Are you seeking a pet that is truly unique?
Searching for the perfect birthday gift?
Do you desire a pet that will make you stand out from the crowd?
Dinglebarry Realisation empowers you to turn your dreams into reality!
Unleash your creativity and design your dream pet using our groundbreaking app.
Visit any of our Realisation Stores today to bring your creation to life!
(•ω•)
Larisa and Lillian found themselves alone. Kai and Eliza headed off to their separate classes. Lillian was lost in her own world, completely absorbed in a vivid daydream, momentarily disconnected from reality.
"So, uh... where are we going now?"
Lillian snapped awake, momentarily forgetting that Larisa was with her. "Oh, right! I needed to go to my cake training class!"
Larisa paced around in circles, like a dog being taken for a walk in a fancy new location, examining every object and room within the school. I watched as she drifted through the digital art world, then returned behind me.
"You train cakes! Wow!?" After all the pacing around, she never seemed to run out of breath. So ghosts needed oxygen like we did? I observed her throat moving ever so slightly, confirming that she was indeed breathing.
"That would be silly nonsense! Why would you train a cake? It's not a living, physical thing." After repeating this, she recognised the ethereal ghost figure before her. She stopped and continued, "I'll explain it later."
I couldn't wait to show Larisa what we do here. I was really, really hyped. I really hoped to impress her. Anyway, since Larisa was a ghost, I guessed she didn't have to enrol in or be part of the class register. She could just hide behind me and protect me. I felt much safer with her around. It felt strange to admit to myself that you felt safer around a ghost when ghosts in movies and literature were demonised and seen as malicious and unpleasant beings that only wanted to hurt and scare humans.
"Uh-oh, we are super late! We should have been in class over five minutes ago. Don't panic."
"Where is the classroom?"
Larisa swiftly scooped her up, lifting her off the ground, her arms securely embracing her, and propelled her into a sprint, surpassing any speed I've ever experienced. My arms and body felt numb, yet a profound sense of relaxation enveloped me as Larisa rushed with me through endless walls. I yearned for her to halt, but the exhilaration was undeniable.
I was quite lovin' this! As we dashed through the halls, I caught a glimpse of the music guy who had been talking to Ashlyn Starr earlier and realised it was Jess. He had a facial expression as if he'd just been hit by something in the back of the head, but I didn't think he actually knew what he had seen.
Finally, I shouted out, "Okay, STOP!" Instantly, we both came to a halt, as if time had been suspended in mid-air—inside the students' toilets.
Larisa looked up with glaring eyes and asked, "Is this where you wanted to be?"
Lillian scanned the room, taking in the sight of mould creeping between the ceramic tiles and mirrors, marred by unidentified stains, smudges, cracks, and graffiti. A large hole in the ceiling hosted a cobweb, while an installation hung precariously. The air was filled with an unpleasant odour. After briefly surveying the room, she sarcastically remarked, "Yes, this was definitely at the top of my list of holiday destinations to visit this year!"
Not recognising the sarcasm, Larisa swiftly responded, "Well, if you don't mind, I'm calling dibs on this room!" She then proceeded to kick one of the toilet doors open.
Lillian just left her to it.
"Hey, hey! Wait up!" Larisa exclaimed, lagging behind and struggling to keep up.
"You're having trouble keeping up with me after going at such high speed?"
"Well... no... I just... never mind."
"The classroom is right here, anyway," she stated, slowly opening the door. A strong aroma of sugar flooded her senses as she walked inside.
"Luckily, Jason is almost always late," Lillian remarked, accompanied by a small sigh of relief.
"Who is Jason? That's quite a feminine name!"
"Uh... I mean, huh?"
"Wait... Jason Voorhees... is your teacher?!"
"Aha! Hahaha! I laughed way too hard at that. Oh my gosh!"
A strange laugh came from Larisa. "Teeheeeeseee Nyahaha!!"
Lillian finally regained her composure and asked, "How do you know Jason Voorhees? And how do you know who Hatsune Miku is? It's been bugging me for a while now."
"Well, I noticed the Hatsune Miku figurine in your room, and I was quite fascinated by her vibrant green hair! It looked really awesome! As for Jason Voorhees, I'm pretty sure I've seen him somewhere before, maybe at a nightclub or a chess tournament."
"So, not at bingo, then?" Lillian felt somewhat uncomfortable, knowing she'd been snooping around her room enough to notice her figurine. I already knew she had been staring at my posters. She seemed fascinated by everything, everywhere we went, in a child-like, seeing-things-for-the-first-time type of way. It was somewhat charming and adorable to observe her.
