The Kings of Case Port- Pro., Chaps 1+2

        "Ella stop! What are you doing!?" Rida Uzzia grabbed her twin's arm as she tried to climb out her open bedroom window and into the night. Ella Uzzia flailed, trying to clutch the window frame, shake off her sister and keep hold of the old, yellowing papers tucked under her arm all at once.
         "Let me go sister! You don't understand!"
         "Understand what? Why are you leaving us? Father and I have done nothing to you have we? You can't be unhappy here! We have everything we could want! All the power of the family is at our finger tips! Why are you sneaking out in the night like a criminal! Sister!" Rida tugged harder, pulling with all her might against the stronger Ella. She flinched as the cold wind blew Ella's long midnight colored hair into her face, mixing perfectly with her own. Brown and red leaves flew in to the room, rustling along the rich green carpet.
         "Rida stop! Who cares about power or frivolous wants!? Do you know who we are!? What we are!? You know our mother is insane right? Do you know why? Because she's also our aunt! Our father's little sister! Our parents are siblings!"
         "What!? That's ridiculous! And no reason to run away! Come back inside!"
         "It's true! I found a bunch of old records hidden away in the library, including a detailed family tree! They married because they thought no one of different blood was worthy enough, and because they wanted to keep the power of the head family to themselves! That's why when we were born Mother lost her mind! Because she was ashamed of us!" Ella wrenched her arm out of Rida's grip and turn to face her shocked sister. "I can't stand it anymore. All the lies Father's told us, how harsh he is, making us study day and night, no fun, no friends, no freedom! I have to get out of here!"
         "Ella that can't be the only reason!" Rida shook her head, staring wide eyed at Ella's crying shadow perched in the window. She noticed the bundle of papers her sister carried. "What are those?"
         "Don't touch them!" Ella pulled them out of her sister's reach, but not before Rida snatched the largest away. "Give it back!"
         Rida stepped back out of the other's reach and held the paper out in front of her. It was a family tree, hand written in miniscule black ink dating from the origins of their family over 2000 years before to the present day. Next to each name was a paragraph of personal information. "What on earth?" Rida breathed, scanning across the myriad of familiar and unfamiliar people. She saw their mother and father, both with common parents. She saw many names underlined in red, marked at the side as the sign of a traitor, one of her own ancestors, Joseph, was underlined twice and the words Three Paces were scribbled next to his name. Above the tree, in sweeping script, she read the words:
"For deeds of evil and spreading horror,
For tainting the gifts of God's grace,
For planting plenty the seeds of demons,
For drenching in blood pure white lace,

For my daughter's death
For my husband's demise
For my mother and father's murder,
Hear me now with my closing eyes,

The children of Uzziel nevermore
Will escape the pain of internal war
And all of your sons and all of your dames,
Will never feel joy at the end of their days.

         "Ella what is this?" Rida whispered, looking up from the paper as if awakening from a trance. Ella swiped it from her hands and tucked it safely under her arm again, turning her back to her sibling.
         "It's a curse," she whispered. "On us." Then she sprung lithely from the window and ran off into the night. Rida ran up to the frame to watch her go, but it was too dark to see if she looked back.


1
         "Will one of you please," Mrs. Camborough sighed to the two students she held hostage at her door, "explain why Susan and Darcy are fighting in a mud pit in the middle of my classroom?" The boys smiled, watching the enraged girls tear at each other's hair and clothes, covered in thick, brown muck. The principal was sliding on the floor right next to them, trying hopelessly to pry them apart. The other boys watching let up a raucous cheer as Darcy ripped Susan's frilly and expensive shirt right in half and slapped it in the principal's face.
         "I suppose we could call it the natural animosity between the rich and the poor," the taller of the two stated matter-of-factly, sweeping his short, red hair out of his eyes. "Susan just showed off one too many pairs of designer shoes conveniently next to Darcy's Goodwill penny loafers." He smiled smugly; shoving his black gloved hands into the pockets of his black trench coat and leaned against the door to better enjoy the show.
         The other boy, more than a head shorter than his friend, turned away from watching the light reflect off the red head's dangling earrings and grinned innocently at the teacher. "I really don't see why you're talking to us," he said, tucking a lock of his blue and black streaked hair behind his ear. "We had," he paused as one girl screamed behind him, "almost nothing to do with the whole ordeal."
         "Well you're sure going to have a lot to do with the punishment!" the principal shouted, stumbling up from the slippery floor. His extremely large body was heaving, his normally gray mustache-the only hair on his head, was caked brown and the face behind it was quickly turning purple.
