Chapter 5: „A minor setback?"
A/N: Hello, dear readers. I'm finally back. Sorry, it took a while because I had to rewrite the chapter several times and haven't had much time. But now, I'm glad to present you the first part of my two-part chapter. Remember, Christmas is still around the corner, at least in the story ;) I hope you'll enjoy it.
Sweetie's POV:
What a day! I was able to perform in front of such a big audience and thus to live one of my greatest dreams but I've learned that there were some people who really liked me. Although Jake might not count for he might have been instructed by Ryder. But the hug Katie gave me was something I was missing the whole time I was with the princess. Plus I finished one of the reasons I preferred to sleep all by myself. Happy with my day's work (and night work, too) I went to bed and easily fell asleep.
"Sweetie, come out there!" I woke up by the sound of Ryder's call not hesitating to follow the order given although I was still tired and didn't know what he wanted. "Alright, Ryder (yawn). I'm out here, so what do (yawn) Sorry. So what do you want from me? But make it quick, please. I want to go back to sleep." "I'm sure, you're tired. Can you say what this is" he asked pointing at a very colorful, well, thing. "Oh, now I get it. You want to play 'guess' with me. Well, by the shape of it I'd say it is a pup house." What can I say? I still was tired and somewhat angry that he woke me up, even earlier than Chase normally did. "Don't play with me, Sweetie. You know very well that I meant if you could explain to me what we're looking at there." Well, he asked for it. "Actually, Ryder, I can't. You see I'm not an expert at Modern Arts. For all I know it could be the masterpiece of a genius or of an absolute idiot." I'm not stupid. I knew exactly what he meant but I wasn't going to say it first. "It is your work right? That's why you're tired. I can't believe you've done something like that. After all we've done for you the last couple of weeks. And why? Just because you dislike Chase?" "Stop it, Ryder." I growled. "First things first. Yes, I can't stand Chase. And he can't stand me so that feeling is mutual. Second is that it wasn't me coloring that pup house. I wasn't even close to it last night. Rocky knows about it although he doesn't exactly know what I did. But it doesn't matter for he can act as my alibi though." "If he doesn't know what you did he really couldn't be an alibi. I'm sorry, Sweetie. But as a punishment you have to stay in your pup house today." "But, Ryder, what about evidence? All you have is me disliking Chase. Other than that you can't have more because, like I said already, it wasn't me who did it." "Well, Chase saw you running away. That's enough prove to me."
Now I'm trying to find a comfortable position to get back to sleep. It's hopeless. Being falsely accused just angered me too much. Could it be the same feeling Chase had when I pinned the blame for stealing the crown on him? Wait a minute. Chase? He couldn't have seen me running away from his pup house. I wasn't even near it. 'Could it be? He wouldn't do it himself just to get me into trouble, would he?' was what I thought to myself. "Sweetie, are you in there?" It was Rocky asking. "Of course I am. Where else could I be when Ryder grounded me to my pup house?" Okay, yes. It wasn't nice to let my anger talk to someone who might not be involved. "Sure. Erm … can we talk a bit?"
Rocky's POV:
"Can we talk a bit?" I hoped she would say yes because I wanted to hear her version of the incident and I had to admit something to her. She borrowed my pup pack the last few nights. After the first time I installed a tracking device with the ability to review the last 24 hours. Now I was waiting for her response. When she didn't I sighed. "Okay, then. Just listen. I know, you weren't even close to Chase' pup house. But what did you do down the hill in the night?" "Did you spy on me?" An angry looking Sweetie stood there in the entrance of her pup house. I gulped. Now came the hardest part. "Well, you know… After you asked me for my spare tools that one night a week ago, I inserted a tracking device in them. That's how I know you weren't near his pup house." To my surprise, she wasn't angry. When I looked at her I saw an even scarier look. It was the look of someone who felt unloved by everyone. It was exactly the look I feared most since I saw it on the face of my younger sister. 'We have to help her' I thought. 'Maybe I could arrange a call between Sweetie and Paula. That could help them both.' By the way, Paula is the sister I mentioned. "All right, what about you telling me, what you needed my tools for and we discuss what we do to solve this case" I asked trying her to get to talk. Seeing the disbelieving in her eyes, hurt so much. 'Guess, I can't blame her for that since I told her that I kind of spied on her.' That silence coming from her gave me the shivers. "All right. But if you tell anyone, I will make sure you'd regret it." I gulped again. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I promise." "Well, then. Here is what I was doing the last nights."
She told me everything about her new vehicle she built all by herself and why she wasn't going to get help from someone or somepup. When I wanted to interrupt to tell her that she could trust some of us I noticed that look again. 'Man, she must have had a really hard life so far when she thinks that low of herself. Maybe that's why she did all those things, just to be noticed.' Trying to make her feel better I brushed my fur against hers like I did back then with my sister. Surprisingly it worked. Although it worked quite different than anticipated. "What exactly are you trying to do?" she asked. Surprised I jumped back. "I… I,erm … I just …" I stumbled. 'Why can't I get one simple sentence out of my mouth? All I have to say was: I just wanted to help you. Is that really that hard to say?'
Suddenly I heard a little laughter coming from that white pup. 'All right, she is in a good mood right now. All I have to do is getting Ryder to know that it wasn't Sweetie without telling him what she did instead.' "That is going to be difficult." "What is going to be difficult?" The question took me off-guard because I didn't notice that I said that aloud. But since it wasn't a secret I told her what bugged me. "Well, you won't have to worry about that. I decided to take the blame. To be honest I have a pretty good idea who did it but I have no prove. Besides, if I didn't know for sure that it wasn't me, I wouldn't believe me either." "Well, if you're sure I won't tell Ryder. But don't worry. Santa Clause will know that you weren't responsible for this. So he'll bring you presents, too." "That would be first" she mumbled. At least that's what I think she said because I didn't hear it clearly.
Not long after this Marshall and Skye joined us and we talked a bit more, mostly about the Winter Wonder Show. Soon we began to play tag. 'Ryder wouldn't want her to feel unwanted, would he?' Sweetie was amazing! I feel sorry for everyone who has to go against her in a sport competition. She's nearly as fast as Marshall, nearly as tricky as me and can jump nearly as high as Skye. It was as if she could fill out every gap the one who's it left behind. We had so much fun playing that we almost didn't notice Ryder calling for breakfast.
A/N: Well, that was chapter 5a. Hope you liked it. Sorry again for the long wait. Next chapter will start while those four pups playing tag with a new point of view.