Author's Notes: Yes! This is my very first parody! I saw the movie "Orphan" last night and I actually thought that it was the most disturbing film I've ever seen. I still cannot wrap my mind over that sex kitchen scene and I'm still disturbed by the fact that Esther displayed some signs of the classic Electra complex in which the girl becomes attracted to the father and rebels against the mother; she actually tried to seduce her own adoptive father and was dressed like a hooker! She was a psychotic nut all the way! So since I wanted to try something new and I wanted to rest for a little bit until I can start updating on my Chopsuey story, I figured I could write this story.
Okay, so the story basically makes fun of some of the elements portrayed in the original film; this would be considered a dark comedy in most aspects. This novel actually starts out with a little prologue that takes place at the last day of school and as Sydney and Arabella settle down for bed, Lee prepares to tell them a strange story of suspense, horror, passion, rage, and a crazy little monster in their midst.
Many of the quirks attributed to Rhonda and all of the events mentioned that occurred in her life has actually happened to me because this past school year has been tough for me and I've been having a lot of difficulties. I also thought I should give a brief mention about autism because everyone needs to know about it and not only it does exist but there are a lot of kids with it, myself included. Autism has impacted my life in more ways than I can imagine and I would like to educate people about it. Of course this disease is not the focus of the story and if I were to write a story about autism, I would.
Okay, so the basic storyline is that in this alternate tale, Suzanne Carmichael has the baby but Justine ends up dying as a result of complications shortly after birth. The elderly woman is then devastated at the loss and she spirals into a deep depression as everyone tries to help her cope with the tragedy. Desperate to relieve his wife of her misery, Beatrice Petrie suggests that she and Thomas go to a local orphanage in South London and apply to foster yet another child. The Carmichaels are initially hesitant to take in another child, especially since they are still in the process of adopting Kip and trying to block his biological mother's efforts to win custody of him, but agree to give it a try.
They soon head off to the orphanage and soon meet up with a 12-year-old German boy named Lester Hooligan and are enamored with him. Lester is then taken home and introduced to the entire Petrie and Team Legacy clan, including the Baxters, (Brenda, Bill and Camden), and everyone tries their best to be hospitable and welcoming towards his stay. However, it appears that Lester is very distrusting towards the men in the team and is flirting with several of the female members, including his own foster mother Suzanne, his foster sister Susanna and his fellow teammates Brenda and Lee. Lester also appears to be extremely jealous towards some of the other young males, including Camden and Kip, and vows to dispose of them to win Susanna's affections.
To make matters worse, Thomas must deal with Lee's lust for Suzanne and must prevent her from trying to seduce his wife into sleeping with her. Lester also begins to display sociopathic tendencies and other disturbing instances of behavior, and seems to have a fixation on older women as well. It is not long before his thoughts turn to murder and he draws out a hit list to get rid of all of the male members of the Legacy so he could have all the women to himself. In the meantime, Lester is also pursued by a female French mercenary named Tiramisu, who suspects that there is more going on with him than anyone is aware of.
Now Team Legacy must go on the warpath and defend their ohana from the intruder that masqueraded as one of their own. As they uncover more shocking information regarding Lester's obscure past, they must use the knowledge they have to foil his plans before everyone gets into serious danger. Will the demon within be destroyed or will the demon end up consuming them?
Rate and review please!
A Child In Their Midst
Rhonda Petrie
June 10th 2010
Chapter 1 - The Story Begins
One night, Sydney, Arabella, Abigail and Sybille were busy playing on the Wii while standing in the Petrie family's living room. School had just let out for the year and the Legacy had managed to complete their third year of high school. Rhonda was just busy watching her siblings, daughter and future stepdaughter play as she was reclining in the newly bought sofa chair and was covered with a soft, thick blanket, with a sad, tired look in her eyes.
It had been a difficult and trying year not only for her, but for the rest of the team due to many of the trials and tribulations involving their family. Rhonda's grandfather was now put in a nursing home due to his dementia in South London and so far neither she nor her team, her parents or even her stepsiblings have even gotten a chance to visit him so far. As for her step-grandmother, though, she is now living in their old cottage by the lake in the rural areas with her adult son.
