Hey guys, I'm back. I was planning on a double update for this story, but unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen. By the way, sorry for the late update, I didn't have enough time to write it and my computer is being really stupid... so yeah.
~ Best Friends Forever ~
Chapter 3
Locking the door behind her, she happily skipped and occupied the place next to Kenny. He was staring at something invisible in front of them. It seems as if he was deep in thought—just like how he has been all day. 'Why is that even bothering me? I mean maybe he just doesn't like talking much anymore. There could be a thousand reasons behind his mysterious silence.' She skeptically decided it would be best if she kept this thought away from her mind as long as possible. Ahead of her, she saw Lucas and Barry unusually quiet too. No conversation struck upon them. Awkward silence...
"Lucas, where are we going anyways?" she asked, braking the silence among them. Barry jumped in surprise by the sudden speech within the group.
Barry immediately responded with an answer. "Good question Lucas, where are we going?"
"Instead of getting something to drink, I think we should do something else. Change of plans... we're going to Snorunt's Ice Cream Paradise instead," he replied. "We haven't been in there in a long time—together that is."
Kenny agreed quietly. Upon the arrival at the shop, Dawn looked up to see a store with blue painted walls and a light blue coating on the windows. The little ice cream shop changed its color theme every season and around this time of year, the color theme changed to blue. The only thing that didn't change was the big sign above the shop; there stood a big Snorunt (made of cardboard) holding an big blue ice cream cone above its head. She stood there and smiled briefly before realizing that Lucas and Barry had already slipped into the little shop. Kenny just stood there and waited for her to come back down to Earth before gesturing her inside. Without any hesitations, she went inside. Kenny opened the door for her; she nodded a quick thanks before searching around for Lucas and Barry. Dawn found them sliding into one of the booths in the corner of the shop, probably for privacy. Barry first, and then Lucas on the outside. Since they both occupied one side of the booth, she slid into the one opposite from the boys. She stopped approximately a foot away from the curtains; turning around, she saw Kenny sat down next to her but closer to the edge.
"What do you guys what?" Lucas asked, standing up and tapping his fingertips on the clear blue table in front of them. They took a few seconds to think it through before answering.
"Vanilla."
"Chocolate."
"Oh, vanilla for me too."
Lucas muttered an 'okay' while writing down all the stuff down on his imaginary notepad and standing up to go order. Kenny and Barry laughed in amusement.
"Plannin' to become a waiter later on?" Dawn teased. As Barry and Kenny laughter grew louder, she couldn't help but grin widely.
He gave his sister a look before turning his back. "Hey wait, I'll pay for it," Kenny argued, standing up too.
"No, I'll do it," Barry said too, standing up onto his feet too. Dawn remained the only person sitting quietly in her seat, watching the boys fight for who will pay for the ice cream.
She exhaled loudly, trying to get the guy's attention, but her attempt failed miserably. "Ahem." No luck either. 'Boys can be sooo immature.' She stood up too. "If you guys are going to be like that, I'll pay for the ice cream."
"No!" all three boys yelled altogether. It was an immediate response. 'So NOW they agree on something...' She shriveled back to her seat and watched reluctantly as the argument continued. In the end, Barry and Kenny slumped down in defeat as Lucas triumphantly cheered and marched over to the counter.
They waited impatiently as Lucas placed their orders. He came back in less than a minute or so and placed the two vanilla ice cream cones toward Kenny and Dawn and put the chocolate one in front of Barry. "Where's yours?" Kenny inquired curiously, grabbing the cone in front of him in a slow manner.
"I don't want one," Lucas replied simply. "I'll just watch you guys consume yours."
Barry pouted and licked his ice cream cone hungrily. "Aw, you're no fun!"
"Lucas," Dawn said, "you're a sucker for fun. You're always so serious..."
"Am not! Not always at least..." he muttered the last bit to himself. Luckily for him, nobody decided to press the matter on any further. "Hey Barry, mind explaining what happened before?"
He licked the top of his ice cream and brought it down below his mouth. "What are you talking about?"
"He's talking about the thing with your dad," Dawn said while using her tongue to reshape the ice cream cone. Kenny kept his eyes on her, observing her carefully. "I want to know too."
"Oh that," he murmured softly. In a louder voice he said, "I have no idea what you're talking about!"
She urged, "C'mon! You know that we know that you know exactly what we're talking about."
"Wha?" he tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"Sooo... what happened?"
"You're going to have to tell us sooner or later," Kenny said staring somewhere above Barry's head. "You know how Dawn likes to pry information out of people when she's curious."
"True, true." Barry squirmed in his seat as he placed his free hand on his chin and stared off into space as if he was deep in thought. "Where should I start?"
"Oh, here's a thought; how about the beginning?"
Barry cleared his throat dramatically before speaking. "Once upon a time—"
"You're supposed to be telling us about what happened between you and your dad today not a fairytale," Dawn snapped.
