A lot of things boil over in this chapter, arguments that were just waiting for the right moment, thoughtful conversations that happened by accident, and one film contest where anything's possible.

Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own Rugrats, All Grown Up, or the producer's idea's too.

Chapter 13

Every Dawn Will Have Its Day...Usually

Tommy passed by Dil's room on the way to the kitchen, unaware that he had gone for a walk about an hour ago. He walked inside to make a few hysterical, but not what Tommy considered cruel, jokes. Some things never change. Tommy smiled to himself "Hey Dilly," Tommy pushed open the door and found no shy brother wedged behind his drum set. All he did see was an orange notebook sprawled on the floor. Tommy had never seen this book before and couldn't resist the urge to flip through it. Woah, did Dil write these? He was amazed by the deep, thought-provoking lyrics in front of him, so instead of doing the right thing and putting the notebook back, Tommy chose to do the human thing and left the room, lyrics in hand, plans for them in mind.

Kimi never made it to the Pickle's house. She took an extended route through the park where she spotted Dil on a bench, utterly and completely spaced out. He glanced up briefly and immediately saw Kimi sitting next to him.

"Um, I think this is where I'm supposed to say 'boo,'" Kimi smirked.

Dil laughed softly. "Hi."

"What's up?"

"Nothing, I was trying to fix our film before the contest tonight. It needs something."

"Oh, cool. It's weird; I was just heading to your house."

"Why?"

Kimi just realized what she had gotten herself into, but she didn't want to lie. "Um, to talk to Tommy."

Dil looked away as he crossed his arms. "Oh, right."

"I don't think he's..." Kimi trailed off.

Dil sat up; Tommy must have done something he didn't know about. "What happened?"

Now it was Kimi's turn to look away. "At lunch on Friday, Tommy's friends were naming all the girls they thought were 'ugly.' Just to be idiots, I guess, but anyway, they said me, and they asked Tommy what he thought and-"

Kimi didn't have to finish the story, Dil knew how it ended. He'd been in the same position one too many times. "Don't worry about it. Tommy does this stuff to everyone, trust me."

"God, I feel terrible."

"Why? You didn't do anything."

"Every time we talk, it's always about me, but I never even think about you. Wow, that's not what I meant to say at all, shoot."

"It's cool. Honestly, the fact that you're thinking about not thinking about me is more than anyone ever thinks about me," Dil grinned, "If that makes any sense."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"Look, I will always be the shy one in the corner who sees everything but says nothing. And when I do say something, it will probably be sarcastic. I'm fine with that."

"Tommy used to think about you."

Dil shook his head. "The day Tommy slid into home base is the day he stopped thinking. We're not friends anymore, we're barely even siblings. I don't care anymore."

"But he should care, you've got this whole, like, secret life. I mean, you're a drummer, a film-maker, and quite the sarcastic one."

"Thanks for the ego-booster, but Tommy doesn't even matter. I can't believe he said that stuff, jerk."

"He's...I dunno what he is."

Dil stood up. "I'm gonna head home, are you still going?"

"No, I'm gonna stay here for awhile, but you can expect me there later."

"Bye then," Dil began walking away.

"Dil!"

"Yeah?"

Kimi called after him. "Music, it needs music."

Dil smiled. "That's just what I was thinking..."

Tommy was working on his computer when he heard the front door slam and what sounded like livid footsteps getting nearer with every step.

"I don't get it," Dil was standing in Tommy's doorway; he looked worn out.

"You might want to go to Chuckie with this, he's the smart one."

"You're such a jerk," Dil muttered to himself, but she made sure Tommy heard him.

Tommy closed his computer program and got up from his chair. He turned to face Dil for the first time since he entered the room. "What'd you just say?"

"Do you know who I saw at the park? Kimi! Do you know what she was doing? Thinking about some asshole who told his friends she was ugly. "

"You did not just call me that."

"Really? 'Cause I'm pretty sure I did. You have no idea how much you hurt her."

"If she's really that insecure, then anything would hurt her."

"Idiot! She not upset you said she was ugly. She's upset because you betrayed her."

"Dil, you wouldn't get it. I can't just be like 'I'm with Kimi Finster now.' The real world doesn't work that way. I wouldn't have any friends. Why do you even care?"

