Wren came to her feet in a flowing motion and brushed off her shorts again, almost as if in habit.  Nat followed her example and pulled himself to his feet.  He didn’t bother to brush sand from his faded and thin cutoffs.  He was used to sand in the damnest places.

“My original daddy made me a warehouse of China dolls,” Jessy said, leading them across the grounds to the Manor.  With a grand gesture she threw open the double doors to her room.  Inside the huge room was a plethora hand painted China dolls, stuffed animals and detailed doll houses of every design.  Nat noted Wren as she visibly softened at the mass of toys.

“Umm . . . “Nat began.  “I don't know about you guys, but my room’s not big enough to hold all this . . . “

“Well I can't leave it,” Jessy sounded a little desperate.  “Nicky would take them.”

Sweeping into the room Jessy pointed to the corner.

“I have boxes over there,” she indicated a stack of boxes.  “And tape there.”  A stack of packing tape rolls.

“Umm . . . “ Nat stared around the room in horror from the doorway.

“I have some stuff packed,” Jessy went on.

Nat sighed at all the newly smashed things.

“I'd better not,” he said.  “I'll break anything I touch . . . “

Jessy hit him in the chest with a giant sized Pink Panther.

“You can take these over first,” she said, gesturing at the stuffed animals.

Something soft, Nat thought.  Good choice.

“I have beaten Nicky with them and they never broke,” Jessy assured him.  “The clothes closet is over there.  The stuff from each country is placed alphabetically so all my stuff from France is before the stuff from Greece.”

Matt grabbed an already packed box moved it to the door.  Nat shook his head slowly in confusion.  He had never seen this much stuff in one room before.  It was overwhelming.  Jessy was packing a new box and Nat noted the faraway look in Wren’s eyes as she carefully wrapped mementos from around the world.

“Matt, take the bubble beads out of the cologne box,”  Jessy directed.  “It should go in the bathroom box.”

Nat tucked the huge pink cat under one arm and starter toward the school then stopped and returned to the room.

“Jessy,” he said,  “What room is yours?”

“The one directly above yours,” she said.

Figures, thought Nat then remembered, “What about Spock?  He gonna let us guys up stairs?”

“Here,” Jessy stood and pulled a long case from the top shelf of the closet.  “Don’t drop this one.  It’s a sharpshooting rifle.”

Nat took it like he would a surfboard.

“Whatcha doin’ with that?” he asked,

“It’s a long confusing story,” Jessy said.  “But I had two fathers and I am Ghost Archer’s blood.”  She smiled.  “But my other father is dead so just be careful with it.”

Okay . . . “ Nat drawled.  “Something else?  I have a free arm.”

Jessy returned to the closet and drug an old steamer trunk out across the carpet.

“How about this?” Jessy said.

Nat picked it up by one end handle as if it were an attaché.

“Fragile?” He asked.

It was easy getting out of the Manor with all its double doors but the single door to Jessy’s room proved a challenge.  After a little maneuvering, Nat got through the door and carefully pile his load in corner.  He tossed the Pink Beast on the bed.  As it bounced, he noticed how worn it was in spots and understood this was Jessy’s security blanket.  He smiled.  So she wasn’t totally materialistic.  Some things DID matter to her.

On his way back across Marie waved him down from the kitchen and he trotted over to her.  Of all the people of the household she was his favorite.  When her reached her, he kissed her on the cheek.

“What can I do for you?” he said with a grin.

Marie rubbed her cheek and frowned at the boy then smiled.

“I thought, perhaps, you might like to take lunch to your little work party,” she said, her French accent muted by the years in the Valley.

Nat’s stomach growled.

“I take that as a yes, no?”  Marie smiled.  “Come!”

Nat stepped inside the kitchen to the smell of pepperoni and cheese.

“Pizza!” he said, inhaling deeply then sighing in pleasure.

“And for you,” Marie patted the top box.  Nat found it cool that she actually used pizza boxes.  “’Ling and mush’.”

