Chapter 5: Breakfast
Morning soon came faster than expected, and it started up around 8 AM. With everyone waking up to greet the day and turn off their alarm. Except for one.
"Frankie. Frankie! FRANKIE!" Duchess loudly yelled from her room, with Frankie running into her room. She didn't even have time to get dressed and was in a bathrobe.
"WHAT?!"
"My alarm clock." Duchess rather calmly said after screaming Frankie's name while pointing to her alarm clock, which was still ringing, yet she wasn't touching it.
"You know, Duchess, you could turn it off yourself. Your finger is right above the button."
"And touch plastic? Please. I'm royalty." Duchess entitling said. Frankie sighed and turned off her alarm clock, before going off to help downstairs for breakfast. But…
"Are we forgetting something?" Duchess caught Frankie;s attention before pointing to her eyes. "My eyes are not going to open themselves."
"They will if you just-"
"OPEN THEM!" Duchess screeched at Frankie, forcing her to open Duchess' eyes. Upon her eyes being opened, Duchess jerked back. "Ah! Why are you making that hideous face?"
"What face?"
"Oh, I forgot. You always look like that."
Frankie groaned in annoyance.
"Duchess, we go through the same routine every day. We wait on you hand and foot and all you do is insult us!"
"Why, I am deeply hurt that you would even suggest such a thing. That is simply not true." Duchess lied.
"Now, are you going to call Senior Smells-a-Lot to carry me to the bathroom, or do I have to do it myself?"
Frankie sadly sighed seeing how Duchess made her own point before calling out: "Eduardo!"
Eduardo came into the room and carried the entitled Duchess all the way to the bathroom, where Wilt was already gargling mouthwash in his mouth for Duchess. After he finishes, he spits it in a cup and puts the mouthwash in Duchess' mouth, who after a few seconds spits it in Eduardo's face.
"You call this pre-gargled?! It's barely foamy!" Duchess complained to Wilt before turning to Eduardo. "And to clarify, I was spitting in anger, not spitting out the mouthwash like normal."
Eduardo raises an eyebrow on his head as he brings Duchess back to her bedroom, where Frankie was busy sewing one of Duchess' everyday dresses, and still wasn't in her normal attire.
"Dress me." Duchess snapped at Frankie.
"I'm sorry, your majesty, but I'm not done sewing your new outfit. If you didn't need a new one every day, then I could-"
"DRESS ME!" Duchess interrupted Frankie's sentence and made her rush to finish the dress and put it on Duchess, who still wasn't pleased. "Good gracious! Is this polyester?!"
"It's 100% Egyptian cotton." Frankie corrected.
"SILK! SILK! I'd rather go naked!" Duchess complained as she took off the dress and began to walk out without any clothes.
"No, no, no, please, not again! Anything but that!" Frankie begged Duchess. This wasn't the first time Duchess went around the house naked because of her picky standards, and judging by Eduardo sticking his tongue out in disgust, it wasn't pretty.
So Frankie went to work making Duchess another dress, but this time out of silk, until...
"Ms. Francis! Ms. Francis!" Mr. Herriman's voice rang from the intercom. "You're needed in the dining area!"
Frankie sighed for once. Hearing the voice of her boss giving her an order gave her an excuse to get away from Duchess. So she let Eduardo cover the sewing for her as she got herself in her more formal attire.
But Mr. Herriman wasn't any better than Duchess.
"No! No! No, Ms. Francis! You must TOWEL-DRY all silver wear, so that you may prevent unsavory spots!" Mr. Herriman scolding Frankie with his pickiness; this time, it was apparently how to dry silver wear. And like all times, Frankie would curse Herriman's in her head, as she rolled her eyes and walked out of the kitchen to put the silver wear away in the dining hall…but the bunny only followed her.
"Watch your spoon-placement, Ms. Francis; a yogurt spoon is quite different from a cereal spoon. Remember: 'Utensils are Essential'," Mr. Herriman reminded the red-head as he pointed out a framed stitching that stated said words by the up-tight rabbit.
So, Frankie could only roll her eyes, like she always does, and listen to Mr. Herriman, who looked around and saw all the members of the house sitting at the dining table eating their breakfast, excepted there was someone missing: Bloo.
"My word. Master Blooregard should know from the schedule I gave him that breakfast is only served until nine A.M. on the dot; it is now precisely eight-forty-three A.M. Where is he?!"
