DISCLAIMER – I do not own The Weekenders or any of the show's characters. Doug Langdale and Disney own them. I also do not own A Midsummer Night's Dream. The title and a quote I used in this piece of fanfiction both belong to William Shakespeare. Just the "Pizza, Baby!" in this chapter belongs to me.
AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, I just wanted to say something else concerning the first chapter: Unfortunately, I only have the German version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, so I had to look up the original quote in a search engine. I hope I cited it correctly. If anyone has Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and finds a mistake in my quote (apart from Tish's name in it, of course ;)), please tell me, and I'll correct it, okay? Now, on with the story…
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-SATURDAY-There wasn't even light yet, when Tish's eyes fluttered open once again. Her glance fell upon the dark ceiling. She sighed and rolled over on her other side. But she knew that sleep wouldn't come easy to her. The whole night long, she had slept for one hour, then lay awake for another hour, then fell asleep again, only to awake again another hour later. She had to think about so many things. On the one hand, she was still touched by the letter, on the other hand, she felt totally helpless. She just hadn't been prepared for such a revelation and above all, the uncertainty about who nursed such feelings for her out of all people tortured her. But another thought tortured her as well: The thought of Lor. What if the letter really came from Thomson Oberman? True, he would be the one in Bahia Bay who Tish would secretly most want to admire her. After all, Thomson was very intelligent and well-read, just like her. But as she remembered the time when Lor almost freaked out because of Tish's so-called "coming on to him", her throat almost tied up. Lor would never ever forgive her if she, in her stead, came together with Thomson. Tish closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep, hoping that someone else would turn out to be her admirer…
Thomson's football practice started at 9 a.m. Punctually, Tish, Tino and Carver met at the football field. The plan was simple: Tish was supposed to get into the first row of the grandstand and cheer for Thomson. Tino and Carver would hide next to the grandstand and watch Thomson's reactions from there.
And so, Tish got up on the grandstand, to the very front, and cheered for Thomson enthusiastically. However, she only did that when the rest of the audience cheered as well. For this was only practice and no match for the football team, there certainly weren't many people around, hardly more than a dozen. Tish would've felt too embarrassed, if she really had acted like some sort of groupie. But every time she helplessly looked over at Tino and Carver, the two of them signaled her to make herself more noticed. Eventually, Tish couldn't stand the boys' urging any longer. She had to think of something to draw Thomson's attention to her. She had to think of something fast.
Unfortunately, Tish exaggerated a bit, under all this pressure. She loudly exclaimed all of a sudden: "Thomson Oberman, you are the greatest! With your sporty nature and sense of motion you truly have this game down to a fine art!"
As nobody else was cheering or shouting at that moment, Thomson could clearly understand her. Confused, he turned around when he was just about to get ready to catch the ball. The consequence: The ball hit Thomson's head and he fell to the ground. Tish gasped for a moment and then glared at Carver and Tino who grinned at her apologetically. Fortunately, Thomson immediately got on his feet again and continued as if nothing had happened at all.
For the rest of the practice, Tish had been reserved with her cheering again. When the practice was over and the football team met for a discussion in the middle of the field, Tish went back to the others.
"Great plan!" she hissed at the boys.
"Hey, we just told you to cheer, not to hold a speech," Tino replied.
Carver said: "But did you notice Thomson's reaction? Did you see how he looked at you, Tish? That means something!"
"It means that I distracted him from playing with a stupid exclamation, so that he injured his head!"
"Yeah, but why did he injure his head?"
"He was hit by the ball," Tino answered drily.
"Yes, I know that. But I mean, why did he let Tish distract him?" Carver corrected.
"Guys, that doesn't matter at all!" Tish stated. "All we wanted was to find out if he wrote the letter."
"Yeah, that's why we have to find out if he's crushing on you," Carver added.
"You guys, I've got it!" Tino cried out suddenly. "Tish, you just have to ask Thomson for a signature!"
"WHAT?" Tish gasped.
"So you can compare the handwriting!"
"Gosh, alright – it may be embarrassing, but the odds for this plan to work out are at least a little bit higher than the odds for me to get even more humiliated."
When the team was leaving the field, Tish already stood I position. Smiling, with her hands behind her back, she was standing at the edge of the field, when Thomson approached her. He was looking at her in a confused way, and when he was standing in front of her, he stuttered: "Um, hi Tish. Uh, before, what…?"
Tish quickly interrupted him: "Umm, Thomson, you… played so very well. I admire your achievement!"
"Well, thanks. But…"
"Would you give me the great honor to sign my yearbook?"
"What? You… want me to give you an autograph or something?"
"Uh, yes… please," Tish grinned and offered the yearbook, which she carried with her for her investigation concerning the letter, to him. Thomson skeptically looked at her, but finally he took the pen, which Carver had quickly given to Tish, and opened the book.
