Disclaimer: I am not K.A. Applegate, nor do I pretend to be. I am simply borrowing her characters so I that I may torture them for my own pleasure.
A/N: Okay, so it's been a while since I've written an Animorph fic, hopefully it will be in character. I admit, some suspension of belief is needed for this, but not much.
This ONE-shot takes place a few years prior to the series, shortly before Marco's mother disappears. The main characters are Jake and Marco (who I made up a surname for) but a couple of other characters are mentioned, most notably, Tom, Jake's parents, Homer, and Allison (she was a girl that wen to their school and was a background character in, like, two or three books.)
This story actually based more or less off of a game my little sister and I like to play whenever we're in the same hotel room. (It drives my brothers crazy!) I figured that with some tweaking, it would make a decent fanfic. So, here it is, enjoy!
Of Penguins and Bendy-Straws
The year was 1994. The date, June 16. Two boys laid side by side in two beds in a small suburban town in southern Oregon. School was out and boys were having a sleep over. Having just finished the school year, they were filled with excitement and anticipation for summer break.
The two boys in question, Jake Berenson and Marco Martinez, had just finished the best day of their lives. With Marco's parents away on a second honeymoon, he needed somewhere to stay, having no close relatives in town. Jake, whose own parents were spending the majority of the day at a friend's wedding, were out as well. This meant that the two boys' supervisor was Jake's older brother, Tom. The children had spent the entire day eating junk food, shooting hoops, and playing video games. At half past eleven, they finally climbed into bed, completely exhausted from their exciting day. Jake's parents were not expected to be back for another hour or so, which meant that he technically could have stayed up even longer, but with every muscle in his body crying out in fatigue, he decided against it.
"You comfy?" he asked Marco. His friend had been over to his house dozens of times, but never before had he slept over. In fact, to Jake's knowledge, Marco had never been on a sleepover before.
Marco nodded. He was lying in Jake's best blow up mattress under three layers of blankets.
"'Kay, g'night," Jake's words slurred slightly from exhaustion. He seemed to take no notice. With a final nod, Jake climbed into his own bed. The young boy sunk into the mattress and wrapped himself in blankets, completely at peace with the world. It was so comfortable, so soft, so . . .
"Jake?" Marco whispered. "Jake, are you awake?"
Jake turned over in his bed to face his friend. "What?"
"Can I . . . can I have a glass of water?"
Jake, not seeing the harm in getting his friend something as simple as water, nodded and left the comfort of his bed to go downstairs. He poured a cup for his friend and tiptoed back up to his room. "Here you go, buddy."
"Thanks," Marco accepted the water. But he did not drink it.
"Is something wrong?" Jake figured that he might as well solve it before he got back into bed.
"No," said Marco, "nothing's wrong. Thanks for the water." Satisfied, he returned to his bed. Just moments after closing his eyes, Marco said, "It's just . . . I wanted ice . . . "
Sighing, Jake grabbed the cup from his grasp and went back downstairs. "Ice," he muttered, "he might've mentioned that before . . . " Still mumbling to himself, he didn't notice his dog, Homer, lying on the floor. Stepping on the animal's tail, the Golden Retriever whimpered and stood up, causing Jake to spill the ice water on himself.
Shaking with cold and fiery, more so the latter, Jake dried his face with a dishtowel and took off his pajama shirt, he would put on a fresh one when he got back upstairs and gave Marco his stinking water. He refilled the cup and returned to his room.
Marco was curled up, warm and cozy, and snoring. The moron had actually fallen asleep! Jake seriously considered pouring the water on his head to wake him up, but thought better of it in the end.
"Marco, WAKE UP!" he shouted. His friend snored on. Annoyed, Jake kicked him.
"Hey, what's the deal? Oh. Hi, Jake. Why are you wet?"
"Here's your stupid water."
Marco took the cup and studied it, like a scientist would study some rare specimen under a microscope. "Um . . ."
"WHAT? What could possibly want now?" Jake was quickly losing his patience.
"Can I have a straw, please? Preferably a blue one."
"Marco, you've been to my house a million times. You can get your own straw. You know where they are."
"Um . . . "
"FINE!" Jake snatched the plastic cup and went back downstairs, careful not to disturb Homer this time. A grabbed the straw and made his way back to the room, swearing to himself this would be the last time he followed one of Marco's ridiculous commands.
"I wanted a bendy straw," Marco whined.
"We don't have any bendy straws."
"But I never drink water without a bendy straw. My dad always keeps the cabinet full of them."
"What do you want me to do?" Jake was nearly screaming. "It's almost two in the morning! Do you want me to go out by myself to the store and buy bendy straws? All of the stores are closed!"
"That would nice. Also," said Marco, "there are three ice cubes here. I don't drink anything with an odd number of ice."
You have got to be kidding me! Jake stuck his hand in the cup and took out one of the cubes. "There," he said irritably, "NOW they're even!"
"But –"
"Just go to sleep!"
"Okay." Marco drank the water in one gulp and immediately fell asleep.
"Jake?" There was a tug on the bed covers of Jake, who had just fallen asleep.
"What?" he hissed angrily.
"I can't sleep."
Jake shook slightly with fiery, but forced himself to remain calm. "Then count sheep or something. Just stop bothering me."
"Okay, thanks." Jake sighed and turned over in bed. There was quiet for about ten seconds, and then he heard the unmistakable voice of Marco. "One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep . . . ."
"Arrgh! Marco I meant count in you head."
"Fine." Another pause. Jake waited for another few minutes. Once satisfied, he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep himself. Unfortunately, poor Jake had not suffered enough. "Jake," said Marco. "I ran out of sheep."
At this point, Berenson was just about ready to bang his head against the wall. It took him every ounce of his willpower not to maim Marco right there and then.
