Well, here goes nothing.
Don't ask why this chapter when into the direction it did. I have no idea.
The sass is strong with this one.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
'Ugh! I wanna go home now! I just wish that there was a way that I can crawl into bed and get out of this stupid school!'
'Toby...'
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
9 Months Ago
"Okay, Uncle Jareth. I'm ready!" Francesca said throwing her book bag over her shoulder with the biggest smile her uncle had ever seen. Jareth walked into the foyer of their New York town home to see a human-like teenage girl that looked as excited as she could be, as if she were a five year old ready for first day of Kindergarten.
"Mhm," Uncle Jareth murmured.
"Looks good, huh?" Francesca said holding out the skinny striped scarf around her neck as she looked down at her red spaghetti strap shirt and blue jean skirt combo. She modeled her cute ballet flats with a cheeky grin. "I studied all night, with all of the magazines I could find, on today's fashion. Isn't it, like, totally cute?" she said strutting to the front door to give her uncle a little fashion show.
He scoffs at her impudence. "You look ridiculous, and you've already adapted to their atrocious vernacular. It's a wonder that my ears haven't started to bleed." Jareth says leaning up against a door frame to measure the child before him.
"I look cute." she replied with pride. "Now if I can, somehow, get my curly hair to calm the fuck down, I'll be damn near perfect." she said as she gussied up in the mirror in the hallway.
"Foul language from such a young child," his voice remained in stoic sarcasm.
"Yeah? What are you going to do," she crossed her arms, "tell daddy?" she turns expecting an answer with sass.
His voice grew deep as he spoke down to her, ever so slowly. "Keep up with that attitude and I am going to bolt your Godforsaken little fairy wings to the floor of the Bog with an iron nail." his dark demeanor made her look away from him, intimidated by his change in mood.
"Ooh, I'm so scared," she fakes a shiver, obviously not threatened.
"And I'll enjoy watching you squeal in pain and terror as you gasp for air." he smiled maliciously.
"Are you even trying to scare me?"
"Too bad you wouldn't be able to say very much, since I will have that wild tongue hanging on my mantel after I get done with slicing it from your loud mouth."
It took her a moment to shake off his dark joke. "Now, that's just bad taste."
He flicks her nose. "So is your little nose sticking up in the air like that," he smiles a catlike grin.
"Don't touch me!" She flung her arms forward.
"Oh, you're gonna fit in quite well here, if you continue to act like the spoiled child that you are." he says standing up straight as he starts to straighten up his dark leather gloves.
"You would know," she says under her breath.
He heard her loud and clear as he slowly turned his gaze to her. "Excuse you?"
"Ugh," she exhaled a breath, completely done with this charade. "Whateves, Uncle J. Let's just get this year over with, as painless as possible, okay?" she snorts as a bulky and colorful Louis Vuitton purse suddenly and magically poofed in her hand as she dramatically threw it around her shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Jareth suddenly speaks, as he harshly snatches the purse away from her.
"Hey! Give that-"
He remains calm. "You can't just magically conjure something in the middle of a crowded human street in a city full of humans." he, himself, then poofed it away.
"Umm, hello, we're not in some crowded street in the middle of the city, were in our home," she leaned heavily on her hip as she rolled her eyes. She scoffed as she poofed her purse back in her hand.
"What, do you think this is a game?" he snaps his fingers and the purse disappeared again. "Has your mind become so deluded to fit the mind to that of a human "teen" that you have forgotten the one rule - one rule - that I had given you while you were here?"
"By the God's Uncle Jareth," she said while magically poofing it back in her hand, once more. "I mean, are you dead? Because you obviously don't seem to know how to live a little."
"I'm not doing this." he says walking away.
"Umm, where are you going? The door is that way?" she points to the front door in the other room.
"No, you are not going out." he shakes his head. "Not in this state."
"What?" she asks with a chuckle, as if she would ever let him stop her.
"You are obviously not ready to take on something so serious and dangerous as trying to survive in the midst of the human world, and on your own, no less." he spins to see his cheeky little niece. "If your father were a smart man, he would have never have agreed to this stupid expedition. But you just have him wrapped your tiny little finger, don't you?"
She doesn't deny it. "Your point?"
"So, no." he looks right in her eyes. "I am in charge here, and I refuse to partake in this stupidity." he doesn't bother to stay to hear her rebuttal.
"So... What? Were just going to stay here in this gods-awful little hobbit hole for a year?"
"You said it, not me."
"Nuh-uh, no way, Uncle Jareth. We made a deal!" she pointed to her chest. "I did my part!" she dropped her attitude as she followed him to the next room.
