A/N Holla! Honestly, I don't know what to say here. So, get on with the next chapter of the story, okay? Oh, Lovepeachy, you will find out who's right in this chapter. Enjoy!
"Good morning, Jack!" Kristoff's head popped from behind Jack's front door, grinning wildly.
Jack rolled his eyes and dropped his hand off of the doorknob. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to receive guests. So, he didn't open the door any wider and went straight into the living room. He let Kristoff enter alone without being welcomed.
"Sorry, Kristoff. Listen. I'm really not in the mood to talk to you. So please," He stretched his hand towards the door and gave an exaggerated bow. "Out."
Kristoff just sighed and didn't want to get carried away with Jack's mood. Based on recent experience, he could already guess why his neighbor behaved like this.
"Why are you not in the mood? You can share your problems with your dear neighbor, Jack. Who thought, I might be able to help you, right?" Kristoff smiled, giving Jack the courage to share his problem.
Finally, after a while ignoring Kristoff's smile until Kristoff's cheeks tightened painfully, Jack let out a deep breath. "What else if Elsa wasn't looking for trouble?" Jack sighed and got his hands on his hips.
"I was arguing with Elsa, about something, I don't need to tell you. And I am thinking, How do I prove that Elsa is wrong." He scratched his head and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Oh, come on, Jack. Is it important to prove who is wrong and who is right? Elsa is your wife, Jack. After all, married life is not a match, nobody loses, and nobody wins-"
"Hoo ho ho, you are wrong, young man. You are very wrong. Marriage is like playing a game at a playstation rental place. If we pay but lose, it means we lose. And I don't want to lose to Elsa. Understand?" Said Jack confidently, while Kristoff nodded his head slowly trying to understand what Jack meant. But he found absolutely no connection between marriage and playing playstation games. So he just kept silent and eyed Jack through the corner of his eyes.
"Ah, Kristoff. I have a question for you. Do you understand electronics?" Asked the Jack again. He had just remembered that his problem started with that one certain thing.
Kristoff laughed dryly, he spread his arms trying to look confident but Jack's intimidating look made him nervous. "Yeah, as a gentleman, off course. Off course, I-" he scratched his cheek and grinned sheepishly. "I-i understand nothing about electronics. I am not tech savvy."
Jack rolled his eyes, sighing in annoyance. "I was asking the wrong person." He shook his head slowly. "Okay. Now, that you can't help me, so please, leave." Jack pointed at the door with his palm.
"Wait wait, Jack. I'm here to give you-" Kristoff took something from the back pocket of his jeans and with enthusiastically he swung his arm so that the thing he was holding was right in front of Jack's nose. "This!" He revealed a card in the shape of a pink hello kitty head and then handed it to Jack.
Jack took it with a confused look and flipped the card over. "Whose child has a birthday?"
"Anna, Jack. Anna. She's the one who has birthday." Answered Kristoff exasperated. "So, tomorrow night I'll have a surprise party for Anna. You and Elsa have to come. Okay?"
Slowly but surely, Jack's grin turned into a mocking laugh that he couldn't bear to hold his stomach. "Oh my God, Kristoff. How old are you? Five? How could the invitation be this ridiculous?" He wagged the card under his chin as if he was hot and kept laughing.
Kristoff tried not to get caught up in Jack's taunts by taking a deep breath. "Anyway, you and Elsa must come, but remember, don't tell anyone. Because I want to surprise Anna." He grinned and wiggled his brows, he moved his hands across his face like he was having a peek-a-boo with a two year old child.
"Surprise." He said it again by lengthening the word.
"Anna can't know?"
"No."
"Okay, got it. Now it's time for you to leave. Plea-"
TING TONG !!
Their heads turned towards the door at once. Jack grumbled at the possibility of additional guests he didn't want.
"Kristoff, open the door, please." Said Jack calmly. His hand back on his hip.
"Why me? This is your house, Jack."
"That's correct. But you're the closest to the door. So please, open the door."
Kristoff assessed his position, Jack's position, and the door. He looked at Jack, who had raised his eyebrows and grinned wildly. "That's right. Okay, I'll get the door."
Kristoff walked towards the door and wondered who had come to visit. He turned the doorknob down and when he pulled open the door, he was surprised that his wife's face appeared.
"Anna?"
"Kristoff! Here you are!" Anna exclaimed, and without hesitation she just walked in and saw Jack standing there. So, she waved excitedly to say hello. "Hi, Jack!"
