"…So, what'd you think about the history quiz today, huh? Hard? Easy? Super-difficult? A total breeze? Or, like, somewhere in between?" the little girl inquired curiously as she and her friend stepped through the large stone gateposts and began strolling up the front walk of the grand Victorian mansion.
"Well, I think-" Mac tried to reply before Goo interrupted with a flowing river of chatter, as she was so apt to do as she skipped bouncily by his side.
"For me, I think it was like, fifty-fifty actually, as in like part of it was so super-easy I couldn't believe it, but another part was so hard it was almost like, ridiculous, especially when we had to list all those Founding Father because sometimes it's just like, really really tough to remember them all, especially when they're not on a dollar bill or anything, because when they're on a dollar bill you see them like, all the time so it's almost like it's a good friend, but if it's someone not on any money, they're like a total stranger, and strangers are of course people you don't know, because that's what makes them strangers in the first place, and…"
Rather than attempt to get a word in, Mac wisely decided to let her just babble on as he ascended the steps of the front porch, opened the front doors and called out casually, "I'm ho-WHOA!"
"That's right," Mr. Herriman didn't even notice that he had almost bowled the little ones over as he hurriedly hopped by, talking on the phone in a tone dripping with urgency. "She's nearly six-feet tall, slim, green eyes, with bright red hair. I promise you, you and your men will know if you see her, and…uh, other distinguishing marks? Well, she has several ear piercings, and…I'm sorry, I don't know how many specifically, see, and… frankly I don't like looking at them, so…"
In a flash, the plainly panicked figment had bolted off into his office, taking care to shut the doors tightly behind him. Mac and Goo, meanwhile, just gave one another very dumbfounded looks as the quickly became bogged down in bewilderment.
"Huh….now just what the heck in the whole world was that all about?" Goo squeaked, hr expression now stamped with confusion.
"I…I really don't know." Mac answered truthfully with an unnerved grimace. "But…look, I'm not sure, but it... it kinda sounded like he was talking about-OOF!"
Without warning, an azure missile rocketed into the foyer, and didn't come to a halt until it had latched upon the unsuspecting boy in a tight clasp with a hoarse cry of obvious dismay, "Mac! Mac, I…buddy, don't worry, it'll be okay! We're doing everything we can right now, so-"
"Hey! Hey!" Mac yelped as his imaginary friend started rapidly tightening his inexplicable comforting hug, to the discomfort of his ribcage. "Bloo, what're you-OW! Bloo, wait! Wait! Just…just calm down, what's-OW! Bloo, let go! Let go!"
"It's okay! It's okay!" the horrifically flustered blob just babbled on. "It'll be all right, don't worry! Everything will be back to normal, and soon we won't have to-"
"What? What is going on?" Goo began demanded impatiently as the utter lack of details became far too much to handle. "What? What? What? What? We're asking and asking and asking and asking here, but you just keep on jabbering on and on and on and on and we don't have any idea what the heck in the world you're talking about, yet you still keep going on and on and on and on-"
Bloo's face fell and his eyes widened a little in shock. "You…you mean…no one's told you yet?"
"Told us what?" Mac asked as he broke free from the almost suffocating hold. "What is wrong with everyone? Why are you all-"
"She…left us, Mac!" the little figment whimpered. "She…she's just gone!"
"Who is she?" the boy pried. "Why-"
"Frankie!" the blob finally confessed with a mournful groan. "Frankie's gone, guys!"
"….She…she what?" the child gasped as instinctively his creation's genuine panic sent him spiraling with alarm. Before he could be consumed by dread, however, the sensible child quickly began making a concentrated effort to calm a level head. "Wait…no….no! Bloo, what do you mean Frankie's gone? She-"
"What do you think I mean?" the terribly upset little friend whined. "She's gone! As in, she's not here anymore! She just…she just left-"
"No, no, no, Mac's right! Mac's got a point! He's right!" Goo jabbered. "I mean, seriously, what are you trying to say? Left us? You mean, she just went and left her house, her friends, her family, and her…her…her everything and stuff?"
"Why is this so hard to understand?" Bloo implored. "Yes! She literally just left Foster's!"
"But…but why?" Mac demanded as he tried to handle the peculiar mix of skepticism and panic that had taken hold of him. "Why would she-"
"Frankie just lost it! She just totally lost it!" Bloo moaned dolefully. "I mean, one minute she's vacuuming the arcade, everything's just fine, and then suddenly Mr. Herriman reminds her over the loudspeaker she needs to go organize down in the basement. Then, suddenly, she just….she just flips out! I was there, I saw it! Frankie completely just lost it! She's was just all 'That's it! That's it!' and stuff, and like that she just turns off the vacuum and storms out! So then I was all, 'Hey, Frankie, what's all the noise about? What's wrong?' and the she was all 'I can't take it! I'm running away!' and like that, she was gone! Totally gone! See, at first I thought she was just getting crabby like she always does, but…but this time, it was different. It wasn't just an empty threat Mac, it was serious. I could tell, she wasn't joking! And since then,…well, since then, no one's seen her, anywhere! I think she actually did it this time! She actually quit!"
