Beneath Their Masks: Half-Baked

“Thank you for your cooperation, class. Remember, these review packets need to be done by class Wednesday. You can use the next five minutes to talk amongst yourselves but I ask you don’t leave your desks, please.”

Chii let out a sigh and turned around to face the fox sitting behind her, concerned for their wellbeing. She knew they weren’t doing so well earlier, after all, but she felt a little relieved when she noticed Mangle didn’t look too distraught. “Are you alright?” she asked softly anyway, wanting to hear it for herself.

“Yeah,” Mangle told her with a slightly-strained grin, leaning back in their seat. Chii quickly realized what they were doing and she knew it wouldn’t work. “I don’t like that I can’t see the others, though.”

Same, Chii thought miserably, but she didn’t want to make things worse so she said, “Look on the bright side, you don’t have to see them either.” She tried not to wince at her unintended joke. Mangle didn’t seem bothered by it- in fact, they seemed more amused than annoyed.

“True,” Mangle grinned, this time a real genuine grin, and leaned closer to Chii. She resisted her initial instinct to lean back. For Pete’s sake, Chii, this is Mangle, not Charlie. “One of the perks of being me~” the fox continued, thankfully unaware of Chii’s sudden discomfort. “What about you, though?”

“I wish I wasn’t separated from the others,” she sighed, using that moment to lean on her desk, putting just a bit more space between them. She knew it wasn’t Mangle’s fault; they didn’t exactly have the best depth perception, all things considered, and probably hadn’t even realized how close they had gotten to her.

Chii watched Mangle’s ears twitch and they bit their lower lip. She knew that meant they were trying to keep from making some kind of comment. Instead of a smart comment to whatever they overheard, the fox said, “I know. It really sucks, yeah?”

“Totally,” she agreed without hesitance. “This class won’t end soon enough.” Of course it won’t, there’s a hundred and eighty days in a school year… and then there’s all of the outside-of-class meetings we’ll have to do. This sucks…

“Well, at least it’s only fifty minutes long,” Mangle mentioned, raising a brow at Chii. “If we had fourth period with them then that would not be fun.”

“Oh god please no,” Chii immediately giggled, unable to help herself. She could not imagine the Fazcrew of all people being in drawing, at least not for their longer elective period. “I can handle fifty minutes but eighty?”

“Exactly,” Mangle nodded, leaning back in their seat finally.

When Mangle was no longer in threat of getting in her personal space, Chii stretched her arms out in front of her, sighing silently to herself as the tenseness left her shoulders, and then she glanced over towards the others.

She found it off-putting that Henderson and the Fazbears were just watching her friends, but she was satisfied to see that Blu was laughing with Spring and Alfred at the moment. It was a relief to her, as she remembered that freaked-out expression on his face just forty or so minutes earlier.

“Spring seems to have cheered Blu up,” she noted aloud. It was meant to be a private thought but it slipped out before she could stop it. She turned back to Mangle to see their confused expression.

“Cheered Blu up?” they questioned, worry in their voice. “Was something wrong?”

“I’ll tell you about it later,” Chii promised. This isn’t the place to talk about those things. “But he didn’t look or sound too good earlier when I looked over.” She added, almost as an afterthought, “I’m surprised you didn’t hear him.”

“I was probably too busy with the jackass our dear teacher partnered me with,” Mangle groused, shooting a glare towards the teacher in question’s desk.

Chii sighed softly. “Well nothing we can do about it. All we can do it deal with it.” Not that she wanted to, but what choice did they have? Dr. Schmidt had already said he would not switch out partners.

The bell rang but neither Chii nor Mangle stood up, allowing their lab partners to stand up first.

“Unfortunately,” Mangle agreed once the bell tapered off. They then closed their right eye and stuck their tongue out at Chii, as if absolutely disgusted, and the chicken couldn’t help but start giggling. Mangle grinned and opened both eyes again before saying, “Time to put on a show~”

Chii raised a brow and watched, amused, as Mangle hopped up from their seat and hitched their bag up on their shoulder. As the fox walked around her desk, Chii stood up and picked her own bags up before joining her friends. Mangle’s arms by this time were looped around Blu’s shoulders, a woe-is-me expression in place. She giggled.

