Toadette's Story: Book 1

Chapter 60 - Sibling Rivalry

— SATURDAY: 3 days before the festival —

To my shock, I was the last one to wake up this morning. It was around 10:36, far later than the normal up-and-at-’em time. My eyes had enough crust to make a sandwich.

And my face smelt like feet.

The first thing I did was waltz into the kitchen to add some moisture to my rock-hard tongue. My mom was at the stove. When she heard my heavy footsteps and saw me with my scraggly case of bedhead, she put a hand to her mouth. Cue the snickers.

“We got regular water in here?” I asked, rummaging through the fridge.

“You really haven’t changed. Still refuse to wear pants to sleep?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re not gonna whip out the extension cord for that, right?”

“Well, I’d prefer it if you wore something around your brother. And this little girl you brought here.”

“It’s not new for her, trust me. But whatever.”

Having woken up later than expected, I couldn’t be bothered to make my looks appropriate for going out. I had enough consideration to make sure my breath didn’t stink, but my hair would stay looking sloppy. Granted, if we weren’t going anywhere today, did it really matter? Neither Penelope nor Minh T.—both of whom were filling their stomachs with eggs—seemed to mind.

“This is yummy, Miss Toadette’s Mom, but why isn’t there more?”

“Don’t be rude, Penny,” Minh T. snapped, wolfing down her food.

“Obviously she used the whole carton,” I said, pointing to Minh T. “It’s just that someone can’t help herself.”

“Toadette, you definitely don’t be rude!”

“Penelope’s used to the castle lifestyle.” I rubbed her golden hair. “There, they’ve got all the food in the world. Can’t ever starve there.”

“Don’t remind me, TT. One of those things that never rubbed me right about the princess. How can you have enough food to feed a city within one castle, yet there are so many families like ours? Especially out here.”

I scoffed. “Once you know her, a lot of her thinking makes sense.”

“I assume this girl here is her daughter.”

“No!” Penelope spoke so fast that she started to choke. As I smacked her back to help, she went to her defence. “I’m a girl who loves to impersonate Her Highness, and as such, she has taken me under her wing.”

Mommy chuckled. “Take notes, Minh T. If you wanna tell a lie, do it with confidence.”

“All of y’all are ganging up on me, dang.”

Well, despite being such a bad liar, Minh T.’s ability to keep this whole secret in the dark for so long meant she had some hidden talent. That, or her perverted lust for me was just so strong that she’d move heaven and earth to keep me around.

“Relax, little girl, I gain nothing from being a blabbermouth. Always suspected that Peach had pumped one out, considering someone else has gotta take that throne when she’s gone.”

“She’s royal!?” DT startled me, yelling right next to my head. Where had he come from? “Why wasn’t I told this?”

“What?” I pushed his nose. “Just realising you’re lucky you didn’t leave her in that inferno you caused?”

Despite his heavy breathing, I didn’t feel intimidated by him. Attacking me for being in the right would only be a terrible look. Though he took a while before breaking eye contact with me. His eyes lowered to the rest of my body, then he swiftly turned to get his food. Hmm… Probably about time to change.

The good thing about being close to Minh T.’s size was that most her shirts fit me, just with the tiniest bit of more slack. However, pants were another story, and I couldn’t properly squeeze into any of the things she’d stuffed into my old dressers.

But thanks to her obsession with stuffing bags, I at the very least had some shorts.

I re-entered the kitchen to fill myself up with what little remained, then popped the important question. What exactly was the plan for today? If someone told me to answer that, then we weren’t in for an exciting day.

“We don’t wanna do anything that’ll get us major attention,” Minh T. explained. “Besides, ain’t it meant to rain today? Just stay inside.”

“Not good enough.” DT pushed his way to my side. “We’re going out.”

“Are we now?” I asked.

“I am owed, TT, so yes, we’re leaving as soon as I’m ready.”

