Olivia slipped into the blue coatroom to see what exactly Charlie had wanted. "Charlie?" she called. She saw Fidelio and walked up to him. "Hey Fido."
"Liv? What the hell are you doing in here?"
"I came to see what Charlie wanted to tell me before."
Charlie came up to them then. "I just wanted to tell you to meet me at the log pile during lunch break. I wanna show you something."
"Ok? Why don't you show me now?"
"Now isn't the time. It's too crowded in here."
"Oh. Well I should get to my coatroom before someone realizes that I'm not there."
"Yea, I'll see you later then."
"Ok, later. Bye Fido," she waved to them both before she left.
"Why does everyone still call me Fido?"
"Because Fido is awesomer than Fidelio," Billy said as he and Gabriel came up. "What was Liv in here for."
"She wanted to know what Charlie was going to say before Manfred stopped him," Fidelio explained.
"What were you going to say to her?" Gabriel asked.
"You'll find out later I guess. But right now we're gonna be late for class. In case you haven't noticed, nobody else is in here."
"Well why the hell didn't you say that like 2 minutes ago?" Fidelio asked.
"I didn't really feel like it," Charlie shrugged and laughed. "We should probably just go now."
= = =.|.= = =
Charlie was lying on the top of the log pile waiting for Olivia to come. It was a fairly nice day for autumn and most kids were playing sports. Charlie was just playing his guitar, nervously plucking the strings. What if Olivia didn't like the song?
"Calm down," he told himself as he spotted her skipping across the grounds with her purple dyed hair flying out behind her.
"Hey Charlie!" she called out to him.
"Hi Liv. How was class?"
"Yea, I don't really know. I had to sit in the hall."
"What did you do?"
"I forgot my book. Carp is such an asshole sometimes."
"Sometimes? He's hated me from day one."
"well that's just because its you an he knows your endowed and you don't pay attention."
"I can't help it!"
Olivia laughed and asked, "Ok, so what did you want me to come here for?"
Charlie gave a small start for he had forgotten about why he was here right now. "Oh yea. Right. Well I wanted you to come here because I wrote you something," he nodded at his acoustic guitar.
"You wrote me a song?"
Charlie nodded uncertainly. "Its taken me a while but yea."
Olivia smiled and jumped up on the log pile next to him. "Are you gonna play it?"
"Oh um yea."
He pulled his guitar out of its case and got into his playing position. He strummed a few notes before beginning the actual song which Olivia soon recognized. Then he began to sing.
What's
going on But you know that will just
keep you down Love,
love, love, love, love Left here undiscovered
I still see the frown in your face
It's so out of
place
All you can remember
Is how you felt the other day
You
let the small things in your way
Loosen your grip, and drop it on the ground
it's all you need
it's everything
to
keep it all together
Love, love, love, love, love
it
perseveres
it always steers
to keep you in the right
direction
I want to share this
gold
With people of the world
Abundantly filling
Every
single heart
And here's the best part
A small
group of people had turned their heads to
listen.
You
know that love never brings you down Let me tell you something here today Love, love, love,
love, love
Let it all out, and shout it
all around that
Living
life here on the rough terrain
you can lose hope, you can get
lost
but you are not that far apart from
it's all you need
it's everything
to keep it all
together
Love, love, love, love, love
it perseveres
it
always steers
to keep you in the right direction
He stopped playing and looked at Olivia who was staring at him. "Well?" he prompted. She hugged him tightly and whispered that she loved it. He kissed her on the lips and hugged her back.
Manfred came storming out of the school at that second. He marched across the ground glaring at the kids who moved out of his way so that he could pass. "YOU TWO! OVER HERE NOW!" he bellowed at them.
Manfred followers Dagbert Endless, Asa Pike, Dorcas Loom, the Branko twins, and Joshua Tiplin came to his side while Charlie and his friends all stood together in a line facing them.
"You know what Manfred, we should settle this right now and see who's stronger."
"You're on, Bone! Right now!" he snarled angrily. When the other kids heard this they all scrambled inside before anything could happen.
Emma went behind the log pile to change into a tollroc while drum beats could be heard above the wind that Tancred was summoning up. Fidelio, Gabriel, Billy, and Olivia stood behind them for they had no help to offer.
While this was happening Dagbert had started making a gurgling noise and water started bubbling out of the ground. Children screamed and ran all around in terror and Fidelio, Gabriel and Billy started ordering them to get inside of the academy where it was almost safe from the battle about to start.
While this was happening the drum beats could be heard getting louder and louder and a mist crept across the grounds. Thunder clapped over head and a great bird flew into the sky soaring above their heads.
Behind him Charlie felt the presence of some other being and he felt somehow comfortable. It didn't faze him when the spears flew over his head at his enemies. Asa had turned into a beast as he could now be a beast at his own will an he ran at Tancred who pushed him away with a gust of wind.
Charlie slowly became unaware of his surroundings and he stared into Manfred's eyes. From this distance he could see the frustration on the teaching assistant's face and anger in his eyes.
It's working! He thought to himself. But he couldn't quite push it back to Manfred all the way. He saw Manfred smirk and knew that he had realized this already. Then he heard a scream behind him. He turned around so quickly he didn't see the look of surprise on Manfred's face.
Olivia was writhing on the ground screaming in pain. "YOU BASTARD!" Charlie bellowed at Manfred who looked shocked. He sent the electricity flying back at him with alarming speed before the villain could react.
Three things happened at once: One, the machine exploded in Manfred's hands sending him flying backwards several feet.
Two, everything stopped around them, the water stopped flowing, spears stopped flying, the wind stopped howling, and the screeching of a tollroc an a beast stopped.
And three, The endowed and friends immediately separated from each other into two groups, the good and the bad.
Charlie ran to help Olivia up. "Are you ok?"
As everyone crowded around them she grinned. "Oh he never even hurt me. I was acting."
They all gaped at her then started cracking up laughing despite some of their injuries. Lysander had a cut above his right eye and blood was running from one shoulder an down his arm. Tancred was bleeding from his lip and his clothes were all tattered up. Emma just looked a little ruffled. An even Fidelio and Gabriel had a few bruises from where they'd been hit with flying debris while getting the children back inside.
Charlie had made it out almost completely unharmed yet he did have some cuts and scratches even if he had no clue what they were from. His whole body was sore but he felt somewhat proud that he was strong enough to beat Manfred.
Then he looked over to where Manfred an his followers were. Manfred himself seemed to be passed out on the ground an the rest of them all just looked beat up. Charlie couldn't resist cracking a smile.
"So what happens now?" Billy asked in a small voice. "Even Manfred has to realize that he's been defeated. Is it over?"
"Billy weren't you the one who sai a long time ago that this battle may never be over? Me and you were talking about you being adopted. I think you were right then," Charlie murmured looking lost in memories while staring at the huddled group on the other side of the grounds.
He saw Manfred stir an he began walking over to him. The others followed cautiously with no idea what he was going to do.
"What do you want Bone?" Manfred snarled.
"Enough of that! I'm tired of fighting."
"Then what do you want?" Asa repeated furiously.
"An agreement."