"But…but just because no one knows where she is doesn't mean that she actually-" Mac tried to interject.
"We've looked, Mac! She was long gone before I got to tell anybody! She is not in the house, she's not in the backyard, the front yard, she's not here at Foster's!" Bloo explained. "Trust me, we've looked! She did it, Mac! She actually went ahead and did it! Now, we sent Ed and Wilt to look a round the neighborhood, and Herriman's on the phone with the police now, so trust me, we are going to do everything we can to-"
"Yeah, but…but…" Mac stammered as Goo let out a low whine. As much as instinct was telling them to be wary of anything that Foster's resident pest told them, they couldn't help but admit, the imaginary friend did seem to be legitimately upset beyond belief. Even worse, Mr. Herriman's brief appearance earlier did add quite a hefty dose of legitimacy to Bloo's story. Once all this was coupled with the reality that despite everything, they were still just children, the two couldn't help but become ensnarled with worry. Mac of course especially was feeling panic's sharp pangs, despite his best attempts to fight it, for this was his guardian they were talking about after all.
"No, no, it's okay!" Bloo yelped as for once in his life, he was seriously taking control of a situation. "Just…just…look, we're working on it, okay? Let's just…uh…some water! Yeah! Let's get you some water, or…or something!"
With this, he scooted around and began herding the bemused kids straight towards the kitchen. As he pushed them along, a very dumbfounded Mac tried to argue, "But…but this doesn't make any sense! I-I know Frankie gets a little stressed sometimes, but she wouldn't just-"
"It's not like I get it either!" Bloo groaned. "But just pointing that out isn't going to make her come back any faster! What we need to do is-"
"Yeah…yeah, but…b-but…still…it makes…it doesn't make any sense…." As they entered the kitchen, the shaken child protested weakly as he could feel his eyes start to water a little, much to someone's dismay.
"Yikes! Pal, what's wrong?" If that unmistakable voice didn't do the trick of startling Mac almost clear out of his wits, the pair of arms that descended upon him and attempted to lift him up off the floor definitely did.
"AAAA!" he yelped as his whole little body jerked violently in surprise.
"AUGH!" the lanky redhead cried out in shock before fumbling the child and actually almost dropping him. After managing to just barely grab a hold of him, she hastily consolidated her grasp before staring at him straight in the eyes and exclaiming, "Jeez! Mac Foster, what on earth has gotten into you?"
"….Frankie?" the indescribably baffled little boy just grunted stupidly. Meanwhile, a very sweaty Frances "Frankie" Foster appeared to be just as terribly mystified as she looked to the others, who were likewise giving her weird stares with eyes bulging to the span of saucers.
"…What? What?" she asked with an unnerved grimace. "What's happening? Why are you all so up-HEY! Whoa, hold on!"
Despite her pleas, Goo latched on and began tugging furiously upon the dirty, moist T-shirt the young woman was wearing. "You're asking us what's going on? Are you, seriously? You're the one who's gotten us all super-super freaked out! I mean, we just get here, and suddenly Bloo's all like, 'Frankie left! Frankie left! She totally ran away!' and now it feels like everyone's going crazy trying to figure out why you were gone, and-"
"Whoa, whoa! Slow down!" the perplexed redhead begged. "Goo, please! What are you trying to-"
"Bloo…" Mac heaved a sigh of deep relief and gave her a quick hug before continuing to explain. "Bloo said that you got really stressed out today, so then-"
"Well…yeah, I did." She admitted truthfully. "I mean, it just felt like every time I got halfway through one chore, the rabbit would pile on two more, and…wait, so why are you guys-"
"But that's not all," Her charge added. "Bloo also said that you ran-"
"Okay, so I went out for a run!" Frankie answered as she pointed to her sweat-soaked T-shirt and short combo. "But I do that, like, a couple times a week! You all know that! Sp why is it that this time, I go and try and blow off some steam, and suddenly you're all freaking out like I went and…"
It was right then that she suddenly stopped mid-sentence, took a good, long dismayed look at Bloo, and slowly, her expression distorted with utter dread. "Oh…don't tell me…"
"See?" Goo started jabbering excitedly to the azure figment. "See? See? You were wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! You thought you were so definitely absolutely super-right, but you really actually had no idea whatsoever in the whole wide world what was going on, and-"
"But…but she told me!" Bloo protested defiantly before jabbing a blobbish stub at Frankie. "I remember, you specifically told me! Right after you freaked out in the arcade, you told me that you were running away, and then you-"
"What? No! No, no, no, no, no, no, N-O, no!" she swiftly denied the accusation. "Bloo, are…are you kidding me?"
