A/N: I was inspired. Go on, read it! You know you want to!
Bunny Madness! Catch that Kid, I Mean, Rabbit!
"Hey there, little guy," Sam whispered, tapping gently on the cage of a small, white rabbit. It was only four months old and looking beautiful. The rabbit's dark, black eyes looked at Sam, it hopping to the side of the cage where her finger was. It nudged her finger with his nose. "Hey," Sam laughed, giggling. His name? Jokes. Why? Because it often seemed to bare it's teeth in almost like a smile when Sam would tell him something funny. And when she told him something sad, the bunny would only look at her with it's big eyes.
The doorbell sounded, causing Sam to jump off of her bed and run out the room. Unfortunately for her, the cage had slightly opened from her sudden jump. The bunny slowly hopped out and out of sight.
"It's a rabbit, Sam," Tucker said, minutes later. Him and Sam began to climb up the stairs. They didn't noticed a tiny, white fluff-ball climbed down the stairs.
"Yeah, but he's a smart rabbit," Sam told him. Tucker only shook his head. He didn't believe anything Sam was telling him. "I'll show you," she said then as they entered the room. "Hey, Jokes, I-" the words stuck dead in her throat. "Jokes?" she called. There was no sign of the poor thing.
"Where is he?" Tucker asked.
"I don't know. Jokes?" Sam called. "Oh, man, he must have escaped. Help me look for him!" They looked beneath the bed, behind the open closet door, everywhere in her room. Once they exited her room to look around the halls, it turned out there were no open doors for little Jokes to escape out of. They went down the stairs, calling out his name. But to no avail. There was no way he could have gone downstairs, the door was closed as well. "Jokes?" they called. They walked past the kitchen where Mrs. Manson was.
"Oh no, Sam," Tucker said. Sam looked at him. He pointed at the front door. It was open just enough for a small bunny to go out of. Sam's eyes widened.
"He couldn't have gone far!" she said, running out the door. Tucker followed her close behind. They stopped, looking around beneath a car that was parked. Then Tucker caught sight of something.
"Sam, over there!" he pointed to behind the house. A small, white, fluff-ball was hopping slowly towards the back of the house and into the drive-way, then into where the cars were parked.
"Let's go!" Sam said and they rushed back too. They didn't see the puff-ball anymore. Good thing there were only two cars there! It was a simple blue van and a black van her dad never used. "Check under there!" she instructed.
"Under where?" Tucker asked. Sam giggled. Tucker glared at her. Dumb joke, really dumb joke. She shrugged innocently and they went to check under the cars. "Here he is!" Tucker said. The bunny was beneath the car.
"Get him!" Sam said, running over. But the rabbit quickly ran to the back of the car and then ran out, around them, and under the other car. Sam growled beneath her breath. Why was he running away? "Tucker, go on the other side and we'll catch him," she said, creeping up slowly to the cars. Tucker did so quietly. "we have you now," Sam whispered beneath her breath. But the rabbit ran out from under the front of the car and around them again, despite Sam's chasing him. It then ran around again, back under the other car.
Both teens wanted to climbed under the car and grab it already! "This is getting us nowhere, Sam," Tucker said.
"I know," Sam mumbled. "Hey, go get any type of box or his cage. We'll trap him!"
"Genius!" Tucker exclaimed and ran around to the front of the house. He looked around. A regular cardboard box caught his attention. He grabbed it and ran back to the parking-lot. He didn't feel like going to get little Jokes's cage. "Got a box!" he shouted.
"Okay, bring it over," Sam said. "You go around the car and scare him. I'll put the box here." Tucker gave Sam the box. She placed it near where she believed the bunny would be sure to see it. She backed away about two yards from the box and car. Then Tucker went on the other side. He made a growling sound and Jokes came poking out of the car directly in front of the box! She clasped her hands together.
"Come on, come on," she whispered. Jokes poked and sniffed into the box, crawling inside. Sam quietly made her way to the box once he was in. But Jokes was smarter than that. Just as Sam grabbed the box, he ran out. Tucker jumped forward, trying to grab Jokes in his hands since he was so small. He fell smack onto the box, crushing it. Sam was pulled down from holding the box and came tumbling onto Tucker. They both yelled out as contact was made. Little Jokes came around about a yard away and stared at them. He gave his funny crooked smile, baring his teeth, and then slipped away.
They groaned and got up. "I hate smart rabbits," Tucker growled.
"No kidding," Sam agreed, rubbing her head. Tucker rubbed his elbows, trying to get the pain lingering there to leave. "We need some kind of plan."
"We need to corner him," Tucker said.
"But how? There's no way we can! He's too smart!" Sam said.
"I don't know, just let me think!" Tucker said. He put his index finger and thumb to his chin, thinking and musing aloud to himself. "We need to sneak up on him. Back him into a corner. Then catch him when he's not looking."
"He'll see us. And he doesn't, he'll hear us," Sam said. She sighed, watching as little Jokes scampered around beneath the car, watching them out of the corner of his eye.
"Okay, then we need to find a way to hide our movements," Tucker mused aloud to himself again.
