Author's note: My friend, celrock, who read and reviewed the last chapter, which I also thank her for, also had some very interesting ideas on the birthday presents! I shall end up using all of them. Ooh, and I also have an idea for some things that Peter's gift could do myself! We'll learn about that in later chapters, though, since I don't want to spoil it right now.
By now, I'd say that we're a bit more than halfway through the story. I'd like for it to have six chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rugrats. Anyone reading knows that I don't. Zack belongs to celrock, and Peter belongs to TCKing12.
Happy birthday, Tommy!
Chapter four
Around the time after they had decided that the people planning Tommy's party were not even human, Phil and Lil came over, along with Betty and Howie.
"Sorry for comin' at this time, Deed," Betty apologized. "The twins accidentally ripped the first presents that we had gotten for the little one, and so we had to go to the store to pick up one. That's why we're late."
"Oh, Betty, Howie, the party hasn't even started yet, but it will be starting in about ten minutes, so don't worry," Didi told them assuring. "You can go put Phil and Lil in the playpen along with the others. Angelica, along with Susie, is to arrive soon."
Betty nodded and walked over to the playpen so that she could set the twins down, while Howie put their presents down. Since they had twins, they had decided to give Tommy two presents, especially since Phil and Lil had ripped the first one.
"You kiddos be good," Betty told them, walking out of the room.
"So, what did we miss?" Lil asked once Betty had exited the room.
Zack and Tommy went on to explain what had happened, and they both agreed that they were probably zombies after taking a good look at them.
Now that the Rugrats had agreed that the party planners were zombies and that they couldn't make peace with them, they had numerous ideas for these zombies.
Decidedly, though, they would have to narrow it down to the two best ideas. This, as you may have guessed, resulted in the Rugrats actually voting. They all knew how it worked well enough by now to actually do so.
After voting, it turned out that most of them voted for Tommy and Zack's idea. Chuckie, however, had chosen not to vote, as he didn't like either of their ideas; both were "too scary."
They all agreed to try Tommy's idea first, since Zack's seemed like it would take a bit more work. Zack's plan was, in other words, a bit more advanced, and they would have to work a lot harder to make his happen.
The plan that Tommy had in mind would be to subtly scare Tony and Bert. In other words, he would like to see them spooked by odd things going around the house.
"What gave you that idea?" Zack asked.
"Guess I've been watchin' too much Reptar," Tommy remarked.
Zack just left it at that. It shouldn't be much of a surprise to him, anyway. Why, if, when they were grownups, an online fandom where one could write stories for Reptar movies existed, Zack imagined Tommy being one of the main writers. After all, he pretty much knew everything about Reptar, and often claimed the T rex to be his hero.
Tommy's plan seemed to be working, yet not enough. They had tried everything that they could to make his plan work, from Phil and Lil hiding ants in the cabinets to Zack and Kimi bringing out the Jack-O-Lantern from last Halloween.
"Tommy, even as your bestest friend, I gotta say that this isn't working," Chuckie observed.
"Yeah, no offense Tommy, but while you did have a pretty good plan, it was a fail," Phil remarked.
Tommy frowned at all of this negativity. Kimi, disliking the negativity, smiled at him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay Tommy, it can work, but it's gonna take a little too long," Kimi acknowledged. "'Sides, we do still have Zack's plan. Zack, what did you have in mind again?"
"Well, mine will probably take a bit more work and a bit longer than Tommy's did, but I wanted us to wear those face masks that you guys got last Halloween to scare them," Zack suggested.
"Now, Zack, you're one of the smartest peoples that I know, but even as zombies, they're growed ups. Why would they be scared of us?" Lil asked.
"Well, we could grunt at first and since they got so scared because of Tommy's plan, then maybe they'll get even scareder by mine," Zack suggested.
"Great idea, Zack!" Kimi said. "But does anyone 'member where our masks from Halloween are?"
Based on how everyone put their finger on their bottom lip, it basically said that they didn't.
"Wait, I think that my mommy putted them in our upstairs closet," Tommy announced.
"If not, then she probably has them somewhere 'round here," Kimi said.
A few seconds after she said that, Tommy's mother, Didi, walked in, looking a bit grumpy, possibly because of Tommy's piñata. She turned to the babies and unlocked the playpen.
As the woman picked a few of them up, allowing the ones who wanted to to walk, she heard a knock on the door. Didi sighed.
"Stu, could you get the door?" Didi asked.
Sure enough, Stu came walking in and answered the door, revealing Drew, Charlotte, and Angelica.
Compared to her parents, who were wearing their usual business suits, Angelica was actually wearing a party dress. Angelica's dress was purple, similar to her every day dress, with blue polka dots, along with her usual brown oxfords.
"Hi, Uncle Stu," Angelica said much louder than needed.
Inside, it made the babies cover their ears, and a few of them cower in fear. They wondered where Susie was.
"Oh, hi Drew, Charlotte," Stu said, shaking their hands, before leaning down to Angelica. "Hi, Angelica."
