The Kingdom Returns (Kingdom Keepers fanfiction)

Back to the Reality

Willa

I woke up in a sweat. Was it all a bad dream? I sure hope it was, but it wasn't. Images of the night flashed through my mind. Wayne. Philby. All the Keepers. Br'er Fox. Br'er Bear. Running. Flashes of forest. Returning. I blinked back tears. I don't know why it was still a reaction, what with all the terror I had seen as a Keeper, but it was. 

As much as I hated the fear of being back to 1.0, I loved seeing everyone again. It made me realized how much I missed the whole ordeal. I mean, running from OT's was just a 'bonus', but seeing those six? I'd face Maleficent alone for the chance. I knew it wasn't going to be long before my phone blew up with texts from everyone, so I hopped quickly out of bed and washed my face. Sure enough, when I came back, I had 172 text messages. I scrolled through them quickly, glancing at the important things.

Philby

What now?

Finn

Don't look at me

Maybeck

Don't worry Finn, only Mandy does that ;)

Mandy

Back off, Maydork (Magis213)

Maybeck

Awww, girlfriend to the rescue. 

I scrolled past that argument, not wanting to see what happened next, probably because it wasn't going to be pretty. Finally I got to the good stuff.

Charlene

But seriously, what now???

Finn

Jelly's in 20?

Maybeck

Okay sure, invite yourselves over.

Philby

It's a date!

Maybeck

But Phil, I don't see Willa anywhere...

I growled at my screen.

Charlene

Back off, Terrance. 

There weren't any texts from Maybeck after that. I looked at the time stamp of the text from Finn inviting us to Jelly's. It was fourteen minutes ago. Sixteen, sixteen. I sang the song from High School Musical 3 in my head. Not to be cliché or anything, but Troy Bolton was my first love back in the day. I threw on some dark wash jeans with my dark purple sweater. With a quick look in the mirror and the shaking out of my hair, I was off to Aunt Jelly's. 

Even though I was technically old enough to drive and had my license, my parents still didn't let me drive without one of them in the car, and I wasn't particularly in the mood to explain to them why I was going to see people, whom I hadn't spoken to for over a year, out of the blue. So, I just jumped on my mint green bike and pedaled my little heart out over to Aunt Jelly's. I was starting to regret the sweater. It was Florida for goodness sake! Why did I even own one???

I rounded the corner and wound up at the little pottery shop that Maybeck and his Aunt Jelly ran. They were something else, I tell you. All of the keepers loved Jelly though. She was so accommodating and hospitable, except when Maybeck didn't do his work. I snorted at the thought of her towel whipping Maybeck for not cleaning out the kiln.