Blue Is Your Color
By Missy

SERIES: Goosebumps!
SUBSERIES: Blue Is Your Color
PART: one of one parts for this arc
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: G
PAIRING(s): L/L; S/C; S/R

DISTRIBUTION: To LW, Kai, and FG so far; any other archives are welcome to ask (Please Email Me), but disclaimers must be included, my email left intact. send a URL, and provide full disclaimers as well as credit me fully. Please inform me if you are going to submit my work to any sort of search engine. Please do not submit my work to a search engine that picks out random sets of words and uses them as key words, such as "Google"

Please contact me in order for this story to be placed on an archive, or if you want know of a friend who would enjoy my works, please email me their address and I will mail them the stories, expressly for the purpose of link trading. MiSTiers are welcomed! Please do inform me that you'd like to do the MiSTing, however, and send me a copy of the finished product. I'd also love to archive any MiSTings that are made of my work!

DISCLAIMER: Laverne and Shirley, of course, not my property and belongs to its creators.

CATEGORY: Epic Drama
CANNON/SPOILERS: Pre-Reunion Show Cannon; set five years after the series' conclusion.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Lenny and Laverne try to move on (and into a bigger house); Rhonda and Squiggy feel guilt over their ownership of the Pizza Bowl; Carmine and Shirley see a fertility specialist.
NOTES: The first of one chapters in the twenty-first portion to this series. For previous chapters, see the Goosebumps! Section at LAS Fic or The Look.

***

Laverne carefully clipped out a huge notice from the Milwaukee Sun.

JUSTICE:
DeFazio shooter pleads guilty; sentencing Monday

The wheels of justice, Laverne mused, moved faster for those in the government. Carefully folding up the newspaper article, she slipped it into an envelope. She would need to start up a family album to properly memorialize her dad.

"Yeah! Okay...yeah, we can make payments on the sixth...uh huh...right! Good! We'll be down there tonight!" Lenny hung the phone up. "Hello, baby." He said, wrapping his arms around his wife.

"Baby? This is big."

"Oh, only if you consider us GETTING THE HOUSE is it big!"

Laverne leapt into her husband's arms, "Ya mean they took the loan?"

"We got a house, Laverne. A real house!"

"Billie's gonna grow up with a backyard!" Laverne smiled. "I always wanted a back yard, when I was a kid. But yer sure we can afford it?"

"I promise we can." Lenny swore.

Laverne wasn't so sure. But she didn't want to think about the alternative, now that one of her dreams was coming true.

***

"We're in the red, Squiggles."

Squiggy stared into space, watching Moth chew enthusiastically on a pair of chubby keys.

"Squiggles? We're in the clear."

"Oh? Yeah, that's great, Rhonda."

She set aside her adding machine with a groan. "What's bothering you?"

He sighed. "Me and Len used ta be so close, yanno? Like two fiends in a ward. Now he's off teachin' and with his kid, and we don't hang out no more."

"Was I not once a star?" She smiled. "Now...I check my hair every morning for chunks of vomit."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that."

"No, that was Moth...never mind. You and Lenny need to get together and have a nice chat."

"Yeah..." He nibbled his nail. "I don't wanna face Laverne."

"Why not?"

"Why not?" He mocked. "Cause! We took her Pop's place!"

"She signed off on it, darling. The deal is a deal."

"Yeah, but it ain't fair. This place is her legacy."

"But it's our legacy now, Andrew." She scooped up Moth. "Hers. We've got to open up for the day." She reminded him.

And he nodded, shuffling away behind her.

***

"Mrs. Ragusa, you should stop deluding yourself."

Shirley glared at specialist sitting across from her. Carmine's hand tightened upon her wrist.

"You sure you can't do anything for us?"

"Your wife's fallopian tubes are heavily scarred. I'm afraid we don't have the technology to..."

"You can talk all you want about technology, doctor, but you have no idea of the limits of human faith." Shirley snapped. "Good day!"

Carmine trailed her out of the doctor's office. He watched her shoulders slowly sink as she flopped into the car.

"It's all right." She said.

"No, Shirl; we'll keep trying."

"No; my pursuing a baby's just making me forget that my ultimate duty is to Veenie and to you. Maybe it's just not meant to happen."

The passion that had inflamed her suddenly caught Carmine breathless. "No, Angelface. We're gonna take care of it."

She smiled. "Remember what I said, that New Year's Eve all those years ago?"

He nodded.

"I meant it. You're stubborn."

"And?"

"I love you."

"That's all I wanted to hear." He smiled, starting up the car.

***

Squiggy hummed to himself as she polished the lunch counter. It was past noon, and the lunch crowd was encroaching.

"You have a fine place."

He looked up to see a wide smile and a greasy tan. "Lionel Davitz."

"Yeah. You wanna pizza or a hero?"

"I want to talk about the wonderful business opportunity you have here. I represent the Tagasaki Corporation, a worldwide conglomerate. We own Pizza Fast."

"The big chain?"

"Yes indeed! And your restaurant seems like a prime location for our operation."

"Sorry, bud, I ain't interested in sellin'."

"We could make it worth your while." He scribbled down a figure on a napkin. "We're willing to spend this amount for you to franchise your business."

Squiggy stared at what had been offered him. "This is double what I paid."

"Is it?"

"I gotta talk it over, with my wife...this really how much you're offerin'?"

"Consider it a bargaining chip. Something to start out with."

Squiggy's jaw went slack at the very prospect of more money. "Hey, how do I..."

"My number's right on the back. Tell my secretary that Lionel sent you."

***

"Squig! Ya put it right on my foot!"

"Hey, why don't ya keep yer big feet away from me, then!" Squiggy yelled, yanking the chest of drawers back against the wall.

"Whattya yellin' at, dummy? Laverne's downstairs tryin' to get all the boxes together, and you and me are the only ones strong enough to get everything up here!"

"Oh yeah? You wanna knuckle sandwich?"

"Boys! Stop yelling!"

"Yes, Laverne." They said together, releasing the chest.

"What he heck's eatin' you, Squig?"

Squiggy scratched the back of his neck.

"Well?"

"I'm tryin'!" Squiggy blurted. "I got an offer to franchise the Pizza Bowl."

"Don't do it!"

"But they're givin' me a lotta money!" He sighed. "Fer the first time, I gotta think less about me and more about Moth an' Rhonda."

"But the Pizza Bowl's the most important place in the world to Vernie!"

"Then why don't she come down and see it?"

"Cause it's where she heard her Pop died. And you ain't too comfortable around her."

"Well, maybe that's cause I ain't so innocent myself, Lenny!"

"Come on, Squig..."

"I bought the Pizza Bowl from her. Maybe I shouldn't; maybe it's supposed ta be hers."

"No, Squig; Laverne...she never liked to work there. She's a cop now, and she's a darn good cop. We wouldn't have the time ta run the place...and ya love the grill."

"Yeah, I do..."

"Ya wanna know what I would do? Ya don't have to do it..."

"Sure."

"I'd do what Mister DeFazio wanted me ta do."

"Ya didn't even do that when he was alive!"

"Yeah, but this is different. The Pizza Bowl's like Laverne's little brother. He'd want what's best for it, no matter what."

Squiggy shrugged. "Okay. I gotta call that guy tonight, anyway."

"And whatt're you tellin' him?"

"I don't know."

**

But that night, Squiggy sat, staring at the business card, and knew there would be only one positive decision to be made.

And ripped Lionel Davitz' offer into little pieces.




To Chapter One of "Wind And Water"
To Chapter One of "Very Old Rice"











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