Speaking of which, Bloo was actually still asleep, all sprawled out lazily and somehow being able to sleep through all of Duchess' yelling. Though considering all the yelling he heard from Mac's parents, it's probably not surprising
"Master Blooregard!"
"Ugh…wha…?" Bloo groggily asked as he slowly woke up.
"You are almost late for breakfast. Get up and get dressed!"
But when Bloo hopped out of bed and looked down, he was reminded that he doesn't wear clothes.
"Done." But that was when Bloo suddenly felt that feeling we all get after just waking up.
"Oh, man, I really gotta go," Bloo whimpered as he tried to make a break for it, but…
"Master Blooregard!"
"Sorry, Mr. H, but I ain't got time to chitchat. I really got to-"
"Make your bed."
"What?" Bloo stopped and looked at his messed up bottom bunk, but that was the least important part on his mind.
"Well, yeah. That's all well and good. I was gonna after I-"
"No 'gonna after.' Now." Mr. Herriman rather forcefully told Bloo.
Bloo moaned and went back to his bedroom. The poor blob continued to hold it, as he could only make his bed like Mr. Herriman had demanded.
"Fold and tuck, Master Blooregard. Fold and tuck."
"Ok, ok, ok, bed's made. Now I REALLY gotta go!" Bloo said frantically as he finally made it into the hall, but he was only stopped by the rabbit.
"Oh, what now?!" Bloo cried, but as he spoke, his bad breath stung Mr. Herriman's nose, making him gag and hold his nostrils closed.
"Oh…I was going to say 'no running in the halls'…but for the sake of all that is decent, please brush your teeth."
"What? Why, can't it wait?" Bloo tried to protest, but as he did, the bad breath came out and made Herriman cough, making him dead-sure to not let it wait.
So Herriman pushed him to the nearest, unoccupied bathroom.
"Listen, Mr. Herriman. I'm all for the clean-the-teeth thing, but I really gotta-"
"Brush." Mr. Herriman interrupted while giving Bloo his toothpaste and toothbrush. Bloo took the toothpaste and squeezed from the top of the tube.
"From the bottom, Master Blooregard."
So, the blue thing lowered his stubby hand to the bottom of the tub, and he squeezed out almost half the tube.
"Pea-sized, please," Mr. Herriman pointed out, not making it easier for Bloo.
"Don't say 'pee', please," Bloo growled as he followed ALL of his demands, and finally brushed his teeth; he soon finished brushing and rinsed away the foam in his mouth.
"Ok! Done! Now, if you don't mind, I could REALLY-!"
"Master Blooregard!"
"What now?!"
"You forgot to put the cap back on," Mr. Herriman stated, and Bloo rushed to the sink with surprise that she was right, so he hurried to screw it back on.
But then he didn't wait for the world, as he shoved them out, and slammed and locked the door in their faces.
"Gotta go. Gotta go. Gotta go…ahhh…at least he doesn't have any rules about this," Bloo sighed with relief as he pulled mountains of toilet paper from the roll.
"Master Blooregard?" Bloo heard Mr. Herriman call through the door.
"No way!" Bloo said with shock.
"May I remind you that at Foster's, we use only two squares for each release?"
"Ugh!" Bloo grunted, but he rolled back whatever extra toilet paper he was about to use, and Mr. Herriman used his animal ears to listen, as he heard pull one…two…three.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Mr. Herriman called at the same time.
"Stupid sensitive rabbit ears," Bloo grumbled.
Seconds later, he heard flushing, but he wasn't done yet.
"Master Blooregard!"
"WHAT?!"
"Please wash your hands." Mr. Herriman told Bloo as he opened the door and he walked in to actually find him washing his hands…but again, he was doing it all wrong.
"What do you think I'm doing in here, Mr. Two Squares?"
"No, Master Blooregard. We do NOT wither away the soap under the water!" Mr. Herriman scolded as he pushed Bloo away from the sink, and he pulled his white gloves off his bunny paws.
"We wet…lather…and rinse," Mr. Herriman said as he slowly went through each said step, and then he dried his paws and put his gloves back on, "now, let me see you try."
"Wet…lather…rinse."
"See? Just imagine how many layers of soap are washed away every time someone careless were to wash their hands like you," Mr. Herriman said as he handed Bloo a towel to dry off.