Mommy sighed. “DT, remember what we—”

“She’s gonna come back alive, I think.” He smiled. “Either case, I’ll be back here before this thunderstorm or whatever takes place.”

“DT!”

“Fine, we will come back, Mother. Jeez, just tryin’ to lighten the air.” He turned to Minh T. and Penelope. “I’d say I want you both of you to join, but there’s no way you’re keeping up.”

Penelope put her hand up. “I am pretty fast, so I think—”

“Are you TT levels of fast? ‘Cause if you can’t match her, you’re crazy if you think you can go at it with me.”

I raised a brow. “What are you trying to say?”

“Gonna be a long trip.” He began to walk to his room, yawning. “You’d better have some actual kicks and not just those dingy slides.”

“Kicks?” Penelope asked.

“Sneakers.” Minh T. let out a chuckle. “Welp, if he’s doing what I think he’s doing, how are you gonna compete?”

I sipped my water. “I’ll rip a page out of your book, Miss Dirty Soles.”

In the time it took DT to get ready, Penelope and Minh T. played on the balcony. Meanwhile, I warmed up my legs in the living room. I immediately had flashbacks to when we were in the little inn at Dry Dry Outpost, where Daisy thought I was insane for the amount of exercise I’d put in. Just replace her with my mom and add some sweet A/C, and it was the same scene.

It looked like she wanted to be quiet, rightly guessing that we still weren’t the best of terms. But restraint was never her strong suit.

“How’s your condition, TT?”

“What condition?” I was in the middle of doing lunges.

“The hyperhidrosis.” When she didn’t get a quick response, she followed up. “Your sweatiness.”

“Got it somewhat neutered. They managed to reduce most of my sweat areas except for my feet. All my glands seem to prefer directing the extra sweat there.” I turned around. “Why? Does it concern you?”

She looked stunned. “Because I have to make sure you’re fine.”

“I don’t…” Calm down, Toadette. “All my medical stuff is good.”

“You gotten overstimulated lately?”

“Other than dealing with all this, nope. Only thing with that side of me is that I have a special interest stronger than anything in the past now.”

“Explain.”

“No way. Way too personal.”

“At least that’s one thing off my mind,” she sighed. Then she made me jump back as she dashed off the couch towards me. I was trapped in a choking hug. “Anything could’ve happened to you out there. I’m just thankful you didn’t go down the wrong path.”

“Well…”

Her grip softened. “How did you fuck up, TT?”

“Hey!” I slid out her grasp. “I fucked nothing up. It’s just that my current job has me diving headfirst into danger every week. Minh T. and I have been through a lot.”

“That’s hard to believe.” DT had slid up beside us and grabbed my arm. “I love her, but she’s a scaredy-cat.”

“That scaredy-cat is the reason I didn’t get mummified under hot sand.”

“Sure, TT.” He then blurted out that we wouldn’t be gone for too long and started to put his shoes on. As he slipped his socked feet into his sneakers, he kept looking at me.

“Not gonna put your shoes on?”

“Won’t need ‘em.”

“Excuse me?” He froze. “You’re really going out in Mushroom City barefoot. You’re gonna look like a hobo.”

I folded my arms. “If you wanna race me to prove you’re faster, I’d think you’d want us on a more even playing field.”

10 minutes later, we were outside the apartment, walking between the denser surrounding buildings. My soles felt like bacon sizzling on a grill, so much so that the sweat was evaporating into the air. Even if it wasn’t that hot, that alone meant there was a good chance of sour rain. Next to me, DT walked with the benefit of maximum comfort. Any sweat he produced was tightly confined to his sneakers, and the only hair that could contribute to sweating on his face was this small tuft of brown. It was nothing compared to mine.

His eyes were sometimes on the road ahead, sometimes on my feet. I did stick out like a sore thumb compared to the other people who at least wore footwear, so that embarrassment was probably deserved.

“I’m guessing your feet still smell the same years later.”

“Why ask when you can be the judge?”

