Wasting Time

Today, the caring meter summons was answered by Bright Heart, Gentle Heart, and Cheer Bear, who had Love-a-Lot with her, as she was still somewhat depressed over Valiant's departure some time ago, and Cheer and her were what most referred to as BFFs. The case actually had not com from a kid specifically, but from her parents who were very concerned about their sixteen year old daughter's rather drastic drop in grades on her most recent report card, even though she was always insisting she was at the library. Gentle Heart sat up front, wearing a baggy green sweater as she always did in public, as it helped draw attention away from her *ahem* natural gifts. Both Cheer and Love-a-Lot were in the backseats and they were both wearing very similar clothing, not really decent but something they both liked and wouldn't keep them from being admitted to the places they wanted to go.

The house the arrived at was a fairly typical one story house, an old "wartime" house built after the second world war to accommodate returning veterans, with a lawn and a big evergreen tree in the front yard. The four Care Bears went up a short three step front porch, and Gentle Heart knocked on the doorbell. She wasn't that shy with adults, in fact she preferred to talk to adults, as the sensible ones at least didn't say things that embarrassed her to no end. The middle aged man that answered the door were certainly shocked to see the Care Bears standing there.

"Umm hi, who and what are you?" he asked.

"We're the Care Bears," Gentle Heart said softly. While she was certainly more comfortable around adults, she was still shy, thankfully Cheer Bear took over at that point.

"We saw you were really bummed out about your daughter," Cheer explained, "'cause she's not doing that great in school."

"Umm OK," The man turned his head back inside and called, "Dear, we have guests."

After being introduced and invited inside, Cheer, Love-a-Lot, Bright Heart and Gentle Heart sat down to find out what the problem was. Apparently their daughter, Cheryl, had been showing signs of being exhausted by school when she first started grade 11, but she seemed to be doing well at the midway point of the first semester. However when the final grades for the first semester were handed out in the report cards, Cheryl's grades had dropped dramatically, just barely high enough to pass her classes.

"She always says she's studying at the library when she goes out or doesn't come home right away after school," her mother said, clearly worried.

"I picked her up from school yesterday and dropped her off at the library," Cheryl's father continued, "It was at a mall so I thought she might be just hanging around with her friends, but I saw her leave shortly after I dropped her off and go to some place called 'The Zone'. I would have checked it out but I was called into work and had to leave."

"She went to a place called The Zone, thanks we'll look into it," Bright Heart said, getting up and shaking the father's hand.

A moment later outside, Bright heart pulled out a small hand-held device from his pocket. Gentle Heart noticed and asked.

"Bright Heart, what is that?"

"It's GPS, a complex electronic map computer, useful for finding out where things are," the purple raccoon explained as he began to search for the place called The Zone in the city.

"Where did you buy that?" Cheer asked.

"Ha, I didn't buy it, I made it," Bright Heart said triumphantly.

"Umm don't those things tend to, ya know, explode?" Cheer said as she and Love-a-Lot took a step back.

"Hey, that only happened once!" Bright Heart countered.

"What about that 'PSWii60' idea of yours," Love-A-Lot said.

"OK, twice."

"Then there was that teleporter project of yours, good thing you never tired it on one of us," Cheer added.

"Ok three times," Bright Heart was clearly getting very annoyed now.

"And what about…" Gentle Heart was cut off by the raccoon as he shouted.

"OK! So a lot of my things break down, but I've already tested this thing before I brought it with me," as if to confirm what he said, the device began beeping, "there, you see, now I know where Cheryl's been spending so much time, let's go." They climbed back into the Cloud Car, with the two pink bears in the back seat once again, and took off following the directions of Bright Heart's GPS.

A while later, they landed in the parking lot of a small strip mall in front of the place with the words "The Zone Gaming" plastered on a sign over the top.

"We're here, I guess we should go in," Bright Heart said.

What greeted them inside The Zone wasn't something they were at all familiar with. There were at least three dozen people sitting at computer all of which were against the wall. The people witting at the computers were mostly all boys around the ages of 14 to 22.

