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My Adventure

You know I never knew much potential I had because I never had any. But there was one thing that I did have, and that was courage. Or as my granddad put it, “You either have a lot courage or you’re just plain stupid, doesn’t matter which one ya have the most, either one works” I didn’t know what he meant at the time and I never figured it out either, but this is what he was talking about.

It was a dark and stormy night…there was a mountain in a mountain a temple in a temple and a monk and the monks like “I wanna tell a story”. There was a mountain in a mountain a temple in a temple and a monk and the monks like “I wanna tell a story”.
Ok any way; I was just walking outside minding my own business when I see a rock. Yes a rock. It was a blue rock; yes blue is an odd color for a rock. That’s what I thought. Well as I was admiring the azure blue rock somebody comes running around the corner panicked. About what I didn’t know at the time, but I would soon find out. “Come on!” he shouted. “Wha-?” he grabbed my arm and continued to run. I look behind to see that he –well now we- was being chase be two men in black. No it was not the men in black but they coulda been…Well he kept running, dragging me along. “Hey hey let me go!”I shreiked as he ran “Sorry, love to, but I can’t” He said as he kept running. “Well why not?” I got no reply. I looked behind us again expecting to see those men catching up because they were full-grown men but I did not see them. I got a puzzled face and was about to ask why the boy that was dragging me why he was dragging me and why he was being chased but was abruptly stopped and pulled back. “Crap” he mumbled and turned around. I could see that he was having trouble with me not trying to keep up so I started running to so this made it easier for him. He was CoNfUzEd as to why I was running along with him but didn’t really give that much thought into it. I had nothing better to do today any way. I just had t go home and get my chores done for my granddad that I was staying with over the summer. My parents wanted to take a second honeymoon for like the fifth time and aren’t honeymoons supposed to be like a weeklong any way? Well, I began running behind him and heard the screeching of car tires. I glanced behind me to see the men in black in a men in black car. “Gosh, what did you do to piss them off?” I shouted as the car gained on us. “Just keep up ok?” I sighed and put a little more effort in running. Soon we turned into an ally and he kept running he grabbed my arm and jumped over the 15-foot ally way wall. As soon as we landed on the ground I pushed away from him and collapsed onto a over turned trash can hyperventilating. “OMG, OMG, are you like spider man or something?” I looked up at him and he was just looking calm as if nothing it was no big deal –for him it wasn’t- but for me it was a pretty big deal. “No” he said calmly. “Then what are you? I know you’re not human!” “Well…I was this experiment in this high tech lab. Plus, I was too smart and I left them- ok that’s not he story. I’m a hanyou.” “A what?” I stood up and crossed my arms due to coldness. “Half dog demon. You know, dog + human = hanyou?” He took off his hat to reveal two dark brown dog-ears. “Ahhhhhhh!!!” I shrieked jumping forward to touch them. “No” he said sternly grabbing my wrists. I pouted pulling my hands back and crossed them again. “Look, a distraction!” I pointed up into the sky, he looked so I leaped up to touch his ears but he jumped back leaving me to fall onto my knees. I crossed my arms and looked away from him saying “Meanie” I pouted. “C’mon” he turned and started to walk away. Being as curious as I was, I followed giving a deep sigh as I got up. “Where exactly are we going?” I caught up to him and got a better look at him. He was at least an inch and a half taller than me. Me being 5’6 he was about 5’7 or 5’8. -possibly 18-19 years old- His hair was a brown, darker than mine and of course shorter. I don’t think that he could wear his in a high ponytail and still have bangs to leave behind the ears. –even though his ears are on top of his head- His eyes were a mixture of different greens while mine were of different blues. He was wearing black DC*’s - I had some black vans with the vans part red- He had blue baggy cargo pants –I had somewhat baggy bell bottoms that hid my knee pads for my skate board which I dropped when he stared dragging me- A black shirt with a red un-buttoned over shirt -Me, well it was a long tight tank top with a short sleeve blue over shirt with some simple black designs on it- “Just come on” he didn’t even bother look at me, but I did want to know where I was going so I just didn’t walk away. I did another deep sigh and looked down. “It’s not me they’re after, it’s you” He said –again- not looking at me. “Me?” I choked. “Why me?” “That’s what we want to know,” he said still looking forward. –We? Who are we? – I thought looking ahead thinking. I saw him steal a glance from me at the corner of his eye, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. “OK, stop” he held out his arm stopping us both from crossing the street. “Why?” I asked looking up to him. “Just wait" was all he said. “For what?” I looked up to him again. Then all of a sudden, a silver car pulled up and the doors opened. He pushed me in and I slide over to the window as he climbed in too. Looking forward I saw two men, one in a suit that looked as if he had been rained on and the other in a checkered suit. “Ummm…hi?” I was nervous, mad, pissed, and confused. Where was I, who were these people and what did they want with me? All these questions running through my mind and none of them answered. “Go” the checkered man said and the wet guy began driving. It was quiet; I didn’t like the quiet. I was a loud person, still acted like a child even at the age 17. For me it was fun, acting as the child I still was, it was who I was. But sitting in a car –a silent car- with people that I did not know made me uncomfortable –really really uncomfortable- "I’m sure you’re wondering who we are and why we want you, hm?” The checkered man asked turning his head around so that he could see me from the passenger seat he was in. “Yes, that and why I was dragged, where I’m going and when I’m leaving.” I turned serious because I was, if I didn’t get home, who would water Sally –my plant- and walk Blake –my ferret- Granddad couldn’t and he wouldn’t either. What was it he used to say?

