Disclaimer: I don't own Hey! Arnold nor its characters, but I like to think I own a part of Curly's history, such as his parents, as this story follows. I hope you enjoy, and please review. I don't improve if you don't talk.
HA
The yelling was growing louder, and definitely more elaborate. Chinese Cantonese had begun overwhelming English as the voices rose, and through the tent screen she could see heads poking out to see what was happening, their shadows flickering with the small fires. Most of the other performers had picked up some of the foreign language as the group traveled, but it was these arguments that left them confused and somewhat uncomfortable. It's a shame it's so hard for tones and subtext to be picked up with Cantonese, otherwise the others might feel a bit more at ease.
She nearly laughed as her mother let loose another string of Cantonese curses at her father about his intelligence, that light sound of her voice lost in the harsh clips of their native tongue. Her father shot right back with a jab at her cooking, which was right about when objects started flying.
The young woman laughed at her elders before exiting the front of the tent, waving away the concerned looks from her fellow performers. One would think that after so many years of working with Liu` Gan and his wife Xui Li, they would be more use to the Chinese family and their exaggeration of all things normal. Apparently not; at least, not in America – foreign things tend to stay, well, foreign.
The sky was dark, save for the stars dotting it and forming the constellations. Her favorite had to be the Milky Way, not only for it's parentage of a candy bar, but because it was supposedly the road to Valhalla. Breathing deep, she watched as the air around her became visible.
"Meilin!" the just-past-puberty voice of her little brother stopped Meilin in her tracks, and she turned to see him rushing towards her, narrowly avoiding the sword juggler.
"Quiet Hao! You're going to get me caught." She whispered back sternly, grabbing him by his jacket collar and pulling him behind a nearby tree. That was one of the few useful things about being part of a traveling circus: terribly easy to sneak out in the middle of the night. At least, it was easy when her nosy, noisy little brother wasn't getting her caught.
"Where're you going?" he asked, trailing his sister as she led the way from the circle of tents and fires, laughter and food towards the more deserted section of the park.
"To find something to eat that's decidedly more American. If I have one more dinner of sweet and sour chicken with vegetable fried rice, pork chow mien and egg flour soup I'm going to explode." She over-exaggerated in true Liu` fashion, throwing her arms in the air as she made her way down the path leading out of the park, little brother faithfully in her wake.
Stopping casually on the sidewalk of the main thoroughfare, the dark Chinese eyes scanned the strip of lights before landing on a sign that brought a smile of mischief to her lips. When her brother had caught up to her, she spread her arms to the sky in praise of an unseen deity.
"O Ominous Unknown Force thy name is Dicksburger!" she cried in mischievous glee before crossing the street, almost tasting the burger on her tongue. Hao watched her for a moment, then jogged after his sister in confusion.
"Dick's? Why would you eat there? You know our food is ten times better for you than that mess of drive-in bio-hazard." Turning around so she could face him, Meilin walked backwards while taunting her little brother.
"Only if you believe in ancient Chinese fortune cookie." She replied in a mocking tone, mimicking her mother's southern province dialect the old woman never lost, "And mess of drive-in bio-hazard? Oh, good job Hao, way to improve those vocabulary skills." she teased, before performing a hop-skip-n-jump into a roundoff back handspring that took her across the street and into the parking lot of her desired drive in. Hao only watched her, shaking his head and just how much of a show-off his sister really is.
Narrowly avoiding a Toyota pickup truck he swore was gunning for him, Hao joined Meilin in sitting on a parking space stoop where she was animatedly talking to a cute waitress. He instantly recognized although could place her, but Meilin obviously knew the young woman.
"The usual Meilin?" she asked in a bubbly and only half-faked cheery tone, pencil and notepad at the ready. Her green eyes shifted to him, following his movements as he bent almost outrageously low to be included by his sister – before flickering back to the older Chinese-American.
"You know me too well, Sammy. Hao will have the same thing, won't you brother?" she offered, noticing his absent nod as he watched the young waitress intently. Sam smiled with her own nod, punctuating the order with a stab of her pencil before assuring them their food will be ready soon. Turning on her heel, Sam issued a good-natured farewell while heading back to the kitchen. Surprisingly the drive-in was relatively quiet for a Thursday night, but that just meant that Meilin and Hao wouldn't have to explain what they were wearing over and over and over again.
They were, after all, skipping rehearsal for their little slice of heaven. That being said, the pair was clad in matching orange and black Chinese-style uniforms, albeit a bit tighter for aerodynamics. The slippers on their feet, while great for gripping the stage and fellow performers' clothing, did little to keep the night air out.
The routine stillness of the lot was disrupted suddenly by the engine of a Ford pickup, two young men in the cab and three more people in the bed. They were laughing, and the Chinese siblings could pick up bits of their conversation.
