Posting the rest of the story now which is like 10 more chapters so the posts will be a lot longer.

Chapter 24

“Oh, home… so good to be here for a while,” Clyde said softly. He and the others had been resting at home for two days, taking their time to recover from their failure.

“Yes,” Blinky groaned.

“How are those bruises doing, Pinky?” Inky asked.

“They’re still purple, but they’re getting to be alright I suppose,” Pinky replied.

All the ghosts heard a slapping sound. For the first time since they “moved in”, the ghosts had someone at their door. They could hear leaves hitting their door from the overgrown bushes. They were terrified that someone discovered their house and possibly knew it wasn’t abandoned.

“It could be Greeny or somebody. Ask who’s there,” Pinky whispered.

“Who’s there?” Blinky asked in a demanding tone.
The mysterious knocker replied, “This is ‘arry, a long-time Pac-Land construction worker. I ‘ave my friend Bill ‘ere with me too. Listen, I’m ‘ere to get the word out about the brand new maze opening up in Pac-Land. We just finished building it.”

“Um we’re ghosts,” Blinky told them. “I think you have the
wrong house.”

“Oh, cool! We didn’t know this ‘ouse existed til just now,” Bill responded. “We thought maybe there were Pac-Men in ‘ere but… we need four ghosts for the maze. We won’t do anything to you. Please open the door.”
Blinky cracked open the door and felt relieved that they were innocent Pac-Men not interested in trying to chomp on them.

“Thank you,” Harry smiled. “We know there are many ghosts in Booming City, and apparently even not in Booming City, so we wanted you to ‘ave the chance to try out. Go into the construction area of Pac-Land without getting caught, and ask for ‘arry and Bill. My boss knows ghosts will be coming. ‘Ave a great day.” He and Bill walked away, each holding a stack of fliers for everyone in Pac-Land.

“Hold on guys,” Blinky called out to them. They turned around and listened to what he had to say. “I have an idea. I’m Blinky and I have Pinky Inky and Clyde with me here. We are the ghosts who have chased Pac-Man for thirty-eight years now. But we recently made a connection with four ghosts in Booming City who are super talented. Please give them a chance too. Don’t bother with any other ghosts. They all know nothing about chasing Pac-Man. My team and I know a lot and now their team does too. Their names are Greeny Violet Silver and Bronze. We know Pac-Man likes a challenge and the eight of us combined gave him a huge challenge.”

“OK,” Bill replied. “Only the eight of you will be trying out then. We will make sure of it. Our boss will be very ‘appy. Thank you!”

“Thank you! This is gonna be great!” Blinky exclaimed.

“What happened to being too frustrated and bummed to do anything?” Pinky asked Blinky while he closed the door.

“Just like it was when we teamed up with Greeny we gotta take opportunities when they come,” Blinky replied. “This failure especially hurt but chasing Pac-Man in a new maze could be our payback!”

“Ooh, I like that idea,” Pinky grinned.

“Now we should go and tell Greeny,” Blinky suggested.

Do we really have to team up with him again? Clyde thought.

“Yeah, I’ve missed him and his team,” Inky told them.

“AWAY WE GO!”

Chapter 25

Greeny excitedly began brainstorming the next prank he and his team could do. He had already moved on from kicking Violet off the team. He liked the idea of being the only leader, which was a silent motive for his decision the other day. Silver and Bronze had been completely silent. Silver used his colored pencils to make drawings while Bronze watched fail compilation videos to make himself feel better. Silver occasionally glanced over at Bronze’s screen and cracked a smile.

This is an excellent new work environment, Greeny thought. No more suggestions from Violet... and a quieter room.

“Hey, who’s knocking at the door?” Silver asked, finally speaking.

It was quiet. Yeah, I wonder… Greeny thought. He rushed to the door, hoping it wasn’t Violet. He didn’t want her back even if she took back what she said.

“Hey we got some good news!” Blinky greeted Greeny, getting straight to the point.

