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Chapter 2
Couple of Days
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"Spinel. Spineeeeelllll….Spinel!"
The pink gem had her tongue sticking out in concentration, but ends up looking at Steven from the game she was playing on her phone. "Hm?"
It hadn't been long since the first day of her arrival, about four days and without no answer from the Diamonds, Spinel decided to absorb into making friends with the Crystal Gems. That meant them and Steven taught her many things about how things work here. Such as what a bathroom was, tasting food, and also how to be a Crystal Gem.
Bismuth had also given Spinel a gift. More of a weapon. Unfortunately it looked and worked just like the rejuvenator, but also had a few tweaks so it doesn't have to be a rejuvenator all of the time. It can switch to an energy that hurt like a real scythe.
That weapon was in her gem and she never bothered with it. Hoping she never will use it.
"Well I was wondering if you want to come with me and Connie on a small trip? Just to relax our minds. We usually do this especially when we're stressed." Steven slips on his pink varsity jacket.
"And where is that?" Her magenta eyes drift toward the game she was playing.
"Funland. You know that place I showed you yesterday, now we have time to go, maybe even all night."
Spinel nearly drops her phone and her eyes sparkle with excitement, "Really?!"
Steven chuckles, "Yes, really."
"We're wasting time then! Let's go!" The pink gem stretches over to the door and her hand drags Steven out like a rag doll.
"Whoaaa! Spinel, we have to pick up Connie first!"
~°♡°~
At the Maheswaran residence, Steven lead Spinel up to the front door as he knocked. She stayed behind him once Connie's mom opens the door. "Connie! It's for you! Hello, Steven." Mrs. Maheswaran smiles tiredly.
"Hi, Mrs. Maheswaran."
Connie appears and hugs her mother, "I'll be back later tonight, Mom."
"Alright, stay safe." Connie's mom kisses her daughter's forehead.
After leaving the home, Connie notices Spinel and she smiles warmly at her. "Hi! I never got to properly meet you, well, you know, a better occasion." Connie chuckles slightly. "I'm Connie which I'm positive Steven mentioned."
Spinel grinned more confidently at the human's kindness, "He has. Quite a lot and from the other gems. I'm very pleased to meet Steven's mate."
Both Connie and Steven's eyes widen and their faces are very flustered. "Oh my gosh, Spinel. We don't call it that." Steven hides in his hands.
Spinel tilts her head, causing her pigtails to move to the side in confusion, "Well Peridot said you two were mates, but judging by your reactions. You two are not partners?"
"Uh, we are…." Connie rubs her cheek, "...but there are other words to call us partners. Like Steven is my boyfriend." She smiles softly and takes his hand.
"And she is my girlfriend." Steven gazes at her with a tender expression.
Spinel watches their entwined hands swinging between each other. It greatly confused her even more. 'So they're friends, but not friends?' She shakes her head and stares at everyone passing by. Again, she ends up looking at her attire. This time Spinel examines Connie's outfit.
A type of blue shorts with a pinkish red shirt and a yellow star in the middle.
The teens and kids were all out once they got closer to the Beach City Funland. Spinel slightly hung back to walk behind Steven and Connie as they were absorbed in their conversation. "Hm…" Spinel eyes a group of gems with their human attire. 'They seem more relaxed.'
Connie giggles at something Steven said only for a bright light shined from being them. This made the young couple turned around and the light dimmed. Their eyes widen at Spinel's new look. "Whoa."
Spinel has had hands behind her back while looking at them nervously, "What do you guys think? I-I hope it's alright." The black hoodie was zipped up a little, showing that Spinel had a magenta colored shirt with her gem showing. The short blue denim pants matching the pink converse she wore and her gloves were gone.
Connie grins and holds her hands together, liking her outfit, "Wow! You look really great! Almost more human actually."
Steven nods and gives two thumbs up, "Connie's right. It looks amazing!"
Their compliments made Spinel feel much better and she felt good. "Well, now that is over with. Off to have fun!" Spinel laughs happily and stretches over Connie and Steven before flipping a couple of feet away. Spinel holds herself by one hand upside down, "Hurry up, Slowpokes!" Her giggles matching that of a happy child.
Connie and Steven laugh while breaking into a run.
The Funland Arcade and the Carnival rides all filled Spinel's vision, wondering what they were going to do first. "What should we do first?!" She clearly remembered the roller coaster and the rush it gave.
"How about we start to get our adrenaline pumping?" Connie suggests after spotting Spinel looking to the roller coaster.
"Roller Coaster?" Steven points out.
Spinel blinks when Connie takes her hand, "I'm always sitting with Steven. So you can sit with me, okay?" The gem giving her an excited nod.
Steven pouted, but it was fun once they were all riding the roller coaster. Spinel yelling and cheering out while holding up her arms. At one point, her hand accidentally hit Steven who sat behind the two girls. Connie and Spinel glance at each other when Steven seemed unamused, but the two end up laughing at him.
Spinel would always give Steven and Connie space at times, especially when one of them pecked their cheek. It didn't bother her much because she was having too much fun.
They soon made their way to the arcade and Steven had pockets full of gold coins, so with a handful, he slipped them into Spinel's hands. "Have fun with any of these games, okay? If you want more just find me or Connie."
Connie hums and smirks, "Actually, let's all split up and whoever has the most tickets wins. The losers have to give their tickets up to the winner. What do you say?"
