The Failed Surprise
The night of March 20th was a quiet one at the guild. It seemed that everyone had taken Laura's words to heart when she had described the day as being a time for "quiet contemplation" (or something along those lines, at least), as everyone had taken to mulling over the new things they'd learned about their friend Laura that morning. There were a lot of them:
1. Laura's eyes had been rainbow-colored as a human.
2. Laura's eyes had inexplicably reverted back to that human state.
3. Laura's memories were returning.
4. Laura was, apparently, part of a "people" and "culture" of some sort.
5. Laura's culture placed great importance on a person's thirteenth Birthday.
6. Laura was only thirteen.
7. Today was Laura's Birthday.
As they thought about that last item on the list, the apprentices sighed in slight disappointment. It had been Laura's Birthday—one of the most important Birthdays of her life—and yet… she hadn't gotten a party. Even if the significance of her age did merit something more "serious," couldn't she have still had a more formal party? Or at least presents or a cake or… or something? Paula had said that the two were going to spend the day at the Hot Springs to celebrate, but… still. That just didn't seem… special, enough. Especially considering that Laura was still just a kid.
And that got them wondering if there was anything they could do to make up for it…
Chatot sighed when he entered Wigglytuff's quarters bearing a Perfect Apple. While he normally would have relished the silence and seriousness as a break from Wigglytuff's usual antics, he couldn't be happy when he knew it was due to sadness; the lack of a party for such a momentous occasion had to have upset him…
"I know that today must have been disappointing for you," he began, addressing Wigglytuff's back, since the Guildmaster was facing the wall, hunched over in apparent sadness, "but I'm very proud of the way you respected Laura's wishes to not have a big party."
"Who said she's not having a big party?" Wigglytuff suddenly asked, sounding astonished that Chatot would ever suggest something like that.
Chatot was taken aback. "Er… Well, you did. Remember?" he reminded him, sounding perplexed. "When Laura said that a big party was not appropriate, you said that you understood and—"
Chatot was interrupted by a giggle. "Silly Chatot," Wigglytuff gently chided. "She just meant that a party wasn't appropriate today. That's why we're having it three days from now!"
"Squawk! I-I beg your pardon?!" Chatot demanded, wings fluttering anxiously.
Wigglytuff turned around, a huge grin on his face. "Look! I've already started planning!" he exclaimed joyfully as he handed Chatot a rolled piece of paper.
With a start Chatot realized that Wigglytuff's serious demeanor and hunched over form earlier hadn't been due to sadness, but, rather, concentration on his plans. With a gulp of trepidation, Chatot unrolled the list… and jumped back when it ended up being over three feet long.
"Ooh! This will be so exciting!" Wigglytuff exclaimed as he grabbed the nearly forgotten Perfect Apple that Chatot had brought him and began to dance with it on his head. "Tomorrow we'll tell everyone else! I bet the apprentices will have some great ideas!"
It turned out that Wigglytuff was right; the others did have a lot of ideas. However, whether they were, in actuality, "great" was debatable, and Chatot couldn't help but cringe as he took notes for Wigglytuff (who had gone out on an errand of some sort…) on the apprentices' chattering. He still thought that this was a bad idea…
"Oh my gosh! We should totally have tons of games to play!" Sunflora suggested.
"Hey, Dad? If we played that memory game again, do you think it would help Laura?" Diglett asked.
"Hm… That is a good idea, son! Games like that should be the primary focus!" Dugtrio concurred with a nod.
"And… FOOD! Lots and LOTS of food!" Loudred exclaimed. "Especially WHITE GUMMIS!" he added licking his lips. When everyone looked at him dubiously, he hastily added, "Er… W-well she SAID they were her FAVORITES…"
"As well as yours, right? Meh heh heh…" Croagunk teased. He rubbed his chin, actually seeming to make an attempt at seriousness for once, and suggested, "She would probably like Plain Seeds better… that is number 23 on the list, after all… meh heh heh…"
"Oh, you made a list for her too?" Chimecho asked, cocking her head in curiosity. "Did you make one for Paula as well?"
"Naturally," Croagunk confirmed with a smirk. "Meh heh heh… I have one for everyone here…"
At that, everyone glanced at him in trepidation before deciding that they really didn't want to know.
