Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Inside a small kitchen, in the dead of night, a teenage stocking was having a phone call with her friend. She was waiting for the microwave to finish heating up some leftovers while her friend talked on speaker mode.

“Today was so weird, like I don’t get some people sometimes.”

“What happened?”

“So like, this lady walked in today, and just by looking at her I could already tell that she looked like a crazy person. She walked to the counter and asked where the sport shoes were, and I told her…yknow…they were in the back.”

She imitated her friends voice, chuckling.

“Like ‘they’re in like, the back’ or something?”

The stocking’s friend laughed over the phone, it echoed slightly.

“Ha! Yeah, just like that! Anyways, I tell her they’re near the back and she, I kid you not- looked at me with the DUMBEST look you could possibly think of, like—”

She took a deep breath before talking rapidly.

“—she just stared at me for a few seconds and started yelling at me randomly and was like, trying to get OVER the counter for some reason. Like, Alex and Sammy had to restrain her so I could call the police while she was still like- screaming about the shoes and ‘how dare you not get them immediately you stupid girl—' It was crazy, heh.”

“It sounded like an interesting shift.”

“Anyways, how’d your day go?”

She hummed to herself in thought.

“Well... it was pretty boring,” she looked at the microwave, heating up the food was taking a while. “I just stayed in all day, really.”

She paused to think before remembering something, an excited look on her face.

“Oh! Something really weird did happen earlier in the afternoon.”

“Ooh, what was it?”

“So like, you know how my room has a window that’s facing the road, right? A few hours ago, I was in there and sitting on the table but then I saw something outside on the street and you will NOT believe what it was.”

“Wait wait wait, let me guess! Was it… uh… Tyler skateboarding again?”

The microwave finally finished reheating the leftovers and she walked over to open the door; she waited for the bowl to cool down enough for her to grab it. The stocking was struggling to keep herself from laughing as she talked.

“Well, you’re right, but he was also skateboarding with Jamie!” The sirens of an ambulance started to blare outside, but she continued to speak, “And like, I just can’t make this stuff up but they were so bad at it they manage—"

She vanished into thin air, and the phone fell to the ground. Her friend howled in laughter, believing that she had accidentally dropped her phone.

“Hahaha, Charise, you need to be more careful!”

She continued to laugh for a few more minutes before composing herself.

“Uh, are you there?”

No response.

“…Hello...? Charise...?”

The shot slowly zoomed out of the kitchen to a birds eye view of the house, the muffled sounds of the ambulance sirens and Charise’s friend calling for her in the background.

“...Charise, this isn’t funny anymore—"

The scene froze, and white text appeared on the screen.

[ONE: ALTERNATE CAST]

Chapter Text

It was a beautiful evening in San Fransisco. The sun is just starting to set, causing the sky to take on a beautiful orange and purple hue. Inside a large high-rise building, all of the people working there had already clocked out and left to enjoy their weekend. Well, all except two.

On the top floor, there were two employees who were still there: a green backpack and a metal nail. The nail was packing up papers and stationery in his briefcase while the backpack was still on his computer. Once the nail finished putting everything in, he walked to the elevator, saying goodbye to the backpack.

“Goodnight, Liam.”

Liam swiveled in his chair to look at Owen, confused.

“Wait, we’re already done?”

Owen stopped walking to turn to him, too.

“Yeah, 6:30. Everyone’s already left.”

“…Oh dang,” he turned his computer off and started to pack up, “Could you wait for me?”

“Sure.”

By the time they got into the elevator and to the ground floor, the sun was already halfway on the horizon. They left through the sliding glass door and Liam walked over to his bicycle, unlocking it.

“See you later, Owen!”

Owen waved goodbye his with free hand as he began to bike away.

“Later, Liam.”

Once Liam was out of sight, Owen started to walk to the subway station, briefcase in tow. As he was walking, he wondered what he would eat for dinner.

“Eh, probably just takeout again,” he thought to himself as he went down the subway stairs, “Maybe I should order pizza this time.”

Surprisingly, there weren’t that many people at the station; Owen managed to get an entire car all to himself. He placed his briefcase on the seat next to him and relaxed, this was going to be a comfortable ride.

The train started a few seconds later, leaving the station and going above ground. Owen could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the train’s window; he wondered if Liam was there, still biking home.

The intercom turned on, “Attention: The Train Will Reach The Next Station In 5 Minutes.”

That was Owen’s stop, his place was just a few blocks away from the station. The sun had already sunk below the horizon, but its light was still ever so slightly visible. A few minutes later. the train entered a tunnel, plunging everything in the dark for a few seconds.

When it got out, though, Owen was gone. A few seconds later, right before the train reached the station, the briefcase disappeared as well.

[ONE: FREEFALL]

At the same time, somewhere in Greensburg, Indiana, a tomato had just finished reading a bedtime story to her son.

“…and they all went home and lived happily ever after. The End.”

She gently closed the book and placed it on the nightstand, kissing the child.

“Goodnight, Charlie.”

Charlie yawned in his bed and sleepily replied, “Goodnight, Mom…”

A few seconds after that, he was already fast asleep.

Once she made sure he wasn’t faking it, the tomato got up and left the bedroom, closing the door on her way. She went to the kitchen and took some ingredients from the fridge; she invited her friends over for dinner but needed to put her son to sleep before cooking.

She placed everything on the counter and got her cutting board, all that was missing was the knife. She walked over to the knife block and grabbed it, closing her eyes and imagining how delicious the food would be.

When she opened them, though, she found herself in a strange place. Her knife was gone and she was no longer in her kitchen. Instead, she was standing in the middle of a grassy field with the sun still shining above her; there weren’t any clouds in the sky and, from the looks of it, anyone else. She looked around in a panic.

“…Huh?!”

Just then, the tomato heard someone talking behind her. She swiftly turned around and saw a blue stocking happily talking to someone on the phone, only she wasn’t holding a phone and appeared out of nowhere mid-conversation.

“—to CRASH into each other and like when they did they somehow…” she opened her eyes, confused, “...kissed...”

She trailed off and looked around, afraid.

“…Uh…wh- where am I?”

The tomato was about to run to her before she suddenly heard someone else nearby.

“Wait, what?”

Looking at the source, a watermelon was looking around the field in confusion, spotting the tomato and stocking.

A few feet away from them, a mustard bottle suddenly appeared in front of everyone. She was lying down on the floor and crying to herself. When she opened her eyes, she noticed the other 3 and got up, looking confused and scared.

