Chapter Soundtrack: watch?v=mAY9jV_uNGg
21 (II).
Hauling in a tossing and screaming Klaus from the backdoor, Five called loudly for the help of whoever was nearby.
"Couldn't you grab him and space jump directly inside?" grunted Marben dodging a tin lid and getting a grim look from her sweaty, disheveled boyfriend.
"Easiest thing in the world, when the one you have to give a piggyback ride is an entire head taller than you and not cooperative in the slightest!".
Finally done with the noise and the mess Mom came to the rescue, and with inhuman force grabbed Klaus from the armpits, lifted him from the ground and dragged him toward the table; Marben watched in astonishment as she ripped the tin lids from the boy's hands and, taking the insulating tape Five offered her, started tying Klaus' wrists to the chair.
"Mom…hey, Mom…" drawled the confused boy, focusing for a moment on the familiar face of his mother.
"Yes, Klaus" Mom answered, automatically smiling at him.
"Have…have you ever wondered what a vegetable thinks about?". Mom's smile became indulgent.
"Klaus, dear, vegetables are devoid of central nervous system: they think nothing at all".
"F…Five, is this…normal administration?". Five gave her a bemused look. "You know, tying your brother to a chair while he's delirious…".
"Oh, yes, of course! He's high and…".
"LET GO OF ME, THEY HAD IT COMING!" bellowed Klaus trying for an unfocused, last escape; Mom kept winding tape as if nothing had happened.
"Klaus, be a dear and stay put".
"THEY DIDN'T LET ME SLEEP, MOM! IT WAS ONLY FAIR TO NOT LET THEM SLEEP TOO, FOR TON…no, wait, THEY DON'T SLEEP AT ALL!". Marben looked at Five, but he only twirled a finger to his own temple, whistling. Instinctively, the blonde girl grabbed another ginger cookie from the plate and ate it quickly; she knew what Klaus' power was and what problems it caused him, watching Five dismiss his brother's torment so regardlessly had given her another bout of nausea.
"Listen, why…why don't you go wait up in my room?" suggested then her boyfriend, probably worried she'd be thinking of breaking up with him if his family kept to be its chaotic self. Marben looked quizzically at him.
"Don't worry, everything's under control. Klaus will be fine with Grace" Five told her with his most convincing look of the good, reliable bloke. "I'll join you in a tick, okay?". Marben didn't like that much the idea of getting lost in the Academy all by herself, but she told herself that Five would come to her rescue wherever she would managed to end up.
"Okay" she begrudgingly acquiesced. "Where is it, this mystique room of yours?". At that hint of playfulness, Five's face lightened up a bit, gifting her one of those unguarded smiles she loved so much.
"In the attic" he said softly, "Climb all the stairs to the upper bedrooms and then the remaining flights too: when the walls become green, just down the corridor, take the only door and you'll be there. Make yourself at home". Five leaned down to give her a swift but ardent kiss - which caused Klaus to get cheerful and start smooching everything he could reach without relying on his hands.
"Marben, JUST GO, please, I don't want you to see this!" yelled Five when his brother stopped peppering Mom with kisses and shifted his interests on him. With a slightly hysterical giggle, Marben fled.
The stairs to the attic seemed to be endless, as if the mansion had been a million floors high, but while climbing them Marben managed to peek some more glimpses of the strange, yet fascinating Academy. At some point, she came across a landing with two juxtaposed doors; one was slightly ajar and showed very little of a dark and empty room, from the other door instead came out the only girl of the family she had yet to meet in person. Number Three, or The Rumor. Allison.
"What's this insufferable…oh my god" she said, sporting a mortified expression as soon as her eyes landed on the blonde girl. Marben didn't even look down at herself, she just smiled her most sweet, dangerous smile.
"Quite fetching, that pajamas. Did you steal it from a a retirement home?". Allison went livid, and with eyes wide open pointed stiffly toward the stairs.
"I…I said, what is this insufferable clamor coming from downstairs?". Marben calmly looked over her own shoulder, like she couldn't care less of having been addressed.
"Uh…it's Klaus".
"Oh, for fuck's sake, is he high again?" the younger girl testily asked.
"Yes. I'm afraid it's exactly so".
"Well, whoever is with him is managing". Waving a hand as if to chase away a fly, Allison was clearly ready to dismiss the problem and go back to whatever she deemed of importance in her bedroom, but then stopped abruptly.
"Hey, wait!" she called in a rush, and Marben stopped on her tracks.
"Yes?".
"Aren't you…the girl on all the posters on the street walls? The violinist?". Marben responded to her gossipy attitude with an unimpressed glance.
"Yeah, that would be me and some other classmates".
"So you're a celebrity too…I posed for Trend Rage's cover last month!". The younger girl's smile made itself knowing, but Marben didn't trust her fake camaraderie for half a second.
"I'm a bit famous, in a way, I suppose".
