Later that evening, as Owen went up to his room to hide from the Art Fart, as he so fondly named her, Mathias and Crow discussed the day’s events, eating the very hard and chewy gummy worms they stole from Aaron’s ‘secret’ stash, but everyone knew about it.
“I have to be completely honest here, Crow, but Artemis is creeping me out…a lot,” Mathias confessed as he took another chomp of the sugar coated candy, chewing furiously in an upset manner.
Crow nodded as the candy stuck to her teeth. “Yeah…no doubt. And of course she couldn’t just save the cat from Owen and accept the praise, she had to lord it over and say that it was mere petty work. Like c’mon. Owen is pretty much scarred for life. He hasn’t come out of his room since breakfast.”
Mathias rolled his eyes, taking another bite. “Yeah, cause he’s a wussy.”
“HEY! I heard that Matty! And I’ll have you know, I! AM! THE! VICTEEEM!”
“Shut up Owen!” a voice called out.
“Go back to your corner!” another yelled. “Nobody likes you!”
“No, YOU shut up! I am forever scared for my life!” he shouted back. Mathias and Crow just listened at the bottom of the stairwell, looking indifferent to the yelling that was taking place.
They waited till silence settled in once again.
“Anyways, as I was saying,” Crow continued on, “I really am not getting good vibes from this girl. She seems stuck up, sort of. She seems like….” She tapped her chin, trying to think of the word.
“Cocky?” Mathias suggested.
“No, that’s not it.”
“Snotty?”
“Sort of, but not really.”
“Pigheaded?”
“No.”
“Gnome-ish?”
“N- What the hell?” Crow asked incredulously toward her sanest friend.
Mathias shrugged. “Hey, Owen’s been rubbing off on me…Wait, speaking of which, I still have to go kick his ass,” he mused out loud as he rubbed the back of his sore head.
“Well anyways, I think she acts like she’s more in charge here in a way. Authority and snootiness seem to just emanate off her wherever she goes.”
Mathias thought for a moment. “So…you’re calling her a heinous bitch who acts like a stuck up princess?”
Crow looked over at his friend once more. “Matt… Okay, when you go to kick Owen’s ass, bring me with you. He’s influencing your mind! He’s making you start thinking and talking like him!”
“It’s the gnome’s fault, I swear! It knocked some part of my brain to fall into the pits of fiery idiocy! Help me! I don’t want to die!” he begged his friend, grabbing for her wrists desperately. Crow’s eyes widened.
“It’s too late! It’s already taken effect!” She got up, grabbed the bag of gummy worms and made a mad dash for her room, hearing Mathias call after her.
“Crow! Come baaaa-haaack!”
“Go away!” came the distant reply.

