Chapter 7

(Danville, 5:03 A.M.)

Perry the Platypus had never grown out of sleeping in the same bed as Phineas. While he is close to his assigned family member, he feels at peace. Like evil is nothing more than a distant memory.

This morning however, will be anything but peaceful for him.

He never thought that it would happen in a million years, but Phineas had woken up from an insane nightmare. He knows this because he had woken up to the sudden feeling of getting picked up and held close.

It was still completely dark in the room, so he couldn't see his face, but Phineas's heavy breathing horribly implied that things were not going okay for him.

In a panicked voice, Phineas speaks to his pet.

"Oh, Perry. Thank goodness you're alright! I… I dreamed that you wandered off somewhere… and then you got EATEN ALIVE BY… I couldn't even DESCRIBE IT!"

He holds Perry closer to him as he cries into his teal fur.

As much as he wanted to comfort his family and show him that everything would be alright for him, he couldn't let him know his secret.

That was when he made a promise to himself: to be more careful while on future missions. Because there really is a chance he might never come back.

As he hears Phineas keep crying, he's also going to try to make Snowflake Day more fun for him this year.

He has no plans to go anywhere.

"Heart… you've done it again."

Van Gogh yawns as he looks at Abe. The past six hours have been testy for him to say the least. Only once in a while did Abe agree with him when it came to the creative decisions on the painting.

"Well, I gotta hand it to you, Abe. Even though there are a lot of things I personally disagree with you on, I got to remind myself that at the end of the day, it's still YOUR gift to Cleo."

Abe scratches his chin. "Oh, I don't think we're done yet. I keep getting this feeling that it's still missing something."

Van Gogh smirks again. "Ah, that would be your artistic drive! I get those myself every once in a while after I finish a painting… WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Shaking a can of lavender spray paint, Abe smiles at Van Gogh.

"Putting on the final touches on our painting!"

Abe goes on to spray paint the painting they've worked all night on. Van Gogh closes his eyes as he waves his hands.

"OUR painting, Abe!? No. NO! This isn't our painting anymore now that you've RUINED it with your stupid lavender spray-"

He opens his eyes only for him to be astonished at what he is seeing. If there were any specks of light coming from this painting earlier in the night, they have now grown into heavenly rays seemingly coming off of the canvas.

All thanks to the artistic genius of Abe Lincoln.

Speaking of Abe, he's now dipping a paintbrush into some black paint.

"You're right, Van Gogh. I don't know what I was thinking adding that lavender spray paint. I'll just paint over it with…"

Abe couldn't continue talking, as Van Gogh went to tackle him to the floor. Paint making its way onto both their clothes.

Van Gogh didn't care however, as he stares daggers into Abe.

"ABE! As an artist, I shall not allow you to DEFILE this masterpiece!"

Abe's eyes widen. "Wait… masterpiece?"

Van Gogh looks away from Abe and at the painting. "I feel like I could stare at this for an hour and still not get tired of it. Cleo's a lucky girl now that she has a boyfriend as talented as you."

He gets off of him and looks at him again.

"Abe, I would be honored if you would let me unveil this at Cleo's Snowflake Day party!"

Abe scratches his head. "Well, Van Gogh. If you like it THAT much, I guess I shouldn't be arguing with you. Cleo's party is in 12 hours anyway. What are we going to do until then?"

Taking a second to think, Van Gogh gives a suggestion. "Dr. Who marathon?"

"Dr. Who marathon!" Shouts Abe.

Before he could say anything else however, a thought crosses his mind.

During the half hour that Van Gogh spent retrieving his collection from his house, Abe decided on his quote of the day and posts it on Facebook.

"I am seeking. I am striving.

I am in it with all my heart. -Vincent Van Gogh."

He later goes on to sit with his friend as they start off their marathon together. The snacks on the table were plentiful and of wide variety.

"He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion, pain, to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world… no one had ever done it before."

Van Gogh smiles warmly. "Perhaps no one ever will again."

The music of 'Joy to the World' can be heard as everybody at Cleo's Snowflake Day party was having a good time.

Lamb tacos, bite-sized wieners, and a punch bowl are on the refreshments table as the clones walk past it.

Taking a bite out of a lamb taco, Mark Antony brushes his red hair from his eyes as he keeps reading JFK's fanfiction which he pulled up on his phone.

"Snowflake Jake looks down at the bloody corpse of Toadsimon beneath him. Miniature pebbles of ice start forming in his eyes.

"I can't believe I just killed him. Why would he throw his own life away like that?"

"This is war." Said Mario. "The only good rebellious toad… is a dead one."

Damn… JFK this just got really dark!"

JFK shrugs his shoulders. "I didn't even know I could WRITE something like that! It, er uh, just came to me from nowhere!"

Vergil smiles as he nods his head. "I gotta say, when you had this idea for a story where Mario has to put down a toad rebellion, I didn't think you'd actually do it. Those decaying race tracks were a nice touch."

Caligula points at JFK. "Yeah! I wanna see more of DK in the future, too!"

Standing in a corner of the living room, Joan speaks to Gandhi, who's looking down at his phone.

"Is it just me, or does it look like three guys fawning over something JFK WROTE!?"

Gandhi looks up from his phone. "Joan, the guys at Fanfiction Club are EASILY entertained! I once sent Caligula an anime meme compilation and he friended me on facebook!"

Before Joan could say anything back, she hears the noise of a spoon clinking on a glass. Abe has captured everyone's attention.

