Chapter 26: Fun times Outside the Lab.
At around breakfast time, Aster, Papyrus, Sans, Arial and Suzy were seated at the table.
"So how's your work going?" Arial asked.
"Good I suppose," Aster said.
"What have you been working on?" Suzy asked.
"Been trying to touch up my timeline machine."
"The one that reads future timelines."
"Yeah, that one."
"Stanley told me you've been busy. You should take a break every once and a while," Arial said.
"Now that you mention it, it's been a while hasn't it."
Arial grinned.
"Luckily I managed to get ahold of Stanley and he's arranged a game of golf with everyone. He said if you'd like you could come too."
"But golf is soooo boring."
Arial looked at him sternly.
"Well it's something to do and at least he made an effort."
Aster sighed.
"Alright, I'll go. Where is it?"
"In Snowdin of course, silly."
"That's cool. Dad, can we come too?" Sans asked.
"Sure, I don't see why not."
Alphys peeked in the kitchen.
"Doctor are you going to finish your project?"
"No, I'll be taking a little break for the time being so you can take the rest of the day off."
"Alphys, did you want to go to Snowdin with them? Stanley did invite all of you."
"N-no, I'm sorta cold blooded the chill would cut through my scales. Besides I'll be fine in the lab by myself."
"Are you sure?" Arial asked.
"Positive," Alphys said.
After finishing breakfast, Aster took Sans, Papyrus and Suzy along meeting up with Stanley in Snowdin.
Once they arrived, Aster saw Gabby waving at them.
"Oh you finally showed up," she said.
"Well someone looks happy," Sans said.
Gabby stuck her tongue at him.
She lead them up to the golf course.
Suzy spotted Chica playing with her brother.
"Chica, you're here too?"
"Oh hey Suzy."
She looked up and saw Suzy was also accompanied by other monsters.
"Oh my, is that Doctor Wing Ding Aster?" she asked.
Suzy sighed.
"Yeah."
"Wow, I gotta get his autograph," Chica said before running towards him.
Suzy joined her.
Chica fell face first into the ground and yelped trying to lodge herself out of the ground with her feet since she had no arms.
"A little help here," she stammered.
Suzy helped pull her from the ground.
She blushed once she saw Aster in front of her.
"Oh doctor, I guess you haven't met Chica yet have you?"
"Chica?" Aster asked.
"Yeah, she's a big fan of yours," Suzy said.
"So a science nut then?"
"That's right," Chica said.
She told Aster all about his past experiments.
"Wow, I'm impressed."
"So what order are we going to do this in?" Gabby said.
"Well we could draw sticks," Tommy suggested.
"That's too complicated. Besides I'd rather go first so I could rub in your faces when I win," Stanley said.
"Whatever floats your boat," Sans said.
Stanley glared at the smug smile on his face.
"What you think I'll lose?" He retorted.
"I didn't say that."
"Don't act so cocky."
"Same thing applies to you, bub."
"Can you children quit with the fighting and get to the game?" Blah asked.
Stanley sighed before he took his golf club preparing to hit the ball.
After everyone had taken their turn all who was left was Aster and Suzy.
While Suzy was playing, Aster was talking more with Chica.
"Ahem Mr Doctor, you're up," Stanley said.
Aster took a golf club and hit the ball.
This continued for quite some time. Stanley would go, then Tommy, Gabby and then so on and so forth.
After they were finished, Stanley looked at the scoreboard with disbelief. Chica had been keeping score.
Sans had the lowest score, Gaster had the second lowest score. He had the highest score even Suzy who had the look of someone unexperience had the second highest score.
"Ugh."
"You know I'm getting kinda hungry," Tommy said.
"Your wife cooks doesn't she?" Gabby asked. "Maybe we could go to her house."
Technically they could but Aster wasn't sure Arial could cook for more than five people. It had been excruciating enough with just the four of them.
Recently whenever he had seen her, she had looked worn in the face. He had never seen her like that when they met and truthfully he was getting worried.
"Nah, I don't think she has the energy to cook for all of us," Sans said.
"Nonsense, it won't have to come to that. My wife cooks too," Clam said. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind cooking for all of us."
"Really?" Chica asked.
"Sure."
"I'll just call her up."
Clam took out his cellphone and called his wife.
"I'm at Snowdin with some friends. Is it alright to invite them over for dinner?"
Gabby glanced at him anxiously. The others looked at him expectantly.
Clam hung up his phone.
"So what's the verdict?" Blah asked.
"She said it was ok."
"Can I come too?" Chica asked.
"It shouldn't be a problem," Clam said.
With that the group followed Clam until they arrived at his house in Waterfall.
Clam knocked on the door.
"Pearl, I'm here."
"I just took out the food to prepare us a stew."
"Um, do you need some help?" Suzy asked.
Pearl raised an eyebrow.
"Uh sure."
"I'll help too," Chica said.
The two headed in the kitchen with Pearl while Clam had seated them all in the dining room.
"Nice place you got here," Gabby said.
"You think so?"
"Yeah."
"This was originally Pearl's house before we got married."
Minutes passed until it was nearly an hour.
"How long is this gonna take, I'm starving," Stanley said.
"Have patience, you fool," Blah said.
Pearl came in the dining room with the other two. They all were helping Pearl set a huge pot near the table.
"Wow, that's enough to serve an army," Aster said.
Pearl sternly glanced directly into Aster's eyesockets.
"Well I don't want any monster to starve."
Stanley was the first to serve himself a bowl. He set his spoon inside scooping up some of the stew before putting it in his mouth.
"H-hhot."
"Recklessly impatient as always."
Stanley fumed at Blah. This time he blew on the stew to cool it down before putting it in his mouth.
"Yuck. This tastes awful. It had nowhere near the amount of flavor that comes straight from a cooking expert."