Dil's eyes were on fire. "Because I could take it when you did this stuff to me; I stopped thinking about it awhile ago. But when you hurt my friend, when you hurt someone and don't even think twice about it, when you're so stupid and cruel, then I have to think about it."

Tommy scoffed. "Come on, Dil. I'm supposed to do that kind of stuff to you, we're brothers."

It took a lot to make Dil angry; Tommy had done it in a mere minute. "Yeah, but we're not friends anymore! It was fine when we were friends 'cause I knew you were kidding. But you stopped kidding 5 years ago," Dil was close to tears. Just hold it, just stop.

"Are you really that stupid? We're brothers, of course I'm kidding."

"Are we? We live in the same house; we eat at the same table, big deal. Brothers can talk to each other."

"God, enough already. We're friends, okay?"

"Right, so when you're sitting at your lunch table and laughing about how weird I am or some other junk it's because we're friends? Good, 'cause I was beginning to think you didn't care."

Tommy was yelling now too. "Dil maybe if you had friends, you'd get it. I have to do what my friends do. I wish it wasn't that way and I'm trying to change, but that's how it is. That's what being popular is, Dilly. Maybe if you spent time with people instead of behind your friggin' drum set you'd know what I mean.

Dil screamed at his brother something he'd wanted to say for years. "Arrogant jackass," He took a slow breath and lowered his voice, "I never stopped wanting to be your friend. I took whatever stupid thing you did and pretended you didn't do it, and it worked for awhile. But now, you've hurt Kimi, I'm sure you've hurt Chuckie, and you've hurt me so many times. Look at what's happened thanks to your insecurities and your fears. Look at who you've become...and I hate you for it...I hate you for it." Tommy noticed one single tear roll down Dil's cheek as he turned and left without another word.

"Hi Mrs. DeVille, is Lillian there?"

"Sure, I'll get her."

Lillian picked up the phone; Chuckie could hear a smile in her voice. "Hey, how are you?"

"You sound happy."

Lillian's smile grew even wider. "Yeah, Kimi came by and we made up. It was good."

"She told me earlier. That's great, I couldn't stand you guys fighting much longer," the couple laughed, "What're you doing tonight?"

"It's the film contest, duh," Lillian responded playfully, "You should come. I called Susie before, she's coming. It'll be fun."

"Sure why not," Chuckie hesitated; Lillian could tell he had more to say, "Lillian, I'm, uh, really glad we're together."

"Me too."

"So...will you do your victory dance tonight if you guys win, please?"

Lillian laughed, "Just for you."

Kimi rang the doorbell to the Pickle's home. She had no idea how she got there. Her feet just picked her up off the bench and carried her. "Hey." Why did he have to answer the door?

"Kimi, hi," Tommy nodded towards her, "Come in."

"No, why don't you come out?" Kimi moved aside and waited for Tommy to step into the humid afternoon air.

"Sure...so, what's up?"

"You can stop being an idiot, you know exactly what I'm dong here."

"Do we have to dive in right away, I just ate," Tommy tried to make a joke, but Kimi wasn't feeling very funny.

"Shut up. You're such a coward Tommy, you're so scared."

"Yeah right, how am I scared? I play baseball against some pretty big guys everyday."

"Wake up! Life isn't a friggin' baseball game. You're scared to do things your friends aren't doing. You're scared to be an individual. You're scared to ruin your jock image 'cause you like having the power at school. You are the biggest sleaze I've ever met."

"Hey! I'm much better than Phil," Tommy cracked a smile; once again, Kimi wasn't in the mood for comedy.

"Stop already! You can't joke your way out of everything! Maybe it works at school, but you don't always get to be the big man on campus. You really messed with my head and just when I thought I could maybe trust you, you got scared again and did something so stupid and so hurtful!"

"Look, I'm sorry I said that, and I'm really sorry you had to hear it."

"Oh, so if I wouldn't have heard it, basically it's like it never happened?"

"Yeah, no, I dunno! What's the big deal? I didn't kill anyone!"

"Tommy! You can't be two different people. You're a idiot when you're with the jocks, but you're nice and cool and smart and all this other stuff when you're away from them. You can't live two lives...which is it?"

