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Today was a very exciting day for Collie. After practically years of pleading and whining, he was finally going to convince his older siblings to serve pizza bagels in their home-owned bakery.
Growing up alone with their siblings and nothing to their name except a beaten up dough shop had been rough, but it had never taken away Collie's energy and enthusiasm to play new games. Plus their unconditional love for pizza bagels.
But although he thought they were delicious, and repeatedly told his siblings so, they had never baked him a single crispy, mouthwatering pizza bagel. They always said their bakery was supposed to be a simple place where one could snack on a ten-inch pizza or a blueberry bagel, but for some reason, never the two together.
"You're too weird, Collie," the older ones would say. "Your imagination makes us sick."
But Collie knew that their crazy, wild stories and ideas were what made them special. He was never boring like his siblings. Instead, he was full of fun for everyone to enjoy. Everyone, that was, except his precious pizza bagels. Collie dreamed of eating them every night, feeling their salty, cheesy flavours on his tongue, sinking his teeth into their tender, stretchy loaf.
Besides, if they ever got bored of eating pizza bagels for whatever reason, Collie could always turn them into toys and serve them at a tea party with everyone in the neighbourhood.
For some reason, their older siblings always got mad when Collie played games with their friends when they were supposed to be sleeping. They accused him of hurting the town kids, but he would never do such a thing. His friends were always snuggled right back up in their beds the next morning after Collie borrowed them for a bit.
But they never believed him, and totally not because a few kids had gone missing over the past few months.
"It wasn't my fault though!" Collie cried. "We were just playing hide and seek."
"And where are they now?" his second to oldest sibling asked sternly. Xyr piercing blue eyes seemed to stare right into Collie's soul. He ducked his head, the slightest bit ashamed.
"I just forgot where I hided them," he explained, offering a sweet, sheepish smile. "But it's okay! I can find them super duper fast."
His sibling stood up, a hand pinching xyr nose.
"Yes, yes, please do that now."
"You mean find them?" Collie asked excitedly, bouncing up and down. "But you said I couldn't play any more games until I cleaned the whooooooooooole bakery."
The Wishing Star exchanged a glance with another sibling, who was gliding past. Xey mouthed something to them that Collie didn't quite catch. He hoped it was something about a new game.
"For stars sake," xey sighed. "That was just to get you out of my hair, child."
Collie flipped upside down in the air, confused.
"... I don't think I could fit in your hair, silly."
They giggled as they tried to imagine their sibling's hair being so big and wild that they could jump through it. Then they started to picture pizza bagels in xyr hair, which reminded them of the original reason they were talking to one of the older ones.
"Well, you know, I really want to finish hide and seek..." Collie grinned. "But do you wanna know what I'd like even MORE?"
"No," the Wishing Star said flatly. “I don’t.”
Xey teleported out of the dining area.
"HUMPHHHH," Collie muttered, frustrated. They barged into the kitchen to find another sibling to talk to about pizza bagels. The room was dimly lit, as usual, by pretty star patterns on the ceiling. Collie never spent much time in the kitchen, but he still appreciated how cool and glowy it looked.
The shimmering walls and counters were lined neatly with pointy silver tools and large packets of boring things like salt and pepper that no one needed. Collie spotted The Dreamer in the corner, mixing spices in a small black bowl. His eyes widened when they laid upon the thing she was using to crush and blend the flavours together. It would be very useful in his newest game.
Another one of Collie's siblings was standing at the sink, running cold tap water over a dirty plate.
"Watchie!" Collie called.
"Hello, little buddy," the Watcher said with a hint of amusement in their voice. "I thought I told you to stop calling me Watchie."
"I can't hear youuuu," Collie sang. They liked the ring of "Watchie" way better than their sibling's actual name. It reminded him of his own nickname.
Out of all the siblings that ran the Archivists Bakery, Watchie was his favorite. Collie didn't fully understand their refusal to use their star powers in the bakery, but he still found them very cool.
They were formal and hardworking around the others, but had a soft spot for their youngest sibling and actually played games with him sometimes. That was when the oldests weren't sending them to gather baking supplies from the Cosmos Market.
