A/N: I'M NOT DEAD!
A stony silence filled the room. It was the morning of their fourth day in the house, and everyone had awoken and silently filed into the living room. Now, all the girls were squished on a single couch across from where the boys were sitting, or in Gary's case, leaning.
Tick. Tock.
Dawn glanced at Paul whenever the latter wasn't already looking at her. Gary was studying Leaf who was outright ignoring him, and Drew and May were locked in eye to eye combat.
Tick.
"Okay, why are you all mad at us?" Drew finally broke off his staring contest as well as the silence.
"Mad? We're not mad," May scoffed.
"Yeah, right," Paul rolled his eyes. Dawn sighed unhappily.
"No, really," Dawn insisted. "We're not mad at you guys…"
"Except for me," Leaf finally spoke up with a glare over at Gary. It was clear who she was mad at, after all.
"Then who're the rest of you guys mad at?" Ash glanced over at Misty, who seemed to be the only unaffected one in the room.
The orange-haired girl in question sighed. "Guys, just drop it. Let's just move on, alright?"
When she received no affirmation in return, Misty stood and took it upon herself to walk over and grab their assignment folder from the counter. "Alright, time for the next assignment."
This seemed to at least pique the interest of the others as their all turned slightly in their seats to face Misty.
"Ahem," she cleared her throat dramatically as she flipped open the assignment booklet. "It says here that the next assignment to take care of is called Paint Job."
"We're painting the house?" May gave a small smile at the hope of being surrounded by bright red walls instead of the dull green that was currently in her room.
"Seems like it," Misty affirmed. Taking a closer look at the paper, she began to read out loud. "It's time to renovate your house! The local department store has generously agreed to donate 10 cans of paint towards this project. Take this letter to the store and pick out the shades of color that you'd like to use to paint your house."
A small silence followed.
"…Well, this can't possibly go smoothly, can it?" Paul closed his eyes irritably and leaned back on the couch, certain of chaos and messes to come.
"Way to be optimistic," May commented sarcastically.
While Paul raised an eyebrow at the bandanna-haired girl's attitude, Misty shuffled the papers back into the folder neatly before coming up with a suitable plan. "Alright, I think five of us should go ahead and drive to the store to pick up the paint."
"Might as well," Drew nodded. The sooner they got started, the sooner the walls would be painted, dry, and ready to go.
"So, who's all going to go?" Ash spoke up lazily as he slumped back on the couch, obviously not ready to move from the comfortable position yet.
"I call shotgun!" Dawn and Leaf exclaimed simultaneously before exchanging challenging looks and running for the door. As the two girls stampeded out into the garage, the rest of the group exchanged quick glances to see who else wanted to go.
"...Well, since I'm driving," Paul sighed once more as he stretched and got up from his seat.
Drew followed him in a similar manner as he too stood up. "I'm coming too…after all, it's my car."
"If you're going, I'm coming too!" May objected from her spot on the couch. However, Misty shook her head at that idea. "Sorry May, but we should probably have it so that there's at least one person from each room."
May grumbled at this decision. "Oh great, now celery-head over here's probably gonna choose to paint our room green again."
"Why wouldn't anyone choose green?" Drew flicked his hair and smirked.
"Please, red is so much better," May retorted.
"Anyways," Misty interrupted before their argument could escalate any further. "I'll be coming along for the ride as well, and that makes five people."
Drew turned away from his red-loving companion with a sigh before nodding over at Misty. "Alright, let's go then."
"You'd better come back with red paint!" May shouted at their retreating backs, before sighing and slumping down in her seat. The clock on the wall ticked through the now-silent house.
"Alright," Gary sighed and slowly ambled towards the direction of his room. "I'm going to go catch up on some reading."
"Reading?" Ash inquired, turning his head in Gary's direction.
"Well, why not?" Gary shrugged as he continued on. "It's not like there's anything else for us to do until they get back."
Ding dong
Just then, as if to prove his statement wrong, the doorbell rang. May quickly jumped up from her couch. "Someone's at the door!"
Ash instantly shot up and ran for the door. "I got it-"
Almost instantly, he tripped on thin air and landed face-first onto the floor.
Ding dong
As May walked over to the fallen boy and prodded him with her foot, Gary sighed once more and casually strode towards the door.
"…Who could that be…?"
Misty checked her watch; it was now half past twelve.
"…Seriously guys, we've been here for two hours already," Misty sighed. "Can't you all just pick your room colors already?"
"But Mistyyy," Dawn sang out as she tugged on a pink paint sample paper that Paul was obviously trying to prevent her from choosing. "These kinds of things take time! If we make the wrong choice, it could affect our whole project!"
"I kinda doubt that," Misty narrowed her eyes skeptically. "But anyways, what do you guys think about this cream color?"
Misty held up a slip of paper that was colored in a light, pale vanilla hue for the rest of the group to see. After giving it an onceover, Drew nodded.
"Looks good to me."
