Author: self_composed | Everyone's found out about Alice's dad the next day. "You know your friend Delaney? His dad is in jail!!" is the first thing Jessica says at lunch.
"Criminal tendencies run in the family, I guess," Mike says darkly.
"Mike, be nice," pouts Jessica. "It was for abuse!"
"Doesn't that run in families too," Lauren says; it's not really a question. "Bella, I dunno if you're sleeping with him yet, but don't have his kids, right?"
"Bella's not sleeping with Hammond!" exclaims Mike stridently. This exclamation is not less annoying for being true.
"You're not, right?" Eric asks Bella. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head.
"Grow manners," says Jessica. It's not clear to whom.
"Grow eyes," snorts Lauren. "Delaney wants to bang her worse than you do, Mike, and I read the paper too and now he's got millions of dollars."
"I do not - I haven't - you're -" sputters Mike.
Bella has no idea why these people still sit with her. All she did was plunk down next to Angela and Angela's new boyfriend Ben. She remains stoically silent. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Want me to drop in with cupcakes again?] queries Alice from the lunch line. |
Author: self_composed | [Cupcakes in particular should most likely be a one time thing,] Bella says. [If you have another equally clever idea I'd like to see it - otherwise I'll just sit through this until I'm done eating, I think.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Okay. So, benign interventions that distract attention from her. Doesn't necessarily have to give everyone tasty things, although maybe he could wish up some cookies.
Yeah, that seems like an adequate plan. Absent objections from Bella, he is going to descend on her table with his Tupperware of Mystery (he brought an empty one today, just to cover for tricks like this) and fill it with assorted cookies on the way. |
Author: self_composed | [That's very like cupcakes, you realize.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Yup. And that wasn't a no.]
He's halfway across the room, but he hasn't materialized the cookies yet. |
Author: self_composed | [Meh.]
Pause.
[Lemon cookies,] she suggests. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Sure.]
There are indeed lemon cookies in the mix, when he finally sits down, opens the container, and wordlessly sets it in the middle of the table. But because Alice is a fundamentally assorted person, lemon only makes up about 30% of the stock. |
Author: self_composed | Bella snags herself a lemon cookie. And one of those tempting raspberry things, too.
But the ploy isn't as effective now that the conversation is about Alice.
"You sent your own dad to jail?" challenges Mike.
"What're you gonna do with three million dollars?" asks Lauren.
"Are you seeing a shrink? You should. My aunt's a shrink," Jessica says.
"Why did you wait until now to make a fuss about it?" Eric wants to know. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He raises his eyebrows, looks around the table, shrugs, picks up a plain old chocolate chip, and takes a big bite. |
Author: self_composed | "Hello?" snaps Mike.
Jessica just repeats her question louder. Eric backs off.
"I mean wow," Lauren rambles. "Three million dollars. I'd get, like, a boat." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice smiles brightly at Eric, and with some amusement at Lauren, and with some contempt at Mike, and takes his time finishing his cookie. |
Author: self_composed | "De-laaaaa-neeeey," says Jessica, waving her hand in front of his face. "If you're going to come over here, be sociable."
"Whatever, don't waste your time on that freak," Mike mutters. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | You know, part of him thought that being in such a generally fantastic mood lately and have his life be, on the whole, so very much better would take a little of the sting out of that word.
Nope.
He doesn't show it, though.
He ignores Jessica like she isn't even there, cocks his head at Mike, and says, "Okay, no, I'm curious. How is the fact that I sent my dad to jail a bad thing?" |
Author: self_composed | [Temper,] Bella warns.
"He's your dad," Mike says. "I can't believe he even put up with you, if I acted like you mine would send me to military school, and then you turned around and trumped something up for the cops."
Bella coughs. Mike doesn't even look at her. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He ignores Bella, too. Or he hears her, but he doesn't care. It's not like he's kicking the guy's ass or anything.
