Chapter Text
Chip sighed as he adjusted his umbrella hat and tried to move fast before his flip flops melted against the asphalt, five dollars for parking and they still ended up a block away from the pool, what a joke.
"Hot, hot, hot," Cricket whined as he skipped ahead of him and Tilly. "My feet are gonna melt before we get there!"
"I told you you'd want to bring shoes." Chip chided, adjusting his shoulders so Tilly didn't accidentally fall back.
"Yeah, well how come Tilly's the one getting a free ride?!" Cricket shot back as he glared at them over his shoulder.
Chip shrugged. "Gee I don't know, maybe because Tilly's never bitten me."
"As far as we know." Tilly added ominously. Chip blinked, deciding to let that one go for now.
"That was one time….okay technically three ,but still!" Cricket cried, before crossing his arms and scrunching in on himself like a discarded aluminum can.
Chip rolled his eyes, speeding up his pace so he could scoop the ten year old up from behind. and stuff him beneath his arm like a very dense handbag.
Cricket sagged in relief now that his feet had a chance to cool. "Serenity."
"Do you see them?" Gloria panted as they crouched behind a nearby bush near the pool's entrance. Five dollars for parking and they still had to sprint the whole way, what a joke.
"Uhhh no, actually wait I think that's, no wait it's just a bird." Remy rambled.
"Urgh, let me see." Gloria groaned as she nabbed the binoculars and took a look at all the passing pool goers.
A minute passed and she spotted Chip, wearing a tacky unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and teal tank top as he carried Tilly and Cricket towards the entrance.
Gloria lowered the binoculars and waited until they were gone before ushering Remy out so they could sneak in after.
Chip sighed, if this stupid umbrella had a neck he'd be throttling it. "C'mon!" He complained as he tried to get the darn thing to stay up.
"You're already wearing that dorky hat." Cricket pointed out as he rubbed another glob of sunscreen onto his arm. "Shouldn't that be enough shade?"
Chip rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, believe it or not I happen to sunburn easily."
"Oh is that why you were redder than a tomato after fixing our roof?"
Chip shot Cricket a narrowed glare as he finally got the umbrella to stay open.
'Phew no ice baths for Chip Whistler, thank you.' Chip thought with a sigh as he scooted his pool chair underneath the shade and sat back with his arms folded beneath his head.
"Okay go play or whatever and try not to drown." Chip said, smearing a dab of sunscreen on the bridge of his nose and reaching for his phone. Time for hours of mindlessly scrolling through Chit Chat.
Cricket and Tilly shrugged, darting for the edge of the pool and jumping in. Chip gritted his teeth, just barely managing to yank his phone out of the way of the splash.
"Okay there's Cricket and Tilly, and there's Chip." Gloria whispered to Remy, adjusting her sunglasses as they kneeled beneath a poolside table a few feet away. Her sweatshirt was killing her in this heat, but she needed the disguise.
"So what's our plan?" Remy asked.
Gloria's eyes widened. Oh right. She probably needed one of those. "Uhhhhhhh-"
"Also not to alarm you, but there's a spider on your arm." Gloria's gaze flickered to her elbow. "Oh it's fine it's a wolf spider they're…' Gloria trailed off, her face forming a -surely not maniacal- grin as she let the spider crawl onto her finger. "..harmless…"
She turned to Remy with a smirk.
"Careful, he might see you." Gloria whisper shouted as she watched Remy tip toe behind Chip's chair. He looked back and forth between the spider and Gloria with an uncertain frown. "You know maybe we shouldn't-" He quickly quieted as Gloria narrowed her eyes at him. Works every time.
Remy closed his eyes and quickly tossed the spider into the air above Chip's head before darting back over.
"Alright," Gloria began. "Now we wait for Chip to notice, cruelly try to kill the spider in front of Tilly, lose both her and Cricket's respect instantly."
"That's…really our plan huh?"
"Yup."
"Um…I don't know, are you sure this is gonna work?" Remy twiddled his fingers and thumbs together into knots.
