Disclaimer: I suppose I own Maria and the plot, if you must know.
They're upstairs in the den, the little inwards level that has the TV and the better couch. Rua turns on some cartoons he likes a lot, but Ruka repeatedly tells him to turn them down or to quit laughing so loud.
If someone's asleep, you should at least have the decency to keep quiet.
Maria has bags around her eyes, that's what Ruka first noticed when she walked through the door. They aren't downright noticeable and, in Ruka's opinion, makes Aki's new friend more intriguing to look at.
She's unusually pretty for one thing. Not model pretty like Misty, or sophisticated pretty like Mikage. No, it's the kind of pretty that you don't see too often because it's like some rare type of gene miraculously fell into place and grew something you needed to see more of.
You just have to find the right moments to see it.
Though, that isn't the point of why Ruka can't stop glancing at her. Not at all.
Ruka spots the scratch on her hand, too, and wonders where her feline friend went. It followed her closely on that day in the park; it raced to her side when she hit the ground and lied unconscious in the yellowy-green grass.
Maybe the cat is just at home with Martha.
Everyone was worried that day though—it was hard not to be. Ruka and her brother didn't even know Maria yet and, when they saw Akiza dart toward the fainted girl, it scared the living daylights out of them both.
She wants to forget the troublesome image. This isn't part of the point either.
Ruka's been getting those feelings again, that's the point.
She didn't want to take her deck with her anywhere—not school (she uses a substitute one), not over at Tenpei's, not even here with the guys. Just looking at the deck would make her feel anxious. She tries not to think about it laying in one of her desk drawers at home.
The feelings lessened a while back, and Ruka thought nothing was going to happen. She reassured herself daily—things are getting better. The guys are entering the WRGP, her grades at the academy are great, and everyone's happy.
She thought all this and more for a good while, until today.
The knocking in her chest arrived just as Maria came through the door. The spirits were alive with noise in her head when Maria shook her hand. And even now, Ruka's still seeing swirls of golden black and eerie white.
I wake with a start. I rub my eyes into the crevice of my elbow without trying to make it too obvious.
I peer over the slump of my arm and onto everything around me. Has anyone noticed?
The twins have. I think they're the only ones up here, actually. I raise a finger to my lips, in front of a light smile, and silently plead for them to keep quiet about this. Rua, who's too entranced by the TV, sees nothing. Ruka sees, but nods sharply before looking at her hands.
Reminds me of someone.
My hand rubs against my cheek and I sigh when I feel the rugged scar of the scratch Annie left me with before she left. I sit and peer through the bars to look over everyone downstairs.
Crow makes a sandwich over in the kitchen—I think he's always hungry. Jack's nowhere to be seen; I would guess he's either in his room or at that café he likes so much.
Where are you now, Annie?
"Maria," says Akiza. "Can you come here?"
Not really wanting to walk down the stairs, I do it anyway. She asks for help with her English homework—translating sentences.
"I graduated high school just so I didn't have to do this stuff anymore, I hope you know," I comment before plopping into a chair.
She points a finger and warns, "I hope you know two can play the pouting game. Help me please?" Her puppy dog pout is sub-par but I've seen worse.
Simple mistakes here and there, some grammar that needs to be corrected. I don't need to help too much. It's a good thing too; I get the feeling I wouldn't have been able to do much more than what we finish.
I can only nod when she thanks me for the help.
"Watcha ladies up to?" Crow asks, sitting down with sandwich in hand. He cringes at the homework in Akiza's hands.
What's wrong with me? First I fell asleep upstairs, now I can't seem to focus.
Without realizing it, my eyes settle on Yusei's back. It's odd to see him without his jacket on, so peculiar I guess I have to stare at him.
Maybe it's good to be so out of it. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to spot her pass by. I gasp, causing Crow and Akiza to turn. As soon as the door starts to open I get to sliding under the table.
"Maria?" Akiza questions in concern.
I shake my head at them. "I'm not here!" I whisper.
"Oh!" Zora coos. "It's so nice to see you again, Yusei!"
I watch the scene play out from under the table.
Yusei stands and wipes a hand across his forehead. "It's good to see you too, Zora."
