Bassie's World - Chapter Thirteen

Instructions

[ Cosmo, 2:03 PM, Sprout's Floor ] "Oh Flutter! They're ready!" I called out from the kitchen. "They certainly look better than the last time." Flutter flew into the kitchen nimbly. Dough and flour were messily splattered against the walls and countertops, not to mention the oven looked like it was on its last life. Flutter must've been wondering how it even still functioned. Sprout and I were standing beside each other, smiling. Flutter's eyes landed on the tray of crispy, golden muffins in our hands. She rushed up to us immediately. You could see a delighted sparkle in her eyes. "It's a shame that you can't try them, Flutter." Sprout tutted. '??' Flutter stopped flying and grabbed a muffin with her light-blue wing. She turned around so that we couldn't see her face any longer, and when she turned back around, the muffin was gone. She seemed very pleased. "Wh- did you just eat it?" '!!' Flutter nodded, and then flew around in the air, doing flips and spinning about. "I guess it really was that good." Sprout smirked, looking rather proud of himself. I decided to toss aside the confusion of how Flutter could possibly eat food without a mouth. "Maybe we should let some other Toons try them?" I suggested. "Yeah, just not..." Sprout bit his lip. "Just not Bassie." "Yeah, especially not after what happened." I whispered to him. '??' "Uh, don't worry about it, Flutter." I put my hands inside the pocket of my hoodie. '!!' "Really, it's no big deal." Sprout confirmed. She looked concerned as her eyes darted from mine to Sprout's over and over. It was hard enough to clear up the Shelly incident. Even though 2 weeks had passed since she became able to walk and talk again, other Toons that weren't involved still didn't believe in our excuse. The excuse was that Shelly had fallen down a tall set of stairs into the sharp corner of a storage box. It made little sense considering that it was literally a claw-shaped wound, yes, but it would be disrespectful to question it considering how injured the poor shell really was. Sprout gave me a look that clearly meant 'can we really trust her'. I shrugged a little. She wouldn't really be able to tell anybody coherently, but I'm pretty certain she does that diary thing with Gigi. If she would even think about telling it to Gigi so it could be written down what happened on /paper/, that's too big of a liability. However, there's also the chance Squirm would eat it before it could be found... There was an awkward silence. I looked back at Flutter, who didn't look very entertained right now. I could only wonder what that butterfly was thinking right now. Her antennae drooped, and she stared at the floor. "She doesn't feel /welcome/, Sprout." I said through gritted teeth, leaning into him. "Ah, uh, Flutter, why don't we make cookies shaped like your face again?" Sprout patted down his stained apron and put on his best unsuspicious smile. "This time with no gumball eyes." I added. Was that really all he could think of? He knows how it went last time! Flutter nodded her head cheerily. '!!!' "Well, Flutter, why don't you fly over to that tall shelf right there and get the icings down?" Sprout asked. A realization dawned on me as Flutter flew away. My mind thought of Connie when he mentioned getting things off of higher shelves, since Connie usually does it too. She can go invisible. ... What if she knows? "Cosmo, what's wrong?" Sprout put down the tray and faced me. "Oh, uhm, nothing." I took my hands out of my pocket and let them lay on my sides. "No, really. Tell me." Sprout said. "It's just that... someone else may know about everything that we didn't realize until now." I folded my arms. "What." Sprout froze. "Connie." I told him. "I'm sure she'd find it boring and decide to not stick around if she had followed us." Sprout said. I sighed, knowing that Sprout was just trying to make me feel better. I wanted to tell him that it wouldn't help me, but instead I just agreed. "Yeah." Flutter came back around the corner, her legs carrying a basket. She dropped it in front of us. It had all the icing colors to make the infamous Flutter cookies. Sprout walked over to the counter with the basket in his hands. "C'mon, let's get to work."