Okay, I promised this one would be out on March 17th 2017, yet it's now March 18th. Sorry about the delay, I got held up with other matters. However, the story is now ready for your viewing pleasure, and also special thanks to SF64Rules for writing up a great story. Good work buddy! :) The next set will hopefully be based on 'King of the Railway', just don't ask of when they'll be coming out, cause I don't know of how much free time I'll be getting as I'm getting a part-time job soon.
Sodor High School: Thomas & Friends Tales
Written by: ThomasZoey3000 / SF64Rules
Based on the Railway Series by: The Rev. W. and Christopher Awdry
Based on the Television Series by: Britt AllCroft, David Mitton, Lionsgate, and Universal Pictures
OC(s) owned by: SF64Rules
Episode 33: Surprise Party!
Based on "A Blooming Mess" by: Miranda Larson
It was currently another warm summer's day. School was obviously still out for all of the students and teachers at Sodor High School, and there were still loads of time left to do stuff (vacations, picnics in the park, the beach, etc.) before both fall and a new school year came.
Thomas, Emily, and Edward were each walking down the street in the Ffarquhar area towards the big super market to do a bit of shopping. Along the way, the three friends were each talking about the stuff they were going to purchase at the super market. A certain dark green-haired girl for example...
"Oh, how lovely!" gushed Emily. "I can't wait to buy some seeds for the garden."
"Indeed," agreed Edward. "I bet some flowers for your new summer garden will look very nice."
"For sure. ...in fact, I know all about flowers. I know buttercups are yellow, and-"
"Emily!" laughed Thomas. "I think we get the picture."
The dark green-haired girl only giggled in response, while Edward quickly joined in the laughter. A minute later, as the three teenagers walked towards an intersection, Emily noticed something across the street straight ahead.
"Hey, isn't that Mavis' home across the street?"
Thomas and Edward both looked ahead and smiled in confirmation. It would seem that the dark green-haired girl was correct, that nearby house across the street was where Mavis currently lived. How did she know that exactly? Well, because the top floor window (part of Mavis' room) was open and the back/side of the black-haired girl's head was shown too.
"Doesn't Mavis live alone with her mother?" asked Thomas.
"Yes Thomas, she does," nodded Edward gravely. "Ever since her mother and father divorced when she was only 13-years old."
"Mavis' Mom and Dad are divorced?" Emily gasped. "How awful! I didn't know anything about that. It must've been really hard for Mavis to cope with back then."
"It was hard, I'm afraid. But Mavis was able to get over it through time, especially since she had, and still does to this day, Toby by her side."
"Thank goodness," The dark green-haired girl thought to herself, just before smiling a little bit. "Well, why don't we go over and say hello? Maybe even see if Mavis wants to come along with us to the super market."
Thomas and Edward both thought that was a great idea. Once they were able to cross the street, the three teenagers approached the house, and, rather than go knock on the front door, Emily began to call out to the black-haired girl in her room on the second floor.
"Heeeeey, Mavis!"
Surprisingly, Mavis did not seem to hear the dark green-haired girl. Emily tried calling out to the black-haired girl a couple more times before giving up.
"That's weird," she finally commented, looking back over to Thomas and Edward. "Mavis didn't seem to hear me."
"Maybe she's busy with something?" Edward suggested.
"Maybe..." Thomas replied.
However, Emily was rather unsure about that. Ultimately deciding to worry about their good friend later on, the three friends continued to walk down the street towards the big, busy super market. Unknowingly to anyone, Edward was actually right on the button about his little theory. Inside Mavis' room, the black-haired girl was indeed busy working on something; which was filling out something on a piece of paper (one of several might I add) while wearing her headphones and listening and humming cheerfully to some music she had uploaded onto a CD from her computer. In addition, Mavis' long black hair was all let down and blowing about slightly in the gentle breeze due to her window being open and being seated right by it.
Much later that evening at Thomas' house, Thomas and Emily were both in the kitchen unpacking all of the stuff they bought from the super market with Annie and Clarabel both helping. Despite being very happy over getting several packages of seeds for different kinds of flowers to plant in the garden, Emily just couldn't stop thinking about why Mavis would seemingly ignore her like that.
"Boy, that garden in the backyard will look great with flowers in addition to the fresh vegetables we'll be growing too. Right Emily?" Thomas cheerfully asked his friend.
No response came from the dark green-haired girl...
"Hmm?"