Crow turns in his chair to say: "I thought we already turned in the rent for this month." I think he looks to Yusei when he says, "We did, didn't we?"
"That's not why I came—"
"Your soap operas must be on commercial break then, huh?" Crow snickers when she growls at him.
"I don't know why I waste my time," she mutters.
"Is there something we can do for you?" asks Yusei.
"Oh, there's nothing you can do for me!" she answers with a gooey voice.
Zora stops talking abruptly. No one says anything, but I think they're watching her. I do the same, just from under the table. The last thing I need is for her to find me here.
Her boots clunk against the floor with heavy steps, and she stops. She knows.
No, she keeps moving, this time over to the stairs that lead into the den. The pent up uneasiness comes out in one big breath, though it's short-lived. Akiza wiggles her leg and ends up stepping on my head. Her heels are pointy and hurt so bad my squeal pushes my head into the underside of the table.
"I'm sorry," Akiza whispers. "I didn't mean to!"
Even with my hand throbbing as terribly as it does, I crawl out from under the table. And don't get too far. Zora looms over me.
"Going somewhere?" Her tone is mockingly sweet. "Work perhaps?"
"Uh," I sputter. "Yes."
"You work for Zora?" chirps Crow. "I thought I had it bad."
She turns to throw a threat that ends with the word 'scoundrel' at him and gets back to me. "You haven't come to work. At all. Why is that?"
To answer truthfully or make up some inane excuse, that is the question. I chose neither and don't answer at all. She came to chide me and whether or not I have a reason it will happen.
"As much as Martha tried to sugarcoat you, I just knew you had to be a troublemaker. She already sent me two—" She glares Crow down. I guess the other lucky one's Jack. "I was sure she'd send me another some day."
"Martha thinks I have spunk."
I don't say this to be funny, I don't mean to say it at all. What is with me and word vomit?
But because Crow chuckles and almost chokes on a bite of his sandwich, Zora's furious.
"I don't know who you think you are—" Somehow she's at the door. "But when you're ready to act like the responsible young lady I've heard you are, that's when—and only when!—you can come back!"
She stomps out with enough rage to scare off a bull.
"Well, that sure was," Crow starts, "something."
Akiza slowly says, "Did she just fire you?"
I don't think she did, she never made it clear. I know that she said she could, but I hope Nayla won't let her. Then again, I don't know if she liked me the day we met and I wouldn't know now seeing as I haven't visited her since.
I'm hoping she won't say anything to Zora. She might not but I think Zora's part snake, part hawk, and part bulldog—she hisses a lot, seems to see everything, and has too good of a nose.
A snawkdog. Zora, you're a snawkdog.
I decide that it's too bothersome to stay and chat. There's too much attention on me.
I have to pass Yusei to get out the door and I don't look at him. He might be better at reading people than Mom was.
Someone calls my name, it might be Akiza or a twin. Yet I want to leave more than explain why I'm leaving so I say, "I'm fine," and leave it at that.
I blame school. School must be the reason I'm so sensitive.
"You're such a good student, Maria. You'll be up to remarkable things someday."
"You keep those grades as good as they are, Maria, and I tell ya'—I tell ya'!—you're gonna do great out there!"
And an all time favorite: "You're doing so well, Maria, but when are you going to learn how to make some friends?!"
No, when are you going to learn, Mr. Nagi, that teaching me advanced precalc has absolutely no correspondence with a social life I might or might not have?
The bottom line, I guess, is that I should go to work tomorrow.
I'll be on time and Nayla will be surprised and I'll clean and cook and do whatever it is she wants me to do as long as she doesn't start talking about Mom again because then I might not come back again.
That would only complete the circle of paranoia and lead me back to where I am now: laying in a lake contemplating my life.
The water's not deep at all, maybe a couple inches taller than me. I can't swim well but I'm decent enough to float; all you need to do is relax. The lake is off the edge of this park I found a couple blocks from the guys' apartment. It's an open area, but I guess I'm the only one who has the guts to actually jump in.
Or the only one here for that matter.
Splash splash splash.
I don't think those are my splashes.
Splash inhale splash exhale.
No, definitely not me!
My eyes were closed, but now they're wide open.
Orange, a bright radiating contrast to the dull hue of the bank and water.
