A/N: As a little New Year's gift to you all, here's episode 10. It's a little choppy in some areas and the ending isn't super satisfying to me, but I don't really care. Oncie is bae and I love writing about him.
Stay tuned at the end for a few announcements. Enjoy!
Episode 10: A Real Family
It was done.
His fingers were covered in bandages and callouses, and his back ached from all the sitting he had been doing. His notebook and materials were scattered everywhere, but it didn't matter to him right now. It was done.
His invention was done.
Once-ler leaned back in his chair and stretched his tired arms and back, smiling widely. He'd been working almost nonstop for the past few days, trying to finish up his invention, and now the day was finally here. The day where he'd prove to his family that he had been right this whole time, and the day where his mother would finally smile at him and tell him she was proud of him.
Once-ler picked up his invention, smiled proudly at it once more, and quickly stood up. "Mom!" he cried out. "Mom, where are you? I have something to show you!"
Once-ler quickly ran out of his room and looked around for her, but his mother was nowhere to be found. He frowned. "Moooooom? Where the heck did you go?"
No answer.
Once-ler frowned again and ran downstairs, where his uncle was busy preparing breakfast for himself. It was pretty early in the morning currently, and Once-ler bit his lip as he realized that he might have been calling for his mother while she was still asleep. Even so, she usually would have hollered for him to be quiet, so where was she now…?
"Hey, Uncle Ubb?" Once-ler asked.
His uncle glanced up at him. "Hey," he said nonchalantly. "What're you doin' up so early? I could hear ya hollerin' from all the way down here."
"Sorry," Once-ler replied. "I didn't realize. Where's mom, by the way? Is she still sleeping?"
Ubb stared up at him incredulously. "...Seriously?"
Once-ler frowned. "What?"
Ubb shook his head and sat down to start eating. "Incredible," he mumbled. "Well, sorry to break it to ya, but she left already."
Once-ler blinked. "Wh-what…? What do you mean she left?"
"She left. She went home."
"When?"
"Last night," his uncle replied flatly. "After you came home and locked yerself in yer room fer the zillionth time, she decided that she'd had enough. Said that she's tired of bein' ignored by you, so she just packed her bags right there and poof. Went back home." He shook his head. "She seemed real upset."
Once-ler listened to his uncle speak in shock, and it took him a moment to start moving again after it was over. "...Oh," he said quietly. "I see. Well, thanks anyway." Without another word, the tall boy turned on his heel and walked slowly back up the stairs.
Uncle Ubb watched him go with a confused stare. Then he turned to his cereal and sighed. "I can't believe this boy…"
Once-ler got back up in his room and closed the door, staring down at the piece of cloth on his desk. Damn, he thought angrily. If I'd only finished this stupid thing a little faster…
He sighed, sat down at his desk, and wondered what to do now. He had been hoping to show it to his mother before he went to school today, but it looked like that wouldn't be happening. Once-ler stared down at his notebook and opened it up. A few days ago he'd written down what he wanted to do after he finished the invention. Show it to mom was the first thing written on the list, and Once-ler sadly crossed it out with a nearby pencil. His eyes continued down the ridiculously optimistic list that he had written:
it to school, show friends
them an awesome sales pitch and watch them go crazy for it
friends to help me advertize it to everyone
goes gaga and wants to buy one
more, sell off of school grounds to keep out of trouble
in the neighborhood will want one
everyone in the city
state
etc etc :D
Once-ler smirked. It sounded absolutely crazy, but he was sure it could be done. Feeling happier after reading that list, Once-ler got up and decided to get ready for school. Maybe the first step wasn't possible now, but it didn't matter. He could just skip right down to the second one, and his mother would find out and call him eventually. All he had to do now was to show it to his friends at school, and he couldn't wait to see how excited they'd be.
Stuffing the invention into his backpack, Once-ler grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out the door.
He hadn't been this excited to go to school in a long, long time.
Kristoff hung his thick snow jacket up in his locker, closed it, and proceeded to find a nice quiet spot where he could eat his breakfast. In all honesty, he'd much rather be outside in the snow, but it was a little too cold today, even for his taste. Besides, there were too many people out there, too. If he really wanted a nice, secluded spot to eat, he'd probably have to head over to the library or something…
"Heeeeeere's KRISTOFF~!"
Kristoff nearly fell over in shock as someone tackled him from behind, wrapping their arms around his waist. Steadying himself, he turned to see Anna smiling up at him, looking adorably goofy as always. Kristoff rolled his eyes. It was amazing how Anna was so much smaller than him but could still nearly knock him to the ground.
"Hi~!" the girl cooed. She gave him a small peck on the cheek. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing much, just recovering from that scare you just gave me," Kristoff replied with a grin, to which Anna smiled at him sheepishly.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I was just excited to see youuuu~!" With that, she gave him a huge hug that left Kristoff choking for air.
"Whoa!" he cried. "Take it easy, Anna. What's going on today?"
"S-sorry!" Anna said again. "Uh...we were out of cereal this morning! So I ate like three candy bars for breakfast! Even though Elsa told me not to! But, um...I was hungry, and…"
Kristoff blinked. "So...what you're saying is that you're even more hyperactive than usual…?"
Anna nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!"
Kristoff grinned and shook his head. "Ok, then." He took her hand and was about to head in the direction he had been going previously, but Anna tugged on his arm and forced him to stop.
"Where are you going?" the girl pouted.
"Uh, I was just trying to find somewhere quiet to eat my breakfast," Kristoff replied. "You wanna share with me?"
"Sure, but let's go this way instead! That's where me and my friends meet up every day before school!"
Kristoff frowned and pulled his arm away from Anna's grip. "Uh, no thanks Anna. You know I prefer to be by myself..."
Anna frowned at her boyfriend and crossed her arms. "How come? I don't want you to be all alone, Kristoff!"
Kristoff shrugged. "I'm ok with it-"
"No," Anna replied bluntly, tugging on his arm again. "I won't let you. I managed to drag you to Hiccup's party, so now I'm gonna make you hang out with us a lot more."
Kristoff groaned.
"Pleeeease?" Anna begged. "It'll be fun! For me?"
Kristoff frowned down at Anna's big puppy eyes, but finally gave in. "Fine." he said.
Excitedly, Anna gave him a big hug and started dragging him in the direction where everyone else was.
Meanwhile, another redhead turned the corner and started walking in the same direction behind the couple. She was alone, but that didn't last long as a younger boy ran up to her enthusiastically. "Audrey!" the boy called out. "Hey, Audrey!"
Audrey turned to see him and smiled, slowing down so that he could walk next to her. "Hey Ted," she greeted. "What's up?"
Ted shrugged. "Eh, nothing really. Just bored."
"Why? Where are those two friends who usually hang out with you?"
Ted frowned and stared at the ground. "Uh. I don't even know. Penny's sick, I think, and...Astro's too busy hanging out with his new best friend."
Audrey smiled sympathetically. "Aww no," she said. "What happened? Did you two have a fight?"
Ted shrugged again. "No, not really...the other kid just likes robots and stuff I guess. I'm not really into that. But Astro likes it a lot. So they...um, I'm kinda the odd one out."
Audrey patted him on the back comfortingly. "It's ok, Ted. It happens to everyone. Have you talked to Astro about it?"
Ted shook his head.
"Well, maybe if you talk about it...it'll get better…?"
Ted shrugged. "Maybe. Guys don't usually do that stuff."
Audrey rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Ah, yes. Too unmanly, right?" She turned to him. "Seriously though. Talk to him."
Ted smiled and looked at the floor. "Ok, I guess I will." He paused for a moment, thinking. "I...I guess the other kid isn't really so bad either. He seems like a cool guy. What was his name again…? Hiro...Hiro something."
"HIRO HAMADA!" Anna screamed out of nowhere. She quickly whirled around to face Ted, her excess energy practically pouring out of her expression. "That's him, right? Hiro Hamada?"
Ted was taken aback. "U-uh...yeah...who are you?"
Audrey giggled. Despite not talking to Anna for a while, she was glad to see that the girl had not changed in the slightest. "This is Anna," she told Ted. "Anna, meet Ted."
Anna shook Ted's hands excitedly and turned to face Audrey. "Audrey, have you met Hiro? He's literally the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
Kristoff frowned at this, and Ted just stared at her, dumbfounded. "Is everything ok there…?"
