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Gangle kicked her ribbon feet back and forth as she laid on her stomach, her blue sketchbook in front of her and pencil in hand.
Drawing was one of her favorite things to do while nothing was going on at the circus, it gave her some reminder of the real world and was just an overall break from everything going on.
Usually, she would draw in a corner or a secluded area of the circus unless she was merely doodling, but since everyone else was off doing something else somewhere else, she took advantage of the empty space. So now, Gangle found herself lying on one of the colorful couches in the little makeshift living room area.
At first, she was on pretty high alert, only drawing little doodles of cats and looking around ever so often; but as time went on, and some inspiration struck her, she became more invested in her drawing rather than her surroundings. Over the span a just a few minutes, Gangle already had a sketch of what she wanted and started going over the drawing with darker lines. And with each line added to the drawing, was another scene added to the fantasy going on and on in her head…
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Gangle sat down, the loud ring of the bell drowning out her panting from rushing to school after waking up late, but luckily she was able to make it to class on time. After catching her breath, the ribbon bodied schoolgirl leaned down to grab her books from her bag.
“Hmmm…” the expression on her comedy mask twisted into one of confusion, her English notebook wasn’t in there. Gangle looked up at the board to double check the lesson today. On the blackboard, written in chalk was today’s topic: English.
With newfound panic, she turned back to her bag and dug through it frantically.
She had her math notebook, history textbook…
Her eyes lit up as she spotted a familiar blue cover and she quickly pulled it out of her bag.
“Aha! I knew it! Finally found my notebook!” Gangle exclaimed in shushed victory, relief washing over her.
“Okay class! Now that I have everyone here, I want you to group up into pairs for this activity!” Her professor, Mr. Kinger, declared before going back to the board to write the instructions for today’s activity.
Gangle gasped in excitement, this could be her chance! In an attempt to be sneaky, she peered over to her left to see if her desired partner had paired up yet.
And…
Yes! They were still alone!
Gangle stifled a giggle from escaping and faced forward again.
“Okay Gangle… you got this. You can do this.” She affirmed herself, and with a deep breath she turned back to her left. “Hey, Zooble?”
Zooble looked up at the call of their name. “Oh, hey Gangle, what’s up?” They replied with their calm, soothing voice.
Gangle almost died on the spot. There was no way they could get through this! With slightly less confidence, she forced herself to go on.
“O-oh! Uhm! I, well, heh… I w-was just wondering if you wanted to be my partner! I-it’s fine if you don’t wanna though, but uh, I really wanted to work with you!” Gangle stumbled and stuttered through her sentence with pink blush forming across her cheeks.
“Oh, sure, I’d love to be your partner Gangle.” Zooble responded softly.
The two quickly pushed their desks together and Gangle was over the moon to be sitting next to them! They were so charming, charismatic, lovely, astonishing, eye-catching, jaw-dropping, breath-taking, amazing, beautiful, handsome, pretty, precious, enchanted, outstanding, whatever you can say to compliment someone, they fit every description. At one point, Gangle found herself just staring at every feature she could.
“Oh Zooble…” she whispered to herself, her thoughts unintentionally being spoken aloud.
“Yeah?” They responded, much to her surprise. Looking over from the board to meet her eyes.
“Wh-what!? I didn’t say anything!” Gangle jumped up, her face turning beet red. She felt her face get hot as she heard Zooble chuckle softly. “Whatever! L-let’s just work on the assignment!” She muttered with embarrassment, opening her notebook and flipping through the pages.
Or rather, what she thought was her notebook.
“Okay, so what are we supposed to do-?” Gangle looked up at the board before it brutally hit her that she had grabbed her sketchbook instead of the desired notebook. Not just any sketchbook either, one where she sketched some embarrassing fantasies including her and a certain classmate that was seated right next to her! The schoolgirl’s stomach dropped and she quickly looked back down to see that the page was open to a particularly embarrassing drawing. In a surge of panic, Gangle immediately rushed to get the sketchbook closed, fumbling to close it and even struggling to hold it.
“Ugh, this stupid book!” She exclaimed in frustration.
In her nervous struggle, she did draw quite a bit of attention to herself. The schoolgirl cleared her throat and sat up straighter.
“Is everything okay, Gangle?” Mr. Kinger asked, looking up from the papers on his desk.
“Uh! Yeah! Yeah! I just- uh… dropped… something…” She made up a feeble excuse on the spot and hoped that everyone would forget the scene she created. Another wave of relief washed over her as most of her peers just shrugged and turned around.
Emphasis on most.
“Gangle, why are you putting your notebook away when you need it for the assignment!” Jax called out from his desk, he was sitting next to Pomni who seemed to be doing all of the work.
“Shut up, Jax. Focus on your own project.” Zooble snapped back quickly before looking at Gangle. “You good?” They asked her, gaze soft and warm.
