So anyway, now that everyone is clear on why I'm back (author's note before), here it is: Chapter 9!!!! Oh yeah, baby! Man, this stuff is flier than a spaceship. I swear, buddy. And it's the third longest chapter so far in the story.
Just to let you know, this stuff is all technical and I guess kind of boring. It's how Wally plans to get the footage Mike took in his possession; it's good to read if you want to know how he possibly does it, though. It's also good to read if you don't want to be confused when you read into the setting of Chapter Ten. :D
Chapter Nine: Game Plan
The luscious green leaves of the shrub tickled the surface of Wally's face. He crouched down within them, clad in a dark blue beanie, warm over his ears, the ever-so-famous orange hoodie (with a thermal underneath for extra warmth), baggy jeans, and sneakers. Both eyes squinted through a window during this chilly December afternoon. It was 36 degrees Fahrenheit, yet Wally was too manly for his jacket. Or at least, he thought so.
But what window was he peering through? Micheal Philips'. The window through which Wally could view Mike's kitchen, and beyond that, his den. Both parents were at work. Mike was an only child.
In the simplest of terms, it was pre-"go time", for actual go time would be when Wally had his plan clear in his mind.
Normally, the plan would be to attack Micheal Philips at first sight the next day at school. Yet, there was no school, because today was the last day of school before Christmas vacation. It was officially break, and Numbuh Four couldn't be more ecstatic.
Micheal was sitting over in the den, watching TV and munching on chips. Look at him, in his tight little sweatpants and long sleeved red t-shirt. Sitting there with his buzzed haircut and his freckles. What a geek.
Wally's eyes were scanning the insides of the house for the video camera which had footage him standing flabbergasted and naked on the edge of the public pool; he had lost his shorts among the shards of ice floating around and Micheal had it all on tape.
A growl emerged from the back of Wally's throat at the thought. He knew copies of that tape would go all around school. Everyone would see it. It would be beyond teasing; it would be mortification. He would be chased out of school from embarrassment.
Wally crawled along the perimeter of the house to the next window, through which Wally was parallel now to Micheal. Suddenly, Wally fell all the way down to the ground below the window and hastily army crawled to the next wall of the house.
If he was caught doing this, he'd also be labeled a stalker, which was pathetic. But Wally absolutely needed to get that tape back, or else.
The house had light blue siding and clean cut hedges and rosebushes. It was a pansy house. Not to mention the lawn was thriving and luscious as much as the bushes, even through the blistering cold atmosphere.
There were two stories of the house.
Michael's room must be on the top. What was Wally doing prowling the bottom floor?
How would he get to the top windows? Wally was willing to do anything to get that tape, no matter how ridiculous.
Just as he began pondering over solutions, he found himself in the backyard, where there was a shed-sized indoor patio built on.
It was perfect. Easily could Wally climb onto the roof of it and into the window that was miraculously open above it.
Who the hell would open a window in this kind of weather? Wally thought as he stood.
He checked out the outside of the indoor patio for an easy way on top. His face felt hot and his heart was pounding. The atmosphere was suddenly sharp and his ears became that of a fox's. The ability of his reflexes suddenly tripled, and he readied himself to jump and sprint with complete accuracy. This was the role of a KND operative, this way it was on duty. And although it wasn't quite KND duty, it was just as important to Wally to get that tape.
Abruptly, a loud, ferocious noise pierced the prim silence and startled Numbuh Four. They were deep, tough barks, and following them was thumping on the ground.
A guard dog. On the loose. After him.
First of all, this dog must have been some kind of predator, as Wally immediately imagined it hiding in the tall, uncut grass over by the chain fence that divided Michael's yard with the neighbor behind's yard. In one glance, Wally learned that it was baring its numerous spiky white fangs and that it was a beastly black and brown Rottweiler.
For only a spilt second did Wally stand numbly, as shock had slapped him in the face. After he let out a shout, he dashed, he ran, he sprinted like a skinny, swift little beast himself.
He ran back around the side of Michael's house, luckily for him before Michael could even check out why his dog was so loud all of a sudden. Up the front lawn Wally darted, his face already rosy and numb from the cold whipping it all over.
The Rottweiler was gaining on him superiorly. Wally was no match for it. But just when Wally stepped over the perimeter of the front lawn, his chaser halted clumsily. Fortunately for him, Michael's dog was wearing one of those electric collars that will shock it if it leaves the property.
