Chapter 10

Johnny stood in the strangely long line of customers at the 24-7. Ecstasy and joy was seen in their eyes, and some of the customers jumped up and down like excited children.

"Hey, what's all this about?" Johnny asked the person before him, a skinny girl with goggles scooted up on her forehead.

"Don't you know?! Oh my ghawd, it's the thing! C'mon, you been living in a cave for the past ten years or what?" The girl cocked one perfectly plucked, pierced eyebrow at him.

"Uh… Please, just tell me what this is all about."

"Jeez, you're one of those hackers, right? How are the Dragons an' Demons going, huh? Stay away from that Flash Cola, your brain's gonna fry and your skin could use some of that thing they call sun every once in a while…"

Johnny had to grit his teeth until he tasted blood and clench his fists until he had small crescents inside his palms to not pull out his knives and make the process short with her.

"I am not a hacker, and I do not play Dragons and Demons. Please, just tell me what the hell this is all about and leave me alone."

"Hey, I was only being nice, no need to flip…" The girl demonstratively turned her back on him and put her nose high up in the air.

"Oh well", Johnny muttered to himself, "I'll find out soon, no need to lose my calm… My carefully preserved calm…"

The line went shorter with time, and so did Johnny's patience. The girl was now squawking on her cell phone about how awesome and epic it would be.

"And I'll be all 'Aww shiiit!!' when I'm at the cash register, imagine the total cool-o-rama it'd be! Yeah!"

Finally, the girl reached the end of the line. She jumped and giggled so much, Johnny had to turn his back on her to not get one of her sharp elbows poked in the eye. Finally, she walked out from the store.

"Tell me what this is all about!"

The clerk looked up from his Pathetic Boy issue.

"Firearms'n'Flowers has just released a new record, and Massive Food, Inc. said that they'd give everyone a free FizWiz if they released it this year, so… yeah. That's what everybody are so damn jumped up about." The clerk sounded like he was really fed up with people.

"Uh… Okay. May I have one? Do you have any Cherry ones left?"

"Oh, they only give out their new flavour, 'Super Duper Pineapple'." The clerk picked up his magazine again.

"'Super Duper Pineapple'? Is it any good?" Johnny eyed the bleary-eyed clerk with great suspicion.

"How should I know? I've been here since 9 in the goddamn morning; I only sell the shit."

The clerk rubbed his eyes and kept reading.

"Well, I'll take one Pineapple FizWiz, then." The exchange of money for soda was made, and Johnny walked out of the store with a bit lesser money but with 100 % more FizWiz than before. He looked at the bottle, and saw that the garish label said 'Super Duper Painapple!!' in big, yellow and purple letters.

"Painapple?" He raised one eyebrow, and proceeded to walk home. He found Gengi lying on the sofa, soundly asleep. She groaned a bit, rubbed her eyes and then sat up.

"Oh yeah, there you are. I was starting to wonder, you know…"

"Well, I've got something for you."

"Ooh! What is it?" Her eyes were glittering like an excited child's now.

"Here", he simply said and gave her the soda bottle.

"Huh? Painapple FizWiz? Where'd you get this from?" She eyed the label with great suspicion etched into her very features. "I've never seen this before…"

"It's a new flavour, wanna have a taste?"

"Are you sure it's safe to drink something called 'Painapple'? …Wait, the label's multicoloured, I'm safe." She took a swig from the bottle. Johnny leaned forward, interested in her reaction. However, she didn't turn strangely coloured, swell up, get ugly little blisters all over herself, or any other interesting reactions.

"Hmm. Tastes weird, but not bad. Here, have some." She offered the bottle to Johnny.

"What did you mean with that 'multicoloured label, wheee, I'm safe' stuff?"

"You don't know Paranoia? I was referring to that."

"Of course I know paranoia, what did you expect from a horrendously insane, homicidal lunatic?"

"I wasn't talking about paranoia, I was talking about Paranoia!"

"What the hell was in that Painapple beverage? Stop making no sense and start making sense!"

"I'm talking about Paranoia with a capital P, not the illness!"

"Okay, well, since your brain doesn't seem too horribly damaged, maybe, just maybe, I'll try some." Johnny carefully let a drop of the bright neon green liquid fall between his lips. The soda tasted quite tangy, a bit like fruit flavoured Gummy Piglets, and with lots of vitamin B added to the curious blend. However, nothing out of the ordinary happened. That is, until Gengi opened her mouth…

"I've been thinking over my life, Johnny. I've decided to start high school."

Author's Notes: Paranoia with a capital P is a tabletop role-playing game which is really funny. I recommend it to everyone.

I am very, very, very sorry for not updating in such a long time, but life got in the way.

See you later, my dear read-piggies.

I own nothing escept Gengi and some other stuff. Everything cool belongs to mr Vasquez, who's also the goalie in Jesus's soccer team.