"I had three candy bars for breakfast," Anna explained with a hysterical laugh. "What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Hiro!" she frowned for a moment. "I keep running into him and asking him to hang out with us, but he keeps saying no! I don't think he likes me very much…"
"I wonder why," Ted mumbled, through Anna didn't hear him. She just turned to Kristoff and continued rambling.
"Kristoff, I've got to introduce you to him, though! He's so cute, he's like a little puppy! He's got like...like, big eyes and cute cheeks and poofy hair and a gap in his teeth, and...and I just wanna taking him home, and...and make him my son!"
Everyone just stared at Anna like she was insane, when suddenly, Ted let out a snorting laugh. He crossed his arms and smirked up at Anna. "Well, this is a comedic twist," he told the other three. "Hiro's standing right behind you."
Anna stiffened up at this, and slowly turned to see that Ted wasn't bluffing. Astro was standing right behind Anna, and Hiro was right next to him, looking absolutely terrified for his life.
"What is wrong with you?" The Japanese boy whispered, making Anna bite her lip awkwardly. Hiro didn't stick around to hear the answer, and instead grabbed Astro's arms and proceeded to get somewhere far, far away.
Astro grinned at Ted as he passed by, and the two shared a short snicker over what had just happened.
"I'm sorry!" Anna wailed behind the two retreating boys. "I'm just really hyper today! I was just kidding!"
Anna pouted at the lack of a response, and Kristoff just chuckled and put an arm around her. "Come on, Anna. Didn't you want to go meet up with your friends?"
Anna nodded sadly. "Ok. I guess so." She stood there for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm herself down, before smiling at Audrey and Ted once more. "So, are you guys coming with us?"
Audrey shook her head regretfully. "Sorry, but my class is that way," she nodded her head down a hallway. "I'll see you later though."
Ted followed Audrey down the hall, while Anna bid them goodbye. She and Kristoff resumed their previous route. "Isn't he cute, Kristoff?" she asked him.
"Sure," Kristoff sighed. "But I'm pretty sure you creeped him out."
Anna looked down. "I know. I'll talk to him later…"
At this, they finally reached the place where the rest of Anna's friends were hanging out. Anna quickly let go of Kristoff's hand and proceeded to give each of her friends a sugar-hyped hug.
Jack's eyes widened. "Whoa, Kristoff's here again? Something is definitely wrong. Are you feeling sick, buddy?"
Kristoff rolled his eyes and sighed. "No."
Jack was about to make fun of him some more, but was quickly stopped when Once-ler stepped over to them, his grin so wide that it seemed to make the entire group stop talking and look over curiously.
Merida was the first to speak up. "Heeeey, Daddy Long Legs. What's up?"
Once-ler shrugged cooly, still grinning like an idiot.
"You look happy," Rapunzel observed. "What's going on?"
Once-ler's grin somehow got bigger. He put his backpack on the ground and quickly tried to get something out of it. "There's something I want to show you guys," he said excitedly. "Remember the invention I keep talking about?"
They all gasped, finally realizing what was going on. "Did you finish it?" Mavis asked excitedly. "Did you bring it?" She and the rest of the group gathered around Once-ler excitedly, all except for Kristoff who had absolutely no clue what was going on.
Once-ler held his hand up. "Whoa, back, up, guys. Calm down."
"Why?" Norma asked. "Is a giant robot gonna come out of there or something?"
Once-ler rolled his eyes. "No, no. It's not a fancy electronic gadget. It's a...different kind of invention."
They backed up as he told them to, but still leaned forward in anticipation. Once-ler looked their expressions over with glee, then proceeded, slowly for effect, to pull it out of his backpack. "Ok...here it is."
Nobody said anything for a moment.
"It...it's a sweater!" Anna shouted happily, her sugar rush still in effect.
Once-ler shook his head. "No, Anna. It's not a sweater."
Anna blinked. "Then it's a…"
"...thing." Merida finished, earning a scolding shove from Rapunzel.
"What...is it exactly?" Hiccup asked.
Once-ler just looked down and grinned, stretching the pink piece of wooly cloth that he held. "It's a thneed," he told them proudly. "Aka, the thing that everyone needs-I know, it really doesn't look like much at first glance. But you haven't seen what it can do yet!" He smiled and stood up straight, somehow holding everyone's attention despite his ridiculous grin. "Watch, I'll demonstrate. Who wants to be a volunteer?"
"Me!" Anna waved her hand around, her sugar rush taking effect once more. She hopped over to where Once-ler was standing and glanced at the pink thing in his hand,wondering why something so silly would cause so much excitement.
Once-ler quickly folded his "thneed" into a different shape and plopped it onto Anna's head. "Ta-da! Now it's a hat!"
Anna blinked, but before she could say anything, he swiped it off her head and folded it into another shape, placing it around her neck like a scarf. "Now it's a scarf!"
Anna opened her mouth to speak, but Once-ler grabbed the thneed from her again. Everybody else just stared.
"Now it's a sock! Try it on!"
Anna hesitantly did as he said. "Wow, it's...warm," she commented.
"Oh, I get it, I think." said Mavis. "It's supposed to work as whatever article of clothing you want, right?"
"It can be," Once-ler replied. "But it's not just for clothing." He took it from Anna and started folding the object once more. "It can be anything, really...a handy bag for carrying things, or a cozy blanket, or decoration, or even a mop, but I wouldn't want to get it dirty-though it is completely machine washable."
"Wow," Rapunzel told him. "That's really…"
"...weird." said Merida, and everybody gave her a shove that time.
"Weird but cool, right?" Once-ler asked hopefully.
Anna stretched her arms in the air, ready to answer. "I'm...not really sure!"
"It's like an infomercial product," Rapunzel added. "Like, it's interesting, but it's also kind of…" she paused, looking for the right way to say it without offending him.
"Ridiculous?" Kristoff suggested.
"Kristoff!" Anna scolded.
"Silly, I guess." Norma said. "Interesting, but...silly."
"Yeah," Rapunzel finally finished.
Once-ler's grin disappeared. "What do you mean? Don't you like it?"
"We like it, Oncie!" Anna assured him, smiling nervously.
"Yeah, we like it," Mavis agreed. "But you may have made it seem...a little bigger than it actually is. Just a little bit."
"It is big!" Once-ler snapped. "It's not exactly easy to design something that can be everything! It took me like seven prototypes to get to here!"
His friends were quiet for a moment. "W-well, again, it is kind of interesting…" MK stuttered. "Maybe other people will like it."
"Not that we don't like it," Rapunzel added, and MK nodded. "Maybe other people will like it...also?"
Once-ler just frowned. "...Sure. Thanks, guys." He took the thneed from Anna and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll just...go put this in my locker then." He turned and left rather abruptly, leaving his friends standing there stunned.
"Did we piss him off?" Anna asked in a panic. "He seems mad!"
"Maybe we should follow him." Rapunzel suggested.
Jack, who had been unusually quiet this whole time, shook his head. "Nah," he told them. "He'll be back. Just give him some space."
They nodded. "That thing was kind of weird though," Merida said. "I didn't know his invention would be something like that."
"But it obviously means a lot to him," Rapunzel told her. "Maybe we should give it another chance."
"Next time we see him, I'll ask if I can borrow it," Mavis declared. "Then I can test it out."
"I'll try that too," said Anna. "It was kind of warm and snuggly, it can't really be that bad…"
Meanwhile, Once-ler was supposedly headed for his locker, but he stopped after fuming for a while and turning a few corners. Pulling the thneed off his shoulders,he inspected it for a while and tried to subdue his annoyance. Well, there goes step two… he thought to himself. Even my friends thought it was stupid.
He frowned and decided to start walking again. But it's not stupid! I know it isn't! I guess I'll just have to prove it to them too. He slowed down a little. How was he going to do that? He'd have to find somebody that would like it, and all his friends were off the list. Could he just show it to the random people in his classes? Maybe…
Suddenly, a flash of orange hair caught his eyes. Once-ler grinned. He'd been wrong, not all his friends were off the list after all. He picked up speed once more and headed swiftly over to the girl leaning against the wall.
"Hey, Audrey," he greeted nonchalantly, making the girl look up in surprise.
