Chapter 7

Rico’s eyes scrolled over the room, searching for the items that would be necessary for his rescue. He kept looking around but he couldn’t stay looking at something too long, the longer he took, the farther Marlene and Richard got. His stomach was feeling sick at the thought of Marlene and Richard EVER being together. That was just wrong. To Rico, he was some kind of molester…and he knew he probably was to anybody else.

The crazy penguin shook his head and tried to get focused on what he was doing again, but it was pretty hard to concentrate when his doll was watching him every second. He glanced at her occasionally and always found her smiling and looking at him. Smiling. A big smile. Her eyes sparkled at him and she seemed to smile wider by the second.

Rico got freaked out because of the impossible motions made by the doll, but then he noticed that it was probably his imagination. He was about to head out, carrying a pouch filled with stuff that he thought didn’t have a need to go in his stomach, when he heard a voice behind him.

“Rico.” It was sweet. It sounded like a female voice. He enjoyed the light shutters of the sound waves when she said his name. Rico. He turned around and to his surprise, he found a female penguin, about as tall as Skipper, looking up at him and smirking a little bit.

“WHO YOU?” Rico asked. He had never in his life seen her before and his eyes couldn’t help from widening with shock. He looked around and looked back down at her as her beak slowly parted because she was about to speak. She shuffled her feet at finally flipped her bangs out of her face.

“I’m you imaginary friend, Dru.” She answered and she walked over to his doll. Rico had never been so confused in his life before. He didn’t know that there was a possibility for him to ever have an imaginary friend. He had heard of Mort having one, but he didn’t think that Mort could actually see his friend, just like Rico could see the female standing before him.

“Huh?” Rico shook his head and blinked twice, notifying her that he wasn’t at least one bit conscious of what was happening. He ruffled up his Mohawk with his flipper and then looked down again.

“Well, Rico…I’ve been around here for a long time, and I was sent to be your imaginary friend. I am sort of like a conscious, which means that I will be telling your right from wrong and helping you through your journey where you look for you girlfriend.” Dru explained.

“Marlene no girlfriend…”Rico blushed a little and was secretly glad that Dru had thought of them as such good friends that it almost looked like they were going out. Maybe they were…a little.

“Well, what are you waiting for? We have to get your lady back. Um…sorry. Your “friend” back…” Dru picked up Carlotta from where she was sitting at the corner and pulled her along. “I’ve never played with dolls before…maybe I should carry this one just in case…” Dru was secretly excited about having touched her first doll.

“OK.” Rico said and he pulled Dru’s flipper. They both waddled quickly along the paths of the zoo and went to the gate. There was a small hole in the gate that had been made when a little boy go too stubborn and opened it with his bare hands. Skipper said it could be used as an emergency exit. And to him, this was an emergency.

“LOOK! I SEE THEM!” Dru pointed at the blue bus that was parked at the side of the street. Marlene and Richard where sitting at a bus seat, Marlene had her arms crossed with a glare on her face while Richard had his paw around her neck so she wouldn’t escape and the other stroking her cheek. Rico felt the jealousy return again and glared.

Rico jumped out of the gate as Dru watched carefully as he slip towards the bus. Dru tried to do the same, but since she was a female, she had a couple difficulties. Rico saw the bus begin to turn on, the engine churning and the wheels beginning to shake a little bit.

Suddenly, the same wheels began turning. Faster. Faster! And FASTER! Until the bus was completely out of sight and Rico was chasing right behind it. Dru looked at his desperate face, trying to grab on to any loose hook, handle, or rope hanging from the bus, which was impossible to find at the moment.

“Rico, I think we should take another bus, People are beginning to notice your presence.” Dru ran faster and tried to cover Rico. She got closer to him and their sight was aiming towards the red handle at the back of the bus. It was extremely long.

The bright red glitter shone and reflected the most beautiful shade of sunshine. Rico stared at it with muse, continuing to run as he did of course. Dru noticed that he looked pretty worried of being seen…so she got closer to him and tired to hide him. She got too close and accidently tripped Rico even thought she didn’t want to.

Rico fell to his face as the bus drove off and he was smothered in gasoline. He felt his face being stuck to the ground and not being able to get up because the gas was too sticky, or because he was much too weak to get up. Rico pulled and pulled but he looked like chewing gum on the floor. Being ignored and stepped on.

Dru ran to his side and tried to pull him away since the two were at the middle of the street. She then noticed what the problem was. There was a cable that was used for catching rabbits at one time had snapped at Rico. He thought it was stupid that somebody would actually have that set up in the middle of a New York street. Dru pulled his leg off of the tie.

Rico looked up at his new friend and smiled. They heard a honk sounding out loud, their ears bursting into tears. Both Dru and Rico turned around as they continued to sit on the floor. All they saw was an 18 wheeler. And a blur.

Author’s note: Imaginary friends. Great thing huh? I love em. I thought having Rico be so lonely was a little bit sad, so I decided to get him some psycho imaginary friend that freaks him out. Sorry if you didn’t’ like it…LIKE IT? HORAY!