Chapter Four
Jareth lavishly applied the lotion that Karen brought him on the bumps. It's been a day since the itching started and he already used half of the litre jar of cool green stuff. He scooped more of the cool slime and lopped it onto his chest, generously lathering it on his skin.
A day of lying in bed. Sarah wasn't back from school yet though she should be soon and Robert was still at work. Karen was downstairs probably thinking about what to do for dinner and Jareth was stuck in his room. Alright, so he wasn't stuck in his room anymore since Karen said he could go downstairs with her and Toby or even go for a little walk, his fever broke early that morning however Karen thought it would be best if he stayed home one more day. Tomorrow was another thing altogether. He would have to go to school and nothing but an abnormally high fever of one-oh-eight will deter Karen's opinion, meaning that he would have to be dead to get out of going to school. Suffice it to say, he wasn't looking forward to the morrow.
He screwed the top of the jar back on and set it on the little table beside him, stretching as he stood. He sauntered over to the dressing table and sat on the cushioned stool, looking in the mirror. His face was pock-ridden and hideous. He sighed and waved a hand at the mirror. "Hoggle, where are you?" his image shimmered and was replaced with Hoggle's human form. The little snot was walking home with his Sarah and they were laughing and jumping and… and flirting! Jareth scowled and swiped the image from the mirror. He quickly changed from his boxers into some clothes and left his room, still scowling.
He made it to the stairs in time to see Toby standing at the foot of the stairs holding the bars of the baby gate like baby prison. He looked up with a small frown and held up his arms. "Uppi!" Jareth complied, lifting the equally pock-ridden child into his arms and opened the gate one handed. He descended that stairs, scowling face still firmly in place. Toby grinned and was chanting "Down down down." It added a nice background to the conversation he was visualizing in his mind. Of course Hoggle didn't attract the disease; he wasn't near the chicken-pock monster in the castle.
"Jareth?" Karen called when the last step creaked. "Is Merlin with you?"
"No, why?"
"It's nothing, I thought I heard growling." Jareth winced. "Well hello, sunshine." She said to Toby, lifting him out of Jareth's arms. "You had a long nap today hadn't you?"
He gurgled.
Jareth sat down at the table and idly scratched at his face until Karen wacked him with a towel. "Stop that! You'll get awful scars if you keep doing that!"
"Scars?" that was the first mention of any long lasting damage. Jareth stared at her in horror, trying to imagine frightening a girl or boy with a large gruesome chicken pock scar on his chin. He couldn't do it because the child he was trying to intimidate was laughing at him.
"Yes scars. You scratch too much and your skin will be beyond repair. Take Toby into the living room for me will you? I just have to run to the store to pick up some butter. I can't believe I forgot it…" and she was off in her own little world, probable stressing over something else she forgot for dinner tonight.
Jareth went over and picked up the little twerp looking carefully at the boy's face as he did so. Toby was so trusting it was eerie. At first, in his own home, he didn't know how he should act to Jareth but after the last three or four days when they were home together and sometimes left alone, Toby must have realized that this was his own home and Jareth, the 'Goblin King' who played with him in the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth and beyond the Goblin City was out of his element, to be sure, but nonetheless the same boy/man/goblin-thing.
Nearly twenty minutes later, Jareth's ears picked out the sounds of laughing and talking. He peeked out the window, concealed by the curtain and saw Sarah sitting on the front lawn beside Hoggle, fully engaged in conversation. Jareth frowned slightly and pulled away from the curtain, returning his attention to Toby.
The lump in his throat was harder to deal with.
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That night, dinner was a zoo. Toby was more than feeling like himself as he tried to oh-so sneakily inch his fork past the highchair tray and on to his father's plate where garlic mashed potatoes waited. For some reason, food off of someone else's plate just tasted better. Sarah was entertaining a heated discussion with her father about attending a party the up-coming Friday with Karen both trying to keep Toby under control and side with Sarah concerning her need to socialize.
And Jareth… Jareth was sitting in silence, sullenly picking at his food and trying hard not to think of how relaxed and carefree Sarah was with Hoggle. He was also trying hard not to think about the way she hadn't yet asked him if he wanted to go to the party as well. He was their guest after all, why shouldn't he be invited?
"I just don't see what the big deal is? It's not like it's going to be unsupervised and it's only going to be a small group of us, nothing overly fancy. Come on dad!" she whined.
Robert was frowning into his mashed potatoes that were cleverly being stolen. "Can you take Jareth with you at least?"
Sarah blushed beet red and she snuck a guilty look in his direction that lasted half a second before she burst out, "No! Dad, it's a slumber party! No boys allowed, remember?"
Slumber party? Yeah right! That's just an excuse to see friends without me. Jareth thought as he started to viciously stab the vegetables. The clicking on the plate attracted some very much wanted attention as Sarah turned to him.
"You're going to break the plate if you keep doing that you know." She finally fell silent to eat off her untouched plate for a few minutes before talking again. "You're getting to be quite the celebrity at school. The teachers and some students at school are asking about you. For some reason, they are all very excited to meet you and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that no exchange student has been here for about five years and now there are two."
"Oh Sarah." Karen abashed gently. "Jareth dear, they will love you."
"I'm not so sure…"
"Oh! Karen, is it all right if we invite Hoggle over tonight for movies? Since you're going to the theatre and all…"
"Is that the other exchange student? What an odd name." Karen looked at Robert and a silent question passed between them. Jareth narrowed his eyes, something was not as it seems…
"Of course Hoggle can come over tonight dear," her father stated bouisly. "Where is he from?"
