Hikaru looked at the girl with wonder. She looked to be about thirteen, but you could never tell with demons - look at Mandy, who was fourteen (and had been reincarnated several times) but as a carrot demon she looked like an eight year-old. The girl had short green hair and was wearing a dark green cloak over what looked like a green swimsuit, on her feet there was a pair of black flip-flops.

"Yes? What do you want?" he questioned impatiently, he hated answering the front door at The House of Fred, the people were always so strange.

Brown eyes pierced his face. "I understand that I may be able to find a carrot fanatic by the name of 'Mandy' here."

The cat demon looked at the girl suspiciously. Who knew how many people out there wished for Mandy's address so that they could... ummm, get even with her... "Who are you?"

"My name is Mejan. I'm an old friend of Mandy's. She's never mentioned me?"

"Nope."

"Well, her memory was never something to celebrate. Look, I'm not here to kill her. If I was ever going to do that, I would have a loooooong time ago."

As the words ran through his mind, Hikaru could see the sense in them. Oh well, she didn't seem very dangerous, he might as well let her in. "Mandy's at school right now, but she'll be back in about a half'n'hour. In the mean time, you said that you were an old friend of hers...?" He gave the girl a thoughtful smile and let her in.

Mandy gasped as she saw the figure through the door, then quickly ducked out of sight. After a few minutes, Jean walked by.

"Who're you hiding from Mandy?" Jean asked loudly.

"Shhh! Keep your voice down, you'll give me away," Mandy hissed.

"Oh. Who're you hiding from?" Jean repeated her question, this time in a whisper.

"See that girl in there?"

"The one with the green hair?"

"Yeh. That's Mejan. Keep out of her way, she's scary."

"You're scary and I don't keep out of your way. Who is she any way- I assume you know her from somewhere."

"Umm, she's an old friend of mine, met her in my... first life, I think. She's a frog demon..."

"She knew you before you came to work for Fred?! Heh, I'm going to go see what type of embarrassing things you did before you became a 'responsible weird world guide'." Jean grinned evilly and walked into they room, greeting the frog demon.

"She was the cutest little thing when she was little, but she was awfully shy," Mejan went on about Mandy's childhood.

"Mandy was cute?! You're pulling my leg!" Hikaru exclaimed in amazement.

They subject under discussion glared into the room. Mejan had somehow managed to gather the entire household of Fred as an audience for her stories about Mandy's childhood. Mandy, of course, was extremely disgusted with the whole thing, but she didn't dare say anything because then Mejan would see her.

"Oh yes, Mandy was cute. She had these huge chipmunk cheeks. And she was always so serious. She always had this pouty little look on her face," Mejan demonstrated the 'pouty little look,' and the rest of the group howled with laughter. "If you upset her the tiniest bit, she would bawl like a baby."

Mandy finally couldn't stand it any longer, she jumped from her hiding place and grabbed Mejan by the throat, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, SHOWING UP OUT OF NOWHERE AND THEN TRYING TO RUIN MY REPUTATION?!"

The frog demon smiled happily at Mandy, "Oh, hi Ru-chan! Long time no see!"

Hikaru looked up puzzled, "Ru-

"-Chan?" Touga finished in bewilderment.

The rest of the room cracked up.

Glaring at her business partners, Mandy seemed to be visibly annoyed, "It's. Not. FUNNY!!!"

Hikaru stopped laughing for a minute and opened an eye to look at the steaming carrot demon. "Yes it is." That sent the weirdos into more guffaws and giggles.

When the group had finally been calmed down, Jean turned to Mandy. "Since we're going to pry this out of you sometime, and Mejan's already brought up the subject, how 'bout bringing us up to date on your past, Ru-chan?"

Mandy glared at Jean as Touga artfully stifled a giggle (he believed in the most wonderful concept of self-preservation). "Actually, there's not that much to say about me. I went to school with Fred, and when she became a goddess she decided to make me her employee. As part of the package, she also made me a carrot demon."

Hikaru whistled, looking up at the ceiling, "And here I always thought that you would have the most interesting past out of all of us..."

"How did you meet Mejan, Mandy?" Anne asked quietly, her hazel eyes glittering.

"Oh, met her a few lives back when I first started this life cycle..." Mandy went on to mumble something that no one could understand.

"What was that, Mandy?" Valerie inquired. (Hey, when did nice ol' Valerie join in on the torture Mandy session?!)

The carrot demon rose to her feet, her eyes on the floor. Jean looked at her friend with worry, "Are you okay, Mandy?"

"NO! Why does she have to tell everyone about when I was a little kid?! She makes me look horrible and glorifies herself. Stupid self-centered gossipers...grumble...gripe," Mandy was last seen going over to a corner of the room, busy working up a storm of anger and depression.

Mejan grinned and continued on her description of little Mandy, or, as she called her, Ru-chan. "See, her middle name is Ruth, and her brother's middle name is Lewis. One time she told me that since the two of them always seemed to do everything together, they should be called Ru and Lew. The only thing is that she doesn't like the name Ru."

Nodding with understanding, Anne smiled slyly, "So you call her that all the time. Hey, Mandy, now I have something to throw back at you when you call me Cassie— MY MIDDLE NAME IS CASSIOPE!! GET IT RIGHT!!"

Everyone's favorite carrot demon was still cowering in the corner, trying to become as small as possible. She had a continuous stream of thought in her head that went something like this: IamnothereIfnooneseesmeIamnotherePleaseforgetaboutmyexistance-

She was very scared.

Mejan smiled and waved goodbye to everyone who occupied the house of Fred. As she walked away, a large mud ball hit her in the back of the head. Turning slowly, she spied Mandy doing a weird 'n' wacky victory dance in a patch of gooshy mud. What happened next can only be assumed, but be assured that all of the weirdos were in need of baths by the end of the day.

For all Mandy's hiding and Mejan's teasing, they were obviously friends. (we think...)

I also feel that it is necessary for me to note that when I was little, while I did have enormous chipmunk cheeks, I was a very playful and happy child with an excellent set of lungs. In fact, the pouty personage mentioned is Megan. You should see the photo I have where I'm all smiles and she's got this dark look on her face (ie "I'm going to murder the photographer"). I just thought to make it more interesting by switching our personalities.