Chapter 1
The Runaway
It was morning. The smell of dew filled the air and the sound of birds chirping in distant trees welcomed the new day. She opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings, trying to remember the previous day's events. The blue tarp she was wrapped around her didn't help her much, so she uncovered herself.
"Aw, man!" she exclaimed as a gush of water fell on her, wetting her black dress, soaking through to her pale white skin, "that's right," she remembered, "it rained last night." She let out a sigh. "I better find this place today, this is the only pair of clothes I have!"
She shuffled out of the tarp slowly, in fear of being wet more, and sat on the end of the park bench in which she slept. "Ugh, what a night… why can't wood be soft?" she asked herself.
She reached under the bench for her bag, pulled out a mirror and begun fixing her long blood red hair, parting it to the left as she usually did. Luckily, there were only a few tangles. She tried to leave quickly and quietly the other night, so she only packed a few essentials.
She began to check the stitches on her arms, legs and body; hoping that none had fallen out during her rough sleep last night. She looked back into the mirror, making sure she had a clean face; the one place where stiches weren't imagined on her. If the two on her cheeks, and the one on her forehead weren't counted.
When she figured she looked decent enough, she got off the bench and began to shake out her tarp so she could pack it away.
"Hi!" said a sudden friendly voice. She looked behind her to find a very large pair of shoes with very long socks, however, there was more to the figure than that. She looked up trying to find a face. "I'm Wilt. Are you lost?" he said with a smile. He stood there waiting for a reply. He looked very friendly, so he probably wasn't of any threat. He was tall and red, with a big blue '1' on his torso, and a stubby left arm. Also he had a broad face with three evenly sized nubs on each side; two of which were scared. His eyes protruded from the top of his head, however, the one on the left was bent and broken, rattling whenever he moved his head. He wore only socks, shoes, and a wristband on his right arm.
"Hi." she replied sheepishly almost blushing. "Yeah, I am kinda lost actually. I was looking for this place, where they give imaginary friends a home… Foster's something…" she began to trail off.
"Foster's home for imaginary friends?"
"Yeah! That's it!" she said excitedly. Maybe she would finally be able to find this place.
"Well, you're in luck!" he said with a chuckle, "I happen to live there."
"Will you take me there?" she asked, still excited.
"Of course! As soon as I find Frankie and Madame Foster."
"Who are they?" ask asked, looking puzzled.
"Well Madame Foster is the founder of Foster's home for imaginary friends- but you'll learn more about her, and how Foster's started when we give you the tour."
"Neat! I get a tour!" she said regaining her excitement from before.
Wilt laughed. He seemed pleased by her excitement. "And Frankie is her granddaughter; she helps out around the house".
"Alrighty then!" she said with a smile, however, this time she was more collected. "Let's go meet them! I just gotta finish packing my tarp away. Thankyou Wilt, you've saved me a whole day of searching."
"No problem- oh, I'm sorry! I never asked you your name."
"My name is Muñeca Fantasma. But people just call me Fanta." she said politely.
"Oh, okay. Did you want some help folding your-" he paused for a moment.
"Uh, Wilt?" She waved her hand up at him to see if she could distract him out of his gaze. He looked at her, grimacing. "Uh-"
"Did you…"
"Did I what?" She asked, confused.
Grimacing, he pointed towards the wet patch on her dress. Just her luck, the water from the tarp earlier had fallen onto her crotch. She looked down at her patch on her dress and blushed.
She then looked back at him. "I'll have you know that that is rain water." Then with a shy expression she continued "it rained last night, and I forgot that when I uncovered myself this morning."
"Oh, okay," he said with a look of relief. "I'm sorry, it just looked like you… you know…" he said with a slight grimace.
"Yeah I know. Hopefully it'll dry soon." she replied. They then folded up Fanta's tarp and headed off to find Frankie and Madame Foster.
As they walked through the park together, looking for Frankie and Madame Foster, Wilt's suddenly spoke, "By the way, what were you doing sleeping on a park bench in the rain last night? I'm sorry, is it okay to ask?"
"Yeah, it's okay to ask." she said politely, "But it's a bit of a long story…"
"I don't mind", he said with a smile. This guy seemed to smile a lot. She found this comforting in a strange way.
"Well, I was created when my girl was about four. Her name is Sarah. As you can probably tell from my accent, we grew up in Australia. Things were all well and good there, you know. We were the best of friends, we'd spend all day riding our bikes to the park and just hanging out and playing. Things were awesome.
"Until one day when Sarah was about seven, her dad got a job over here in America. I think the company he was working for was going to start out over seas, and so they promoted him to CEO of the company over here… or something. Anyways, it's not important. So naturally, Sarah, her mum and I, had to move here. For the first year, things were pretty cool. Sarah was settling in well at school, making new friends, and I was discovering the wonders of American television." She giggled, then let out a sigh. So many funny memories. "So yeah, things were awesome. That was until around April, a few months after Sarah's eighth birthday…"
"Did she decide that she didn't want you anymore?"
"No. Worse." Fanta paused for a moment, "She thought up another imaginary friend." she said with a serious tone.
Wilt looked at Fanta in disbelief. "Okay, I'm sorry, but, why would she need to imagine another friend?" he asked, "Didn't she already have you?"
"Four years is a long time, you know? People change… She was in a new country with new influences. I guess she just didn't want a rag doll as a best friend anymore."
"What is he or she like?" asked Wilt, now with a sympathetic look on his face.
"Who?"
"The new friend."
