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“Alright, that’s the end of today’s challenge,” the speaker box concluded, its unchanging monotone voice cutting in above those of the group of contestants who surrounded it. “I need to go and set up for the next one now,” it continued as it began to hop away from them.
“Wait!” Leafy jumped over it, blocking its path. “What are we gonna do while you’re gone?” Behind them, the other contestants stood in their teams. Some looked confused, others looked scared, but all of them were staring at the Announcer, searching for answers. It was still unclear what this whole “Battle For Dream Island” thing was going to be about, and they weren’t exactly ready to wait an age just for a new challenge to start. They just wanted to win this island already!
“Yeah rectangular metal speaker device,” Pen chimed in from behind them. “I thought we were competing for Dream Island?” With that, the whole crowd began to murmur with uncertainty amongst themselves.
“Shush, sheesh,” the host broke through the background noise, causing everyone to face him again; he was the only thing in their world that could give them any answers. “It’ll only take a few weeks for the audience to vote and for me to set up the next challenge. You can do whatever you want until then,” it explained.
“A few weeks?!” Flower shrieked, aghast. “But I want to go to Dream Island now! In fact, I demand you give me special treatment-!” she demanded, before being shoved aside by an exasperated Pin.
“Yeah yeah, whatever, Flower,” she snarked. “If anyone should be allowed on the island, it should be me! I won the balance beam contest!” She flourished with pride.
“A no is a no,” the speaker box answered bluntly, causing Pin’s wide grin to falter. With that, it hopped over Leafy and continued moving away.
“Wai-” Pin began to cry, before she was knocked to the floor by Flower. “How dare you push me like that?! You’ll pay for this!” she screeched. “Snowball, beat her up for me!”
The demand went unanswered. “Snowball’s still in the canal with the other missing ones,” Pencil sighed.
“Besides, you don’t have to act so needy!” Leafy added, helping Pin to her feet. A faint slapping sound could be heard in the distance, echoing back across the plains - weird.
“GRRR! I ought to crush both of you!” Flower screamed, clenching her fist angrily. Her shouting prompted the rest of the contestants to begin bickering amongst themselves, and from there, any sense of team cohesion melted down as the two distinct groups disintegrated. The competition was forgotten. Amongst the chaos, the Announcer had since disappeared over the horizon of the grasslands, taking with him any semblance of order that once existed.
Coiny turned away from the crowd, shaking his head bitterly. He felt like the only person who really cared about what was going on anymore. Well, except Pin, but she was… occupied. Flower was still raging, chasing both her and Leafy around while hurling insults at them. What a peaceful start to the game…
He took the chance to reflect on the craziness of the past day. The promise of a luxurious island, a set of teams, and an awesome competition to go along with it! Dream Island was definitely exciting to him - its rides, restaurants, and games would keep him occupied forever, if only he could win it. Spending time with his friends there would be a blast!
That wasn’t the only thing that excited him though. As much as he was thrilled about the island, the competition itself was bound to be fun. He loved team challenges like this, mostly to show how much better he was than Firey. It was basically second nature to him to take any and all opportunities to show how much better he was than his rival!
At the edge of the group, he noticed that Pen and Eraser stood apart from the others, talking casually. Talking to them would beat standing on his own, so he approached them.
“Hey guys! Whaddya talking about?” he asked brightly as he walked over, grinning at them. The pair stared at him blankly, before glancing at each other.
“Uhh, we’re talking about the fact that Blocky got eaten by a fish monster earlier,” Pen explained after a second. Eraser nodded, his face grave.
“O-Oh yeah, that happened, didn’t it…” Coiny rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “To be honest I was too focused on trying to win the challenge to really notice!”
“How did that go for you?” Eraser deadpanned, while Pen continued to stare at him, equally unimpressed-looking.
“Hey, at least I did better than you two,” he shrugged. “My team and I built a much better boat!”
“Does that really matter when one of our team members is stuck inside a fish monster right now?!” Pen argued, looking desperately over to the canal for any sign of it.
“I’m just tryna focus on the competition here!” he defended. “It sucks that Blocky got eaten, but at least a member of your team isn’t leaving!”
“One of our team members is basically gone,” Pen lamented.
