Ch. 2

At long last, Riley and I made it to the Anime Convention--which was being held in the massive stadium about four or five miles from the museum. The trip took about an hour and a half, counting all my beautiful run-in\'s with non-living objects, as well as very-living people. Luckily, the convention was supposed to last all day.

"Oh, I can\'t wait!" Riley squealed beside me as we entered the jam-packed stadium.

"Believe me," I said quietly. "I can."

Suddenly, I felt my shoulder being gripped by a massive hand. I looked at it, and I stared. It wasn\'t a hand--it was a giant yellow paw! I tried to think of what it could be, but I couldn\'t come up with anything other than a tall baby chick that was crossbred between a chicken and a dog. That made me shudder.

As I turned, I spotted Riley had also been nabbed. We looked at each other, then slowly looked up at the tall creature. I then bit my bottom lip--rather hard, too, considering I was struggling to keep from bursting out laughing.

Standing there before us was a giant yellow rat with a bolt-shaped tail. The mask was even more hilarious. It had big black eyes and a cat-like mouth, while there were two red dots on the cheeks. The ears were funny, too! They were long and pointed upward, the tips black.

"Get a load of this," I said to Riley, snickering. "What is he, a bouncer for babies?"

Riley simply stared at him, before stabbing me hard in the side with her elbow--which felt much to me like a sharpened drill. I winced, coughing softly.

"In fact," Riley muttered. "That guy\'s the best bouncer in this stadium. He\'s only dressed like a Pikachu because he wanted to be part of the convention."

I stared at him, sheepishly smiling, then gaped at her with all the stupidity I could muster--which was alot. "A Pika-who?"

Riley sighed. "Pikachu," she repeated. "It\'s one of many creatures on the anime Pokemon."

When Riley noticed the bouncer\'s stunned look, she shrugged. "She doesn\'t get in much."

I looked as the man nodded and released us after Riley paid for our tickets to get in. As we sifted through the crowds (if you call running into practically everyone "sifting."), I thought about what she had told the guy.

Apparently, "get in" was a term for anime-freaks. Since "get out" meant that someone doesn\'t go outside much, "get in" was the complete opposite.

Just when I was about to tell her I finally got what she said, Riley jerked to a stand-still. I, on the other hand, continued walking unitl I crashed into a massive statue of some long-haired girl in a Japanese suit and holding an unbelieveably massive sword against her shoulder. And before I fell onto it as it came rushing toward its--and my own--doom, I noticed little cat ears on her head.

"AUGH!"

CRASH! Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle...

The "AUGH!" was me as I came down with the statue of whoever-it-was. The CRASH! was the statue as it hit the ground and shattered into a kajillion pieces. And finally, the Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle... was bits of aftermath debris lightly hitting the ground.

After I opened my eyes to realize I wasn\'t dead, I wish I hadn\'t. When I sat up, I saw just about the entire stadium--the ones who could see me, that is--staring at me.

"Um," I started, flashing my famous I\'m-a-total-klutz smile, but the others weren\'t smiling. "I\'ll just go now."

As I got up and began to leave, I spotted Riley standing nearby, her eyes narrowed. I had a feeling I was going to be leaving alone. When I finally got outside, I went to sit down on one of the millions of stairs in front of the building, but my luck never lets me do what I want to do. Instead, I ended up tripping and tumbling all the way down the steps until I was stopped by a--you guessed it--wall. Actually, I think it was more like a cement fence...but you get the point.

I lay there, staring up at the sky. I didn\'t feel the need to move, since I already guessed I had a thousand broken body parts to clean up. Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice, but it didn\'t sound too happy. (Here it comes. The best-friend fight. It\'s all serious here.)

"I can\'t believe you."

I slowly sat up, seeing Riley at the top of the stairs. Before I could respond, she spoke again, approaching me.

