Welcome to the 7th chapter of Pengotters: The Early Months. I hope you all like this extension of Pengotter Pregnancy. So let's progress forward again, shall we?

CHAPTER 7 – It's Not April Fools!

(P staying with Marlene and moving forward another month) "So Skipper, what would you like to do today since the zoo is closed?" I asked him, in my cave. "Well, I was hoping at some point we would teach the kids to drive the car," Skipper answered. "Permission granted," I said to Skipper. Skipper kissed me. "Thank you honey," Skipper said. With that we started to walk out of the cave.

Sudden as we were walking out, Julien ran at us and chained our feet together. "Ringtail! What is the meaning of this?" Skipper questioned him. "I am being the April Fool," Julien answered. "It's December Julien! April Fools isn't for four months!" I said. "I am getting a head start on the fun," Julien said and then ran towards the HQ.

Skipper and I tried to jump after him, but the difference in our jumping speed made us each pull on the chain and fall down. "Are you alright Marlene?" Skipper asked, helping me up. "Yes. I'm fine, other than being extremely annoyed," I answered. We both tried to use our fists to break the lock on the chain, but it wasn't working.

"Now what?" I asked. "Well, we should get to the HQ to see what Kowalski can do about this, not to mention see what damage Ringtail has done," Skipper said. "Alright. But no jumping or we'll probably keep falling down. But weren't the kids there?" I asked. We both sighed. "Yes. I wonder what Julien did to them, considering what he's done to us," Skipper said.

"Yes. The first time he thought it was April Fools; he gave me extremely spicy oysters and played all those pranks on you. * I must have drank a lot of water to get rid of the spice," I said. "That day was not fun for anyone," Skipper said. We both tried to walk, but again, with our different paces, we fell down again. "This might take awhile," I said as we got up.

(P to Annabelle, a bit earlier) "Hey Sam, what do Mom and Dad have planned for us today?" I asked my brother. "I can't remember. Hopefully it's something fun after all these weeks of training," Sam said. "I sure hope so. The zoo is closed today, after all," I said. As we were chatting, Julien dropped down and ran into Kowalski's lab. We both walked inside.

"Julien? You're not supposed to be…" I started to say before I was blasted with paint. Luckily, thanks to my reflexes, none of it got into my eyes. Suddenly it stopped. "Julien! Don't mess with my…" I heard Samuel say, before I heard the paint blasting at him. "What are you doing?" I asked, opening my eyes back up. "I am getting ready for the April Fools!" Julien shouted before leaving.

I turned around and saw Sam standing there, but he was covered in paint. Not just any paint, but brown paint! He looked like an Otter, other than for his beak and flippers. "Sam, you look like me!" I said. "Not anymore. You look like me," Sam said. I looked down and saw I was now black and white, like Sam is normally. "What did he do that for anyway?" I asked. "I don't know. What's April Fools? Shouldn't it be in, you know, April?" Sam asked.

"Based off the name, I think it should," I said. "We'll have to ask Mom and Dad to help us get cleaned up and what April Fools is," Sam said. "I agree. Hey, do you think he did anything to them?" I asked. "He probably did. I wonder what it was," Sam said.

"Hopefully it wasn't as bad as the predicament we're now in," I said. We both left the lab and waited for Mom and Dad to come back. After a few minutes, they did, albeit falling on their faces.

(P back to Marlene) "Are you alright?" Annabelle asked us, while both of them helped us up. "Yes, sweetie. What happened to you two?" I asked our children, noticing their appearances were switched. "Julien," they both said.

"The same problem happened to us. But you two look worse off," Skipper said. They sighed. "You can say that. What did he do to you?" Samuel asked. Skipper and I, while each putting an appendage on the wall for leverage, lifted our feet into the air. "That's why it took you so long. So how do we fix this?" Annabelle asked.

"Well, we'll have to give you two a thorough scrubbing. As to us, we need Kowalski's freeze ray. Speaking of Kowalski, where are they?" I asked. "Just before Julien ambushed us, they all went to work on the car," Samuel said.

"As long as Julien doesn't get to anyone else, that's good," Skipper said. "Yes, but now he's made me want revenge," I said slyly. ** Everyone's faces turned towards me in shock.

"My, my honey, I don't think I've heard you want any in a long time," Skipper said. "Wow, Mom. I've never seen you act like this before," Annabelle said. "Me either. When was the last time Dad?" Samuel asked.

"We'll tell you after we get this straightened out," Skipper said. "Please get the freeze ray from Kowalski's lab. But don't touch anything else," I said to our children. Still in faces of shock, they went into the lab and closed the door behind them.

(P to Annabelle) "Wow," Sam said. "I agree. Wow. Where did Mom suddenly get that from?" I asked. "I have no idea. But we really shouldn't do anything to Mom that might cause her to revenge on us," Sam said. "I don't think I ever will. We still don't even know what she has planned," I said. (P back to Marlene)

"Did you see the shock on their faces?" I asked Skipper. "I'm still shocked myself. I haven't seen you this way since the last time we saw the Vesuvius twins," Skipper said. "I have no idea what came over me just now. But I do have a plan," I said. "Do tell," Skipper said eagerly. "Well, as long as Julien didn't get to them first, we could get Kowalski to invent something for today," I said.

