Little Superstar (Placeholder title)

Running Late

Tell me why. Just WHY in all the cosmos did they have to have the road works on every single road we just HAPPENED to take?! Just tell me that, what kinda luck is that?!" Sundrop complained childishly as he and his twin brother, Moondrop, made their way along the pavement.

The slight incline of the paved ground proved to be a minor chore. Not to mention the tree roots that burst through the stone like unruly tendrils chose to try and trip the duo as they continued their trek, one synchronised step after the other over gravel, stone and tarmac.
Every so often, a bird cawed and croaked at the dappled grey sky, briefly grasping the attention of the animatronic pair.

"For the fifth and final time, Sunny, will you stop whining about it?!" Moondrop grumbled with a scowl on his faceplate as he turned to give his brother a stern red-eyed glare.
The 'moon' side of his face bore a disconcerting frown rather than his usual calm expression, and to be perfectly frank neither the complaining nor the fact that the two were running late helped him in any way, shape or form.
He stole a look at his brother, who was pouting like a kid, prompting the lunar-themed animatronic to puff out a sigh. It was way too early for any fights with his twin.

Checking the time, Moon saw that it was just coming up to 7 in the morning. Only one or two minutes to go, give or take.
As usual, the daycare would open at 7am, hours of chaos would run between the day cycle and the night cycle, and thanks to the cheapskates who ran the darn place, it now closed at 9pm rather than having the 24 hour cycle from before.
It was always 'budget' this and 'cutting costs' that, the excuses grating on the brothers like invisible shredders on their bodies.

With another sigh, Moondrop rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, a tired groan escaping his voicebox.

"There's nothing we could do about it. Look, let's just get there as quick as we can before management considers yelling at us a good idea. Again..." he reasoned, stepping over yet another peak of a tree root with a light jingle of his bells.
Sundrop followed suit, his pout dwindling into his usual smile as he walked with his twin in silence for the time being.

The weather didn't look like it was going to improve; all the brothers hoped for was no sign of any rain.
Sure, the two were pretty water-tight, thanks to their cleaning protocols and some of the activities with the little ones involving water on occasion, but neither of them wanted to run the risk of malfunctioning or rusting.

Especially since they were nowhere near the pizzaplex yet.

Every now and then, Sun would fall behind to glance up at the sky to triple-check there was no rain coming, or even get distracted by a stray poster or the sound of a car going past, then picking up the pace to catch up with Moon's quick, rhythmic strides.

Nearing the top of the hill, the two were taken aback when they noticed the sound of....laughter?
Someone was nearby, they were absolutely sure of it!

Intrigued, the pair of animatronics both drew closer and closer to the top of the light hill, stopping when they saw the gated entrance of a vast building -both in height and length- that was bordered with varnished wooden fence-posts and had many areas of green grass spreading across the ground.
A silver car-park was just to the left of the building, only a couple of cars and a large yellow bus was parked in the otherwise empty spaces.
Each entrance was marked with yellow doors, and a faint yellow light shone from the windows and corridors.

What was the most intriguing was the one who was waiting outside of the gates.

Sun and Moon were shocked, neither of them able to believe their optics.
This person looked......familiar.

Outside the gates was a little girl, happily playing jump-rope and humming to herself as she did so.
Her movements were quick and skilled, as if she'd been doing this all her life, even though she only appeared to be around five or six years of age. Seven at most, Sun and Moon reckoned.

Her dark brown hair flipped and fluttered wildly as she joyfully skipped outside of the gate to keep herself busy.
Each smack the dark skipping rope gave the ground was in a pleasant syncopated tempo with her landing on the stone pavement, her brown boots looking like they were made of springy rubber thanks to the way they touched the ground only for a second.
She had on blue leggings under a red long-sleeved dress, and as she turned around in a wonderfully executed double-dutch movement, Sundrop and Moondrop saw the pure black eyes of the girl, which seemed to reflect the light shining down on them in the pitch black voids.

"Say..." Sun mused in surprise, his eyes bright with recognition.
He turned to his twin, a smile still evident on his faceplate.
"Doesn't this little one look familiar to you?" he asked, Moon looking over at the girl who was still skipping gleefully by the gates.
He squinted, then his own eyes widened as he gasped softly, hands on his hips.

"By the stars, she does!" Moon declared, Sun letting out a joyful laugh before he turned back to the skipping girl, raising a mechanical hand to try and get her attention.

"Suzie, is that you? Hey there!!" Sundrop greeted with a wave, and the girl stopped dead in her tracks.
Her skipping rope fell flat on the floor like a stunned snake, causing the girl to frown momentarily; who was it that wanted to interrupt her game so badly?
She held the ends of the rope in her hand and gave a childish glare, only to stop short when she laid eyes on two familiar figures in the distance.
One was waving happily, greeting her with a friendly smile, while the other seemed shocked yet pleased to see her.

Everything came rushing back to her, memories gushing forth once the floodgates of her mind opened.
It was them!
It was really them!!
But what were they doing here so early in the morning?
Were they going somewhere too?

Before she could stop herself, she made her way to the two animatronics, her own smile refusing to fade.

"Sunny! Moony!!" the girl crowed happily, drawing nearer to the duo all while making sure she still had the school in her line of sight.
She could see a few lights flickering on in the building, and she knew that school would be starting soon, but it was nice to see some familiar faces before the day started.