Chapter 6: Revealed
10:45 PM; September 2nd, 1997
Surprisingly, there wasn't very much to do in the hideaway.
Esme had spent the first half-hour searching for a non-existent hairbrush. Her hair and fur were so matted and tangled it hurt just to stroke it. She didn't even dare touch her thick, furry tail. The best Esme could do was gingerly shape her hair into a decent cut. She had three spikes of fur going out either way like an extra pair of whiskers, but it was kind of balanced out by the huge tuft of fur she had on top of her head, and the way her ears draped over her face.
Then she had searched for non-existent paper. Seriously, why wouldn't she have paper in a school backpack?
Well, she didn't have any pencils or paintbrushes either, so drawing was out the window.
Examining herself with the smudged eye-shadow mirror got boring fast. Yeah, she now had excessive black fur, a white face, a super-cool tail, and blue-white eyeballs. That was only temporarily, until future-camera-toy wasn't dead anymore. Until the teen could come back.
Esme had poked and prodded at future-camera-toy for a while, but all she could access were her mom's videos. No flashing, harshly-white, somewhat-comforting words telling her she could go back to 2013 now. As a human.
There was a little sprout-tree in the corner of Esme's hideaway, somehow getting water through the cracks in the asphalt. Esme could climb up a little way before she felt that it would snap under her. She still moved around like she was a foot and a half taller.
That got boring.
To be honest, Esme resorted to chasing her tail for a bit before anything else. Really, it was exciting to see how it flicked and twitched and curled and bent and swayed and danced and….
No, Esme! Calm down! You have important things to think about!
Esme could hardly bear the idea of sleeping on the floor with her backpack as a pillow tonight, and she wasn't about to trust the tree. And going back up to the stupid water tower was completely out the window. She wasn't about to go crawling back to the nosy cartoon kids.
She had nothing to build with, though. No little hunks of wood or fallen roof shingles or anything to build some sort of lean-to. The single loose brick she had found on the floor had gone to the entrance. The tallest cartoon kid, Yakko, probably couldn't fit, but his little siblings were Esme's size and smaller.
Esme thought about them for a while as she mindlessly flipped through her textbooks. That's what she was up to now, maybe actually focusing a little on the math functions worksheet Mrs. Sotelo had given her yesterday morning. Er, sixteen years from that morning.
It was confusing to think of all that. It was only Esme's second day in this time, if you counted the near-midnight time she had arrived yesterday and the fact she woke up at noon. She woke up at noon, examined herself, made herself be practical, went to buy a tomato soup, got chased by three kids, lost her tomato soup, was thrown into the tower, and then escaped a disheartened Warner trio. All in one day. It seemed like forever.
So, will it be tomorrow I give myself the injection… or two days from now…?
A rustling disturbed Esme's thoughts. Yes, of course, make the creepy noises once it's dark! She was just trying to avoid the threat of a panic attack. Anything helped.
Tentatively, Esme lowered herself to the floor and peered out the entrance to her hideaway. In the dark surroundings, she could barely make out the outline of a pale face and white feet, the black fur nearly invisible if it weren't for a sky-blue turtleneck and a red cap to make it clear.
God forbid… it's Wakko Warner!
Esme scurried away from the entrance quickly, trying not to be seen. It was too late, anyway, as Wakko was already staring her way and lowering himself to the floor.
"It's dark out!" Esme protested as he stuck his head in. "What are you doing here when it's dark out? Go back to your tower!"
He stuck his tongue out in the middle of a wide, goofy grin. "I was going to get a sandwich!"
Of course! Getting a… er, sandwich… in the middle of the night, near the hideaway… this is who future-toy changed me to look like! An insane little boy!
Wakko popped free of the little space, and instantly began surveying Esme's hideaway. "You live here?" he said in his funny accent as he stared at Esme's backpack and her belongings strewn across the floor. "I thought you said you lived in a neighborhood."
"Yes, that is what I said." Esme gritted her teeth and curled her black fingers.
"Why do you live like a homeless lady?"
Esme might have lost a canine already with how hard she was grinding her teeth. "I don't live like a homeless lady. You don't know what you're saying."
"Well, you don't live in a neighborhood." He put his gloved hand to his chin in a thoughtful expression. With his tongue hanging out. Of course.
