𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 — 𝟏. 𝟏
❛ dolls can't be
alive, dummy   ❜

The curtains fluttered with the breezes and allowed streaks of sunlight to slip through the window in the dark cozy room. The sky had turned a beautiful shade of blue as the sun shone gradually brighter. A flock of birds flew across the sky racing against the patches of lazily floating clouds. The green leaves of the tree nearest to the window danced with the breezes.

A tiny bird, which was standing on a branch, flew away at once as a leaf fluttered down to it and landed on the window sill. It chirped happily sitting there, turning its head at different sounds and noises around. There was a suspicious shuffling and whispers from inside and it turned to look back, and noticing something it flew away again with an alarmed chirp.

The TinyTANs had gathered up on Tina's bed, staring down at her sleeping figure.

Their human target had become a bundle of bedsheet by tangling herself completely and sleeping rather comfortably. She was smiling to herself, probably dreaming happy dreams. She had started to shuffle a little at the chirps and tweets of the little avian friend and tossed in the bed, but still unwilling to let go of her sleep.

"I still think it's not a good idea," J-hope whispered.

"Come on, don't be a joy-killer, hyung," Jungkook grinned, but his usually cheerful friend just sighed in concern.

"Why do we have to make a dramatic entrance, again??" asked a dismayed Suga. He appeared to share the same concern like J-Hope.

"It's not even dramatic enough!" V reasoned, but Jimin signalled him not to be too loud.

"Let's just get done with this," said Jin, who did not think much about it like Jungkook.

"Okay," RM shrugged.

They exchanged glances at each other, nodded then commenced with their mission.

Tina felt a tug on her sleeve. Her aunt usually just called her but never tugged at her to wake her up, where in Daisy would be more prone to just jumping onto her stomach making her choke. But it was a lucid dream she was enjoying, she wanted to try more things out...

With a grunt, Tina reluctantly squeezed her eyes open to see but the morning light dazzled her.

She grunted again, her hand immediately reaching up to shield her eyes as she squinted in attempt to see who it was. Confusion reflected in her eyes as she looked at every corner of the room. But there was was.... no one???

Thinking she probably dreamt it, she went back to try and get her last few minutes of sleep. Her aunt was going to come anytime to wake her up....

But there was that tug on her sleeve again followed by some voices this time. Her eyes fluttered open and searched for the person talking, until her eyes stopped on something and instantly dilated. Half-wondering if she was still dreaming, she blinked and looked again. No, she was not hallucinating.

There was a minuscule boy doll— No, not one.... Two... Three...

Tina's eyes hovered over the seven tiny figures on her bed making a circle around her, standing with smiles on each of their faces.

Cute....

But creepy as hell.

Tina swallowed as nervousness tingled her at how much real and alive the dolls looked.

Dolls can't be alive, dummy.

She decided to calm down and took a deep breath. It was not an unusual scene, she told herself, it had to be Daisy who left her dolls here. Might as well as be Daisy's new toys or something— which was why she never saw these... seven dolls before. Yeah, that was more likely so.

But as though they could read her mind and to prove her wrong, those 'toys' suddenly started moving, coming alive.

"Good morning~" Jungkook finally greeted waving both of his hands gleefully, who could not wait anymore in excitement.

Jin internally freaked out although he tried to keep his genuine smile intact; Jungkook was supposed to wait a little more, and he was supposed to make the first interaction, not Jungkook.

So Tina's reaction to Jungkook was not that much of a shock to him.

"aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The tiny boys scurried to different directions to save themselves, as Tina made to run in fear, screaming. But she was tangled in the bundle of bed-sheets, so the result was inevitable—

A loud thud announced her face meeting the floor. Tina grunted aloud, momentarily pausing her hasty movements, before she remembered what scared her and started struggling to untangle herself.

"Oh no..." Jimin mumbled, peeking from behind her pillow, sorrily watching her.

"We must help her!" J-Hope, emerging next to him, reminded his friends in whispers.

