A/N: So sorry for the long wait, guys. It's been a busy week at school. Fortunately, I've taken this leisure time I've got to write down this chapter. ENJOY!
P.S.: More "Matilda" similarities ahead, just thought I'd tell you!
Marge felt her stomach catch up to her and struggled to hold in her nausea as Artie jerked his shiny new purple sedan to an abrupt stop alongside a house in the Rat's Nest Neighborhood. Shaking her head to clear herself of any feelings of wanting to relieve her stomach of its contents, she then looked at the scrap of paper she wrote down Lisa's home address on. Marge then glanced at the house and nodded upon confirming that she was at the right address.
"Wait in the car, Artie," Marge said to Artie. "I can handle this."
"Yes, ma'am," replied Artie smoothly.
Nodding again, Marge got out of Artie's sedan, almost grateful she was out of the car, and walked towards 1313 Hopeless Avenue. Once again, she struggled to hold in the nausea the moment her nostrils were greeted with a terrible smell that was one of the Rat's Nest's many notable attributes. A rat scurried away as the single teacher walked up to the front doorway and looked around for the doorbell. Seeing that there was none, instead a hole where it should've been, Marge merely resorted to knocking on the door.
But there was no answer, so she knocked again. Just then, she heard an angered voice yell something, but Marge couldn't comprehend the exact words being said. Her patience unwavering, the teacher calmly knocked again. The angry voice yelled something again, and finally, she heard footsteps approach the front door, which then swung open to reveal Lisa herself. Marge instantly noticed the bruise on her student's cheek, but knew it'd be impolite to immediately ask.
"Ms. Marge?" asked Lisa with surprise. "What're you doing here? I doubt someone like you would wanna venture into the Rat's Nest."
"I thought I'd come to visit you," Marge replied, smiling. "Actually, I'd also like to talk to your parents. Can I see them?"
The light in Lisa's eyes seemed to fade in an instant. "Oh," the girl said. "My dad's at work and won't be home until late in the nighttime. And-" Lisa's voice became lower in volume, something that piqued Marge's curiosity. "-my mom's not the best person to talk to."
"I can handle anyone, Lisa. If I can just come in-"
"Who the hell is this?" Lisa and Marge looked to see Eliza appear from the family room, a lit cigarette tucked between her right index and middle fingers and an ugly frown perched upon her face. Marge instantly noticed the striking resemblance Lisa and Eliza had, but couldn't find it possible that Lisa would be able to achieve the same upset look Eliza was having.
"Hi, Mrs. Thompson," Marge greeted politely. "I'm Marge Bouvier, Lisa's teacher-"
"What the hell's she done now?" interrupted Eliza. "Throw a textbook at you in class?"
"Goodness, of course not! In fact, she's done nothing wrong."
"Why the hell are you here, then? If you're gonna babble on like an idiot about how gifted Lisa is, then you can just forget about it!"
Marge was taken aback by the last statement, but managed to get over it quickly. "That's exactly what I'm gonna do."
Eliza sighed with extreme annoyance and pointed out of the door. "Then I suggest you leave. I don't wanna hear about how great little Lisa is. No matter what kind of things she's done to impress you, she'll always be, to me, a little brat who hops around ruining lives."
Marge's eyes widened. She couldn't believe she heard this remark from Eliza. The teacher knew that there were such things as abusive and neglectful parents in the world, but to meet one such parent in the flesh was still such a shock to her. Her pupils flicked to Lisa, who took a small step backward from Eliza, a slight trembling present in her profile. Her eyes narrowed and Marge faced Eliza.
"You know, Mrs. Thompson," Marge said, still calmly, "I don't really understand why you don't like a sweet girl such as Lisa. She's very nice, talented, and intelligent."
"Intelligent, my ass," snapped Eliza in response. She then smirked. "Let me tell you something, Marge Bouvier: you teach children, meaning you love and treasure them. But when you have a kid of your own, you'll find that your life becomes nothing more than a life-sucking abyss that has no bottom. You have only one big responsibility, and that is to take care of your kid. But that darn kid will drag you down. You'll have dreams and desires, but they'll be hindered by that mere, damn kid. The kid will just continue to drag, drag, drag you down, with no end in sight. All of your hopes will be crushed, all because of just one responsibility and one kid, or more, depending on how much you decide to get.
"That's what happened to me the moment I gave birth to her." She pointed a finger accusingly at Lisa, who took another step backward, towards Marge. "I had great ambitions, but her birth wrecked EVERYTHING. Now, I'm stuck with her, her and her worthless siblings. It's bedlam! And worse yet, my husband thinks that it's a good idea to leave me with those bastards while he goes off to his work, which lasts for almost the entire goddamn day! Trust me, Ms. Bouvier, children ruin everything. Look at me! LOOK AT ME! I could've been something, but now, the only thing I'll ever be is a mother to these bastards."
Marge couldn't believe what she was hearing. Eliza was truly terrible. And now that she thought of it, so was her husband, apparently, whoever he was. Lisa and her siblings were all trapped under the care of these neglectful parents! She HAD to do something about it! ...But what? Obviously, the parents still have custody of their children and don't seem capable of wanting to get them out of their hair, for some reason. All she had to do was to acquire evidence that there was some sort of abuse and/or neglect going on in the house, and Child Services would instantly spring to action...
She eyed the bruise on Lisa's cheek. But before she could even think of a strategy, Eliza had already said, "Now, I think it's best if you leave."
