"Just a little higher!"
Carlotta groaned. Both her arms and her patience were stretched as far as they could go, and it was becoming increasingly painful to hold her position.
"I can't go any higher!" she called down the ladder.
At its foot, her double sighed in sympathy. After all, she was feeling the same stretching pain as the Carlotta above her.
"It has to stick to the branch."
"I know it has to stick to the branch, but I can't REACH the flippin' branch!" Carlotta couldn't help but snap.
As a demonstration of her utter helplessness, she held tightly to the ladder with one hand and practically lunged at the intended spot, with the firefly trap in her other hand. For her efforts, she nearly dropped the trap and caused the ladder to teeter and wobble. Letting out a frightened yelp, she grabbed hold of the ladder as it was steadied beneath her.
"Okay, okay, so that won't work." said a Carlotta while the other muttered:
"Gee, ya think?"
Ignoring the muttered comment, she continued:
"Alright, here's an idea: you throw the trap and I'll shoot Goober at the same time so that he can catch them just as the trap breaks."
As she spoke, she loaded the Jellyish slug into the blaster Eli had lent them. At the top of the ladder, Carlotta nodded and prepared to throw.
"Ready?"
She waited a beat, then:
"Pull!"
She tossed the trap in the air. Behind her, the blaster fired and Goober shot out a small cloud of green porous gloop. As the trap hit the branch, it split into little snowflakes of paper, and before the fireflies could even blink, the green substance caught them and SHLAP! Stuck them to the tree.
"Yes!" Carlotta pumped her fist, then reached out a hand to catch Goober as he fell.
Goober safely in hand, she climbed down the ladder as fast as she could to high-fives from her dopplegangers.
"Great work girls! We're done!" Carlotta said, turning to face their handiwork.
They had spent almost the whole afternoon decorating a clearing near the Shane hideout for the party, and their efforts had payed off. Small snow drifts were piled in every corner; the ground was covered in a fine dusting of white; there were tables and chairs set out, as well as a long buffet table covered with plates full of food; crystals of assorted colors hung from webby ropes stretching above them; and on every tree and under every giant mushroom that bordered the clearing, yellow energy crystals sat in little alcoves. Combined with the fireflies in their goopy prisons of soft green, they cast a warm glow over the entire setting. Last, but not least, clusters of holly and mistletoe added the final touches to the holiday setting.
"It's perfect!" Carlotta said, grinning at the others. "And I couldn't have done this without you helping me."
She then turned to Goober and a few other slugs, Spinner, Buzzsaw and Suds, sitting on one of the tables next to the borrowed blaster.
"Or without you guys!" Carlotta grinned, tickling Spinner under the chin. "Tell Eli thanks for me, okay?"
The slugs squeaked happily, no doubt saying they'd pass on the message.
"Don't forget to thank Suzy Lu for lending us the Blizzard crystal, or Piper for helping us find all those other crystals." a Carlotta reminded.
"I'll remember." said Carlotta, picking up a rag to wash off the "X" on her forehead, which distinguished her from the others.
"That was real nice of Eli, though, to let us borrow his old blaster and some of his slugs." the other Carlotta said, with a hint of wistfulness to her voice.
Carlotta frowned at her.
"It was a perfectly friendly, platonic gesture." she said, reaching into her pocket and bringing out two crystals: a silvery lunar crystal and the repaired, pyramid-shaped cloning crystal.
"Just platonic?" asked the Carlotta.
She shrugged when the other two Carlottas looked at her.
"Nothing wrong with hoping or speculating," she said, her mouth quirking up a bit.
Carlotta rolled her eyes, but couldn't fight the blush on her face.
"Okay, that's enough. I don't need to give myself any more false hope than I already have."
She activated the lunar crystal and the cloning crystal flashed bright blue, causing the two Carlotta-clones to fade and disappear. She then turned to the slugs. They tilted their heads curiously at her. The brunette smiled.
"Don't listen to them." she said. "They just said that because I have a huge crush on Eli, even though I have no chance with him."
She said the words casually, knowing them to be true. Unaware of the bug-eyed reaction of the slugs, she chuckled and added:
"And I'm telling you guys because there's no way he could understand you even if you did try to tell him."
She checked her watch.
"I have some free time before the party." she said. "Guess I can wait before I get changed."