Out of nowhere, a loud, sudden voice startled me:
"Lilly! The state of you right now."
Amii Ling and Princess Pensée asserted their presence, with Pensée being a self-proclaimed princess. From the moment she was born, her guardians bestowed upon her the name "Princess," and she never had the desire to discard the title they gave her. Over time, she adopted the name "Princess Pensée" on eBunnee, where her loyal fans treated her as royalty. However, in reality, she was merely a pretty girl and not much else.
Amii was a brunette with double buns. She styled her hair according to whichever style her favourite singer had that week. She never embraced her own style; instead, she bought clothes only after seeing her favourite singers wear them. Her guardians, who possessed immense wealth, owned numerous eBunnee merchandise stores throughout Berghwoodna, with a new one being announced to open soon.
Pensée often rocked pink bangs. She usually copied the styles of girls in anime or characters from video games. Currently, she is emulating Kassy's look, and previously, she copied the look of Xinx from the game "The Mask That Always Smiles," which many people referred to as "Mask" or "The Mask" for short.
Amii Ling was more or less a carbon copy of her, personality-wise, or lack thereof. She was just more argumentative. Both of them acted morally superior to everyone else and craved validation.
"I think she's just trying to copy Ashlyn's starr look. She just gave up in the middle of it. Poor girl," remarked Amii, with a smug look on her face.
I wasn't even sure what they were talking about when they brought up my hair. Then, as I looked at my reflection in the classroom window, I noticed that my hair was sticking up high in the air. It was a result of Larisa zipping me through all the walls at lightning speed.
Didn't Larisa think to mention that my hair looked like a bomb had gone off on top of it?! Ugh.
Meanwhile, Larisa's hair was immaculate, as it always was—one of the many perks of being a ghost, I suppose. I casually glanced over at Larisa, who stood innocently by the door with wide eyes and a half-smile.
Pensée stepped forward, giving Lillian a long, thorough, uncomfortable look, and then said, "She looks like one of those naked troll toys you can buy... you know, those things with big pink hair." They both smirked and chuckled mischievously together.
Feeling a bit self-conscious, I quietly interjected, "My hair isn't pink... and also!" I hastily stopped when I realised I didn't want to counter any other part of the comment just made.
Amii remarked, "Oh wow, a troll and Ashlyn Starr! Two opposite ends of the spectrum."
"They would have very ugly babies," Pensée casually quipped.
"If Ashlyn Starr and that hideous troll creature were to have an offspring, they would undoubtedly be the epitome of ugliness," Amii chuckled.
Lillian really wanted to point out how pretty Ashlyn was, but after her terrible encounter with Ashlyn Starr earlier, she much preferred not to say anything positive about her. Those two girls clearly saw her as a threat and disliked her for petty reasons. Before today, she had never even heard of Ashlyn Starr, but it was clear that these two knew of her.
"I'm fine with two females having babies. They can have babies if they want, and I'm not going to judge!"
"The baby would be ugly, though," Pensée interjected.
"Totally!" Amii laughed.
The troll toy was female? I didn't care; I just wanted to get far away from Pensée and Amii. Thankfully, Jason, our teacher, finally arrived and was now the centre of attention.
Okay, class! We are running late! I hope you have all conducted thorough research on the current cake pictures that are trending online, as well as practised and refined your keywords for the algorithm. The individual whose cake receives the highest number of views and likes will be awarded a new badge on their eBunnee profile." He gazed over at Lillian's wild hair and added, "I always look forward to seeing your work, Lilly."
"I will try my best... Voorhees, Mr... ummm..." Lillian struggled to find a word that sounded like 'Voorhees' to cover up her blunder, then blurted out, "14!" much louder than she had intended.
Jason sensed Lillian's embarrassment and said, "14 likes will be good. I do think you can do much better than that. Don't sell yourself short."
Darn Larisa and her Voorhees nonsense! Now she's got me saying it! Amii and Pensée weren't even listening to anything Jason was saying; they were busy yakking with each other. Larisa was just randomly scrolling from one location to the next, with no rhyme or reason. I saw her stop at a corner near one of the cake machines and decided to walk up to her. Well, the machine was free, and it was my lucky one—the machine I always got the best results from.
"Larisa!" I whispered eagerly. "Come and help me brainstorm an amazing cake idea. We can either input some words or select suggested words from the menus, then click 'create,' and voilà, we'll have a cake!"
She looked somewhat bewildered as she inspected the contraption before us—the cake machine, a large box with an open glass screen that allowed us to peer inside, accompanied by a small touch screen below.
