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The yellow grass moved slightly with the wind as the sun slowly began to set and the sky started to become orange. Golf Ball stared at it, far from the hotel Two created and far from the other contestants. Tennis Ball quietly approached and sat next to her, but not quite as close as they would usually be. Golf Ball's first reaction was shock, then confusion, as her usual first instinct to calculate all logical reasons for what was happening failed and she just stared for some seconds, at a loss of words.
"What!?" Was all she blurted out, though it sounded more agressive than she meant it to. Tennis Ball looked like he wished to start the conversation in a different way, maybe not go directly to the point, but gave up.
"Golf Ball, look, I can't just watch you sitting alone from far away without doing anything, I'm your friend and I don't like the idea of just leaving you aside, even if maybe I should."
Golf Ball's look softened a little and she almost seemed sad. She looked away, like she couldn't bear to show that expression for too long, or at least like she wasn't used to doing it.
"I'm sorry." She said after a moment. Tennis Ball sighed.
"... I forgive you. I know you didn't mean to hurt anyone, that's... just how you are sometimes. But, you know, that doesn't change the fact that, in the end, you did hurt people's feelings, and the other ones deserve an apology too."
She jumped in shock at the mere thought.
"I can't! The chances of them forgiving me or even wanting to hear me at all are of about 0,0230200001%!"
Tennis Ball felt a small smile form as he heard Golf Ball go back to mentioning her percentages, clearly back to normal, but it didn't last for more than a second.
"If I'm being honest, yeah. There's a very high chance they won't forgive you, but that's just what apologies are about. It's not really about them suddenly changing their opinion of you, it's more about showing them you no longer stand for what you've done, or said, before. It's up to them to accept it or not."
Golf Ball frowned, as if that concept didn't make sense to her. She stood still for a few moments until closing her eyes and suddenly stomping her feet in frustration, which caught Tennis Ball out of guard.
"You're right..." She said, looking defeated by her own self. "Fine, I'll do it."
Tennis Ball's face quickly lit up, and he got on his feet. "Then let's go!"
"Wait, right now?!"
-
The other members of Are You Okay were assembled in a sort of circle, some chatting about different things than the rest, but essentially all together. Fries was distracted from his own conversation by the sound of steps getting closer.
"Ah, Tennis Ball, we were..." He stopped as his look shifted from Tennis Ball to the smaller sports ball next to him, realizing her presence. Fries stared at her, then at Tennis Ball again with a disappointed and slightly disgusted face. The others didn't have time to react as he started speaking again. "Seriously? Did you already-"
"I'M SORRY!" Golf Ball exclaimed.
Fries' angry expression took a few moments to become a surprised one, and Golf Ball could almost picture a loading icon floating above his head.
"Huh?"
"I'm apologizing for my behavior before! Do you need me to draw it out for you?!" She went back to acting defensive. Tennis Ball winced at her terribly executed attempt of apologizing. Golf Ball realized that phrase directly contradicted her apology itself and, seeing as Fries' enraged look was coming back, started again quickly and somewhat panicking. "Look, I know I wasn't very... polite, okay?! I'm sorry! I am trying to change that..!"
Fries was silent, then frowned slightly. "Golf Ball, look, I..." He put his hands on his hips and opened his mouth to continue talking multiple times, but the words never came, as he clearly wasn't being succesful in finding them. He kept moving his hand, gesturing vaguely as if it would help him figure out what to say. Seeing as he was still struggling with it, Puffball decided to step in and speak first.
"Golf Ball, I've made bad choices before too, and my team forgave me, including you, so-"
"At least you only messed up once." Eraser said quietly, as if no one could hear him. Golf Ball glared angrily, and Puffball simply sighed, though it was obvious she was also irritated.
"...So I'm gonna believe you mean it but, you know, I think the others were more insulted than me, so I'll leave it up to them."
"I stand with what Puffball said." TV started talking, displaying different short clips of the other contestants and host to form the sentences, as usual. "I believe it's highly unlikely you would decide to apologize unless you mean it, so I'll trust it."
Golf Ball opened a subtle smile, which faded as she turned to look at Eraser. He sighed.
"Y'know, GB, the others are right in being mad at you, but I can't really call you out, I know I surely didn't treat you much better. So it's fine, I forgive you. And for the record, I'm sorry too." His genuine smile turned into a playfully smug one. "But you're still a bossy bot."
Golf Ball rolled her eyes. It was clear the last part was light hearted, which was weird, coming from Eraser's mouth. Truly, the two never seemed to get along, quite the opposite really, but it was also true that, even if not much, they had changed over time. Eraser wasn't half as bad as in BFDI, Golf Ball could even consider giving him a chance. It looked like he felt the same towards her.
