Zaire and Porter were sitting on the couch watching television while the other three were out and about. Porter was minding his business, but Zaire was looking directly at him, an idea in his head.
"Hey Porter, I've got a bet for you," he said.
"A bet?" Porter replied. "Another one? Wasn't me carrying you and Bro home after that one enough?"
"That was still hilarious," Zaire answered, recalling the memory.
"What gave you the idea to challenge me to some more bets?" Porter asked.
"I've figured out our family dynamic," Zaire pointed out. "Bro's the grumpy serious one, Lily's the reckless fun-loving one, Amelia's the cheery optimistic one, I'm the energetic weird-looking one, and you're the cowardly one!"
"Those are your words, not mine," Porter replied, eliciting a shrug from his brother.
"And for the record, I am not cowardly!" he added.
"'I'll stay back, you know how bad I am at fighting.' 'I'll wait out here while you guys deal with whatever's in there!' 'Lily, can you take the blame when Bro asks who broke that vase? You're used to it and I don't wanna face his wrath,'" Zaire recalled.
"Nice try, but I know you broke that vase," Porter said with a smirk.
"Rats. I didn't think you'd catch that," Zaire sighed. "But back to family dynamics- since you're someone who avoids almost everything, I think it would be great if you got out of your comfort zone and built up some confidence," he explained.
"And how do you suggest I do that?" Porter asked.
"By betting with me, of course," Zaire answered. "I bet you can't…"
"I'm not sparring with you. I know how you fight, I wouldn't stand a chance, let alone stand," Porter frowned.
"Nah, I'd never do that to you," Zaire chuckled, getting off the couch. "I bet you can't last longer than me in a handstand. Whoever lasts the longest gets a dollar."
"That's it? With something as simple as that, are you sure you're not asking me to win right now?" Porter asked with a smug grin.
"Oh, look who's getting confident now just because I said I wasn't going to spar with you," Zaire replied.
The two faced each other, hands and feet on the ground.
"Ready, set, go!" Zaire shouted.
The two pushed their legs off the ground while keeping their arms as straight as they could make them. Twenty seconds passed, then thirty, then thirty-five.
"Ready to quit?" Porter asked.
"Quit? You kiddin'? I'm just getting started!" Zaire responded, moving one hand off the ground.
"Well, if you can show off, then so can I!" Porter declared, also moving his hand off the ground.
"There you go, Porter! Your bravery is building already! Now watch this!" Zaire announced, moving his other hand off the ground, resulting in him floating in the air for a second, and then crashing onto the floor face first. Porter, on the other hand, carefully placed his head on the ground before moving his other hand into the air.
"Do I win now? Have I proven myself?" he asked, folding his arms.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Zaire shouted. "Double or nothing! How about we race to the city and back? Winner gets two dollars."
"I thought these bets were about improving my bravery, not money," Porter corrected.
"They are! I can tell you were brave enough to show off and win, and I know you want to say you want to win more!" Zaire reasoned.
He looked at Porter, who was practically showing off his balance at this point.
"Okay, okay, you've proven your point. You can stop now," he sighed.
He helped Porter, putting his feet back on the ground.
"...But I can't just let you win. You just know I'm not down for losing. It's not my thing, big brother can't lose to his younger siblings and stuff like that," he coughed. "Here's how it works: I beat you, you give me the money, and you come out a bit less cowardly after all this, so it works out for both of us!"
"My bravery might be new, but how do you know losing won't shatter my confidence?" Porter asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Please. You may be cowardly, but you're not sensitive," Zaire replied, patting his head.
"I'll show you," he muttered.
As they approached the door to leave, they heard a knock from the other side. Porter opened it and saw Mary waving.
"Hi, Mary!" Porter greeted.
"Mary?!" Zaire shouted, shielding his face. "Hey, Mary! What brings you to our home?" he asked, not looking directly at her.
"I was just walking around the neighborhood and noticed that your lawn wasn't mowed. If it's not too much trouble, I was wondering if I could take care of it for you," Mary offered.
"You sure? If it's a big deal, we can take care of it now," Porter said.
"No, don't worry. I haven't eaten yet," Mary replied.
"Eaten?" Porter and Zaire asked in unison.
Just then, Mary got on all fours and started to munch on the tall grass with gusto.
"Mmm, delicious! Minty fresh!" she sighed. "I'll be done in a couple hours."
"Forget touching grass, she's straight up eating it!" Zaire whispered to Porter.
Watching Mary eat gave Porter an idea. "Hey, Mary! I bet you can't eat more grass than us!" he announced.
"Excuse me, what?!" Zaire yelled. "We?!"
Mary let out a questioning bleat at Porter. "What do you mean?"
"The lawn needs mowing, right? And it looks like Mary is enjoying her meal. How about we eat with her?"
Mary and Zaire looked at each other. And then Zaire immediately looked away from her, blushing.
"I thought we agreed we were going to race to the city," Zaire said quietly to him.