“W-what the…”

Near her, a candy bar also appeared, on the ground and panting, lifting his fist and slamming it down as if he was trying to make a hole in the dirt.

He screamed at the grass with all his might, incomprehensible and enraged as he continued to punch and smash. He only stopped once he opened his eyes and realized where he was; the others were all staring at him like a lunatic.

He slowly got up and looked around, squinting from the sunlight. “...uh... who are you people—”

“AAAAA—"

Suddenly, a nail appeared behind him, flying straight towards the candy bar and hitting him before landing on the ground.

The watermelon and mustard bottle walked over to him as he gets up. Just as he was getting up, a deafening voice speaks.

“HELLO, CONTESTANTS.”

The nail fell again in shock.

“MY NAME IN…SORRY…”

The voice gradually lowered.

“…Is this better?”

Nobody responded, but the monotone voice continued to talk anyway.

“Hello, contestants. I am your host, Airy. And welcome to this competition called ONE.”

An obnoxious trumpet performance starts to play, everyone looked either confused or annoyed.

The mustard bottle was the first one to speak up, “You mean we…”

The candy bar talked over her, “We’re trapped in the middle of nowhere to compete in a gameshow with an invisible host. Great.”

The nail looked up to the sky, “ONE? Is that an acronym or something?”

“Yeah, it stands for—”

Before Airy could complete his sentence, the tomato angrily interrupted.

“Where are we?!”

“Uhh, you're on The Plane. Here to compete in my competition. Called... ONE.”

“Why are we here?”

“You're here to compete in my competition. Called ONE.”

She looked even more exasperated.

“No, I get that. But why us? Specifically?”

“You six, are here specifically…” everyone was listening intently, he suddenly spoke very quickly, “to compete in my competition. Called ONE.”

The watermelon rolled his eyes, “Is he going to give us a straight answer or not?”

“Enough chit chat. Let's take a look at your new names.”

“Wait, new names?” the stocking asked.

Next to the tomato, a table suddenly fell from the sky and almost crushed her to death. She screamed in terror and held out her hands defensively as the table broke on impact and the splintered wood flew everywhere. A few seconds later, some name tags floated to the ground.

“...I should probably drop it softer next time.”

Everybody gathered around what was left of the table, taking their name tags and reading them.

“These are your names for the competition. Please call each other them accordingly.”

The mustard bottle looked at her name tag, “Um…my name is Kylie—”

“How do you like your new name, Mustard Bottle?” Airy ignored her complaints; she was still trying to compose herself after crying.

None of the others particularly liked their new names, either.

“’Candy Bar’- is he serious?”

“’Melony’? Real creative of you.”

“’Nail’, I don’t even get a y at the end?”

The stocking looked at her name tag, it just said ‘Stocking’ on it.

“Are these names just based on our object?”

“Yes. It makes it easier to remember.”

She facepalmed, “Just use our real names.”

The tomato, who was named Tomatoey by Airy, ripped her name tag in half and crossed her arms.

 “This is stupid, take me back.”

“Wait, don't you want to win the competition?”

“I don’t care! Why should any of us care? I have food to prepare and friends coming over and a son that randomly gets nightmares in the middle of the night and needs me to calm him. I can’t be standing here and play in your stupid competition in…” she waved her arms around wildly to The Plane, “wherever the hell this place is!”

“You wouldn't even want to stay, for the chance to win a prize?”

Tomatoey yelled even louder, “What kind of prize would be worth kidnapping us from our lives for some ‘contest’ like a mentally deranged SERIAL KILLER?”

“One wish. For anything you could possibly imagine. Riches. Immortality. Whatever your heart desires.”

Candy Bar scoffed, “Pff, it’s going to take a lot more convincing than that to make us want to—”

Mustard Bottle and Stocking suddenly spoke up at the same time.

“When does the contest start?”

“A-are we going to s-start now?”

“Yes. Everyone please stand back.”

The contestants all took a few steps back, wondering what the challenge could be.

Suddenly, large poles began to fall on the ground in a straight line. Each of them cast a shadow right before they landed and Nail noticed one right beneath him and the others.

“Scatter!”

Everyone scrambled away from the shadow and a split second later the pole reached the ground. They were all catching their breath and Nail was angrily yelling at the invisible host.

“Airy- WHAT THE HELL?”

“Oops. I should’ve told you guys to move a bit more back.”

“YOU COULD’VE KILLED US!”

“Oh, sorry.”

Nail was at a loss for words to Airy’s apathy, so the host took that as a chance to announce the challenge.

“The challenge is simple: Don’t hit the ground. If you're one of the first two people to fall, you're eliminated. And... the challenge is over.”

“And if we stay on the pole, do we win a prize?” Stocking asked.

“You win this challenge.”

Tomatoey looked irritated, “Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about?”

“Why're you so hung up about leaving? It's just a competition.” Melony tried to soothe her but only ended up making her even angrier.

“’Just a competition’? ‘JUST A COMPETITION’? Does none of this set off any alarm bells in your head? We’re in the middle of nowhere, I almost died twice and we’re stuck at the mercy of this psychotic—”

While Tomatoey was yelling at Melony, Airy was also talking over her.

“Three, two, one, go.”

With the sound of a finger snap, everyone was suddenly teleported on top of one of the poles; Tomatoey almost lost her balance immediately.

“—invisible luna- woah!” She managed to stay on the pole, terrified of the height.

“H-hey…” Melony looked down and gulped. If he fell, it would definitely be the death of him.

Everybody was struggling to various degrees with not falling. Melony was the most balanced so far while Tomatoey looked like she was going to trip any second.

Mustard Bottle was quickly losing her balance, though. She waved are arms around in an attempt to balance herself while screaming.

“N…no- I- no…no- nO-NO!”

In a desperate attempt to stay in the game, she jumped off her pole and grabbed the one next to her; Nail looked down in concern.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” she breathed rapidly, “It h-hurts a bit b-but I think I’ll be f-fine. I j-just really w-want the wish…” she said the last part so quietly, nobody else but herself heard it.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Melony protested, “Is that even allowed?”

“She didn’t touch the ground.”

“But you- but if you said at the beginning, if you all of your—”

Candy Bar was getting annoyed at him, “He said you get eliminated if you touch the ground.”

“Well, yeah, but he didn’t mean it like—”

“Please stop talking.”

“But he…okay.” Melony mumbled to himself, “Sorry.”

