Chapter 17: Let's Get Girlfriends!
-x-
So the fisherman joined the sleepover with the farmer and the dealer. He was happy he was able to join such a thing, knowing he could be close with his three buddies (Three? We could never forget Kuu who is practically glued to his shoulder.)
Vaughn crinkled his nose as he stretched, but felt something weigh down on him. NO it wasn't fat, nor was it heavy layers of pillows and blankets (it was summer, thus it was too hot), but a Denny clinging on to him, drool slipping out of his mouth and joining the heavy dark wet circle clearly made on Vaughn's t-shirt.
Vaughn was disgusted. Both he and the fisherman had to share the couch, connecting an extra cushioned chair to make it larger. He knew of Denny's habits in the night, as Denny explained each and every one of them habits to him some day back when. And now, it disgusted him.
Thus, Vaughn decided to fix this problem. Push Denny off of him and unto the floor, roll over to his side as if nothing had happened. There. Problem solved.
-x-
It was early in the morning (this is a lie). It was tea time. Chelsea and Denny both stared at the quiet nonchalant and lethargic cowboy that brooded before them. It was early in the morning (I already stated that this is a lie), Vaughn obviously was not a morning person. His hair poked out every which way and his eyes sagged, his head being held up with one hand and his position awkward and semi-dead. He grunted and turned to his side, the side of his back facing them.
"Gosh, Vaughn really isn't an early bird huh?" Chelsea murmured to Denny.
" 'Early Bird?' It's already noon, Bray." Denny replied, pointing at the farmer's watch.
She frowned. "Probably Vaughn is working too much… I mean, he was complaining about being on vacation. I would kill for a vacation right now." Shrugging, she summed it up. "Vaughn has problems."
"He's a work-a-holic. What else can you expect from the guy other than faithful and honest and dedicated work?" Denny implied, setting down Kuu on the table.
Vaughn stared at them with the corner of his eye. He also noted that the black bird was gathering interest to his own green tea.
"What about you, Denny?"
"Me? A work-a-holic?" He laughed. "Yeah, right. I do things at my own pace, Bray. But I do what I need to do. And plus, I'm way too laid back."
Chelsea laughed this time. "True… Unlike Vaughn, who's too serious with things…"
"Whhhhhyy exactly do you talk about me like I'm not even here?" Vaughn muttered, grabbing his tea before the bird could dive. Well, in actuality though, it more came out like this, "Whhhhhhyy examumble mumble mutter mummble mmmere." He hadn't realized that his speech was messed up and continued glaring at them, intently expecting an answer as he sipped his warm tea.
Chelsea -who was trying not to laugh- leaned over to Denny, whispering, "What did he say?"
Denny blinked. "I only heard mumbles." Then telling Vaughn. "Vaughn, SAY YOUR WORDS CLE-AR-LY" He then started opening his mouth more and doing his best to make his mouth look as if it looks like the said word. "YOU NEED TO OOOOPEN YOUR MOOOOOUUUTTTHHH."
Vaughn smacked him with his hat.
….
"Gosh, I think Vaughn is such a grumpy fellow today." Chelsea noted.
Denny turned his head toward her. "You think?"
"Splash water on him. He should wake up."
"You do it. I don't wanna die."
"But he hates my guts. He'll do such vulgar things that children should never be reading on anything." There was a short censored conversation about such topic. And it had ended with a completely random topic. "You know, I really do think Vaughn would be okay with a pony tail."
"Well, pig tails do me good…" Denny added. "His hair is too short."
"Your hair is too thick and bushy. Did you do something with it?"
Denny was delighted. "Oh, you noticed?" He chuckled.
"…" Vaughn stared at them now with disgrace and disgust. What kind of conversation is this?
Then Chelsea suddenly blurted. "… Vaughn should get a girlfriend."
It was kind of unfair to poor Vaughn and Denny, but both were sipping on some tea at the time. And thus, the loudly blunt topic of "Vaughn getting a Girlfriend" being thrown out to the table so easily made both choke on their drinks, one spewing on the other. The one left out of the fiasco thought she had poisoned them. Vaughn was coughing. Denny was drenched. It was unexpected but revenge did play out its part well. And at the very least, it had awaken Vaughn from his conscious slumber. Chelsea had quickly went for a towel and an extra shirt. When she came back, she was eyes with daunting and intimidating faces. Handing the towel and extra shirt to the fisherman, she dared to ask "What?" It was then that they realized how much it had no affect on the dense farmer, at least on one side. The other was just fathomed at how stupid the farmer can get.
