Hay guys! P

Hope your liking the story. As you may know, there hasn't been a bet lately. :D

….and no, it's not in this chapter.

This chapter gets OOC at the end—but you'll see why if you read about Wally's thoughts.

Btw, everyone's eleven in this story. If I said they were ten somewhere, lemme know.

Hope you like it.

Chapter Ten: Changing

There were two unhappy, sullen face mixed in with the perky, hyperactive hundreds of children at the Rainbow Monkeys Theme Park.

One of them was Wallabee Beatles, of course, the reason could be self-explanatory. Not in this case, though. It was true Wally hated Rainbow Monkeys, but that was only part of the reason why he was so upset. The other parts of the reason he was so aggravated was because he had just yelled at Kuki Sanban and immediately after he ignored her incoming sobbing and walked away, he almost smacked himself in the face foe being so horrible. Now, he was confused. He was also lost—literally. Usually, he followed Kuki around the park and didn't even pay attention to where he was going out of the seemingly hundreds of other times she had dragged him here. Thus, there he was, trudging miserably through his hell, searching for a way to escape.

The second unhappy, sullen face in the Rainbow Monkeys Theme Park was astonishingly Kuki Sanban. Despite she was a well-known lover and hardcore fan of Rainbow Monkeys, and the Rainbow Monkeys Theme Park was like her second home—no, better—she was devastated. Wallabee Beatles was completely outraged with her and basically had broken her heart and didn't even glance behind to comfort her and apologize. Sure, maybe it was true that she occasionally took advantage of him, but she only wants to spend time with him! She just wants to be on his good side! She just wants to be friends with the guy! Okay, well, maybe "occasionally" forcing him to do whatever she wanted to do was a little unfair, but she had to admit she was addicted to the fact she had Wallabee Beatles whipped. Wallabee Beatles, the toughest kid at Gallagher Elementary. It was amusing, that's all. So now, poor Kuki sulked through Rainbow Monkeys Theme Park, crushed, and with sticky cheeks and puffy red eyes and a dissolving lump in her throat. She was just going to go home; it's not like she could enjoy Rainbow Monkeys Theme Park in this condition.

It was rare to see even one sad face at that park, but two was really something.

Suddenly….one of those faces…changed. Slowly. Gradually. Over a minute's time. Only one of them were suddenly happy again.

But as quickly as that one face morphed from sullen to curious to excited did it change right to mischievous and troublesome.

It was Wally. Wally was grinning slyly and devilishly. His eyes were locked right onto this kid, this kid with a dusty brown buzz cut and freckles and a glowing face of joy. This kid wearing a large gray pullover hoodie and jeans and black sneakers was Michael: it was Michael Philips.

There were numerous things Wally could have done at this moment. He could have taken thirty snapshots of evidence that Michael Philips was at the Rainbow Monkey Theme Park instead of ice hockey practice. Wally could have snuck around behind Michael for the rest of the day and see all the stupid girly things he would do. Wally could have even called his name.

And that's when he spotted that Michael's slinky arm was around something. Someone. Someone familiar. A girl… wearing green. A girl wearing a green sweater underneath a pink ski jacket and ear muffs. A girl with a silky, shiny thin layer of dark hair. A girl with rosy cheeks and a comfortable smile.

It took Wally a moment to come back from the shock and realize Michael had totally stolen Kuki. In that instant that Wally realized it while his jaw dropped and the top corner of his lip twitched and his eyes narrowed with fire in them, Michael sensed someone looking at him. So he turned around, and, finally seeing Wally after hearing about all the terrible things he had done to Kuki Sanban all day, he stuck his tongue out mockingly without Kuki even noticing.

The worst part was Kuki was the happy one. Now Wally was sullen again; but this time he was powered by blind rage. It was as if the inside of him was so dry, fire sparked from the lightning bolt of realization that had just struck him.