“Those damned thing are unless, ya don’t need’em. And that ferret a'yours don’t do anything ‘cept take up space,eat up our food and crap on the floor”

Yeah that was it.
No wait, forgot a part.

“Damn ferret”

Yep, that’s all of it. “Well, you sure do ask a lot of questions for someone as yourself” The checkered man laughed a bit. “Yes, and none of them have been answered” I looked at him seriously. “ Yes well, we are S.A.D”, he said plainly. I knew that what he just said was an acronym, but just to have fun. “Well I’m sorry for you and I hope you feel better again,” I said sympathetically. The boy who dragged me laughed. “No, we are the Secrete Angels of Darkness” La checkered man corrected. “Oh” I said. –at least some body thought it was funny other than me- I thought. He didn’t seem all that happy at my remark. “Well that’s who we are, now why we need you and why he dragged you” La Checkered Man –that’s what I call him- motioned to the boy next to me. “You saw the men that were chasing you right?” “The wanna be men in black yeah” I nodded. “Yes them, well they were after you because you are neko” “I’m what?” I raised my eyebrow to La Checkered Man. “Neko, half cat half human?” the boy beside me said sarcastically. “Well sorry dog boy” I looked over to him and glared as he growled. “Perfect” La Checkered Man said happily. “What?” we both asked. “The mission” he replied. “What mission?” I asked looking at both of them. “Wha…but you said I…her…grrrr” the boy stuttered then slouched and growled. “I’m still confused…what’s going on here?” I asked tilting my head. La Checkered Man didn’t reply but he just looked forward out the window. –what is going on here? And when I asked who they were I didn’t mean code names I wanted real names- I thought. I sucked on the bottom right part of my lip as I thought about the whole neko thing and how I don’t look like one because I heard that they have cats ears and a tail and I am pretty sure that I don’t have any of those. I think that the boy saw me because he turned his head to fully look at me but I didn’t take notice because I was busy thinking. “What are you doing?” he asked… he got no reply. “Hey, girl, what are you doing?” He asked again while waving his hand in front of my face. “Huh, what?” I looked over to him. “I said, what are you doing?” I thought about what I was just doing. Ummm…thinking?” I was confused, why did he want to know what I was doing? “No not that, the lip thing.” he motioned to his own lip. “Lip thing? Oh! I just do that I never notice but my friends do, I don’t see why people ask” I looked over to him. he raised his eybrow to me then looked out his window again. I wet my lip and continued to think not even wondering what part of Califronia I was in now.I looked out my own window to see that the wet man had driven pretty far in the past 15 minutes that we had been in the car. There were no longer any houses just one road -we must been in the non-housing area I guess- I thought lookig at the barren land before me and sighing once more.Then, I sprouted an idea, the one question in a car that everyone hated no matter who you were, "Are we there yet?" I saw La Checkered man flinch. "You still never answered my question on where we were going La Chechered Man" he sighed and turned around to face me. "I'll answer it later" he turned back to face the wind sheild. "How about now?" I asked as soon as he got comfortable. I could see that the boy was enjoying me agravating him but I got no answer. "How about now?"I asked again. No answer. "How about-" La Checkered Man interupted me. "NO. No we are not there yet" "I wasn't going to ask that but it is good to know that we are not there yet because now I get to ask you more questions" He did a low -ugh- then turned to face me again. "OK then, what were you going to ask then?" "I was going to ask, How about a drink please?" I did a cheesy grin as he slapped his forehead and the boy did a small amusing snort from his nose. "We'll see, but we need to get back to our HQ so that we can keep you safe from-" I interupted him as he was getting into what he was saying. "The wanna Be Men In Black and their wanna be men In Black car?" I looked to him nodding my head for hm to continue. "Yes, the wanna, ugh, well we need to keep you safe from them and we would like you to meet someone and you need to train the neko side of yo so that-" the boy cut him off. "So that I won't have to worry about saving your a**" I scoffed to him. "Don't flatter yourself, I can protect my self enough without needing your skills Wonder Dog" I said it plainly as if I had known him longer than the 20 minutes that I really had and it just felt...odd. La Checkered Man sighed and lookd forward as we glared at each other. This went on for about another, oh lets say 10 minutes and the car rode on and on and it also began to rain. "Well sorry Mr. Top Dog I did not mean to insult you" I said sarcastically. "No you're not and you know what, if you ever and I mean ever-" He stopped himself as he noticed me baginning to feel drowsy. I leaned my head up against the window as I watched the rain fall onto the window. "Hey, -shakes my shoulder- hey" Wonder Dog was a little mad tht he did not get to finish insulting me for insulting him which I did because he insulted me first, and a little worried that I became drwosy so quickly. "Hey, leave her alone. it's a cat thing, you know, she probably will get pretty tired on rainy days, and it's been a rather long trip, so let her sleep. You should et some shut-eye too Wonder Dog, you'll need it if you two are to start training tomorrow" Wonder Dog -he now has a name!- ndded at the first few sentences the shot his eyes open which were almost about to shut for a peaceflu nap until he said the thingy about training. "What!? Tomorrow! And with HER!?!?!?!" he was gonna yell some more when La Checkered Man stopped him. "Sleep" he said sternly. He mumbled some unkind words as he made himself comfortable against the window. He knew it was going to be a long trip. -It's not like I want to train her, and she's probably good enough anyway I'm mean when I first started to drag her she did stand her ground, maybe he thinks that she's all talk and no fight...Well we'll find out tomorrow then- He thought befor falling asleep.