"Oh definitely." Gloria assured. "Tilly loves any animal with a pulse and Cricket's got a pet spider at home, not even Bill's allowed to kill them." Which sucked for him, cause arachnophobia and all…
"Yeah ,but…I don't know, it just seems a bit reliant on chance." Remy surmised. "Like how do we even know Chip will notice the spi-"
"Urghck, gross."
Gloria quickly shushed Remy and scooted up on her elbows to get a front row seat to Chip's downfall.
The former ceo closed his eyes in disgust as he noticed the spider crawling up his wrist and gave it a little shake. The spider held on.
Gloria leaned forward just a little more as she watched in anticipation. "Yeah that's right, smash it like the narcissistic jerkface you ar-"
"Tilly?!"
Gloria's eyes widened as she watched Tilly pop her head up from the side of the pool.
"Yes Chip?"
Chip poutingly gestured to the spider. "You like bugs right? Use your mind control powers and get this thing off me."
"Now Chip, what have we talked about?" Cricket suddenly asked, as he came to stand beside Tilly, spooking Gloria and Chip both. "When you're asking someone for a favor you say..?"
Chip's gaze flattened, obviously suppressing a groan. "Please."
"Certainly." Tilly edged forward and held out her pinky. "And again it's not mind control, just gentle, consistent affection." The little arachnid scurried on immediately. "I'm gonna call you, Archie."
"What?!" Gloria barked as she slammed her fists into the boiling concrete. Big mistake, Cricket turned his head in her vague direction. "Did y'all hear something just now?" Gloria panicked, sliding her and Remy behind a nearby beach ball to block Cricket's view.
The ten year old shrugged a minute later and hopped back into the pool.
"Wow…that's not what I was expecting….like at all….he even said please."
"Urghh," Gloria groaned, slamming her sweaty palm to her sweaty forehead. Man was it hot.
"I forgot the only thing Chip loves more than needless cruelty is needlessly having other people do things for him." The needy jerk.
Remy gritted his teeth. "So what now?"
"I don't know. Good thing is, we've got all day."
"Well actually my violin lesson's at 5-"
"Ok brain don't fail me now, how else can we-" Gloria cut herself off as she happened to notice a little ice cream cart at the other end of the pool, lines of people stretched around the pool.
"Bingo bango."
"Umm, I'm not sure I follow, this." Remy admitted as they adjusted their fake mustaches. Thank goodness Gloria kept forgetting to clean all that theater class stuff out of her car. "Did you really have to make me use my no limits credit card to purchase this ice cream cart?"
"Yes I did, and what's not to follow here? When Cricket inevitably talks everyone into getting ice cream and they go to buy some from us, we say we only have two ice creams left, then we watch as Chip's selfishness unfolds and he's unmasked for the low life butthead we all know and loathe."
"Ummmmm," Remy paused with a frown. "Okaaay, but again this feels just a bit reliant on chance. How do we know for sure Cricket's gonna-"
"Ice cream! Ice cream!" Cricket cheered with his wet fists in the air as he led Tilly and Chip over to the cart.
"Wow, you're good." Remy muttered.
"Hello," Gloria greeted with an indistinguishable, obviously fake accent, well obvious to anyone who wasn't Cricket. "I take it y'all would like some ice cream?" If Chip or Tilly saw through the disguises they didn't say so.
Chip arched his brow as he dug around in the pocket of his swimming trunks and pulled out a handful of ones. "Two cones and a water, please." Chip gave Cricket one of those smug 'See' grins as he handed Gloria the money. Gloria tried her best to hide her smirk as she grabbed a bottled water and opened the cart's built-in fridge.
"Ohhh, I'm so sorry ,but we only have two ice creams left. Will that be alright?" Gloria asked, pho-innocently clasping her hands together.
Chip raised his brow. "Uh, yeah? So can we have them or…?"
"Well I just hope y'all don't fight over-Wait you only want two?" Gloria's face dropped dramatically. "Don't you mean three?"
