown sparks and smoke until Ann turned it off.

"My bad," Ann apologized, "Rebecca was screwing with this thing earlier, and I knew that she was just trying to ruin it. The problem must be here what the" Ann pulled out a gum wrapper from the inside of the machine. "Well, that must be the problem! Hee hee."

Ann turned in on again, and Katie kept her distance. Sure enough, the machine exploded. Not a big explosion, but enough to fill the room with smoke.

Katie coughed. "I'm outta here," she said to Ann. "See ya!"

Katie ran into another girl in the hallway. "Hey, Katie Warren, some people are here to see you."

"Really?" Katie asked. "Grandpa?"

"No, it was some other people."

"Other people?" Katie's heart skipped a beat. No one but her grandfather had ever visited her at school, and since she had returned nearly four months ago, even he hadn't dropped by. But now, some others were here to see her? "Are they in the lobby?"

"Yes."

Katie ran down the stairs, through the dining room, and reached the lobby. There, sitting in some of the chairs available for visitors, were Louis and Lyla!

"Lyla!" Katie nearly screeched when she saw her friend, who was quite heavy with child. "I wasn't expecting you to come!"

Lyla laughed as she got up to hug Katie. "We came to the city for a doctor's appointment, and just decided to drop in for a visit."

"Oh, wow!" Katie gently put a hand on Lyla's stomach. "When's it due?"

"About three months," Louis answered. "I can't wait to see it it's a girl or a boy!"

"It will be a boy," Lyla said, somewhat firmly. "I just know it."

"But the doctor said"

"It's inside of me," Lyla interupted her husband, "And I have a feeling that it's going to be a boy. I'm not sure why, but I'm certain it will be a boy."

"I want to help you take care of him, or her, when it's born," Katie said. She sighed. "I want to be a mother myself someday"

"You will," Lyla chuckled. "And, oh, by the way, Joe came with us, but he went off to some shop and said he'd like to see you alone, a little later."

"A shop?" Katie muttered. "A fishing supply shop, probably. There's a good one around here."

"I don't know where he went," Louis told her, "But he insisted on seeing you alone."

"Well, would you like me to show you around here?" Katie asked. "This place is really nice."

"Are you up to that much walking?" Louis asked his wife.

Later that night, right before Louis and Lyla left, Joe came in.

"Sorry I took so long," he apologized, "I kinda got lost on my way back."

Katie giggled. "That's OK, Joe. I'm really, really, REALLY glad to see you!" She ran to him and hugged him within an inch of his life. Joe gasped.

"Katie, I need air"

"Oops, sorry!" Katie let go.

"Well, we'll be going then." Lyla waved to her friend. "I'll see you again when you get home, Katie!"

"Just a couple more weeks!" Katie waved to them, and they left. She turned to Joe. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Well First, um, how are you doing?" It was obvious that Joe was nervous about something. Katie sensed that right away.

"I'm fine, are you?" she asked. "What are you so nervous about?"

"Um, nothing," he quickly answered, reaching into his pocket for something. "Well, Katie, there's something I want to give you could you close your eyes for a moment?"

"Sure!" Katie closed her eyes, wondering what it was that he wanted to give her. Maybe he didn't go to that fishing supply store after all

"All right, open your eyes."

Joe was kneeling before her, and holding out to her

A Blue Feather!

Katie gasped and covered her mouth with her hands! "J-Joe?! You, you know what that's for, right?"

"Of course I do," he swallowed hard. "I talked with your grandfather a lot about it since you left, Katie. He's fine with it, and I know it's the right thing to do. I've been thinking about it for awhile, but I wanted to wait until you were older, and now that you're coming back home in a couple of weeks I know the time is right. Katie" he took a deep breath, "Katherine Warren, will you marry me?"

Katie was silent for a few moments. She thought this day would never come, in fact, she'd just been telling Lyla how she hoped she'd be married someday hoped to be a mother now all of a sudden someone was proposing to her? It seemed too good to be true!

"Oh, Joe," she was almost shaking with excitement, "Of course I'll marry you!" She hugged him tightly, though she was certain not to squeeze the life out of him this time. "You've made me the happiest girl in the world!!"

"It's settled then!" Joe chuckled as he hugged her back. "Katie, we'll get married right after you come back home. Is that all right?"

"Of course!" she agreed. "Oh, I'll take this, hee hee." She snatched the Blue Feather from him.

"Well, I'd better get back to the hotel, Lyla sometimes gets pretty cranky at night and I want to make sure that I'm already fast asleep when she does," Joe chuckled. "I'll see you very soon, Katie, Honey, OK?"

4 months later

"No, Tim, that's not for you!" Kayla exclaimed when she saw her little brother trying to get to the wedding cake. Nearby, Gwen and JC laughed.

"Wow, that kid's a handful," JC observed.

"No," Gwen corrected, "Handful is here."

Louis had just arrived, with a baby carrier. Asleep inside the carrier was he and Lyla's one-month-old son, Richard, or Ricky as most people called him.

