The Warden sat behind his big desk, with his hands folded neatly in front of him. The man had brown hair that was beginning to tint in some places, but he was doing his best to ignore the onset of the color grey. He sniffed, causing his moustache to wriggle upon his upper lip and he waited. The call from Mr. Twist made him uncomfortable, knowing that Lucy had gone and disrupted her first day of class by attacking another student. seeing that the student in question was Wendolyn Scott only made the matters worse, if her parents caught wind of this he would be facing some angry phone calls, or even worse, visits. Then again, since when would the Scotts show up on his doorstep to accuse him of not properly raising a young girl like Lucy?
Poor little Lucy, he thought. Crashing out of the skies into his court yard where she was picked up by Matron, who was a woman who had been sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband. While she was still a convict, she had a place of respect and power with the other women in the jail so, in a way, she was like another Warden only a fellow prisoner who understood what it was like being stuck in here with nothing else to look forward to. Little Lucy had brought such joy to the women of the facility when she arrived. So many of them had children, or had lost their children, so the fact a baby had literally fallen out of the sky for them to tend to was like a dream come true.
She was named, naturally, for the sky she had fallen out of. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. That was tacked on in front of the anonymous name of Jane Doe, since there was no way to locate her parents even if they tried. She and her little fish had obviously come from somewhere otherworldly, and had chosen their jail as a place to land. It was a mixed blessing. While she brought joy to the female prisoners, she brought down a lot of pressure on him. Naturally he had tried to hand her onto child services, who, at seeing her for the first time recoiled. It was assumed she had a disease, a deadly virus that turned her skin blue. Then it was thought she suffered a genetic disorder, enlarging her head to the size it was and they wondered if she was in permanent pain.
Seeing how the child never cried without purpose, that idea was scrapped. Little Lucy was trouble from the get go, it seemed. After two weeks of living here somehow she'd gotten hold of a blow torch and had constructed a three wheeler trike and used that, combined with her binkey, to blast a hole in the jail. By then the Warden and Matron had realized the little girl had no where else to go, so to be allowed to peg a 'crime' on her and keep her in here with them, where she was safe and where she was loved, finally had a legal reason to do so.
She was an angel when she wanted to be. The little girl and her fish would sit quietly and read, watch TV, or be engrossed in stories by her 'aunts', the women who looked after her. Other times though she was a little rascal, breaking out of prison for the fun of it to show it was possible before breaking back in since it seemed she knew she had nowhere else to go. They had learned early on not to let her into the work area, where the women would spend a few hours a day making a few clothes, bed sheets, colanders, and other assorted things that would bring profit to the facility.
Last time that happened she'd almost blown up half the prison.
Trouble just followed her, be it on purpose or otherwise, he knew it would get her into real trouble and it seemed today was the day. He sat up in his seat as he heard approaching footsteps, and a familiar voice. Matron.
"Now baby you understand it ain't right to go scratchin' people." the older woman said. Matron, as she was known, was in her fifties now, and had been in the prison for over thirty years now. Her hair was grey and curly, though it seemed to enhance her natural beauty with her dark brown skin. "Why'd you do such a thing?"
"I didn't scratch her!" Lucy insisted as she carried her fish tightly in her arms. "That was a lie!"
"Was it now?" Matron asked, raising an eyebrow. She reached for the door knob and pushed it open. "Got a little lady here needin' a talkin' to, Sir." she said to the Warden, who got up from behind his desk.
"Thank you." he said, and he watched as Lucy slowly, carefully, make her way to the chair opposite his desk. She climbed up into it, and sat, Minion in her lap. The Warden sighed, and eased back into his chair before straightening his name plaque on the desk. "So. Lucy. Can I have your run of the events?"
"I saw Wendy when I first arrived and I know I've seen her before because I remember when we were both still babies in our ships and she knocked into mine on purpose while we were travelling and then when I was about to land in the Scotts yard Wendy knocked me off course and that made me land here not that I don't like living here Warden but she stole them from me so I told her I remembered her and she didn't remember so I got in trouble for lying first and had to stand in time out which is something like incarceration but not nearly as bad so I stood in time out then the teacher Mr. Twist allowed me to join in for arts and crafts I made a spider and it was huge and black and it made the other kids cry then Wendy came and said my spider was ugly and I told her that her flower was ugly and that Mr. Twist was stupid for liking her flower over my spider but she said I was stupid for not remembering that she was an alien and for pretending to be normal when she wasn't at all since I saw she could fly and lift the desk over her head but then she cried and the other kids said that I called her stupid ugly and I scratched her but I can't hurt her how can I hurt her she's invulnerable then the stupid teacher phoned you and now I'm here."
