PARASITIC (Among Us)

Four: All Work and No Play Makes Po a Dull Girl

        Cole looms over my shoulder as she watches me pull heaps of wires out of the wall and drop them on the floor in Storage, not bothering to help in the slightest. I shouldn't expect her to, but it would be courteous enough of her to at least ask if I need a hand. Mundy sits with the PDA in her possession on top of the boxes in the middle of the room. I breathe deeply and pick up a pink wire end, untangling the pile to find the other. Uni and Runky pass through and wave to Cole who waves back with a smile. I roll my eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" I whisper.

"Doing what?"

This!" I huff, waving my arms around in frustration, bundles of wires in each hand. She looks me up and down and shifts her weight to one leg, crossing her arms. "Why are you an Impomrrrmrmrmmrrrrr," I mumble and threaten to shock her with my cables as she bars me from speaking with her hand over my mouth.

"Shh, the others might hear you!" She lets me go. "And I don't have to tell you anything! That's my business, so maybe you should mind yours."

"Then what do you need me for?" I start to pick apart the colors and match them up to shove them back into the wall. "What's your goal?"

"Not mine, Its. It has a goal, and I'm just making sure that it's fulfilled," Cole speaks sternly as she's now upset by my short and tame outburst. "You think I know what It wants either? All I've been told is to-- Nevermind, that's giving too much away."

"Now would be a great time to share with the class, Cole," I flinch when the blue wires spark together.

"I don't want to."

"Ugh! Meep, I'm serious!" Po yells and her voice travels into Storage from the hallway that leads to Admin, and I listen in while I match the yellow cables next. "Where are your tasks?"

"Why not finish all of your tasks first? Isn't that more efficient?" Meep counters. I glance up at Cole with a curious expression on and she looks back with one of mischief. I start to carefully place the wires back in the hole in the wall, reconnecting the red ones last. "Po, for real? You're going to call an emergency meeting? It's your only one."

"You're acting weird, Meep, and I don't like it! You know for a fact that now is the worst time for your antics," she rips them a new one.

Con, Crow, and Battery enter the storage room from Electrical, Mundy slipping off of the boxes to catch up with Scout and Triple-A. I close the panel on the wall and wave to the trio, turning my attention to the hallway when I hear a soft clatter. Po groans and picks up her wallet that she dropped on the floor. Meep takes it from her, and Dukie growls at them. Con steps in when it looks as though a confrontation is going to start. "Whoa, hey! What's going on?"

"Meep is acting really strange and won't tell me where any of their tasks are, and we all know what the guidelines said about people who don't do their tasks," Po gives us the rundown of the situation.

"I was just trying to introduce efficiency," Meep sighs. "Po was going to waste her emergency meeting just to complain to you guys that I'm not completing tasks when I was trying to have Po do all of hers first. Wouldn't it be faster if she did all of hers and then we did mine?"

"But you didn't do anything in Electrical and we all have something to do in Electrical. Like, c'mon, seriously?"

"You didn't even finish all of your Electrical tasks in the first place," Meep aggressively stacks. "And I'm pretty sure Ten doesn't do anything in Electrical."

"She's a medic!"

"Well," Battery gently gives her input, "I see what you were trying to do Meep. Though, it is a bit odd that you decided not to do your tasks inside of Electrical while you were both in there. I understand where Po is coming from."