I knitted my eye brows as I was coming around to waking up. I still felt as if I was moving so I still figured that we were still in the car. I opened my left eye to see that I wasn't leaning on the window any more. I opened my right eye and blinked a few times till I realized where I was. I looked over to my right to see that I was leaning on something else. A boy to be exact. "Ewwww!" I shreiked pushing off him and leanig back on to the window. I looked around and saw La Checkered Man with his head back snoring and Wonder Dog leaning on the window with his arms crossed. -well he's a heavy sleeper. I pushed off him pretty hard- I thought to myself looking at him. I was examing him to see if he showed any signs of waking up until I spotted his ears. -Well if I pushed off of him as hard as I did, he wouldn't feel anything if I touched his ears- I thought as my hands reached forward to touch them. "Don't even think about it" he mumbled. I retracted my hands and set them in my lap as I did a nervous laugh while I looked out the window. He resettled himself with his arms still crossed. I sighed and continued looking out my side of the window to see that we were driving throught a forest. It was pretty, I had to admit, and that is a real compliment because I dont find things pretty all that much any more. I opened my mouth to and "o" shape as I admired the suroundings of the forest. "You like it, no?" the wet man said as he noticed my spacing out. "Heh heh, yeah, it's pretty, is this where you are taking me?" I looked to him. "Oh yes, the castel is up this way miss" he said as he kept his eyes on the road and I looked out the window. -Did he just call me miss?- it took me a minute to process all that he had said. "Wait, did you say castel?" I put my hand on the shoulder the drivers seat. "Yes, Castel Skullsnatcher, Master Stevens castel" he said proudly. "Steven? Oh you mean La Checkered Man?" I motioned to the snoring man in the passenger seat. "*small laugh* Ah yes I do, you may call him 'La Checkered Man' but everyone else calls him Steve" I leaned back into the my seat as I again looked out the window. -this is a pretty place, no wonder why it's out so far? And since when has there been any castel in California?- I took in a breath as I was about to say something but held my tounge. La Checkered Man was beginning to stir. I could tell as he was closing his mouth and making noises. "Are we there yet Michael?" La Checkerd Man raised his head and fixed his hat as he looked over to the wet -now dry- man -who I now know as Michael- "Yes Master Steven, and the miss has awaken" La Checkerd Man rubbed his eyes and looked back at me. "oh, morning, I belive that Michael has already told you where we are going?" I nodded as he looked forward again saying "Good, good" I took in a big breath as I yawned and stretched. "I would suggest that you get comfortable miss, and go back to sleep as Master Steven has. We still have a little ways to go befor we arrive at the castle" I sleepily glanced to La Checkerd Man and saw that he had already gotten back to sleep. I groaned and rolled over to face the window fully, I could do this due to no seat belts. -ha ha rule breaker- I began counting trees but lost count at around 1 because I fell asleep.