Gangle really couldn’t help the blush that spread across her face again, and much less the thoughts running through her head.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine! Let’s just work on the assignment.” Gangle stammered, giving a nervous smile as she shoved the sketchbook in her bag and turned to Zoobles notebook.
Zooble raised an eyebrow, “you know you need your notebook for this, right? We need one for the notes we wrote down the other day and one to write everything down.” They pointed out.
“Oh! R-right! I just.. uhm.. grabbed..” Gangle began making up another excuse before trailing off and going silent. “Uhhh.. you-you know what? How about I write everything down, and you have the notes?” Gangle gently grabbed the pencil from Zoobles hand and reached for her sketchbook again.
‘I can just use a blank page, no problem!’ She thought to herself as she quickly flipped to said page and began writing.
“Gangle…” Zooble started,
“Zooble, can you turn to the notes we took last class?” Gangle looked up from writing and towards zooble. Her classmate looked back at her before taking the pencil. “W-what are you-“
“Look, I kinda slept through last class,” They explained to her softly, “That’s why we need your notes.”
Gangles heart sank.
“Ohhhhh… right! I- uhm… you know.. I… also slept… through last class..” she mumbled, her words just barely coherent to Zooble.
“.. you.. did?” They asked with skepticism.
“Uhhh, yes?- no! Wait, yes, no… maybe..?” Gangle switched between telling the truth and lying to her classmate, but, finally, upon seeing their cynical expression, she sighed and succumbed to the truth. “Fine.. I didn’t. I just forgot my English notebook at home… so I kinda… don’t have the notes either.” She rubbed the back of her neck with her ribbon hand, looking away from Zooble. “I’m sorry..”
“It’s.. alright. We can just do what we can for now and continue when we have the notes tomorrow, I’m sure Mr. Kinger will allow it.” They reassured the anxious schoolgirl next to them, turning to the page and beginning to write down the instructions. “So, if you can, do you think you could come up with ideas for how to start off the story we’re supposed to write?”
“Oh, yeah, sure! Let me jot down some ideas and I’ll tell you the ones I like best.” Gangle reached for her sketchbook, only to find it no longer in front of her. “Wha-?”
“HEY EVERYONE! LOOK AT GANGLES DRAWINGS!” A booming voice came from the front of the room where a certain purple rabbit held Gangles sketchbook in his hands.
“WhaaaAAAA! Stop! Stop! Give that back!” Gangle immediately shot up from her seat, her blush returning with full force. In her haste to get to the front of the room, she tripped over the leg of a desk and brought both her and the piece of furniture down to the floor. “Ow! No! No! Don’t flip the page! DONT FLIP THE PAGE!!” Gangle begged and pleaded. Her cries were met with a taunting laugh.
“Ooooooh! Let’s see what’s on the next page!” Jax grinned widely and began to turn to the next page. Luckily, before he could show to the class what was on the page, Zooble snatched the book from the rabbits thieving hands.
“Ugh, you’re such a child.” They spat out as they began walking away, but before they could get far, they were tackled to the ground by Jax.
“Hey! Give it here! I stole this fair and square!” He complained while trying to take the item back. The scene escalated rapidly from the two bickering over the book to them having a full on fight.
“Students! Stop it! Stop it! This is not the assignment!” The professor tried to deescalate the situation by reminding the students that fighting was, in fact, not apart of the activity.
“Oh my god, Jax! Stop taking Gangles stuff!” Ragatha pleaded for the book to be returned and started going on about how rude it was to take other people’s belongings. Pomni, who was often found trying to stop fights, just grumbled under her breath about having the worst partner ever and continued to work on the assignment.
Gangle rushed over to the fight but stopped a few feet away, afraid of getting hit if she got closer.
“Zooble! You don’t have to do this!” She called out softly, not enjoying the brutal sight.
“It’s- ow! It’s fine, Gangle! I’ve. Wanted. To do this. Forever.” They responded between throwing punches and receiving them.
“UGH! You’re fighting over something so… unimportant!” Jax snarled at Zooble before a grand idea popped into his head. “Heh… I.. I bet you don’t even know what you’re fighting over, do you?” He laughed between his words and hit Zooble hard enough to grab the sketchbook from their hands.
“I don’t care what it is! You’re still an a[$%#!] who still deserves to be beat!” They responded after recovering slightly.
“Oh really? Then why don’t you take a look?” Jax shoved the drawing in Zoobles face, forcing them to face it.
“NOOOO! NONONONO! ZOOBLE NO DONT LOOK!-“ Gangle panicked, reaching out one of her arms while the other was held to her face.
“Wha?-“ Zooble’s eyes widened.