“Please tell me we have something to look forward to!” the fox was saying overdramatically as Chii approached them. Chii noticed Spring smile as he stood up, saying, “Well, it’s lunch time and then we have art with Mr. Smith.”

Immediately Chii let out a “Yay!” and bounced on the heels of her feet. She had always liked Mr. Smith; he was silly and, for some reason she wasn’t really sure about, let them take his class every year. Any other teacher would have said no, but not Mr. Smith.

Of course, Chii had a feeling Mr. Smith was suspicious about them and taking his class every year was only allowing him to find more evidence, but that was beside the point.

Choosing instead to concentrate on the moment, she hitched her bags up higher and said, “Come on, let’s go claim our table before some freshmen get it. I made lunch for all of us.”

However, another thought entered her mind. She glanced around the room; it was completely empty, even Dr. Schmidt was gone. She wasn’t sure how long he would be, most teachers stayed in their classrooms all day. From the hallway, loud voices and footsteps drowned out any words that could possibly carry through its corridor.

Now was as good as any time to speak up during school hours.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked, looking at them. Clearly they had already caught onto the atmosphere change, as all of them were watching her without any smiles. She watched as Blu glanced around the room as well. When he spoke, his voice was low… just in case.

“I think I may have really fucked up already.”

Oh dear. She already knew what he was talking about; Henderson was watching him when he nearly had his “episode,” after all.

“Why?” Alfred asked, his tone conveying all of the words he couldn’t find. Are you all right? What happened? Do you need help? It made Chii’s heart hurt as she thought about how they alone were the only ones who would offer Blu this help and comfort.

Well, there was… one exception… but that person didn’t even know what was going on. They were a complete stranger, an outsider. Blu would never accept their help, even if it was offered, and they wouldn’t offer their help unless Blu was alone.

And Blu was never alone, not at school.

Realizing Blu was struggling to find what to say, Chii spoke up, voice gentle. “You looked like you almost had an episode.” When they all turned their attention to her, she explained, “I heard you kinda… at the, uh, future plans question.” She then added, “I looked over at you and you looked pretty bad, Blu.”

“Oh…” Blu smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, uh, Henderson said something that made me think about last night…”

Chii exchanged a worried glance with all of her friends. Flashbacks in the middle of class were… not good, to say the least. The chicken watched as Mangle dropped their arms and stepped around the rabbit, turning to face him.

“It’s no big deal, though,” Blu suddenly said, a bit insistently. “It was a… really big slip-up but it doesn’t exactly say what happened. It’s not like he saw the bandages or something,” he added with a laugh. “For all he knows anything could have triggered it, so, uh, yeah… What about you guys? Everything okay?” It was a diversion, but Chii knew they’d go along with it. Blu would tell them more if he deemed it important enough.

Besides, they needed to get to lunch soon. Dr. Schmidt would be returning shortly.

“Yeah,” Spring answered with a nod. “I didn’t have a panic attack so that’s something.” He turned his gaze to the bear of their group. “Al?”

The bear shrugged and started towards the door. “I guess,” he said, and Chii exchanged a glance with the others as they followed. He needs time to gather his thoughts.

As they walked down the hallway and to the cafeteria, they all turned their attention to Mangle. The fox shrugged. “I zoned out a couple times. But I wouldn’t count that as a fuck up, really.”

The fox was always daydreaming and zoning out, especially when they were in a situation that made them upset. “Nothing wrong with being a dreamer,” Chii hummed softly as she sat down. Blu and Mangle walked around the table, and the fox dropped down in the seat by the wall while Blu sat on their left, right in front of Chii. Alfred sat on her left and Spring sat on her right. “I didn’t even speak to Sanchez so I’m perfectly fine.”

