Hello my lovely readers! We are back with a new chapter!
Nothing too much to say about this chapter but its based on another favorite Spongebob episode! Hope you guys like it!
Anyway, let's continue our story...
Season 1, episode 13; Wet Paint
It was many days after the events at the pier. The group was inside the cottage finishing up some chores; Cuphead finished dusting, Mugman tuned up the piano, Josh swept the floor and Audrey sewed up a torn pillow case.
As they proceeded with their tasks, Audrey was lost in thought. She pondered about the last few days regarding the invisible sweater, how it was Cuphead's only power source of protection and they lost it. She knew the Devil was very persistent and since he knew it was gone, he could come at them.
"I'm also curious about those two figures Quadratus showed me." Audrey thought. "But he said they need to find me. How am I supposed to know-"
"Hey Audrey! Watch this!"
She snapped back to reality and looked and saw Cuphead and Mugman sliding on hand scrubbers all round the floor, making bubbles foam around them. They laughed and giggled with delight and while Audrey thought that was cute, she panicked as she saw them slide towards the radio.
"BOYS! LOOK OUT!" She cried, as she quickly grabbed her sketchbook and drew a ramp over the radio.
The boys went on it, thankfully avoiding the radio, and slid down, crashing on top of the sofa, and laughing.
Audrey took a sigh of relief. "Sheesh, that was too close."
"Nice job." Josh smiled. "You know, I wonder if this is helping us prepare for our future kids."
"Yeah, it must be." Audrey gasped. "Think the main issue is I probably won't have my sketchbook with me if we decide to have children. I will need to think of a new strategy."
Josh nodded and just then the telephone rang. He got up and answered.
"Kettle Residence. Oh, hi Sally! Yeah she's here now. Give me a second."
He placed his hand over the phone and announced "Say Audie. Sally's on the phone. I Want to talk to you."
Audrey got up and Josh handed her the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Audrey!" Sally spoke on the other end. "How are you doing this fine Saturday?"
"Doing well. No complaints." Audrey replied. "How about you?"
"Oh doing good. Listen, I was hoping you can do something for me today?" Sally continued. "It's best if I tell you in person so you can get a better understanding. If you're available."
"I'm free. I can see if the boys want to help." Audrey answered. "We'll be over by the theater in a few minutes."
"Awesome! Thanks so much!" Sally beamed.
"Alright talk to you later. Bye."
Audrey hung up the phone and turned to the guys.
"Sally needs some help at the theater." She informed them. "I told her we would be more than happy to help out."
"That would be ok." Mugman shrugged. "I was hoping to go to the library today, but I guess I can lend a helping hand."
"Cups? Wanna help?" Josh asked.
"Weeeell, I guess. But it shouldn't be long. I wanted to get some ice cream later." Cuphead mentioned.
"After helping Sally, I think we can give you guys a treat." Audrey smiled.
The group then headed out the door and made their way to the theater.
Shortly, after a bit of walking, the group finally made it to the theater where Sally was waiting.
"Thanks for coming over." Sally beamed. "I have a ton of errands to run and need to get this done. I've been putting it off for far too long and don't want to wait any longer."
"Oh it's no biggie, Sal." Josh assured her. "We had the day off and honestly we need something to do."
"Good. Now, I've got something really important for you to do for me." Sal mentioned. She could see the bored expression on Cuphead's face and decided to take things in a different way
"Now, are you guys ready for your super…" She started, her voice becoming very excited.
The boys' eyes lit up, thinking it was going to be something really cool so they repeated "Super…"
"...Special..." Sal continued.
"...Special…" The boys giggled with delight.
"...Secret…" Sal whispered.
"...Secret…" The cups echoed
"...Assignment?" Sally asked.
"Assignment?!" Both brothers cried.
"Oh man! This must be something like Dirk Dangerous had to do for the president!" Mugman gasped.
"I beg of you, Ms. Sally! Tell us what it is!" Cuphead cried.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Sally asked.
"Yes! Yes! Tell us!" They exclaimed.
"You guys are going to… paint the inside of the theater!" She announced opening the front doors of the building.
"Yay- wait, what?" They asked.
"You guys are going to help me paint the inside of the theater." Sally repeated. "It needs a fresh new look, ready to welcome people in."
"Hey, no fair! You tricked us!" Cuphead whined. "It's bad enough we have to paint the fence all the time."
"Come on, Cuphead. You promised you'd help out." Mugman reminded him. "Plus after this, we can get some ice cream."
