AN: On to the next! (Ha, Ghost Hunters reference...) This one has an allusion to the second chapter, just as a heads-up in case you've just been skimming (shame shame). My wonderful and merciful reviewers this week are...Numbah1999 (Glad I helped your migraine! ^^), BooTheUnicorn (Thanks! :DD), leafysummers (This is me updating soon. XD), Zeeberg (Ohh, thank you so much! That means a lot. ), numbah435spiritsong (Dr. Lincoln is awesome. XD), hiya (I'll take it. XD Thanks for reviewing!), and Shamy4Evar8 (Thanks so much! And I love your TBBT-inspired username!)
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29 Tries
Attempt #10 - The Tea Party
He'd kept it.
At first, it was out of paranoia. What if someone found it in the trash? It wouldn't take a genius to figure out whose it was. So it was taken from the loose leaf pile and hidden in his sock drawer.
Then he took it out to look at it, just once, perhaps to see if it still instilled him with the same amount of excitement and trepidation as it had the day it was created. It did, and every time he peeked at it from then on, as it migrated from his drawer, to under his wrestling mat, to inside his pillow, then to be carried occasionally around in a hoodie pocket in case a chance presented itself, the urge to reveal it to someone else's eyes increased.
Particularly, the honey-brown pair that peered at him now over her cup.
Kuki smiled at him when she caught his eye, and he looked away to scowl at the stuffed animal in the seat next to his.
"Drink your tea, Numbuh Four, or it's gonna get cold!"
Wally scoffed, picking up his teacup. "What tea? It's cruddy empty!"
Dressed in her little pink frock and seated at the child-sized table in her toy-filled room, sipping air from plastic china, Kuki looked very out of place with the little debutante smile that graced her lips. "Silly, it's pretend tea!" Then she broke out in a grin at his blank look and ruined the image.
"What's the point of pretend tea?"
"It matches the pretend cake!" Kuki reached behind her and retrieved an empty platter, placing it ceremoniously in the center of the table.
Numbuh Four's jaw dropped, staring at the empty plate, then at Numbuh Three's proud smile, to the Rainbow Monkeys surrounding him, and back to the 'pretend cake'.
"No way!" He shouted, standing suddenly and rattling the table. Numbuh Three jumped, her smile disappearing.
"I only came because you told me there was going to be some cruddy cake!" he fumed. "I'm outta here!"
He stomped off, Numbuh Three scrambling to her feet and toddling after him. "Wait, Numbuh Four! Pretend cake is just as good, I promise! You have to use your imagination!"
He just kept walking, toward the purple curtain that served as a door, until she slid in front of him with an angry red face. "You promised!" she yelled at him.
"Well, you promised cake!"
"It is cake!"
"No it ain't!"
"Yes it is!"
"No, it's not!"
"Yes. It. Is!"
"I woulda never come to your stupid girly-girl tea party otherwise!"
She heaved an offended gasp, hand fluttering to her chest. "It's not stupid! It's classy!"
Numbuh Four snorted.
"Classy people drink tea together and talk about books and art and romance!" she insisted, fists tight against her sides.
"Romance?" Wally sneered. "That's just the kind of stupid thing a cruddy girl like you would come up with."
"Stop calling me stupid!"
"Sorry, classy," he laughed unkindly.
Kuki was so angry she was shaking, her face flushed far beyond the color of her dress. Numbuh Four recognized the signs.
The moment she lunged for him, fingers curved like claws, was the moment he lurched toward the exit in a dead run. She managed to catch his hood, and they struggled for a moment before he ducked out of the sweatshirt and sped away.
Numbuh Three fell back, still clutching the hoodie, and landed on her bottom. By the time she struggled to her feet, the blonde boy was out of sight.
She hissed a few breaths through her teeth, making a shaking fist around the soft orange fabric. "You're the one who's stupid!" She screamed at the empty hallway, the words making barely an echo before they died.
Kuki stomped back into her room, tossing the hoodie into a corner. She was planning on maybe tipping over her tea table when a flash of white caught her eye. She turned, curiosity piqued, to see something square sticking out of the pocket of Wally's hoodie. She reached for it...
Where is it? Where is it, where is it, where is it?
Numbuh Four's room was trashed – well, more trashed than usual. Clothes were strewn across the floor with every pocket turned out, and drawers were flung every which way, emptied of their contents. A singular pillow was turned inside-out, the wrestling mat was folded half-over, and Wally stood in the middle of it all, panic clear in his every motion as he frantically searched his school backpack as a last resort.
Where is it?
He'd looked everywhere, absolutely everywhere. Where could it possibly-
It hit him like a blow to the sternum. It was in the hoodie he'd been wearing yesterday. And where had he left it?
Kuki's room.
A hallway built haphazardly out of wood and a purple curtain painted with a '3'; the tanned face peeking around the corner was creased with determination.
Alright, just make a bolt for it. She's in the kitchen. Just run, grab the hoodie, and get the heck out!
"Okay, okay," he whispered to himself, bouncing on his toes like a boxer. Numbuh Four took a deep breath. "1...2...3!"
"Hi, Numbuh Four!"
"Gyaaa!"
He spun around spastically, arms flailing as he tried to right himself. Directly behind him stood Numbuh Three, beaming like a rainbow with a box of cookies. "What are you doing?"
"U-uhh..." Wally tried to calm down; his pulse was pounding like a jackhammer. "I, uh...wanted...my hoodie back! Yeah!"
If anything, Kuki's smile widened. "Sure, Wally!"
She skipped off through the purple curtain, motioning Numbuh Four to follow. He did, but cautiously, expecting a trick. Is she really not mad about yesterday? Well...that's great! Awesome!
He ducked into Kuki's room, blinking from the familiar kaleidoscope of stuffed animals, until his vision was filled with a swathe of orange fabric.
"Right, thanks," he said, taking his sweatshirt. Numbuh Three was still smiling behind it, like she knew a secret she wasn't telling. He didn't dwell on it for long, though – he was bathing in the relief of having his hoodie – and it – back.
Wait.
He felt around his hoodie. It was all softness; no hard edges or the crackle of paper. Wally flung his hand into the pocket, searching, groping, landing on...nothing. It was empty.
Empty.
Empty.
Empty...
He was having a little bit of trouble grasping that.
"What's wrong, Numbuh Four?" Her voice was teasing; that weird smile still stretched her cheeks. "Lose something?"
He gulped. Did she find it? Did she know? "Um, I..."
Oh, just tell her!
No! Lie like your life depends on it!
Kick her! Kick her and run!
She took a step closer, clasping her hands coyly behind her back. "Did you want to tell me something?"
"Umm..."Sweat beaded on his brow and trickled coldly down his neck. She knew. She knew, she knew, she knew.
Tell her!
Lie!
Kick her in the kneecaps!
"No!" he blurted, much too loudly. Kuki raised her eyebrows knowingly. "I-I just wanted my cruddy shirt back before you did something girly and weird to it!"
There. Safe for another day.
Her smile dropped, replaced with a hard scowl. "Fine then. Get out of my room." She pushed him out, both ignoring the thing they both knew, had known, for a long time.
Eventually, he was going to run out of chances.
AN: In case you didn't catch it, the thing that was missing was the note he'd written with 'I like you' on it. This was a pre-written chapter, so I didn't notice until just now that Wally ran as Kuki lunged for him two chapters in a row. XP These two are too predictable. C: Send me a hand-tossed review!
Tickle that toast.