         "Why, Mr. Thorton," the shorter boy said in mock concern, "What on earth are you talking about?"
         "Stow it, Mister Uzzia!"
         "His name is Mar."
         "You too Kira!" Mr. Thorton snapped. "To my office, the both of you!" The great man jabbed a shaking finger down the hallway and the boys walked quickly out of the room, laughing freely. "And Mrs. Camborough," Mr. Thorton added, "Get those girls off each other!" He slammed the door behind him and marched after his prisoners to his office.
         Mr. Thorton's office could have been politely called, "sports themed," but most Case High students chose to call it what it really was: "Thorn-wart's Shrine." One wall, lined with shelves, displayed fifty-two signed footballs (half of them signed by Thorton himself), sixty-three plaques and trophies dating back to when the school first opened, and two hundred and two bobble head figurines of famous athletes. The wall in front of the desk was coated in pennants cheering every team in the country and photos of Thorton in his prime football playing years. The floor, desk and chairs were also littered with football paraphernalia, severely limiting space, but the thing that really made the room famous was a large painting that took up an entire wall by itself. It was of Thorton's most treasured memory: the day his father taught him how to play football. The painting was gaudy, poorly done, and made Thorton's father look like God. Students often complained that, if Thorton thought his dad was God, who did he think he was?
         "Aaah. It's good to be back, isn't it Mar?" Kira sighed, plopping down into a chair. "There's just no better feeling than the one you get when you're standing in the looming shadow of a ‘required vacation.'"
         Mar grabbed the other chair and spun it around, propping his head up on the back. "Say that again tomorrow, when Yumi sticks you with babysitting Ellie all day."
         "Ewww! Don't talk about evil, horrible, disgusting things when I'm happy! Besides, if stay at your place, there's nothing Yumi can do."
         "Assuming my brother doesn't ban you from the house."
         "Alright you two, keep quiet!" Mr. Thorton bustled into the office and squeezed his massive form behind his desk. "Marcus!" He snapped, "Sit up straight and turn that chair around!"
         "My name is not Marcus," Mar frowned, not moving.
         "You know, Mar isn't a nickname like ‘Thorn-wart,'"
            "You keep your mouth shut Kira Kent! I will not condone such rude behavior IN MY OWN OFFICE!!!I do not care what you say his name is! No one names their kid ‘Mar!' NOW BE QUIET!!" Mr. Thorton, the veins in his head bulging, was forced to stop and take a breath. "Now," he continued, his breathing labored and face still flushed a sickly purple, "tell me what the hell you did to those girls, so I know if I can finally kick you cretins out of my school!"
         "Aw, Mr. Thorton, we could never leave!" Kira said, smiling.
         "What would you do without us?" Mar grinned. "Who else would call you ‘Thorn-wart' so lovingly?"
         "Or stick ‘Praise Football Jesus!' posters on your office door?"
         "Or make you paper hats to shield the student body from your shiny head and save everyone from being blinded?" Thorton only glared hotly at the two of them, awaiting his answer.
         "Alright, Mar," Kira huffed, slumping back in his chair as if suddenly exhausted, "You'd better tell the story. You're better at it than I am. Plus you can do the puppy-eye thing that's so cute it hypnotizes people into letting us go." He gestured grandly at his companion to begin.
         Mar slid slowly off his chair, spun it smoothly around behind him and sat back down, back straight and legs crossed, looking up at the ceiling as if trying to remember just where to start. "Let's see..." he said, curling a blue strand of hair, "I guess our ingenious little plot began after spring break, when Susan first started going out with Jesse. You see, that was all our doing-hooking Jesse up with his dream girl. All we asked for this once in a lifetime miracle of true love was that Jesse be very, easy, or you could even say prodigal, with his money concerning the issue of buying Miss Susan whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it, no matter the price.
         "He did his job better than we could have ever hoped. By the end of one week, Susan had a new puppy, twenty new outfits, and a new car. Jesse is very well-to-do you see, so it was no problem to him. The only thing that stopped Susan from dating him earlier was a nasty reputation as a ‘geek.'
         "On top of Jesse's constant spending, I dipped into my own pocket and gave Susan a new pair of designer shoes every day, not even on the market yet, that I was able to get a hold of from Bruce Palter at the mall, who happened to owe me a rather large favor. Every morning, on Susan's doorstep, a pretty wrapped shoebox would be waiting for her, accompanied by a card that said only, ‘From your secret admirer.' Needless to say, Susan couldn't resist showing them to every, girl, boy, tree and urinal in town. That's where Kira and Darcy came in.