"...Thomas, I'm getting worried," Emily said at last.
Thomas immediately stopped unpacking. "What?"
"I said I'm getting worried," The dark green-haired girl repeated.
"Is this about Mavis?" Thomas asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes."
The blue-haired boy gave a sigh. "You know something? I actually feel a bit worried too. Those bad memories of her parents' divorce had better not be starting to come back and haunt Mavis now. That would be just terrible."
This made Emily more worried than ever for her black-haired friend indeed. Was there any way to help Mavis deal with her sadness? Unfortunately, neither Emily nor Thomas had an answer for that at the moment.
The next day, which was also very warm and sunny, the dark green-haired girl went out for a stroll by herself. Emily walked down a street until she came upon Mavis' house once again. Just like yesterday, the black-haired girl's bedroom window was open, and she was seated right near it. In addition, her long hair was all let down and blowing around a bit in the gentle breeze again.
"Maybe Mavis will hear me this time around," Emily thought to herself, quickly crossing the street before calling out loudly; "Mavis! He-eeeey, Mavis!"
Unfortunately, just like yesterday, Mavis did not seem to hear the dark green-haired girl at all. All because, once more, she had her headphones on and was listening to some music while working on filling out a few forms of a sort—not that Emily knew about these two little details. Regardless, she continued to call out to her good friend.
"Mavis! Hey, Mavis!"
Still, the black-haired girl did not seem to respond to, or even hear, the dark green-haired girl. Eventually, Emily gave up and fell into her thoughts over the situation. Meanwhile, Leonardo (wearing a blue tank top, green sweat pants, and red sneakers) was jogging down the street with a gym bag hanging around his shoulders when he saw the familiar dark green-haired girl standing nearby. The sight of Emily made him smile widely...because as we all know by now; the dirty blonde-haired boy had a crush on her.
"Hello Emily!" Leonardo called out happily.
But Emily was much too caught up in her thoughts to hear the dirty blonde-haired boy's voice. Leonardo quickly noticed this and decided to approach his friend...as well as crush. Once he got close enough, the tall teenage boy suddenly looked up at the nearby house until he saw, within the second floor window, the back of Mavis's head.
"Hey, this must be where Mavis lives!" Leonardo said in realization. "I wonder if she's free to come and workout with me, Hank, and Murdoch at the gym today."
Suddenly, Emily spoke up and caught the dirty blonde-haired boy by surprise.
"I know what's wrong! Mavis must be feeling sad today because of the bad memories from her parents divorce."
"Um...divorce?" blinked Leonardo, not having a clue as to what was going on.
Emily turned around and noticed the dirty blonde-haired boy. "Oh, Leo! Sorry, I didn't see you there."
"Oh, that's alright," Leonardo chuckled, before getting a puzzled look on his face. "But what exactly were you talking about just a few seconds ago?"
Emily immediately explained about what Edward had told her about Mavis' parents divorcing a few years ago, and how she sometimes had bad memories about it.
"Geez, that really stinks," Leonardo commented gloomily. "I'm really sorry to hear all of that. If you get the chance to talk to her at anytime, tell Mavis that I send both her and her mother my regards and condolence."
"I will," Emily nodded, just before turning and running off.
"H-Hey! What's the rush?!"
"I have to return home right now. I have an idea on how to help cheer Mavis up!" Emily called back.
Leonardo watched the dark green-haired girl leave before turning to face the Drewry household. Ultimately, he decided to go and visit the black-haired girl in person before proceeding to meet up with both Hank and Murdoch at the gym. The dirty blonde-haired boy walked up to the door, lightly knocked on it four times, and waited...before the door finally opened and revealed Mavis' mother.
"Good afternoon Mrs. Drewry," greeted Leonardo politely.
"Oh Leonardo, hello!" greeted Mavis' mother pleasantly. "Please, come right in."
Leonardo smiled, nodded, and walked into the house. Maybe finding out what Mavis was really up to would help shed some light on the situation.
Back at Thomas's own house, Emily had just returned from her little stroll. Within the living room, she had just finished explaining her little plan to Thomas, which was to be a surprise party.
"That's a great idea," smiled Thomas. "Not to mention we have those party decorations up in the attic that we can put to good use."
"Great!" Emily smiled back. "Let's call Toby, Edward, James, Rosie, and Percy. They'll need to help us get the party all set up."