"Kimi, I don't have a choice. If I'm not a jerk with the team, then I won't be considered part of the team. It's hard."

"You're such a jerk! You'll always be the same stupid jock. You lied to me, you broke under your friends' stupid games, and you don't even care! You're the true definition of a jock."

"What happened to people change? Remember that? I'm sorry!" Tommy was exasperated. He wasn't used to talking to girls who had such a large vocabulary.

Kimi thought for a moment, "Yeah, people change...but you don't," Kimi gave Tommy one last disappointed look and headed down the sidewalk.

"Dammit. How many people can get mad at me in one day?" All of this was new to Tommy. He was never left in the dust by a girl, nor had he ever been cursed at by a girl. He felt like everything was spinning and all he was doing was putting more oil on the wheels. Everything he did only backfired into something else. He hadn't dealt with these situations for years. But, in a way, Tommy found them exciting. It was fun to talk about things that mattered. Tommy was tired of hanging out with people who thought your head would actually turn into a fruit if you ate Gushers. It was that feeling of wanting more that made Tommy Pickles realize which life he wanted to live. He knew he couldn't change everything, and he knew he didn't want to. But he had the perfect way to start.

Lillian bounced into the back of Chuckie's used Honda and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Chuckie turned red and pulled up to the house next door.

"Hey, here's the tape. It rocks. I added in some music," Dil slid in smoothly next to Lillian and handed her the tape.

Lillian examined the VHS in her hands. "Cool, what song is it?"

"It's an old U2 song," Dil explained the finished video for the rest of the car ride.

When the four of them arrived inside the LHS auditorium, they were awe-stricken by the number of people milling around waiting for the contest to start.

Lillian shook her head. "All these people came to see the film contest? I guess they have film and football confused," Lillian glimpsed around the room and noticed Susie near the stage, "Susie!"

Susie turned around and noticed four of her friends waving at her. "Hey. Thanks for the invite; I'm so excited to see the films."

"Hey losers," Angelica Pickles strode up to her former friends.

Kimi rolled her eyes. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm in the video, duh. Now I'm gonna leave before my social status drops, later," Angelica left the group and found a seat. Kimi noticed it was next to Tommy. She wondered what he was doing at the event.

A voice came from the stage. "Welcome, if I could have your attention briefly," Everyone turned to see a spotlight shining on Mr. Hent as he was starting the festivities. "First, I would like to thank you all for joining me the evening for our annual Arts Contest. And now, the main event of the evening, the student's films. The winner will be announced after all the films have been viewed."

Lillian, Kimi, Dil, Chuckie, and Susie raced to find 5 seats together as the lights began to dim. They sat down in the back just as the first film was fading onto the big-drop-down-screen in front of the stage. It was all about places to relax and ways to have fun. Some of the ideas actually did look remotely amusing, but at the end they had a shot of the film makers doing things that could be described as quite odd.

"Cheap shot. They just want their 15 minutes of fame," Lillian leaned over and whispered to Kimi.

The next video blazed onto the screen with a loud chord from a bass guitar. It was a music video for the director's band. The song was loud and obnoxious and the lead singer could have been compared to a dying cow with a microphone, and without an udder, of course. The video only lasted about 30 seconds, but even that was too much to bear.

"Oh, here's ours!" Lillian clapped her hands and nudged Kimi in the side. The screen was black as "Beautiful Day" by U2 faded in. All the interviews zoomed onto the screen overlapping one another. If you listened closely, maybe you could pick out bits and pieces. It was a unique effect no other competitors had used yet. Then slowly each clip faded into the black background until only one remained. The newspaper and yearbook staff interviewees were the first to be shown. Then Nicole and Savannah appeared. "Everyone else is just, like, false."

