Party Hardly

Looking at the screen on my desk, I stifle a sigh. I've been looking at it every day since I've been demoted from head researcher to part of the new team, who's job it is to make sure that the blue pest of a hedgehog doesn't cause any trouble. A while ago, Chalkboard Charlie planted some small spy cameras in the Thorndyke residence, where the hedgehog is staying. However, there isn't a camera in the living room, so today Charlie is going to plant another one.

One of my colleagues sits down next to me. Ugh, how I hate the fact that I have to call these people my colleagues when they've been here for a couple of months while I've been here for years, and we have the same positions. I'm meant to be watching the footage of the blue speedster and edit out the parts or related to him or his friends. However I'm not experienced with this, so I normally end up deleting something or jumbling something up. My brother's job requires him to do this kind of stuff, and I don't understand how he enjoys it.

The person sitting next to me doesn't seem bothered by this tedious job, as he starts writing some kind of report. Even they have a better job than me! I focus my attention on the footage, and just as I think that nothing interesting will happen, the rabbit-girl goes out of the loft where all of the creatures are, and starts strolling around the house. I hate that rabbit and her ridiculous pet, as they escaped from my lab and lost me my job! Chalkboard Charlie somehow managed to get cameras into a lot of places (excluding bedrooms, the loft and the living room), making my job even worse, as I have to look at those creatures most of the time.

The rabbit goes out of sight for a while, and is replaced by the marvellous Lindsey Thorndyke. She is an angel, rivalled only by my wife. I gaze at her, wishing to meet her in person, when suddenly she goes into another room and I'm stuck watching the rabbit pick flowers in the garden. She is so immature, acting like a child. Everyone keeps saying she is a child, but she is allies with the hedgehog, and he's a dangerous pest. A blue blur rushes past the camera, startling me and unfocusing the lens., but I slow down the footage to see that it was Sonic, running towards the front door with a poster of the Valley of Dreams in his hand. I've been there before, and it's nothing special- just a pond and wasps.

Hoping that the blue pest will destroy the valley of rip-offs, I focus my attention on the rabbit and her blue 'Chao' as they walk into the dining room and start decorating a lampshade for a party which will be happening later in honour of Lindsey being home. The rabbit's 'decorating' consists of draping a lampshade in a paper chain. Once again she is acting childish- decorating sloppily and not perfecting it. Suddenly, a lot of commotion starts happening in the attic, but because there isn't a camera in there, I begin concentrating on the sound. High pitched talking and footsteps are the only things I can hear, but a two-tailed fox and a pink hedgehog walk into the hallway, and the chatter stops.

My attention is now solely focused on the two-tailed fox- not what its saying but what it's doing. The freakish creature is abnormal and if I was still top scientist it would be number one on my capture list, even before the rabbit and hedgehog. I would love to examine it and see how the fox managed to get two tails. Never mind if I'm head scientist or not, I'm still going to concentrate on dissecting it.

After a while my head is clearing from all of the gruesome thoughts as I endure hours of watching the rabbit-girl mess around and create horror. At around 3 o'clock, Christopher Thorndyke comes home, which meant that Chalkboard Charlie is going to turn up in a while. I watch the boy walk around the house, talking to his mother, until he, his grandfather, and all of the other creatures realized that they hadn't seen Cream anywhere.

At this point I was literally face palming . How unobservant can you get?! She had been doing her own thing for at least a couple of hours and they've only just realized she's missing! I watch her go into the massive palace of a kitchen and say something about helping. I can already feel that this is going to go wrong, as everything that she touches turns to dust. As predicted, she tries to help with the cake mix and some kind of smoothie, but she just switches on the whisk and blender, making food fly everywhere. She slowly backs out of the kitchen, before turning around and darting away.

The house maid Ella comes into the kitchen shortly after and by the look on her face you can tell that she's shocked and very, very annoyed. I don't know much about Ella, but two things that anyone who knows anything about the Thorndyke household is that her cooking is legendary and you should never get on her bad side. Both disappointment and anger course through me. Disappointment at the fact that Ella didn't come in earlier and catch the rabbit-girl in the act, and anger at the amount of food that has gone to waste. I don't particularly care about food waste, and protecting the environment, but if cooking that good goes to waste, even I'm annoyed.

About an hour goes by without anything happening, but suddenly my attention is captured by Lindsey who has, finally, stopped putting on make-up and is answering a telephone. I can barely see inside her room, just the very corner of her dressing table, but I can certainly hear her angelic voice. Suddenly my view of her is blocked by the rabbit and I don't even get to see her arm! While trying to stop wanting to kill something, I was ignoring the conversation, but something about movies snaps me right out of my trance and I focus on the phone call.

Apparently, Lindsey has been offered a starring role in a production, but instead of being happy, she's crying over the fact that she has to leave her son before the party! The rabbit runs off and Lindsey follows after. She and Ella search for Christopher before having to leave, and I'm even more annoyed at the boy. He's not even grateful for having such a lovely mother and instead he's panicking and trying to find the rabbit, again!

A little while later, the party starts starting. Chalkboard Charlie shows up, and I can finally see what's going on in the living room. The angle isn't perfect, but I get to have a front row seat as the chaos unfolds. First, Sam Speed (Christopher's ridiculous uncle) shows up and tries to show off. Then Ella freaks out because she thinks that the rabbit-girl moving is a hallucination. Finally, the blue hedgehog shows up in the window, causing Sam to freak out, Chris to yell about his mother being rubbish and the rabbit to complain that she hasn't seen her mother in ages. This outburst causes Ella to faint, but before I can see what will happen next, Chalkboard Charlie destroys the camera!

I'm so engrossed in this pandemonium, I barely notice that I've been here for an extra hour and everyone has already left. I leave the office in a worse mood than I started with.