Project: High School

Chapter 21 - "Look, look! Isn't it adorable?!"

"I hate you."

"Oh!!" Katy slaps her hand to her forehead in a foux faint, "Thou hath declared thy hatred of me! Whatever shall I do?!"

Nelly snickers softly, quickly cutting herself off as Richerson glared at her.

"See.....I didn't break your husband. He was just stunned by my ingenuity and skill." Katy flips her hair over her shoulder as she turns back to teen behind the counter.

"Hiya, Hon. Mind ringing us up for a 1 v 1?"

The teen shifts a little, taken by surprise at Katie's choice of words. After a beat, they nod and turn to their doomsday weapon looking control panel. Richerson steps over to stand next to Katy, smacking her upside the head while he was at it.

"Hey!" She protested, swatting at his hand. "What was that for!?"

Richerson grabs the handles of the water gun in front of him, "Boo hoo, are you going to cry?"

He mocks her, and Nelly rolls her eyes at his antics behind the two. As the two began bickering with each other, she moved out of the splash zone and stood next to the teen behind a plastic guard.

"I apologize for those two in advance. This is going to get a bit rowdy..." She says to the teen as they watch the duo argue seemingly for the sake of arguing.

The machine beeps and begins speaking, "1 vs. 1 bubble battle will commence momentarily"

A high whining noise becomes louder as the fan on top of the set-up starts spinning.

"Battle begins in 3...2...1...Go!" The automated voice of the machine is just louder than the crowd.

The moment the word "go" sounded, Katy and Richerson start using the water guns to pop the bubbles that begin floating up from behind the counter. With each bubble they pop, the score on the scoreboard goes up, the two trading first place back and forth.

Minutes pass as Katy consistently increases her score methodically, each shot she takes is clearly well thought out and accurate, where Richerson is shooting wildly and not scoring as rapidly as Katy.

Finally, the timer ends and the bubbles cease to float. The teen stares at the scoreboard open mouthed, Katy had scored 345 and Richerson had scored 223 in 10 minutes. Nelly simply shakes her head and walks between the two, Katy cackling as Richerson goes off on some sort of rant about how her score shouldn't be possible.

"That's enough outta you, honey," She firmly grabs Richerson by the ear and pulls him away from the counter as the teen hands Katy a small calico cat plushy, which she happily takes.

"But, but...!" He whines, pouting as his 5' 4" wife drags him around by his ear, causing him to have to bend over slightly. Katy bounds over to them with a wide smile, holding the calico plushy up for them to see.

"Look, look! Isn't it adorable?!" The look on her face is the definition of childlike wonder and joy. Nelly lets go of Richerson's ear and ruffles Katy's hair with a motherly smile.

"Not as adorable as you are, sweetheart." Katy smiles again at Nelly's words and makes a happy noise in the back of her throat as Richerson pretends to gag behind Nelly. Seeing this, Katy bursts into a fit of giggles as the walk amongst the crowd.

"By the way, Katy. I was wondering how you managed to get to me before Richy did when you two were playing your little strategy game." Nelly slips her hand into Richerson's hand as they walk and reaches over to pull Katy closer to her.

"Well, for me it's simple. Richy was expecting me to use the crowd to my advantage and sneak around so he quickly maneuvered through the crowd using his height and broad build to push through." Katy holds up the cat plushy in the air as she speaks, looking at it lovingly, "But I didn't use the crowd to sneak through, I used them to distract him without him realizing it. I instead walked on the outskirts of the crowd and reached the booth in less than 20 seconds."

She shrugs nonchalantly but Richerson stares at her open mouthed for a long moment before shaking his head with a heavy sigh, "Once again, you never cease to amaze me. Using the crowd like that didn't even occur to me and yet you used it to your advantage flawlessly. Incredible, absolutely incredible Katy."

Katy laughs softly as her ears turn pink at Richerson's compliments to her skills and Nelly ruffles her hair again. They continue walking through the crowd for a while, stopping for a quick bite to eat around noon before returning to their wandering. It's around 1627 (4:27 on a 12 hour clock) when Katy spots another booth that peaks her interest.

As she drags the two over to it, a teenage boy around her age attempts to climb up a tilted net that's on a hammock frame, which is hooked up to two poles, one on each end. This makes the net extremely unstable and the guy falls off after climbing up a few rungs. His group of friends pat him on the back, assuring him that he did well compared to the rest of them. Katy reads through the rules of the game as Richerson chats quietly on the side with Nelly.

"I'm glad you suggested this, hun. It's definitely boosted her spirit, which she's going to need." Richerson says quietly, kissing Nelly's forehead.

"Seeing her smile is always nice. But..." She looks up at him worriedly, "What do you mean "going to need"? Is something going on?"

Richerson hesitates for a moment, looking over at Katy by the booth before turning back to his wife with a heavy sigh and a haggard expression on his face, "They're sending Katy undercover."

"They are WHAT?!?"

Richerson winces at Nelly's yell, covering her mouth and quickly glancing over to double check that Katy is occupied and hadn't heard them. Once sure Katy hadn't, he turns back to Nelly with a soft hiss, "Sshh! I'm not technically supposed to tell you this because it's top secret. But, I know you see her as your own child and I feel the same, so keep this to yourself."

Nelly stares at Richerson in horror, unable to comprehend that Katy is being sent somewhere undercover, but she nods when he says to keep the information to herself. She looks over at Katy, who's still watching people attempt the net climb with the occasional cackle, and bites her lip as she tries not to cry.

"Why? She's still a child, so why do they keep trying to make her grow up faster?"

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What's blue and not very heavy?

Light blue.