"And I am also doing mine." he spun around to meet her with an evil grin. "The deal was that I was to travel and stay with you, here in the human realm, for one year." he held up his index finger. "But you failed to specify where you would be for the entirety of the, said, year." he held his hands out to show her their home.
Her jaw dropped. "Stay in this shithole for a whole year?- a WHOLE human year?" she almost started laughing in hysterics.
"It's not my fault you didn't include any fine print in this little contract." he shrugs.
She frivolously shook her head, as she screamed in anger. "You're really on a role with these stupid jokes, today!"
He looks to her, "Am I laughing?"
"I'm going. And you can't do anything about it."
"Leave on your own, and you can kiss your powers goodbye."
"Says you." she sneers, crossing her arms. "Daddy would never let you."
"Your attitude has officially worn thin on me, you little wretch." he walked up to her with anger flooding from his eyes as he started to turn into The Goblin King that he was. Her fear started to stir within her. She knows when her uncle blows hot air from his trying attitude, but she also knows when he really starts to become angry.
At this rate, Francesca knew that she wouldn't get anywhere with just adding fuel to the fire. As much as she hated to admit it, she had to take one for the team. So she took a deep breath and swallowed her pride.
...
Spinning her back to him, her eye twitched at the words that were about to come out of her mouth. Rolling her eyes, she tried to sound as sincere as possible. "I'm sorry."
"Oh, Francesca. That was so big and sweet of you." Jareth exclaimed. "For a moment there you seemed as though you had a heart." he smiled sarcastically. "I'd love for you to teach me that magic trick."
She spins back around. "Look," she sighs, as she looks to him with innocent eyes. "We might not have gotten along as of yet, but you can be damn sure that I have listened to every single word you have spoken to me, thus far. I follow every item on my check list, I am to appear gentle and sweet, and I am to smile and look presentable. I use simple words, I stay away from iron, the phrase "thank you" is considered a compliment, and no magic of any kind. No exploitation, no persuasion, no conjugation, no clairvoyance, I am not even to speak the word "magic" to anyone." she counts with her fingers. "I know it all!"
"And?"
"No granting wishes." she rolls her eyes at the last statement. "Like I'd do anything so trivial. Don't I have to care about something before granting that something's wish, anyway?"
"We aren't going to risk anything, when it comes to you."
"I know the "punishment" for breaking the rules," she quotes the air, "And I also know that, no matter what I do, I am going to disappoint you with your lame-ass, old man temper. Now that we have gotten all of our yelling out of our system, let's just kiss and make up so we can get on with this year as painless as possible, okay?" she starts to raise her voice in the slightest. "So, please accept my attempt at being nice to you when I say I'm sorry!"
Jareth looks to her waiting for her to be finished. Her sassy lean to the side said enough as he sighed in contentment. "I just know that I am going to regret this." he says opening the door the reveal a lovely Autumn morning. "After you, your majesty," he waves a gentle hand out the door.
"Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me, Uncle J." she says waving her sassy little hand in the wind with an innocent smile. "I know what's wrong," she said pinching his cheek, "You just wish you looked as good as me." she waltzes past him as she, overly dramatically grabbing her fedora from the hat rack to show that she isn't using magic to put it on her head.
He ignores her audacity. "Even if I wanted to tread in your unfathomably ugly shoes, I would choose something more interesting than some stupid human high school. You have chosen the most mundane activity among the human people." he rolled his eyes that time.
"I have to work with what I've got." she says as she motions to how youthful her body has become. "I'm sorry we can't all look 60 when we cross through the portal." she whispers that last word through her teeth.
"Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me." he with a grin at her hiss of a statement.
"All I know is that I look bitchen." she says as she shifts her new fangled bra in the right direction, making Jareth look away in disgust. "I wanna look good if I meet a potential suitor while I'm here." she says skipping down the stairs and to his brand new vehicle.
"Yes." he nods with a bitter grin. "Please give your father a reason to kill you so I can go home early."
Annoyed by his disgruntled attitude, she crosses her arms . "I just though I'd follow in my Uncle's distinguished footsteps of falling for some low-life human fetish of his." she finishes as she opens the passenger car door. "I mean... Assuming it runs in the family."
"That's not funny." his face took a dark turn. "I've sent royalty to the bog for far less."
She looks to him. "Am I laughing?" she looks to him and she gets in.
His will to work with her completely diminishes, as he just stands by his car door. "I understand that the habit of having to subsidize your body's intake of alcohol for the next year is going to be trying for you, but you needn't target me with your undesired demons and unrequited anger. It's not classy, and this was your choice."
