Here's the new chapter. As I mentioned at the end of the last chapter, I had more written near the end here, but I could not figure out how to complete the scene. So, once I get that all written, I will update this chapter and let you all know that I have added that "deleted scene". I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 105
Lilo
The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, and students began to pile out of the school doors. Sora went to meet up with Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Riku stayed after to watch the water polo team practice. Kairi left the school with Selphie, the two girls discussing preparations for the Destiny Festival.
While they walked, Selphie bumped into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said. It was then that she recognized the young woman, who stood a few inches taller than both girls with a slender, somewhat muscular frame and an olive skin tone. She had brown eyes, medium-length wavy black hair, and a round nose. She wore a pinkish-beige short-sleeved belly shirt with a red heart design, blue jean shorts, white socks, and brown hiking boots. "Oh! Booyaka, Nani!"
Kairi and Selphie quickly realized that Nani Pelekai was at the moment not in the mood for Selphie's cheerful quirkiness. "Oh, hey Selphie. Hey, Kairi," the older teen greeted half-heartedly. "Good to see you."
"Is everything alright? How's Lilo doing?" Kairi asked, concerned, as she could feel Nani's stress bleeding off of her.
Nani sighed and shook her head. "We hit a bump in the road," she replied. "Another social worker came by two days ago. Scarier than the others. And, well, we didn't give him a good impression. He said he'd give me three days to clean up my act before he came back to determine whether Lilo should stay with me or not."
Kairi gasped. "I'm so sorry," she said sympathetically.
"And then I got fired last night," Nani added, "so now I have to find a new job."
"Ugh. That sucks," Selphie replied, feeling sorry for her friend.
"Say, Nani, would it be alright if we come see Lilo?" Kairi asked.
Nani nodded. "Yeah. Of course. She'd love to see you. And we could use all the help we can get keeping things under control."
Kairi and Selphie smiled. "Thank you," Kairi said. They followed Nani across town to her house. They ran into Sora, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy and explained what they were doing. Sora offered to go with them, and Mickey, Donald and Goofy chose to tag along as well. They made their way up a hill, following a trail that sat beside a creek, and came up to a house that sat on an elevated deck made of green-painted wood, which created a more stable platform for the base of the home. A blue Volkswagen Beetle sat parked under the section of deck that was suspended over the end of the trail. The group ascended a flight of steps leading up to the house, which had yellow-painted walls and red roof sections.
Nani unlocked the front door and opened it. They all stepped inside. "Hey, Lilo," Nani shouted, announcing her presence to her little sister, who was not in view. "I brought some friends."
Kairi, Selphie, Sora, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy spread out into the living room. They could see that the room was strewn with clothes and a few makeshift toys, indicating that things had clearly been rather hectic, and Nani had not been able to keep the house clean in recent days. Sora, Kairi and Donald noticed that some of the furniture had been chewed up, seemingly recently. They wondered what could have made that mess.
"Just a heads up, we went to the pound and got Lilo a… dog, yesterday," Nani explained. "I'll be here long enough to see you say hello, but then I really need to get back out and find a job."
Kairi nodded. "Okay. We'll watch her for you," she said. "Now, she should be around here somewhere."
"Sora!" a vaguely familiar, slightly animalistic voice shouted suddenly. Before anyone could react, Sora was tackled to the floor by a strange-looking blue-furred creature. It was less than three feet tall, with flat, round feet that had three stubby toes each, two arms with four clawed fingers, a short, stubby tail, a large oblong head that was wider than his torso, solid dark-turquoise eyes, a wide mouth filled with sharp white teeth, a round, hairless nose, and a pair of large bat-like ears. The vaguely-koala-like creature licked Sora's face excitedly. Donald and Goofy jumped in shock when they saw it, but calmed down and started to laugh when they recognized it.
Sora pulled the creature off of him and rolled up into a sitting position. He petted the small monster on its fuzzy head. "Hey, there. Long time, no see. What are you doing here, little guy?" he asked.
"Do you know my dog?" Everyone turned to the source of the voice, and saw a six-year-old girl with long, straight black hair, brown eyes, and an olive skin tone much like her big sister. She wore a red muumuu dress with white leaf designs and black sandals. She carried a crudely-stitched doll made of green felt with a large head, string hair, a pink ribbon bow, and blue buttons for eyes.
Kairi and Selphie smiled and waved at the girl whom they often babysat. "Hi, Lilo," the redhead greeted.
"Booyaka, Lilo!" Selphie greeted.
Lilo smiled and waved back. "Booyaka, Kairi and Selphie," she replied. "Hi, Sora."
Sora set the "dog" on the floor and waved back to Lilo. "Hey, there." He looked back at the furry blue creature. "So, this is your 'dog'?"
Lilo nodded. "Yup. His name's Stitch," she replied.
Sora smiled at the creature, which he remembered as a troublemaking but good-natured who had harassed him, Donald and Goofy but later came to his aid multiple times via the magic of a summoning charm, and which was most certainly not a dog by any stretch of the term. "Stitch, huh?" he mused. Better than what I had started calling him.
Before the conversation could proceed further, a knock was heard at the front door. Nani walked over to open it. The visitor was a tall, broad, dark-skinned man whose large muscles were evident even under his black suit and tie and white undershirt. There was also a gold earring on each of his earlobes. He wore a pair of dark sunglasses, which, added to the rest of his appearance, reminded Sora of Rude, albeit with more of a square jaw.