But then a female voice called from downstairs. "Tina??"

Tina was too busy to answer that she did not notice those minuscule boys had joined in helping her untangle. As soon as she was free, she scrambled to her feet and ran for the door, failing to notice the boys tripping when she had thrashed her foot free from the blanket before making the run. She almost stumbled again but did not collapse this time, and ran all the way down the stairs until she almost crashed into the kitchen door and halted. Her aunt, who was peeking out of the dinning-adjusted-kitchen, stared at her in concern.

"Tina! What happened? Are you alright, dear??" Her aunt stepped out looking her up and down.

But Tina was trying to catch up with her breath, and so her aunt patiently waited for her to calm down a little. Now a new panic struck Tina at thought of answering her aunt. 

What was she going to say?

She could never tell her what she actually saw. It would sound absolutely crazy and, perhaps, way too childish. Forget aunt Cass, she herself would not have believed herself. More to that, Tina was not a good liar; she definitely needed more time to think of a believable lie.

"Tina...?" Aunt Cass asked again, tilting her head in confusion.

Tina swallowed hard, still rummaging in her mind for a response. "It was... er, it was just a bad dream—" she chuckled, scratching at her nape nervously, "and... and... then I fell off.... kind of fell off my bed... you know??"

Right then and there, she knew she failed. She could see it in her eyes, how confused Aunt Cass looked. Nevertheless, Tina forced a cute dumb-like smile to try, "You know..??"

"Ah... What dream...?"

"Never mind that," Tina ushered her hand nervously, "It seems so funny now that I'm awake, ahaha..."

"...Right,"  Aunt Cass nodded, still perplexed but decided to let it go. With a last glance at her, she started to head back into the kitchen.

"Well... Good that you woke up, I guess. Now, you don't wanna be late for your first day at new school, right sweety? So go on, wash up and change into your new uniform. I'll prepare the breakfast quickly."

Right. Tina was starting at a new school, today. The local one.

Tina shook her head and turned round to head up the stairs, but then remembered the tiny animate toys and immediately halted.
She did not dare going upstairs and peek into the room to be met by those tiny alive dolls again. Spooky dolls? She never had liked watching horror movies, and she could not help but remember how many of them started with some weird or creepy possessed dolls....

Nah, no way was she going to let the movies bring it to the reality, she had not wish to die. But she could not just stand around, she needed to hurry and get ready for the first day at her new school. Realizing she had no other way, she went back to her aunt.

"Um... Can I use your bathroom today? For the shower only, please?" Tina pleaded, "Pretty please?"

Her aunt seemed to be surprised at her actions but did not object, so she headed off to her aunt's bathroom.

"Hfff.... girls these days... I don't understand them at all," Cass mumbled to herself as she flipped a pancake.

☁️

After the shower, the thought of the spookily alive dolls felt more unrealistic and quite hilarious, and the chance of seeing them again, for real, was mere to none. But that did not lift off her hesitance to walk into her room afterwards.

In the horror movies, the victims usually ignored the ominous signs or the creepy dolls and soon afterwards they get killed— quite an alarming thought. But Tina had to go grab her uniform from her room, and her school bag, too, and asking her aunt for it would not be okay, or her little cousin...? No, Daisy was no option either.

After a whole minute of standing still at the bottom of the stairs, she forced herself to climb up before aunt saw her and start asking questions again. One of the many problems of facing the elders included being asked too many things and many times without a point, and so often they seem not to understand anything, calling anything and everything childish, silly or stupid if something did not make sense according to them.

Timidly and cautiously she climbed up the stairs, and she hesitated again after reaching the door. Yet slowly and carefully she peeked in, breaths caught up in her throat unbeknownst to herself. But quite contrary to her expectations there were no sign of those things she might have only dreamed of. It made her feel a bit better, nevertheless she hastily went inside, her senses still on full alert as she snatched her uniform and bag and ran out of the room. Fortunately she had packed the bag last night, so she did not need to worry about it right now. Tina decided to sneak into her aunt's room to get ready. Best to get it done quickly and unseen by her aunt, or else face the questions she would not wish to answer to.