"Nice editing," Kimi snickered at how Dil how spliced the footage. Some other groups talked for awhile until the screen went black again. The music stopped, and someone's audio faded in, but no picture. "So, uh, sorry to the friends I'm not friends with anymore." Kimi remembered who had said that in their interview. Suddenly feeling exposed, she crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the next and final section of their film. Harold Rumkin meshed with the black until he overtook it and eventually became the background himself. "I think somewhere, there's people who don't have friends. But one day, they're all gonna find each other. It'll be like, the friendless becoming friends. Cool, huh?" Without telling Kimi or Lillian, Dil had added one last touch right before leaving. He placed a group of friends posing for a picture. Then, dramatically, each person faded, one at a time. Until the screen was black and a phrase dissolved against it into sight, "People change, sometimes it takes awhile, but it's worth the wait" It stayed for a moment, then was gone before anyone decided what it meant, or what they wanted it to mean. The harmony played and the screen was black again, this time, however, the film was over. Kimi looked around; everywhere people were turning to sides, in front, and behind talking about the film. A murmur of praise and acceptance became quite apparent. The trio knew they were in the running for the win.

"God, Dil. That was friggin' amazing!" Lillian hugged, or strangled, Dil playfully while he mumbled his thanks.

The next film began after the crowd's reaction to the previous one died down. It began similarly to the trio's, a black screen with music in the background. The song sounded like any other song did, soft, smooth guitar opened, but Dil thought he heard something different in this intro, something familiar. Hey, that sounds like my song. No, it can't be. After you hear so many rock songs they all start to blend together, right? Dil decided he would wait for the lyrics to come in. Then he'd be put at ease, because there was no way they'd be his lyrics. Good, here they come. "Come on brain, think! Write something of meaning, fix my mistakes." Dil froze. He couldn't take his eyes off the still black screen. These were his lyrics to his song. Who had them? He'd thought he'd lost his notebook, but he convinced himself he had just misplaced it. Dil made a silent vow right there to never persuade himself of something he didn't really believe again. "You pick up the pieces, it's no use. Some things can never be filled back in, never be filled back in. But every day dawn will have its day. Every sunrise will set in the end. Every minute will pass to the hour, usually, usually."

Kimi whispered to Dil and Lillian. "This song's really cool. Who is it?"

Dil was in a state of shock, "Me," He said to Kimi and himself at the same time. Who stole my song? What's going on? He hadn't been paying attention to what was happening in the film. It was shots of childhood and adulthood, and life in general. Some of the pictures had back stories, and some were a mystery, leaving it up to the viewer to decide whether they live happily ever after, or just wish they did. It was surprisingly heart wrenching; all around, people were pulling out tissues, or subtly brushing their sleeve on the chair next to them. At the end, text crawled onto the screen. It read, "A film by PT." Who's PT? Whatever, I'll find out soon enough." Dil's mind wandered through the rest of the films. They were, forgettable, to be polite. In actuality, they were a "snorefest," to quote Kimi. In another 30 minutes or so it was time for the awards.

Mr. Hent resumed his place onstage as the school's technical crew cast a glaring light on him. "Thank you for watching, or should I say sitting through the student's films," Mr. Hent chuckled, so the crowd took his lead. Attempted teacher humor was number seven on Kimi's top ten list of things that shouldn't exist. Angelica Pickles was number one. "Now it is my pleasure to announce the winner," Mr. Hent tried calming the crowd down by talking again, since they were roaring with laughter to begin with, "First, we have an honorable mention. The students can stand at their seats as I call their names. For their film entitled Friendless, Kimi Finster, Dil Pickles, and Lillian DeVille, well done."

The three friends stood and accepted Mr. Hent's praise. "Shoot," Lillian may have been grinning, but she couldn't hide her disappointment.

"Whatever. Next year, I can feel it...but only if Dil'll work with us."

Dil looked alarmed at Kimi's invitation, "What, uh, yeah, sure, definitely." Third wheel...

The applause stopped as Mr. Hent proceeded to announce the reason everyone sat through the amateur movies, the winner. "Finally, it is my privilege to pronounce this year's winner of the annual Arts Contest and the $100 prize...for their film, Back Story, would the mysterious PT please come to the stage. Congratulations!"

And then there was silence. Everyone looked from person to person trying to figure out who PT was. "Who is it?" Lillian leaned towards Kimi.

"Shh!" Dil held his hand up to Lillian's face. He was mesmerized by something only he seemed to notice. Tommy was heading in the direction of the stage, dragging his feet, hands stuffed in his pockets, eyes downcast. Dil couldn't figure out what he was doing; then it hit him. Tommy was PT.

Hmm...looks like a last stitch effort from Tommy to be his old self again, I guess you'll have to see what he does about winning in the next chapter.