“Not exactly eager for that, but it can be arranged.” He stepped in front of me. “You already got my race idea figured out, so I’ll cut to the chase. You and I are gonna run all the way to MKH, we’re gonna cool off, and then we’re gonna run back here. The winner in both cases gets to choose the loser’s punishment.”

I cocked my head. “Mushroom Kingdom Hotel is a long way from here.”

“And?”

“Okay… So what do you want?”

“If I beat you for this first round…” He pointed at his shoes. “You’re going to gargle these toes. In public. And if I’m feeling spiteful enough, I’ll even encourage people to record it.”

I gagged. “You can’t be serious.”

“Tell me what you’re gonna do on the off chance that you win.”

“I’ll get the same thing as you. If I win, I’ll shove my foot so far down your throat that your tonsils will be tasting my sole.”

He crossed his arms. “Rude. If they smell just as trashy as they did when I was still a kid, you’re set on giving me one hell of a torture session.”

I nodded. My brother smirked and pointed down the road. The huge hotel stood tall on the horizon.

“No transportation, moron. Just you and your disgusting feet.”

“Whatever practice you’ve had in my absence, it’s not gonna help you out, DT.”

“On your marks. Get set… Go!”

Wait a minute! Maybe I was a bit more familiar with the city now, but I wasn’t familiar enough to know the quickest routes. He had the homefield advantage, the little bastard!

I ran as fast as my feet could carry me, picking up all sorts of city gunk along the way. Even if I wasn’t using transportation, I was jumping over cars just to avoid the crowded sidewalks. Not enough for you? I was alternating between landing on the ball of my foot and landing on my toes way too often, all because of the damn heat. If my sole cooled down, my toes would be on fire. When my sole was hot and crispy, my toes were ready to go back on the grill.

The less said about the state of my soles, the better. In terms of flavour, though, I knew they matched how salty my attitude was.

“I could’ve run to the top floor of this building and back in the time it took you to get here.” DT leaned against a pillar outside the hotel, barely breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, here I was, armpits stinking, knees wobbling, ready to collapse. “30 minutes spent waiting, by the way.”

“And we started over an hour ago…” I grabbed my chest. “You didn’t win because of speed. You’ve just got the area and all its shortcuts memorised.”

“Please, you just got softer with time. Not surprised.” He stretched his neck before yanking my arm. “Just because you look pathetic now, I’ll keep my prize out of sight.”

I thought I was nervous, scanning everyone’s face to ensure they weren’t staring at us or where we were going. But DT, he took it to another level. The moment he spotted someone giving any sort of glare, his posture immediately loosened up, as if he was just a wandering kid. Given that it was Saturday, and there was no school this week anyway, he didn’t look suspicious. Then once those prying eyes took us out of their focus, he’d speedwalk to our destination: behind a small grocery store two blocks away from MKH.

It was cute on the one hand, but with a black band wrapped around his cap, there was no way he lowered any suspicion. How the Scapellis trusted him with deliveries when he chose to stand out was beyond me.

Once behind the building, he sat and let his heels hit the asphalt.

“What are you waiting for?”

“I don’t think you understand how embarrassing this is for me.”

“More like I don’t care.” With his shoes and socks off, DT pressed his right foot against my face.

It didn’t take long for my cheek to get wetter than it already was. As soon as his foot made contact, it was as if all the sweat left and I absorbed it. Now this was gross, and that was ignoring the fact that he was my own flesh and blood. I couldn’t remember the last time I had someone’s foot this sweaty against my face. Dirty? Sure. But not with this intense of moisture, so intense that it was like overly greasy food.

The whole time, there was an anger-inducing smile on DT’s face. I just wanted to grab it, rip it off and flip it upside down.

“Lick it, stupid.” He pushed it deeper into my face. The lack of respect he was showing me… He was gonna get his soon. But for now…

I closed my eyes and ran my tongue along his foot. As had become normal for me, it wasn’t until the second lick that the flavour really kicked in.

