The earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not contain the following excerpt=========================================================         I have always been prone to outbursts. By nature, I am a soft-spoken person.However, I do have a tendency to get riled up on occasion, and that negative energyusually spews forth from me in an outburst. Most of the time, it isn't a very big deal. Myfriends' might give me a strange look or request that I switch to Decaf, but aside fromthat everything is okay. One incident comes to mind, though, an incident that led up tothe dissolving of the three-way friendship between Pepper Ann, Milo, and myself. I donot and will not shoulder the entire blame and burden alone-each of us contributed tothe sad end of our beautiful arrangement. But I am afraid I must admit that my selfishnessplayed a large role. Yes, I can admit it now. I was weak. Weak and lonely. . .and jealous.I allowed it to eat away at my integrity. Truth be told, I am ashamed of myself.Deservedly so. If I could turn the clock back and set things straight, I would.         Yesterday, with great reluctance, I sent Pepper Ann a letter. I don't know if she'llopen it or not. Has she forgiven me, or does her anger still run dark and deep? I don'tknow if I'm worthy of her forgiveness. It depends on which side of the story you look at.But I wronged them both.         I'm sorry, I shouldn't ramble. I'm getting ahead of myself. What happened to thethree of us is another story entirely. Perhaps I'll tell it to you, but I have to finish tellingyou this story just to tell you that one.         But getting back to where we were....ah yes. Milo and I are still stuck together.And Pepper Ann, being such a loyal friend, volunteered to go and get the antidote to ourlittle problem. Yes, those were the carefree days of middle school, when being glued toyour best friend's face was the biggest of your problems....===============================================================         Pigeons took flight in their effort to remove themselves from the blading path ofPepper Ann Pearson. They lifted off in all directions just as the red-headed girl inquestion lifted off of a four-step cement stair in the sidewalk and, surprisingly, glidedonward with little difficulty. Not that a misstep was likely to hurt very much. Pastexperiences made Pepper Ann a spokeswoman for safety, and she was always properlyoutfitted with a helmet and pads. She was considering investing in a pair of gloves aswell, because when she did take a tumble, the palms of her hands often substituted asbreaks. Unfortunately, when the palms of her hands and the pavement challenged eachother to a duel, her hands had a tendency of losing the battle. Half a year ago sheremembered scraping them so hard that there were tiny fragments of rock embedded inthem-not only had her hands lost the war, they had gone over to the other side! PlayingCrunch Pod hadn't been much fun for a week and a half after that little incident.         Given the current set of circumstances, though, Pepper Ann was willing to throwa little caution to the wind. Her friends needed her to save them, for a change. Besides, ifshe didn't get them unstuck soon, she was going to miss Crazy Twin Shenanigans!Fortunately, the hardware store wasn't too far away from school. One of the advantagesto living in a suburb was that all of the shopping needs were accessible either on MainStreet or at the mall. As much as she might've enjoyed a little jaunt to the mall in searchof the perfect useless artifact to waste her allowance on, her better judgment prevailedand she set a course for the small shops of Main Street. She felt focused,uncharacteristically so. As far as her balding went, she was in the zone. It had been agessince she had felt such precise control. She was a woman with a mission, and nothing wasgoing to distract her-         "Hey, Pearson!"         For one brief, shining moment, the world had made sense to Pepper Ann Pearson,age 12 and a quarter. Then Craig Bean had spoken to her. It was unfortunate that theeighth grader had such a tendency to do these kinds of things to her. She felt her feet turnsideways she tried to make a very hasty stop. She succeeded in sending the sand of thesidewalk flying everywhere. Her own body was spared all but the most minor injuries asshe managed to embrace a convenient light post, which she realized had saved her fromfalling unceremoniously on her rump. "Ugh." She moaned as she released the light postand began sweeping the sand off of herself.         "Nice entrance. You cool?" Craig inquired.         "Huh? Oh! Yeah, I'm cool!" Pepper Ann laughed hesitantly. She found her eyesunable to look at him, and they drifted downwards, towards his shoes. "Oh, Craig! I gotall this sand on your sneakers! I'm sorry!"         "No sweat. They're only sneakers. Besides, it was worth the show."         Pepper Ann took a modest mock bow. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here allweek!"         "Got any plans?"         "Just running an errand for my friends. I guess you could say they're in a stickysituation, and now they need me to get them out of it."         "I get you. That's cool. I'm meeting some guys over at the Freezy Pleezy in afew. Wanna come with?"         Pepper Ann resisted the urge to bang her head against the light post. Why was itthat Craig was always inviting her to stuff when she was busy? Why did the purveyors ofpre-adolescent romance mock her so? "I'd really like to Craig, but I promised--"         "S'okay. I understand. Seeya around, right?"         "Yeah." Pepper Ann hung her head. "Seeya around."         Craig turned and began walking away. Pepper Ann turned in the oppositedirection, but before she could launch herself onwards, she heard the sounds of her ownvoice escaping her throat. Funny, she never recalled commanding herself to speak.         "Craig!" She called after her increasingly not-so-secret-crush.         "Yeah?"         Pepper Ann quickly bladed over to Craig's new position. "Listen, I know I seemto be busy more often than not as of late. I'm sorry, I keep kind of a full schedule. I couldgo to Freezy Pleezy with you after soccer practice tomorrow!"         "That would be cool. But hey, don't stress yourself."         "It's no trouble. We're friends, right? It's my fault we never hang out. I justwanted to let you know that I notice."         "You're pretty cool, Pearson. All right, you got yourself a deal. Seeyatomorrow?"         "Count on it!"         This time, Pepper Ann glided off with a much happier heart. So happy was shethat she had to stop to admire herself in the window of the local computer shop.         "Did you just make a date with Craig Bean?" her reflection asked.         "Um. . .maybe? I wouldn't really call it a date. More like a rescheduling of theevent he proposed for today."         "Look at you, you're not even nervous!"         "That's because I'm in the zone today. I mean, check it out! I'm off to help myfriends out of a jam and I didn't even come up with a crazy scheme that would only makethings worse and tax the boundaries of our friendship. I'm just going to buy thedissolvent and bring it to them."         "Whoa! Okay! Who are you and what have you done with the real me?!"         "Of course it's me! Otherwise you couldn't be my reflection, right?"         Her mirror image seemed to ponder this for a moment. "I guess I can't argue that.Okay, so what's the deal? Why no crazy scheme?"         "Eh, gotta save something for the next episode, right?"         "Point taken. Okay, I'm buying. But it still seems a little off."         "Okay, okay! Fine! If you must know, I was planning on taking a picture of themand selling it to Tessa and Vanessa! Sheesh!"         "I'd be careful if I were you. Antagonizing them might unleash Nicky's dark side.Need I remind you of what she's capable of when she goes off the deep end?"         Images of Nicky chasing her around with an axe began filling Pepper Ann's mind.Recoiling in horror, she shook her head vigorously to clear it. "Point taken! Okay, yourright, no picture. It's a shame, too, because I could've made enough off of it to buy thatblack velvet Fuzzy painting I've always wanted." She sighed. "I guess I'll just strictlyplay the good Samaritan today. Curse you, conscience!"         Pepper Ann's reflection folded her arms across her chest in offence. "Hey!Without me, you'd probably be doing hard time, or be on the lam, or getting into Fuzzyonly knows what kind of trouble. You owe me, sister!"         "Yeah, yeah," Pepper Ann mumbled as she gave a raspberry to her mirror imageand resumed her blading, cursing yet another get-rich-quick scheme gone bust.         Alice Kane snickered in the science lab as she triple-checked her notes, makingsure that she hadn't made any careless mistakes. Plotting revenge against her arch-rivalalways needed to be done carefully. She wanted the utter humiliation and defeat ofPearson and her cronies to be a lasting presence. Alice Kane had been showed up oncetoo often, and she wasn't going to take it anymore. Her pride had been wounded, and herpride meant far more to her than blading contests, presidential elections, or giant pencils.But after months of searching, Alice Kane finally felt she had found the answer. Thiswould be an assault designed to damage over time, to keep coming back to haunt herenemies for years to come. And it was necessary. The Jane Eyre wannabe and the foppishartist were of little consequence or threat to her, but the world could not abide by twobrilliant, upcoming scientists from the same small town at the same time. One of themwould have to go, and it would not be Alice Kane. "Soon enough, P. Ann, soon enough."The brunette grinned mischievously, then turned a page in her notebook and began a newseries of scribbling. . .         "How long does she expect us to stay like this?!" Nicky groaned.         "Hey, c'mon, it could be worse. She'll be back soon, I'm sure." Milo tried tosoothe his friend, but to little avail.         "Milo, this is Pepper Ann we're talking about. She probably got distracted by agame of Crunch Pod, or by a sale on back issues of Fuzzy comics, or some totally buffhottie walking down the street, or--"         "Have a little faith, will you?"         "I don't have time for faith!" Nicky squealed. "I should be studying for thehistory test tomorrow!"         "We can get a start on that now."         "How?!!"         "By going back to that most classic form of expression, the poem. Observe." Milotook a moment to clear his throat, then recited a couplet that every self-respecting schoolboy and girl knows. "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Now, you try."         "I don't know, Milo. . ."         "Just try it."         Nicky  blushed a little before finally giving in. "Many a lady found him quitesvelte, say hello to Roosevelt!"         "See, you're getting the hang of it already."         "If you say so." Nicky flipped her hair back, taking Milo with her through themotion.         "Hey, watch the sudden moves!" Milo called as he rubbed his sore cheek.         "Oh, sorry, I forgot."         "That was weird."         "What was weird?"         "I can't remember the last time I saw both your eyes at the same time. You'realways obscuring one of them with your bangs."         "I guess that's just my thing."         "They're nice eyes. You don't have to hide them, y'know."         "Stop it! You sound just like Stewart! It's. . .unsettling."         "Sorry."         "Besides, you prefer Gwen Mezzrow's anyway, don't you?"         "Sometimes. I don't think I have a crush on her today. Maybe I do. I dunno, Ihaven't seen her."         "Please explain that one to me. How can you two have this kind of situation!Either you have a crush on her or you don't!"         "I don't know, Nicky, but it's a scientific fact that Gwen Mezzrow and I just can'tlike each other on the same day. For that to happen, the planets would have to be in somesort of weird alignment or something."         Nicky sighed. "Men."         Milo snorted in retort. "This from the girl who said my 'guylessness' is whatmakes me desirable. I don't think I'll ever understand women."         "Indeed, it's amazing that the human species has managed to propagate for thislong."         "Why do you think that is?"         "I chalk it up to dumb luck."         "I'd sure have loved to buy them a Coke, my good friends, Raleigh andRoanoke."         Nicky sighed and began searching her mind for another stupid history limerick."Hurry, Pepper Ann, hurry." She muttered under her breath as time droned on.================================================================    This has been an official Swead Entertainment fanfic!    == Visit Swead Entertainment @ http://www.intcon.net/~sonny/se ================================================================