         "Kira worked tirelessly from April right up to today, being Darcy's shoulder to lean on. They're both pretty much dirt poor, so Darcy would be more likely to trust Kira. Whenever Darcy was feeling excessively inferior, she would come to Kira, and he would subtlety inflame her dislike of Susan, until today, when our final goal was realized. A real, live, end of the school year cat fight. Of course, we were actually planning for the fight to take place right on the last day of school, but Darcy jumped the gun. In the end though, it worked out, because if she had waited we would not have had the pleasure of the mud pit. That little blessing was entirely a coincidence. Joey happened to have some dirt from a botany project, and Chelsea had some water for a science experiment. The fight knocked both of them over and the dirt and water made a lovely mess in Mrs. Camborough's classroom. And that, Mr. Thorton, is precisely why you have called us here today. Now please don't kick us out, please?" Mar finished his tale with adorable pouting lips and sparkling eyes that would've melted any soft touch on the spot. Unfortunately, there was nothing soft about Mr. Thorton.
         "Get out of my office," Mr. Thorton growled, "get out of my school, and stay out of my sight for the rest of the year! Do you understand me? You are both suspended for the last week of class! NOW OUT!!" Thorton banged his fists on his desk, shaking the whole office, and Mar and Kira stumbled out, clutching their stomachs, laughing.
         "Did you see his face!?" Kira choked, "He looked like a purple walrus!" The two boys immediately succumbed to even louder fits of laughter, leaning against the wall and each other for support. Further down the hallway, Darcy and Susan were being escorted by Mrs. Camborough to face Thorton themselves, though they looked far less joyful at the thought.
         "Hey, Darcy, how's it going?" Kira asked brightly as the girls passed.
         "Shut up, you! I hate you both!" Darcy shrieked.
"Yeah," Susan sneered from under Mrs. Camborough's coat, "You're always together; always up to something. I bet you two even make out behind the gym after school!"
         "Nah," Kira replied, throwing his arm over Mar's snickering shoulders and squeezing him close, "We're more of a skip math to go make out kinda couple." This made Mar double over again, grabbing Kira's head to hold himself up. The girls glared at them both and stomped off down the hall after their teacher. "Cut it out! You're messing up my hair," Kira complained, shoving Mar away.
         Mar only reached back up and ruffled Kira's head more ferociously. "Good! Your hair needs messing up. I mean, what do you do, brush it? Girl!"
         "Well excuse me for caring what I look like, smurf!"
         "Girl!"
         "Smurf!"
         "Shirtless Susan!"
         "Football Jesus!" Both of them broke off laughing, their voices echoing down the empty hallways as they walked out into the open, summer air. Free.   

2
         Mar's house was old. Really old. And big. Really big. It was quite possibly the oldest building in Case Port, and the certainly the biggest building for miles. Set right over the Crystal River like a fortress, it was white and gray stone, with rather small windows, four floors plus an attic and basement, high ceilings, heavy wooden doors, winding staircases, fancy furniture and even two towers facing east and west on either side of the river running underneath. Normally, houses like Mar's were big and foreboding on the outside, but surprisingly warm and friendly on the inside. This house was almost the opposite. Outside, completely surrounding the building was one of the nicest parks in town that was filled with people day and night. Mar and his brother would often play along the banks of the river and in the trees and gardens when they were little. The Dividing Bridge that connected the east and west sides of town was Mar's favorite place to go when he was felling depressed. And Mar's house stood over all of it like an old sentry.
         Inside the house was a completely different story. The kitchen, the two sitting rooms, the study, the bedrooms and the other rooms that people actually lived in were nice enough, but it seemed that every other door in the place was either locked, or had some gruesome, cryptic warning on the outside warding off visitors. The house was known throughout town as the Three Paces Castle, because it was said that once a burglar tried to break in and rob the place, but only took three steps before running out screaming in terror. The thief supposedly jumped right into the river in broad daylight and drowned. The inner hallways were a maze, and even three weeks worth of sleepless effort had not been able to get Mar into the basement, the locks and door itself were so complicated. As far as Mar knew, at the very least three quarters of the house had not seen any human presence in over a century. But even more strange than that was that every single room in the house, excluding the basement, had at least one window, though they were either covered up with curtains and sealed shut or too high up to see through. Mar often wondered why someone would give a building so many windows, and then proceed to lock every single door.   