Wally turned around and tried to simply walk away, but the wildfire inside of him thrived surprisingly as if trying to ignore it was only tossing more wood into the flames. He got mad so quickly that he wasn't even freezing anymore; his teeth were still chattering and his bare face and tightly balled up fists were still numb, but he couldn't feel it. The rage took him over so suddenly that he couldn't control it and it only grew.

He had spun around swiftly on his heel and the next thing he knew he was sprinting up to a kid wearing an oversized gray hoodie, the pink and green and black and startled figure beside him a blur as he took Michael to the ground. They landed hard onto unforgiving concrete.

Wally was sitting on Michael's stomach, and already had his fist in the air. Michael's limbs were a little longer than Wally's, but Wally was a true pure fighter and he was quicker.

But Wally still was given a blow in the stomach, winded, yet sprung back to his feet. Michael scrambled up as well. Kids were starting to crowd around immediately, pretty much all girls who were surprisingly interested in the fight.

Wally was still catching his breath when Michael drove his shoulder into Wally to take him back down, but Wally gripped him around the neck and swung him down, then body slammed him. Michael fidgeted around roughly and it soon became to hard for Wally to pin him down, thus Michael slipped away.

Wally did this evasive move where he sort of tumbled along the ground on his hands and feet, kind of resembling a crab, and rolled up to his feet again. He threw a punch immediately with one fist, connecting roughly to Michael's face and using the other fist to uppercut him in the stomach.

Oh, that made Michael really mad. Absolutely furious. Michael slammed his tight, white-knuckled fist across Wally's face, knocking him to the ground.

For a second, Wally felt alarmed. Then, his face ached as well as stung as if something had pierced through his cheek and he was dizzy and wounded and, ugh, the match was definitely on. No "mercy", no "uncle". It was just on.

Wally leaped onto Michael again, crashing him into the ground even harder. Michael landed on his side and began squirming around uncontrollably, but Wally completely ignored it and jabbed him in the face a few times with all his might. Michael's nose and lip began to bleed and his eye was instantly purple.

Up on his knees, Wally slapped Michael in the face and through gritted teeth said, "Tell your mama I'll be by 'round 12:00!"

Michael grabbed Wally's arms and, with all of his might, bashed Wally sideways into the blacktop and with both fist joined to make and knuckled ball, brought a blow straight down into Wally's groin.

Now Michael was sitting on Wally, Wally grabbing at his hoodie and neck relentlessly and both boys receiving many punches to the side of the head or the eye or the mouth or chin or stomach. They tumbled around on the ground for a while, throwing hooks or throwing one fist then the other. Both combatants were so engrossed in repeatedly throwing all their might at one another through their fists that they didn't notice the thick chaotic audience encircling them.

The fight went on for a good 15 minutes. These two had anger stored up for each other, all the competitive hatred and envy collected from every challenge lost over the elementary years now unleashed in this bloody, purple, black, and blue tussle.

It kept going on and on, the fury whittled into a basic desire to connect fist with bone. Wally was in so much pain tears were slipping from his eyes; every limb was black and blue or scraped and his face was gruesome; bruised and swollen and blood was dripping from his forehead and nose and mouth. Michael had worse damage done to him, though. Wally definitely won the brawl by a long-shot.

It was ended when the life-sized Rainbow Monkeys, which were really employees in over-sized furry suits, got in between the punches and held both boys back.

Wally couldn't remember what happened from there—he passed out with two big, furry blue paws gripping him under the arms.

The pain and agony that surged through Wally while he was dealing punches and kicks was nothing compared to what he suffered now. His arms had dark bruises all over them, as well as a slits and scrapes and dry blood from skidding against concrete. His face in general throbbed with the most ginger brush, at which he would shriek in sheer pain.

He awoke the next afternoon. Before he even lifted his heavy eyelids, his heavy swollen purple eyelids, he felt hot tears steaming in the brim of his eye. It hurt just to lie down on his back.

Almost silently, he whimpered, and sobbed very quietly, then opened his throbbing eyes.

