Chapter 10

When they were clear enough away, Skips took over and Benson took up the passenger side. With all the excitement, Herman, Pops, and Raymond and Carl had fallen asleep in the backseat. Skips stops at a red light and starts to say something, but declines his words and just waits for the light to turn green.

"What?" Benson asks gazing out the window. Skips just shrugs. "I was just going to say that you're quite the popular person when it comes to singing." The light turns green and he drives on.

"Well, I just got a little too into the song and everything just got away from me."

"So you're naturally a show off?"

"Heh, I guess you could put like that," Benson giggled. The park was beginning to come into view. He looked at his watch and turned on the light to see the time. "I can't believe we stayed out so late."

Skips turns and enters through the park gate. "You not going to head home this late, are you?"

"I don't know," he says with a sigh. "I'll see what I feel like doing after we get the four sleeping beauties inside." Without waking up, Herman snorted and rolled over on the two jokers. Luckily they didn't wake though they were now pressed up against the side door and looked very uncomfortable. They pull up to the house and try to awaken them, but it was a fail. Left with no other choice they dragged them inside.

Once in, Benson told Skips to go ahead and go home and that he'll put them to bed. The yeti nodded and left for his shack. He fell asleep as soon as he laid down(no point in covers, right?). The next thing he knew, it was a few hours till noon. Getting up he skips over to the park house to see if anyone else was up. Nope.

Herman and the goons slept spread out on the floor snoring making him snicker. He guessed that Benson at least put Pops to bed then just left the others where they lay and went back to his apartment. Oh well, he thought. Good thing they're in the living room. The carpet's soft enough.

He suddenly spots something on the couch as it rolled over. When he skipped over into the room, he realized that it was the gumball machine himself. Must of fallen asleep as he was trying to take the others to their rooms. He laughed and went to the kitchen getting a bowl, spoon and cereal. Eating at the table, he heard Pops walking down the stairs. The tired lollipop-man wobbled to the kitchen and sat down at the table with him putting his arms on it then laying his head down on them. Lastly he mumbles, "Sleeeeepyy..."

He gets up and grabs himself a cup of coffee. Taking a sip he perks up immediately and smiles. "Morning Skips," he is finally able to say. "Sorry about greeting you in my jimjams."

"It's ok, Pops. We all pretty much slept in anyway so it's not such a big deal."

The two heard Benson moan and watched him turn over again. Then the whiskers on Raymond twitched and he stretched out his arms and legs yawning. They came back down quickly and strikes Carl with his hand and Herman with his heel. Both men grunted when they felt the sudden painful sensation in their faces. The yeti-man and lolly-man laughed at them.

The lion-man and human picked the cheetah up with angry faces ready to toss him in the hall, but noticed the still sleeping gumball machine. They looked at each other and grinned and nodded. They laid the snoozing cat next to him on the couch. Then after rushing quietly to the closet and pulling out a camera, they came back just as he rolled over once more with his arm landing on the other man.

The two laughed and took pictures. Pops couldn't stop himself from giggling. Skips' mouth twitched at their immaturity. They joined Skips and Pops at the table and sat down helping themselves to some breakfast.

"You're not going to just leave them like that are you?" the yeti asked. The two shrugged as an answer. A little angry at them for their childish behavior, he puts his dishes in the sink and goes into the living room and pushes Ray off the couch. Skips thinks for a sec and rolls him under the table where he curled into a ball and purred.

He just sighs as the others chuckled. He turns and heads for the front door. The air was cool and fresh that morning with a bright round sun to accompany it. The weather will surly get warmer later, but not too much. He stretches and cracks out his neck and skips down the steps. He goes and opens up the house garage and checks up on the cart. With everything up to date, he closes the hood and wipes clean his hands.

He noticed Benson's bike's chain looked like it came off. He checks it out and sure enough it had come off. Kneeling down he fixes it easy, but when standing back up he accidentally slips. He stops himself by grabbing the break handle, which coincidentally snapped.

"Oh boy," Skips mumbles holding the broken part. He feels someone tap his shoulder and as the unlucky yeti he was, Benson stood there behind him his expression unreadable. Awkward silence blew past them as they just stared at each other. Then finally the gumball machine's eye twitched as he held out his hand. He placed the broken part in the hand and looked away in guilt. "Dunce," Benson sighs.

Skips rubs the back of his head. "I'm sorry about that," he says. He gets cut off when Benson held up his hand. "Relax," he said through clenched teeth, "It's not completely your fault. This is what I get for getting my bike from a crappy bicycle shop." He begins to walk away, but then he looked back over his shoulder. "Oh yeah. Herman asked me to tell you that he was giving everyone a free day. We can do whatever we feel like. I can tell you're already on that though." He tapped his glass check with a grin, then walked off with a short snicker.

Skips turns to look at his reflection in the cart and saw a grease stain. He easily cleans it and stares back at the bike. He couldn't help feeling bad about breaking the handle. He needs to make that up to the gumball machine. He goes outside and closes the garage door behind him. Thinking what he could do to fix this he skips through the park to his shack.

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