"Oh, Oncie…" Audrey replied slowly. "Hey…"
"Haven't seen you in a while, how have you been?"
"Umm…" Audrey looked at the floor and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I've been good. Just a little busy, that's all. You?"
Once-ler grinned widely. "I'm doing great, thanks for asking. Hey, if you've got a minute, I've actually got something I wanna show you."
"What?"
Once-ler opened his mouth to continue, but he was suddenly interrupted by the bell. Students around them started to gather their stuff and flood over to their classes.
Once-ler frowned. "Ah...I guess I can't do it now-but listen, can we talk during brunch or something?"
"I'm busy at brunch…"
"How about lunch, then? By the cafeteria?"
Audrey blinked. "Lunch...lunch is good…"
Once-ler grinned with relief and picked up his stuff to go. "Great! I'll see you then. Bye, Audrey!"
He ran off excitedly to his own class, leaving Audrey to wonder what the heck was going on with him.
Once-ler could hardly sit still during fourth period and practically flew out the door when the bell rang. This was it, he could feel it. The beginning of his success was near. Audrey was more mellow than the others, and since he was going to speak to her one-on-one, he just knew she would understand better than his other friends did. Maybe she could even help him out.
His stomach growled on the way to the cafeteria, but he ignored it. Eating could wait until after he was done.
Audrey was waiting patiently by the cafeteria when he arrived, excited and out of breath. When she saw him, she giggled. "Hi."
"Hey," Once-ler huffed. "Sorry if you waited long…"
"No, it's fine. What did you want to show me?"
Once-ler practically jumped up, and he grabbed Audrey's arm to pull her away from the crowd. "Ok, you know that invention that I've been talking about for like two years?"
Audrey nodded, confused.
"Well, I finally finished it! I have it in my backpack!"
"Really?" Audrey replied, getting just as excited as he was. "Can I see it?"
Once-ler nodded and reached into his backpack to pull it out. "Yeah...but, just so you know, it's not going to be some fancy cell phone or anything. It's more like a practical invention, but it's still cool."
"I'm sure it is."
Once-ler pulled the thneed out of his backpack and displayed it proudly. "Here it is! It's called a thneed. As in, a thing that all people need!"
Audrey looked confused, but still picked up the end of the thneed and inspected it. "It's...soft."
"Yeah. And you can use it however you want. That's what it's made for. You can make it a hat, or a sweater, or a scarf…"
"So it's a fashion item?"
"Sort of. But you can use it for other things, too. You can make it an umbrella, or a swimsuit, or a purse, or-hey, you want me to show you how it works?"
Audrey chuckled. "Ok. But why don't we get some lunch first? I'm a little hungry."
Once-ler stopped and blinked sheepishly. "S-sure. Sorry. Go ahead."
The two friends went into the cafeteria to get some lunch. Inside, Once-ler caught himself vaguely looking around for his normal group of friends, and he frowned. He didn't have time to be thinking about them right now. He'd fix things up with them later.
"Are we going to sit with MK and the rest?" Audrey asked him suddenly, to which he automatically shook his head.
"Nah. Let's sit somewhere else."
Audrey looked surprised. "How come? You always sit with them. With Jack, at least."
"I'm not exactly talking to them right now," he huffed.
Audrey hesitated at this, as they walked in the other direction. "Did...you have a fight with them?"
Once-ler didn't answer. Instead,he just smiled over at his old friend as if her question had never been asked. "Never mind that. You wanted to know how the thneed works?"
"...Uh...sure. But let's find a table first."
Right as she said this, a small figure jumped up from a nearby table and ran over to them. "Audrey!" the boy called out as he ran over. But then he saw Once-ler and stopped.
Audrey smiled sweetly. "Hi, Ted."
Once-ler grinned at the boy. "Hey, I remember you. The backpack-throwing kid."
"Huh?" asked Audrey.
"Oh, so Audrey was the red-haired girl you kept talking about. You should have told me, man."
Ted blushed and looked at the ground. "Right. Sorry. I, uh...I was just gonna invite Audrey to sit at our table with us, but if she's hanging around with you, then…"
"Actually, we were just looking for a place to sit," Audrey told him. "Oncie, you don't mind hanging out with freshman, do you?"
"No, why would I mind? I just hope you have some cool friends, Teddy."
Ted blinked. "Yeah, ok. This way."
Ted led them to the table where three other freshman were sitting. At the sight of them, one boy sat up straight with a ridiculous grin. "Hey, look at that! Ted invited Audrey over to lunch! How sweet."
Ted stuck his tongue out at his friend. "Shut up, Astro."
"Oh, hey," Audrey greeted. "I never really got to meet you guys, did I?"
"Nope," Astro replied. "My name's Astro. This is Penny."
"Hi," Penny said grumpily, shooting a sidelong glance at Audrey and Ted.
Astro pointed to the other boy next to him and continued. "And this is Hiro. He's new."
Once-ler raised an eyebrow. "Hiro, huh?" he asked cheekily. "Where's your cape?"
Hiro rolled his eyes. "Haha, funny. That's like what, the twentieth superhero joke I've heard in the last hour?"
Audrey sighed but her smile remained. "I'm Audrey. And this is my friend,Once-ler."
"Hey," Once-ler greeted them. "How'd you guys like to see something cool?"
The freshmen blinked. "Sure."
Once-ler proudly displayed the thneed in front of them and watched giddily as the younger students looked it over curiously. "Check it out," he told them. "It may just look like a pink sweater, but it's not. It's my invention."
Hiro raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Invention?" he asked.
Once-ler nodded. "Yeah. See, it's called a thneed. It's capable of doing a million different things-for example, you can use it to keep cold out in the snow, or if it's raining it can be an umbrella for you. Or if you want, you can carry your textbooks in them so you don't have to carry them all on your back-hell, you can even use it to clean up the house if you want. There's no limit to what it can do!"
Penny grinned. "So, like, can I use it as a sweater for my dog?"
"Sure, why not?"
"I'd use it as a bike seat cover," Astro said with a smirk. "Make my bike a bit easier to ride on-those seats are a pain in the ass, literally."
"Yeah, see?" Once-ler asked, ecstatic at their reaction. "I mean, why should you get all those things when you can just have one thneed to do it all for you?"
The freshman giggled. "Interesting," Ted mused.
Hiro, who had been quiet throughout the presentation, leaned over and touched the thneed to inspect it. "Um….yeah, interesting," he said with a tiny grin. Then he leaned back cockily and crossed his arms. "Kinda cool, but I wouldn't exactly call it an invention."
Once-ler's smile disappeared and he shot the young boy a look. "Why not?"
Hiro shrugged. "I mean, it's just kind of a...thing, you know, not exactly the next life-changing gadget or anything."
"Hey, come on now," Once-ler prodded. "It's not just a thing, it's everything in one. It can be anything you want!"
Hiro shrugged again. "Well, if everyone else likes it, then fine, but I'm just not impressed. I mean, my brother builds robots, and those are real inventions."
"Hey, not every big invention has to be a fancy gadget, you know," Once-ler retorted.
"In this day an age? Yeah, they kinda do."
"You're pretty closed-minded, aren't you, Hiro?"
"I'm just being practical."
"Then thneed is practical too."
"Yeah, about as practical as one of those infomercial products, but-"
"Ok, you know something, kid-?"
"Ok!" Audrey shouted, cutting their argument short. "Ok, that's enough, guys. I guess we all just have different opinions about things, right?"
Once-ler and Hiro just shot each other one more annoyed look and grumbled something before going back to eating. Once-ler ignored Hiro for the time being and leaned over to the other three freshman. "Ok, for those of you who did like it," he said. "What if I made a few more and gave them to you to try out for a while?"
Ted stared at it for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."
"Have you tried selling it online?" Astro suggested, making Once-ler perk up.
"No, I hadn't thought about that. Does it work?"
"Sure. My dad got his start by selling his stuff online. You should try."
"That's not a bad idea. Thanks!"
He talked with the other three a bit longer before finally putting the thneed back in his backpack and smiling in satisfaction. There was a short silence at the table before he turned to Hiro once more and added, "By the way...you're really not that heroic, Hiro."
Hiro just let a grin cross his face and leaned over to Once-ler. "Are you really still making fun of my name, Once-ler?"