To Owen, morning was a disgusting time of day which he had the deepest regret waking up to every day of his miserable existence…that was until Crow tempted him with the promise of delicious foods and hot caffeinated drinks.
The secret word though to get him up and moving in a jig was quite simply, but extremely powerful:
“Bacon.”
“WHAT? When? Where?!” Owen sprang out of bed, his sense of smell causing him to inhale the scent of coffee…and greasy foods.
“FOOOOOOOOD!!! Onward my peasant!” Owen ran out of bed, pretty much almost falling on his face, but somehow managed to run out of the door without breaking any internal organs.
Crow rolled her eyes but smiled, following her crazed friend out of the doorway.
Mathias met them both along the stairwell. Well, more like pummelled to the side and landing flat on his face to the wrath of the hungry food beast that was Owen. Matt lifted up his hand without even needing to look up and hooked his hand around Owen’s ankle, bringing the raging ball of hunger to a halt by making him smack his face against the wooden stairs.
“Whatever Crow told you Owen, there is no bacon,” Mathias grumbled as he lifted himself up and brushed his clothes off. And he was going to make a point looking clean before his friend pretty much mentally scarred the new person.
Then again, the person already had mental problems. Nah, Owen would make them commit kamikaze then or something. He wouldn’t put it past the brunette to make it happen.
Crow stepped over the back of her friend, as if he was her very own red carpet to the kitchen, where the other inhabitants of the orphanage had already gathered.
When the three entered, the held their breaths, waiting to look upon the face of the new arrival. Just by looking at them, they could have distinguished their personality or a few traits about them. They’ve had a lot of practice with all the new people that came along over the years.
But to their deep disappointment, there was no new face.
But there was-
“FOOOOD!”
Owen ran toward his fellow orphans and hopped on the table, jumping over people and jam jars and plates, sprinting toward the plate of buttered toast just as Thomas was about to reach for the last piece. Owen held up with warm bread in his hand, as if a trophy of his breakfast victory.
“Owen, could you please stop contaminating the air around the food I painstakingly made for everyone and GET OFF THE TABLE?” Aaron yelled at his charge from the doorway. Owen actually flinched at the severity of his voice.
Aaron was never irritable in the morning. He always had his cups of coffee and lovely other caffeine beverages to keep him pretty much full of the happy eagerness.
A few people actually stopped what they were doing to look at Aaron, but soon put it away from their minds as the scent of hot porridge and pancakes filled their nostrils. Owen slowly got down from the table, looking away from Aaron.
This was different. Sure, he got scolded. But the look on Aaron’s face was really worrisome.
Crow and Mathias had a pretty clear idea why he was like that. But why was it affecting him like this?
Aaron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he was gaining a migraine. He went to the head of the kitchen and everyone’s eyes followed him as he did so. He had their attention.
“Everyone, there’s a new orphan now here. I hope you will make them feel welcome, just like you have done for everyone else, okay?”
The children nodded. A few people verbally said, “Yes.” The older three stared at him. This wasn’t a surprise, as they others were murmuring among themselves in excited whispers.
“Artemis, could you please come and meet everyone else?” Aaron asked to the air. Everyone’s heads swivelled toward the doorway, as a figure stepped in the light streaming from the windows.
Everyone either gasped, stared or sort of…well, everyone just gaped the abnormity of the person.
It was a tall, lean girl. She had a regular sort of face, clear skin. The shape of the body was normal, the face was normal…it was the hair. It was a fiery red with a long streak of silver over her right eye, which both of her pupils were crimson. The hair was cropped short though, but further more, to make the girl more bizarre made Owen laugh so hard he nearly peed his pants – and he didn’t even know why.
It was the cowboy hat.
A strange surge of thoughts went through his head that suddenly made him think that she needed a handlebar moustache, bad hygiene, a pistol and a stinky mule.
Artemis’s head slowly turned to his direction, her cold gaze having no effect on the boy at all. Crow was starting to sense the danger for her friend.