Chip looked confused for a moment before he perked up again in realization.
"Oh yeah no thanks, ice cream's one of the leading causes of tooth decay and as you can clearly tell I've got something of a flawless dental record to preserve (well almost flawless)." He explained, cheekily leaning an arm against the cart. "Plus you know, I'm trying to watch my figure."
Gloria felt her eye twitch as Remy looked up at her in uncertainty.
"Hey, call me crazy ,but y'all look kinda familiar." Cricket pointed out with a thoughtful chin scratch as he latched onto the side of the cart. "Have we met somewhere?"
A drop of sweat trickled down Remy's forehead and Gloria could tell it wasn't from the heat.
"Nope, never seen you before in my life. Okay bye now!" Gloria grabbed Remy by the back of his t-shirt and quickly wheeled the cart away.
"Hey you never gave us any ice crea-" Cricket cut himself off as he hastily juggled the two vanilla cones Gloria chucked their way.
"Man, I wanted chocolate!" She heard Cricket whine behind them.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Gloria ripped off the fake mustache and threw it to the ground, stomping on it for good measure. "Why is exposing someone for the jerkface they so clearly are so you don't end up replaced and drinking ranch by the side of the road so difficult!?"
"Uh, What was that last part?" Remy asked with a concerned eyebrow raise.
Gloria stiffened. "Nothing-Okay seriously why is this so hard?"
"Maybe….maybe…we were wrong about-"
"You finish that sentence I'm tossing off the high dive."
The boy quickly puckered his lips shut and stuffed his hands into his swimming trunks.
Gloria sighed again. "Like how I was supposed to know the jerk doesn't care for ice cream, It's like he's not even hu-wait, wait a sec, doesn't care…I've got it!"
Gloria quickly risked a glance over the edge of the brick wall they were hiding behind to see Tilly and Cricket happily splashing each other next to a chillaxing Saxon resting on a random pool floatie.
Gloria spun back around to Remy. "We just have to prove how little he actually cares about their wellbeing!" At least whenever Bill wasn't watching…..
Remy tilted his head. "Sooooooo how do we do that?"
"I can't do this!" Remy cried, already starting to turn back around, only for Gloria to give him the evil eye. "I can't hurt Tilly like this."
"You're not hurting her," Gloria reasoned as Remy adjusted his sunglasses, and the ginger wig sitting atop his head. "Like I said, when you grab Saxon and Chip does absolutely nothing to stop you, I'll come in and 'apprehend' you and then everyone'll realize that Chip's an uncaring dirtbag and I'm the one who actually belongs in this family."
Remy pursed his lips together. "Could you repeat that last part for me-ah okay I'm going!" He cried as Gloria gave him a gentle shove in Tilly and Cricket's direction.
"And be careful, that wig's a rental!"
Remy took a deep breath and tried his best to brace himself as he 'sneakily' edged himself along the burning sidewalk towards Tilly and Cricket.
Saxon's float was conveniently bumping up against the poolside as he approached.
Remy nervously looked back at Tilly and Cricket who were busy battling each other in a 'hold your breath' competition. Good luck to Tilly, Remy'd seen Cricket stay down for six minutes straight.
Taking another breath, Remy slowly crouched to his knees and shakily reached out for the doll. His hand started to shake and he had to use his other one to keep the first upright.
"Just…a little further-uh oh." Remy didn't even have time to scream as his back was hit with a barrage of Terf arrows. He tipped over into the pool with a big splash.
"Wow, being mean to kids has not lost its spark." Chip shrugged to himself as he turned back to the kid who's Merf gun he'd borrowed. Best part he was 'technically' doing a good deed.
"Here you can have it back now." The kid didn't even blink as Chip flippantly tossed the toy gun back. Kinda creepy actually.
"Great, now Benny has to go collect his amno off tha' dead body."
Chip blinked, choosing to look back at his phone as Benny walked off, something off with that kid.
