Chapter 7 - Beat It, Corendal

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TicToc ran past a family of seven, a large animal she couldn't make out because she was going so quickly, and two others who clearly weren't related considering one wasn't even the same ethnicity. Maybe they were a couple? They looked like they could've been. They looked oddly familiar.. Who knows. But that didn't matter. At that moment, she was running away from a crazy woman screaming and chasing her.

"Get back here, child! I only want to talk to you!" Screamed the woman, but from the way she said it, TicToc didn't believe her one bit.
"No, you psycho!" TicToc yelled back, losing breath, "Just leave me be!"

TicToc ran as fast as her tiny legs would carry her until she reached a dead end.
"Come on, child. I only want to be your fr-"
"No," huffed TicToc, trying to catch her breath, "We're in a freaking hotel, man, I expect peace. This is where people go to relax, not run away from crazy ladies like you!"
"Yes, but I have no friends, child!" The woman said much too cheerfully for what she just said.
"No wonder.." she muttered to herself.

Out of nowhere, some random guy approached them. He had fiery red hair and was wearing nothing but jeans.

He asked the two in an unnaturally annoying voice, "Excuse me, do you know where the bathroom is?"
"Actually, yeah, it's ri-" TicToc was interrupted.
"Hello, good sir. My name is Corendal Lana and I am appalled that you would ask an innocent child and disturb me to ask such a stupid question. There are signs everywhere!"
"I'll do it on your foot," said the man.
"Uh, it's right there, sorry about her. Have a nice day," TicToc told him.
"What a disgusting idea! Peeing on my foot! Doesn't that man have any decency?" Corendal said to herself.
TicToc stared at her blankly, "How is it possible to be so weird.."
"I know!"
"No, I was talking about you, Corendal," TicToc sighed.
"Oh."

TicToc walked over to a bench near the reception and sat down. Corendal followed.

"Why are you following me, anyway?" She asked.
"Because, I have no home!" Cried Corendal, pretty happily.
"Yeah, but I don't either. You're following the wrong person, dude," replied TicToc.
"Yes, but my family are weird, I don't like them. Except my seven cats, they're fine, but my children won't let me keep them!" Corendal beamed.
TicToc winced, "You have kids?! Man, no wonder they're annoying, they must get it from you."
"No, they get it from my husband!" Laughed Corendal, "What would give you that idea?"
"Gee, I don't know," TicToc replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "Well, I don't even have any parents or any other family to run from. I just literally don't have a home."
Corendal smiled, "Oh, that's sad!"
"I literally have nowhere to live!"
"Yes, I know, I heard you."
TicToc rolled her eyes.

They sat there for a while in silence when the receptionist glanced over at them.

"Excuse me, ma'am, are you and your son checking in?" She asked.
TicToc looked in her direction, blinking rapidly, "Did you just call me her son?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, are you not her son? Where are your parents then?"
"Well for one, I have no parents, and for two, I'm a girl, " TicToc replied.
The receptionist's face went scarlet, "I-I.. my mistake.." then she said, "But are you waiting to check in?"

Corendal wandered over to the reception, her head moving about slowly as she stared at the ceiling. Then she slammed her hands on the desk and asked completely out of the blue, "Why is there music coming from your desk? Is this an elevator? It sounds like elevator music."
"Well, actually-"
"Where'd you get it? The electrical stoooooooore?!" She squealed.
"Uh.." the receptionist was lost for words.
TicToc sighed and came over too, "No, we checked in already. At least I did. I dunno if she did. She probably did. Anyway, where's the nearest bus outta here? My gut is telling me I gotta get to a certain place.. I don't know the name but I can picture it exactly in my head. It's weird.. I'm from a different state and I spent most of my life in Spain, so the reason I can picture it is beyond me but I'm getting off track here, 'cause that's not important. I just need to know where the next bus is, 'kay?"
The receptionist thought for a moment and said, "Yes there is, are you going to a costal area or more continental?"
"Costal," TicToc replied.
"Alright, do you know roughly how close it is?"
"I wanna say an hour or two away? I dunno.. it's near a pretty small beach I think.."
The receptionist smiled kindly and said, "Alrighty, I think I know where you're going! It sounds like the place I grew up. There's a bus stop that only has two busses, one comes every half hour, the other every five minutes. The half hour one stops there last before backtracking. Just take that bus and you should be there by.." she checked the time, "Oh, I actually don't think you'll make it today. How about you wait til morning. I'll wave you off."
TicToc sighed, knowing she'd have to share some sort of room with Corendal, but smiled because she knew she could get to where she wanted to be.
"Thanks," she said.

She headed off to the bathroom with Corendal. It didn't smell great, but there were three out of order cubicles, so they claimed one each and climbed over the walls using the toilets from two in-order cubicles right beside the ones they claimed. How convenient.

They spent the night in those cubicles, somehow without getting caught, as TicToc prepared for her journey the next day.
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Author's Note

Why is it that I can turn a four minute episode into a chapter with almost one thousand words, but I can also only turn some half hour episodes into three hundred word chapters? Hopefully that doesn't happen with the next two because they're pretty long.. the next one should be okay at least but the last one may be a problem because I don't like that episode too much. We messed up the idea 😂

There is no episode in between this and the next, but TicToc is home in that one, so please don't be confused 😂

Welp, see you in the next one!

-KP x

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