𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨 N̶e̶i̶g̶h̶b̶o̶r 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 - Wally Darling X Reader

Do You Remember Your Best Friend?

❤ Chapter One ❤

Everyone sat in a semicircle around the TV screen, after grabbing snacks from the kitchen. You weren't too hungry but decided to have some water and a bag of your favorite chips. You listen as the others chatter while Cherry struggles with Sadie and to project her phone screen onto Sadie's impossibly big TV.

"Alright, shut up and listen up." Cherry barked as soon as the website began to load up onto the TV, "This is about a puppet show from the 80s- no, wait, it was the 70s-" 

The website loaded and went to the home page. Words wrote, "Hello Neighbor." A cute red house with eyes appeared underneath the words, with steam puffing out of it's yellow chimney. Cherry cut her ramble off excitedly and tapped the screen to go to the home page. It opened, revealing that smiling, staring puppet once more. Now that You got a better look at him, You were able to see how colorful he was and how... vaguely familiar he was to You. His eyes were relaxed and his smile reminded You of a cat. This puppet lacked a nose and eyebrows on his yellow face. His hair was a royal blue and was up in a big cinnamon roll swirl. He wore a blue cardigan with yellow bordering and buttons, a white undershirt, and vertically striped rainbow pants. This little man also wore a red necktie and white-and-black dress shoes. Why was he so familiar? 

"Um, Cherry?" You spoke quietly, but somehow managed to get your voice to reach Cherry's ear because she looked over at You. "What exactly is this? Was this a real show? I feel like he looks... familiar..."

Cherry laughed before looking at You with a confused smile. "This is an ARG- that stands for alternate reality game, obviously- in other words, it's not real. It's actually a fairly new concept IRL. Maybe you think he just has a familiar design. I think he kinda looks like a 3 foot tall Elvis Presley" She snickered before turning back to her phone.

"Oh." You respond with one word, only for the sake of a response. Perhaps your brain was being dumb again. You sighed heavily. Reese gave You a concerned glance and put his hand on your shoulder.

"Are you doing alright? You look faint.." Reese whispered beside You, looking at You in concern. 

"I do? I'm fine, I'm sure..." You grumble, waving off this comment from Reese as him just being over protective. 

"So what should we do first? We could look at the gallery! The artwork is so fucking cool and I very sent a comment to them saying so." Cherry announced proudly. 

"Oh, the gallery!" Sadie clapped, bouncing next to Davis, who was still looking embarrassed by Cherry's teasing from before. "Hey, weren't you into art for a bit?" Sadie nudged You, her wide eyes peering into yours.

You look away at the floor and nod, smiling. "Yeah, I do art sometimes." Of course, that didn't mean You were super great at it.

"But who even are the characters?" Gabriel asked, leaning on his sister, Gabriella, who was tapping away on her phone, obviously not interested in the ARG about puppets from a 70s children cartoon show.

"There's a page for that, actually!" Cherry chimed and clicked on the "Meet The Neighborhood!" tab. The page opened up to a cute little cartoon neighborhood with seven colorful houses around the house from the home page. Each house is unique in it's own way, all in different shapes with their own personality and colors reflected on them. But the house in the middle looked so... simple. It was a simple red rectangle with a blue roof, yellow chimney and door, and green bushes hugging it's sides. The only feature that made it stand out was it's rolling eyes. It's windows had black pupils that spun around, looking everywhere, in almost an impatient manner. "If we click on one of these houses, we get a character description for the puppet that lives there! There's Barnaby, Julie, Frank, Poppy- she's my favorite puppet, actually."

She clicked on a barn house and a page appeared with a big red bird with rainbow feather called "Poppy". She was holding a tray of cookies and her mouth was open in what could be assumed to be a smile. 

"Cherry... Can I try messing around with it?" You asked. Cherry nodded and handed the device to You with a smile.

"Yeah, sure, go crazy!" She laughed.

You touched the screen, trying to click the top but your fingers slipped and You ended up highlighting a single word.

You.

Underneath that single word, text began to slowly appear, "Wally is your best friend".

"I am Wally's best friend?" You question aloud, eyes wide. Was that why he was so familiar? Was he a friend from the past, perhaps? Your mind was filled with questions like, "Who is Wally? Why were You so concerned about this website? Why did it bother You?..." That's when Sadie laughed and pokes your cheek.

"Remember this is just a silly little... er.. A-R...G..." She looked over at Cherry as if worried she said it wrong. When Cherry didn't correct her, she went on. "It's not real. Don't have to look so spooked." Sadie paused before gasping and smirking. "Or are you scared~? I thought you liked this stuff?" She snickered, joined in by a few other her unimportant friends.

You blush from embarrassment and shake your head, handing the phone back to Cherry. "Just forget about it."

"Hey, don't worry about it!" Cherry shot you a reassuring smile. "I found that glitch earlier and it surprised me too! Hold on..." She occupied herself with her phone.

"Or maybe they're just a wimp who can't handle that boring jump scare, if you can even call it that." Huffed Katie as she shifted herself to be closer to her boyfriend, Charlie. "Come on, stop being a pussy."

You glared at Katie for assuming such a thing and she simply lifted her chin and smirked back.

"Yeah... maybe that's enough Welcome Home for one night." Cherry mumbled, closing on the tabs on her phone and shutting it off, before looking around the room. It was 10 o'clock already. Gabriella looked up from her phone briefly and Gabriel booed before getting up to get a glass of water. Katie and Charlie were smug and acted as if they were above this ARG anyways. Daisy and Steve had fallen asleep together and Sharon was simply watching everyone, looking bored out of her mind.

Sadie bounced up, clapping her hands together, smiling warmly. "Alright, now who wants to order pizza and do makeovers on all of the boys?"