Eventually, Mustard Bottle started to lose her grip, “I don’t t-think I can hold on for m-much longer.”

“You guys sure are taking a while.”  

Stocking replied, “I mean, you said that the prize was a wish for anything we wanted. I don’t think any of us would give up just because we were tired. Plus, half of us would probably die if we fell and like- why am I even talking right now? I don’t even know where I am and why we’re here and this is all so confusing and—”

Candy Bar was getting even more irritated by her rambling, so he turned around and saw Melony on the pole next to him, looking away from him. If he could just push him off, then this competition could end sooner—

Melony turned around and caught him trying to kick him off from his pole, “Dude, not cool.” Candy Bar looked embarrassed and stopped.

Mustard Bottle started to slowly slide down Nail’s pole. “I t-think it’s over for me…”

“I don’t really care if I win or lose, honestly,” Nail said, “If I get eliminated, that just means I can go back home and eat dinner; I just really don’t wanna fall right now.”

“M-me too. Uh…where are you from?”

“San Fransisco.”

“Oh, that’s n-nice. I’m from, er, B-Bridgeport.”

“Cool.”

Kylie gulped and looked down to the ground. Nail looked over to Tomatoey, who was noticeably struggling.

“You good?”

She turned around. “Not at all—” suddenly, she lost her footing and slipped from her pole. “Woah!”

Everyone watched in horror as she fell, closing her eyes and silently screaming. When she reached the ground, she splattered all over the place, covering the ground and the other poles with chunks of tomato.

Everyone went into stunned silence. None of them spoke until Stocking finally mumbled.

“…Did… did Tomatoey actually… die?”

“Oh… uh… don’t worry. She’ll be fine.”

Candy Bar looked up at the sky in disbelief, “What do mean ‘she’ll be fine’?!” he pointed towards the ground at what remained of Tomatoey. “She’s dead!”

“She’ll be fine. Watch this.”

After a few seconds, Tomatoey’s corpse vanished and she suddenly reappeared. She was in the middle of walking towards something, but when she realized that she was back, she fell to her knees and curled up into another ball, unresponsive.

“…What did you just do?” Nail whispered in disbelief.

“I can regenerate dead contestants, or ‘respawn them’, is a better term.”

“Wait,” Melony said, “so we can’t die here?”

“Yes. As long as you are here, I’ll respawn you if you die.”

“…That’s reassuring.” Candy Bar snarked.

“Wait, was that sarcasm?” Stocking asked. He ignored her.

A few minutes later, everyone went back to focusing on not falling off. Candy Bar was struggling but noticed that Melony was still calmly staying balanced.

“Ugh, how are you so good at this?”

Melony opened his eyes, “Oh, uh, I do Pilates with my friend so, um, I guess I’ve gotten pretty good at balancing myself.”

Candy Bar rolls his eyes, “Well isn’t that convenient.”

Not sensing his sarcasm, Melony replied, “Yeah, it really is.”

“No, I was—”

“Like, it’s pretty cool that Airy selected us out of the almost eight billion people on Earth. There has to be a good reason why he specifically chose us six to be the contestants.”

Candy Bar looked dumbfounded, he was about to reply with something snarky but decided that it was too much effort.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say.” He scoffed and turned back around, Melony shrugged to himself.

Mustard Bottle started to slide down the pole again, her grip was significantly weaker.

“Okay, t-this is really the end,” she slid down even more, “W-whoever wins the wish, I hope you g-get to enjoy it! …I don’t think I have a-any chance of getting it at this p-point.”

“Oh, uh, if you fall, you’re not eliminated yet.” Airy replied.

“Wait, what?” Stocking asked, shocked.

“Yeah. After this competition, the two people who fall to the ground first will be voted on by the viewers to see who gets eliminated. After that another challenge will be played and we’ll repeat until one player is left. They’ll be the winner.”

Nobody liked that idea.

“V-viewers?!”  Mustard Bottle was terrified at the thought of being watched.

“Wait, we’re on TV?” Melony looked around for some sort of camera.

“W-wait a minute! I thought that this was the only competition!” Nail complained.

Candy Bar asked the most important question: “How long is this going to last?!”

“Oh, well, I’d say…this should take a few weeks. Maybe a few months. Considering how one person… gets eliminated… for each challenge, and each challenge takes a while to make, but—”

While Airy was explaining, Mustard Bottle fully lost her grip while Nail and Melony fell from their poles. The two remaining contestants watched in horror as they went into freefall.

“Oh.”

The three of them were rapidly approaching the ground, each of them terrified of what would happen to them. Mustard Bottle covered her eyes and braced for impact, Nail was spinning in the air and desperately trying to reorient himself and Melony curled into a ball and was silently screaming.

Their lives flashed before their eyes before they reached the ground and—

Nail was first, landing upside down right on his head, passing out from the pain. Mustard Bottle was the next one to land, breaking her right leg. Melony was last; he landed on the ground and split into pieces, killing him. 

Airy's voice cut through the silence that followed.

“…Oops. Sorry.”

A few seconds later, Melony’s corpse also vanished, and he respawned, alive. He patted himself down and sighed in relief.

“And it seems that Nail hit the ground first; so he and Tomatoey will be put up for elimination, to, uh, see who will be the first eliminated from ONE.”

Stocking and Candy Bar slid down their poles and ran to check up on the others; the latter walking over to Melony and Tomatoey.

“A-are you okay?” Candy Bar asked them.

“Yeah,” Melony replied, “It, uh, wasn’t too bad.”

Tomatoey didn’t respond, a look of horror in her eyes.

“Uh- sorry for trying to kick you off earlier, by the way.”

“Eh, it’s fine- I’m over it.”

Meanwhile, Stocking ran up to an unresponsive Mustard Bottle, seeing her broken leg.

“Oh my gosh- are you okay?!”

Mustard Bottle flopped on the ground, falling unconscious; Stocking got even more frantic.

“Mustard Bottle- M-MUSTARD BOTTLE!”

Next to them, Nail regained consciousness, dazed and confused.

“Ugh… what happened...?”

“Voting ends soon… so, uh… yeah.” Everyone ignored Airy.

This was going to be a terrible time for them all, wasn’t it?

Somewhere on Earth, a teenage girl was playing her double bass in her bedroom. She was practicing for the big school concert tomorrow; she was going to be the lead bassist, after all.

She closed her eyes and started to play the song from the beginning, wanting to get everything perfectly. She’s been prepping for this day for weeks and had already memorized the notes to heart. Nothing could go wrong, absolutely nothing.

