Chapter 35!
This is the summer chapter! What happened between last Christmas and this Halloween! LOL I SKIPPED VALENTINES DAY!
Several months passed without any extravagant event. On Valentines day, however, Sanji made a huge pink cake for the gals, which Skie managed to eat in 3 and a half minutes (Zoro ended up getting splattered with frosting as Skie basically attacked it).
It was warm and sunny on the Going Merry. In other words, it was-
"SUMMER TIME!" roared Luffy from the crows nest. "IT'S SUMMER TIME!"
"We know, Luffy." Nami called from her usually place on the deck when it was nice outside. She looked up at her captain over the newspaper she was reading while sunbathing, "Now hush up, Luffy, you're making too much noise."
"Sanji! Sanji, you hafta make ice cream!" Luffy said, hopping down onto the deck.
"Not right now, Luffy." Sanji said absent-mindedly as he stared at Nami like he usually did, complete with hearts buzzing around his head like mini airplanes would buzz around King Kong.
Zoro was napping on deck by the stairs, snoring loudly, and unaware of someone watching him with narrowed, mischievous eyes.
Skie had just jumped up into the crows' nest, glad Luffy was no long occupying it. "Hurry up, Usopp!" she called as she watched Usopp clamber up the ropes and fall into the crow's nest, somehow balancing a bunch of water balloons in his arms and on top of his head.
"Thanks for helping," he grumbled.
"Hey, I carried one," she said, showing him the purple one she had in one hand.
"Yeah, okay." He said, still grouchy, "Now which ones are filled with what?"
"The purple ones have maple syrup in them, the gross kind without sugar that Sanji gets sometimes and no one ever uses, and the blue ones have water.
"And the green one?" Usopp asked, pointing at the large green balloon.
"You'll see. But be very careful not to break it, or I'll chuck you overboard, Usopp."
"That bad, huh?" He grinned.
Skie grinned back, "Oh heck yes." She nodded and leaned over the crows nest's edge, "What should we throw first? Or should we just barrage him with everything we've got?"
"We should throw the maple syrup first, then the water. Then it'll get slick. He might even trip a few times before reaching the mast." Usopp laughed, then stopped, staring at her, "How do we escape?!" he demanded.
"Well, we hide of course!"
"That's it?!" Usopp looked around, "I think I'm regretting agreeing to do this…"
"Aw come on! What's the worst Moss Head can do?"
"Kill me?"
"Pffft. Fine. Take it that way. Ninny."
"I am not a ninny!" Usopp barked, and he scooped up three purple balloons and hurled them with a mighty swing of his arm directly at Zoro…
…And Sanji happened to step right in front of him to get up the stairs as he did so.
The trio of purple balloons exploded when they hit him, dousing the poor cook in sticky maple syrup from head to toe. Sanji was frozen for a second, eye(s) wide, before looking up into the crow's nest. All he saw was a shocked looking Skie trying to keep from laughing (Usopp had ducked down).
"Skie…" Sanji put his other foot down (as he'd frozen in midstep) and shook his head, "Skie, I'm gonna have to do something about this."
"It wasn't me!" she said frantically.
Sanji stuck his tongue out to catch a drop of maple syrup that fell form the tip of his nose, "Oh really?"
"Nooooo!" Usopp whispered, shaking his head almost spazztically. If Skie got in trouble, Sanji would lecture. If Usopp got in trouble, it'd be a kick in the head and no food for a weak.
"Well, fine, I guess it was me…But it's not my fault! I was aiming for him! And you got in the way!" Skie pointed at Zoro.
Sanji looked at Zoro, then at his syrup-covered shirt, then at Skie, and back at his shirt. "…" he sighed, "Fine, fine…" he grumbled something about being too passive and headed for the bathroom.
Usopp sighed, "Thanks Skie." He said.
"You owe me one. Now hit Zoro this time." She pointed down.
Usopp saluted, "Aye, aye!" he picked up three more and hurled them with another mighty swing, and the trio of purple balloons hit home, right on Zoro's face.