Corphish coughed to bring everyone back to the task at hand. "Hey, hey! Anyways…" he began, "We should all think of good hiding places, so that when she arrives at the guild we can all jump out and say 'Surprise! Happy Belated Birthday—"
"—Laura. Meh heh heh... Good morning," Croagunk suddenly said. At first everyone thought he was just being random again, until…
"Hi everyone!"
…Laura greeted them as she descended the ladder.
"GASP! L-LAURA!" the apprentices exclaimed in panic.
Laura frowned in worry. "Is something wrong?" she asked. "I know I'm a bit early today, but usually you guys have started work by now…"
"Oof… Uh, no… nothing's wrong,' Bidoof began uncertainly. "We were just… er…"
"Hey, hey! We were talking about that bomb from yesterday!" Corphish cut in.
Laura cocked her head, curious to know more, and Corphish quickly continued, "Yes! Hey, hey! After you and Paula left yesterday, Chatot remembered that there had been talk of a fire-type thief recently who sends explosives to guilds as a way to cause a distraction and steal all their valuables. Chatot checked the remains of the package and, sure enough, he found evidence that the thief had sent it."
Laura glanced at Chatot, looking for confirmation. He nodded, albeit hesitantly. The story was true, after all…
"Hey, hey… S-so what are you doing here so early, Laura?" Corphish asked, trying to get Laura's business done as quickly as possible so that she would leave and they could get back to planning her surprise party. Speaking of which… "And where's Paula?"
"She's picking out some jobs while I see if that thing we were going to give Manaphy to celebrate the opening of his new business has arrived yet," she explained, turning to Croagunk expectantly.
Croagunk frowned for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Meh heh heh… That's right… the Tidal Cape…" he mumbled before heading off to his Swap Cauldron. "It just came in last night," he explained as he rummaged around for a moment before pulling out the cape and bringing it over to her.
Laura smiled as she took it from him. "Thank you Cro…" she began before pulling a face and wobbling on her feet. "Cro…" she put a hand to her temple. "Croa…gunk…" she finished lamely as her eyes began to glow and acquired a far-off look…
Everyone stared at her in confusion and slight worry. It looked like she was having a Dimensional Scream, but… that shouldn't be possible when Paula wasn't around… right?
They were brought out of their musings when Laura blinked and her eyes went back to normal (well, the new normal, considering that they still had that strange, yet beautiful, rainbow color), signaling that she had returned to reality. "That explains it," she murmured quietly, a small grin on her face, as she carefully put the Tidal Cape into her bag.
"Uh… What explains WHAT?" Loudred asked.
Laura blinked before explaining, "I had thought it was strange that the pokémon offering this swap had been asking for an item of a lesser value… but it turns out that it was the phione who gave us that medicine for Manaphy. She remembered us and is still grateful to us for chasing off Gyarados, so…"
"And, um… how do you know this?" Diglett asked.
"Dimensional Scream," she responded with a nonchalant shrug.
Everyone gaped at her. "WHAT?!" Loudred demanded. "Didn't you say that you needed PAULA to be around to have one of those?"
"That was only until I turned thirteen," Laura responded, flashing a grin at the remembrance (what little she had) of just how special her age was.
Everyone continued gaping, but Laura, still stuck in her happy thoughts, took no notice and simply headed for the ladder. "I'd better go see if Paula is ready… see you later, everyone!"
When she was gone, there was a moment of awkward silence before Dugtrio said, "Well. This certainly complicates things."
"Really?" Bidoof asked. "Why's that?"
Sunflora was the one to answer with, "If the restraint on her ability is no longer there, then it will be that much easier for her to find out our plans, silly!"
"Oof… I didn't think of that…" Bidoof's eyes widened. "S-so what should we do?"
"Hey, hey! I know!" Corphish said, waving his claws. "We just have to make sure that she doesn't touch anything when she's at the guild!"
Chatot's jaw dropped. "Did he really just suggest…?"
"Oh my gosh! That's a great idea!" Sunflora gushed. Then she blinked. "Ooh! You know what else? We should keep this a secret from Paula as well! That way Laura won't be able to spoil the surprise through her!"