Then she opened her eyes, only to notice her bass was missing, as if it vanished into thin air. She paused for a second before dropping her bow in shock.

“…Huh?”

Chapter Text

Mustard Bottle slowly opened her eyes. The others were talking around her in muffled voices; they gradually became clearer as she regained consciousness.

Stocking let out a sigh of relief when she finally woke up,

“ohmygosh, she’s not dead...”

Mustard Bottle didn’t know what was going on. She tried to stand up and ask everyone why they were surrounding her, but a sudden spike of pain in her leg sent her tumbling back down.

“Ow, ow— ow, ow-ow, ow!”

Stocking yelped and held on to her, just in time to break her fall. Mustard Bottle looked down towards her legs—specifically to the right, where the pain was concentrated—and saw how it bent into sharp, unnatural angles. In an instant, the memories came flooding back.

Oh yeah.

She was up for elimination.

Standing beside her, Melony spoke up into the air with a tone of urgent concern,

“Is the cast ready yet?”

Airy responded a second later,

“Yeah, in a minute. I just need to attach the wooden plank.”

“Plank?” Nail asked incredulously, “What kind of cast is this again?”

Airy didn’t answer, but directed his attention onto Mustard Bottle and her broken leg,

“Hold on, before I give you the cast, I need to straighten out your leg first.”

She didn’t know how, but Airy speaking to her made her feel like she was being watched. Of course, that was far less important to her than what Airy said he was going to do.

“W-wait, what?” Mustard Bottle asked, eyes widening.

Mustard Bottle tried talking her way out of it,

“Nononono, i-it’s fine. I can just let it h-heal on its own—” She winced in pain as she continued to plead, but still preferred it over having Airy straighten her leg.

Airy talked over her,

“Hold still, this should only hurt a little.”

“Besides- I s-swear that I’ll be fine and I’m PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF—"

Before Mustard Bottle could say anything more, an invisible force grabbed her leg and forcefully straightened it out, pulling it with a sharp crack.

The others either grimaced or looked at her in worry, with the exception of Tomatoey, who was lying a distance away from everyone else, still with that vacant look in her eyes.

Mustard Bottle bit her lip to restrain herself from crying, but it wasn’t enough to stop a tear from rolling down her face.

A wooden cast that was bound together by vines appeared in the air, and was placed onto Mustard Bottle’s leg. Two wooden crutches also fell besides her, and Airy told her what to do,

“Use these to help you walk.”

Mustard Bottle shakily got up with the help of the crutches and Stocking, and tried to take a step forward, only for her to lose her balance when one of them breaks.

Stocking managed to catch her before she could fall, to which the two girls let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s okay, I’ll help you,” Stocking said.

She carefully took the other crutch off the ground and handed it back to Mustard Bottle, who gave her a small, grateful smile,

“T-thank you.”

“No problem.”

“Are you gonna be okay wearing that cast?” Nail asked, “It looks... really uncomfortable.”

“I think I’ll g-get used to it,” Mustard Bottle replied, voice still a little wobbly, “Besides, I’m just glad that I’m not dead at this point...”

“Yeah,” Stocking agreed, “I can’t imagine dying in a place like this.”

“Can’t say the same for us all, though,” Candy Bar interrupted, glancing at Melony, “How’d you describe it?”

Melony thought for a moment, looking uncertain,

“It was... odd, is all I can say,” he shrugged, “Right, Tomatoey?”

He and the others turned to face Tomatoey, only to find a disturbed patch of grass where she originally was, the only sign that she was ever there.

“Er- where’d she go?”

“Airy,” Candy Bar began, failing to control his tone.

“Yeah?”

“Where did Tomatoey go?”

“Oh, right,” Airy said, “She was eliminated. Between her and Mustard Bottle, she got the most votes, so I sent her back.”

“How many votes even were there?” Nail asked,

“I don’t know, I didn’t count.”

Nail looked exasperated while Candy Bar facepalmed, but Airy continued nonetheless,

“Anyways, moving on from the elimination, it’s time to introduce our newest contestants.”

Once again, everyone complained.

“I’m sorry- newest contestants?”

“Hold on, you can’t just do that!”

“How many, exactly?”

“Are you kidding me!?”

Everyone continued to argue with Airy—even Mustard Bottle, although her voice was heavily drowned out by the others—but a few moments later, a subway seat materialized out of thin air, a couple of feet away from them.

It fell to the ground with a thud, and everyone went silent.

[ONE: JUST TRIPPED]

Staring at the subway seat, there was only one thing on their minds: “Were they a new contestant?”

Cautiously, Nail walked towards the subway seat and examined it. It didn’t have limbs, nor did it show any signs of life. Now that he was up close, he noted that almost looked like one he’d sit on in the subway trains he’d usually ride.

He looked to the sky, confused.

“I don’t get it, this is just a regular subway seat—”

A tub of whipped cream, the same size as the subway seat, suddenly appeared above him. It fell on his head before he could react, landing on the subway seat.

“Ow! What the—?”

Nail backed away to the others right as a double bass appeared and landed next to the subway seat. The contestants watched in shock, and a little bit of fascination, as more items appeared around the pile.

A container of airline food.

A giant contact lens.

A plastic lunch tray.

Everyone waited for something to happen, holding their breath. Stocking protectively stood in front of Mustard Bottle, while Melony tried to hide behind Candy Bar.

After a couple of seconds, it was Stocking who broke their silence and asked,

“Um, are you sure you teleported the right things?”

Airy answered in his usual deadpan,

“Yeah. Just wait.”

They waited, and after a few seconds, the subway seat suddenly gained a face. Everyone stared at it in bewilderment, and the subway seat looked almost as confused as them.

“What in the world...?” He squinted his previously hidden eyes, before growing himself a pair of arms.

Either ignoring or ignorant to the other contestant’s stares, the subway seat pushed the tub of whipped cream off of himself, which caused him to gain consciousness, too.

One by one, each of the inanimate objects—with the exception of the contact lens—all came to, and were met with the horrified expressions of the original contests, who had backed far away from them.

Nail tried to say something,

“Uh—”

“Hello new contestants,” Airy interrupted, “I am your new host, Airy, and welcome to this competition called ONE.”

A familiar, obnoxious trumpet performance began to play, and the Contact Lens finally gained consciousness. Melony brought his hands over his face.

“Oh, brother...”

