When the little hand is on the six and the big hand is on the 3, Ari's dad always comes to pick him up. He scoops him up, ruffles his hair and gives his perpetually exhausted smile. Jeb Batchelder carries Ari out to the golden minivan and buckles him carefully into his seat before settling in to listen to 45 minutes of Sesame Street coming through the speakers around them. And on Fridays, Jeb stops halfway through the daily drive to pick up an ice cream cone for the three year old.
But right now the little hand is on the seven and the big hand is on the double one. Ari watches as person after person slides their little card with the teeny tiny picture on it through the reader on the door, and person after person walks out the door, sometimes with a quick wave to him. Jeb should've walked out those doors any minute. But still Ari waited for him patiently, humming Mahna Mahna on repeat, stopping only to announce the Muppets to whoever was in the room. He couldn't wait for Jeb to play his favorite episode on the way home.
Luckily for him, time flies when you're three years old, especially since he couldn't read a clock, so he had no way of knowing that when he finally laid down across a couple of chairs with a jacket folded under his head, that he stayed up way past his 8 o'clock bedtime. He only knew that his dad was just a little bit late, and he'd be there when he woke up. Sleepovers were okay sometimes.
And then the next morning, Ari went on his usual routes, sneaking tiny pocketfuls of last night's cafeteria food dinners to some of his best friends, and walking around behind the whitecoats, most of whom were ignoring him today. Little hand on the 10, big hand on the twelve, cookie time in the break room. Dr. V for Valencia and Vacuum made good cookies, and she always liked to ask Ari questions about M for Maximum and Money.
He didn't get to go see Max until the little hand reached around to the one and two, a whole circle from cookie time, but that was the best part of the day. There was Max, who Ari absolutely and completely loved more than Rosita, F for Fang and Fairies, who scared Ari a little bit, but once gave him one of the special lollipops just for the experiments. And there's more. But Ari couldn't remember their names. Ever.
Even though sometimes Jeb let him help out the tall boy, Ari got to hold his hand and show him down the hallways. Jeb never told Ari why he got the job, and neither did… I for Icky and Ice? No matter what it was the second most fun part of Jeb's job. At least for Ari. But more importantly, Dr. Valencia made him chocolate cookies, and she let him eat as many as he wanted as long as he didn't tell his father about her questions.
And today Ari had a special secret. Fifty whole cents for the vending machine, which meant as long as he could find one of the grown up boys, he could get a Sprite to drink after the cookies. Now, waiting for Max time meant that he had time to read the chunky picture books he kept hidden in one of the cupboards. What Ari didn't know is that his hiding spot was well known, and each of the whitecoats took their turns buying new ones for him and setting them in there for him to find. Mostly the newer ones, the ones who still felt a little bit guilty for testing on the children there. Ari just thought his books were magic.
There was an I for Intern at the School named B for Brigid and Ball, who always popped her gum loudly said she never wanted or liked children, but always sat Ari and helped him sound words out anyways. Even if she did laugh at him from time to time. But Ari had the best pronunciation of any three year old in the state of America. So he liked Brigid, even if she didn't really like him back. Plus her hair looked like fire if she spun around really really fast, so Ari wanted to stay on her good side as long as he could. Crazy stuff happened around the School, and he didn't want to risk losing his books.
But something was wrong today. Brigid made him read four whole books, making him two big hand numbers late for Max time, and even then she would let him go. They went to her boss' office and looked at picture of cats and puppies Brigid was going to get for herself, and Ari made sure to remember to ask Jeb for one when they got to go home. A puppy of course, dogs were the best. Then she made Ari draw pictures, then paint them, and then she made him fill in a brand new Lilo and Stitch coloring book for her.
Finally Ari couldn't take it anymore, and slammed the markers shut in the plastic pencil case and did his best to stomp his heaviest all the way over to her door and pulled it open with a little more effort that he needed. Only a little. It was time to see Max. It was getting close to time for just a tiny rest.
Ari hopped down the hall, taking care to only jump in the red diamonds in the tiling on the floor. The blue ones weren't lucky, and bad stuff happened when he jumped on them. Last time he touched one, Jeb had gotten really angry at him and left him at home for three days. Ari hated being home alone. The stairs were creaky and he felt like he was being watched all the time. So it's always red tiles.
Brigid waited for a minute before following him, biting her lip carefully. He was going to find out sometime. And why not sooner than later. So she just stood behind him as his tiny fingers reached out for the next door handle, swinging it easily into the hall and skipping in cheerfully. Cheerfully. Until he found the empty cages. Just a few feathers settled at the bottom.
