Gemnapped.
Steven sat on the sand of the beach eating a sandwich. Lettuce, ham, mayonnaise, tomatoes and Swiss cheese on white bread crunching between his teeth. There was something missing though, something sweet missing.
"I need a doughnut with this!" Steven shouted ad started running over to the Big Doughnut while singing the training song. He accidentally forgot about the rest of the sandwich on the beach. But they made the world go round! Steven couldn't wait to have this doughnut, vanilla covered in chocolate on the top. Maybe he'd even get one covered in sprinkles if he saw any there with them. It would be delicious either way that he would get the doughnut.
The door opened with sound of a bell ringing as Lars and Sadie looked up from their customer. He turned too. The customer linked his eyes with Steven's. He had short brown hair and a short and shrimpy body. His clothes were overalls and a light blue dress shirt. Then he just turned back to the counter as Sadie gave him his bag of treats. He put his crumpled dollar bills on the counter in his place.
"You can keep the change." he said taking his bag and heading out the door. As the boy left out the door Steven walked up to the counter.
"I'll take a doughnut to go." he said pointing to the vanilla one cover in chocolate on the top. Sadie grabbed the doughnut and put it in a bag with a napkin at the bottom of it. Steven reached deeply into his pant's pocket for money to pay for his yummy pastry. He looked at his hand and counted the money before putting it down on the counter to actually get his yummy pastry.
The with bag was handed to him as he felt he could already taste the chocolate that was smothered on top of it. "Thanks." he smiled brightly just right before running out of the shop to find a nice bench to eat it on. He looked at everything just waiting to spot the perfect seat for his yummy treat.
"Hey Steven!" Jenny called out to her friend. Steven turned to say hi as he felt his body crash into another human. They both shouted as they fell with Steven on top of that kid from the shop. Steven saw that he had gotten a new item on the menu, a smoothie. Strawberry to be exact. Steven got off of him and looked as his now spilled smoothie, it was a sad loss.
"I'm so sorry!" he almost cried out. The mystery boy looked lat him oddly.
"C'mon dude it's just a smoothie." he regarded the tears in Steven's eyes. "Although it was my breakfast too." he looked down at his spilled drink, oh he meant meal. Yeah all he ate was a piece of toast, and this was his fruit or vegetable. He had even asked a bunch of questions about the strawberries that they were going to use in his smoothies.
They both got up and sat on the bench that was up against one of the shop. They both sat on the bench together beside each other. "You can have half of my doughnut." he said grabbing the doughnut and breaking it in half then handed it to the boy. The boy smiled then took it and took a small bite of it. Steven looked excitedly at him as he seamed to really enjoy the now shared by both of them while it was being chewed between his teeth.
"Mmmm, yummy. I don't get to have any stuff like this in my house." he said while chewing the doughnut. Steven smiled while eating his half as well as his new friend.
"My name's Steven by the way, what's yours?" a few crumbs shot out of his mouth as he asked his question to his friend. Meanwhile chocolate started melting and getting stuck on to both of their fingers.
"My name's James, Steven." he licked his lips from chocolate covering them. "And thanks for the half doughnut." he smiled at Steven. Then Steven got a good idea.
"Hey do you want to come over to my house James!" he asked excitingly. James smiled back at his question.
"Sure, my dad's in town for a day because he's a scientist and he got a report that weird was going on here, so I got all day here!" he said as they hoped off the bench and started walking to his house.
"That might be the crystal gems." Steven replied. They were the ones that kept beach city weird after all.
"What are the crystal gems?" James asked Steven excitedly.
"Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl protect the Earth from gem monsters, and sometimes I go on adventures with them since I'm a crystal gem too. I got my mom's gem, she had to give her physical form to have me though." he sighed talking about Rose. James looked at Steven frowning.
"Sorry about that Steven." James sighed. There was a moment of silence between the two young boys.
"It's okay. She's a part of me now!" he smiled still slightly saddened. He looked to see his house. "Hey look we're here!" he smiled. James looked agape at his amazing temple house.
"You live here!" he looked at Steven.
"You should see the inside!" he grabbed his hand and lead him to the stairs and into his large home. He had cleaned his room and everything before when he got up. Pearl had told him to cleaned his room last night, and there was no need to procrastinate. What luck too, he was having a friend over too!
"Woah, what's this!" he ran over to the crystal teleporter and examined it closely.
