How did she get herself into it this time? She was minding her own business in the cemetery again, paying her respects to her deceased family member, when she saw a zombie about her height lumbering up to her from the corner of her eye, followed by two more, one distinctly female and the other tall and thick-armed. She ran away as fast as she could, but these zombies were really fast, and catching up.
She ducked through a gateway and turned, meaning to hide or lose their trail behind a tree behind the wall where the gravestones were. As she dove behind the tree, she bumped into a silver trash can, and immediately opened the top, climbed inside and closed the lid upside down so the handle was inside, unreachable by the zombies.
"P-P-Pippi?"
A startled voice made Pippi jump, but she quickly recovered herself and put a finger to the boy's lips. "Shhh, you'll let them know where we are."
"Who?" Lloyd whispered, adjusting his glasses and shifting to give himself more space away from Pippi in the confined area. She didn't know it, but he was more nervous than he should have been to have her in his trash can, have her so close to him where there was barely enough room for himself.
"Zombies, three of them, they snuck up on me when I was at a grave," Pippi muttered, "I could've taken 'em out, but they just seemed much tougher than average zombies, especially the muscly one."
A sharp bang rapped on the top of the trash can, making both Pippi and Lloyd start. "Oh no! They found us!" Pippi squeaked, clinging to Lloyd in fear.
Lloyd reached up and held the handle of the trash can, his hand lapping over Pippi's as there was no room to the sides of her hand.
The zombies continued battering the trash can, each kick making it move. Pippi and Lloyd shifted their weights, scared further into alertness, when a downwards slope in landscape tilted their trash can. Before either of them could do anything about it, the trash can was knocked roughly onto its side, Lloyd and Pippi almost letting go of the lid as the change in gravity landed them on their sides.
A quick shove from a zombie's foot and the trash can took off rolling down the slightly steep hill.
Both Pippi and Lloyd yelled on the way down, yells that went up and down in pitch and volume depending on the bumps of the hill. Lloyd's hand was clenched so hard he accidentally pulled the trash can lid down into the trash can so it rested on his and Pippi's heads, pushing them slightly closer together, not enough for them to notice. That lid wasn't coming off without a good few pushes; it was lodged tightly in the trash can.
Finally, after a lot of bumping and rolling, the trash can came to an abrupt stop after hitting a tree, jolting its passengers inside.
Lloyd was really dizzy, too dizzy to feel anything besides his own nausea, and the same could be said for Pippi. But when they did gather their senses, they had about the greatest surprise of their lives.
Among all the jostling the trash can had inflicted upon her, Pippi had landed on top of Lloyd with her hands near his shoulders; to be more precise, on top of his hands. The shocking part for both of them was what Pippi's lips were in direct and firm contact with; Lloyd's own lips. Pippi was about to lift herself up from Lloyd, face as heated as the moment, when a loud crack was heard and a part of the trash can, the part near her upper back, caved in and prevented her from doing anything. Another bang and she couldn't move her legs.
Lloyd was blushing as fiercely as the red of his shirt, or Pippi's dress, for that matter. It was a lot for him to process all at once, so he did not and just went with it, not being able to feel his legs and not sure if it would help with his blush.
Pippi struggled to lift her head or turn to the side or do anything that involved not continuing her kiss with Lloyd, but failed, her head slumping as she admitted defeat. Lloyd made a somewhat loud, high-pitched squeak below her as she accidentally put more weight on his lips when her head relaxed.
'I've never heard him make a noise like that, I wonder if he... No, of course not, he wouldn't feel that way, not about me.'
The trash can was shaken back and forth from the outside, and try as they might Pippi and Lloyd couldn't make their heads not move with the movements of the trash can, making their lips grind against each other and both their blushes to darken considerably and Lloyd to make a strange sound that Pippi couldn't describe; she couldn't tell if it was a sigh or a growl or a groan, maybe two or all of them conbined.
The trash can was picked up and dropped, and poor Lloyd looked like he was going to explode from all the blood rushing to his face as gravity made Pippi drop on him harder for but a moment.
Warm breath that smelled like snickerdoodle cookies was exhaled on Lloyd's face from not being able to hold it anymore, and Lloyd's shoulders tensed slightly from it.
BANG! Another force hit the side of the trash can, straightening out the first cave-in for the most part, allowing Pippi to lift herself off of Lloyd but not all the way because their legs were still pressed almost uncomfortably tightly together from the second dent.
