It was Saturday again, time to train the children. As usual, the group gathered in the park and did some warm up exercises. However, for some reason, Fiona kept snickering when she looked at Dylan and Sherry.
"It's 'cos she saw that video of you guys at the zoo." Yasmin kindly explained, somewhat tired.
"What video?" Sherry's face went red as she recalled the video from the day before. "You saw that?"
The group of kids all nodded. "It's viral. People at school were talking about it. There are even memes about it."
"I was so surprised when I realised that it was Sherry and Dylan." Dawn commented.
"It looked just like when we first found Dylan. He was surrounded by a lot of animals at the time." Fiona pointed out. "I thought he was a prince at the time, but this, wow."
"The last part was so funny. Haha, they got surrounded by bunnies." Frank laughed.
"It was cute." George twiddled with his thumbs and slightly smiled at the memory. It was unclear what he was talking about, the bunnies or the video.
"Hahahaha, they looked really stupid when they tried to escape." Diana rudely laughed.
"The comments were funnier. Everyone was saying that they came out of a fairytale. Snow White and whatnot." Fiona said.
"Ahhhhh! How embarrassing." Sherry covered her cheeks with her hand and tried to hide the shame.
"What's wrong?" Dylan asked. He could understand that they were talking about the video but that wasn't enough to warrant such an explosive reaction from Sherry. She had already gotten somewhat immune after seeing it a few times, courtesy of Janine.
"The video of us had somehow gotten very popular and now a lot of people have seen it." Sherry explained in Divian.
Dylan thought back to the contents of the video. Although he was embarrassed at first, when he calmed down, he realised that it wasn't something to be ashamed of. It was just a recording of him and Sherry going to the zoo together. No big deal. He laughed and pat Sherry on the shoulder. "Don't mind it." He unhelpfully said.
"You two looked good in the video so there's no need to be so shy." Dawn tried to console Sherry. "Everyone keeps commenting that you were the perfect couple or something."
"C-couple? We're not like that. 0////0" Sherry blushed and denied. She's been getting these kinds of remarks lately, by now she was wondering if she should just ignore and laugh it off next time.
"What? I thought you guys were going out." Frank frankly stated. His face displayed pure honesty and bewilderment. "I mean, you live together."
"We're roommates, Frank, roommates." Dylan kindly explained in Sherry's stead. She was too worked up to speak.
"But my mum said a man and a woman shouldn't live together under one roof if they aren't related. She said only husbands and wives do that, oh and also boyfriends and girlfriends." Fiona quoted innocently.
"Friends can live together too! It's like when you go on camp. Even though you have separate cabins, it's still the same building." Sherry attempted to convince them but it was obvious that it wasn't working.
"There are walls separating us and also other people around. You two are alone in one house, no one is there to stop you from…" Dawn's voice trailed off. Her face was slightly flushed and having dealt a double damage, she no longer continued.
"I think you should just get together. You suit each other." Fiona shipped.
"Yeah. They're both tall and are good looking. They are nice and complement each other." Diana also shipped it. "George, what do you think?"
The conversation was suddenly directed at him. George didn't know what to say. "Uh, yeah. I think so too." He timidly agreed.
"How about you Yasmin? Don't you think that they suit each other?" Diana asked Yasmin.
Yasmin sighed and answered. "Well I do but-"
Before she could continue, Diana interrupted her. "See, everyone thinks that. You guys should just get married." Diana teased and added more fuel to Sherry's shame.
"Yeah, I agree!" Fiona chimed.
The two high fived each other and laughed. Soon they began to chant.
"Dylan and Sherry sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G." Frank also joined in, seeing how lively and funny it was. George quietly sang along while Yasmin rolled her eyes and refused to participate in this childish activity. Dawn was silent and still lamenting over her words.
Dylan glanced at Sherry. She was already as red as a tomato and buried her face in her hands. He averted his gaze back at the children. Dylan smiled ominously. "If you continue, I'm going to increase the number of laps."
The children immediately shut up and stood still like soldiers. They looked disciplined in that all stood in a single line, straight as poles and arms stiffly by their sides.
Dylan smiled again, this time with just a tad bit more warmth. "Excellent. After some training, we're going to play tag again. The conditions are the same as last time, as are the rewards and punishments."
The children tilted their heads. They could only partially understand what Dylan was saying. He had an accent and he also wasn't able to speak entirely in English. Sherry helpfully translated after she had recovered from her self-loathing and desire to destroy the internet and the children. They latched onto her words. They thought back to the wondrous drink that had last week, the sweet and soothing taste that danced on their tongues. Their eyes glimmered with anticipation and determination. All stared at Dylan with eyes of soldiers marching to battle.
"But." The children stiffened up. The leaned in towards him, eager to hear him speak. "The one you are going to chase is not me, but Sherry."
All eyes gathered and fell upon Sherry. From their short games together last week, they knew that Sherry was fast, but whether or not she had a lot of stamina was still a question. This, they might have a chance this time. Like hungry beasts, the children fixed their gazes on Sherry and licked their lips.
"Wait, I never agreed to this." Sherry protested. She came out to have some fresh air and watch some kids get tortured, not torture and get tortured herself. She wasn't a sadist nor a masochist who enjoyed that kind of thing.
Dylan smiled. "You said you wanted to be more fit."
Sherry paused. She might've said something like that. But, this, she gave her too many bad memories, she didn't want to participate in it. "That's that and this is this. It's too much trouble, I don't want to do it."
Dylan's smile deepened. He spoke in Divian so the children couldn't understand and persuaded Sherry. "I thought you wanted to get revenge on them for teasing you. But I guess not."
Sherry flashed back to the shame and embarrassment of earlier. The children blatantly shipped her and Dylan together and even teased her. They also kept commenting on that accursed video. Sherry nodded. "Alright, I'll do it."
She turned to the children and smiled, trying her best to look as much as Dylan as possible. "Just so you know, I won't go easy on you."
Instantly, the children began to regret the teasing from earlier. But it was too late, the damage had been dealt.