At the mall of Royal Woods, a pair of comedians were looking at a pair of earrings in an earring shop. These two comedians were Luan and her clown school friend Giggles, and while the former looked at a pair of crescent moon-shaped earrings with a smile, the latter looked at a pair of banana-shaped earrings while licking her lips.
"Wow, those are some pretty earrings," Luan remarked, flinching at the fact she just sounded like Leni.
"And delicious, too," Giggles added, earning "I know! We should buy them when we get more money!"
"There's just one problem with that plan, though," Luan grabbed her earlobe and showed it to Giggles, revealing it wasn't pierced. "Our ears aren't pierced, and we need them to be in order to wear the earrings."
"Well, that's not an issue," Giggles grabbed Luan's arm and dragged her deeper into the mall. "I think I saw a place that did piercings at a cheap price, come on, I'll take you there!"
And as the comedian was dragged along by her friend, Luan took out her phone and dialed someone. She put it close to her ear and waited until she heard the person's normal phone greeting:
"Literally hello?"
"Hi, Lori? Wait, don't hang up! This isn't a prank call!" miraculously, Lori heard and didn't instantly hang up. "Listen, Giggles and I are going to get ear piercings for-"
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're already getting ear piercings! I'm so proud of you!" Lori exclaimed from the other end, causing Luan to blush. "I would be a bit more proud if you did it on your own, but I'm still proud of you nonetheless. Oh, and if you dare get any other kind of piercings, I'm literally going to force you to take them off."
"I know. Anyway, I wanted to ask you a question," Luan took a deep breath. "Are ear piercings less painful than the average piercing, whatever that is?"
"Luan, any and all piercings' pain factor depends on your own pain toleration: They can feel relatively painless, like mine, or they can literally hurt like a... Well, something I can't really say towards a minor like you," Lori's answer didn't ease Luan's worries at all. "But hey, once the initial pain goes away, everything else was smooth sailing."
Then, with a somber tone, the comedian said, "Thanks for the info, Lori."
"No problem."
With that said, Luan hung up the call and put her phone on her pockets as she and Giggles entered the piercing store. Once there, the comedian was caught off-guard when the owner of said store was none other than-
"Chunk?"
The man turned around and answered, "Yeah, it's something of a part-time job." then he realized who he was talking to. "Please don't tell Luna."
Both girls did the "my lips are sealed" gesture. "Think you can give us some piercings?" Giggles requested as she and Luan sat on some chairs.
"Normally, I would ask whether you're too young to get piercings, but I've learned that children are way too persuasive," Chunk bitterly answered. "I mean, a couple weeks ago, a girl wearing what seemed like a pageant gown came here and demanded me to give her ear piercings, so, might as well deal with it. Anyway, what piercings do you want? Tongue piercings?"
Luan covered Giggles' mouth and answered, "No."
"Nose?"
"Definitely not."
"Throat."
"NO."
"Nip-"
Then Giggles slapped Luan's hands away and shouted, "We just want ear piercings!"
"Oh, well that should be a piece of cake," "Now, take a deep breath and try to think of something pleasant, 'cause this might hurt a bit."
"Well, that's reassuring," Luan "jokingly" remarked, swallowing her fears.
"Don't let his words discourage you, Luan," Giggles said, forcing a smile as Chunk got ready to pierce the girls' ears. "I mean, how much could it-"
And then the piercing happened.
"Huuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrtttt?!"
A couple minutes later...
Luan and Giggles, with tears falling down their cheeks, heavily caught their breath as Chunk cleaned some starter piercings. Then, once enough time had passed, the man promptly put the starter piercings on the girls' pierced ears. "Here you go girls, your piercings
"W-What are these?" Luan asked in confusion and worry as she reached to touch the starter piercings.
Luckily, Chunk slapped her hands away before she could touch them. "Starter piercings."
"Wait, why do we need to use starter earrings?" Giggles inquired.
"Listen, girls, since this is the first time you're getting your ears pierced, it is by piercing rules that I give you started earrings until your piercings heal," the man sternly stated. "You also must not touch them too often, either with your hands or substances, don't use items that could snag your ears like scarves, be sure to sleep on your backs at night-You know what? I should probably give you the list of what you must and must not do."
The man took out two lists that were as long as his arm, and handed them to the utterly baffled comedians. "How did you save such a long pair of lists in... Wherever you saved them?" Luan asked.
"That's one of the mysteries of life, girl," Chunk shrugged. "Also, the piercings will be 10 dollars, for both of you, so about 20."
Once they paid the piercings' price, Chunk let the girls go and they walked to the exit of the mall, with slight disappointment.
"Well, looks like we got some earrings, just not the ones we wanted," Luan remarked, trying to stay optimistic. "But hey, at least it won't be long before we can use real earrings, right?"
"Yeah! And besides, we got our piercings together," Giggles added. "So, at the very least, we shared the same pain."
Luan chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Please don't start acting like a clown version of Lucy."
The clown girl moved her hair down until it covered her eyes and said, with a deadpan tone, "I legitimately see the world as a dark place, and that's not because my hair is covering my eyes 24/7."
Luan laughed once more and gently hit Giggles' shoulder before the duo ran to the exit, laughing all the while... Until Lori called Luan and asked:
"By the way, did mom and dad literally approve of you and your friend getting piercings?"
They probably should've thought about that beforehand.
