Disclaimer: Kurama and Hiei belong to Yoshihiro Togashi. Hikaru belongs to Anne. Jean, Mandy, Mary, and Chris belong to themselves.

Mary: Hey, ME! Did you finish 'The Wizard of Aahz'?

M.E.: Yup, here it is.

(Mary reads the story, then glares at ME.)

Mary: Hey! You have me getting burned as the poppy field! You can't do that!

M.E.: I didn't burn you; Hiei did.

Mary: At your insistence.

M.E.: Hiei wasn't even going to be in the story again until you insisted that I put him back in.

Mary: I didn't think that he was going to burn me! You'll pay for this!

M.E.: (unconcerned) I'm sure.

"Mary," Anne said, "calm down." She watched her angry friend pace up and down the room.

"Burn me, will she?! I'll teach her!" Mary growled.

"Don't you think that you're being a little too vengeful?" Anne asked cautiously. "I mean, it was just a story."

"Stupid Mandy!" Mary ignored Anne. "If she had really been following the story line, she would have dropped unconscious in the middle of the poppy field." Suddenly a light sprang into her eyes. "Say, Anne," she asked sweetly, "isn't there a sleeping drug in poppies?"

"Oh yes" Anne started on another of her long lectures. "Poppies contain a slight trace of opium. That's why you shouldn't eat poppy seeds before a drug test."

Anne rambled on, (and on, and on, and on, and on...) but Mary had stopped listening. She was thinking furiously.

"Would you please leave me alone?!" Mandy snarled at Hiei.

"Hn. You invited me, and now you tell me to leave you alone?" Hiei sounded slightly accusing.

"I only invited you because Anne and Jean insisted. They said I shouldn't leave you out!" Mandy snorted.

"What's wrong, Mandy?" Mary asked as she handed Mandy a glass of fruit punch. "You don't want to spoil Jeans promotion party, do you?"

Mandy grumbled something about Jean and her stupid parties and gulped the drink as Mary walked off. She gagged.

"What's wrong? Did Mary spike the drink?" Hiei asked.

"No," Mandy said thoughtfully. "It just tasted funny. Sort of sweet. Sweeter than normal fruit punch." She looked at the empty glass in her hand, confused.

"Mandy, are you feeling okay?" Hiei asked.

"I'm fine," she slurred sleepily.

Hiei eyed her doubtfully. Mandy was swaying slightly on her feet. Her face was pale and her pupils were huge, so that only a faint ring of blue showed around them. She looked like she could barely stay awake.

Hiei got an arm under her and helped her over to a dark corner of the room. He sat her down against the wall.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone..." she mumbled and promptly fell asleep.

Hiei stood looking down at her for a minute. Then he felt a light touch on his arm, and turned to see Kurama. The fox demon was smiling and in a good mood.

"Come on, Hiei, come join the party," he said.

Hiei grunted, but yielded to the tug on his arm. He turned and followed his friend over to the rest of the group.

"Hn. Where's Mandy?" Hiei asked. "I left her sleeping right here."

"She must have woken up and left," Jean said.

"Impossible," Hiei muttered.

"Why?" Jean asked.

"Because when I left her here, she was really far gone; deeply asleep. It was almost like she had been drugged."

Anne's face suddenly went several shades paler. "Drugged?" she repeated.

Hiei nodded. "She started acting very lethargic after she drank that punch Mary gave her."

Anne's face went even paler. "Mary gave her a drink!?!" She sounded horrified.

Hiei looked worried. "What's wrong?!" he demanded.

"Mary has been plotting revenge on Mandy ever since Mandy wrote that story where Mary gets burned as the Merry Poppy Field. I think that she drugged Mandy with poppy syrup, which contains a small amount of opium. The poetic justice of it would appeal to her. I'm afraid that I gave her the idea," Anne said miserably.

"What's she going to do with Mandy, now that she has her?" Kurama asked.

"Who knows?" said Jean.

"Where did she get the poppy syrup?" asked Valerie.

"Oh, she probably 'liberated' it from somewhere," Touga said.

Hiei turned away from the rest of the group, but Anne's voice followed him, asking, "Where are you going?"

Hiei turned back as he replied, "To find Mandy." Then he flickered out of view.