After making several phone calls, the five called upon teens agreed to help with Emily's plan to cheer Mavis up.
Back inside the Drewry household, Leonardo was seated on the couch within the living room with Mavis (who had her long black hair back to being neatly separated into two pony tails with two yellow ribbons) sitting beside him, as the black-haired girl's mother came walking in with some tea.
"Some hot tea for you dear?" Mavis' mother offered kindly. "There's also sugar and honey here if you'd like some."
"Thank you ma'am," replied Leonardo politely, taking his cup of tea off the tray.
"So, what brings you by here Leo?" Mavis asked, before taking a quick sip of her tea. "I thought you were going to the gym today for a workout."
"Och, I was going there yes, but I met up with Emily not too long ago, and found out from her about what happened with your family a few years prior."
"Yes, the divorce," sighed Mavis' mother sadly, placing her cup of tea on the stand beside her chair.
"Look... if it helps, I send my condolence to both of you," said Leonardo with sympathy in his tone.
"That's really sweet of you to say Leo," Mavis spoke up, giving her slightly older friend a small, kind smile. "And it's okay too. Why? Because the memory of my parents divorce doesn't bother me all that much anymore."
"Say what?" Leonardo blinked. Now the tall teenage boy was very confused. "B-But Emily told me that she and Thomas found you near your bedroom window yesterday, and that you had outright ignored them when they tried to call out to you. Moreover, earlier today, Emily told me that you ignored her again when she tried to call out and say hello to you. This gave her the idea that you were feeling sad about the divorce or something..."
Mavis listened carefully to her dirty blonde-haired friend's explanation before getting a look of concern on her face.
"Emily must be puzzled," she said at last. "I'll explain everything to her when we next meet up at the arcade or mall."
"So, what is going on exactly?" Leonardo asked at last. "What's the whole story?"
Therefore, Mavis and her mother both began to explain what has been going on with the former over the last couple of days.
At the local arcade, although it took a little bit of convincing, the owner had allowed the small group of friends (namely Thomas, Percy, James, Emily, Toby, Rosie, and Edward) to go ahead and setup a surprise party for Mavis, so long as there was no big mess left behind afterward.
"You kids be careful now," said the owner. "I'll be in the back room if you need any assistance."
He then left the teenagers to their work.
"This was a great idea Emily!" commented James positively.
"Mavis will love it!" added Toby.
"I agree!" agreed Rosie.
"For sure." Edward threw in.
"Let's get to work!" chirped Percy.
With several large boxes full of balloons, streamers, confetti, ornaments, etc. carefully placed on the ground and opened up, everyone set to work in setting up the surprise party.
Back inside Mavis' house, the black-haired girl and her mother had both finished explaining to Leonardo what has been happening over the last couple of days.
"Applying for a summertime job?" The dirty blonde-haired boy quizzed. "Is that what has been going on?"
"Yes," nodded Mavis. "Like several other teenagers on summer break...most notably Gordon, who is working at the rubbish dump, I'd like to earn a little extra money as well as some work experience."
"You see Leonardo, a good friend of mine, who works at the Ffarquhar Quarry, said they were looking for someone of any gender and at least between the ages of 15-18 with some experience in either cleaning or handling diesel engines," explained Mavis' mother. "From what I already know, Mavis here has some experience with both of those tasks, and so my friend said she was just who the Quarry was looking for."
Mavis blushed slightly before nodding and allowing her mother to continue speaking...
"In addition to the job, my ex-husband also works there. This means both he and Mavis can even spend some father-and-daughter time together, especially since they don't get to see each other very often."
"Wow..." Leonardo gasped. He then looked over to the black-haired girl. "That's really cool Mavis. And I'm guessing the reason you didn't seem to hear Emily both times was because ye were completely focused on filling out some forms for your part-time job, right?"
Mavis nodded. "That and I was wearing my headphones and listening to some of my favourite music that I recently transferred from my computer onto an empty CD."
"Och..."
From there, Leonardo slowly checked his watch and gasped at what time it was.
"Oh man! Sorry, but I have to get going now!" he exclaimed, whilst beginning to stand up. "I'd like to head over to the gym for a workout with both Hank and Murdoch before I end up missing them."
"Mind if I tag along?" Mavis asked hopefully. "That way, if we run into Emily along the way, I can tell her what I've told you."
"Sure, I'm cool with that, and I think it's a good idea too."