“Wow, good to see you again so soon!” Greeny replied.

“Is the rest of your team here?” Inky asked as he and the rest of Blinky’s team stepped inside.

“Well, uh… no. I’ll go get Silver and Bronze,” Greeny answered.
Once Silver and Bronze joined the others at the front door, Greeny motioned for all of them to go into the office again. Blinky’s team went to the left side of the office, and Greeny’s team went to the right.

“What’s your news?” Greeny yelled, excited to hear it.
Blinky told Greeny’s team, “Two Pac-Land construction workers visited our house today. They told us they’re building a new maze in Pac-Land and they need four ghosts to chase Pac-Man through this maze. I told them not to bother looking for any other ghosts because the eight of us gave Pac-Man a good challenge! Would you like to team up with us again? Sadly it can’t be all eight of us this time because only four will be selected. But I thought you all would love the opportunity.”

“Wait Pac-Land construction workers actually built a maze in Pac-Land?! I made a joke about that before!” Silver commented.

Greeny glanced at Silver and Bronze to see if they liked the idea. That way, he wouldn’t have to have an argument with them. They smiled slightly.

“What do you think?” Pinky asked.

“I love it!” Greeny told them. “This is the perfect way to get revenge on Pac-Man!! WHERE DO WE SIGN UP?”

“We sneak to the Pac-Land construction site and try out there,” Blinky replied.

“Sounds good. We should get over there as soon as we can!” Greeny recommended.

“Where’s Violet by the way?” Clyde wondered.
Greeny jumped. “Well, uh… oh… well…”

“She’s gone,” Silver told Clyde plainly. “Greeny screamed at her and kicked her off the team. We heard it go down from outside.”
Greeny froze. Silver had given the brutally honest answer, which he normally wouldn’t do.

“Oh…” Clyde sighed.

“Ya know what, I’ll go to the Pac-Land construction site by myself…” Greeny muttered. He left the office and slammed the door shut.

Chapter 26

Oh NO, Blinky thought. Greeny can have his head start. We need some time to process what Silver said.

Tears welled up in Clyde’s eyes. “Now you know,” he whispered, not looking at Blinky.

Blinky stayed still, thinking back to Clyde’s warnings about Greeny. He inched forward and gave Clyde a hug. He briefly pulled the door open to check if Greeny was still there, but there was no sign of him.

“I have no idea where Violet is now but probably at home with her siblings,” Bronze told them.

“I hope she’s OK,” Clyde said, looking around because he was getting restless.

“Clyde I am so sorry,” Blinky began. “You invested a lot more thought and caution into this mission than I did. You warned us that Greeny was no good but I believed he was just excited to join us in our mission. Now that Violet is gone he has become even worse I’m sure. I hope his narcissism prevents him from landing a spot in the new maze. Silver and Bronze I apologize to you too. Violet led you calmly and with care but I looked up to Greeny more because a greater amount of my attention was drawn to him. I hope Violet can still somehow join us. You guys deserve better.”

Clyde, looking straight at Blinky, replied, “I’m glad you know now. I’m not angry because Greeny has given me more perspective on how amazing of a leader you are. You give us time to think and to relax. You’re open to suggestions and a change of plans. Most of all, you make our work fun. Chasing Pac-Man is ridiculously tough sometimes, but I can do it again and again because you are there too.”
Inky nodded and then added with a smile, “You’re positive about our failures also. How else would we have kept chasing Pac-Man for decades?”

Blinky felt a wave of relief. “Thank you so much guys. As I said I didn’t give Violet enough attention or credit for all we did. Make sure to give Pinky some credit too. Oh we should all should try to find Violet at her house so she can join us.”

“I can call her first,” Silver suggested.

“Go ahead,” Blinky told him.
Silver tapped Violet’s number on his phone and waited. He had to leave her a voicemail, which he chose not to.

“Oh no…” Pinky frowned.

“We should visit her at her house if she’s there. She probably thought Greeny was in the room for our call,” Bronze told the others.