Did I taste like this? Like overly salted chicken? Well, that was just one of the thousand ways I could describe DT’s foot.

As I darted my tongue around his heel, lapping up the sweat, the only positive I could give was that his feet weren’t grimy. If there was anything that’d make my stomach queasy, it was tons of smelly sock lint or that combination of words I dare not say. DT’s foot was simply sweaty with maybe two specks. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was smooth, too, considering his use of socks. However, the more I licked and breathed in his smell, the more questions popped into my mind.

“With how Minh T. has been here, I’d have expected her to teach you a thing or two about foot hygiene.”

“Seriously? The one who’s always walking through the house with dirty feet? Why’d she teach me anything about it?”

“Because…” Wait. He just reaffirmed to me that he was clueless about her foot fetish. “If nothing else, she’s great at doing nails.”

“Well, she got me to use lotion and cut my nails more. About it.”

“Then how come I can’t smell a hint of lotion?”

He smirked. “Because I had no plans of giving you a remotely good time.”

No matter how much I wanted to bop him on his mouth, patience was important. It hurt, but there had to come a light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t leave Mushroom City with him still despising me as he did in this moment. I refused to.

And with his left foot now in my face, he started to have more fun toying with me.

I groaned as both feet smudged my lenses, causing him to laugh. DT then grabbed me by the collar and pulled me towards him and his feet. One by one, his toes slid into my mouth. I wish it stopped at one foot, but once a sixth toe entered, my eyes widened. Now I was looking right into his eyes, watching in humiliation as he took delight in stretching my mouth to its limits. Obviously it wasn’t enough just to shove his gross feet in my mouth. He had to spread his toes as wide as he could.

“You’re pathetic,” he spat, now tugging on my braids. “How’s Peachy expecting you to babysit her daughter when you’re crying just sucking on your little brother’s toes!?”

When he yanked on me, all ten of his toes were fully lost in my mouth. I tried to let out some scream of discomfort, but it disappeared among the sounds of slobbery digits wiggling against my tongue. Blech, there was enough salt to dry me out.

Giggling, DT proceeded to thrust his feet back and forth in my mouth. “Like getting fucked by my feet, bitch?”

After this, he was gonna learn to quit spitting profanities at the girl who gave him nothing but love for most her life. It took two minutes before he finally showed my mouth mercy.

“Ew!” I wiped my tongue and spat. “If I taste like that, now I get what I put people through.”

“People?”

“And since you were so sweet to put me through that kind of torture, I’ll return the favour tenfold.”

He clenched his fists. “Like hell I’m giving you that chance.”

“DT, I’m always gonna know more about you than the other way around, and you’re about to learn that the hard way.” As I stretched my legs, I thought of how we were trapped in the shaft in Piranha Plant Slide. Between the three of us struggling to survive the Putrid Piranhas’ attack, which one of us needed an item to swim?

My plan was crazy, and to be honest, I was crazy to think it’d work. But in this environment, he had me beaten on the ground.

“Let’s go, little bro,” I teased, swaying my hips. “Get ready to suck TT’s juicy big toe.”

“Boy, I’d be a lot happier if I were as delusional as you.” He pointed in the direction of the apartment. “How about I be nice and give you a head start? Gotta make this a little interesting for myself.”

“You can make this as hard as you want for me.”

“In that case…” And he was off, not even warming up before taking the sprint. “Fuck you, TT!”

Aw, look at the little cutie running back into the dense streets. Hope he had a tissue on hand.

Instead of following his route, I made a beeline to the edge of the city. Running barefoot still gave me an advantage over running in slides, and I still had tricks up my sleeve. DT may have known Mushroom City’s shortcuts, but I knew general techniques. For example, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Therefore, I still went in the direction of the apartment, just angled in a way that’d eventually get me to the ocean.

As the hot dirt stuck to my feet, part of me wondered if the water would cause it to disappear. After all, I’d want a truly gruelling meal for DT to feast on.

Under twenty minutes, I was staring into the deep blue sea.