"But, Mavis, what about the rest of those forms?" asked the black-haired girl's mother, looking somewhat concerned. "You need to have them all ready for our meeting with the Quarry manager Saturday afternoon, and today's only Friday."
"I'm confident I'll have them ready before then Mom." Mavis reassured. "In fact, I'll even take them with me just in case."
"Alright, if you're feeling so sure."
A few minutes later, just after Mavis grabbed her application forms, workout clothes, and gym bag from her room, the two teens left the house.
Back inside the arcade, Thomas, Emily, and some of their friends were all still very busy trying to get the surprise party all set up, but that obviously didn't mean things were going all THAT smoothly for them. It was becoming increasingly more difficult for the gang to setup much of the things required for the party. James, for example, was busy blowing balloons up all by himself, and was quickly puffing himself out. Percy noticed and approached his friend.
"Need a hand James?" he asked helpfully. "You can always use this air-"
"Nah, I got this. Easy as pie!" The red-haired boy answered, just before trying to blow another balloon up.
Unfortunately, James was so tired from blowing ten or so balloons up that he eventually gave in and allowed the blown up balloon he was working on loose and cause it to start flying around the area, which accidentally startled Edward in the process. Over with Rosie; she was standing right by some opened boxes trying to figure out what coloured streamers or ornaments to pass up to Thomas to set on the walls, and Thomas was waiting patiently atop of the tall ladder.
"Um, Rosie?" he called. "Did you decide on a colour yet?"
"Hmm... let's see... how about this color? Uh, no... Maybe this one here? Nah..." The pink-haired girl mumbled to herself, before looking up to Thomas. "Sorry Thomas, but I just can't seem to decide on which one to choose from!"
The blue-haired boy groaned a bit. Sometimes, Rosie found it very hard to choose a colour she liked best. Over with Emily at the counter, she was looking a bit worried.
"At this rate we'll never have the party ready."
"Why don't you call and ask Leo for help?" Toby suggested, walking over to his distressed looking friend. "He's likely done his workout at the gym by now."
Emily smiled at the suggestion. "Good idea Toby."
The dark green-haired girl quickly punched in her friend's cellphone number and waited for a reply from the dirty blonde-haired boy, but no answer came after three rings.
At the Knapford Gym, Leonardo and Mavis (wearing a yellow tank top, black gym shorts, and black sneakers) were both hanging out with Hank (wearing a blue track suit and green sneakers) and Murdoch (wearing a orange tank top, gray sweat pants, and red sneakers), and enjoying a decently heavy, yet healthy, workout.
"Easy does it buddy," Hank advised, helping Murdoch with some weight lifting. He also looked nearby and spoke to Mavis. "You know, it's a rare time we've seen a girl come here to workout with us. ...not that we mind, of course."
"A nice workout will help clear my head a bit while I finish filling out my remaining application forms," The black-haired girl pointed out. She was busy doing a bunch of common exercises, such as sit-ups, on a large mat.
Leonardo was running on a treadmill. He was going at a nice pace, not too fast, not too slow...yet his face was still turning red from pressure. Soon, the machine slowed down until it stopped, and the dirty blonde-haired boy started to cough as he tried to gain some air back into his lungs from his run.
"Wow! What a rush!" he panted pleasantly.
Meanwhile, within Leonardo's gym bag nearby, there was a ring tone coming from inside (obviously coming from his mobile phone). However, it was drowned out by the music coming from a boombox that Hank had turned on a nearby.
"Some crazy tunes to go with the workout program!" he chortled.
Eventually, after another two hours or so, Leonardo, Mavis, Hank, and Murdoch were finally finished with their workout. As the four teenagers went over to get their respective gym bag from the nearby benches, Leonardo had finally heard his mobile phone ringing inside his gym bag. He took the phone out, looked at it for a moment, groaned dreadfully, and decided to turn the device off.
"Your phone was ringing Leo," said Murdoch, looking over.
"Weren't you even going to answer it?" asked Hank, and added teasingly... "...Maybe it was that pretty girl Emily. Eh, Leo?"
"It was probably just my younger brother Mikey trying to pull a prank call on me again," Leonardo grumbled in annoyance, not realizing that the caller really was Emily. "Now come on. Let's hit the showers."
Half an hour later, the four teens were back in their regular everyday attire.
"Great day we had here," smiled Murdoch, stretching his arms out.
"You said it buddy," agreed Hank. "And it's still the afternoon too."
