Diddly Doo Squad

Chapter 6

"Man! Today was awful," Danielle fell onto the couch with a sigh.

"What happened?" Cat asked.

"The baby elephant we were watching had its first little poop. All was fine and stuff until the intern we had started to freak out about it. And," Danielle waved her hand in exasperation, "he irritated the others, and we had to work double time to calm them down again. And one of the elephants stepped on shit, so we had to clean them and the place. God!" She cracked her back while stretching. "That felt wonderful."

Uneasy, Cat smiled. "What a day, huh?"

"Did you guys have a bad day too?" Al walked in, worn and tired.

"She did," Cat said.

"Aw." Al walked to the fridge, and had to side step when Cat bumped into him. It was like pressing a button for apologies.

"Sorry!" She moved to the left just as he did. Then right. They mirrored each other's movements until Al held Cat's shoulders and manually turned them around.

"Sorry," she mumbled and went to Danielle.

Danielle had watched the interaction and lifted her eyebrow. She raised the water bottle she held to her lips to hide the smile.

Al had rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled. He downed the water in his bottle in one go, surprising both the girls.

Allana had emerged from her room. "How was your day?" she asked Al.

"Good. Great."

Allana stared at Al, furrowing her brows in concern. "Were you fired already?"

"What? No!"

"Mhmhmm." Allana tiptoed around Al like a prey and a predator. He watched her in confusion and whipped around when Danielle snickered.

"What?" he demanded.

"Nothing!" Danielle bit the inside of her cheek to stop the bubble of laughter.

Allana saw her friend's struggle and had to control her own giggle. Meanwhile, Cat focused intently on her book, oblivious to what was happening.

Rija walked in with a big smile on her face, holding multiple shopping bags. Ryan trailed along behind her, carrying his own set of bags.

"Went on a splurge, did we?" asked Danielle.

"Maybe," Ryan grinned, obviously more happy than he was the day before.

"We did buy a few necessities. We were out on toilet paper and tater tots."

"What?" Cat had popped up from her book. "Trevvy bought some like, yesterday."

"Yeah, but Al ate them all."

Al beamed a boyish grinned at the group. and silently slipped into his room.

"Explains it," Danielle said.

Ryan was putting away the meat when he caught a glimpse of his reflection on the fridge. He narrowed his eyes and peered at himself.

"What're you doing?" Rija asked.

"I think I need to get my eyebrows done."

Danielle introduced her palm to her forehead and watched the TV with a blank stare.

"Maybe get my hair done too," Ryan continued, "maybe my nails or something."

"Take a selfie when you're done!" Rija said.

"Oh, no, girl. You're coming with me."

Rija widened her eyes. "What? No!"

"Oh, come on. It'd be fun! We'd get to spend a day pampering ourselves and we get to tell each other stories while—"

"What stories did you have in mind?" Rija shook her head and propped an arm on her hip.

"Well...I don't know."

"Exactly. Hmph!" She pivoted and went to her room to study.

Ryan blinked and smiled sheepishly at the Cat, who was laughing at him. "Go away, Cat."

Danielle rose and stretched, making inhumane sounds.

"What was that?" Ryan asked.

"Yo' mum!" Danielle retorted and walked back to her room, laughing at her own joke.

Ryan shook his head, turned the kitchen light off and waved at Cat.

Cat was so submerged in the book, he went unnoticed. When she did surface, it was already 2AM.

Oh, she thought. Oops.