And he was the only one laughing as well, which made the situation not only more awkward, but worse. Fortunately for them, unfortunately for him, there was a convenient screen door behind him. In the blink of a wink, Mathias went behind him, pushed the door open and kicked him outside, once again resuming the peaceful quiet before the Hurricane Owen blasted through the room.
Deciding to do something, anything, to break the awkwardness of it all, crow stepped forward and offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Crow. Nice to meet you.”
Artemis looked down at her hand, as if Crow had suddenly become a disease. “Not really.”
Crow bit her lip and brushed her hand along her pyjama pants, laughing nervously. “Yeah, I guess…” Inside, she was freaking out. Perhaps she should have been kicked out as well to save her from it all.
Following her lead, the others started to introduce themselves, but were very wary of her. They didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of her glares like Owen was.
Speaking of which, as soon as all the introductions were made and normality was once again kicking into the kitchen, a freaking garden gnome suddenly smashed through the window hitting Mathias in the head.
“OW! What the f-” he stopped himself as all the young ones turned toward him. “…fire trucks…”
Crow snickered. “Nice save there Matt.”
“Did you not see that? He threw a FREAKING GARDEN GNOME AT ME! Like, what the hell?” Mathias fumed, rubbing the back of his head. Picking up the lawn ornament, and with half a mind to shove this where the sun don’t shine when he saw Owen again, he noticed that there was a note attached to the chubby man’s hat. Crow leaned over from her buttered pancakes to look. “What’s that?” she asked.
Mathias shrugged as he unrolled the paper, to find the familiar messy script that belonged to Owen. In the back of his mind he wondered where he had gotten the pen and paper…or the garden gnome for that matter? They didn’t have one at the orphanage…
Trying not to think too much as to what Owen did in his free time, Mathias concentrated on the words written.
“Look at the window…?” he read out loud. They heard a knocking at the kitchen window above the sink, right behind where they were seated. The two slowly turned to look at the squished face of the green-eyed brunette, who was waving frantically with a shit-eating grin.
They both rolled their eyes. “What now?” Crow mumbled. She wanted to eat her pancakes dammit! Owen usually ate them in giant gulps when she went to go reach for the syrup every time and she was feeling a little pancake deprived as of late.
So he could just stay out there for now until she was done.
“Hey, isn’t that your friend there?” a voice asked. Mathias and Crow looked up into the face of Artemis who was staring out the window. Jackie looked up from her food across from them and blushed at the boy’s name. Then her eyes grew wide as she stared through the glass pane.
“Oh my god! He’s being attacked by a rabid cat!”
Mathias’s eyes widened. Why was he so surprised now? Random and weird stuff happened to this kid as if it were the fleas. Why was now any different?
Crow took immediate action and went to open the door outside, but Artemis was already out there, walking quickly toward the attacking feline.
“Ow! OW! Get it off! Ge ‘I orf mee!” came Owen’s muffled voice as the cat was now clawing at his face, raking its claws over his face.
Artemis calmly walked toward the squirming boy, screaming bloody murder as the cat continued to scratch at his face mercilessly, hissing and meowing. All the children piled out into the yard, watching to see what would happen. The air was weaved with random rabid cat roars and anticipation. Owen was too busy screaming his face off, leaving advantage to the cat to attack in his open mouth, making him sputter out cat hair.
The vibrant redhead stood before him, grabbed his shoulders, making him come a halt. Immediately, Artemis yanked the cat off his face (along with clumps of his hair, which he screamed loudly at) and gently put the cat onto the ground.
The children watched in awe.
Owen inhaled deeply. “AIR! I love you air! I love you Artemis! THANK YOU!” He ended up glomping his saviour, making them fall on top of the poor cat. Jackie was fuming in a rage. Crow eyebrow quirked as she looked at the scene and Mathias wasn’t all too sure what to think. The children started cheering and running toward the two.
“Free the cat you idiot! Get off of me!” Artemis yelled at him. Owen screamed in an excessively high pitch and got off, fearing for his life at the ferocity of her voice. She probably cared more for that cat than him!If one thing was for sure, this Artemis child freaked him out…and that was saying something, considering him.