"Miss...miss. I belive that it is time that you get up" I heard Michaels voice and a slight shaking on my shoulder. "Whaa?" I opened my eyes and held my head as I sat up and looked around. I was still in the car and had taken up the full length of the backseat of the car. But, also some one else was in the backseat with me. "Ahhhh!" I bolted forward pushing Michael out of the way and falling on the grassy ground on my butt, panting. I was leaning on him. "Well good morning miss, please follow me inside, I am sure that you would like a bite to eat and to freashen up, Master Blake will awaken shortly, he knows the way" Michael said as I got up and dusted myself off. He began to walk away and I followed. -I know, I know, his name is the same as my ferret, there is a reason for that, I'll explain later, or when it comes up, which ever one comes first- "Do I have to call him Master Blake, or Blake, or can we keep it between us that you told me his name and I still call him Wonder Mutt, Wonder Dog, Dog Boy, and whatever else I can come up with?" I looked at him as I held my elbows behind my back. "Yes, but only if you tell me your name." He looked down at me. I thought a bit. "Deal. My name is Dylan" he tilted his head the looked at me. "Isn't that a-" I cut him off. "A boys name I know, I Know. But my friends call me Duey or Due. I like it" he scoffed in a good way and turned down a corriador. "I was going to say it's a nice name, pretty umcommon for girls so you are lucky Miss Dylan" he looked forward again with a smile.

Michael was about 6'2, with fine groomed, grey hair.He wore a white collared shirt with a black button up vest. Black polished shoes and pin stripped pants.

-he seems nice, he is one of the reasons I would like to stay here...Blake on the other hand is not- I shook my head and sighed as we took a right turn to another corriador. "I'm pretty sure that you will be staying here for no more than a week or atleast until-" I cut him off happily. "The wana be men in black" "Yes, until they stop chasing you" We came on to a four way intersection and went straight."I would hope that you don't get lost in here, that would be terrible, so keep in mind on where we are going and the way we take it" I caught up to wak beside him. "I'm keeping in mind on what way we are taking, but I'm not so sure on where we are going?" I skipped alittle as we took another left turn. "We are heading to your room" I widened my eyes. "How long have you guys been expecting me?" We came on to a dead end except for the left turn there, we took it. "About a week now, we had read about you in the Sunday paper" An odd thought labled -stalker- ran through my mind as I knitted my eye brows in confusion. "No, we were not stalking you, if that's what you were thinking" He smiled at me. "Why would we want to in the first place" I jmped in suprise to the new presence. I looked behind me to see Blake catching up. "I see you are awake Master Blake, I was just showing Miss-" He was cut off by a shouting from somewhere in the castle. "MICHAEL!" I flinched. "Oh dear, Master Blake please show her to her room, it is the one across from you, Master Steven calls me" He turned on heel and walked away and left Blake there standing with his mouth open shocked. "What?!" He scowled and abrubtly began to walk away. I was still looking at the direction from which Michael walked to then when I looked to where he had left Blake and saw that he was already walking away. "Eep." I made alittle noise as I ran to catch up to him. There were a lot of turns to other hallways but we kept on straight.Then we came on to a big stair case; we started up. It was a spiral stair case, a big one at that. "Where exactly is my room?" I asked breaking the sclience. "Across from mine" he said bluntly. "And where is you room?" I asked after sighing. "After three stops on these stairs. First one is the training room. Second is other bedrooms. And the last one is where our rooms are" He said quickly.We came to the first stop and went down the long hall to the other side where more stairs were.On the way we passed rooms. There were signs on them and most of them revoled around 'Armory','Weopondry', and 'Hand-to-Hand'. I just looked at the rooms with neither of us saying anything.As we climbed the stairs, I noticed that the castel wasn't as musty or molded as I thought or even expected. -Michael must take real good care of it...there has to be other people here to help, I mean it is a castle, and a big on at that so us 4 can't be the only ones here- I thought as we continued to climb the stairs. We got to the top and I followed him as he took a left to where more stairs loomed. I went up the red capeted cobble stone stairs to get to the top where he said that my -and his- room was.