"Is this you trying to get my shirt off? 'Cause you could've just asked," he says. "I didn't trump up shit and I've got the scars to prove it. Ever broken a bone? You hear it before you feel it, didja know that? Snap," he says, smacking the edge of the table lightly for emphasis. "Then it hurts." |
Author: self_composed | "You've broken bones because you antagonize people, classmates, football players," Mike says. "I've seen you do it, everyone has, you must have had one hell of a slick lawyer. Keep your clothes on, prick, I know what I know."
"Mike, shut up," Bella says. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Sure I do," he says. "But none of those assholes ever put me in the hospital. Daddy, on the other hand, dragged me all the way downstairs to the fireplace just so he could beat me with the poker. So all in all I am pretty fucking glad I put him in jail." |
Author: self_composed | "You must've deserved it," says Mike. Angela, meanwhile, is going quite pale and trembly.
"Mike, shut the hell up," snaps Bella. "Jesus."
"Don't tell me to shut up!" bristles Mike.
"You're telling an abuse victim he deserved it, you have officially thrown polite discourse out a fortieth-story window and watched it go splat -"
"Yeah, Mike," says Jessica unexpectedly. "Just - shush, okay? Go sit with Bill or somebody." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice shrugs and takes another cookie, a cute little gingerbread heart.
It cracks in half in his hand.
He didn't think he was that upset, but it turns out that he in fact was. |
Author: self_composed | Mike doesn't seem inclined to go. But for the moment he is out of things to say.
Bella splits her paper plate, dumps the cookies onto the clean bottom half to be devoured, picks up the Tupperware, and puts her hand on Alice's elbow and steers him away to another corner of the cafeteria. She bought lunch today; given that she's full enough, she can leave everything and Angela will probably get it for her if no one else does. "I do not know what is wrong with him," she murmurs. "Here." There's an empty couple of extra chairs, not associated with a table, in the corner. She sits him down. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "That guy is gonna grow up to hit his wife," Alice remarks as he sits. It's not a fully serious prediction, but it is a comment on what he has seen of Mike's personality. |
Author: self_composed | "He has other characteristics, and his behavior at age seventeen isn't a life sentence, but I do worry you're right," Bella murmurs. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Yup," says Alice. "Whatever, though. He's a fuckup but he's his own fuckup."
And just like that, he still hurts but he is no longer angry about it. Mike is not his problem, even if Mike apparently wants to be.
He would kind of like to be petted, but he isn't going to ask; it seems like the kind of thing Bella might not want to be doing in the corner of the lunchroom. |
Author: self_composed | [Yeah, that wouldn't do anything to convince anyone that I'm not sleeping with you,] Bella says. [It annoys me generally to have people believe falsehoods about me that I didn't put there on purpose.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Okay,] he says agreeably. [Think I'll blow off the rest of the day and go hang out in my lair. Tell Finch I said hi?] |
Author: self_composed | [Will do. You'll miss me triumphantly kicking ass at badminton, though.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Yep,] says Alice.
Which will be a pity! But right now he really wants to do something intensely sensual, and since he doesn't feel like getting someone to beat him up and probably couldn't find anyone to have sex with him, his lair is the best place to go for that. |
Author: self_composed | [Have fun. I'm going to Bio,] Bella says. She does pat him once on the head, when she stands up, like he's a support. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [See ya,] he says, and off he goes, abandoning his box of cookies. |
Author: self_composed | Bella sighs and puts the tupperware in her backpack, and proceeds to class.
Bio goes by and she heads for gym. Time to learn to play badminton and then play it like she was born for it. "Hi, Ms. Finch." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Hi, Bella."
She doesn't even ask about their mutual friend.
"Still feeling cured, I hope?" |
Author: self_composed | "Yup," Bella says brightly. "So how does badminton work? It involve rackets, right?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Yes it does," says Ms. Finch. "Congratulations." She hands Bella a racket. "Now let's see if we can add to that store of knowledge."
