Credit for idea goes to jeanette9a! This is supposed to be funny... so let me know how I do:)
The Rubik's Cube
"Hey dad, whacha doing? Mom said you wanted to see me?" I asked from the doorway of the shed. It was Saterday morning and I had just finished breakfast. I was about to call Sam and Tucker, but of course I had to be interrupted to what is most likely something related to ghosts.
"Danny! Your mother said it was time I clean out some of the stuff I didn't use a long time ago to make room for stuff I don't use now!" Dad said as he picked up a box. It's not related to ghosts… That's a first.
"Um… Okay?" I stared at the box, trying to make sense of what he just said. I can never make sense of what he say because nothing that he says makes sense. Wait. Ugh now I can't even understand myself.
"So, I found some stuff from my high school years that I thought you might like." He flipped the box over, so that it said 'Jack's High School Stuff' in messy handwriting. It was a pretty big box.
"Oh… Tha-GAK" Dad shoved the box into my chest. It was a pretty heavy box too. He went back to looking through boxes.
"Sooo… is that it?" I asked. No reply. Okay. I guess that's it.
I started walking back to my room to see what kind of things where in that box.
Knock Knock
"Danny? Dinner is ready." Jazz opened the door. She didn't expect to see me there because I am usually out fighting ghosts, but she was wrong this time. Don't tell her I thought that.
"Mhmm." I mumbled with his back to her.
"Danny, what are you doing?" Jazz peaked over my shoulder, curious to what was so important.
"I can't figure this out!" I whipped around and shoved the mysterious item in Jazz's face.
"Can you help me?" I asked. Jazz picked up the object. She turned it over a few times and inspected it carefully.
It was a Rubik's cube.
"Sure. Where did you get this?" She asked. She started turning the rows and columns, trying to get each side to have one solid color.
"Dad's stuff. He gave me a box of it that he didn't want anymore." I explained as I go off the bed and stood up. I stretch my back, and as expected I heard a series of cracks. No it wasn't due to fighting ghosts, it was because I've on my bed, trying to solve the stupid Rubik's cube for hours.
"Mkay. Well I'll see if I can figure this out." Jazz mumbled. She turned around, walked straight into her room, and closed the door.
I just shrugged and walked downstairs to eat dinner.
Click….. click click… click…click click click... cl-
"Hey Jazz!" I exclaimed.
Thud.
Jazz looked up very slowly… and boy did she look angry. It was eight in the morning.
"Ummm… am I interrupting something?" I flinched under her gaze.
She was a mess. Parts of her hair were sticking up every which way, and her normally ironed out shirt was wrinkled. Her eyes were also bloodshot, the reason why I flinched when I first saw her.
She got up from the chair she was sitting on and picked up the Rubik's cube from the floor. Jazz walked over to me and stood there for a few seconds. She then trust the Rubik's cube at me.
"Here! Take it! It's driving me crazy! Now get out!" She pushed me out and slammed the door.
I just fished the phone out of my pocket and began to text as I left the house like nothing happened.
"Hey Danny, what's up?" Sam asked from her door. I had told her I needed to stop by before I do a little patrolling.
"I need you to do me a huge favor." I stared her straight in the eye. I reached in my pocket and it out. She also looked at it for a few moments, and then spoke the last word I wanted to hear…
"No." Wait what?
"Wait what?!" I exclaimed.
"No." She simply said. She leaned on the doorway and crossed her arms, looking bored.
"Why not?!" I whined. I stuck my arms out with the Rubik's cube at her, motioning her to take it.
"Because I've tried those before," She waved her hand flippantly. "I see no point in them and I think they are a complete waste of time." She went back to crossing her arms.
"But, but…" I tried giving her the best puppy dog face I could… but it didn't really work. I slumped in defeat.
"Fine." I huffed and sulked down the steps and down the street. There was one more person I could try.
I stuck my ghostly hand intangibly into Tucker's room. He was on his computer, so I grabbed his ankle.
"AHHH!" Tucker jumped and grabbed a wrist-ray that was lying next to his computer. He aimed it at my hand. I let go and flew into his room with my hands up.
"Hey man! Not cool!" Tucker breathed. He lowered his weapon and sat back down on his chair. He crossed his arms and pouted from embarrassment. I chuckled a little at the results I got from my little prank.
"So what do you want?" Tucker asked still a little upset.
"Can you PLEASE figure this out for me?" I now pleaded. I gave him the Rubik's cube. I just wanted to solve it and then get on with my half life.
"Yeah no problem!" Tucker said now intrigued, "I can actually finish this in a minute." Tucker said to the cube while inspecting it.
