Ok, so this is an idea I had….probably not going to be a very long fanfic, but we'll see how it goes. Please tell me what you think!
I lurked in the shadow. This had to work, it just had to. If it didn't, I didn't know what I would do. Probably go insane.
Do you really think she'll notice? A particularly rebellious part of me said. She'll probably only sigh and throw you out in the yard, like she always does. She doesn't care about you. She never will. And you know it.
I shook my head. No, she would notice. She would smile and laugh and tell me how much she appreciated me, and then tell me how sorry she was for neglecting me for all these years. Yes, this time would be different. It just had to be.
I crept out from behind the plant and eyed the man carefully. He was looking the other way. Perfect. I reached in my pocket and pulled out an object that was particularly close to my heart: a firecracker. It wasn't a big one, but it was perfect for the job. I looked up at the sky, then at the ground, then around me. I was in the garden, spying on the gardener. He was trimming the bushes with expert care, making them look like bunny rabbits and turtles. I thought it was silly. A bush was a bush. But I was not the one who decided what the garden should look like.
I lit a match and touched the small flame to the string on the firecracker. Quickly and nimbly I sprinted across the garden and dropped the explosive down the bush trimmer's pocket. By the time he looked up to see who that was, I was already in the safety of a tree. I snickered to myself. This is gonna be good….
Suddenly the man jumped up and let out an earthshaking bellow. "YYYEEEEEOOWWWEEEE!" he shouted as his back pocket exploded in a stream of color and sparks. He danced around ridiculously, trying to find something to stop the firecracker.
Finally the explosion stopped, and the gardener stood with a red face and a charred pocket. He pulled the busted firecracker from his pocket, looked at it, and seethed.
I held a hand over my mouth the entire time, trying very hard not to burst into hysterical laughter. This had to be the best prank yet. I finally gave up and guffawed until my stomach and cheeks were sore. But I stopped when I heard it.
"GOODRACE!" he shouted. I sank into the branches of the tree, willing myself to be gone. Apparently I sank a little too much because the next thing I knew I was falling out of the tree and hit the ground with a THUD! I rubbed my head and looked up into the angry eyes of the gardener.
"Oh," I said. "Hi Madison. What's up?"
"My name is Mandy," the man said in a deep voice. He was very tall, had very broad shoulders, and had a very deep voice. Whenever I saw him he was very dirty and wore the same pair of beat up jeans, white shirt with suspenders. Oops, I'd gotten his name wrong. But you couldn't really blame me. He had just started working for my family that week, after our other gardener quit. And we went through lots of gardeners, and other workers besides. I couldn't remember the names all the time.
"Right, Mandy," I said. "So…uh, nice work on the bushes. I can really see the livelikeness of the puppy over there".
"Get up kid. Your mother said if you caused any trouble, I should report you to her".
I got up with some reluctance. I looked at Mandy, he looked at me harshly. I got looks like that a lot lately. Here we go again, I thought to myself. But that was ok. It was all part of my plan.
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I walked with Mandy down the many long corridors and up the many flights of stairs. Finally we came to her office. I walked in slowly, my hands folded behind my back. Someone could have bound me in handcuffs and escorted me to juvie and it wouldn't have been as bad as this. But I took a confident breath. It was ok. It was part of my plan.
"Excuse me, Ms. Goodrace," Mandy spoke up.
The huge leather chair behind the desk swiveled around and revealed Ms. Goodrace, clad in her usual business attire, a phone stuck to her ear. She has tanned skin, blonde hair, and eyes that are emerald green. My spirits lift a little when I saw her, but shrunk back down when she saw me. She looked at Mandy, then back at me, then closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm going to have to call you back Charlie". She hung up and looked at Mandy with a familiar look. "What has she done now?"
"Firecracker," Mandy said, and placed the evidence on the desk. I lump of charred cloth that used to be his pocket. Ms. Goodrace looked at the cloth with her teeth biting her lip. She looked up at Mandy.
"I'm so terribly sorry sir," she said. "I'm sure she's sorry". She gave me a look.
"Um, yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry Madison".
Ms. Goodrace looked at me.
"Uh, Mandy!" I said, realizing my mistake. "Mandy! Sorry!"
Mandy grunted and left the room. I stood staring at the door, wondering if I'd ever see him again. Not likely.
I heard another sigh and I turned to face my doom.
"Jo, what have I told you?" she said, exasperated. "You can't pull pranks on the employees. It makes them quit".
"Are you sure I'm the one that makes them quit?" I asked grumpily, crossing my arms.
"Jo, you can't keep this up," Ms. Goodrace said. "We're running out of gardeners. And cooks, maids, cleaners, and performers. Not to mention all your tutors—"
"I'm sorry but I can't help it," I said. "I just want to have a little fun with them is all".
"Playing mean pranks is not fun," she said with hard eyes. "What have we said?"
I sighed. "If it's not fun for everyone, it's not fun at all," I recited.