The drawing before them was one of Gangle and themself, the two in a particular position including Gangle sitting on top of them and Zooble leaning back. In the drawing, it looked like they were about to kiss. Around the big illustration were little doodles of Zooble with different expressions.
Now, Zooble harbored the same blush Gangle previously had, and now, Gangle had replaced the blush with a horrified look.
The former looked back to face Gangle, but was only able to catch a glimpse of her as she exited the classroom in a rush.
“Gangle!-“ They called out, shoving Jax off of them and quickly running after their classmate.
The toybox character soon came to a stop after running for a few minutes, their pants became unbearable and needed a second to slow down. “Where… did.. she… go…” they asked to no one in particular, heaving after each word in the sentence. Luckily, a certain sniffle caught their attention. And that certain sniffle came from a secluded janitors closet that was just a little bit open.
Gangle looked up at the door to her hiding spot opening. She already knew it was Zooble from their voice, so she didn’t protest or run away. What she did do, however, was go back to hiding her face as she curled up into a ball and cried, her comedy mask broken in half next to her. The schoolgirl refused to look up at her classmate as they sat down next to her. The silence between the two would’ve been deafening if not for Gangles soft sobs. Zooble desperately wanted to say something, anything, but the words refused to string into sentences that made sense.
As if hearing their thoughts, Gangle gathered the courage to speak.
“I’m sorry…” she mumbled, the two words barely audible, but Zooble didn’t need to hear them to know what she said.
With a sigh, they began. “Look.. I..” they paused, still trying to figure out what to say.
“I really am sorry…” Gangle spoke up again, her voice shaky and upset. The schoolgirl lifted her head up a bit, tired of staring at the puddle of tears below her and looked at the door in front of them. She was still crying no doubt, but she forced herself to stop sobbing enough to where she can speak. “I know I’m a creep.. and a weirdo for drawing those things. I just- “ she paused once her voice cracked, and instead of continuing she just sighed and put her head back down, this time facing the wall next to her.
Zooble looked at Gangle with a soft expression, they felt awful for what happened to her. “Gangle, you’re not a creep or a weirdo… at least not in my eyes.” They reassured gently, sitting back against the wall and looking at the shelves around them. “I actually think… your drawings are really good.”
“It’s still wrong, Zooble! I-I’m wrong! I’m just such an awful person and I-i… I couldn’t even… I was so distracted by you that i didn’t even notice that he took the book! And I. Just- I never should’ve drawn that- and-and I just… i deserve to be hated by you! Why are you even here!? Just leave me to wallow in my misery, i deserve it after all!” Gangle abruptly turned towards Zooble, her sobbing coming back even more intensely than before as she just spilled her feelings out. She continued crying after talking and leaned against the wall behind her, facing zooble but not looking at them.
Gangle waited for Zooble’s response and got even more anxious when they took awhile, but then, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Zoobles expression once again. Those mismatched eyes of theirs were half lidded, and Gangle felt she was delusional enough to see blush under those eyes that made her stomach twist. Those twists turned into knots as one of their hands came up to wipe the tears off her mask. Her mouth opened to speak, but she was cut off by the abrupt closeness of Zooble.
And before she knew it, their faces connected and her eyes widened.
They were kissing.
Her and Zooble.
Were KISSING.
Gangle couldn’t put into words just how thrilled she was.
The ribbon-bodied girl leaned into the kiss as she felt a hand behind her mask pulling her closer, and she couldn’t stop her ribbons from trailing up and down the uniform her classmate had on. The touch of the fabric reminded her that this was real.
She then felt another hand on her waist that pulled her closer, and she gladly leaned forward even more.
A bit of disappointment sprinkled her mood as they pulled apart to take a breath, but looking at Zoobles face made that disappointment wash away immediately.
“Do you still feel like a weirdo?” They asked breathlessly, their hands still holding Gangle, the only thing stopping them from falling back was the wall they were leaning on.
“Not at all..” She whispered back, a smile formed on her mask just before she connected their faces once again, this time with way more confidence than the first time.
In the closet they stayed, with Gangle sitting on top of Zooble while they leaned back against the wall. This time for real instead of being a fantasy on paper.
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“Hehe..” Gangle giggled to herself, now having forgotten about the drawing and leaning against the back of the sofa daydreaming. Her face was dusted with blush and she looked up at the ceiling with a dreamy expression.
“What’s so funny?” A particular calm and soothing voice asked, coming from the other side of the couch.
“Oh, well, you see- WAIT ZOOBLE!?” Gangle shot up from her lying position to face the voice that proved to be the specific person she was fantasizing about.
“Yeah, hey Gangle.” They greeted her with a wave.
Gangle immediately grabbed her sketchbook and turned it upside down, the blush on her face increasing in intensity as she giggled nervously and wrung her ribbon hands together.
“Hi Zooble”