The Story of WonderCraft..

Chapter 17

TW: throwing up, mentions of manipulating people

I came back up to the surface, only to see..
Samuel. I was in WonderTopia territory. Well, I'm dead now.

"Hey." There was no smug smirk, no evil grin, just a friendly face. No, stop. He's manipulating you. He's done it before, and he's doing it again now.
"What do you want?" I said, before getting a sword out.
"Nothing, just.." and he came closer to my face. And then kissed me.

"What are you doing?! I told you, for the very last time, I'm not doing this again!" I backed away slowly. I was scared of him. Scared he'd kill us all. And then, out of pure instinct, I slapped him hard on the face.
"Did you just slap me..?" There was a fire, a rage burning in his eyes.

"I- I- It won't happen again. I'm sorry. It was an accident." I stuttered, almost in tears. He was this close to hitting me-
"Get away from her!" Oh, someone else joined the show.
"And why should I listen to you?" he said.

"Because.. because that's my- friend you're talking to." And with just a few hits, Samuel was gone.
"Did he do anything to you?" Arnold asked me.
"No, but he was quite a bit close to hitting me. Should we-?" We went back to base.

And then, everyone went to sleep.

The next morning..

I owed Arnold one for saving me from Samuel. I could build a skating rink and a tiny snowy forest. It'd look absolutely amazing.

So, first thing in the morning, I went to a nearby snowy forest and started getting some ice and spruce wood. Then, I got some snow, of course. This was a snowy forest after all. I also got some wool to make a small carpet around a small Christmas tree.

Unfortunately though, I forgot to dress properly for the weather. But hey, what could possibly go wrong? I'd be fine.

By the time I got home, it was sunset yet again. Wow, the days move fast here. I headed to sleep.
On second thought, a lot of things could go wrong. I regret not being dressed properly for the weather.

The next morning, I was rather pale, coughing and sneezing like crazy, my nose was a bit red, and my hair was sticking out of my beanie from all places.

To put it simply, I was a mess.
The others were busy either farming, mining, getting wood, or discussing war strategies. So I had the bunker to myself. Besides, I didn't have any plans for today, so I could just lie in bed. I didn't think anyone would come for a few hours, at least.

An hour or two later, I heard a knock on the door. "Yeah?" I said, not even bothering to cover up how sick I was. Whoever it was, they were pounding on the door.

"April? Are you alright?"
"Don't come in, I'm-!" Well, guess Gwen, Kevin and Arnold didn't listen to my warning.
"You look.. different." Kevin snickered.
"Oh, would you shut up for a minute?" Arnold turned to me. "What happened to you?"

"I'm sick, was it not that obvious?" I said, visibly being sarcastic.
"You're freezing." he said gently. "Should I make soup?"
"Sure."
"We'll leave you two lovebirds alone." Gwen and Kevin awkwardly backed out of the room.

We just pretended that never happened and moved on. End of discussion.

"So, do you wanna hear about my build idea? It's kind of stupid." Arnold warned me.
"Yeah, what's the idea?"
"Basically, it's a chess board. You have your pawns, knights, rooks/castles, kings, queens, bishops, you get it. And then with something like lanterns as pawns, kings and queens as banners, it could work out. And if you win, you get gold or something like that."

"I-"
I ran to an empty room, which was supposed to be an enchanting setup, and closed the door behind me. And then I threw up. In the room. Better clean that up, then.

"Hey, hey, it's alright." a hand patted me. And we sort of, may or may not have just kissed. Yes, a kiss is the aftermath of me puking in what was supposed to be the enchanting room.

Yashi, Noah, Olivia, Kevin and Gwen came home. And witnessed us kissing.
"Took you two long enough." Noah and Yashi said in sync.
"Shut up, the two of you." I coughed.
"Alright, alright, no need to get all rude! Anyway, I heard you were sick. You okay?" Olivia asked.

"I've been worse."
"So, about my idea..?"
"I like it." I smiled. For real this time. I wasn't faking it.

Arnold then got some beetroot soup, which I took gratefully. Things were a bit quiet and awkward until I accidentally spilled some of the soup on him. Everyone else was practically dying of laughter while I was frantically apologising and Arnold was trying to convince me he was fine.

I honestly forgot I was sick for a couple hours when I was with Arnold. He was.. different. He was someone who I could trust, who knew what it was like. Who knew what it was like to be controlled.

By sunset, everyone was at the base and asleep. I remembered all the things we'd done today and smiled to myself, while drinking the tonic Gwen had made. And I slept.

A/N: long chapter and it's not that interesting, ik just some cute moments involving Arnold and April. Also I have no idea why I wrote this but I did and it's a bit cringe but not that bad.