Zoro didn't flinch. "…" he opened one eye and instantly looked up at the crow's nest.
"GETIM!"AFORE HE GETS UP!" Skie roared.
Zoro was then pummeled with the rest of the purple balloons, followed by all the blue, water-filled balloons.
Nami was giggling like crazy from behind her newspaper, peeking out over the edge.
Luffy was in the kitchen, taking advantage of Sanji's time in the bathroom, and looting the fridge.
Skie and Usopp burst out laughing, unable to stop.
"Wh-what about the green one?" wheezed Usopp.
"I'll…I'll do that right now," Skie said, hardly able to breathe from laughing so hard. She leaned over the edge of the crows nest again, green balloon in her hand, and looked at the stairs.
Usopp raised an eyebrow, wondering why Skie's eyes had suddenly gotten larger and why she hadn't thrown the balloon yet. "What's wrong, Skie?" he asked.
Skie opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Usopp tilted his head to one side. "You sick?" he felt something drop onto his head. "Can't be raining…" he said to himself, putting a hand up to brush whatever had fallen on him off. But it was sticky, and didn't come out. "Aww! What is this?! Ew!" He complained, wiping his hand off on his pants.
"Ahem."
They both froze, and slowly, very, very slowly, turned to see the owner of that all too familiar voice.
And there was Zoro, dripping in a slick mix of water and maple syrup, grinning at them like a hungry cat would grin at a bird (which had been pecking at him all day) with a broken wing. "Hey there." He said.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The two of them shrieked bloody murder and scrambled to get away from him. Skie just hopped out, the green balloon still in her arms, and Usopp jumped down, grabbing onto a rope the last second before running for cover.
"I don't think so! GET BACK HERE!" Zoro roared, leaping down after them. Usopp was closer. He'd get him first.
Skie leapt over the railing and into the kitchen. She saw Luffy still looting through the fridge, a giant leg of some animal in his mouth, "Hey, Skie." He said, mouth full. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Hiding from Zoro, shh!" Skie jumped up into the ceiling rafters just above the door, ignoring the cobweb she tucked herself into (she made sure there were no spiders there).
Zoro burst in not a second later, glaring at every inch of the kitchen. "Luffy, where is she?" he demanded.
"Where's who?" Luffy asked, gnawing on the meat.
"Skie! She came in here! I saw her!"
"I didn't." Luffy said.
"EVERYONE'S AGAINST ME!" he yelled. He then started scouring the kitchen, looking under the table, and even in the cupboards and under the sink.
While he was searching the fridge, Skie silently dropped to the ground and creeped outside.
"Did he get ya?" Nami asked.
Skie shook her head and tiptoed towards the other side of the ship.
"Skie-" Nami called.
"GOTCHA!"
Skie turned around to see a furious looking Zoro lunge at her.
"YAH!" she threw the green balloon at him with a panicked yell. It exploded on his face, splattering the deck in a mixture of red, yellow, and white.
Zoro stood, frozen. "What the hell is this?!" he shrieked after a minute's pause.
Luffy walked out of the kitchen and up to Zoro, poking him in the shoulder. "Ew, what is this stuff? It smells like bad mayo."
Skie was slowly backing up, "That's 'cuz it is. And old ketchup and mustard."
"I'm gonna count to ten, and then I'm gonna kill you." Zoro said slowly. He paused, then started. "Four…"
"You can't start at four!" Skie yelled.
"Seven…!"
"ACK!" She ran for her room, and slammed the door loudly, locking it, and shoving a door under the doorknob.
"Zoro, what the hell are you covered in?" she heard Sanji ask.
"I have no freaking idea." Zoro growled his answer. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go kill that little pest of an insect,"
"No time for that, Zoro! You hafta get cleaned up so we can go to the beach!" Luffy said.
"Beach?" Skie could just hear the sparkles that appeared in Nami's eyes.