☁️

Swiftly sweeping through their neighbourhood, the car soon came to a stop. Tina averted her gaze from the blue sky where a strip of misty clouds was fading into the morning blue sky and curiously looked around.

Her new school. Surely she was more or less curious about it but it was nowhere near to how much nervous she felt.

It was as though her every first experiences were meant to be messed up, as many of them had been, and she feared nothing different this time. Hence she was being extra careful about everything: she had double checked her bag for anything she might have missed, fixed her uniform and tidied her hair, ribbons and shoe laces very carefully so there was no way to suddenly embarrass herself, and every other details she could remember. And she had crosschecked every single thing again in her mind on the way.

"So here we are, Tina... Your new school, yay!" Aunt Cass turned at her with a smile.

Tina felt a little lurch in her stomach as she looked back at her aunt, and forced a small smile in return.

"Isn't it amazing?!" Her aunt cooed.

Tina was not sure if she would call the school amazing; it did not look bad, but pretty okay.

"Your new school!!! Are you excited??"

Tina did appreciate her aunt's attempts to cheer her up, but she could not deny the uneasiness building up in her.

"Yeah, sure....."

Her aunt chuckled and patted her shoulder. When Tina opened the door and stepped out. Aunt Cass flashed a smile, "Good luck, sweety." She showed a thumbs up as Tina nervously flinged the bag over her shoulders and checked the time on her watch.

Her heart leapt. The displayed time said she was late to her classes by ten minutes already.

"I'm so late?! How—"  She groaned aloud looking up at her aunt.

"What? No, dear, I don't think—" Her aunt squinted to look at her watch but Tina had already ran off.

Tina whined and groaned to herself as she ran. How come she was late? She was supposed to do it right for once and yet here she was, running late to her class on her first day at the new school. Oh, what a great first impression it was going to be— she mentally slapped herself.  All she had to ensure was to start with a subtle, under-the-radar first impression so that there was nothing for others to recall and laugh at. Tina scurried through the corridors carefully, watching the signs hung outside the doors to indicate the classes specifically. Section B, section C... there it was: Section D.

Tina slid the door open with a hasty hand and quickly stepped in—

Her foot got caught up in something like an invisible thread or at least she had not seen— and she tumbled down in front of the whole class.

Wow, what an entrance.

Tina froze as the surge of embarrassment started drowning her. She could not have wished to just vanish into the air more than ever. Her ears and neck were starting to feel hot, she could not even dare to look up. It had just been seconds but it already start feeling like a millennium...

Right then sounds of footsteps stopped behind her. Her body grew stiff at once. A voice erupted from the back.

"Ayish— are you alright?"

In spite of urging herself not to do so, she found herself peeking at her back to find a boy standing by the door. The boy looked clueless yet flustered as herself.

"Ah, it must have been Kai— Yah, when would you stop with your stupid pranks??" He yelled at some of his friend or classmates inside the class before lending a hand to her, "Ayish, I'm so sorry, the prank was probably meant for me.... Instead, you turned out to be the victim."

Tina, embarrassed out of her wits to think properly, sprinted to her feet and ran further inside to find a seat lowering her head to avoid meeting any eyes, while the boy stood there in confusion, his hand still awkwardly stretched out in the midair.

Tina was not a backbencher; she preferred the front rows better, but now she did not bother to stop until finding a seat at the back, dropped her bag and slumped down into the seat, caring less of anyone who might still be watching her.

One minute passed as she tried to calm down herself, but in vain. Slamming her face down on the desk, she groaned. Her ears still felt hot... She so wished to forget it all... Yet her brain was straining her to relive the harassing moments....

Stupid prank. Very very stupid.

