Story 1 Part 3: What's So Funny?
~~~
"Attention everyone!" Russell hopped onto the chair. Everyone gathered around exchanging glances.
"Good! Everyone's here. Now I want all of you to know that I've taken the liberty of-"
He was interrupted by scattered giggling amongst the crowd. He looked down at everyone and the giggling ceased. He raised an eyebrow.
"I've... Taken... The liberty... Of-"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" All the pets laughed. Russell stood there, looking around at everyone. He wondered what they were laughing about THIS time. He crossed his arms.
"Okay. What's so funny?" He said seriously. He looked a few pets in the eyes, but they kept smiling, struggling to hold in their laughter.
"Are we done now?...." He looked around, arms still crossed. "Good...I've taken the liberty of listing all the things that-"
"PFFT." Vinnie had a hard time taking Russell seriously.
"Is there a problem, Vinnie?" Russell was face to face with him.
"Haaa... Whaat noo noo. Nothing. At all," Vinnie lied.
"If by nothing you mean the picture of Russell in a dress, then that's definitely something! Eek!" Minka blurted out. Russell's eyes widened and he immediately dropped his clipboard.
"MINKA!" Everyone looked at her.
"Heehee... Oops..."
"Wait.... What?... Picture?.... Dress?" Russell asked worriedly.
"This one," Fiona calmly held it up. Everyone looked at her a bit shocked. They didn't expect her to fess up. Russell snatched it quickly and looked at it.
"Wha... I-I-I... " he couldn't make out any words. He stood there with his mouth agape.
"Aw it's okay Russell. Only all seven of us looked at it," Penny Ling attempted to comfort him.
"A-All of you?" He looked around and stood there like an idiot for a few seconds. His cheeks were completely flustered. They all nodded.
"..... Well...." He cleared his throat. "It seems I know my place now.... Since no one can take me seriously anymore..." Russell dragged himself off the armchair and walked towards the fire hydrant. They all watched him walk away.
"Too harsh?" Sunil shrugged.
"Eh I'm sure he'll be fine," Vinnie reassured.
"I hope so. I hate seeing Russell this way," Penny Ling added.
---
Blythe walked down the hallway. Everyone she passed was reading the school newspaper.
"Okay. This is super weird. I'm going to go check things out..." Blythe made her way to the news room. She opened the door to find the Biskit twins sitting at a desk. Blythe gasped.
"Omg! I knew something was up!"
"Well well well. Hello, Blythe," Brittany said. "Like, what are you doing here?"
"I'm here because I was wondering why the school newspaper has so many gossip columns!" Blythe held up the paper and pointed out all the articles they made.
"Yeah we made it.... So?" Whittany flipped her hair.
"Sooo I'm saying that this is wrong!" Blythe put her hands on her hips. The twins looked at her.
"Well we don't, like, care."
"Yah. Stay out of our, like, business." They continued looking at their nails.
"Ughh...." Blythe angrily left the room.
---
Minka peeked through the fire hydrant hole. "Hellooo Russell!" She smiled happily. Russell looked at her, then turned away. He crossed his arms and sat there. Minka tapped her chin. She crawled in and went up to Russell. "I said HELLOOO Russell!" She stood there smiling. Russell didn't look at her. She poked his belly once, hoping to make him laugh, or at least smile. He jumped a bit.
"Eep!..." He looked at her with an unamused look. "Ugh." He curled himself up in a ball.
"Hmm..." She made her way out. "Yep. He's not talking."
"Well what do we do? He can't be sad the whole day," Penny Ling said.
"Oh I know! How about we find out who took the picture? Then that person apologizes to him," Zoe suggested.
"Hm yes but how are we going to figure that out?" Sunil asked. Vinnie pushed Sunil aside.
"Oh don't you worry about that my tall mongoose friend," Vinnie cleared his throat, "Alright who did it? It has to be one of us here."
"Wasn't me."
"Nope."
"Don't look at me."
All the pets said.
"You know we could really use Cyril McFlip at a time like this, but right now he's the victim," Zoe stated. Everyone scratched their heads.
"Well... We should just ask Russell if he saw any suspicious activity," Fiona suggested.
"Good idea... But only one problem... Russell will not talk to us," Sunil pointed at him in the fire hydrant. She shrugged.
"It's worth a try. I'll do it." She walked up to it. "Hello?... Russell, right?... So uh... I'm Fiona. And I was wondering if you would tell us if you saw anyone."
Russell uncurled himself and sighed. "Sorry Fiona. I don't really want to talk about it." He drooped his ears. Fiona looked around.
"Will you at least tell me one thing you saw or something?"
He tapped his chin. "I think I recall seeing a camera... But I could've just been paranoid... I think I saw a grey bushy tail, too...." He looked away, remembering that moment. Fiona patted his head.
"That's great! We know who did it now."
"What? Already?"
"Duh. Who else has a grey bushy tail," Fiona pointed to Pepper. Russell's eyes widened. Then he looked down.
"Are you sure Pepper would do something like tha-.... Hm.... Come to think of it...."
Fiona put her arm around him. "Look let's just calmly confront her and then she can apologize then and there." Russell thought for a moment. Then he shook his head.
"I'm not coming out of here..." He hugged his knees to his chest. Fiona watched him sulk. Then she sighed.
"You're a tough one."
---
"What? The Biskit Twins? Why am I not surprised.. So what do you think we should do?" Youngmee was talking to Blythe.
"Expose them."
"Good idea!... But how?" She asked.
"Honestly I'm not really sure..."
Jasper then walked up to both of them. "I couldn't help but overhear that you two are trying to expose the Biskit's? We could use my camera!"
"Really? That's great! But we need to do this in a reasonable way. We don't want to become them," Blythe stated.
"What do you mean?" Youngmee asked.
"What I mean is that we don't want to be like them. They're putting pics of people on the newspapers in a bad way."
"Right! So... Shall we get started?" Jasper pulled out his camera from his backpack.