Mandy opened her eyes. She looked up at the stars. Stars?! Wait a minute! She was supposed to be inside! What had happened?! Where was she?! She tried to sit up, but found that she couldn't use her arms for support because they were tied behind her back.

"Hello, Mandy," Mary's cheerful voice said.

Mandy turned to look at the kleptomaniac demon. Mary was smiling at her, in a very good mood. She was holding a piece of rope in her hand that she had probably borrowed/liberated/stolen from somewhere.

"You!!" Mandy growled.

"I warned you," said Mary calmly. "You laughed at me. So I drugged you with poppy syrup. Poetic justice, you understand."

"What are you going to do with me now that you've got me?" Mandy asked.

"Nothing," Hiei's voice answered her. Mandy stared. Hiei stood with in front of Mary, his sword at her neck.

"Hey! Don't you think that this is a little extreme?!" Mary said nervously. "I wasn't going to hurt her! Calm down, and put that thing away! Remember, it's all fun and games until you put someone's eye out! All I want is a little revenge. Why can't you just go along with me? Don't you want revenge for all the times she beat you up?"

To Mandy's horror, Hiei actually lowered his sword and asked, "What exactly did you have in mind?"

Grinning evilly, Mary whispered something in Hiei's ear.

"You're sure that it won't kill her?" Hiei asked when she was done explaining.

"Positive. She's survived it before," Mary replied.

An evil smile crossed Hiei's face. "All right then," he said.

"Wait a minute!!" Mandy wailed. "Just who's side are you on?!"

Hiei and Mary ignored her. Hiei took the rope in Mary's hand and used it to secure Mandy in a sitting position to a nearby tree. Mandy yelled at him all the while.

"Chris!" Mary called sweetly. "Could you come here for a minute?"

A boy about fourteen or fifteen years old stepped out of the shadows. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes. "Yes?" he said.

"Chris, could you please get us a VCR?" Mary asked, still using her sweet voice.

"Hn. Where is he going to get a VCR?" Hiei asked.

"Out of his pocket," Mary replied. "His powers are sort of like Erin's. He can pull anything out of his bottomless pockets, or store things in there for later."

Chris reached into his pocket. "Hm," he said, "a VCR, huh? Is that... no. Ew, it's slimy! Ow, that's sharp! Ahh, it's moving! Ah, here is the VCR and television." He pulled them out of his pocket and set them up for Mary.

"Thank you, Chris," Mary said.

"Let me guess," said Mandy, "you had Chris get whatever that stuff was that you put in my drink."

"Yup!" Mary was rooting around in the bag she'd brought with her. "And here's the tape!" she cried triumphantly, and popped it in the VCR.

When she hit play, a bunch of girls appeared on the screen singing, "We love you Conrad, oh yes we do!"

"AHHHH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mandy wailed.

"We love you Conrad, and we'll be true!"

"Help me! HIEI!!!"

As they walked away, Mary smiled at Chris and Hiei. "Ironic, isn't it? She's being punished with her own weapon."

"When you're not near us, we're blue!"

"Anne! Jean! SOMEBODY!!"

"Oh Conrad, we love you!"

"Help me! PLEASE!!!!!"

"Where did you get the tape from?" Hiei asked as they got far enough away from Mandy that they could hear each other over her screams.

"Oh, I 'borrowed' it from Jean," Mary said carelessly.

"Hey, Hiei, did you find Mandy?" Kurama asked.

"Hn."

"Anne, translate please," said Jean.

"He said yes," Anne translated.

"Was she okay?" Valerie asked.

"Hn."

"Anne, translate please."

"He said she'll be fine."

"What do you mean, she will be?" Jean asked.

"Why do you keep saying 'Hn' and making Anne translate?" Hikaru asked.

"Hn."

"He said that he can't answer two questions at once."

As the two cousins argued over whose question should be answered first, Hiei slipped off. He reflected that it would be a good idea if he avoided Mandy for a while. She wasn't going to forgive him for this one very quickly.

Mary stood a little apart from the group. She was smiling very slightly to herself. Eventually, the tape would stop and Mandy would manage to slip out of her bonds. Mary didn't care. She had already had her revenge.