Rise of the Guardians 2

Chapter 32

Once finally calmed down and came back to the house. I convinced him to make pancakes, because I knew it would make him feel better.(and because he made thee best pancakes ever) Soon after we began to cook, Mustache and a bunch of the other forest critters showed up. We both rolled our eyes but didn't say anything.

"Flip-ity-do" Once said as he cooked "Pankcan-de-pancake" He flipped 5 of them up in the air and I caught them. "Who's up for 9ths"

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" It was the fat Barbaloot. Mustache sat up.

"All right, pass 'em over"

"Yeah, see-" Once started to say but stopped as the tent began to shake "W-w-what's go-going on?"

We all ran outside to see a giant mob.

"That's alot of people" Once said. He does a wonderful impression of Captain Obvious. To our great surprise, it was not an angry mob and they began to sing.

"Everybody needs a thneed! A fine thing that all people need! The thneed is good, the thneed is great, Let's hope we're not too late!"

"It's a super trendy hat,"

"It's a tightrope for an acrobat,"

"A net for catching butterflies,"

"A thing we use for EXERCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!"

"Everybody needs a thneed, (A THNEED!) A fine thing that all people need, (WE NEED!) Everybody needs a thneed! (ahhhhhh ahhhhh) We want the thneed, (ahhhhh ahhhhhh) We need the thneed,(ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh) We need a thneeeeeeeeeeeeed!"

"OH YEAH" Once yelled "We're in business baby" He got on the phone and dialed. "Mom? Hey, It's me! I told you I was going to be a success. You need to bring the whole family here right now. We're gonna be rich!"

I gave him a look. "What" he said "We're going to need all the help we can get. Don't worry"

I was worried.

3 days later, an RV roared through the valley, knocking aside trees and animals alike. I stopped, the door slid open and someone stepped out.

"What a dump"

"Hey, Aunt Grizelda" Once called. The twins ran out.

"Hey, Chet go long." Brett said and threw some poor Barbaloot like a football. Chet raced to catch it and promptly slammed into a tree.

"Ha ha. He totally ran into that tree." Brett said and punched Once in the arm. Then my least favorite person stepped out.

"Oncie, is that you?"

"Mom!"

"There he is. My big suddenly successful son." She kissed him of the cheek. "We always knew you'd make it, Oncie" Liar

"Right" she said out of the corner of her mouth.

"Hey, I love this guy." said Once-ler's uncle Ubb

"But you always said I wouldn't amount to anything, remember"

"Oh hush your mouth, we just trying to motivate you" Did I mention how much I hated this woman.

"I'm really glad you clarified that because it really hurt my feelings for a very long time."

To my horror she came over and hugged me too. "Oh Breeze, I'm so glad you were here for Oncie"

Right. And all those time you kept telling Once to stay away from me was just you trying to strengthen our friendship, huh. She is such a liar.

"So you're all here and you all work for us and that's cool" Once said "So...lets get to work."

"Brett Chet, set up the RV-would you stop throwing that bear?" Isabell ordered. The twins ran and pushed a big red button on the side of the vehicle. It expanded into a full sized house(Another of Once's great inventions). This seemed to irritate Mustache though and he intervened.

"Whoa, whoa,whoa,whoa. Time out, back up, don't move an inch. Nobody's moving in here, you gotta go, goodbye."

"So who invited the giant furry peanut" Aunt Grizelda said

"You calling me a peanut, I'll go right up your nose." They moved toward each other, their fists raised As much as I disliked Grizelda, I spoke.

"Hey whoa, you wouldn't hit a woman, would you" He turned to me stunned

"That's a woman!"

"Whoa hey, everyone cool it" Once said "Lets not get off of the wrong foot here. Um, Family this is our friend-"

"Acquaintance"

"Yeah, acquaintance, very good acquaintance, The Lorax. He speaks for the tree's"

"That's right and on behalf of the tree's-GET OUT!" They all gasped

"Will you just-Be nice" Once said to Mustache. He turned to talk privately "This is my family and we're gonna need their help if our company's gonna get bigger."

"You need their help" I said quietly "I don't" He gave me a look, but didn't press the issue.

"Bigger?" Mustache questioned

"Yeah, this isn't some rinky-dink operation anymore. I got plans! Big place. A vision of a world filled with Thneeds. It's gonna be huge!"

"Which way does a tree fall" Mustache asked. Well, that was random.

"Uhh...Down" I said

"A tree falls the way it leans" He said "Be careful which way you lean." With that he turned and left us to ponder that statement.

Later that day, Once and I ran into our first problem. We were both finishing up a ground plan of Thneeds Inc, when Isabell poked her uninvited head through the open window.

"Oncie" she said "we've got us a little problem"

"Problem?"

"Uh-huh, you see, we aren't making Thneeds fast enough."

"Harvesting the tuffs takes too long." Uncle Ubb called as he pushed a cart full of tufts.

"Well, what else can we do?"

"Well," She said "And this just came to me... We could always start chopping down the trees"

"What" I said

"Now you thinking. That would speed things up" Ubb called

"But-"

"No buts Oncie. You're running a business now. You have to do whats best for the company and your Momma"

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to cut down a few trees" He said

"What!" I said again but was ignored as Isabel said "You make me so proud Oncie" and hugged him.

Once she was gone, I turned to him, furious. "Once-ler-"

"I know what you're gonna say. But she's right we have to think about the company." When I continued to look angry he said "I'll make sure Brett and Chet and the rest are careful about how many tree's they cut down. We won't cut them all down."

"Alright" I said reluctantly "As long as we make sure we regulate it"

"Of course," Once said "Beside, how bad could this possibly be."