His breaths were short and shallow, a lump in his throat. Tears slipped down his cheeks. Pain seeped into his sore muscles, into his pulse. It was too intense for him.

Carefully, Wally lifted up his right hand, blinking tears away.

That's when he noticed Numbuh Three seated at his bedside. She was staring at him right in the face, looking shocked.

For a minute or two, they stared at each other. Wally was thinking a lot of things in those moments. What could he say to her? About how he had yelled at her? About how he pummeled her latest subject of flirtation? About how she had just seen him crying?

Blankly, he gazed up at her. He wore a solemn expression on his face, and although there were a trillion words rushing to his mind to say, he felt as if he could never speak even one.

Kuki stood up and walked away, back straight, head held high.

"Uhh…" he said, "Wait!" he voice was raspy and his throat ached.

She paused at the door frame, her back still to him.

"I-…. I…" Wally tried. "I…." It was going dark. He had exhausted all of his energy already. He fell back asleep.

Christmas was in two weeks.

Wally lay at home in his bed for an entire week. He watched the TV in his room and would only get up to pee, in which case his mother would assist him in hobbling to the bathroom. He would try to be brave and not yelp, but pained noises would escape him anyway.

Mrs. Beatles was very disappointed in Wally at first. She pitied him more so, though, and nursed him and everything. Wally would be left home alone when she would go out to run errands (Wally was clueless to the fact that she was really going out to buy his Christmas gifts).

All the time alone helped Wally to keep thinking about all that had happened. With Michael, with Kuki, his general hard-headed anger. He wanted to change his ways. It was good that he had time to himself, to think a little bit.

He didn't care about the video camera any more.

He didn't care about Michael Philips, his past enemy, any more.

He didn't care about his twelfth birthday coming up in the summer.

There was something he found he did care about, though. He cared about Numbuh Three. The more time he gave to think about it, the more he realized he wanted to talk to her and apologize.

Hoagie called him every day his mother went out. She moved the phone to Wally's night table, as friends were calling daily, ones from school who wanted to know all about the fight.

"Wallabee," his mother called from down the hallway outside his bedroom. "I'm going out for a little while, okay?"

"Sure, mum." His voice was there but his focus was not just on the television.

"If you need any help, Mrs. Gilligan is right around the corner and Mr. Tatum is right across the street."

"I'll be fine."

"Okay.." she said awkwardly, eye right on him as she left the room.

A few minutes later Wally heard the front door jingle as his mother locked it and shake the house as she closed it. Of course, she took Joey along.

Wally was watching Sponge Bob when the phone rang. It was Hoagie and Abby, checking up on him from the tree house. Wally was grounded from hanging out with his friends, even though he couldn't even bare to stand.

"'Ello?"

"Hey, Numbuh Four!" "Hey, man, how are ya?"

"'Ey guys," Wally said, a little weakness in his voice. "I've been bettah, but I sure am livin'…. in misery and pain…"

"Well, it was yo' own fault fo' fighting that boy. You're the one who went at him. But you should see his sorry b'hind! Woo, did you give him a whoopin'!" said Abby.

Wally chuckled proudly. "I haven't scrapped it like that in a while," he said, in a thoughtful tone.

"I hope you get better soon, bud. You better be able to walk on your own to come over here and help us finish decorating for Christmas."

"Haha, remember how we had that mission last year with the teacher appreciation holiday thing, and those Christmas team people? I totally fo'get all their names."

The three went on talking about that for a little bit, until Hoagie suddenly asked, very seriously, "So, what did you do to Kuki? You said you'd tell us."

Wally felt a pang in his heart; it was true. When they called yesterday, they reported that Kuki was moping around more than ever, and bugged Wally to tell them what he did because she sure wouldn't.

"I…erm…" Wally hesitated. "I yelled at her, then she went and chilled wit' that…. You know, I ain't even gonna say what he is, but then I got mad and, well. You know the rest." Wally sure was getting better at blurting out the truth in average words.

"Ohhhhh," Abby and Hoagie replied simultaneously.

