//------------------------------// // Slumber 101 // Story: Chasing a Dream [Cancelled] // by KillerRobotQuote //------------------------------// Minuette sighed. Despite the atmosphere, which consisted of rock music, pizza, ice cream, and a kick-ass superhero movie with costumed movie stars playing in the background, she wasn't feeling the energy in the room. She didn't even look up when two girls there started arguing whether Cole Evans or Richard Downey Jr. was the hotter guy. Instead, she busied herself with her phone, scrolling through the latest Stumblr posts. "Hey, Minny! You there?" Minuette snapped out of her trance and looked at the blindingly yellow girl with sky-blue hair. She was about six inches away from her face, staring intently. Behind her stood two other girls, one with puffy bright pink hair and the other with straight burgundy and violet hair, the latter of whom also wore a set of thick-rimmed glasses. All three of them were looking at Minuette with concern. Minuette smiled and put her phone away. “Yeah. Sorry girls, what were we talking about?” The bright yellow girl named Lemon Hearts stared at her intensely with a frown. “Alright, spill. What’s bugging you?” “W-what?” “It’s just that you’re normally the life of the party,” the pink-haired girl named Twinkleshine commented. “You’re always joking around with the rest of us, so for you to be on your phone is raising some red flags.” “Between the four of us, we all know that I’m the most likely to keep to myself,” the girl with the glasses stated. “But I’m livening up the party more than you tonight, so obviously something’s not right here. What gives?” “Ugh, Moondancer, you’re being accidentally rude again,” Lemon Hearts scolded. She turned her attention back to Minuette. “She has a point though.” “Girls, I’m fine,” Minuette insisted. “There’s nothing wrong. Sorry for making you worry. I’ll join the party now.” “You liar,” Twinkleshine said, squinting at Minuette with suspicion. “You’re hiding something from us, and I intend to find out. So why don’t you tell us what it is before I…” Twinkleshine cracked her fingers. “...Force it out of you?” “You wouldn’t.” Twinkleshine snapped her fingers. In an instant, Minuette found herself trying to fight off Lemon Hearts and Moondancer at the same time as they started to pin her arms and legs against the bed. As she struggled, Twinkleshine loomed over her with a malicious grin. “N-no, wait-! Please n-hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA-!” Deaf to her pleas, Twinkleshine swooped in and started viciously tickling Minuette all over. Minuette struggled and gasped for air between laughs, but couldn’t break free from the three-pronged attack. As she thrashed about, tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. Of all people, why did it have to be her closest friends who knew how ticklish she was? “AHAHAHAHA *gasp* Alright, I give up! I-HAHAHAHA-I’ll tell you! Stop!” Twinkleshine backed off with her assault, and Lemon Hearts and Moondancer let go of her limbs. The three had fallen into a laughing fit of their own, slowly coming down as Minuette caught her breath. Once everyone had relaxed, Minuette silently groaned at having been completely had and now having to confess. “Okay,” Minuette said while wiping a stray leftover tear from her eye. “You girls are right. Something has been bothering me. You all know Night, right?” The three gave each other a funny look, communicating silently, before they looked back at Minuette. “Uh, yeah, we’re familiar with him,” Moondancer stated. “We’ve known him as long as we’ve known you,” Lemon Hearts added. Minuette’s face flushed red with a slight purple tinge. “See, the thing is… I might… actually… have a bit of… a crush on him.” Minuette looked at the faces of her friends to gauge their reactions. What the saw was not anything she’d expected. All three of them were staring at each other with looks of bewilderment. Finally, Twinkleshine coughed and spoke. “Um, that’s what you wanted to tell us?” “N-no! I mean, that’s part of it. I’m actually… Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” Lemon Hearts let out a sigh. “About you liking Night. We… kind of assumed that was already common knowledge.” “You what?!” Minuette shrieked, turning even redder than before. “Saying you were obvious about it would be an understatement,” Moondancer deadpanned. “I mean, is that your idea of keeping it under wraps? Spend every moment together whenever possible? If you actually