Chapter 53: A Foiled Plan
The next day had arrived. A new week began and, of course, it was a day to ruin traps. Diddy and Dixie were walking to the ship's site. Diddy also carried in his hands a plate with a banana cake that they had both prepared for the kong children, who had provided them with information about the trap that their so-called friends had for the two. Obviously, they had been guided by Mr. Pinky's instructions... Even though it hadn't looked quite right.
"Do you think they'll like it?" Diddy asked, looking with a forced smile at the cake, which had a not-so-aesthetic appearance.
"At least it tasted good," Dixie replied, smiling insecurely, too.
Being nearby, the first thing they did was to find the group of kong children and hand them the cake, being very careful not to be seen by anyone else. Then, they began to head towards where their so-called four friends would be to implement the plan, but not before giving the reminders.
"Well, you know: just as we planned," Dixie said to Diddy quietly. "You flirt with Jenny and tell her that you love her and that you'll give her a chance, while I go with the other three to get to you and there we'll pretend to fight as they expect us to."
"Okay," Diddy nodded, smiling and giving a thumbs up, before getting serious. "Uhh, but Dixie... don't delay, please; I don't want to spend a lot of time with Jenny."
"Don't worry, don't be afraid to defend yourself in any way if she tries to cross the line with you. Besides, everything will be fast," Dixie said, smiling confidently. "Now, let's go!"
They both high-fived and smiled at each other. Then, each of them went where they needed to go as part of the plan.
Dixie headed to where the ship was to meet Mandy, Ricky and Melvyn. She had no idea on what terms she was with them, but she didn't care anymore; she decided to show herself safely to them and treat them as if nothing had happened. The three of them were near the ship as if they were waiting for something.
"Hi, friends! How is it going?" Dixie greeted them, pretending to be happy to see them.
The three turned and were astonished to see Dixie, as part of their plan was that they would have to go find her at the house to tell her that Diddy had supposedly gone out with Jenny, and so Dixie would get angry and want to go with them to confront them. But now, Dixie had gotten ahead of them.
"Uhh, H-hi, Dixie!" each greeted her with confused faces.
"What are you doing? Have you finished the ship yet?" Dixie asked, pretending not to know anything and with a sure smile.
"Ahh, yes, of course," Mandy replied, looking at her somewhat strangely. "Hey, and you didn't come yesterday, what happened?"
"Well... I was just a little tired," Dixie replied, shrugging and still smiling.
"By the way," Ricky said with a serious look, "your boyfriend or ex-boyfriend Diddy owes us one for what he did to Jenny yesterday at a game."
"About he threw fruit juice in her face?" Dixie asked, keeping her expression. "Oh, yes, he did tell me."
"Are you and Diddy still together?" Ricky asked, also pretending not to know. "I mean... You know, because of what happened two days ago-"
"Ahh, that," Dixie interrupted, shrugging. "Of course, we already fixed things."
"After he kissed Jenny?" Melvyn asked cynically.
"Well, yes," Dixie replied with a smile and shrugging again. "He told me he just wanted to kiss Jenny, but he doesn't like her or anything, so I forgave him," she added to confuse them more on purpose.
Dixie tried to hold back her laughter, while the three of them looked at her strangely and looked confused and didn't know what to do now.
"By the way," Dixie added, beginning to set the plan in motion. "Now I'm going to have a date with Diddy. He told me he had a surprise prepared for me, so I came to ask you if... could you accompany me? Oh, and that I'll also take your old friends."
The three of them kept looking at her strangely, as if they wanted to disguise that they had the plan pending, since Dixie told them exactly what they planned to do. But anyway, they decided to go along with Dixie, since after all, it was what they wanted to do with her.
"Well... I think there would be no problem," Mandy said, looking sideways and smiling at the other two kids. "So, let's go."
Dixie and the other three set off and went to the place she indicated, where she would have the supposed date with Diddy. The three were confused, as the place where Dixie was taking them was the same place where they had planned to take her. To confuse them more, Dixie along the way was talking so good about Diddy and how much they loved each other, while the three of them just looked at her in a mocking manner as if she were a naive child, although Dixie noticed it anyway.
On the other hand, at the same time that Dixie had gone to Ricky, Melvyn and Mandy, Diddy went to the place where the whole "dramatic scene" would be. This place was well hidden within the jungle and, as expected, there was Jenny, ready to act on the plan as well.