Denny pulled off his shirt and wiped himself down from the tea. As he was doing so, he retorted, "Thanks for the shower of tea, Vaughn."
"Obliged. It will do you some good anyway; lice hate green tea." He replied.
"Uh-huh. With your germy saliva all over it…"
Chelsea, who sat down between them, then inserted her thought at the moment into the conversation. "I still don't get you two."
Denny, slipping on the extra shirt, questioned, "How so?"
"Why is it that it looks like you two get along, but then somehow I get the feeling you don't…?"
"Beats me." "Who knows."
Chelsea leaned back on her chair. "Probably you had a rough night last night? Making both of you whack?"
Vaughn turned his attention to Denny. "Hmmm… I wonder why…?" Denny stuck out his tongue in response.
Chelsea, grinning again, then suggested, "So we should go girl hunting!"
"Why?" Both men asked instantly, turning their eyes to her.
"I thought guys like doing that… It's like a guys hobby to go out looking for cute and hot girls right?" She believed her intuition was correct.
Vaughn's thoughts? 'This girl never ceases to disappoint me."
Denny's? 'Why would Braden suggest looking for girls? Is he interested in one of 'em?'
"After all, it's not everyday where we have male bonding like this. I think it would be fun." She smiled innocently. "We should invite Pierre and Elliot too!" She would've included Shea, but the answer was too obvious.
-x-
Thus, the plan was set out, all the bachelors (-cough-) gathered at the secret base, Chelsea's farm. Of course, none of the actual boys had any idea what was going on. They were all puzzled of Braden's actions, to suddenly go "girl hunting".
Perhaps she wanted to arouse the inner man of them? Or perhaps they found out that it would just give them sheer pleasure? Perhaps the farmer really wanted to start settling down, or perhaps he wanted one of them to find a good girl for them? Did he find some interest in one of the bachelorettes? Or is it that he's curious? All the answers to these questions, they didn't know. Well, at least three of them didn't, one caring less of the actions of the farmer (due to knowing such not-should-be-known) facts. But it surely did bring curiosity to them all.
As for the main person herself -himself, depending who's looking- she was quite ecstatic. "So were finally having time to gather around. You know them girls already had their girl time."
Elliot smiled. "Yeah, that's what girl's do. I'm just happy that Natalie is tagging along too."
"We should do the same. Have some male bonding…" She continued. "So, what DO guys do when they male bond?"
Vaughn sighed inwardly. 'Of course you would ask…'
"Well…." Denny emphasized, his eyes stern as ever. "You Did say something about girl hunting right?"
Chelsea chuckled, scratching her neck awkwardly. "Heh. Yeah…"
"Why?" Denny flat out said it.
"Because… Well, it's not exactly…. Hunh…" Chelsea couldn't really think of any words to explain.
"Is there someone you fancy, Braden?" Pierre asked, polishing a spoon.
"Fancy? What in the world does that mean?" Denny asked.
Pierre frowned. "Denny, you should broadened your vocabulary someday. It is also not helping sitting in the middle of the sea all day singing "However many bottles of beer on the wall" repeatedly as no fish swim by."
"Yo, don't go dissin my fishin. I happen to like that song very much. And the fish must surely appreciate my wonderful voice too. They just can't seem to get close to the greatness of my awesome voice." Denny retorted proudly. They all sweat dropped in response, had he not realized that he supported Pierre's idea of his own singing.
"Well…there's just someone I wanna go meet up with…" Chelsea decided to finally admit. "Remember that there was news of a church being built in the forest? Well, I met up with the people there yesterday, a man and young woman our age, Nathan and Alisa. I couldn't talk with them very long and told them I'd be meet up with them again."
"So what was the point of gathering us?" Vaughn asked, not really seeing the point of them being gathered like this.
"Heh heh. Well…" She trailed off and they finished off her sentence mentally. 'She/He just doesn't want to get lost again…'
-x-
Though the idea of what they were to do was still unclear, they still decided to tag along with the farmer, to see who were the ones she spoke of. Vaughn was dragged along. But it was then that as they headed out of the farm, Natalie had stopped Elliot.