"You ruin everything! Just when I was about to meet my favorite cosplayer, you had to just smash the Inuyasha statue to smithereens. Everywhere I go with you, something--or someone--gets wrecked. You\'re a walking disaster, Piper."

First, I decided to hold back the questions "What is a cosplayer?" and "Who\'s Inuyasha?" for later. If there even would be a later. Riley looked like she wanted to rip me apart--which I really wouldn\'t mind seeing as how every part of me was already in pieces from my previous encounter with the steps and the wall. Then...

"Don\'t you think I know that?" I shot back, anger fueling my words as I continued to rant at her. "Don\'t you think, by now, that I realize how much danger I put my family, friends, and everyone on this planet in? I\'m not idiotic, Riley. I do know that I hurt people and wreck things, but you should know by now none of it\'s intentional!"

By now, I was standing, and standing a few inches away from Riley.

"I have no coordination whatsoever, but that never seemed to stop you. You\'ve stuck by me all these years." Suddenly, a thought dawned on me, and I turned it into a question. "Have you been acting as my best friend...because you\'re sorry for me?"

By the way Riley\'s face paled, I figured it was true. But then, her eyes filled with tears of rage.

"How dare you!" she cried. "I would never do something like that!"

Without thinking, I fired back. "Then why are you suddenly flipping out on me about my life-long coordination problems you\'ve known I\'ve had since we met? Why now?"

Riley looked away, trembling. "Because this is important to me. This convention. And this whole time, you\'ve been nothing but a pain, complaining and degrading my love for anime..."

Her words hit me like a freight train. In fact, it felt like one too. I stood before my best friend, staring at her. "Riley..."

She turned away, shaking. "I\'ll see if I can bribe them to let you back inside..." With that, she left back into the building.

I sank to a sitting position again, staring ahead. (Here comes the sappy, emotional lesson stuff!) Why had I been so blind? Anime was her passion, her hobby. I had merely tagged along because she forced me. I had been nothing but annoying with my complaints and taunts I made about her favorite shows. I looked down now, tears in my eyes. On the Piper Scale of Guilt, it was pushing a fifteen. (If you don\'t have tears in your eyes or a lump the size of Michigan in your throat, I\'m appalled. Well, okay, not really...but I still hope there is actually a lesson being learned in all this.)

Suddenly, Riley\'s voice cut through my thoughts. "They agreed to let you in--but you have to stay with me the entire time." She paused, seeing my tears. "Are you okay?"

I slowly shook my head, mumbling the exact things I had been thinking (It\'ll be just that.). "Why have I been so blind? Anime\'s your passion, your hobby. I merely tagged along because you forced me. I\'ve been nothing but annoying with my complaints and taunts I made about your favorite shows (Told you it was exact. Well...just about.)."

Riley stared at me. I stared at her. We were doing a really good interpretation of a staring contest when all of a sudden, Riley smiled and hugged my neck firmly. I tripped backwards and collided back-first with the same wall I had hit earlier. Riley just laughed, still hugging me.

"Riley?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"Not that you\'re heavy or anything...but you\'re crushing my lungs."

Laughing again, Riley got off of me and grinned. "So, want to go back inside?"

I hesitated. "You don\'t think they\'re still mad, do you?"

Riley smirked. "Not with the money I bribed them."

"How much did you give them?" I asked curiously.

The twinkle in her eyes told me everything. "Enough," she winked, before linking my arm in hers and traipsing inside happily. I slipped and slid my way in next to her, greeting everyone with the same as before:

"Hi again, did you miss--OOF!"

"Would you look where you\'re going?"
"Sorry--AUGH!"

"Not again..."
"That\'s my girl for you," Riley giggled.

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AUTHOR\'S NOTE:

Howdy again! How did you like Chapter 2? I know, it\'s not full of anime experience yet (and it\'s shorter--that\'s only \'cause it\'s late), but please be patient. In Chapter 3, I\'ll be certain to start showing some neat (and klutzy) anime life. :D