She provides a thorough and concise explanation of the rules, punctuated with occasional humour of that dry sarcastic kind she seems to like so much. |
Author: self_composed | Bella giggles where appropriate. "Sounds simple enough," she says. "Do we get assigned partners or do we pick them?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "You pick them," says Ms. Finch, "unless that takes too long or involves too much adolescent politics. So far this class hasn't been too bad about teams, though." |
Author: self_composed | "Okay. I just haven't met many people in this class besides Alice - oh, he asked me to call him Alice awhile ago, it's kind of weird - and he's not showing up today, so I'm not sure who to go with," Bella shrugs. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Alice," she repeats. "Funny. Well, if you can't find a partner once class starts, make pitiful faces at me and I'll get you straightened out." |
Author: self_composed | "Will do," Bella agrees. She experimentally swings her racket a few times. She spends a pentagon on general athleticism so she won't be terribly exhausted by suddenly adding cardio to her day, and one on skill at racket-based sports in general after discovering that "all sports" is too general. She gets a birdie from the pile and starts tapping it up into the air, over and over. "Hee." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Well, some people are naturally talented. Ms. Finch doesn't find Bella too suspicious, and she is shortly distracted by the arrival of the rest of the class, anyway. |
Author: self_composed | Bella partners with someone who she vaguely thinks might also be in Government with her and who doesn't seem to like badminton much.
Her partner doesn't have much to do.
Bella grins so hard her face hurts. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | It's always nice to see the kiddies having fun. |
Author: self_composed | After class, Bella has no reason to stick around; she puts her equipment away and runs off to call her dad to come get her. (Her car should be fixed soon. If only she'd thought to magic it fixed when it first broke - sure, magic was scarcer then, but it might have taken only a square -) |
Author: edgeofyourseat | About half an hour later, Alice brainphones her from his lair.
[Hey, you home yet?] |
Author: self_composed | [Yeah, Charlie just left,] Bella says. [What are you up to?] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Napping on the floor of his sewing room, or he was a minute ago.
It hasn't been a great afternoon. Parts of it were, but on the whole, no.
[Shit-all, pretty much. How much ass did you kick in gym?] |
Author: self_composed | [Lots. Finch didn't even seem suspicious. You recovering okay? Mike was pretty awful to you at lunch.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [I'll be fine,] he says, tucking his hands behind his head and gazing up at the ceiling. [Still kinda feel like shit, but whatever. You wanna hang out?] |
Author: self_composed | [Sure. Be over in a few.] Bella walks out, and once she's deep in the woods turns invisible and takes flight. [If Mike sits at my table again I'm just going to get up and leave, I'm done with him.] |
Author: edgeofyourseat | [Good plan,] says Alice. |
Author: self_composed | [Maybe social consequences will have an effect where arguing for human decency didn't. Also it's less work. I think I've settled on soccer,] Bella continues. [The school has a team, the women's teams aren't as generally denigrated as, like, baseball ones, and we're doing it in like a week so I can "learn" it then.] She flies through the rock and down the spiral staircase. "Halloooo!" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Hi!" he calls from his position on the floor of the sewing room. Then he gets up, walks through the broad arch to meet her at the bottom of the stairs, and hugs her. |
Author: self_composed | Bella hugs him back and pets his hair. "So have you put your sewing room to any use yet?" she asks. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Not yet," he says. "Haven't figured out if I want to use a pentagon or not." |
Author: self_composed | "I'd say not," Bella says. "If you care about the process, why wouldn't you learn it the usual way? And if you care about the results, actually sewing is redundant - you can just wish clothes into existence." She gestures at her wish-jeans. She's worn no non-wish jeans since she learned she could do that. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "I love you," says Alice. "You make so much more sense than me." |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, yes I do," says Bella merrily, drifting over to the chair in the corner and plopping into it. "It's good that you know that." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Alice contemplates joining her in the chair—there is technically room—and then sits on the floor in front of her instead.