"I know! How about we hit the arcade for a little bit before we call it a day?" suggested Mavis.
"But Mavis, what about your-" Leonardo began to speak up, but got cut off.
"Again, I'm confident I'll finish filling my forms out before tonight."
And so the arcade it was! ...but there was just one little problem that the four teenagers did not seem to be aware of...yet...
Back at the arcade (in parallel with Leonardo, Mavis, Hank, and Murdoch's workout at the gym), it had been almost two hours already. Thomas, Emily, and everyone else were still busy trying to get the surprise party all set up. Speaking of the dark green-haired girl, she had decided to try calling Leonardo a third time.
"Come on, Leo... Please pick up!" Emily pleaded mentally.
She waited and waited for a reply from the dirty blonde-haired boy, but no answer came from him. Still! And the dark green-haired girl was eventually forced to give up.
"He's just not answering."
"I guess his workout with Hank and Murdoch must be lasting longer than normal today," Thomas proclaimed, walking up to the dark green-haired girl. "...either that or his phone might have been turned off. I wouldn't worry however, because I'm sure we'll get everything ready just in time."
"Are you sure?" Emily asked doubtfully.
"Positive. Now come on - you can come help me and Rosie finish putting up the decorations."
Emily managed to smile a little bit and accept her blue-haired friend's offer to help out. Unfortunately, her moment of happiness did not last for long. Over with James, the red-haired boy was so pooped from blowing up balloons the old-fashioned way that he finally went and accepted Percy's offer to use an air pump to get the remaining balloons all blown. Sadly, James was not paying very much attention to how big the next balloon was getting...and that lead to it eventually popping. The loud noise of the popped balloon startled Rosie so much that it caused her to stumble and fall from atop of the ladder she was on, and into an opened box of decorations.
"Bubbling Sodas!" cried Emily as she and Thomas both ran over to see if the pink-haired girl was hurt. "Are you okay, Rosie?"
"I heard a 'crunching' sound when I landed in this opened box," groaned Rosie, slowly getting up and rubbing her sore bottom. "But I think I'm fine."
Nevertheless, there was more trouble, Thomas then looked in the opened box and gasped.
"Um... girls? I think we have a slight problem."
Most of the decorations (mainly the ornaments) in the box were all crushed to pieces and/or ruined.
"Oh dear, that can't be good," Rosie gulped. "I guess they sort of 'broke' my fall."
Emily was upset over this. "This is awful! What else can possibly go wrong?"
Her answer came very quickly in form of a new pair of voices...
"Whoa! What's happening here?" came one voice.
"Not sure Hank, but it looks like we might have come at a bad time," replied another voice.
From there, all eyes were gazing at the arcade's entryway. Standing there was Leonardo, Hank, Murdoch, and worst of all...Mavis.
"L-Leo! Hank! Murdoch! Mavis!" exclaimed James in a shocked tone. "What are you guys doing here?"
"After our workout ended, we came here to play some of the games," Murdoch stated, whilst not having a clue as to what was going on. "But we didn't expect to find all of this."
"What's the occasion?" asked Hank.
The eyes of Thomas, Rosie, Percy, James, Toby, and Edward were all gazing right at Emily, which were followed by the confused eyes of Leonardo, Hank, Murdoch, and Mavis. The dark green-haired girl, noticing all of the stares she was getting, was stuttering and struggling to try and find the right words to say about this situation., but she was feeling so embarrassed and ashamed over failing to help cheer Mavis up, as well as failing to keep the party a surprise, that the poor girl could only burst into tears and start running out of the arcade, sobbing.
"Emily, wait!" called Percy to no avail.
"Don't leave!" added Toby.
It was no use, Emily was quickly gone from the building.
"Oh, Emily..." whispered Thomas.
"Umm...was it something I said?" Hank blinked, not knowing what was going on so far.
Everyone in the building felt sorry for Emily, while Thomas and Leonardo both felt worried the most. Mavis, being completely out of the loop, looked a little disappointed with everyone else in the arcade.
"What's going on?" The black-haired girl finally asked. "Why is the arcade getting all decorated for a party or something?"
At that point, Thomas decided to come clean and explain what everyone else, especially Emily, had been trying to do for Mavis that afternoon...
