Chapter 12
It has been one week since they left the town where they met the trio of punks. The ship had enough food and fuel to last a month. Every day, Renton and Eureka would cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the crew. Each day was a different meal, partly because Renton found many cookbooks lying around. About three days ago, he questioned Hap about the books. Hap quietly whispered to him that during the month Eureka and Renton were away, Moondoggie and many other crewmembers attempted to make food. It did not turn out to well; the soup would be ice cold and every meal resulted in an onset of diarrhea.
The entire crew except Holland and Talho came into the room next to the kitchen. Renton and Eureka walked out with steaming bowls of Pho. "Yay!" the children cheered as they sat down on the small table. "Ooh! That looks great!" Matthieu complemented after he and Hilda sat down on the couch. Renton handed them their bowl of noodles and returned to the kitchen to get the other bowls. Eureka placed a big bowl of noodles down on the table the children sat. "Be careful because it's hot." She said as she split the noodles into three smaller bowls. "Mama, what is this called?" Maeter questioned. Renton came back out at that time and answered in place of Eureka who went back into the kitchen. "I found this recipe in an old cookbook that was lying around." Renton said as he handed Moondoggie and Gidget their bowl. "Thanks Renton." Moondoggie said as he pulled out two stools; one for him and the other for Gidget. Renton continued, "It's a type of soup made by the Vietnamese a long time ago." Maeter was interested. "Who are they?" She questioned further. Renton scratched his head. "I don't know. Maybe they were some kind of species back then?"
By the time Renton finished explaining to Maeter, Eureka had finished handing everyone their bowl. Ken-Goh and Mischa ate on the couch along with Matthieu and Hilda. Moondoggie and Gidget ate on stools while Woz and Jobs ate their noodles standing. "Oh shoot! I forgot the sauce!" Renton exclaimed as he ran back into the kitchen. In less than a minute, Renton came back out with two bottles in his hands; one was black-brown while the other was red. "Put these into your noodles; they make it taste better. The red one will add spice while the black-brown one adds sweetness." He explained as he handed Woz and Jobs the bottles. "Oh! It tastes better now!" Jobs exclaimed after he squirted the black-brown sauce on. Woz tried the red one, applying small amounts here and there. "Hmmm! The red one great too!" Woz complemented. Soon, everyone wanted to put the sauce into their soup. "Mama, I want some too!" Linck said as he tugged on Eureka's skirt. "Me too!" Maeter and Maurice cried. Eureka smiled and gave each of them a spoonful of the brown sauce. She stirred the sauce around causing the water to turn darker. "Wow..." Maeter and Linck said in awe. Hap grabbed the red bottle and called over to Renton. "Hey Renton! Watch this!"
"Uh! Wait...!" But it was too late. Hap had already squirted a pile of the red sauce and had taken a bit. "This is how a man eats!" Hap said through the mouthful of noodles. "That was good!" Hap thought. A fiery feeling begun to dance around on his tongue. "Ahh! It burns!" He screamed. "Give me water! Hurry before I melt!" Renton quickly grabbed a water bottle and tossed it at Hap. Hap chugged down the water in one gulp. It did not put out the fire in his mouth though. "More!" He yelled after he finished. The crew cheered him on. "One!... Two!... Three!!...Four!...Five!!...Six!!!!...Seven!!!!" Hap went through seven bottles of water before the fiery feeling went away.
Moondoggie finally received the brown bottle. He squeezed but nothing except air came out. "Dang it!" He exclaimed as he rapidly squeezed the bottle. After a minute of intensive pressing, brown goop sputtered out. Accompanied with it was a sound, "PPPHOOT-PPPHT." Gidget, who was sitting next to him, scooted her chair away. "The bottle did that!" Moondoggie defended as the feasting crew stared. Gidget teased him and said in a dramatic voice, "Oh Moondoggie! What's that bad smell coming from you!?!" Everyone laughed and even Eureka and Renton chuckled quietly as they went back into the kitchen and washed the dishes. Hap walked in and sighed, "Thanks for the food. I can't eat anymore though. Too much water." Renton looked up, "Don't worry, we'll save some for you." Hap opened his eyes wider. "Thanks!" He cried enthusiastically. "Why don't you guys go eat? I'll do the dishes for you." Renton looked at Eureka and shrugged. They got a bowl of the Vietnamese noodles and ate on the tables at the back of the kitchen. "It's good." Renton said quietly. "Yeah." Eureka said. They munched on silently for a while. "By the way, where's Holland?" Renton asked. Eureka shrugged, "I don't know, but he said something about preparing for an activity." Just then, a loud crash sounded from the living room.
