Hello! Like I said before, this is actually a combination of Parts 3 and 4, so here's a chapter mainly with Private. Let's see what he was doing with that girl... ;)
While Vanessa and Skipper were battling it out, Private had a chance to get a good look at the other girl. Wow... she was pretty, he couldn't help noticing. She'd taken out a notebook and the pencils... colored pencils, almost two dozen and all different colors. Private had never known there were so many shades of red.
Seeing that Skipper was otherwise occupied, Private quietly walked towards the girl.
"Hello." he said shyly.
"Hey." she replied curtly, not looking up from her notebook.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Private continued. "Uh... my name's Private."
"Sarah." She still wouldn't look up as she put down her dull pencil and picked up a sharper one.
"That's a nice name!" Private complimented.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "I know you're just trying to hit on me, so stop trying to act all cute-sy and go away. You're in my light."
Private blinked in embarrassment and shuffled a little to the right, casting his shadow elsewhere.
"I'm just trying to be polite." he said sincerely.
"Yeah, well -" she finally looked up.
As if it wasn't already obvious, Sarah was an artist. She noticed certain things others didn't. With just one look at Private, she could tell he wasn't lying, unlike most guys she'd met before. Sarah was also a teenage female, and she could also tell that Private was... well, quite... handsome.
Private sat down. "What're you writing?" he asked.
She snapped the notebook closed, but not before Private had caught a glimpse of the odd shapes that adorned the page. She obviously drew in abstract.
"Drawing, actually, and... it's nothing anyone needs to see. My sketchbook is kind of like a diary to me."
Private nodded. He understood - it was kind of like how Skipper didn't like anyone listening to his log.
He cleared his throat. "Erm, if I may ask... why are your feathers like that?"
Sarah looked down at her grey front. "Yeah, I get that a lot. It's a physical reminder of the unbending darkness that resides in every soul, including yours and mine." She said this as if explaining to a chick that two and two made four.
Private blinked again and said uneasily, "Oh... right."
She let out a small smile. She got that a lot, too.
"Since we're asking each other questions of increasing impudence... what's with the cool British accent?"
Private didn't know what 'impudence' meant and made a mental note to ask Kowalski later. "I was born in Liverpool, England, at the Chester Zoo. It's an outdoor zoo, and the accent just... kinda stuck, I s'pose."
They continued to chat for quite a while.
Meanwhile...
"Wait, wait, back up - an egg?" Skipper cried.
"Yep." Vanessa said, and gestured back to where Sarah and Private were sitting and talking. Vanessa began to call for her daughter to come, but stopped.
"Private!" Skipper said.
"NO! Leave them!" Vanessa said, turning Skipper away from the new acquaintances.
"Excuse me," Skipper indignantly, "I just found out I'm a father and maybe I want to meet my kid!"
"Seriously, leave her be... oh my God, she actually put away put her sketchbook away and is TALKING to someone!" Vanessa exclaimed joyously.
Skipper raised an eyebrow and chanced a look at Kowalski and Rico. They seemed to have turned into shocked statues upon hearing this new information.
"Uh... maybe it's time for the rest of us to go inside." he said.
They nodded, still quite dazed, and the four older penguins quietly slipped inside the HQ, leaving Private and Sarah alone outside.
"Now then," Skipper said once they all were inside. "What's all this about 'actually talking to someone'?"
Vanessa sighed and sat down exhaustedly. "Sarah... she's - I don't know - different. She loves all the dark kind of stuff - black and red, vampires, anything to do with the bleary and dreary - and she's very anti-social. She'll just sit in a corner for hours, drawing in that sketchbook and sometimes goes for days without speaking to anyone! I always thought she would just grow out of it, but it's been years... I'm getting really worried."
Skipper didn't know what to say. He had a thought: Was this his fault, perhaps? It kind of sounded like Sarah hadn't really had a father figure... he suddenly felt a surge of guilt as his stomach seemed to plummet to the ground.
"By the way," Vanessa continued, "should I be worried now?"
Skipper made no reply, so Kowalski stepped in. "About what?" he asked.
"Well, Sarah's up there all alone with a guy... I haven't had much luck with 'army guys', if you know what I mean." she said, somewhat cynically.
Skipper unexpectedly broke into a booming laugh, as did Kowalski and Rico.
Kowalski, through the giggles, said, "Worried? Of course not! Private's one of the sweetest, most innocent guys - nay, boys - you'll ever meet!"
"What's he gonna do - make a move on her?" Skipper laughed out.
…
"Would you like a tour of the zoo?" Private said brightly. He and Sarah hadn't even noticed the others leave. "I'd be honored to show you around!"
"Well..." Sarah said, a little unsure. She hadn't actually spoken to someone (besides her mother, she figured) for this long in quite a while. But she liked Private - he seemed different from other guys she'd known.
"Okay." she said. She chanced a small smile in return for Private's stunning grin. He helped her up, and together they left the habitat, almost unaware they were still holding flippers.
…
Still laughing, Skipper said, "If it helps, I'll check on them now."
"Thanks." Vanessa said dryly. She didn't exactly appreciate Skipper laughing at the fact his own daughter might possibly have been in danger.
Skipper turned and looked through the periscope, pointing it towards where Sarah and Private had been sitting.
They weren't there.
Skipper lost his smile. He turned the 'scope around frantically, trying to see them.
"Skipper?" Kowalski said questioningly. The laughter had died out by now.
"They're gone!" he said, shocked.
Vanessa stood still for a few seconds then (for the fourth time that day) slapped Skipper across the face. She also added an extra 'zing!' by calling Skipper a name that should not be repeated on Fanfiction . Net. She turned and quickly climbed up the ladder.
Skipper rubbed the spot where Vanessa had yet again slapped him, a little embarrassed at the language his ex-wife had picked up.
"You were right to fear her!" Kowalski couldn't help commenting.
Go motherly affection! Woohoo!
By the way: If Sarah seeming to sound like a stereotypical goth girl, I'll explain now to quench the 'flames'. She's not really into all the goth stuff as much as she says she is - she just wants to be completely different from everyone else. Unfortunately, she goes to the extreme and has begun to lose herself a little in the process.
Hopefully, Private's friendship (ahem) will help her out with that...
Review and I'll give you some sprinkles to put on your ice cream - choose your shape: dinosaur, fish, dolphin, or star-and-moon? I actually bought these - shows you how cool I am ;)