Chapter 12 – Four Months
"Robbie, I don't care, you won't convince me!" Rachel told her son.
"But mom, please! Just see how you're daughter was before she met him, and how she is after. Do you want her to be depressed again? While she's pregnant?" Robbie made her face the facts.
She didn't answer.
"Because if you want her that way, then there you go. She will be depressed... She will harm herself again... Be alone... Won't talk to you..." he scared her.
"Ok, ok, I got you're point! But I still don't want him to be around her!" she said.
"Mother, please. Try to be rational. Because if any of this, of what I said, will happen, you do know that Sportacus would handle her better than the both of us together," he told her.
"No. I don't want Sportacus anywhere near my daughter! Well, except for saving..."
Robbie sighed and went to see Riley in her room.
He could tell she was sad. Her back was facing him, and he heard her sobbing.
"...Riley?"
She didn't answer.
"Riley, please, talk to me..."
She turned around and sat on the bed.
"I don't care if his your age, and he doesn't care about that either. Because at the end she will see us together. She will see that we're happy together," she cried and he came to sit next to her.
"I know, I know. But hey, let's talk about something else. Like, how was your day? Besides Sportacus, of course..." he suggested.
"Well... The baby started moving today..." she told him with a weak smile.
"R-Really?" Her brother gasped with a smile.
"Yes!" she told him with excitement, then looked down at her belly.
"I think he's moving right now..." she told him, then looked up at him.
She took his hand and placed it on her belly.
"Can you feel it?" she asked, smiling at him.
"Oh my god, yes!" he told her with tears.
"Does mom know? Did she feel it?" he asked.
"...No. It happened when I was with Sportacus," she told him.
"Oh..." he said, and as in a cue, their mother came in.
"Guys, um, I'm ordering pizza for the three of us, do you have any preferred topping?" she asked.
The brother and sister looked at each other and smiled.
"Ok, what is going on?" Rachel asked.
"I'm still mad at you, but come over here and give me your hand," her daughter smiled.
Rachel didn't understand what was going on, but did as she said.
Riley took her hand and placed it on her stomach, next to Robbie's hand, and her eyes grew wider.
"Oh... Oh my god..." she began to tear up.
The same night, Sportacus went to sleep sad.
He couldn't stop thinking about Riley all that day.
He just wanted to hold her again, kiss her again...
No! He couldn't!
Riley's mother was right when she was mad at them.
Maybe he should leave the town for a while...
No, he can't do that only so he won't see Riley! The town will still need him!
And then he went to sleep, with Riley as his last thought.
The next day was the day when Riley began to study with Mrs. O'Bryan.
She didn't feel like waking up, but still – she had to.
So she got dressed and ate her breakfast, when somebody rang the doorbell.
"Good morning, Riley!" Mrs. O'Bryan greeted her.
"Good morning, Mrs. O'Bryan! Come in," Riley said and opened the door wider.
"Ready for your first day of school?" Mrs. O'Bryan laughed and sat next to the dining table, putting her things down.
"Sure am!" Riley laughed as well, as she went to her room to bring all the books and notebooks she needed.
When she went bring them, she noticed the framed picture she kept on her desk. It was a picture of her with Sportacus on her side, Nathan on the other, and Carolina on Nathan's other side.
"How did I manage to mess up this as well..?" She thought out loud.
"Riley, are coming?" she heard Mrs. O'Bryan calling her.
"Yes!" she said back, and quickly left her room.
Sportacus was done doing his morning exercising, and decided to take a look at the town – a last look before he leaves the town. But just for a while, until Riley will have her baby, which is supposed to be a little after the New Year, and then he would come back.
He shouted "door!" and the platform was open. He walked on it and pulled out his telescope.
Everything was quiet. The kids were in school, people were at work.
"Boy, I'm gonna miss this town..." he thought out loud.
Then there were these three young women walking down the street together, with their babies in the strollers. He couldn't look at them and not think about Riley. He couldn't believe that four months from now she will do the same. It felt like only yesterday he ran into Robbie's little sister, that 14 years old girl with her wrists all covered in Band-Aids.
Now, in four months, she'll have that cute, tiny person in her hands.
He then shook off the thought out of his mind, and prepared his airship for leaving – not before his leaving a letter to everyone that explains everything.
When Stephanie and her friends were coming back from school, they heard the mayor's voice calling the whole town for an urgent town meeting in the speakers.
"I wonder what happened..." Stephanie told her friends and the gang rushed to the town square.
"Attention, everyone, attention!" everyone gathered around the stage in the town square.
Nathan and Carolina got there together. It was awkward, especially when they saw Riley standing a few inches away from them, next to Mrs. O'Bryan.
"Quiet, everybody. Now, I don't know if you have noticed, but Sportacus's airship isn't hung above our town," Mr. Meanswell said, and everybody began talking as they looked in shock at the sky.
"Now, calm down, please. Sportacus did left a note where he explains that he's sorry, but he would be back in around four months, probably around the New Year," the mayor explained.
Most of the town people sounded disappointed, but only Riley gasped.
Four months... New Year...
"OH MY GOD!" both Nathan and Carolina both gasped.
Before they could do anything else, Riley ran and snatched the letter out of the mayor's hand, then read it to herself.
"Dear mayor,
I'm afraid to tell you that I decided to leave LazyTown for four months, until some issues I'm involved in will work out, or at least calm down.
I promise I'll be back when these four months are over, around the New Year.
Please send the people of LazyTown my love.
Sincerely,
Sportacus."
Riley cried and rushed home, clutching her big stomach, not caring that everyone was watching her.
"I think you should go after her," Carolina told Nathan, not looking away from Riley's direction.
"W-What?" Nathan asked confused.
"Yeah... I think she could use your help, and also... Maybe it can fix things between us," She told him, now looking at him.
He nodded, but he felt torn. On one hand, he missed Riley, and wanted to be with her again. But on the other hand... He now loved Carolina.
Then he took off after Riley.
To his surprise, the house door wasn't locked.
"Well, that's a relief..." he thought out loud.
"Riley?" he called out, when he heard her sobbing from her room.
He entered her room and saw her sitting on her bed, crying and hugging one of her pillows. She was still holding Sportacus's letter.
"Hey..." he said, and she looked up.
"Hi... What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I think you know why..." he sat next to her on the bed.
"Hey, Ri-Ri... I know it's hard for you, but don't think it's your fault that he left," he told her.
"But it is! My mother threatened us to stay away from each other, and –" she couldn't finish her sentence.
"Then it's your mother's fault, not yours! Understand that, ok? You're a wonderful girl, and he loves you, and he wants to be the father of your child, and –" now he couldn't finish his sentence, because Riley leaned forward and kissed him.
They both broke the kiss in shock. What the hell did she just do?!
For the first time ever, Nathan and Riley felt disgust from kissing each other.
"What did I just do..." she asked herself out loud.
"I-I don't know. But I do know now that... I'm now sure about feelings for Carolina. I'm sorry," he stood up and left.
Then he came back, hugged her and kissed her forehead.
"Everything's gonna be alright, ok?" he whispered, and she nodded.
Author's note: Don't worry, I'm already planning Sportacus's comeback, and it's gonna be so adorable. Also, it might be the one before the last chapter, just saying.