Once-ler blinked, but then smiled back at him sheepishly. "...Ok." he gave in at last. "You got me there."
"Where's Oncie?"
"I haven't seen him since this morning."
"He's not responding to my texts, either."
"Oh my gosh, do you think he's still mad at us?"
"He might be…"
"What's his problem, anyway? It's just a pink sweater, is it really that important?"
"Apparently so, Merida. You saw how excited he was about it."
"I feel awful about this…"
"Cheer up, guys, he'll be back tomorrow, right?"
"I hope so. If there's anything I know about Once-ler, he can be pretty damn stubborn…"
Once-ler zoomed right past his aunt and uncle without even saying hello, as was their usual routine, and ran excitedly up to his room. He threw his backpack aside and sat in front of his computer, ignoring the buzzing phone in his pocket.
I should have thought of this sooner, Once-ler thought eagerly. If this Astro kid is right, the my thneed will be a success in no time at all!
While he waited for the computer to boot up, his phone buzzed again. Once-ler sighed, and finally pulled it out to see what was going on. He looked at the screen to see several annoyed messages from Jack, as well as a few pleading texts from Anna, Rapunzel, and a few of the others.
Once-ler frowned. Maybe he'd been a little hard on them. It's not like he was really all that mad at them, but...well, they just didn't believe in him. Just like his family never did. He couldn't get back to them until he had proven himself.
Once-ler put his phone away without answering the texts, and got started on his advertisement. he browsed through several websites where people could sell whatever they wanted, and in the end he just decided to use them all. He took a picture of his thneed sitting on a chair and looking awesome, and typed up the best description he could think of.
After about half an hour, he sat back and stretched. Now, it time to wait.
Once-ler stood up to stretch his legs and started pacing slowly around his tiny room. What should he do now? I should probably get started on making some more thneeds, he thought. So that I have enough when people start ordering them. Moving excitedly once again, he sat down at his desk to get his materials...when suddenly his phone buzzed again.
Once-ler stopped and sighed. His friends never let anything go, did they? Slowly, he took his phone out of his pocket once more and silently began to scroll through their texts.
Jack: Hey where are you? You haven't been answering me.
Anna: Oncie? We're really sorry, please come back! D:
Rapunzel: Oncie, we miss you over here. Where are you?
Jack: Hey, answer me, dude!
Mavis: Hey, everybody's texting you and and you're not responding. Is your phone off or something?
Jack: Dammit, where the hell are you?
Anna: I don't want to annoy you or anything, but I'm really sorry about earlier! I feel really guilty about what happened!
Rapunzel: Hey, if there's something you want to talk about, we're always here for you,Oncie.
Hiccup: Hey, man, Anna's going to start Movement Mass Text over here if you don't reply. What's going on?
Merida: The pink thneed isn't all that bad, I promise.
Jack: ANSWER ME.
MK: Everybody's worried about you, you should come back.
Anna: ONCIE I AM CRYING PLEASE ANSWER ME.
Once-ler gulped and put his phone away. He never realized just how pitiful his friends sounded over text. But he couldn't blame them, none of them really understood what he was going through. He couldn't possibly tell them.
Moving much slower than before, Once-ler reached over and checked on the status of his thneed online. Nothing had happened yet, of course, so he decided to just take a break.
He stared at the materials in front of him and realized that he suddenly didn't feel like working on another thneed. His whole day had been about thneeds, after all.
There was really nothing he could do now but wait.
We haven't seen you all morning.
Oncie, please answer!
There was no response. Anna slammed her phone down on the lunch table and stuffed some food in her mouth. "He's still not answering!" she cried. "Where is he?"
"Maybe we're just jumping to conclusions, Anna," Rapunzel said, trying to calm her down. "He might not even be mad at us."
"Yeah, he's probably just trying to show his thneed off to someone else," MK assured her. "It doesn't seem like him to get so upset."
"Then why won't he answer any of our texts?" Anna asked.
"Maybe his phone is dead…" said MK.
"And he might just be absent today," Rapunzel added.
Anna stared at the ground, trying to calm herself. "...Ok," she said. "You're probably right. I'm worrying too much." She looked over at Jack. "Jack, has Oncie answered any of your texts?"
Jack blinked and smiled over at her. "Well, no, but...he's fine. Don't worry."
Anna nodded, and Rapunzel touched her hand reassuringly. "Let's just talk about something else," the older cousin said. "Did Elsa say ok to the Institute tour?"
Anna nodded. "Yeah...she said she was proud that I was going to check out a cool college like that one…"
"I kinda wanna go on that tour," Mavis added. "Do they still have room?"
"Sorry, Mavis," Rapunzel said. "This one's closed for sign-ups. But maybe there's another one coming soon…"
Suddenly, Anna perked up. "Look, there's Audrey!" she suddenly jumped out of her seat and ran clumsily over to the orange haired girl.
"Anna, where are you going?" Rapunzel called.
"I'm just going to ask her if she's seen Oncie, I'll be right back!"
The others watched her go and shook their heads. "She really worries a lot, doesn't she?" Merida asked.
Rapunzel smiled. "Yep. That's just how Anna is."
Anna quickly caught up to Audrey and reached for the girl's shoulder, panting tiredly. Audrey stared over at her friend in surprise. "Anna? What are you doing?"
Anna stood up straight and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry...um, I just wanted to ask, have you seen Oncie today?"
Audrey shook her head. "No not today...well, I saw him this morning, but we didn't talk. He seemed to have a lot on his mind…"
Anna's face drooped. "Oh...he hasn't been at lunch for a couple of days, so I thought he might be with you…"
"Well, he was with me for lunch yesterday…" Audrey frowned. "He said he wasn't really talking to you guys. What happened?"
Anna stiffened up in panic. "Ohhhh, I knew it! He is mad at us! That's why he's not answering us!"
"But...what happened?"
Anna bit her lip. "Well, you see,he came to us yesterday with his invention thingy-"
"His thneed?"
"-yeah. And well, we weren't exactly supportive, but-we didn't expect him to get so mad, and now he's not talking to us, and, and-ugh! How did I manage to screw up this badly?"
Audrey held her hands out to Anna. "H-hey,calm down, Anna! Don't worry, I'll try to talk to him today. Maybe I can figure out what's going on."
Anna nodded, looking like she was about to cry. "O-ok…"
"It's probably not as bad as you think. Oncie just has a really one-track mind, that's all…"
"Yeah." Anna sighed and started to head back to the table. "Well...thanks Audrey."
"No problem."
Anna walked away in devastation, leaving Audrey there alone. Something is definitely wrong, the girl thought to herself. I'd better find Oncie and get to the bottom of this…
Audrey was lost in thought on the bus ride home when a tap on the shoulder startled her. "S-sorry…" she apologized to the boy. "I was just thinking about something."
Ted smiled sweetly and leaned forward in his seat. "About what?" he asked innocently.
Audrey hesitated for a moment and shrugged. "Well, you know Oncie, right?"
Ted frowned slightly. "Uh, yeah. What about him?"
"He's been missing lately. His friends are worried about him. I'm going to his house right now to check on him, but…" she stopped and looked at the floor. "Well, to be honest...I'm a little scared."
Ted tilted his head and studied her face. "...Scared?"
Audrey nodded. "Yeah, you see…" she paused and bit her lip. "Well...I don't know if I should be telling you this, but...well, he had some...um, family issues in the past. I guess...I don't know what I'm going to find…"
Ted was quiet.
"Just...don't tell anyone about it, ok?" Audrey told him.
"Ok," said Ted. He paused for a moment and then turned to her again. "Uh...do you want me to come with you?"
Audrey looked at him in surprise. "Huh? Really?"
Ted smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's no problem. I can walk the rest of the way home."
Audrey smiled back in relief. "That would make me feel a lot better. Thank you, Ted."
Ted's face tinted pink and he looked down. "I-it's no problem."
They rode in silence until the bus approached Audrey's usual stop. Slowly, the two got off and headed in the direction of Once-ler's house.
"I, uh…" Ted said, trying to make conversation. "I never knew you guys lived so close together."
Audrey laughed. "Yeah, he moved in here a couple years ago. But we haven't been to each other's houses in a while...I actually forgot that he lived nearby." She frowned for a moment but pressed on. "Anyway, it's just a couple blocks from here. Let's go."