Grinning broadly, Nat leaned down and kissed her cheek again.

“You know how much I love you?” he said with a grin.

She slapped him on the chest.  “You are as bad as Aaron!”

She began to stack pizza boxes on his outstretched arms, then two six-packs of Coke on top of that.

Shaking a finger at him “you make sure Jessy doesn’t leave pizza under her bed to grow things with tentacles again.”

Nat bobbed his head, “Yes ma’am.”

When he got back to the room, Wren had lined up a series of boxes, taping each to the next and had made them weightless.  Matt was pushing the first box train out the doors.

“Watch out for the door,” Nat warned.

“Wren?” Jessy looked over at the other girl.  “Do you like silver?”  

“Yes, I do,” Wren said.

Jessy pulled out a fine diamond cut silver chain and hands it to her.

               “Marie said feed you,” Nat said, holding the boxes high.

               “Food!” Jessy said, hopping up and leaving a stunned Wren.

               “Where can I put this?”  Nat looked around at the chaos.

               “On the bed,” Jessy swept an arm across the bed and the pile of stuffed animals cascaded to the floor.

               Nat set the boxes on the bed, the Coke beside them.

               “I got a pocket full of napkins,” Nat assured them, pulling out a thick wad of linen napkins.

Jessy pulled a Coke free of the ring and popped the top.  She held it out to Wren.  “Never used cloth before,” Nat said, fingering one of the napkins.

Wren continued to stare at the chain for another moment watching the light reflected from the cuts then blinked and took the soda.  “Thank you,” she said, meaning both soda and chain.

Jessy tossed a Coke to Matt who caught it with a monkey’s tail.

“Show off,” she giggled.

Nat gingerly took up his old nemesis, the coke can.

“You’re welcome,” Jessy said to Wren.  “It comes from the elven forest.”

“It’s beautiful,” Wren said, looping the chain around her neck.

Carefully Nat gave it a tug.  The top came off.  The top of the can not just the tab.  Coke went everywhere.

“Damnit.”

He grabbed a couple of the thick linen napkins and blotted the bed, sucking up most of the soda.

Jessy just smiled and opened a fresh can then offered it to Nat.

“It’s okay,” she assured him.

He took the soda.  “Thanks.”

“Nicky has put worse in my bed,” she said.

Jessy pulled a box over and lifted the top.  She held it out to Nat first.  He smiled.

“Thanks,” he said, pulling the bottom box out.  “But Marie made me my own.”

He lifted the lid and set the box back on the bed.

“What kind is that?”  Jessy leans toward the box looking at the red grease forming puddles on the cheese.  Wren leaned forward too.

Nat eye the two girls and slowly pulled the box closer.

“Linguisa and mushrooms,” he said slowly.

Two hands shot out and snatched a piece each.  Nat groaned.  Immediately Jessy took a huge bite but Wren eyed the concoction with some suspicion.

“The grease is red,” she observed.

Matt’s hand shot in and snagged another piece.  So much for HIS pizza.

“Umm . . . “ Nat began, hoping to distract them from the rest of his lunch.  “How about some music?”

Around a mouthful of linguisa and mushroom pizza Jessy said, “Stereo is in box 45, under the blue sweater.”

Nat spotted the box over in the left corner of the room right under box 15.

“Forty-five,” he said, getting up. 

Wren started to replaced the piece of pizza she’d taken in the box, obviously not willing to venture something with an unnatural colored fat but she caught Nat’s look and sheepishly took the piece back.  Almost wincing, she took a small bite.  Her eyes widened in surprise as the rich flavor of the sausage made her mouth water.  With a small smile she gave Nat a tiny nod of appreciation and took a second bite.

“How many boxes are there in here?” Nat asked, weaving his way through a maze of stuff.

Jessy gave a slight dismissive shrug.  “Sixty-four.”  Then added “Not counting trunks and stuffed animals and my dolls or the TV.

“You new room isn't big enough,” Nat observed.

“I'll squeeze it in,” Jessy said casually.