Aaron didn’t say anything about a new recruit to the orphanage or a visitor or anybody for that matter. He had just went straight to the kitchen after the phone call and made himself a giant mug of coffee, taking a nap straight after.
Crow, wondering where her friend was, didn’t have to venture far to find him being propped up for support by the small chipmunk boy, Thomas.
“Okay man, drag me to my room and I’ll give you some nuts…” Thomas froze.
Crow’s eyebrow twitched.
“Not THOSE nuts. There is no way you’re touching those…no touching ze nut sack. Just bring me to my room dammit!” Owen whined pitifully. Crow just shook her head. Perhaps she should hang out with Jackie more often…
Speaking of which.
“Crow! Get your ass up here and let me do your make-up!”
Crow shuddered as the voice rang through the stairwell. “NO! Go away!” she shouted at the voice of her roommate and ran in the opposite direction. “I’m going to sulk at Owen’s shed!”
Jackie managed ambushing her later.

Later:

Owen was shaken awake, much to his pain and woe from his injuries, and hissed as he opened his bleary eyes to his frantic friend. “Owen! Get the hell up we have visitors!”
“What the hell man? I was dreaming of hot, awesome- whoooa, hi Crow!”
“…Never finish that sentence. Evaaaa! Now!”
Owen was always scared of the drastic change of moods of his friend. He suspected PMSing stages (which he had the unfortunate experience being told in detail by Jackie and probably the rest of the female population in the village…minus Crow…why him?) or even possibly schizophrenia, but it didn’t matter so much at the moment now.
“Anyways, as I was going to say, the person is downstairs!”
“They’re here?” another voice added.
“Dammit Matt! Didn’t I kick you down a stairwell!?”
“Uh…I think that was the other way around you dumb ass. You pretty much propelled yourself to your near death.”
“Shut up both of you! It doesn’t matter! Let’s go Tweedle Dum.” Crow ushered the two out of their beds (much to Owen’s distaste…he was having a nice dream). Crow looked behind her -and instantly wished she didn’t.
“JESUS CHRIST! Put some clothes on…BOTH of you!”
Owen looked down to his prized manhood and had a girly shriek before running back into his bedroom, along with Matt (who unfortunately forgot to put on clothes as well…what can I say? The air conditioning was off.) to grab a pair of TMNT boxers and a night cap…JUST in case anything happened…you never know.
Crow tapped her feet impatiently as the two boys changed. At least she was ready for this sort of thing.
The two boys clambered out and tried to calmly and quietly act as if nothing happened, acting all macho and manly…as humanly possible for them.
“Okay, let’s go,” Crow ushered. Owen murmured under his breath the Mission Impossible theme.
“Owen…” Matt warned as they tried to make their stealthy way down the staircase. “Shut up, or die a painful death due to testicular cancer.”
“Okaaay…fine,” he muttered in a disappointed manner. “Party pooper.”
The death glare was the unfortunate response.
The three quieted down completely as they neared the staircase, all of them sweating in the heat of the building. Perspiration was dripping into Crow’s eyes as she flipped away annoying strands of sweat soaked hair from her eyes. Owen and Mathias stepped precautiously down the creaky stairs, knowing every place to step without making a noise, Crow right behind.
Voices were emanating from the old parlour that was never used anymore. They all held their breaths as they inched closer toward the closed doors, listening as intently as they could. No sound betrayed their presence.
For now, they were clear.
Owen stepped forward (more as a sacrificial lamb, as Mathias and Crow agreed before: Always put Owen first!) and tried to make more sense of the conversation taking place beyond. When nothing happened, the other two joined him, promptly and childishly shoving their ears against the wood as much as they could.
“…stay here until further notice, correct?” The three noted that Aaron was there.
“That is the plan, sir,” came an unfamiliar voice. The three shared faint looks with each other.
“And about your…” Aaron stopped to find an appropriate word. Mathias could just imagining the orphanage caretaker rubbing his earlobe as he did in habit. “Your issues. Do you have a plan set out for that?”
“Not entirely sure, sir. They just told me that this sort of environment would be better for my condition.”
“I understand…” Aaron sighed tiredly. After all, it was going on to morning now. “Well I hope you succeed in your experiment, Artemis. Tonight you will stay in the guest room, and I’ll arrange proper accommodations tomorrow.
The three ‘spies’ (unofficially) crept back from the door, heading back to their respected rooms, waiting anxiously for morning.
The only question on their mind was: Who was this extraordinarily formal and possibly mental person?