That was when she noticed it, and looked up. The classroom was still not completely swarming with students. Many seats were still unoccupied though the schoolbags were visible here and there, and there was no sign of any teacher in eyeshot. Tina peeked at her watch again, the time still said she had been late. But the sight of the classroom and the absence of the owners of the bags at different seats announced the opposite—

"Faulty," a voice announced all of a sudden that caught her attention, and Tina almost jolted to look around and find a girl sitting next to her. She had not noticed when someone had appeared at that seat.

The girl seemed to have been observing her. She repeated, "Your watch, that is."

The girl had a bright smile on her face as she continued to stare at her. When she realized Tina was still clueless, she flashed her wrist watch at her and Tina's eye picked the right time on her watch— There was nearly a half an hour left till the start of the first period.

How nice.

"Amazing. Just amazing," Tina uttered hiding her face beneath her palms, before she slumped down again onto the desk and hit on her forehead with a mild grunt, and her hands slid to hang down from the sides of the desk as dismay and frustration took over once again.

She had embarrassed herself for absolutely nothing, nothing at all; her stupid watch had to be faulty— and right today.

What a grand first day at the new school....

She whined and flailed her hands like a kid, forgetting someone was still watching her up close. She groaned and kicked at the thin air, until she heard giggles. When she looked up warily, she found it was still that same girl. Tina's brows scrunched.

Really?

Tina's ears and neck started to heat up again. The girl noticed her gaze and smiled, "You're funny!"

Tina's brows drew close— was she being rude? But the tone or expressions of the girl did not give that idea, she rather seemed to be happy as though she had made a great compliment.

"You're quite interesting...! What an entrance you made! Why did I never think of it?? It looked so fun!"

Tina took a good look at the girl; she could not tell if she was joking with her or not.

"You're new here, right?? Teach me how to be cool like you."

Tina now gaped at her, in total loss of words. She.... sounded weird, really weird. Was she really meaning her words or was she mocking with her? But her doey eyes looked too innocent of that. Tina wondered if this eccentric girl had any hint that it was way more than humiliating and embarrassing to stumble down like that in front of the whole class...

The girl examined her face and smiled again, before adding, "I doubt anyone will forget that? Isn't that great? You won't need to worry for making new friends now!"

Tina was still gaping at the eccentric girl.

Was she being real??!!

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AUTHORS NOTE

𝖧𝖺𝗉𝗉𝗒 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀 ! 𝖸𝗈𝗎 𝖼𝖺𝗇 𝗁𝖾𝗅𝗉 𝗎𝗌 𝗂𝗆𝗉𝗋𝗈𝗏𝖾
𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁 𝖿𝖾𝖾𝖽𝖻𝖺𝖼𝗄𝗌 ! 𝖨𝖿  𝗒𝗈𝗎  𝖿𝗂𝗇𝖽
𝖺𝗇𝗒  𝗀𝗋𝖺𝗆𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗅  𝗆𝗂𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗄𝖾𝗌,  𝖿𝖾𝖾𝗅  𝖿𝗋𝖾𝖾  𝗍𝗈  𝗉𝗈𝗂𝗇𝗍
𝗈𝗎𝗍 !    𝖠𝗇𝖽    𝗂𝖿 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗍𝗈   𝗌𝖾𝖾 𝖺𝗇𝗒 𝗌𝖼𝖾𝗇𝖺𝗋𝗂𝗈  𝗍𝗈 𝗁𝖺𝗉𝖾𝗇, 𝗀𝗈 𝖽𝗋𝗈𝗉  𝗂𝗍  𝗂𝗇  𝖺 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍.
𝖶𝖾  𝗐𝗈𝗎𝗅𝖽  𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝗍𝗈 𝖺𝖼𝖼𝖾𝗉𝗍 𝗌𝗎𝗂𝗍𝖺𝖻𝗅𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝗊𝖾𝗎𝖾𝗌𝗍𝗌

✧ 𝗩𝗢𝗧𝗘, 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 & 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘 ! ✧

𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗘 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗗𝗔𝗬!

Assalamu alaikum!
13 October, 2020