At the top of the stairs were many painting of old relatives or friends. Other than the paintings there were a lot of sutits of armor. I mean there were some on the previous floors and hallways but this one had more.Maybes it was because the shortness of the hallway -I could see the other end- or the lack of rooms. From what I could tell there was about 10-15 rooms give or take.he interpted my thoughts,"We sort the floors out byt age gruops, they'll be more people coming...not like we need any more though" he mumbled the last part."C'mon" he pulled me alittle way to a big door that had a gold plate on it with my name.-But how? I only told Michael my name-I thought as Blake opened the door."Dylan, huh?" he said as I walk in."Yeah, wow"

Everything was black and a dark blue. The curtians on the two windows,which were seperated by a big dresser- started out as a white -you could only tell if you moved the curtians, which I did- then a dark blue then ended with a black in the front, so there was no light in the room except for two lamps that were on either side of the king size bed. The bed had a step to get over to it, a royal blue sheet made of silk that went over the black comforter. It had many pillows-YAY-. A round all wood coffee table in the ,somewhat, middle of the room with a nice comfortable chair beside it. Behind the two was another door with a brass handle.

"Big room, nice too" I said feeling the sheets."Yeah well, Michael is going to get your stuff tomorrow and tell you gardian or family that you're on vacation or something. And this door leads to the bathroom that has all the girly mecessities you need" he said all this as he opened the door and steped to the side so that I could go in. I walked over and widened my eyes as I stood in the doorway. "That's a big a** bathroom" he walked away so that he could go to his room."Yeah, whatever, well if you have any questions. Please hesitate to ask" he shut the door. "Gee. Thanks" I said sarcastically as I walked into the bathroom.As I was exploring I saw there was a whole other part of the bathroom that I couldn't see from the door. "Damn, you could play baseball in here" I sighed and looked to the bathtub *cough* pool *cough*. I started up the water and look at all the soaps and scents. I walked ot to the bedroom and opened the dresser looking for a robe, well it was there, a long silk blue one."Wow, pretty" I grabbed it and changed out of my clothes leaving them on the bed. I shut and locked the bathroom and slipped the robe off and left it on the hook by the tub."Mmmmmmm" I sighed.

Let's skip ahead. After about 20 minutes I'd say.

I grabbed a towel and put it around my shoulders so that I wouldn't get the robe wet. I walked out to the bedroom to see my clothes on the bed neatly folded and with a small note on top.

Miss Dylan, I came in to drop off your food and noticed that you were in the bathroom, so I took the liberty of washing them. By the way, your food is on the small table.
-Michael

"nice handwriting" I set the note down and changed leaving the towel on my shoulders to keep my clothes dry. I looked over to the small table to see a silver dome over what smelled to be my dinner. I picked it up to see chicken parmasan -or how ever you spell it- "Yum"

Some Where In The Castel With La Checkered Man

"So is she settled" La Checkered Man said setting some papers down on his desk. "Yes, quiet comfortable I must say, but Master Blake is not at all pleased with her being here." Michael came from the shadows and stood about 10 feet away from La Checkered Man -let's just say LCM 'kay?- who was standing in front of the large windows now. "yes well, I will be sending one of our agents to get the next one in Russia, a vampire" LCM turned around and looked a Michael. "This should add a little excitment to the castel, well I must go and see how Miss Dylan is doing" Michael did a small bow and turned to leave. "Yes, some excitment." LCM walked over to his desk and closed a folder and set it on top of about 8 others with different names on them. Two of them saying 'Dylan' and 'Blake' "Add some excitment indeed"