"Well, at least he's asleep Hey, Louis!" JC waved to him. "Where's Lyla?"

"Coming," Louis answered. "She's actually in the wedding, you know."

"I can't believe Joe decided to marry that girl," Gwen sighed. "Katie gets on my nerves a lot, I hope Joe will be OK with her."

"Hey, Joe gets on everyone's nerves just as often," JC pointed out. "They're an even match."

Gwen laughed. "Yeah, all too true. Hey, is Alan gonna be here?"

"Maaaybe"

"What's with the maybe'?" Gwen asked. "Will he or will he not?"

"I have no idea," JC answered.

"TIM!!!" Kayla's angry voice interrupted every conversation in the room. "I told you to stay away from the refreshment table! So get out of here!!"

Tim had taken a glass of punch and some cookies from a neatly-arranged tray, messing everything up. "But I'm hungry, and thirsty," he whined.

"You'll just have to wait!"

"Hold up, we're right by my house," Gwen pointed out. "Tim, if you want something, just ask me. I can get you something from the house."

"Um, actually, I am quite thirsty at the moment," Miss Dia Clove shyly told Gwen, "May I please have something?"

"Wait, I'll help you," Kurt offered. "Do you like tea?"

Dia nodded. "Yes, I love tea! It is quite good."

"I can make tea. Follow me." Kurt and Dia went up to Kurt and Joe's shack actually, it would just be Kurt's shack from now on.

"I do," Joe said, gently, lost in Katie's lovely blue eyes.

"And do you, Katherine Warren, take this man, Joseph Neuman, to be your lawfully wedded husband, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Katie said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Then, by the power invested in me by the government and God, I pronounce you man and wife! You may kiss the You may continue kissing the bride," Carter chuckled, seeing that Katie and Joe had begun their kiss before he'd said so. A cheer rose up from the people assembled there.

They broke off their kiss, and Carter introduced the newly married couple. "I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Neuman!"

"Joseph, hmph," Joe mumbled, grinning, as he and Katie walked down the aisle, Kurt and Lyla, acting as best man and maid of honor, closely behind them. "I hate my name"

"Get used to it," Katie laughed, "Since I'm Mrs. Joseph' now! And maybe people will joke that we're related to Alfred E. Neuman!"

Joe really laughed at that one! Lyla, behind them, also heard that, and was laughing pretty hard.

"Katie?" JC asked. "Why?"

"I, I don't know," Gwen blushed. "Maybe I'm just going nuts"

"TIMOTHY BROWN!!" Kayla screeched, waving a large knife at her little brother. "I told you not to touch anything!! TIM! You're NOT getting away with that!! Tim!!"

Tim had cut the wedding cake himself, before Joe and Katie had the chance to. Seeing that his older sister was infuriated by what he'd done, he fled from the scene and wasn't seen again for the rest of the day.

"Poor kid," Lyla laughed, "He's never been to a wedding before, so he doesn't know"

"Well, there's still young, single people in the village," Louis pointed out. "He'll get another chance."

"True." Lyla looked over the crowd down below. She and Louis were sitting on the ground near Kurt's shack, and Lyla had Ricky in her arms. "Where are Kurt and Miss Dia? I don't see them."

"I sense another wedding coming on sooner or later with those two," Gwen said. She had just joined Louis and Lyla.

JC joined his brothers and cousin, Bob. "Glad to see that those two got married," Alan said. "Heh, isn't it kinda funny? I'll bet the prank war helped to bring them closer together, didn't it?"

"Yeah, funny to think that we helped them, eh?" Jason laughed.

"If only Jay and Justin could be helped like that," JC moaned.

"Yeah, there's not much hope for them," Alan agreed.

"Are your brothers still in the city?" Bob asked.

"Yeah," Alan answered. "They're great, fast workers, but they are worse than Joe and Katie. They're horrible people! I hope they never come here."

"You'll jinx it!" JC scolded. "If they come here this place is doomed."

"I wouldn't say doomed," Jason corrected him. "I'd say screwed." The guys all laughed at that.

"They're hundreds of miles away, so we don't have to worry." Alan looked up at the sky. "Living in Flowerbud City is hard."

"Yeah," JC agreed. "That's why we moved here. This is a great town."

"I'm glad you guys came," Bob told them.

"The country is a little more lonely than the city," Alan said, "and when you don't get along with someone, you can't avoid them. But, still, this place is great, I'm glad it wasn't torn down to make a theme park a few years ago."

"Definitely!" JC, Bob, and Jason agreed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, finally. This story took me awhile to write, but I'm glad I pulled it off!

I am writing a sequel, too. It's pretty well under way. Seeing that there are so few STH fics on this site has compelled me to trying to write some short stories... I'm going to try, let's see how many I get done.

A big thanks to my sister who came up with the whole idea of the prank war and who gave my lots of support while I was writing this! Thanks, little sis. ^^;