"Emily wanted to try and make you happy," he began honestly. "After Edward and I told her about your parent's divorce, how you sometimes had bad memories of it, and adding the fact that you also ignored her when she tried to call out to you both yesterday AND today. As a result, Emily thought you were feeling sad or something and wanted to help make you feel better. As a result, we decided to throw you a surprise party like so, but we were not quite ready, as you can see."
Mavis was silent for a moment after hearing what the blue-haired boy had told her before deciding to tell everyone what she had told Leonardo not long ago.
"...I wasn't sad Thomas. The memory of my parents divorce doesn't bother me all that much anymore," The black-haired girl, sounding calm, pointed out. "Anyway, the true reason as to why I didn't say hello, or even hear Emily, was because I was very busy filling out some application forms for a summertime job I'm going to be getting at the Ffarquhar Quarry...all while I listened to some music I had recently burned onto a CD from my computer."
"A summertime job?" Percy blinked. The answer finally hitting him, and likely everyone else, too.
"You didn't really think Gordon was the only one with a part-time job for the summer, did you?"
"No, of course not," James shook his head quickly. "We...just didn't know the full story, that's all."
"Pretty much," agreed Toby, feeling a little silly. "Thinking about it now, I guess Emily and the rest of us should have asked if you were sad."
"And judging from Emily's reaction to the failure in keeping this party a surprise, she's pretty upset about it," Edward added, speaking about the greatly saddened dark green-haired girl. "Maybe one of us should go after and talk to her."
Both Thomas and Leonardo looked like they were about to volunteer when Mavis quickly spoke up before both boys speak up.
"Actually, I'll go after her," she insisted. "Besides a little bit of this was probably my fault, anyway."
Thus, the black-haired girl left the arcade, hoping she could catch up to Emily quickly. This left everyone else behind with a mess to clean up.
"Soooo..." James spoke up, looking around the sloppily decorated arcade. "Do we get busy and start cleaning up the arcade now?"
Leonardo then had an idea... "Actually... I've got something better in mind."
From there, everyone began to listen to the dirty blonde-haired boy as he explained his little plan...
Somewhere in town, Mavis ran down the street, hoping that Emily was not too far ahead of her. Fortunately, the black-haired girl could soon hear her friend's familiar sobs coming from the nearby outdoor ice cream shop. Actually, that is exactly where Emily was at; sitting at an outdoor table crying her eyes out in embarrassment and shame.
"There she is!" thought Mavis, walking slowly over to the outdoor shop.
The crying dark green-haired girl was busy berating herself... "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!" she muttered tearfully. "Emily Hatt, how in the world could you have been so foolish! Thinking you could go and plan a surprise party for your good friend all by yourself..."
"Actually, you weren't being foolish at all. You just didn't know the full story," cut in a familiar, kind voice.
Emily, still crying, looked up and saw a smiling Mavis sitting at the table right beside her.
"Mavis?"
"The reason I kind of ignored you earlier was because I was listening to some music I burned onto a CD. In addition-" The black-haired girl took out the application forms from her gym bag. "I was also working on filling these forms out. I'm applying for a summer job at the Ffarquhar Quarry."
"You mean... almost like Gordon's summer job at the rubbish dump?" asked Emily, sniffling and hiccuping a bit.
"Like that. And to tell you the honest truth, that surprise party you and the others, minus Murdoch, Hank, and Leo, planned and attempted to throw for me was rather nice of you guys to go and do."
Emily dried her eyes. "I just wish things didn't get so complicated," she sighed, sounding a little more calm now. "Maybe then..."
"Easy there my friend," Mavis got up from her seat, approached the saddened dark green-haired girl, and gave her a gentle hug. "Even though you didn't know the full story until now, I still greatly appreciate what you and everyone else tried to do for me."
"Really?" asked Emily hopefully.
"Really," smiled the black-haired girl.
Emily, feeling so much better, finally managed a smile before hugging Mavis right back. Aww, I think those two girls might have just become BFF (Best Friends Forever).
Later on, Mavis and Emily were walking down the street and going back to the arcade. An hour or so after calming Emily down, finished filling those forms out, talking, and even enjoying some ice cream with her new best friend (Emily), Mavis had gotten a text from Leonardo. The text was telling the black-haired girl to bring Emily back to the arcade, but would not explain the reason as to why... although Mavis had a pretty good idea on what it was all about.
"I guess I do need to apologize to everyone for worrying them," Emily remarked gloomily.
"I'm sure they'll understand," Mavis reassured, making the dark green-haired girl smile again.