Eraser nodded along with him. “Yeah, and your team’s gonna be losing someone like Flower or Rocky! We just lost one of the coolest guys around,” he backed up Pen.
“Okay okay, I guess you’re right,” Coiny admitted. “He’s probably not gone forever though! If Bubble and Firey can be recovered, I bet that speaker box has a way to bring Blocky back too!”
“Yeah, probably,” Pen agreed, lightening up suddenly. “That peculiar talking cuboid can do a lot of stuff.”
“He couldn’t do anything about my foot,” Eraser grunted glumly.
“That’s not his fault! You were the one who stepped on a nail,” Pen insisted, causing Coiny to giggle in surprise. “Wait, you stepped on a nail?!” he exclaimed in hilarity. Eraser ignored them, and bent down to rub his previously-impaled foot.
“So anyways, you excited to compete for Dream Island?” he asked, turning to Coiny. “I can’t wait to win it!”
“Yeah right!” Coiny shot back, playfully nudging his opponent. “My team might have lost the last challenge, but trust me, we’ll do way better than you next time!”
Pen rolled his eyes, before smiling again. “I don’t think so! Our team is awesome, we’ll definitely win the next challenge!”
“Oh, my team’s so much better than yours,” he taunted, prompting Eraser’s head to shoot up again in outrage.
“No way! You’ve got Golf Ball! She’s such a bossy bot!” he spat, as if he was disgusted at the wasted breath of saying her name.
“At least GB’s smart,” Coiny argued, although he wasn’t even convinced by his own point. Golf Ball wasn’t the ideal teammate, all he knew is that she was better than the people on their team. “Your team has the dumbest object in all of existence - Firey!”
“Ugh, what is it with you and Firey fighting all the time? He’s not that bad,” Eraser retorted, rolling his eyes.
“Ack- how dare you! Having Firey on your team makes it at least 2763 times worse!” he argued, appalled at hearing someone defend such an irredeemable jerk. “But still, you’ve got Woody and Spongy! They’re useless!”
“Well they’re balanced out by me, Eraser, and Blocky - whenever we get him back,” Pen responded lightheartedly. It was clear that he wasn’t as bothered about this aspect of the competition, compared to Eraser at least. For someone Coiny had always considered lazy, Eraser was really getting into defending his teammates.
“We have cool team members too! Like Leafy (she overheard and shot him a brief smile before dodging another of Flower’s punches), Teardrop, and Needle!” he pushed back, determined to win this fight.
“Ooh, Needle huh,” Eraser smirked, narrowing his eyes. “I never knew you two had a thing for each other, but I guess I’m not surprised,” he stated in a mocking, yet matter-of-fact tone.
Almost immediately, Coiny’s confidence vanished as he jumped to defend himself. “I- wha?! I don’t have a ‘thing’ for her, she’s just a cool teammate!” he argued, trying to keep his voice steady. However much he tried to suppress it, he could already feel himself becoming embarrassed.
“Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Eraser teased, clearly stifling a giggle.
“You definitely have a crush on her! We all saw how excited you looked when she said she liked you,” Pen added with an equally mocking smile.
Coiny could feel the temperature of his cheeks rising with each word as his heart pounded, a rising sensation of warmth emanating across his body. “Sh-She was just saying she liked me more than Snowball! She didn’t really mean it in that way…” his words trailed off and strung together in an incoherent mess.
“Wow, looks like someone’s embarrassed!” Eraser taunted, not helping the flames of humiliation burning a hole inside him.
“N-No I’m not!” was his only desperate rebuttal, his face glowing a deep scarlet.
Pen and Eraser laughed together, causing him to cover his face in a futile effort to try and hide himself and his feelings from the world. He wanted the ground to swallow him up whole, but it didn’t; instead, the moment seemed to last forever, him standing there, his friends laughing and pointing mockingly at him.
“Hey, we’re just joking around!” Pen chuckled eventually, patting him lightly on the shoulder.
Coiny glanced up at them, unable to escape the previous moments of torment. “Well I didn’t think it was funny!” he responded angrily, slapping Pen’s hand away.
“Calm down bro,” Eraser continued through a smirking face. “Don’t be so needy!” Again, another slapping sound cascaded towards them from the direction of the canal, followed by a similarly distant splash of water.
