Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-32745070-20190205222446/@comment-37150451-20190215110052

Isla

So this wasn’t going as planned.

“Hey, mum! Hey grandma! Who was at the door—” Michael entered the kitchen, where Amelia, Thelma and I were. “Oh god…” he facepalmed himself.

Michael’s mum and grandma, was hugging me to death. I swear to Thor, Thelma is extremely strong at hugging, and then there’s Amelia, who is even stronger at hugging than Thelma. Who knew hugs can harm you? It’s BREATHTAKING! Hehe, see what I did there? OK, I’ll leave.

“Oh, Michael!” Amelia explained, thankfully letting go off me, same with Thelma. Yes, I made it, I’m alive! “She is exactly the way you described her! You two would make a great couple!” Amelia said enthusiastically. ''Woah, mate! ''I thought in surprise. Getting those kind of questions out, huh?

“Exactly!” Thelma agreed. “Look at her!” The old woman walked on her stick over to me and managed to open my mouth somehow. “Look at her teeth!” Thelma yelped. “So white and shiny!” ''They are actually, like, yellow. I need to go to the dentist but that place is my nightmare. At least they are not as ugly as Harn’s… ''“And look!” Thelma let go of my mouth and gestured to all of me. “She is beautiful!” Yeesh.

“And not only that,” Amelia piped up, “she is funny, polite and opened a jar that none of us could of have opened in years! She did it easily!” She poked my shoulder. “She is perfect for you, Michael!”

“Argh! Mum!” Michael complained, dragging her away from me into the lounge room, and started whispering her. I caught him saying, “We’re not…that!” I looked around his house. It was rusty and old. Ew no, ew no, ew no! A spider! A spider! My biggest fear! Oof…

“Oh well.” I heard Thelma come up behind me. “At least he forgot about me.” She winked at me. “So…” She leant on the table. “How did you two meet?”

“Um, listen Thelma,” I tried to say. “We are not like that. Everyone thinks we are, but we are not. I’m a single pringle, Thelm.”

Thelma chuckled. “Everyone says that.”

I stayed silent but eventually continued. “We just meet up a lot because I’m Michael’s trainer for Chief. We just hang out…”

Thelma sighed. “Isly, it’s most probably because you tell yourself that. When I met Michael’s grandpa I was exactly like you. A woman who just wants to be free, with no one to worry about in life. When I met my husband, he was the sweetest man ever. He changed me, in a good way.” She walked past me to the drinks and I scrunched up my nose in confusement.

“Wait, Isly?” I asked.

“Nickname. Anyway, the more I hanged out with him I started to have little thoughts about him and I changed a bit. I loved him, but I never admitted it, or even knew it. That could be happening to you.”

I was about to protest, but I stopped myself. Could she be right? Am I just not admitting this? There were some wise words under that fun, enthusiastic Haddock grandma.

I can’t love him anyway, I told myself sternly. ''I can’t love anyone. I don’t want to. I’m just…afraid. Afraid of losing someone I may love, like my parents. Afraid of being hurt. Afraid of being…''afraid.

Gotta stick with being a ‘single pringle’, Isla.

I sighed. “Maybe. I just don’t know. I’m just confused, that’s what. Michael has helped me so much you can’t imagine. He has treated me like no one has ever before, and it’s been a while since someone else treated me like that. He is just so kind to me, so honest and fair. I don’t know…I really don’t know…I just know that I’m really glad I met him. Your grandson is amazing, Thelma. I also know that. He is a great leader, even though he doesn’t know it. You’re lucky. I’m lucky…” Wow, I didn’t realize I was saying that out loud!

Thelma nodded approvingly. “I believe you are in the same situation I was in.” She came to me from the chair and grabbed my hands. “Go to the party with him. Do it. He has been talking about this forever. Once he said in his sleep, “Isla. Don’t hurt Isla” I think he appreciates you too, Isla. You can do it…”

After considering this, I nodded, but still was in confusion. I can do what? All I’m going to is a party, eat food and do nothing. Do they know something I don’t? And Michael said my name in his sleep?

“I will, Thelma,” I said, gripping her hands tighter. “I will never want to break his heart.” As soon as I said that, Michael and Amelia arrived, with Michael holding his hands nervously, and Amelia smiling widely. What did they talk about? Amelia winked at me and I just rolled my eyes.

“Isla and I will go now,” Michael announced. He was in a clean shirt with jeans on. “Since you guys are still getting ready.”

I nodded quickly, grabbing my jacket from the chair and walked to Michael. He looked at me for one second worriedly and back at Thelma. “You better not have stopped Isla from breathing by hugs.”

Thelma laughed. “No I didn’t actually, but it’s sweet seeing how protective you are of her.”

Michael slapped himself. “Let’s just go…” he said, heading for the door. I nodded and followed him.

“Have fun on your walk you two!” Thelma called to us. We just chuckled and exited the house. Inferno came with us after playing with Fatty. We just walked in an awkward silence. We decided to walk by the way.

Michael seemed really quiet. Too quiet. He isn’t usually like this. “Your relatives are nice. And funny. And strong,” I laughed.

“Yeah…”

“How’d the talk go?”

“Good…”

Another few minutes of silence.