"So she's been playing video games here the whole time," Bright Heart said, "Well et's look for her."

"If it's all the same to you, I think me and Love-a-Lot will wait outside, this is more your thing Bright," Cheer said as she and Love-A-Lot turned and left.

Gentle Heart, who was looking even more nervous than she usually did quickly and softly said, "You can handle this, I'll wait outside," before turning and walking outside as fast as she could without running.

Bright Heart blinked in surprise but just rolled his eyes and turned back to the room of computer gaming teens and young adults, "All right, time to find Cheryl," he said, deciding to start out by asking the man who was behind the front counter.

Outside, Cheer and Love-A-Lot were talking. Despite the fact that she had said she'd be able to handle Valiant Heart's absence numerous times, the bear of love was clearly depressed, in fact she hadn't done any attempted matchmaking since the wolverine departed.

"Com'on, girlfriend, you can't stay in this funk forever. I know you're head over paws for Valiant Heart but you're not the only one who misses him," Cheer said, placing her hand on Love-a-Lot's shoulder.

"I know, but I can't help it, Cheer, I miss him," Love-a-Lot said, sighing sadly.

"Then find something else to do," Cheer said, a bit exasperated, "there see, Gentle's all bummed out and shy about being with Bright Heart because she never does anything with him." That seemed to brighten Love-a-Lot up and she actually smiled before walking over to where Gentle Heart was sitting on the sidewalk, next to the door to The Zone.

"Hey Gentle Heart, are you all right?" Love-a-Lot asked.

"Oh, hey Love-a-Lot, I'm fine, I guess," Gentle Heart said, looking up briefly.

"Well why aren't you inside helping Bright Heart?"

"Because, well…" gentle Heart paused then spoke very softly, "I'm scared."

"Scared?" Cheer said, walking over, "Scared of what."

"The people in there are all young adult or teenage video game nerds, and while I do love Bright Heart," she hugged her ample best to herself defensively, "I'm afraid that I might gather too much attention in there."

"Oh, so you're afraid that the guys in there, none of whom have ever had a date, will swarm you or something?" Cheer asked. Gentle Heart nodded.

"Don't be afraid, public places like this have laws to protect people, besides," Love-a-Lot added, "most of them are probably so focused on their games that they won't even notice you."

"I guess…" Gentle Heart said, not really reassured.

"Are you and Bright Heart having problems?" Love-a-Lot asked, now she was concerned for her friend.

"Well, I don't know, we just don't do much. I sit around his workshop while he works, sit on his couch and watch TV with him, we go out for dinner sometimes and to movies that both of us like, but…" she trailed off.

"You've never made out with him huh?" Cheer asked, causing the lambs face to turn bright red.

"Cheer!" Love-a-Lot said, "don't say things like that to her, you know how shy Gentle Heart is," the pink bear turned back to Gentle Heart, "When Bright Heart comes out, maybe you should ask about going out and doing more than just eating and watching a movie, maybe stargazing, or maybe spending the night together. You don't need to do anything but you two could use some quality time."

"Besides, it would be a good idea if you pulled him away from those computers and machines of his," Cheer said.

"I guess so but…" Gentle started and stood up, turning to look at the door, "Bright Heart's been in there over ten minutes, wouldn't he have called us by now?"

"Hey, you're right," Cheer said.

Seeing a chance, Love-a-Lot pushed Gentle Heart forwards, "Now's your chance, Gentle, go inside and invite him out, or in if you want."

"And here," Cheer quickly moved up beside Gentle Heart and pressed something into her pocket, "for later, just in case," she winked as Gentle Heart nodded, took a deep breath, and headed inside.

As the door closed behind Gentle Heart, Love-a-Lot smiled, "She'll be all right. We can go in and get them if something happens."

"Good for you girl!" Cheer said, jumping happily, "I knew you'd feel better once you got back to what you love."