"It's kinda hard to miss." |
Author: self_composed | Bella pets him some more. "I mentioned to Finch that you asked me to call you Alice, by the way." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | He leans his head on her knee and relaxes under her hand.
"Wonder if she'll pick up the habit." |
Author: self_composed | "Dunno. I guess she'll surprise us. I downloaded some college applications today," she remarks. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Cool. Which ones?" |
Author: self_composed | "All the Ivies - I have preferences among them, but any I can get into this year is noticeably preferable to any that won't take me until next year if at all - and the public universities here and in Florida, since I could claim residency in either now that my mom and Phil moved to Jacksonville. And MIT, because that's good in its own right and right near Harvard. I might not send in applications for all of them; I'll have to take a second look at the requirements and the average test scores and stuff." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "All kindsa places we might end up," Alice says contemplatively. He likes the uncertainty of it. |
Author: self_composed | "Enh, it's mostly concentrated in New England," Bella says. "It's possible I should throw in Stanford though. Why can't all the useful people go to one place?" she sighs. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Where would be the fun in that? Anyway, betcha you'll find enough useful people, wherever you end up." |
Author: self_composed | "It's not all about a critical mass of useful people - it's also bad to have any major useful-people gaps. If I go to Harvard and then someone from Stanford with whom I have no mutual friends makes more money than God, I'm in trouble; if I go to Yale and someone from - from the University of Tokyo invents a proprietary technology that interacts badly with magic and I have no way to get in touch with them and influence that nonmagically, then I'm also in trouble. But I can't be everywhere yet and the world is big." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "There's already lotsa people you don't know who have more money than God, though," says Alice. |
Author: self_composed | "Yes, I know. I hope to meet people who know their cousins' kids or something," Bella says. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "...You know my mom," he observes. "And my mom knows a lot of rich people." |
Author: self_composed | "That's potentially useful, yes, but does she have parties where I could sidle up to same and comment on the hors d'oeuvres and then say hey, have you heard about this project I'm helping to run?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Maybe! Who the fuck knows what she's gonna do now?" |
Author: self_composed | "Fair enough," Bella laughs. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "You could always suggest it to her and see what happens." |
Author: self_composed | Bella nods. "Next time I see her. How have things at the house been?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Good! Man, I did not know how much fun life could be without that asshole in it." |
Author: self_composed | Bella grins. "Awesome." Pause. "You remembered to call Hilary and tell her not to bother picking you up from school, right?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Yup! She said from here on out I might as well just call her when I want a ride." |
Author: self_composed | Bella snickers. "So are you going to just fly everywhere now?" |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Why the fuck not?" |
Author: self_composed | "I'm starting to wonder if my car's a lost cause. They've hung onto it for a long time now; they should have had time to get whatever parts they needed. I'd fly everywhere too but eventually somebody would wonder why I didn't have a vehicle in the parking lot. If it didn't rain so much here I'd get a motorcycle. Maybe I'll do that if there's better weather where I go to college..." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Sounds like fun," he says. By which he means it sounds hot. |
Author: self_composed | Bella finds that amusing. "I wonder," she says very deliberately, "if I'd look nice in all the requisite leather." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "You really fucking would," says Alice, happily. |
Author: self_composed | She laughs. "Well, I wouldn't want to try it in this climate, but anywhere else... maybe this is an argument in favor of Stanford." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Suddenly I really like Stanford. Where the fuck is Stanford, anyway?" |
Author: self_composed | "Palo Alto, California," Bella says. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "Cool. Good motorcycle weather?" |
Author: self_composed | "I think so. Maybe a little warm for it in summer. But I could go around not wearing a helmet and have plenty of wind in my hair. Or make the leather magically breathable." |
Author: edgeofyourseat | "I love how you solve things." |
Author: self_composed | "So do I," says Bella smugly. |
Author: edgeofyourseat | Awwwwww. He hugs her leg. |
Author: self_composed | Bella laughs and goes on petting him. "You are a strange, strange creature, Alice." |