"That takes us to all our adventures!" suddenly it started glowing as James jumped back in the bright lights in his eyes. "The gems are back!" James looked at Steven. Then his mouth dropped as much as it could when he caught a glimpse of them.
"Oh Steven, who's your new friend?" Pearl asked him. James just starred at her as she gave him an odd look.
"Iaar hames." his mouth barely moved as he spoke to her.
"He's James." Steven translated.
"Hey man what's with the face!" Amethyst laughed looking at it. James pointed to Pearl.
"What's with her forehead, and what's up with your chest!?" he pointed to her gemstone. Amethyst scrunched her face up.
"They're our gems." Garnet looked way down at him while coming off the steps. She raised her hands to show off hers, they started to glow. "We are the crystal gems, G-"
"Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, Steven told me about you!" he interrupted Garnet out of his own excitement. "You're Amethyst since you're purple right! And you're Pearl and Garnet." he said pointing to all of them in different order. He was right. The only reason he knew which was which was because he wanted to be an geologist and studied stuff like that, just ask his mom about her missing earrings.
"Steven where did you even find this kid?" asked Amethyst heading over to the fridge.
"I bumped into him and accidentally made him spill his smoothie." Steven explained to her. In her arms were a mix of foods and she was now heading for the cupboards to grab more. After getting all the supplies that she needed Amethyst dropped them all on the counter.
"You guys want a sandwich?" she poured mustard, ham, raw eggs, tomatoes, and other things onto her own as the two walked over to make one for themselves.
James decided on swiss cheese, turkey, ham, and lettuce on his while Steven made his usual sandwich for himself. Then James panicked when he saw that Amethyst about to eat hers.
"Don't, there's raw egg on that thing!" he shouted. She took a large bite out of it, chewed it, then swallowed. He looked like he was going to throw up. Amethyst laughed at his rather ridiculous facial expression. "You're gonna die, what's so funny!" he shouted waiting for something to happen to her.
"Gems can't die from food poisoning." Steven looked. James looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"What else can you do!?" he asked Amethyst excitedly. She grinned as her gem glowed. She reached in and pulled out her trusty whip and flung the rope and whipped his sandwich out of his hands, and with no mayonnaise it fell apart completely. She laughed as he smiled from ear to ear at her awesome weapon.
"Do the other Gems have weapons like that too!" he shouted in excitement.
"Hey Garnet, Pearl come here! James wants to see your weapons!" the two came over to the island in response, Pearl gave a groan at the monstrosity of a sandwich that Amethyst had created. James looked at them with stars in his eyes. This was going to be super amazing!
"Please Stevens' moms, please!" he shook his fists while asking in excitement at just maybe seeing this. Pearl and Garnet looked at each other. Pearl smiled.
"Well I don't see a reason to say no." she shrugged. It might just be educational for this young boy. Steven and James looked as Pearl's gem glowed as she put her hands around it like she did for presentation, and the spear was summoned. Jame's mind was completely blown away by the weapon. Those curves, the colours of it, and the overall grace and beauty in the design caused him to be stunned.
Now it was Garnet's turn to show her weapon. She raised her hands as the gems glowed as she brought them lower in a swift motion then made them a fists. The gauntlets formed over them. They all impressed them, but he had to admit that Pearl's spear was his favorite out of the three. It looked swift and functional for a fight with immense numbers.
"Steven you said you are a crystal gem, so do you have a weapon?" he turned his head to his new friend. Steven looked at him, but it was hard to summon it. Maybe this would be practice for a real time that he'd need to use his mother's shield. Well he'd at have to least try to do it.
"I don't he can do it right now." Garnet put her hand on Steven's shoulder, there was no more gauntlet covering her hand.
"I can try to!" he exclaimed hoping off his seat and lifted his shirt to reveal gem as he strained to try and summon it. It didn't make sense, he could do it four times when they fought Peridot! Why couldn't he do it right now to show James?
"I don't think it's going to work right Steven." Pearl said telling to stop. Steven sighed. Yeah maybe it'd have to wait for another day to show him.
"Do you have any video games?" James asked trying to change the subject. Steven looked like he going to explode, or at least poop himself. It worked. Now he just looked really disappointed in himself.
"Yeah, you wanna go play some?" he asked. James nodded and Steven lead him up to his bedroom to play them with him.
"I might stay a few more days here, so can we maybe hang out tomorrow if I'm free?" James said in the middle of an intense two-player golfing battle. Steven, being the extrovert that he was, smiled at the idea of another day only filled with fun.