"Speaking of love, how are you and Champ doing?" Love-a-Lot asked, smiling rather deviously.

Upon entering, Gentle Heart immediately went to the counter and got the attention of the counter attendant.

"Did a purple raccoon come in here?" she asked.

"Yeah," the man behind the counter said, "he's sitting over there with Cheryl," he gestured to near the back of the main gaming room, where Gentle Heart could make out the purple raccoon's shape sitting at a computer.

"Thank you," she said turning to walk towards Bright Heart. While the counter attendant had been very polite, Gentle Heart had to force every step down what she mentally thought of as the "nerd gauntlet". Fortunately, as Love-a-Lot had said, all of the guys were too focused on their various video games to even notice the lamb in the room. Eventually Gentle Heart found herself between Bright Heart and a teenaged girl, whom she guessed was Cheryl. She gently tapped Bright Heart's shoulder to get his attention and the raccoon paused his game and turned to her.

"Hey Gentle Heart," he said, happy to see her, "you should try this place, the first hour you get to play is free."

"That's nice," Gentle Heart said, her voice laced with worry, "but Bright Heart, we're here to help Cheryl."

"Are you talking about me?" Cheryl turned from her game to look at Gentle Heart. Cheryl was wearing jeans and a t-shirt; Gentle Heart took this opportunity to attempt to do her mission.

"Cheryl, your parents sent us here, they're worried about you and how your grades are dropping. You can't spend all your time here it's going to cause you some serious problems."

"You can't tell me how I spend my time," Cheryl said, sounding annoyed, "and my grades are fine!"

Gentle Heart recoiled a bit from Cheryl. Bright Heart got up from his chair and stood behind Gentle Heart. The shouts had drawn some attention from the other gamers in the room, and they all immediately noticed the well-endowed green lamb in the room.

"Hey, look, she's hot," one said. There were a couple wolf whistles aimed at her and Bright Heart decided not to let it go any farther. He stood defensively in front of Gentle Heart and gave a wide glare to the entire room.

"Back off, she's with me!" he said, doing his best to sound bold, despite feeling nervous. Before there could be a response he took Gentle Heart's hand and said, "let's leave before they get any worse," he said carefully leading her out and keeping her close. Gentle Heart leaned close to the raccoon as they left, she felt safer with Bright Heart protecting her. Cheryl blinked as she observed the events then quickly grabbed the stuff she had brought with her.

Cheer and Love-a-Lot were talking when Bright and Gentle exited The Zone.

"I see you two are doing well," Love-a-Lot.

"Yeah, you go girl!" Cheer said, "but where's Cheryl?" As if in response, Cheryl emerged from The Zone, looking a bit relieved.

"Good, looks like you two were able to convince her to stop making her parents worry so much," Love-a-Lot said.

"Not really," Cheryl said, before either Bright Heart or Gentle Heart could reply, "After seeing how all those freaks treated Gentle Heart, I figured that I don't want to end up like them, which I will if I keep spending my time here."

"So, are you going to study?" Bright Heart asked.

"Well, I need something to fill my time now," Cheryl sighed, "at least I had a short break from that kinda work," she turned and headed for the library in the nearby mall.

"Well, not the result we were hoping for, but a mission accomplished is a mission accomplished," Love-a-Lot said, "Let's go home." Cheer nodded and conjured a cloud car which they got into and used to head home.

In the backseat, Gentle Heart put her arms around Bright Heart, "Thanks for standing up for me back there," she said, blushing slightly.

"Ah well, shucks, it was nothmmph," Gentle Heart forestalled his reply by kissing him on the mouth. Bright Heart was stunned but hugged and kissed her back. Gentle Heart backed off, her face bright red.

"That was nice," Bright Heart said, smiling back at her.

"Yeah, that was… nice," she said smiling sheepishly. She felt around in her pocket for the item Cheer and given her and took a quick look at it, she started when she saw what it was and thought, 'oh my, I wonder how far she thinks my night with Bright Heart will go?'