Blu then asked, “So, all in all, horrible day?”

“Absolutely,” Chii chorused with Mangle and Spring, almost giggling as she began passing out the food. Mangle then tacked on, “Should’ve known the moment you lost your balance this morning that it would be.”

Blu smiled sheepishly as he accepted the offered fruit salad, saying “Yeah, sorry.” There was absolutely no reason for him to apologize, but Chii decided not to say as much. All of them knew it.

Besides, it was instinctive for the little blue rabbit to say “sorry” even when he wasn’t at fault.

The rabbit smiled at the sight of the strawberries and it actually saddened Chii to know that something as simple as strawberries in a fruit salad could make Blu so happy. It was something so simple and so expected, and yet he still perked up at the sight of them.

She decided to go ahead and pass out the cake. Blu, and the others as well, could really use the pick-me-up. “Hurry up and eat so there’s time for dessert, boys and Mangle~” Chii sang, getting their attention as the pulled the strawberry-topped cake slices out.

They all smiled at her as Blu cheered. “Awesome! Thanks, Chii, you’re the best.”

She wasn’t surprised that they had quickly determined that she had been the one to bake the cake. She never gave store-bought cake to her friends, after all, and her mother and step-father didn’t exactly bake. Or cook.

Or clean. But that was a completely different story.

“Aw,” she giggled, “my grandmother could have done so much better.” It wasn’t simply her being modest; it was true, at least in Chii’s mind. Her grandmother had been the one to teach her everything she knew.

She really missed her.

Choosing to focus on something else, she turned to Spring with a small, teasing grin. “Sorry, Spring, I would’ve gotten you chocolate cake but we don’t have any right now.”

Spring laughed at her little prod at his love for chocolate, but he didn’t miss a beat as he turned his gaze to Blu and said, “That’s fine. Chocolate might be far superior but this is good too~”

The shorter rabbit played right along, pointing his fork mock-threateningly at Spring. “Now wait just a moment there, goldy-bun, ain’t nothin’ superior to strawberry!”

Chii giggled and shared a look with Alfred. “I beg to differ,” she said as she sat back down, satisfied that everyone had their lunch and dessert. “There is something superior to strawberries.”

“Chocolate is not it though,” Mangle added with a snort. “Not even close~”

The chicken watched as Spring pointed overdramatically towards Mangle and cried in mock betrayal, “Treason!” None of them could be bothered to care that the word echoed around the cafeteria and earned them strange looks as they all burst out laughing. Any tense air that had remained slid away easily, each of them concentrating on the feeling of this moment.

They all looked so young, so happy and so alive. Any outsider looking in would see three strange, but happy, teens just enjoying their time together. They would never see what was underneath.

Chii did, though. She saw the way Blu gripped his side, the way Mangle’s hand pressed against their chest. She saw the way Alfred tried to muffle his own laughter, as though allowing himself to laugh would bring trouble. She saw the way Spring’s ear drooped down to hide his face from sight, the way he covered his mouth as he laughed- not to muffle his laughter but just trying to hide.

She even noticed it with herself, the way she leaned forward on the table rather than on her friends. The way she tucked her feet under her seat and dropped her head, hiding her own expression from sight as she laughed.

They were laughing and they were happy and Chii couldn’t stop herself, even as she saw the pain the laughing fit caused her friends. None of them could stop- because it was nice. It was nice to feel happy, to feel somewhat normal, to feel like the teens they were supposed to be.

At least for the moment, she focused on the outside view.

She focused on the happiness.

The happy, light feeling lasted up until the Fazcrew walked into the art studio.

Chii had claimed a seat at the table, watching the boys and Mangle play in amusement.

Well- the rabbits and Mangle were playing. Alfred was standing close by, keeping an eye on the rabbit spinning around on the swivel chair propelled by Spring and Mangle. The three mischief makers were laughing, which, Chii knew, was the only reason Alfred wasn’t stepping in to put an end to the admittedly dangerous source of fun.