"I know, but I was kinda hoping we would do something fun." He grumbled.
"It's ok, Cuppy. The sooner we start, the sooner we can get done." Audrey informed him.
"But, let me give you guys a warning." Sally chimed in. She then handed the group a few cans of paint. "This paint is absolutely permanent. It will never come off."
"It won't come off?" Mugman repeated.
"That's right. So please be very, very careful when painting." She mentioned. "So if I see even one drop on anything but the wall, I'll have your heads off…and be mounted over my fireplace!"
She then held up two empty plaques, each with their names on it. The two were so scared they gasped and held onto each other.
Just then, she replied in a happy voice "So, have fun with the job." She then shuts the door with them inside his house.
"Ok, that was kinda, odd." Josh mentioned. "One minute she's threatening and the next she's totally fine."
"I guess that's how some characters are." Audrey shrugged. "But we don't want to get paint on our clothes."
She pulled out her sketchbook and drew in. Just then, as if by magic, the group was now wearing white overalls, and white caps. Josh rolled up his sleeves and Audrey tied her hair back in a low ponytail.
As Mugman adjusted his overalls, Cuphead asked. "Say Mugsy?"
"Yeah, Cups?" He asked. Cuphead then gestured to the wall covered head to toe in memorabilia and posters.
"Wow. Ya know, Ms. Sally sure has a lot of wonderful treasures to get paint on." Mugman sighed, placing his paint on the floor. "So, do you think we should take this stuff off the walls? I know it might take longer but it would help us not get anything on it."
"No way, Mugsy. We're not getting paid to move stuff." Cuphead argued.
"Cups, we're not getting paid at all." Josh informed him.
"Well, that's what I said! We're not getting paid and that's final!" Cuphead snapped.
Audrey wasn't sure how to respond to that, especially since Mugman had given them a good idea, but proceeded to claim "Okay, we'll just paint around all this stuff."
"Good call." Mugman smiled.
"Ok, first thing's first, we need to set up the tarp." Josh mentioned, holding a folded tarp.
They helped unfold and lay out the tarp. They had to get extras since one wasn't enough; they covered the chairs, floor, rugs, all of it. Once they got that finished, they turned to the paint.
"Now that's what I'm talking about." Cuphead smiled. "Well, I guess we should open these cans of... permanent paint now."
"That will never ever come off." Mugman shuddered.
"And if we get it on anything, Ms. Sally will cut our heads off." Cuphead trembled.
"And mount them on the wall. " Mugman gulped.
"Guys, you're overreacting." Audrey informed them. "I think she was just a little stressed. A lot of these photos are very important to her. We just need to be cautious about what we're painting."
"She's right. Plus, if we don't finish today, we can finish it later." Josh assured them.
"I know, but she sounded really serious." Mugman trembled.
"Let's just get the cans open and start working." Audrey smiled.
Taking a deep breath, Mugman takes a screwdriver and tries opening the lid.
"Careful, Mugman. Careful, Mugman. Mugman, careful. Careful, Mugman. Careful, Mugman! Careful, Mugman! Careful, Mugman!" Cuphead cried.
"Cups, the lid's already off." Mugman informed his brother, holding the lid.
"Oh. Now, it's my turn!" Cuphead announced, taking out a battle ax and hitting the paint can with it several times. Before he could hit it again, Josh grabs the can.
"I'm thinking I should do this one, Cups." Josh carefully opens up the lid. However, when he does, a paint drop bounces on the tarp.
They all gasp as the paint drop bounces on a tarp and again as the drop bounces on every tarp and then back into the can.
"Well, that was something." Cuphead finally replied as Audrey wiped sweat off.
"Okay, guys. Let's get our brushes ready." Audrey instructed.
They got their brushes out and carefully dipped them in the paint and very very very carefully began to work. Everything seemed to be fine at first; the boys didn't horseplay, they made good progress and not a splash of paint anywhere.
However, this is where things went south.
Cuphead was carefully making a line of paint going down the wall and smiled. However, the paint started going down, but thinking fast, he began to blow it in different directions until he decided to use a hair dryer to blow the paint, inadvertently creating a paint bubble.
He blew off the steam from the dryer like smoke from a gun, grinning confidently
"Yeah. That's how it's done." He smiled.
Mugman turned to see what Cuphead was talking about and then began to panic, as he noticed the paint bubble floating near them.
"Great oil spill! What could be worse than a giant paint bubble?!" He gasped.
"Oh, I know!" Cuphead answered. He takes a bubble wand from his pocket, dips it in the paint then blows a big bubble. "Two giant paint bubbles!"
