Hurricane Island [Diddy Kong x Dixie Kong]

Chapter 47: Excluded

The next day was a new start of the week and, this time, Diddy and Dixie did meet again with their friends, since they had all reconciled, or at least hoped that this reconciliation had been sincere.

Diddy and Dixie got back to where the ship was under construction. They assumed that things would continue as normal in a social environment... although it didn't seem to be so. To begin with, they were received by the looks of weirdness and others of impact by the herd of kong children: some looked at them as if they were celebrities that everyone was talking about, and also some groups could be seen that, at first glance, were seen secretly gossiping about the two of them... and yes, all because of the scandal a couple of days ago. Diddy and Dixie were feeling somewhat uncomfortable because of all the indirect attention they were receiving. Both heard certain kong children murmuring and some could even be heard laughing quietly.

Then, they met Melvyn and greeted him. He returned the greeting as soon as he noticed them.

"Hi, Melvyn!" they both said, smiling at him.

"Hi, friends," Melvyn replied. "I thought you weren't coming."

"And why not?" Diddy said with a little laugh. "Where are the others?"

"They're over there assembling the sails of the ship," Melvyn said. Then, without saying more, he left... as if nothing.

Diddy and Dixie headed to where Melvyn had indicated. Their other friends were on the deck of the ship. This one already looked well advanced; there were still many pieces left, but at first glance, it was already taking ship shape, although as already mentioned... it wasn't as huge in the end as they had planned, but still, it looked spacious enough for a herd of kong children.

But there was something that seemed a bit strange to Diddy and Dixie: and that is that their four friends, in general, used to receive the four of them together as soon as the two of them arrived, but this time... it seemed to be different. Upon going up to the deck of the ship, they met Mandy and Ricky, who were placing the sails on the ship's masts.

"Hi, friends!" Diddy and Dixie said at the same time.

"Ah, hi, how are you?" Mandy replied, barely turning to look and greet them.

"How are you?" Ricky told them in a calm tone. "We were already waiting for you; we hadn't seen you."

"We just arrived," Diddy replied, watching the whole ship around. "What did you do yesterday?"

"We didn't make much progress, but we hope we do today," Ricky replied, keeping his eyes on what he was doing.

Diddy and Dixie continued to observe in detail how the ship was going. They were inspecting any corner at random to find out the latest news. But there was something that was catching their attention that day... although it was something rather neutral: and it's that Mandy and Ricky were still working on their thing, which was obvious, but... it was in a way that began to give them the feeling that they had been greeted with a little indifference. Both didn't take it much of importance at first, so they spoke to them anyway.

"Hey, and how can we help you?" Dixie asked.

Ricky looked up at them a second time, and then stood pensively as he looked around, before looking at the sails they were assembling.

"Do you want to help us with these sails?" Ricky pointed to them. "We must also tie them to these meshes."

Diddy and Dixie joined the work with Ricky and Mandy; now they had to assemble the sails and place them on the masts, in addition to weaving some meshes that would later serve to fasten them to the edges of the ship. They both took care of one of the sails in particular... but then Mandy and Ricky had left them both alone to do that work; their two friends had gone to do something else and didn't even speak to them again.