Like I said a couple chapters back, I had a couple of alternate beginnings for this story and this chapter is one of them. The versions of the girls in this chapter are essentially beta versions, so forgive inconsistencies with their characters.
Louie was glad to have a break.
He loved adventuring, don't get him wrong, but sometimes everyone needed a chance to get out and have a small one to just enjoy themselves. Just to relax. Hence why he, Huey, and Dewey were at the skate park with their mother. Huey was decked out in full padding with his skateboard below his feet. Della had insisted on all three of them wearing proper protection in case they crashed into something or someone. She herself was already at it.
"This is dumb," sighed Louie.
"C'mon, we need to relax," Dewey insisted.
"How is this relaxing? We're still doing physical activity."
"Well, you could just watch us and Mom," Huey suggested. "There's sure to be a bunch of people who are fun to see."
Louie rolled his eyes as his brothers headed off to have their fun. He sat down on a bench and sipped a can of PEP. Della, of course, was attracting plenty of attention with her skill (and robot leg). Dewey was seeking attention. Huey was trying to do everything in the safest way possible. Eventually the eldest gave up and came to sit with Louie.
"This was a terrible idea," he told the youngest.
"I know."
"At least Mom and Dewey are having fun. That's what matters."
"I'd rather be home watching Ottoman Empire."
Suddenly someone shot out of the half-pipe in front of them, skidding to a stop. It was a duckling wearing a pair of purple overalls and a white T-shirt underneath. Louie rolled his eyes again—another showoff—and pulled out his phone. Unfortunately, Huey made the decision to start talking to whoever it was.
"Nice skates."
"Thanks. They're custom rollerblades."
"How long did it take you?"
"I'm always fiddling with them—trying to go faster, improve stopping, things like that." Louie glanced up to see her holding out a hand to Huey. "I'm June. You?"
"Huey. And this is my brother, Louie."
"It's nice to meet you both." She glanced from side to side. "Have either of you seen a purple bag?"
"No, why?"
"I left it over here while I tested these babies." She tapped a rollerblade on the ground for emphasis. "It's a purple backpack with my name on it in big white letters and Darkwing Duck patches."
"Ooh, I'll help you look."
"We could call my phone. I have a super-loud ringtone and it's in my backpack."
Louie held out his phone to Huey, knowing the request was coming. June hit a button on her skates and they were retracted into her shoes. As she told Huey her number she unbuckled her helmet, shaking out her ponytail. A fluttery feeling started in Louie's gut. Suddenly he felt like he needed to help her.
Across the skatepark they heard the sound of the song 'Stand Out' by Powerline blaring. They could see one of the Beagle Boys carrying the backpack as he tried to run and find the phone at the same time. June quickly put her helmet back on and hit the button on her skates again as she went after the thief. Dewey and Della both took notice of what was happening and launched themselves into action. Della swooped in front of him on her board and forced him to suddenly stop. June slipped by and grabbed her backpack, using it to swing it onto her back and head back towards Huey and Louie.
"Wow…" whispered Louie. "That was cool."
"Mom's the coolest," Dewey snorted. "Of course it was cool."
"Thanks again for helping me get my bag back," June told Huey. "And thanks for letting us use your phone."
"It was no problem. Keep a better eye on your stuff."
"Usually my sister May watches it for me but she had some kind of thing today. I'll be sure to be more careful, though!" She smiled and took off her padding, sticking it back in her bag once she'd retracted her skates again.
Louie and his brothers watched her go while Della wrestled the Beagle Boy not far away. Without anyone noticing, he saved June in his contacts. She seemed like a person he wanted to talk to more often.
Hey, June. It's Louie.
Hi, Louie! I'd ask how you got my number but that would be a dumb question.
Anything missing from your bag?
A few snacks. I think he was hungry and saw my pretzels.
Then he decided, 'hey, why don't I take the whole bag?'
Yep, that sounds like one of the Beagle Boys.
You know, if you aren't busy tomorrow, we can hang out for a while.
I'm not busy much. Except for school, which I have tomorrow.
Wait, don't you have school?
My uncle homeschools us. It's…
Complicated. We're homeschooled for complicated reasons.
Ah, complications. I get it.
So where do you want to meet?
Maybe Funzo's? I don't know.
Funzo's Fun Zone—where fun is in the zone.
I never get to go there. My aunt's too busy to take us and my sisters don't care for it.
I'd love to meet you there.
Cool. I'll see you at four?
Perfect! See you then!
Louie let out a sigh of relief and set his phone down.
"Why are we following him?"
"Because, Webs, he's going somewhere and didn't tell us about it," Dewey replied.
"Normally I don't condone eavesdropping or spying, but this is an exception," added Huey.
