A Loon's Love
Chapter 2: Get Crucial, Plucky!
"So, Shirl,' what do you think this next chapter is'sh going to be about? Huh? *elbows her*" - Plucky Duck
"Like, I don't know, genius. Maybe we could, like, stop chatting about it outside of this online-book and find out!" - Shirley "The Loon" McLoon
"Well, I'll bet it'sh pretty good. My name'sh in the title!" - Plucky Duck
"Yeah, but it's, like, my line or some junk, Plucky..." - Shirley "The Loon" McLoon
"Spoken to yourrr'sh truly..." - Plucky Duck
"Uh! Like...what-ever!" - Shirley "The Loon" McLoon
A Loon's Love
Chapter 2: Get Crucial, Plucky!
"Mmm...You're...You're the 'goon'...You big...You big, beautiful...loon, you..." The green mallard blew bubbles from his snoring, orange beak, laying with his chin upon a wooden artist's desk. A pile of crumpled paper-balls were on the floor beside him, alongside several broken, over-sharpened pencils, the spilled ink from a quill-pen, an empty, two-liter bottle of cola, and a black, metal trashcan overflowing with candy wrappers, banana peels, and other food. On the desk, near his head, was a full, white mug of coffee with the words, "Duck Luck," printed in blue. His face, meanwhile, was resting on its right side, on a fresh spot of drool soaking through a single sheet of paper with the word, "Shirley," on it.
There was a clicking noise as the doorknob to the room was suddenly turned and the door opened, making way for a small pig in blue overalls. The pig gasped at the sight of the green duck, a streak of red running across the paper towards his head. "Oh my word! Plucky!" the pig shouted. In a flash, the pig hopped over and began to shake his friend about. "Plucky! Are you alright!?"
Squinting and gritting his teeth, Plucky slowly sat up. As he did so, a plastic bottle of paint dropped to the floor. "Huh? I told you...I'm not going to the Duckademy Awards...They said I won enough already..."
"PLUCKY!" the pig yelled, slapping the duck's face.
"GAH!" Plucky spat, shaking his own head twice. "Sheesh, Hamton! What the heck did you have to go and do that for!?" His eyes instantly widened at the sight of red on the pig's right hoof. "Good lord! You've drawn blood! I alway'sh knew that someday you'd snap..." he began, pointing a shaking right wing at the assailant.
Hamton's eyelids sank, along with his shoulders. "Oh, gimme' a break," he said, reaching down and picking up the empty bottle, "It was just a little smear from your leftover paint!"
"Paint?" Plucky squinted, cocking his head to the side. His back went violently stiff as a shockwave rattled throughout his body. "Oh yeah! I remember! I was painting...*cough* I mean...'crafting' a little love sh'onnet for my 'slightly-better half,'" he uttered, smiling with heavy eyes into the air.
"Oh, wow! A sonnet? Really? You sing?" Hamton asked, clasping both hooves together.
The green mallard suddenly blinked as his beak fell into a frown. "Huh? 'Sing'? Is that what sh'onnets do?" Shaking his head once more, Plucky went on, "No, no... I just wanted it to sound fancy. What I'm really doing is'sh putting down a collection of my thoughts onto this little piece of paper so that I can show it to my one true love in the hopes of finally winning her heart!" He sighed, plucking the page, which had tiny red hearts splattered throughout it, up from his desk. Squeezing it between two, clasped wings, he, again, stared off deep into space.
"'True love'? You mean Shirley?" Hamton asked, scratching the back of his head.
Plucky frowned again. "Well of cour'she I mean Shirl'! Who else would I be talking about, that blonde chick from the spring beach-trip?"
Looking down and away, the pig put both hooves behind his back, rocking slowly on his feet. "Well, I don't know...Yeah...maybe."
"Hamton!" Plucky laughed, stepping up from his stool and draping his right wing over the pig's back, "Buddy, she's old neeew'sh! I mean, sure, if you're still seeing her that's great and all, but I'm afraid she's not anymore even a passing thought to me."
Hamton's eyes narrowed as his expression fell. "Oh...really..."
With a sharp nod, Plucky replied, "Really."
