A/N: Hey everyone! CM's finally back and so is Kaycee-cool! I gotta admit I'm out of motivation these days (which explains why I haven't been updating anything) and the fact that my keyboard was broken didn't help much. However, I had it replaced and I'm here now with a super-extra-special chapter, which I hope you'll like.
imaninaimagination, unknown guest and MetroNeko, thank you so much for your kind words! You are making me so happy with your reviews. And a special thanks to you, CreativeWritingSoul, for your constant love and support for this story. Kaycee-cool would probably be abandoned if it wasn't for all of you guys! You give me the motivation to continue, so without further ado... enjoy!
*CM*
Chapter 4
Yasmin barely talked to the girls for the rest of the afternoon. Cloe, being her closest friend, decided to approach her. "Pretty Princess?" she spoke quietly, as she walked behind her. Yasmin had her face glued to her computer screen and didn't seem to notice her. "Are you okay?" the blonde girl went on, but her friend ignored her. "Oh, come on Yasmin! You can't be mad at us because of a Tweevil!"
At that moment, Yasmin turned her chair around to face Cloe, as well as the other two, who were sitting over on the couch. "I'm not mad." she said in a rather calm voice, yet her expression told otherwise. "Just disappointed."
"You mean by us? But we did the best we could do!"
"Well, turning down Kaycee wasn't the best you could do!" argued Yasmin as she stood up, surprising her friends with her sudden outburst. "We're supposed to believe in forgiveness and accepting others the way they are, yet now that this girl asks for a chance to become a better person, we just refuse to give it to her!" Cloe took a step back, but Sasha and Jade rushed to defend her.
"We're not talking about just any girl, but a girl who put us into trouble numerous times and did not even hesitate to steal from us." said Sasha "She's a Tweevil, remeber? You know all too well how sneaky those two can be."
"But... she wasn't like that today. Besides, she and Kirstee aren't the same person. She could make a difference."
"Don't be naive Yasmin." these words made the Hispanic girl's head snap towards Jade's direction "Let's say we did trust her, What if this was all a trick, so Burdine could spy on us? What would happen then?"
Pretty Princess fell silent at that statement. She hated to think that her encounter at Dance Heaven Plaza was nothing but a well-thought plan of Burdine's and Kaycee was just performing for one person. But... what if it was? She could have put her friends, as well as their beloved magazine at great risk and it would be all because of her own lack of judgement. "I guess you're right..." she sighed and sat back on her chair defeated.
"Oh, Yaz!" said Cloe, seeing how sad her friend was "We know you just wanted to be nice to her! You're such a wonderful person to do so, but please forget about it, okay?" Yasmin nodde and accepted Cloe's hug, while Sasha and Jade smiled at the sight.
The latter then went for the door for a final check on the mail and her eye fell on a bright purple flyer. "Hmmm..." she muttered to herself as she picked it up. "Hey girls! Look what I found!" she exclaimed "There's gonna be a great sale at both the Mall and Fashion Promenade today! All -80%!" that immediately got everyone's attention.
"When you say 'all', you mean those hot new phone covers from Rockin' Ringerz too?" asked Sasha.
"And those gorgeous mini dresses from Strut It?" added an excited Cloe.
"And those cool new Onassis sunglasses from Style Eyez!?" added an even more excited Yasmin, starting to feel better.
"Everything!" replied Jade "Even my favorite black velvet berets from Hats Off!" she continued with a dreamy look.
"Come on people! I say we all forget about this silly incident and go shopping!" suggested Sasha and in two minutes they were on their way with their purses in hand.
Meanwhile, Kaycee was sitting at the Smoothie Bar, drowning her sorrow in a raspberry smoothie. "Make it another round, Ethan." she ordered, after finishing it in one gulp.
Eitan eyed her from behind the blender, unsure of what to say "Um... two things: first, I'm out of milk. And second, it's Eitan." he corrected as politely as he could. "And you should remember that. We've known each other for ages."
"Whatever!" she responded impatiently, before giving her empty glass a sad look. "I'm too depressed to remember names right now."
Eitan was surprised to see her like this. He was used to her being all dorky and spoiled (but not as bossy as her twin). However today she seemed rather upset and confused. "Okay then. Ethan it is!" he said accepting his 'new name' and bent down to search for milk in the mini fridge. "And what are you so depressed about?" he asked from down there.
As much as she thought passers-by would give her weird looks for talking to the seemingly empty bar, Kaycee didn't care at all. "Oh, Ethan!" she breathed dramatically "Life is like so unfair!"
"Yeah, heard that one before."