"Okay, maybe I can introduce you to some of my other friends!" this was exciting for the both of them. Getting to know new people was something James didn't get to do very often due to moving around a lot.
"And I'll bring more money tomorrow so I can buy us both our own doughnuts!" he laughed along with his friend. The next day would be as fun as it could be.
At the place they were staying at James sat with his parents smiling at his plans for the very next day. It was spaghetti for once in a lapis blue moon. He twirled his fork around and put the ball of meat of in his mouth. He chewed and decided to break the silence between them.
"Sho dawd, hoe hwas ore tay?" he asked his busy father through a mouthful of mushed up food. Papers were stacked up around his plate of barely touched food. His father looked up from one at his son. His hair was in a messy short ponytail and was wearing a black t-shirt. His square framed glasses were too shiny to see actual eyes, he polished them whenever he was stressed, and that was a lot.
"Don't talk with your mouth full. Now swallow and repeat what you just said to me young." he glared at his son sternly. The guy was overtired and didn't want even a single drop of tomato sauce or white flaky cheese on any of his papers. They were all way too important for even a single drop.
James swallowed then straightened his back. "So dad, how was your day?" he repeated without a mouthful of pasta. His dad kept the same expression though. It was always like that, and probably wouldn't change until the day that he died.
"We may have to stay for another week James. There's something here and I'm not giving up on it!" he exclaimed triumphantly. That was his dad alright. His mom sat down. Her hair was short and curly with an almost pink color to her hair. Her bright blue eyes looked down at James and smiled.
"Just try and bear with him for sweetie." she said softly. "It's not all that bad here anyway."
"Oh I will, and I've even already made a new friend already too!" he almost shouted. Then he scooped some spaghetti and chewed only a little before swallowing it. Now he was prepared to answer all of her question.
"Oh that's so great honey! Tell me about your new friend please." she looked at him. James felt that now wasn't the best time to tell them about his moms' since they may not understand them with all the weird stuff that Amethyst showed off. Like turning into a bird and a bunch of other things.
"His name is Steven, and he's really fun and even let me be player two when we played a video game! Also a video game! I met him when he gave me half a doughnut after he spilled my smoothie, then we talked and I went to his house for a while." he explained with a lot of hand gestures. His mom nodded during some of it two.
"He wants to show me around the rest of the town tomorrow, and I'm going to bring money to get us both doughnuts!" his plans were brilliant for the next day.
"It's wonderful that you're making friends here James, now I think that a toothbrush and pajamas are in order for you young mister. Some rest will help you be in a good mood for tomorrow." she said looking at his empty plate.
"Okay." he sigh-plied (Sighed and replied) to his mother.
But that night he just could not sleep a wink, he was too excited about the fact that he had actually played a real video game today! James lay there in bed starring at his thoughts about what was tomorrow going to be like. The doughnuts, the whole town and what it would look like, and of course maybe hanging out a little bit more with the crystal gems!
They were so awesome! He meant like Pearl's spear was amazing, Garnet's height was unreal, and Amethyst was just down right fun to hang out with! His day with Steven would be the best that there would be in his entire life!
It wasn't anything like his boring life. He was always moving around from place to place with his dad having a bunch of new projects in new places to check out for science stuff. It was always just moving, and since he didn't want his heart broken he didn't ever try and make new friends. Steven was his first real one, and he was probably the most interesting of any he'd meet in a lifetime. Maybe after college he'd move back there and get a job. The gems were just too interesting to move behind on his life, and Steven just had this sort of funky flow vibe coming off him. It was an awesome kind of vibe too.
Everyone should have that kind of vibe coming off of them he thought as his eyes shut slowly. But Steven was just his lucky friend that just so happened to have that vibe coming off of him.
It was bright and sunny the next day. A breeze swept through Beach city while change rolled and bounced around in his pocket. Shorts and the same T-shirt was worn, but now with a bag with swimming stuff since, ya know it was a beach. Light green flip flops flapped against the boardwalk as he started looking around for Steven.
But he wasn't to be found in the arcade, doughnut shop, fish stew pizza shop, or anywhere else for that matter. He decided to go in and get the doughnuts from yesterday.
"Hey um," he looked at the girl's nametage as she put the bag on the counter. "Sadie, have you happened to have seen Steven around?" he questioned her as he put the cash on the counter and grabbed the bag of pastries.
