theme: Rubik's Cube

Rigby sat on the bench, his brow furrowed in frustration.

It had been an hour since Benson dug up that old Rubik's cube in the Park House attic. He was looking for toys and such to sell to raise money for park repairments, but Rigby decided to butt in and whine for keeping it himself. Benson had been easily broken down, but only under circumstance; the deal was that if Rigby could solve the puzzle in thirty minutes, then he could have it.

His boss had obviously known the pretenses behind the bet; Rigby was a blunt idiot and there was no way that he'd be able to solve the Rubik's cube.

Rigby had run off with the thing to a desolate area in the park so he could concentrate.

He picked a bench to work on and began fiddling with the toy, and for sixteen minutes straight, he got absolutely nowhere.

Blue to blue? No, three reds came along with that.

What about yellow? Green, perhaps?

Rigby was about to chuck the cube at the grass-based ground. "How come this isn't easier than when I was a kid?" he thought. "Since I'm an adult, shouldn't I know how to do this stupid thing?! It's impossible, only for geeks and dweebs to figure ou-"
Just then, Eileen padded by, wearing a turquoise tank-top and shorts that reached just above her knees. She had earphones on, keen on finishing her jog around the park.

"EILEEN!"

Rigby jumped off of the bench and practically jumped onto the poor girl, knocking off her glasses. Eileen seemed unfazed, as her fingers immediately probed the grass for her glasses.

She looked up at him, her cheeks tinted crimson. "You could of just said 'hi Eileen, I need to talk for a second'."

He ignored her as he fumbled for the toy. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, shoving it in front of her face.

"What? Oh, yeah! I used to love Rubik's cubes! I solved them all the time when I was a little girl," she replied, beginning to reminisce in her childhood.

"Good. Solve this, then."

Rigby tossed the cube to Eileen. She smiled. "Sure, Rigby!"

And just like that, her fingers went to work, turning and sliding the multicolored bricks until they all aligned with their own array of color.

Rigby just stood there, mouth agape in disbelief. "You-... you're... gah," he mumbled as she breezed through the puzzle.

Eileen, within a matter of two minutes, had solved the Rubik's cube. She handed it back to Rigby.

It gradually registered on his face that he had won the bet!

Of course, he achieved that through cheating, but... still! He won!

Rigby held the toy up in the air, triumphant at last.

"HA! Take that, you... dumb, er... chew on your own gumballs, Benson!" he yelled at the sky, retreating on his own insult.

"I guess I'll be on my way, now."

Rigby stopped, only now realizing that Eileen was still there. He looked at her back as she tried to recover her pace from jogging. He started feeling... sort of guilty. Like he had just used Eileen, without her getting remuneration.

Something tugged at his heartstrings as he hollered out for her.

"Wait, Eileen-"

She paused, then looked around. "Yeah, Rigby?"

His eyes met hers.

"I... thanks, Eileen. I may not say it very often, but I..." He trailed off, piecing words together, and avoiding a certain four-letter word. "...I really appreciate you. Honestly," Rigby said.

And with that, she replied, "I appreciate you too."