I took a deep breath before diving into the water like a professional. Despite being more agile at running, I had a lesser-used talent. Not only was I able to swim sharply, as shown with how snappy I was in dodging the plants’ attacks, but if I really focused, I could swim as fast as I ran on land. The only issue was a matter of getting too tired, as if that happened… What happens when one can’t swim and is stranded in the ocean?

But if I darted along the edge of Mushroom City, then I’d always have somewhere to jump to. So long as the city didn’t get too high.

And so I kicked and kicked, splashing my way from the southern tip to the northern tip. What luck that I wasn’t wearing heavy clothes nor shoes, as I felt like an angel on the top of the water. Mmm-hmm, I stayed above the surface. Even if my body temperature got uncomfortable due to the clouds beginning to obscure the Sun, being on the surface of the water meant I could use my full power. No extra force to fight against.

“Come on, come on,” I mumbled under my breath. “Uh-oh!”

Through my wet and smudged lenses, I spotted something yellow and large heading my way. Just under it was a bit of red. A Big Cheep Cheep! And with the way it was opening its mouth and gunning it for me, this wasn’t one of the civil ones.

I darted out its way, gasping.

“Oh my— Why!?” One Big Cheep Cheep was enough. I didn’t need a whole school of them in front of me. “You guys have wings, just fly!”

I dove under the water, as deep as I could to avoid receiving tons of unwelcome fish smooches. I initially continued swimming, stuck navigating blindly in one direction. But it didn’t take long before I stopped and held still. The more I worked underwater, the less breath I’d have to conserve. Damn it. I’d just have to hold this position until I felt the water calm.

I finally shot to the surface half a minute later, coughing. Those few seconds could make the difference between me winning or losing this game.

But now a new problem struck me. The city had begun to elevate. Welp, back to some on-foot action.

Once deep in the water, I rocketed high into the air, just high enough to grab onto the fencing that protected people from falling. I scrambled up it like a monkey, collapsing on my butt once back inside the city. Now, dripping wet, I made a sprint to the apartment.

Mushroom City’s density had slightly lightened now that the rainstorm was clearly on its way. But if it was an advantage for me, then it was also an advantage for DT.

And since my clothes were heavier and I was colder, running got that much more unpleasant.

I didn’t stop for one second, treating this like a marathon. While passing the samey buildings and various cars, I just imagined I was back in school, running to show off to all my peers just how much faster I was than them. But more than speed, my stamina was important in ensuring I didn’t black out. And knowing the nasty fate that awaited me if I lost, my legs carried me until they could carry me no more.

I rolled onto my back, panting and coughing as I shivered from the mild wind.

“What in the—?” DT looked at me dumbfounded. “Did you go through someone’s pool?”

“Minh T. really should’ve taught you a thing or two about swimming…” I wiped my forehead, feeling dizzy from seeing how tall the apartment was. “Oh fuck…”

And I threw up on the sidewalk.

“We didn’t agree to you swimming here, TT!”

“You said no transportation. Is the ocean transportation?” I laughed, pulling myself up. “Besides, the ocean only helped me get a slight boost on you. I still ran the rest of the way. And that’s after you got a head start. Who’s the loser now?”

DT tried to come up with every excuse in the book, but I shot them all down. The fact was that I won, and a certain little somebody had to lick his big sister’s feet.

And as DT realised that, I could see him go green in the face.

Unlike his feet, mine were the true definition of dirty. There were rings of dirt from my heels to my toes, drawing out the patterns of my feet. Add on the fact that they were wet, and now it was almost like a light muddy dirt. On top of that, my feet were sweaty from the effort I put into sprinting here. And finally, as the disgusting cherry on top, my feet were gonna be so salty that I’d have to be careful with how much he licked. Ocean water, road grit, mmm… Just dries your tongue out hearing that, huh?

He stared at my feet with a look of shame and humiliation. Grinning, I snapped my fingers.

“Lick them.”

“I’ll lick one.”