had any classes together, I’d think you two were connected at the hip.” Hearing that made Minuette flush harder than she had ever before in her life, making Moondancer pinch the bridge of her nose in annoyance. “Ah, geez, not like that. Point is, we know you have a crush on Night. So what’s the problem?” Minuette might have answered the question if she wasn’t busy dealing with the tears that were falling from her eyes. With a sob, she buried her face into the pillow. “Moondancer!” Twinkleshine cried in disbelief. “I can’t believe you! How could you say that to her?” Moondancer nervously stuttered, “But… but-I mean… we all-” “It doesn’t matter that we all knew. That was a really insensitive thing to say!” While Twinkleshine scolded Moondancer, Lemon Hearts leaned against the bed and started rubbing Minuette’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Moondancer didn’t mean it like that. That’s just her way of looking out for you. We’re all looking out for you. We’d like to see you end up with Night too.” “Yeah,” Moondancer spoke up. She walked over and stood at the side of the bed. “I’m sorry I worded that so harshly, Minuette. It’s just that we have noticed and are surprised that nothing’s happened yet.” Minuette mumbled something unintelligible into the pillow, prompting Lemon Hearts to lean in and say, “What was that?” Minuette then turned her head so that half of her face was still smothered by the pillow, but she could now speak clearly out of the corner of her mouth. Her eye was damp and had left a streak on the pillow. “That’s just it,” Minuette drawled. “I don’t think Night’s ever going to see me that way.” Twinkleshine leaped over Minuette onto the other side of the bed and sat down next to her. “That’s crazy. Why do you think that?” “Because apparently I’ve been announcing that I like him with a giant, neon sign, and he still hasn’t noticed!” The girls flinched as Minuette rolled onto her back to speak more easily. “I was supposed to met him yesterday so I could tell him, but he cancelled because he got hurt at practice! I said I’d see him anyway so that I could take care of it for him and confess at the same time, but he insisted I didn’t. And then he has the nerve to ask me if we could talk on Saturday. Gee, I don’t know! Are you sure I wouldn’t be getting in the way of you doing absolutely nothing?!” Minuette grabbed the second pillow on the bed and pressed it on her face, sandwiching her head, and moaned. Her friends waited in silence for a few moments for her to calm down. Meanwhile on the T.V., an action scene began to unfold. The girls had left the movie running in their haste to get to Minuette, so the scene had continued without them. Lifting the pillow slightly, Minuette could see a man dressed in flamboyant reds, whites, and blues carrying a large, circular shield out of the corner of her eye. He was surrounded by a group of four aliens, but he used his martial arts skills to beat the crap out of all of them himself. The last one he punched in the face so hard that it went flying thirty feet into a parked car, causing the vehicle to crumple under the impact. Minuette tossed the pillow aside and sat up, giving a sheepish grin. “That’s Night’s favorite scene.” “Huh?” “The part where Captain Freedom punches the alien in the face. That’s Night’s favorite superhero, so he loves scenes that make him look awesome because he’s overshadowed by all the other heroes.” “How do you know that?” Lemon Hearts asked. Minuette rolled her eyes. “I’ve known Night since first grade. I’m not sure I could list ten things I don’t know about him.” “You know what, Minuette?” Twinkleshine said, leaning in close. “Night is an idiot.” “First grade,” Minuette groaned. “No, I’m serious. Night is being a complete idiot not to notice you. You know something as obscure as his favorite scene in a superhero movie, and even why it’s his favorite. If Night had any idea how lucky he was to have you with him, he’d be all over you!” “In that case,” Lemon Hearts joined in, “what we need to do is make it totally obvious to him. I’m sure if he knew you liked him, he’d like you back, so let’s make him realize that you’re perfect for him.” “Or,” Moondancer interjected. “She can just tell him like she wanted to before. That way there’s no chance of making a mistake.” Twinkleshine clicked her tongue. “Oh, Moondancer, my naive amiga. Don’t you get it? There’s nothing romantic about that!” “What?” “What’s more romantic, coming clean all at once, or making the guy realize for himself how much he’s in love with you?” “How is the first one not romantic?” “Well, let’s see. ‘I really like you.’ ‘Really? Um, I guess I like you too.’ Or, ‘Minuette, I’m in love with you,’ and they kiss under the moonlight. It’s sort of like pudding. Coming right out and saying it is like making instant pudding—it’s good, but not great, and it’ll never replace the real stuff, which takes a lot of time, effort, and ingredients to make. I want some pudding. Lemon Hearts, can I use your kitchen and make some pudding?” “Ooh, can you make it vanilla?” Lemon Hearts asked. “Pudding does sound good,” Moondancer admitted. “I-w-wait, what? When did we start talking about pudding?” Minuette cried. “Regardless,” Twinkleshine continued, oblivious to Minuette’s interjection, “we need some way to make Minnie grab Night’s attention. Make him want to explore that minty fresh mouth of hers.” “Twinkle!” “But what if he hasn’t noticed her because he’s got the hots for someone else?” Moondancer suggested. “Ooh! That’d be a problem. Lemon Hearts, maybe we need to find that out first. We can dress Minnie up as sexy as we want-” “WHAT?!” “-but if he’s looking down some other girl’s shirt, it won't matter. So we need to figure out who this girl is and-” “Twinkleshine!” Lemon Hearts cried. “I’m surprised at you! How could you suggest we do something so mean to a girl we don’t know?” “This is all supposing that there is a girl,” Moondancer mumbled. “Suggest what? All I was going to say was that we talk to her and kindly explain that Night’s already taken,” Twinkleshine elaborated. “Oh. Well, I’m surprised. That’s actually quite mature of you to-” “-and that she’s never going to beat Minny, no matter how hard she tries!” “Aaaaand you crossed the line to scary.” “So what? This is an emergency! Moondancer, you have a big brain, right? I need you to help me track all the girls Night talks with and use your brain to figure out who he likes. Lemon Hearts, you’re the fashionable one. I need you to make Minny hot enough to turn on Lyra. Now let’s do it!” Twinkleshine stormed off to the kitchen. The sound of an electric mixer turning on could be heard moments later. Minuette just stared forward, totally speechless. Finally she cleared her throat. “Um… what just happened?” Lemon Hearts rolled her eyes. “Twinkle just got overzealous. Well, looks like we’re in, Minny. We’ll help you get Night.” Minuette gave Lemon Hearts an exasperated smile. “I don’t have a say in the matter, do I?” “Knowing Twinkle, probably not,” she answered, smiling back. “This is going to be a disaster,” Moondancer deadpanned. “Or it could be a huge success. Whenever there’s something to gain, there’s always a risk,” Lemon Hearts said sagely. Moondancer sighed. “Fine, I’m in. I still say it’s a bad idea, but no way am I abandoning you girls.” “So we’re really doing this,” Minuette half-laughed, still somewhat in disbelief. “I wish Lyra was here. She knows the most about relationships.” “True, we haven’t seen her much lately,” Lemon Hearts murmured. “Ever since she started dating Bon Bon, they’ve been inseparable.” “In that case, why don’t we start inviting Bon Bon to our sleepovers too?” Moondancer suggested. “They’d feel more welcome, they could stay together, and we’d get to know her better.” “Moondancer, that’s a great idea!” Lemon Hearts cried. “Well, it just seemed logical,” Moondancer said dismissively, trying to hide her blush. Just then, Twinkleshine walked into the bedroom with a triumphant grin on her face. “Our sweet, succulent savior Mistress Pudding is in the fridge!” “Wow Twinkleshine, that was… impossibly fast,” Lemon Hearts noted. Twinkleshine’s face fell. “Okay, so it might be her cousin, Lady Instant, but regular pudding takes too long! I wanted some now!” “Agreed,” Lemon Hearts admitted. “Girls?” Minuette spoke up. All three of them turned their attention toward her. “I want to thank you three for being some of the best friends I could ask for. No matter what happens, we’ll always stick together.” “Well, duh!” “You couldn’t get rid of us if you wanted to.” “We love you, Minuette.” Minuette smiled as tears started to form in her eyes. But unlike the tears from earlier, these were tears that Minuette was happy to shed. “I love you too, girls. Let’s worry about planning tomorrow morning. Tonight, I just want to have some fun!” Everyone cheered, thus truly beginning their night of movies, music, videogames, truth or dare, pudding, junk food, and sleeping bags.