4-28: Scene dividers fixed.

Eating Contest with Tara

"And then I was all like, no way, girl! But then she was all like hell yes! And I said oh no he di'in't! And she was all up in my face and-"

"Seriously, Garfield, stop talking like that." Rachel said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You told me to entertain myself." Garfield said, sticking out his tongue.

"I meant quietly." Rachel answered, scowling. She was gripping her book so tightly the pages were wrinkling. The two of them were sitting on Garfield's couch, watching some action movie in mute. Victor had paid off Rachel to watch Garfield for the day to ensure he didn't get into any trouble while Victor went off to do whatever he did on his free days. Normally, he would have trusted Garfield to be all alone, but after a particular incident in which the boy had somehow gotten toothpaste all over the ceiling a mere two days ago Victor decided that Garfield was not to be trusted alone with an apartment. Or toothpaste.

"This is boring." Garfield pouted. He slumped back into the cushions. Rachel sighed and resumed to reading her book. After several minutes of watching two kung fu warriors silently fighting each other, Garfield glanced at Rachel sneakily. She was seemingly deeply absorbed in her readings. Making sure she didn't notice his movements, Garfield snatched up the remote and began stabbing at the volume button with his thumb.

"ARGH!" Rachel yelled, clamping her hands over her ears as the TV suddenly began roaring with the sounds of shouting, grunting, and low-budget sound effects. The book fell on the carpet with a barely audible rustle.

"Hwa! Hwa! HAI!" a blonde man in a gi said loudly as he swiped at his opponent.

"Hwa! Hwa! HAI!" Garfield imitated the actor, flailing his skinny arms around.

"GARFIELD!" Rachel shouted. She grabbed the remote and quickly jabbed the mute button. Garfield sat down and looked at her sheepishly.

"I was bored." He said for the fourth time that morning.

"And I told you to keep the movie on mute for a reason." Rachel said, quickly composing herself. "I'd like to read my book in peace."

"You're no fun." Garfield huffed, crossing his arms together. "Watcha reading, anyways?" He picked up the book from the carpet. "Little Women? What's that about? Midgets?"

"Your lack of intelligence fails to astound me." Rachel said, seizing her book from him. She sighed and closed the book. "This is hopeless. Let's go out."

"You mean like on a date?" Garfield smiled hopefully.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Keep dreaming."

--X--

"Oooh! Rae! Check that out!" Garfield pointed at a large sign leaning against a window. He brushed past several pedestrians to get closer. Rachel followed him without comment. "Eating Contest! Winner gets one hundred dollars!"

"Your hospital bill will probably cost more than that." Rachel said.

"Come on! We should enter it!" Garfield grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the entrance of the restaurant.

"What do you mean "we"?" Rachel said. Nevertheless, she allowed Garfield to pull her along with him. Big flashy letters screamed "Billy's Numerous Pies" at them as they entered.

The restaurant smelled of freshly baked pastries, grease, and coffee, which Garfield sniffed appreciatively. The booths held many large-bodied customers who were stuffing their sweaty faces with burgers, fries, pies, hot dogs, and the likes. The tiled floor was sticky with soda. A skinny teen stood at the counter wiping spilled ketchup off with a stained towel. The lighted menu behind him flashed intermittently, urging Garfield to purchase a three dollar special that came with a medium soft drink and fries.

"This place smells of cheap fast-food and cholesterol." Rachel said dully, walking behind Garfield and looking at the obese costumers with evident distaste.

"It's my kind of place!"

"I thought you were a vegetarian."

"I am. But that doesn't mean I can't have fries and pies."

"Welcome to Billy's Numerous Pies, where "lot's is never 'nough." May I take your order." The teen at the counter said monotonously with the tone of someone who had lost all hope for a bright future in life. He was wearing a yellow cowboy hat that looked much too large on his head.

"I want to enter the eating contest." Garfield said.