Finally, the two girls arrived outside the arcade. Once they were inside the building, Emily and Mavis both noticed that the lights were out.
"The lights are out?" quizzed Emily.
"Wow! That is rather strange indeed," added Mavis, secretly winking to nearby.
"Huh?"
All of a sudden, the lights came flickering back on...
"SURPRISE!"
...and there was Thomas, Percy, James, Toby, Edward, Hank, Murdoch, Leonardo, and even the arcade owner, all showing themselves with big smiles on their faces. The arcade was decorated entirely for a brand new surprise party, and there was a big banner hung up on the ceiling that said 'TO OUR FRIEND; EMILY'. While Mavis smiled warmly at the sight, Emily honestly felt like crying once again...this time out of sheer happiness and shock.
"But...how? What...?" she spluttered.
"What do you think Emily? It's a surprise party!" Percy cheerfully pointed out.
"But why?"
"We all felt very sorry for you after you left crying earlier over failing to help Mavis," said Edward. "But Leo here came up with a plan to help cheer YOU up."
Leonardo chuckled softly and bashfully scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I've managed to get everyone here, even the arcade owner, to get the place all set up for a new party...directly for you Emily."
"Nicely done everyone," Mavis thought to herself with a smile.
"But where did those new decorations come from?" The dark green-haired girl questioned. "Weren't the old ones-"
"It was a good thing I had extra party decorations stored in the back room," chortled the arcade owner. "That way, it would help make up for what happened to your old decorations."
Rosie chuckled sheepishly over the fact she was the one who fell into that opened box and broke most of Thomas' decorations... although she was quickly forgiven for it, as it really was an accident. Leonardo meanwhile, slowly started to approach Emily until he was halfway over to her.
"I hope ye don't mind this party being thrown in your honour, m'lady," The tall teenage boy said quietly.
Emily remained silent for what seemed like forever, and no one knew how the dark green-haired girl would react. Suddenly, Emily rushed forth...and happily kissed the dirty blonde-haired boy on the cheek.
"I don't mind at al,." she replied, now smiling once more. "Thank you so much Leo."
Leonardo blushed a bit and smiled himself. Nearby, Thomas, upon seeing the dark green-haired girl kiss the dirty blonde-haired boy, had a look of disappointment on his face while also feeling a slight sting in his heart. But then the blue-haired boy quickly shook his head and freed it of any negative thoughts he had over seeing the kiss, thinking that both Emily and Leonardo were only friends and nothing more. However, Thomas was not quick enough to shake his head this time around; as Edward had briefly turned around and finally noticed the look of jealous distress on his younger friend's face, but wisely decided not to say anything about it aloud out of privacy.
"Is... could Thomas be secretly jealous of Leo getting close with Emily?" he thought to himself.
Before anything more could be said by anyone, James suddenly spoke up with a question of sort.
"Excuse me?" he asked, before raising his voice excitedly. "AREN'T WE SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING A PARTY HERE?!"
Cheers from everyone else erupted, and the party began. There were food and snacks (Pizza, chips, etc.), drinks (Water, Lemonade, etc.), the arcade games being free to play, dancing, and music blaring on the boombox Hank brought with him... Overall, it was a very good party.
Mavis admired the place. "My, oh my!"
"You're smiling Mavis..." Toby said to his girlfriend. "Does this mean you are happy?"
"Yes Toby, I am," The black-haired girl giggled.
From there, the couple shared a quick kiss before they went over to the nearby mat to dance. Nearby, Leonardo and the arcade owner were both busy chatting at the counter.
"Some party huh?" asked Leonardo, taking a large chug of his lemonade.
"Yup, this is some party," The arcade owner agreed, just before adding as a joke... "You do know you alone will have to pay for everything here when it's done, right?"
The dirty blonde-haired boy immediately did a spit take as his eyes widened with shock upon hearing this little tidbit. The arcade owner suddenly began to laugh in a very good-natured way.
"I'm kidding! This is all on the house! ...but the reaction on your face was priceless!"
Leonardo, upon blinking a few times, merely gave an embarrassed laugh from realizing the joke. Yes, this was a swell surprise party. Not only did it help Mavis feel better (or so it would seem)...but it even helped cheer up a certain dark green-haired girl that the dirty blonde-haired boy really liked too. Now the new question is... what other sort of adventures will our teenage heroes get into this summer? Well, you will just have to see the next story to find out of those adventures.