Disclaimer: 'The Pretender' and its related characters and incidences are the property of its creators and others; not me.
"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Miss La Bonté: I'm supposed to look after Jarod," Miss La Bonté said in a friendly voice.
"Oh yeah they told me about you," Sydney said.
"Oh well I hope it's all good things," she replied.
"Yes," he said with a smile on his face as they shook hands.
"So when do I get to meet the special little kid?" she asked.
"Right now, actually," he replied.
"This way to the elevator," he said.
"I'm so exited to meet a prodigy," she said with the sound of excitement in her voice as they stepped into the elevator.
"You've never worked with a prodigy before?" he asked.
"No," she said as a ding noise came from the elevator signalling it was time to get off.
"This way," Sydney said as he pointed his hand to the right so she could follow on. "Here it is," he said stopping and pointing to the first door on the right.
"Okay," she said as she stepped into the room.
Jarod was laying on his bed reading a book on algebra when Miss La Bonté stepped in. He stopped reading, put his book on the bed and stood up.
"Oh hi, I'm Miss La Bonté," she said anxiously.
"Good morning, ma'am," Jarod said confusedly. "Excuse me, Sydney, but who is this?" he asked.
"This is Miss La Bonté. She's going to look after you," he replied.
"Why, are you going somewhere?" he added.
"No, the Centre thought you should have a woman look after you as well, kind of like a mum," he replied from behind Miss La Bonté in the doorway.
"I don't need her, my parents are still alive," Jarod said as he sat down on the bed.
"Jarod we've been over this. They died in a plane crash," Sydney said as he walked over to the bed, moved the book away and sat next to him. "So can you give Miss La Bonté a chance?" he added.
"My parents died when I was a child about your age," she said as she moved from her spot from near the door to kneeling in front of Jarod.
"How did they die?" Jarod asked.
"They died in a car crash," she replied.
"So will you give her a chance?" Sydney asked.
"Okay," Jarod replied. "I'm Jarod," he said.
"Nice to meet you, Jarod. I'm Miss La Bonté, but you can call me Sonia," she replied.
"Good," Sydney said.
"Jarod, I got you something," she said with enthusiasm in her voice.
"What?" Jarod asked.
"Some coloured pencils and textas and a note pad," she said happily.
"What do you want me to do with them, draw you something?" he asked.
"No. You can draw whatever you want," she said.
"Now we have to go," Sydney said.
"Okay, bye, Jarod, see ya later," Miss La Bonté said.
"What was that about?" Sydney said as they left the room.
"Well if we see what he draws about then we can see what he fells like," she said as she was walking to the elevator again. "So do you want to have lunch at the cafeteria?" she asked Sydney as they stepped into the elevator.
"Sure, it will give me a chance to get to know you," he said.
"Good, but one question: Where is the cafeteria?" she asked as they go out of the elevator.
"This way," he said in a half laughing, half speaking way.
"I'll have the salad and a chilled water please," she said to the man behind the counter. Then she picked up her salad and chilled water and walked over to the table that Sydney was sitting at.
Sydney looked at Miss La Bonté's choice of food weirdly.
"I'm vegetarian," she said as he looked at her in a confused way.
"I see," he said in an confused understanding voice.
On the other hand he had a beef burger and hardly any salad and a water.
"How can you eat that?" she asked, trying to not sound disgusted.
"Seems fine to me," he said, trying not to be offended.
"So how long have you been working with Jarod?" she asked while chewing on a green leafy thing.
"About nine years," he replied as he picked up the burger and started to eat it.
"Wow, that's a long time!" she said in an amazed voice. "You're very dedicated aren't you?" she added.
"You can say that, or you can say that they won't let me leave," he said as he took another big bite of his burger.
"Oh, I see," she said, trying to relate to him.
"Well I haven't ever been forced to work somewhere, but when my parents died I got put into a rich foster family and they pressured me into being a lawyer," she said as she ate an olive.
"So what did you do then?" he said, sounding half interested.
"Well, when I was eighteen, I got an apartment and studied psychology, art and a lot of other things," she said, taking a sip of her chilled water, trying not to notice he was only half interested in her.
