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“Okay, do it again, but slower .”
Teardrop nodded. She motioned Gelatin to raise his writing hand again and follow her lead [G−E−L−A−T−I−N].
Gelatin was trying to following along, but his brain and his hand were obviously refusing to sync up. Just after the L, his hand lost the point and it felt like he was signing a jumbled mess while Teardrop finished with ease.
The droplet of water pulled out her little whiteboard and marker, started writing on it before flipping it over to show Gelatin. [IT OKAY. GETS BETTER, PRACTICE.]
Practice. That’s all that Teardrop told him. He practiced everyday with her, but he was still struggling with the basics after all this time. He wondered if she was getting tired of him at this point, but Teardrop was pretty good at masking her thoughts.
She was writing something else on the board now and showed him. [NOW RELAX?]
He didn’t really want to relax but his head had started hurting, not to mention his hand as well from trying to get every letter right. He shook it off a bit, forcing a smile to not concern his friend. Guess he had to take a break whether he liked it or not. “You wanna go see what Lolli is doing right now?” he asked. There was a bit of a mischievous hint in his words now that he pushed away his initial disappointment.
Teardrop immediately got what he meant with a playful grin of her own.
They liked to sneak up on Lollipop whenever they could. It was a quick way to feel like trained ninjas; of course, this was all in good fun. Their tall friend was also in on the joke and occasionally, she surprised either one of them when the opportunity arose. Lollipop spooked Gelatin pretty well just a few days ago and he was eager to return the favor as soon as possible.
Teardrop was pretty damn good at sneaking around so he was happy that she was willing to be on his side for today (she is known to “teamswitch” or act on her own, whichever strikes her fancy). He was sure he was going to get Lollipop good with her help.
They split up to scout the purple candy’s whereabouts. Gelatin was the first to find her speaking to Pillow.
“You ever wondered how many licks it takes to get to the center of a lollipop?” asked Pillow.
Lollipop had a dumbfounded expression on her face. Frankly, she couldn’t believe that Pillow would have the gall to ask her that kind of question. “Don’t tell me you’re going to test that on me because it’ll be a solid no.”
The soft pillow object let out an amused chuckle. “What? Me trying it on you? You’re crazy. No, but I’ve been wondering about it for a while now and I’m happy to say that science finally has an answer.”
First of all, why did there even need to be an answer for that question in the first place? Lollipop wasn’t really following the enigma that was Pillow’s curiosity at times but she didn’t have much else to do at the moment. Might as well entertain her friend for a while. “Alright,” said Lollipop with a little sigh, “I’ll bite; what has science figured out for that?”
Pillow was absolutely excited to share the answer. Finally, someone to spill the weirdest information to! She thought no one would ask despite her going out of her way on getting an answer (which meant pestering Golf Ball and Tennis Ball to throw together this absolutely critical study). “It takes about 417 licks in total, plus or minus 39 licks to account for variation.” She looked absolutely proud of herself while Lollipop still looked a bit lost as to why she even bothered.
Gelatin blinked from his hiding spot. Teardrop appeared next to him, finding him after having no luck finding Lollipop in her search. She figured that her friend might have already found Lolli and she was pleased to know that her hunch had been right.
[THEY TALK ABOUT WHAT?] Teardrop “said” to Gelatin. The jelly object shrugged a bit in response.
“Licking stuff for some reason,” Gelatin told her, “and some science stuff too.” It was with Pillow and she could be smart with some stuff so he wasn’t all that surprised. It also really didn’t matter too much to him either as he was here to surprise Lollipop.
Or maybe he could get both Lolli and Pillow.
Teardrop tapped him briefly to get his attention. [GET LP PW?]
They really were on the same brainwave today.
“I don’t see why not. I take one, you take one, sounds like a win win to me.”
The droplet of water thought for a moment. She peeked out from their hiding spot in the bushes at both Lollipop and Pillow before she hid again. [ME GET PW. YOU GET LP. FAIR?]
“Fair,” smiled Gelatin at her offer. He knew that Teardrop had some kind of beef with Pillow and she certainly wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to sneak up on her. It didn’t matter to him as long as Lollipop stayed his primary target.