Diddy walked stealthily near where Jenny was. She was carrying in her hands a pair of ropes, which she was unraveling. Then, though with a little uncomfortably, Diddy got out to where she was to greet her.
"Hi, Jenny!" Diddy exclaimed, making her scared and giving a jump of impression.
"Diddy! W-What are you doing around here?" Jenny asked, looking confused.
"I was just passing by," he replied, trying to stay sure. Then, he snatched Jenny's ropes in a sudden way. "Hey, what are these for? Are you… maybe thinking of kidnapping someone?"
"W-what?! What are you talking about?" she asked, looking more confused and trying to take them off, but Diddy wouldn't let her.
The other part of the plan was that, before Ricky, Mandy and Melvyn called Dixie, they were going to go first for Diddy to tell him to help them with something from the ship, but when they arrived, between the four of them they would tie him up with the ropes, and Jenny would be watching him not to escape. Then, they would go for Dixie to tell her that they had seen Diddy with Jenny.
"Well, forget it, Jenny," Diddy said, letting go of the ropes and heading toward her. "I just came to... apologize for yesterday's challenge with fruit juice."
"Urgh, very funny," Jenny replied, rolling her eyes. "You know I wanted to give you a good beating up for that?"
"No, no, no, but wait," Diddy said, calming her down and trying to act natural. "You know, Jenny? I was thinking about... give you a chance this time," he added with a playful look.
"Huh? Chance?" Jenny asked, looking too confused. "Do you mean…"
"Yes, Jenny," Diddy replied in a mischievous and direct tone. "Since you have insisted so much, well... what if you and I dated this time? But you know... on the sly."
Jenny looked at him strangely at first, as if she didn't expect that attitude from Diddy and, in a way, as if she wasn't sure if he was serious.
"Are you really serious, Diddy?" she asked in a mocking tone before crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "Didn't you only love Dixie?"
"Oh, yes, of course I love her," Diddy replied, feigning a tone of disinterest in Dixie. Then, he grabbed Jenny's hands suddenly. "But... I was thinking and... I feel like I love you too, Jenny, even more than Dixie. You're really cute," he added, winking. "So, why don't we give ourselves a chance? And let neither Dixie nor anyone else know."
"Are you really saying that, Diddy?" asked Jenny with a mocking smile, before laughing a little. "Well, if you say so... you know I don't have any problems," she added in a flirtatious way and getting closer to Diddy, to which he tried to move away in a disguised way. "You know how long I've waited for you."
"Uhh, yeah, yeah, of course I'm serious, Jenny," Diddy replied with a forced smile and begging in his mind that Dixie and company would arrive soon.
"Okay, Diddy. So... how about we kiss now?" Jenny added, approaching his face with a playful look.
"Wait, wait! Not yet!" Diddy said, immediately moving himself away. "It's just... We can't kiss if you and I are still nothing."
"So what?" Jenny said with a shrug. "Didn't you say that in your first two kisses with Dixie you weren't yet dating? And besides, I already kissed you two days ago, so don't pretend it."
"Ahh, yeah… Yeah, but it's that…" Diddy stuttered as he thought about how to keep the situation under control without Jenny trying to lunge at him. "A poster! Uh... I meant, a surprise! Yes... I have a surprise for you... Wait for me a while here; don't go."
Diddy went to some nearby bushes to look for a particular banana leaf. The last part of the plan was that: when Dixie arrived, she would find a scene in which Diddy would be asking Jenny to be his girlfriend, accompanied by a banana leaf that would be used as a poster where the well-known phrase "do you want to be my girlfriend?" formed with flower petals. Diddy already knew about this and where the poster would be, so, trying to delay a little, he picked up the poster besides a bouquet of flowers that was also there for the plan. He watched in the distance and, fortunately for him, Dixie was already on her way coming with Ricky, Melvyn and Mandy in the company of the rest of the kong children.
Diddy got out and headed back to Jenny. She, seeing him with the poster and the bouquet of flowers, was all surprised, not so much by Diddy's gesture, but rather by the fact that he knew of the existence of that poster and where he would find it.
"B-but what?!" Jenny exclaimed, all confused.
"Jenny, I…" Diddy said, trying to sound as natural as possible. "I wanted to tell you something."
Diddy, in turn, looked sideways into the distance at Dixie and company who were already nearby, so he completely showed the poster to Jenny and placed it on the ground in full view of both. Then he stood in front of her and knelt down, then held out the bouquet of flowers. Jenny was still confused, but at the same time, she was slowly smiling at what she witnessed, even though she saw how Diddy was guessing the plan.