“Girls always do find a way, Nathaniel,” Wren commented, patting her lips with the linen napkin.

“If nothing else I will put some of the stuff into the doll house,” Jessy said.  “I’ll have to go clean that up.”  She frowned at the thought.

Nat grinned.  "When you close the door, I'll push . . . I can get it all in . . . if the walls hold."

“Cool,” Jessy said, watching him move.

“Just don't open the door . . . “ Nat warned with a chuckle.

“Why?” She said, taking a bite of the pizza.  “I’ll just have you close it again for me!”

Laughing at the thought of a stuffed animal explosion, Nat set box 15 to the side then pulled open the flaps of 45.  The boom box was right on top.

“I think another hour we will have it all boxed,” Jessy ventured. 

Wren gave a half smile and looked skeptically at the remaining piles of ‘stuff’.  Nat made it back the bed without seriously damaging anything.

“Somebody else better load this thing,” he said, placing the retrieved stereo beside Jessy.  “Unless you want consumer electro-junk.”

Jessy rolled onto her belly, laying diagonally across the bed, and grabbed a stack of CDs from the bedside table.  Quickly sorting through them she found what she was looking for and put it into the player and pushed the ‘Play’ button.  Green Day screamed out of the speakers and Jessy reached over and turned it up.

She began swaying her hip then began to dance around the room snatching up this and that and depositing whatever into the next box.  As she went by Nat, she tugged lightly at his arm and he joined her, pizza in hand.  The young man was surprisingly graceful for a huge guy and Wren watched the two with an amused smile.  Matt, ever the clown, changed shape into a monkey and bounced from box to bed to Nat’s back, his uncoordinated dance in stark contrast to the movements of Jessy and Nat.

Wren made no effort to join in, a fact that disappointed Nat slightly, but steadily filled and taped boxes.  She set them floating and Matt would be off, towing another box convoy to Jessy’s room.  Nat took the heavier boxes though his strength wasn’t necessary with Wren’s gravity control but she feigned fatigue and after a couple of loads, and he eyed her with suspicion.  She merely blinked and opened a fresh soda.

Returning from his latest pack mule trip Nat over heard Jessy.

“Wren?” she said. 

“Yes, Jessica?” the other girl responded.

“I got a boy question for you.”

Jessy looked up that movement in the door and saw Nat.  Her mouth snapped shut.  Nat pursed his lips.

“Boy questions,” he said.  “Ask a guy not a girl.  Yeesh!”

He scooped up another piece of pizza and danced over to the next load.

“Com’ on Wren,” he said.  “Shake it for us!”

Wren shot him a baleful look.

“I do NOT ever ‘shake it’, Nathaniel.” She declared.

Nat stopped moving and looked thoughtfully at her.

“Maybe you should . . . “

Wren flicked her wrist and Nat was suddenly pushing against the ceiling with his back.  He laughed.

“I STILL think you SHOULD!” he crowed.

She dropped him but stopped his fall scant inches from the floor giving him time to get his feet under him.  There was a flash of delight in his eyes when she looked at him.  Nonplussed, he picked up the next load and danced out into the growing night.

“Spock!” he called.  “Music out here too!!”

Both girls watched him dance across the grass and disappear into the school building.

“How do you get a guy to be your boyfriend,” Jessy turned to Wren, suddenly serious.  “I really want Nat to be my boyfriend.”

Wren blinked, surprised by the question, but not the reason.

“I know you got to have a ton of them,” Jessy continued.  “But growing up here . . . “

“Yes, I suppose that would be very . . . “ Wren began.

The music blasting over the lawn changed and there was a howl of pain from Nat.

“ARGH!!” he bellowed, dropping to his knees and covering his ears with both hands.  “NOT Evanescence!!”

Wren jumped to her feet then relaxed.

“Is that what this . . . “ she made a circling gesture, “is?”

The music stopped as Spock adjusted both volume and song selection.

“Thank you Mr. Spock!” Nat called out.

