Chapter 3, The Reptar Puzzle

No sooner did Susie have the contents of the Reptar puzzle dumped out on the floor, when Dil decided to have some fun. He was just barely two-years-old, so not ready for potty training yet, according to Didi, and the information she went by in her Lipschitz books. Therefore, he still wore diapers, which he used to his advantage in this case. He scooped up the Reptar puzzle pieces when nobody was looking, stuffed them in his diaper, and ran all over the first floor of the house, hiding them in various places.

"Ok guys, are we ready to build the…" Susie said, as she looked down at the floor to see the puzzle pieces were gone.

"What's wrong Susie?" Tommy asked.

"They're gone! Our puzzle pieces are gone!" Susie cried.

"Don't worry Susie, they've gotta be around here somewhere." Said Tommy.

"You're right Tommy." Susie replied.

"Let's go look for them." Suggested Kimi.

Zack blushed at Kimi and smiled.

"And when we find them, we can bring them back to the living room and put the puzzle together." Added Zack.

"Ok you guys, let's split up and look for the puzzle pieces. Me and Susie will look in the living room. Phil and Lil, you look in the kitchen, Chuckie, you look in the hallway by the front door, Kimi, you look in the laundry room, and Zack, you look in the place under the stairs." Said Tommy.

"Wait a minute, where did Dil go?" Peter asked, as he looked around the room.

"You're right! Dilly did go missing." Said Tommy.

"Maybe we'll find him when we're looking for the puzzle pieces." Suggested Phil.

"Good thinking." Said Tommy.

"Ok, is everybody ready to go look for the mysteriously missing puzzle pieces?" Peter asked everyone.

All of the toddlers nodded in unison, as everybody split up, and searched the rooms they were assigned to. By this time, Dil had hidden all of the puzzle pieces around the first floor of Olaughlinhunter's house, except for one piece, which he kept hidden in his diaper, as he made his way into the coat closet in the front hallway, and sat very still, hoping to not be found.

Tommy and Susie searched every inch of the living room, but no puzzle pieces were found. Phil and Lil searched the kitchen, where Phil found two puzzle pieces hidden in the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink, and Lil found one piece in the garbage, and another piece in one of the vegetable drawers in the bottom of the refridgerator. In the laundry room, Kimi found a puzzle piece on the floor beneath the washing machine, and another piece in the dryer, which took a few minutes for her to find, as it had gotten tangled up in Sovietlolliepop's shirt, which was now in the dryer. As Zack was walking to the closet beneath the stairs, he found a puzzle piece in plain sight on the entry hall floor, so picked it up and placed it in his pocket for safe keeping. Then, after he opened the door to the staircase, he crawled in and after searching through some mops and brooms that were stored in there, hidden in the bottom of one of the buckets, was another puzzle piece.

Chuckie however, had the biggest scare of his life on his quest to find puzzle pieces. He had just found one hiding behind the grandfather clock in the hallway, when it went off, scaring him half to death. Panicked, he jumped back, grabbing at the doorknob of the coat closet, which he pulled open to reveal Dil on the other side.

"Dil, what are you doing in here?" Chuckie asked.

Dil laughed suspiciously. Not liking the sound of this, Chuckie stared at him, his hands on his hips.

"I don't like the sound of that Dil. Did you hide our puzzle pieces?" Chuckie asked irritably.

"Uh huh." Dil replied.

"Well it's not funny Dil. Now would you mind helping us look for them?" Chuckie asked.

Dil pouted in disappointment.

"Sorry Chuckie, I was just, having some fun." Dil said apologetically.

"It's ok Dil." Chuckie replied, as the two of them, went in search for the remaining puzzle pieces.

Dil handed Chuckie the one piece he still had hidden in his diaper, which meant they only had two more pieces to find. However, when Tommy and Susie didn't find any in the living room, they went off in the dining room, where Susie found a piece inside the china cabinet, and Tommy found another puzzle piece hidden in one of the chairs. Soon, everybody congregated back in the living room with their puzzle pieces, and laid them down on the floor, starting the process of building the puzzle all over again. Looking over the pieces, Tommy noticed something all too familiar about the puzzle.

"Hey you guys, this puzzle looks just like my Reptar puzzle." Said Tommy.

DemonAloisTrancy overheard his comment, and looked down at the pieces that sat on the floor.

"You're right Tommy, this looks just like your Reptar puzzle from that Playstation game. Let's see if you guys found all twelve pieces of the puzzle." Said DemonAloisTrancy, as she got down on the floor with the toddlers, and looked through the puzzle pieces.

After counting them up, she soon discovered that there were twelve pieces there.

"Well, looks like all of the pieces are here. Now all you guys need to do, is put them together." Said DemonAloisTrancy, as all of the toddlers sat down on the floor in a circle, and began putting the puzzle together.

Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil lay down the four pieces that made up the corners of the puzzle. Then Kimi lay down the piece that went at the top in the middle, while Dil lay down the piece opposite that, at the bottom in the middle. Susie lay down the two puzzle pieces that made up the left side of the puzzle, while Zack lay down the two pieces that lay down the right hand side of the puzzle. Only two pieces remained, before the puzzle would be complete. That's when Olaughlinhunter came back into the room, and noticed how they were doing with the puzzle.

"How are you guys doing with that puzzle? You look to be almost done!" Said Olaughlinhunter, as he knelt down on the floor next to Dil.

"We're almost done Olaughlinhunter." Tommy replied.

"I think since it's Olaughlinhunter's birthday, he ought to do the lastest two pieces of the puzzle." Suggested Chuckie.

"Good idea Chuckie." Said Tommy.

"Don't mind if I do." Said Olaughlinhunter, as he put the last two pieces into the puzzle, that made up the center.

Once the Reptar puzzle was complete, everybody clapped and cheered, pleased with their accomplishment.

As they were celebrating their victory, Tommy peered out the window that looked out into Olaughlinhunter's backyard, and saw he had a swimming pool.

"Wow Olaughlinhunter, you've gots a swimming pool?" Tommy asked.

"I sure do Tommy, but it's too cold for us to go swimming." Olaughlinhunter replied.

"Well what are we gonna do then?" Chuckie asked.

"I thought we could pretend to go swimming in my pool." Suggested Olaughlinhunter.

"That's a great idea Olaughlinhunter." Said Tommy, as the other toddlers and authors nodded in agreement.

So how will their imaginary swimming adventure go? We'll find out in the next chapter, so please, do stay tuned!