By the time dinner had arrived both Casper and Kat had finished looking through ALL of the papers they could find. While they hadn't found exactly what they were looking for they still didn't return empty handed. There was a paper they had found with some rather odd writings on it. Kat quickly stuffed it into her pocket as they neared the dining room. Last thing that they wanted was for the Trio to know they were up to something. There was no doubt in their mind that they'd hide it on them or shred it so the secrets it held wouldn't be discovered. "Just act normal...' Casper whispered to Kat as he floated on into the dining area. Smiling she nodded as she too followed him into the room. Dr. Harvey was already seated at the table with his coffee and a few bits of paper work he was trying to finish before the food was completely set out. The Trio were there and as normal Stretch was more than happy to greet Casper with a good pull of his tail.
"Say Bulb-Head, why da hell weren't YOU cookin' dinnuh here?" With a look that could kill Stretch kept his eyes focused on Casper's.
"W-well I uh.. I... promised Kat that I'd help her out with something in the lab. For one of her school projects! I uh... I'm sorry.." Laughing nervously Casper shrugged his shoulders and cringed as he waited to be pummeled through a wall.
"Well, 'cause of you, dis gorgeous ghoul behind us had ta cook FOR YA..." Annoyed Stretch poked his finger against Casper's nose which proceeded to make a little honking noise. "You should think 'bout her feelin's..." his eyes narrowed at the boy, he just wouldn't' seem to let up.
"When did you start caring about people's feelings...?" Curiously the little ghost blinked and stared at his Uncle. That was the last thing Casper had expected to hear from Stretch.
"Well dis' is a special situation.. I make exceptions for beautiful women." Looking over his shoulder at Ghastly, Stretch grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. Casper at that moment could feel himself just wanting to get sick in the nearest waste basket. In response to his comment that he'd made, Ghastly simply hrmpfed and slapped him hard across the face. Having found that to be rather hilarious Stinkie and Fatso both laughed and squirmed around in their seats. Of course this only furthered poor Stretch's embarrassment and caused him to get rather pissed off in turn. "WHAT DA HELL ARE YOU'S TWO LAUGHIN' AT?! Y'think DAT'S funny...?! Watch dis...!" Grabbing a hold of both of their heads he proceeded to mix and smoosh their faces together. This even managed to get Melle to giggle. That was a relief to Stinkie who had to watch her just sit there with a sour look placed upon her face because of earlier. Honestly the situation at the table had turned awkward at all sides.
When the moment had passed and both Stinkie and Fatso had pulled themselves apart, then together again Stinkie looked at Melle and smiled lightly to himself. When Melle noticed she blinked a moment then blushed, quickly having looked away from him with a HRMPF. She treated him just about the exact same as Ghastly treated Stretch. "Sooo, What's up wit you an' da fleshie...? She seems like she's rather ticked at ya's. It isn' cause of what happened before is it...? I mean wit dat week o school...?" Stretch curiously pried into his brother's business. This caused Stinkie to swallow as he squirmed and ducked down behind the table a little more.
"W-well I uh... N-not exactly, dough it might be paht of it. Heheheh.." Shifting his glance to Melle he blushed and then stared at the floor. Stinkie wanted to say what happened, but also preferred not to really say either. In fear that it'd cause his brother to try and make him force out details that weren't true.
"You really want to know, NOSY?" Melle slammed her hands down on the table and glared at all three of them. "I bet YOU were in on it, you jack-ass! This jerk flew into my bathroom while I was taking my bath, that PERV!! Then when I told him to leave he just sat there IN MY TOILET, and... told me I had a nice body..! UGH, You guys are REALLY SICK AND TWISTED!" After all there was no way he could've meant it, right...?
"OH good, y'noticed! We do aim to please...!" Stretch smirked and eyed down the girl, rather amused that she was so angered by something that was more than likely an accident, or was it? Had his brother finally started to take a few steps ahead and initiate things for once...? He only wished that he'd been there to see all of this as it unfolded! It sounded as if the whole thing turned out to be a laugh riot.
"Oh shut up, I wasn't even SCARED! You guys and your scare tactics are...lame...! You..." Enraged by this whole thing Melle erupted at Stinkie, having had enough of all of this being teased. " You're the worst ghost EVER! You're not even scary, CASPER'S scarier than YOU are! You try all these tactics but they never work. They're just sick." Huffing she folded her arms and planted herself down in her seat again. Stinkie just stared at her and for some odd reason or another found himself both humiliated and heart broken. Though while he looked sad he placed a rather pissed off look on his face to hide it as he rushed off through the closest wall. After hearing all of that it was clear that he needed time to vent. Stretch and Fatso in turn just glared and growled at Melle. Stretch was JUST about ready to make a motion at Melle when Ghastly intervened, floating right in front of Melle to protect her from the disgruntled jerk.
"You touch her, you deal with ME." Ghastly's eyes narrowed and glowed with an eerie red tone. There was no way she'd let him near her friend. Having not wanted to upset a potential opportunity for later, Stretch just reseated himself across the table and glared. It was then that Ghastly turned and looked at Melle with a frown, "Despite that it was wrong of him to do that. I think you kind of went overboard a little. He looked like his feelings were hurt. To a ghost scaring is almost everything. If he told you that your body was nice, despite how sick and perverted it was, at least it wasn't something bad. He could've mocked you and put you down about everything." Melle listened in closely to what Ghastly had to say. She couldn't believe it. She was taking their side! Though it was true she had gone a little over-board, and she was curious if he'd really meant what he said or not. It bothered her and finally she sighed heavily and nodded.