They were wearing disguises to ensure that they wouldn't be recognized immediately as they rode the bus. Louie was at the front, eyes on his phone as he texted someone with a nervous expression. He got off at the stop for Funzo's Fun Zone and that was when Webby narrowed her eyes with suspicion.
"Why would he go to Funzo's and not tell us?" she whispered.
"That's why we're here," Huey reminded her.
Instead of going inside, Louie was pacing in front of the arcade. He kept checking his phone and looking around as if he was waiting for someone. Eventually, someone came up in full purple padding wearing a backpack. Huey recognized her as June from the skate park the day before.
"It's June. He's meeting her here?"
"Who?" Dewey questioned.
"June. We met her at the skate park yesterday. Her backpack was stolen by one of the Beagle Boys?"
"Oh, okay. But why is he meeting her?"
"They're going inside!" hissed Webby, grabbing the attention of the elder two triplets.
Silently they went into the building, where they saw Louie and June talking as the latter removed her padding and put it into her backpack. Her skates were nowhere to be seen but she'd probably retracted them into her sneakers. The two headed off towards the games.
"Wait, I think… I think they're on a date!" Huey gasped.
"No way. Louie went on a date before any of us?"
"Well, we don't know it's a date. How did he even get in contact with her?" Webby pointed out.
"June borrowed his phone when her backpack was stolen," the eldest triplet explained. "He must've saved her number."
"That would make sense. So what now? Do we just watch them the whole time?"
"I dunno…"
"Ugh, I hate this place," they heard a girl say.
"Can you pretend not to for ten minutes?" another girl replied. "This is important!"
They turned to see a pair of girls—one with her hair in pigtails and the other in glasses—entering the building. The one with her hair in pigtails wore a yellow blouse and a matching skirt. The one with glasses, on the other hand, donned a simple orange t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
"I don't understand why she didn't tell us where she was going," the one in yellow sighed.
"Obviously it's because you hate this place," snorted the one in orange. They looked around and Yellow pointed towards Louie and June as soon as she spotted them.
"There she is! And she's with a boy!"
"Do you know him?"
"No, do you?"
"Excuse me," Huey interrupted, walking up to them. "Might I ask who you are?"
"I could ask you the same question," Yellow responded.
"We asked first," Dewey spoke up.
"Look, we're just here to keep an eye on our sister," Orange piped in. "She's the youngest so we need to keep her safe. I'm May, by the way." She held out her hand to Dewey, who accepted her handshake.
"Hey, June mentioned you yesterday!" Huey gasped. "Her backpack got stolen—"
"She mentioned it when she got home. April here was ready to go pound that guy into the ground."
April grumbled something about personal business.
"Well, that guy she's with is our little brother," Dewey explained. "She's fine, we promise."
Webby glanced between the two sets of older siblings.
"Wait a second. Are you two part of a set of triplets, too?"
"Yep," May replied. "Wait, too?"
"Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplets."
"Oh, cool! Triplet friends!"
April rolled her eyes.
"You guys wanna go closer and embarrass them?" Dewey snickered.
"Heck yes." May nodded.
"I can't believe we're doing this," muttered April.
"You can go if you want. I'm not making you stay."
"No, I can't. I'm the oldest so it's my job to keep an eye on you and Junie."
"Suit yourself."
The middle triplets and Webby ran off to get a closer look at Louie and June, leaving the eldest two alone.
As brilliant and sneaky as the others were, they had not gone unnoticed.
June and Louie heard their siblings talking and immediately groaned in unison. Louie grabbed her hand and pulled her to a corner where they were well out of sight of the five who'd followed them.
"I'm sorry—my sisters are really nosy," June sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to make sure I was 'safe' or something."
"I didn't tell my brothers anything so they got suspicious and dragged our sort-of sister into it," Louie told her. "Ugh. I should've said something so they'd leave me alone. But I couldn't think of anything to tell them. Being a triplet sucks sometimes."
"Tell me about it. I'm the baby so I have to be protected. Ugh."
They blinked and stared at each other.
"Wait, you're a triplet?" he asked.
"Yeah. The youngest and the 'evil' one."
"Same here. Guess we have that much in common, huh?"
"True. I mean, you have your mom and I'm being raised by my aunt—"
"Actually, Mom's a recent development. We were raised by our uncle for the most part."
"Whoa." She shook her head. "Wow, okay. That's weird."
"Super weird. But my family's used to weird." He put a token in the skee-ball machine and the projectiles rumbled down. June grabbed one and took aim, landing it in a fifty-point slot.
"Mine's not. The weirdest thing that's happened to us was when my aunt made it onto Emma Glamour's IT list." Louie took his turn and landed a hundred-pointer.
"I tried to get my uncle's band onto the list, but it didn't work out."