"We were, but wouldn't you agree that a bet would be more fun with more people involved? Besides, I think I'm brave enough to make a bet! You wouldn't want to stop that, would you?" he reasoned. He then asked Mary if she'd like to participate, despite Zaire's protests.
"That sounds like fun. I'm in!" Mary said, much to Zaire's embarrassment.
The three lined up on one side of the lawn. After a short countdown from Zaire, he, Mary and Porter hopped down onto the grass. Porter struggled to tear the grass from the ground and eat it, thinking about what he got himself into. Zaire ate faster than Porter, but still had to pause between bites. As for Mary, she was enjoying every minute of it, cutting through the grass like a lawnmower. She finished every bit that the others couldn't.
"Ahh, delicious," Mary sighed, patting her belly. "I hope you invite me to more of these food bets!"
Porter groaned, curling up on the grass while Zaire shouted with his mouth full, "Double or nothing! I bet you can't beat me in a race around the neighborhood! First one to do that gets four dollars each."
"Could you at least let me vomit first?" Porter requested, heaving violently. After catching his breath, he added his idea onto the bet. "To make this more interesting, we'll do this in teams. I'll be on Zaire's team."
Mary nodded, but Zaire wasn't very satisfied. "Wait," Zaire said, "there's two of us and one of you. Who's going to be on your team, Mary?"
Suddenly, as if it was a coincidence, Lini was walking down the street.
"Hey, guys!" she greeted. "What are you doing on the ground?"
Porter stood up, completely forgetting that he just ate half a lawn of grass.
"We need you! Please do this bet with us!" he begged.
"Eh? What bet? What's going on?" Lini asked.
"Me and the others are betting to see who can run around the neighborhood first," Zaire explained. "We're doing it in teams. Porter and I are in a team, and we need one more player to join us."
"Oh, I-I guess I could join," Lini stammered, unsure of herself. "So how does this work?"
"We start here, then we circle around the fountain, then reach the subdivision gate, then our house is the finish line," Zaire explained. "The first team to get back to the house gets four dollars each."
Lini thought about it for a moment. "Actually, I need to pay Amelia for that trip to the spa..."
The four stood in front of a sidewalk line, and with a small countdown, the four were off.
Porter was the fastest of the four while the girls falling slightly behind and Zaire tripping on his two feet, likely because he was too focused on Mary. They continued at this pace until they passed the fountain and reached the gate.
On the final bend back to their house, Zaire flew into the sky and dove over the finish line first, barely passing Porter. He crossed the finish line next, followed by Mary and then Lini.
"Hey, that was cheating!" Mary exclaimed in a pout.
"I didn't say you couldn't use whatever abilities you had," Zaire protested. "Why would I run when I could fly to the finish line?"
"You ran all the way to the gate," Lini pointed out. "Surely you could've stuck this race out to the end?"
"Sounds like excuses," Porter said. "Girls, me and Zaire will take this loss if it makes you feel better."
Zaire was about to protest further when he caught sight of Mary staring at him with doe eyes.
"Are you serious?" Zaire grumbled with a blush. "Fine! Triple or nothing!"
Before anyone could say anything, Zaire ran straight to the city. While he was gone, Porter told the girls that Zaire hadn't won a single bet yet.
Five minutes later, Zaire came back, visibly annoyed and carrying four large butterfly nets.
"We're catching Zs," he announced, handing a net each to the three. "First one to catch 10 Zs wins."
"What's that supposed to mean? And where are we supposed to catch Zs?" Porter asked.
Zaire pointed to a Clone sleeping by a tree with Zs floating all around it. As the four crept closer to the sleeping Clone, Zaire added, "First one to wake up that guy loses!"
The four scrambled around the tree, waving their nets around, trying not to wake up the Clone. Five minutes later, Porter and Zaire were tied with nine Zs each. The last Z that Zaire needed was high above the sleeping Clone. He readied his stance, kept his eyes on the Z, and with a face of determination, jumped with all of his leg strength and swung his net.
He missed, falling directly on the Clone, waking him up. The startled Clone screamed and ran away from them, heading towards the city.
"I'm guessing you lost?" Mary asked.
"That's a loss," Lini and Porter replied in unison.
"Quadruple or nothing!" Zaire shouted, still on the ground. "Collect as many apples as you can! The winner gets all the money from all the previous bets!"
Without warning, Zaire flew to the top of the tree and began circling around it, faster and faster, until a small tornado appeared and shook it. Leaves and apples scattered off the tree, completely canceling his chances of winning this bet. Surprisingly, Porter, Mary, and Lini got the same amount of apples, making a three-way tie. But Zaire wasn't going to give up.
"What were you hoping to do?" Porter asked.
"Quintuple- is it quintuple?" he asked, landing back on the ground.
"It is quintuple," Lini confirmed.
"Quintuple or nothing! I won't quit until I win!"
Porter started to believe these bets weren't about building his bravery anymore.