Like now. The Wishing Star materialised into the kitchen, eyes closed and a peaceful expression on xyr face. They peeked out of one eye to shoot a quick telepathic message at Watchie before poofing away again.
"Awww, does this mean you have to go?" Collie whimpered.
"I'm sorry, buddy," Watchie winced. "We can play, um, Collie Says when I get back, okay?"
Collie nodded slowly, sadness growing in the pit of his stomach. Or perhaps it was hunger. Now he longed more than ever to smell a warm batch of pizza bagels.
"Dreeeamer..." they said, crying out to their sister on the far side of the room as Watchie walked out the door. "Can you make me eleventeen pizza bagels? Please?"
He said the last part softly and sweetly, making sure his eyes were extra shiny.
The Dreamer's second pair of eyes fluttered open on the back of her head. She continued mixing spices in on the counter, but a good fraction of her attention was on the little kid standing behind her.
Collie found her power funny, but also useful when it came to her personality. His older sister was able to pay attention to multiple things at once with her multiple sets of eyes. That way, she could bake muffins but also daydream at the same time. Collie thought it would be awesome if they were able to play multiple games at one time.
"Oh..." the Dreamer said sleepily. "I'm sorry. Not right now, Collie."
Collie frowned deeply. By now, he could feel warm, tingly anger rising up and up and up inside him. First The Wishing Star, then Watchie, and then The Dreamer. He couldn't take it anymore.
Collie curled up into a ball mid-air, forming a bubble of star energy around themself.
"I. WANT. PIZZA BAGELS."
A few seconds of pure rage followed.
Then the star bubble popped. Or rather, exploded.
Collie's powerful magic spread like a bomb, quickly taking over the Archivist Bakery and perhaps even the whole neighbourhood. Their siblings were usually good at keeping them from having angry outbursts, but this time they had messed up badly. They hadn't given Collie pizza bagels.
Even with all the chaos, Collie's wildly intelligent mind came up with a brilliant idea. He couldn't make pizza bagels himself, but his siblings could. So all he had to do was start up a nice game of Collie Says.
"Collie says come to the bakery!" he shouted.
Toy models of all his friends and siblings came tumbling through the shop's doors and spilled into the dining area, front desk, kitchen, and even bathrooms. Collie giggled with glee.
"Now we can all play the best game ever," he said joyfully. "Make Collie the biggest hugest bestest pizza bagel EVER!!"
All of his playmates got to work straight away. They mixed sauce, shaped dough, and cut cheese faster than Collie could ask someone to play.
"Pizza bagels," he mumbled happily as he oversaw the process.
Only about an hour or six passed before the townspeople had finished their game. Collie waited excitedly in the park, doing happy jumps and flips in the air. He could already smell it. Fresh pepperoni melted with creamy cheese and buttery bread. He could hardly wait any longer by the time his playmates walked out of the bakery.
Collie snapped his fingers, teleporting the pizza bagel to the park. They made sure they kept their eyes closed so as to not ruin the delicious surprise.
"Now," he bellowed to the toys crowded below. "Sing the National Pizza Bagel Anthem!"
Happy tears filled Collie's eyes as the lovely melody filled his ears.
"O Great Pizza Bagel we love and bake and eat youuuuu... When your sight fills our eyes and your smell fills our noses we know there is no better treat in the world..."
Collie smiled. Here came his favorite part of the song. The hyper speed part.
"Pizza bagels are so awesome and I really like them YUM."
The audience started to cheer as Collie finally opened his eyes. There, sitting right in front of him, was the biggest hugest bestest pizza bagel he had ever seen. Collie glided softly toward it, reaching out with his arms and licking his lips.
"Pizza bagel..." he whispered. "Piiiiiiiizza bagel."
Suddenly, a new amazing idea struck Collie like a flash of lightning.
"PIZZA BAGEL PARTY!" they screeched, hopefully loud enough to be heard by the entire world.
Collie started spreading disco stars everywhere and jumped onto his pizza bagel, tongue outstretched. They sunk into heavenly darkness as the warm bread filled their mouth and senses.
Now, lying on the very thing he had longed for most in the world, Collie knew they could accomplish anything as long as it was as important as hypnotizing celestial beings and townspeople alike into baking a twenty foot tall pizza bagel.