"I'm all done here..." Softly Melle spoke as she stood up and pushed in her seat. Quietly she retreated out of the door. Her eyes fixated on the floor she started on down the hall-way as she pondered just where Stinkie might be at. If she could figure it out she'd go there and apologize, despite that he shouldn't have entered in there anyways. After having looked for a few minutes she finally recognized the specter sitting on the couch. Stinkie had gone to the TV room to catch up on some Funnies which usually cheered him up. Luckily for Melle when she discovered him there he was laughing and had a hand placed on his stomach. "Uhm... Stinkie...?"
"Hrmng?" Pausing a moment, Stinkie turned his head and looked at her. A rather angered look placed over his face as he stared at the screen. "Oh, It's YOU! Whatta YOU want...?" With his eyes narrowed he waited for her reply, though he had half a mind to go through the floor and couch right there. Just to get away from her. Though there was still something that made him want to hear what she had to say, despite that he'd been bothered so badly earlier.
"I'm, I'm sorry for what I said at the table. I guess I went a little over-board because I was so angry at what you said. You don't suck at... scaring people. In fact you manage to scare me all the time and rather easily. Earlier I was frightened to death because of what you did there." If there was one thing Melle hated it was admitting that she was scared of something. Though, there was no way around it, this had to be done to patch up this racket. "...But, I'm still confused on whether or not you meant what you said earlier. It's bothered me since you said it. I don't like it when people say something like that. I don't know if it's ever the truth or if they're just being sarcastic. I get picked on for that too much and you know... it's really mentally degrading, just like you when I told you that you sucked at scaring. Can you see where I'm coming from now...?" Gently she rubbed her arm and gazed at him, hoping that he'd get what she wanted to hear right now.
Stinkie just stared a moment and then blushed as he looked away from her. Oh he read the expression on her face. He knew what she wanted to hear from him, but the question remained in his mind if he could do it or not. The last thing he wanted was for his brothers to be listening in on the conversation and hear what he had to say. "W...Well I uh... I ..." Trying to explain the words just fumbled around a bit as he attempted to let her know. "A...are... my brudders aroun'...? If dey ah I can't tell ya 'bout it." Nervously he grinned and shifted his eyes.
Melle looked around and shook her head. "Even so, I'll have Ghastly kick their butts if they do anything stupid, now... please... answer me...?" Frowning she walked over and sat next to him on the couch.
It was then that Stinkie remembered just how good he'd felt earlier with everything that'd happened. It forced him to smile and he nodded. In a brief second he noticed what he'd been thinking and started shaking his head. How in the hell were THOSE thoughts getting into his mind!? Augh, This whole scare tactic was driving him nuts! "Well uh, anyways. I... I did mean what I said, though I promise I didn' see anythin'... I really didn'... Wish I 'ad..."
"OH REALLY?!" Smirking Melle grabbed up a couch pillow and whacked him with it as she laughed. Stinkie stared then smirked as he too grabbed up a pillow in which they proceeded to indulge in a rather short lived pillow fight once Melle kept falling right through him. The two of them laughed and placed themselves back onto the couch as they finished watching the Funniest video's together. They pointed out what they thought was hilarious about the clips and joked around about how funny those idiots looked. Especially when they were scared out of their skulls by their friends jumping out at them. As the time quickly passed by, Stretch and Fatso who'd finished their dinner entered into the room. They floated in one spot and glared at their brother for hanging around the human like that. They didn't understand how he enjoyed it so much.
"So...enjoyin' yaselves, MUCH...?" Grunting Stretch flew over in front of them his arms crossed while both Fatso and him blocked the TV.
"S-STRETCH...!!" Dropping the remote Stinkie sank himself down into the couch seat as he waited for his brother to start yelling.
"Yes, we were. You should try it sometime. It might help a ghost even like you to get laid. Hmp.. Then maybe you wouldn't be so grumpy. Well, I'm off to bed. I've got a big day tomorrow." Grinning to herself widely Melle walked on out of the room. This left Stretch angered and ready to explode, though he averted his eyes to Stinkie who he'd take it out on instead. Even Fatso had become fair game when he laughed at him as well.
Meanwhile up in Kat's room both Casper and Kat talked over the clues that were placed on the paper they'd found in the lab. "So... This... I think... This means... Under... stairs... Which stairs...? There's a whole lot of those..!" Casper sighed heavily as he stared at the paper and waved it around in his hand.
"Well...maybe these here tell of a specific set of stairs...! We'll have to just think it over really good. Though It'll have to wait until tomorrow as much as I'd love to keep this up. I've got school..." Kat gave a saddened look at Casper. More than anything she wanted to help him find the Lazarus ingredients. She figured it was the least that she could do after he allowed her father to come back to her instead of taking it himself.
"Yeah, you're right..." Agreeing Casper placed the notes in a safe spot in Kat's drawer then smiled. "We'll go over the clues tomorrow. Heh, I'll even try to figure it out while you're away too just in case if I can get it." Floating to the end of the bed Casper curled up where he usually slept and continued smiling up at Kat.
"Good idea... Night Casper.." Kat kissed the top of his head before she layed down and pulled the covers up to her chin.
"Night, Kat..." Warmly the friendly ghost smiled as he almost melted. The rest of the night he'd be able to dream sweet dreams for sure as he eagerly awaited tomorrow morning.