"So if I told you I had a picture of her, right now, in my pocket, you wouldn't be the slightest bit enticed?" Hamton asked.
For a moment, the duck squinted, then he smirked. "Oh, give it a rest, Hammy. You and I both know that she didn't give you a pictuuure!"
In a flash, the pig pulled a small, white piece of paper from his pocket and held it up with a flat expression, staring at his friend.
The green mallard blinked several times. Finally, his eyes shrank down and his shoulders sank to match. "You're despicable..."
"Now I can show you this picture if you like, but, first, you have to admit that you aren't completely devoted to Shirley," Hamton said.
Blinking again, Plucky replied. "That's it?" His lower beak fell open. "That's all I have to do?"
"That's all you have to do," Hamton uttered, "but...I warn you...you'll be breaking the word of your own heart's promise to her."
"Well, then..." the green mallard grinned, swallowing hard. Plucky's lower right eye suddenly began to twitch. "Heh-heh. I-" he began, reaching. His right wing twitched forward itself, once, an inch or two, then shot back as his shoulders began to vibrate. An echo began to fill his head. The green mallard's heartbeat increased and he gritted his teeth as sweat drops began to pour from his brow. First came the faint calling of, "You're cute," from the beach babe. It soon became entangled and defeated, however, by the overpowering roar of an all-too-familiar chant. "Ohm, what a loon I am. Ohm, what a loon I am, or some junk." He tried to see the soft-green, but he only saw white, blue eyes, and a pink bow. A hundred and one instances flashed before his mind. Her tone of voice, and her smile.
"Could it be that you've turned into a kind, compassionate, caring duck?" she uttered.
"Who? Me?" he thought back.
"Plucky," she answered, "Could it be?...Could it be?...Could it be?...Could it be?...Could it be?" It was potent. It was raw. It was everything he saw. She was an image in his mind, and he was lost within her stare, and standing there, he could almost feel her, and it was more than he could bare.
Hampton's arms fell limp at the sight that played out before him.
Plucky's head flew back as the green mallard suddenly dropped to his knees and began to openly weep. "Whhhhy-hi-hi-hi-hiiiiiiiiiiii!?"
"Why what?" the pig uttered, staring intently.
Plucky coughed several times, catching his breath. "Why'd I have to go and fall in love with Shirleeeyyy!?" the green mallard cried, shaking his right wing in the air as the left covered his face.
Hamton jumped up. "Y-Y-Y-You mean...You actually do love Shirley?"
Rising to his feet, the duck slumped over and replied. "No, Hamton, I just threw myself to the ground in a fit of tear'sh to showcase my acting talent. Sheesh! What kind of dumb question is that!?" Plucky yelled, stomping his right foot as he continued to remove the moisture from his face.
"W-Well, I don't know!" the pig swallowed, "I-I-I mean...it could have been acting..."
"Even I'm not that good, Hammy!" Groaning, the duck made his way past Hamton and plopped down onto the light-blue sheets of his bed. "This just sucks..." he mumbled, speaking into a pillow.
"W-W-W-What do you mean!?" Hamton asked, shoving the picture back into his overalls. He turned to face the green mallard, grinning with both hooves held high in the air. "This is fantastic! Now you can finally tell Shirley how you really feel and let her know, once and for all, that there's no one else on your mind but her! Don't you get it? You two could finally start dating for real!"
Reeling around, Plucky held both wings up, curling the ends inward towards himself. "That's the problem, Hamton! There is no one else on my mind! Nada! Zip! Zilch! Each day is a cruel reminder of our separate paths which'sh seem to be so very far apaaart!" Plucky placed his right wing over his face and began to cry again, only to be met with a swift slap in the face by Hamton. "Thanks," he uttered, slumping over, "But you know... I gotta' admit, Hammy, I'm giving up a lot of pride here in order to fully go after her." Staring into space, the duck went on. "Heck, I don't even know if she'll even say, 'yes.'" Water began to glisten within the pools of his eyes again, until Hamton delivered another smack. "Ow!"
"What are you, crazy? She likes you! Anyone can see it!" Hamton said.