Once-ler stared down at his phone, slightly disgusted. He was checking out the progress that his thneed had made since last night, but there was nothing happening, except for a bunch of idiotic trolls posting idiotic comments.
Today he'd tried showing his invention to some other students in his school, but they, too, had seemed uninterested. Some of the ruder ones had laughed, but that hadn't discouraged him much...at least, he'd felt fine until he realized that the online sales weren't making much progress either. He'd spent years of his life perfecting this thing, and nobody seemed to care at all. Not even his friends. It wasn't fair!
Once-ler sighed and put his phone back in his pocket. He slowed down as he finally made it to his house and frowned. He didn't really feel like going home just now. What would he even find in there, anyway? More discouragement? Probably.
He decided to walk a few more times around the block, at least until his usual happy demeanor was back. Once-ler slung his backpack over his shoulder and continued walking forward. He was about to turn a corner, when suddenly he bumped into a couple of familiar faces.
Once-ler blinked. "Audrey?" he asked. "Ted? What are you guys doing here?"
Audrey looked up at him in surprise, then smiled. "Uh, hi, Oncie! Ted and I were just...um…" she looked to Ted for help.
Ted rolled his eyes and grinned. "Audrey and I were just...headed to the park, and she told me you lived here, so we thought you might wanna come."
"Y-yeah."
Once-ler smirked at them both and raised an eyebrow. "What, you want me to come along? Won't I be too much of a third wheel?"
Ted's face turned red and Audrey looked confused. "Huh?"
Once-ler just shrugged it off. "Actually, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea. I'm kind of avoiding going home right now anyway."
This caused Audrey and Ted to glance at each other, but Once-ler didn't notice. "Uh, ok." Audrey replied. "The park is over by my house, so we're going to stop there to drop off our stuff, is that ok?"
"Sure."
They headed away from Once-ler's house toward the direction of Audrey's, making small talk along the way. This is just like when I used to hang out with Jack and the others, Once-ler found himself thinking. Except now I'm with Ted and Audrey…
They arrived at Audrey's house and went inside for a few minutes, while Audrey grabbed something to eat at the park and Ted went to the bathroom. Once-ler sat in the living room to wait for them, and as luck would have it, Audrey's cat came in right at that moment and slunk over to his bed.
Once-ler gave the cat a look. "Well, look who it is," he said. "How have you been, lately, Lorax?"
Lorax seemed to glare right back and just snuggled right in his little cat bed. "Meow."
"What? Haven't you missed me at all?"
"Meow."
Once-ler rolled his eyes. "Figures. You were always a grumpy cat, weren't you?" He leaned forward and squinted at the cat. "Hey...what do you think of all this, cat? If you had money, would you buy a thneed?"
"Meow."
He's probably cussing me out in cat language, Once-ler thought, as he continued glaring at the cat. He and Lorax were just getting into a glaring contest of sorts when Ted and Audrey finally came back to the living room.
Ted frowned at the sight and turned to Audrey. "Uh...why is he glaring at the cat?"
Audrey sighed. "Don't question it." She walked over to her friend. "Are you ready to go, Oncie?"
Once-ler shrugged and stood up. "Sure, let's go. See you around, Lorax."
"Meow."
The three friends walked quietly over to the park, where snow was starting to fall gently. Audrey just stared at the ground as they went, wondering how in the heck she was going to bring up the subject which she had come for. Meanwhile, Ted and Once-ler were beginning to talk casually.
"You catch snowflakes on your tongue?" Ted asked the taller boy.
Once-ler caught another one and grinned down at Ted. "What? Don't you?"
"No! I haven't done that since I was a kid."
Once-ler laughed and continued catching snowflakes. "You're lying. Everybody does this."
Ted pouted. "Well...whatever. Keep doing your kiddie stuff if you want. I'm usually too busy having snowball fight to catch snowflakes like that. But I guess some people just don't grow up." He crossed his arms and smirked up at Once-ler.
Once-ler smirked right back. "Is that a challenge, Teddy? I should probably tell you, I've won snowball fights against Jack Frost."
Ted rolled his eyes. "That's just your friend from school, isn't it?"
"Even so." As of to prove his point, Once-ler bent down and started to create a snowball with his hands.
Ted did the same and tossed his snowball first, hitting Once-ler in the back and then proceeding to run away. Once-ler quickly finished his snowball and threw it after the boy hitting him in the back and making Audrey laugh.
The boys continued their snowball fight, and Audrey stood next to Once-ler, still hesitating. "Hey," she began, following him around. "Just curious, Oncie, where were you at lunch today?"
"Around," he replied.
Audrey nodded. "Well, Anna came looking for you at lunch today…"
He didn't seem to react to this and just threw another snowball at Ted, dodging another as it came toward him. "She did?"
"Mm-hmm. They've been looking for you...Anna thinks you're mad at them."
"I'm not mad."
"Then, how come you're not answering their texts?"
Once-ler looked slightly annoyed but still grinned over at her. "Why...why is this so important?"
"They're worried about you," she answered flatly. "And so am I."
Once-ler was quiet for a moment and simply continued the snowball fight before he finally sighed. "Alright," he answered. "I'll tell you the truth. I showed them my thneed and they...they weren't really supportive. So I've been trying to find other people who would like it."
Audrey's nodded slowly. "...Oh."
"I-I'm not mad at them," Once-ler said again. "I just want to...well, I don't want to say prove them wrong, but...well, you know what I mean." he dodged another snowball. Then he bent down to make another snowball. "It's like my mother all over again," he murmured. He tossed the snowball in his hand, hitting Ted right in the arm and making the boy whimper.
"Ow!" Ted called out. "That hurt, man!"
"S-sorry," Once-ler said. "I didn't mean to throw it that hard."
Audrey looked down. She didn't know if she really wanted to continue this conversation, but there was one more thing she wanted to ask…"Um," speaking of your mom, and your...family…" she began. "How..how's that going?"
"Fine."
"You, uh...you said you were avoiding going home…?"
He gave her a lopsided grin. "I just don't feel like doing homework."
"Oh." She looked at the ground and chuckled a little. "Well, as long as everything is ok, then…"
Once-ler laughed and ruffled his friend's orange hair. "You worry too much, you know that?" he told her. "You and Anna both."
Audrey smiled up at him. "Well, it's only because we care about you…"
Once-ler just looked down and shrugged. "Th-thanks, but...you have nothing to worry about, I promise." He then gave a signal to Ted to stop the snowball fight, then turned to leave. "Anyway, I think I should be heading back now. I'll see you guys later."
"Do you want us to walk home with you?" Audrey asked, as Ted ran over.
"No, I'm fine. I'll just pick up my stuff from your house."
"Okay."
Once-ler walked ahead of them, humming to himself, as Ted and Audrey walked slowly behind him. Ted leaned over to Audrey and spoke in a low voice so that Once-ler couldn't hear. "So, how did it go?" The boy asked.
Audrey shrugged. "Fine, I guess." She then turned to Ted with a grateful smile. "Thanks again for coming with me, Ted. I appreciate it."
Ted blushed. "N-no problem. Anytime, Audrey."
Ted and Once-ler picked up their stuff from Audrey's house and quickly said goodbye, leaving Audrey alone with her cat snoozing in the corner. She sighed and sat down on her couch, thinking about all that had just happened. She sure hoped Once-ler had been telling the truth…
Audrey pulled out her cell phone and hesitated for a while, then decided that it was for the best. She quickly found MK and Anna and texted them about everything that had just happened.
The cafeteria was crowded as usual the next day at lunch time, but of course, that didn't stop Jack from spotting Once-ler in the crowd anyway. This was the third day in a row that he had avoided sitting with them and continued to be unresponsive to their messages. Jack was getting a little pissed off. It was time to confront him about it.
Jack pushed his way through the crowd until he reached his friend, and then patted his shoulder with his staff. Once-ler turned around in surprise, then grinned when he saw Jack. "Oh, hey Jack. What's up?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "Seriously? Don't 'what's up' me. Where have you been?"
Once-ler smiled at the ground and cradled his lunch tray in one arm. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I've been kinda busy."
"Doing what?"
He shrugged. "Stuff."