Just how the little girl had said all of this without pausing for a break, or a breath, without turning... well... purple in the face the Warden would never know. But he listened, intently, and made small notes on the paper as if he was hearing details regarding a prison incident.
"I see." he finally said at the end of it all and looked up to see the little blue bald girl sitting there, swinging her legs sadly. He sighed. She had so been looking forward to her first chance to step outside of the prison that she called home, to learn new things and to meet friends her own age. Seemed things didn't go to plan at all for the little lady. "Sounds like quite the day."
"Please," Lucy started quietly, voice shaking. "Please don't believe them. They're all liars."
"They're not liars, Lucy." the Warden replied firmly. "What Wendy Scott thinks is what she wants to think. It's not your place to disrupt what she believes in. I can't say for sure if she's an alien like yourself..."
"She is!" Lucy spoke up shrilly. "She is, she is!"
"Lucy." Warden used his best 'silence please' voice, and she gave him what he wanted by lowering her gaze and staring at her hands. "I can't say if she is or isn't. Maybe she is, are you sure you didn't dream that you saw her?"
"No." replied the alien child quietly. "I remember."
Warden still wasn't certain as to believe if she truly could remember as far back as she claimed she could. Maybe her 'memories' were just vivid dreams, be them the ones she experienced at night or during the day. Perhaps the little girl couldn't remember that far back at all but tried to make it seem like she did, trying to seem more important and other-worldly. Why she would want that he didn't understand. On the other hand she was gifted with an incredibly large brain, she had been capable of handling power tools only weeks after she first arrived in the jail and was talking by age one... who's to say her alien brain could actually remember? If so that would be incredibly cruel to be able to recollect every single thing that had happened to you in vivid detail.
"Lucy," he started calmly, "don't worry. I'm not going to forbid you from returning to school."
He couldn't tell if the expression on her little face was one of gratitude or horror.
"But you're going to have to watch yourself. No more trouble. I know you're a good girl, and trouble tends to... well. Follow you around but you've got to really pull it together. This is the only school I could get in this entire city to let you in, and I'd hate to see you go without any education."
"Yes sir." Lucy replied as she looked at her feet again.
"No more upsetting your class mates. Try your best to think out what you're going to say to them, and how it will affect them in return. No harsh words. Nothing to hurt them. All right? Give them a chance, and they'll see what a good girl you can be." well he hoped they would do that for her, but he knew what children could be like. He had two himself, and his son had been bullied in school because of his glasses and slightly portly body shape. It was painful as a parent to see your child suffer for things they couldn't change and that same pain came washing over him when he saw the little girl red eyed and expression bleak at the prospect of returning to a place that didn't seem too accommodating to her. But it was all they had.
"Yes..." she mumbled.
"Now off you go." he said gently, gesturing to the door. The Warden watched as she climbed down off of her chair, clutching the orb with Minion still faithfully floating in the water, and make her way to the door. "Oh and Lucy?" Warden called. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. "I'm sure your spider was as great as you said it was."
That brought a bright smile to her face, and she was soon gone, shutting the door behind her. Sighing, the Warden leaned back in his chair and pressed a hand to his forehead. Already he could see the multiple phone calls he'd be getting about the little blue girl, parents no doubt angry about a convict studying with their children even if she was just a child herself. People could be so cruel, and if this first visit to the school had been any indication Lucy was taking her first tentative steps into a very cruel world.
Soon it was seven o'clock, and Lucy was sitting in her cell nibbling on a tuna and cheese sandwich that she had snuck back into her cell. Breaking off a bit she dropped the bits into Minion's bowl, the tiny fish snapping up the bread, cheese and tuna hungrily. "Do you believe her, Minion?" Lucy asked quietly.
"Believe who?" Minion blinked, looking up at the warped image of her mistress that was distorted by the top of the water.
"Wendy Scott. That she doesn't remember." Lucy explained before putting a bit more of her sandwich into the bowl, watching Minion eat up the bits happily, hungrily. She absently wondered how badly those sharp teeth of her friend would affect somebody.
"Hmmm." Minion swam around a little, before fanning out her fins in a shrugging motion. "Well you must admit miss, not everyone has as great a memory as you. Maybe she really doesn't?"
"She does seem pretty thick headed." Lucy commented, taking a bite of the sandwich for herself. "Acting like the sun shines out of her behind." she said around her chewing, sending bits of bread, cheese and tuna flying.