"That's right," Ms. Goodrace said. "And as your mother—"
"You are not my mother!" I said. "You never have and you never will be, and you will never replace Dad!" I broke down. I felt tears streak down my face.
"Jo," Ms. Goodrace said. "I know you're upset, but please listen. We can't undo the past. What happened to your father happened to him. Now I would appreciate it if you would stop acting like a spoiled brat and behave for once!"
Her words rang in my ears. This had gone terribly. Why did I ever think pulling a prank would bring attention other than this?
Ms. Goodrace's phone rang and she picked it up. She put a hand over it and said to me in a stern tone, "Go to your room. Your tutor will be here in an hour so make yourself look presentable".
I ran out of the room and down the many, many halls until I reached my room. I fell on my bed and cried. What had become of my life? Why did everything have to go so wrong?
When I finally could no longer cry, I got up from bed and went into my bathroom to take a shower.
My life was a series of unfortunate events, for lack of anything better to call it. My mother and father met at college, where they were both training to be lawyers. My dad had curly brown hair and the widest and brightest smile you have never seen. When I was little my dad would tell me the story about my mother hundreds of times. He would say, "Your mother had hair as black as night and eyes the color of silver and a face that told your right away that she could not be trusted. She was smart, pretty, funny. She always got into trouble, and I was always the one who bailed her out of trouble. You're a lot like her Jo. You have her eyes, and her hair, and her nose, and ears" he would say while tickling the places where I looked like my mother.
Unfortunately my mother left us when I was born. She left no note, no call, nothing. I was the only thing my father had left of her. He soon found out that it was hard to raise a kid, especial a handful like me, by himself, and he had to drop out of college his fourth year. He tried his best to raise me and support the apartment we lived in, but it was ok. He loved me more than he could ever say, and that was better than having all the riches in the world.
Things started looking up for the both of us when I was seven. Dad got a job at a court, and we could finally move into a bigger home. For a while, everything was perfect. But then things started to go wrong for me. My dad fell in love. And not with my mother. He met Holly Burna at a coffee shop, and he claimed it was love at first sight. They married a year later, and we moved into a huge mansion. We were no longer in debt, Dad had married a rich woman, and he was happy. But I wasn't. What he didn't know was that Holly Goodrace wasn't keen with kids, specifically me. She didn't like me, and I didn't like her. And what do I do to people I don't like? I prank them. Again, and again, and again. Holly didn't like it one bit, and insisted I be sent to a boarding school, but Dad refused every time. He still loved me more than anything, even Holly, I suspected. Every time I toilet papered her office, or stuck a frog in her blankets, Dad would just laugh and say, "She's just a kid" and move on.
I had never heard my father scold me. He always had an encouraging word to say, another laugh in his pocket. And when I messed up, he always said, "I know it's hard to be good sometimes. It's in your nature. Your mother was like that too. If you try your best, I'll always be proud of you. Promise me you'll always try your best". I promised and tried with every effort I had to be good.
But things got worse than ever before when I was ten. Ms. Goodrace got a letter from the police one day that my father had died in a car crash. I was heartbroken. I don't remember the funeral at all. It all went by too fast.
Now that dad was gone, Ms. Goodrace tried with every effort she had to put me in a boarding school. I had attended dozens, but I had gotten kicked out of each and every one of them in just a few weeks of my attendance there. I had to admit, I was an expert in the art of the prank.
Finally boarding schools started refusing me because of the reputation I had given myself. Ms. Goodrace had no other option than to hire a tutor. Then another when that one quit. Then another, and another. And now I was stuck here in the mansion, alone, with no one but the tutor of that week and the hundreds of people that worked to keep the house in top shape as well as cater to my every need. But they were certainly not my friends. I entertained myself by pulling pranks on them and trying to guess how long it would take them to quit, go insane, or both. The longest we had ever kept someone since Dad died was three weeks,and she had just barely survived my mischief.
I dried my hair and looked at myself in the mirror. I had my mother's silver eyes and mischievous and almost elfin face. My hair was as black as night, but a little wavy almost like my dad's. I pulled on me favorite hoodie and beat up jeans, completely ignoring what Holly had said about making myself look presentable. I walked out of the bathroom to find my new tutor standing in the doorway.
"Hello miss Goodrace," the woman said, smiling warmly. She was a roundish woman with short hair and my worst enemy in her hands; books. I crinkled my nose at the sight of them.
"Call me Jo," I said, sitting down on my bed.
"What an interesting name," the tutor said, trying to make conversation. "What does it stand for?"
I shrugged. "Just Jo".
"Oh, I see," she said, setting the horrid books on my bed. "Well, I am Mrs. Chesterfield".
"Nice to meet you," I said, not even looking at her.
"Look Jo," Mrs. Chesterfield said. "I know it's hard for a kid with ADHD and dyslexia to do well in school, but don't worry. I've taught many kids like you. Well have a lot of fun".
If you think you've met people like me, then you've been mistaken, I thought.
So there's chapter number one! Please tell me what you think and if I should continue it!