The smell of fresh cookies and the faint sound of the show Victor was watching filled the Frankenstein house as Susan moved around the kitchen, looking through the cupboards. Sparky was "helping" her by constantly sniffing at her feet for some reason. Edward was seated at the table nearby reading the newspaper, occasionally glancing cooling racks, where a few snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies were placed, soon to be joined by the batch of oatmeal rasin cookies almost finished baking in the oven.
"Don't even think about it." Susan said with a slight laugh in her voice as she finally found what she was looking for: a basket to place the cookies and a few other treats in.
"Don't worry, I'm not." Edward replied, "At least not with those oatmeal rasin cookies. Why would you assume Lily even likes them?"
"Just to be clear, I'm not assuming that Lily likes oatmeal rasin. I'm not sure what she likes so I thought that I should cover the basics."
That last part was one of the main reasons Susan was making this gift basket, the other being that she had simply realized that she hadn't given Lily a housewarming gift yet. Despite her extravagant introduction, news of which spread like wildfire among the many, many gossipers in town, the Frankensteins knew very little about Lily, who they soon found to be, somewhat supprisingly, very introverted. This lack of knowledge about Lily weeks after she had moved in had made Susan and Edward, who had both grown up in the tightly knit neighborhood, feel as if they needed to get to know her better for her own good.
Sparky let out a bark in sync with the ding of the oven timer as Susan put on her oven mits, breaking her train of thought.
"Alright then..." Susan said to heself as she pulled out the tray of oatmeal rasin cookies. Neither Edward nor Victor were huge fans of rasin based treats in general, so she rarely made this recipie, written down by her gramdmother. This resulted in her not knowing the recipie as well as she hoped to, and as such, she honestly wasn't so sure how ths batch would turn out. "How do these look?"
"About as appetising as oatmeal rasin cookies can." Edward jokingly answered.
"Edward!" Susan exclaimed, faking offence.
"But seriously, you're one of the few peope I know who can make a rasin based desset look tempting."
Their comedic yet tender moment was interrupted by a sudden bout of excited barking from Sparky.
"Easy, boy!" Victor said as he entered the kitchen, when Sparky ran past him to the front door.
"What's got him so excited this time?" Edward asked.
"I think it's Lily again. Looks like she's coming back from some shopping." Victor stated, looking out the window.
"Strange...Sparky's been getting hyper when she shows up for a while now." Susan commented as she filled the basket with some cookies and a few fruits.
"Maybe he just wants to see her. I don't think Sparky formally met Lily yet."
Susan and Edward quickly gave each other concerned looks before turning back to Victor. Even after the fact that Lily already knew about the dutch day incident sunk in, both were still a little anxious about showing Sparky to her. Mainly because they didn't know how much she knew.
"Victor, we talked about this..." Edward stated.
"I know you both are still a little worried about introducing Sparky to Lily, bit she seems like a nice girl. I don't think she'll hurt him."
There was a brief pause of concideation before Susan spoke up. "Well, Victor, If you're so sure about this, then I guess it is about time that Lily meets Sparky. Just promise us that you'll keep him under control, okay?"
"Alright, mom! Come on, Sparky! Let's go get the leash!"
Edward waited until Victor was outside before speaking up. "You're really sure about this Susan? You know how people can react to Sparky."
"Not really," Susan responded, "but we can't keep making Victor feel like he has to hide his best friend due to fearing the worst all the time. Part of that is us putting a little more trust in him."
"I know, I know, I just... want what's best for Victor." Edward replied, a faint sence of worry on his face.
"Which is why we have to give him a chance." Susan followed up with, placing a hand on Edward's sholder.
"Alright, Sparky's all ready!" Victor exclaimed as he emerged with a now leashed Sparky, both clearly excited about seeing Lily.
Susan gave Edward a sympathetic smile before geting up. "Alright then. Let's get going."
The warm mid-day sun shone down on the street as the Frankensteins exited their house, accented by a gentle breeze. The temperature was a cool sixty-four degrees, and the partly cloudy weather was quite relaxing.
It was safe to say that relaxing weather was very ironic, given Edward and Susan's nervousness. This was the first time anyone would meet Sparky in his reanimated state after the Dutch Day Incident and they were very worried about how it would go, buu they managed to put on calm faces for Victor's sake.
"Hey, Lily!" Victor called out to across the street to Lily, the leash of a very excited Sparky in hand.
No going back now, Susan thought to herself.
"Hey, Victor! Edward, Susan, good to see you!" Lily responded as the family crossed over to her yard, "What brings you here?"
"We realized we never gave you a housewarming gift." Edward stated as Susan handed Lily the gift basket.
