Chapter 2: I doubt that
As Carbine pulled up into the scoreboard and turned off her bike, she could hear the sound of Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie yelling at a game they were watching on the T.V. She also heard the sound of cans being tossed at the garbage can and missing it completely.
Walking into the scoreboard, Carbine just shook her head and understood more now than she did when she spoke with Charley. She spent more time cleaning up after these three slobs than they ever did in taking care of her.
"Hey, the General's here!" Vinnie stated when he saw the scowl on Carbine's face. He quickly shut his mouth when he realized she was looking at the three of them and it was a look of death in her eyes.
"Hey Carbine! What's going on?" Throttle inquired as he turned the television off and got up off the severely dilapidated couch.
"I see what the problem is!" Carbine attempted to remain reasonably composed as she looked balefully at her lackluster troops.
"What! We didn't do anything?" Vinnie exclaimed in complete confusion.
"That's the problem! You three haven't done squat!" Carbine barked as she pointed to the trash can that was overflowing with root bottles and cans along with their trash. There were even some flies starting to congregate around their mountain of trash.
"Well, it's a tough job being this studly and taking care of those ugly fish heads" Vinnie stated as he stood up and flexed his muscles.
"No excuses. If Charley can take care of all three of you, plus the garage and the scoreboard all by herself. Then then the three of you should be perfectly able to take care of scoreboard and Charley" Carbine was planning on doing a whole lot of spleen venting before the night was out and those three mice were on going to be on the receiving end of it.
"Huh?" Modo finally piped up and realized that he needed to stand up for his other two friends. He could tell by Carbine's expression that she was beyond upset with them and apparently it had something to do with Charley.
"Oh! About time you decided to join the program" Carbine snapped at Modo, causing him to look sheepishly at her.
"Whoa! What's going on here?" Throttle finally figured out that Carbine was mad and it had nothing to do a some mission that she had for them.
"I'm just getting started. Where should I begin? Get this scoreboard cleaned up and then I am going to inform you of what you three are going to be doing for your latest mission" Carbine growled as she stared at them.
"Hey Throttle! Do something. She can't come in here and boss us around" Vinnie whined as he looked at Throttle.
"Let's just do what she says and then she can tell us what our new mission is" Throttle sighed, knowing that if they didn't get the scoreboard cleaned fast enough they would never hear the end of Carbine's wrath.
It took the three mice over an hour to get the entire scoreboard completely cleaned up and by the time they finished, Carbine had finally calmed down enough to talk to them in a normal tone of voice. They were also very exhausted from having to clean their own pig sty up. As they each grabbed another can of root beer, they looked at Carbine who seemed very pleased that they did what they were suppose to do. All three of them collapsed onto the couch and waited for Carbine to give them their mission.
"Okay. It's done" Throttle stated as he took a swig from his can and then looked at Carbine.
"Well, here's the mission and I can almost guarantee that you three will flunk it" Carbine seemed very sure of herself as she spoke to her troops.
"We always pass" Vinnie rebuffed as he leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling.
"This one, I'm sure you won't" Carbine smiled, knowing that this was exactly how to hook them into what she had planned.
"Dude, are you even hearing this?" Modo questioned as he looked over at Throttle.
"Yeah. What's the mission?" Throttle inquired as he looked at Carbine.
"Actually, it's more along the lines of a bet that I'm going to win" Carbine had the biggest grin on her face as she looked at them.
"A bet!" all three of them exclaimed as the stared at her.
"Oh yeah!" Vinnie was all about winning this one.
"Not if I win" Modo chimed in, knowing that he had to beat Vinnie.
"What's the bet?' Throttle asked.
"That not a single one of you have a romantic bone in your body" Carbine raised the challenge as she smiled.
"I'm lost" Vinnie said as he scratched the top of his head.
"Here's the deal. Valentine's Day is next week and Charley hasn't had a good time in a long while" Carbine started to explain.
"Oh yeah. I'm so asking Charley out" Vinnie exclaimed before even hearing the rest of what Carbine had to say.
"Let me finish. As I said before, I don't think either of you know how to romance a girl. So, this is the deal. Each of you will take Charley out on a real date. Each of you has to come up with a completely different date. No copying each other. If, by some miracle, you happen to make it the most romantic date Charley has ever had, I will promise the lucky mouse and Charley a date on Mars at the best restaurant in town on Valentine's Day. I will be asking Charley how each of the dates went" Carbine said as she thought about how she would use a grading scale to see if either of the passed or failed.
"Aw man. I am so winning this bet" Vinnie exclaimed as he began to think about what he was going to do for Charley to win.
"So not happening. I got this one in the bag" Modo exclaimed as he thought about what he was going to do.
"How do we know who's going first?" Throttle asked the ultimate question. He just hoped it wasn't him. His preference was for going last so he wouldn't make the same mistakes as Modo and Vinnie.
"Draw straws. Longest piece goes first and shortest piece goes last" Carbine stated as she cut a straw into three uneven pieces and then put them into her helmet. She shook her helmet around to scramble up the lengths and made sure that they didn't peek when they pulled a straw piece out.
"Let's see" Carbine directed as each of them held up their piece.
"Looks like I go first" Modo stated excitedly.
"Dude, I'm still second. That means Throttle's last" Vinnie chuckled as he looked at Throttle's short straw before falling onto the floor.
"That means we get all the good choices" Modo laughed.
"Looks like one us is going to win this one" Vinnie laughed as he put an arm around Modo, satisfied that he was going to beat Throttle again and hopefully Modo as well.
"The dates start the day after tomorrow. It will take place over the course of three days. Modo gets one day. Vinnie gets one and Throttle gets one. Also, no asking Charley for help" Carbine said, hoping that would give each of them enough time to figure out what they were going to do.
She knew that Vinnie and Modo were right about when it came to all the good dating ideas and that this was not going to be Throttle's strong suit. But, knowing them as well as she did, they were all going to lose this deal and she would get the last laugh.
She could hear Vinnie and Modo playfully picking on each other about who was going to win. Looking over at Throttle, she saw that he remained quiet as he walked over to his bike.
"Just going for a ride. I'm not going to cheat" Throttle said as he mounted his bike and decided to clear his head by riding over to the garage. He just remembered that he had left a mess of magazines in the kitchen that she had asked him to clean up and he had forgotten because, they had to deal with Limburger. After cleaning up the scoreboard, he now felt bad for leaving a mess at the garage that Charley would have to clean up.
I hope everyone enjoyed this second chapter. I should get another one up tomorrow. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for the upcoming chapter, please feel free to speak your mind. Many cyber hugs to everyone.
