The school bell rings in its annoyingly high-pitch. Students bustle to and fro between periods. Robbie mopes from a classroom over to his locker with Rex on his hand. The irony of a sullen Robbie and a perky Rex is lost on him. He opens his locker and buries his face inside, along with a few books from his backpack. He groans obviously, as if he wants people to know he is miserable. He moans again, grabbing the attention of his "best friend."
"Why you glum, chum?" Rex quips in his usual too-white-to-be-ghetto accent (though, when you think about it, Rex looks like he could be the bi- or multi-ethnic version of his puppeteer). His edgy rhyming is not appreciated at the moment... and never is by Robbie's friends despite what he might think.
Robbie keeps his head buried as he mumbles out a response, "I didn't get invited to any Halloween parties this year." It is sad and yet it is not so surprising when he consistently brings a puppet with him on dates, and to any social event imaginable. You feel for him a pity without pity, because he should know better than to treat Rex like he is alive. And if he really thinks Rex is alive, then he should probably play cube-fist man until his mind is healed.
"You never get invited," Rex digs the knife in deeper as is his trademark. He follows it up with that smug, "heh... heh..." laugh of his.
Robbie pulls his head out of the locker, figuring he has hidden from the world long enough. He replies with a weak, "Do you have to remind me?"
"No, but it's funnier to," Rex replies. For as evil as Rex is, you have to give him credit for being honest. Sometimes his honesty leads to an angry human ripping off one of his body parts (usually Jade), but he's made of wood, so... you know. Robbie lets out a whining sigh as his only defense to Rex's rudeness.
Rex raise his little puppet hand and gives Robbie a sympathetic pat on the back. "There, there Robbie," he begins, pausing a moment in thought, not sure if he should say the next words. "If it means that much to you, you can be my plus one to a party uptown."
Robbie looks up into his eyes and asks surprisedly, "Really? You'd do that for me." It is the first time he can remember Rex not being a complete jerk in ages.
"Fo-shizzle," Rex ejects with a no-sweat hand gesture. "Plus, I need your arm since I'll be meeting some Northridge girls up in there. Heh... heh..." Just when you think he is being selfless there is a catch.
Robbie smiles and tells him with genuine gratitude, "Thanks, bud."
He closes his locker door and recoils in shock from a Halloween-Cat wearing a scary, bloody Rex mask shouting in the highest pitched voice, "BOO!"
In typical comedic fashion, Robbie screams like a little girl and drops Rex on his head. Cat stands there giggling sweetly like she always does and takes the mask off. "Tada..." she announces and takes the mask off. "I got you... hehe."
"What'd you do that for?" Robbie shouts in anger, and from still being a little scared. At least the poor guy didn't wet his pants. Not this Halloween.
"It's Halloween," Cat defends. "See, scary Rex" she says while putting the mask back on her face. "And then not-so scary Cat," as she takes it back off. Another moment of chuckles mixed with giggles.
"That's not funny!" he protests. "I hope... I hope" he continues struggling to find the right come back. "I hope you get so scared today you pee your pants."
Cat blinks her cute little eye lashes incredulously and questions him, "I thought it was only you who pee your pants?"
"Ugh," Robbie groans, grabs Rex off the floor and storms off, with melodramatic footsteps.
Cat calls after him twice using his name in that "oh, come on" tone. She makes a sad face, worrying she has hurt her friend's feelings. But she didn't do anything wrong, she concludes as she twiddles her thumbs. It's Halloween. You're supposed to scare people. And just like that she is back to her cheery demeanor, with a new smile on her face at the thought of candy later today.
Jade and Tori round the corner. Jade is drinking a cup of coffee that has almost become her fashion accessory. Oddly enough, Tori carries a sleeping back curled up under her arm.
"Hey, you guys," Cat greets with a small hand wave.
"Hi," Tori replies in her usual endearing manner. Yet Jade (already annoyed with her pleasantries) interjects a sharp, "Get to the point."
It usually takes effort to get Tori peeved, but Jade could always snap it out of her with her ganky attitude. Tori shoots an angry "Okay!" at the disagreeable girl standing beside her. She turns back towards Cat and informs her more gently, "We brought you this sleeping bag, because we remembered what happened last year when you were sleep deprived, and even more... Cat... than usual. So we want you to take a nap on your free period, before going out with us tonight."