When Numbuh Four processed this, he turned around and began ridiculing the beast he was fearing over not even seconds ago. The dog was snapping at him and wrinkling its snout gruesomely.
Okay, it's obvious this was really stupid. Wally didn't even notice Michael leaning over on his shoulder against the railing aligning the porch with a remote in his hand. Wally didn't even notice Micheal pressed a button on that remote, meaning when he continued annoying the Rottweiler, it was set free to continue chasing him.
The dog didn't realize this, not until Michael snapped his fingers, gaining both Wally and the Rottweiler's attention. "Rex!" he commanded.
Rex, which was the Rottweiler, perked up his ears and turned to face Michael. "Go 'head, boy," Michael cooed.
Again, Wally was dumbfounded. He immediately began running again. And Rex ran him like a track star.
Wally was over throwing tin trash cans to block Rex's path. He was hurdling over hedges and bead's of sweat were running down from his head.
He would find shelter from this animal at the tree house, which was only a block away in front of him, up in the sky because it was so huge. Still, it was a tough chase since Rex was so quick and swift.
At a point, Wally's legs began to ache, so he tried taking lighter steps, but this only conserved more strength. He could feel the dog puffing on the backs of his knees, on his jeans. Rex prodded Wally in the butt and Wally forced himself to run faster after he was done yelping and screaming.
Wally turned down a street off course. He had to jump a nearby fence, if he wanted to live.
Wally hopped up and grasped the edge of the wooden fence, his back facing the street. He desperately tried to scramble up it, but Rex clenched Wally's ankle in his mouth and sunk his teeth into his flesh.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" Wally yelled in pain. Rex's teeth were sharp, and felt like thick needles piercing him over and over. With his other foot he stomped on Rex's snout, which went successfully for Wally as Rex released him and Wally used some well hidden strength to heave himself up over the fence.
The next thing he knew he was falling head first at some dirt, and the world was physically upside-down. Wally disregarded it and quickly scrambled to his feet and whipped around to see slithers of Rex's face through the fence.
"Wooo.." Wally sighed. He put his hands on his hips and spun back around to find a face, with the mouth in a long oval and the eyes wide and it was an appalled face, staring at him.
"H-hey…" Wally said meekly to a little girl who was sitting in a plastic lawn chair on the back porch by herself. She stayed frozen as Wally's sheepish grin faded.
"I'm gonna, um… leave now… a heh…"
So he limped and winced and cringed, all which went unnoticed to him, and climbed up the fence and hopped into another backyard now, Rex already returning to the Philip's household, lucky for Wally.
On the way down the street, continuing to the tree house, he sat on an electrical box and decided to examine his painful ankle which a dog just sank his teeth into unmercifully. There were 7 deep little holes, Wally counted, all with blood dripping down them around the back of his ankle. It hurt for Wally to put pressure on his heel and toes.
He continued, trying to be all brave and not limp, as he was told that's a bad thing to do and does not help the process of healing.
Obviously, he needed a new strategy to get the tape. He needed to go home and think it through as it meant enough to him.
The next day was spent in his room. Not just the afternoon, either. Since the early morning did he work at it. Quietly, occasionally disturbed by his mother for she found this to be so strange of him, he drew out the apparatus that would assist him in this clever, well- thought out plot. For, in the morning and the youngest minutes of the day did he find the solution to this issue. All by himself, too. To many it would be labeled remarkable, from Wallabee Beatles especially.
Up front, it had struck Wally that he had to prepare for Christmas. He had to decorate and write out his list and plan what he would do with the approximate amount of money he received from his rich Australian relatives. Likewise, he would be spending the break with his friends and maybe even in some snow. So, he wouldn't have time to spy on Michael Philips.
And for this solution he had come up with, a lot of watching had to be done. What Wally was going to do was simply ask Mrs. Philips for the whole camera when Michael wasn't there. When he got it, he would search and find every possible tape
There had to be something he did every week on a schedule that made it so he couldn't be at the house, right? Wally was going to find what that thing was, when it started, how long it lasted, and when it was over so he could make his move.
Wally was going to make a camouflage video camera that he would take home and study the contents of and what it had recorded regularly. This experiment would go on for about a week, which Michael could have plenty of DVDs with contents of a naked Wally Beatles.