Esme dragged her hand down her face. "What are you doing here, Wakko? Go back to your tower and sleep like a normal person. Aren't your siblings there?"
"I said I was going on a sandwich run. But I don't need to anymore! What are you doing here, Esme?"
Uh-oh. The danger question.
"Okay, so maybe I wasn't created last week, and I don't have half a brain, and I don't live in a neighborhood, and I'm pretty much illegally parked in the middle of a studio. I-" Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no. "Er, I mean, I'm from… Ohio…" Well, that's true! "And I'm only staying here for a little bit, because I'm waiting for someone…."
"Waiting for who?"
"Erm, this teen boy who's going to take me back home…" Not completely a lie, I guess?
"Like a boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?"
Um, no. Absolutely not! That teen will take me home, unless he'd like to be missing a few teeth in the near future!
"No, not a boyfriend. Technically speaking, I don't really know who he is… so I could be staying here a while."
"Esme has a boyfriend! Esme has a boyfriend!"
Esme scowled. But it wasn't so bad talking to Wakko. Say it had been his older brother, and Esme would have already drowned in a pit of sarcasm. She sat down on the hard floor and lay her head on her back-pack pillow. "I'm sleeping now. Goodbye."
Wakko sat down a few feet away, like he clearly did not hear what Esme just said. "Sorry about the soup. You didn't eat dinner either, did you? Don't you feel hungry?"
Esme stuck her hands under her head. "I can't really feel much of anything right now."
"Hmm… I know! Tomorrow you'll still be here, right?"
Esme frowned. "…yeah."
"Okay! I know where I can take you! The studio has a cafeteria. We're allowed because I'm an actor! I think they have soup. How's that?" He was standing now, bouncing a little on his toes in excitement.
Esme closed her eyes. "…fine. I'll go."
Having gotten what he wanted, Wakko was already headed to the entrance. "Nice to meet you, Esme!" he cheered. "I promise I won't tell Yakko and Dot what you said. I don't think they'd be too happy knowing you're going off with a kidnapper." He paused. "But you can't stay in the old dumpster. If anyone finds you, you'll get arrested! You'd have to come to the tower sometime…"
Esme ignored that last part. She had to. If the teen was coming soon, she didn't have any time to get close to these kids. Like she even wanted to. They were crazy, right? They didn't have to know anything about Esme. They seemed an awful lot like the kind of people that felt they could stick their red noses into anyone's business.
"You know… you're not half-bad, Wakko."
There was no reply, and Esme was soon asleep.
11:43 AM; September 3rd, 1997
Oh no.
Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no.
Esme had agreed to lunch with Wakko.
Not with his siblings.
The four toons were currently on their way to the cafeteria studio, Yakko talking up a storm (who would've thought?), Dot dancing about, and Wakko mocking Esme whenever she said anything, making (gookies?) behind her back.
First thing, they had come inside a box. That fell from the sky. They landed right in front of Esme, a huge label reading Caution: Volatile Contents screaming out at Esme with red letters. They had popped right out of the box, ridiculously toothy grins on their faces.
"You agreed to lunch!"
"We missed you!"
"How's our special friend?"
Then they had launched into some sort of song and dance, which Esme could hardly make sense of. It was almost as if they had rehearsed this. Maybe they had. For all Esme knew they could have all their choreography implanted into their brains via USB cable.
"Don't you ever shut up?" Esme ran her hands through her hair, gritting her teeth and lashing her tail.
They all stood in front of her suddenly, cheeky grins on their faces. "You're our special friend! We have to talk to you!"
"But I don't want to be your special friend! I just want some soup!"
Dot stared straight up at Esme, her black eyes as beady as ever. "All we know is that we like you. We have no taste, but we like you."
"…I'm taking the next flight to Antarctica if you don't shut up."
The cafeteria was much fuller than Esme thought it would be. Row after row of tables and chairs, filled with other cartoon characters. And where those… cartoon versions of real actors? Was that Mel Gibson? Marlin Brando?
"Whoa… you didn't say there'd be so many people! And actor people, at that!" Esme backed away from the entrance a bit. Maybe she could just go back to the gas station…?
"What is it, Esme? Camera-shy?" Yakko teased.
"Erm, no. People shy. First-class people-shy."
"Thought you said you lived in a nearby neighborhood. That is in Burbank still, ya know. You are a cartoon."
