Elliot was going crazy. The one girl that he'd liked in all of his life, and this stupid MOP was suddenly dominating her attention. How was this possible?
Elliot stomped over to the beach, kicking a rock. But the rock skittered out of his reach and in his attempt to recover it he tripped over his own feet, landing on the rock and nearly leaving himself with a permanent dent in his face. He sat up, rubbing his forehead and whimpering, then realized that his glasses were cracked. Great. Just another reason that today stank like poop-covered skunks that had been dead for three months.
Angry at himself, Julia, the world, and above all BANANA THE MOP, Elliot stood and full-out ran to the beach. Clouds swallowed the sun and burped out rain (what cute personification! But my stomach hurts and I'm tired. X3) all over "Sunny" Islands, but Elliot didn't care. He continued to the beach and when he reached it he cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed, "I'M IN LOVE WITH A GIRL WHO LOVES A FREAKING MOP!" until his throat ached and he could barely make a sound. Then he sank to his knees and thought while the rain pounded complicated rhythms into the sand around him.
It wasn't as if Julia had ALWAYS been crazy. She hadn't been born that way. (People rarely are.) Just last year, she had been a perfectly normal teenager, his best friend, in fact.
And then... and then... Elliot struggled to recall. What had made her change?
At that moment, everything surged back. And a terrible realization slammed down on top of him.
Last year, Chen's prize-winning mop had been burned. Chen had been devastated-that mop had been his it had been around, he'd been slightly crazy, claiming to love it even more than his son. (Poor, neglected little Charlie... but why else would he spend all of his time at Eliza's house, especially since she has a father vaguely resembling an ape?)
The "slightly crazy" turned into "really really REALLY crazy" very fast, and soon, he was swearing that the mop...
Talked to him.
Played with him.
The mop was his FRIEND.
When the mop had been burned in an almost-seemingly-suspicious bonfire where Gannon, Eliza, and Charlie may have possibly been present, the man had been beside himself with grief. He held a funeral for its pathetic little ash pile and everything. Elliot shuddered. No one had shopped at his store for, like, a year. They were all afraid that Chen had some sort of communicable crazy disease.
Anyway, Chen was crazy depressed for about a week.
And then he woke up one day and was... normal.
As in, NORMAL normal. He couldn't remember the past months that he had spent with his "wonderful" mop. He also couldn't figure out why everyone was so scared of him for awhile.
But he did know that he needed a mop, and by golly, he ordered one.
That had been, what, a few months ago? Elliot squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. The mop had arrived within the last three months... which was about the same time that Julia started acting...weird. It was like one day she was herself-funny, happy, animal-loving, thoughtful, spacey, NORMAL-and the next, she was seeing things, saying things, doing things that weren't... her. It always got worse when they were around Chen's shop...
That's when 2 and 2 clicked. Elliot yelped and leaped to his feet. That MOP had turned her crazy!
His mind whirled with confusion. How could a mop turn someone crazy? It wasn't possible, was it?
Elliot shook his head, sending water splattering all over. There was only one thing to do... it was time to talk to Chen.
Chen looked up, surprised to see any costumers with such a heavy storm outside. He cringed as Elliot dripped all over the floor.
"I really need a new mop," he muttered, wondering why he kept losing his cleaning tools.
"Actually," Elliot said, squinting so as to better see Chen without his glasses, "that's why I'm here." He plodded inside and slammed his fist down on top of the desk so hard that the brittle thing broke and he fell forward into it.
Chen leaped up. "Elliot, what's wrong with you?" he yelped. "What was that for?"
Elliot sat up, grimacing as he eyed the three hundred slivers up his arm. "I, uh, just wanted to look cool," he admitted, shuffling to his feet. He stared at the pile of wood that had once been a desk and cleared his throat. "I'll pay for that."
Chen folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "This had better be good," he growled.
Elliot straightened up. "Don't worry, it is." He stared the merchant straight in the eye. "What company did you get your mop from?" he asked very, very seriously.
Chen gaped at him, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Finally, he spluttered, "THAT'S why you came in here and messed up my store?"
Elliot shrank in on himself and mumbled, "Uh, I, uh, um, that's right."
Chen turned red, then purple, and then some other color that Elliot couldn't name. Finally, the man let out a strangled noise and calmed.
"I ordered my mop from a company called Happy Squiggle Mops," he muttered.
Elliot nodded. "Have you ordered from there more than once?"
"Yes. Twice. The other time was the mop before the one Julia abducted." He said "Julia" the way you might say "Someone just peed all over my chocolate cake." Then he frowned and squinted one of his eyes, as if trying to remember something. "Funny... I'm not sure what happened to that one. I remember seeing it for the first time, and everything's a little fuzzy after that." He shrugged and his glare returned.
"Happy now?"
Elliot nodded.
"Then get out before you ruin the rest of my store."
Followed by Chen's glower, Elliot hurried out the door and into the street. Lightening flashed across the sky, and thunder roared right after it. Elliot cringed. He hated storms. When he was younger he used to hide under the bed when they occurred. His mind drifted back one of the storms in his past. Julia had been over; he remembered that they had been messing around in the kitchen or something when there was a clap of thunder so forceful and close it shook the entire house. It had taken every inch of willpower in him (which wasn't a whole lot) to keep from crying like a dying baby hyena and running to his room.
Julia had known he was afraid. She had pretended like she didn't, but he knew that she knew. (Weird sentence. XD) She told him stories and jokes, made up stupid but strangely fun games that took his mind off of the storm. Elliot bit the inside of his cheek. This is just another game, he told himself. It's called the Save Julia From an Evil Mop She Just So Happens to be In Love With for Some Odd Reason game.
And with that, he set off to prepare.