If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em | A Photostory

“Hey Nicole?” Sophie asked, smearing jam on a slice of bread.

She was making lunch for her and Victoria. There was no peanut butter, so they were just open-faced jam sandwiches.

“Nicole?!” Sophie said, still not turning around. Normally Nicole was pretty prompt on the replies, especially when she was not half a metre away.

Still no response.

“Earth to Nicole!” Sophie cried.

She turned around and tapped Nicole on the knee.

“What?” Nicole finally answered, looking up from her book. (It’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in case you wanted to know. She read the first book first and now she’s on this one.)

“Do you know what ‘proteinaceous’ means?”

“What?” Nicole said again.

“Do you know what ‘proteinaceous’ means? I was readin’ a thing online . . . and I don’t know what the word means,” Sophie explained.

“Wrote Nation? Is that a band or something?” Nicole asked, trying to get back to her book.

“No, ‘proteinaceous’!” Sophie repeated. “It’s a word. D’you know what it means?”

“A bird?” Nicole asked. She was doing a lot of that. “Sorry, I can’t really hear you . . . Did you say something about beans too? If you’re asking if I want beans for lunch, yes, please!” Nicole was getting kinda hungry, and she actually likes beans (unlike me).

“Nooo!” Sophie groaned, “‘Pro-tein-a-ceous’! What does it mean?”

Nicole shakes her head. “I think you’re talking nonsense today Sophie.”

“Argghhh! Fine, I’ll ask Toria.” Sophie grumbled and walked off.

She found Victoria in the bedroom, putting away her jacket and holding a pirate flag.

“Hey, do you know what ‘proteinaceous’ means?” She asked her. Maybe Victoria would actually be able to give her an answer. Or at least understand her.

“Anxious? Dreams? Uh, maybe keep an eye on that, Soph.” Victoria looked at her worriedly, still holding on to that pirate flag.

“Oh, so you can’t understand me either? What now?!” Sophie flopped onto the bed. This day was not going so well any more. All she wanted was someone to tell her the definition of ‘proteinaceous’, or just say ‘I don’t know’ if they didn’t.

“Wait, hold up, did you just say something about the Eather Bunny?” Victoria looked at Sophie excitedly. “Were you singing Stay on the Happy Side? Which part are you at?”

“Noo, I do not want Stay on the Happy Side stuck in my head.” Sophie moaned.

” . . . always on the happy side, stay on the happy side of life,” Victoria started singing anyways, from where she thought Sophie had left off. “Ba-rum-pum-pum. You’ll be amazed as we drive you insane, so stay on the happy side of life! Knock-knock.”

“Who’s there?” Sophie said, sighing loudly.

“Uh, which one were you at?” Victoria asked.

Sophie sat up.

“Car go.” She picked the first one that came to mind. She should have picked the last joke, but she couldn’t remember which one that was.

“Largo?” Victoria tilted her head slightly. “Oh, car go! Okay then. Car go.”

“Car go who?”

“I can’t tell what you’re saying,” Victoria admitted, “so I’m gonna guess you just said ‘Car go who?’? Car go beep-beep over the Eather Bunny. But -”

“Stay on the happy side,” Sophie joined in unenthusiastically.

“Always on the happy side, stay on the happy side of life . . . .”

(If you want the full song, let me know – it’s a Girl Guide song. Super fun to sing! A little annoying to some people though.)

“Okay, now that the song’s fin’lly done,” Sophie said a bit later, “I’m going over to see Hailey, okay?” She slid off the bed and reached for her shoes.

“Bailey? Did the neighbours get a new dog?”

“No, HHHHailey! With an H? I’m going over there?” Sophie pulled on a pink shoe.

Victoria stared at her with a blank face then shrugged.

“Okay, Imma take that as a yes. I’ll be back soon!” Sophie called, running out the door.

She made it across to Hailey, Charlotte and Saila’s house and knocked on the door.

Charlotte answered it with a sword in hand and let Sophie in. Sophie guessed they were playing pirates again.

“Oh, hey, Charlotte, is Hailey home?” Sophie asked. She was hoping Hailey would know what proteinaceous meant. She knew better than to ask Charlotte.

“Did you just call me a marmot?” Charlotte said. “How did you know that’s my favourite animal?”

“I didn’t?” Apparently Charlotte couldn’t hear Sophie properly either today. “Your favourite animal changes too often for even me to keep track of. Is Hailey home?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a taily bone, but I just call it a tail bone.” Charlotte told her.

“Okay, sure, Charlotte.” Sophie didn’t want to bother with another weird conversation that might end in singing Girl Guide songs.

“Haileyyyy!” She called, walking into the room. Hailey was engaged in a battle of sorts with Saila and it looked like Saila had the upper hand.

“I keep telling you, it’s not Mary-Lee, Joe! It’s Hailey, with an H, no R and only one ‘ee’ sound.” Hailey shouted back. She didn’t even turn around, because that is not a good idea when someone’s got a sword to your throat.

Sophie had no idea who Joe was, but she had more pressing matters to take care of, so she walked further into the room.

“Uh, it’s me, not Joe,” she said.

Hailey finally turned around and bumped right into Sophie.

Of course, they both promptly fell over.

“Oh, hey Sophie! How are you?” Hailey said once they had picked themselves up.

“Good, good. Do you know what proteinaceous means?” Sophie asked for about the millionth time today.

“Herbaceous? Something relating to herbs and plants, I think.” Hailey said, “Why? Are you getting into gardening?”

“No, that’s Toria. She’s planting some tomatoes,” Sophie said.

“Potatoes aren’t an herb though, Sophie,” Hailey commented.

“I was asking about ‘pro-tein-a-ceous’ anyway.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you say that,” Hailey said.

“I DID!” Sophie cried.

But all Hailey said was, “I’ve never heard ‘row venation’ before. No clue, sorry. Check a dictionary?”

Sophie was done with people not understanding her, so she tried a new tactic. “You’ll play Pictionary with me? Really?! But you never want to do that! Okay, I’ll go get the paper!”

Sophie ran off excitedly. Hey, maybe she still had no idea what ‘proteinaceous’ meant, but she’d managed to get Hailey to play Pictionary with her!

*  *  *

I hope you enjoyed that photo story! I had fun making it, although some of the pictures at the end are blurry because I didn’t have the tripod I normally use.

The idea for this actually came from a list of blog post ideas from over a year ago. It was titled simply “What?!” and somehow I remembered a vague idea of what it was. That idea changed a lot, but still.

Also, I made all the clothes that Sophie is wearing. I based her skort off of Kira Bailey’s. (I also made Nicole’s PJ bottoms and Victoria’s shirt. The former were supposed to be leggings but they were too big, so.)

-ForestPoodle88