She whips her head to her uncle with a shocked look on her face. "Are you calling me a drunk?" her surprise doesn't fade from her face.
"I'm sorry, I thought you wanted me to be nice? I can get ugly, if you want me to." he says starting his car. "I can definitely become more creative with my retorts, if the desire suits you, me dear."
"You grant the wishes of those you care about, right? Then I wish you'd shut that thin little mouth of yours." she said clicking in her seat belt.
"Good thing I don't care about you." he says putting the car in gear.
"I hate you."
"Ditto." he finishes as he drives off.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
'Don't I have to care about something to grant that certain something's wish, anyway?...'
"Francesca, what are you doing, let's go!" Toby's voice breaks through Francesca's mind causing her to wake up to the havoc around her. The whole class has gone, and there is smoke everywhere in the room and in the hallway. She looks around as she slowly comes back to the present. Seeing what is happening, she starts to panic.
"W-what's going on?" she says slowly rising to see Toby's eyes.
"There was a fire in the Science lab a few doors down. Let's go!" he says grabbing her hand to pull her out of the room to leave the way they had been trained to leave with all of the fire drills they had been given in the past.
"A f-fire?!" she screams as she stops in her tracks trying to rip her arm away from him.
"What are you doing?"
"There was a fire?!" her terror floods her eyes as she starts to cry. While tears fill her cheeks, she starts to shake uncontrollably.
"Hey, hey, hey," he says trying to pull her close.
"No!" she shoves him away. "Stay away from me!" she shakes her head frivolously as she starts to back away from him.
"Francesca-"
"No-" Francesca starts to cough.
"We don't have time for this! We have to get out of here! Everything is going to be okay-"
"No," she continues to cough harshly. "Toby, you-" her coughs get harder. "Y-you don't understand-" her coughing continues.
"You've just inhaled too much smoke. Come on. We need to get out, right now."
"By the God's- I can't believe I-" her coughs becomes more dangerous.
He grabs a firm hold of her hand. "Let's go!" he finishes as he finally pulls her down the stairs and out with the rest of the crowd, only to see that everyone is long gone, and they are left in the burning building all alone. They were only alone for a few moments, though, now that a fireman has come to their rescue to lead them out through a safe path. As they are being pulled to safety, Francesca manages to look back at the damage that she had done.
O.o
It took no time for the ambulance and firetrucks to arrive at the school to fix what has unraveled within the past ten minutes. Student and faculty alike stand back and watch the everyday heroes at work as they put out the fire, trying to blow water from the 1st story ground to the 3rd story window with a strong fire hose. The principal stands at the entrance of the school as he talks to a police officer about what has happened, and news teams are arriving left and right to make this their top story for the night. As the fireman try to settle the fire inside of the school, on the other side, everyone sees that the Chemistry teacher being pulled out of the front doors of the school on a stretcher. Everyone stays deathly silent, scared and worried for their teacher, and friend, as he is carefully hosted into the back of an ambulance and carried off right away.
While all of this is happening, all of the teachers take role to make sure that all of their students are here and accounted for. but, Sarah has to double check her list, since she seems to be missing someone. She counts again and checks the list once more.
"This can't be right..." she says. She reads it say that she is missing one kid. "But that can't be... Who-" she looks to her class standing as still as can be. "1-2-3-4- oh no..." her heart drops. "Francesca...!" she says finally realizing who she is missing on her role sheet. The is missing the one kid that could make her life a living hell, if she were never found. She turns into the crowd of children and starts to shout. "Francesca?" she shouts louder. 'Stay calm, Sarah.' "Francesca?!"
"Ms. Williams?" one of her kids calls to her. "Where's Toby?"
"Toby!" she frantically spins as she realizes that he is gone as well. Spinning, she finally faces the burning building in front of them all. She stood there for a moment, as still as he fear would hold her, as she slowly comes to some sort of realization. She shakes her head, "No..." she refuses to believe it. "No... he wouldn't... She can't... TOBY!"
"Sarah?" she instantly hears Toby's voice in the distance. She turns to the sound of his voice as she searches for his face through the crowd. After a short while, she manages to see him waving her down at a firetruck at the front of the crowd in the street.
"Oh God, class, stay put." she says running to her little brother. But the closer that she got to him, the closer she had come to notice the scene next to him- Francesca, awake, but extremely weak in a fireman's arms.
"Sarah-"
"Oh, thank God you guys are okay." Sarah says as she runs to see her little brother and Francesca. Francesca continues to cough a dangerous amount until she starts to hyperventilate. "What happened to you guys?"