Feeling a bit intimidated, she said, "You do it! I want to learn from the expert."
A faint blush warmed my cheeks. "Sure! Let's do this!" I responded eagerly. I selected 'sponge,' then 'pink icing,' next, I clicked on 'raspberry filling,' and for something unusual, I chose 'anime,' just to see what it would come up with.
Unexpectedly, Larisa shouted, "French Bulldog!" seemingly without any apparent reason.
"Actually, Larisa, that's not a bad idea," I remarked. I typed in 'French Bulldog' along with the other words and clicked 'create.'
The machine emitted a series of creaks and beeps, almost as if it was trying to convey a message in Morse code. Maybe it was trying to say 'hello' to Larisa, or perhaps it was commenting on my outrageous hair. Being a pessimist, I assumed the latter.
After a few random beeps, the contraption lit up entirely, and a laser attached to a metal pole began darting in every direction, shining light onto the glass plate at the bottom.
We both gasped as we watched the laser forming a pink base for the cake on the glass. Larisa grew overly curious, mumbling sounds and noises as she fought her way inside the cake-making machine, which was still producing the cake.
She went right inside the circular box behind the moving laser, then turned around, moved forward, and stared right at me through the glass-protected cover at the front, somewhat obscuring my view of the cake being created. However, her presence didn't seem to disrupt or disturb the cake production. I guessed she just wanted a very, very close look.
She stared at me intently with her head inside the glass compartment, her semi-translucent figure giving the surreal impression of watching a TV show.
I playfully mimed changing the channel with my index finger and exclaimed, "Sorry, I'm getting bored of this TV show now!" as I rapidly mimed pressing the button at an increasing speed.
In response to my comment, Larisa just stuck out her tongue and made the sound, "Uguu!"
Eventually, she stopped, and we both stood watching as the cake production was finalised.
"I don't think the radiation is good for you," I finally said to her after a brief silence.
"R-r-radiat-t-tion? 'ation?! Radio? H-huh?" She stumbled over the word, trying to pronounce it repeatedly.
I wanted to help her, but she looked so darn adorable struggling with the word.
"R-radiodate... R-radiorash... date-n-naton..."
I looked over to the opposite side of the room to see what Amii and Pensée were up to and noticed them already taking photos of whatever they had created for social media. I saw Larisa observing them, and she asked the ultimate question: "Why are they taking a photo of it?"
"We take photos of all food before we eat it for eBunnee."
"Even the nasty stuff like dog biscuits and green slime?" Larisa asked, with a deadpan look on her face, as if she were dead serious about this question.
"Why would I even consider eating anything like that?"
Larisa pondered for a moment before remarking, "People used to pray before eating a meal, but now they simply take a photo of it?"
"Well, we still engage in that practice, just in a v-ve-very different way. Nowadays, we idolise and worship people on eBunnee by giving them likes and donning branded clothing. People like Kassy and..." Avoiding any mention of someone as irritating as Amii, she simply added, "...and Xinx, who warrant our adoration."
Larisa looked as if she had a eureka moment, where everything clicked and made sense to her, but then she quickly transitioned back to looking lost and perplexed.
"Ummmm, aww, okay!" was what Larisa finally had to say.
We both heard a loud beep, like a spam message had just been received, usually promoting some shady potions to buy. However, it was the beep that acknowledged that the cake had finished being created.
As I lifted the cake out of the machine and put it on a plate, my smile increased tenfold. Before us, I saw a big, three-dimensional cake of a giant pink French Bulldog lying down, exposing its chest and legs up in the air.
The dog had its tongue hanging out, with raspberry filling seeping out a little around the open mouth. Its pink fur was made out of an unknown material, resembling a big loaf of bread, with pink icing fur too long to belong to the fur of a bulldog. For sure, it didn't look like icing.
I saw Larisa with the 'do not want' face.
"It may not taste nice, but it will garner a lot of attention on social media, which is all that matters," she said as she pulled out her phone camera and started recording. "This is going to get loads of views and likes!" Lillian exuded an overwhelming sense of joy in what she had accomplished.
"I don't think I am really learning anything," Larisa stated.
"Oh, trust me, we are!"
Meanwhile, Ami and Pensée were still in awe, marvelling over what they had just created: "I need just a couple more pictures of this!" Pensée requested, fidgeting with the settings on her phone.
"Yes, we did well, girl." Knowing it would make Pensée blush, she finished expanding her sentence with, "It is fit for a princess."
Pensée made a minor correction: "for princesses."
"Alright," I heard Jason shout, "Let's see what we have today! Bring your finished cakes to the table here so we can see."
Nobody else in the class seemed to have finished anything; only Pensée and I, along with the Amii duo, came carrying a cake.
Their cake was a multilayered masterpiece with icicles hanging from the upper tiers. The entire creation resembled crystal due to the intricate sugar work, topped by a giant angel statue with enormous wings. It was breathtakingly detailed, beyond human capability to sculpt.
I reluctantly placed the pink French Bulldog cake down on the table and quickly averted my gaze, not wanting to see their reactions to it.
Jason looked at the cake and said, "At least you didn't... ahem." He cleared his throat and gave a smirk. "Make a cake of any particular horror character."
"Lillian, you are a horror character!" Amii remarked.
Okay, I was going to stand my ground and not accept this slight insult from her. I had enough of this girl today! I would retaliate in the only way that would upset her.
"Yes, I am a horror villain! I am the PROTAGONIST!"
If a horror character was an antagonist or protagonist, I suppose it was up to interpretation. But one thing was certain: Amii and Princess didn't like me saying I was the protagonist.
They both stormed away, carrying the cake.
"Right, now that is... um, over with. May I try some of your cake, Lillian?" Jason asked.
"Sure!!! Go ahead!!" Lillian was quite delighted that he wanted to try some of it.
He took a piece of the cake and chewed on it for a lengthy amount of time. I picked up a piece of the paw of the cake and started eating it as well.
"Oh no!" Lillian exclaimed. "I forgot to add sugar to the sponge part of the cake!" After chewing it somewhat, I concluded that the texture felt reminiscent of a Brillo pad.
"You are sweet enough without sugar, Lillian," Jason remarked while removing pink hair from between his teeth.
I looked around and wondered where Larisa had gone. I guessed she didn't want to try any—not that I could blame her. That was if she was even capable of eating solid foods, being a ghost and all. She was quite an enigma, indeed.
For some reason, Larisa was transfixed by the cake that Amii and Pensée had just 'produced' and had gone to gaze at it once more. Larisa was leaning on the windows to get a closer look, while a window cleaner was slowly approaching.
"I really hate pink dogs!" Amii commented.
"I don't mind pink, black, spotted, or dogs of any colour. I just hate Lillian's dog," responded Pensée.
"Totally! I don't discriminate at all! I would have a pet of any colour!"
"We need some photos of this cake from the side. I want to get close-ups of the angel statue's face," insisted Pensée as she tilted the camera and took a few more photos.
"I like what you're doing, girl."
Behind them, they heard annoying squeaking and splashing sounds as a window cleaner ran his cloth against the window, humming an out-of-pitch tune to himself.
"Shush! Could you please go away? We don't aspire to end up like you, scrubbing dirt off windows for a living with no followers on eBunnee. Seriously," Amii Ling retorted, her words laced with venom.
"We are trying to, like, actually do something with our lives," Pensée added.
The guy obviously wasn't acknowledging the girls at all.
"Okay, let's try to get to one of the bottom layers where it's most crystallised."
Suddenly, a high-pitched squeak emanated from the window cleaner behind them.
In perfect synchronisation, they swiftly turned around and exclaimed, "SHUT UP!" in unison.
"Just ignore the idiot," Pensée insisted.
"They hire such stupid people in this school."
"Indeed. Who else would do that job? Only stupid people would."
The window cleaner sprayed the window with the little hose thing.
Until this moment, Larisa's gaze had remained fixed on the cake. However, as she turned around, her hand accidentally passed through the glass, rendering it momentarily passable. Meanwhile, the window cleaner continued spraying water, and some of it managed to seep through the windows, splashing all over Amii's face.
Amii rushed to the window and screamed at the top of her lungs in his face, "You imbecile! Are you blind? Are you stupid? Clearly, you are! But we didn't know you were THIS stupid! I am going to get you fired! YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!"
The window cleaner looked dumbstruck, too afraid to even speak.
"You shouldn't have opened the window, Amii." Jason commented.
"I DID NOT TOUCH THE FREAKING WINDOW!!" she screamed, as she forcefully flung a metal tray in his direction. "The blasted thing never opens because there is no frickin' latch to open it! I really want to strike this moron in the face!"
Since Larisa was no longer in contact with the window, objects were no longer able to penetrate it.
Pensée observed the cake, which didn't seem to be damaged in any way.
Lillian didn't want any part of this and quietly left the room, carrying her cake. She subtly tilted her head, signalling for Larisa to follow her.