The subway seat still looked confused,

“Um, could someone please explain what’s going on?”

Airy began,

“You’re on the Plane, here to—”

Candy Bar cut him off,

“Long story short, we’ve all been kidnapped by this invisible host to compete in this game show to win a wish for anything we want.” He said the last part while sarcastically doing jazz hands.

The new contestants all reacted to that prospect with varying degrees of delight, much to the others’ shock.

“Ooh, that sounds fun!” The airline food exclaimed, eyes sparkling.

“Yeah, I could get used to this,” The tub of whipped cream agreed.

“Don’t you guys have lives?” Stocking asked, “Are you not concerned with getting back to them?”

“Pfft,” the tub of whipped cream dismissed, “this beats standing around in a fridge any day.”

The original contestants looked at each other in confusion at his statement, but soon decided that talking to the newbies couldn’t do any harm.

Even though they were weird, they still seemed friendly.

The lunch tray walked over to Candy Bar; she seemed eager to introduce herself to someone.

“Hey, how’s it going? I’m a school lunch tray, it’s nice to meet you.”

Candy Bar was shocked that she was trying to talk to him at first, but he quickly recovered and tried to put his friendliest smile.

“Hi, my names Parker, but uh,” he clicked his tongue in disapproval, “the host is making everyone call me Candy Bar. What’s your name?”

The lunch tray looked confused.

“Hold on, wait, you have a name?”

Candy Bar was equally surprised.

“You... don’t?”

The lunch tray responded casually,

“Nah, that’s a human thing.”

Candy Bar’s surprise morphed into bewilderment,

“I’m sorry- a what?”

Stocking and Mustard Bottle were talking to the double bass nearby, the latter was much more apprehensive than the former.

“So, u-uh...” Mustard Bottle trailed off, only for Stocking to finish her sentence,

“How did you do that thing before?”

“Do what?”

“You know,” Stocking did a ‘poof’ motion to emphasize what she was saying, “the limb thing!”

The double bass looked confused, like the two of them were earnestly asking her whether the sky was blue.

“Oh, you guys don’t know how to do that?”

The other two shook their heads in response.

“I thought that was, uh, common knowledge.”

“I- I don’t t-think it is, uh...”

Mustard Bottle and Stocking watched as the double bass gave them a demonstration.

“It’s pretty easy, actually. All you gotta do is...”

The double bass popped her limbs back into her and sprang into the air, falling back to the ground and lying motionless on the grass.

Stocking and Mustard Bottle’s jaw dropped. They stared at the motionless double bass and then at each other in horror, and stayed that way until the double bass came back out of her ‘shell’.

Near the far end of the poles, Melony and the whipped cream container were talking to each other. The latter of whom seemed only seconds away from bursting into hysterics.

“So, let me get this straight. You,” he pointed to Melony, “a watermelon, have a job?”

Melony nodded and smirked a bit; the mocking tone completely flew over his head,

“Yeah, I run a gym in Yakima. It’s a pretty good place, if I do say so myself, heh.”

“Might I ask how you aren’t getting caught?”

At that, Melony expression turned into one of concentration, and he started to think.

“Well, I mean, I have all the valid permits and licenses to own and manage one, so I don’t really—”

Airy cut him off before he could say anything more,

“Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the new contestants are from a different world than you guys.”

An imaginary lightbulb lit up above Melony.

“Ohhhh. I guess that makes sense.”

The tub of whipped cream looked amazed.

Lastly, the subway seat and Nail were talking at the exact same spot where the new contestants appeared in, as the subway seat didn’t have any legs to walk with.

“So let me get this straight,” Nail started, “you guys come from a world of higher beings who rule everything.”

“Yep.” The subway seat nodded.

“And these higher beings, they’re called... humans, right?” The word still felt unnatural to say.

“Mhm.”

“Okay, and these humans use you like objects on a daily basis?”

“I mean, we are objects.”

“—Yet you’re forced to keep your sentience a complete secret to them?”

“Yeah, it kinda scares them.”

The subway seat looked nonchalant, while Nail was still curious.

“So what were you doing before you got here?”

Two humans were riding on a subway train, one using his phone, and the other one asleep.

Without warning, the subway seat the sleeping human was sitting on disappeared from under him, and he fell to the floor, waking up in shock.

The other human stopped using his phone to look at the man, eyes wide, and they speechlessly stared at each other for the rest of the ride.

A flight attendant was taking a passenger’s order for what they wanted for their in-flight meal. The passenger asked for the fried oysters option and a glass of water.

The flight attendant poured the passenger the glass of water and went to take the fried oysters. She grabbed a container from her meal cart and was about to serve it to passenger, only for it to disappear in her hands.

She and the passenger froze in disbelief, and started to shake uncontrollably.

A stack of lunch trays were sitting on a school cafeteria table. According to the wall clock, there was still an hour or two before the cafeteria was open.

A lunch lady behind the table was preparing food, and because she had her back turned on the trays, she did not notice when one of them vanished from the pile.

On the executive floor of a massive high-rise building, a businessman in a suit was spacing out during an important company meeting. He drank his coffee and tried to pay attention, only for half of his vision to suddenly go blurry.

He rubbed his eye and blinked rapidly, mumbling to himself, before realizing that his co-workers were all looking at him and asked him what was wrong.

Flushing, the businessman said that his contact lens must’ve fallen out and landed on the floor, and hastily excused himself to the bathroom to go apply another one.

In front of the refrigerated row of a supermarket, an employee was mopping up the floor from jug a of milk that a customer had dropped a couple of minutes before.

The employee cleaned up the spill and a customer approached him, asking for assistance. The two of them walked away, over to where the customer’s shopping cart was.

A couple of seconds later, a tub of whipped cream disappeared from the dairy fridge.

The girl was still in her bedroom, and was trying her best to work up the courage to tell her parents that her bass had vanished into thin air.

She grabbed the bow off of the floor and steadied her heartbeat. Repeating a mantra in her head that she wasn’t going insane, she opened the door to her room and left to find her parents.

Hopefully she could find a replacement before the concert came up...

“...Huh,” was all Nail could say.

Airy finally spoke up now that the contestants had time to mingle.

“Now that all of you got to know each other a little better, let’s name the new contestants—”

Said contestants became very excited.

“Wait, we’re getting actual names?”

“Like for real?”

“I’ve always wanted one!”

Candy Bar shook his head and sighed,

“It’s not as exciting as you think.”

Mustard Bottle looked up to the sky uneasily,

“You a-aren’t going to drop another table on us, r-right?”

