The two moseyed their way back to the picnic spot. Clement laid down on the checker patterned mat, as he let his body become relaxed and loose, he drew a long lung full of sweet flowery air that pervaded throughout the area. His heart ideally acted as the steady drum for the nearby birds who freely chirped their harmonious choruses while they perched their small talons on nearby branches that each held their assemblage of pinkish leaves, integrated into a giant pinkish lollipops like, copula of leaves.
As Clement laid his head on the comfortable blanket, a girl slowly hovered over his calmed body, her milky-white knees closely brought up to her chest as she sat next to him well content. her mesmerizing eyes periodically flutter open like a freshly bloomed bud exposed to the newly risen morning dawn, brightly displaying its red pearl-like beauty like an invaluable artifact.
She donned a pastel colored headband that kept her silky hair firmly in place, preventing the pesky wind from disheveling it. She wore a strawberry patterned dress that amplified her adorable features. a few strands of her satiny black hair that escaped the firm grasp of the headband drooped down, reaching Clement's pinkish cheeks, lightly brushing against it every so often when the soft breeze came by.
Her picturesque face happily grinned ear to ear as her gaze stayed staring fondly on his cute face. Her face showed an endearing smile as she met his soft gaze watching the soft cotton pink clouds casting their roaming shadows across the entire neighborhood, providing faint shades of reprieve for anyone who harbored slight distaste for the bright sun.
"Uh.. Rosie, what are you doing?" Clement questioned Rose, he watched as her face slowly came into view above his face, he noticed her face smiling ecstatically, a few strands of her hair lightly tickling his cheek as she hovered over him.
"Uhm.. No-nothing! I was nothing!.... I m-mean I wasn't doing anything…" Rose stammered in embarrassment, she hurriedly enveloped her flustered face using her hands, covering her face, her long black hair acting as a dark veil, covering up any remaining exposed spots on her face from Clement's confused eyes. 'Damn it! Was I too obvious?!' she thought to herself.
As she frantically panicked in her head, she noticed something slowly crept on top of Clement's head. It was about the size of a soda bottle cap, an unusually huge rounded stomach for its itty bitty size, slender limbs extending further and longer than its body, as it slowly treaded on top of his hair purposefully tiptoeing around, not wanting to be noticed by anyone. it moved its stubby limbs similar to a person's fingers rhythmically tapping on a flat surface.
It was a spider.
Suddenly a fluorescent light bulb manifested above Rose's head, making a faint ding sound as it switched on.
"Oh! I was just wondering why aren't you smacking that spider on your head?" She hastily took advantage of the spider that landed there three seconds ago and rested itself on Clement's head as a quick cover up.
"Wait what?!" Clement's face changed into a darker shade of color, his eyes darted rapidly and shook in a panicked manner, trying to spot the spider. His fingers quivering haphazardly on the soft fabric of the picnic mat, making tiny puckers on the fabric as he tightly dug his fingers on the mat.
"Ros-Rosie c-can yo-you plea-please ge-get it of-off" Clement pleaded in utter dread to Rose as he felt his body rusted through his bones, unable to move in fear the spider might silently slip in his attire and lay it's numerous eggs in it as its nesting place.
"Oh ok! You can count on me!" In a quick jerk and stroke, Rose forcefully flicked the itsy bitsy spider off his head, sending it flying off to the sky, leaving a bright star in its place.
"I-is it go-gone now?" Clement asked Rose, still frozen up, and terrified of the looming trepidation of the creepy crawly spider.
"Yes, it's all gone now," Rose tenderly reassured Clement as she ran her fingers through his hair and gave him a gentle pat by way of safety. Rose carefully brought his head on her lap.
Clement's eyes widened in surprise, he was about to ask Rose why she did that but he felt it wasn't the right time, he breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the fear within him slowly drift away, his woes slowly wash away from his body, as he felt his head sink deeper on her lap, her thighs acting as a soft velvet pillow, softly cushioning his head on the hem of her dress...…
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"Rosie? Roooosiieee~~~ Rooooooooosiiieee~~~?" Clement waved his hands in front of Rose's face, hoping to get her attention and curious as to why she was drooling like she'd seen the most delightful and delicious buffet in the entire world in front of her very eyes.