“Hey Crow! Whatcha up to?”
The said friend almost slammed her face into closed door, turning to him with a fiery vengeance of pain and death in her grey eyes.
“Ho- shit, man I was just-”
Her hand clamped around his mouth, pummelling him to the ground. “Shut up!” she hotly whispered. “I’m eavesdropping.”
Owen stayed silent and still, as Crow took it that he understood to shut up.
Aaron’s voice trailed out from the door. ”…today is the day. Everything is arranged.” There was a pause. Owen realized that Aaron was in fact talking on the phone, as there was no audible response as he carried on talking.
“But I have to ask you…are you really sure you want to do this? It seems hardly fair for a person to just suddenly change environment like that. And from what you’re telling me, the mental corrections this person will need could be dangerous for all I know. Can they-…No, I’m not saying I can’t-…Yes, there is space for-…” There was a long pause at this. “Yes. Fine I understand. I’ll be waiting.”
Owen and Crow suddenly ran away as they heard Aaron get up from his chair and start toward the door, just making it up the stairs to their rooms in time for the man to walk out right where they were seconds before.
They heard him sigh wearily and then carry on to the stairs descending down to where the din of children playing emitted from. Owen frowned in thought.
“What was that all about? Should we be expecting someone?” he asked Crow. The raven-haired girl shrugged uncertainly.
“Can’t say I know for sure. But if that is in fact the case, then they’re going to probably be completely mental.”
Owen stopped. “Wait, what the hell? When did you get that assumption?”
“When Aaron was talking about the ‘mental corrections’. Don’t you think that implies insanity or something?”
“I dunno. Probably I guess. I’m just excited that we’re getting a new addition! Bring on the welcome wagon!” Owen pumped his fists in the air.
“Someone new is coming?” a new voice was added to the conversation.
The rambunctious two stopped and turned their heads to see Matt standing there, innocently curious.
Owen coughed. Crow scratched the back of her head.
“Uhh…”
“When are they coming?” Matt carried on, already knowing the lies they were going to say otherwise.
Owen shrugged. “We’re not sure. But don’t say anything. We don’t know if he’s going to tell us or sometime later.”
Mathias shared a look, trying to see the truth in what his rival said.
“Well you better not count me out of this welcome wagon thingy.”
“What are you talking about buddy?” Owen said, smiling as he wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “We wouldn’t want you to miss it!”
Mathias started to beam in happiness. Acceptance at last!Owen sudden happy demeanour fell as they were out of earshot of Crow. “We would want you to come on and then fall off into a pit of fiery magma where you are dressed in nothing but a tutu…”
“This is madness!” Mathias said, backing away from the suddenly sadistic teenager. Owen’s green eyes gleamed in the dim light, smiling crookedly.
“Madness?...THIS IS SPARTAAAAA!!!” He lifted his foot then, kicking Mathias straight in the chest, but instead of kicking him down onto the floor, Owen ended up propelling himself down the stairs, causing several painful injuries on his way down.
“…Ow…”
Mathias shook his head at the idiocy.
“Stupid…” he muttered under his breath. He went to go find something else worth his time.
“I think I broke my spleen…” a weak voice carried up the stairwell from the crumpled form. “Helloooo?....” There was no answer. “…I’m dyyying….” Still no answer. “…crap muffins with margarine. Heeelp meeee…”