Rhonda was also just getting used to the fact that she has now been officially been diagnosed with autism, something she and her ohana had suspected for many, many years, particularly her parents. Sybille had always commented on how from the moment she was born that Rhonda seemed very odd and strange and despite of being 17 years of age, seemed to act very much like a child.
Even though Rhonda was very mature for her age and had a very high intellect that far surpasses those of her stepsiblings, she did possess some quirks. For one thing, she always had a tendency to finger and play with pant leggings, bed sheets, and comforters that had smooth edges. Another one of her many idiosyncrasies was that she tended to run around the room with that silly laugh of hers while letting her imagination run wild and Abigail and Sybille would just stare at her, confused and puzzled as usual by their older stepsister's bizarre antics.
Rhonda also tended to trust people openly, particularly several members of her family and team and had great trouble determining whether or not people were joking, which was most of the time. And if that's not all, there's her usual arsenal of fears. From one day to the next, she would fear even the most miniscule thing, with lead constantly terrifying her, compelling her to handle Publix bags with care. Rhonda was constantly afraid of being hit on the head, dating from her perpetual fear of flying balls back in the 5th grade at South London Elementary School, and having her invaluable imagination and intelligence permanently damaged.
Rhonda was also sensitive towards any strange fumes in the house, particularly paint from some of the workers that have been spending the last week or so repainting the Petrie home, and was fearful of losing her brain cells and sanity. She was also very mindful of crazy thoughts that would just pop out of her head and would completely change her perception of the world, and this prospective would constantly frighten her. Rhonda was also fearful of losing her talents, including her writing abilities, and dreamed every day of one day becoming a writer.
For the past several days she would fret that she was choking on her own food and one night during dinner she had to constantly go into the garage to refill a glass of water to make sure that she swallowing her food completely; she would also check her face in the mirror over and over again to make sure that her face wasn't turning blue.
However, the young Englishwoman tried to deal with her fears day in and day out and many times had tried to convince herself that her fears were just folly, but somehow they would always pop back with a vengeance. She would even try to control her thoughts by putting in substitute words to banish the dangerous words from her mind. This paranoid behavior was now worrying her entire family, including Sybille and Abigail.
It even seemed that at times Rhonda might seem suicidal, and just several months ago she had threatened suicide, shocking and panicking her entire family. To this day her father still could not believe her daughter had wanted to take her own life; this unsettled even some of her ghost teammates that had committed suicide themselves many years prior to joining the team.
Rhonda was then sent to the counselor's office to discuss about her feelings. And just not too long ago, she was sent to the counselor's office again, this time for some deep and disturbing poetry that she did for a project that worried her English teacher. However, it was determined that Rhonda was not in immediate danger and she was soon dismissed for class.
All Rhonda wanted to do was to ignore that part of her life that she was particularly ashamed of and pretend it had never happened, just like other screw-ups in her life. But, on the whole, she was happy with her family and her team, and despite all odds she was still secretly dating Lee Dumonde, who made her extremely happy. On the last day of school, Rhonda had thought of proposing to Lee Dumonde a month after her birthday, and she even discussed it briefly with Lee. Lee was elated and said that nothing would make her happier than if she were to marry her.
Lee thought of Rhonda as one of her only true friends and was greatly fond of her and would do anything to make her happy. She was greatly amused by her eccentric mannerisms and was touched by her compassion and kindness. The two women were inseparable and were often seen sitting together at lunch and now Lee would accompany her lover on missions.
Lee also loved many of Rhonda's children, including Omari and Arabella, who she considered to be her favorites. Despite of the fact that Lee had originally kidnapped Omari and had put his life in danger, she had developed a very strong bond with the young lion cub and treated him as if he were her own son, notwithstanding the fact that she was pregnant with a son of her own, Logan.
As for Omari, he would be at times wary and shy around his future stepmother but at the same time loved spending time with her and now would not mind if she actually did become his new stepmother. As for Arabella, the sight of Lee makes her jump for joy and excitable, especially since she and Sydney had been raised together by Rhonda and Lee for the first four months of their lives; thus, Arabella considered her almost like her own mother.