“Um, no you won’t. If I had to lick both of yours—”

“Mine aren’t nearly as nasty as those things, TT. There’s no way in hell I’m gonna—” He stiffened up once I grabbed him by his neck.

“One, watch your mouth around me. Two, we had a deal. Now pay up.”

“But…” The boy sighed, dropping to his knees. “You’re real messed up.”

“Look, we’ve got that in common.” I spun around, lifting my right foot for him.

With reluctance in his voice, he groaned and took a lick from my toes to my heel. I immediately burst out in giggles, feeling a large chunk of dust disappear from my sole. I could hear DT spit it out, but I allowed it. As satisfying as it would be to hear him gargle my grime in his mouth, I wasn’t trying to make the boy sick now.

And, you know, whereas he groaned, I let out a satisfied moan. Having his little tongue run across the ball of my foot was soothing. This was especially true with how cold it was otherwise. DT’s lips also pressed against my foot. As he licked, the sounds got squeakier and slimier.

“Ew… It smells just as bad as it did before!”

“Mmm… I’ve kinda grown to embrace that.”

“Gross! Even mine don’t get that bad!”

“Shut up and lick the stink off if you’re so bothered.” I pushed my heel against his mouth. Maybe then he could suck the sweat and grime right off of it. “I’ve done so many crazy things that any scenario is stressful enough to make my feet sweaty. You eventually stop getting embarrassed and get used to it.”

His tongue tickled the back of my heel before he licked down the sole six times. He took a long time licking it, too. I was certain he wanted to make sure he didn’t miss a single spot. Hehe, he was probably terrified that I’d pin him down and force him to clean them to perfection. That wasn’t even an idea in my mind, but if he thought so, that just meant even more satisfying licking for me. Oh yeah… Especially that area around my toes—that was feeling really relaxing.

Now he slid his tongue between my second and third toes. I felt him flinch.

“Too salty?”

“Shut up.” He continued licking all on and around the toes, particularly focusing on the pinkie. What a baby, going for the smallest toes because he was too scared to tangle with the big one. He spent a good two minutes tongue-flossing those little toes, and only when I curled my juiciest one did DT lick it. There were little whimpers as he licked the tip of my toe.

I couldn’t help but continue to tease him. “You still think I have pretty feet?”

“No, I take back whatever compliment I gave you.”

“You said I had cute nails.”

“Yeah, and they stink like cheese, so they’re miles from being cute now.”

I pouted. “Well excuse me…”

As I felt him lick my sole, I had to let out another laugh. That water had made my feet much wrinklier, and so the texture must’ve been even more uncomfortable for him. But boy, it made me imagine someone attractive getting down and licking my foot like this.

The left foot didn’t change things for DT. I got more aggressive with this foot, pinching his tongue between my salty digits. For twenty seconds, he had to sit and watch as my cool sweat dripped onto his taste buds. And then he had to lick hard between my toes. I mean, super hard. So hard that I was curling my toes hard enough to crush something.

I still maintained my big sister responsibilities. If I saw that someone was approaching or leaving the apartment, I snapped my fingers for him to stop. Even if there were cameras looking, it should’ve been pretty obvious that we were playing a game.

“Heh. Yeah, lick that heel…” I looked back at the boy.

My eyes could’ve fallen out at that moment. DT was still licking my feet, but things went from satisfying to creepy in that second.

Why were his hands on his crotch? He had to be covering up an erection, but… He didn’t seem like he enjoyed this at all, especially as he complained about the “crunchy bits” on my heel. But if I made my brother hard, then…

I had him continue for one more minute before the discomfort took over.

“About time,” he said, still positioning his hands in front of his pants as he rose. “Gross…”

“At least my feet are a lot cleaner,” I chuckled, avoiding eye contact with him.

“TT, you’re not slick.”

“What?”

He sighed. “Yeah, I got a boner from you. If you ever read a book, you’d know we don’t really control that. So please do me a favour and don’t make me feel like shi… crap about it.”