Pippi curled up on Lloyd's chest, allowing him some room to breathe as she caught up with her own lack of oxygen.
Pippi's head spun and her breath came in much shorter than she needed it to be, so she took great care in taking deeper breaths and holding them for longer to reset her breathing pattern.
Lloyd, on the other hand, was completely breathless, even if Pippi had moved so he could breathe. 'I... I just kissed... Pippi...' The thought kept replaying and replaying in his mind and he started breathing faster and more deeply.
Pippi noticed Lloyd's erratic breathing, thinking he was hyperventilating. "Lloyd, are you okay?"
Lloyd didn't answer, but rather closed his eyes and curled his arm under Pippi's and laced his fingers together, and Pippi, whose blush had been disappearing until then, turned so red she was almost purple. "L-Lloyd?"
No answer, but his breathing slowed down to an almost normal rate.
'Okay,' Pippi thought, 'This either means he likes me how I like him, or he needs something to cuddle when he's terrified.' Both options seemed acceptable to Pippi as she curled into a tighter form on Lloyd's chest.
Suddenly, the trash can's lid jingled a little, slumped a bit, fell and then was swiftly removed, the face of a glaring zombie peering in, the muscly one.
Lloyd wasn't sure who screamed louder, himself or Pippi. They clung like velcro to each other as the zombie's arm slowly reached in.
Aware they could die, not being able to move with a brain-eating living dead reaching in for them, Pippi and Lloyd yelled at the same time as they clutched each other closer, "If we die, I want you to know that I love you!" Pippi and Lloyd opened their eyes and looked into them after hearing their words echo, and both were as shocked as they could be in this situation. Then, after a few seconds, something occurred to them. A zombie's nails weren't drilling into their heads and they weren't being torn apart, both physically and from each other.
Now confused, Pippi and Lloyd looked through the top of the trash and and saw nothing but the grass and the trunks of some trees. All of a sudden, the trash can was lifted and returned to an upright position, and the three zombies peered inside with the same expressions they had had all along. One of them took a swing with something Lloyd and Pippi couldn't see, and the dent gluing their legs together disappeared.
The couple of the trash uncertainly stood, looking puzzled as they unconsciously still clung to each other.
One of the zombies poked at his own neck, the one who was holding a baseball bat and was Pippi's height, and appeared to pull his face off and reveal heathy skin, unlike what he had just removed. The two others did the same and Pippi and Lloyd were not sure what to say or how to react.
"Um... April Fools?" Ninten tried, obviously surprised at how things had worked out.
"Congratulations, you two!" Ana praised as she unzipped her zombie costume in the back and it reached her ankles, revealing her pretty pink dress.
Teddy threw his mask on the ground, presumably out of habit. "That was THE BEST love confession I've ever heard, that's a lot coming from me." Teddy smirked when he was finished, making Lloyd and Pippi obtain a pink blush, forgetting to let go of each other.
"It was all just an elaborate scheme to make us..." Pippi turned a few shades darker.
Ninten smiled. "Yoooou bet! Well, no, we didn't know you loved each other like that, it was supposed to be a prank, a regular prank. We figured we would smash the sides of the trash can a little to squish you guys or separate you or whatever just to freak you out." His grin became wider. "What did happen in there, anyway?"
Pippi and Lloyd looked at each other silently.
Teddy had a dangerous smirk on his face as Ninten and Ana were left to wonder and wait for an answer. Ana finally sighed and turned to Teddy. "You know these things, what happened?"
Teddy suppressed a chuckle as he murmured something to Ninten and Ana, adding at the end, "At least, I heard the noises he made so that should be right."
All three turned to Pippi and Lloyd.
Pippi, despite her personality, backed down from this one, leaving Lloyd to explain. "Okay, first you moved my trash can in the middle of the night without me noticing, then you chase a girl into a tiny container with me and not expect us to make contact at least once. That's not fair. Besides, we think it worked out for the better, don't we Pippi?"
Pippi nodded and buried her face in Lloyd's shoulder for a moment before climbing out of the trash can, helping Lloyd out like a gentleman would a lady. "Now, if you'll excuse us," Pippi raised her head up high, showing pride while she grabbed the brim of the trash can and Lloyd's hand as they climbed back up the hill together, completely changed individuals.
Teddy, Ninten and Ana were silent, watching the couple trudge up the hill with the trash can rattling behind them before Ana stated mischievously, "We should do this more often."