Drew turned around to look over at Paul and Dawn. The pair instantly looked up from their tug-of-war contest over the neon-pink paint sample paper.
"Uh," Paul coughed and crossed his arms, letting go of the bright pink paper in the process. "That's fine."
"Yeah!" Dawn cheered, thrusting the pink paper she was now holding into the air with her hand. As Paul glared at the offending paper in Dawn's hand, Drew sighed and walked over to a section of green sample papers. Scanning the wall, he plucked a calm-looking chartreuse color out from its placeholder. Drew looked at the paper. The innocent paper seemed to emit a green glow, and as Drew thought more about the prospect of choosing it, it seemed to begin to sparkle.
"…That's it, I'm getting this one," he declared with a flick of his hair.
Leaf, who was also searching for a shade of green paint, gave him a skeptical side-look. "You do realize May would kill you if you brought back green paint, right?"
Drew gave a slight scowl then sighed and sweatdropped as May's angry face came to mind. Reluctantly, he set the green paper aside and slowly walked over to the red paints with his hands in his pockets. Picking up a can of what was called "Carmine Red", he dropped it in the shopping cart at Misty's hands.
"Alright," the orange-haired girl leaned on the handle of the shopping cart with one arm and observed the list in her other hand. "Now we just need the paint for Leaf and Gary's room."
"Got it!" the aforementioned girl spoke up as she walked up to the cart as well and dropped a can of forest-green paint into the pile. Immediately, Dawn took over the shopping cart and began to push it hurriedly in the direction of the checkout lines.
"Great. Now let's get out of here-AH!"
"…How clumsy can you get?"
"Quick, let's hide the broken can…"
An inconspicuous broken paint can on the shelf and a noisy car ride later, the five of them arrived back at the house. After unloading all of the paint into the garage, they barged through the door and into the entranceway.
"We're backkkk," Dawn sang out into the house. Strangely enough, she didn't get a reply.
"May, Ash, Gary?" Misty called out as she removed her shoes at the entranceway and moved into the house. "Where are you guys?"
"Over here."
Upon walking further into the house, Misty soon found the trio standing behind the kitchen counter where a newly arrived package was sitting.
"What's that?" Drew gestured towards the cardboard box.
Gary turned to look at his friends with a rather serious expression. "Why don't you come take a look?"
Hesitating slightly at the solemn tone, Leaf picked up the box and reached inside. After moving her hand around for a moment, she pulled out a letter and presented it to the rest of the group.
"Strange, there's only a letter inside."
Misty raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Why did they even bother putting it into a box then?"
As Ash shrugged, Leaf opened up the already torn open letter and pulled out a sheet of paper. Scanning it, she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before looking back up to exchange worried glances with May.
"What? What is it?" Misty inquired, her curiosity expanding by the moment. Grabbing the letter for herself, she read out loud the words that seemed to have been cut from newspapers and pasted onto the paper.
"Look out, you're next."
The clock ticked from its spot on the wall as the eight teens stood in silence and contemplated. Finally, Dawn broke the silence.
"Is there a return address on that box or anything?"
Paul reached over and picked up the package. After examining it and finding nothing, he shook his head.
Leaf frowned. "This could just be a prank of sorts from someone at school. They could just be trying to freak us out; after all, everyone knows we're here for that special project."
"Yeah," Drew agreed. "Plus, as much as I hate to admit it, it could be some of my fans; I wouldn't put it past them."
"No kidding!" May exclaimed, no longer worried. "I bet on everything that it's those crazy stalkers from the mall."
Murmurs of agreement came from around the group huddled around the counter and Misty sighed and crumpled up the piece of paper. "Whatever guys, let's not worry about it too much. We should be doing something more productive like getting a start on painting the house."
"Yes, mother," came Gary's sarcastic response, all traces of seriousness gone from his voice.
As Misty pulled Gary towards the garage by the ear, followed by the rest of the friends, a lone figure stood by the window watching their every move. Turning to walk away, the mysterious person smirked.
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
A/N: I can't even apologize enough for abandoning you guys! It wasn't intentional; I just got so swept up with my life that I didn't have the time to write. :( Whenever I had time, I was too tired from my week or I was out socializing, and whenever I actually had energy, I was working or busy with school. .
THEREFORE, I aim to finish this fic by the end of my Christmas break. I spent the first few days of my break relaxing because I needed some time to myself for once, but now I'm ready to go (ferocious battle-cry)!
Also, I forget who, but one of my awesome reviewers reminded me of the fact that May and Dawn are actually good cooks in the anime. This completely slipped my mind, and I'm sorry about that! I actually would go back and fix that, except for that I'm actually counting on their "bad cooking" for one of the events of this story… XP Oh well, I'll definitely get that fact right if I ever write another fic about them!
Anyway, sorry this chapter is pretty bland. I just couldn't wait to post something; I pretty much pulled this whole chapter from the realm of my mind as I went along. I'll probably go back and edit some stuff later, but until then…
Happy holidays!