Suddenly, a horrendously annoying voice piped up behind him. Just from the voice alone, he knew exactly who had just arrived. “Did somebody say my name just now?”
Instinctively, he spun quickly around, as his eyes were brutally assaulted by Firey’s hideous appearance. “Oh, hey Firey,” Eraser greeted casually, as both he and Pen gave him a high five. How could they be so friendly to such a jerkface?
Coiny crossed his arms, his face twisted into a scowl. “What’dya you want, Fiery?” he interrogated, the previous conversation pushed to the back of his mind. He couldn’t focus on anything else whilst Firey was around, only trying to assert his superiority over his rival.
Firey glanced over at him. “Oh, hey dummy- I mean Coiny. I’m just here to talk to my teammates over here.” He gestured towards Pen and Eraser. “The real question is, what are you doing here?”
Before Coiny had a chance to insult Firey back, Eraser jumped into their standoff. “Oh, we were just talking about how Coiny totally has a crush on Needle,” he responded with a snort.
“Wha- nonono, I don’t have a crush on her!” Coiny waved his arms wildly in front of him as his mind was dragged back to their previous discussion. He needed to convince Firey that he didn’t really have a crush on her before they all bullied him– nope, that wasn’t going to happen. The fire in question was grinning widely with glee, biting his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing.
“Ohh, so that’s why your face is so red!” Firey teased, which caused Coiny to blush even more. “I thought it was just because you couldn’t handle the heat!”
“Well, we were just joking around about it. But ,” Pen started, giggling again. “You look so flustered, I bet you really do have a crush on Needle!”
“Haha! Coiny’s got a crush~!” Firey chanted as the three of them started laughing at him again.
Coiny saw red. “Ugh, I don’t, okay?!” he yelled as he suddenly slapped Firey. “I-If this is how you’re gonna be then I’m leaving!” He turned away and began to march towards the Goiky Canal, his mind still racing uncontrollably.
He tried and failed to ignore Firey’s continued laughing. “Ooh, going to find your crush are you?” Firey called, although thankfully, he didn’t bother to chase after him.
“Make sure to invite us to the wedding… ” Firey’s voice faded away into the muffled noise of the rest of the contestants surrounding them. He turned his attention in front of him, satisfied that Firey was gone. At least he wouldn’t have to put up with him anymore.
Coiny still felt slightly sick in his stomach as he continued walking, an underlying ache that wouldn’t quite fade away. He didn’t care where he was going, as long as it would result in that feeling of embarrassment ending as soon as possible.
Stupid… it was all so stupid. Why couldn’t they make fun of anybody else?! Tennis Ball clearly had a crush on Golf Ball, why couldn’t they talk about that? Even Snowball seemed like he was jealous when Needle said she didn’t like him. Of all people, why did they have to bully him?!
Plus, why would he have a crush on Needle, of all people? Just because she said she liked him more than Snowball, that didn’t mean she like -liked him. And he certainly didn’t like her!
With each step he took, the adrenaline drained drop by drop from his body. It felt nice, as long as he didn’t think too much about what he’d just walked away from. The more he walked, the easier it became to ignore the mocking voices of Pen, Eraser, and Firey, echoing ever more quietly in his head.
Eventually, he settled back down to his normal temperature. That intense, instinctive feeling of humiliation was gone, and his mind stopped rushing around so much, as he was returned to the present moment.
He probably shouldn’t have stormed off like that. Ugh, now they’d think he really did have a crush on Needle. That stupid fire… if Firey didn’t show up, maybe he wouldn’t have blown up like that.
Truthfully, he didn’t even know why he got that angry about something that he could’ve pretty easily ignored. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so worried. After all, if he knew he didn’t like Needle in that way, then who was anyone else to tell him otherwise?
Of course, she was a cool teammate, and a nice friend. She took the competition almost as seriously as him, a quality he really admired in anyone he met. Or- ah, that didn’t mean he liked her though! He just thought she was a really cool girl that he wanted to be better friends with!
As much as he didn’t want to think about it, a wonder persisted in his mind about what she thought about him. They’d been friendly before the competition, but he didn’t think she felt that strongly about him. Not that her saying she liked him more than Snowball meant she liked him strongly. He just didn’t expect her to put it into words.
Or maybe, she liked him more than he expected.