“I think perhaps Nathaniel is seeking attention,” Wren offered.

Like nothing had happened, Nat bounced to his feet and returned to his dancing trip across the lawn.

“I try really hard to let him know but he’s being a duh brain!” Jessy was saying as Nat came into the room.

“Let who know what?” he said.

Jessy scowled a little then flushed.  “Nothing!  And no one!”

Nat grabbed another slice of pizza and shrugged.

“Okay . . . “he said, wiping his lips with a napkin,

“You missed a spot,” Jessy said stepping up onto the bed.  She took his napkin then wiped the corner of his mouth.

With a grin, he popped the last bit of the slice into his mouth then snagged a can of coke and deftly opened it without hesitation.

“Thanks!” he said.

Wren watched the exchange with a strange smile.

“See!” Jessy said.  “You are very gentle when you don't think about it.”

Nat grabbed the handles of two steamer trunks that easily weighed five hundred pound.

“What?” he said.

“The can,” Jessy indicated Nat’s soda sitting on the nightstand.

He turned to see what she what she was talking about and one trunk slammed into the wall.  It exploded like a jack-in-the-box.

“Damnit!”

Jessy smiled.  “That’s okay,’ she said.  “It was an old trunk.”

With a sigh, Nat maneuvered the remaining truck out the door and carried it like it was glass across the lawn.

A few minutes later he returned to find Wren packing boxes alone.

“What’s she wanna know about guys?” he asked.

“Tsk, Nathaniel,” she admonished.  “Trying to get me to break sworn female vows?”

“Guy can hope . . . “ he said with a grin and a shrug.

“You are hoping in vain, then,” Wren looked up at him with a sweet smile.

Nat positioned the next load then stopped before shouldering it.

"By the way, it's getting crowded over there,” he said, “Haven't even moved the bed yet . . . “

“She doesn't need room to sleep, does she?” Wren said flatly.

Nat gathered the next load and headed across the lawn.  Wren was humming as she worked, a tune totally unlike the one on the stereo as Jessy returned.

“I don’t need much sleep,” she admitted, catching the last few words of the conversation.  “I am elf.”

Jessy killed the music.

“Wren, have you ever heard elven or dragon songs?” She asked.

“I don’t believe so,” Wren replied. 

“I got a CD of my mom singing,” Jessy was pawing through a box and soon recovered the CD.  She placed it in the machine.  The music stopped Wren.

               It was a flute played solo then a woman began to sing.  The language was unknown and the melody like nothing she’d ever heard.  Enchanted, she didn’t notice Nat’s return.

               “I can’t carry a tune,” Jessy said softly.  “Or dance like them.  I can’t even play an instrument.”

               “Okay . . . better move the bed,” Nat said, oblivious.  “You wanna ride, Wren?”

               Squatting, he reached up the bed and gripped the frame then stood, lifting it above the heads of the girls.

               Wren blinked up at him.  “Ride?”

               “Umm . . . “Nat regarded Wren hopefully.

Wren’s eyes went widen slightly looking up at Nat and she covered her mouth.  Nat half smiled at her then winked.
               “I just dance, myself,” she continued to Jessy.  “And hum.  No real talent needed in humming.”          

               “Can't Spock move just this one thing?” Nat asked Jessy.

               She thought about it for a second then said “Spock could you sneak one item over for me . . . please?”

               “One,” the computer replied and the bed Nat was holding, disappeared.

               “Wow!” Jessy sighed.  “This room is looking pretty big!”  Then with another sigh she added “Guess it is unpacking tomorrow.”

               “Yeah, guess your dad has a place for that pool table now,” Nat said.

               “That is in his study,” Jessy said grinning at Nat.  “I think they need room for another nursery.  Mom really wants another but can't think of why.”

“Umm . . .“ Nat began but Wren gave him a ‘shh’ look.

Nat blushed slightly.   "Guess you ain't looked in the mirror much . . . " he said.  Quickly he snatched up a pair of boxes and disappeared out into the night.