"Oh, but of course," Bloo said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes, and he followed the rabbit out into the hall where he pointed out yet another framed rule of his.
"'You see, Master Blooregard, here at Foster's, I enforce the adage, 'Conservation takes Concentration.'"
"Uh, Mr. Herriman?" Bloo piped up.
"Yes?"
"Can I go get breakfast?" Bloo questioned.
"Oh, yes, of course."
With that, the blob ran off.
"Ah! No running in the halls!" Mr. Herriman called angrily but sighed as Bloo was far gone. "Why do I even bother?"
As Bloo ran off, he came to the stairs. But noticed how long the stairs were going down. Usually, he'd be fine with walking down, but with his low energy, he'd for sure missed breakfast and needed a way to get down fast so he could still have a chance … and then noticed the banisters and got an idea.
Getting on the right banister, he crouched down and zipped down the stairs at fast speeds. As he did, he looked to see more of the imaginary friends heading down the stairs and noticed how unique they all looked. No friend looked the same as the other, and it made him smile a little, making him look less of an odd man out compared to when he was with Mac.
As he got close to the foyer, and saw the end of the stair knob on the banister, he grabbed the knob and used it to swing himself into the dining hall, and was met with a facepalm on the carpet. Could've been done better, but Bloo knew it could've gone worse. One time he did banister sliding and facepalmed on concrete. Which felt horrible to land on. As he got up, he noticed Wilt waving to him near the right side of the dining table, and Bloo went to see him.
"Hey Bloo! Finally got up. I saved you some cereal and a seat." Wilt greeted Bloo as he handed the blob a bowl of cereal and showed Bloo his chair next to him and Eduardo. Which he took while thanking Wilt.
As Bloo began to eat his cereal, he noticed Coco feeding Duchess some cereal with a spoon on her toes at the back of the table. As Duchess chewed the spoon of cereal Coco fed her, she felt something she ate and took out what she was eating and pulled out a magnifying glass to look at it.
"Hey, these flakes aren't frosted individually."
"Coco, co co co."
"WELL, IF I WANTED COCOA FLAKES, I WOULD'VE TOLD YOU I WANTED COCOA FLAKES!" Duchess yelled while getting in Coco's face. She then threw the bowl at Coco, which she thankfully ducked over just in time, and the bowl crashed into the wall.
"Uh, Wilt?" Bloo questioned Wilt. "Why is Duchess so … snobby?"
"Well Bloo, when a typical child creates an Imaginary Friend, it is created out of love and with a purpose. And for Duchess, things are no different, except that she was created out of a love for… money."
"While there are the jerky teenage boys who created the Extremasaurs, there's also the rich stuck-up snotty kids who create one of a kind, pedigree Imaginary Friends who have papers, pompous names and are considered works of "art". And these friends are sold to other certain stuck up snotty kids who are too uncreative and lazy to create a friend of their own. And Duchess is one of those Friends."
"I don't think the word "friend" is the best word to describe Duchess, even loosely. She's more of an investment than a friend." Bloo sarcastically remarked.
"Sí. Ella es muy antipática" Eduardo agreed in his gratuitous Spanish.
"But then why did she end up at Foster's?" Bloo asked.
"Easy. Duchess went out of style and her value tanked. So, her family dropped her off at Foster's and went off to purchase rarer, more valuable friends. To be honest, Duchess is just a bad idea."
"I'll toast to that." Bloo remarked while raising his glass of orange juice and drunk it as he continued to eat with his new friends and started to feel a little bit safer and at home. It brought him some comfort that if Herriman was right - as much as he hoped Herriman was bluffing - and Mac was never coming back, he can at least have some close people to make him feel secure in this crazy house.
A/N: And there's the fifth chapter! This is a unique part of the novel as this wasn't present in the movie but I added it to give a sort of breather from the tearjerking final two chapters and the high stakes upcoming chapter. And I incorporated a few moments from the episodes "Busted" and "Duchess of Wails", the former having some of its opening scenes reworked to be on the next morning after Bloo's first night and the latter happening on the same morning and removing Madame Foster for continuity reasons. This was done to give some more establishment to Duchess and Mr. Herriman's characters, more over, Duchess is a spoiled brat and Herriman is a control freak.
Next chapter, the world's brattiest girl comes to adopt Bloo and rename him "Tiffany"! And the friends try to save their new buddy.