Then, Wally couldn't help himself from adding thoughtfully, completely by accident, "I can't believe she can even get me to go to that stupid place. She asks and then it's like, boom!, I'm there."

"It's a super power that all the ladies got, Numbuh Four. Get used to it," Hoagie said simply, as Abby scoffed.

"O….kay…." Wally said slowly. He thought about that for a little while after the conversation was finished minutes later.

It did make perfect sense; a super power. A super power that girls had to make all boys obey them despite their own wants and desires.

Too bad Wally didn't know Hoagie was kidding about it being a super power.

The searing pain got less and less drastic each day Wally rested, until a week later he was okay. The swelling around his eyes were gone, but he had a scab on his chin and his lip was still a little puffy and throbbed. He had scabs and scars and fading bruises on his arms, and his knuckles were still swollen and in pain.

His back was only slightly sore, and his knee cramped when he walked. His right hip also ached a little bit, still, but Wally was fine. The pain would be over by Christmas.

Wally stepped out the front door of his house, wearing his puffy black jacket with his hands shoved in the pockets and his hat pushing his honey locks down.

He started down the driveway, making his final thoughts of how he would deal with Kuki. While he was recovering, he had been thinking of the perfect things to say to her to patch things up.

Between those thoughts, he began to realize that he would absolutely never ever even be thinking about Kuki so hard one year ago. Instead he would be thinking about sports and food and video games. He also discovered his fantasies were changing. Occasionally, Numbuh Three would pop into his mind's eye in the middle of history or while he was eating cereal or washing his hands. He would imagine her being impressed with him about something, usually. Then he would smirk, and realize what he was doing and the teacher or his mother would ask him what he was smiling about. There was even this one time he caught himself thinking about that 'mouth-to-mouth re-something' she gave him.

At first, Wally was afraid of change. He was terrified of gaining these teenager thoughts. It was happening already, and though Wally was completely reluctant to accept it, he was learning that girls weren't all that bad.

And this was just the beginning of the journey. He won't tell, not on his life. Maybe not even on Kuki's life. NO, scratch that, that was ridiculous. That was pretty much defeating the whole purpose of all of this. Wally hated the very peak of becoming a teenager so much, it was causing him stress.

Ugh.

He resorted to trying hard to replay the brawl between him and Michael in his mind. Even though he was now feeling the consequences, it really was fun.

Ain't it, like, bad to like violence?

Whateva.

The sky is so white-ish gray today.

I hope that means we'll have snow.

Santa Clause ain't comin' by my window this year.

OH MY GOD.

Wally had stunned himself so much, he stopped walking and stood there, eyes wide.

What the HELL was this?

What was this?!

What did he mentally just say?!!

Where the crud did that COME from!?!?

This thing that came out of no where broke into Wally's mind and stole his innocence and belief in magic. Out of no where. What in the world caused that?

The common sense of a teenager caused it.

Wally knew. He knew it. And yet, he tried so very hard to replenish himself back up with false beliefs: He wasn't growing up, he hated girls, Santa Clause always came.

Yeah, you are. Had to happen sometime.

Then why do you love one?

He's not even real, you dolt.

It hit him like a brick—he seriously was becoming a teenager. The thing was, though, it didn't even scare him as much as it should have. Was this what it was like with everyone?

Wally gulped. He knocked on the door frame beside the curtain, unaware of Nigel, Hoagie, and Abby peering at him around the corner of the hallway.

"Come in!" Kuki chimed merrily. She sounded so happy that Wally almost felt guilty because she didn't even know it was him at the door. He was catching her off guard.

"Uhh…okay…" he said, swallowing air now. Wally whisked away the curtain to find Numbuh Three in her usual green sweatshirt, matching socks, black tights, and sneakers. She was surrounded on all sides by various stuffed animals; some up to the ceiling, others small enough to hold in one's arms. It made Wally sick, but he tried to ignore that and focus on the purpose of his being in the cruddy room.