"And what is that?" Skipper asked. "A whoopee cushion noise maker," I said. "You want Kowalski to invent that? Well, I must say Marlene, that's an interesting plan. I'll be happy to authorize that. I will definitely enjoy the results," Skipper said smiling. I was smiling at the thought of what will happen as well. "I'll enjoy them too," I said.

Just then, the kids came back out of the lab, freeze ray in hand. "So do you want us to do this or do you not want us to use it?" Samuel asked. "You can try it. Just make sure to only point it at the lock," Skipper directed.

We both stepped as far away as we could from each other, to minimize the chance that we might be frozen instead. "Here goes," Annabelle said. They both aimed the freeze ray at the lock and pressed the button. It was completely frozen, so Skipper and I punched the lock again, finally freeing ourselves.

"Thank you children. Please go put that back now," I said. They promptly did and came back. "What do you have planned Mom?" Samuel asked me. I told them my plan and they both fell to the floor laughing. "That's a hysterical plan. I can't wait to see that after you clean us up," Annabelle said after they composed themselves. "Let's do that now," I said.

We all got the brushes and soap from one of the lower levels and filed up top carefully looking out for Julien. Thankfully we didn't spot him, but did not let our guards down. We sat down on the lowest part of the platform in the back and the kids dove in the water and then came back up. "Ready," they both said.

With that, we soaped the kids up and started brushing them, trying not to be too hard or make them lose feathers or fur patches. "Oww," Annabelle suddenly said. "Sorry sweetie," I said.

"Oww," Samuel said a few minutes later. "Sorry son," Skipper said. After an hour or so of trying to be even more careful, we had finally cleaned the kids up. "Thanks Mom," Annabelle said to me, hugging me. "Thanks Dad," Samuel said to Skipper, also hugging him. "You're welcome. Let's go get our revenge shall we?" I asked. Everyone nodded eagerly.

We cleaned up the supplies before we set back out, but through the passage leading from the HQ to the garage because of Julien. Arriving there, thankfully Julien hadn't shown up.

"Ah, hello everyone. We just improved the car, giving it five more miles to the gallon," Kowalski said. "Good job Kowalski," Skipper said. "We have one more thing we'd like to ask you to do though," I said.

Kowalski looked interested, wondering what we all wanted. "What would you like us to do?" Kowalski asked, speaking of himself, Private, and Rico. "We'd like you to invent a whoopee cushion machine," Annabelle said.

"A whoopee cushion machine? What for?" Kowalski asked. We explained what happened to us over the last few hours and Kowalski looked eager to invent our machine. "I would be happy to help you with Julien," Kowalski said.

We all left the garage through the passage again and when we got back to the HQ and locked it down in case Julien popped in again. We spent a good hour or so planning and then all building the new machine.

"Whoopee cushion machine complete," Kowalski said. "Good. I'm itching to get revenge," I said slyly. Once again, the kids' faces were in shock. I looked up out of the HQ to try and find Julien. He was on his throne, eating mangos. "He's on his throne," I reported. We all lifted the machine out of the HQ and set it on the platform. "So how long should we make him do it?" Samuel asked. "The rest of today sounds good," I said.

We set the machine to make Julien have whoopee cushion noises whenever he sat down for the rest of the day. We aimed it right at Julien and fired. We all heard the telltale sound of a whoopee cushion as he sat back down with a new mango in his hand.

He freaked out and jumped up. It took all of our effort not to burst out laughing, especially since we still had the machine out. We quickly put it down in level 13 and then went back up.

We all burst out laughing seeing Julien sitting down and standing up quickly, wondering why he was making whoopee cushion noises. We noticed everyone else was laughing at the sight as well. He looked so confused. We went back down after maybe an hour of laughing.

"Mom, that is an awesome revenge," Samuel and Annabelle said in between laughs. "I have no idea what came over me still. But thank you. It is hilarious," I said also laughing. "You did a great job Marlene. On actual April Fools, if we don't flee beforehand, you're in charge," Skipper said also laughing. *** "That'll be fun, if we don't flee," I agreed.

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing in the HQ, while also receiving many thank you sayings from our friends. They also loved the result that was happening, not to mention shocked that I had actually come up with the idea. It was a hilarious day. Julien actually popped in, seeking help. We all had to clamber up, in order for him not to suspect us.

Kowalski lied to Julien that he had contracted a rare disease, but that it would go away tomorrow, which Julien actually accepted, but also pledged to all of us loyal subjects that he would stand until it was over. That didn't work out at all, as every hour or so, we heard the familiar sound, even in the HQ.

Between laughing hysterically, we all worked on different things. Kowalski was working on another new invention idea, Rico was hanging out with his doll, and Private was watching the Lunacorns.

Thanks to that, we had to take the kids to my habitat for chess, since they had inherited Skipper's dislike of the show. They really were getting good at chess, but Skipper and I still had the upper hand and kept winning. After the day, we all went to bed and went to sleep.

Oh, Marlene, when you want revenge, you really want it. Also, yep, it's still fun to write her out of character. Was this a fun chapter? Please rate and review it. I've only got a few notes today.

* Referencing "April Fools." Also, no one knows what Julien did to Marlene, so I guess that's what he did.

** I know Marlene was out of character. But it made for some hilarious results.

*** In Book 3, we did all flee. Maybe next time, Marlene.