"Everyone! It is now time for the traditional Snowflake care satchel exchange!"

He takes a second to look over at Van Gogh standing beside the veiled painting that they created together and nodded. Van Gogh nodding back.

Looking away from him, he then looks at Cleo, who's looking as beautiful as ever, and continues speaking.

"Cleo, we've been together for a long time… almost three months… and that's why I had to make this gift perfect!" He points at Van Gogh. "Vincent Van Gogh, unveil the masterpiece!"

After giving a short salute, Van Gogh tightly grabs the white sheet covering the painting.

This is when Abe intervenes. "SLOWLY! Just… pull it slowly… please."

Van Gogh sighs. "I have unveiled paintings BEFORE, Abe! I know what I'm doing!"

That caught Cleo's attention. "Wait… there's a PAINTING under there!?"

As Van Gogh removes the sheet, Cleo focuses her eyes on the work of art that didn't exist even one day ago.

The painting not only shows her, but Abe as well. Abe is smiling while holding a beer in his hand while wrapping his arm around Cleo, who's smirking and giving the middle finger to everyone staring.

For half a second, she felt a little insulted as she's seeing herself flipping her off.

Abe goes on to explain the painting. "I painted us! Now Van Gogh originally wanted us together just smiling, but after a lot of convincing-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence as Cleo interrupts him.

"I'm confused. Why didn't you just buy me something expensive?"

Abe looks down at Cleo. "I… made this using everything I had. I'm in DEBT now because of this painting."

Cleo shakes her head. "Abe, this is literally just a picture. I take at least a dozen of them myself every day. Watch this."

She takes out her phone and takes a picture of herself flipping the bird.

"There, you see. You didn't need to go into debt."

She walks over to the staircase and picks up her gift to Abe.

Handing it to him, she speaks again. "Now, I'm not sure if you deserve this, but… here."

Abe takes the gift from her and unwraps it. Astonished at what he's seeing.

"Silver spray paint?"

"I still remember those words you said to JFK on Halloween night." Said Cleo. "You said you wanted to paint your golf club silver to make yourself more like vampire hunter Abe Lincoln."

Abe sniffs as he tries to hold back tears. "I didn't think you were listening to that. Oh, Cleo. I'm going to do my very best to get you another gift that's WAY better than the one that-"

Again, Abe found himself getting interrupted. This time by Joan.

"RANDOM DANCE PARTY FOR NO REASON!"

She held up a boombox and played the Snowflake Day Cabbage Patch song. (You know, the one that goes 'licky licky licky.')

While everyone around them lost themselves to the music, Cleo wasn't having it. She grabs Abe's arm. "Come on, Abe. Let's go somewhere private."

As she pushes Abe out the door, she takes a moment to speak with Van Gogh before leaving. "Van Gogh, if you could bring that painting up to my bedroom, that would be a big help. You did a really good job and I'll think of you every time I see it.'

She plants a kiss on his forehead before heading outside, not seeing that he collapsed on the floor with a big smile on his face.

"Anything for you… Cleopatra." He happily says.

Abe's car is the only one that's parked on Teen Sex Cove, but the icy roads that led to their destination is the farthest thing on his mind as he entangled his tongue with Cleo's.

Cleo however, wasn't feeling what he was feeling and pulls away. Facing the front.
"Cleo, what's wrong?" Said a concerned Abe.

"There's been a lot on my mind lately." Said Cleopatra as she looks at the sight in front of her. "Have you ever had the feeling that there's something… missing from our lives?"

Abe chuckles as he nods in agreement. "I'm way ahead of you, Cleo. There was a time where I felt like there was something missing from MY life!"

Cleo smiles. "You HAVE!? I thought I was the only one!"

Abe continues. "But then it all went away when you agreed to be my girlfriend!"

Cleo's smile quickly fades. "Ugh, No Abe. That's not what I meant!" She looks out the windshield again. "Ever since this school year started, I've been feeling like this. Like my fame was just HANDED over to me while I did nothing to deserve it."

Abe looks at her with concern as she keeps talking. "I keep telling myself that what I'm feeling isn't special. That it'll go away if I ignore it. Now it's getting colder… I feel out of place for some reason."

Abe looks at the frozen windshield along with Cleo. Now that she mentions it, things really do seem kind of out of place. Like he went to sleep one night and woke up in a different continent living a completely different life.

He works up the courage to speak to his girlfriend. "Cleo, I may not know what's going on with, how we're feeling right now, but I want you to know that whatever happens, we're gonna be facing it together.

And if I'm being honest, I can't IMAGINE facing my problems with anybody else but you."

Cleo looks at Abe, her heart feeling warmer by the second. "Thank you Abe. I guess it doesn't matter that you gave me a painting. I'm very lucky to have you as a boyfriend. JFK never really pays attention to what I have to say and MARK…"

An unnerving silence engulfs the two of them. "Well… he's Mark. A good listener, but one I can't get intimate with. Unlike you, Abe."

She then hugs him, who quickly hugs her back.

They stay close to each other for a while before Abe speaks again.

"So… you want to watch me spray paint my golf club?"

Still pressing her head on his chest, Cleo nodded.

"I'd like that."

Later that night, when everyone's gone home, Cleo deleted the picture of herself that she took at the party before looking at Abe and Van Gogh's painting. Her other pictures were moved to the side as she had done.

"Yeah… this is better."