“No, I ran out of name cards, so I’ll list them all now.”

The original contestants were all relieved.

“Let me just...”

The new contestants were all teleported into a straight line. Each of them—except for the double bass, who simply looked neutral—had an exuberant smile on their faces.

“Alright, there we go” the subway seat was the first one in line, he looked up to the sky with a grin, “Starting with you, you’ll be... Subway Seat.”

Subway Seat’s smile fell.

“Next is, um, Tray.”

And so did Tray’s.

“And after that is Contact Lens.”

And so did Contact Lens’.

“Next up, you’re... Airline Food...?”

“Oh, um, alright,” Arline Food mumbled, “that was pretty disappointing.”

He looked down to the ground and stopped smiling. By this point, nobody was.

“Called it,” Candy Bar whispered to Melony.

Airy continued,

“Yeah, Airline Food. After him is Bassy—”

Bassy’s expression didn’t change.

“Okay.”

“And finally is... u-uh... W-Whippy... Creamy...”

Whippy Creamy facepalmed,

“It was literally so easy: Whipped Cream. How did you screw this up?”

“I don’t know. Didn’t think we had enough ‘y’ names.”

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes, “just tell us when the competition is starting.”

“Or even what it is,” Tray added.

“Right,” Airy said, “your challenge is to climb up to the top of one of the six poles. The last three to make it up will be up for elimination. 3, 2, 1, Go.”

And with that, the second competition had finally begun.

As soon as Airy’s announcement was finished, Candy Bar immediately ran to one of the poles and starts to climb.

“See you at the top!” he shouted to Melony.

“H-hey, wait up!” Melony whined. He ran up to the same pole Candy Bar was on and climbed up after him, while Nail, Stocking and Mustard Bottle all stayed on the ground.

As for the newbies, Tray and Whippy Creamy glanced at each other before they shrugged and sprinted over to the poles.

“Didn’t expect for it to be like, right now, but okay.” Whippy Creamy murmured as he scaled the pole to right of Candy Bar and Melony’s and to the left of Tray’s.

Airline Food was still trying to process the challenges rules—and sulking over the fact that he didn’t get an actual name—but seeing Tray and Whippy Creamy start to climb snapped him out of it.

“Oh dang, it’s already starting,” he commented. Airline Food jogged up to one of the available poles, the one on Tray’s right, and he looked over to the other contestants who still haven’t started.

“Good luck, you guys!”

He began his ascent.

“Airy really couldn’t think of anything better as a second challenge?” Nail mumbled, close enough for Subway Seat to hear.

“Oh,” he started, getting the other’s attention, “this is the second one? I guess we were late to the party.”

Nail shrugged and gave it to him straight,

“Eh, you didn’t miss much.”

He walked away, but not without wishing him luck on completing the challenge.

Subway Seat waved goodbye, wishing that he could’ve followed him.

Candy Bar was in the lead by a large margin, almost at the top while everyone else was still around the halfway point.

He looked down towards Melony, who noticeably struggling—only a third of the way up their pole.

“For someone who runs a gym, you sure are taking a while...” he mused, mouth curled into a taunting grin.

Huffing, Melony looked up at him, taking another deep, labored breath.

“Well I’d like to see you try being a watermelon and climbing this!” he yelled, letting one of his arms go to shake his fist at Candy Bar.

Melony’s grip was rapidly loosening, and he abruptly started to slip down.

He yelped and held onto the pole harder, blushing once he realized that Candy Bar was laughing at him.

“It’s harder than you think!”

Candy Bar was still cackling, wiping a tear away while he managed to hold on with only his other arm,

“I’ll take your word for it, then,” he snarked, “Have fun down there!”

With that, he climbed up the final stretch and pulled himself to the top, dusting himself off.

“First place, too,” he muttered.

Sure enough, and much to Melony’s chagrin, Airy announced his victory a few moments later,

“Oh. I guess Candy Bar is the first one safe from elimination.”

Candy Bar was teleported back to the ground a second later, right next to an awestruck Subway Seat.

“Woah, that was incredible!” he exclaimed.

Candy Bar smirked, taking on a boastful tone,

“Yeah, it was nothing.”

“You managed to get to the top so quickly!”

Candy Bar brightened at the compliment. He shrugged,

“What can I say? I’m just good at climbing. I used to go spelunking all the time with my...”

His grin faded, slowly replaced with a haunted expression,

 “my friends...”

He trailed off after that, and eventually went silent.

Subway Seat had a puzzled look on his face,

“...What’s spelunking?”

Near the leftmost pole, Mustard Bottle quietly asked Nail and Stocking, “Aren’t y-you guys going to d-do the challenge...?” still wincing slightly from the pain in her leg.

Stocking shook her head, offering Mustard Bottle a meaningful look,

“Probably not, I’d rather make sure that you’re okay,” she said. Her voice relaxed Mustard Bottle, even if it was only by a bit.

“Same here. I just want to go home at this point,” Nail said, “Couldn’t Airy just replace us with people who were actually willing?”

“I thought you guys would’ve wanted to compete here,” the host said, making the three of them jolt in surprise. They forgot how he could be watching them at any moment, “Remember the prize?”

Nail was the one who responded to Airy,

“You know we actually have lives, right?” he began, using a voice that was usually reserved for Liam whenever they’d hang out together and argued on what to order for takeout, “I was fine with being here for a single competition, but you’d have to be insane to think that we’d be willing stay here for a week, let alone a month!”

Nail had to pause for a moment to regain his composure. His voice had steadily risen throughout his argument.

“And besides, after what happened to Mustard Bottle, we definitely aren’t sticking around.”

Airy’s voice betrayed no emotion,

“Come on, it isn’t that hard.”

Mustard Bottle abruptly shouted at him out of genuine frustration,

“I literally CAN’T USE ONE OF MY LEGS!”

Nail and Stocking were both surprised at her sudden outburst, while she herself looked horrified for yelling back. Stocking tried to help the other teen to calm down, who was struggling not to cry, spilling out a litany of unintelligible apologies.

As she did, Nail looked up to the sky, and spoke with a sense of finality,

“We’re not doing this challenge, Airy.”

“...Alright,” Airy conceded. For a moment, Nail got his hopes up, genuinely believing that his speech had actually convinced the host to send them back.

The ground around them started to rumble, and after a couple of seconds, the pole beside them lowered closer to the ground.

“I made the challenge easier for you guys. What do you think?”