"Jenny…" Diddy said in a sweet tone, as he kept looking sideways at Dixie arriving. "I wanted to ask you to... be my-"
"DIDDY! WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!"
And suddenly, Dixie had arrived on the scene, to which Diddy and Jenny turned to see her. Seconds later, the other three children in the group were arriving, and little by little the rest of the kong children were also arriving, who began to catch up on the situation again.
"Uhh... no, no, no, Dixie, this is not what it seems!" Diddy exclaimed, pretending to be alarmed and standing up immediately.
"I… can't... believe it!" Ricky, Melvyn and Mandy exclaimed, confused and at the same time, as if satisfied that their plan had apparently taken its own accord. "This time really?!"
Then, the rest of the herd began to murmur loudly and shout uneasiness at the scene they saw. Meanwhile, Diddy and Dixie were pretending as naturally as they could, their respective expressions that they should have in such a situation: Diddy showing alarm at being found out, and Dixie showing deep indignation.
"Could you explain this to me, DIDDY?!" Dixie exclaimed, raising her voice and pretending to be furious.
"No, no, it's not what you think, Dixie!" replied Diddy, turning to Dixie and taking her shoulders. "See... I was just-"
"Uh, Dixie…" Jenny interrupted, smiling and shrugging. "This time, your boyfriend did look for me."
Dixie looked at Jenny, and then was furious at Diddy, before pulling his hands off her shoulders and continuing with the fake show.
"You're a traitor, Diddy!" Dixie exclaimed, pretending to be about to cry. "You told me you had a surprise for me and it turned out to be for Jenny!"
"A-Actually, it was for you, Dixie!" Diddy exclaimed, heading back to Dixie.
"Don't lie, I saw you in front of Jenny!"
"No, I was just rehearsing with her to tell you later!"
"I don't want your excuses, Diddy!" Dixie exclaimed, making feigned sobbing gestures. "Y-you said you only loved me! This is over, YOU ARE A FAKE ONE!"
The whole herd was tense and muttered much more than the previous times, as now Diddy and Dixie were arguing in public with each other. The group of their so-called friends only laughed quietly and, in a sneaky way, made gestures of victory among themselves when they saw that apparently their goal had been achieved.
Then, Dixie glanced sideways at Diddy, smiled a little, and winked at him as a sign to take the next step. Diddy returned the same gesture immediately.
"But... do you know who the fake ones really are?" said Diddy, smiling with confidence.
"Them!" exclaimed Diddy and Dixie in unison and pointing in public to Jenny, Ricky, Mandy and Melvyn.
"What?!" exclaimed the four, looking at them with total confusion.
The herd murmured and was now confused by the sudden turn the scene had taken; they no longer knew what was really going on. The four just stood still and with the same faces that a scammer would put on when he was caught red-handed.
"Yes, you! You are fake ones!" exclaimed Diddy, still pointing at them. "You who claim to be our 'friends'!"
"Ha! You fell into it!" added Dixie in a winning tone. "Did you think we didn't know anything about what you all planned to do to us now?! So, take that!"
"Hey, wait, wait, what are you two talking about?!" Ricky countered cynically, looking confused. "We had no plan against you!"
"Don't pretend!" Diddy replied firmly. "We ourselves heard you all yesterday talking about us and this plan you wanted to make to try to separate us again!"
"Wait a minute…" Jenny said, casting a withering glance at the kongs they had spoken to the day before."Who were the ones who-"
"No! No one told us!" interrupted Dixie, immediately going to defend those children. "We ourselves heard you yesterday! We were going to your house to tell you that we no longer wanted to go with you to DK Island, but we just heard you behind the door tearing the two of us to pieces!"
"Hmm, so you think we're a couple of ridiculous and pathetic, don't you?" said Diddy, smiling mockingly, his hands at his sides. "Oops! I didn't know that talking like that about us, you called us your best friends," he added sarcastically.
"W-what?! NO!" Mandy exclaimed defensively along with the other three. "What are you talking about?! We never said that about you-"
"And wait!" Dixie interrupted, also smiling sarcastically. "So, you also think we're both dumb and should have better boyfriends and girlfriends, don't you? Oh, wow! I didn't know that friends meddled in their friends' lives."
"Ah, and you know anything else?!" Diddy added, his mocking expression. "Well, yes! I would eat every tree there as long as I wouldn't be disloyal to Dixie."