“Oh.” I looked at my soaked feet. “I mean, I know you don’t control it. But—”

“If you think I wanted to do that to anyone’s feet, let alone yours, you’re insane.”

I shrugged. “Good. So I don’t gotta worry about you trying to suck my toes again when I sleep.”

“Again?”

“Mmm-hmm. Did it when you were a toddler. Before I suddenly became the scary stink-foot girl in your life.”

“If I could slap my youngest self and warn him, I’d do it. I could’ve grown up nose-blind with the way you’d just cover my face at times.”

“Your reactions were just too funny not to do that.”

He was finally smiling, if just slightly. “Had more fun seeing Minh T. scare the absolute piss out of you with her feet.”

I froze. “Oh yeah…”

“And I thought your feet were scary. No, whenever she had hers near your face, it was like you were looking into the eyes of death,” he chuckled. “The bottoms of her feet are still pretty nasty, so there are probably still days where she’s killing you, huh?”

“Um… Maybe.”

DT grabbed my arm. “Get inside. The last thing we need for you is to get wetter and sick again. Mom would kill me if you got sick because of my idea.”

Little did he know how wet and sick I truly was.

***

How my mom managed to listen to him talk to her nonstop for so long puzzled me. DT practically relayed every detail of his run to her, along with how I “technically” cheated by using the water. The only parts he didn’t include were the ones involving us licking each other’s feet, although given how both of our faces should’ve smelt, it probably wouldn’t take her much time to put two and two together.

After cleaning myself up, I returned to the living room, where Penelope was, well, being Penelope. She was touching things she shouldn’t have been touching, such as the giant family album.

“You look so much better with the pink hair,” she said, flipping through pages. “This red just made you look like most other girl Toads.”

“Thank you.” I plopped on the couch.

“But how do you keep dyeing it pink? Doesn’t it get tiring?”

I shook my head. “It’s not really dye, Penelope.” When she got closer, I knew she wanted to know more. “It was a surgery. Had my whole cap and hair changed on a DNA level. You humans can’t do that, and you should never do that. It’s like if all of your teeth were wisdom teeth, and you got all of them yanked out.”

“Meaning…?”

“Toadette cried for weeks.” Minh T. rubbed a hand on my back. “Some people just gotta learn the hard way.”

“Guess that’s another thing that runs in the family,” I said, looking at DT. He sat on the ground between me and Minh T.

While Penelope continued to look through the album, making various comments about each of us who appeared in the photos, my brother just sat in silence. He could’ve just been tired, so I didn’t encourage him to say anything. However, Minh T. didn’t sit still. She pushed her visibly filthy toes against his cap.

“You haven’t said a single word to me since you got back.”

“Please don’t touch me like that.” He flicked her foot away. “Happy?”

“Wouldn’t recommend you sit there, considering…” She pointed to my feet. “Even after a shower, if you guys ran through the whole city, soap isn’t gonna get all that out.”

“Can’t smell anything now,” he said, leaning his head back.

“You sure?” I wanted to ask Minh T. what she was doing, but she continued. “Maybe give ‘em a whiff to make sure they’re fresh.”

In an act that startled me, DT grabbed my foot and brought it to his nose. He took a big sniff, then dropped it, letting it dangle as I covered my mouth.

“They’re nothing. For once.”

I shuddered. “Yeah, maybe wash your own feet before making a scene out of mine.”

“Don’t gotta when the stink ain’t bothering nobody.”

“Actually, I think I can smell your feet, Minh T.” He covered his nose. “Why do they smell like they’re on fire?”

Me and Minh T. looked at each other confused. But suddenly, yeah, I smelt that too. And looking on the floor, Penelope also had a baffled expression. Then we all looked up to see nothing but grey.

BOOM!

What the hell was that!? Our heads turned towards the kitchen, and all we saw was darkness.

“Mom?” DT got on his feet, yelling again. “You okay!?”

“I’ll need some assistance in here!”