"Don't worry, don't worry," she says in panic. "I got you. Well, I hope I do."
I don't know what to do. She's talking to a tree branch.
"What are you doing?"
She screams. I scream. And I really wish there would be ice cream involved but there isn't.
"I thought you were dead!" she hollers, shaking the branch.
"I'm obviously not!" I yell back. "And, by the way, that's a branch!"
I float closer to her and grab her hand. She squeals and flails around a bit but at least she doesn't let go. We work together and kick ourselves to the spongy mud of the bank.
I wring out my hair and mush my toes deep into the mud while she lays on her back mumbling something about her glasses. As long as she's okay, I don't care what she's talking about.
"You're alive!" It comes out a bit melodramatic but she's obviously in high spirits. "I was walking past and I saw you and I thought 'Ohmygosh I think she's dead!' but you're not and, although it would've been a really great scoop, I'm really happy you're not dead—"
I tell her, "I think I got the gist."
Do I know her? I don't think I'd forget someone with such vibrant taste in colors. If I can just remember her name…
"Maria, right?" She smiles and, though glasses-less, she can surely see the thought bouncing off my brain. Pointing to herself, she nervously introduces, "Carly."
Oh. The first day I was here. Her and Jack. I remember now. "It's nice to see you again."
Her eyes glimmer, but it's gone in a second. "Oh! I need my glasses!"
We spend ten minutes looking for them just to find them, and her shoes, right next to mine. I keep them off (walking barefoot is a favorite pastime of mine) and walk away from the lake with her in tow.
"Um," she scratches her head. "So what do you want to do?"
We stop at the end of the grass. "What do you mean?"
She struggles to get the words out, but they come soon enough. "We could, you know, do something? Anything?"
I still don't understand but I say, "I'm not really up to do—" My stomach cuts me off.
Her glasses glint. Should I be suspicious of that look? "We can go get food."
It'll be easier to dry off while the suns still up. On the other hand, I could get food. There's an obvious winner.
"Cheeseburgers?"
She nods, "Cheeseburgers."
—
Whoever created bacon cheeseburgers needs to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for most outstanding use of bacon.
—
She pulls up beside Martha's cleanly cut lawn. "I've been meaning to ask, are you and Martha actually related? I mean, you sort of look like her. Well, if you close one eye and squint the other."
To think I was just about to get out of the car. "We are." Her gaping mouth spurs a laugh out of me. "Is it really that ridiculous?"
"Well… yeah! Everyone knows Martha as the caring, lively foster mother she is. So if you think about it, no one really knows much about her life before she became mother hen." She leans back in her seat. "And it's not like she'd spill the beans on herself."
I can spot Martha through the window overlooking the front yard. She's picking up the kids' toys and games, it looks.
"You can't blame her for wanting privacy."
"Of course not!" her hands wave frantically. "I'm just saying that would be a really big scoop to get in on." A cheeky grin and shimmering glasses equal someone who's up to no good. "But not as good as the one I got today!"
"Oh?"
"Yeah, there's this gambling ring—" Her hand clamps over her mouth and a muffled "Crap," comes out.
A brow raises and my arms fold, smirk firmly planted on my lips. "You might as well tell me now. Something about a gambling ring, I think?"
She hesitates, but buckles easily. "The reason I was over by the lake wasn't just to save you. There's a hill going up from the lake with an abandoned warehouse on it—"
"And that's where the gambling ring is?"
She nods. "I was about to go scope it out when I saw you."
"Did you see anything at least?"
"No," she sighs. "I wasn't close enough. And, they only meet at night. Or so I've heard."
I take a good moment to look at her. A little frustration is visible on her face, but mostly, it's determination. "What are you going to do?"
She faces me again and leans in to say, "According to an anonymous tip, the next meetup is tomorrow at midnight."
"And you're going to go, aren't you?"
"That's the plan."
Martha waves at me from the window and I wave back.
"Count me in then."
"You're not invited! This happens to be a very serious matter—" I arch my brows again. "Fine, you can come. Be ready at eleven thirty tomorrow night."
I hop out of the passenger seat and shut the door. "Thanks for the ride."
Getting a little dangerous there Maria. Watch yourself.
Stay tuned for more…er, whatever this is I'm writing~
TTFN