Once more or less over his anger, Jake began to contemplate the very absurdity of his friend's comment. What did that even mean, he 'ran out of sheep'? How the hell does one run out of anything in an IMAGINARY FARM?!
He supposed Marco was just trying to get on his nerves at this point. It was working. Still, Jake wasn't about to show just how mad he was, for that would give Marco a victory over him. So he wanted to get smart? Fine. Two could play at that game.
"Count another farm animal then. Goats, chickens, pigs - -"
"Moose! No, wait, PENGUINS!"
"Penguins?" Since when were penguins farm animals (or moose, for that matter)? He decided not to question the matter. "Sure. Whatever floats your boat."
"Boats . . ." Marco mumbled. "Oh, I know! I'll count fish at the aquarium!"
Perhaps once he's finally asleep I'll press a pillow to his face, Jake mused, despite knowing that he would never do such a thing.
Jake rolled over in bed and shut his eyes, promising himself that he would not humor Marco anymore. No matter how ridiculous his friend's next request would be, he would not react and pretend he was asleep.
"Jake . . ."
Ignoring. Ignoring.
"Ja-ake . . ."
Ignoring. Ignoring.
"Jake, they kicked me out of the aquarium."
"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!" He practically exploded. "IT'S A STUPID, IMAGINARY AQUARIUM. HOW DO YOU GET KICKED OUT OF SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T EXIST?"
"No it's not. I mean the one across the street." Marco pointed out the window at Allison's house. Allison went to their school and was super rich. She wanted to be an oceanologist and kept a variety of pet fish. The pervious year, she had been given a small shark. The word had gotten out quickly and soon every kid in town had wanted to see it. Her friend Brittany had come up with the idea of charging the local boys to visit her fish tank, and they opened up a mini aquarium. The girls probably earned over two hundred dollars that summer.
Jake squinted and peered out the window. He could vaguely make out the figure of Allison shaking her fist at Marco through the window.
That was it. His friend had officially lost it.
"YOU BROKE INTO SOMEONE'S HOUSE TO COUNT THEIR FISH?!"
"Only because you told me to!"
"Wha - - I never . . . you came up with the stupid aquarium idea yourself! That's it!" Jake grabbed Marco's bags and threw them out the window. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" He began to lead him downstairs.
"But my parents are out . . . "
"I don't care. You can go to my cousin Rachel's house if you're so worried. You can sleep on the STREETS! Just go away!" Jake opened the door and slammed it in Marco's face.
He supposed that he'd been a bit harsh with him, but he knew that looking back at it, Marco would probably laugh. Jake turned around to face . . . Marco!
Jake screamed. He couldn't help it. How was that even possible? He had just thrown the boy out of his home literally seconds before.
Steve Berenson (now back from the wedding) came marching down the stairs, followed by his wife, Jean. "What are you doing up, young man? Why are you SHOUTING? Do you realize that we're trying to sleep!"
"It wasn't me, I swear. It was Marc - -" turning to his side, Jake realized that the boy wasn't there. " - - o." Had he imagined him coming back after leaving the house?
"Come on," Steve marched his son up the stairs and into his room, where Marco was sound asleep in his bed. Go figure.
"Bu - -"
"I don't want to hear another word from you. Go to sleep."
The next time Jake woke up, Jake tried to press the pillow to his ears, but the sound was far too loud. Groaning, he sat up and opened his eyes. Perhaps it was morning already. Jake turned around and was shocked to see Marco playing Mario Bros on HIS PlayStation!
"What are you doing?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible.
Marco did not answer. His eyes where glazed over, and Jake realized that the moves he was making seemed to be mostly random. Almost as if . . .
"Oh, god! You're asleep!" Why him?
Jake grabbed his pillow and left his room. What should he do now? It was four in the morning and he couldn't have gotten more than two hours of sleep. He supposed he could complain to his parents, but he doubted they would take too kindly to being woken up at such an unholy hour, especially after they had spotted their son screaming like a maniac. That just left one other option.
Tiptoeing, as not to wake him, Jake made his way into Tom's room. Quietly, he got into bed next to his brother. Tom, after his parents, had the largest bed in the house, larger than both Jake's and the guest bedroom's (which was currently being used as a storage room), so there was plenty of room for two.
It was not long before Marco came into the room as well, jumping on the bed, causing Jake to fall off during the process. While Tom's bed had enough room for two, the same could not bed said about three.
At this point, Jake was too tired to fight for a place to sleep. He quietly surrendered his dignity and curled up and fell asleep on the floor.
When he awoke he was back in his own bed. Jake couldn't remember returning to it, but he figured that he must have, otherwise his location would not have made any sense. Unless . . .
"It was all a dream," Jake breathed, unsure of whether he should be pleased or pissed. None of it actually happened. Not the straws, or aquarium, or . . . .
"Jake, can I have a glass of water?"
"NO! NO, YOU CANNOT HAVE A GLASS OF WATER! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO! YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME RUN UP AND DOWN SO THAT I GET IT PERFECT WITH THE KIND OF STRAW YOU LIKE AND THEN YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME TELL YOU TO COUNT SHEEP AND THEN PENGUINS AND THEN FISH! AND THEN YOU'RE GOING TO GET KICKED OUT OF ALLISON'S HOUSE, THEN I'LL KICK YOU OUT, BUT YOU'LL MAGICALLY APPEAR, THEN DISAPEAR SO THAT I GET IN TROUBLE AND THEN HAVE TO SLEEP ON TOM'S FLOOR!"
Marco took a step back, appearing rather surprised if a bit amused by his friend's reaction. "Fine," he said with a roll of his eyes, "I'll just get it myself."
What did you think? Should I write more random Jake/Marco friendship ONE-shots? Please let me know what you thought of this story in a review. So click that button. You know you want to.