"Interesting. So by your foster parents pressuring you into something you rebelled against it and did your own thing?" he said as he finished up on his burger and stared drinking his water.
"Yeah I guess that's how it goes," she said as she took the last big green leaf from her plate and shoved it in her mouth.
After they had eaten all their food they got up off their chairs, chucked their rubbish in the bin and left the cafeteria to go check on Jarod's progress. They went down on the elevator, and then to the right to Jarod's room.
"Okay, Jarod, what have you drawn?" Miss La Bonté said as she stepped into the room.
"Well, I drew a sketch of this room. Is it appropriate, Miss La Bonté?" he said as he got up from the desk he was working at and showed her his picture.
"No, not really. How about tomorrow I take you into one of the rooms, put some music on and we can both sketch what we're feeling?" she said. "How does that sound?" she added.
"That sounds good," Jarod said excitedly, as he was anxious to hear what music she'd bring in.
"Okay, I got to go now," she said, giving him a small wave goodbye.
"Are you allowed to do that?" Sydney said as they left the room.
"Yes, I do have the authority to do that," she said.
"As you can see in that boy's sketch, he is getting very bored, and if he gets too bored he will refuse to do anything," she added in a quite serious voice.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," she said, changing her voice from a serious voice to a kind, happy voice.
~.~.~
"Which album should I choose?" she asked herself while looking at her record shelf. "Ah, this one will do perfectly," she said as she grabbed a record out of her shelf.
"Good morning," Miss La Bonté said to Sydney as they walked into the building together.
"You sound cheerful today," he said.
"So when are you having your session with Jarod?" he asked.
"In a few minutes actually," she replied as she got into the elevator and pressed the button to go down to sub-level twenty-six.
When she got out of the elevator at sub-level twenty-six she took a right to Jarod's room, opened the door. "Are you ready to go," Miss La Bonté asked Jarod.
"Yes, Miss La Bonté," he said as he slowly and anxiously walked to the door.
"Good. Let's go then," she said as she put her arm around his shoulder and escorted him to the elevator.
"How old are you, Jarod?" she asked as they went up the elevator to the room where they were going to do their sketches.
"I'm thirteen," he replied.
"So do you really like anyone in the building?" she asked, smiling and looking down at him.
"I don't understand your question," he said, looking at her peculiarly.
"Okay, we're here," she said as they stepped out of the elevator.
"I'll put the record on and you go sit on one of those seats over there," she said as she put the record on. She went over to a seat near Jarod and started to sketch when the music begun, the music was beautiful and harmonising and the room was light from the afternoon sun shining through the white curtains. As the music went on they got deeper into their sketches.
Then the music finished and Jarod just put the finishing touches on his sketch.
"So what did you sketch, Jarod?" she asked.
"I drew a woman holding a little boy's hand, walking through a park. What did you draw?" he said as he showed her his picture.
"I drew the park I used to visit as a child," she said as she turned over her sketch pad to show him.
"Who is this woman in your picture?" she added.
"It's my mother, I think; I'm not really sure," he said as they swapped sketch pads to look at them.
"Why doesn't she have a face?" she asked.
"I can't remember my mother's face," he replied, as he studied her sketch. "What was it like in the park you used to visit?" he asked as he kept studying her picture.
"Well, in the summer, I used to sit under the biggest tree in the garden and imagine things while the summer breeze cooled me down; in autumn, I used to get a whole bunch of leaves and throw them over me and jump into a whole pile of them; in winter, I made snowmen and snow angels, and in spring, I picked all the flowers in the park and took them home and put them in my bedroom," she said, as she thought back to those times.
"Will you ever go there again?" he said.
"I hope so," she replied.
"Anyway, I better get you back to your room before they complain," she said as she got up from her seat, put the record back in its packet, and escorted Jarod to the elevator while holding the record.
"There is one person I like," Jarod said as he looked up at Miss La Bonté.
"Oh?" she asked as she looked back down at him with a big smile on her face.
"Well, she doesn't know I like her. Her name is Miss Parker," he answered.
"She must be an interesting girl," she said as the elevator doors opened and they stepped out of the elevator.
I'd love to hear your comments, so feel free to leave con crit, if you like, or just tell me what you thought of the storyline.