"England."
"Ah yes, I remember. You traveled here together hadn't you Jareth?"
Jareth felt his eye twitch ever so slightly. "We've met, yes."
Robert grinned mischievously at the boy. "A bit of friendly competition does a man's blood good!"
Jareth chose not to grace that with an answer, nor turn to the furiously blushing Sarah seated beside him.
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Jareth paced. The Williams left to go to the 'cinema' about an hour ago and it was now approaching eight o'clock at night, the time when Hogsbreath was to make his appearance. The little turd usurped Sarah's time away from the young prince and said prince was not feeling overly gracious about it.
He paused in his pacing and stooped in front of the vanity mirror. The bright red pock-marks on his face stood out brilliantly, like a full moon even fuller with tiny craters. The outside edges were white and flaky as they dried out and they itched like a female dog! He took the lotion and smeared it on the spots, sighing in relief as the cool substance bathed his battle wounds(1).
The doorbell rang and he could hear the flurry of Sarah's feet as she raced to the door. Jareth sighed and slowly sauntered forward, wincing now and then as he heard laughter emit through the stairwell.
Hoggle was exactly as his father's disguise made him. Short, stubby and messy haired. He was talking to Sarah in the living room as she was busy choosing a movie to watch. Hoggle looked up and nodded a bit coolly to Jareth.
"Higwatch-."
"Hoggle." Sarah corrected without turning around.
"Ah, yes. How do you like the Aboveground?" Jareth's eye twitched with his need to maintain a courteous tone.
"Meh, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. You might like it yourself if you ever get off your royal booty and go to school."
Jareth swelled with indignation for a spilt second before he could control himself. "As you can see, I have been sick…" Hoggle snickered and Jareth raised his voice a teency bit. "I have been sick but I will be attending tomorrow."
Sarah stood and dusted her hands. "Alright you two, be civil. I will not have my student fight with my friend."
'Humph' and 'damned rights' came from two separate directions.
"Let's just watch this. I think you both can enjoy it if you just don't bicker!" She sat down firmly at one end of the couch with Hoggle in the middle. Jareth looked disdainfully at the other end before he sat on the arm of Sarah's end and slowly pushed her over until she was squished in the middle and Hoggle was on the other end. Jareth grinned smugly to himself. Sarah glared for half a moment before dragging one pristine nail down his arm, efficiently hitting about seven different spots. They started itching almost immediately. He cursed and wrapped his hand securely around his bumps, trying hard not to scratch. Sarah laughed and took but the long dark rectangle she had called a remote and pushed a button. The TV flashed blue then the movie started. This time it was a comedy, one which Jareth would have nightmares about. It was called 'Knocked Up' and within the first ten minutes had Jareth blushing furiously. Jareth was starting to get an idea of what 'Rated R' entailed.
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School was not what Jareth expected. The goblin tutors that taught him about law and the finer dealings of politics were boring and dry… he was also alone in these lectures which added to the yawn-fest. School in the Aboveground, however, was anything but boring. Jareth had four classes that he had to attend, Science, English, Drama and P.E, and they were all vastly different and more vivid than anything he could have expected.
The English was fine. Since political negotiations were conducted in Goblin in the kingdom; English was mainly used for creative purposes. They studied a number of different texts in many languages and all for the literary functions. That being said, reading the meaning behind poetry and recognising the subtle nuances of tempo and rhythm was child's play.
Science was more or less alright. Alchemy was a highly sought out subject of study in the underground, but sadly, there were very few goblins intelligent enough not to blow themselves, or anyone else for that matter, up. Jareth would eventually appreciate the Biology and Astronomy as well, when they moved past Chemistry.
Drama was another thing all together. As was arranged by his father, Jareth was in most of Sarah's classes. She was the queen of the Drama Department and Jareth was a lowly scullery boy. It is a well known fact that one cannot go for ninety-three years and not pick up on the beautiful art of deception, but it is also an even lesser known fact that Jareth is a little bit slow in his growth. He was after all, an entire eight years old before he was able to form a whole sentence without resorting to throwing a royal fit. Jareth was dismal at acting any part besides the arrogant, frivolous, hair-tossing role. Because Jareth never experienced any large character changes, he was forced into a small, unimportant, flat character trait while the lovely Sarah automatically got the lead female role in any play. Jareth's main activity was sulking.
P.E was disastrous. To Jareth, nothing was more impossible then trying to keep up. Being active was something the lower class of the underground did. Sure he could ride horses, joust and he was very well equipped when it came to sword-play, but he was never one to constantly run around chasing after a little white and black ball for nearly an hour. After the first day, Jareth was found in the boys shower, sitting beneath the streaming water, which was slowly going cold, sleeping. Luckily, Hoggle was the one to find him since they were in the same class. It was the one class in which the boys and girls were kept separate, except when they started dance lessons. Jareth had cringed so hard when he heard this that he heard his spine crack.
The first week of school was complete, and Jareth's punishment was only starting to become bearable.
There is an age old proverb in Goblin. Orgk Agavork Anuckt Sacriangrk'nerf. It means roughly in translation, 'when the dragon begins to sleep, don't touch the gold!'
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(1) It made him feel better if he referred to the chicken pox as a battle and not as a reminder of why he was being punished in the first place.