Eureka and Renton ran out and were surprised to see Holland. He was juggling a soccer ball on his legs and wore a green Gekko-Go soccer outfit too. "Alright, we are going to practice some soccer!" He yelled. Everyone in the room groaned. Hap ran in the kitchen and brought out a bowl of noodles. "Try some Holland." Holland glared at him, "Are you trying to stop me with food?" Hap nodded. Holland took the bowl from Hap's hands and took a bite. The room became quiet as Holland chewed the food. He swallowed and smiled, "This is great! Practice will be delayed for another 20 minutes." The crew cheered, Eureka and Renton smiled at each other. The delay ended up being an hour because Holland entranced into eating that he forgot about everything else.
"Ok, everyone I'll call up will line up on the wall." Holland said. "Why are we doing this?" Matthieu questioned. Holland sighed, "It's to get into shape for our match!" Everyone had a puzzled look on their face. "I'll explain later." He sighed and began naming off people. "Hap." Hap groaned and trudged over to the wall. Holland continued, "Matthieu and Hilda." They walked up to the wall. Matthieu complained, "Aww, that's not cool Leader." Holland ignored him and continued, "Moondoggie and Gidget." They walked up and groaned quietly. "Woz and Jobs." Holland called. They too walked up but did not complain. "And last up, Renton and Eureka." They looked at each other in the eyes and walked up while holding hands. Those that weren't called up cheered, thanked Renton and Eureka for the meal and exited the room. The children were bored and decided to play tag. "Bye Bye, mama, papa!"They yelled as they speed out of the room.
Holland walked down the line and bellowed, "Alright! Let's start out with 100 jumping Jacks!" He began jumping while moving his arms and legs apart and back. People followed his example. At first they were out of sync but after 40 jumping jacks, they were synchronized. "Ok, now 100 push-ups!" Holland said as he dropped to the floor and did push-ups. No one followed this time because they were watching Holland. Holland completed 100 push-ups. Everyone was slack-jawed. "Wow…" Matthieu said. "Now it's your turn!" Holland shouted. The crew dropped to the ground and did push-ups. Because of lack of exercise, Hap only completed 20. Matthieu completed 70 and Hilda completed 60. Moondoggie finished 80 while Gidget completed 40. Renton managed to complete 50, partly due to puberty and testosterones causing massive muscle growth. Eureka was less lucky however, she did not gain muscle mass as Renton did because of puberty. She managed to finish 30 in the end. For the rest of the day, the team did drills and jogged around the entire ship. By the end of the day, they were able to work as a team. Not all of them played well, but they were able to communicate well with each other. It was night by the time Holland was satisfied. "Alright! Good Job! Get a good night sleep and tomorrow we will play soccer!" The team was too tired to respond and just laid on the ground, gasping for air.
The next morning was perfect for a game of soccer. The sky was clear, blue and breezy. The ship had landed near a soccer field during the night. The Gekko-State was going to play against the team they played a long time ago. Holland remembered that he promised to play against them and win. This time, however, they will be playing as a team instead as individuals as they did before. "Holland!" Talho called, "They said that they will be here in 10 minutes!" Holland smiled, "Alright! Wake everyone up and get them dressed!" All around the ship, a blaring alarm rang, waking everyone up with a jolt. "Everyone get dressed and meet outside the ship!" Holland's voice boomed.
The Gekko-State team arrived at the soccer field. The other team was already there and warmed up. Holland had set up a plan for them. "Gidget, Matthieu, and Hilda will be defenders. Renton, Moondoggie, Eureka, and I will be the offense. With that, they did a group huddle, cheered out Gekko-State and started the match. The teams were nearly matched but the other team was leading slightly. Hours and hours of game play passed. They were down to their last game. 35-35, the game was tied, and the one to score the next point would win. Holland called another group huddle. "OK, ALL OFFENSE! Eureka and Renton will do the finishing blow. Just do not step on my face again. Let's GO!" Holland yelled and the group broke off into their positions. The other team quickly got past the defense and kicked a ball at the goal. Jobs blocked it and passed it to Woz. Woz quickly dribbled the ball past the first opponent and passed it to Gidget. The other team charged at her. "He-Here Hilda!" Gidget said and passed the ball to Hilda before the other team's player knocked Gidget down. Hilda passed it back and forth with Moondoggie as they advanced forward. "Here!" Moondoggie yelled as he passed it to Holland. "Renton! Get this!" Holland bellowed while passing it over to Renton. Two men were guarding him so he could not do much. "Renton!" Eureka yelled. Renton nodded and kicked the ball at Holland. Holland did not noticed so the ball bounced off his head. Eureka got it instead and head butted it to Renton. The other team rushed at Renton now since he was very close to the goal. Renton saw no openings so he kicked it straight up. Eureka jumped on his shoulders and smacked the ball down into the goal. Renton thought she floated a bit but the thought was soon gone as the Gekko-State team cheered. They shook hands with the opponents and parted their own way.