However, Sydney had a slightly different relationship with her mother; she would often clash with Lee due to her deceitful and beguiling personality and her still raging desire to come up with bizarre and crazy schemes, particularly those engineered to win back her ex-husband Doug's heart. Sydney was also furious at the fact that her mother was constantly unfaithful to Rhonda by cheating with a number of Team Legacy members, including Chopsuey, one of her oldest lovers, Elaine Paige, one of their more recent adversaries and sometime allies, and Suzanne Carmichael, one of Rhonda's most trusted teammates and one of her dearest friends as well as her trusted lieutenant.
Despite of the difficulties and differences that have been going on for many years and now in recent months, the Legacy still managed to function as a real family and really loved one another as if they were one ohana.
The four children were busy playing Mario Kart and Sydney was Bowser, Arabella was Yoshi, Abigail was Princess Peach, and Sybille was Birdo, and they were busy competing again one another. "I'm gonna get you, Sydney!" Arabella cried eagerly. "No, I'm going to get you first, Arabella!" Sydney growled snarkily as her Bowser slammed into Arabella's Yoshi with a punt of her Wii remote and the young dinosaur went careening into the sidelines onscreen. "Hey! That's not fair, Sydney!" Arabella snarled at her older stepsister. "Nobody said life was fair, my dear sister," Sydney chuckled evilly.
"Hey! Let's not fight, guys! It's just a game," Sybille interjected as she tried to maintain peace between her step-niece and her stepsister. Sydney then lunged at Arabella with her Wii remote, causing her to scream. That was when Rhonda snapped out of her perpetual daydream and stepped into the situation to try and calm things down. "Okay, what's going on here?" she demanded sternly. "Sydney's playing dirty, Mommy. She's being mean to me, Sybille and Abigail," Arabella wailed pitifully. "Sydney, say you're sorry or no one gets to play the Wii for the rest of the night," Rhonda ordered her firmly and Sydney sighed and turned to Arabella.
"I'm sorry, Arabella," she apologized to her playmate and companion. "It's okay, Sid. I forgive you," Arabella smiled before she walked over to her older future stepsister and nuzzled her lovingly, making her smile. Sydney then returned the gesture. "Come on, darlings. You should be heading to bed now," Lee Dumonde announced as she strolled into the room and went over to the Wii and abruptly turned it off.
"Why, Mother? Why do we have to go to bed so soon? It's summer," Sydney protested. "That's my point exactly, my darling. You have been up at 6 in the morning all year long and as young cubs you need up to 8 to 9 hours of sleep. I want you four to be rested up for the next school year so you would have more energy to keep up with your work," Lee Dumonde countered pithily as she turned off the television screen and approached both Sydney and Arabella before picking them up and joining Rhonda to head upstairs to tuck the little ones to bed. Arabella laid her head on her future stepmother's shoulder as her eyes drooped sleepily and she yawned while stretching her body on her chest.
Lee peered down at the young rose colored cub and gave a sweet, proud smile as she nuzzled her future stepdaughter lovingly and licked her face with her tongue as a gesture of affection. Sydney was squirming and wriggling in her mother's arms restlessly as she struggled to escape her clutches. It was not long before they finally reached the top of the stairs and headed to Rhonda's room, where not only did she have a bunk bed where she slept at the top and Lee slept at the bottom, but there was also an enormous dog bed located next to the bunk bed with three pillows lying next to one another and covered with a huge comforter.
As they entered the room, Lee and Rhonda sat down on the bed and Lee let Sydney and Arabella jump out of her arms and the two cubs landed on the floor before Sydney shook her fur furiously and Arabella proceeded to lick herself. Lee glanced back at Rhonda and a frown immediately creased her elegant face as she realized that something was wrong with her partner.
"Rhonda, darling, you look very ill. You really should head to bed now," she murmured concernedly and Rhonda crawled into bed and lay down on her bed while Lee tucked her in and petted her forehead tenderly with a sad look in her eyes. She then lay down beside her and cradled her close to her as she kissed her face softly and Rhonda blinked drowsily as she rubbed her forehead exhaustedly.
"Is Rhonda going to be okay, Mother?" Sydney asked her mother and Lee turned around and gazed austerely at the children. "She'll be all right; this year was just pure hell for her, that's all. She just looks so worn out and exhausted that it hurts to see her in pain," Lee replied softly as she glimpsed back at Rhonda to watch her sleeping.