So much for hope.

“Oh geez, I’ve never even walked before,” Subway Seat said to himself. Candy had already snapped out of his earlier stupor and was now at near the base of one of the poles, encouraging Melony in the only way he knew how: by teasing him.

“Are you seriously that weak? Just climb already!”

“I’m trying—I swear, I’m trying!”

Subway Seat tried to push himself off of the ground, only using his arms, but couldn’t do it without painfully straining them. He dropped back to the ground, exhausted, and could only watch the other contestants get closer to the top with a glum expression.

In hindsight, he should’ve asked Candy Bar to carry him to the poles while he still had the chance.

Whippy Creamy dragged himself up to the top of his pole, pleasantly surprised.

“Wow, that really was easy!”

“Okay. Whippy Creamy is the second one safe.” Airy teleported him back to the ground immediately after.

At the same time, Airline Food had also reached the top.

“Oh. Airline Food is safe, too.”

“Sweet!”

Airline Food also got teleported back to the ground, right next to Whippy Creamy. The two of them jumped and high-fived each other.

Tray and Contact Lens were nearing the top of their poles, but Airy suddenly introduced a new obstacle,

“Alright, this is going too quickly.”

Just then, a strong wind suddenly began to gush around the middle of the poles, significantly slowing everyone down. Especially for lightweights like them.

“This should make it a bit harder.”

Contact Lens tried to hold on, but had to let go and was blown away into the air.

“Wait—AAAAaaahhh...!!” His voice faded away as he flew high into the sky.

Tray almost suffered the same fate as him, barely managing to hold on. At the last second, she suddenly gained an idea, and was able to rotate her position so that the wind wouldn’t blow her away from the pole, but instead towards it.

“Phew...” she sighed in relief, drowned out by the sound of the wind, before slowly continuing her climb.

“Hey, do you need help?” Whippy Creamy asked to Subway Seat, who looked up towards him.

Whippy Creamy had noticed him on his quest to reach the poles, lying down on his back in a futile attempt to push himself across the grass. He had felt a sudden compulsion to help the struggling contestant, although he didn’t know why.

“Please,” Subway Seat gratefully said.

Whippy Creamy smiled and grabbed Subway Seat, holding him in his arms and carrying him towards the poles. Subway Seat was surprised at his strength, but he only managed to go a couple of steps before he had to drop him back on the grass, exhausted.

“Sorry,” he panted, “this is probably gonna take a while...”

The other contestant glanced at him and returned his smile. “You don’t have to apologize, I’m just glad that you’re even trying to help me in the first place.”

To Subway Seat, that was already enough.

Now that Tray had climbed high enough and was no longer in range of the wind, the rest of the challenge was smooth sailing. She reached the top a minute or two later and felt immensely proud of herself.

“I made it! That wasn’t too haaAAA—”

She accidentally lost her balance and was about to fall off, but just as she did, Airy teleported her to the ground, landing on her face.

“Tray also made it to the top so she’s safe.”

Her whooping was muffled by the grass.

Mustard Bottle, Stocking and Nail still hadn’t moved from their spots, either unable or unwilling to climb the pole.

“Will you try if I make it shorter?” Airy asked, lowering the pole by a little.

Nail responded on their behalf, as Stocking was distracted with talking about what she was doing before she got teleported to Mustard Bottle, who had calmed down, tuning out everything else to listen to her. He deadpanned, “No.”

The pole lowered again; it was now at half its original height.

“How about now?”

“No!”

“So... tired...” Melony wheezed. He had climbed enough to get out of the wind’s range, the end was in his sights, but his limbs were so sore from the strain of climbing, he couldn’t do anything except to hold onto the pole and stop himself from slipping back down.

“Come on man, you’re almost there!” Candy Bar shouted at Melony, wondering why his encouragement wasn’t working. “You’re not giving up, are you?” He had half a mind to climb up the pole again and make him go faster.

Melony groaned in response. He was starting to lose his grip, dangerously close to letting go. Tears threatened to fall from the pain of the wood digging into him, yet even when Melony knew that Airy would simply revive him, he could not bring himself to fall. Not when Candy Bar was watching.

He didn’t want to disappoint him.

That still didn’t stop the pain from coursing through him, and soon enough, Melony silently started to cry. Gasping for breath, all while he was holding on for dear life, incapable of even using his hands to wipe his tears away.

Candy Bar, who couldn’t sense how distressed he was, continued his mockery.

“Wow, you really are!” he exclaimed, right before he delivered the finishing blow:

“Guess you weren’t as strong as I thought you were...”

He only noticed that something was wrong when he didn’t receive a response.

“Melony?” Candy Bar asked, tone switched to genuine concern. Why wasn’t he doing anything?

“Are you okay—?”

“Why are you being so... mean to me?” Melony mumbled. Quiet, with a sadness in his eyes that Candy Bar had never seen before.

“I d-don’t- I don’t understand—You want me to climb, but a-all you’re doing is making me feel worse for trying in the first p-place.”

There was no anger in his voice, nor resentment, but only confusion. Stinging, hurt confusion.

“Why?”

Candy Bar froze, mind reeling.

Had he... had he really been too harsh on Melony?

He would always talk to his friends like that, whenever they went spelunking and whenever they were hanging out in general, and so would they to him. Jabs and insults—it was all just light banter to them; nobody really meant what they said to each other.

But looking up at Melony, at how he miserably clung to the pole, how the tears still flowed from his eyes, how they rolled down his body and landed on the grass, it dawned on Candy Bar that they weren’t even friends.

Of course that was why Melony hated his encouragement.

To Melony, it wasn’t even encouragement in the first place.

“Melony, I-I—"

What could he even say to fix this?

“I’m sorry.”

Candy Bar looked at his friend fellow contestant in earnest, but he knew that a simple sorry wasn’t enough.

“I’m sorry for saying all those things to you, I thought that we were friends and I just... thought that I could treat you like how I would with my friends back home,” Candy Bar finally understood what it meant to be a piece of garbage. “It’s... it’s my fault for not noticing how much I was hurting you. I’m sorry.”

They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. What came out of Melony’s mouth was the last thing Candy Bar was expecting,

“We’re not friends...?” he sniffled.

It was like a gut punch to Candy Bar. “You... want us to?”

Melony nodded from above.

“Melony, we’ve only known each other for a couple of hours.  I don’t even know your real name and- and from the way I’ve been acting, I... I don’t think I even deserve to be your friend.”