"She wasn't with us, Sarah I-I just couldn't leave her in there-"
"You mean to tell me that you went back in there?" her eyes grow. "What the hell were you thinking?" she says shaking the daylights out of her brother. She then looks to Francesca. "Francesca, honey. Are you okay?"
"It was like she froze in there. I noticed that I never saw her in the hallway. I tried to run as fast as I could back to your room to see that she was just sitting there like she was in a trance, or something." he said taking a deep and clean breath of fresh air. Francesca, however could not breathe.
"She needs oxygen, stat." the fireman said as he called to one of his co-workers.
"I finally snapped her back to the present and then she tried to push me away. I had to use force to get her out of there. It wasn't until he came along that she finally gave in. I have no idea what was going on with her." Toby slowly became more and more concerned for her.
"She could have been hallucinating," Sarah says feeling Francesca's head. "She probably inhaled too much smoke." Sarah finishes as Francesca starts to shake uncontrollably.
"Let go of me. Get away from me... I have to get away!" she says breaking free of the fireman's hold of her as she weakly starts to run from them.
"See what I mean?" Toby says standing to run to her.
"Hey, wait!" the fireman calls to her. "You need help!"
"That's not necessary," says a voice from out of the blue. Toby freezes as both he and Sarah immediately recognizes that voice as they both turn to see Jareth standing there as calm as he can be.
"Jareth-"
"Are you the girl's father?" the fireman asks, standing to greet the sudden parent.
"I am her guardian, yes." he says as Francesca runs behind her Uncle in fear. "What's happened here?"
The fireman starts. "A fire has broken out-"
"Yes, I've gathered that. How did the fire start?" Jareth's patience is quite short.
Sarah tries to calm him down, "Jareth, please-"
"How did the fire start?" he looks to her with a piercing gaze.
"We still don't have a cause. We know that it started in the science room, but it is a complete mystery as to how the fire started. At least for now."
"Were you in the science room?" he turns to his niece.
"No uncle!" she frivolously shakes her head no in absolute fear.
"I see," Jareth says dropping his gaze from the small group of people. "Who is her current teacher, here?"
"Me," Sarah says.
"I am taking her home, at once." he says in a bewildering anger that Sarah assumes to be towards the current situation. "I pray that everything and everyone will be alright." he says turning back to his niece.
"Uncle I-"
"Sarah, I would greatly appreciate it if you could relay any information about the day at your earliest convenience." he cuts off Francesca. "I expect to hear your voice, soon enough." he looks to her, unable to refrain from giving her the slightest smile.
The fireman long gone, Toby is too focused on Francesca to see Sarah blush in the slightest. "Umm... yeah." she clears her throat. "I am sure that every parent will be notified of the happenings and results of the spectacle of what has happened today."
"Good." his voice lowers. "Francesca, lets go." he hisses to his niece.
"Yes, sir." she replies sheepishly as she runs to his car.
"I am truly sorry for what's happened here." he refuses to face Sarah and Toby's direction as he just returns to his car.
"Is she going to be okay?" Sarah says with concern as she looks to his back.
"She is the least of your worries, Ms. Williams..." he sighs watching her get in the back seat of his car. "Or so I thought." he finishes as he makes haste to his car without another word.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
That's... sort of... how this chapter was supposed to go down.
Hmm... This is going to get interesting.
So, what do you think of Jareth and Francesca's relationship? As I stated in the beginning. I don't know what possessed me to do that, but I can honestly say it was a hell of a lot of fun coming up with rediculous and over-the-top remarks and insults for them to use.
But with everything said and done, it's needless to say that Francesca has changed a little since her first day of school all that time ago.
Next chapter we are going to have some fun with Sarah's feelings and we will have a good little moment with her and Jareth. It's past time that I got back to them. I mean, they are the reason for this story, after all.
See you soon!
I.L.C
(P.S. I want to thank all of you for your support in this story. If you hadn't seen what had happened with my old story, "Strangers When We Meet", I had to cancel it for many reasons, and a troll decided to put in their two sense, which sent me flying. I replied with quite the colorful remark, and I had learned that this story, "Sarah Smiles" has turned into somewhat of a spiritual experience for me. I am so enjoying this experience, and I am so glad that you guys are experiencing it with me, regardless of my long pauses and seemingly expired existence. I am sorry for how long it takes me to update. But I am trying to be more fuitful within my update times. I appreciate your patience and your deication to the story, thus far. You are just so wonderful, and I cannot express how blessed I am to have you guys. Thank you so much.)