"Oh really! That would be great! Can you do it now before I leave?" I asked excitedly, now floating up an inch.
"Yeah!" Tucker pushed his glasses up and smirked, "Watch this!" And he was off.
All I say was a blur of dark skin and primary colors whizzing around at alarming speed. Tucker was starting to sweat a little, and stuck out his tongue in concentration.
"Voila!" Tucker raised his hand with the Rubik's cube dramatically in the air. We both looked up at it like it was a valued treasure. This moment reminds me of how in the cartoons the object radiates light and is the center of attention because it is perfect. Only one problem.
"Um, Tucker… Aren't all of the sides supposed to be the same color?" Tucker lowered his hand to take a closer look. All but two of the sides were the same color. On the red side, there was one yellow square on the corner; the same thing happened to the yellow side, but with a red square.
"NO! Thou hast defeated me!" Tucker dropped to his knees cradling the cube. I could've sworn I heard him sniffle.
"Tuck, be serious." I picked him up and took the Rubik's cube from him. His head was still hung in defeat. "What's the deal anyway? Just switch the two cubes around and you're good to go!" I said as I stared at the imperfection with one eye.
"It's not like that man!" Tucker exclaimed as he flopped on his computer chair. "I have never failed to figure out a Rubik's cube! I'm afraid it is too messed up for me to handle." Tucker said dramatically as he pulled his knees to his chest and pulled his hat over his head in shame.
I decided that I needed to go on patrol before someone gets hurt. Besides, Tuck needs to calm down; there's not much else I can do for him.
So I held tight to the cube and flew straight up out of the house, still irritated by the fact that the puzzle is still not solved.
Just as I was going to go home, my ghost sense went off one last time. Here we go again. I made sure my thermos was ready, and got into a battle stance. When I saw something move behind a nearby tree, I prepared an ecto-blast… not knowing it was-
"BEWAAAAARE! FOR I AM THE BOOOX GHOOOOST!" The box ghost yelled while wiggling his fingers in a not-so-spooky manner.
"Not you agai-"
"FEAR ME! FOR I HAVE CONTROL OVER EVERY THING CARDBOARD AND SQUARE!" The Box Ghost yelled even louder. Wait.
"So control over anything cardboard AND square?" I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. The box ghost dropped his arms and thought.
"No… I have control over everything cardboard and/or square." He said delightedly. He really is destined to be with the lunch lady. Not only will they both accept their own bipolar-ness, but they can both go on a diet.
"So what about cubes… like 3D stuff" I asked. The box ghost started tapping his chin.
"Yeah I think I can do that too! So BEWARE! I HAVE CONTROL OVER EVERYTHING CARDBOARD AND/OR SQUARE AND/OR CUBICAL!" The Box ghost yelled to the top of his lungs while floating up a few inches.
"Oh really?"
"REALLY!"
"Then can you solve this?!" I whipped out my rubik's cube and threw it at him. He used his box powers to catch it.
"OF COURSE I CAN!" He said with an evil grin. A pink glow surrounded the cube, and I saw colors fly across the surface faster than when tucker tried. While this was happening he was trying to laugh evil…. Key word: tried. Then the cube slowed down and the last row was turned. The box ghost let it drop into his gloved hand and looked at it. He switched a red and a yellow sticker and all of the sides were a solid color.
"It is complete!" The box ghost said triumphantly.
"But you cheated." I said flatly. I just stared at the two stickers the Box Ghost just switched.
"I have done no such thing! I, the Box Ghost, have fixed this colorful box of rotations! For the previous owner has tried to 'cheat', but was unsuccessful." The Boxy Ghost said with the pitch of his voice going up and down like he was going through puberty.
I took the cube from his and and started at it. No wonder no one could do it, not even Plasmius (who almost blasted the thing when he couldn't figure it out.) could figure it out, because the stickers were switched. How did they even get switched….
Oh dad.
Can you believe this? A one-shot? INSTEAD OF ANOTHER CHAPTER OF ANL?! Yeah well I just wanted to prove to you all that I'm still alive. I could go on about what's been going on in my life and why I haven't been writing… But I feel like I've been boring you with that nonsense too much. So I'm going to take a new approach to this just to mix it up…
If you have any one-shot ideas that you want to see written out…. Now is the time to send them to me (either in a review or PM… And yes you will get full credit)! Christmas one-shot ideas are also greatly appricated;) Send them soon because I will probably only look at them during the winter break; I'm being bombarded with my advanced placment programs and advance science research and I'm only a sophomore in HS (Oh no… my life is coming out in my writing again! I better end my AN!). So yeah. Review. Send me ideas…
And have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :D
~Diana Phantom