"Sorry for Susie not being able to come, she's sick with the flu," Drew explained, walking inside. "I don't know how that happened since it's summer now, but trust me, it happened. She looked so sick when we went to pick her up."
"Poor girl," Stu said. "Well, the sprouts will miss her, but at least they have Angelica here with them."
Angelica smiled at this statement.
"That's right, Uncle Stu, and I'll be super nice to the babies," Angelica said.
That, of course, was a lie, because as soon as she was dropped into the playpen with them, she grinned.
"So, big two Tommy, huh?" Angelica asked.
"That's right, Angelica, I'm turnin' two and there ain't nothin' nobody can do about it," Tommy said.
The older girl gave a 'hmph' sound and turned to Zack, one of the youngest out of them all.
"And you're the new dumb baby, right?" Angelica asked.
"I don't appreciate you calling me dumb, Angelica," Zack told her.
"And I don't 'preciate you being here, but I deal with it, don't I?" Angelica said, chuckling.
"Listen, Angelica, it's my second birthday, so can you please be nice to me and my friends for once?" Tommy asked.
Angelica looked thoughtful for a moment, as if she might follow his advice, and then replied.
"Let me think about it… no," Angelica said, laughing like a witch.
"Yucky," Dil mumbled.
"What was that, brat?" Angelica asked.
"Angelica, we're doing something, so could you stay out of it, please?" Zack asked.
"Yeah, knowin' you, you'd try to sabotage it," Tommy mumbled.
"I would not!" Angelica argued.
"Yes, you would, now turn away please," Zack told her. "Guys, let's whisper so that she can't hear us."
"Okay," they agreed.
"Chuckie, why don't you keep watch for Angelica listening to us?" Zack asked. "You're a really trusting friend, and I'm not sure if you'll like our plan."
"Okay," Chuckie agreed, staring at Angelica, distracting her.
This resulted in the two having a quiet argument while the babies discussed their plan.
"SO, we get the zombie masks, and then we scare them so much that they run off," Kimi analyzed.
"That's right, but we have to make weird noises first, because who would be scared of just a bunch of babies in Halloween masks?" Zack asked.
"First we gotta find the Halloween masks though," Tommy said. "Actually, now that I think about it, my mommy probably didn't put them in the closet. I think she forgotted to."
"Me too," Dil agreed.
"Well, that's where Phil and Lil come in," Zack told them.
"We do?" Phil and Lil asked at the same time.
"Uh huh," Zack said. "We're gonna need you two to search around for the box with you guys' Halloween masks."
They smiled, glad that they could be helpful.
"Okay," they said.
Tommy walked over to the lock on the playpen and, using his screwdriver, unlocked it for them.
"Thank you, Tommy," Lil said with a smile.
"Thanks Tommy!" Phil shouted, already having walked off.
"Now, we just gots to take Chuckie and Angelica away from their argument," Tommy acknowledged.
They all turned around to see Chuckie and Angelica still arguing about Angelica's 'personal space.'
"Umm, guys," Zack said.
They didn't respond and continued yelling at each other.
"Guys," Zack said again.
Once again, no response, just shrieks and yells.
"GUYS!" Zack shouted.
The three-year old ginger and the four-year old blonde turned to Zack.
"What do you want, dummie?" Angelica asked.
"I wanted to tell Chuckie that he don't gots to argue with you anymore because we already distracted you," Zack explained.
"Oh, well, thanks," Chuckie said, getting up and wiping dust from off his shorts. "Nice arguin' with ya, Angelica."
Angelica rolled her eyes, yet jokingly replied, "Anytime, Finster."
Meanwhile, the adults and king watched as Stu and Didi argued about Tommy's piñata. Peter, King of Confederacy, had gotten bored with watching this, and excused himself. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Stu and Didi didn't notice, since they were too busy going at each other's skin.
Peter, sighing, walked into the room, only to notice that Phil and Lil had disappeared from the playpen, and that Angelica had appeared, along with Susie not even being at the party.
"Hey, guys, what happened?" Peter asked. "Hi, Angelica."
"Oh, hey, Peter," Angelica said, bored.
"We sent Phil and Lil out of the playpen to go find us our Halloween masks a few minutes ago," Zack explained.
"Oh, my, and what happened to Susie?" Peter asked.
"Carmichael got sick," Angelica told him.
"You know, Angelica, it's not nice to refer to other children by their surname," the king told her.
"What the heck is a surname?" Angelica asked.
"A surname is a fancier word for 'last name,'" Peter explained. "It saves you the time of saying it's synonym. A synonym is another word for something, before anyone asks."
"Wow, Peter, you're really smart," Zack complimented.
"Oh, thank you, Zack, I try my best," he told them.
"Anyway, as much as I apologize for having to leave, I'm going to go check on the twins, and see if they're alright before returning to the room with adults," Peter told them.
The Rugrats nodded as Zack left.
"Well, this has been a long day," Tommy said, sitting down.
"Yep," Zack said. "And we have an even longer day ahead of us."