"I think that a little cat would be perfect," says Logan.
"Nu uh!" Carlos interrupts. "We need something cool, like an iguana or a big parrot!"
"What about a dog?" James suggests. "A husky or something. They're fun."
Then, a different voice joins the conversation. "And what may I ask are you guys talking about?" It's Kendall. He walks into Logan and Carlos' room with his hands on his hips. The three boys turn to face him and say, "pets!"
"Pets?" Kendall verifies.
"Yeah, pets!" Carlos yells, grinning.
"We can't get a pet."
James and Carlos cry out. "Why not?" they whine.
"It's too much work! What are we going to do when we're touring? Expect my mom to take care of it?"
"Duuhh," James rolls his pretty hazel eyes and Kendall with a frown.
"That's why we should get a cat," Logan insists. Now he stands up and makes an intelligent face. "They don't need much work. We can even leave an automatic feeder for him when we go away. All Mama Knight needs to do is scoop the poop."
"Yeah but cats are YAWN!" James yells. "We can get a dog, and the dog can just come with us."
"OR AN IGUANA BECAUSE THEY ARE RAD!" Carlos screams even louder.
"Guys! Shut up!" Kendall barks. "We aren't getting a pet! Just shut up! Drop it! Oh my GOD!" His raises his hands over his head and runs out of the room. Sometimes it's hard to believe that they are his friends. A pet? Really? They can't even take care of themselves, let alone another animal. A cat might be cool, though. Nah, Kendall thinks. Still too much work.
He needs to get some air so he makes his way to the lobby. Hopefully, by the time he gets back they boys will be over their stupid discussion. The elevator doors open and Kendall runs into Camille.
"Hey," he says.
"Hi Kendall. How are you?" Camille asks with a pretty smile. Kendall gets in the elevator and sighs hilariously loud.
"Stupid!" he shouts.
"What happened?"
"Those moronic friends of mine think we need a pet."
Camille immediately bursts into laughter. "Really? The boys? And a pet? Really?"
"Yeah, exactly how I feel," Kendall says. He folds his arms and sighs. The elevator stops at the lobby and the doors open up.
"Well," Camille says between giggles. "Good luck with that!"
"Thanks…" Kendall's voice trails off as Camille walks away. He puts his hands in his pockets and walks out of the Palm Woods. At least the weather is nice, but when is it not? He begins to wander down the street. As he walks, he notices an awful lot of people walking dogs. See? Kendall thinks to himself. You need to walk them. I can just see it now…
Kendall imagines a dog tearing up the apartment and his mother screaming about it. "You guys need to walk this dog NOW!" she screams. James and Carlos try to put a harness on the dog, but it's wiggling about so much that they end up putting the harness on themselves. Then Logan tries to come up with some ridiculous scientific method to controlling the dog's behavior, which ultimately backfires and causes even more chaos. Kendall can't help but laugh at how predictable the boys are. Is he that easy, too?
The blond boy rounds a corner and suddenly hears an awful lot of noise from an alleyway. Curious but guarded, he looks down the stone corridor. All he sees is a couple garbage cans, overflowing with waste that smells less than pleasant. Just as he begins to think nothing of it, there's that noise again! It's a metallic clonk followed by a great rustling, almost as if someone is sifting through the garbage. Is it a homeless person? Before Kendall completely walks away, he considers that it might be someone in trouble. Being the nice guy that he ultimately is, he takes a few steps back and heads down the alleyway. The rustling continues and he follows is carefully. It seems to be coming from behind one trash can. There's no way that it's a person, they couldn't fit back there. Kendall thinks maybe it's a rat. In that case, he would make himself a real fool, putting himself in danger just because he thinks a rat is a person in trouble.
Before he can get much further, he seems something small and pink move from behind the can. He can't quite tell what that is, but it is certainly alive. Kendall squats down and doesn't move at all for a moment. He doesn't want to scare whatever it may be. Now the creature backs out a little more and he can tell that it's the butt. It has a tail. A little tiny, pink tail and a little tiny, pink body.
Oh, Kendall realizes all at once. That's a pig!
He doesn't know if they bite when provoked or not, so he picks up a coat hanger on the ground and slowly extends it towards the pig's butt. He taps it real gently, and all of the sudden it begins to squeal. It squeal and squeals, knocks over the garbage can and backs out of the space it way. It tries to run away, but the poor thing has the cardboard can of peanuts stuck on its head!
"Hey, wait!" Kendall yells. The pig is trapped. Acting quickly, he grabs around its sides and tries to pick it up. It's just a little thing, really! Like a small dog. It must be very, very young. As it squirms about in his hands, he clasps his fingers around the can and struggles to pull it off. With just a little more effort, it goes flying from his hand and the pig's face. All at once, the pig stops. It looks at Kendall way too intelligently and even appears to smile.
"Uh, hi," Kendall mumbles. The pig has an adorable brown spot on its nose. It pushes against Kendall's hand.
"Hi!" the pig says.
"Wait. WAIT!" Kendall doesn't believe it. He almost drops the pig but stops himself in time. "You didn't just talk to me."
"I did!"
"I'm going crazy."
"No, you aren't."
"Yeah, yeah I am." Kendall sets the pig down and gets up.
"Wait!" the pig calls out. "Don't go!"
"No, I'm going." He begins to walk away, but the little pig follows him, oinking.
"Don't goooo!" it calls out. "You saved me!"
"I know. But I don't think you're even real, so stop. I'm leaving. Byeee!"
"NO! Stop! Kendall, no!"
