Chapter Five

Blueth Mendoza's POV

"There's something I want to tell you."

I looked at Ms. Val's eyes as I waited for her to say what it is that she wants to tell me, placing her hands both on my shoulders as she keeps looking at me.

"What is it?" I started asking out of curiosity.

Ms. Val just kept looking at me. Tell me what it is! This suspense is killing me!

"Got you." Ms. Val said as she started laughing. I stood in silence trying to process the thing which is happening at the moment.

"Got you?" I asked as I looked at Ms. Val. She was laughing so hard that she started rolling around on the ground. Cathy just sat around, also looking at Ms. Val.

"Did you see her expression, Cathy? She was all like, 'Huh? Tell me what it is! Tell me!'" Ms. Val said as she kept on laughing. "Oh, we got you good!"

"What exactly is happening here?" I asked as I kept looking at Ms. Val while she kept rolling on the ground, laughing.

"She told me last night that she wants to prank you on your first day. And when she told me what her prank is, I told her not to do it because it's just a waste of time. But she insisted on doing it and now, she's the only one who gets it." Cathy said as she kept looking at Ms. Val.

"Ah, I see."

Wait, did Cathy just talk?

"What's with that look kid? You look like you've seen a ghost." Ms. Val said as she stood up, wiping away the tears she got from laughing.

"C-Cathy can talk!?" I stuttered as I fixed my look on Cathy.

"What are you talking about? Cathy always talked."

"Then why didn't she say anything when I was around!?"

"It's like what you and Val said, to get to know me better, you need to earn my trust. I need to know if I can trust you with those kinds of information about me." Cathy said as she gave me a wink.

"Okay, the two of you need to stop saying everything I'm saying, that's copyright you know. Now, let's get back inside before someone sees us and thinks that we are one of those scavenger people." Ms. Val said as she started walking towards the building.

I picked up Cathy and started talking to her while Ms. Val went ahead.

"Does this mean that you already trust me?" I said as I gave Cathy love and affection.

"You have my trust kid, but only a small amount, don't push your luck. Besides, it's hard not to trust someone who keeps giving love and belly rubs to you."

"Then love and belly rubs I shall give!" I said as I accidentally bumped into Ms. Val. "Huh? Ms. Val? I thought you already went inside?"

"Yeah, I thought so too." Ms. Val said as she looked to her left.

"What are you looking at? Is something wrong?"

"Wait right here." Ms. Val said in an angry tone as she started walking towards the direction she was looking at and turned around the corner.

"What's up with her?"

"Oh, you know, Val gets a bit paranoid sometimes."

"Oh, well, will she be okay?" I asked as I kept looking at the direction Ms. Val went.

"Don't worry, she gets these sudden feelings where she thinks that she's being watched by someone all the time. But she comes around, there's nothing to worry about."

"Come right in!" We heard Ms. Val's voice coming from the direction of the door, we looked and we saw Ms. Val standing by the door and she was out of breath.

"Never mind, she just forgot the keys inside." Cathy said as she gave Ms. Val this irritated look.

"Well I'm sorry for being forgetful, you try having lots of things to think about, let's see if you won't accidentally forget something."

"Oh yeah? And what are these 'things' that you are so busy thinking about that you nearly made us lose our house!?"

"Well, there are many customers that come here. I keep track of their books so we don't accidentally give them the wrong one and start a war of some sort."

"Val, there are no customers! We don't even get any single customer."

"Well, ah forget it. Just come inside before I decide to lock you out." Ms. Val said as she walked inside.

I let out a small laugh as I entered the building. The two of them looked like little kids arguing on who gets to have the tv remote first, they looked so cute. As I entered the room, I sat down on the sofa.

"Hey, kid? What's that plastic bag you've been carrying all this time?" Ms. Val asked me as she pointed at the bag I was carrying.

"Huh? Oh, this? I nearly forgot about them. They're dumplings. My mom wanted me to give you a gift as thanks for hiring me. These are my favorite dumplings, I did my best not to eat them along the way." I said as I handed the dumplings over to Ms. Val.

Ms. Val took them and took a sniff, I can see it in her expression that she likes them.

"These smells delicious! Did your mom made them?" Ms. Val said as she took one of the dumplings and started peeling off the piece of paper underneath them.

"Uh-huh, my mom makes the best dumplings in the world! Well, base on my taste buds that is."

"If your mom makes delicious dumplings, why doesn't she start a dumpling business?" Cathy said as she sat across from me.

"Well, she did try that, well, we tried that, but it didn't go too well. Since people here are not really fond of dumplings, only a few people come to our store to buy them. And because of that, we went bankrupt, making us close our shop."

"Maybe you just did a wrong approach." Ms. Val said as she finally peeled all of the pieces of paper on her dumplings. "Maybe you were just serving the wrong kinds of customers, that's all."

Ms. Val was about to eat one of the dumplings when suddenly, we heard a loud knock on the front door. "Open up!!! This is the police!!!"

My eyes widened as I looked over to Ms. Val which stopped halfway, just before the dumpling could enter her mouth.

"Uh-oh."

-End of Chapter-