"Nope, he hasn't come by yet, but I'll tell you when he does, okay?" she smiled. He waved and decided to go to the source of Steven, his very own house.
He walked up the steps and opened the door and stepped in. it was unlocked, letting him in it. No one was home. He walked over to the counter, there was a note in somewhat messy handwriting. Probably from Steven he assumed to him self. He sat on the counter top, placed down the bag, and read the note.
Hey James I'm out on a mission! Be back soon.
Steven
James sighed. How soon he thought. He now laid on the counter with his head hanging over the edge. This felt nice on his back but was extremely boring to keep like this for more than a minuet. He hoped off. Now what could he do to keep himself busy in the meantime? He walked up the stairs into Steven's room. The bed was messy.
Now he didn't think Steven would mind if he cleaned up just for him. It was something to do after all. James grinned before walking over to it like some sly killer to his very last victim alive. It was time to get made he thought.
"No that's not right." he put his hand on his chin to think of a better one. "Prepare to meet your maker! Much better indeed." he pounced onto it and got to work on his bed.
It was finished way too quickly. He sighed before flopping onto it. What else could he do now that it was finished cleaning Steven's bed? Then he hoped up he smiled. The bed was messy again, so now he had to re-stretch the corners. He did all four of them again and viewed over his work. It was all clean again. That felt nice to see it like that.
"Why can't you just be more messy Steven?" he asked him with no answer coming back from the air.
"Oh well that's because Pearl told me to clean this place up!" he imitated Steven. It didn't sound like him at all though. He frowned and felt like crying over his own boredom. "At least it's not spilled milk." James sniffed. "No I gotta be more tough, if Steven comes back through that door with the gems, then I can't be crying!" he told himself.
He looked at the dresser beside his bed and saw that Steven had left his phone behind, well who wouldn't? He grabbed it off it and went straight to the internet. He knew how to due to meeting a girl in another town that showed him how to use a phone.
The internet was an amazing place with places like TubeTube and plenty of other websites. But now he was just down right looking up "How to kill boredom." he found thousand upon thousands of results. None were interesting enough to do though. James turned off the phone and put it back on the dresser. Then he looked down and smiled.
"Here I go!" James shouted. He stepped back then walked over to the edge and jumped off. A loud poof was heard as he landed onto the couch from the upstairs of his room. It actually hurt a lot more than he expected from the large jump, but it was just so tempting. Now he why exactly Steven ever did something like what he had just done.
Either way he thought that it was still really fun while you were falling off and down. Then the portal glowed, and there was Steven along with the other Crystal gems. James ran over to them and Steven ran off the stairs to his new friend.
"Well you're here early." Garnet said as he took him to the counter where the doughnuts lie in wait to be eaten by two chums.
"What did you do to the couch?" Pearl went over and fixed it up back to it's original state.
"I jumped!" he said through a mouth of doughnut along with Steven chewing. Pearl gave him a perplexed look. This never happened when Steven jumped on it, there had to be more to that than what she was getting from that boy. "So you said you'd show me around, Amethyst brought something for you." he ran over to her and handed her a piece of cherry gum.
"What's this?" she asked. Beach city never really sold gum anywhere she'd ever hanged out at.
"Gum!" shouted Steven excitedly. He ran over to the both of them. James had saved a piece for him too. Steven eagerly took it and started chewing a lemon flavored piece.
"Ya chew it, but you don't swallow it." he explained as she popped the piece in her mouth then started chewing it. It was sweet like the lemon one as she kept on chewing her piece. James then popped a piece in his mouth and tarted chewing it. His was watermelon flavored.
"C'mon let's go!" they both headed off into the city.
"Since you got me that doughnut I decided to show you one of my favorite food places." it was the Friemen's fry shop. Steven and James walked up to the counter to see Peaty was there already at the counter.
"Sorry Steven, there's no bits until the end of the day." he said. That wasn't why he brought him here though.
"Hey Peaty this is James! Can we have some hash browns?" he put his money on the counter as Peaty went back to get said Hash browns. Soon they were prepared and the money was taken and the two munched on their morning treat. Grease coated their hands as they walked over to the ocean. They both stuck their hands in and jumped back due to the cold temperature of the water.
But at least the grease was off of their hands.
