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‘Groak’ Patrick nodded to himself as he stared at the absent look on his best friend’s face

‘Groak?’ Pete repeated, head tilted to the side in his usual puppy dog manner

‘Uh huh’ Patrick stared off into space for a moment, considering the word, testing it, making sure it worked, ‘Yeah, that’s what you do’

‘I… Groak?’ Pete huffed, questioning it, secretly hoping Patrick might explain the meaning of the word

‘You groak’ He confirmed for the final time, getting up from his spot next to his laptop and relocating to the couch, bag of potato chips in hand, taking an interest in the fact that Pete follows, ‘See?’

‘No..’ Pete pouted, exhaling sharply through his nostrils, ‘I don’t see’

‘Clearly,’ Patrick looked slyly out of the corner of his eye as he typed, analyzing, ‘You don’t know what groak means’

‘Clearly’ Pete rolled his eyes, ‘Okay, you caught me. Congrats, you’re a brain. Now, tell me’

‘Nope’ Patrick smiled wickedly, ‘You figure it out’

‘But..’ Pete whined, ‘You know I’m too lazy to investigate this’

‘I know,’ Patrick stuffed two chips into his mouth and chewed as slowly as possible, making Pete wait for the last of his sentence, ‘Prove you’re committed’

‘To what?’ Pete raised an eyebrow, sinking into a seat

‘Me’ Patrick smirked, shielding the potato chips from the grabby motion Pete was making with his hands, ‘You find out what it means, and you may be fed’

‘Damn’ Pete growled, prizing himself up from his comfortable little spot, ‘Well, if I’m getting something out of it..’

‘That’s the spirit!’ Patrick raised a fist in the air, mockingly, ‘Go get ‘um champ’

‘Asshole…’ Pete grumbled, going in search of his other smart compadres

Joe was in his bunk, as he almost always was these days. Pete knew he probably had better things to do that tell him some useless information that really doesn’t matter anyway but Pete just had to know. Patrick thought that Pete groaked, whatever that means. What if it meant something terrible? I mean, that would practically kill Pete. He cared so much about what Patrick thought of him. It might be stupid but he just had to know.

‘Shut up Pete…’ A mumbled came from behind the closed curtain of Joe’s lair, ‘I’m trying to sleep’

‘Liar’ Pete called him out, knowing that he wasn’t sleeping, ‘You’re playing a game’

‘Am not!’ Joe cried in defence, rustling around a little

‘I can hear the Super Smash Bros background music from here!’ Pete laughed, pulling the veil back to reveal, as he expected, Joe lying on his front with his Gameboy DS held tightly in his grip

‘Fine..’ Joe’s gaze remained on the tiny screen ahead of him, ‘What do you want?’

‘I want to ask you the meaning of something’ Pete kneeled down next to the little bed, watching the dungaree-clad Italian hopping around in front of him

‘Privacy means freedom from the observation, intrusion, or attention of others’ Joe’s tongue stuck out from the side of his mouth as he manoeuvred around a tricky jump

‘Yeah funny’ Pete answered sarcastically, leaning his head on his hand that he had propped up on one elbow at the side of the bed, ‘No.. What does groak mean?’

‘Why do you wanna know?’ Joe always enjoyed the moment in which he could annoy Pete in the way Pete often did to everyone else

‘Cause.. Cause.. Patrick won’t feed me unless I find out!’ Pete griped, frowning to himself

‘Ha!’ Joe quipped back, still not looking at Pete, ‘You do groak’

‘Apparently so..’ Pete barked, shaking his head, hating that word already, ‘Just.. What does it mean?’

‘Why not ask Andy?’ Joe sighed, not wanting to be Pete’s Go-To guy if it meant being interrupted for such irrelevant things all the time, as it so often would be

‘Cause he’s on my bus!’ Pete complained impatiently, ‘And then I’d have to go alllllllll the way over there and I just can’t be assed, okay? So, what does it mean?’

‘It mean,’ Joe cleared his throat, trying to make it as climatic as possible, ‘To hang around people silently when their eating in hope to get offered some of their food’

Pete growled, almost instantly jumping to his feet again, ripping Joe’s bunk curtain shut. He stomped noisily down the bus towards where Patrick was still sitting with the chips packet in his lap. When Pete entered the room, rather furious, Patrick just beamed back at him. Swooping in, Pete swiped a chip out of the bag and dropped down in the seat next to him.

‘I hate you’ Pete muttered, taking a victorious bite out of his prize

‘No need to be hebephrenic’ Patrick tutted, suppressing a sneer as Pete’s eye widened

‘To be.. What?’ Pete asked, cocking his eyebrow

Patrick just leered at him, Pete sighed.

‘Joe!’ Pete called once more