Author's Note: Good evening, everyone. Well, instead of my computer breaking, my big sister's car and the family jalopy mini van decided to do some triumphant breaking of their own today. My sister's car lost/cracked/exploded a tire rod and the headlights on the van have decided to die a quiet, circuit deep death. It wouldn't be a problem if my dad didn't work nights and double shifts that require him being picked up at dark hairy butt crack in the morning but alas…anyway, since my meager possessions are intact, I want to do as much writing as I can just in case their bad juju gets to me. Enjoy today's chapter.
Disclaimer: "Honestly, it's not mine!"
Brian "Brainy" Levine was known for three things: his asthma, his mad skills on the turntable, and for being in the background. Being smack dab in the middle of a large brood of children (7 biological, 2 adopted from troubled relatives, and 1 adopted from Moscow…) had him honing his shadow lurking skills constantly. He could use the information learned for good (warning his oldest sister about her cheating fiancé) or for evil (obtaining enough blackmail on his brothers to make them into indentured servants) or as future leverage for his friends and foes. Case in point: Arnold and Helga. Brainy knew about Helga's side for years, the punches to his nose for eavesdropping just another part of his makeup but it was he who spotted when Arnold's feelings shifted favorably.
It had happened between the summer of 9th and 10th grade, the result of them working together at the flower shop and at Slausen's. What became known as the Pax Pataki (when Helga had curtailed near all of her bullying after 6th grade) had allowed Arnold to take a good look at the caustic blonde and see her true worth, her true nature. Once the now infamous 'Yellow Haired Goddess' poem had been read, Brainy's torch for her had been extinguished and replaced by a fierce big brother on the playground like need to protect her and hers.
Lila may not be a murderous threat but she was still a threat, a threat that he could not in good conscience allow to exist. The best way to do that would be to expose her as the snake she was on a grand scale. That plan couldn't be done alone but his current objective could.
Sid placed his backpack down and headed towards the far drinking fountain. Reaching from behind the hedges, Brainy got his CD player and switched out the Jewel CD (really?) in favor of The Best of Lila. In the background as always, he had recorded numerous conversations she had with her 'friends', building up and tearing down quickly, backstabbing and plotting. There had even been some Helga like soliloquies captured, a distinctly dark tone to them as she waxed on about how Helga was unworthy of Arnold, how Lila was better than her in all ways, and mainly, how Sid was just a way to make Arnold jealous. A conversation with Piper McKernan confirmed that last one and Brainy couldn't help but feel sorry for Sid. He was falling for someone who would never return his feelings.
He knew all about that now. Hopefully, Sid would be wise and detach himself from her fast…