It was an intrusive thought, one that brought back a familiar feeling of discomfort that excited the deepest parts of his mind. All at once, a hundred possibilities sprung up, all of which shone with Needle’s smiling face, none of which he wanted to indulge in playing out fully in his consciousness. It was a sensation that equal parts disturbed and fascinated him.
The rising feeling quickly died down again as his conscience regained control, and he decided that whatever he was thinking, he didn’t like it at all. Why was he thinking these thoughts? Why was he being so needy-?
A sudden force knocking into his face snapped him immediately out of his internal monologue as he fell to the floor in a daze. He clutched his spinning head in his hands, scrambling to regain his stability. Looking up from the floor, he recognised the object that blocked his path:
It was a tree. A lone tree, standing directly in his path. Maybe he should’ve paid a bit more attention to where he was walking. Behind the tree, the Goiky Canal stretched widely across the horizon, indicating just how far he’d wandered away from the group.
He almost thought he heard a stifled laugh from behind him, but when he turned around, there was nobody there. Only the charred remains of a bush, and a pillar of smoke rising up to the sky from behind a nearby boulder. Weird, there must have been a wildfire or something.
What caught his attention more was the barely-audible sound of muffled crying on his right. A high voice, coming from a patch of woodland beside the canal. Figuring he should investigate, he raised himself to his feet.
As he moved towards the source of the crying, it gradually became louder. A string of quiet sobs led him between the trees, towards a clearing in the middle of the cluster. One tree stood out as where he could expect this mysterious object to be.
Trying to walk as quietly as possible as to try not to scare them, he reached the tree and peered around the side. Sat beside it, a tall, shiny silver object sat alone on the leaf-covered ground.
“Needle?” Coiny questioned in disbelief. She jumped in fright before turning to face him. Her eyes glistened in the winter sun that reached them from the clearing, whilst the remaining streaks of tears left imprints running down her face.
“O-Oh, Coiny, it’s j-just you,” she whimpered, rubbing her eyes compulsively.
“Are you okay? I thought you were still stuck in the canal,” he asked, walking around the side of the tree to face her. Even though she was sitting down, she was still taller than him.
“Y-Yeah, I was ,” she responded, her voice traced with an underlying tone of bitterness.
Coiny gazed into her eyes, prepared to listen. That strange sensation stirred within him again, but he tried his best to ignore it.
“I w-was out there, until they k-kicked me off of Spongy. I had to swim to shore by myself…” she explained, her voice still broken by sadness.
“What?! Why would they do that?” he exclaimed in an outraged tone.
“I- w-well, I don’t really know what happened,” she admitted, rubbing the side of her arm. “A while ago, I kind of- felt an urge to slap people?”
“Huh? That’s so weird,” Coiny remarked, his sympathetic view retreating for a moment.
“I-I don’t really know how to explain it. All I know is that I couldn’t control it! I tried to tell them that, but they didn’t listen…” Another tear rolled down her cheek, and splashed in a puddle in a leaf beside her.
“Aww, it’s okay,” he attempted to comfort her by placing a hand on her arm. “I’m sure when you tell them, they’ll understand!” he advised optimistically.
“It’s not just that,” she continued, her breathing heavy. “I- just- it’s just-”
“Hey, don’t panic,” he soothed in a calm, yet serious voice. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’m here if you need to.”
“Th-thank you, Coiny.” For a moment, she steadied her breathing and rubbed her watering eyes again with her left hand. With her right, she held onto Coiny’s hand, still resting on her arm, prompting his cheeks to light up with another blush.
“It’s just,” she started again, her voice more certain this time. “Nobody really likes me here. Besides Leafy and Teardrop - and you of course - everyone finds me annoying…”
“That’s not true!” he jumped to her defense, but she cut him off.
“It kinda is. Just now? During the challenge? And during team-picking…” she listed, before cutting herself off. As if realising what was going on, she briskly released his hand. “Oh, um, sorry about that, ahahahah~”
“N-No, you’re fine,” he reassured before he could realise what was coming out of his mouth. “I MEAN- it’s fine! What I meant was I don’t care if you hold my hand hehe…”
Their awkward facial expressions and closed body language mirrored each other. It was clear that they were both thinking about what Blocky said that morning.