He glared at her before clearing his throat again. "Where was I again? Oh yeah. This morning, my little sister, Jessica, decided it would be funny to pour water on my head to wake me up. I've always been a heavy sleeper. I usually don't like waking up early either; it puts me in a bad mood. Anyways, mom told her to wake me up. During the water pouring, I fell out of bed in attempt to avoid the water. At that point, I was really annoyed and angry so I stood up and grabbed the closest thing to me—a book that was lying on the floor—and flung it towards Jessica."
Dawn gasped in horror. "How could you! Poor girl. I can't believe she would do anything like that either... I mean she's as sweet as an angel." She returned to reshaping her ice cream cone.
"Sweet... angel... ha, good one," he scoffed. "Anyways, I saw her dodge it once I stood up. I was glad though; I regretted it ever since the book left my hand. She stood back up immediately when she saw Dad come through the door frame to my room. He asked what was going on, and before I could say anything, Jessica had to jump in and told him everything—except for the part about her dodging it just in time before it made contact with her head. So Dad made me stay at home for the whole day today and babysit Jessica. Mom found out and once Dad left, she told me I was free to go out and she'll take care of Jessica for me. She did tell me to try not to run into dad too," he said smiling sheepishly before picking up his ice cream cone again.
"I see," Lucas muttered.
Barry lowered his ice cream cone a bit before saying, "Little sisters are so annoying..."
Lucas opened his mouth to talk, but Dawn gave him an if-you-agree-with-him-then-I-am-going-to-murder-you look. He smiled nervously before closing his mouth.
She smiled triumphantly before looking down at her ice cream and reshaping it again; she didn't know what she wanted to shape it into, but she had nothing else to do at that point.
Kenny was busy staring at her while finishing his ice cream; he looked curiously as he tried to figure out what she was trying to do. "What?" she asked, glancing over at Kenny after realizing that he had been staring at her for the past five minutes.
"Nothing," he said innocently, but quickly adding, "Dee-Dee."
In a flash, Dawn stopped licking her ice cream cone and set it down on table angrily. "Don't call me Dee-Dee!" she yelled and stuck her tongue out immaturely.
"Why do you call her Dee-Dee anyways?" Barry asked, plopping the rest of his ice cream cone into his mouth.
He smirked, biting a corner of the round cone. "Well you see—"
By now, Dawn quickly reacted; she slapped her hand over his mouth and hastily shoved Kenny off of the booth. "Hehehehe, nothing! Nothing at all; no specific reason..." She began laughing nervously and ranting to herself randomly.
Neither Lucas or Barry made a comment about Dawn's suspicious behavior (although they did start smiling in enjoyment). Instead, two mid-aged women walked from the counter to the door whispering among themselves. It was quiet, but all of them heard it.
"Looks like that guy lost control over his girlfriend over there," the first woman said.
The second woman laughed to herself before adding something to what the first woman said. "Ah, young love..." She sighed to herself quietly.
This comment brought red colors flying toward Kenny and Dawn's cheeks. Kenny was picking himself off the floor slowly, probably hiding his flushed face, while Dawn was busy nibbling on the top of her ice cream cone. "We... are... not... dating..." Dawn gritted through her teeth angrily as she nipped a piece off her cone. Kenny nodded furiously agreeing with her.
"Yet," Dawn heard Barry whisper to Lucas (Barry never was good at whispering quietly) before they both started laughing quietly to themselves. That remark did not help Dawn's blush disappear at all; on the contrary, it did quite the opposite.
Pushing her emotions aside, she cleared her throat and looked down at her unfinished ice cream. Dawn carelessly picked it up and plopped it in her mouth. She, ignoring the pain of the freezing ice cream traveling down her throat, looked around to see if everyone was finished. Kenny seemed to have finished around the same Barry. Lucas didn't eat one to begin with. She groaned; she hated it when people waited for her, especially her friends and family. She didn't like people waiting for her and slowing them down...
"Where next?"
Kenny and Lucas shrugged and turned their attention towards Barry who was starting to look quite uncomfortable with three pair of eyes staring down at him. "What?" he asked. "How should I know?"
"If you don't pick a place, then we'll just have to sit here and stare at you until the store closes," Dawn suggested, sitting back in her seat as if she was preparing to remain sitting in that very spot for a year.
"Alright, alright," he finally said. "We'll just go walking in the park..."
"Brilliant idea," Dawn complimented.
Barry's spirit lifted slightly. "Really?"
"No, I was just saying that so we could get moving now; I don't want to be sitting here all day you know."
"You're such a nice person," Barry muttered dryly.
"I know." Dawn smiled slyly. Without another word, one-by-one, they all scrambled out of the shop and began walking towards the park.
Upon their arrival at the park seven minutes later, they decided to split up into two groups.