Wally could just see a free copy in everyone's mailbox, with Christmas colored ribbons and everything. He pulled up this mental image whenever he lost motivation to keep planning.
Though Wally wasn't smart academically or strategically, he had street smarts and at least some common sense. It probably wouldn't take Numbuh Two a whole morning and afternoon to plan all this. Too bad Numbuh Four couldn't ask for help, as more suggestions would have made him more confident.
His main uncertainties about doing this were if Michael found out and if the camera he was designing somehow died. To make sure it didn't, he would go out in the middle of the night and take the camera, charge it, and put in more tape.
There were a lot of little things he would have to do for the experiment. He would have to hide all the evidence; make it clean from all his friends and family. He would have to stay up and fast forward the tape until he saw someone walk in and out of the house. And to even get up late enough in the night to check on the tape, he would have to be staying at the tree house for the next week, as he could take no chances of his mother finding out he went swimming that day in that weather.
It was tiring and stressful and Wally was extremely happy with himself when he got the whole thing figured out. He couldn't write anything on paper either, in case his mother found it in the trash or something.
Wallabee Beatles made himself a plan, and he made sure it was fool proof too. This was no game to him. This was war.
Midnight was the sky and miniscule were the stars and orange and glowing brightly were the streetlights, as careful and hasty and uneasy was the Wally.
First of all, the only reason he could see was because he had borrowed Nigel's
high tech night vision goggles. He did have an advantage to all this, which was that he could use any KND material to assist him.
And you know what? Wally discovered all that drawing and blue printing and frustration was for nothing because in one of the highly vaulted rooms of the tree house, amongst those where all the weaponry and gadgets and evidence and such were kept, Wally came upon a wireless spy video camera. It resembled a tick in size and shape, and functioned so that Wally could control it from a station he had set up in his room.
The station was under a hidden trap door somewhere on his boxing ring, though no one ever suspected it. Fool proof, again. He felt like a genius, unaware complete paranoia was over riding his senses, basically.
So, there was Wally, clad in charcoal cargo pants, a black hoodie, a puffy black Timberland jacket, black gloves, a black scarf, and his navy beanie again, his heavy breathing appearing as golden puffs under the streetlights when they illuminated him from overhead.
It was 14 degrees Fahrenheit and even when Wally had two pairs of long johns and a thermal on under his ebony spy outfit, he was shivering uncontrollably.
He acted like he didn't notice, but being outside alone at this time of night (2:00 am he left) was really creepy. Besides the fact he was in a giant neighborhood
filled with friendly people, where he could simply scream and in the next minute someone would wake up to see what was going on.
When he spotted Michael's house, he hid behind some nearby bushes, face numb and icy. He decided he would place the camera on the mailbox, on the tall wooden stake directly underneath the back half of the tin box.
Should he sprint or crawl down the sidewalk?
First Wally jogged, then he heard a snap in the bushes and collapsed to the ground and rolled beneath the bumper of a car. When he realized it was only an animal, he continued, but army crawling with his elbows and the insides of his legs.
The mailbox was three feet away and he crouched up.
He took a box out of his pocket, no bigger than his hand.
Pinched between his fingers, he took out the tick-spy-camera.
He pressed it against the place in the mailbox, confirmed it was securely attached, stood up fully, and sprinted all the way back to the tree house at once.
Contrary to what his conscience had said would happen, he went unseen by anyone in the neighborhood- even Rex the Rottweiler.
Halfway up the block, after he made a right on Michael's street, Wally stopped running and tried to warm himself up. His hands were numb beneath his gloves, and he held them up to his mouth and tried warming them up with his heated breath while walking.
No one was watching. Nothing would happen. It was that simple, and he was sneaky. Not to mention tired.
When he reached the tree house, though, something did happen. Because, as he tiptoed across the floorboards to the elevator, a voice suddenly said,
"Beatles, where you thank you goin'?"
A gasp came upon him as he tensed up. He didn't answer- instead whipped around frantically to find the speaker, who by the voice he knew was Numbuh Five.
"In the kitchen, dummy."
"Uh… oh." Wally walked into the kitchen, still in his suspicious black clothes.
Abby eyed him. She was sitting at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. Numbuh Four was almost unwilling to sit down across from her, seeing as he knew where this was going.
"What in the world are you doin'?" Numbuh Five wanted to know.