At least all of those things are normal.

"Hi, Wally," she said softly, looking up at him from her spot on the floor with those innocent eyes. He could have melted on the spot.

"Hey…err… Kuki," he greeted awkwardly in return.

They stared at each other for a moment, when she patted the floorboards beside her and pushed her magazines aside. Wally sat down and gazed at the ground, although she was studying his face. He leaned back against the foot of her circular bed.

"Are you okay?" she asked in the same, strange new tone Wally had never heard before.

"Mm--yeah," he piped nervously.

"That fight was really… scary."

The two paused again, the silence being even less awkward than the conversation.

Wally was measuring the time by how many times words got lodged up in his throat and he desired to spit them out, until he finally did.

"Look, I'm—" they both began at the same time.

"Oh, sorry," they said simultaneously again.

Wally was wearing thin from all the stress he had caused on himself from thinking so much.

"Okay, that is IT," he said firmly. He finally broke his gaze on the floorboards and looked Numbuh Three directly in the eyes. "I am sick, and tired of how you always drag me around. Ah-buh-buh!"—she tried to get a word in to argue—"You get me to do whatever you want! The Rainbow Monkey Theme Park, playing Rainbow Monkeys, watching Rainbow Monkeys, then playing tea party, then walking you to class, then dumping your lunch tray for you, then carrying your books, Kuki, I don't even have time to myself any more! I mean, you're my friend and stuff, but I am not your little life-sized Rainbow Monkey that will do whatever you want for you and get dressed up for it."

Wally looked at Kuki for a reply, as he worked on cutting the tension with that knife.

She did it for him, and sighed, as if she had a speech-like response all thought out.

"Uhh.. umm…" she stuttered, instead. In the past three years, Wally has never ever seen Kuki Sanban stutter over anything. Once, at that slumber party he snuck into, and she was asked this crazy Truth question, she did stutter with the answer. "Okay. I'm sorry, Wally. Its just that I thought it was kind of funny you would do whatever I say. That's all."

More silence.

"What, so she doesn't even like spending time with me?"

"What? Of course I do! I love spending time with you! We're friends, remember?" Kuki asked, wrinkling her nose, all cute and everything.

"I-I didn't mean to…" Wally was so busy watching her he forgot how to finish sentences.

"You didn't mean to what?"

"I didn't mean to say that out loud."

Even more silence.

"You know, Wally, sometimes I get the feeling lately that you've been thinking too much."

"What, does that surprise you?" Kuki was exactly right. Wally absolutely didn't want anyone to know how he was changing into a teenager—he tried to argue his way out of this.

"N-no…"

"Why are you stuttering?" he suddenly asked.

"I don't know," Kuki said plainly.

"You've changed too, you know that."

"I didn't mean to make you mad or anything… I was just gonna say—"

"What? What were you going to say?" Wally exploded angrily, kind of like at the theme park, only not as drastic, "That I'm turning into a teenager? Is that it? What if I am? What if I am getting a little different? It's not like I'll stop liking wrestling and comics and start liking you more instead!"

Wally's face relaxed from the intense expression it wore, then fell as he realized what he had shouted.

Kuki was astonished. She gaped at him. Never had she seen him get so hyped up and admit things this way.

"I was going to say… It was kind of nice that you were being so thoughtful all of a sudden."

"Oh—uhm.." Wally cleared his throat. "Okay. Bye?"

Wally stood, and Kuki stood with him.

It was a spontaneous thing, what happened next. As they stood, Wally reached around Kuki, until his arms were enclosed around her, and pulled her to him, pressing against him. Before he even knew what was going on, Wally released and walked rather hurriedly from the room.

Wally hugged Kuki.

Just for a split second.

Still, it was a hug, which for the very first time was given by Wally.

Yeah, he was changing—but for once, he kind of liked the butterflies in his stomach. They gave him a surge of anxious electricity this time.

Looking up, he could have sworn he saw something flash by around the corner of the hallway.

Just a bird, he thought.