Flipside

Part 4 Part 6

The group arrived at a gate.

"This is our first stop!" Smiled Michael.

"What is it?" Pepper yawned.

"Civilization!" He announced.

"Nope." Mallory turned around as if doing an elegant pirouette and started walking away.

"What?" Marsha turned to her.

"You heard me. There is no way you're dragging me in there." Mallory hissed as Michael Telekinetically dragged her through the gate.

"Yeah, you might wanna take that back." Michael laughed shyly. "So are you 'coming with' or not? I will tele-drag you in, with great difficulty because I'm also using crutches."

"Fine!" She snapped. The other sighed in relief and dropped her. "If we didn't need to work together the other leg would be broken by now." She muttered. "Among other bones." She glared at his neck.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Michael asked.

"I don't know..." She frowned.

"You must know!" He pressed.

"I don't know." She repeated.

"I don't accept that!" Michael stared at her.

"I DON'T KNOW!" She shouted.

"I'm getting worried about you, Mallory. Think." And he was genuinely worried.

"I..." She shut her eyes tight and blocked out all noise.

"Yes?"

"I hate you because you're so nice to me?" She was uncertain.

"That doesn't make any sense." He frowned.

"No, it doesn't. Drop it so we can get out of this wretched town." She whispered. Michael raised an eyebrow, but hobbled over to a citizen to ask for directions.

Meanwhile, Nevin was dispensing all of his money on a Flipside camera.

"Nevin?" Marsha appeared behind him.

"Yeah?" He picked up a photography device to take a closer look at it.

"Can I talk to you in private?" She looked down.

"Sure. One sec." He handed over some cash, causing the shopkeeper to look at the foreign currency in confusion. He just placed it on top of a Plane of Magic five-whatever-the-currency-there-is bill featuring the face of the Human King. He slung the strap attached to his new apparatus over his shoulder and went to a tree for him and Marsha to sit beneath.

"Um..." Marsha smiled awkwardly.

"Go on. I wanna explore this place." Nevin took a photo of the town.

"So, what do you think of what's happened in the last twenty-four hours?" She asked. Nevin looked down at his watch.

"Twenty-five." He corrected, to which his cousin rolled her eyes. "And it's p cool I guess."

"P?" She raised an eyebrow.

"You know, p for pretty. But not in the physically flattering sense." He explained.

"Oh. Okay." Marsha nodded. "But do you feel like it's too much pressure? Stressed, I suppose?" She inquired.

" Look, Marsha, it's not anything to do with the recent events." He patted her back.

"It's not?" She raised an eyebrow.

"You're twelve, it's about time. You can blame puberty." He said.