Ch. 11
(P.O.V : None)
They all arrived at Nigel's house; Wally and Kuki riding with Nigel and Rachael, Hoagie and Abby in a separate car. When they entered the tree house, it was dark, the lights coming on minutes later.
"Wow; seems like just yesterday we were here!" Hoagie exclaimed. They walked to the main room, and noticed the sleeping bags and duffel bags they had forgot to take home from the last time they had all gathered there. Chuckling, they grabbed the clothes from the leftover bags and changed into more comfortable clothing. They all sat down on the floor, trying to decide what to do. Kuki shot up and waved her hands around. "We could play trut-"
"No!" Wally exclaimed, cutting her off. There was a small silence, before Wally spoke up again. "Not after last time…" It got quiet it again, and nobody said anything. Abby watched at the floor, Nigel and Rachael looked out the window, Hoagie twiddled his thumbs, and Wally stared at Kuki with a sad expression. The silence was uncomfortable, but to everyone's relief, Hoagie spoke up.
"We could explore the tree house more!" Everyone seemed to have liked the idea, them all getting up at the same time. They walked all around the tree house, amazed at the size of it. It had been 30 minutes, and they haven't even finished looking through the first floor! They decided to explore in the upper floors, and had a blast doing it. Every once in a while, a hamster would scurry across the floor, causing Kuki to scream and cling on to the closest person to her. Soon after they explored the 5th floor, they came across a room with a bunch of boxes.
"Let's go check them out!" Kuki squealed happily. Everyone smirked at her, and walked over to the boxes. Kuki opened one, finding a big pillow, some weights, and a picture with a green '3' on it with a heart next to it. She giggled and put it back, and skipped off to another box.
Rachael and Abby were looking through a giant box; seeing things like mini gumball machines attached to water guns, planks of wood connected to a hinge and magnet, and what looked like to be a mustard gun. They picked up the strange magnets, examining them, but decided to put them back in the box.
Wally found a box full of hamster supplies, such as giant plastic balls and toilet paper rolls, and Hoagie found a giant box filled with stuffed animals.
"Hey, guys; look at this!" Nigel called out, grabbing the attention of everyone else. They all walked towards Nigel, who was holding a box full of pictures. After picking up and examining some pictures, Kuki froze.
"Eh, Kooks? S'anything wrong?" Wally asked, noticing her eyes widened and not moving.
"Yeah, Kooks," Hoagie mocked, snickering the entire time. Kuki remained where she was, completely lost in thought. Memories instantly flooded her mind, overwhelming her, like a gallon of water being poured into a small cup.
Numbuh 4, the second youngest in Sector V, had turned twelve only a few months ago. They all sat at the table, eating Rainbow Munchies Cereal, like they did every morning. He noticed one of his closest friends, Numbuh 3, looked rather sad, which was very unusual for her. "Numbuh 3, you look kinda blue. What's up?"
Kuki looked up, and spoke very quietly. "In almost a year, we're all going to be thirteen..." she paused, and tried to catch her breath. Her voice became shaky and her eyes filled with tears. "I don't want to leave you guys!"
Numbuh 4 jumped from his chair and walked over to her. "It will be okay, Kuki," Numbuh 4 said, trying to comfort her.
"Yeah," Numbuh 2 added, taking another bite of his cereal. "And besides, maybe they will let us stay in the KND longer if we prove to be good enough."
"Then we won't have to forget each other," Numbuh 1 said, his eyes peeking over his trademark glasses.
"I guess," Numbuh 3 said, sniffing. "But what if you're wrong? What if, we aren't good enough; then what?"
Wally, being much taller now, bent down to meet her eyes. "We will just have to wait and see, now won't we?" He stood back up and stuck a smile on his face. "Come on, everyone! Let's go play videogames or somethin'!" Everyone got up and put on a cheerful attitude, even Numbuh 3, who was blushing faintly for what Numbuh 4 had done. Numbuh 2 leaned over to Numbuh 5, who was following the rest of the team slowly.
"Why is Numbuh 4 all cheerful and stuff? He's not usually like this."
"Didn't you hear?" Numbuh 5 said, lowering her voice. "Numbuh 4 is-" Numbuh 5 cut herself off, and leaned over to Numbuh 2's ear.
"WHAT?" Numbuh 2 exclaimed, gasping.
"Shut it, fool! Numbuh 3 doesn't know yet, so don't say anything."
