Chapter 1: The Rut
It was a dark wet morning in Parappa Town. The rain was pouring heavily, pattering on the roofs of the many homes in the neighbourhood. In one house was a familiar looking dog on a couch. He had an orange hat on, along with a blue short sleeved vest on and blue long jeans. He was sixteen years old yesterday, and his life was in a rut. He had been doing well with his rapping career, same for some of his friends' music careers. He was bored now and he really had nothing to liven it up. It was now at the point where he was starting to get depressed. "Hey, brother," he heard. Looking over and seeing a younger sibling of his, a blonde haired girl in a red dress.
"Oh hey, Pinto. What's up?" Parappa asked his younger sister Pinto. She showed him a small grocery list. "Dad wanted you to go to the store," she claimed. He looked over it and then looked at the heavy rain outside. He nodded, just putting the grocery list away. "See ya, Pinto," he said in his bland tone of voice before getting up from the couch and walking through the living room. He stepped outside, the rain now pouring straight onto him. He grabbed his skateboard from beside the door. It was light blue and had an orange flame painted on the bottom of it. He began skating down the street and beginning to head up to town.
Parappa stood on his skateboard while going down one of the hills, just wondering about his rapping career. Suddenly, he suddenly slammed on the front of his skateboard in realization to what he was missing. "I need a new place to rap. I could talk about these streets as long as I want. Heck, I could probably sing after the years I've had," he told himself after realizing that the town was now boring him. He had been everywhere, and had done so many things with his friends here, to the point where he did sing in a few bands with his friends.
Parappa was lost in his thoughts while he was arriving to the store. He suddenly slammed into somebody, getting knocked down to the ground. He groaned as he got his skateboard and stood up. "Sorry about that… oh hey, Joe," Parappa said. The person he bumped into was a tough man with a huge chin, though he was rumored to have an ego a lot bigger than his chin. He couldn't tell if he was friends with Joe or not since it seemed like an on and off friendship.
"Oh hello, Parappa. What's got you down in the slums?" Joe questioned noticing the boy's mood. "Eh, everything lately…" Parappa answered while noticing that the store was closed. He sighed irritably while rubbing his forehead. "Is it because you choked onstage at the last rap?" he asked his younger friend while waiting for the store to open up too since it was early in the morning and he had witnessed the canine's choke up back then. "Nah, man. Trust me, that don't matter in the slightest. Everything's just… gotten boring now," Parappa explained with a sigh while sitting on his skateboard in the rain right in front of the store.
"Even with Sunny?" Joe questioned. Sunny was a girl he had flirted with a lot before, but she told him off a while back since she had a crush on Parappa, though he didn't even know it, and due to the fact that he always choked trying to ask her out, he never even got around to confessing his feelings for the girl, but he doubted he could call her his girlfriend anyway. "I don't think things ever were there in the first place…" Parappa responded while the rain poured on them. "Well at least you have a lot of friends. Normally my life is nothing but excitement," Joe said with a cocky laugh making the young canine roll his eyes.
"What would you do, Joe? If all that excitement turned into a bore?" Parappa asked him but he was normally the last person to ask in general, but he didn't want to worry his friends over it. Joe scratched his huge chin. "As impossible as that may be, i have no relationship advise. As for ruts? I'd just do something unusual in that boredom to break out of it, you know, not like anyone normally would, like a pet stuck in a tree. Sure you can use a simple ladder to get it, but it feels more exciting to climb that tree no matter what size," Joe gave him his advice trying to reassure his on and off friend. Just then, the store owner came by, unlocking the door and letting the two inside.
"Thank, Joe. You might not seem like the type, but your advice is pretty decent," Parappa thanked him before walking away to another section of the store with the list to get his shopping done. All the while he was wondering what to do to try and liven up his day, even if it was off to a mucky start like usual.
End of Chapter 1