Still he took another bite.
"Then don't eat it if you don't like it," Pearl snarled swiping the bowl out of Stanley's grasp.
"Hey."
Everyone laughed.
"What? Don't tell me you want the bowl back after you went through such pains to tell me how bad it tastes?"
Stanley blushed.
"Of course not."
Pearl smiled.
"Good."
Days had passed as Aster's project was nearly complete.
Around this time, Arial had been expected to show up at a rehearsal at the theatre and couldn't afford the time to restock on groceries before dinner.
After she had finished changing to go straight to the theatre there was a knock on the front door.
"Come in," she chimed.
Gabby came inside.
"Oh hey."
"Hey!"
"Fancy seeing you here," Arial said.
"Yeah, I had some free time so I thought I'd drop by," Gabby said.
"If you're not to busy can you do me a favor?" she asked.
"Sure."
"I need to get some groceries."
"Oh so you need me to run by the store then?"
"Exactly."
"Alright I can do that."
On the way out Gabby ran into Suzy.
"Hey," she said.
"Hi."
"Isn't that Arial's purse?"
"Er...yeah."
"You didn't steal it did you?"
Gabby's face was flush.
"Of course not? Arial asked me to get her some groceries at the store."
"Oh? Can I come with?"
"If you have nothing better to do."
"Perfect."
They walked through Waterfall.
"Why are we heading to Snowdin?" Suzy asked.
"Arial says that's where the food is cheapest."
"Oh I see. That makes sense."
Suzy coughed.
As they walked through Waterfall, the two of them spotted a tall slime like creature dragging across the ground from across the river.
"Don't moldbygg usually live underground?" Suzy asked.
"Yeah, they do. That's really strange."
Once the two had come back to the skeleton's house, Sans and Papyrus greeted them at the door.
"OH SUZY THERE YOU ARE."
"Yeah, we just got finished grocery shopping."
Suzy stiffled more coughs.
Sans fished the receipt from Suzy's hand.
"Hey!"
Gabby looked surprised.
"And I'm supposed to be the one with frisky fingers? How did you learn how to do that?" she asked.
"My mother taught me, duh," Suzy said.
"Did your mother also teach you to be as cheap as heck?" Sans asked.
Gabby's face turned red.
"No that was me," she said. "It's habit. My parents were killed because they didn't pay off a loan. I don't ever want that to happen to me so I buy cheap."
Papyrus reached out with the back of his hand to feel Suzy's forehead.
"SUZY, ARE YOU FEELING ALRIGHT? YOU'RE RUNNING A FEVER."
Suzy chuckled.
"I'm fine. It'll pass. I never get sick."
Later the next evening, Sans pulled a thermometer from her mouth and peered at her temperature.
"Never get sick huh?"
Suzy's face heated up.
"Shut up. Maybe it's because someone jynxed it."
"Well mom says she's gonna fix you some soup so get plenty of rest ya hear?"
"Okay, dad."
Sans' pupils disappeared.
"Does it look like I'm your dad? I don't even have hair."
Just then Arial peered inside.
"Suzy."
"Yeah?"
"There's someone at the door who wants to see you."
"Okay."
Some time had passed before Gabby had appeared in her room.
"Cr-p, I heard the news."
"What news?" Sans quipped.
Gabby glared at him.
"It's all my fault. I heard you coughing but didn't say anything."
"It's fine, really," Suzy said.
Gabby felt her forehead.
"She's warm."
She whirled around glaring at Sans.
"What have you been feeding her?"
"Nothing y-"
"Disgraceful. It's clear she doesn't have enough nutritional sustanance."
Gabby turned to Suzy.
"Is your throat sore?"
"A little."
"She'll need some soup."
"I don't see-"
"Now!"
"Ok, ok geez."
"Never mind I'll fix it myself. I bet my socks you can't make a decent soup to save your life."
Gabby marched out of the room. Sans was utterly baffled by this display.
She returned later with a bowl of soup.
"Sip it slowly."
Later that evening Chica came by to visit.
"Hey Suzy, want to watch a movie with us? Everyone's downstairs," Chica said.
Gabby marched in after her.
"Are you crazy? Can't you see she's sick."
"Uh...sorry?"
"You don't need to snap at her. She was just asking."
Gabby sighed.
"I know. I'm sorry,Chica."
"It's alright, Gabby."
"Why are you acting like this though? This cold is not exactly life-threatening."
Gabby chuckled.
"It's hard to take care of yourself when you're sick. There are times where it feels like you have to shoulder the responsibility yourself even when there are people all around you."
"Is that why you lived out on the streets?"
"Yeah, me and my sister. She was too young at the time and someone had to care for her."
"I'll be fine though. We're just watching a movie."
"That's true. I think I can make an allowance for that."
With that Suzy got up and joined Gabby and Chica downstairs.
"What are we watching?" Suzy asked.
"Don't know."
"I think you will all enjoy it," Sans said.
"That's not foreboding at all."
Suzy squeezed between Clam and Chica on the couch.
Turns out it was a slash film with an ax crazy serial killer human out to kill monsters in the underground.
Chica clinged to her right side and Clam whimpered clinging to her left.
After the movie was finished, Sans turned and chuckled at the sight of Suzy getting clutched by monsters.
"Comfortable?"
Suzy glared at him.
"Oh sorry, Suzy," Chica said releasing her. "Man, that movie was very scary."
"Well I wasn't scared," Stanley said.
"Really? You were clinging to me all throughout the film," Tommy said.
"I was not."
Blah shrugged.
"I've seen worse. That's just a glimpse into our future demise."
Chica and Clam looked even worse for wear after that revelation.
"You're just a little ray of sunshine aren't ya?" Sans asked.
"Well if you want to live in a fantasy world be my guest," Blah said.