"Are you joking me!" Gloria whisper shouted, causing the table to wobble as she accidentally banged her head against it. "Urgh, that wig was seventy bucks!"
"You know Gloria," Remy began as he plucked the last of the plastic stick on arrows off his forehead. "I'm beginning to think we should just stop, before someone-probably me in all honesty- gets hurt."
"You don't understand." Gloria cried, banging her fist against the concrete. "I need to show them or they'll just keep worshiping that jerkface."
Remy frowned, he peaked back over at Cricket and Tilly. "I don't know, it doesn't really seem like that, they're not really treating him any different than…' The boy trailed off, his eyes widened as he looked back up at Gloria.
"Oh…oh...Gloria, you don't actually think-Gloria they-"
"Wait hold up, what's that?" Gloria demanded as she edged forward on her elbows, Remy arched his brow, crawling forward and poking his head out beside her.
The two watched as Chip's hair strangely began to move on its own, maybe the wind? But wait, there wasn't so much as a breeze. Seconds later the answer was revealed as a random parakeet poked its head out.
"Patrick?" Gloria's voice went quivery. Meanwhile Chip's eyes widened as 'Patrick' flew to sit on the table.
"What the-Wow I had absolutely no idea you were up there." Chip said aloud, casually leaning forward.
Remy felt himself pale slightly as he looked back at Gloria's clenched fists. "Heh weird right-.." The boy trailed off as his gaze trailed up to Gloria's face, frozen in a blank, dead eyed stare. "Uh, Gloria?"
The twenty year old didn't say a word as she slowly stood up and knocked the table over in the process. Remy squeaked, their hiding place was revealed. He retreated into the confines of his t-shirt like a turtle whilst Gloria grabbed a nearby pool noodle and marched towards Chip.
Chip groaned as he pulled out his phone. "Guess I should probably call-" The former ceo cut himself off as he noticed a pair of cheap converses standing in front of his chair.
Chip's eyes widened as he looked up. "Gloria?"
Coffee girl had her arms crossed as she stared him down, her gaze blank yet, strangely intimidating.
Chip frowned. "What are you doing her-" The blonde cut himself off again as he ducked out of the way of a rogue pool noodle. Chip's confused frown creased as he looked up from his cowering position.
Oh blort. That was straight up murder in those eyes.
Chip sighed as he sat back up. "Okay fine it was me who borrowed your eye liner ,but you have to understand that stupid goat ate mine!"
"Wait wha-You idiot, that's not what this is about!" Gloria shouted in frustration waving her pool noodle around like a crazy person. "It's-Urgh, you know what, just start running for your life because I'm literally seconds away from going Francisco Goya on your butt"
Chip couldn't help ,but laugh at that. "With a pool noodle, seriously?"
"You've got lungs of steel brother." Tilly admitted after they'd come up for air.
"I think that's a new record." Cricket panted as he leaned against the pool wall. "I'm probably gonna head to the high dive in a-" Cricket cut himself off as the sound of a distant scream pierced the air.
A familiar scream.
Cricket and Tilly slowly turned around, their eyes following Chip as he ran down the pool's patio, his arms in the air with a pool noodle wielding maniac hot on his trail.
The siblings shared a look. Together they said, "We should probably check that out."
Chip yelped, looking over his shoulder in panic at the enraged coffee girl about to tear him a new-
"Hey no running!" Some lifeguard shouted as Chip ran beneath their lookout chair.
"Tell her that!" Chip shot back whilst Gloria followed close behind, causing the lookout chair to wobble as their epic chase continued.
"Okay," Chip panted. "Why don't, we sit down and talk this throu-ah!" Chip screamed as a flying barrage of pool rings just barely missed his head. Okay, no talking. Maybe he could just keep running and tire her out eventually?
"Cardio don't fail me now!" Chip increased his pace to a full blown sprint, narrowly dodging hordes of cranky families and oversized coolers.
His eyes widened as he caught sight of the water balloon fight up ahead and had no time to stop himself before he was sliding down the wet concrete on his slippery flip flops like a crazed figure skater.