"Elliot." she appeared from behind the house, her face as dull as ever. "Oh, hey Braden."
"Hey." Chelsea smiled. "What's up?"
"Nothing much… Just doing some stuff gramps wanna do. And, apparently…" The red head inhaled, then exhaled. "He. Doesn't. Want. Me. To. Do. Them." She then angrily slapped her hand on her brother's shoulder and began dragging him away. "Let's go dear dear brother. We have work to do…." Elliot gave his last expression of apology as he was being dragged away by his sister, disappearing behind their house.
"Ah, too bad Elliot couldn't join…" Chelsea commented.
Out of nowhere, Pierre gasped. "Oh, dear… I'm afraid I might need a rain check myself."
"Why?" Chelsea pouted now. Please don't say you forgot to do something.
"I'm sorry. There's something I had forgotten to do. Maybe next time."
And then the gourmet left.
Leaving the three musketeers to fend for themselves…
Chelsea face-palmed herself in defeat. "And just when I worked so hard NOT to leave it down to the three of us."
"What did you say?" Vaughn asked, leaning over her shoulder. This bothered Denny to an extent, thus he joined in with the leaning.
"Geh.. Nothing. Stupid, Vaughn." Then she stuffed her hand to Denny's face. "You're too close, Denny."
"BOSS!"
Denny blinked as he turned his face to the side on Chelsea's hand, to see a man in some camo shorts and a white t-shirt run toward them. "Oh, hey. It's a guy from the fishing club." Taking Chelsea's hand into his own, he set it down to her side gently and raised a hand to the fellow. "Hey…. Err…"
The fellow frowned. "It's been over two months, Boss. You should know my name."
"Uh….huh." The fisherman still gave a blank stare.
He immediately looked frantic. "Well, anyway, that's not the point. We need you to join us at the beach. There's this killer king fish, and none of us have a good hold of her. We need your help!"
Chelsea didn't know why, but her gut feeling called out to her. "You should go, Denny. THE TEAM NEEDS YOUR HELP! GO. GO. GO! . YOU. THAT. THE. SEA. IS. CALLING!" Then she shrugged. "I dunno. I just felt that the dramaticness was appropriate, but… Start busting some moves with that patootie and move!" She kicked them both away.
There, she and Vaughn stood there quietly.
"Ticked off?" He asked.
"You know me so well…Go fall off a cliff."
-x-
"Oh, Braden! It's so nice for you to visit. I'm delighted." A soft, cheerful voice greeted as Chelsea had entered through the front.
And Vaughn was outside. Outside enjoying the quiet serenity the Goddess Pond gave. The Goddess Pond gave an odd aura though at times. At times, he wondered why the world couldn't be like this. And like this, he stood there, enjoying the moment. That is, until the moment of however many minutes rapidly emphasized as he watched the cross-dressing farmer cross his eyes with a warm smile. A warm smile that he had seen before. And that he had seen before was enough.
Following after was a much younger girl, with cherry hair and a bright smile. She looked to be in her late teens, but still young. And he guessed that this was the Alisa the farmer spoke of.
But the moment was odd for him. The feelings based of Chelsea's expressions alone made him wonder what kind of twisted gut feeling he was getting from it all. And then he blinked to suddenly regret doing so as the feeling that brought a flood of memories that was hidden far in the dark instantly went away. And somehow, it made him angry.
"And this old coot here is Vaughn. He's a grumpy old guy, and his hair turned white since he works too much, and I'm surprised he has yet to go bald." Chelsea explained under one breath, pointing and poking him to add the emphasis. Vaughn whacked her on the side of the head. And then, accusation was to be expected. "SEE! He's an old geezer that likes whacking poor and innocent people!"
Alisa giggled a bit then bowed to him. " Nice to meet you, Vaughn. I hear Braden complain about you a lot."
"Oh, do you?" Vaughn stared at the farmer who stuck out her tongue at him.
"Yeah, but it must mean that he must like you to an extent." Alisa smiled. "It seems you get along so well." Both started to feel a wad of their insides gather at their throat to this comment. "Umm.. Am I wrong?" Alisa asked uncertainly.
