Julia sat on a stool beside her cow, Cow. Her eyes were watery and she was bawling her head off. Beside her, Banana lay, soggy still and covered with Barbie Band-Aids. They didn't stick well, so once and a while one would fall off, and Julia would put it back on.
"Ju... Julia... I'm sorry."
Julia whirled to face Elliot. He this time had a bottle marked, 'MOP CARE' and some pansies tied in a pink bow. He figured he should act friendly to Banana to get closer to Julia.
Julia's mouth watered. "Pauunnnssseeeeeessss..." she grunted dreamily, saliva trickling down her chin again. Elliot sighed; closing his eyes he said, "Please don't ea..."
He opened his eyes; pansy petals fluttered down from Julia's chin. Currently she was choking on the pink ribbon.
Just then a shady man entered the stables. Casually he strode to Julia and pounded her on the back. The ribbon, soaked and dripping with spit, was flicked onto Elliot's head. He tried to hide a shudder as drippy dribble oozed down to greet him face to... spit-bubble.
"Cuz!" Julia gave Vaughn a huge, sploshy hug.
Vaughn shoved her away, shouting in disgust. "Julia! I-I'm not you're cousin," he lied.
Julia looked stunned. Her mouth gaped open. "You're not?" she asked dazedly.
Vaughn rolled his eyes, and turned to Elliot, ignoring Julia's blubbering in the background. "So, chump, watcha doing here?" Then with a sly, amused expression, he jerked his finger back to Julia. "You visiting her?"
Elliot stood up straight, trying to smooth out his nasally voice. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
Vaughn snickered. "Heh, only an idiot would even try to get her attention, man." Then he strode to the door.
Elliot bristled.
"Wait!" Julia grabbed Vaughn's arm and stared up at him. "You aren't my cousin?"
Vaughn reeled away angrily. "Of course I'm not, stupid! I have to go see Sabrina." He started to blush.
Julia didn't get it. "But mommy said cousin was coming!" she whined, stomping her foot.
Vaughn growled. "C'mon, you're the most embarrassing person I know!" he shouted. "Lemme go!"
Julia started to wail. "MOMMY IS NEVER WRONG!" she screamed. She started to try to bite Vaughn.
"You are so stupid! Get off!"
"Ah, Vaughn, you're- Julia, what are you doing?" Mirabelle shrieked, watching her attack Vaughn. "That's no way to treat your cousin!"
Julia blinked.
"Cousin!" she squealed.
The biting transformed into her infamous elephant-killing hugs.
Vaughn growled and lugged her off. "We're going to force a little bit of brain into your empty shell of a head," he said, grinding his teeth together.
"Even if things get messy."

"Okay, Julia! To start things off we're going to take a math test! If you succeed in getting a 10% or higher, you get to eat 2 pansies!" Vaughn started cheerily, a great big (not to mention 100% fake) smile on his face to mask his inner annoyance and fury. Julia sat obediently on a stool, looking lovingly upon the pansies gripped in Vaughn's fingerless-gloved hand. "Paaauuunnnssiiieeeessss..." she chanted, more drool trickling down.
"All right." Vaughn held up four fingers. "How many?"
Julia gave him a look that made her look constipated.
Vaughn warded off his bad side (which was scarier than Julia's hugs, for the record) and smiled again. It was already unnatural for Vaughn to smile in the slightest, but he was rarely more desperate. He flicked down one finger. "How many now?"
Julia started whimpering and sank down on the stool.
Another finger flecked down. "Now?"
Julia made a wild grab for the whole bouquet of pansies.
Vaughn got desperate. "No! Just...! How many?" He now only held up one finger.
Julia bit down hard.
Vaughn, screaming, yanked it away. "Sit down or no pansies ever!" he howled.
Julia scrambled to the stool obediently and sat down.
Vaughn took a deep breath and mustered a cheesy smile. "Okay, since that obviously won't work, how about we play a game," he said calmly.
Julia clapped and squealed, "A game! A game!"
Vaughn waited till she quieted down, then held up four fingers again. "Now, think real hard and start counting up or down," he instructed patiently. Julia whimpered again, and he reworded. "Okay, choose from either 1, 2, 3, or 4. I will tell you if you're getting hotter or colder, and if you succeed, you get... 10 pansies," he explained carefully. It was fool-proof. What could go wrong?
Julia sounded very avid. She began, "One..."
"Warm..."
Encouraged, Julia thought a bit more, then said, "Two..."
"Getting hotter..."
"Three..."
"You're hot! You're hot!" Vaughn cried jubilantly. He could already taste victory...
Unfortunately, Sabrina had walked by, wondering where he was. He was supposed to pick her up and they were going to go out to dinner. Then she saw him and Julia, which was wrong looking enough because she didn't know that they were cousins. But what stung her worst was Vaughn's loud proclamation:
"You're hot, Julia! Super hot!"
Sabrina burst into tears and dashed away in a flurry of tears.
Vaughn saw and instantly his triumphalism died away. "Sabrina!" he cried. "It's not what-we're related!"
Several onlookers looked extremely disturbed.
Vaughn panicked. "I was trying to make her not stupid!" he screeched lamely. Then he looked at Julia through a red haze of hatred and anger. "You fail! No pansies ever again!" he screamed, then took off after Sabrina.
"Four!" Julia had closed her eyes and totally tuned out everything, and now she opened her eyes and looked around. "Vaughn... cuzzy?"
Her worry faded away completely when she spotted the pansies. With a howl of delight, she dove in, then fainted into a pansy coma.