Esme could feel herself shrinking. So, she couldn't last a single day without being messed with? "Fine! I'm from Ohio! I said it!"
Wakko's eyes stretched, almost like he was saying, you're not going to say anything else, are you?
"Uh-huh." Yakko slowly closed the cafeteria door, leaving the four alone in the hallway. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"Waiting for someone. That's all." Esme tried to hold her head high. Not anything she was used to, but she felt she pulled off a convincing confident look.
"And you stay in a neighborhood? How'd you walk all the way to the middle of the lot if you stay in a neighborhood? How'd you get past security? How did you even know how to get to the lot if you were created last week? There's something you're not telling us, that's for sure!"
"We-e-ell…." Esme couldn't really find much to say. Especially for the fact that with a quick spin all three siblings were in matching brown suits and dress, glasses and an inquisitive look on their faces.
"…why are you dressed like that?"
"It's trendy."
"It's stupid."
Suddenly, the door flew open, and a large woman with a hairnet and plastic gloves came through. "Hello, hello, hello!" she said with a cheery smile, but the friendly disposition instantly disappeared when she saw who she was talking to. "Vermin!" she gasped, grabbing a fly swatter from her cleaning belt and whacking Wakko's red cap.
"Hey!" Out of nowhere, a rope came beside Wakko, which he went to grab. Where did that come from? Esme attempted to look up, but she was instantly brought back down by Yakko and Dot.
"You're not allowed to look up there!"
"Ever heard of toon physics?"
Wakko grabbed the rope and yanked it, sending an anvil onto the poor lady's head. Instantly she was flattened, and the fly swatter skidded a few feet away.
Esme stared, mouth agape. "You guys are seriously evil."
"We try."
Esme couldn't help but feel uncomfortable in the crowded cafeteria. The table she and the three were seated at was empty except for them, mainly because no one dared sit close. Yet it still seemed all eyes were on her. And even if they weren't really, the pestering questions of the trio kept Esme from taking even a spoonful of her broccoli-and-cheese soup.
"You're from Ohio? Are you dead?"
"When were you made?"
"Where are you staying?"
Esme slammed her head on the table, banging it a few times. Oh, how she missed the peace and quiet of her hideaway! Maybe the teen was there right now. Maybe he was looking for Esme and future-toy, and she had just missed her chance to go back home! All because she was eating lunch with insane loons.
The four were flashed dirty looks from the other people as the Warners continued to make relentless noise in their questions. Oh, gosh, this was just too much.
Okay, maybe I will consider the next flight to Antarctica. Not so bad there. There are penguins, and igloos, and a constant supply of snow cones….
"That's it!" Wakko slammed his gloved hands onto the table, sending his mile-high plate of food bouncing a few inches into the air. "I can't take it anymore!"
Yakko and Dot turned to face him. "Take what anymore?"
Esme stared in utter shock and disbelief. He wouldn't… he wouldn't!
"I know about her! I really do…"
Esme almost died.
"…I talked to her last night… she said she was from Ohio, and that she's staying here a while, and that she doesn't actually live in a neighborhood, and she wasn't created last week. She's staying in the lot in that old dump…."
Yakko and Dot listened with rapt attention, nodding like it all made sense. It was hard to even believe they understood what Wakko was saying, as he was saying all this in one breath. They slowly turned to Esme, staring with such looks of shock and curiosity Esme couldn't take it.
"You promised not to tell! You did!"
She downed as much soup as she could in one gulp, fastened her hood on her head, pushed out her chair and stomped over to the door. Yup, she was leaving. No stopping her, no looking back, no ever speaking to those insane loons ever again….
"Esme! Hold up! We only want to help you!"
"No!" Even though well over half of the cafeteria was watching now, Esme started to run, pushing open the swinging doors with such force the newly-inflated hairnet woman was squashed again. So what? She yanked open the building's doors, running out into the open lot.
AN: Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'll take to mind everything you've said. I'm always trying to make this better. It's just good to know I have supporters, because I'm probably one of the youngest people here. (I'm 13 years old... that doesn't make Esme a self-insert, by the way. 13 is a good age for her emotions, and I can write that as accurately as possible being her age myself.)
So, will the Warners catch up to Esme? Will she finally get to trusting them? How will she be able to keep future-toy, her medicine, and her human identity a secret with those three following her? Will she ever stop being annoying? Should I finally shut up? YES!
Please review!