"Well, can't you take a break for lunch? Or at least answer our texts?" Jack gestured toward the table that their group usually sat at. "They're all freaking out over there."
Once-ler frowned. "Well...don't freak out, then. I'm fine." He turned to leave, but Jack followed him. "Just tell them that I'm...I'm going to be hanging out with people who are more supportive," Once-ler murmered. "Ok?"
Jack frowned at him. "What are you talking abou-wait a second." He groaned. "Oh my God, Once. Don't tell me this is about the thneed."
Once-ler stopped and turned to Jack once more. "And what if it is?"
Jack threw his arms in the air. "Are you serious? Is it really that big of a deal?"
"Yes!" Once-ler responded, sounding hurt. "You already know how big of a deal it is. You've been with me the entire time I've been making it!"
"Y-yeah, but I thought that was just...I didn't know you would leave your friends for it!" Jack quickly ran over to avoid losing his friend in the crowd. "Hey...just come back, ok? Maybe they'll be more supportive this time."
"No, they won't." Once-ler replied stubbornly. "They don't understand. None of them. I'm not going back there until I sell it."
Jack stopped. "Sell it?"
"Yeah. I'm selling it online. And it's going great, thank you very much."
"But sell it?" Jack repeated, still astonished. "I-I thought you were just gonna show it around and then give it to your mom or something-didn't you do that?"
Once-ler was quiet for a moment. "No. Wasn't able to. Mom left already."
Jack blinked in surprise. "You...you never told me that."
"None of your business!" Once-ler snapped. "Anyway, you know how Anna is. You know how they all are. If I go back now, they'll keep bugging me with questions about the thneed and what I did with it, and blah blah blah...and then I'll have to tell them that it's going nowhere, and they'll give me a bunch of pity faces and I'm not going to deal with that crap right now!"
Jack frowned. "You just said it was going great."
Once-ler's eyes widened and he bit his lip. "Fine then. I lied. But it's going to go great."
Jack sighed. "Well, even if it doesn't, you can still come back," he pleaded. "They're not going to bug you too much about it. I mean, it's just a thing, after all."
"It's not a thing!" Once-ler finally yelled. "It's everything! This thneed was supposed to change me life, Jack! But it's not!" He stopped and took a few huffs of breath while he stared at Jack's face. Then he gulped and started speaking quieter, ignoring the stares he was getting from other students. "But I'm not done yet," he told him. "I'm going to prove that it's worth something. Now, if you'll excuse me."
With that, he finally turned and left Jack behind.
Jack was stunned. He stood there for a while, trying to process what he had just heard, before finally going to the table without getting lunch. His friends, who had all heard the outburst, waited for him to sit down with worried looks on their faces.
"What happened?" Mavis asked as soon as he sat down.
Jack shrugged. "I...I guess I pissed him off."
"So he's not coming?" asked Norma.
Jack shook his head.
Anna looked panicked. "This is terrible!" she wailed. "I was really hoping that could talk to him today. First Audrey texts us that he doesn't want to go home, and now he's yelling about how it's s-supposed to change his life, and...I have no idea what's going on and I'm so scared!"
Anna continued whimpering and MK rubbed her comfortingly on the back.
Rapunzel stared intensely at Jack. "Jack, what else did he say?" she demanded.
Jack shrugged again. "I'm not sure...but from what I gather...he said he doesn't feel supported here."
"But we do support him," MK insisted. "What is he talking about?"
"He means his thneed," Jack clarified. "It's just that…." he sighed. "See, his family isn't exactly supportive of it, so he's always felt the need to prove himself to them. And...when he saw that we weren't supportive of it either, I guess...he felt the need to prove himself to us, as well. That's why he won't come until he has."
"That's ridiculous." Merida replied. "He doesn' need te prove anythin'."
"Well, he doesn't know that!" Jack replied, exasperated. "He's so damn stubborn cause this is how it's always been for him! I mean, with his family being the way it is, and the whole thing with his mother, he's just-"
Rapunzel immediately sat up straight and frowned. "What about his mother?"
Everyone was suddenly silent. Jack bit his lip and realized that he had said too much. "N-nothing. Never mind."
Rapunzel just gave him a hard glare. "Jack." she insisted. "What about his mother?"
Jack said nothing, he just hugged his staff and looked down.
"Jack…" Mavis called out softly. "Is...is this about his family? Is there something going on that we don't know about…?"
They all looked at Jack, who just stared at the floor. "H-he doesn't like me talking about this…" the boy stammered.
"You have to tell us," Anna begged. "Please, Jack, we're his friends. We need to know."
Rapunzel continued to glare at him intensely, afraid of what she might hear. Eventually, Jack sighed loudly and covered his face with his hands.
"He's going to kill me for this," Jack groaned. "Ok. Fine. I'll tell you everything."
Once-ler was alone today.
Just after his outburst with Jack, he had decided that the cafeteria was too crowded for him and decided to go outside for lunch. He had just sitting there stewing in anger for a few minutes, but after a while he began to feel a little lonely. He didn't have anybody to joke around with, or even to just sit next to.
Once-ler sighed and wolfed down the last bit of his lunch. Maybe I am taking this too far… he thought to himself. I mean, who knows, maybe my friends won't be as hard on me as I thought…
The bell rang to signal the end of lunch, and Once-ler quickly got up and tossed his trash. Following the crowd of students around him, he automatically headed toward his next class, just as he was used to doing every day.
I guess I could meet up with them tomorrow...he decided. It probably won't be that bad...right?
"Jack, why didn't you tell me?!"
"R-Rapunzel, please try to calm down…"
"No! I can't calm down! Th-this is...insane…!" Rapunzel slammed a fist against the wall and struggled not to scream. "H-how could you keep this a secret from me, Jack? Why didn't you tell me-us- what he was going through?!"
Anna placed a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder while Jack stood there fidgeting. They were in the hall now, just as Jack was finishing up telling Once-ler's story. "I-I'm sorry," Jack apologized nervously. "He just didn't want me going on about his personal problems, that's all."
"This isn't just a personal problem," Rapunzel hissed. "This is a-a...flipping...disaster…!"
Anna wrapped her arms around Rapunzel's shaking body and hugged her tightly. "Rapunzel…"
"W-we have to find him...right now...we have to…"
The others crowded around her, exchanging scared glances. They'd never seen Rapunzel this way before. Nevertheless, they forgot about their classes for the moment and stayed with Rapunzel to calm her down.
Anna kept her arms locked around Rapunzel. "We can't do that now," she told her gently. "But don't you worry. We'll find him after school. And if we can't do that, we'll go to his house. We'll help him. Don't worry."
Rapunzel nodded shakily and took a few breaths. She hadn't meant to break down this way, but she couldn't help it. Not after Jack had told her about Once-ler's situation with his mother. Everything she had heard had scared her to the core. The lack of support...the emotional abuse...the constant blame being placed on him...all of it sounded so, so...familiar...she almost couldn't stand to think about it.
She thought she'd finally gotten away from all this, but it had been happening to one of her best friends! From right under her nose! Just how dumb could she get?!
But she couldn't lose it. Not now. If she wanted to help Once-ler, she'd have to stay calm…
Anna looked up at her cousin and smiled. "Hey," she said quietly. "If you want, I can call Eugene and ask him to come with us. Would that make you feel better?"
Rapunzel smiled in spite of herself and nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. Anna slowly let go of Rapunzel and let the others give her pats of support on the back.
"Are you okay to go to class?" Mavis asked her.
Rapunzel nodded. "I-I'm fine now. Thanks guys."
The group began to split, not really caring that they were all late. Jack just kinda stood there staring guiltily at the floor. Rapunzel walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling weakly at his teary-eyed face. "D-don't worry about it Jack…" she told him. "Y-you did the right thing. I-it'll be okay now…"
She sniffed and looked shakily at the floor, which prompted Jack to give her a short hug. "You sure you're okay?" he asked her.
"Yeah." she replied. "For now, anyway."
Anna came along right then and took Rapunzel's arm to take her the rest of the way to class. Jack stared after them for a moment, then headed slowly in the opposite direction, trying his hardest not to think about what would happen later.
"Rapunzel…" Hiccup said nervously as Rapunzel pulled out her keys. "I-I don't think you should be driving…"
Rapunzel walked up to her car and turned to stare at Hiccup, not noticing that her hands were shaking violently. "Why not?"