Good news was that caused Gloria to slip and fall, bad news was Chip was too busy laughing at her to see he hadn't made enough of a sharp turn and was running straight for the pool.
Chip ground to a halt just at the edge, waving his arms out for balance as he teetered back and forth.
"End of the line jerkface ."
Chip's eyes widened as he looked over his shoulder at Gloria. The bluenette had her death noodle raised high as she approached, positively no mercy left in her cold gaze.
"Now Gloria let's not do anything-woah, woah-we might regret!" Chip pleaded as he tried to keep his balance.
"Good thing I won't regret thi-"
"Stop!" Coffee girl's eyes widened as Remy suddenly approached from behind, clearly out of breath. "Gloria what are you doing, this is too far!"
Gloria's eye twitched. "Kid stay back. I-"
"Gloria?!"
Everyone stilled as Cricket and Tilly suddenly collided into the small huddle, both also out of breath from running. Cricket's eyes widened as he caught sight of Remy.
"Remy!?"
"Cricket!?"
"Chip!"
"Tilly!" Tilly said, ending the verbal ricochet. Everyone blinked, before going back to the matter at hand.
"What in crabapples is going on here?" Cricket asked as he took a step forward. "And why do you have Chip at noodle point?"
"I-urgh just great! Of course you somehow manage to make me look like the bad guy!" Gloria complained as she turned back to Chip.
"You're right, I'm so sorry for forcing you to chase after me with a pool noo-okay,okay I'm sorry please stop!" Chip begged as Gloria took a step closer. Maybe Bill was right about him needing to learn to tone the sass down sometimes.
"Too little. Too late!" With a full on war cry, Gloria shoved Chip over the edge.
Gloria panted as her foe went flailing. She took a second to collect herself before turning back to the kids.
Cricket and Tilly's eyes were wide in horror.
Gloria arched her brow. "Okay maybe that was a little harsh, but c'mon guys it wasn't that ba-"
"Gloria, Chip can't swim." Tilly said, dead eyed.
Gloria's eyes stretched to the size of two full size umbrellas. "What?"
"Chip. Can't. SWIM!" Tilly shouted, finally breaking out of her frozen terror as she and Cricket sprinted to the edge of the pool to see Chip flail helplessly at the bottom.
Gloria's stomach dropped and with nothing more than an, "Oh cripe." all three of them dove headfirst into the pool.
"Now sir I'm going to have to ask that you keep this life jacket on for the rest of your time here." The lifeguard chided as she finished buckling it shut for Chip.
"Are you sure you don't have any others left?" Chip asked grumpily as he gestured to the big fat Hello Kitty icon winking from the front.
"Yep." The lifeguard answered with a shrug as she walked away. "And no going into the pool for the next ten minutes you and pool noodle girl are on timeout."
Coincidentally, so was Remy-deemed by Cricket anyway-for helping Gloria try in her epic sabotage.
Poor kid was already getting teary eyed as he sat alone in the pool chair.
"Now don't give me that look, this hurts me just as much as it hurts you!" Cricket cried, wiping his eyes with his arm.
Gloria sighed, turning back to Chip, frustration already building again. "Why on Earth would you go to the pool without knowing how to swim?"
"Gee I don't know, why does anyone go to the top of Big City Bank without a parachute, because they don't expect a psychopath with a pool noodle to push them over the edge!"
Gloria gripped the ends of the towel Tilly lended her. "You wanna talk about being pushed over the edge I-"
"Also, because I was trying to be nice." Chip finished resolutely as he continued to shiver from the water.
"Nice?" Gloria repeated.
"Yeah, I knew you'd probably be tired from working the cafe late last night, I figured I'd do you a favor."
Gloria's eye twitched. "Favor? You call this a favor?!"
"Gloria-" Tilly was cut off as Chip reared back and replied. "Look, I was just trying to-"
"To what?! Make me feel like an absolute turd, because if so bravo!" Gloria slow clapped. "You've done a fantastic freaking job!"