Pen gave her a thumbs up. "I mean, as long as you're truly willing to change and, y'know, not say we're useless and all of that, it's all good."
Everyone turned to look at Fries, who finally seemed more sure of his own thoughts.
"Golf Ball, see, it's true you really weren't very... pleasant to be around. Like Pen said, you called us useless, you constantly dismissed our input in your plans, treated us as simple pieces of those, treated badly those who treated you good, ignored our protests to your weird ideas..." Golf Ball frowned as Fries continued to mention the long list, raising an eyebrow angrily at the 'weird ideas' part. "But despite all of that, I know you're not a bad person. And I appreciate you took the time to apologize. So, if the other ones are okay with it too, I don't mind giving you a second chance. We all mess up sometimes."
After a second, he continued speaking "But, obviously, if you don't make an effort to change, we won't just keep forgiving you again and again."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Golf Ball nodded. "... Thanks." She muttered.
"What was that?" He laughed, gesturing as if he hadn't heard. She got flustered.
"THANK YOU!"
Fries smiled, then gave her a light pat on the back, which annoyed her just a little bit. His smile turned into a chuckle. "Don't worry. I was already starting to get nervous, if you didn't take the leader role for this team, who would?"
--
Golf Ball walked in fast steps through the hotel's halls. It took her some (several) minutes to accept it but, deep down, she knew she had already thought about that as soon as Tennis Ball mentioned her team needed an apology: There was someone else she had to apologize to. Well, technically, a lot of people, but there was someone in particular.
She took the time to pay attention to the hotel's walls, decoration and furniture. Ever since Two gave each team a room in there to spend the nights, it became a familiar place, but given the rooms were quite some floors high and they would usually opt for using the elevator, there was still a lot they never noticed in it. Not like Golf Ball even cared, she just needed a distraction from her mind or she would combust in nervousness before even getting to the teams' floor. It would be easier to avoid all of it and just take the elevator as usual, but she refused to pass the chance to rethink every possibility and odd of this going smoothly or terribly depending of how she did it, so she could know what to avoid.
But soon enough, she stood in front of The Strongest Team on Earth, knowing she had already considered everything there was to and analyzed every possible outcome and, now, the only thing left to do was knock on the door. So she inhaled deeply and did.
After a few moments, the door opened suddenly. Looking up to the figure who opened it made her expression immediately change from anxious to terribly annoyed. The person seemed equally displeased.
"What do you want, bozo brain?!"
"Not your nanoscopic intellect!"
Right, maybe she should make up with Snowball too, but surely that wouldn't be happening any time now.
"Say that again, I dare you!"
"Just call Basketball for me, will you?!"
Snowball raised an eyebrow. "And what do you want with her?!"
"None of your business!"
He stared, trying to read her intentions for a moment, before giving her a fierce look and doing what she said. "Whatever, the less I have to worry about you, the better."
After he entered the room again, Golf Ball heard a 'who was it?' and an annoyed 'it's for you'. Some seconds later, Basketball came to the door. She had a curious look on her face, which only lasted until she realized the one there was Golf Ball, and that face quickly became angry.
"You."
"I'M SORRY!" She, again, exclaimed nervously, not knowing what else to say or how else to say it.
Basketball raised an eyebrow. Her expression didn't seem any less angry. "Did TB make you do this?" She asked, almost sarcastically.
"He didn't make me do it." She said. The other one definitely didn't seem happy with the implications there, 'he didn't force me to do it, but I didn't decide to do it alone either'. Wrong answer, Basketball seemed angrier. The odds quickly dropped from 0,0000 somethings, Golf Ball couldn't bother to find the exact numbers, to absolute 0%. Zero chances of sucess.
It was true that he was the one to encourage her to say sorry to Are You Okay, but only because she couldn't risk messing up again. Less than 1 percent of chances of sucess? Absolutely not, they would hate her even more. And if her own team hated her more than they already did normally, it could only get worse from there!
After apologizing to them, though, the chances of sucess with Basketball increased a little bit. Chances of sucess, that is, not chances of earning the forgiveness. As long as Basketball didn't hate her even more after that, even if she didn't forgive her, it was already a sucess, they could work it out from there.
But maybe the odds weren't the same. She hadn't considered that. She had to admit, Basketball made a lot of effort to understand and befriend Golf Ball, or even simply gain her trust. She only gave up after all of those several attempts not only weren't sucessful, but were also terrible failures, and not because she hadn't worked hard enough, but because Golf Ball hadn't even bothered to give her a chance.