"And yes! I also forgave Diddy for being kissed by Jenny," Dixie added, crossing her arms and giving them a defiant look. "In fact, actually, we had nothing to fix since it was you who planned for that to happen and-"
"No, no, no!" Jenny interrupted firmly. "He himself came to me and-"
"Don't be crazy!" countered Diddy, pointing at them. "That night, after that, I came back and heard clearly how you had had it all planned, starting with that wrench!"
"Hey, no, what are you talking about?!" Ricky exclaimed, beginning to be furious. "You're defaming us!"
"Not at all! It's all true!" Diddy replied firmly. "The four of you wanted to take us for fools! Starting with Jenny!"
"Well, but anyway, you recently said you loved me and would give me a chance," Jenny told Diddy defiantly. "And that Dixie wouldn't find out."
"I told him to tell you that, Jenny," Dixie replied mockingly. "It was part of our plan to ruin yours with which you wanted to separate us again!"
The crowd murmured with every sentence they said, while the four became more and more silent and at the same time enraged, because Diddy and Dixie were telling them everything just as they had spoken it behind their backs.
"Ah, and something else!" added Dixie as a final detail. "Weren't you the ones who had put that carnivorous plant in the gift Diddy gave me?"
With that, the four of them finished gaping as they looked at each other not knowing what to say now. The rest of the kong children kept murmuring and looking at the scene with extreme curiosity.
"U-uh... That's not true!" Melvyn exclaimed, trying to save the argument. "Everything you are saying is-"
"Admit it!" Dixie interrupted, laughing. "You have been very fake ones all this time with us!"
"If you hate us, just say it," Diddy added with a shrug. "But don't pretend to consider us 'friends' anymore."
The four of them didn't know what to say; neither wanted to accept defeat, in fact, they never wanted to accept it, as Diddy and Dixie always ended up telling them all the truths in an argument. Meanwhile, Diddy and Dixie stood with a serene expression, even though deep down they wanted to yell at the four of them with all their might they had.
"Wait, wait!" said Ricky, stepping out in front of Diddy and Dixie. "We have said nothing of what you are telling us!" then, he impulsively turned to the other kong children to reproach them. "Or who was the blabbermouth who invented those antics about us?!"
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Diddy interrupted, stopping Ricky and defending the rest of the children. "Why do you want to blame them? If we hear with our own ears everything you have said about the two of us."
"Just look at how you four get!" Dixie said with a mocking laugh. "You don't want to admit what you said and besides you react badly! Don't be childish!"
"Oh, excuse me!" Mandy exclaimed wryly. "How old are you? What do I tell you, fossil big apes?"
"Well, at least we had never spoken ill of you!" Dixie replied with a shrug. "Wow! Are you that way with your old friends too?"
"URGH, SHUT UP!" Jenny shouted at them furiously. "I don't know what you're talking about! But we haven't spoken ill of you either! YOU ARE CRAZY!"
"You know what?! We better finish this discussion!" Ricky added, bumping his fists and heading along with the other three towards Diddy and Dixie. "So, do you want to fight with us?! Because that's what I'm understanding!"
"Oops, stay still!" Diddy replied mockingly, walking away with Dixie from them. "We never told you we were going to fight, just to tell you your truths!"
"CATCH THEM!" the four exclaimed, trying to pounce on the two.
Diddy and Dixie dodged them in time, and then began to run away from them, but had a hard time getting out of the scene, as the crowd of children only emitted screams of wanting to see fight. But even so, they struggled to get out of the crowd to finally run away.
"HOLD THEM!" the quartet exclaimed, running after the two.
Then, just like the time before, the whole herd began chasing Diddy and Dixie, while both went deep into the jungle and hid among the trees to divert the entire crowd that followed them.
After so much chasing, Diddy and Dixie made quick deflection movements and managed to get lost from the sight of the crowd, while they kept looking for them in vain.
Diddy and Dixie climbed up the trees, and moved away from everyone until no one could be heard near them anymore.
"Did you see how they put their faces every time we rat them out?!" Diddy said, starting to laugh out loud along with Dixie.
"And the worst thing is that they don't want to admit what they had said!" Dixie added, trying to quell the laughter. "Seriously, they're cynics!"
"Well, but at least we managed to ruin their plan," Diddy said, laughing. "And at a good time, we found out."
"We are amazing!" Dixie exclaimed in a tone of victory and high-fives with Diddy. Then, they both continued to laugh together at the play they had just made...