Chii distantly wondered why Mr. Smith didn’t, but she chose not to dwell on it. Mr. Smith had always allowed them to get away with a lot of things. They had their suspicions about him, though.

Or maybe he just found it amusing as well. Who knows.

The carefree moment ended when a voice from the doorway whined, “Oh god dammit.” Immediately, her friends’ laughter cut off. Her gaze snapped to the door, where the Fazcrew were watching them with frowns. She frowned right back.

Then Blu laughed, saying, “Sorry, Al!” She looked back and saw Blu had fallen off of the swivel stool. Alfred had, thankfully, caught him before he could hit the ground. “Can you put me down now? Don’t drop me!” Alfred then proceeded to drop Blu the remaining foot to the ground, a mischievous smirk on his face, and Chii giggled as Blu laughed and said, “You’re such a jerk, Al.”

Alfred helped Blu up to his feet and Chii frowned as Blu’s shirt got caught on his bandage. She could just barely see a tint of red against the white of his bandage.

“Shirt,” Alfred warned softly. Blu, quickly realizing what was wrong, tugged his shirt back down. With a thanks towards Alfred, he headed towards Chii and dropped down on her right side.

The others joined them, Alfred on her left, Spring on Blu’s right, and Mangle between Spring and the window. The fun was over.

Mangle, however, decided that they didn’t want to give up the careless air- not just yet. “So,” they started, catching Chii and the others’ attention. “I think we should do something this weekend.”

“We do something every weekend, Mangle,” Spring pointed out with a short laugh. It was true, Chii could not remember one weekend where she did not interact with her friends in some way.

Actually... there was…  one weekend. But they never spoke about that entire week. They knew it happened… they all acknowledged it… but they never talked about it, not even when Spring wasn’t with them.

It was an unspoken agreement. They didn’t talk about that November.

“I think they mean something outside the house, Spring,” Blu snorted, bringing Chii back to the moment. “What’d you have in mind, Mangle?”

Mangle grinned and leaned forward as if they were about to share with them the secrets to the universe. However, the words that fell from their mouth was simply, “War by the water.”

Almost immediately Chii began giggling as Blu asked mischievously, “Didn’t someone nearly fall in the lake last time we did that?” Chii could see the light blush showing through Spring’s fur as the memory flashed across all of their minds; him slipping and almost falling into the water, Alfred catching him and helping him regain his balance…

And then Alfred shooting him in the face and running off, leaving a startled, soaked rabbit to register what the hell just happened.

“Well, it’s got my vote~!” Blu declared and Chii giggled more.

“Same,” she put in as Alfred simply nodded in agreement. Mangle grinned; even if Spring disagreed, they had a majority vote.

“I can’t tell if you just want to see me fall in the lake this time or not,” Spring snorted, looking at all of them with a slight smile. “A day at the lake sounds fun, yeah. We could definitely use a little vacation.”

A little vacation. She smiled at the words. She knew that was his way of saying we all need to get out of the house.

However, her smile was short lived as, suddenly, the air around them changed. Spring glanced around and gestured them all to get closer.

Private conversation.

None of them hesitated to scoot their chairs as close together as they could and Chii leaned against Blu’s back, poking her head over his shoulder in order to see and hear. She did her best not to tense up and was more than a little grateful when Alfred leaned on the table, looking around her, rather than leaning against her.

Once all of them were as close as they could be, Spring quietly asked, “What’ll be the excuses this time, though?”

It was a valid question. None of their parents, barring Spring’s very-absent parents, would just let any of them hang out with friends. There had to be a reason. “Research project?” she suggested somewhat nervously, running her fingers through the feathers on her arm. “Tell them we have a project that’ll take all of Saturday?”

“Why not Sunday, too?” Spring added in, glancing around at all of them. “Make it an overnight thing. We could camp out in my back yard if it’s not raining.”

It did sound nice. She knew what he was really offering, though; a weekend free of their parents and the fear that came with them. He always made the offer, but it was rarely accepted; their parents were fools, but they weren’t idiots. They would figure out something was up if it happened too often.

