A Little Thing Called Imagination

Chapter 20

 The next day, Randy did indeed return. Chester was peacefully strolling around the track that day, gently grasping some spring flowers in his mouth.

"Aww, man! I can't wait to see the smile on Tweeteleet's face when she sees what I've brought her!" Chester thought to himself, unable to say it out loud since there were about a dozen flower stems clogging his mouth.

Suddenly, Chester's ear perked up as he detected a slight rustle in the bushes beside him. Almost automatically, Chester's brain switched from 'casual happy mode' to 'fight or flight' mode. Images were instantly flashing through Chester's mind like bolts of lightning, trying to predict what he was up against. "What's that? A stray cat? Perhaps that dreaded dog again? A fox? A badger?"

It was none of them. Randy swiftly leapt out of the bushes and proceeded to pounce directly onto Chester, knocking all the wind out of him and pinning him down. Promptly seizing the flowers, Randy scoffed at Chester, mumbled a quick "Weak." and quickly ran away with his gift. Chester's instincts immediately switched again, this time into 'You have made me extremely angry, and you are going to regret it.' mode.

"CHASE AFTER HIM!" his instincts screeched at him as he put himself in a sprinting position. Chester gave a low growl and prepared himself to take off, but just before he was about to do so, he suddenly remembered Tweeteleet's words from the previous day, and instead decided to push down his instincts, shake it off, and let it go. "No. Don't bother, Chester. It was only flowers. There's plenty of flowers around here nowadays. Just go back and get some more." he half-stated half-sighed to himself as he turned around to go back to the flower beds.

The next day, Randy made yet another inconvenience to the imaginary friends as he barged into Daisy's hiding spot during a game of hide and seek. The young ones had been at this game for about two and a half hours now, and things had been getting pretty intense.

"Alright, everyone. This is it." Chester announced to the rest of his imaginary siblings. "The final round of the playground hide and seek tourney is about to begin! Are our final contestants ready?"

Daisy, and her opponent, Bengeman, said nothing, instead, they simply looked at one another and nodded. "Allllright then!" Chester proceeded on. "Remember, it won't just be me seeking you two down this round. Tony, Jake, and Tweeteleet are all going to pitch in too, so don't consider your flying spots safe, Daisy." Chester reminded the young Robin.

"I won't," Daisy responded.

"Great!" Chester replied with a nod. Beckoning the other seekers to turn around and cover their eyes, Chester cleared his throat and began to count down. "One hundred!-" At the start of the count down, Daisy immediately took off and flew over to the portables. This was it. It was time to use her ultimate hiding spot. Tucking in her wings slightly to get into a small dive, Daisy began scanning the side of the art portable. "There it is." she thought to herself. As luck would have it, there just happened to be a flap of wallpaper on the side of the portable that was loose, meaning there was a little hole in the side of the portable that was perfect to hide inside.

"Nnnnnmgfh!" Daisy grunted as she squeezed herself inside. After successfully cramming herself into the little hole, Daisy moved herself to the back of the tiny area the hole led to and let out a huge sigh. "Whew. Now I'm winning for sure. Nobody knows about this place other than me, so I should-" Daisy immediately silenced herself as Chester screeched from the outside:

"READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!" Daisy gave a slight nod and shuffled around to make herself comfortable. Suddenly, she started hearing some weird scratching noises coming from the outside of the portable. "What the- how did they get over here so fast? Are they checking the walls for secret hiding spots? Well, mine's up high and pretty well secluded so I think-" Before Daisy could finish her thought the flap of wallpaper suddenly opened up, and a brown, furry muzzle poked its way in. "Randy?" Daisy shout-whispered to the sneering mammal.

"Yeah, that's right. What? Are you surprised? I was watching you the whole time! How else do you think I found you?" the foul-hearted raccoon smirked. With a slight snicker and a devilish grin, Randy tilted back his head and immediately began screeching. "HEY EVERYONE! DAISY IS OVER HERE!" Daisy instantly leapt at Randy and shoved her wing over his mouth, muffling his screams. But it was too late. The deed had already been done, and Daisy inevitably ended up losing the hide and seek tourney. From that day onwards, Daisy internally swore to get some sort of revenge for it.

The next day, Tweeteleet was out flying, as usual, carrying back a few worms for her kids in her beak. "I caught some really fat, juicy ones today! My kids are going to love them! Well, except Chester, of course, but I already found some nuts for him earlier." the loving Robin thought to herself. All of a sudden, Tweeteleet felt something whiz past her body. "Huh? What was that?" Tweeteleet thought to herself. Then, she felt another object whiz past her. Followed by another. And another. And another. "What in the name of the education system is going on?" Tweeteleet asked herself, utterly confused.

Bewildered and in search of answers, Tweeteleet glanced down, and nearly dropped her worms in shock. Down on the grass was none other than Randy, the bully raccoon himself, standing next to a little pile of pebbles. All of a sudden, Randy and Tweeteleet made eye contact. Tweeteleet immediately attempted to swerve downwards and make an emergency landing, but alas, Randy was too quick, and before Tweeteleet could land, a few more pebbles flew past her, until one of them struck her right in the side. Tweeteleet gave a searing squawk of pain before floundering around in the air and half-landing half-crashing straight into the ground. Tweeteleet lay stunned on the floor for a few seconds, or maybe more, until finally coming to and opening her eyes to see Chester, Bengeman, Tony, Daisy, and Jake all surrounding her with shocked and concerned looks on their faces. "Mom! Mom! What did that bully Raccoon do to you? Are you ok?" Jake asked his still-woozy mother in distress. Still slightly disoriented, Tweeteleet gave a dazed sigh. "Yeah. I'm ok. He just hit me with a pebble and knocked me out of the sky. I'll be okay."

"WHAT?" Chester instantly erupted with rage. "HE DID WHAT NOW?"

"Chester, please. I'm ok. You don't need to-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'HE ONLY HIT ME WITH A PEBBLE AND KNOCKED ME OUT OF THE SKY?'" Chester furiously fumed as he gritted his teeth and unsheathed his claws, digging them into the dirt below him.

"Chester! She already told you! She's fine! You don't need to get so worked up about it!" Bengeman attempted to calm his friend.

"No Bengeman. You're wrong. I do need to get worked up about this." Chester growled in a low tone. "HE HURT OUR PRECIOUS TWEETELEET! WHAT KIND OF HEARTLESS MONSTER WOULD DO SUCH A THING?"

"Chester! Please!" Bengeman pleaded to his friend.

"NO! NO! NO. YOU KNOW WHAT? I'VE HAD ENOUGH! I'VE HAD ENOUGH! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF RANDY'S AWFUL, MEAN, UNKIND, NASTY, AND DOWNRIGHT CRUEL BULLYING!" Chester took in a few deep breaths as he looked around at his circle of friends. All of them wanted to stop his anger, yet none of them did, as they too, whether they wanted to admit it or not, were also tired of Randy's sickening actions. "You know what? I think this calls for extreme measures." Chester continued to snarl as he gazed around at his silenced friends. "Next recess, we're going to finally end the reign of terror of this awful creature once and for all." Chester stood up on his back legs and bore a face of both extreme anger and extreme determination. "Next recess, we're going to seek out Sophie and Ari."