"You seem to be a little too upset…"
Anna walked over to her cousin, who was trying and failing to open the door of her car. "Rapunzel, please. Let's just wait for Eugene to come. He has a car, it'll be fine."
Rapunzel looked at the ground and gulped. "B-but I-I can't wait any l-longer, Anna...I need to g-go..go see what's going o-on…"
"Didn't...didn't you say those last two classes had calmed you down?" MK asked hesitantly.
"I-I thought they had…" Rapunzel replied. ""B-but...now...n-now that we're out here-!"
"Hey, don't think about it!" Anna interrupted. She placed her hands firmly on Rapunzel's shoulders. "It will be okay." Then she looked up and smiled. "Look, here comes Eugene!"
Everyone looked up in relief as Eugene's bright red car pulled into the parking lot and parked, rather hastily, in a spot. Eugene quickly stumbled out and ran over to Rapunzel, looking concerned.
"Rapunzel!" he called, wrapping his arms around his shaking girlfriend. "Are you okay?"
"I-I...I don't know…"
"Anna called me. She said you were having some kind of breakdown or something, are you okay? What's going on?"
Rapunzel's breaths started getting shorter as she began to whimper once more. "I-I don't know Eugene, I...I'm scared…! I-I think...Oncie might be in trouble and...and...his mother, and….."
"Whoa, whoa…" Eugene interrupted. "Slow down, I can't understand you…"
"We're going to Oncie's house right now," Mavis told him. "We need to go check on him. We think something might be wrong."
"We'll explain everything on the way," Anna added. "We just need you to take Rapunzel with you in the car. She can't drive right now. I'll come too…"
"Wait, hold on!" Norma called. "Are we all going to get in Eugene's car? There's not enough room!"
Anna looked around frantically. "Well, don't any of you have a driver's license?"
They all shook their heads. the only ones who had licenses among them were Rapunzel and Eugene.
Suddenly Jack raised his hand slowly. "I have...a permit…" he said sheepishly. "And...Rapunzel's car is the same model as my mom's...maybe…?"
"Jack, that's stupid," Merida said. "Ye can't drive there if ye don't have a license!"
"Hey, I can drive just fine," Jack insisted. "As long as I don't get pulled over, nobody will know if I have a license or not. And what other choice do we have anyway?"
They were quiet, before Rapunzel, yes, the rule-following Rapunzel, handed her keys over to Jack. She glared at him. "Don't...do anything dumb."
Jack grinned and took the keys from her. "Okay!"
He ran over to Rapunzel's car and unlocked it. "So, who wants to ride with me?" he called out.
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Don't you at least need an adult with you?"
"You're an adult, right Hiccup?"
"I'm sixteen!"
"You're an adult now! Hop in!"
"I call riding with Eugene!" MK called out, and hopped into the car next to Anna.
"Me too!" said Mavis, and took the last spot, leaving the last three standing there stunned.
"You're all stuck with me, then!" Jack called out. Merida, Norma, and Hiccup walked over to him grumbling, hoping that Jack would at least be serious enough with this situation and not do something idiotic.
They piled into their respective cars and Eugene drove off ahead of Jack. "Jack, don't kill anyone, ok?" Mavis called out behind her.
"I'll try!" Jack called out, pulling out of the parking lot.
"That's not comforting!" Hiccup snapped.
"Relax! I'm an excellent driver! We'll be there in no time!"
Okay, so he hadn't really been expecting the thneed to take off right away, but this was ridiculous. It was doing nothing at all, despite all his efforts to get noticed.
He had thought for sure that this was going to be the way to make his family proud...he had known it…
Staring at the computer was getting too tiring for him anyway. Maybe it was time for a break. Walking in the park had been rather relaxing for him yesterday. Maybe he could do it again.
Once-ler didn't bother to say anything to his aunt and uncle as he headed out the door, completely unaware of the two cars approaching his house from just a few blocks away.
"So that's what happened," Eugene said, keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.
Anna nodded from the back seat. "That's what Jack told us."
"Ok." Eugene answered curtly. "But then why are we coming here alone? Shouldn't we have an adult with us or something?"
The others were quiet. "I...I never thought about that…" Anna admitted. "I was so focused to go and see what's going on…"
"Jack didn't really have all the details," Mavis added. "He just said that he had to move out of his mom's house because they had this huge fight, and then his mom came back again and there was a lot of drama…"
"There might not even be a problem right now," Anna said. "He's staying with his aunt and uncle, not his mom…"
"Even so…" Eugene grumbled.
Rapunzel gulped. "Well, we're here now," she told them. "Let's just investigate, and then...then if we need to, we'll tell an adult…"
They were quiet for a moment. Mavis turned around and smiled at the car behind them. "Well, Jack could have been exaggerating a little…" she said, trying to reassure the others. "He does that sometimes when he's upset." She waved sweetly at Jack through the back window, then gave him a thumbs up to show that his driving was...satisfactory.
Jack tried to wave back but Hiccup interrupted him and yelled at him to keep both hands on the wheel.
After a while, they finally pulled up at the address that Jack had given them. Everyone climbed out of their cars and looked nervously up at the house in front of them. "Is this it, Jack?" Anna asked.
Jack nodded. "Yep. This is the right house."
They each took a collective deep breath and started walking toward the house. Eugene put a hand on Rapunzel's shoulder and stopped her. "Rapunzel, wait…" he said, holding her hand in concern. "Maybe you shouldn't go."
Rapunzel immediately shook her head. "I...I have to, Eugene…"
She was shaking again, but had a stubborn look on her face. If she didn't go and see what was going on, she would feel even worse.
Eugene sighed. "Alright." He put an arm around Rapunzel and they followed the crowd up to the front door.
Anna stood in front of the door with her hand raised to knock, and turned to the others. "Okay," she began. "This is Movement Check on Oncie...everybody stay calm." She knocked on the door, and stood by, waiting for it to open.
After a few agonizing moments, the door opened, revealing a teeny tiny man wearing a hat and a nice suit. He looked up at the group of teenagers and blinked in confusion. "Can I help you?"
"H-hi…" Anna greeted nervously. "Is Oncie home?"
The man shook his head. "Sorry, he just left. Went out for a walk or somethin'. Not sure when he'll be back."
"He's...he's not here…?" Rapunzel asked, terrified. "W-where is he, then…?"
The man shrugged once more. "No idea. He didn't say anythin', just left. You''l have to come back later-"
"No!" Rapunzel cried, tears spilling from her eyes at last. "I can't come back later! I need to talk to him right now! Where is he? Why did he leave? Why won't he talk to us?"
Eugene grabbed Rapunzel's shoulders and pulled her back. "Rapunzel…"
"I-I don't know what's going on...please sir….you have to tell us what's happening…"
She began to whimper and sob, as Eugene hugged her tightly and carried her over to the car. He sat her down on the ground and signaled for the others to go on without them. Rapunzel continued to cry as Eugene hugged her tightly.
"I-I'm sorry…" she whimpered. "I didn't mean to...I-I just...I'm worried, and…"
"It'll be fine." Eugene reassured her. "It'll be okay, Rapunzel, I promise."
Meanwhile, the man looked more confused than ever. "What...what's goin' on here, exactly?"
"Don't worry about her," Jack interrupted. "She's just kind of upset."
The man looked up at Jack for the first time and a small grin crossed his face. "Hey...I remember you. You were there when he moved in with us, isn't that right?"
Jack stared at him. "Uh...yeah. That was me. You remember me?"
"Well, it's hard to forget the white hair and that stick," the man replied.
"Jack, ye know this guy?" Merida asked.
Jack nodded. "Sorry guys. This is Once-ler's Uncle Ubb."
"Mr. Ubb, sir…" Anna began cautiously. "We're really sorry about all this, but...we're Oncie's friends. We've been worried about him. He's been acting really weird lately, and...well…"
"Jack told us somethin' about his mum," Merida finished bluntly.
Ubb finally seemed to understand and nodded slowly. "Ahhhh...I see."
"We just came to check on him," Anna continued. "We want to make sure he's okay."
Ubb nodded again in understanding. "Well, alright. Why don't you kids come inside for a moment? It's cold out here."