“Um,” Blu started, raising his hand. Chii shifted slightly to look at him. “My folks have been trying to get me to drop out of school, I highly doubt they’ll care about me having a research project.”

It was true. Chii frowned and glanced at the ceiling. Blu’s parents were pushing him to drop out since the moment they started high school. Hell, they even tried to keep him from going to high school.

“Sneak,” Alfred spoke up, prompting Chii to lean back so Blu could turn to look at him. “Don’t need to know.”

Chii glanced down, remembering the panicked phonecall from Spring the last time Blu had been caught sneaking out. That was definitely not fun. She dashed out of the house in the middle of breakfast and ran the entire way to the hospital.

Her parents were not pleased.

Evidently the memory was going through Blu’s mind as well as he asked, “And if they come in at midnight to find me gone?”

This time, Mangle snorted and said much too loudly for Chii’s taste, “They’ll be too drunk to even remember the next morning.” Chii and the others looked at Mangle, somewhat alarmed as the fox’s voice carried around the room. Thankfully, Mangle realized their mistake and dropped their voice. “It might work for my parents, and even if it doesn’t it’s not like they even know where Spring’s house is.”

That was true as well. None of them told their parents they just so happened to be friends with someone who lived in a mansion on Lakeview.

“We can’t keep using the same old excuses, Blu, they’ll only work for so long,” Mangle added towards the blue rabbit.

“Well, they only need to work for eight or nine more months,” Spring said with a sigh, “Then we’re out of this hellhole and off to freedom.”

Freedom. That word rang around in Chii’s mind and she smiled softly. The thought of being free… well… it felt like a dream. After more than ten years of fear, danger, unwanted attention, and worries that things would get out of hand… We’re almost out of here.

Then Mangle took in a breath, catching Chii’s attention. The fox wore a strange, worried expression as they started saying, “I’m not sure if my parents have, uh, plans for us this weekend, but-”

They never got to finish their sentence. “Guys, shut up!” Blu hissed, cutting Mangle off and startling all of them. They all looked at Blu in shock; he wasn’t one to interrupt others, so Chii knew something must have happened.

“Blu?” Spring questioned. Blu didn’t respond verbally, but Chii saw Spring’s gaze flick towards the front of the room. Subtly, she followed the gaze.

Red eyes watched them, unimpressed and with a raised brow.

Their private conversation wasn’t so private after all.

How long has he been listening to us?! She turned her eyes back to the rabbits, who were now whispering to one another. She couldn’t quite make out the words.

Then Spring straightened up before leaning on his hand, stretching out his fingers as he did so. It was a signal. Look natural. The four straightened up as well, leaning back in their seats in an attempt to look casual. “So, war by the water Saturday? And then camping in the back yard if weather permits?” Spring questioned, as though clarifying their plans.

“Throw in a picnic and a jam session and I agree,” Blu declared and they all laughed, though it wasn’t as carefree as it should have been. Mangle leaned forward, around Spring, and carefully reached out towards Blu, their hand landing on his shoulder.

“Oh, Blu,” they sighed dramatically, “haven’t you realized by now we will always jam?”

Chii giggled softly, happy for the distraction. However, none of them could respond as the bell rang, signalling the start of class.

“I think class is about to start,” Blu stated matter-of-factly and she laughed softly. You think? She turned to the front of the classroom where a human with bright red hair stood, hands on his hips as he surveyed the class.

She smiled as he began his introduction. She already knew everything he was about to say, after all.

“Everyone quiet down now! Up front, all eyes please, so we can get this over and done with and get started on having fun. Alright then, everyone settled? Good. I’m Fritz Smith and this is art…”

“Mangle, your tail is in my lap.”

“You’re welcome~”

“Mangle!”

Chii looked over her shoulder towards her friends in the backseat, giggling as she watched Mangle flick their tail up into Alfred’s face. On Alfred’s other side, Blu laughed as the bear batted at the fluffy white-and-pink tail.

