Semifinal round of the Musical Chairs Competition: wordcount: between 850-950
My knowledge on canon after The Perilous Journey is rusty, sorry for any inaccuracies. Although this is ish an AU.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and the children of the Mysterious Benedict Society were being served dinner.
"Chicken again?" Constance Contraire whined, poking at her plate with a frown. Of course, she was normally cranky anyway. She was only almost four years old, after all.
"Sorry, kids, but it's all we've got in stock. I'd send Milligan out to buy some more food for us, but he's on a research trip with Mr. Benedict. So chicken will have to do for now," Rhonda explained with a smile.
"Where are Amma and Patil and the Washingtons?" Reynie asked. He had observed that they weren't here at the time they usually were. Something is off.
Rhonda laughed a little bit. "As observant as always, Reynie. We sent them off for a little Parents' Night Out. They deserve some relaxing time to themselves."
"Couldn't they have bought food on their way back or on the way too?" he asked.
Number Two swallowed her last bite of cracker to respond to Reynie. "We did think of that, but we believed it would attract too much unusual attention. Milligan is the only one of us who can easily blend into a crowd and be forgotten," she said before picked up an apple and munching into it.
Reynie wasn't very satisfied with this answer, but he merely nodded and started eating his dinner.
Meanwhile, Sticky had started polishing his spectacles again, probably without even thinking about it. He tended to polish his spectacles subconsciously when he was even in the slightest worried or anxious or nervous.
Kate had already finished eating her dinner. Unlike with reading or absorbing information, she was speedy with food consuming. Sticky and Reynie did it fast enough for her. As well, her acrobatics were superb and super speedy. But that's a different story, Reynie thought with a small smile.
He looked around the room at all of the familiar faces he saw. He saw the faces of his best friends in the entire world.
Before he had come to be part of the Mysterious Benedict Society, Reynie had been living at the orphanage in town. He had only the opposite of good friends, and was bullied and teased constantly. His only companion was Ms. Perumal, his tutor, who had later adopted him. He now called her Amma, the Tamil word for mother.
One day, he had seen a newspaper ad advertising "Special Opportunities for Gifted Children." If Reynie hadn't noticed that advertisement, and Amma hadn't convinced him to go to the first test, his life would have been completely different. Not to mention, he wouldn't know any of his best friends here anymore.
It was all thanks to Mr. Benedict that he had met with such great people. Of course, they all had their ups and downs, but overall everybody was spectacular.
It reminded him of the first time they had all met, and Rhonda and Number Two had escorted them into the house and into their new life. Number Two still resembles those pencils like a year ago, Reynie thought to himself, smiling again.
Suddenly, Kate interrupted all of Reynie's internal thoughts. "Guys, let's go play outside! It's so warm and sunny now, and I don't want to miss this opportunity!"
Sticky was midchew and midpolishing, but he swallowed and replaced his spectacles again so he could reply. "But Kate, I haven't finished eating my chicken yet," Sticky said. "Plus, I was planning on reading more in the room..." He started trailing off once it was evident that this all didn't matter to Kate.
"I want to show all of you the new additions I made to my bucket! And it's so boring inside. Why be holed up inside reading when you could be outside having fun?" Kate said with a grin.
She must have noticed the small pang of hurt in Sticky's eyes, because she added on, "Aw, Sticky, you can have fun reading too, I bet, but it's even more fun when you're outside!"
"Well, no way I'm going outside just to stare and ogle at your stupid bucket, Kate," Constance said with a stubborn humph, glaring cross-eyed at Kate. Reynie instantly could tell that she was devising some rude poetry in her head to do with Kate and her bucket.
Kate grinned. "Too late, you're going anyway!" she said, and she suddenly scooped Constance up and started parading her around.
Constance was hissing and flailing her arms and legs. "Put me down right now, Kate! At this moment you're the one I really hate!"
Reynie couldn't help himself from laughing a little bit. It was just like Constance to be rhyming insults at her friends.
Meanwhile, Sticky was settling in for a prolonged session of polishing his spectacles, apparently. Finally, Kate had dropped Constance and had turned to Sticky.
"Pleaseeeeee, Sticky? It'll be tons of fun!" she promised, making puppy dog eyes. "And what about you, Reynie? Will you go outside with me?"
Reynie thought it over for a second. There were plenty of reasons not to go outside, but...
"Anything for my friends."