“How the hell is this possible?” Owen shouted in shock. Aaron’s handful of popcorn was halfway into his wide open mouth, his eyes now fixated on the screen.
“WHAT THE F-?” a hand smothered Owen’s mouth. Crow’s to be exact. The entire room – silent. It was very eerie.
The screen read two things.
The number 000 and right above it….Owen.
“How the hell did I loose?? I wasn’t even playing! How the heck is this possible? I thought for sure it was gonna be Crow!”
Crow shook out of her shock when she made sense of the context of his sentence. “What the hell? Me?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you know that Mathias is the freaking Lord of the Dance?” Owen protested, his arm swung out in a glorious sweep to the sudden random curtained wall with plaques and trophies lining each thing.
“What the fuuu?” Crow asked dumfounded. Mathias was just as shocked, walking up to the wall.
“When did I change my name to Figorous Blitz of Scandanavia? And hey…isn’t this you Owen?” Mathias pointed to a picture of a young toddler with tell-tale emerald eyes with tap shoes and a cane on his head.
Owen swivelled his head right around. The crowd gasped…(it seems this crowd is only good for the shocked stuff…not to mention this seemed more like a comedic sit-com or a soap opera…except for realistic).
Aaron stood up, assuming his authoritive pose, Tina having to look up to his height, along with the rest of the orphanage habitants.
“Well…the deal is still in place. Seeing as the name of the losing side happens to just be Owen, then he must go along with the stakes set out but Crow and Mathias.”
“Huh? Wait, what? This was a deal between them! Why me?? How exactly did you work this out?”
“Well seeing as you proposed the idea in the first place and you set my socks on fire last weekend, consider this punishment and duty to be a young responsible man.”
Owen raised an eyebrow, tugging at the hem of his t-shirt, coughing awkwardly. “Yeah but…I broke my leg!” He was suddenly on the ground, writhing in pain. “OW! The paaain! The aaagony! How can I feel this pain and agony and woe and liiive? AAAAAAAA! Just cut it off! CUT IT OFF!”
How anybody fell for that, it was a miracle.
Aaron pondered the situation. “Yeah, okay. Mathias, Crow…just do your chores, seeing as you did all that hard work to dance. Tina, did you want to show them the new load of laundry we have today and such? I’m gonna take a nice nap…a coffee…yeah…blended crème and sugar…” His eyes half drooped, thinking of the deliciousness of the hot beverage.
Owen had still carried on with his broken leg antics.

Crow Concludes:

Needless to say, the day didn’t make much sense all together.
In fact, usually when Owen is around, nothing seems to make sense completely. Weird shit happens. Take today like a valid example. But hey, you gotta love him I guess.
Or bash his legs in, whichever works.
Today is just another day.

Challenge of DOOM!!! Continued

Mathias plugged in the game station and stepped back in caution. Instantly, the black screen was blasted with these dancing people in a dance club, some erotic Japanese music filling the orphanage. The children gathered round, eyes wide. In unison the crowd “ooh”-d and “ahh”-d. Owen grinned devilishly, his secret hidden camera ready to go. Matt was never, ever going to live this down. The brunette was going to make sure of it.

Crow looked uncertainly around the room. Oh sweet mother… Aaron was there, a popcorn bowl in hand with Tina standing next to him, both watching in anticipation and pure amusement. Matt tried to ignore the leering he was getting from Owen. If he did anything funny… Well, let’s just say that Owen would have to get used to moving around in a wheelchair with a rubber duckie firmly glued to his forehead…possibly some rabid bears thrown in the mix…it all depended if he could get through to his resources or not. Matt looked over his shoulder – only to flinch slightly as Thomas, the deemed chipmunk boy, was staring at him with deep azure eyes.

“Pray to the dance gods of the modern age, Mathiaaaaaasss…” Needless to say, with a toddler using such high vocabulary without the usual lisp of his was quite disturbing. Mathias half expected him to start growing long hair and then start saying, “Seven daaaays,” or something.

“Suuuure,” Matt said. Crow snickered beside him. “Shut up. You ready to get pummelled into metaphorical dust, you baby?”

“Baby?” Crow asked incredulously. “I don’t think so Mr. Hotshot. This is all mine.” Well, despite the fact that she was considering joining a witness protection agency after this possibly…she heard they made cookies for every member.

Owen kneeled next to the controls. “Players, to your stations!”

“Owen, this is not freaking Pokemon,” Crow seethed, sounding completely unamused. “Next you’re going to be saying like, ‘Charmander! I choose yooooou!’”

Owen rolled his eyes. “Meanie.”

“Stupid,” she retorted.

“Bully!”

“SHUT UP! Let’s get this over with,” Matt interrupted. The crowd murmured as Owen pressed ‘play’ on the menu.

The crowd listened in awe. Owen shifted the camera in his shirt pocket to close in on his frozen rival. Ooooh, yeah.

“Hey Mr. Wonderful, oh you’re so incredible!” the game started to sing at them in some techno-ish song.