"Thank you! You know, it's people like you that the world needs more of." Lily cherrfully said as she accepted the basket before sniffing something, "Oh, something smells good."
"That's probably the cookies." Susan explained, "I made them myself, actually."
"Easy to tell based on the smell." Lily told them, looking through the basket before pulling out an oatmeal rasin cookie, "Store bought will never-"
Sparky let out two loud barks, cutting her off and drawing her attention to him. Lily didn't immediatly react at first, simply putting the cookie she was holding back in the basket. The whole time, she never took her eyes off Sparky.
Oh dear, Susan thought before she tried to salvage the situation. "Lily, we know what this looks like, but if you just let us explain-"
"What's there to explain about this little cutie?"
Edward and Susan couldn't help but stare in supprise as Lily knelt down to pet Sparky, and Victor couldn't help but give them a look that could only say "I told you so." Just then Sparky suddenly looked to the side and began barking, trying to dart off, Victor holding him back on the leash.
"What's got him all worked up now?" Lily asked while laughing.
The answer then soon came to them. Or more accuratly, the answer came running towards them on all fours, with the Van Helsings following closely behind.
"Slow down, Persephone!" Elsa shouted, trying to grab the poodle's leash.
Lily was quick to help. With a supprising run speed, she ran towards Persephone and grabbed the leash trailing behind her.
"I'm guessing this one is yours" Lily stated as she handed Elsa the leash of Persephone, who was curiously sniffing her cosplay tail.
"I'm so sorry," Elsa stated as she caught her breath, "Persephone is usually better behaved than this."
"Hey, no worries. She's probably just excited by the new scent. Nice to meet you. I'm Lily"
"So you're the Lily Vermilion Vulpes that's taken up all the town's gossip." Elsa's mother stated in a matter-of-fact type of voice, "I'm Judy, and this is my husband Oliver."
"A pleasure to meet you." Oliver followed with.
Judy and Oliver Van Helsing weren't too different from Susan and Edward in appearences. Judy had a bit of a longer face compared to Susan, however, and longer hair to match. She usually wore some type of a simple gray dress as well. The situation was similar when comparing Edward and Oliver, Oliver having a more angular face and usually a hair style that was slicked back more, usually wearing a button up t-shirt and jeans.
"Same here. Nice to see I've made a proper introduction." Lily stated casually.
A brief pause followed, only a few seconds long.
"You... do realize that your 'proper introduction'... came from gossip." Judy stated, confused and supprised.
"Yes." Lily casually responded.
"Not all of which is flattering." Oliver added, equally confused and stunned.
"Of course."
"And you've likely pitted a lot of powerful people against you, given that the gossip came from you insulting the mayor." Oliver continued.
"That was basically a guarentee, given that he somehow still has supporters."
"You're... not at all worried about Mr. Burgermeister's supporters gossiping about you?" Elsa asked, her usual monotone voice slightly mixed with suprise.
"Nah. I actually have a saying about people like that."
"And that is...?"
"They're the dumbest unreliable sources and should just be ignored due to a lack of fact checking."
"A saying everyone should listen to." A tall man who looked a bit like Vincent Price stated as he pulled up and exited his car. A man that was known by the town well enough that it was only fitting that he greet a neighbor like Lily.
"Mr. Ryzkruski!" Victor and Elsa exclaimed in unison as they ran over to the essentric man.
"Ah, if it isn't my by two best students! It has been far too long." Mr. Ryzkruski stated with a matter-of-fact tone.
"Should have I just thrown a house warming party at this point?" Lily jokingly asked.
"You must be the Ms. Vulpes that the entirety of New Holland is talking about. I must apologise for visiting so suddenly" Mr. Ryzkruski continued, "I am Vincent Ryzkruski, the local science teacher of New Holland Elementary."
"Hey, don't worry about it. And there's no need to be formal with me, you can just call me Vixie or Lily. Nice to meet you!"
Their conversation was interrupted one again by Sparky and Persephone loudly barking at Lily, but Susan couldn't help but notice it was not in their usual way. Usually, when Sparky and Persephone barked at someone, it was either to get their attention or intimidate someone they saw as a threat. This time, however, they weren't really trying to do either. They weren't trying to get anyone's attention, at least not on purpose, and they clearly weren't trying to intimidate anyone. Instead, it almost seemed as if they were... trying to have a conversation with Lily.
"Are these two usually this talkitive?" Lily asked with a chuckle, "They're certainly more extroverted than me either way."
"He does tend to get excited very easily sometimes... but not usually like this." Edward replied.
"In fact, he would always bark every time you left your house or came back." Victor added.
"Persephone usually doesn't just take off like she did earlier, either." Elsa stated, "She's usually capable of controling herself, even when Sparky's nearby."