"I was… ehh—"
"Boy, there is no point in lyin' to me, Numbuh Five knows you were up to no good."
Wally's mouth tried to shape more words. He should just tell her. Usually, he'd insist there was nothing going on, but he was tired and for once, he merely didn't have the strength to make up another stupid lie.
"Alright, okay. 'Ere's what happened," Wally began, "The other day, I went for a swim and I lost my shorts and Michael Philips somehow caught the whole thing on tape and he wants to get me back for embarrassing him a while ago in front of this girl or whateva, and I just know he's gonna make copies of it and give one to everyone."
Numbuh Five stared at him blankly for a few silent seconds. He stared back.
"What made you want to swim? Especially in this weather? Numbuh Five thought you were terrified of water." Wally expected her to exclaim how much of a blockhead he was, instead of ask something about the details. That's what Numbuh Five did though, threw him a little curve ball like that. But if she never did that, he wouldn't like talking to her as much, let alone spill out his feelings to her.
"I just wanted to, okay?" Wally shot. Now, admitting he was doing it for such a sensual reason was simply out of the question. He would admit something cheesy like that before he would admit why he randomly disliked Ace.
"Okay, okay, calm down!" Abby said in a shrill tone. She paused a second and grinned. "It couldn't be, perhaps, that you wanted to show yo'self you weren't afraid, could it?"
"Haha, funny." That was all Wally could say, as she hit the nail right on the head. "I'm hittin' the hay. G'night, Numbuh Five," and he scurried out of the room before she could read him like a book any further.
Wally lay comfortably, smug because he had the first phase of his plan completed. Now there were only two more to go; checking the camera and retrieving the camera.
It was then that he remembered how there was proof in the camera that Wally could swim….
But, he couldn't even show anyone because of the fact he was naked.
Well, there was also the fact that Michael may not have even recorded him swimming at all and maybe only began recording when his shorts slipped off. Who knows how long the creep was watching?
Ugh, he needed that tape!
"Wallyyyy?" he heard someone call, their voice muffled because he was under the floorboards. Yet, he could distinctly hear the words.
It was Numbuh Three, probably calling him to play tea party.
"Are you in here Numbuh Four?" she continued. Numbuh Four ignored her, until she said, "Well, no ice cream for him, then."
Ice cream?! Wally lurched up out of his seat from in front of the screens and controls. The secret alcove was not very spacey, the size of a shallow cave. 5 feet high and 10 feet in elbow space. It was really a gap between floors and bordered by gray bricks. Wally knew it existed since he first chose the room to be his, he simply never used it for anything until now.
The equipment Wally clumsily installed, no, miraculously installed, was a simple television with a 12" screen and enormous satellite sitting on top, which attracted the rays the solar-powered tick-camera gave out. That's how he could see what it was filming, he understood.
Hoagie had to explain all of this to Wally, but Wally did it himself. He pretended he was interested in filming, that's all. Hoagie gave him all the information he needed, like an oral instruction manual that Wally had to take notes on and use from there. Yet, that's not to say it still wasn't a challenge: Wally would be wary of electrical outlets for quite some time.
Just as Wally grabbed the handle to the trap door, something flashed by on the screen. He almost squealed—this was really going to work! Okay, well he wasn't honestly going to squeal. Although, he was excited things were going somewhere, as the shapes and colors and format of Michael Philip's house was imprinted into his mind forever, he'd been watching it still for so long.
Numbuh Three's talk about ice cream was forgotten as Wally gnawed his lower lip and his heart flung at the sudden thought that he was doing some heavy-duty stalking. If someone caught him, he would be more humiliated than if someone even got the tape.
Would he?
Was that true?
Was he taking this too far?
…..
…..
…..
As Wally thought about that and watched Mr. Philips open the door to his Nissan, his heart suddenly sank.
He was making a mountain out of a molehill.
It was true.
For some reason, anger was triggered inside of him. He didn't know whether it was because he was so proud of himself after going through all this trouble, or because he was so stupid and could have threatened Michael into giving that tape back but had to be all clever and what-not.
And in that view, his heart was lifted right back up. Instead of using his old brash ways, for once Wally Beatles took a step back and thought ahead.
Never mind. He was not taking it too far—intelligence was just on his side for this one thing.
So if someone found out, they'd maybe think he was secretly a genius. Yet, he wasn't going to spend more time trying to drop clues.