“The point is, people don’t hate you Needle,” he returned to his comforting speech. “People can be stupid sometimes, but that doesn’t mean they hate you. It just means they’re stupid!”
Needle giggled at him slightly. “What really matters is what people who aren’t stupid think about you - like me!” he flourished, causing her to giggle again. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
“Wha- hey! Are you calling me stupid?!” he mocked an outraged tone, before they laughed together. The joke left a lasting smile on her face, as the last of her tears around her eyes dried up.
“Okay fine, I might be a bit stupid,” he admitted with a smirk. “But at least I’m not needy-!”
His pun was cut off by a sudden slap. “Don’t call me needy!” Needle shouted angrily into his face, before she fell back against the tree. He could’ve sworn he heard another stifled giggle from behind him, but he chose to ignore the noise.
“Woah, sorry,” he apologised as he rubbed his face. “Wait… did you slap people like that when you were on Spongy?”
“Yeah, exactly like that. Why?” she asked innocently.
“Did they call you needy-?” he began to ask before he received another strong slap. “Don’t call me needy!” she yelled at him again.
“Agh, I didn’t mean to!” he shouted in return, rubbing his face again. “What I’m saying is, did anyone there call you that?”
“I don’t think so,” she answered after a moment of thought. “To be honest I can’t really remember. It’s all a blur.”
“Huh, weird. Maybe it’s because some other people said the word ‘needy’-?” Yet again, another slap. “Don’t call me needy!” she shouted in the same tone.
“Stop doing that!” he yelled in an exasperated voice. “Do you want me to help you or not?!”
“I-I’m sorry,” she apologised, before her eyes pricked with tears again. “I-I didn’t mean to…”
Coiny’s face softened as he noticed her distressed face. “You didn’t… mean to?” She swayed her head sadly in response.
Sighing, he placed his hand on her shoulder again. “It’s fine. Just know that you can trust me, okay? I’m not trying to make fun of you,” he promised with a sincere smile.
“I-I know,” she answered, gazing back into his eyes.
Needle’s eyes glimmered in the light again. He hadn’t realised how close he was standing to her; it made everything feel even more intimate. His face lit up again with a dark blush which he tried desperately to fight, but to no avail. That feeling of warmth swirled around his stomach, as the overwhelming urge to find out what she really thought about him took over once again.
“Needle,” he murmured her name softly.
“Hm?” she responded, her face glowing pinker with each passing second.
“When you said you liked me more than Snowball earlier… what did you mean by that?”
“I- uhm,” she began, flustered by the question. After a second, she pulled herself together, and her voice was strengthened with a new sense of determination “Well,-”
Suddenly, an object dug him forcefully in the back, causing him to launch forwards - directly into Needle. His hands instinctively caught most of his weight on the tree, but it wasn’t enough to stop his full momentum.
Time grinded to a halt as his face made contact with Needle’s. Their lips were pushed together into an unexpected kiss. It was a feeling he’d never experienced; a wave of confusing bliss, but also horror and fear. Her soft lips embraced his own, pulling him deeper into that sensation of intimacy.
Their contact lasted a painfully long amount of time. That was, until he lost his balance completely, and their lips slipped apart again before he crashed on top of her.
Coiny could barely comprehend what had happened before a flurry of various emotions hit him all at once. Fear, disgust, anger, confusion, and maybe, a slight sense of longing.
That initial paralysis didn’t last long though, as he found himself again, resting right on top of Needle. Blushing wildly, he rolled to the side and picked himself up, before glancing back down to see if she was okay. She looked perplexed, but thankfully, she wasn’t hurt.
He was about to help her up, until he heard someone cackling uncontrollably. He looked back up, to see the object he least wanted to see in that moment - Firey.
“Wh-what was that for?!” Coiny questioned out of disbelief more than anything, his mind quickly devolving into a frenzy.
“HA! Coiny, I just got you so good!” Firey exclaimed with glee, struggling to speak between his bouts of uproarious laughter. “I’m definitely telling everyone you’re in love with Needle!” With that, he turned and began running back towards where they’d left the other contestants.
“You dumbass! Get back here!” Coiny yelled, fist pumping angrily in the air, and bolted after his nemesis. If Firey thought he could get away with something like that, he was very, very wrong.