"I want to be an actress, when I'll be of age…to make it my real career. And that cover was my launchpad!" Allison continued, clueless to Marben's lost interest as she resumed climbing the stairs.
"Congratulations. I don't give a damn about it, but still".
"Oh. Well, then you probably don't have what it takes to be…you know, special!". Marben stopped on her track and turned to look at the cheeky little toddler who had just lost the last bit of her umbilical cord and already was playing grown up woman with her: even with a stranger looming over her, with skinny arms crossed on her almost flat chest and an insolent smile plastered on her face Allison had the nerve to try and not look inferior. That deserved some respect, and Marben recognized it. But for all the rest, the little minx was going to get swallowed whole, like a mice at a hungry snake's mercy.
"Allison Hargreeves, at your age you should very well know that fame is something that eats away your private life, your true identity and your freedom as well! Why would you ever want to become famous?". Allison's smile slipped away. "But after all you already are, aren't you? You fight evil and make the world a better place, helping the ill-fated people of every nation, even setting a good example for little girls! You rock, girl!".
"I don't want that!" blurted out the pajama-clad teen, disgusted. "I want to wear beautiful designer clothes, diamonds, walk on a red carpet while everyone is photographing me, and be second to none!".
"Then I saw it right: you only care about yourself" calmly replied Marben, after a pause. "And since your name alone wouldn't take you anywhere, you use your father's surname to make your way into stardom…well, I guess then I'm not the only one without what it takes to be, you know, famous!".
"That's bullshit!" hissed Allison, letting her arms fall down and her fists ball up at her sides while her eyes lit up in rage.
"Dream big all you want, Number Three, but until you judge a girl by her clothes and don't care at all for your own screaming brother, even disrespectfully treat Mom like a sewing machine…you're not worth the paper and ink they used to print your face on that fucking ass-wipe!". The only answer Marben got, was the slamming of a door when she already was several steps ahead.
Deep down, Marben knew that Allison probably wasn't a bad person at heart, but that didn't prevent her from feeling disgusted by the other girl's superficiality and indifference. Surely growing up with a distant father and a machine as a mimicry for a mother had been trying on her - like on all her siblings -, and puberty wasn't helping at all in this delicate phase of cultivating the buds of her individuality…but what a colossal delusion it had been, to see a young girl already voted to such selfishness!
Absorbed in these dark and angry thoughts, Marben decided she deserved a rest, and so let herself fall on the first thing that happened to be on her way: a rich, golden, engraved console who looked very antique and felt very uncomfortable under her bum, but one can't have everything in life, she supposed.
"Thanks" came suddenly a quiet voice from under the console, which caused Marben to ungracefully slip off of it with a yelp. "She's been insufferable since the photoshoot, and that was months ago. It was time for someone to finally show her her place again".
Bending down to peep through the penumbra under the console, Marben was welcomed by the eyes of a boy huddled on the floor, reading a book with an electric torch's aid.
"Ben, am I right?" she asked; the boy nodded. "Wouldn't it be comfier to read on your bed or…sprawled on a sofa?". The boy looked around himself for a moment.
"I guess I do this out of habitude: we're not allowed to have fun outside of Saturday afternoons, so…I hide here every evening to read a little". Marben smiled sweetly at him.
"Admirable. But…forgive me if I tell you, you look a bit ridiculous crumpled up down here. You've almost outgrown your little lair". The boy smiled timidly up at her.
"I know. I should start to look for another bolthole next time Dad's away".
"Yeah, sounds like a good idea". Marben sat cross-legged on the floor and extended her hand in greeting. "I'm Marben, by the way. Pleased to meet you".
"Pleasure's all mine" said the boy shaking her hand with one of his soft and warm ones. The other, Marben noted, stayed protectively curled around the book he held. "I saw you play at your school, last month: I had never been to a concert, before, but…I liked it very much!".
"Thanks, Ben, it's very sweet of you to say so. I'm glad you liked it". Ben's cheeks tinged of bright red, thing that got Marben smiling again at him.
"Was…forgive me if I'm prying, but was the music you were playing composed by yourself?".
"Oh, no, I can't compose. My Dad does, but I never learned…I guess I uh…'don't have what it takes to'" Marben winked; Ben didn't miss the banter and the both of them burst in snickers, lighthearted on Marben's part but mocking on Ben's.
"I think you've got whatever it takes to do or be anything you want. Don't listen to Allison, she's just jealous and bitter". Marben stopped laughing and looked at the boy, amazed: for all his looking aloof and reserved, Ben possessed such a kind heart and she strongly felt like hugging him. She didn't, of course, something told her it would get him extremely uncomfortable, but still, being in the presence of such a positive individual made her feel reinvigorated, a bit of a better person too.
"And after all, you know what they say about depressing people like her, don't you? Easy come, easy go".