Jade grabs the sleeping bag out of Tori's hands and lays it in front of Cat's locker. In a rather motherly tone she orders her, "Now, go to sleep like a good little girl."
"But I don't wanna sleep. I feel fine," she protests like the little child they are treating her as.
"I know you were too excited about Halloween that you couldn't sleep a wink last night," Jade tells her still without malice in her voice. "It's happened every year since I've know you. Now, me and Tori want to have a nice time to tonight without worry about you. So you need to nap."
"Go on," Jade motions her. But Cat stands her ground and protests, "No."
"CAT!" Jade screams in that shrill but powerful sound of hers.
Tori steps in front of Jade, and asks Cat, "Please... for me." Tori follows it up with a sappy pout and a friendly fist-bump to the chin.
Cat cannot help but giggle at the cuteness and concede with a "Kay-Kay." She lays down in the sleeping bag without the slightest bit of resistance. It's amazing how quickly the girl can change her attitude. Tori has wondered if she might be a little bipolar. Jade just wonders what her real personality is like underneath those head-drugs. She likes to imagine Cat as a psycho-killer, and potential partner in crime.
"I feel like we're forgetting something," Tori inquires of Jade. "What're we forgetting?"
Jade kneels down and places a binky in Cat's mouth. She is startled at first, but then begins sucking on it contently. Within moments, Cat drifts gently off to sleep. Jade smiles devilishly at Tori and says, "I put enough antihistamine in the pacifier to knock her out 'till we're done with Sikowtiz's class."
Tori replies half serious/half playfully, "You really are evil, you know that?"
Jade places her hands on her head forming the devil horns, the both of them unable to keep from laughing. She replies faux defensively, "Come on. I'm the bad cop and you're the good cop. It works. It's what it takes to take care that crazy ball of blurry red crazy that is Cat. I frighten her and lay down the law, then you comfort her and voila... a peacefully sleeping Cat. How else do we get the little one to bed on every sleep over?"
"You have a point there, but since when did we become Cat's mommies?" Tori asks earnestly.
"Uh," Jade plays with her hair. "Probably sometime after Sikowitz had us play husband and wife over a baby-binkied Cat." Jade pauses not sure if she wants to speak the next words. "And since, you know, after I stopped wanting you to die horribly." Her eyes fall to her shoes with that last sentence.
"Awww... you don't want me to die any more?" Tori mocks this time mimicking the fake Southern-actress accent Jade usually employs in her chiding.
"Well, not horribly anyway," Jade clarifies.
Tori squeals in offense but admits, "I guess it's an improvement." She stays a little pouty still.
"The pout doesn't work on me, darling," Jade says adamantly, crossing her arms. The look continues, and after tapping her foot a few times, Jade groans and signifies defeat with a "Fine." Tori waits for more. "I don't want you to die, even though it is Halloween and you're supposed to scare friends. There. Happy?"
Tori lets out a big grin in victory.
"Now stop being a dork and come on," Jade says grabbing Tori by the wrist. "We've gotta get to class and figure out our plan of attack for tonight, because I am not going in blind. Not with what happened last time."
"I say we take Cat tricker treating for about an hour," Tori answers resisting Jade's pull. "That should give her enough time to fill her pillowcase, without you needing to cheat by stealing little kids' candy... don't think I didn't see you..." Tori says pointing at her frenemy. Jade gapes speechless, but closes her lips in knowing Tori is right. "Then we head over to Natalia's party," Tori continues, "And go our separate ways, since we don't like each other much and are only doing this for Cat."
"Right," Jade says half-heartedly. "But if everybody else is totally jank and we happen to bump into each other again, that would still be cool. Because it's not that we like each other, it's just that we might hate everybody else more." Jade brings her eyes up to the other girl's gaze.
"Right," Tori says unable to fight back a smile.
Like yawing, Tori's smiles must be contagious, because before she knows it Jade is smirking back at the tan half-Latina. Tori finally lets Jade drag her off to the lunatic's acting class.
All this while Cat drifts off into her dreams.
/
Cat rubs her eyes and gets up out of the sleeping bag, yawing and stretching her arms wide in stereotypical, comedic fashion. She looks around and realizes she is in Robbie's bedroom, not the school any longer. Cat has to clear her eyes one more time and do a double-take wondering how she got here.