A sigh from Basketball distracted Golf Ball from her thoughts.
"Golf Ball... I don't mind if you don't like me. Really. Sometimes people just... aren't compatible, it's fine, I don't have a problem with that. My problem is that you constantly went out of your way to insult me for no reason at all, when I did my best to try and be in good terms with you. And if I'm being honest, it was pretty hard, but I kept listening." She didn't have the same angry expression as before, but instead a puzzled one. "I understand that you don't trust me, I don't blame you for that, but why can't you just stop treating me like I'm inferior? I get it, you're smart, but you're not on the top of the world! Just because you're, I don't know, quicker at math than me doesn't mean I'm useless!"
"I know! That's why I'm apologizing!"
Both of them went silent. Basketball seemingly sorting out her thoughts. Golf Ball, on the other hand, didn't look like her thoughts could be sorted at all. Once again, she breathed in.
"I realize I have upset you, and I want to fix it before it's too late to." Then she looked away. "I-It's the most logical thing to do, based on my calculations..."
Basketball analyzed her, before her own face softened into a sad frown.
"...You know, I'm really not one to hold grudges. And I don't think you're a bad person, Golf Ball. So let's start again. I forgive you." Golf Ball's face lit up immediately. "...on one condition!"
"Huh?!" In just one second, one thousand different possible conditions popped up on Golf Ball's head. This wasn't in the odds, absolutely unpredictable. What type of condition, though? Helping her with something? Building something she needed? That was more of TB's line of work, but maybe it'd be good to try something new.
Then, Basketball stuck her head in the room and called Grassy. Golf Ball immediately knew what that was about.
"Wait- Wait! No no no no no! I'm not apologizing to him as well! He probably doesn't even remember if I treated him well or not!"
"It's such a shame, but I can't forgive you then." She made sure to do her most dramatic voice. Golf Ball felt defeated, making angry sounds of frustration and embarassment.
"Ghgghr..! FINE!"
As soon as she gave up and Basketball opened a satisfied grin, Grassy appeared behind her, smiling. His smile slowly turned into a frown when he saw Golf Ball. She stared at him for a second, then at Basketball, displeased. Then she sighed and started talking as fast as she could, as if to end that as soon as possible.
"Look Grassy I'm sorry I kept dismissing your presence on our team and disrespecting you back in BFB I didn't even let you act before judging you and I regret that!"
When she opened her eyes to look at Grassy's reaction, he seemed as confused as one could possibly be.
"Grassy doesn't understand..." He looked at Basketball, she was smiling.
"She's apologizing! For disrespecting you."
His eyes widened, turning to look at Golf Ball and then quickly turning back to face Basketball again. "Really?!"
"Pfft, I know, I was surprised too-"
"AHEM!" Golf Ball cleared her throat and stared at the other two as if they were about to drive her insane. Not far from the truth.
Grassy seemed to think for a moment, his hand on his chin. Then he smiled.
"As long as you don't disrespect Grassy anymore, it's no big deal."
"YES!" Golf Ball yelled immediately after he finished the last word, triumphantly. Either her equations were incorrect, or she just managed to be the exception, because, despite the less than 1% chances, this was an absolute sucess! This was not how she imagined it would end up, but it was a fantastical surprise. Very intriguing.
She was convinced nothing else would surprise her by now, already having defied her "never inaccurate, 0% margin of error" percentages. Then Grassy hugged her, and every equation currently happening in her brain suddenly had all it's components turn into variables with no way of being solved.
After pulling away, he kept staring at her with a smile. She, however, was staring with a confused look.
"Huh? What? What happened?!"
"I'm Grassy!"
Basketball laughed. It did not help Golf Ball's confusion at all, but she just decided to stop thinking about it.
Suddenly, the muffled voices from inside the room became louder, which Basketball noticed immediately. "Hm? Is something happening there?"
Grassy turned to face her. "Oh. Yeah, Snowball and Bell were ar- arge- argu..."
"Arguing?"
"Arguing for that last chocolate! Grassy wants it too!" He jumped to the room.
Oh yeah, of course it was Snowball, of all people. Basketball tried to tell Grassy to wait, but he was already inside.
"Ah, shoot, gotta deal with that. See ya, GB-"
"Wait!"
"Hm?" She stopped right before entering and closing the door.
"I, uh... Think you're smart too."
Basketball seemed to have been caught off guard. After spending a moment to process that, she opened a warm smile.
Watching the door close, Golf Ball was left alone in the hall.
She opened a smile as well.