"First you realize your life isn't as pink as you thought it was. You're unhappy, unappreciated and fed up with it, so you decide to leave the past behind, change your ways and stuff, even make besties with your enemies. And it goes okay... But then the stupid Bratz don't believe you! I mean, why? What have I even done to them!?"
"A lot of things actually. Remember that time when-"
"It was like a rhetorical question!" Kaycee snapped at the still-hidden bartender. "And that's not even the point. The point is, for once in my life I was all nice and honest to the girls. I admitted my mistakes and apologized to them, but that didn't make any difference! Cloe, Sasha and Jade simply won't trust me! Only Yasmin took my place."
"Well, that doesn't surprise me." replied Eitan, finally coming back up with a bottle of milk "You have quite a history."
"That wasn't my fault!" Kaycee was forced to shout, so he could hear her over the blender's noise. "Kirstee was always the brains! I just followed orders!"
"Still deosn't matter!" he shouted back "Just cuz you apologized, doesn't mean they'll magically forget about everything you both did." he pushed a couple of buttons and the blender slowly stopped working "Listen Kaycee..." he spoke in his normal tone "...I don't think you're a bad person. But if you really want to leave the past behind, like you said, you gotta do something to prove that. If you show the girls that you really changed and no longer want to be their enemy, I'm sure they will accept you."
"You mean like a friend?"
"Sure, why not?"Kaycee was quiet. Becoming real friends with the Bratz? Now, that did sound like something unimaginable! There were times when she couldn't help noticing how inseparable those four were and how they never let anything ruin their friendship! In a way, they seemed more like sisters, than Kirstee and her ever did! "Here you are! This one's on me." Eitan said cheerfully, as he gave her the second smoothie, breaking her train of thought.
"Thanks for the drink and the advice, Eitan." she said smiling and walked away, leaving the bartender thinking how she did remember his name afterall.
The Tweevil decided to drink her smoothie at the small red bridge in the park. That place was calm and beautiful: the perfect place to think of non-evil plans. "Now how can I persuade those Bratz that I can totally be one of them?" she wondered "Maybe I should start wearing blue, or something..." as an answer to her dilemma, the four girls stormed out of the office building. Without a second thought, Kaycee tossed her (now empty) glass to her nearest trash can...
"Ouch!" ...or so she thought, because that happened to be Dylan, wearing his green shirt. "Hey, watch out you-" he looked at the glass and put it on top of his head like a hat "Trash art, eh? That's so cool! Thanks!"
But Kaycee didn't have time to reply to him. "Girls, girls!" she shouted out of breath, as she reached them.
"What do you want this time Kaycee?" asked Jade in an angry voice.
The girl flinched at her tone, "I wanna talk to you. It's like important. You see I-"
"Whatever it is..." interrupted Cloe "...it can wait for after we finish our shopping at the great sale!"
Upon noticing the flyer in Jade's hand, Kaycee's eyes went wide and she thought she was hearing sirens ringing in her head, along with Burdine's echoing voice: "First, we design and print a 'Sales' flyer, so funky, that none of these four fashion victims will be able to resist! Then, we drop it outside their office door, so they can find it easily. Next, while they're gone, one of you sneaks into their badly decorated office and steals all the material of their next issue, so we can publish it instead and BAM! We'll get rid of them and their pathetic little magazine for good!"
"STOP!" she shrieked causing the girls to stand still. "Don't go! It's a trap!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Cloe.
"The flyer! It's like fake!"
"Get outta here!" exclaimed Sasha and put the flyer in front of the blonde's face, so she could read it "It has all the official logos on it. Doesn't look 'like fake' to me." Kaycee was speechless: Kirstee had done a surprisingly good job and you couldn't tell if this was made up, or not. The flyer was purple (seriously, not even a trace of pink on it!) and it had bright orange clipart of boots, jackets and lipsticks all over it. Big silvery letters of a bold, modern-looking font read: "EXCLUSIVE -80% SALES ONLY FOR TODAY AT THE STYLESVILE MALL AND FASHION PROMENADE! BE THERE, OR BE SQUARE!"
"Yeah, stop making up dumb excuses and leave us alone already!" shouted Jade, as she went on.
Kaycee grabbed Yasmin's arm desperate "But I'm telling you girls the truth! Please return to the office before it's too late! There are no sales! It's Burdine's trick to distract you! I swear!" the girls were about to say something rude to her again, but Yasmin interrupted them.
"I believe her!" she said loud enough, so they could all hear her clearly and approached the Tweevil. "Explain to us, Kaycee. Why are you saying this is a trick?"
Kaycee felt their impatient stares on her, yet she cleared her thought and did like she was told. "Today, Burdine told me and Kirstee about a new plan of hers. The plan was to design this flyer-thingie and leave it at your door, so you'd leave the office and one of us could get in and steal all your work. My mean sister is probably there right now."