"Nami-Swan in a bikini!" Sanji yelled.
"Where's Usopp?" Luffy asked.
"Nowhere." Zoro said, sounding far from innocent.
"Go get cleaned up, Zoro. Then clean up the deck." Nami ordered.
"Don't boss me around, woman!" Zoro barked, "And Skie should clean this up, not me!"
"But Skie's not here, is she?"
"I could go get her!"
"Too much trouble. Now go get all un-gross." Nami said, and her tone of voice was the one where no one could argue with her.
Zoro gave a wordless roar and Skie heard him storm off somewhere, his boots clomping loudly.
"It's safe to come out now, Skie." Nami called.
Skie opened the door and hopped out, "Sorry Sanji." She said, grinning at him sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it," he replied.
"Do we have to go to the beach?" Skie half-whined.
"What, you don't like the beach?" Nami looked at her with wide eyes.
"Nope. Never have." Skie stuck out her tongue. "I'll play in the sand though, but I hate the way sand feels. It's all…bleeeeh…" Skie shuddered.
"You don't like the beach." Sanji seemed dumbstruck by this. "A girl who doesn't like the beach…"
"Hey, where's Usopp?" Skie asked.
"I dunno. Zoro wouldn't say. Luffy, go look for him." Nami said, waving him off.
"'Kay!" Luffy ran off to search the ship.
-w-o-w-
Approximately an hour or two later, they were all on the beach of a deserted little island with only one or two trees on it, the rest all sand.
Luffy, Usopp, and Skie were making a huge sand castle away from the water (Luffy had found Usopp tied tightly to the bottom of his special seat at the head of the Going Merry with a gag in his mouth). Sanji and Nami were closer to the water, talking about who knows what, and Zoro was being his grouchy self, sitting under a palm tree glaring daggers at Skie.
"Sanji!" Skie called, "Could we have some smoothies, please?"
"Of course, Skie-Chan! I'll make Nami-Swan one too!" he said to himself as he rushed back to the ship, leaving a trial of red hearts.
"Bloody, pansy…" Zoro grumbled.
"You're just jealous cuz you won't get any smoothie." Skie said, sticking her tongue out at him.
Zoro raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything after that.
"Look at my masterpiece!" Usopp exclaimed pointing at his part of the sand castle, which looked like a miniature of a real castle, down to the last brick.
"Coool!" Skie said cheerfully, "Check out mine." She pointed at her classic mound of sand with four bucket-shaped towers.
"Oh yeah? LOOKIT THIS!" Luffy pointed to his. It was just a giant glop with holes pocked into it with a stick.
"…Creative." Skie commented.
"Here you go, Skie-Chan! It's strawberry banana!" Sanji purred, handing her the smoothie.
"Yay!" Skie said happily. A shadow fell over her and the smoothie was plucked out of her hand. "NEH?!" she looked up, seeing a smug looking Zoro.
"Mine now." He said, grinning.
Skie roared and chased after him, Zoro laughing and chugging the smoothie as they ran around the island.
"THAT WAS FOR SKIE, YOU GREEN-HAIRED FREAK!" Sanji roared.
"Do I get a smoothie?" Nami asked.
"Of course you do! Tangerine! Just how you like it!" he almost sang as he handed it to her, forgetting about Skie and Zoro for the moment.
"Thank you, Sanji," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek.
"I LOVE YOU NAMI-SWAAAN!" he said, hugging her like a teddy bear.
Nami nodded and sipped her smoothie.
"I like summer," Luffy said cheerfully as Zoro and Skie ran around the island for the twenty seventh time.
"Me too," Usopp grinned, "I just wish I had a smoothie…"
Zoro's such a jerk. Stealin' my smoothie...I'll get him for that!
I'll try and get the next chapter up in time for Halloween! That'd mean that Psycho on the Going Merry's over a year old! I THINK I NEED STORY-BIRTHDAY CAKE!
ROOTBEER AND ROCK! and roll...