"Uhh, Zaire..?" he asked, "Remember when you said we were building my bravery with these bets? Are you good?"
"Ooh, I've never felt better!" Zaire responded, restraining his anger with a smile on his face.
"Doesn't everyone who gets burnt out always say that?" Lini remarked.
"I am not burnt out," Zaire grumbled.
"Uh, your ears say otherwise," Porter teased, pointing at the black smoke spewing out of his ears.
Zaire glared at Porter and was about to lunge at him until Lini got between the two saying, "Now, now, how about we take a moment to breathe?"
The other three froze for a moment.
"How about we think of something else to do?" she suggested. "We could all draw something, take a swim, maybe go for a drive around the city..."
"Drive, drive, drive… that's it!" Zaire thought to himself. In that list of suggestions, he got an idea of what his next bet would be…
Twenty Minutes Later
"What are we doing up here?" Porter asked Zaire.
The four were on top of Nervewrack Hill, the highest hill in the area, with four small go-karts of assorted colors.
"The first one to reach the house wins," Zaire declared, "and gets all the money I have right now!"
"So whoever wins doesn't get anything even if they win?" Porter asked.
Without a response, Zaire jumped into the yellow kart and took off down the hill.
"Yep, he's burnt out. After him!" Lini said, getting into the orange kart and driving after him.
Porter and Mary looked at each other, but didn't say a word as they got into the blue and pink karts respectively.
Zaire was halfway down the hill at full speed. Lini was behind him, with Mary and Porter slowly catching up.
"Zaire!" Porter called from behind. "Calm down, man! This bet has gone too far!" he yelled, driving off a ramp and flying out of his kart. Mary caught him in her arms.
"When I said we could 'go for a drive', this is not what I meant!" Lini shouted. "Zaire! Please stop this bet! This is ridiculous as it is dangerous!" Mary added.
The three karts reached the bottom of the hill and were now driving into the city. Zaire, determined to win, sped past traffic lights, ignoring every plea and protest the others had.
Mary and Porter took a right turn into a sewer pipe as a shortcut to avoid the next set of traffic lights. As one of the lights turned red, Zaire started accelerating and used a slightly tilted manhole cover as a ramp to avoid oncoming traffic. Lini, who was behind everyone else at this point, sighed and waited for the light to turn green again.
Meanwhile, Zaire, who was halfway out of the city, muttered to himself, "Burnt out… I'm burnt out, they say... Hmph! We'll see who's burnt out after I reach the house first!"
Mary and Porter (who, thanks to that shortcut) popped out of a manhole and got in front of Zaire, who was dumbfounded at them appearing out of nowhere.
"Zaire! Whatever happened to building my bravery with these bets?! That's what this whole thing was all about, right?!" Porter asked, shouting.
Zaire scowled at the two and bumped their kart, causing them to spin out momentarily. Lini also bumped into Mary and Porter, putting the two back on track.
Lini and Mary's karts were now directly behind Zaire.
"He's not going to listen to us," Mary said. "Should we throw the race and make him think he won?"
"I don't think we have any other choice," Lini replied.
"No, I have an idea," Porter said. "Get me closer to the kart."
Mary and Lini took off and went to each side of Zaire's kart. Porter jumped off Mary's kart and onto Zaire himself, tugging on his big mouse ears and arguing.
By now, the four had just driven out of the city and were nearing the subdivision gate. The wheels on Mary and Lini's kart meshed into Zaire's wheels without warning, and as Porter and Zaire continued to argue, one of the brothers accidentally pressed the TURBO button on Zaire's kart.
As the two were arguing, Mary noticed the wind moving faster on her face and asked, "Did anyone speed up their car, by any chance?"
The two stopped arguing and focused their attention on the gate that was moving closer toward them. Realizing that the brakes weren't working, Zaire and Porter, along with Lini and Mary started to scream.
As they were all screaming, the three karts flew past the gate, spun out and lost control in the air, and crashed straight into their house, leaving a huge hole in the wall.
10 Minutes Later
Bro, Amelia and Lily walked up to the house carrying groceries and other items when they saw a gigantic hole where the front of the house was supposed to be.
"What the…" Amelia whispered.
Walking into the house, they found some wrecked cars, Zaire flat on the ground, Porter on the couch, and Lini and Mary on a wall in a daze.
Zaire pulled his head off the ground, saying, "I did it! I finally won! I don't have to owe anyone money, which is great since I don't have any," before slamming his head back onto the floor.
"Excuse me," Bro yelled, "but can somebody explain what happened here?!"
Porter, bruised, got up and explained that he was trying to prove to Zaire he wasn't cowardly and accepted a bunch of bets from him. He also stated that Zaire bet all the money he had on a go-kart race through the city and the mess happened.
"So, nobody would get anything even if they won?" Amelia asked, frowning.
"You might not be a coward right now, but you were certainly dumb for accepting that," Lily said.