         Of course now Mar had bigger things to think about, like what his brother was going to do to him when he found out Mar was suspended again.
         "Um, Sever? I'm home!" Mar called out nervously in the entryway, setting down his bag and kicking off his shoes. "Sever?"
         "I'm in the kitchen," Sever called back. It wasn't often that Mar came home and Sever wasn't in the kitchen. He loved to cook, and was a great chef. "Come here," he said, poking his head through the door. "We need to talk, runt." Uh-oh, Mar thought He knows. Mar stepped reluctantly through the door into the aroma filled kitchen. The table in the next room was already set, and the sight of it made Mar's mouth water. Unfortunately for him, eating was not on Sever's to-do list.
         "Suspended!" Sever cried. "Mar, are you trying to make me go crazy? You know how important school is! How are you supposed to do well if you keep getting kicked out!?"
         "I know, I-"
         "I know you know! That's why it drives me nuts!" Sever walked into the dining room and sat down at the table, motioning for Mar to do the same. "What I don't think you know is just how much what you do today affects the rest of your life, Mar. I want you to have fun, but I also want you to think more about your actions. I want you to be able to go to college, to have a better future. I don't want you to grow up doing odd jobs all night to get along, like me. Hell, I work all the time just so you won't have to! I want your life to be bigger than mine, Mar!" Sever let out a long sigh and looked up at the lights in the ceiling. "And I also want you to stop making me give lectures and worry my head off like a really pathetic mother hen." He looked back down and smiled ruefully. "Now let's eat before I stick my hands on my hips and have to shoot myself."
         "Thanks, bro," Mar said, smiling apologetically before digging into everything within reach. They both stuffed themselves until there wasn't a single crumb on the huge, mahogany table. Afterwards they sat back, too full to move right away.
         "Okay," Sever said, pushing away his plate, "Before you get dessert, what exactly did you do this time?"
         "You don't wanna know," Mar answered, shaking his head.
         "You don't want chocolate mousse," Sever countered, standing up.
         "Kira and I set up a cat fight in Camborough's classroom," Mar quickly replied. "You should've seen it! The whole plan took months, but it was so worth it!" Mar's eyes widened as Sever walked back into the room carrying two small bowls of strawberry topped chocolate.
         "I can't believe you!" Sever laughed. "How do you do it?"
         "Hey, I already had to explain that to Thorton. You can figure it out for yourself!"          Suddenly, the sound of the front door opening interrupted their conversation. "And the rest of the gang arrives," Sever said cheerfully. "Come on in, guys, I made dessert for you too!"
         A chorus of cheers rang through the entryway and three boys charged through the kitchen to take seats at the table. Kira sat down right next to Mar, grinning broadly. He'd changed his all black attire for a more summer friendly white t-shirt and blue jeans. The other two were as different from each other as night and day. One was gigantic; tall and muscular, with short, sandy blond curls on his head and light freckles. The other was shorter than Mar and scrawny as well, with curly brown hair falling in his face, hiding it.
         "Teo!" Mar exclaimed. "Huge! Kira told you the news? Hey, wait a minute! Huge, I thought you were out of town until the end of the week!"
         The giant only smiled and said, "I was. Now I'm back. You know how things go."
         "Oh man! Sever you're the best!" Teo said as he inhaled his bowl of chocolate..
         "Don't praise me yet, Teo. You all have to help with dishes. Moocher's fee, you know," Sever smirked, sending up a wave of protest. Sever smiled wider and propped his feet up on the table. "Hey! Less complaining, more cleaning, servants."
         "Why can't you have a dishwasher, like normal people!?"
         "Who are you calling servants!?"
         "If I do the laundry, can I have seconds?"
         "Fine," Sever sighed, raising his hands in defeat. "I'll do the dishes, then be late for work and get fired, all just to make you happy." He walked off into the kitchen alone and was quickly followed by the four younger boys, who ended up being more of a hindrance than a help. After the third broken dish, Sever was forced to kick them out and do the dishes himself anyway.
         Banished from the kitchen, Mar, Kira, Huge, and Teo headed outside to enjoy the last rays of sunlight.
         "So, cat fight huh? All the fun happens when we're gone," Huge leaned back against the white railing of the bridge and sat down. "Of all the days to be stuck in family-land!"
         "No kidding!" Teo agreed. "I wasn't expecting anything until the last day! Now I'm going to have to go to school for no reason at all!"
         "Hey, we weren't planning on it, you know," Kira said apologetically. "The fireworks just went off a little too soon. Anyway, what's done is done. We need to start up on the good fun now. Summer fun."