"Aw. Maybe next year. I could ask my aunt to help him out. She's Emma Glamour's personal assistant." Louie froze.
"Wait. Your aunt is Daisy Duck?!" She nodded and threw a ball. "She's dating my uncle!"
"Your uncle is Donald? He's so nice! We met him a couple weeks ago and he had no problem telling the three of us apart once he learned our names. Our teachers don't stop mixing us up until we're halfway through the year."
"I guess it comes from raising us."
"That sounds about right. He's really sweet to Aunt Daisy, too. Much more than her last boyfriend. He was a moocher." She let out a chuckle. "As soon as we figured that out we ran him off. Good riddance." She narrowed her eyes as she saw that he'd landed another hundred-pointer. "I swear you're cheating."
"I swear to you, milady, I am not."
"Are too!"
She tossed another one and they continued alternating until they ran out of balls. At that point the tickets came pouring out and June tore them off.
"So, who gets the tickets?"
"You can. I've been here enough times that I don't need anything from the prize counter."
"You're really sweet, you know that?"
"Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold."
"What reputation?"
They laughed and headed for another game, taking care to not be noticed by their respective siblings. It was a fun afternoon and at the end of it all June wound up going home with a toy panda.
This left Louie facing Huey, Dewey, and Webby, all of whom looked rather sheepish as the four rode the bus back to Killmotor Hill.
"Hey, where have you all been?" Della greeted them as they walked through the door.
"I was hanging out with a new friend of mine," Louie explained. "These three were stalking me."
"We weren't stalking!" protested Huey.
"We were just curious as to where he was going and who he was meeting and—nope, he's right, we were totally stalking," Webby sighed.
"Good to know. Anyway, just so you know, Donald just told me that we're having guests for dinner on Friday. Daisy's coming over with her nieces so we can all meet each other."
"Daisy has nieces?" Dewey stated, confused.
"Yeah, I was surprised, too."
Louie had to bite his tongue to keep from bursting out laughing.
"They're about your age, a set of triplets. I hope you kids can get along with each other."
She went off to her room and the others looked to Louie, who smirked.
"What's got you so happy?" Huey inquired.
"Nothing, except that I think Friday's going to go just fine."
"How do you know that?"
"Because April, May, and June are Daisy's nieces and we get along fine."
"Whoa!" Webby's eyes lit up. "That's awesome! So we don't have anything to worry about. We'll all have dinner and then everything will go great!"
"April seems kind of… standoffish," Huey pointed out.
"May and June are okay, though," Dewey added. "April's just a grump."
Louie rolled his eyes.
Friday came around and there was chaos in the house as Donald cleaned up for their guests. And at six o'clock Daisy arrived with her nieces in tow. The trio were wearing matching dresses that their aunt had obviously made and they greeted Donald warmly.
"They're so cute!" Della gushed to Scrooge as she dashed into the dining room where he was waiting. "Apparently we're not the only ones to color-code the kids."
"Calm down, Della. We won't do Donald any favors by squealing like schoolchildren."
"I just hope they get along with the boys. They could use more friends."
"Mom, we'll be fine," Louie assured her from where he was seated. "We've already met them."
"You have? When?"
"Monday. At Funzo's."
"Oh. Good! So you get along?"
"Me and June do. And I think May and Dewey, too. Not sure about April."
Before too much longer, Daisy and the girls entered the dining room with Donald. Scrooge welcomed them warmly into his home as they took their seats and dinner was served. April was the quietest kid at the table as everyone else broke the ice by talking about their interests. Donald was the one to take notice and he cleared his throat.
"So, April. Daisy said you're in drama club?"
"Yeah. A little. I don't do much because the club president doesn't like June."
"If she would stop mocking me for everything we'd have less of a problem," June pointed out.
"Who needs someone like that around?" Huey asked. "If you ask me, maybe you should just try to get the lead in the next show or something."
"I can't. It's a whole… inter-club thing. President gets the lead, always."
"Well that's just ridiculous," Scrooge snorted. "Someone should go talk some sense inta whoever's in charge."
April blinked. It was rare adults who weren't her aunt stood up for her.
"Thanks, Scrooge. I'll try talking to the teacher."
"Ya need ta have confidence in yerself, lass. Otherwise yer never gonna improve."
For the first time April had a big smile on her face.
It felt like the girls' small family had just grown a whole lot bigger.
Beta version of the first chapter written while I was still tweaking things. It actually sort of combines both beta versions I had with them hanging out independently and a small dinner party with both families. If it feels slapped together, well, it kind of is. I just wanted to add to the word count a bit.
I'm going to take a bit of a break to think about where to go next, but I may delve more into the future going forward or even return to the past. I really don't know right now.
So long and thanks for all the fish!