Marge looked at Eliza, then at Lisa, who was looking back at her. Marge's pupils flicked back to Lisa's bruise, and then, praying that the bruise wouldn't heal till tomorrow, replied somberly, "Okay. Well, it was nice to meet you, Mrs. Thompson..."
"Yeah, yeah it was," Eliza replied sarcastically as Marge left the doorway.
Marge looked behind her and was able to see Lisa before the eight-year-old was escorted into the house by Eliza, who shut the door behind her. Sighing with frustration, she then went up to Artie's sedan and got inside.
"So," he said, "how'd it go? Did you get the answers you needed?"
"Yep," Marge replied. "I got 'em."
Bart had been listening in on Eliza and Marge's conversation intently the entire time, and when Marge left and Eliza closed the door, the ten-year-old boldly marched up to his mother, who flicked her head at him and stared back coldly.
"What the hell is it, boy?" she demanded angrily.
"Why is it that you have a problem with Lisa and not me?" replied Bart, stamping his foot. "I'm the firstborn, I ruined your life first! I wasn't even planned, for God's sake! Why the hell aren't you taking it all out on me then? What the hell did Lisa do to you?"
"You keep your damn mouth shut, ya little troublemaker," Eliza snarled menacingly, while Lisa watched, gesturing Bart to stop, but the ten-year-old refused to listen, instead continuing to argue.
"You were really nice even after a couple years after Lisa was born! But all of a sudden, you turn into a mean, rotten BITCH!"
He touched a nerve. Eliza's fist flew forward, and Bart fell to the ground, a large bruise on his cheek and a speck of blood oozing from his lip.
"BART!" Lisa screamed, rushing to her brother's side. But Bart bravely stood up, albeit with some difficulty, and wiped the blood from his lip as he stared at Eliza again.
"And I think I know why you're so cruel to us!" he cried. "I remember Dad telling me stories about how he met you, and when he knocked you up before high-school graduation! He described you as being an extreme nerd, like the next Stephen Hawking or something! But then I was born, and your chances of a good future were ruined! But you didn't seem to mind at first, because you actually cared for me the moment you saw me!
"Then, Lisa was born, and you didn't care until a couple years later, when Lis started showing signs of smartness, smarts that were like yours! You hate Lis because you're JEALOUS! And your jealousy mounted over and you also start hating me and Maggie as well! THAT'S why you're so rotten! You're just JEALOUS!"
Bart touched another nerve. This time, Eliza kicked him in the stomach, and the ten-year-old fell to the floor, crying and clutching his stomach. Maggie, who was sitting nearby in her baby-seat, began to cry from the loud noises.
"YOU SHUT UP, BOY!" she screamed. "YOU JUST SHUT UP!"
"What's wrong, Eliza?" Bart asked tauntingly, coughing a bit and sniffling. Lisa could hear her brother chuckle a bit. "Sad that your little daughter's growing up to be exactly what you wanted to be?"
Eliza suddenly grabbed numerous strands of Bart's spiky hair and tore them from the roots, earning a pained screech and a subsequent sobbing, but Lisa still heard some hints of rebellious chuckling intertwined with the crying.
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT, BOY!"
"Yeah? You can't stop me!"
"FINE, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD! YOU'VE ASKED FOR IT, DAMN IT!"
Eliza grabbed Bart's shirt collar and prepared to punch him, but Lisa seized the best thing her hands could find, her shoes, and threw them as hard as she could at her mother's face. Unfortunately, they missed and hit her shoulder instead, not achieving the desired effect Lisa had in mind. Eliza stared hatefully at Lisa and abruptly kicked her in the stomach. Lisa felt as if her eyes and stomach contents were gonna pop out; her body collided painfully with the floor and she began to cry and cough.
Growling furiously, Bart bit down on Eliza's hand as hard as he could. The woman screamed in pain and dropped him, giving him the chance to grab one of Lisa's shoes and hit Eliza's foot with it. Eliza screamed again and clutched her foot, giving Bart the time to grab Lisa's hand, run with her to Maggie's baby-seat, and retrieve his baby sister. He then grabbed his nearby backpack, and the two ran to the garage door and tried to open it when Eliza appeared and prepared to punch Bart when Maggie, her eyes narrowed, shot her pacifier from her mouth into Eliza's eye.
As Eliza screeched with pain and struggled to get the pacifier out, Bart opened the garage door and he and Lisa ran into the garage. Lisa opened the garage as Bart retrieved their bicycles. The two siblings mounted on the bikes, with Maggie being placed in a basket carried by Lisa's, and they cycled out of the garage as fast as they could and into the neighborhood.
The two siblings pedaled faster than they've done in their entire lives as they raced down the Rat's Nest Neighborhood, past the dilapidated houses and swarms of large rats. They couldn't hear Eliza running and screaming after them and assumed that she had remained at the house, either out of her own will or due to still trying to get Maggie's pacifier out of her eye. Pedaling into the more peaceful suburbs of Springfield, where they met Ned Flanders, Bart and Lisa still didn't look back.
They were officially running away.
A/N: FINALLY, BART, LISA, AND MAGGIE GO FOR IT! Will they survive on their own?
I'd like to thank those who reviewed:
Galaxina-the-Seedrian [I'm glad you think so.]
Da Darkest Knight [Sorry the update took longer than you could imagine. Hopefully you're still satisfied.]
aqsw (guest reviewer) [I don't know. What's "Malcolm in the Middle"?]
SideshowJazz1 [Sorry if the last chapter wasn't long enough. Hopefully this one is.]
Third Kind [Thanks for your review! I'm glad you actually like this AU-fic! Hope you keep reading this!]
Well, hope you enjoyed this somewhat brutal chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!
