Another typical morning in Blue Highway... or almost typical. For our great prankster it was kind of bland like the other mornings before. That was because his friend Shelly had gone to her family and still hadn't returned. Woody was sitting outside observing neighbours passing by and little Timmy Akim drawing on sidewalk with colourful chalks.
'If only I had someone to talk to...' sighed the young man.
He didn't feel like to find a partner for talking in the neighbourhood. Shelly was like the perfect one to start a conversation with. Or maybe... there was something else behind it... His quiet moment was ruined when an empty can hit his head. It was painful nonetheless. After quick recovery he looked at the source of this throw - his neighbour's house. He noticed Roger Rottweiler drinking beer on the balcony.
'Of course, I should have known that!' out of frustration he threw the can where he thought it belonged to - Roger's yard.
He then continued relaxing on his chair. The angry mood couldn't just go away that easily. After a while Roger himself got outside with his typical mad expression.
"I saw you throwing can on my yard!" he yelled at Woody, only to get the answer:
"It's not my beer. I don't drink any."
This made Roger surprised at first... it didn't last long. He went through the hedge dividing the houses slowly heading to the young man. Woody didn't know what was going on. Still sitting on his chair, his serious expression changed rather quickly once the big neighbour passed through the hedge like it was just a fog. He stopped in front him and with evil glare he asked:
"Do you want to say that again?"
Woody stayed quiet. He didn't know what to do. He was only looking at him with unsure expression. Roger finally decided to do the unthinkable - giving him a proper lesson right there. With his fight stance he grabbed the little neighbour's arm! Woody now knew that he was in big trouble. His immediate reaction was screaming out of fear. His loud scream triggered Olga to go out of her house and yell:
"Hey! No fights here when my child is playing outside!"
Roger turned his head to her. His evil face was tuned down pretty fast. There was a strong witness outside who could stop his actions - and it happened to be a woman Rottweiler had a big crush on! Unwilling to get punished for it, he dropped Woody and left his yard. The young man was so relieved. The grab was really uncomfortable, but it was also scary. If it wasn't of Olga who could clearly hear anything outside even from behind the wall, he would most likely experience a great suffer. He didn't want to imagine what exactly would happen to him and quickly got up from the ground. He then noticed little Timmy saying something to his strong mother that he could not make out. Once he heard the mention of a can, he knew that the child was talking about the whole thing he just saw. Olga then turned to the young man and started a conversation from her yard.
"Mr. Trickster, you already know that Rottweiler has an aggressive manner, why are you provoking him?"
Provoke? How did he provoke Roger? Perhaps the other day when he told him to mind his own business when Shelly left, this time it was just clearing out that the can of beer wasn't Woody's. Or maybe it was throwing the can back on his dirty yard... which was purely out of anger. Woody had no problem looking at Olga from even few feet away, as long as she was fully clothed. This time she was wearing a T-shirt, a much better clothing than the last time.
"I've never intended to be rude at random, but when someone is making a junkyard out of my home and makes fun of my appearance, I can get angry as well."
The lady stayed quiet for a moment, presumably thinking of something wise to say. The young man thought that she was going to say something about staying polite to others even when they don't act like that back. This thought made him slightly angrier but still enough to say out loud:
"What's the point of staying polite when even the police can't look at this problem?!"
That didn't surprise Olga at all. She only replied:
"Just stay with cool head, Mr. Trickster. I know that you can stay patient for a very long time. I've already heard about some strange things going on in Rottweiler's house which drive him crazy. Maybe some nice elf finally decided to punish this good-for-nothing neighbour by messing around with his property."
After she said that, little Timmy commented on this:
"He changed our football into a bowling ball! The big man kicked into it before giving it to us."
The mother only giggled and stroked the boy's head. Maybe all this "elf thing" was said because the child was present at this moment.
"You know what they say: The good deed returns to you at the end." said Olga and finally went inside also with Timmy.
Woody was standing alone still not fully satisfied. As if he was missing something important to him. At least Olga Akim wasn't completely ignorant about his problem, she fully understood his point of view as a short person.
'Or when you can't rely on anyone, you've got to do it by yourself.' he thought to himself.