Jessy’s stare after him was huge.  Wren turned her head to hide a smile and to cover, she packed another box.

“Did he just . . .” Jessy stammered.  “I mean did I hear . . .”

“Yes, he did,” Wren assured her then she paused and reconsidered.  “Well, actually, tell me what you thought you heard before I go saying that.”

“I think I heard him say I was . . . umm . . . attractive.”

“Then yes, you did,” Wren told her.

“Wow and I thought he hated me,” Jessy gasped.

“I'm really quite sure he doesn't hate you, Jessica,” Wren assured her.

“What do I do now?” Jessy moaned.  “I mean I don't want to blow it I might have a chance yet.”  She twisted a lock of hair.  “Think I should dye my hair again?”

Wren shook her head.  “Just be your kind and gentle self without being pushy.  Let him come to you.  You just saw how well it worked.”

               Though the music was gone, Nat danced back across the grass and leans into the room, a hand on either side of the doorjamb.

               “Umm . . . I think we're out of room,” he said.

               “Nicky might be a little devil,” Jessy was saying.  “but he can get things done and knows a lot more than a kid his age should.”

“That's what worries me,” Wren said.  “Especially if he told you to . . . “

Wren cut her words off and looked over at Nat.

“Well we can put it in the hall way till I unpack in the morning,” Jessy said with a smile as if it were the simplest thing in the world.  “Maybe we can get Spock to make my room bigger over there.”

“Gonna have to,” Nat said with a shrug.  “Or you're gonna have to bunk with Wren.”

“Michaela will refuse to sleep on the floor, I promise.” Wren warned.

Michaela, or Mike, was a streetwise Latina from Los Angeles with a crappy attitude who was nominally Wren’s roommate.  She spent most of her time in n LA barrio fixing cars.

Jessy chuckled softly.  “I can rough it with my boxes,” she said,  “I might see if I can have the room next to mine to and make a bigger closet for myself but not sure if daddy would allow that.”

“Umm . . . I heard we all are getting a room mate . . . “ Nat put in.  “Isn’t Mark your brother, Jessy?”

“Wonder were I can tuck one of those . . . “ Jessy whispered.  “I never had a room mate.”

“It's not so bad,” Wren said blandly.  “Just be glad you only have one so far.”

“Mark's supposed to be mine . . . what's he like?” Nat asked.

Jessy beamed. 

“Yeah!  He is really awesome and girl crazy.” She said.  “He is way smart and he is totally citified.  He grew up more on the streets than here.”  And she was off . . . “He is lots of fun and likes to do all kinds of stuff.  His room is worse than mine, he has all his sport stuff and weights and stuff.”

“Sports, huh?”  Nat said.  “He surf?”

“He’s a water bug,” Jessy assured Nat.  “Him and Grandpa Josho goes hunting together too and Dad trained him to be a survivalist too.  Took him out to the forest and made him live off the land.  I liked when we lived in the granary barn.”

“Granary barn?”  Wren gave Jessy an odd look.

Hardly slowing, Jessy continued.  “That was a neat place to live.”  She did pause and looked about the empty space wistfully.  “Guess this is good bye to my room.”

Nat picked up the last tow boxes leaving a few light things for the two girls.

“Feels funny seeing it like this,” Jessy said.  “It was all set up with my stuff when I moved into it.”

“You know . . .” Nat drawled.  “Why don't you get Brittany to help you with stuff?”

Jessy unplugged the boom box.

“Everyone has been busy,” she said then her face went blank.  “Back to the suitcases I guess.”

She turned to Wren and Nat.

“Let’s go, I got to see the mess over there,” she said.  “AND we all need to get some sleep!”

“Yeah . . .“ Nat didn’t sound convinced.

“Oh, sleep is for the weak anyway,” Wren said.  “So we might as well finish up.”

Picking up the last couple of stuffed animals, Wren stepped around Nat.  Jessy said, “It's nice to have friends finally.”

The three headed for the school, Nat dancing a little step between the girls.