𓈊 A Poppy By Any Other Name

Cutscene: April Fools

Disclaimer: "Cutscenes" have no direct correlation with the current plot of the story, and do not take place directly after the last scene of the Act before it.

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Jimmy woke up to his blaring alarm clock. Groaning, he turned over to his other side and slammed his hand down on the snooze button. Ten minutes later, the alarm went off again and Jimmy had no choice but to get up this time.

He threw the blankets off of himself and swung his legs over the side of his bed, stretching his arms and humming a soft sound at the satisfying feeling. He stepped subconsciously into his slippers and padded over to his dresser to pick out his clothes for the day.

A grey flanel over a white T-shirt and skinny jeans should work.

After getting dressed, Jimmy combed his hair, spending a bit too long attempting to correct a cowlick he'd developed from his messy sleeping habits. Finally content with his hair, he headed downstairs for breakfast. He could smell the toast from the stairway, and it only made him hungier.

In the kitchen, Lizzie (who was still in her nightgown) and their father, Daniel, were talking and laughing as Lizzie stood over the stove, presumably making another slice of French toast.

"Smells delicious," Jimmy said as he sat down on a barstool at the island counter. There had already been plates and glasses set out for the three of them.

"Why, thank you," Lizzie said, squaring her shoulders in a proud way. "It is Mother's recipe, so obviously it's going to smell good-"

"-and taste even better," Jimmy finished, smiling as he poured orange juice into his glass. "Mom's recipes were the best."

Daniel chuckled. "Yes, they were." He pushed himself off of the counter he was leaning on to sit next to his son, placing a hand on Jimmy's back as he did."That was one of the many, many reasons I married her," the man said, his smile bright.

"And that's the last one done," Lizzie announced as she turned off the burner. Taking the frying pan off of the stove, she nudged the slice of bread off and onto a plate to stack on top of five other slices. She set the pan in the sink mumbling an I'll deal with it later, and brought the plate of toast to her brother and father, letting them each take two off the top. "Bon appetite!"

"Y'know," Daniel began whilst chewing, which earned him a playful nudge from Lizzie, "it's April Fools Day, Jim."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know." He sighed. "Please tell me that you didn't replace my shampoo with hair dye this year."

Daniel laughed. "No, I didn't." He leaned in closer to his son. "I did it to Liz."

"And you're lucky I caught on before you died my hair green," Lizzie huffed. "You'd be a dead man."

Jimmy giggled. "You could not pull off green."

"Hey! I totally could!"

Snickering, Daniel nearly spit out his drink. "Now, look what you've done," he said lightheartedly, nudging Jimmy with his elbow. "She's gonna go dye her hair green just to prove you wrong."

"Don't get it on your face," Jimmy warned. "You'd look like the Wicked Witch of the West!" He and his father burst into a fit of laughter while Lizzie sighed.

"You guys are the worst," she pouted with half-hearted heat backing her words. She scowled at them for a moment before laughing with them.

The rest of breakfast went like this; each of them getting their fair share of being made fun of until they'd all finished and Daniel had to leave for work.

"Careful walking out the door," Lizzie warned playfully over her shoulder as she rinsed off her plate.

Daniel smiled and waved in response as he stepped into his boots, saying back to amuse Lizzie, "Don't worry, pumpkin. Your old man knows how to navigate with le-" He'd gone to step forward, but fell, and Lizzie snorted at the sink.

"You tied his shoelaces together, didn't you?" Jimmy assumed, draining the last of the orange juice from his cup.

Lizzie nodded, giggling while she scrubbed dirty dishes. "Yup."

"Why am I not surprised?" Daniel said from the front hall.

The two said goodbye to their father and Jimmy left to go upstairs to brush his teeth. Squeezing the newly opened tube, he found oddly difficult to get anything to come out. It was open, and he had used it before. So, why was it being so difficult?

It took a while for Jimmy to get anything to come out of the tube, and even though he did eventually get some out, it was just barely enough.

Sighing, he shoved the tube of toothpaste back into the drawer and began to brush his teeth. Except... that did not taste like toothpaste.

He spit it out immediately, gagging. "What the-" His head snapped up at the sound of laughing to see Lizzie just outside the bathroom door, cackling. "Oh."

"April Fools!"

Jimmy laughed. "What the heck did you put in there?" he asked, pulling the tube out of the drawer again.

Lizzie walked into the bathroom now. "It's cream cheese."

"Cream cheese?!"

"Yup."

Jimmy sighed. "Why do I expect nothing less from you?" He turned the faucet on to rinse off his toothbrush, but was met with red instead of clear water. "Really? Blood water?" He snorted. "What is this? Halloween?"

Lizzie shrugged. "Guess Father thought so," she joked. "I'll leave you be now." She turned to leave, but paused for a moment to say over her shoulder, "Careful when you open the cabinet." She winked and rushed away before Jimmy could say anything.

Confused, Jimmy shrugged. I swear to God, if it's another pra-

He jumped and squealed as a mob of plastic spiders fell out of the cabinet when he opened it. He groaned and buried his face into his hands, mumbling, "I'm regretting not doing any pranks this year."

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THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE?? I'M IN LOVE WITH FAMILY DYNAMICS. IT'S AMAZING. IT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS OF WRITING WIANSKANSN /gen/pos

Ahem. Anyway. These "cutscenes" will be about half the length of normal chapters, as this one obvious is. I'm not sure how many more I'm going to do, but I definitely enjoy these little breaks from actual story plot! I think it adds a little bit of insight to what they characters are like (even though you guys know how these people act) outside of the plot. /pos/lh

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day, or evening, wherever you are!