Minion rolled her eyes at the phrase; honestly, the words that Lucy picked up around in this place would get her into trouble one day. "She did seem honestly confused when you mentioned her golden ship."
"Oh please you saw how great her acting was, that stupid headed teacher fell for her crock-a-deel tears so fast in there. She could be saying the sky is suddenly green and the ground blue and he'd probably believe her if she cried hard enough." Lucy scoffed. The little alien dropped the crust of the sandwich into Minion's bowl and the little fish was soon savagely biting into the soft bread before swallowing it quickly.
"Like I said miss," Minion said once swallowing her meal, "her brain isn't as great as yours. Maybe she really does have no memory. Humans don't have memories like we do."
"Hm." Lucy picked up the lid of Minion's glass ball and screwed it into place before lifting the ball and set it on her lap as she stared up at the ceiling of her cell. Maybe Minion had a point. Her fish was very smart, after all. Far smarter than the tuna they were feasting on tonight. Maybe Wendy Scott really didn't have any idea, but then why treat her so horribly? Was that how she, and the rest of the class, would react to different people? It just seemed mean. Yawning suddenly, Lucy lifted her hand and rubbed at her eye.
"I think it's bed time, miss." Minion whispered. "It's been a long day."
Normally Lucy was one to fuss and complain, not wanting to go to bed. It was a testament for just how exhausted she was, since all she did was yawn loudly and rub at her eyes again. Carefully she got ready for bed, rolling down the blankets and setting Minion on the second pillow that was besides her own, overly stuffed one. Kicking her shoes off she pulled on her bed socks, hand knitted blue ones with silver lightning bolts running down the backs of them. She also changed into her night wear, which was very similar to her orange jumpsuit only it was a pale lavender color.
Climbing into bed the little girl pressed her hand to Minion's glass ball and smiled at the purple fish, before shutting her eyes. "G'night Minion."
"Good night miss." replied the fish as she twirled around and around in her ball before settling down on the bottom and shut her eyes also. It wasn't long until the two young alien girls were fast asleep long before lights out.
Across town there was a gleaming manor set amongst a land covered in trees that were tall, strong and old. This was Scott Manor. It had housed the Scott family for generations, the land having been in their possession since settler days, and the family had continued to live up to its old money by financing many a charity and gala for the city. Lord Scott was a doctor of the highest degree who was called all over the city, and country, to help aid in medical emergencies and such. Lady Scott was a woman of charity benefits, who was always picketing something or another. She was seen at every party in town, dressed to the nines, and always using her name to draw help for those who needed it.
This meant neither parent was around all too often for their daughter, Wendy. Who, tonight, really needed somebody to talk to. She hovered in her room above her bed, absently running a brush through one of her expensive doll's hair. The doll had green eyes, and the flash of green brought on the memory of what Lucy had said to her that day in school. "Alien?" she asked the doll, whose eyes slipped shut as she lifted her up more. Frowning, Wendy dropped the doll and it landed safely onto the bed beneath her and she floated off the bed and landed in the floor.
She made her way to the large, wall length window of her room, and peered out at the city below them. Metro City was beautiful by night, the lights sparkling like diamonds and lit up the night sky... yet still the moon and stars were visible, twinkling high above the city. Lifting a hand she twirled a curl of brown hair around it as she thought. "I couldn't be an alien." she said to herself, "I'm a human. Lucy lied, didn't she? She's a crook. She lives in a jail, only mean dirty rotten liars go to jail. She just said it to upset me!" she banged her fists down against the window ledge then yelped and jumped back as the stone crumbled and collapsed under her touch.
"Oh no...!" Wendy gasped, hands to her mouth. Not again. She always forgot how strong she was when she was preoccupied. It seemed however that the very sight of the shattered stone on her floor brought back the questions flying around her head. If she wasn't an alien, then how was it she could fly, her strength was immense, that her eyes could emit beams of red blasts, and she make trees collapse before her by simply blowing on them? Nobody else alive had those abilities, or powers. And the closest she found was in movies and comics.
But those heroes weren't real, and none of them were born human. The most popular one had come from a doomed planet, and he had been accepted by the people because he looked like a person. What if she... what if she was the same?
What if what Lucy had said was actually true? The idea scared her, and Wendy didn't like being scared. Instead she flew into her bed quick as possible, unaware of just how fast she had moved. Wrapping her blanket around her she hid beneath it, gripping the doll to her chest careful not to be too tight less she break it like she had broken her window. Shutting her eyes tightly the little girl shuddered. That Lucy... this was all her fault.
She'd pay for this.
To be continued