"Dude!" Josh gasped. "Why did you do that?!"
"Oh jeez! Those are huge!" Audrey panicked.
"Nooooo!" Mugman screamed. Just then the group saw the two bubbles merge into one giant one. Then he asked in a trembling voice "Cuphead?"
"Yeah, bro?" Cups asked.
"I don't think this bubble can get much bigger!"
"Nonsense!" Cuphead smiled as he began to inflate the giant bubble with a bicycle pump.
"Cups, no! NO!" the trio screamed.
Without hesitation, the bubble bursted and the paint splatters all over the wall, covering up all the old brown spots. Cuphead moves out of the way for the last bit of paint to splash on the wall.
They looked around and were in complete awe. The whole area was covered in clean, and fresh paint. It really brightened up the room and really gave a welcoming feel to the room.
"Wow, I am impressed." Audrey smiled. "Despite that close call, we managed to pull off a really good paint job."
"Yeah and I love the shine to it." Josh added. "Well, great work guys."
"We did it!" Both brothers cheered. After giving each other a high-five, Mugman began to check the area.
"We painted the whole house and without getting a drop of paint on anything but the- great flaming vault! What's that?!" He screamed.
The trio rushed up and saw what he was freaking out at. At first they didn't see anything, as they gazed upon the frame of a small quarter inside. However, when Audrey created a magnifying glass and looked at it more closely, she saw the issue.
There was a dot of paint on it. Mugman's eyes cracked, broke, and dripped on the floor, causing him to fall over. Thankfully, Josh caught him, shaking him gently to wake up. He woke up and both his eyes were normal.
"We're dead, guys! Do you know what that is?" He trembled.
"Uh... it's a quarter." Cuphead stated. "Did I get that right?"
"That's not just a quarter. It's Ms. Sally's first quarter!" Mugman informed the group. "Next to her marriage, it's her most prized possession! And we got paint on it!"
"How do you know that?" Josh asked. "Seems like an interesting detail about her."
"I was here a while back hoping to hear some productions coming up and she told me about that." He answered. "Oh man! She's going to be so mad!"
He began to hyperventilate when Audrey held him gently and rubbed his back.
"Ok, Mugman. Calm down, sweetie." She kept saying. "It's not the end of the world."
"Yeah. I think you are overreacting." Cuphead added. "Besides, I don't see any paint."
Mugman took the frame off the wall and pondered for a second. "Okay, this isn't a problem. Maybe I can just wipe it off." He tries to wipe the paint off with his sleeve
There! I think I got it."
However, when he looked, he saw it made the paint even more noticeable. He begins to panic and wipe it more but the quarter becomes completely covered in paint.
When he saw it, he screamed. Again
Cuphead looked over his shoulder, examining the frame. "Oh, now I see it!"
Audrey rolled her eyes. This wasn't going as she thought it would be.
"This is not good, Cups! This is not good!" Mugman cried. "Ms. Sally is gonna be home soon, and when she sees what we did to his first quarter…" He began to imagine their heads on the wall while Sally is enjoying some tea by the fire.
That caused both to scream while holding their heads.
"Guys! Calm down!" Audrey shouted, making the boys stop screaming. "Look All we gotta do is wash the paint off and Sally will never know!"
"But Ms. Sally said-" Cuphead started but Audrey wasn't going to let him finish.
"Look, forget what Sally said!" Audrey argued. "If I know one thing from home, every paint comes off with something!
"Come on, let's look around and see if something will get the paint off." Josh chimed in.
So, that's what the group did. They tried many attempts to get the quarter clean. Cuphead was standing by a washing machine, until he heard a ding and it opened up.
"Did it work?" Cuphead asked as Mugman came out, with the quarter still in his hands, but had a blouse on his head.
"Nope." Mugman shook his head.
Another idea they had was sanding the quarter on the table. They all wore safety glasses as Josh sanded the quarter, hoping to make some progress. After a bit, he stopped the sander and took a breath.
"Did it work?" He asked.
They lifted the sander and saw that the paint was still there and on top of that, the table had a huge shaved spot.
"Nope."
Audrey even drew in her sketchbook a potion that can make any paint go away, They put a few drops on it and then using a giant polisher buffer and began polishing away. It was a solid ten minutes before she stopped. She wiped her forehead.
"Did it work?" Mugman asked hopefully.
When she lifted the buffer, low and behold, the paint was still on.
"Nope." Audrey sighed.