"Hi, Anna." Jack waved back and he didn't realize that he was waving with the hand that was holding the invitation card. Luckily, he noticed it quickly and he hid the card behind his back.
"Kristoff, you said you were going to frame my Certificate of Merit? When are you going to do that?" Anna handed a Certificate of Merit to Kristoff, but not until Kristoff answered, Jack had grabbed the certificate first.
"Let me see. Certificate of Merit awarded to Annabelle Katherine Summers has won the first place in the national robot assembly competition. Wooow." Jack turned to stare at Anna in disbelief. "You, can assembly a robot?"
"Ah, it's not like that, Jack. But I really like electronics engineering. So, when I was in high school, I took part in a robot competition, and I won. First place." Said Anna, smiling shyly. While Kristoff, he waved his hand and gave a thumbs-up proudly as if presenting Anna as someone extraordinary.
Hearing Anna's explanation, Jack seemed to get enlightened. As if he had found a solution to his problem with Elsa. He smiled sweetly at Anna and prepared to carry out his plan. "How extraordinary. That means that you understand electronics, right?"
"Yeah, I do know something. Not bad I reckon. Why?"
"Okay. How about this. Tonight, I invite you to have dinner at my house. Just you, without Kristoff. Because he's busy, right Kristoff? Don't you have a meeting tonight?" Jack pointed at Kristoff with the tip of his finger, squinting at him.
What Jack said confused Kristoff, his brain was seizing up in the most extreme way to remember whether he really had a meeting tonight, or not. If there was a meeting, why didn't he remember it?
"What? Said who? I have no meeting tonight. I am free." Said Kristoff, not quite sure. He looked at Anna who was looking at him asking for an explanation, then looked back at Jack, still confused.
"Said this guy!" Jack held up the invitation card with a wide grin on his face. He winked several times sending Kristoff a code.
"Oohh! Yes! Yes, I have a meeting tonight." Said Kritoff finally understand what Jack meant. He certainly didn't want his surprise party to fall apart because Jack told Anna about the invitation, the surprise party was no longer a surprise. "I'm sorry, honey. I forgot about the meeting. So, tonight you're with Elsa and Jack, okay? That way, you're not alone for dinner tonight."
Anna felt herself lost in the middle of a field of weirdness. Why did Jack suddenly invite her to dinner? Why did Kristoff suddenly have a meeting at night? All this time Kristoff always came home before dinner. Only this time he mentioned that he had meeting at night. Even so, Anna still nodded with an awkward smile still lingered on her face.
"Oh Elsa, this spaghetti carbonara is so delicious. I can eat one more serving." Said Anna, still excitedly rolling the pasta with her fork. She was enjoying the food right under her nose that she didn't realize that Elsa was watching her like an hawk.
"So Anna, tell me, you are having dinner here with us, right now, because by any chance Kristoff has a meeting and also by any chance that Jack invited you here?" Elsa asked slowly because she still couldn't understand why Anna suddenly appeared at her door and said that her husband invited her to dinner, something that was very difficult for her to understand.
"Yeah." Anna stopped to swallow the food she had chewed. "I was also surprised when Jack invited me to dinner this morning. Because usually, Jack doesn't like receiving guests, right? Much less inviting people to dinner." She added. She looked confused but serious at the same time, but only for a moment, until she had returned to focus on the plate in front of her.
Elsa looked at Jack asking for an explanation but Jack just smiled with a smile that was hard to understand what it meant. She squinted her eyes, smelled something fishy.
"If he behaved in this kind of strange manner, he was usually up to something." Said Elsa, still squinting at Jack, she was sure he really was up to something.
"Ha!" Jack poked Elsa's chin with his fingertips and laughed. "You are very correct, my darling Elsa." He then turned to look at Anna. "Anna, please show your Certificate of Merit to Elsa. The thing which this morning I asked you to bring with you tonight." Jack asked with enthusiasm, as if his problem with Elsa had been resolved just by showing the certificate.
"Ooh! Yeah, wait a moment." Anna picked up the certificate which she had carefully placed on the chair next to her. Then, without saying anything, she handed it over to Elsa who even though she accepted it, she still looked confused.
Elsa read it silently but Jack spelled it out with gusto. "Certificate of Merit awarded to Annabelle Katherine Summers has won the first place in the national robot assembly competition." He ended his sentence with a stupid grin, in contrast to the frown on Elsa's forehead who still didn't understand the connection between inviting dinner and this certificate.
"Okay, so?"