"Well fine, I just won't ever try again Sue!"
"I-Sue?" Gloria frowned.
Chip froze. His shivering stopped as he averted his gaze. "I…I'm gonna go..finish drying off in the bathroom."
With that the blonde stood up and walked away.
Seconds later, Cricket was running after him, giving Gloria a disappointed glare on his way out.
"Cricket wait," Gloria reached out to him only to lower it again as she realized he wasn't going to listen.
And she wouldn't blame him…..
"What have I done?" Gloria sighed to herself as she fell to a sulky crouch, and held her knees in close.
"What have you done," Tilly added as she came to sit beside her. "Gloria, what's going on? I'd expect that kind of violent outburst from Gramma sure, but not you."
"Then I guess you don't know me so well." Gloria sighed, but then again who could blame her, not like Gloria had been anything other than invisible lately.
"It's just, I got tired of Chip acting like…like he's already been forgiven for everything. Meanwhile all I did was take a job when I needed it, and…months later I still feel..…nevermind."
Tilly looked at her for a moment, then edged closer. "Like you don't belong?"
Gloria bit her lip, curse Tilly for being so good at this.
Tilly sighed. "Gloria, you know that isn't true. We're running a cafe together for goodness's sake."
Gloria lowered her head, scratching the back of her neck. "And that's going great, for now ,but…you never know when things are going to change in Big City, . In the blink of an eye some jerk like Chip-ow." Gloria frowned as she realized Tilly had pinched her. "Some guy like Chip could stroll in any day and buy the place out from your Gramma, just like that."
Gloria closed her eyes and let her forehead fall against her knees. "The one thing I know I can always count on is, you guys and I just..I couldn't handle it if I lost y'all." Gloria sucked back in the tears threatening to bubble up in the back of her throat. "I…blort it. I love you and your crazy family."
Tilly's gaze softened. She laid her hand atop Gloria's. "Can I tell you something Gloria?"
The artist sighed. "Go for it."
"When Cricket started working at the cafe, I thought I hated you."
Gloria frowned. Okay not what she was expecting. "What?"
"I didn't have any friends when we first arrived in Big City except for Cricket. So when you came along, and started to take up most of his time I became, jealous."
"I.. had no idea…."
Tilly nodded. "I do hide my rage well, but you know that feeling of anger I had towards you? It just got smaller and smaller the more I got to know you. And you wanna know the funny thing?"
"What?"
"I started getting jealous of Cricket."
Gloria arched her brow. "Why?"
Tilly looked down at her flip flops. "Because I always wanted a sister."
Gloria softened like melted butter, her mouth fell agape. "Tilly…."
The two leaned against each other, as the sun blazed hot above them.
"We love you Gloria, don't ever forget that."
Chip sighed as he fell back against the stall door and sunk into a crouch, uncaring of the amount of germs no doubt inhabiting the bathroom floor.
"Just great…" He muttered to no one else ,but the toilet.
"Chip?"
Chip groaned. Well, almost no one else.
It didn't take long for Cricket to find him, he could see the kid's shoeless toes come to stand on the other side of the door.
"You doing okay?"
"Peachy, you can leave now."
"Sorry, don't think I can do that."
Chip sighed. "Cricket as much as I would love to receive a pep talk from a ten year old, I think I'll be alright."
Cricket hesitated. Then Chip felt the kid sit down behind him, the tops of their backs only separated because of the stall door.
"Okay then I'll just sit here with you."
For the next few seconds the only sound in the bathroom was Cricket's annoyingly loud breathing.
Chip sighed again. "Okay fine, start talking."
"Well….you know she's probably feeling pretty bad about, uh, accidentally almost drowning you."
Chip rolled his eyes. "Yeah I'm sure she'll be begging for forgiveness when I come back."
He could practically hear Cricket wince. "Yeah…heh..It's definitely not fun to be on Gloria's bad side, this one time I thought I was being clever by calling a fake coffee order, boy did she get back at me…."