"With dedication please…," Tish added ashamedly. "Please write: To Petratishkovna."
Thomson did as she said and gave the book back to her.
"Thanks."
"Uh, yeah – see ya…," Thomson uttered and quickly made sure to get away. Tish sighed in shame, she felt like an idiot. Thomson always respected her because of her intelligence. What if he didn't any more now?
But Tish quickly remembered her task. She pulled the love letter out of her pocket and compared. She frowned a bit and then explained: "Guys, it wasn't him. His handwriting is totally different from my secret admirer's."
In a way, they all were relieved. At least, Lor wouldn't have a reason to worry. But they didn't succeed. They had to think of a new plan and, above all, of a new potential author for the love letter. But first, they wanted to eat something, for it was noon already.
This week, the Pizza Place was entitled "Pizza, Baby!" The colorful rounded letters and the peace symbols on the sign unequivocally showed that the Pizza Place was entirely dedicated to the 60's this time. When Tino, Tish and Carver entered, the sounds of guitars immediately penetrated into their ears, and they beheld a sea of flowers, love beads and protest signs saying things like "Give Pizza a chance". In the middle of the room, the pizza guy was sitting, wearing hippie clothes – even a long wig –, playing guitar. Around him, there weren't any chairs or tables, only some quilts were lying on the floor for the guests to sit down.
On one of those, the three spotted no one else but Lor who was just complaining: "Hey, when will I get my pizza? I've been ordering it for the forth time now!"
The pizza guy didn't bother to interrupt his guitar playing, but he answered in a firm and loud voice: "I won't serve any pizzas until you've heard my message! For you, eating a pizza is nothing but consuming food. You're selfish when you eat a pizza! But pizza has its rights, too! The right to be eaten with pleasure! Give pizza a chance! Take it as it is! Just think about those poor animals that end up on it!"
"Alright, then I take my pizza without any meat on it, if you insist – but hurry up a little, I'm starving!"
At that moment, the other three had approached Lor, and Tino asked: "Do you still have room for three on that quilt?"
Lor turned around in surprise and immediately looked down again, suspiciously: "Oh look who we've got here. Three so-called 'friends' of mine who conspired against me!"
Silently, the three sat down beside her, when Lor asked venomously: "So, Tish? Are you happy now with Thomson?"
"WHAT?" Tish exclaimed. "Lor – I'm not interested in Thomson! How many times do I need to explain that to you? Besides, we just found out that he DIDN'T write the letter to me."
"Really?"
"No, he didn't."
"HA!" Lor shouted with triumph. "That's what I told you right away! I told you he can't be it! Well, you would've liked that, Tish, wouldn't you, but you were wrong!"
"It's okay, Lor! You were right, now let it go."
"Sorry. How did you find out? Oh – wait, I don't wanna know at all!"
Carver interrupted: "But now I wanna know something: Who else could it be?"
Lor added: "And I wanna know when I'm gonna get my pizza?" She hit her fists onto the floor, and the pizza guy came to them as if he'd been called.
"Ah," he said. "I can sense it, you understand now that you have to enjoy your pizza! Groovy! Take it as it is and enjoy it! Pizza, baby!" With that, he set a plate on their quilt with a pizza dough in the shape of a peace symbol – without anything on it.
"Can things get any weirder?" Tino commented.
While they were enjoying their "pizza", they certainly talked about Tish's secret admirer. They decided to scrutinize Percy next. As he usually went to the mall with Ruby on Saturdays, the four wanted to head there right after their meal. There wasn't but one problem with it: They needed a new plan.
"You can't just ask him for an autograph, too," Carver explained when they left the Pizza Place and stood in front of it.
"Autograph? Who, what?" Lor asked disturbed and pretty irritable.
"Just forget it," Carver tried to soothe her.
"But above all: Do you really want to ask him in front of Ruby?" Tino inquired.
"I don't know…," Tish said. "Does any one of you have a better idea? I don't. You certainly know that I'm not very familiar with the subject love." After a short pause, she asked: "What would you do, if you were in my situation?"
"Well, personally…," Tino said. "If I got a love letter… I'd distribute flyers to all the girls in town and they are to rate how much they like me."
"Just like the time when you distributed flyers to all the people in town to find out if they liked you?" Lor giggled.
"Just like… that," Tino answered, feeling a bit ashamed.
"That's not a bad idea at all!" Carver figured. "That'd certainly make for a good plan…"
Carver didn't want to tell them already what exactly he had in mind, but he needed a computer. And as no one of them had one in their own rooms, except for Tino, the four friends rushed straight to his place. Willingly, Tino let Carver use his computer. While Tino, Lor and Tish were waiting for Carver to share his idea with them, suddenly Tino's Mom knocked on the door. She did notice the four enter the house, but they hadn't said a word to her. As usual, that wasn't even necessary. Mrs. Tonitini always knew what was troubling her son right away.