Kendall freezes in his tracks. He turns around real slow and glares down at the pig, who is not sitting and looking up at him with a smile. "How do you know my name?" he asks.
"Because it's destiny!" the pig cheers. "Destiny that I found you! I was waiting just for you, Kendall."
"This is
He feels self- stupid. I'm not a magical girl in an anime, okay? You're freaking me out."
"Stop! Kendall! Nooooo!" the pig runs up to Kendall's feet and nuzzles around his ankle. "We need to be best friends."
"Why?" Kendall asks.
"Because I told you already; destiny."
"Stop. Bye." Kendall shuffles the pig off of his feet and he walks away briskly. Now he starts to worry that he's going completely insane. What could cause this madness? He wasn't on any drugs. He doesn't like alcohol. Maybe lead poisoning? Was the Palm Woods an asbestos hotspot? This is too crazy, definitely. But as Kendall makes it back to this apartment building, he turns around and sees the pig is gone. Good, he thinks. Hopefully that thing will be gone forever now, before the guys see me talking to myself.
conscious as he walks back into the Palm Woods. Nobody saw him talking to the imaginary pig, but he worries that somehow, somebody knows. He clears his throat and goes back to the elevator. The doors open up before he gets there and Buddha Bob comes out, talking to Bitters.
"I think I'll find it soon," Buddha Bob says.
"Excellent," Bitters giggles, rubbing his sausage-like fingers together. "It's been going on too long. The guests are starting to complain."
"Okay, well I got the traps up and I have a good feeling about it."
"Don't screw it up!" Bitters hollers before shuffling off to his usual roost.
Kendall stops Buddha Bob before he can get much further. "Oh uh, hey Kendall," the janitor says.
"What were you talking about?" Kendall asks.
"Uhhh, I can't really talk about it."
"Oh come on, you can tell me."
"Uhhhh, well, okay, see, uhhh, there's this little pest problem here," Buddha Bob's voice becomes very quiet. Well, quiet for Buddha Bob. "A piglet is getting into people's trash and stuff and causing all sorts of problems. So Bitters wants me to get rid of it. Sooooo don't tell anybody, 'cause I'd get in trouble, since he told me not to tell anybody. You know, reputation and stuff."
"Oh, okay. I see." Kendall's eyes widen. "What do you mean but 'get rid of it'?"
"Make it disappear!" Buddha Bob says. "Just like the rats. Which we uh, have none of, definitely. Right. GOTTA GO!" he runs off quickly, leaving Kendall with a sinking feeling in his stomach. There's no way the pig he saw wasn't related to the one Buddha Bob was looking for. Coincidences like that simply do not happen. Kendall couldn't let the piglet be exterminated. Grumbling, he turns around and goes back out the front door of the Palm Woods. He retraces his steps back to the alley where he found the pig.
"Yooo!" he calls out. "Piglet?"
There's a shuffling, rustling and squoink, and then the fuzzy little piggy comes out from behind one of the garbage cans. "Kendall!" it yells. "You came back for me!"
"Listen," Kendall explains, squatting down. "The people at my apartment building are looking for you. They want to kill you because you're a 'pest.' So come back with me."
"Hooray!" the pigs cheers. It jumps into Kendall's arms as if they were long lost pals. Kendall notices there is a collar around the pig's neck; it's very thin and also pink. Hanging from it is a small tag which reads, YUMA.
"Yuma? Is that your name?" Kendall asks.
"Yup!"
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
"I'm a girl!"
"Oh, okay Yuma." Kendall carries her in his arms back to the Palm Woods. "Now I have to hide you under my shirt, so don't say anything or move at all, okay?"
"Got it!" Yuma doesn't fight as Kendall hides her away under his clothes. She listens very well and stays completely still. Careful yet cool, Kendall walks back inside the Palm Woods and saunters up to the elevator. He clicks the up button and gets inside when the doors open.
"You're doing great," he whispers to Yuma, alone in the elevator.
"Hooray!" Yuma says.
"Ssshh!"
"Sorry," the pig whispers.
The doors open up and he carries Yuma out and down the hall. He slips into 2J and tries to avoid contact with everyone. Kendall walks to his bedroom door but suddenly remembers that he shares a room with James. Shit. He goes in anyway, and James luckily isn't there.
"Now Yuma," Kendall whispers very quietly. He places the pig down on the ground. "You'll have to stay in here, but you need to keep very, very quiet, okay? What do you like to eat?"
"Anything," Yuma says. She tiptoes over to Kendall's bed and nestles beneath a pile of dirty laundry.
"Okay, I'll be right back."
Kendall gets up and goes into the kitchen. He still hasn't seen anybody. So what does a pig like? Anything, really? He tosses together some cereal and salad, thinking that might work, into a bowl and brings it to Yuma along with a tiny saucer of water.
"How's this?" Kendall whispers.
"Yay!" Yuma shouts. She runs out and starts to eat and eat. Her eyes bend into a happy smile. Kendall can't help but feel a little warm inside.
"I'm going to post ads on the internet looking for your owner," he says. "If you have a tag, you must have an owner."
"Nope."
"Okay, well whatever. You must. So I will. But until then, you can stay here and I promise you'll be safe, as long as you're quiet."
The bedroom door opens suddenly and James comes in. He slams to door shut. There's something in his arms. Kendall immediately freaks out and throws a t-shirt over Yuma, but James seems distracted anyway.
"You okay?" Kendall asks. James shakes his head.
"Dude," the brunette says. He opens his arms and shows Kendall a little puppy. "Don't tell the guys!"