"…will you let me go? BISMILLAH, NOOOOOOO!" sang Marben to the fullest, jumping up like a spring and pointing ahead for dramatic emphasis. Ben looked at her like she had just sprouted a second head, oblivious to Klaus screaming from several floors below 'WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO - LET HIM GOOOOOOO!'. Realizing she had just made the biggest fool of herself, Marben gathered as much dignity as she could and cleared her throat.
"Sorry, I'm…it has something to do with…us Brits, I couldn't uh…resist". Ben blinked owlishly at her. "All right, then, I'll just…".
Pointing at nothing in particular, Marben took her awkward leave, without even saying goodbye - but neither did Ben, after all, who sat under the console staring after the girl's sprint for quite a bit yet.
Thankfully it didn't take long before the walls started to be painted in a soft green, and soon she was running toward the only door on the last landing of the stairs, anxious to bundle herself up in Five's blankets and never face the outside world again. Blimey, what a wild night had been!
Slamming open the door, however, Marben was brusquely catapulted in Five's reality…and though she had never seen before the things scattered through the room, she felt like she knew them intimately: everything was so inherently Five that she felt like personally having studied at his desk, or huddled in his bed, read the books from his shelves or even played with the dearest toys he had kept from his childhood. It was a complex environment, the childish wallpaper clashed with the posters on the walls, the serious coverlet and the navy blue curtains at the two windows. Old-fashioned bracket lamps and a matching hanging chandelier reminded her of those saloons she had seen in the Western movies her grandparents were so fond of, and several mismatched lampshades made her breathe pure nostalgia, as the home she had grown up in had never seen two of those alike.
Everything was new, and everything was old; familiar and unfamiliar at once, young and ancient like Five looked and was. And on the walls, above the wallpaper, on the nude, pale green plaster, thousands and thousands of chalk scribbles that looked like intricate mathematical equations that Marben couldn't have deciphered for the life of her.
"Oh, Five, you lovely smart-arse…what would this be?" murmured the girl barely touching one of the symbols.
"Probability calculations" said a voice from the door; Marben started and turned to see just Five, leaning against the jamb in a casual way, hands in his pockets. "I…wrote them down when I still didn't know what I felt for you, and doing it gave me the answers I needed". The boy shrugged giving her a tender smile.
"So…you realized you love me because probability told you so?".
"No, I already knew I loved you, but I needed to be certain!" countered Five, condescendingly. "You saw my family. Can you imagine going to any of them to ask for advice on love?". Marben didn't need to ponder it for a second.
"No. You're all batshit crazy". Five raised his eyebrows and gave her a tiny smile.
"You're the one to talk, I heard you sing Bohemian Rhapsody from six floors below, Ben's probably traumatized for life!". At that, Marben gasped horrified.
"Fiiiiiiiiiveeeeee" she whimpered, going in search of his embrace to bury her face in it and never resurface again. "Your family now thinks I'm mental!".
"Magnifico-o-o-o-o" singsonged the boy, holding her tight before she got mad at him and tried to sneak away.
"STOP IT! I'M BEING SERIOUS!" shouted Marben, indeed disentangling from his arms and punching him hard in the shoulder. Five guffawed a pained laugh.
"Come on Princess, I just wanted a little fun for myself too! I've got trapped with the difficult brother until now, if you hadn't noticed! And in this regard, how aren't you freaked out by us?".
"So far, the shit of you guys it's not that different from the shit I've seen happening in other families" replied Marben, unfazed; then, her face became worried.
"How's Klaus?".
"Already on his marry way to recovery. He just needs to sleep it off". Opening his arms in a suggestive way, Five waited for her to nestle against his chest; Marben, instead, grabbed him for the tie and dragged him toward the bed, on which he was thrown and left to look astonished as his girlfriend kicked off her shoes, picked the heavy blanket on the chest at the end of the bed and then proceeded to huddle up on him, spreading the warm blanket over both of them.
"Aaaah, that's it, my favorite place in the whole world" she purred in satisfaction, tucking her head under his jaw. It took Five a moment to realize that he wasn't being manhandled anymore, and that now he could get comfortable too; so he wormed out of his shoes as well and enveloped his love in a tight hug, nuzzling her hair.
"I missed you" whispered Marben; Five sighed and closed his eyes.
"I missed you too. Even if it we've been in the same house all the time".
"But not together, that's the point".
"Yeah…not together". Marben snuggled closer.
"I want to stay like this forever" she said, her voice sounding muffled by his clothing. Five felt shrouded in warmth, joy and love. He held Marben a little closer, and petted gently her hair.
"Fine, by me".
A/N: You're in for a long one, folks! That's why it took an entire day to revise it and then publish. Jeez, I feel like I just gave birth. I'm trying to divide paragraphs, as was wisely advised to me by a pious soul who took pity on my bad layouts…I hope it will lighten your reading! :)
