Chapter 6 - One to One
Larry dragged me onto the doorstep of his house, acting towards me as if I was nothing but a sack of potatoes. I was still in a deep state of confusion as to why he was doing this and why at this moment? One minute, I was upstairs with him in my room packing my bags and another minute, I was being dragged onto the doorstep of Larry's house. What was going on? He was just about to knock on the frosted glass window of the front door, but I stopped him by the skin of my teeth.
"Can you just wait a second?" I said. "What are you doing?"
For our whole journey, Larry hadn't responded to anything I had said to him, so I was a little bit befuddled as to why he had waited until now to talk to me. "No way am I staying here and leaving you to go to the jungle by yourself. I'm coming with you!"
"Well, why are we coming here, then?"
Larry's jaw dropped and his pupils shrank as I watched his shock enhance, wondering what the source of this was. Judging by his pallor, I must've affected him quite a lot just by asking that simple question, which sort of worried me. "Look, man." he said. "I get that you're supposed to be the smart one and you're the cleverest kid in our year, but…that has got to be the stupidest question you've ever asked."
"What?" I said, putting up my hands. "You know what our tutor says to us every morning? 'There's no such thing as a stupid question, kids.'"
Larry rolled his eyes and I could just hear a long, exasperated groan drag out in his mind. "I don't need to hear that again today, however, what I do need to hear is a yes from Iggy saying that I can go to Australia with you next week." He raised a finger and softly tapped me on the forehead. "So boom. Your stupid question is answered."
As Larry turned around to knock on the door, I raised an eyebrow, half sternly and half mockingly because at first, I had considered taking him with me to Australia, thinking that he would be on his best behaviour and appreciating me sacrificing my hunger, hygiene and health the whole time, however, I was on the edge of having second thoughts on this now because I more than guaranteed that he was going to be equally just as much of a pain in the arse, given his brief but grating insult towards my intelligence.
My thoughts came to an abrupt halt when the door opened and Iggy was standing in the doorway. "Hey, guys." he said, but before he could say more, Larry pushed past him.
"Sorry, bro." he replied. " I can't talk right now. I've got some bags to pack."
I bit my lip, feeling like I had no other choice but to follow him, but before I entered the living room, I looked back at Iggy guiltily. "Sorry about this." I said. "He's just a bit excited at the minute."
"Why? What's going on?" Iggy walked over to the bottom of the stairs and I guessed that Larry had run up there to find a suitcase because if I was very quiet, I could hear the rubbing together of fabric and a few heavy objects falling onto the floor. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Iggy called up the stairs.
"Taking a piss, what does it sound like?" Larry shouted back.
Oh, I thought. Iggy obviously doesn't know about this yet. Maybe I should talk to him about it. I thought that it would be better if I told him about what I was doing next week, but despite that fact, I was really quite nervous. "Um, Iggy?" I said. "C-Could I talk to you about something quick?"
For a brief moment, Iggy looked at me, confused, but after a moment, he smiled in the friendly way that I loved. "Sure, what do you want to talk to me about?"
By now, we were both sat on the leather sofa together and what I thought was sweet was that Iggy must've known that I had something stressful to talk about because when I was just about to begin, he placed the family dog, Buddy in my arms in order to help me calm myself and that worked a real treat. I began to feel better already after Buddy had wriggled around and made himself comfortable on my lap and therefore, that was my cue to start my explanation.
"So, for starters," I began as I caressed Buddy's back softly. "Are you familiar with the show, 'I'm A Koopa…Get Me Out Of Here'?"
Iggy looked up to the ceiling, which gave me the impression that he was thinking. "I've seen bits of it, yeah. Why do you ask?"
I bit my lip. "Well…something happened last Friday night."
"What happened?"
"Um…one of the presenters of that very show unexpectedly called me and he asked me if I wanted to take part in this year's series." When Iggy didn't reply so much as hang his mouth wide open, I said, "As in taking part…on TV."
"Wow." Iggy finally remarked. "And what did you say to the presenter?"
Since I was worried about Iggy's reaction to what I was going to say next, I looked down into Buddy's face for help, which after a split second, I thought was a stupid thing to do because he wasn't going to do anything apart from stare at me, waiting for his head to be rubbed. Raising a mock grudging eyebrow at him, I took a deep breath.
"I-I said yes. I'm going to Australia next week to go on the show."
Iggy stared back at me and I didn't know if he was cringing or whether he was full to the brim with incredulity. "Woah." he simply remarked. "I…didn't know about that." He looked down at the floor for a moment, but a few seconds after, his eyes shot back up as fast as light and back into mine. "Wait a sec. How do you expect to be flown all the way to Australia by yourself without anyone with you? The last time you were on a plane was when you were seven, am I right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, but-"
"Exactly! So, how will you know where to go? You'll probably get lost and you'll miss your flight!"
"I know." I said. "Which is why…I'm asking you and Larry if you wanted to come with me."
Almost instantly, I wished I had just shut my mouth because Iggy's facial expression transformed into one that suggested that to say he was aghast was the understatement of a lifetime.
"W-What?" he stammered. "Did I hear correctly? You want us to…? Us? On a plane? To Australia?"
After each of those questions, I nodded, each time feeling exhausted because I had hoped that only after a few questions, he would finally know I had got the jist. "Yes." I said, trying to disguise my exasperation, but failing horrifically.
Iggy shook his head in complete bafflement. It was like I had cast a spell on him. "Are…Are you even allowed to do that?"
I carefully picked Buddy up off of my lap, placed him on the sofa and stood up with a spring. "You certainly are." I replied gravely. "And I'll show you. Follow me."
AN: Ouch. I honestly feel a bit bad. I can't believe it's been ten days since I uploaded a chapter for this story, but now I guess I can put that all aside because I just have. Well, it's a pretty short one, but oh well. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :))