Chaos King. A Disaster Clad in Overalls

Chapter 12 - ThinkTanks and Pretend Pairs

"Anger is a feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind."- By Evan Esar

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained." – By C.S.Lewis.

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Valentine's day. Errghh.

Not that I don't understand what love is because I do. I love my siblings and my parents and my peas enough to know the feeling, to know how much it hurts when you lose someone you love, how good it feels when you feel like you couldn't possibly be any happier. I am just not in love. Not that that whole concept has been explained to us. I always just assumed that when you grew up you were just given a person to marry and have children with. Wouldn't that be easier? I only found out about all this love business, about finding someone, choosing someone to be your life partner, this morning when Calamity asked me who I was going to pair up with for the Valentines Race. Apparently the only stipulations for entry is that you have to prove your connection. Oh dear looks like I can't join. Rats. So disappointed.

I wasn't. Not in the slightest until Ferris showed us footage of the previous years races. It looked epically awesome. All action and team work and fun. Every year was different and the Valentines committee never failed to disappoint. This year the theme was Pretend Pairs. People had to dress up in things called costumes and pretend to be people of significance, couples throughout history that held importance. We had three days to research and find a costume.

And find a partner with which we had a connection.

I wasn't entirely sure what kind of connection I was supposed to be looking for. Recently I had been yearning to connect my fist with a lot of people's faces because they had been using my Compassionation to their advantage. I asked Saffy if we could go together but she already had a partner and she refused to tell me who it was. I felt kind of bad for whoever they were. She probably scared them into going with her.

The rules didn't stipulate that partners had to be different genders, just that team members had to have a connection. Sita and Adeline who couldn't have been more different in my eyes were the first pair to sign up and present their case to the Bizarreo board which consisted of Ferris and Professors Bliss, Glitch and Elderman and three of the doctor squad. They got through. So did Matilda and Buster, Slade and Rita, Thea and Ryder, Matilda and Wren, Nala and Zeus. Trudy got knocked back four times but eventually got through with Kronk who she had rejected several times when he had previously asked. Participation wasn't mandatory but nobody wanted to miss out on the fun. By dinner literally everyone seemed to have a partner but me. Except for Horace and there was no way. Slater the hater said the whole thing was stupid and that because of his power he had an attraction to everyone and refused to participate. Alright Mr Snobby.

I still researched costumes all afternoon. I sat down in the Bizarreo common room on one of the swings with the ThinkTank26. A small hexagonal prism shaped object that was light and soft to touch, like a squishy ball they used to have in the playrooms from Firefox. To make it work you had to hold your palm flat and place the ThinkTank in the middle. You placed your thumb print on the top hexagon and waited until the object started to hum a little song. Once it was done it meant that it had warmed up, that it was ready for action. Next you ask it what ever you want to know.

"Costumes for Pretend Pairs." I whispered. I don't know why. It just kind of silly to me to be researching costumes without a partner.

The little device started to hum again before the top hexagon seemed to pop off and rise up, hovering in the air until it was a good foot above the rest of the prism. Two more Hexagons popped off and hovered side by side directly in between the remaining hexagons and the lone one.