As if she woke up from her stupor, Rose jolted awake from her little daydream, she gritted her teeth in irritation.
'Who is the good for nothing who interrupted my perfect dream?!!' she loudly exclaimed in her head, she hastily turned her head to face the source of annoyance and the disturbance of her perfect paradise.
Suddenly as she snapped her head at the "nuisance.'', her eyes met a pair of blue sapphire eyes, staring back at her softly.
"You alright Rosie? You've been giggling out of nowhere for about five minutes." Clement said as he gently rested his hand on her shoulder, worried for his dear friend.
"O-Oh I'm f-fine… was ju-just lo-lost in my tho-thoughts that's all." Rose felt her little ears slowly turn red and her face heated up like a tomato as she realized what she just had done.
In an attempt to guise her embarrassing situation, she quickly popped open the metal latch attached to the picnic basket which prevented anything inside the basket from suddenly opening and spilling out its contents when she went outside the house earlier.
As it slowly opened, it revealed to be freshly cut watermelon slices arranged in a neat vertical row that fitted perfectly within the small basket, it's tough green rind still partially moisturized after being rinsed in the sink before being cut open and divided into equal parts with a kitchen knife, and on the side were small chocolate milk cartons still gelid cold from freezing temperatures of the fridge.
Before she was about to go outside, her mother grabbed a hold of her shoulders and urged her to bring the picnic basket with her in case she suddenly got a bit peckish and dried throat during her time outside.
'How am I gonna finish this…. This is too much.' Rose thought to herself as she stared nervously at the picnic basket, anxiously twiddling her two thumbs trying to think of something that might help her finish the food without wasting it.
"Wow Rosie, I didn't know you had a big appetite." Clement said jokingly as he saw the abundance of snacks inside the picnic basket, giving her a playful elbow nudge.
"Wa-wait it's no-not like tha-that! I um-uh….." Rose's face turned beet red.
"Nah I'm just kidding with ya! I'll gladly finish it all for you!" Clement quickly snatched a watermelon slice from the picnic basket. He unhinged his jaw and prepared to bite off a big chunk of the watermelon, and then he took a large bite.
A noticeable big chunk ripped off the watermelon slice, Clement's lips curled upwards as he munched the watery sweet goodies inside the snack. His cheeks all filled up with watermelon insides similar to a chipmunk greedily storing its leftovers in their cheek pouches.
As Clement scarfed down the watermelon slice, his gaze slightly shifted away, he noticed Rose looking thoughtfully at watermelon slices that he purposefully left in the basket for her.
"Rhoshie *nom* whatshre you dshoing? Whsy arsh yosh eashting *nom* yosrsh washer melon?" Clement said whilst having a mouthful of watermelon in his mouth.
[Note: He meant "Rosie what're you doing? Why aren't you eating your watermelon?"]
"Uh um it's because of the watermelon seeds….." Rose muttered quietly but enough for Clement to clearly hear.
"Whash abousht em?" Clement questioned, a few watermelon juice mixed with saliva spewed out of his mouth as he talked.
[Note: He meant "What about em"]
"Alice told me yesterday that if you eat the seed, the watermelon will grow in your stomach!"
After Rose announced her horrifying suspicion on watermelons to him, as if a pin dropped between the two of them, Clement jaw dropped in shock, horrified by what he just heard. a few chunks of the watermelon he was eating dropped on the picnic blanket and rolled away towards the nearby anthill next to them.
W-what?! I-I mean, hahaha don't be silly Rosie, there's no way a watermelon would grow in my stomach. " Clement stuttered, as he nervously laughed it off.
"Well if you say so…"
Clement at this moment felt a little uneasy having heard his friend's suspicion on watermelons, a bit of sweat trickled down his brow.
'There's no way something like that would happen… right?' Clement quickly shrugged off the thought and began to once again eat the watermelon slice on his hand.