"I'm just saying, the Olympics are going down hill fast." One young man stated, what must have been again because the others groaned in annoyance. A young girl – the only one – slipped from the bed of the truck and mocked what had to have been her brother. All five of them looked far too alike to be anything other than siblings.
"We know, Tobias, you've only been telling us this every chance you get since we left the farm." In retaliation, the man put her in a headlock and gave her a noogie. She fought tooth and nail to get free, much to the amusement of the men around her.
"Toby has a point though. I tried watching figure skating the other night – had to shut it off because I deemed it too gay to be a sport." The youngest of the boys informed, and by this time they were close enough to the Liu` siblings that Meilin just had to say something.
"I didn't think it was possible for something to be too gay to be a sport." She mentioned offhandedly, and Hao nearly laughed when the five others stopped what they were doing and turned to look at his sister, almost simultaneously.
"What?" that youngest boy asked, and Meilin finally turned fully to look at them, almost swallowing her tongue at how cute he looked.
"Well, Webster defines sport as any recreational activity, specifically a game, competition, etc requiring bodily exertion. Sports are just actions put together in sequence to create something – how can an action be too gay to be an action? And once it reaches that point, what does it become? That alone makes your statement 'too gay to be a sport', false." she elaborated, and the young man's jaw dropped even lower. One of the other men, the one that looked to be the oldest, laughed at the exchange.
"Well I'll be damned, you're the first person besides mom that made him speechless. Mind if we sit with you?" he asked, and Meilin smiled in return while motioning that the five were welcome.
"Thanks. I'm Tim, and this is my twin, Max," the other man nodded his greeting, "Tobias," he winked, and Meilin laughed with nothing but kindness, "Our little sister, Tess," the girl clipped her nose with her thumb to indicate how tough she was, but still smiled warmly, "And the Wordless Wonder over there is Martin." His jaw was still hanging, and there was the faint dusting of a blush on his cheeks, but Meilin only smiled and looked over each of them.
Yep, they were definitely siblings – it was like carbon copy after carbon copy, with only small differences like age and hair lengths.
"I'm Meilin, and this is my little brother Hao." She introduced as their food arrived, and both her and her brother tossed a small handful of salt over their shoulders. Their dinner companions watched them strangely, before digging into their own food.
"You guys must be regulars; I didn't see you order yet your food's already here." Hao managed out from a large mouthful of burger, only to be rewarded by laughter from his new friends and a head-smack from his sister.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." She scolded through her own big bite of burger, eliciting the others to laugh even more.
"Yeah, this is our usual haunt when we're not on the farm. Sammy knows our orders by heart, DONTCHA SAM?!" Tobias shouted out, to which she turned from the customer she was helping to smile.
"YEAH, MUCH TO MY DISPLEASURE!" she called back, grinning as he blew her a kiss. Max and Tim noticed the way Martin was eying their new companions, especially the pretty little Meilin, and couldn't help but snicker.
"So, Meilin and Hao, what's with the get-ups?" Max asked, while his twin grabbed Hao's elbow and fingered the material. Meilin laughed, and threw the spilt salt she intended for her fries over her shoulder before answer.
"We're part of the Red Tent Troupe that's staying in Ester Short Park." She explained as she and her brother finished up their little guilty pleasures.
"You're circus performers?" Martin finally articulated, watching mystified as the two simultaneously stood and tossed their trash in the nearest bin – Meilin scored but Hao missed by a good foot. Before either one of them could comment on either their profession or the younger one's bad aim, a loud shout in a strange foreign language rang clear enough that it could be heard over the hubbub of the main street. Meilin and Hao shared a look, before smiling and heading back towards the park.
"Sorry, that's our mom, we gotta go" Hao explained after remembering to pick up his trash, lest he be accused of littering. Meilin laughed and began waling backwards as she waited for her brother.
"Yeah, but it was cool meeting you guys. We'll be staying at the park for at least another two weeks and our first show is tomorrow; you should drop by and see us! It's guaranteed to be a fun trip!" she called, before Hao caught up to her and they both did a mix of roundoff backhand springs, flips, and cartwheels across the road and into the entrance to the park.
The five watched them disappear from the lights into the darkness of the trees, stunned at their encounter with the circus siblings. Tess was first to break the awkward silence by taking a bite of her burger, and chewing it thoughtfully.
"I like 'em." She said between chews, trying to reduce the ridiculous size of her meat-bun-topping combo. Three of her four brothers looked at her slowly, while Martin just continued to watch the memory of Meilin's figure vanishing. Tim was the first to understand his little brother's look, and laughed at the thought of it. Turning to Max, he thumbed at the direction of the struck teen and winked.
"Maybe we'll stop by tomorrow night, if only to get that look again."
Of all five of the Gammelthorpe siblings, it was only Martin who wasn't thinking that the trip to Dicksburger was good for more reasons that just food. The young sixteen year old could only think of the pretty young Meilin, a circus performer who was both strange and, oddly enough, alluring.
And how he couldn't wait for tomorrow night.
HA