DID YOU MISS ME?

I had to work this week. A lot. Barely any time for writing, which saddens me, because this story is going fairly well. Good paycheck, though  Luckily enough, this story was given an entire post at the Lazytown community over on livejournal by musachan. It was cool to see how many LT people on livejournal actually…read this story. (I love all the lj people who read this, FYI!)

Yayness! Anyways, this chapter is kind of weird. Still not that much Robbie. Some Genevive, a bit of Stephanie, and the antics of my two most favoritest puppets in all of Lazytown! (Even though they aren't technically dating, I still think they're kind of totally gay for each other.) ;)

Thank you for all the reviews! Much love to all of you.

Love, Scoutsdream

P.S. I still don't own Lazytown, yo. That belongs to Sportacus, you heard?

By the time Genevive got back down to Robbie's place, she found him gently snoring in his favorite chair. She took a moment to look at her brother. Never did he look more relaxed than when he was sleeping. His eyebrows weren't knit in frustration, nor was he maniacally jumping around like a drug addict. He was gracefully slung across the chair, looking like he was strategically placed to look even slightly arrogant in his sleep. Shaking her head, she quietly tiptoed into his kitchen, hoping the rustling of the plastic bags wouldn't wake him.

Unpacking the groceries, she thought back over the evening. All these new people, she thought, that I never knew existed. Part of her wished that she still lived in the town with all the interesting characters that were around. From what she'd gathered from the talk her and Robbie's discussion earlier, there were several teens in the town, not just the wonderful Stephanie.

Stephanie had come as such a surprise to her. How nice to walk into the grocery store and walk out with groceries and a new friend. In her mind, she thought that Stephanie, although considerably younger than her brother, might be just the girl to melt his heart. Sweet, funny, caring, good-looking… Stephanie, in a way, reminded her of herself when she was younger. Although, Genevive was positive that Stephanie didn't have a mean bone in her body; if she did, it was a very small bone. Genevive knew she had a few mean bones. She liked to think that one was in her right leg, and the other was one of her ribs. And probably one or two of the discs that made up her spine were a little mean, as well.

A couple of hours later, all the groceries were put away and Genevive had made dinner, which the sleeping Robbie probably wouldn't discover for a few more hours. Genevive decided to explore Robbie's underground lair a little bit, and discovered that it was much larger than she'd previously thought. There were a couple trap doors, several dusty bedrooms, and more wacky inventions and disguises than she knew what to do with. Maybe I'll stick around for one more day, she thought, as she retired to a guest room, presumably never used. Slumping onto the bed, she took a look at her watch and realized that it was only seven fifty in the evening. But all the taxing events of the day had taken their toll, and within seconds, she was asleep to the world.

Stephanie didn't know if what she was feeling had to do with the flattery of Genevive telling her she was cute, or if it was just the sheer embarrassment of not being able to take her mind off of either Genevive or Robbie. When she finally arrived back at her uncle's house, she realized her face was still considerably warm. She stood on the porch for a minute thinking about how strange Robbie was, before realizing that indeed, she had a cake to make.

Throwing the bag onto the counter, she pulled out the cookbook. She remembered the time when she was eight, and her uncle had commissioned Pixel, Stingy, and Ziggy to make a cake for Aunt Bessie. They'd had a good time making not one, but three cakes, the first of which ended in total disaster, and the second of which looking totally perfect. Probably the best-looking cake I've ever made, she thought. But she remembered later that day, when she had tasted the little remains of the first cake, how delicious it had been compared to the cake they'd made for Bessie. Nothing better than a cake made with ordered chaos, she supposed.

Then she remembered what had happened to the second cake they'd made that day. She snorted a little as she remembered Robbie stealing the cake and then trying to blame it on Sportacus. He's such a… goofball, she thought as she unloaded all the ingredients. He goes through so much just to make us shut up or get rid of Sportacus… it's no wonder he's the skinniest man in town. Even with all the cake! For someone so lazy, he's one of the most active people I've ever seen.

She glanced at the cake recipe in the cookbook, but quickly closed it. She could remember how to make a cake, and she didn't need a stupid book to tell her how to do it. Cooking by the book, indeed, she thought as she poured the mix into a bowl. She was about to crack an egg over the mix when a loud knock came from the door. A glance at the clock told her it was only seven thirty, so her uncle couldn't possibly be home yet! "Coming," she yelled as she ran to the front door.