'A game within a game. Geewhiz, human games are great!' There was no way Spinel was going to let them win. "Aren't ya losers already? I'm definitely the game master." She smirks back and flips one of the gold coins, catching it with a wink.
"Steven's gonna lose!" Connie shouts and laughs while running off. "Don't let him win Spinel!"
Steven whines, "Why are you two attacking me today?"
Spinel snickers and walks backwards, "Hey, I'm just a GOOD friend. It's not my problem she's your girlfriend." She glides over to an area I'm the arcade. There was something that caught her eye and the only game she remembered that spud out piles of tickets. "Oh, I am so winning."
Skee-Ball.
~°♡°~
"Is Spinel still playing?" Steven asked Connie.
The teen girl shrugs and holds two handful of tickets while compared to Steven's one handful. "I don't know. Possibly."
They make their way around the arcade and spot the gem at the Skee-Ball machine with piles of tickets rolling out of the dispenser. Her arm is stretched out in loops, making a slide for the balls to roll on and keep landing in the same high score spot.
That was her last coin, so Spinel gathered the tickets and stops to see Connie and Steven with wide eyes. "What?"
Shaking out of their shock, they just laugh it off and lead Spinel to the counter to turn in the tickets. Let's say, Spinel didn't want any of the big prizes and she wanted Steven and Connie to keep their tickets. She just had her eyes set on the small toys and trinkets....and the candy.
Steven had got Connie a keychain with a pink teddy bear hanging from it.
"Here, Spinel. A welcoming gift from me." Connie reaches out to clip something on both Spinel's pigtails. The prize she had gotten from her tickets.
Spinel turns to the reflection of the glass counter, gently moving her head to swish her hair. Pink flower clips. She grins happily, "Thank you, Connie."
The sky had gotten darker and the colorful lights from Funland made Spinel more happy, swinging her bag of treats from the arcade. A fuzzy pink thing was held out in front of Spinel's face suddenly and she just stared at it.
"Try some cotton candy." Steven says.
Spinel grew curious and pokes it. 'It's so….fluffy.'
Steven snickers, "You eat it. See?" He pulls a pieces from the fluffy treat and puts it in his mouth.
Spinel does the same and suddenly she gasps in amazement, grabbing the cotton candy. "It vanished!" She pokes at it, but it doesn't disappear like it did in her mouth and she begins to eat more. Loving how it just melted into nothing, but tasted good.
Connie and Steven laugh at her adorable reaction.
"Hey, Steven. You don't mind if I...go off on my own for awhile?" Spinel asked.
"Um...sure. You have your phone right?"
"Of course." Spinel began to get impatient and wanting to bound around without anyone holding her back to have fun.
Steven chuckles and hands her a couple of dollar bills, "For the games or food if you want. If you need us, Connie and I will be at the ferris wheel."
With that, Spinel takes off and stretches over a few people. Slowly, she came to stroll and glance between all the games and rides.
A game stand that consisted of tossing the ring until it goes around a bottle had many prizes, but…..there was one that stood out most to Spinel.
A balloon alien.
'Didn't Peridot have something like that with her the other day?' Spinel grins warmly and makes her way up to the stand. 'Maybe if I win her one of those, we can be better friends.' She did feel bad for ruining the first impression of herself to Peridot.
"Care to try your luck?" The man asked with a smug grin.
Spinel grins back, "I don't need luck." She slips the money on the counter and ten rings are placed on the counter. On the first try, Spinel tosses the ring and adding a flip to it toward the bottle, like a coin.
The ring bounces off one bottle rim and another before perfectly stopping around a bottle's neck. Nine more rings are tossed and flipped in the same manner. All landing around the same bottle.
Honestly, Spinel was messing around and being overconfident, not thinking she would make that. "Oh….wow. I WON!" Spinel jumps up in victory, "I love this game!"
The man laughs and waves to the big prizes, while Spinel pointed out the alien balloon.
'Earth is amazing.' She thought and continues on her way with the balloon alien now in her gem. Her mind began began to drift to the bad thoughts again.
'What if I came to Earth with Pink?' Spinel's posture drops and her gaze goes to her pink shoes, 'Would I not be having trouble feeling happy or finding a place to fit in?' Spinel growls a little and pulls her hair, "Stop it."
'Why? Is there a reason you're still thinking these things?'
"I'm happy. Better than before." Spinel reassures herself.
'No, you're not. Pink abandoned you. It won't be long before they abandon you. Wanna know why?.......BECAUSE YOU ABANDONED YOURSELF!!'
Spinel's villain self flashes across her vision and she chokes back a terrified gasp when suddenly someone runs into her. Knocking the gem onto her back and spilling her bag.
A female's voice groans, sounding very annoyed at herself, "I am so sorry." The human female quickly picks up the treats and small trinkets, putting them back in the bag.
Spinel huffs and gets up to rub her head. The bag is shoved in her hands and that sudden action caused Spinel to back into a wooden pole. Her eyes open and stare back at [e/c] eyes that held an incredulity expression.
The long stare caused Spinel's face to fluster as the human female raised a brow until her eyes look somewhere behind Spinel.
The gem watched her walk off quickly and managed to see in the lights of the carnival, the [h/c] hair bob at the fast movement. Spinel clearly noticed the way the human looked back. However, there was nothing, just people and gems walking around.
"Huh." Spinel shrugs and goes to find Steven and Connie.