         "You mean spending five hours asking Diez out and another five hours listening to her say no?" Mar frowned. "And then spending all night in my room complaining about it?"
         "Exactly," Kira replied. "And I think we should get a head start right now. Besides, I have a good feeling about today."
         "You have a good feeling about everyday," Teo joked. "Maybe you should try when you have a bad feeling. Or better yet, maybe you could give up and flirt with some one other than my twin sister."
         "No can do, Teo. While I respect your sentiments as my friend, I cannot simply ‘give up' on my soul mate. You see, it is destiny that we should be together, and no familial complications or friendships can hold up against the almighty power of fate."
         "You're not going to make a speech out of this and waste the whole night away, are you?" Mar asked loudly.
         "Fine! Let's just go down to my place, pick up the rest of the fireworks and start lighting things on fire to watch them explode!"
         "Sounds good to me," Mar lead the way across the bridge and down to Kira's tiny, unkempt house on the edge of town. As the boys walked up, they could see Yumi sitting at the kitchen table through the window. She seemed happy, her curly brown hair pinned up in a neat ponytail, her full red lips pursed in thought over a magazine. The sight made Mar, Teo and Huge stop for a moment before entering the house, because it was so strange that Yumi should be so content when Kira was in trouble. Usually when Kira had been suspended, the boys walked in to find her pacing relentlessly up and down the hallway, looking angry and disheveled.
         "She doesn't know you haven't been at school since noon, does she?" Mar asked, going around to the back door so he could talk without giving anything away.
         "And she's not going to find out either," Kira warned. "I went to a lot of trouble sneaking into my own house and hiding from her and the little demon to answer the phone when the school called, tell them Yumi was gone for the week, then sneaking back out before I got caught. I'm not going to have all that, ugh, effort go to waste because you three like to see me squirm when trouble bites me in the ass twice as hard for trying to slip away from it."
         "Oh, but it's no fun being a good boy!" Mar whined. "I want Yumi to think I'm a cool badass!"
         "And won't not being in trouble ruin your reputation?" Huge joked, nudging Kira in the shoulder. "You wouldn't want to have to start wearing both of your shoes now, would you, Kira?"
         "Just shut up and don't say anything!" Kira yelled, opening the back door and slipping up the stairs. Kira's room was simple; he didn't spend much time in it, even when he was grounded. It was the opposite of Mar's room, which was heavily furnished with antique family heirlooms and the walls were covered with photos. Kira had a bed, a closet, a desk, and a window with curtains bearing large burn marks from past mischief gone horribly wrong. The boys  walked in and found their own place to relax-Mar on the bed, Teo on the floor, Huge on the window sill, as Kira opened his closet and dug through piles of junk, throwing in the way objects out into the room as he burrowed in deeper. Not long into his search, he grabbed something that yelped as he tried to yank on it.
         "Kiwa, wet me go!!!" Kira lifted out of the rubble a little girl, no older than three, with black pipe curls and a dirty face. Kira immediately dropped her down on her feet as if she was diseased, and she began to cry.
         "Ellie," Kira sighed, picking her back up and dumping her on Mar's lap, "Why were you hiding in my closet?" Mar rocked her back and forth until she was only sniffling instead of bawling, but she only shook her head, making her curls bounce. "Ellie," Kira warned, "If you don't answer, I'm going to take all your sidewalk chalk and hide it way up high where you'll never be able to get it!"
         "You are a horrible brother, you know that?" Mar chuckled, setting Ellie down on the ground so she could cling to Kira's leg and wipe her nose on his jeans. "Sometimes I think you think this adorable little angel is evil."
         "That's because this adorable little angel is evil." Kira replied, trying vainly to pry her off of him. "Now answer me Ellie, I'm busy. I don't have time for the silent treatment."
         "It was a supwise," Ellie murmured to Kira's leg. "I was gonna supwise you bud I got wost. And-and-and," She started crying again until Kira relented and picked her up.
         "It's okay," he sighed, bouncing her up and down. "You're fine now. Go outside and color on the driveway or something, okay? I'm leaving in like, two seconds." She nodded sullenly, so he put her down and let her tumble off downstairs. "Why do you insist I be nice to demons whose sole purpose in life is to make me miserable?" he said, turning back towards Mar. "And why did neither of you say anything and let me give in to him and his niceness," he added to Huge and Teo, who stood by smirking. "Whatever," he sighed, going back to the closet, "I think I found it anyway. Here!" he stepped back, holding up two plastic bags full of homemade fireworks. "Let's head down to the docks and shoot these babies off!" Kira tossed one bag to Huge and they sprinted down the stairs and out the front door, yelling quick hellos to Yumi as they passed. 