"Mr. Bubbles…" Nani greeted nervously.
"Heard you lost your job," the social worker said in a deadpan, unamused tone.
Kairi, Selphie and Stitch approached the doorway to see who it was, all of them noticing Nani's unease. Kairi noticed that the word "COBRA" was tattooed onto the knuckles of his right hand. Mr. Bubbles… Cobra Bubbles, huh?
"Well… uh… Actually, I just… quit that job," Nani said, poorly attempting to save face, "because… You know, the hours are just not conducive to the challenges of raising a child…"
Stitch started to growl and, before anyone could react to stop him, picked up a book and threw it at Cobra's face. The force sent him reeling back and knocked his glasses off.
"Hey!" Cobra shouted angrily. Kairi, Selphie, and Goofy's jaws dropped.
Nani gasped and grabbed Stitch, holding his struggling body upside-down so that he would not attack Cobra again. "I am so sorry about that!"
"What is that… thing?" Cobra asked.
"That's my puppy," Lilo answered, coming into view of the doorway.
"Really?" Cobra turned his attention back to Nani, then stood up straight, cracked his neck, and resumed an air of professionalism. "Thus far, you have been adrift in the sheltered harbor of my patience, but I cannot ignore you being jobless," he warned. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly," Nani replied.
Cobra glared down at Stitch, whom Nani had put down and who was now hiding behind Lilo. "And next time I see this dog, I expect it to be a model citizen. Capiche?"
"Uh, yes…?" Lilo said, slightly confused by his wording.
Cobra turned to Kairi and Selphie. "Are you the babysitters?" he asked.
Kairi and Selphie nodded. "Yes, sir," Kairi replied.
"Make sure that these two stay out of trouble," he ordered while pointing at Lilo and Stitch.
The girls nodded. "Of course," Kairi said.
Cobra picked up his glasses and faced the group. "New job. Model citizen. Out of trouble," he reiterated, pointing his gaze and his glasses at Nani, Stitch, and Kairi and Selphie in turn. He then put the glasses back on, but the right lens popped out. "Good day." He turned around and left.
Sora, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy joined the group at the door. "He's the social worker? He looks more like a secret agent," Sora commented.
"Like Men in Black!" Lilo agreed.
Sora shuddered. "The dark-skinned guy's head does not belong on that buff a body."
Lilo, Kairi and Selphie nodded in agreement.
"Well, I should really get going," Nani said.
Kairi nodded and turned to look at Lilo and Stitch. "And I guess we should come along to help Lilo turn this guy into a 'model citizen'," she suggested.
"Okay, sure. Just, like he said, stay out of trouble," Nani agreed.
For much of the afternoon, the group moved around town as Nani, with Selphie's assistance, attempted to find a job by responding to help wanted advertisements. Meanwhile, Lilo tried to teach Stitch to be a model citizen by emulating a rock star she idolized. Mickey had suggested teaching him to behave in other ways, but Lilo insisted on training him her way. Unfortunately, despite Sora, Kairi and Mickey's best efforts to keep everything contained, each lesson for Stitch led to inadvertent destruction, which caused Nani to fail to get the job. While Nani sought out a job at the fruit market run by a short old woman named Mrs. Hasagawa, Lilo tried to teach Stitch to dance, until he accidentally spun out of control and knocked Mrs. Hasagawa down. When Nani applied at a coffee shop, only to be turned down as the position had already been filled, Lilo began to teach Stitch to play the ukulele. Sora found his own instrument and offered to help Stitch learn by playing along. Unfortunately, somehow, Stitch's music was amplified and the sound waves shattered all of the windows as well as the coffee pot in the shop manager's hand. After leaving in embarrassment, Nani interviewed for a lifeguard position at the beach. Assisted by Sora and Riku, who had joined the group after the incident at the coffee shop, Lilo and Kairi got Stitch dressed up as Lilo's favorite rock star and encouraged him to dance and play ukulele for the crowd. They watched their handiwork, and Kairi giggled in amusement as people began to gather around Stitch. However, they began to take their cameras out and take pictures of him, and he was visibly startled and blinded by the flashes. Lilo ran over, yelling at them to stop, but Stitch quickly became enraged. He ripped the costume off and started snarling at the beachgoers. They started to panic and ran away, screaming. Sora and Riku ran in to restrain Stitch while Lilo approached him to try to calm him down, all while Nani, Selphie, and a lifeguard watched, and the lifeguard decided that a prospect of hiring Nani would be more trouble than it was worth.
Not too far away, a rotund, beefy, purple-skinned alien dressed as a moustached tourist watched them through a set of binoculars designed to work for his four eyes, holding the device with three-fingered hands. "Bah! First, he hid behind little girl as a shield. Now he has big group guarding him," he complained in a distinctive accent. "Retrieving my experiment will be tougher than I thought."
"Oh, joy," a slender, green-skinned alien with one large eye and three small legs, who was disguised as a female tourist, said dryly. "We need to come up with a plan soon, though. The Grand Councilwoman wants that fugitive back in custody, ASAP."
"Yes, of course, my little one-eyed one," the purple alien replied. "I am well aware. Although, this may prove very interesting."