"You don't understand?" Elsa shook her head slowly. "That means, Anna is an electronics expert. Yeah?" Jack raised his eyebrows trying to get Elsa to put the puzzle together.
Elsa's eyes widened when she finally understood what Jack intended to invite Anna. She nudged Jack with her hip because the chairs they were sitting on were close together.
"Oh my God! Jack, you did not!" She slammed the certificate onto the table and crossed her arms, not expecting Jack to be so serious about his argument yesterday.
"Oh I did. Now, Anna. As an electronics expert, I am absolutely sure that your opinion will be much more convincing than the Internet, I want to ask you a question. If a microwave, the plug is unplugged, will it save electricity?" Asked Jack, in the same tone he had when he gave the written quizzes to his students.
Anna, who was thrown back into a world of weirdness that she didn't understand, finally smiled when she was asked a question in a field she understood. "Oh, off course not. Electricity only flows when the microwave is ON, Jack. So, if the ON button hasn't been pressed, electricity will not flow." Said Anna with confident.
"So the answer is that electricity won't flow?"
Anna shook her head slowly.
And Jack let out an ecstatic cheer when Anna did that. "Ha! Yes! YES! I won! Jack is invincible!" Jack threw his fists in the air celebrating his triumph.
Elsa looked at her husband in annoyance, then looked at Anna who smiled awkwardly because she was again being presented with her weird neighbor's household show. Elsa felt the need to have a serious talk with her husband, so she got up and left the table.
"Aaaahh, how refreshing." Jack sighed excessively after he drank a glass of water, enjoying his triumph.
While Elsa, she went to the kitchen not far from the dining table and tried to shout at Jack in a whisper.
"Jack!" When Jack heard it, Elsa gave him a sharp gaze and gestured with her hand for Jack to come closer.
"Me?" Jack asked, pointing at his chest, playing dumb even though he could see the smoke coming out of her ears.
"Yes!" Elsa mouthed her word. Jack rose from his seat slowly, feeling that maybe, maybe he was in trouble.
Elsa motioned with her head for Jack to follow her deeper into the kitchen, stopping in the corner of the kitchen, leaning against the kitchen counter right next to the microwave.
"So, you invited Anna here, to prove me wrong?" Asked Elsa, hands in front of her chest, head tilted slightly, and her eyebrows raised. She was really pissed off.
Jack could see the blood red aura emitting from his wife's body, but he was still so happy with his triumph so that he still stubbornly tried to prank Elsa.
"Oh, no, no, no. I didn't invite Anna to prove you wrong. But, I did invite Anna to prove me RIGHT!!" Again, he cheered with all his heart. And as if that wasn't enough, Jack tilted his head dramatically, then stepped closer to the microwave, took the plug, and plugged in solemnly.
"Aahhh, I looovve that sound. That's like a music to my ea-"
"Excuse me, Jack, Elsa. Where can I wash this dishes? I'm done with my main course." All of a sudden Anna came with a dirty plates in her hand. Elsa reset her face from annoyed to neutral. But Jack, with a silly grin he reached out for the dirty plates.
"Oh, Anna. Don't bother. Tonight is special, I will wash your dishes." Jack took the dirty plates from Anna's hand.
"Really? Okay, then. Thank you, Jack." She smiled shyly but when she cast her gaze towards the microwave, her smile changed to a frown. "Why did you plug in the microwave? Don't you guys want to save electricity?" At that, Jack's smile faded and Elsa looked up with interest.
"Wait, wait, wait. Anna, didn't you say that if the plug was plugged in, the electricity didn't flow?" Jack asked, confused. Somehow, he felt the triumph he felt just a moment ago slowly slipping away from his grasp.
"Yeah, I did say that, didn't I? But, that's if the microwaves are new models. Yours, old model. This kind of microwave model, electricity will continue to flow even though the switch is not ON." Jack's smile disappeared completely, while Elsa's lips started to grin because it seemed like the triumph was now on her side.
"Okay, now that you're gonna do my dishes, I'm going to eat my dessert." Said Anna, walking away from the kitchen.
Elsa cleared her throat, and then began to move her hands in a triumphant dance. "Yeay! I won! Elsa is invincible!" Her smile widened seeing Jack's sour face. "Enjoy washing the dishes, Jack."
Elsa was just about to walk out of the kitchen when she remembered something. She turned around, approached the microwave, took the plug, and pulled it out. "Aahhh, I looovve that sound. That's like a music to my ears."
to be continued...