He was going to get the tape, and he was going to do it the smart way.
Yup. Sure was.
Michael played ice hockey. Year-round, in a league that was some $400. His practice started at 11:30 and ended at 4:00.
Practicing for 4 and a half hours was a little ridiculous to many, almost even to Wally. Therefore, Wally had to confirm this and check the following two days. It was true. According to his evidence, Michael would carry a duffel bag along with him into the Philips' family van along with his mother, and wouldn't return for 4 and a half hours.
That was too easy. Wally knew he probably played some year-round sport.
So, Wally decided he would go next Thursday to ask Michael's mother for his camera. Along with him, he would bring a back pack and in would he load the camera itself and all the tapes he could find.
A thief and a stalker. It was great.
Until then, Wally would put his teammate's suspicions to rest. Him being gone for such long gaps of time (because he was watching the camera, occupied by his Game Boy) made them curious, of course. It was funny that they would never guess what he was doing. Everyone thought he was so stupid, but in this time of need perhaps he was granted some temporary intelligence.
Or maybe he got the whole idea (subconsciously) from an action spy movie he saw at the movies a couple weeks ago with Nigel and Hoagie. Either or.
Wally stood up on the padded computer chair he had smuggled into his secret cubbyhole, and gently pushed up the trap door, just a crack in case someone was in his room. He had definitely become too insecure over this whole procedure.
Nope, all clear. Wally thrust the rest of the door open and hopped out. The room was only five feet high, right? About a foot higher than his ten-year-old self.
Wally walked out along the blue wrestling mat and ducked between the wires to exit his room. He wondered what the others were doing, and desired to cause some trouble.There hasn't been a mission for a while, strangely. Stupid adults were probably planning simultaneous fiascos they would unleash on Christmas day. That happened the very first year Sector V came together. It was horrible; but Wally and his teammates survived. As he shoved his fists in his hoodie pocket, he thought more about this.
Half an hour later he found himself chillin' back in a recliner chair with Numbuh One and Numbuh Two sharing the couch, and Numbuh Five in the other recliner in the room.
Out of all the jillion-zillion rooms in the tree house, 80 of the team was in one.
"Where's Kuki?" Wally asked.
The other members were silent, as if they hadn't heard him. Yet, then they all exchanged secret glances, which irritated Wally.
"She's listening to music in her room and playing tea party," Numbuh Five answered.
Wally groaned. Kuki listened to the stupidest music, too. Her stupid bubble gum pop. Wally wasn't even familiar with the bands or the songs, since they made him want to throw up. Then she listened to R&B, which wasn't all that bad but Wally still thought it was girly music. Numbuh Four liked punk rock. Or regular rock. Never any girly singers, either.
Numbuh Four didn't even think about them exchanging glances, what that could have meant.
He continued watching two more TV shows, until Numbuh Three bounced into the room.
"Hey guys!" she chimed merrily. "Hey, Wally, where have you been?"
Wally nearly choked on air. "With my mom and dad."
"Oh. Well, guess what?" She was now hovering over his head.
"What?" he answered bluntly. Unless it was about a mission or some way to have fun, he didn't care.
"Jamie had to go on vacation, so you're coming with me to the Rainbow Monkey theme park."
Wally merely rolled his eyes and sat up in the chair, the back of it following his torso, as it operated by springs. He went back to watching TV.
Thus, he didn't notice Abby give a mischievous wink over to Kuki.
"Okaaaaaay," Kuki said with false defeat, "I suppose I really should take Ace, since he's going on vacation, too."
Of course, Wally was suddenly furious as Kuki spun to walk out of the room. Ace?! Alone?! With Numbuh Three?! Oh, the pain. The pain and flaming jealousy.
"Ace?! Why can't you take Numbuh Five?!" Wally cried in panic.
"Numbuh Five went to the Rainbow Monkey Theme park with Numbuh Three on Tuesday."
"Then why do you need to go twice in one week?!" he shouted at Kuki.
"Because I need to use up my season pass before it expires after New Years!"
"So you're going every cruddy day?!"
"No, every three days, Wallabee."
Wally scowled, defeated. He heard Hoagie whisper to Nigel "Oooh, like a razor blade." Nigel chuckled.
"Would you shut up!" Wally snapped at him. Kuki started to continue walking out of the room. "Wait!" Wally cried quickly, though he didn't exactly mean to. Now Numbuh Five was snickering. He growled in frustration.
