Author's Notes: Sort of my way of celebrating my first night in two weeks without rehersal…it's short, but hey, I needed to get the wheels turning ^^; The title is a Simon and Garfunkel song, yet if you compare the lyrics, you'll see the fic has nothing at all to do with the song. Never thought I'd write these pairings, but whee, it's actually cute, in a strange, bordering-on-fluffy way.
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Me and Julio went down to the schoolyard today to bother Davey. Ever since he went back to school we've been wanting to do it, so we took the day off from selling to be there bright an early, right when everyone gets there.
As we leaned on the cold brick of the school building, waiting oh-so-patiently (David would have been so proud), those washed-down, clean-cut kids began to point at us and whisper.
"Julio," I said to my companion. "Thinks these kids have ever been dirty a day in their life?"
"Doubt it, Nic," Julio replied, looking at them skeptically. "I mean, we're just a coupla filthy street rats, ain't we?" We'd made it a point to wear the filthiest clothes we had, and put some extra filth on our faces for emphasis. We looked like shit, but we didn't give one. When David shuffled in nervously, looking at his feet, a couple of the kids nudged him and whispered. He looked up at us and his face turned white like a sheet -- a clean one, that is, the kind these kids are used to. "Mouth!"
"Day-vey!" I exclaimed in a mock, exaggerated accent. "Whatcha doin' here, Davido?"
"The question is, what are you doing here?" he hissed, taking a few steps back, clutching his books to his chest.
"Hanging around!" exclaimed Julio. "Thought you'd like to see us! You don't come around much, Dave!"
"Aren't you supposed to be selling papers?" he whispered fiercely. "You're not supposed to be here."
"David, you know these guys?" one of the tall, clean boys asked. David's eyes grew wide and he faltered.
"They look like they haven't bathed in a week." A prissy girl -- kind of like Mouth's sister, but shorter and rounder -- turned up her nose. "They smell like it, too."
"It's 'cause we haven't!" Julio hooted. "Haven't been home aaaaaaaaaall night!"
"Got drunk as a fiddler's bitch!" I added, slapping my knee. We hadn't, of course; we'd stayed home and slept the night, but God, the look on their faces was classic when I cursed. Julio and I nearly collapsed into hysterics. David shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"Jeez, street kids!" an older boy huffed under his breath. "They're the worst kind of immigrants!"
"My mom and dad said that they're bad ill-bred," added another. "Really ill-bred, y'know?"
"Ill-bred?" asked Julio. "We ain't ill-bred! In fact, we--"
"Your grammar doesn't support that," the boy smirked.
"Shut up, he was talking," I snapped at him. "Keep goin', Julio."
"As I was sayin', before I was so rudely interrupted--" he glared at the boy "--we ain't ill-bred. We're bred good. At least, we used to be. Now we're just deviants. Just ask Dave."
"Deviants?" repeated a girl. "David, what are they talking about?"
He was giving us the evil eye by now, almost ready to kill us. But we kept going. Like we've ever thought Davey could hurt us.
"Deviants!" I exclaimed. "Ain't you schooled? It means bad. Wrong. We sleep on the streets and drink and don't have a change of clothes every night."
"Some of us gamble and smoke," Julio added, sending a glance to me, and I finished:
"And some of us are real big deviants."
The kids were starting to almost look interested now. Their eyes had that spark in them, their bodied leaning towards us. They wanted to know. Julio and I exchanged glances. David looked ready to bang his head against the brick wall. At least he didn't want to start beating our heads against it.
"What exactly," one of the boys asked slowly and carefully, as if we were glum and dumb, "do you mean by really big?"
"Like this," I said, and I grabbed Julio and kissed him. And it was one hell of a kiss, trust me on that. Open-mouthed, hands in hair, lots of tongue, little breathing from anyone. That means it wasn't just me and Julio who weren't taking in any air, but all those kids in the schoolyard too. When we pulled away, their jaws were all on the ground. David's face was buried in his hands.
"Ready to go, Niccolo?" Julio asked me with a grin.
"I think we did our job," I replied, looking over the still-gaping crowd. "See ya 'round, Davey."
We sauntered away, smirking and laughing, wondering when they'd pick their chins off the ground, and what the hell they'd ask David.
After wasting away the afternoon in a balcony at Medda's, Cowboy approached us at the Lodging House and pulled us aside.
"Heard ya went and bugged the shit out of Dave," he said, trying to sound casual, but Julio and I knew he was pissed as all hell. David had probably come to him all upset that afternoon and it had taken most likely a quick reverse Mouth-ing (I crack myself up sometimes) to make him feel better.
"We was just having fun, Cowboy," Julio explained.
"Snoddy, inspecting each others throats in front of all his school friends ain't 'just having fun'." And before I could comment, he added swiftly, "And don't say it was fun for you two. Your sense of humor don't go over well with Dave, Race, you know that."
"You shoulda seen their faces, Jacky," I replied. "I'm tellin' ya, even you woulda laughed."
"Listen," Jack said, "don't do it again, okay?"
"Yes, Mommy," Julio and I said together mockingly as I pulled him close.
"I'm tellin' ya, Jack, you shoulda been there! You'll never see it now!" I warned him. "Their teeth were literally chewin' on the cobblestone!"
Jack arched an eyebrow. "Really? They was that surprised?"
"They were!" Julio exclaimed. "No lying, they really were!"
"You could make an exception," I pointed out to Jack when I noticed the glint in his eye. "We could go an do it again, but only if you came and…supervised."
"Supervised." Jack tested the word on his tongue with an obligatory, exaggerated carefulness. "I think I can handle that."
"We'll be up at five, ready for supervision," I told him slowly, and then I dragged Julio out of the room with me to sign in with Kloppman.
Tomorrow, me and Julio are going down to the schoolyard again, this time with Jack in tow, to see what we can stir up.
And let me tell you, it's going to be great.