First Day of Spring

Don't just sit there catatonic

Disclaimer: I have never been to the Keukenhof gardens so I have no clue what the security there is or what the gate looks like or any of that crap. Please excuse my ignorance, my lovely rice rolls.

After walking for some time, twisting through a variety of trails in the tall grass, the gang arrived to the entrance gate that lead into the gardens. The line was quite long as tourists rushed in for the spring deals. The size of the crowd was discouraging to the Lazy Town bunch.

"Ugh! This is a horrible wait!", Stingy bluntly complained, "Can I buy our way to the front, Sportacus??"

Sportacus shook his head with a hint of annoyance, "That wouldn't be fair to everyone else that's been waiting longer than we have."

"Well... on second thought, I wouldn't want to give away my precious gold coins...", Stingy mumbled to himself as he rolled one of his shining coins through his fingers and tucked it into his pocket.

With that being said, they went to stand at the end of the line. Tourists chattered throughout the line as the heat started to rise. The energy seemed to drain from the group as they waited for several minutes to make it to the gate.

Robbie, being disgruntled by the current situation (and the incidents of the morning), was in quite a sarcastic mood. "Oh boy, flowers!" he bitterly remarked, "I hope I don't burn into a pile of ashes before I get to see those wrinkled-up colored tissue balls..."

Stephanie turned to tell Robbie how rude he was being, but then she suddenly changed her mind as her thoughts went back to what he had done to Stingy on the ship...

After thirty minutes of waiting, they made it to the ticket booth. Everyone sighed with relief as Sportacus pulled a wad of cash seemingly out of nowhere.

"Don't worry about the fee.", Sportacus said, "I brought enough money for all the tickets."

Sportacus bought nine tickets and his companions followed him through the gate. As they entered inside, the scene unfolded before them. Vibrant shades of pinks and purples popped off of petunias. Orange buds burst from bushes and the marigolds glowed with yellow tones. Stripes and spots were scattered amongst the sea of blossoms.

After drinking in the scenery for a moment, the children spontaneously ran through the park. Sportacus, Ms.Busybody, and the Mayor all went after them. Robbie was left to himself to swallow in the sweet air.

If this isn't a perfect day, I don't know what is.

Robbie was drenched by sensations of wonder. He wanted to be alone. No. He NEEDED to be alone to be consumed by this place's magic. It was the perfect time to restore the elation that he had lost to unfortunate circumstances.

He spotted a cozy bench along the path, so he pulled his trusty blanket from his bag and draped it over the wood. Next, he took his umbrella from his bag, popping it open and tying it to the arm of the bench to provide shade for his upper body. The bench was quickly made into a lovely bed.

Robbie laid on his creation, satisfied by his work. He was left alone to admire the gardens while he stayed away from those pesky people...

There was a moment of emptiness as his mind wandered back to Sportacus. But then again, he was probably having a great time with the kids, and Robbie didn't want to interfere.

And so the villain lounged on the bench without a care in the world.

That was, until Stingy decided to ruin the silence.

"Hey! Robbie! Get up!"

The villain cracked an eye at the yellow brat before him, wondering where the hell he came from. "Oh, Stanky! What a PLEASURE.", he said through his clenched teeth.

"You sleep all of the time around Lazy Town.", Stingy observed as he stuck his nose in the air, "Can't today be any different? Get up, you lazy bum!"

Robbie rolled from his side to sit upright, glaring into the rich boy's eyes.

"Just because your insignificant feelings got hurt earlier doesn't mean you can just boss me around. Now run along and leave me alone"

"You know, if you were just nice to people, they might like you, maybe even call you a friend.'

With those words, Stingy stuck his tongue out at Robbie, then skipped in the direction the others had gone off to.

The villain crossed his arms and huffed, "This is why I dislike children..."

For some reason, he didn't feel like laying down on the bench anymore. He saw the children hopping in the distance, but he didn't particularly want to see them or anyone else right now. He packed up his things in his bag and went on a trail that went in a different direction than where his acquaintances wandered.

Robbie walked alone. These feelings needed to go away. They needed to disappear...

He just wanted to get lost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stingy came back to the group, panting from the jog that he had to take to catch up.

"Hey, Stingy!", Pixel said, "Where did you wander off to?"

Stingy clasped his hand behind his back, swinging his feet in an innocent manner, "I thought I had seen some gold in one of the bushes back there, but it was just a bright yellow flower!"

"Oh, you goofball!", Trixie playfully remarked. She wrapped one of her hands around one of Stingy's, and the three of them sprinted to catch up with the others.