They split up yet again like predators eyeing their prey. Teardrop went to the left while Gelatin went to the right. The jelly object had to focus on not making a single sound that might cause both Lollipop and Pillow to notice something was off. Even the crack of a mere twig would ruin the entire surprise. Mistakes could not be made!!
But luckily Pillow was holding Lollipop’s attention pretty well each time Gelatin checked over in case. He saw some soft glimmers of light from Teardrop on the other side, moving as gracefully as water itself in pure silence. They just had to get into positions.
Teardrop threw a thumbs up at him once she was in the perfect spot to pounce from, quickly though so neither of the prey would see either. Gelatin was still figuring out his position, but he eventually found the perfect spot behind Lollipop. He also showed a thumbs up to Teardrop to let her know that he was ready for the next move.
[DISTRACT PW] she signed to him. [ME GO. AFTER, YOU GO.]
Gelatin nodded in understanding. A distraction, of course! If Teardrop went first and surprised Pillow, then Lollipop would be under the impression that she merely wanted to mess with Pillow. She wouldn’t be expecting him to suddenly pounce out either!
Such genius. Teardrop was truly a master at this stuff.
Gelatin looked at his surroundings to see if there was anything useful. A rock the size of his palm was the one thing that stood out to him and immediately, he grabbed for it. His eyes then surveyed the trees, looking for the one that was just in the right place for him to throw the rock at. At last, he settled on the closest one and waited for a moment, listening intently to Pillow until he was sure that she was rattling on too intensely to notice anything going on in the background.
He then threw the rock as hard and as quietly as he could. A satisfying THUNK rang out, causing a few birds to flutter away while chirping alarm calls. But more importantly, Lollipop’s and Pillow’s conversation stopped dead in its tracks. “Hey, you heard that, right?” asked Pillow after a moment of silence. “You wonder what that could−”
Then she let out a surprised yelp. Gelatin peeked out from his spot in time to see a blue blur lunging towards Pillow. He didn’t even dare blink as the time it would take to open his eyes again, the whole thing would be over. Both Teardrop and Pillow rolled on the ground, Pillow asking what the heck was happening in a panicked tone and not realizing who it was that gave her such a shock. Lollipop was on the side, chasing after them to help her friend but this was when Gelatin saw the perfect opportunity!
“PAYBACK!” cried Gelatin triumphantly, zipping from his place of hiding and going full speed ahead at the purple candy. While only a few arm-lengths away from her in distance, he jumped so that he could dive towards Lollipop with his arms outstretched and the wind rushing past his face. Impressively, Lollipop’s quick reactions allowed her to turn around to face him. A look of surprise was on her face, but instead of dodging, she reached out to catch him from out of the air.
“Whoooooaa! You sure got me there!” she said once the initial shock left her nerves. A small smile formed on her face as she held her friend in her arms. “Using a diversion? That’s pretty devious of you.”
Gelatin smiled widely. Even though it wasn’t him that came up with making a distraction, Teardrop didn’t really mind him taking the credit for little ideas like this. She was more about the fun than the credit. “Thanks,” he said brightly, “I’m stepping up my game so you better watch out!”
Lollipop smirked. “Ohhh, I see how it is then. Don’t think I’ll go easy on you any longer then!” If he was going to get cleverer, then so would she! Two could play at that game! “But, we’re still good on getting pizza later, yeah? I’ve been looking forward to it all week.”
“Of course! Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”
The two looked over to both Teardrop and and Pillow, both of them still tussling on the ground. “TD! You’re still up for pizza?!” called out Gelatin.
The droplet of water scrambled away from an angry Pillow, and nodded happily towards the question. [LATER YOU SEE ME. NOW ME RUN. BYE.] She then scrambled away before Pillow could get up.
“YOU HAVE TO SAY SORRY!” shouted Pillow as Teardrop ran away. “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” She wasn’t going to let this go without some sort of apology so the soft object chased after Teardrop without even saying goodbye to Lollipop.