"Well is she ever going to find out?"
"If Numbuh 4 tells her…Hopefully, soon…" Numbuh 5 said, as they finally entered the main room. Numbuh 2 stared at Numbuh 4. He didn't know what to think. They were definitely going to have to talk later on.
They all spent the next few hours playing and having a great time. Numbuh 2 challenged Numbuh 4 to some videogames, and Numbuh 3 had a tea party with herself. When it was time for lunch, they all decided to go out to eat. They all climbed in the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and took off, flying at over 70 miles an hour.
"Hey Wally, when we get back," Numbuh 3 started, swaying on her seat. Numbuh 4 turned to her. "Yea?"
"Could you play Rainbow Monkeys with me?" She knew the answer would most likely be no, but she still liked asking.
"Eh," Wally started, shrugging. "I s'pose so."
Numbuh 3 jumped in her seat and squealed. Everyone else stared at Numbuh 4, puzzled. He sneered at them, causing them to go back what they were doing beforehand. Wally turned his chair around back to the screen in front of him and stared at it emptily. He needed to tell her; he just didn't know how. He looked at the screen, seeing Numbuh 3's cheerful grin in the reflection. 'Oh, Kuki…' he thought to himself, chuckling. She was always so delighted. He loved that about her. He loved a lot of things about her; her eyes, her hair, the list could go on. His thorough concentration on her was broken by her sweet, angelic voice. "Wally, come on! We've been here for 5 minutes!" Numbuh 4 snapped back into reality, slightly confused.
"Eh, what?"
"Just come on, silly!" Numbuh 3 said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.. After stumbling for a few feet, Numbuh 4 finally regained his balance and pulled his arm away.
"Sorry, Numbuh 3; you were just pullin' me too hard," he muttered, rubbing his arm. Numbuh 3 chuckled and pulled up his sleeve. "There's nothing there! Stop being a big baby."
"There doesn't always hafta be marks there to be hurt, ya know," Numbuh 4 stated, Numbuh 3 nodding in defeat.
"I guess," she replied. "By the way, what were you thinking about earlier? You seemed pretty concentrated."
Numbuh 4 stopped in his tracks. "It was nothing," he said quickly, turning red.
"Aw, come on, Wally! Everyone uses that excuse! Can't you just tell me?"
"No, now can we go inside? It's like, eleventy-hundred degrees out here!" Numbuh 4 exclaimed, trying to cover up his obvious blush.
"Fine," Numbuh 3 pouted, giving up. She knew at this point she wasn't going to get Numbuh 4 to talk. They walked in the fast-food restaurant and searched for the others.
"Over here," they heard a voice call out to them. Numbuh 3 skipped over to the table while Numbuh 4 trailed behind, finding a small smile creep on his face.
"What took you so long?" Numbuh 2 asked, his mouth full of fries.
"Wally was just thinking again," Numbuh 3 said. "And got lost in there."
Defending himself, Numbuh 4 shot words back to her. "Hey, I was thinking of you-" he caught himself, stretching out the 'u' sound. "-uuunicorns! I was thinking of unicorns. It would be cool to see one, dontcha think? They're like, horses that could stab ya with the horns! But not one of them girly ones, no! A cool, big, strong-"
"Just let it go, Numbuh 4," Numbuh 5 said, rolling her eyes. It was obvious to everyone that he liked Numbuh 3-everyone, except herself.
"I guess it would be cool to see a unicorn! But a nice one; not a scary one," Numbuh 3 said happily. Numbuh 4 smirked and rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna go get food. Whadda ya want, Numbuh 3?"
"Chicken nuggets, as usual!" she replied, happy that Numbuh 4 offered to get food for her. "Thanks Wally!" Numbuh 4 nodded and walked off to the counter.
"Why do you do that, Numbuh 3?" Hoagie asked.
"Sorry for answering your question with a question, but do what?" Numbuh 3 replied, rather confused.
"You call Numbuh 4 by his real name…A lot."
"Oh," Numbuh 3 said, not really sure why she does it either. "Don't know," she finally said, after failing to realize why. They all sat in silence until Numbuh 4 returned with the food.
"Here ya go, Numbuh 3!" Numbuh 3 smiled, taking the food. While they ate, there was barely any conversation. It was peaceful, especially because there was a lack of argument. Once they had all finished eating, the climbed back into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and flew back to the tree house to spend the rest of the day relaxing.