"That's it," Sam said. " Tucker, you're a genius!"
"I know I am," Tucker said, putting both hands in his hips. He smiled triumphantly, then opened his eyes, his smile fading. "Wait," he said, scratching his chin. "Why am I a genius?"
Sam sighed and shook her head. "The only way to get Jokes to not see, hear, or even smell us is to be invisible and intangible!" Sam said. Tucker looked at her incredulously.
"Uh, Sam? In case you haven't noticed, we can't do that," Tucker said.
"We can't," Sam agreed, nodding feebly. "But when you need someone to catch a rabbit, someone who can go intangible, someone who can go invisible, who you gonna call?"
Tucker grinned. "Now I know what you're saying!" he said. Sam smiled.
"Who you gonna call?" Sam asked.
Tucker raised a fist in the air and shouted out, "GHOST-BUSTERS!"
"Tucker!" Sam shouted, really sad about him not knowing. Gosh, how dim can he be? Tucker laughed.
"I know, I know, I'll call Danny," he laughed. Sam shook her head. She turned back to where Jokes was. He was just sitting there. She made a move towards him and he backed away. She frowned and instead turned to watch Tucker take out his cell phone and dial in Danny's phone number. Within seconds, she could almost hear Danny's muffled voice. Tucker told him the situation.
"Rabbit?" Danny asked.
"Yep," Tucker said.
"Well, you called the right person," Danny said. "I'll be there in five."
"Thanks, man," Tucker said and hung up. He grinned at Sam and held a thumbs up.
Sam sighed with relief. In three minutes, the temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees and Danny appeared behind Tucker. Sam looked at Danny who put a finger to his lips, signifying to keep quiet. She smiled and watched as Tucker, who was busily making sure the rabbit didn't move, was intensely concentrated. Then Danny lowered his face to Tucker's ear, the boy still unknowing, and shouted. "Ghost!"
Tucker jumped up, fell, then crawled backwards, breathing hard and scared. Danny and Sam laughed. "That's not funny!" Tucker told them.
"Totally funny, but, back to business," Danny said. "Where is the little guy?"
"Jokes is down there," Sam said, pointing.
"Under where?" Danny asked. Now it was Tucker's turn to laugh. Sam sighed. Oh boy, both of her friends were dim. She pointed at the car. "Oh," Danny said, annoyed at Tucker's laughing. Danny neared the van and was surprised to see a white fluff-ball running across the ground and under the other car. "Whoa," he exclaimed. "He's fast!"
"And smart," Sam told him.
"Not as smart as me," Danny declared, going intangible and phasing through the floor. For a second no one knew where he'd gone until there was a sound of a shout of pain. Then quiet. Sam waited.
"Danny?" she called.
Danny appeared in front of them, Jokes in hand. He had his thumb in his mouth. "Your rabbit bit my hand," he said, handing it to Sam. It cuddled against her chest.
"You probably nearly squashed the poor thing," Sam said, holding the rabbit up. Danny rolled his eyes.
"Can we go to your room now?" Tucker asked then.
"Oh, right," Sam said. "I wanna show you guys how smart Jokes is. Then we can eat a snack or something."
"Cool," Danny said.
"You're staying?" Sam asked. Danny nodded. She shrugged. "Whatever," she said and they all filed back into her house and up the stairs to her room. She put Jokes in his cage. They all sat down on the floor and watched the rabbit drink water, then mess around the small plastic and transparent pipes in his big cage.
"That was tiring," Tucker said.
"Yeah. He had us running around like idiots trying to catch him," Sam agreed. Danny grinned. A knocked on her door startled them.
"Come in," she called.
"Sam?" her mother opened the door. "Sam, what was your rabbit doing in the kitchen?"
"What?" Sam asked in disbelief. She looked at the white bundle of fluff in her mother's hands.
"Jokes was in the kitchen, Sammy-kins," her mom said. Two long ears perked and Jokes gave his million dollar, baring-teeth smile.
"But...but...but..." Tucker and Sam kept saying over and over. "Then..." They lookedinto the cage at the imposter. Then, with a gasp of exasperation, dropped backwards onto the ground.
Mrs. Manson looked at them curiously. Danny looked at his friends, blinked, then looked at Mrs. Manson, then at the rabbit in the cage. "Then who's rabbit is this?" he questioned. A chill ran up his spine and his ghost sense, much smaller and less able to be seen than ever before, escaped his mouth. He looked at the rabbit with wide eyes and was astounded. The imposter's eyes glowed green!
Now it was Danny's turn to fall back with a sigh of exasperation. He looked away from the rabbit, then dropped down backwards onto the floor.
Mrs. Manson only looked at them curiously. The rabbit in the cage grinned it's crooked smile. Jokes smiled too. The three teens only groaned.
E/N: I was inspired to write this story because I spent about half an hour trying to catch a rabbit last night. It had my brother and me running around circles of our apartment building before we finally got it cornered behind a couple of trashcans. Then we returned it to our neighbor and settled down to watch Naruto. :D
--Airamé Phantom