"Alright! Lookies like we've gotta 'nother contestantee!" another teen wearing a large red cowboy hat said, grinning at Garfield and Rachel. "I am the owner of this here fine establishment, the one'n'only Billy! Well, there's also all mah other brothers'n cousins 'n stuff. And they're all also named Billy. Y'all just in luck! We's were just 'bout to giv away our grand prize to that there missus, since she was the only one t' enner, an'all." He pointed to a skinny blonde girl sitting at an empty counter in the corner, chewing mildly on some fries with disinterest.

"Is she the only other entrant?" Garfield asked.

"Yessir, I reckon she is. No one else really wanted t' enner, said hookie-ho stuff 'bout her being a bottomless vacuum, or som'thin like that. You're welcome t' particeepate against her, if y' want. I'll git mah employee here t' time y'all. You just gotta eat 'bout twenty pies in th' fastest time possible."

"This way." The cowboy-hat guy said in the same drab tone from before, leading Garfield and Rachel to the counter. The girl looked up at them with bright blue eyes and smiled.

"Are you too chicken to go up against me too?" she asked.

"Why, no, I am not." Garfield grinned, sliding up to her. He held out a hand. "Garfield Logan. What's your name, you beautiful angel who must have fallen from heaven, because I hurt… wait, that's not right."

Rachel snorted. "Smooth."

"Tara Markov." Tara shook his hand, giggling.

--X--

"First one to finish all their pies wins the one hundred dollars. There will be no shoving, no pushing, no poisoning, no projectile vomiting, or any other of the sort." The cowboy-hat guy said. There were two large stacks of steaming pies sitting in front of Garfield and Tara. Rachel sat to the side, engrossed in a little book she had hidden in her jacket pocket.

"Good luck." Tara said, smiling at Garfield.

"I don't need luck." Garfield said cockily, winking at her.

"Begin." The cowboy-hat guy said. Garfield grabbed his first pie from the stack and dove into it, ignoring the fork set to the side. He didn't look up once as he shoved handfuls of crust and cherry filling into his mouth. After a minute, he licked his tin clean and tossed it to the side. Garfield looked over to Tara.

"Don' shtop, you'll loosh." Tara said, her mouth stuffed with pie. She had two empty tins set neatly beside her. Much to Garfield's surprise, she was eating with her bare hands like he was.

"Oh, right!" Garfield took another pie and smashed his face into it, sucking noisily. This one was blueberry.

"Disgusting." Rachel muttered, peering over the top of her book.

"Blah!" Garfield gasped, lifting his messy face from the clean tin. He was already full. Tara was on her fourth pie. "Hundred dollars… must win!" Garfield dug his hands into another pie. Apple.

"You're shlowing don!" Tara said mushily, her mouth outlined with various shades of blue, purple, and red. "I'm not even –urp- full yet!"

"Neither am I!" Garfield shoved the last bit of apple filling in his mouth. The next pie proved to be harder than the first two. Garfield imagined that he felt a bit queasy, but he ignored the uncomfortable feeling rising up in his throat as he shoved handfuls of filling and crust into his protesting mouth, which was stubbornly refusing to chew faster.

Moments later, that proved to be a mistake.

"…Ugh." Rachel simply said at the sight of spewed pie all over the tile flooring. Garfield was leaning against his knees, panting. Tara stopped eating and looked over.

"Great. I'll get a mop." The cowboy-hat guy said unenthusiastically.

"I don't feel so good." Garfield groaned, holding his stomach.

"Are you okay?" Tara asked concernedly, patting his back. Garfield managed a weak grin.

"Y-yeah! I'll be fine!"

"We're not held responsibl' fer any damages don 'ta y'all while in this here fine establishment, as previously stated in th'employee hand book." Billy said, coming over. The cowboy-hat guy was already meekly cleaning up the remains of Garfield's rejected pies with a mop. Billy quickly ushered them to the exit. "Come again, an'have a nice day!"

--X--

"Are you sure you're okay?" Tara asked for probably the seventeenth time that day.

