Disclaimer: I do not own Pushing Daisies or any part of it… although I wish I did.
Author's Note: This is a flashback chapter. It gives us a little more background about Nikki. Ned, Chuck, and Emerson do not appear. So, in honor of the fact that classes started today here is Chapter 2!
"Ready or not, here I come!" shouted the small blonde. Olive knew exactly where she would find her sister, so she ran around to the back of the house and threw open the cellar doors.
"Nikki, where are you?" Olive asked quietly. She knew that if she asked that question a few times her sister would start to giggle. This time, however, there were no giggles. The only sound was that of Olive's tiny feet brushing against the dust on the floor.
"Where could she be?" Olive asked herself, the answer coming to mind almost immediately, "oh no, not again." Olive walked out of the cellar and went straight to the barn. She climbed the ladder up to the hayloft where she was met with the strangest sight she had ever seen.
The facts were these, at 5 years, 37 days, 29 minutes, and 5 seconds old; Nikki Snook knew that she would grow up to be a lion tamer. Cats loved her and she could get them to do things that no one had ever seen a cat do before. On this particular day, she had taker her cat Peanut Butter up to the hayloft to teach him some tricks.
Young Nikki had gotten the idea while hiding from her sister. She was on her way to the cellar, her favorite hiding place, when she saw Jelly, their dog, coming toward her. He stopped a few feet short and then dropped the hula hoop he had been holding in his mouth. He then rolled over and got up and walked away. Nikki's eyes brightened with the sudden idea that had popped into her mind. She ran into the house to find Peanut Butter and took him into the barn.
Olive stared at her sister in disbelief. Nikki was spinning a hula hoop around her arm then dropping to the ground and rolling over in the same direction. At first Olive thought her sister was crazy, but noticed that whenever Nikki rolled over the cat rolled over.
"What in the world are you doing?" Olive asked, startling her sister.
"Hang on one more second. I think he's almost got it," Nikki replied as she started to spin the hula hoop once more. This time, as she spun the hula hoop the cat rolled over.
"Peanut Butter you did it!" Nikki cried. She scooped up the cat and began to shower it with love and affection. Olive couldn't believe her eyes. Had she really just seen a cat no only roll over, but do it at the spin of a hoop?
"Put him down and do that again," Olive commanded. Nikki obliged and performed the trick again and again. Olive couldn't believe that her five year old sister had been able to teach a cat to perform a trick, let alone do it so quickly.
"How did you do that?" Olive asked, awestruck.
"Well I just spin the hula hoop and then I roll over. I do it over and over again and eventually Peanut Butter learned to roll over." Nikki replied, feeling proud of herself.
"Well I figured that, but how did you do it so quickly?" Olive retorted.
"I don't know. He just seemed to get it," Nikki said, looking a little confused.
"We have got to show mom and dad!" Olive exclaimed. She grabbed the cat and grabbed her sister's arm. The two girls hurried down the ladder and rushed into the house.
Nikki and Peanut Butter performed their tricks for the entire county every month. Since that fateful day of playing hide and seek, she had taught him to sit, stand, shake, and play dead in addition to rolling over. She was currently trying to teach him to speak. Things weren't going so well.
"Come on Peanut Butter! When I spin the hula hoop around my foot you speak! Why aren't you getting this? You got everything else so quickly," Nikki whined.
"Maybe he can't speak." Nikki jumped. She didn't realize that Olive had been watching them.
"What did you say?" Nikki asked, recovering quickly.
"I said 'maybe he can't speak.' Think about it. Have you ever heard him meow or make any other kind of sound?" Olive replied.
"Well, no I guess I haven't. This means we have to get a new cat," Nikki said.
"What are you talking about? We have a perfectly good cat right here!" Olive stated.
"No we don't. You said it yourself. He can't speak!" Nikki retorted as she marched into the house to ask her parents for yet another pet.
"Girls where are you? We have a surprise!" Mrs. Snook announced as she walked through the front door. Olive and Nikki ran down the stairs. They absolutely loved surprises.
"Now close your eyes and walk carefully out onto the porch." The sisters obeyed their mother immediately. Once outside, they felt their mother's hands on their shoulders stopping them in their place. Soon after, they heard their father's voice.
"Alright girls, are you ready? Now when I count to three open your eyes, okay? One…two…three!" The sisters' eyes flew open. They both squealed at the sight before them. Their father was standing next to a pony and holding two squirming kittens.
"Ah! You got me a pony!" Olive screamed.
"I can't believe you got me two kittens!" Nikki yelled.
"Y'all are welcome," said their mother, going down to take one of the kittens.
"So, what are their names?" asked their father.
"Well, this one has reddish brown fur so she will be Cherry. And this one has yellowish fur so he will be Apple," Nikki decided.
"I think I'm going to call him Pi," said Olive plainly.
"Pi? That's a weird name," Nikki stated.
"Oh yeah? Well so is Pumpernickel!" Olive retorted.
"Don't call me that! You know I hate it!" Nikki wailed as she ran inside. Olive followed her up to their room, teasing and taunting her little sister the whole way. Their parents stood outside, surrounded by animals, trying their hardest not to laugh.
Author's Note: And there you have it! I'm not sure when I'll be updating next as classes started today and I am currently searching for a job. Hopefully it won't be another month, but who knows. Thanks for reading and comments are always welcome!
Until next time,
Jess