         "Don't be out too late, boys," she called after them. "You have school tomorrow!"
         "Nah, Me and Kira got suspended!" Mar called back. Kira smacked him on the shoulder and took off running faster as Yumi screamed for him to come back. Mar looked at Teo and Huge and shrugged. "Hey, if I have to sit through a meaningless lecture with Sever, Kira has to grit his teeth through a meaningless grounding with Yumi. Those are the rules; he doesn't get off the hook unless I do. He'll just have to use the window instead of the door for a few days."
         The four of them ran through the dark across town to the docks, winding their way through side streets and alleys they knew like the back of their hands. As the smell of fish got stronger and spots of the black ocean could be seen through gaps in the buildings, they slowed down and caught their breath. They had to stop for moment to let Huge catch up, wheezing from the extended effort. By the time the sun was completely gone below the horizon and the stars were the brightest things in the sky, they had reached the docks and found a mostly empty one where they could rest and set down their baggage.
         "Alright," Kira said, standing up and stretching his legs, "Let's set off the smaller ones first-save the big ones for the grand finale. If we aim them out this way we can be sure they won't burn down any boats or houses or whatever, even if something goes haywire."
         "Like last time, when we set some lady's hair on fire?" Huge asked, lying spread-eagled on the wooden planks.
         "And then had to run for three miles from the cops?" Teo added, helping Kira sort through the first bag.
         "And then decided it would be good idea to make Mar take one from the team and shove him out into the open so he had to run twice as far as any of you chumps and three times as hard?" Mar groaned. He picked up a box of matches and pulling one out, lit it. "I should set all of your hair on fire for that." He waved the match over Kira's red head then tossed it into the water before the flame reached his fingers. "But you know me; I'm too much of a pansy to hold a grudge." He sat back down heavily and waited for Kira and Teo to finish meticulously sorting the fireworks by size, color and explodeability. Mar looked back at the empty shops and dark houses behind him. The docks were always the loneliest place in town at night.
         Suddenly, he sat up. "Guys, what's that? Over there!"
         "What's what?" Kira snapped, irritated at being interrupted in his work. "There's nothing out here."
         "There was someone there, right on the other end of the dock, behind those boxes!" Mar whispered, staring into the darkness. "They were looking right at me."
         "Maybe it's the police," Huge suggested. "They're probably just waiting for an excuse to cuff us."
         "Or maybe Mar should stop staring off into the distance and give us a hand. We're ready to get started," Kira said. "Give me the matches." 
         "I'm not joking around you guys! Someone's here! I've got a bad feeling about this!"
         "Hey, chill out Mar," Kira said, getting worried. "What are you freaking out for?"
         "I don't know," Mar replied, looking back over his shoulder as he handed Kira the matches. He shook his head. "I guess I'm just paranoid. No one's there now, anyway. Let's have some fun and forget about it."
         The other three cheered and immediately the sky was filled with sparkling lights and crashing booms. They whistled along with the crackling sparks and jumped up screaming at the biggest bursts of light. Occasionally a dud would pop up, and Huge would hurl it into the sea as far as he could, amidst raving boos and curses. As fun as it was, Mar couldn't help glancing behind him every so often all through the night and Kira couldn't help noticing.

         As luck would have it, the last firework, a spectacular failure, was launched into the ocean just as the sun began to rise above the water. Figuring the tiny splash it made wasn't big enough; Huge opted for a grander finish to the night's celebration and threw Teo off the dock as well. It took Mar and Kira both to take revenge, by grabbing onto Huge's arms and jumping off the dock themselves, pulling the giant down with them. The splash fight that ensued drew the eyes of quite a few early risers. Eventually there was a small, cheering crowd gathered on the street and the boys broke apart and climbed back on shore out of embarrassment.
         Soaking wet and sleep deprived, they wandered back to the park in the center of town, letting the sun dry their clothes as they stretched out on the Dividing Bridge. They could just see Sever waking up through the windows of Mar's house behind them, his black hair ruffled and his eyes dreary. The park was empty except for a few joggers, who were forced to step over and around the limp bodies spread out along the bridge as they would not move no matter how much they were poked, kicked, or reprimanded. They laid perfectly still until the sun was a full circle in the sky and Sever called out from the balcony over the eastern door that breakfast was ready.