After she had knocked, Tino's Mom asked on the other side of the closed door: "May I come in for a second?"
"No, Mom!" Tino shouted. "We're very busy right now."
"Yes, I know you absolutely want to find out who wrote that mysterious love letter to Tish," Mrs. Tonitini answered. "But don't you forget something over this whole thing?"
Carver shortly interrupted and asked Tino: "Man, T, your Mom can even read your thoughts through closed doors?"
"Even from 50 miles distance and through soundproof walls," Tino explained drily and then shouted towards the door: "Don't worry, Mom, we already finished our homework."
Mrs. Tonitini replied: "Actually, I meant…"
"Mom, we wanna finish that," Tino interrupted. "But thank you for knocking before entering my thoughts this time."
His mother sighed. Probably, they'd figure it out themselves sooner or later. "No problem, honey." With that, she went back down into the kitchen.
And the four went back to their intention. Finally, Carver had finished. He printed the flayer he had just put together and proudly showed it to his friends. "Regardez-vous!" he said in a slightly arrogant way. "I guarantee this will help us with our search…"
The others curiously looked at the piece of paper and Tish skeptically read aloud what it said: "Competition…" Beneath, there was a picture of her. Tish continued: "What's the full name of this girl? Every correct answer will take part in the big raffle. Grand prize: 1 free chug-a-freeze…?"
She shortly exchanged confused looks with Lor and Tino and then asked Carver in an annoyed way: "And may I ask how this nonsense is going to help me find my admirer!"
"Well, isn't it obvious?" Carver explained. "Everyone who takes part in the competition must write your name on that flyer. That way, we can compare the handwriting of every participant with that on your letter!"
"But what about the grand prize: 1 free chug-a-freeze?" Lor insisted.
"Not only boys will want to win that – if anyone at all," Tino said.
"That's even better!" Carver replied. "Then at least no one will wonder what we really plan to do."
"Oh yeah," Tino commented in a sarcastic way. "Certainly no one will wonder why you want to buy them a chug-a-freeze…"
"Who said I'll buy it for them?" Carver grinned at him.
"Carver, this plan sprang from complete idiocy! … But it's the only one we have," Tish sighed.
"Then let's go to the mall right away, before everything's closing!" Tino demanded, and the four of them were on their way immediately.
They simply stood in front of the escalator near the chug-a-freeze stand and distributed their flyers to all their school mates who came past them. Rather unexpectedly, they all filled up the supposed competition with enthusiasm. However, the security staff was not very enthusiastic, as they got attentive to the four after about an hour and threw them out once again. At least without banning them this time. And by that time the four friends had collected almost 80 filled up flyers all the same.
For the analysis of the handwritings, they went back into the quiet four walls of Tino. After his mother had promised not to disturb them, they got started. First of all, they had to sort out the flyers filled up by girls. That way there still were about 30 potential candidates left all the same. And about half of them couldn't be considered as they didn't know how to spell Tish's name. This time, Tish, Tino, Carver and Lor wanted to take it as seriously as possible. Every one of them compared each and every handwriting with the one on the letter, so that they'd get a somewhat secure and reliable opinion.
Almost three hours later, they finally had finished with all the flyers, being so very thorough. And they came to the conclusion:
"That's impossible!" Tish stated in dismay. "No one of these guys wrote that letter! "
"Well, we sure didn't get every guy's handwriting, because of that stupid security guy who threw us out," Lor said.
"And besides, we're not graphologists or something like that…," Tino added.
"I almost fear I'm never going to find out who wrote that letter to me…," Tish sighed, lying on the floor on her belly, propping up on her arms.
"Hey, maybe he'll show up to you some time…," Lor tried to soothe her.
"But what if he doesn't? That's so hopeless!" Tish sobbed and let her head sink into her arms.
The other three looked at her sympathetically. Carver finally sighed: "Oh man, I guess we need a genius to solve this riddle…"
"Well, looks like our genius is just having a nervous breakdown," Tino stated, pointing at Tish.
But at that moment Tish rapidly moved her head up again, as if in a reflex action, and gaped into nothingness, astonished as if she just had the brainwave of the century. She lifted her index finger in a demonstrative way and beamed at her three surprised friends: "That's it! Why haven't I thought of that before? Yes, we need a genius!"
The other three went rapidly from bewildered to confused. Carver was the first to ask: "Uh… how exactly do you mean?"
Tish got up and said: "You'll see that soon enough. It's late already, I have to go home soon. Tomorrow morning, we'll all meet at my house, and then we'll ask for a piece of advice from a very wise person…"
End of Chapter Two