Hailey's Golbat
Chapter One: World Displaced
Hailey had come to stay over at Kristine's house while her parents had gone to Malaysia for a couple of weeks, though Hailey would only be staying the weekend.
It was the second night, and Kristine had graham crackers out with chocolate n them that they had melted in a skillet. "Kinda not fun that we have no marshmallows, but can't be helped," Kristine said.
"Yeah, too bad we'e fourteen and thus don't have our licenses yet," Hailey said.
They enjoyed their marshmallow-less s'mores while watching the latest Dino Rhino: Girl Song Partner Armored Polar Bears Jamboree season.
"I can't believe they had Jaime Farqaol slap that guy with a fish," Kristine said at one point, referring to a polar bear doing the slapping.
"He was being a nuisance, though," Hailey said.
"True. And I can't believe he worse that awful bowler hat." That was the only kind of hat Kristine didn't like.
They ordered pizza for dinner, Haileys side had pepperoni and mushroom, while Kristiine's side had bell peppers, pastrami, and onions with alfredo sauce on it.
They also got cinnamon rolls to go with that on top of that, it had been awhile since the s'mores and they just didnt' seem like enough, and after all they could have cinnamon rolls left over for the next day and that sounded enticing.
So they had a good pizza night, they were done with the show they had been watching for now, and had put on Hopscotch and Dive, which was a sports competition show that could be described as like a mini-Olympics with only female contestants who were all young women and it ranged in many possibilities from archery to high-diving to dancing to imitate the choreography of popular movies, even watermelon kicking while wearing sandals. But it wasn't necessary to compete in all of the sports they had there, though if a girl did and ranked high in them, she had the best shot at having a high enough score overall to win.
"Gosh, it'd be so cool to be determined like Gabriela and do basically everything," Kristine said, munching on a bit of cinnamon roll.
"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Hailey said. "And also, she scored low on bowling, rowing, and basketball, that's going to hurt her overall in the end."
"Yeah, but the risk is worth it, and if she is in the top three in hurdles, I think she'll be in the clear, I mean she was amazing at soccer and backgammon!"
Hailey felt like Gabriela was like her, as though this girl on the show had a journal that was full of list items she had to complete in order to save the world, and they included competing in every single sport or sport-adjacent activity that the showrunners pegged out. (There were hints that there'd be a painting competition, more points if they used feet instead of hands to hold the paintbrushes, and the artwork they splashed onto the canvas had to be sports-related somehow, and if they dropped hints this heavily, it would likely happen.) It was a lot to do and Hailey could see Gabriela getting discouraged sometimes, as she herself did when Beta brought up list items for her to do, sometimes it didnt seem so bad after the fact, but in the process of getting particular ones complete, there had been hurdles. Not to mention headaches. And qualms. And sweaty palms, in addition to…sweat in other places, for one list item in particular, which made Hailey shiver recalling it, how an event she had perceived as being awful had been incorrectly interpreted, the cool kids hadn't really been ridiculing her, that was unexpected to discover.
The two of them finished their dessert then stored it and the remaining pizza in the refrigerator. Then they went upstairs and got in their pajamas.
Hailey yawned before climbing in the covers and falling asleep. Kristine was out like a light in almost an instant herself.
In the middle of the night, Hailey went downstairs for a glass of milk.
Only to find some pink creature as tall as a Doberman with the refrigerator opened, eating the cinnamon rolls Hailey and Kristine had been saving fr the next day.
Hailey was confused, she had never heard of an animal like this. She grabbed a broom and charged at it to smack and chase it out the door, only her eyes bulged when its tongue wrapped around her broom and smashed it into the wall. Then it licked Hailey in the face.
"Yuck!" she screeched. She grabbed the fruit bowl and got ready to smash it down, but the creature ran for the door and opened it, then was outside.
But Hailey was dismayed at the eaten cinnamon rolls, there was only a little left and it had that creature's gross saliva on it. She ran out after the weird beast, and the creature taunted her with its tongue. She started to charge at it, but Kristine came out, also in her pajamas.
"What are we doing, Hailey?" she asked, yawning, putting her hand over her mouth. "Some kind of middle of the night game?"
"We're chasing that animal that just got in your house and ate our cinnamon rolls!"
Kristine blinked, then rubbed her eyes. "What the heck even is that?"
"I dunno, but it's going to pay!"
Hailey ran at it, ready to bang the fruit bowl down on its head, but then it formed a ball and rolled into a bush.
"Got you now!" Hailey said, banging the bowl down on the bush in several places.
But then the bush started to glow white, and it shot out at both Hailey and Kristine, the latter of whm looked panicked, although even in her sleep state she had still managed to grab a hat…
When the white light diminaished and the girls could actually see, they discovered themselves in a room with two beds.
"This must be a dream within a dream," Kristine said.
"It feels so real," Hailey said, but she dropped the fruit bowl and sank onto a bed, and Kristinie did the same on the other.
In the morning though, sunshine pouring through the window, Hailey was shocked to discover herself still here, in this odd room, with a bowl on the floor on its side, and an apple, apricot, and plum she wouldnt dare eat even if washed, they had to be super dirty from floor germs.
Kristine woke up. "Where are we? She asked, sleepily. Then she blinked. "Didn't we go to sleep in my bedroom?"
"Originally yes, but seems like we actually came here," Hailey said. "Wherever here actually is."
Kristine went to open the door. "Say, look, a closet! We can go exploring."
She was disappointed to nto find any hats in there, but Hailey pointed t the one she was wearing, and Kristine smiled. "Ooh, nice, must've grabbed it even while being groggy."
Hailey didn't feel like exploring, she felt like thrashing that pink creature who had eaten their cinnamon rolls then brought them to this place.
But she begrudgingly got dressed, couldn't go outside in pajamas, not during the day. At night when she wasn't considering her garments, sure, but not now.
So she put on an outfit as close t hers back home. At least she had her glasses, of course. But now she had to make do with a red shirt and jeans. And she wasn't even sure she felt like red right now, so she swapped it for blue.
Kristine found the style of white pants she liked and a peach top. Then the two of them found food, apparently they were in a log cabin.
The food was just bagels, and they had to have peanut butter instead of cream cheese on them, no fridge in the cabin, and the bagels couldn't be heated either, because it also lacked a microwave, toaster, or any other means of heating. Well, besides the fireplace but yeah, Hailey was pretty sure there was nothing about roasting something in a fireplace on her list.
Peanut butter cold bagels was not fun at all, there was some pineapple soda, each of them took a 20.-oz bottle, it had an odd brand name though, Ludicolo, instead of Lush or Yanta like you'd usually see. Of course there were also store brand sodas, but this didn't seem like one of those.
Anyhow, that taken care of, they went outside, Hailey determined to let that pink creature know just how she felt about it eating their cinnamon rolls and causing them to be dragged to this weird place.
They went walking, there seemed to be basically nothing around, it was like being in that cartoon, Unafraid the Brave Canine, the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing around them for miles and miles except arid desert.
She had just run out of Ludicolo pineapple soda and was still panting, an hour and a half after leaving the cabin, no sign of the pink creature anywhere, which made Hailey a little irritable, when Kristine started waving, for she had spotted a helicopter, which drew nearer and started to descend, having seen Kristine's attempts to gain the pilot's attention.