The Rainbow Monkey Theme Park was Wallabee Beatles' hell. It truly was. All the cuddly cuteness overwhelmed him so much, it made him want to throw up. It disgusted him the way an explosive cockroach would disgust the average girl.
Still, he couldn't let Numbuh Three spend the day with Ace.
He simply couldn't.
"Okay…" he sighed. "I'll go with you." Defeated once more.
"Yay!!!" Kuki cheered, ecstatic Numbuh Five's plan really did work.
It was more of an experiment, honestly. And the objective was to prove exactly how jealous of Ace Wally was. Pretty jealous, by the looks of it. If he was willing to step into hell over it.
"Go get your coat and meet me out front!" Oh, that Numbuh Three sure was in a grand mood now.
Numbuh Four slouched out of the one of the many lobbies the tree house is composed of, growling something like, "Am I serious with this crud?" under his breath.
When Abby, Hoagie, and Nigel were left to themselves, they all began cracking up. This went on for a minute or so until their insides were weak.
"Woo, that is so great," sighed Hoagie, calming down.
"I don't know why it's so funny," Nigel analyzed, "the way it's so obvious, I suppose…"
Only Numbuh Five had such a power to understand people, to detect a smidgen's tone of sadness in Nigel's voice. She kept it silent though, didn't prod in with a, "Does that make you sad or somethan', Numbuh One? Sounds so." Yet, although she kept it silent, she made a mental note about it. This was not the first time Numbuh One has shown extremely subtle signs of grief when it came to talking about Wally and Kuki. Weird.
Kuki stood at the gate of the Rainbow Monkeys Theme Park, eyes wide and curious as well as bubbling with excitement. It was as if she didn't memorize every square inch of the frickin' place, though Wally. As if she had never even been there before but had been anticipating it for a long time.
The doors swung open, then the theme song blared through the speakers aligning the path she and Wally walked down together. He was beyond disgusted with himself at this point, his expression beyond play dislike.
Numbuh Four was…
Sad. Angry. How could he keep letting this happen to him? How could he keep hating this place so much, yet give in to going to it so easily? He truly, sincerely hated spending time at this place. More so was he angry and sad that Numbuh Three had so much control over him. That was not only disgusting to him, that the girl had such power over him, it was so pathetic that it actually stabbed Wally's ego down. This was simply devastating to him. Once or twice was okay, but daily?! "Wally, my candy fell out of the bag, can I have some of yours?" she asked sweetly yesterday. "Oh, Wally, I lost my money! Can I borrow some? Pleeeeeeaaaaassssee?" she begged the same day. "Wally, wanna play Rainbow Monkeys?" "Wally, wanna help me set up for Tea Party?" "Wally, will you please come to the Rainbow Monkey theme park with meee?"
At this point, in thinking of all of this, Wally began gritting his teeth. The thought came to him that if this didn't stop, Kuki would control him and his time and space for the rest of his life! No more wrestling, no more soccer, no more football, no more video games, no more candy of his own, no more thinking of his own, no more time of his own.
All these thoughts summed up to a steaming furious and frustrated Wallabee Beatles.
"Hey Numbuh Four," Kuki's voice suddenly chimed in between all of his raging thoughts, "can you—"
"NO!" shouted Wally in the middle of the theme park. "NO, I CAN'T, KUKI! I CAN'T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU! I WON'T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU! NOT ANY MORE! SO YOU CAN JUST TAKE YOUR STUPID RAINBOW MONKEYS AND LEAVE ME THE CRUD ALONE!!!!"
Then, he stomped off. "I DON'T EVEN LIKE YOU!" he added when he was three yards away. He didn't even look over his shoulder at her to see how hard she was crying, because he didn't even care.
Maybe he was being a little dramatic.
But wouldn't you be, too, if you were an adolescent boy who's life had been taken over by a gorgeous, bubbly, charming, adorable, skinny little Asian girl? Taken over more and more by the day? By the day, as Wally matured. By the day, as Wally fell for her even more.
It was all so sickening, Wally had to pause and heave in a trash can. He really did.
Then he looked up, dizzy. Pink, purple, yellow, green, orange, blue, red whizzed around him, making his vision a blurry rainbow ribbon.
Wally fell to his knees. Girls and mothers collected by him a bit, after a second.
He needed to throw up again.