The air was silent again; Candy Bar couldn’t remember the last time he ever felt this way.

“I... I still want to try,” Melony began, steadying his breath, “being friends with you. But can you promise that you’ll try to be nicer, at least? Please?”

There was a fragile hope in Melony’s eyes, now that he had calmed down. Candy Bar couldn’t believe that Melony was giving him a second chance, but this time, he wasn’t going to screw it up.

“Okay,” he said, with all the sincerity he had, “I promise.”

Melony gave him a grateful look, “Thank you.” And the tears finally stopped flowing.

He closed his eyes, trying his best to concentrate. He could do this.

Using up the last of his strength and overcoming the ache in his limbs, Melony managed to scale up to the top of his pole.

“You did it!” Candy Bar gasped.

Delighted, he backed away from the pole to see his reaction.

Melony’s smile was brighter than the sun itself.

“Phew, we made it!” Whippy Creamy said, exhausted.

Subway Seat beamed at him.

“I know I’ve already said this a million times on the way, but once again, thank you.”

“Really, it was nothing.”

Airy spoke to the contestants a few seconds later once he teleported Melony,

“Just you guys know, there are three safe spots left,” He went back to trying to convince the trio on the far end to climb the pole afterwards.

“How are you going to climb, by the way?” Whippy Creamy asked, “Since you don’t have legs to support yourself and all.”

“...Huh,” Subway Seat paused, looking up towards the towering height of the pole he had to climb. “Now that you mention it, I haven’t actually came up with a plan for that. Didn’t think I’d even make it this far.”

Whippy Creamy may have facepalmed at that, but internally, he thought to himself that it was still worth the effort.

Melony lied down as soon as he was teleported, too tired to keep standing.

Candy Bar was lying besides him, bumping him with his elbow.

“I knew that you could do it.”

“Honestly, I had no way to tell from the way you were ‘encouraging’ me,” Melony joked. He idly wondered what Candy Bar’s friends were like, whether they were also as good at climbing as him.

“Then mark my words,” Candy Bar plainly said, “From now on, Melony, I promise you that I’ll be a nicer friend.”

Melony smiled. “And I promise to you, Parker, that I’ll be a better climber from now on, too.”

“You—!”

Candy Bar lightly punched Melony’s side, laughing, and warmth bloomed in the both of them.

They continued to lay on the grass, a genuine smile on their faces.

“It’s Garrett, by the way.”

“Hm?”

“You said you needed to know my name for us to be friends, right? Now that you know what it is, we can officially start our friendship!” Melony laughed to himself, music to the ears.

“Garrett...” Candy Bar slowly repeated.

He liked that name.

By the time Melony had been declared safe, Airy had lowered the leftmost pole to almost ¼ of its original height.

Even then, Nail and Stocking refused to try.

“If you guys climb this pole, you'll all be safe.”

“Yeah, only for the ones who can actually climb,” Stocking shot back, glancing reassuringly at a nervous Mustard Bottle.

“Do you even want to be—”

“No, Airy!” Nail repeated for the umpteenth time, “We don’t! We’re not doing your competition anymore, so please, take us back.”

Airy’s response to Nail’s argument was to shorten the pole even more; it was now so low, the three of them could basically step on it.

“You might as well—”

“No.”

Now that the pole couldn’t go any lower and they still refused to participate in his challenge, the host had to do something, right? Nail thought that they had finally succeeded in forcing Airy’s hand.

It didn’t last long.

“Ah—no!”

With a cry, Mustard Bottle suddenly tripped and landed on the ground. Once of her hands ended up touching the top of the pole and she sighed in defeat.

While she winced, Airy announced her safety, sounding ever so slightly happier than before.

“It looks like Mustard Bottle is safe from elimination this round. Two spots remain.”

Stocking had tried to run to Mustard Bottle and tried to catch her, but she was too late. The teenager helped her get back on her feet, concerned.

“Mustard Bottle! What happened?”

“It’s f-fine,” Mustard Bottle replied, shakily taking her crutch from Stocking’s hands, “I- I just tripped.”

“But... but you tripped on the pole.”

“Yeah, I know,” she looked ashamed of herself, “D-don’t worry about it, though, I can just wait until next r-round.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right with staying for another challenge?” Nail asked.

“I m-mean... it’s too late now,” another jolt of pain, “ugh... it won’t be long until a-another challenge comes, at least.”

Nail and Stocking looked at Mustard Bottle, then at each other. They nodded.

“Alright, let’s do this challenge,” Nail sighed.

 “Agreed.”

Nail walked up the pole and stepped on it, securing immunity, but before Stocking could do the same, someone else had reached the top of the rightmost pole.

“Oh, I made it.”

Bassy.

“It seems that Nail and Bassy have taken the last spots for immunity, which means that Stocking, Contact Lens and Subway Seat are up for elimination.”

“WHAT?!” Nail, Stocking and Mustard Bottle all exclaimed in unison.

“Aw, crud,” Subway Seat said, dismayed. Whippy Creamy gave him a sympathetic pat on the back.

“Voting will end in a couple of hours, so, uh, see you guys there.”

“Could someone please get me down from here now?” Contact Lens shouted as loud as he could. He was still floating high above the poles, with no way of getting down.

“Oh, right.”

Contact Lens was teleported a few seconds later, flat on his back. He got up with a curious expression on his face, and turned to Tray to ask,

“So, what did I miss?”

“Honestly?” Tray said, motioning her hands for Contact Lens to look around.

“A lot.”

In Greensburg, Tomatoey was teleported back, where she finally came to.

She blinked, breath hitching, before she grabbed onto the kitchen counters and shakily got up.

She looked around, trying to gauge if anything was wrong, but aside from the knife, which was still on the floor, nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. Outside, the sun had even started to rise.

Really, it was like she had never been teleported in the first place.

It was all a dream, she told herself, stamping out any thoughts about ONE, you passed out from exhaustion, and you just had a bad dream.

Tomatoey repeated her mantra again and again until she was satisfied, and once she was done, she slowly plucked her knife off the ground and washed it in the sink, placing it back into the block when she was done.

It was still the weekend, so Charlie could sleep in as much as he wanted, but the food Tomatoey had planned to prepare last night had already gone bad. What should she clean up first?

Her eyes roamed around the kitchen and landed on the ingredients for the fruit salad, lying on the island counter.

Pineapple... Strawberries... Kiwis...

Watermelon...

Screw it, she needed a drink.