Juniper awoke in eir bed, yawning. It was Thursday, which means voi had rehearsal today. Vae also had class today, but that wasn’t until 1 PM, so vae had time to sit back, relax, &-
Bzzt!
Juniper’s phone buzzed. Bro rolled over to bros bedside table & grabbed bros phone, looking at it. It was a text from Cherry in the group chat.
Cherry: hey wtf is this
Attached to the text was a picture of a poster. On the poster was a photo of the puppet that was staring at Juniper yesterday at the puppet shop. Text was on the poster that read, “No One’s Better Than You! Choose Sotry to be the world’s president!” There was a red, metal dot above the poster as well, but Juniper couldn’t make out what it was.
A few more messages showed up in the group chat.
Leslie: i think thats a poster cherry
Cherry: no but like
Cherry: the puppet from yesterday’s on it
Leslie: why?
Cherry: i don’t know??
Kalani: what is this puppet cooking 👨🍳🕴
Nora: president of the world seems kinda sketch dontcha think
Cherry: ya thats what i thought
Cherry: not much i can do tho. i have a class to get to
Juniper sighed. Looks like dew wasn’t getting the early-ish morning rest dew wanted after all.
Juniper: im gonna go tear down those posters
Cherry: what
Cherry: ok good luck i guess
So, Juniper rolled out of bed & stretched, preparing for a long day of tearing posters down.
-
It was eerily silent in the puppet shop today. Alph was out getting some supplies, so the puppets were left to their own devices.
A laptop was open, with a security cam feed on it. The blue puppet flipped through each camera, while Sotry (the green puppet) stared & watched. The blue puppet flipped past a scene that Sotry had found most intriguing.
“Canul. Stop.”
“Huh?”
“Go back.”
Canul (the blue puppet) flipped back to the scene. A kid (looked to be around college age) with a green tie necklace stood there, grabbing a poster off the wall & ripping it in half.
“They’re ripping our posters apart.”
“Why?”
“Why? Do you think I know why?!”
“Well- I-” Canul stammered. “Well- You know everything, don’t you?”
“..I suppose so. Switch to the next camera.”
“On it, Sotry.”
Canul flipped to the next camera. The same kid with the tie necklace, walking up to a poster, tearing it off the wall, & ripping it in half.
“They must know our plan.”
“That’s impossible,” the red puppet piped up. “We haven’t told anyone about our plan. We’re the only ones who-”
“Did I say you could speak, Islo?”
Islo (the red puppet) quickly shut his mouth.
“Canul. Move to the next camera.”
“Right away, Sotry.”
Canul went to the next camera. The same kid is seen pulling down a poster, but in the middle of it, someone walks up to them.
“Juniper!”
“Oh, Allie! What’s up?”
“Just wanted to say thanks for the rose you got yesterday. It’s perfect.”
“It’s the least I could do!”
“A rose..” Sotry hummed, thinking.
The people in the camera feed continued talking.
“Are you & the others prepared for the performance next week?”
“Yup! In the university theater, right?”
“You got it! See ya there!”
“Puppets!” Sotry clapped his hands twice. The rest of the puppets turned to look at him.
“I don’t know why this person is tearing down our posters, but we must stop them before they foil our plans. & luckily, we’ve just been given the perfect date for that: next Thursday.”
-
“Alright, everybody! Good rehearsal!” Allie clapped. “Remember, next Thursday is our first performance, so be ready! We’ll be having the dress rehearsal the day before!”
As everyone got ready to go, the group reconvened with each other & started to leave the theater.
“Woo! This performance is gonna be awesome!”
“You can say that again! That rose we got from the puppet shop works way better than I expected it to.”
“Speaking of the puppet shop,” Cherry said, opening up the door to leave. “How’d it go with those posters, Juni?”
“Oh! Uh.. it was normal, I guess. I tore some up before I went to class, but that was it. I wonder what the red things above each poster are, though- oh, speak of the devil.”
The group saw another one of the posters on a streetlight pole outside the theater.
“Oh, great. Another one.”
“It’s fine. Let’s go rip it up.”
They approached the poster. Juniper tore it off the pole & ripped it in half, crumpling it up.
“There we go. Nothin’ to it.”
“I do kinda wanna know what the red thing is, though.” Leslie said, pointing at the red, metal dot that was above where the poster was.
“It’s probably nothing.” Cherry shrugged.
“Either way, I am curious.” Leslie ever-so carefully flicked it off of the pole & into their hand. “I’ll head by every place I can think of tomorrow to find out what it is.”
“Alright. Useless endeavor, but you have fun with it.”
“I will!”
“In the meantime,” Nora yawned. “Can we head home? I am exhausted.”
“Absolutely, my friend. Let’s book it.”