They looked at each other in discomfort. "If Oncie's not home…" Anna began.
"We'd rather stay out here," said Norma. "If you don't mind."
Ubb nodded once more. "Understandable." He sighed. "Well, I know you guys are legit, cause I recognize the white-haired kid...so I'll tell ya what's up." He gulped and stared at the ground. "It's...true that his mother is kind of a...female puppy, if you will. She ain't good to nobody, not even her own sons. But Oncie's always tryin' to impress her, and when he can't, he jes' gets all depressed." He shrugged. "His ma came recently and left without tellin' him, so now he's actin' like that again."
Jack nodded.
"Now, listen, kids…" Ubb started again in concern. "I'll tell 'im ye showed up here. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. But you don' need to worry yerselves. He's staying here with me an' his aunt. Now, if he'd been stayin' with his ma, then you shoulda worried. But he ain't. He's with us."
The teenagers looked at him skeptically, but Jack smiled. "Yeah. Really sorry to trouble you, sir."
Ubb smiled and shrugged. "It ain't no problem. I'll tell 'im you all came."
They all watched as Ubb went back inside and closed the door behind him. Jack turned to his friends with a relieved smile and started to head out. "Okay guys," he declared. "Everything is fine. Sorry to freak you all out."
"Wait, that's it?" Hiccup asked in shock. "You're just going to take his word for it? Do you trust that guy?"
Jack grinned at his friend. "Yeah, man. It's Ubb!"
They stared at him incredulously, then finally sighed. "Well, if Jack trusts him, then…" Mavis said with a shrug.
The group stood around for a moment and slowly walked back toward the entrance, where Rapunzel and Eugene were waiting anxiously.
"What do we do now?" MK asked. "Are we going to wait for Oncie to come back?"
"We can't just hang around on their front yard though…" Norma reminded them. "Who knows when he's coming."
"And I have to get home soon," said Mavis.
Anna looked at the ground. "So do I...I guess...we can just find him at school tomorrow…"
They were quiet, but finally nodded.
"I thought there was no mum worse than my mum…" Merida grumbled to herself. "I was wrong."
They finally made it out the gate, and Rapunzel sat up in concern. Anna walked over to her and sat down on the ground. She smiled. "It's ok, Rapunzel," she told her cousin. "He's alright. There's nothing to worry about…"
"A-are you sure, Anna…?" Rapunzel stammered.
"Trust me," Anna replied firmly. "His mom isn't even here. She can't hurt him. He'll be okay."
Rapunzel burst into tears once more, this time out of relief. "Th-that's good…." she said, "I-I'm glad…I-I was so worried...he might've been...in trouble...and we didn't even know…"
Eugene rubbed Rapunzel's shoulder affectionately until the girl finally stopped crying. "S-so...where is he now?" Rapunzel asked.
"Out on a walk," said Anna. "But we can't wait for him. We need to go. We'll all see him tomorrow."
Rapunzel hesitated, then finally nodded. "Okay…"
"Let's get going," Eugene declared.
One by one, they all climbed back into their cars and drove off.
It was getting dark by the time Once-ler finally got back home. The walk had made him feel a little better, but not by much.
Sighing, he opened the door and took off his jacket. He didn't feel like checking his thneed's progress right now. It probably hadn't changed anyway. He may as well just do his homework and give up…
"Hey," his uncle suddenly called from the kitchen.
Once-ler blinked in confusion. "Uh...hey, Uncle Ubb."
"Bunch o' yer friends came over while you were gone."
Once-ler didn't look at his uncle. "Friends…?"
"Yeah. That white-haired boy and some other kids. Said they came to check on ya. They were real worried. One of 'em even started cryin'." He glanced curtly over at his nephew. "Guess they musta heard about yer ma leavin' or somethin'. That's what they said."
Once-ler stood still and stared at the floor. "Oh." He stayed there for a moment before finally shrugging and going upstairs. "Okay. Thanks for letting me know."
Without waiting for his uncle's response, Once-ler went into his room, closed the door, and flopped down on his bed. He had no idea what he wanted to do now. He didn't want to do anything with his thneed, or his homework, and he wasn't really sure if he wanted to text his friends before seeing them tomorrow. What the hell was he going to say to them? How was he going to explain himself?
He was tired. It was still pretty early in the evening and he still hadn't had dinner, but he didn't really care today. He just rolled over and went to sleep, not feeling the slightest bit better.
It was at brunch time that they finally found him standing by Rapunzel's locker, their usual meeting spot, his face buried in a scarf-shaped thneed. MK found him first.
"There you are!" she called when she saw him. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"
Once-ler raised an eyebrow at her. "I thought you guys always met here."
MK texted the others about their location and looked up at him. "Yeah, but...we were trying to find you."
Anna quickly rounded a corner and ran up to Once-ler enveloping him in a tight hug,. "Oncie!" she cried. "Oh my gosh, you're finally here!" she let go and looked him in the eye. "We were so worried about you! Rapunzel was crying when she found out! She was terrified! Like, she thought that your mom was like her bad mother that she used to live with-and and...we all went over to your house to find you and you weren't there, and you uncle came out and-"
Once-ler rolled his eyes but grinned in spite of himself. "I know, I know," he interrupted. "My uncle told me everything."
Anna nodded as the others started showing up, greeting Once-ler as they came.
"Good te see yer alive," Merida teased, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "Ye scared the dickens outta everyone."
Once-ler chuckled nervously.
"Why haven't you been texting us?" Norma demanded. "You should have told us everything!"
"S-sorry…"
At that moment, Rapunzel arrived and ran over to him, giving him an even bigger hug than Anna's and almost knocking him over. "You idiot," she mumbled. "We were so worried about you…"
Once-ler gulped and hugged her back, feeling guilty over the distress that he'd caused. He hadn't meant to hurt his friends this way…
"Oncie," Anna told him. "If...if we'd know about what was happening, we...we would never have made you feel like you weren't supported." she looked at him guiltily. "We're so, so sorry."
Rapunzel was still hugging Once-ler tightly. "You should never feel like you're not supported with us, Oncie." she whimpered. "We're your friends. We'll always support you. You don't have to prove yourself...or anything like that…"
Once-ler gulped and looked around at all his friends. "I've...I've been dumb," he finally admitted.
"Eh, we've all been actin' kinda stupid," Merida replied.
"We're all guilty here," Mavis added. "But it's all over now, right? We're all okay."
Rapunzel finally let go of Once-ler and stepped back. "Don't leave us like that ever again, okay?"
Once-ler smiled and looked around at all of them, feeling his depression from last night slowly fade away. "Okay. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too," Jack piped up. "I, uh..kinda told them everything you didn't want me to tell."
Once-ler rolled his eyes a little. "It's fine, Jack."
"Also, I killed your pet goldfish," Jack joked. "I hope you'll forgive me."
"I don't even have a goldfish."
"Not anymore, that is."
They all started laughing, just like old times, and started wandering slowly around as a group.
"Hey, Oncie, how are your thneed sales going?" Mavis asked curiously.
"Awful," Once-ler admitted. "I was going to give up, but..well, I think I'll keep trying. After all, genius is never recognized in its own time, right?"
Rapunzel laughed. "Yeah, that's true."
"Hey, maybe you'll start some kind of million-dollar business," Jack said. "Then you can wear that top hat and monocle we're always talking about."
Once-ler rolled his eyes. "Not again. Enough with the monocle, Jack."
"And then you can sing the song."
"No."
"I wanna be a billionaire so very bad.." Jack sang, and the others started to laugh and sing along.
Once-ler gave Jack a friendly punch on the shoulder. "I didn't come back for this."
They continued wandering aimlessly through the halls, laughing with each other and joking as if nothing had ever happened. Once-ler didn't care, he liked it that way. These were the people who loved and supported him the most, and he'd never leave them again.
This was his real family.
Hope you enjoyed!
So, a couple of announcements: We have finally reached the halfway point of This is Our Life! Yay! Isn't that fantastic? 8D
Anyway, now that we're here, I'm taking a short break from this story. Nothing too big, I just have some short fanfics that I want to get typed up before I continue. So, be sure to stick around for those! I'd really love some reviews on my other stories as well as this one. XD
Thanks a lot for the support you all have been giving me, and hopefully the second half will be just as awesome! Until next time!