"Who is it?"

For the second time that night, a faux-gruff voice answered, "It's Robbie Rotten; let me in!"

Stephanie blushed as she yelled back "Shut up, Stingy. I'll only let you in if you admit it's you!"

"Me too, Stephanie!" came another voice.

"Ziggy!" Stephanie exclaimed as she threw open the door and took her two friends into a hug. "I'm so glad to see you two, you have no idea!"

Stingy shrugged as he pulled on his red bow tie. "Well, we heard what had happened with you and Trixie and Pixel a couple of hours ago, so we came to see how you were. Plus, I smelled cake and I'm pretty sure it's mine."

Stephanie laughed and shook her head as she led her friends into the kitchen. "It's not even that big of a deal what Trixie and Pixel said. It's just…"

"It's been happening a lot lately, we've noticed," said Ziggy, picking up an apple from the basket on the counter. "Especially to you. Trixie's been really on-edge lately, even Sportacus says so."

Stephanie rolled her eyes and added some water to the cake mix. "Well, I'm used to Trixie being mean, so that wasn't a big deal. It just made me mad because… they were being rude to someone else, and I basically had to force them to apologize."

Stingy was absentmindedly spinning a quarter between his fingers, but looked up when Stephanie mentioned someone else. "Who? Was it Sportacus? Major drama!"

"No, it wasn't Sportacus," Stephanie pragmatically replied, but not before yet another eye roll. "It was… Robbie."

"Stephanie, why would you care what they said to Robbie? Are you in love with him or something?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows. Ziggy gave a high-pitched giggle.

Stephanie blanched furiously. "Of course not, you dork. What would even possess you to say that? But anyways, if everyone is nicer to Robbie, eventually I think he'll reciprocate."

"Doubt it," said Stingy, hopping off of his chair and going over to help Stephanie. Even though Stingy was rich, he had become much more considerate of his friend's feelings over the years. "What can I do for you, mistress baker?"

"Well, Prince Stingy, you can start making frosting if you like," she laughed. "Any color you want." She tossed him a cooking hat, and put one on herself. She held a third out to Ziggy, who was still working on his apple.

"I'd probably better not," he said, waving the hat away. "The temptation would be too great. That hat brings out the baker in me. And the baker in me is a serious sugar addict. Besides, Sportacus said-"

"Ziggy, I really don't give a damn about what Sportacus says about cake or whatever. You only live once, so why not start now?" She said, still holding out the hat. After a moment, he grinned and grabbed in, and joined right in the baking activities.

After the cake went in the oven, it was time to color the frosting. Ziggy and Stingy sent Stephanie out of the kitchen as they colored the frosting and frosted the cake. To be tempted not to take a peek into the kitchen, she went in the living room and turned on the TV and found herself nodding off.

In her sleep, she saw herself buying groceries for Robbie. Only, in the dream, she delivered the groceries right to his front door, even though she had no idea what his front door looked like, or even if he had a front door. He flung the door open and swept her into a grateful bear hug, and her heartbeat quickened just thinking about it. "Thank you for the groceries," the Dream Robbie yelled right into her ear. "You're welcome!" Dream Stephanie yelled back.

And then he kissed her. "Are you in love with him or something?" a voice echoed in her mind as their lips still locked together in happiness. "Are you two in love or something?" Nothing could be better.

"TA DAH!" two loud voices came, snapping her out of her dream. She felt all clammy as she looked up at the clock. Eight thirty. It was easy to keep emotions from her face. She didn't even know how she was feeling. The room was dark, except for the glow from the TV and the light streaming from the kitchen. Ziggy and stepped out of the kitchen and flicked on the living room lights, a cake in his hands.

The cake had two different colored stripes of pink. Ziggy held it out. "Do you like? In honor of you!" She nodded, not wanting to say anything, for fear of spilling out her dream.

"What about this cake?" mischievously asked another voice, as Stingy stepped out of the kitchen and stood right next to Ziggy. One look at the second cake, and Stephanie thought she was hallucinating. It was frosted in blue, purple and burgundy "In honor of… your boyfriend Robbie!" Him and Ziggy laughed jovially.

"I… I think I'm gonna be sick," Stephanie said as she ran to the bathroom, her hand covering her mouth.

"I told you it was a bad idea, Ziggy!" said Stingy as they both took slices of the cake and sat down on the couch to watch TV.