After a short time he looked at his phone to check the time. It was about time to prepare for today's episode of Neighbours from Hell. He went inside to find some tools for his pranks.
"Revenge is not how I do things, but accidents will happen." started talking to himself the great prankster. "Even when it looks like I don't know what's going to be useful, there will always be opportunities to take at Rottweiler's house. The important thing is to take them right away, just like at the beginning when I met Joe for the first time."
Woody thought of taking his trustful superglue that so far did miracles for him. He found it in his chest of drawers, but to his unpleasant surprise it was already empty. Such great superglue and it already ran out! Or perhaps the episode could go without it. Just in case Woody checked the windows to see his neighbour's activity. In the living room he spotted him looking at some book that looked like a photo-album.
"Some kind of glue would definitely do the trick there. Sadly I don't have time to go to the shop anymore." he said to himself.
While trying to think of something, he remembered he was given keys to Shelly's house. Without hesitation he headed there. After unlocking the main door, he started to look around the small comfy house. He considered to check the kitchen if there was any kind of glue. At last he found some. On the cover it said "For wood and paper".
"Well, it's good enough glue. It will be just for one trick so then Shelly wouldn't be surprised where all her glue went." with that said Woody then decided to return to his house and wait for Joe's crew.
He stopped near some paintings of flowers. They were obviously painted by Shelly, because he already knew she owns tempera colours and brushes.
"Shelly is a really talented painter." commented the young man on paintings, knowing that his friend wasn't going to hear that.
He looked at them for some time which then made him go into deep thinking...
"I can see so much care put into these paintings... I wonder how she makes those brush strokes..."
In his eyes he had that one moment from days ago when he held her hand. He never felt such softness of a hand before. It wasn't just holding it... His heart got warm when he looked at her face... the shy kind face with cheeks as red as one painting of what looked like a tulip. Woody forgot what he was going to do. He smiled while standing in one place and looking at the painting. He imagined Shelly running towards him, finally returning home. She then gave him a big hug. He hugged back while saying how much he missed her. He had other kind words on his tongue, but suddenly the lovely image disappeared, because Woody thought it was too ridiculous for it to even happen.
"Ugh! Wake up, woody head! Shelly is just my friend! I only care about her because she is kind. And she cares about me because I am gentle."
He no longer wanted to daydream of a romantic scene from nonexistent movie starring Woody Trickster and Shelly Haward. He did remember Roger's cruel words though, that she might find someone better than him outside of the neighbourhood. He of course didn't believe those words, not that he ever fought for Shelly's love.
"Rottweiler knows nothing about us. He only talks to a motionless plant." he said out loud and then tried to imitate Roger's rough voice "I can just imagine his awkward talk to a real woman: 'Uuuh... I like your fragrance.' Yeah, I bet he would get slapped after this sentence."
After that, he finally left his friend's house. He then was once again visited by Joe and his crew who came like they usually did. While typical preparation Woody decided to ask something to the last members of the crew - Thomas and Boris. The twins were showing something to themselves near living room window. The prankster slowly approached them, thinking what he could ask them without looking too awkward. He was already told that the twins were mostly speechless. The bigger question was going to be how he would understand them. He thought about his first move for a while before greeting them.
"Hi, guys." Thomas and Boris looked at him with neutral expressions. Both of them waved at him as a greeting.
"Uhm... Which one of you is better in camera skills?"
One of them smiled and pointed to other with right hand, while the second one tried to deny it with hand waving. He wasn't angry though. Then through constant pointing to himself, his brother and nearby camera he tried to show something. Woody only looked at them all confused. He tried to take a guess nonetheless.
"Uuh... Do I understand correctly? That each of you has better experience on something else?"
After a short silent pause, both of them nodded.
"Yeah? You won't tell me what exactly?"
Both of the twins looked at each other precariously. This was the moment when Woody felt like to say 'nevermind'. Luckily, Joe already told everyone to get ready for the shooting. Without any hesitation the prankster went to the front door.
"Very excited, huh?" asked Joe near the door.
"It's better to start early when Rottweiler is still dumb to notice anything." replied Woody grinning at his director.
"Of course. Do your best." were Joe's final words before the great prankster left the house.
