Chapter Text
Scary Girl didn’t usually wake up peacefully considering her alarm was a combination of horror film music and screams but this morning it wasn’t her alarm that woke her up. Even from upstairs she could hear the sounds of cookware slamming into the kitchen floor from downstairs. Her first instinct was to grab the spiked baseball bat under her bed until she noticed the faint light of the sun through her dark curtains and the familiar shout of Chase “No, no, no!” as the crash of more cookware could be heard.
Scary Girl took her time to get downstairs, keeping an ear out if Chase had actually hurt himself in whatever he was doing. By the time she reached the kitchen she saw Chase holding a hand against the cupboard with all the cookware in it, the other on a frying pan to what looked like it was supposed to be pancakes. A pile of rejects next to the stovetop, some burnt and some mostly batter, unsurprisingly one on the ceiling. “Oh, Scary Girl did I wake you up? Sorry, I was going to have my usual cereal, then I realised I’ve never made a hot breakfast before that wasn’t from a restaurant,” Chase kept his eyes on the pan. Moving past him Scary Girl moved Chase’s hand off the cupboard, managing to keep back the tsunami of pots long enough to move everything in its usual order “You didn’t wake me, also it’s burning so you should flip it.” Chase’s concentration broken to watch Scary Girl make the cupboard arrangement look simple looked back to his pan, taking it off to get ready to flip it “Thanks for the assist, I think I’ve nearly got the hang of this.” As Chase flipped the pancake it flew further to the right of the pan, Chase’s attempt to catch it in vain as it flopped to the ground, the uncooked side up. “Again? The tutorial video I watched made it look so easy.”
Seeing Chase’s disappointment Scary Girl stretched her hand out “Can I try?” shrugging Chase handed over the pan, handing over the pancake mixture as well “Sure, don’t feel bad if you don’t get it, I’ve been trying to do it all morning.” Both of them kept their attention to the pancake cooking, when bubbles began to rise Scary Girl used one hand to flip the pancake to reveal a perfectly cooked face of the pancake. “Woah! How’d you do that?” Chase questioned, Scary Girl turned to look at Chase to say “Just keep a steady hand and not a lot of strength. Do you want me to teach you?” Chase responded with a “Hell yeah!” and after a while did get the hang of it, after Scary Girl managed to copy Chase’s attempt at doing a cool flip then teaching it back to him.
The resulting pancakes were then drowned in what was almost an entire box of ice cream on Chase’s plate, Scary Girl mashing hers with all the available toppings in the house to create an abomination that could’ve only tasted good from the sugar content. Mid bite Chase’s phone rang, he answered with his mouth full to Julia telling him to make his way to the filming site to be on the game show “I can’t understand you Chase, I’ll just send the location, you better be here on time.” Still chewing he turned to Scary Girl “We…” he swallowed “Julia called for us to get going.” Scary Girl abandoned her food in line with Chase suddenly being halfway out of the door “Are you going out like that?” She gestured to the ice cream smeared over his face and pancake mix on the sleeves of his hoodie “Shoot, good catch Scary Girl.”
Changing his hoodie and cleaning off his face let Scary Girl be the first to get to the car, car keys in hand. “Wait, Scary Girl let me drive,” her icy stare back to Chase instantly making him flinch “I just think we don’t want to end up in prison when there’s stuff to do today. Scary Girl angled her head to look more threatening “I mean the prank where you pretend, you’re about to run over people is funny and all. However, we don’t have time to avoid the police if we want to get where Julia told us in time?” Chase’s argument taking a questioning tone in the end as he tried to tell if his reasoning worked. “Ok! When we drive back, I want to scare some people though!” Scary Girl tossed Chase the keys, moving to the passenger side.
Starting the car Chase brought the conversation back to breakfast “Genuinely, I never knew you were so incredible using a frying pan. I was trying for ages then bam you come in and keep the cupboards all together and get it first try!” Scary Girl studied his face for a moment before saying “It feels weird to hear someone compliment me as much as you do. Usually, I just get called weird over talented even when I’ve tried to act normal.” Chase met Scary Girl’s eyes holding a serious expression “I mean it Scary Girl, looking back on total drama it kinda sucks we never really spoke. The jackhammer worked really awesome in that one challenge until you chased our own team.” In the next moment Chase turned away to make a troubled expression that Scary Girl picked up on “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just that chest squeeze feeling, I’ll still be okay to drive as long as I let it pass. Don’t forget what I said Scary Girl. Time to be on a gameshow!” During the beginning of the drive Scary Girl waited for Chase to speak before doing anything, still thinking about the fact that Chase really did seem to have an illness. It was at a red light where an elderly lady was walking across the road taking enough time that the crosswalk had set back to green where Chase grinned “Should I do it?” pointing at the car horn. Squealing Scary Girl leaned out of her seat slightly “Can I?!” and as Chase moved back in his seat Scary Girl slammed the horn, scaring the lady on the street. At the outraged expression on her face the 2 burst into laughter in the car despite the rest of the pedestrians clearly not finding the situation amusing. As the lady crossed the street Chase hit a high five with Scary Girl before driving on “Sick prank Scary Girl, we should’ve recorded it!”
That incident reassuring Scary Girl that Chase’s health was fine for the moment as they chatted in the drive to Julia’s location. Pulling up to the location had the 2 pointing at all of the warehouse style buildings and Scary Girl taking a picture of Chase in an abandoned Director’s chair. The gruff man escorting them to the right set gestured to some golf carts and his efforts to be the driver were pushed aside in the face of Scary Girl’s shout of ‘Dibs!’. Taking far longer than necessary they arrived in the right spot, Julia holding a clipboard, shouting orders at people on set.
“Good you’re here on time, are you going to be fine on stage?” Julia looked up from her clipboard, giving the escort a sympathetic look from the scared look on his face. “Yeah, I think so, this is going to be so cool!” Chase replied, “Wait, Scary Girl you can be a part of the live audience! Maybe I can phone a friend and then you answer from the crowd without me even calling, that would be hilarious!” Sending a text Julia raised an eyebrow, “This isn’t ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ at least your enthusiastic, that’ll bring good ratings. MK will set up your mic and send you to makeup, Chase I’m sorry to hear about you being sick, I hope it’ll be fun today to take your mind off the whole… not long left thing.”
Chase frowned “Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real, thanks for doing all this Julia. Wait did you say makeup, on this handsome face.” Chase made an exaggerated expression, flexing which caused Scary Girl to giggle, Chase going further to try and get Scary Girl to laugh more. “Huh, Scary Girl you can be a part of the live audience, just keep quiet. I’ll take Chase to see MK,” Julia sent another text to MK. Chase fist bumped Scary Girl, waving Scary Girl goodbye as he went off backstage with Julia. During the walk Julia slowed down to ask a question “Chase, this might be a weird question, and I could be wrong but do these ‘symptoms’ only show up when you’re with Scary Girl?”