"But you did!" Bloo doggedly persisted. "You said to me that-"
"I didn't say that I was running away!" she clarified bluntly. "I said that I was going for a run!"
"Yeah! You said that you couldn't take it anymore, and you were going to go run off, and-" Bloo assumed mistakenly.
"Not run off like that!" the agitated young woman groaned. "I was getting way too stressed, and I told you I was going to go out for a run, and that's exactly what I did! I went out for some exercise! That's it! See the sweat? See the glass of water over there? See the clothes? Hmmm? See the fact that I'm still right here at Foster's? Running away and going for a run are not the same thing, Bloo! In fact, they're very, very, very different things! I mean, are you serious?"
"But…but…but I thought you were…" the little blob sputtered before befuddlement seized him in an iron grip. "So…you weren't running away to escape everything here?"
"Excuse me?" Frankie snapped back in disbelief. "What do you mean escape everything here?"
"You know, all the…the stress, and….stuff…" Bloo tried to explain nervously as she glared at him.
"So let me get this straight…. because I was getting a little stressed today….I supposedly just quit ran off and left everything behind…including friends, the job at my home with free room and board, my family," at this point she hugged Mac close to emphasize her point. "You want me to go on?"
"I told you that it didn't make any sense!" Mac reminded triumphantly, and then promptly grimaced in disgust as he came into unpleasantly close contact with her sweat-drenched skin and clothing. "Uh…Frankie? Frankie, you're…ew…"
As Frankie hastily set him back upon the ground with an apologetic grimace, Bloo tried to stubbornly protest one more time, "But…but, Frankie you said that…you were running away, and-"
"Not explaining it again!" the young woman stomped a foot and screamed angrily. With a shrill squeal, the panicked little blob whirled about and raced from the room.
After pausing to try and calm down a little from her raving, Frankie took a deep, long breath and then whimpered unhappily, "Guys?"
"Yeah?" Mac replied softly.
"Uh-huh?" Goo chimed along.
"So…" the young woman nervously inquired. "Are you the only ones that Bloo told that I had…y'know, or-"
She was suddenly interrupted when they heard a familiar gruff voice echo from the foyer, "Senor Herriman! W-we look all around block, but…but we no see any seen of Senorita Frankie, and…a-and…so…you no think she really-"
"Master Eduardo, please! We're all quite dismayed by Miss Frances and her shocking actions, but this is no time to fall to pieces! Now don't worry, I just got off the phone with the police, and they promise to check the train station, every bus station, and to…"
Not wanting to hear any more, Frankie promptly plugged up her ears, and rested her head on the nearest counter with a whine. "On second thought….please don't answer that…"
"…I mean, I can't believe we halfta make that stupid poster. I mean, I really, really, really, just can't believe we gotta spend all that time working and working on some stupid ol' pos-" Goo ranted as together they sauntered through the front gates of Foster's.
"Yeah, but it's only a poster on the water cycle, so-" Mac tried to counter gently.
"But that is soooooo boring!" the bouncy little girl argued. "Water evaporates, condenses into clouds, then falls back down, we get it, we get it! I mean, how many times are we gonna go over it? I feel like we've been talking about it for like, ever and ever, and it's so-"
Their conversation was brought to an abrupt end when they were abruptly interrupted by an almost animalistic wail that nearly scared the two of them clear out of their skins. Before they could recover, a little azure blur rocket out of the house and dashed towards them at full speed.
"Guys! Guys! I…I-I don't believe it! I don't-" Bloo screeched in dismay. "I-"
"Bloo, what 's wrong?" Mac yelped. "What-"
"Dead!" he cried mournfully, "She's actually dead! M-Madame Foster, she t-told me! She told me! Holy moly, I don't know how she could be so calm about it, but…Frankie…F-F-Frankie died! Frankie die-"
THWACK!
"OW!" As soon as the soda can struck him squarely on the head, the little figment immediately began rubbing the rapidly growing bump and grumbling darkly under his breath. Meanwhile the children, utterly speechless with bemusement, just stared blankly together at the imaginary friend before slowly turning their gaze towards to the fuming redhead woman stood in the driveway, where apparently she had been in the middle of unloading groceries.
As she bared her teeth in an almost beastlike snarl, Frankie yelled furiously, "Diet soda! Madame Foster wanted me to go to the store to get more diet soda! Oh, for crying out loud…"
The End