Robbie runs into the room and locks the door behind him. His face is sweaty and his eyes nervous. Cat questions him, "How did I get in your room?"
In a curt tone Robbie answers her, "Jade gave you Benadryl and you passed out cold. I carried you here to get you away from her." He finishes up by shooshing her with a flailing hand.
Cat gives him a dumbfounded stare and ekes out an, "oh... okay." She remains well behaved for a few moments, but the silence is killing her so she decides to ask him, "I'm all rested. You ready?"
"Shhh... not now," Robbie spits back at her.
Feeling hurt that he keeps dismissing her, Cat whines in her hurt voice, "Come on, you promised me we'd go play baby golf." Cat pouts, and sits down on the bed, crossing her arms like a petulant child.
Robbie places his hands on his head, clearly freaked out, and paces back and forth. He shouts, "I can't think about that right now, Cat. Something is really wrong."Robbies has always been a worrier, but this is taken to a whole new leve.
Cat has never seen him so truly scared in all the time she has known him. He sits down on the bed next to her and hangs his head. She pats him on the back and inquires, "What happened? I am not mad. Honest. You can tell me." Robbie and Cat have always had a special relationship; he being less selfish around her.
Whimpering as he speaks, Robbie says slowly, "Rex moved without me touching him." Cat gasps, covering her mouth with her palm. "He's never done that before. I know I always act like he's alive, but this is different." Robbie takes a beat before continuing, "And he said... he said... 'I'm gonna kill you.'"
Cat thinks it over in her mind, struggling with how to approach the issue. She might be naive but isn't stupid enough to believe Rex is truly alive. She plays along for Robbie's benefit. "I'm sure you were just eating too much Halloween Candy and got a bad tummy ache," she assures him. Cat nods and moves towards the door, intent on proving Rex is harmless.
"No, Cat don't!" Robbie screams at her, as if he were pleading for his life. He is even now on his knees begging her not to do it, but too much of wimp to restrain her himself.
Cat freezes with her hands on the doorknob and lock. She turns around and pronounces, "Okay!... Okay!... but I'm sure if we just go out there..."
Bang! A loud thump is heard against the door. Cat runs over to Robbie with a short and sharp yelp. Another thump. "What was that?," Cat whispers?
"It's him," Robbie says resignedly, as if it were the end of days and all hope had vanished from the face of the Earth.
Boom! An axe cracks through the door. Rex pops his head inside and in a perfect Jack Nicholson impression says, "Heh... heh... here's Rex."
Cat and Robbie each let out high pitched screams. They look at each other, grab the other tight, scream again and run towards the far side of the room, and away from Rex. The diabolical puppet keeps chopping away at the door with his axe like a madman. It can't be true! Rex can't be alive!
"Open the window," Robbie commands in a stronger voice now that the adrenaline has kicked in his system. Cat struggles with popping it open, not realizing it is still locked. "Hurry up!" Robbie badgers somewhat hypocritically since he is not helping her with it, keeping his eyes pealed on the impending doom working its way through the door. He has never been useful in a crisis. More the kind to curl up in the fetal position and play possum.
"I'm trying!" Cat protests back.
"It's locked!" he elucidates the puzzle for her.
"Oh," Cat says calmly and matter-of-factly. She gently unlocks the window and pulls it open. She jumps out gracefully, only being on the first-floor. Robbie follows clumsily wedging himself into the window frame, when the window comes crashing down on him.
"Help," he yells, "I'm stuck." Cat, who had already started running away thinking her fuzzy haired friend was right behind her, comes back and pulls it off of him, letting him push through and plop head first onto the ground. Cat grabs his hand, and helps him to his feet. She drags him away and the hurries down the hill.
Rex bursts inside Robbie's room, taking a few steps in to find the room empty and the window blowing cool air in his face. A scowl forms on his previously static face. He pulls a smartphone out of his pocket and texts someone mysterious. Hmmm... who could be the most diabolical of the Breakfast Bunch that he would be trying to reach?
He perches himself on the windowsill and stares out into the distance, catching a glimpse of red hair at the bottom of the valley. "You can run, but you can't hide," he declares ominously, beating his palm while his eyes glow red.