Until—

“MICHAEL!!!” A teenage girl about our age came running to us in high heels and in a dress. She had her hair all stylish and her nails were like ''swords! ''She looked like the girly, girly kind of girl. The ones that are like ‘let’s go shopping every single day!’ or ‘THAT DRESS IS SO PRETTY!!!’ or the kind of mean girls. Let’s just find out…

Michael sighed and rubbed his head. “Oh, hey, Valin…” he said, trying to sound nice. “It’s so good seeing you again.”

This Valin chick gasped dramatically and placed her hand on her heart. “Aw, thanks, Michael!” she said in a squeaky voice. “It’s SOOOO good seeing you too!” On the corner of my eye, I saw Michael roll his eyes. I rolled mine too.

“So, uh, where are you going?” Michael asked, not really caring though.

“To this stupid party of course!” Valin explained. I was pretty angry after she said that. This is a party that Michael’s parents planned for all firefighters in honour of their hard work and how much lives they saved. They didn’t deserve to have a party being called ‘stupid’. “You invited me!” Valin squealed.

Michael looked behind him, back at Valin, then behind him, expecting there to be a random person who could’ve invited Valin. Afterwards he pointed to himself. “Me? I didn’t invite you.”

“Oh whatever. I know you would’ve invited me anyway,” Valin said with confidence and flipped her hair. Michael’s face clearly said, “No I wouldn’t and I never will”. Ha, but seriously who is this Valin girl?

“So I’ve been thinking—” Valin continued but stopped, glaring at me. “Privacy. Beat it.”

“Hey, don’t talk to her like that!” Michael flared.

“Whatever,” Valin scoffed. She sighed after looking at Michael’s glare and said, “Fine. Please can we please have privacy, person.” I chuckled.

“Yeah sure, Ms Self-Ego,” I smirked, while walking away. I heard Valin say, “Hm, I like that name. I do have a lot of self-ego. I mean, I’m so pretty!” She twirled around in her dress and I burst out laughing when I was out of sight. Man, I already hate this Valin girl…

After waiting for them to finish their talk, Michael and I walked to the party, with Valin going to her friends squealing her head off just because they haven’t seen each other in two hours. “What was that about?”

“Nothing important. Just how things are holding up.”

I nodded and Michael explained he had to go see his father and some firefighter friends. He’ll be back though to try and beat me to see how much hot dogs we can eat. Game on, Haddock. I made my way over to the food and drinks and my eyes widened. Chocolate. Chocolate cake. Cake. Food. Food. Food. Food. This is my dream! I started digging in on the chocolate. Better not get too crazy after this! I saw a tall, muscular, not happy looking man come up to the stage. Hm, must be Michael’s father if he is the boss! “Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “My name is Jon Idelson, now Jon Haddock, the boss of the Fire Department of The Hidden World, and welcome to the 25th Anniversary of the Fire Department!” The crowd erupted in cheers. I clapped along with others. I also noticed that there were a lot of people here. I thinked Michael didn’t invite me to fill more seats, but to just get me to ''come. Oh, Michael.''

After eating and listening to the talking, Jon had finished and invited Michael to the stage. He nervously walked up and now my full attention was on him. He cleared his throat. “Ahem…um…well…thanks for coming…” he stuttered. I saw Jon facepalm himself. I think Jon and Michael don’t have a good relationship… “Erm…this night is a night to celebrate the night when the Fire Department started by Alim Dinkins…” ''Oh hey! You learn something every day, don’t you! ''“So, uh, we are here to pay our respect for—” Michael was interrupted by the crowd, who had started talking and ignored poor Michael in boredom. I sighed. Michael doesn’t deserve this. He is trying! I nodded at Inferno and he roared loudly, catching everyone’s attention.

“Hey!” I yelled. “How would you yak dungs like it if more than a hundred people interrupted you from a speech you spent hard time on!? Quiet!”

“Why would we listen to you?” A random dude yelled back.

“Because I’m a Guardian!” I shouted, bringing out my badge. The dude shrank back, feeling guilty. “And you better listen to your future Chief otherwise you’ll get kicked out. No fun. No drinks. No food.” I nodded at Michael, and he nodded back in appreciation. Everyone went silent.

“So, I guess we’ll just get to the main point…” Michael started again, and went back into the speech. Wow! He had confidence now. His speech was actually good! Five minutes later the music went on, and everyone just randomly started dancing. Seriously, a random guy started dancing with a random stranger. The dance floor was crowded, and I realized everyone was switching dance partners in the middle of dancing. Oh, no, no. ''Oh, no, no, no! No dancing! Not for me! ''I spotted Michael, trying to avoid anyone who wanted to dance with him. He spotted me and walked over.

“Um…” he scratched the back of his neck. “Want to see who can eat the most hot dogs?” (HA! I bet you were thinking he’d ask Isla to dance, didn’t you?) He laughed. I laughed too. He knew how much I hated dancing.

“Sure!” I answered. Then in a sudden, someone grabbed Michael and pulled him onto the dance floor.

That person was Valin. Michael told me her full name was Valin Tine. I growled in annoyance and a bit of…jealously maybe?

I sighed. I guess no hot dog competitions then. And I guess Valin likes Michael.

Suddenly, someone grabbed me too, and pulled me onto the dance floor. This person was one I’ve never seen before.

And then the dancing began.