Chip sighed, resting his cheek against his fist. "Definitely not fun.." It was also not fun being reminded that as hard as he tried… someone would always be there to look down on him.
Like Aunt Sue…like Dad…
He could hear Cricket bristle on the other side. "This one time I really messed up, I broke this miniature Eiffel tower she loved."
"Oh yeah?" Chip asked, barely listening as he stared up at the leaky ceiling.
"Yeah, she was…really upset. Said I was a horrible little boy."
Chip tried to stifle a chuckle. Wish he'd thought of that one, back when they were still enemies.
"For the longest time after that I swore she hated me, and maybe she did for a while….,but somehow we ended up here, crazy right?"
"Insane." Chip answered flatly.
Cricket sighed. "Chip, I have to tell you something."
Chip raised his brow despite knowing Cricket couldn't see it.
"You remember when I tried to call a truce, that day in the farmer's market."
"Yeah, bit hard to forget it, with 2 million views."
Cricket coughed. "Well, to tell you the truth I didn't mean it, not even for a second. I was only offering peace because Tilly told me to and it didn't make a difference to me if you accepted it or not."
Chip arched both brows. This was supposed to make him feel better?
"And the thing is, I wish I had meant it."
Chip's eyes widened slightly.
"I don't know if it would have made a difference, probably not ,but….but at least then you would have known my sincerity."
Cricket sighed again. "So, to make up for that I'll be sincere now, don't stop trying Chip, please."
Chip stiffened. "Cricket I was just-"
"Angry yeah I know, but seriously," Cricket took a deep breath. "Don't give up. I don't know when we'll be able to completely forgive you, but I promise it's when. Not an if, even for Gloria. It may be pretty small right now, but a part of her does care about you. We all do."
Chip blinked. He didn't know what to say.
"...okay."
He couldn't see, but Chip was sure Cricket nodded.
They sat in silence for another five minutes or so, before Chip finally worked up the effort to get to his feet.
—-
The rest of the day passed in a strange haze, no one really knew what to say, what to do. Remy was the first to go, had to get to those violin lessons.
Gloria sat back on her haunches as she watched the daylight finally descend into evening, she'd spent the rest of her time at the pool helping Tilly 'look for treasure' and realized the pool would be closing in an hour.
Chip still refused to look at her.
Gloria sighed as she reached for her sweatshirt. It was still wet feeling, even after hours of resting on the pool chair.
She better leave now, let Chip drive the kids home.
"I'll see y'all whenever y'all get home." Gloria called as she grabbed her purse.
Cricket sighed, waving goodbye. Might take another day or so,but he'd come back around.
Chip on the other hand…The blonde was currently buried in his phone screen.
"And uh, Chip? I'm… sorry."
Not even looking up, he gave Gloria a fictitious thumbs up.
Gloria couldn't help ,but slouch. Great. With one last self pitying sigh Gloria turned towards the exit.
If only she saw the crack in the sidewalk.
Gloria's eyes flew open as she felt to the concrete with a loud thud.
Tilly and Cricket shouted in panic as they darted over. Chip looked up from his phone.
Gloria groaned, clenching her fists together in pain as she raised her head.
"Whath, tha-" Wait why was she slurring? Gloria tongued the top left side of her jaw and realized a tooth had come loose.
"Oh shooth'! I broth' my tooth!"
Chip's eyes widened as he stared.
Gloria wasn't sure who began to laugh first, probably Chip the jerk, but in a short few seconds Gloria was clutching her abdomen, she was balling from laughter so hard.
"Oh real-hahaha- mathure! You buth'ole!"
"Finally-hahahaha-I-hahaha-have the moral high ground! The universe is-hahahah-on Chip Whistler's side today baby, I'm untouchable!"
"Yeah-hahahha-gue'th I was a real Chip today!"
"Hey!"
And poor Cricket and Tilly just continued to stare at them like they'd lost their minds.