“Are you three acting like children again?” Spring mock-admonished and she glanced up at him, watching his eyes flick momentarily up to the rearview mirror. They were sitting at a red light at the moment, so she wasn’t concerned about his eyes being off the road.

“Mangle is, I’m not,” Alfred stated, mock-offense seeping into his tone. Chii smiled and turned her gaze to the window.

There was a schoolbus next to them. The number on the side was peeling, but she recognized it as 1012. If it weren’t for Spring, they would probably be on a bus just like it. In fact, up until Spring got his license (at only sixteen, too- lucky!) they had been trapped either walking or riding the bus.

Needless to say, they chose to walk more often than ride.

The bus was full of middle schoolers, she could see before the light turned green and Spring took a left turn onto Lakeview Road.

Lakeview Road was the town’s mansion district. It wasn’t uncommon for people to drive through just to see the sights- some people enjoyed having their mansions visible as if on display- so Chii knew it wouldn’t be suspicious that an old chevy was driving down the road.

They passed by many mansions of varying sizes and many driveways that they all knew led to mansions out of sight, but none of them paid them much attention anymore. The interest in the large, beautiful houses had faded years ago and none of them had any desire whatsoever to actually live in one of those places.

To all of them, mansions were just big empty houses where loneliness practically echoed down the halls. Houses that couldn’t be a home for three siblings and a nanny.

However, it was safe, it was expansive, and it was out of the way. They waited patiently as Spring hopped out of the car, key in hand to unlock the front gate blocking the driveway- and the house beyond- from sight. They might not have liked the large house and everything it stood for, but it did offer a safe haven from their own claustrophobic homes.

It was the place any of them could run to if they needed help or they needed to hide.

When they pulled up in front of the overly-fancy house, Chii and the others who didn’t live there hopped out. She turned around to look at Spring, frowning slightly. “You’ll be okay, right?”

Spring raised a brow at her and laughed softly. “Of course. I’m just going to pick up Plushie, you know.”

“I know,” Chii sighed, fidgeting with her hands and glancing back at Mangle as they secured Plushie’s carseat and the extra that Mrs. Marks had given him for Plushie’s friend. “It’s just- two hours…”

“Don’t worry, Chii, everything will be all right,” he promised, giving her a comforting smile. “I won’t even be alone for all of that, anyway.”

“I know,” Chii repeated. She gave him her best smile. “Be careful?”

“Always am.”

It was a lie and they both knew it, but they shared a smile anyway and Chii backs away from the car so that Spring could safely pull away. She watched him go worriedly, looking back at Alfred and Blu waiting on the porch and Mangle, standing just a few yards away from herself.

“He’ll be fine, Chii,” Mangle assured her, though there was a worried edge to their voice as well.

Spring hadn’t been left alone like that in nearly an entire year. This wasn’t like the concert, where he would be surrounded by people, or when he was home without them where he still had Plushie and sometimes Mimi. This was an entire hour alone in a car with absolutely no one there to interrupt his thoughts or distract him with meaningless conversation.

With a sigh, Chii turned and walked up the porch steps, watching Alfred pull out the spare key he had been given so many years before. Each of them had one; Spring didn’t feel safe putting a spare outside the door, but he trusted them and gave them each a key of their own.

Chii kept hers on a chain hidden in her bookbag. She knew Blu kept his hidden under the fabric lining in his guitar case, as it was the only place his parents wouldn’t find it, and Alfred, similarly to Chii, kept his on a chain. If he was wearing a shirt that covered his neck he would just wear it, but usually he simply kept it in his bookbag as well.

Mangle was a lot sneakier than any of them; they hid it inside their hand.

Stepping into the foyer, Chii turned around to close the door. She let her eyes linger on the trees by the tall fence; the road was blocked from view.

“Everything will be fine,” she heard Mangle say again. She let out another soft sigh and turned to follow them into the living room.

“I know. Let’s just start on our homework, yeah?”