Back With Dylan

After I finished eating I decided to go out and look at all the painting. Blake would already be in his room so I wouldn't have to worry about his smart mouth. Before leaving I grabbed that blue rock off the nightstand and walked out. -thought I forgot about it huh?- The first painting I went to showed an old man and a really long beard in small hair bows. -like Jasmin from Aladin - "It's called a hair cut dude..." I laughed a bit. "He was the first owner of the castel, his painting is on every floor" I jumped about 3 feet. "Michael, oh my....you scared me" I was leaning on the small table that held a pretty vase with some pretty flowers which made the hall way alittle prettier. -lol- "I am sorry, but i wanted to tell you that we should be expecting some new face in about a week or two" he smiled as I took a deep breath and relaxed. "Well I must be off, the rest of this castel needs tending" he turned on heel and left, I smiled and whent back to loking at the rest of the pictures on the walls. The naxt one I went to showed a lady, a really really really tall lady to be exact. "Woah, tall" I didn't know if it was the way she really was or if it was just the picture frame. This went on fro about another 10 minutes before I was interupted. I was looking at another picture by my door when someone came up behnd me. "What are you doing?" I jumped. "Gosh, is that all anybody can do in this castel is scare people" I turned around to see Blake. "Well you need to work on sensing eveyhing around you, they say you'r half cat you should be able to do that" he said bluntly, "Well sorry, I can't, why are you here any way?" I tilted my head to him. "You need to start training" he grabbed my wrist and lead me down the short hall to some double doors and down the stairs. We went down two flights of stairs before he actualy went in to a hall way. I remembered it being the trainning one from the signs. He led me into the hand to hand room and stoped and let go of my wrist. The room was large -like just about everyting else here- I thought. it was matted in blue soft stuff. -not to sure on what else to call it- There were two other doors which probably lead to the locker rooms, and there was a small water fountain in each corner. "We will start with hand to hand ombat, we read your profile and it said that you were pretty good at it too" Blake said as he waked to the opposite side of me. "yeah what of it?" I asked rudly as I alighned my self up about 9 feet across from him. "Well I'm pretty good at it too." he said smirking. "Well then we will just have to see who's better then won't we?" I returned his smirk.

Wait till next time to see who was batter in
Dylan vs. Blake!!!

or Dlylan vs. Moron!!!!! who will win?
-just so eveybody knows im going to do this part in third person 'kay?-

He ran at her with a punch ready but she ducked and stood ready as he turned to strike again. She took this oppertunity and did a round house kick to his head. he caught it in time and was now holding her leg. Her eyes widened as he smirked. He twisted it forcing the rest of her body to spin as well. She landed on her stomach.

more later......mom needs to get on

As he regained balance from the force of her falling, she rolled over and used both of her feet to kick him in the stomach then pushed off her hands and landed on her feet taking a defensive pose. He held his stomach and stood up. She saw he wouldn't attack so she did. She ran at him not really knowing what she was going to do.
Not knowing what to pick was my only problem that I wish I could change. The same thing would happen when I was inventing something or doing something with my copmuter. I could think of so many things to do with it that I couldn't pick one.
She was hopeing that he would so something before she actually got to him. And to her luck he did. He did a kick to her mid section but she a ducked and did a low foot sweep kocking him off balance. She was getting up so that she could get back on the defensive side but he grabbed her wrist and slung her over him about 3 fetet. She hit the ground with a thud and a groan as she tried to get back up. SHe couldn't, but she did manage to roll over to her side. He was running at her when there was a clapping.

-back to first person point of view, Dylans to be exact-

Blake stopped running and lowered his fist and I groggily tilted my head to see our auddience. It was.....

dun dun DUN! who will it be, will it be someone of the castel or another person here to join the ppl of Castel Skullsnatcher, but wait, didnt Michael say that it would be another 2 weeks till someone came?

It was LCM -La Checkered Man- he was walking over as he clapped. I sat up and held my side that I landed on and tucked some hair behind my ear that had fallen out of the pony tail."Good good, one of many ways to help the process" he said walking over as Blake crossed his arms. "What process?" I groaned trying to stand up. "To help turn you of course" he came over and helped me up and the door opened again to show that Michael came in with some ice water and a couple of towels. -he is just always there isn't he?- I thought straighting my shirt.