Many hours had passed and nothing they did got the paint off; they used jackhammers, wrenches, hammers, bleach and even made a witch cauldron to make potions.
All were a bust.
"Nothing's working!" Mugman whimpered. "We're so dead now!"
"Wait, Mugman! We're not cave-cups" Cuphead announced. They walked over to a table that had a typewriter on top. "We have technology!
To their surprise, Cuphead picks up the typewriter and angrily grunts as he smashes it on the quarter. The typewriter was broken, but nothing happened to the quarter.
"It didn't work." Mugman simply stated.
They groaned and slid down.
"We've tried everything and nothing is working." Josh groaned. "There has to be a simple answer to this."
"This is all Sally's fault!" Cuphead argued. "If she hadn't hung that stupid quarter in the first place! I mean, it's not like it looks any different than a regular quarter. Why hang it?"
Cuphead began to rant and while it was annoying to hear, Mugman couldn't help but listen.
"You could just stick any old quarter up on the wall, no one would even know the difference! You might as well reach in my coin sack, pull out a quarter and put it on the wall! And it would-"
"Hurry, Cuphead! Take out your coin sack!" Mugman quickly stated.
"I don't see where you're goin' with this…" Cuphead grumbled as he reached into his pocket and took out his coin sack.
"Seriously? He just gave an idea but then forgot it?" Josh stated. "How does that work?"
"I honestly don't know." Audrey shrugged.
As Cuphead dug through his sack, he thankfully pulled out a shiny quarter. "Hey, a quarter!" He beamed.
"Our heads are saved, Cuphead! Now all we have to-Cuphead no!, no!" Unfortunately Cuphead headed over to the soda machine on the far side of the theater and placed his quarter in the little slot.
Cuphead! No…why did you put it-?!" Just then, his coin came out to which Cuphead pulled it out.
Go job Cuppy!Bring it here! Hurry, hurry! I-!" However, Cuphead pushed it back in, making his brother panic more.
"Aww, Cuphead no, no!" Thankfully, the coin came out again which made Mugman shout "Get it, Cups, get it, get it, get it!"
Cuphead took it out, rubbed it on his sleeve…and proceeded to put it back in. This time, it went through and Mugman cried out "Oh, no-ho-oh!"
After a bit, Cuphead comes back with a soda can and took a sip. "Wanna sip?" He asked the group. They all gave themselves a facepalm.
They were doomed.
"Okay, okay, we still have time!" Mugman claimed, as he approached a long mirror that was leaning on the wall. "Don't panic, Mugman, panic is the enemy. You are strong. Through your strength, you shall overcome!"
Just as he finished saying that, suddenly, they all heard Sally approang the door while singing "Honeysuckle Rose".
"You're on your own, pal." Mugman's reflection announced, walking away.
Again, cartoon logic.
But that didn't change the fact that Sally was home and she will freak out when she sees the quarter.
And that thought caused Mugman to scream and run around in a circle around his brother, who was finishing his soda.
"Uh, bro? You ok?" Cups asked.
"Hurry, guys! Put Ms. Sally's quarter back on the wall! I got an idea!"
The rest weren't sure what he was planning, but since there was no time for questions, they decided to follow his idea.
Sally then entered the theater, her hands full of grocery bags, but to her surprise, the lights were out.
"What the…? Did they finish and left?" She asked.
Then, from the darkness, she heard Mugman stammer.
"We're all done, Ms. Sally. Everything looks great."
"Yep. Got all the painting done and ready to go." Audrey added.
"Yeah, you don't have to look around." Cuphead assured her. "We already did that for you.
Sally then turned on the lights and saw the heroes near a wall, grinning rather
suspiciously. Not thinking much of it, she shrugs.
"You guys look like you got a dirty little secret. Ha! I'm kidding." she chortled. "Let's see how ya did."
She began walking around the room, examining the walls and carefully feeling the paint.
"Oh wow, not bad, guys, not bad." She finally spoke. "A nice even coat, high gloss, no bubbles."
"Yeah, looks great, Ms. Sally." Cuphead quickly stated. "We'll just be going-"
He and the rest started to head out when suddenly, Sally screamed,as her [he groceries flew out of her hands. "Oh my word! Look what you did!"
They stopped in their tracks and the boys quickly turned around, dropping to their knees and began sobbing, apologizing for their misdeeds.
"Sorry? You dusted all my photo frames!" She beamed. "This one is when we first bought the place. That was really nice."
They took a sigh of relief but then she pointed to something else and screamed "Oh my stars and garters! What's this?!"