"But.. the flyer looks fine to me." commented Cloe.
"Ι'll prove it is not." Kaycee took it from Jade and examined it. Her blue eyes were going left and right in a pretty fast pace, untill she spotted one tiny detail her sister forgot to hide. "Bingo!" she exclaimed and pointed at the bottom of the paper.
Jade put on her lilac eyeglasses and tried to read the small pale letters, that resembled a watermark. "It says... copyright... Your Thing Magazine... 2007."
The Bratz all gasped at that. "Oh my gosh!" muttered Cloe.
"How do we know it's true?" asked Sasha, wanting to be sure about it.
It didn't take long for Jade to think of a plan "Sasha, you and I are going back to check on the office. Cloe and Yasmin, you guys stay here just in case. As for you..." she pointed at Kaycee "..I hope this isn't some sort of twisted prank." with that said, the group separated.
When she didn't hear any noise from inside, Kirstee entered the Bratz office, tiptoeing like a spy. "Now where could those ideas be?" she wondered, without even thinking of checking the bulletin board and decided to take a look inside the wardrobe. "Ugh! Those fashion freaks don't have a single good outfit worth of swiping! Such a bad taste!" she said to herself and slammed the wardrobe's doors closed. Then she took a look at the small laptop on the coffee table. That was were all four kept a backup of their articles. A lightbulb lit above the Tweevil's head as she took out a USB stick and knelt down before the laptop. "Oh man!" she grumbled after five minutes of typing. "What's the stupid password!?"
"It's 'busted' in all capitals."
"Like thanks... AAH!" Kirstee screamed, realizing that it was Sasha's voice. She and Jade were standing right behind her. "W-w-why are you two here so s-s-soon?" she stuttered in shock.
"Well, excuse us for returning to our office anythime we like! It won't happen again!" replied Jade.
"Besides..." added Sasha "..we wanted to make sure you took everything you needed. So, did you steal all our new articles, or would you like us to help you?"
Kirstee stood up nervously "I-I-I... I'm not stealing! I was just...um... playing chess online, that's all, hehe!"
"Chess, huh?" asked Jade, not seeming persuaded at all "Well, you've got your own computers at your office. Go and play there." Kirstee needed no more to hear, as she rushed outside.
"Oh and tell Burdine the sales are cancelled!" called Sasha and texted her friends to let them know what happened.
Half an hour later, the Bratz were all in the office and so was Kaycee. Jade was narrating the event. "You should have seen the look in her face!" she said, causing everyone to laugh,
"Was it something like this?" asked Kaycee, imitating her sister's shocked expression, before bursting out laughing hysterically as well. That should teach Kirstee and Birdface for treating her that badly!
Kaycee soon realized she was the only one laughing and the others were now staring at her. For a moment she was scared that they would send her away again, but Cloe's quiet voice surprised her. "Kaycee... I'm so sorry for all I said to you earlier. I was despicable."
"Me too."
"Me too." added Jade and Sasha respectively. "If you weren't here today, all our hard work would be lost."
"It wasn't anything big really..."
"It was!" said Yasmin "You saved our magazine!"
"Yeah, even after the way we spoke to you." said Jade. "Maybe Pretty Princess was right and you did change afterall."
:Oh, I did! I did!" insisted the blonde "Your Thing is history for me. All I want now is to be one of your group-" she stopped when she noticed their surprised reactions. "I-I-I mean.. if you want me to, of course! Just give me a chance, please?" she begged. The Bratz looked at each other for a few moments and Yasmin nodded.
Sasha then turned to the Tweevil "Kaycee..." she said formally "...you're one of us." that caused the girl to scream excitedly and jump up and down in a childish manner, before she got interrupted by Bunny Boo. "But first things first. If ya wanna be one of the Bratz pack, you're gonna need some proper update. Are you girls thinking what I'm thinking?" the others were so thinking what she was thinking...
"MAKEOVER!"
*CM*
Oooh! Can't wait to read what Kaycee's gonna look like, after the girls are done with her, right? Well, I can't wait to write it either! Thanks for reading and please review! Feel free to ask questions and everything. Bonus sneak peak of the next chapter to whoever tells me, in which Bratz episode did the Tweevils dress in blue instead of pink?
Trivia: in the Greek dub of the Bratz TV series, Eitan's name is pronounced "Ethan" for some reason. That gave me the inspiration for the Smoothie Bar scene. Also, since I wear glasses, I like to have Jade wear them as well! (in the games, there are these lilac eyeglasses from the Passion 4 Fashion line, which look really good on her) And yes, this story is set in 2007, because I think that was a good time for the Bratz.