The pencil and paper dropped from Chatot's grasp. "Squawk! What?!" he demanded. "Do you all realize how ludicrous—?!"
"YEAH! That's PERFECT!" Loudred cut in, not seeming to have heard him.
"Hey, hey! It's a shame that we won't be able to get any ideas from her… but it'll be worth it if we can pull this off!" Corphish said with a nod.
"I agree!" Diglett added.
"Yup, yup! Me too!" came Bidoof.
"Meh heh heh… This should be interesting…" Croagunk snickered evilly.
As the apprentices' excited chatter began anew, Chatot just rubbed his temples, internally moaning, "This is not going to end well…"
"Are you feeling okay, Laura?" Paula asked as the two walked through Treasure Town on March 23rd.
Laura jumped, startled, before glancing away and blushing, giving her friend a small nod.
"It's just… you seem really jittery lately…" Paula said.
"… The way everyone's been acting makes me really nervous," Laura explained.
Indeed, ever since her Birthday, everyone had been acting… strange. They were going out of their way to pick things up or hold things for her, they didn't want her taking any of the jobs off of the boards and insisted that Paula do it insetead, there seemed to be a lot of whispering going on behind her back, and, strangest of all, Croagunk was refusing to do swaps with her!
"Well… it's probably because they're trying to adjust to everything they learned about you on your Birthday," Paula tried to reassure her. "I'm sure they'll settle down soon."
Laura simply sighed, still feeling unsure.
Her unease grew when they made it to the guild and found that the first floor was empty.
"This is not normal," she decided. "Everyone should be busy by now… Chimecho should be at her podium, the other apprentices should be at the boards…"
"Huh. That's weird… no one is up here!" Paula observed, unaware of her friend's inner turmoil. "Are they still downstairs? We should go see!"
Laura glanced towards the ladder suspiciously and all gave a counter-suggestion, "Um, instead… why don't we just get some jobs and go?"
Paula rolled her eyes, "Come on, Laura. It's no big deal… I'm sure that Chatot just had a few extra announcements today or something."
She grabbed Laura's hand and dragged her towards the ladder, unaware that Laura's anxiety was causing her heart to beat about a mile a minute and pump her full of adrenaline…
"Diglett… are you SURE that it was them at the gates?" Loudred "whispered" from his hiding spot in the dark room.
"Yes!" Diglett responded irately. "Now shush! Your voice is too loud!"
"Ooh… This is so exciting!" Wigglytuff giggled softly.
"Hey, hey! I think I hear them!" Corphish alerted the others.
"Laura, seriously, just calm down. I'm positive that everything's fine," they heard Paula say as her feet him the floor.
"Then why are the lights off?" Laura demanded, her voice sounding shaky for some reason.
"Well… I don't know. But I'm sure it's nothing—"
Suddenly the lights turned on, and everyone relished the priceless look on Team Rainbow's faces when they jumped out of hiding and yelled, "SURPRISE! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, LAURA!"
That is… they relished it for about three seconds before…
THUNK!
"Waah! Laura! Laura?! Are you all right?!"
…Laura fell to the grass in a dead faint.
"I knew this was a bad idea…" Chatot muttered before shooing away the panicking crowd that had gathered around Laura so that he could revive her and make sure that she was all right…
"…You just love to torment me, don't you, Ms. Catflower Queen?" Laura demanded the second she walked through the door of my mental office.
"Oh, hush," I replied with a grin before taking another bite of my delicious chocolate cake. Once I swallowed, I continued, "You know you enjoyed it… once Chatot woke you up. Just look at all the great painting supplies you got out of it!"
Laura rolled her eyes and plopped down on the chair I materialized for her. "I thought you told the sableye that you'd always warn us before you do stuff like this?"
"No, I told them I'd warn you guys before I did any dark stuff," I corrected.
"I bet you just did that so you could live vicariously through me," Laura mumbled, clearly pouting.
"Maybe," I shrugged in response before laughing at the young treecko's incredulous stare. "Have some cake," I offered, handing her a generous slice.
She accepted it with a sigh and took a bite. Once she had swallowed she, rather reluctantly, offered, "…Happy Birthday, Catflower Queen."
I grinned in response and took another bite of cake.