Chapter 3

Walking through the front door and tuning out the usual insults/greetings from his brother, Strong Sad climbed the stairs thoughtfully. He dropped his backpack beside his bed, and collapsing on the mattress he noticed he'd ended up staying at Homeschool's house for almost 4 hours. Wow. He'd never spent so much time at someone's house before. Did this mean he had a friend…? Interesting concept. He decided not to jump to conclusions and just leave it as it is. Habitually climbing off the bed to make his way to the kitchen, he suddenly realised he wasn't all that hungry. Now this was new. Unsure of what to do next, the college student decided that studying wasn't going to cut it and put on the CD Homeschool had lent him. It was actually pretty nice, and lead to some creative interpretation. He pulled out his sketchbook, only to find Strong Bad had glued the pages together. Figures. After jotting down a few ideas in a notebook he'd hidden from his brother's mischievous pranks, Strong Sad lay back down on his bed and closed his eyes. Would he get some sleep tonight? Probably not. He didn't think Homestar would be over for the night. But whatever peace he could salvage would be incredibly valuable.

Sure as anything, after a few hours Strong Bad came bursting into his little brother's room, looking for some entertainment. He dumped a combination of ice cubes and sub-zero temperature water on Strong Sad's bed, immediately getting him up. The masked man laughed like a little kid having pulled off the greatest prank ever. Lack of maturity, check. Strong Bad seemed pretty normal today.

"What do you want?" the younger one whined as he pulled off his soaked hooded sweatshirt. It was his favourite shade of grey too.

"Where were you all day today? I doubt the library. Those freaky ladies kick everyone out early on a Sunday. You were having a nerd-fest next door weren't you?"

Strong Sad was slightly embarrassed by the tone Strong Bad used. He was used to the jabs at his 'nerdy' hobbies and acquaintances, but the way he said it was implying something weirder. Before he could explain anything about his headphones, Strong Bad interrupted with a "What is this crap anyway?" motioning toward the CD player. After passing a few more snide remarks and demanding that dinner preparations be made, he left the room to see if anything was on TV. Used to these random and short-lived outbursts, brother Strong Sad shuffled down to the kitchen to make some food. He didn't see why he had to do it, his cooking was frequently mocked and his older brother was the best cook out of the two of them anyway. Nobody let Strong Mad near the oven, ever.

He started looking through the fridge to see what slightly-usable food was still there. He couldn't find much, but after searching the freezer in the end he settled for spaghetti bolognese. Or at least a very quick version of it; no one else would care. Just as he started getting all the ingredients, pots and pans together, The Cheat came around dropping off Strong Mad. He spent most weekends with him, being pretty much his only friend. It was good he was helping out their socially awkward brother. He really liked spending time with The Cheat, and was the person he spoke about most.

"Hey Strong Sad, whatcha makin'?" the young-looking blonde hopped up on a chair inquisitively. "Can I have some?"

"If you want to stay for dinner you're welcome. You do it almost every night anyway." Strong Sad's usual drawl seemed a bit more fast-paced today to The Cheat. He was either concentrating hard on his cooking or lost in thought. Embarrassing thought maybe? That usually made people jumpier…maybe it made Strong Sad less depressive.

"What's up? You seem…not as boring as usual."

"…Is that a compliment?" The white-haired boy turned his attention back onto the food. "I can't say I really noticed."

Usually The Cheat didn't really care about Strong Sad. However, something that would make him less…Strong Sad-like was probably worth finding out. "You're thinking about something aren't you? What is it? A girl?"

Strong Sad's first reaction was the thought 'I wish' followed by a small internal smile. "No, and I doubt that would be the case any time soon."

The Cheat figured that if it wasn't a girl then it probably wasn't worth the trouble of talking to this boring person. Nothing else would be interesting. Unless…

"…is it a boy?" You never knew; Strong Sad could turn out to swing that way. Just look at his brother. Completely out of the blue…

But judging by his expression, pushing on unimpressed - a wider range than his usual expressions at that - he didn't go for boys. The Cheat shrugged his shoulders and slid off the chair, taking his leave. It was boring anyway.

Left alone in the kitchen again he was briefly wishing he had brought his iPod down with him. He felt strangely lonely upon thinking of how he couldn't listen to his music with his new headphones. Then he realised that he missed them because they were from Homeschool. He only felt so lonely because he'd enjoyed spending time with someone for the first time in years. He only missed the company so much, not the person himself. That was it…wasn't it?

He'd been lonely before but usually ignored it. This was different. It was pulling at his heart painfully. If his behaviour was similar to that of an awkward love-struck teenager, he had a problem. His cheeks went pink, for the first time in a while. No, he was totally off-base. He was only thinking about Homeschool because they had similar interests and they were becoming friends…at least he hoped they were. He was socially inexperienced, and had never felt close to anyone since he and Strong Bad had still got along with each other as children. Of course his emotions would be all over the place.

That's when the pot of pasta boiled over and Strong Sad snapped back to attention. He should really focus when he's making dinner. Taking it off the stove and turning off the plate, he started his search for some kind of dishcloth to clean it up. He just hoped he could cover up his mistake before…

"You're messing it up already, dumpy? I at least thought you'd make it half-way through." Strong Bad idled in and rummaged through the fridge searching for a cold one. It didn't take long, considering how empty it was. How anyone was able to eat in that house was a mystery. "You have to go get more food."

Strong Sad was now carefully wiping up the mess, trying not to burn himself on the still-hot stove plate. "I've been getting the groceries for you a month straight now. Go do it yourself." His usual passive tone he used with his brother was being overpowered. He had actually said it with such uncharacteristic force that Strong Bad was taken aback. Temporarily at least.

"You'll never get me to do anything, dork." was the reply Strong Sad got as he became once again the only person in the kitchen. His brother was tiring sometimes, almost as PMS-y as Marzipan could be. Hearing his brother's heavy footsteps on the staircase he was grateful that Strong Bad would never know his thoughts…otherwise he'd be chained in the bathtub a month ahead of schedule.

Nothing else had gone wrong during the preparation or consumption of dinner. As Strong Sad was putting dishes into the sink and The Cheat was getting ready to leave, he briefly debated whether his sanity was slipping as he requested for him to try out a kind of musical experiment.

"Techno Sloshy? You're kidding, right?" The look of disbelief on The Cheat's face wasn't surprising.

"If you could make that work, you'd be able to do anything." The way he was looked at like some sort of crazy person didn't really bother Strong Sad. He was actually too busy hoping he would get a definite answer. He was getting almost excited again.

After a few moments speculation, The Cheat's sceptical expression faded and he agreed. "But I don't even see why you'd want something like that. Techno music practically made you throw up when he filled your playlist with it." His mischievous smile showed how he enjoyed the memory of torturing Strong Sad. Whatever else boring garbage was said didn't register; he was too busy thinking of how he and Strong Bad could make this miserable person's life worse. Yeah it was really mean, so what? Cheating and pranks were what gave him purpose. He had to live up to his name after all. Putting on his spotted trench coat he walked out the door in the middle of Strong Sad's sentence.

He was used to it. But it didn't matter. He was becoming surprisingly attached to the idea of defying all musical laws and seeing how badly this turns out. He wanted to see Homeschool's reaction, seeing as he was the one experienced with techno music anyway.

It was only for the musical experiment, not for the person. Of course not the person.