Chelsea smiled, slinging an arm over the girl's shoulders. "Dead wrong! We both hate each others' guts!" Vaughn agreed with the statement.
"Oh…"
Chelsea then gave the same smile as before. "But it's all right. We can get along and come visit again."
Alisa smiled now. "Will you? Oh, Nathan would be very happy."
"Yeah, and next time we come by, I'm gonna bring you some vegetables grown fresh out of my farm for sure."
"I'm looking forward to it. I hear your vegetables is getting popular now. It must be so good."
"Haha. Next time for sure." Chelsea then placed her hands on her back and gently pushed her towards the doors of the church. "You better go inside now. It's getting late."
"Oh, yes. Nathan wouldn't be very happy about that."
"Nope. See you soon, Alisa."
The girl smiled and nodded, closing the church doors and leaving the farmer alone with the animal dealer. And all he could ask was, "What was that?"
-x-
Everyone on the beach was celebrating. Denny had finally hauled in the killer fish and it was a huge landing. The fish sparkled the lights for a feast that night.
"Woo, doggy. That was a battle." Denny laughed, petting Kuu. "And I thought I was getting scared there for a moment."
"You did well, Boss."
Denny stood up in front of all the other fisherman. "All right, mates. You saw me go all out to the beast. I want you all to do the same, ya hear?"
"YEAH!" All of them echoed.
The president of the group chuckled. "You surely know how to get a group riled up huh?"
"Yeah, or else how would this be fun? There's some need for excitement somewhere." He grinned.
"Oh, by the way, we have a new person join the group."
"Really?"
"Yes, you see that girl over there?" The president pointed his pinky toward a girl with long black hair, her profile was neat and she was petite. A fishing rod was gripped in her hands and she had a darling face with a broad smile. "Her name is Marissa. She wanted to join earlier, but she couldn't until now. She said she really loves to fish and was impressed by your skills."
"Cool, I'd better go introduce myself then." He looked her way until her gray eyes found his chocolate eyes. And a simple wave from him caused her to look away. "Whoa, did I do something wrong?"
"Boss, you've still gotta long ways to go."
-x-
" I don't really understand it, Vaughn. What do you mean 'What was that?'" Chelsea asked as they lifted their legs above the tall grass.
"Your mood, expression… they all changed back there. It was…" Vaughn stopped for a moment. "Odd."
"So you were staring at me?"
"Not staring. Observing."
"And what would make you to suddenly take such interest?"
He answered truthfully. "You looked weak."
Now she paused, and turned around, to find Vaughn paces away from her. She repeated disbelievingly, "Weak?"
"Something about that girl probably brings the change out of you?" Then he dared to step over the line. "OR perhaps you really had taken a fancy to that girl?"
Chelsea frowned, instantly answering, "No, I thought you did."
Vaughn froze for a moment, feeling that if this called upon dramatic purposes… he would've tripped on nothing. He decided to take on the stupid on a new level. Totally retarded. "What?"
"Well, you were looking at her the whole time. She seems to have taken a liking to ya, too." She grinned smugly, nudging him with her elbow.
"She's a nun."
"And it's such a shame that a girl like her will be left untouched." 'Stop it.'
"You're sick minded."
"And yet you're the on who thought that thought." 'Stop it.'
"I despise girls."
She then gasped. "So you really are gay… I never knew!" He smacked her again, but his hand never left the back of her head. He leaned over her shoulder. "Could you just quit for a moment?" He asked coldly, hissing, "…You're lying."
Chelsea couldn't lift her head due to Vaughn's large hand holding her down. "I'm not lyin -"
"Stop that. You're being stupid. And you're being stupid enough to consider that I wouldn't even notice."
"And since when were you so interested?" She retorted seriously.
"Since I saw that smile." Chelsea flinched, suddenly feeling the weight lift off her head. He already was far ahead of her and she knew that he was not willing to wait for her as his strides were fast and far. She made him angry, and she knew exactly why.
-x-
OMAKE, TIME!
-Omake
"I despise girls" Vaughn said.
"So you really are gay! …I never knew…"
"You weren't supposed to know."
GASPETH. "That's not apart of the script." Chelsea scans through script.
"We have a script?"
Owari
- DoJo