"Oh yeah?" the green mallard retorted, sitting up and folding both wings, "Give me an example of one time where she showed some true affection for me..."
"Well," the pig uttered, placing a hoof to his chin and looking away. He suddenly smiled. "There was the fact that she went to last year's prom with you!"
Plucky blinked. "Okay...So, that'sh a pretty good example," he replied, staring into the sheets with a grin of his own, "And, boy, we sh'ure did spend a lot of time together that night...but...try and find one more! It's not like going to that last year got us to any point beside'sh just being friends!"
The pig swallowed. "Well...Gee, I don't know! There was that time back in class when she tripped you up with that banana peel! Remember?"
"I was knocked out, Hamton," the duck said flatly.
"Oh, yeah. Well, still! She sobbed and cried over you and even held your hand!" Hamton said.
Sitting up straight, the green mallard gasped. "She held my hand then, too!?"
"I think so..." the pig replied, scratching the back of his head.
The perky expression on Plucky's face slowly deflated. "Let's face it, Hamton, old-buddy. She hates me..."
"She doesn't hate you! Look, I know it may not seem like much to you, but on the surface, I can tell. She really doesn't seem to mind your company all that much, for what it's worth anyway. It's in your interactions, and I'm sure that Buster and Babs would both agree." Hamton said.
"HA! Don't make me laugh. The only sort of backing I could ever hope to get from them would be if it included me deciding to cut my Tiny Toons air-time down in half!" the green mallard shot back, crossing both wings again and looking away, "No-good, spotlight-stealing, comedy-bandits...No, Hamton, I think that there'sh only one way that a duck like me is'sh ever, ever going to have a chance with a great gal like Shirley..."
"What's that?" Hamton asked.
"Well," Plucky replied, hopping off of the bed, "she's obviously not too keen on my brimming sense of self-confidence'sh." The green mallard pulled out a hand mirror and ran his left wing across the feathers of his head, grinning. "Despite all of my talents and looks, I've yet to acquire a single shred of attention beyond what the regulation'sh of our school and late-afternoon tv programming has required her to deliver." A look of terror ran over his face as the duck tossed the mirror over his head. "Which can mean only one thing..."
"Yes?" the pig uttered, leaning closer.
"If going in there guns-a'blazing isn't going to work, I, Plucky Duck, am going to have to do sh'omething that is totally unheard of, sh'omething so off-the-wall, so unfore'sheeable, even for the great 'fore'sheer,' so completely in denial of my own internal ways, that she, Shirley 'The Loon' McLoon, will have no choice but to stand up and take notice as I spill out my words of affection!" the green mallard proclaimed.
"What is it!?" Hamton screamed, jumping up and grabbing his friend by the shoulders.
Plucky's pupils shrank and he swallowed. Slowly, he eased himself from the grip of the pig and turned away, taking a deep breath. "I, Plucky Duck, runner-up for the star of Tiny Toon Adventures, am going to have to play it...'humble.'"
Well, folks, can he do it? Can Plucky Duck actually play it 'humble'? And what will Shirley think? Stay Tuned!
Long Live Plucky Duck x Shirley "The Loon" McLoon!
"You can stop laughing anytime now, Shirl.' I don't think that was a joke!" - Plucky Duck
"I know! *cackles* That's, like, why it's so much more funny, and some junk! I mean, really, 'get crucial, Plucky!' *laughs*" - Shirley "The Loon" McLoon
"You'll see. You'll all see!" - Plucky Duck
"Like, how your last romantic chapter totally turned out to be a dream?" - Shirley "The Loon" McLoon
"Hey! That was...That was just a little plot twist! I'm sure it had some foreshadowing going on! Just look at the summary of the book!" - Plucky Duck
"Yeah, I know, but, like, I still wanna' see how in the heck this little plot line and plan of yours is actually going to work, or some junk.*smirks*" - Shirley "The Loon" McLoon
"Just give the author the time to work his magic, Darling, and I'm sure that'sh what you'll see! *wink*" - Plucky Duck
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STAY TUNED for Chapter 3: Seek and Ye Shall Find...Coming SOON! (Progress Updates on my profile!)
- Epic Awaken
"Awaken Your Epic Dreams"