"Can you tell us a story, Mother?" Sydney beseeched her. "Yeah, Lee. Please tell us a story; pretty please with a cherry on top," Arabella whimpered pleadingly as she pouted with her sad puppy dog eyes and Lee sighed while rolling her eyes as Sydney added, "We don't want to go to bed yet, Mother." "Yeah, we're not too tired," Arabella whined. And as the cubs kept on begging and pleading and persisting that Lee tell them a story, the young woman scowled and finally nearly exploded. "All right, all right, all right! I'll tell you a story, one story and that is it, all right?" she relented firmly.
"We're sorry, Lee. We're just not sleepy yet," Arabella moaned. "Well you will be eventually, my little one. I'll make sure by the time I finish the tale you two will be sound asleep and I'll take you to your dog bed where you will sleep," Lee smiled mischievously as she lay down beside the sleeping Rhonda and she patted her lap for the cubs to sit on; the lioness cubs immediately obeyed and jumped on top of their mother and nestled on her chest as they prepared to hear what she had to say.
"Now what do you hear tonight?" Lee inquired her children. Arabella's eyes darted absentmindedly before she came up with a suggestion. "Tell us the time where you tried to seduce Uncle Doug and Aunt Julie caught you in a room with him and she started kicking your butt!" Arabella squealed enthusiastically before Sydney quickly smacked her across the head for her stupid remark.
"Another time, Arabella," Lee Dumonde answered briskly, trying not to yell at Arabella for bringing up an incident she would rather forget, as she cleared her throat and the cubs stared at her for a few moments before Sydney's eyes gleamed with delight and an idea came to her. "How about you tell us about the movie Orphan, Mother? You did say you saw that movie earlier tonight," Sydney suggested innocently. "Do you really want to hear what the movie is about?" Lee importuned her daughter with an impish, sly simper in her lips.
"Yes please!" Arabella gushed happily and Sydney groaned in exasperation as she rolled her eyes sassily. "You do know that it is rated R and there are some naughty things in that film that you should not see yet," Lee chuckled mischievously with a smile. "Really, Mother? There are plenty of R-rated things that occur in this house every day, you know," Sydney smirked just as mischievously and Lee cast a scathing glare at her four-month-old daughter.
"Don't play smart with me, young lady," she chided her sharply. "Just because we grown-ups do things that might be inappropriate for children, does not necessarily mean you get to watch R-rated films. You should wait until you are your future stepmother's age before I will allow you to watch R-rated movies." "Okay then, why don't you come up with your own version of Orphan? It's better than doing a narrative of the actual film," Sydney proposed another recommendation.
"You know, I've always wanted to do that. I've seen a ton of movies where I've always wanted to write parodies on them. But of course I lack my partner's talent but that doesn't mean I still don't have a crazy ass imagination," Lee Dumonde chuckled with amusement as she grinned sweetly.
"Why not, Lee? You could just tell us your own interpretation of the movie. We would love to hear it," Arabella giggled. Lee sighed before adding, "Well, okay. I'll tell you an alternate story about The Orphan. And it's going to star the whole entire family."
"(Gasp) Are we going to be in the story too, Lee?" Arabella shrieked excitedly. "We'll see, darling. Right now I have to start. The film started with a tragedy, so I'll decide which family should be at the center of the tragedy. And I'm picking the Carmichaels," Lee smirked impishly. "The Carmichaels? Mother, won't Suzanne be offended?" "Sydney, it's just a story. It's not like I'm actually going to write it down or anything," Lee chuckled good-naturedly.
"And… I might even put in a kinky little sex scene with your Uncle Doug and me." "MOTHER!" Sydney yelled, appalled and dismayed while Arabella giggled uncontrollably beside her. "What the hell? Are you obsessed with Uncle Doug or something?" "Let's just say that your Uncle Doug is one of my favorite people. And now we may begin." Sydney and Arabella snuggled together as their eyes gazed up, anticipating for Lee to begin her story, and it was not long before Lee began to relate the tale of a little German boy and how the young male orphan ended up in the midst of the circle of the world's most famous superheroes.