Instantly he bounced back, hauling himself up on top of the cages and pressing his face until it was flattened against the window, fogging up the glass quickly, and scanning the courtyard for his kind of friends.
Slowly, he pulled his fingers away and then his face after a few minutes of watching. He slumped slightly, disappointed that he'd missed them. He slipped off gently, back onto the top of the cage and then onto the floor. They were probably taking one of the tests Jeb told him about. Jeb was always talking about tests.
Ari didn't understand it really, but Jeb was always telling him that he was getting Ari ready for tests of his own when he was older. That's why Ari did his best when it came to reading. There was always reading on the tests on TV. Ari was gonna be super ready, and Jeb was going to be amazed by him and how awesome he was. Like Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl was his father's favorite superhero. Ari was going to be like Hawkgirl.
He was about to try and go back to his usual clockwork schedule, when he decided that M&Ms sounded like the perfect breakfast food. And luckily for him, Jeb always kept a secret stash in his top left drawer of his tiny desk kept in a teeny tiny closet.
Five quick steps and then yet another door thrown open to disappointment. The desk that was usually wildly overflowing with papers was completely cleared. Top left drawer. Empty. Top Right. Empty. Every single one of the drawers were empty. Except for the very bottom left, where Jeb kept his photo albums of Ari's mom and Ari. That was still very full. Every picture Ari had ever seen, ever been shown by his father was still sitting in there. Not that Ari knew that. All he knew was that the desk was empty.
And so he continued about his usual day. 3 o'clock a quick nap. 4 o'clock the TV room was empty, so it was Muppet time. 5 o'clock, dinner in the cafeteria. Today they had pork sandwiches to eat. Ari's favorite of anything ever. Besides M&Ms. And today Garett the X-Ray man gave Ari another 50 cents for another Sprite, and everyone at the table just whispered around him, not looking at him, and saying barely anything to him directly. Brigid was still glued to his side, with a really weird look on her face. Ari didn't know what it meant, but he kind of wondered if it meant she wasn't getting her puppy.
But again the little hand touched the six and the big hand touched the three and Ari watched everyone leave again before curling up on the chairs in the atrium again. And the next day. And the next. Every day Ari waited for his dad to pick him up again. He wouldn't even ask for ice cream even if it was Friday. He just wanted to go home and see his bed again. The chairs were hurting his neck, and he missed getting to hear Elmo and the Orchestra everyday. He couldn't help but wonder what his dad was working on. He never missed Sunday's. Ever.
The longer it went on the stranger Ari's life got. First going home with different friends of his dad's, then moving into one of the bunks in the building, and people kept going away. Dr. V just disappeared like Jeb, and Brigid said goodbye one day with no warning. The only good thing he could think of is every night at the school was movie night. Movies like X-Men. Garett showed him that one a lot.
It was a month before Ari got close to feeling anything like normal. And another month after that before Ari recognized what happened. No one came to help him when he was crying so hard he could barely breathe. They just let it happen. And again the night after that. Ari just wanted to go home. He didn't understand why Jeb didn't just take him with the other kids. He liked Max. Plus he was way better than the little little one. She could barely even walk on her own. And she had little chicken wings. Ari at least looked normal.
Considering he's only three, it's acceptable for him to forget exactly why he felt so hurt. Only that he was. Next time he saw his dad he was just gonna… He was gonna… Well, Ari didn't know what he was going to do. But he was gonna do something. He knew it. And it was gonna be good and his father was never ever gonna leave him by himself again because Ari was gonna be so cool. He was gonna be cooler than cool. And Jeb was gonna think he was definitely good. And Ari could go with him, go back to Max and Fang and the rest of them, and they could be a real family. Jeb would be the dad, and Ari could find a mom somewhere and then everyone would be happy because they'd be like all the story families. No one in Ari's books just has a dad.
So it's not surprising that it wasn't hard for a child to agree to something they didn't quite understand. All Ari knew is that he was gonna be like Wolfereen from the X-men. And it seemed like a good idea at the time, so why not. Besides, Jeb spent all day with the other Wolfereens. Maybe he'd spend all day with Ari if he changed too. Plus he could fight like they did in the movies.
A quick nod in response and then back to coloring. Elmo could be bright purple, because tomorrow, tomorrow Ari was going to get what he wanted. And he didn't even have to throw a tantrum for it.
A/N:Prologue. Chapter 1 of Many. I'm gonna attempt to keep up with this, but it is going to change styles next chapter because it's gonna be a real story! Who's pumped? I know I am! Ari probably isn't, but who cares? Not Jeb! I'm very aware that it's Wolverine, and that I'm not in any way related to James Patterson. theuniverse: Thanks for that.