Crow slowly turned her head toward Matt in terror, noticing how he was doing the same toward her. “Dear god…”

“What have we done??” Matt yelled at her.

“Shut up you two! The arrow thingies are there!” Owen shouted at them. Crow cursed silently as she noticed that she had already missed three. Matt was confused as to where to step exactly.

“There’s like sixty billion a second! How many feet do these people have!?” Crow shouted, looking pretty much of the equivalent of a floppy puppet that someone was controlling by strings.

“I dunno! But I guess we just step wherever!” Matt shouted, as if they were trying to hear each other over the roar of a war.

The crowd was entranced. Owen was laughing his ass off, Thomas and Caleb and Meribelle were doing their own cute adorable dancing around each other and Aaron’s popcorn bowl was being invaded but stubby little toddler hands, to which he protested to.

Hop, step, scissor leap, kick, jump, swing, hop, spin, roll, flip….it was pretty much what the two unfortunate souls of the DDR game were subjected too. Owen pretty much busted a gut over it all.

Finally, after three gruelling minutes, the song ended….the crowd waited…the scores came up and instantly, all at the same time, they ALL gasped.

Owen stared in amazement.

“No way…”

To be continued….

Challenge of DOOM!

“CROW!! CROW!! LOOK WHAT AARON GOT US!! Play with me, PLEAAASE!”
Owen was begging like a little child at my feet, holding up some sort of game…Dance Dance Revolution, it read.
“C’mon, Crow, it’ll be fun!” Matt, acting a lot more dignified than our insane friend, pushed me from behind while Owen took my hands and tugged me towards the basement, where a TV was set up.
There were two mats, connected to the TV through wires, on the floor. Apparently the game had been played previously to Owen’s grovelling, for the TV was already turned on. A few kids sat scattered on the couches.
“Does this mean…I have to dance?” I asked, horrified. I wasn’t Jackie –I’ve never danced in my whole life! How could they do this to me?!
I guess I was a little stupid. The title to the game Owen held up had the word DANCE written twice!
I will never forgive myself.
“Dur!” Owen grinned stupidly and placed me on one of the mats.
I sighed. I wasn’t going to step away without my pride if I backed down from this. The kids on the couch would call me a sissy! “So…If I win, Owen, you have to do ALL my chores for a month!” I challenged. There was no way he would deny it.
“Sorry,” he said, surprising me. “But I ain’t the one playing. Matt, I think it’s all set up.”
I recovered from the shock slowly, almost too slow.
“…Matt’s going to dance…” I let the thought settle in, then promptly burst out laughing.
“If I win, you have to do all my chores for a month, and vice versa.” Matt repeated my challenge. He sounded confident.
“Okay, but I’ll raise the stakes.” I looked him straight in the eye. “I get this weekend off from babysitting the children,” I told him. “And vice versa.”
Both boys’ eyes widened. I had them there. Without me, they wouldn’t last a day of babysitting. I had to teach them how to change diapers, and do laundry, and other such chores. Mainly, they still had difficulty with it, not to mention that we recently acquired a new member of the ‘family’, a 3 month old girl called Meribelle. Who was loud.
Really, really loud.
Matt and Owen barely knew how to handle her.
But I knew they wouldn’t back down.
“You’re on!” Owen shouted at me. Matt’s eyes widened.
“Owen!” He hissed to his rival. “What’re you doing, you idiot?!”
“I’m not an idiot, moron!”
“Bastard!”
“Dumbass!”
“Retard!”
“Imbicile!”
That was my cue. “BLASTED FOOLS!” I yelled, bringing up a previous argument between the two. "Can we PLEASE get this over with!!!"
"Yeah, sure." Matt replied, all non-chalant, as if he and Owen --who were complete rivals, mind you-- didn't just insult one another.
Perfect sweat-drop moment.
I sighed, and stepped onto the mat of doom, the arrows coloured pink and blue. WHY PINK?!
God hates me.
To be continued...