"Her name's Bridget and she's like a mini California Beach Barbie. Pretty much the exact opposite of me, if you don't count gender." Fanta crossed her arms and looked to the ground grumpily. "Oh yeah, and she's into 'Fashion' and 'cosmetics'." She added in a mocking tone.
Wilt was still listening attentively, occasionally looking around for Frankie and Madame Foster. "I know it's terrible that your girl doesn't want you anymore; but don't let it get you down. Once we get you to Foster's, I'm sure someone will adopt you soon."
Fanta nodded sadly. She just wanted Sarah back.
"It's August now," Wilt began, "so I take it this happened a few months ago?"
"A few years…"
Wilt stopped walking and paused for a moment, "I'm sorry, but, a few years!?"
"Three to be exact. Sarah created Bridget when she was eight and I was four. So that makes Bridget three years old, Sarah eleven years old and I'm seven".
Wilt stood their in disbelief. "So you've been walking around and sleeping on park benches for three years!?"
Fanta burst out in laughter and held her stomach, causing Wilt to look slightly confused. "No!" she giggled. "I may be bad with directions but it wouldn't take me three years to find Fosters! Besides, my town is about fifteen miles away, so it's not like I've travelled from the other side of the country or anything."
"So let me get this straight." he paused for a second, "You stayed with your creator for three years even though she already had a new best friend?"
"Yeah, pretty much." she said candidly.
"Wasn't it awkward?"
"No not really. They excluded me a lot so I wasn't really around when they did stuff, except for the first few weeks."
"Why did you stay? I mean, if that's okay to ask." he asked, curious
.
"Well, where else could I go?" she replied, "I just hung around hoping that perhaps one day we could all be friends… even though I didn't really like Bridget. She's a bad influence on Sarah. Really turned her into a bi-"
"Whoa, okay. I'm sorry, but there's no need to use that kind of language."
"What? I was gonna say bimbo." she said with a light hearted smirk. "But yeah, that other word would be correct too." she added, he smirk fading.
"So when did you leave?" Wilt asked ignoring her last sentence.
"Not last night, but the night before that."
"Does she know where you're going?" he questioned, sounding slightly concerned.
"Yeah, I left her a note. I figured it wouldn't be right if I just disappeared without a trace. But I know better than to think she would come looking for me." Fanta looked down, saddened by her recollection.
"Hey now, don't feel down," Wilt said, now smiling. Again giving Fanta that odd sense of comfort. "You never really know for sure; and plus, there's a child out there that probably needs you more than Sarah does."
"Yeah," said Fanta, now smiling too, "I guess your right."
"WILT!" called a young redheaded lady from perhaps 100 metres down the path, almost near the park entrance. She also looked quite friendly. From what Fanta could see she wore a light green jacket over a white shirt, a skirt, a pair of sneakers and she had short hair, done up in a stylishly messy ponytail. She guessed that she would most likely be Frankie. Next to her was a little old lady who Fanta assumed to be Madame Foster. She wore big glasses, a green cardigan and had her hair neatly done up in a bun.
As they got closer, Fanta could see that they were waiting near a colourfully painted bus.
"Hey guys!" Wilt said with a smile. "I have someone I'd like you to meet." He gestured his only hand towards Fanta who stood their analysing their reaction.
The young lady took a few steps towards Fanta. "Hi! I'm Frankie" She said with a smile, "And this is Madame Foster", she gestured towards to little old lady beside her. "What's your name?"
"My name's Muñeca Fantasma. But people just call me Fanta." She replied politely.
"So Fanta, have you lost your kid? Or are you in need of a new home?" she asked kindly, bending over in Fanta's direction.
"I'm in need of a new home" she replied. "I've been trying to find fosters for more than a day now. Luckily, Wilt found me," she gestured he hand towards Wilt who stood behind her, "so I don't have to sleep on a bench tonight! Yay!" she rejoiced, then paused suddenly. "Right?"
"Of course deary" said Madame Foster, kindly, as she patted Fanta on the head. "You'll get a nice soft mattress."
Fanta grinned. "Excellent."
Author's Note (For the whole story)--
Hi! Thanks for reading! I hope you guys want to read the rest. If so (or even if not) please review! Many thanks! Anyways… I'm not very good at describing, so here's a quick description of Muñeca Fantasma (Pronounced: Moong-eh-kah Fahn-tahs-mah. It's Spanish. Directly translated: Doll Ghost.)
OK. First of all she has deep red hair that goes down to her butt, and her hair parting is on the left side. She's about the same size as Bloo, just several centimetres shorter. Her skin is pale white and she has stitches all over her body (Kind of like Sally from TNMBC), but only a few around the outskirts of her face. She wears a black dress with short t-shirt kind of sleeves and a light blue band around her waist. She also wears a black collar with a round, light blue pendant. Her dress goes about knee length an she wears black 'school girl' kind of shoes. And that's pretty much it. I actually did draw picture on Microsoft paint of what she would actually look like on Foster's. This took me ages to do. I'm not much of an artist, but I think it's pretty damn good.
LINK: http:// pokie2u. deviantart .com /art /Muneca-Fantasma-FanCharacter- 101601576
You just gotta get rid of the spaces. If the link doesn't work just go to my gallery on deviant art and look for it. It's pokie2u. ^_~
By the way: I do realise that I have completely disregarded Mr. Herriman's rule about meal times (the one in the episode 'Dinner is swerved') throughout the story. It just didn't work for me, y'know? () ENJOY!
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My inspiration: Wilt, because I find him quite charming.
Songs I listened to whilst writing/editing this: I'm Yours - Jason Mraz, Phantom of the Opera - Nightwish, Prayer of the Refugee - Rise Against, Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin.
Chapters: 15