Playing Along for Papa Ch. 1

Chapter 1

It had been a fairly routine Thursday at Ms. Endive's Tasteful Foods, Panini had just finished her desert when a knock came on her bedroom door. "Yes, Ms. Endive." Panini said.

"Phone for you Panini dear." Endive said

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Your father." Panini's face lit up as she sprinted downstairs and picked up the phone. It had been two years since she had last seen her parents in person, but she loved it when one of them called.

"Hi daddy." she said into the phone.

"Hey, how's my little Nini-kins doing?" Her dad Filone* said to her.

"I'm doing great. So dad if you don't my asking, why'd you call?" Panini asked, being able to tell that Filone had something he wanted to say.

"What if I told you that I was coming to visit on Saturday?" he said. Panini squealed in excitement on the other end of the phone. "See you and your boyfriend on Saturday sweetie." he said.

"Love you." Panini said.

"Love you too Nini-kins." and they both hung up the phone. The instant she hung up the phone, it quickly dawned on Panini that she hadn't told either of her parents about what happened three weeks ago. She'd been going on for several months about how Chowder was her boyfriend, when in reality they'd only just recently become best friends.

"Oh no, that's not good." she said to herself as she went back to her room. Panini only told Ms. Endive about her dad coming to visit in two days. She would have to tell Chowder about her dilemma tomorrow, and ask a favor of him. Because if her daddy saw that Chowder was avoiding her romantic advances, Filone's legendary temper might resurface, and it could end badly for her num nums. She threw on her nightgown and went to sleep, wondering what Chowder was up to right now.

The next day Panini went out to the farmer's market. She checked her watch as she waited in front of Gazpacho's. She had told him about her problem, and not surprisingly Gazpacho could not relate.

"Not really sure what to tell you kid, mother refused to let me leave the house until I was thirty, and she rejected every girl I went out with afterward."

But eventually Chowder and Mung showed up right on time, quarter of Noon. "Hi Chowder." Panini said to him. "Oh hi Nini." Chowder said, but he quickly noticed the anxious look on her face. "Okay what do you want to tell me."

"Good news or bad news first?" she asked.

"Let's go with the good news first." he said.

"My dad's coming to Marzipan tomorrow." she said.

"Hey neat, so what's the bad news." Chowder asked.

"I kind of forgot to tell him that you're not really my boyfriend." Panini said guiltily.

"Pink cat/bunny/bear girl say what?" he said in shock. "You had three weeks, how did you not tell your dad that we're only best friends?"

"That's not important num nums. I need you to do a favor for me, please act like my boyfriend tomorrow. I know I agreed to stop my obsession with you. But if you don't, my daddy will lose his temper, and will hurt you bad, I don't want you to get hurt Chowder." Panini asked of him.

Chowder was in between a rock and a hard place. The only thing he knew about Nini's dad was that he was a champion weightlifter, and was as Nini had once described him 'Stronger than three of Shnitzel', so he had more than enough strength to hurt him. But he'd only have to play along for a day, and after that he likely wouldn't have to worry about this mess again.

"Okay I'll do it. I'll be your TEMPORARY boyfriend." he said.