In an hour or so, they would meet back to the center and go home from there. Lucas and Barry decided to go to the eastern most part of the park where there are many different species of Pokemon inhabiting the area. Kenny and Dawn wanted to just take a trail around the park. Nobody knows the exact trails because it changes often, but it's really easy to find your way out. Many people just wander off the trail in hopes of finding something new, and many just go on the trail just for the fun of it. Kenny and Dawn decided that they should just walk around doing nothing in particular.
They walked in silence, avoiding eye contact with one another. Occasionally while on the trail, Dawn or Kenny would point something out, like a Pokemon hiding in the bushes or a tree that looks out of the ordinary. Kenny rarely spoke up, but he did turn around a lot and find new things. He fidgeted around a lot, Dawn noticed while they were walking upon the trail.
Barry rushed off ahead of Lucas after complaining how slow Lucas was going. "Hey Barry wait up!" Lucas called out as he ran after his so-called best friend.
Finally slowing down, Barry simply stated, "Only because you were going so slow! I don't want to wait!"
"Well too bad. I like looking around slowly and seeing the close details. They're quite interesting you know..." Lucas trailed off as he continued looking around once more.
He complained, "If you wanted to do that, then why didn't you go with Kenny and Dawn. It IS what they're doing."
Lucas stated bluntly, "I didn't want to go with them for many reasons."
"And your reasons are...?"
"You'll kill me for not coming with you and keeping you company?"
Barry took his words in consideration before scoffing. "That's not the reason and you know it..."
"Barry, you know the reason... you know EXACTLY why I'm not going with them..."
He scratched his head confusingly. "What was the reason again?"
"If you don't remember it, then forget it..." Lucas answered in a frustrating manner. "I don't want to be discussing this with you for the tenth time this week. Anyways, I sense something awkward going between those two. Usually, they're full of conversations. Now, they're just plain silent. I think something happened between them... something we don't know about. I want them to make up soon... Dawn seems depressed that Kenny isn't talking a lot and Kenny seems sad in a way, even though he's the one avoiding conversation. I know something's up... I just can't put my finger on it."
"Why do you bother yourself with this stuff? You keep too many problems to yourself. And most of the problems you have are things you're trying to do for others. Lucas, you care too much about others. Besides, if you want to know, ask her. She's not a stranger; she's your sister! If you can't ask your sister anything, I don't think there's any other person you would feel comfortable talking to about this stuff... I mean you're talking to me right?"
He nodded. "Yeah. For once in your life, Barry. You're right. Thanks..."
"You're welcome... wait HEY!"
"Barry, we're here," Lucas said, changing the subject and pointing off into the distance.
After walking around for a while, they decided to settle down and just enjoy their surroundings. Kenny and Dawn sat on a white, wooden bench in a nice green clearing with trees surrounding the open area. Dawn smiled pleasantly as she looked around. Kenny, while Dawn wasn't looking, spent his time observing her silently.
Kenny raised his arm a bit and setting it along the bench, behind Dawn. Slowly and without a sound, his hand inched closer to her shoulder stiffly. Just a bit more...
Dawn's head turned to Kenny and his arm that was outstretched behind her. Tilting her head to the side, she looked at him curiously.
He jerked his hand back, hitting his hand on the wood on the bench (but he ignored the pain), and quickly made up an excuse. "Oh you know, just stretching..."
She nodded. "Yeah..." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Say Kenny, when are you coming over tomorrow? To start the scavenger hunt in the attic."
"I'm not sure," he said shrugging. "Probably when you wake up, which is at five in the afternoon the next day."
"I don't sleep that much!" Dawn exclaimed shoving him playfully.
He said nothing in response but took his attention off her for a moment. It didn't seem long before he felt weight on his shoulder. He turned his head slightly to see Dawn leaning on his right shoulder; she was in a deep sleeping state. His cheeks reddened and for what seemed like the first time that day, he smiled slowly crawled onto his lip as he looked down at Dawn's sleeping figure.
Thank you guys for reading! Please review! The next chapter is when the real decorating starts. And I predict, that I'll have somewhere around nine chapters (not including prologue - which I still don't understand why I wrote). And somewhere around - mmm I don't know - chapter 4, is where things start get interesting between Dawn and Lucas. I'll give you a hint if you ask me. xD
(Oh by the way, I timed myself while typing this... it took me, about four hours, in total, to write this. I find it silly since sometimes, I start writing for thirty minutes, and only manage to get a paragraph done. My writing is really sad.) In addition, I spent half of today finishing this chapter and just to let you know, I have to use an awfully slow computer to update this story because my computer crashed... once more. That's how much I want to update this chapter this week.
Me: *clasp hands together proudly* And my work here is done... for now.
Dawn: Please review!
Barry: Or else I'll fine you all 100 million dollars!