The Country Bears: The Girl Behind the Bears

Setting Things Right

Mari had already closed herself off in the back of the bus by the time Roadie had gotten there. The bears followed close behind him. As much as Roadie wanted to talk to her and comfort her, at this point, he knew that was the last thing she wanted. He turned to the bears and shook his head. They got the message.

The mood on the bus was somber, everyone just sitting in silence. By now, Beary was long gone, having already made it back to his family.

Mari remained at the back of the bus, the curtain still separating her from the others. This whole situation was almost an exact replay of what happened 10 years ago, when the band first broke up. They all had a huge fight before leaving and going their own ways. This time, though, they were hit hard by the reality of it all. If she was being honest, she was happy to be leaving for California now. This had been a hard choice she had been thinking over all summer. She was hoping that the band reuniting would change her decision, but they only pushed her to leave even more.

For the bears, this news was devastating, and it was their own fault. None of them knew about her leaving, not even Henry knew. She never mentioned it. Knowing this now, something inside all of them changed, they needed to fix this. Not just with Mari, but with Beary as well. They owed it to the two teens. who had so much faith in them this whole time.

"Let me," Ted said as he stood up. "I owe her a lot, more than I can make up for." The others nodded. He was right on, not that they would admit it. Ted moved to the back and gently pushed the curtain to the side. The teen girl was facing the back window, her headphones blocking out the sounds of the outside world to her.

Ted could still see the red tear stains on her cheeks. Her eyes still puffy. For the first time in years, Ted felt his heart break for someone other than himself. It hurt even more to know that he was the cause of it. He closed the curtain and sat down on the bench. This caught Mari's attention, she took her headphones off of her ears and looked at Ted. Neither said a word for a moment, not really knowing where to start. Ted was the first to break the silence.

"I know what I did to you and the others was wrong. Especially you, kid. I was mad at the others and I let that anger extend to you, even though you didn't do anything wrong. You have every right to be mad at me, but know this, I still love you like family, like your my own kid. I never forgot about you, Mari."

"You had a strange way of showing it all these years." She quipped back. Ted sighed.

"I was more ashamed than anything. I knew how much you admired us when you were young. I guess I wanted you to keep that image of us even though we were no longer a band. I'm...sorry, for everything, cub."

This was the first time she had ever heard him apologize, especially for his own faults. As much as she wanted to stay mad at him and the others, this was a start in the right direction.  Mari moved her things aside and sat next to Ted, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. It took Ted a moment to register what she was doing, but returned the hug. 

This brought back memories from years ago. Ted was never really the type for affection, but he always made an exception for Mari.  

They moved the curtain aside, the others could tell by the smiles on Ted and Mari's faces, that they had made amends. The girl softly smiled at the rest of the bears. She noticed Fred holding something.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Beary left his stuff." Fred held up the bag, pulling out a notebook. "Hmm." He pulled out a piece of paper. Mari took a seat on Tennessee's lap, laying her head on his shoulder. Tennessee wrapped an arm around her shoulder and the other over her legs to support her. Fred began to read the essay out loud.

" "My Hero," by Beary Barrington, fourth grade. My hero is really heroes and my heroes are the Country Bears. Whenever I'm sad I play one of their songs and I forget why I was even sad at all. And if you met my brother, you'd know why I was always sad." Mari felt her heart break for the cub, it sounded like his brother was kind of a jerk to him. "I can't really Zeb is my hero, or Fred, or Ted, or even Tennessee. But as the Country Bears, what they can do together, makes them my heroes." Fred turned the paper to read the back. "I'd like to meet them someday. That would be cool. It says here "A+, but is everything about the Country Bears?"".

"Hey." Roadie pitched in. "Beary's a sharp little guy. This morning he told me something else. Mr.Chicken...is a girl." Tennessee sighed while Mari and Trixie giggled. Mari lifted her head from Tennessee's shoulder. 

"I think you guy's owe that cub an apology. Without him, we would have never thought to bring you all together again."

"You're right, Mari. That kid had faith in us, let's not let him down." Henry said and grabbed Beary's notebook. He found an address in it. "Roadie, let's go."