After a couple minutes of devouring watermelons like ballistic savages, Clement and Rose finally finished their watermelons. As the two felt a bit parched, they quickly swiped away the two chocolate milk cartons in the basket. Their small soft fingers came in contact with the icy cold chocolate milk cartons, their hands slightly losing their grasp as they felt the stinging pain of the frigid cartons before they immediately regained it as the mild stinging pain slowly subsided. They tore off the wrapping encasing the plastic bendy straw attached to the back of the milk carton, as they took a few unsuccessful attempts due to the plastic being glued on the carton. With a little bit of force, they gradually tore off the plastic wrapped around it.
They punctured the weak spot of the carton and drank its savoring contents. A pleasant cold chill ran up against their small spines, as the stream of cold chocolate milk cascaded down to their stomachs, the brain freeze numb slowly crept into their little heads, causing the two to suddenly stop their greedy guzzles and take a minute to let the numbing pain get off, after it eventually disappeared, they continued to drink the cartons till it was all gone.
After they quenched their thirst, Clement felt it was the right time to show off his amazing teddy bear to Rose.
"Anyways, while we're here, take a look at this!" Clement pulled out the funny looking Teddy bear from his back.
"Um… Clement, why is the ribbon tied around the teddy bear like that?" Rose eyeballed concernedly at the ribbon tied to its neck, the way it was coiled around its fluffy neck looked vividly grim, she could've sworn the bear mouthed "help meee~~~~" under its breath, as it looked pleadingly towards her, begging for her to finish its life.
"Uh.. well.. You see, I'm not really a ribbon expert… Soooo kinda just twirled the ribbon around it and expected it to work out." Clement scratched the back of his head as he admitted his inexperience in tying objects up.
"Wait…I think I can fix it."
"Really!? That would be great!" Clement exclaimed in immense joy and excitement as his eyes sparkled.
"Alright..just give me a couple seconds."
Rose slowly untied the ribbon. Her fingers lightly gave a tug on the seemingly endless tight knots tangled on the bear's neck. After inspecting the knots, she noticed the end of the ribbon sticking out of the jumbled mess.
'Heh… there's no way Clement is that inexperienced with ribbons, one little pull won't immediately make it collapse like a domino stack' Rosie thought to herself.
Sure Clement might be a bit of an air head but he's not THAT much of an air head.
She quickly gave the end of the ribbon a light tug…..
The whole thing completely loosened and untied itself after a single pull.
"Clement I think you should probably lay off from tying things up, it's horribly loose and it's very dangerous if you don't tie things up properly." She bluntly said as she wore a deadpan expression.
After she successfully removed the ribbon from the bear's neck, she began to correctly make a bow using the ribbon string.
"Wow! Rosie, you're really good at this!" Clement could not help but applaud as he looked at Rose's prowess, his eyes sparkled in amazement as he felt mesmerized by Rose's skill.
"Thanks…" Rose said, trying not to turn into a blushing mess from his compliment, she swiftfully focused on the ribbon.
After a little while Rose finally finished tying the ribbon around the teddy's neck.
It looked neat and beautiful, pairing well with the red thread stitch on its stomach.
"Woah…. It looks fantastic!... Wait what have you done Rosie…. I'm tempted to not bring it outside anymore cause it looks like a house enhancer."
"House enhancer…. Clement I think you meant to say House decoration." Rose attempted to correct Clement as she wore a deadpan expression.
"Yeah, yeah house declaration."
"Wait…. *sigh* suit yourself then." Rose sighed to herself.
"Oh I've got an idea, What if we take a visit to Alice's House today! I haven't seen her outside in a while." Clement excitedly presented his idea to Rose.
"That would be great! I suppose a surprise visit won't hurt…." Rose muttered, it is true that Alice hasn't gone outside in a while and giving her a visit would surely make her jump for joy.
"Ok! Let's go!" Clement prepared himself to dash towards Alice's House.
"Wait!! Clement help me pack up this picnic, you can't just leave me here." Rose pulled on Clement's shirt before he could make a mad dash towards the house.
"Oops sorry, forgot about that! Let's do it, the faster we can finish, the faster we can go to Alice's House."