SF Chapter 134: Merry Thanksgiving III
After a while, several of Luke's friends had already arrived. Many of their parents had stayed for the party as well.
Luke was playing with his friends, each of them armed with a variety of Nerf guns, and darts were scattered all over the house.
Meanwhile, Phil was filming everything. "If this tape is found in the future, this is how we humans celebrated birthdays," he smiled at the camera.
Phil was comically struck by a kid coming down the small zip line that had been set up. "This again!"
Off to one side, Claire was at her little craft station - how to make a comb sheath - with only one person keeping her company.
"Damn it, it's glued to my hand again," Dani complained. He was having trouble gluing the beads.
Claire glared at him since he was wiping his hand on her shirt, making it stick to the fabric.
"I'm your only customer here, Sis," he pointed out before she could scold him.
She just rolled her eyes and tried to recruit another kid who was passing by. "Want to make a comb sheath, sweetheart?"
"What?" The kid looked at her strangely, so she showed him the one she had made.
Claire explained further. "It's a cool leather holder for your comb. And you can decorate it. I've got beads and glitter and all kinds of stuff."
"Nah, I'm good," the kid quickly dismissed, heading toward another ride.
Dani turned to his sister. "That's the eighth one! Good thing you're not trying to kidnap any children."
She immediately put him in a headlock with one arm.
But then, noticing the new guests who had just arrived, she frowned, "Why is Charlie here?"
A kid's birthday party was not the kind of place she would expect to see him. Especially since, unlike Jake, Charlie didn't have a close relationship with Luke.
"Ouch, Sis, why are you strangling me even more?" Dani complained as she tightened her grip.
"Because Charlie is standing next to a very beautiful woman. And something tells me he's using Luke's birthday to make himself look like a better person."
Claire kept going with her theory. "And I think you were the one who gave him the idea," she accused her brother.
"Wow, no wonder you're my super sister. You figured it all out," Dani grinned, earning another squeeze from her.
But then she let him go. This time, he spoke more seriously. "Charlie really seems to like her. She isn't like his usual bimbo."
"Besides, there's a funny coincidence. Lisa is Monica's cousin," he revealed.
Claire finally relented. "Fine, as long as they don't cause any trouble."
They both paused and raised an eyebrow almost at the same time when they saw more guests arriving. This time, it was Mitchell, accompanied by a clown.
"Looks like Cam came as Fizbo," Dani commented, making a conflicted face. He knew his brother hated that side of his partner, and it was easy to see why.
Fizbo looked like he had stepped out of a low-budget horror movie.
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Inside the room, an animal handler was giving a presentation to the children. Around her, several kinds of reptiles and even some arachnids were kept in containers, including spiders and even a scorpion.
Haley, who was not interested in the presentation at all, said to her boyfriend, "So I was thinking maybe we could slip away-"
Tanya, the animal handler, asked, "So, does anyone wanna pet the iguana?"
Dylan didn't hear what his girlfriend had said and raised his hand at the handler's question. "Hell yeah. Over here! Me! Me!"
He ended up going over to her and getting to hold the iguana. "I love lizards," he remarked dumbly.
Alex, who was standing nearby, stepped closer to her sister and said, "You don't deserve this."
"What?" Haley turned to her.
"Hot reptile chick," Alex pointed at Tanya. "You know, probably has her own apartment, obviously okay touching gross stuff."
"They're just talking." Haley didn't take the bait.
"You're right. Dylan's far too sophisticated to get sucked in... by a single lady with tons of cool tattoos."
Haley ignored her. But soon, Dylan and Tanya kept talking, seeming to get closer and closer.
Alex muttered, "I was just messing with you before, but seriously, he's still talking to her..."
"On it," Haley said, clearly not liking this at all. She spotted one of the containers and opened it, letting one of the arachnids out.
A moment later, she got Tanya's attention. "Hey, jungle lady?"
"I think-" she paused, "I think one of your bugs got out."
"What?"
"The box thing there." She showed her the container she had opened a moment earlier. "It's on its side."
Tanya's eyes widened. "Oh, my God. Where did it go?"
Seeing the girl's reaction, Dylan asked, "Is everything okay?"
"No. I lost a poisonous scorpion, and I need to find it." Tanya immediately started looking around before quickly announcing, "Okay, kids, let's all tuck our pants into our socks."
"Avoid shady, moist places, and let's make a game out of watching where we step!"
What followed was a wave of screaming, chaos, and kids running all over the place.
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Outside, the commotion kept spreading, with even more screams being heard. The birthday party descended into complete chaos.
"Oh my God, what was I thinking?" Charlie muttered when he saw the look on Lisa's face, realizing his idea of showing her that he was a "family guy" was falling apart.
She stared at him flatly. "Charlie, why are you trying to fool us? You would never change. And I-"
He impulsively cut her off, pulling a small box out of his pocket. "Lisa, marry me!" he proposed.
"What?!" Her eyes widened.
But she couldn't answer, because a clown had overheard it and was now looking at them as if he were witnessing a great love story.
The problem was that Fizbo - aka Cam - was acting very weird around them.
An oversized clown, making exaggerated sobbing noises and comically wiping them away with a giant handkerchief, wasn't exactly who you'd want around after proposing.
And then Daniel, who was also nearby and had been stunned by his brother's proposal, suddenly heard a reply behind him.
"Yes! My answer is yes, Daniel!" Sheldon, who had just arrived with Leonard, quickly said to him.
He even awkwardly tried to hug him.
[Leonard commentary]
"Dani called us talking about the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King!" the physicist revealed.
"Turns out it's even better than we imagined!" he added with a wide grin.
[Commentary ends]
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