"Yeah! Yeah! I feel great!" Garfield flexed his scrawny arms as if to prove his point. "Sheesh, that Billy guy was such a cheapskate. He didn't give you the hundred bucks."

"I'm cool with that. I was just in for the free pies." Tara shrugged.

"So, what should we do now?" Garfield asked, folding his arms behind his head.

"You're still under house arrest." Rachel spoke up.

"Then why did you let me go out?"

"You were getting on my nerves." Rachel answered calmly. "It's what I do with my cat. It worked with you, didn't it?"

"Meow?" Garfield pawed playfully at Rachel. Tara giggled.

"You're funny!" Tara smiled.

"Really?" Garfield perked up.

"Hey, do you want to… uh, I dunno, maybe go out for dinner with me tonight?" Tara asked shyly.

Garfield's brain froze. He stopped in his tracks and nearly fell over. A girl just asked him out. A real live girl, and not a little kid or some old lady, a girl his age, just asked him out. On a date. The words tumbled around in his brain like and Rachel turned around when they noticed that Garfield was no longer walking in between them.

"Are you okay?" Tara asked, waving a hand in front of Garfield's face.

"Ugga- ga- uh…"

"Snap out of it." Rachel lightly slapped Garfield. "She only asked you out."

"Dude! Hell yes! I'd love to!" Garfield grinned widely, wringing his hands. "Uh, I mean, yeah. That'd be pretty cool."

"Great!" Tara giggled. "Pick me up at six tonight?" She took out a pen and scrawled her address onto Garfield's hand.

"Sure!"

"Okay, I'll see you later! Bye Garfield, Rachel!" Tara turned to the right at an intersection.

"Dude! I totally scored!" Garfield pumped his fist up and down as he watched Tara's retreating figure.

"You sure did. Now let's get back to your apartment before Victor returns." Rachel led Garfield across the street.

--X--

Garfield stood in front of the large mansion with the evening sun just beginning to set behind him. Tara's manor was large enough to rival Kory's, with a verdant front lawn and polished windows that winked at him in the twilight. He rang the doorbell, the echoing chime drifting out an open window on the second floor.

"Yes?" a stately elderly butler answered the door before the chime stopped ringing.

"I'm here for Miss Tara." Garfield answered as politely as he knew how to.

"Tara… I'm afraid she's not available."

"What? Why? We have a date!"

"If you must know, her legal guardian took her out of the city due to unexpected circumstances."

"Who's her guardian?" Garfield asked, peering behind the butler to catch a glimpse of an enormous hall with marble flooring.

"I am certain you've heard of him. Slade Wilson, the owner of Wilson Co."

"Dude! The guy who rivals Bruce Wayne?" Garfield let his jaw drop, temporarily forgetting his manners.

The butler sniffed. "I think I've revealed too much information. If you inform anyone else about Miss Markov's connections to Mr. Wilson, I will assure you that I will come after you myself."

And with that, the man shut the door in Garfield's face.

"Yeah… I got it…" Garfield said dejectedly. He turned around and plodded away.

--X--

"What's wrong with you? You haven't touched your food at all." Victor said, looking over at Garfield. His plate of steamed vegetables sat untouched before him, slowly cooling and becoming soggy. Victor took another bite of his roast beef before leaning across the table and tapping Garfield on the shoulder.

"What? Oh, yeah." Garfield stabbed a piece of broccoli with his fork and brought it to his mouth slowly. He chewed on it unenthusiastically, rather out of character for him.

"Come on, man. You can tell me what's bugging you."

"There was this girl… Tara. We had a date tonight but it was, uh, cancelled."

"Aw, it'll be okay. There'll be more opportunities." Victor said comfortingly.

"Sure."

"You want some corn? I just bought some today. They're in the kitchen."

"With butter?"

"Extra butter."

"Yeah!" Garfield smiled and jumped out of his seat to go get the corn.

Victor chuckled to himself. If anything could make his friend feel better, it was food.

--X--

AN: Ending was terrible, I know.
Reviews will be greatly appreciated.