Which once more made the boys drop to their knees and began sobbing, apologizing for their misdeeds.
"Oh, and I suppose the floor molding just painted itself on its own." She then gestured to the elegant and tiny swirls along the wall. "That's what I call craftsmanship."
The boys nodded and sheepishly giggled as Audrey whispered to Josh "Ok she has got to stop doing that. When she does that, I actually think she's going to get mad at us."
"Ugh I know." Josh nodded. "Reminds me of one of my teachers in high school. We didn't know if he was dead serious about things or not. Made it harder to do work."
"Oh well, great job guys." Sally smiled. "You're free to go-"
Just as she turned around, she ran into a long pile of paintings.
"Ow! That's funny, I don't remember a stack of paintings stacked from the wall where my first quarter used to be." She mentioned. "In fact, I don't remember this painting at all, or this one, or this one."
As she spoke, she began to remove the different paintings from the wall, which made the group a bit nervous. They knew her quarter was on the wall and knew they were in for it when she found out.
Or this one, or this one, or this one." She continued and removed the last painting. Instead of seeing her first quarter, Mugman was in the way, looking sheepishly at her.
"Hi, Ms. Sally." He nervously replied.
"Erm, Mugman, what are you doing?" She was a bit concerned.
"Oh, you know, just "hangin'" around." He chuckled.
Cuphead didn't think that was smart and gave a thumbs down while calling out "Boo!"
"Yeah, no offense, Mugs. That was pretty lame." Josh mentioned.
"Honey, I know you kids like to make mischief, you need to get down onto the floor." Sally, then let his feet dangle, giving a cute smile to Sally, who was pretty annoyed at this point. "Alright, now you're just being silly."
She then proceeded to take him off as he screamed in terror "No, no, no,no! Ms. Sally! No! Don't look, it's a trick!"
But it was too late, as she saw the very visible paint stain on her second prized possession. Suddenly, Audrey began to wonder if she was actually going to lose her cool to them, and also wondered if she was going to have their heads.
"Did you two get paint all over my first quarter?! She growled at the cups.
"We're sorry, Ms. Sally!" Mugman wailed.
"We're so sorry!" Cuphead cried.
"All right, boys... y'know what I've gotta do now?!" She snarled.
"You mean our h-heads?" Mugman gulped.
"Can I use mine one last time?" Cuphead asked.
"Now, now, Sally. Look, we were being very careful and we accidentally got paint on it." Audrey quickly informed her, holding the boys close to her. "We know it's one of your prized possessions, but they said they were sorry and even tried to make it right."
"Yeah, you can't blame them." Josh chimed in.
Sally didn't say anything but took the quarter off the wall, licked her thumb and rubbed it. The paint then came off and placed it back up on the wall.
"There we go, good as new." she smiled.
The four of their jaws hit the floor. They were in complete shock to see that happen after all they did to make it better.
"But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but-" the boys stuttered as Sally chuckled.
"Yeah, I lied. This paint actually comes off with saliva!"
Cuphead frowned a bit before a thought came to him.
"Oh, I get it, Sally. You told us the paint was permanent so me and the guys would be more careful and not get paint on anything!"
"You know, that does make sense." Audrey mentioned.
"Nah, I just like to mess with you!" Sally chortled.
That caused her to burst out laughing and made the group mad. There was no sign that Sally would stop laughing so the group stormed out, slamming the door behind them.
"Out of all the crazy things that happened!" Mugman grumbled. "I actually thought she was serious!"
"I know!" Cuphead added. "We did that all to realize she was kidding!"
"Sorry about that guys." Josh sighed. "That wasn't cool of her to do."
"Guess we now know why she's the theater director." Audrey stated. "Come on, let's get some ice cream."
As the group headed off, Sally was still laughing, this time she began spitting all over the walls.
"The old girl's still got it!" She cracked up.
She proceeds to laugh, but the paint begins to slide off the walls from all the spit. Finally, she stops laughing to see his whole place a mess.
"Aw, darn. I really gotta learn to say it, not spray it." She grumbled.
She headed to the closet, pulled out a mop and bucket and proceeded to clean up the place.
Well, that was something. Glad to see it wasn't a huge issue, but next time, don't make a huge deal about the paint. Next time, the Devil has a new scheme in the mix to capture Audrey and Cuphead! Will it work? Eh, probably not but still gonna be fun to read. "Toon" in then for another exciting episode!
As always, thanks so much for reading! Don't forget to leave a review but lets avoid the flames please :D
