The Beehive

The door burst open with a massive force as Will pushed his way into the room. "Where's Chris?"

Guy quickly looked up from his laptop and shrugged. "Deep in the Hundred-Acre Wood?"

"What?"

"I don't know where he is."

"Fine, then where's Jonny?"

Guy went back to typing, but continued the conversation with Will. "Why, do you think that maybe they're off making out or something? Everyone else does."

"No, I don't..." Will narrowed his eyes. "Do you?"

"It wouldn't surprise me." Guy closed his laptop and stood up. He walked over to Will and placed his hands on his hips. "Maybe you should check outside."

"Right, because I haven't just come from out there," Will sarcastically snapped.

"I meant out back. You know that ever since we bought this place, Chris has been fascinated with that giant tree."

"Oh, good point," Will dejectedly replied. "I suppose I'll go look, then."

"You do that, I'm going out to get a new mop," Guy said, heading for the door.

"Why are you getting a mop?"

Guy turned around and stated, "Whenever Chris is missing, you can bet there's a mess involved somewhere. And our last mop was destroyed in that tar fiasco."

Will's eyes widened and he cringed a little as he recalled the aforementioned situation. He continued to shudder long after Guy had finally left. When he regained his normal state, he decided to take a peek outside.

Sure enough, he found Jonny standing in the middle of the small yard. For some reason, he was dressed all in black and was holding a small, blue balloon.

"Hey, Jon," Will said, walking towards Jonny. "What are you doing out here?"

Jonny didn't say anything, he merely pointed upwards. Will's eyes followed until he caught sight of something high in the tree branches. It was a mass of black and yellow stripes, with a giant bush of curly hair emerging from the top. The longer Will looked, the more he observed that the stripes were the result of Chris wearing black clothes similar to Jonny's and sticking bright yellow reflective tape around his body.

"Chris?" Will called out. Chris looked down and waved as he recognized his friend.

"Hi, Will!" he shouted, swinging his legs in the air.

"What the hell are you doing??" Chris yelled his reply, but Will could just barely make out what he was saying. "WHAT?"

"I'M A BEE, I'M A BEE, I'M A- I'M A- I'M A BEE!" Chris answered. "AND JONNY'S A RAINCLOUD!"

Will lowered his eyes and looked at Jonny, who seemed less than pleased to be doing whatever it was exactly that he was doing. Jonny sighed, his arm still raised as he held onto the balloon.

"I'm supposed to be pretending to be a raincloud to sneak past him, or something," Jonny said.

"Does he realize this isn't going to work?"

"I tried to tell him, but... you know how he is when he doesn't get his way."

"Oh, right," Will said, nodding his head. "Well... good luck with this. I think I'm gonna go back inside and work on that one song..."

"Lucky you," Jonny enviously replied. "I'll probably be out here until the sun goes down."

"Sorry." Will awkwardly stuck around for a minute or so, just staring at the ground and feeling sorry for Jonny. But suddenly a thought was upon him. "Hey, how did Chris even get up there in the first place?"

"Uh... you don't really want to know," Jonny tentatively said. As he spoke, though, Will's sight wandered upon a heap of clothes at the bottom of the tree. At a quick glance, most of them appeared to be his.

"Are those my shirts?" he asked. Jonny slowly but surely nodded his head. Will walked over and picked up the clothes, and as he did so he realized that they were all tied together to make one long rope sort of thing.

Will took a deep breath and counted to ten, just like his therapist taught him. He let the clothes rope drop to the ground, and he slowly stepped away and towards Jonny.

"How is he going to get down?"

"To be honest," Jonny began, cautiously, "I'm kinda hoping he just falls out. Then maybe if he hits his head, it'll knock some sense into him."

Will dropped his jaw in an exaggerated way. "Why, Jonny, I didn't know you could be so cruel! And to think that everyone says you and Chris are in love with each other."

Jonny ducked his head and blushed. "Oh, well... I think that's another discussion entirely. But anyway, it's just that sometimes he's too crazy, you know?" Will nodded, and Jonny continued as he switched the balloon to the other hand and shook out his arm, "But he's my best friend, and I'll do whatever it takes to keep him entertained."

"You're a true hero, Jonny," Will said, placing a hand on Jonny's shoulder. "It's a shame to see you fall victim so often, but I'm just glad it's not me!" Will spoke quickly towards the end of the sentence, and once he was finished he bolted inside.

"JONNY, IS HE GONE?" Chris shouted.

"Yeah!"

"GOOD, NOW GET UP HERE!"

Jonny sighed and closed his eyes, floating up to where Chris was sitting. He let go of the balloon and he gently landed next to Chris.

"Hi, Jonny," Chris giggled, "I liked the thing you said about being out here until the sun goes down."

"Well," Jonny said in a deep, seductive voice, "I figured it'd give us plenty of time."

"Ooh, I hope so," Chris replied, his eyes lighting up. "Now, come on, little raincloud," he softly said into Jonny's ear, "do your job and get me wet."