Mr. Smiley's funland, the arcade, fish stew pizza, the beach, an ice cream truck, the mini golfing place, all of them was a whole day spent together by the two boys. They laughed sitting on the beach at the sunset in swimming trunks. Apparently James had managed to obtain the same ones as Steven had. So they were both sitting there in yellow swim trunks.
"Thanks Steven for introducing me to all those people. This place is really nice." he said. "I bet that's because the gems do such a great job of protecting it." they both sat there watching the sun set upon the orange sparkling ocean of the city. A moment to behold indeed it was.
"No prob, Bob." he smiled back at him. James gave him an odd look.
"It's James." he replied. Why didn't anyone ever get that joke? "I should probably be getting home though. I'll find you tomorrow if I'm still here. Bye!" he waved heading off. Steven waved as well for a goodbye.
He entered through the door and headed straight for the kitchen. His mother was waiting there with a pizza box in hand. "So how was your day?" she asked.
"It was great, we went to the beach and everything!" he said sitting down at the table. His mom sat near him, but something was missing. "Hey where's dad?" he asked.
"Oh your father thinks he's found something finally today. But for now, is anyone up for some Fish stew pizza?" she grinned stetting down the box on the table.
James had to admit, it was probably one of the worst pizzas he had ever tasted. Fish wasn't supposed to be on there, but yet somehow it still was. He had choked it down just to spend more time with his mother talking. His dad might be a few more day figuring this out and doing all the science, which he'd later explain to James like he always did.
James looked at his small desk in his room. There was a magnifying glass and a few other thing lying on the table like a large hunk of salt. He sighed. Maybe science wasn't the life for him, he just wanted to be a normal kid. His parents never really sent him to school because of moving, but fortunately his mom was a great teacher. She had even divided his summer into smaller chunks then spread them through the year just for him.
He looked at the books on his dresser. They were all too adult looking for a kid at his age. He frowned looking down at his pajamas. White with red stripes they were. He was still a kid. Maybe that was why he liked Steven so much. He made him feel like just a normal kid for once in his young life.
It was foggy the next day. James slumped over to the big doughnut to find Steven getting something.
"Hey James." he smiled wearing his red sweater. James cracked a small smile in response. It just didn't feel like a happy day at all to him. So glum he was.
"Lemon smoothie, no sugar added." he moped putting some more change on the counter. Lars looked at him like he was crazy, he would never order something like that, and he was Lars for crying out loud! When the smoothie was sipped there was somehow no reaction from him.
"Are you alright?" Steven asked. James nodded. "So, do you want to come back to my place?" James nodded again. "Let's go then!" he smiled. They both walked to his house in complete silence for once, with Steven every so often trying and failing to start up a conversation.
The house had three vans parked in front of it. James looked up and gasped. Those were his Dad's science teams' vans!
"Steven we need to see what's going on!" he grabbed Steven by the arm and hurried the both of them up the wooden stairs and into the house. What was inside was shocking to them.
The gems looked like they were in attack mode, there were men in suits with devices, and le piece de resistance etaits James father. Everyone's eyes met everyone else eyes.
"James what are you doing here!" he shouted at his son. James couldn't believe this. It was his own father, and he looked like he was going to attack the gems! This couldn't be happening he thought to himself. No son would ever wish to see their father like this, about to attack the mothers of his new friend.
"How could you do this DAD!" he shouted.
"James you don't know what these things are!" he countered him.
"Yes I do! They're the Crystal Gems, and they protect the Earth!" he did know what they were. He had hung out with them for a day or so.
"Please don't do This!" Steven cried for the safety of the gems. He couldn't just resort to fighting right away. Then his gem started to glow a little. In the back of his mind James was excited to see Steven's weapon, but for now it was the matter at hand.
"Another one?" one of the men questioned.
"Steven run!" Garnet shouted. Steven didn't want to run though. He wanted to protect them. He had the shield.
But it didn't matter what he thought, because James grabbed his arm and ran with another one chasing them.
Down the stairs they went before quickly sliding underneath them. They waited, petrified. Boots were seen as James had hold his mouth shut. They waited till they both heard nothing to come out of there. They looked at the window. A puff of smoke apeared.
"They got poofed." tears came from Steven's eyes. James patted his back. They were both just as broken as each other at the moment.
"That was my dad." they both walked away from the house for safety. "We can't go back now."
"Where do you think he's taking them?" Steven asked quietly. Foggy wind swept by gently.
"To the research center." James replied. "But how do we get there."
"I know how." said a young determined Steven. The way there was pink and feline.