"Facinating." Vincent commented, "This bull terrier may never cease being a scientific anomoly. Perhaps he and his mate know something we don't."
"Vincent, please don't be ridiculous." Oliver stated in responce.
"You would have told me that if I had brought up the possibility of the school re-hiring me." Vincent argued.
"Or the possibilty of Vincent screaming like a girl." Edward teasingly added.
"For the last time Edward, I did not scream like a girl." Vincent stated in a somewhat deadpan tone.
"Sensing a bit of a noodle incident." Lily chimed in, clearly out of the loop.
The barking suddenly stopped as an old stationwagon pulled up the street, soon replaced by light growling as the mayor pulled into his driveway and exited, followed by his son Bob, who glanced over at the group before heading inside. Mr. Burgermeister looked over himself and gave a sort of death glare, which both Edward and Judy returned.
"So that kid's the mayor's-"
"I wish we could talk more, but we should probably get going." Judy abruptly said, almost shielding Elsa.
"Uhhh... okay then. Thanks for coming over." Lily responded.
Persephone let out a few more barks as the Van Helsings gave their farewells, prompting Lily to pet her in responce.
"Hope to see you again soon, you little goober." Lily told Persephone in a somewhat silly voice, earning a few chuckles as the Van Helsings began their walk home.
""Are... are they okay?" Lily asked as soon as the Van Helsings went around the corner, "Mrs. Van Helsing seemed to be a little... on edge."
"She doesn't mean to be. Judy and Robert have been experiencing a tense relationship after what happened to Elsa durring..." Susan tried to explain, trailing off before she could bring up a... certain event.
"Oh...sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"Do not blame yourself too much, young lady." Mr. Ryzkruski interrupted with a sympathetic tone, "You are still relatively new to the neighborhood. Thus, you are still learning about the people who live here."
"Yeah, but I don't want to strike any of the wrong nerves." Lily replied.
Victor, likely trying to lighten the mood, looked up at Lily with a smile and told her, "You at least struck the right nerves with the mayor. I've never seen him become so annoyed with someone and not proceed to complain about it to their face."
"My top student appears to be right. The mayor has never truly acted in such a way, even around me. As such, I have personally hypothisised that you may be the kind of person this whole town needs." Vincent added.
Lily looked up and shyly smiled, but didn't say anything at first, as if she was trying and failing to work out a way to say "thank you." After a few moments, she simply gestured back to the grocery bags on her porch and said, "Well I wish we could talk more, but I have quite a bit to take inside."
"Do you need any help with your bags?" Edward asked somewhat hesitantly after what just happened.
"Nah, it's nothing I can't handle by myself."
"Well, if you ever need anything we're right across from you, so feel free to visit anytime." Susan sweetly told Lily.
"Alright then... guess I'll see you around."
"Very well then, Lily. May we meet again soon. I do truly wish to talk with you more." Mr Ryzkruski enthusiastically stated as he got back into his car. And with that, Vincent drove off, and the Frankensteins walked back over to their house.
"So much for a housewarming gift." Susan stated as she, Edward, Victor, and Sparky walked through the door.
"Hey, we... made progress." Edward said in responce, albeit hesitantly.
"Yeah.. I guess we did." Susan softly responded.
"Don't worry, Susan, I'm sure we made a good impression." Edward assured his wife, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"You really think so? Our conversation wasn't exactly the typical small talk we were hoping for."
"You also expected Lily to freak out when she saw Sparky." Victor suddenly reasoned, "The closest thing we got to that was her freaking out over how adorable he is."
Sparky, as if on cue, proudly barked in responce, clearly taking the title of "little cutie" given to him by Lily in stride. Susan smiled as she knelt down and scratched him behind his ear. That ear soon fell off with almost comical timing.
"I can fix that." Victor reassured his parents.
Author's note: I just want to give a quick heads up: given how this was one of my longest chapters in any of my fanfictions at the time of this chapter's publication, I probably will take a bit of a longer-than-usual break to help me come up with ideas for future chapters and stories.
Also, a few details I feel that I should clear up after failing to find a way to insert a good explanation in the story itself.
1. For this story, the reason Mr. Ryzkruski was re-hired despite the town almost completely siding against him at first was to ensure that the kids had someone who would teach them to use science the "good way", so that an event like The Dutch Day Incident never happenes again.
2. For the noodle incident I wrote in, I currently plan on doing a bit of a sort of spinoff of this story that will explain it after the main fanfic is finished.
A quick edit after adding the chapter: for sone reason, the website is saying the story has five chapters after I updated it. This may be from me editing the document after noticing an error in the preview. The issue itself may be fixed by the time this edit is added, but I just felt that I had to clear up any possible confusion if it isn't.