Chapter 7: A Little Background
"I will tell you what I know, but you must take it with a grain of salt. I mean," Cake sighed and sat down on one of the white couches in the sitting room. Fiona took to a chair facing her.
"I was in college when this happened, but I am still young enough to remember when Bonnebell was a little middle schooler. It was hard to forget her, she was so focused, even for my age group, she was advanced." Cake licked her lips. She seemed nervous.
"Anyways, do you remember how I told you that these children's worlds are significantly skewed, and different from our own?"
Fiona nodded. Remembering their talk in the beauty salon.
"Yes, their world is extremely delicate, like ink upon paper, it is truly hard to forget anything, no matter how hard you blot it out." Cake meant this as a warning.
"Bonnebell and Bernabon were affianced to one another." She continued coldly.
"To be married? But Cake they are both so young..." She interrupted.
Cake held up a hand for silence. "I warned you, their world is very different from our own. This marriage was not one of love, but one of wealth. Their parents saw it as a form of corporate merger, without all the paperwork. The children liked each other, but when they were first introduced, they had very little concept of what love, or even marriage was, but this is the way things should be." She trailed off whistfully, staring out the windows.
"So are they still to be married?"
"I did say 'were' didn't I?"
Fiona nodded.
"Bonnebell is a little older than Bernabon, four or five years if I am remembering this correctly...
And growing up, the two often played together, although Bernabon had always been very sickly, and didn't get out much, she was always there to take care of him. And I do think that he began to fall in love with her. Which was very agreeable with their parents, for there was less fear of a scandal when they are in love...
Well, anyways. The older Bonnebell became, the less and less interested she became in an arranged marriage. Which is fitting for any well-minded scholar...
By the time she entered high school, there was no question in her own mind to whether or not she was going to go through with her parents wishes, but Bernabon was another matter. Bernabon had never had the doubting parents in his life that Bonnebell had. So when Bonnebell met Marceline Lee, well, things only went from bad to worse..."
"What do you mean, Cake?"
"I mean that Bonnebell had fallen in love with someone else."
Fiona nodded. "She had fallen in love with Marceline Lee?"
"Yes."
"But then how does this effect Marshall and Bernabon?"
"I am getting to that..." Cake said patiently. "When Bonnebell informed the families, and Bernabon of her choice to cancel the marriage and marry Marceline...
The parents were enraged, and Bernabon collapsed when he heard the news, his heart no doubt welling with incomprehensible grief, and he had always been such a weak child.
Her own parents were insistent that she reconsider, here were threats of disownment... "
To think that the only person that you had ever really loved, and had grown up believing you were going to one day marry, would tell her family that she would rather be a penniless wretch than to marry you... The thought made Fiona shiver.
As if reading her mind, Cake continued. "What happened next should have been easily predicted. You see, Bonnebell, herself renounced her own title after she had finished high school and had been accepted into a prestigious university. But Bernabon's family tried everything to make Marceline's high school experience as miserable as possible. They blamed her for Bonnebell's break of the marriage, she had shamed them. So they hired thugs to bully her, steal her homework, and make her life a living hell, but this backfired, and only made Bonnebell's and Marceline's love stronger. The Schweets even tried to use some of their connections to get her entire family locked up because of their mob affiliations. Soon after her graduation from university, Marceline landed a big gig with her band, and they became over night celebrities, and now she tours the world. So they are doing just fine. Bonnebell returned to Vincent Academy to teach, and Marceline tours the world with her band.
But while Bonnebell and Marceline rode happily off into the sunset, a hatred grew in Bernabon's heart. He had been rejected by the only person he had ever loved."
He probably thought that she had left him behind, just like his parents had.
"He finished out the rest of his elementary and middle school years at home, being privately tutored. The heartbreak had led to a series of complicated medical problems involving his heart, meaning that he needed a nurse with him all the time. But he re-enrolled in Vincent Academy his first year of high school, and that is when he met Marshall Lee...
Marshall's family ran the crime syndicate that Marceline's family was a part of. They are actually distant cousins believe it or not, although neither of them really talked growing up. But this didn't matter to Bernabon, because he just saw him as a member of the family who had publicly shamed him, and stolen the person he had loved more than anyone else in the world.
He was not strong enough to fight Marshall outright, instead he used his money and power, like his parents had done, to make Marshall's life just as miserable as Marceline's had been. No doubt this was put to a quick stop by Marshall's mother, employing hulking body guards, and but the damage had still been done. Marshall had been ostracized from his entire school. No one would come near him, they feared him for his power and status."
"But Cake, why didn't Marshall transfer to a different school, to try and make new friends?"
"Two reasons: One, this would be seen as a retreat by the Lee's. And Two, none of the other schools would touch him due to his crime connections. He was stuck."
"So Bernabon became the idolized, secluded Prince, and Marshall became the outcast. Bernabon began to ignore Marshall, knowing that he had bested him, and Marshall ignored Bernabon, as well as the rest of the school because he didn't care anymore."
Cake glanced over at Fiona. "Does this answer you question?"
"Yes Cake, thank you."
She sat back, and rested her knuckles against her chin. "Sometimes I wonder if it had been better if I had sent you to another school, but how was I to know that you would get involved with the two most powerful young men on campus, and the nasty feud between them."
"Cake, I find trouble wherever I go. That's why you sent me to VA in the first place, so you could keep a better eye on me, remember?"
"Yeah, I guess you are right." Cake replied wistfully, looking out the windows again.
Fiona stood in the chilly midnight air out on her balcony. Her simple white nightgown lapping against her feet in the light wind. She stared up at the starless sky. Thinking about everything that had happened today, all the things Cake had told her.
It's so much different from Aaaa...
Her gaze floated down to the twinkling world of neon and office lights around her.
This world is so beautiful, so delicate...
She walked over to the edge of the balcony, and looked down. Below her, the streets were a whirl of smoke, flashing lights, and honking horns.
But also so very dangerous. I don't know where to turn, or who I can trust. I thought high school would be easy, everyone made it sound and look so easy on TV, but this is real life... A life in a world that I didn't want...
She closed her eyes, and let the wind thrash against her body, and pull at her loose hair. She could hear the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, and smell the smoke and grime beneath her.
She heard someone clearing their throat, and the strike of a match. She opened her eyes, and looked around. Cake inhabited the pent house level of the apartments, so there was no one to either side of them. She craned her neck, and looked down below. She had never noticed that there were balconies beneath her. Below her, a young man with light blond hair, and pale skin cradled a designer cigarette in his teeth. His back against the railing of the balcony, hands in his pockets. The boy looked up, this gray-blue eyes meeting her dark blue.
"Finn...?" She whispered.
"Fiona?" He gasped. The cigarette falling from his lips to the floor with a slight tap.
