I own Amelia and Earhart. See "Breathe Deep" and "Survival of All or None."
"One Rain Drop Raises the Sea"
By: Lady Jenna
Karl rolled over and looked at his alarm clock. He still had an hour before class so he rolled over to fall back asleep. He heard David's door slam shut. Why Karl decided to share a dorm room with his half-brother still avoided him. He heard the front door open, and he heard David's voice. David was probably telling him to do the laundry or something of the sort. The front door closed but Karl still heard footsteps. David must have forgotten something. Karl closed his eyes again and drifted off into a light sleep as soon as his eyelids touched.
"Karl!" a loud voice said right by his ear. Karl yelled in surprise and rolled off the bed away from the voice, taking the blankets with him. He peered over the side of the bed to see Amelia sitting on it, laughing at him.
"Amelia!" Karl yelled at her. She continued laughing.
"Oh come on Karl, it's not like you sleep naked or something. Or do you?" she asked stretching her neck to see more of him. Karl wrapped himself more in his blankets.
"No, of course I don't…" he said and she laughed again, "what are you doing here?"
"We have class, guy," she said raising an eyebrow in her smirk. He stood up and pointed to his clock.
"We have an hour," he informed her. She let out a soft chuckle.
"Yea… If it was Thursday, but it's Friday… We have History in half an hour," she explained. Karl froze and went over it in his mind. Today was Friday… He sighed and walked over to his closet to get out some clothes. Amelia watched him.
"I went to a party last night…" he confessed. She nodded.
"Yea I know. Marion and I went too. We saw you there," Amelia said. Karl turned to her with wide eyes.
"When did you see me?" he asked her urgently. Amelia grinned.
"Before and after you took Cindy's shirt off," she told him. He sighed, turned around, walked into his closet, and closed the door behind him. Amelia sighed in aggravation and got off his bed and walked over to the closet door.
"Oh come one Karl! Marion understands hormones or what ever it is you follow blindly! Besides, I'm not so sure she saw what I saw!"
"What if she did?" Karl asked. Amelia sighed.
"Then she still has David!" Amelia said. The door to the closet opened and Karl stuck his head out to glare at her. He then walked past her and wordlessly into the bathroom, fully clothed.
"How'd you change so quickly?"
Karl had slept through a good part of his history class. That was, of course, when Amelia wasn't jabbing him in the side with her elbow to keep him awake. By the time he…if he graduated he was sure he'd have a tremendous bruise for life on his right side. Amelia jabbed in every class, and she always sat to his right. How he had been unfortunate enough to have Amelia in every single one of his classes, he wished he knew. It was karma, he supposed. Retribution for all of the shit he's gotten away with. His half brother, on the other hand, had every class with Marion. Sometimes life could be light and dark, good and bad. There isn't always a gray between the two. David gets Marion, the light, and Karl gets Amelia, the, well, Karl wasn't sure exactly what Amelia was. Though, he supposed, Amelia might be a shade of gray. A rather dark shade but gray none the less. Marion and Amelia had grown up together. They both had the same, soft accent; they both laughed at the same things. They even ordered the same things at restaurants. But Marion was always the light. She always outshone Amelia in everything. Beauty, brains, manners. Marion was always polite and courteous of others. Amelia was always, well, not always. Amelia was never always something. She changed. One moment she'd be one thing, the next another. Anyway, now Karl was on his way to his favorite little café. He and his friends met there a lot after classes, but now he was alone. Amelia had another friend to see so she had left him. He was glad to be out of her company, but sad to be left alone. Despite what Karl might let other people believe, he hated to be left alone. Amelia knew that but she left him anyway. Though, he thought, she had asked him if he wanted to join her. David and Marion wouldn't be out of class for another twenty minutes. He had told her no. Her friend was not his friend. Karl and he, Earhart, had never gotten along. Amelia and Earhart were like brother and sister, and Earhart thought Karl was "the wrong kind of person" for Amelia to hang out with. He was probably right, too, Karl thought letting out with a chuckle.
"Karl! Karl! Karl! Karl!" Karl heard the familiar small voice yelling. He looked over and saw the small toddler running over to him, barely being able to pronounce his name with her inexperience with the language. She ran over to him and wrapped her arms around his legs in one big hug. After his balance was safe he placed a hand on her head, stroking her strawberry blonde hair.
"Hey 26," he said and looked to the direction the small girl had come running from. A man was walking toward him with a smile on his face. The man was tall, mostly in the legs, but he was unthreatening in every way. He laughed slightly when he saw the girl's firm grip around Karl's kneecaps. Karl had found the girl in an alley way a few months ago. She had been abandoned and was scared. He took care of her so she's loved his ever since. She didn't know her name; she could barely speak, so he had named her. He had found her in an alley on 26th street. The tall, smiling man was Zippo. Zippo had originally been a friend of Marion's so he had her kindness and other similar qualities. He had custody of 26, but she belonged to Karl.
"She spotted you from 100 feet away," Zippo said with a smile. Karl laughed a little as he managed to pull the little girl off from around his legs.
"She has good eyes," Karl told him. Zippo nodded.
"Karl! Karl! Karl!" 26 yelled again. It was the only word she ever said. She didn't say it; she yelled it, always. He kneeled down so to face her. A smile stretched farther across her face. Karl had almost lost his humanity until he found 26. She always made him feel important, worth while. She was the one responsibility he couldn't run away from, and he didn't want to. He was like a god in her eyes, who would want to run away from that? He picked her up into his arms and he laughed with joy and hugged him around the neck.
"You just got out of class, right?" Zippo asked him. Karl nodded.
"History," Karl told him. Zippo nodded with a smile.
"Yes, I always loved history. The people, the places, the languages," Zippo said looking at the sky, fondly thinking of the subject. Zippo was somewhat of a nerd, but he was cool anyway. It's very hard to explain.
"I'm glad you guys showed up," Karl confessed.
"Feeling a bit lonely?" Zippo asked him in a considerably more serious tone. Zippo was also very perceptive.
"Naw. Just it'll make Amelia feel not so bad about leaving me," he lied. Zippo nodded, knowing he was lying.
"Karl! Karl! Karl! Karl!" 26 yelled again, happily. Karl bounced her slightly in his arms, letting out a soft chuckle. He turned back to Zippo.
"When are you going to teach her other words?" he asked him.
"Oh she knows other words. She just likes your name the best. Listen, you don't have another class for three or four hours, right?" Zippo asked him. Karl nodded. "Could you watch 26 for a while? I have some work to do at the library and…"
"Of course I will, you don't have to ask," Karl told him. Zippo nodded in agreement, made his good byes, and left.
"Karl! Karl!" 26 yelled and clapped her hands. Karl set her back onto the ground and held her hand as they walked.
"So 26, what do you want to do?" he asked her. She thought for a few moments before letting go of his hand and wrapping her arms around his leg.
"Karl! Karl!" he heard a different voice calling him. He turned around the best her could and saw Amelia running over to him, waving some papers in her hand as she ran. When she got with in a good distance 26 shot off of Karl's leg and attached herself firmly around Amelia's. Amelia laughed and said hello to the small girl. Karl took the few steps over to talk to her.
"Here," she said laughing as she handed him the papers in her hand. It was his notebook. She must have taken it by mistake.
"Amelia! Amelia!" 26 yelled and Amelia smiled. Karl half smiled, half frowned.
"She's never said anything other than my name before…" Karl told her. Amelia laughed slightly at Karl's frowning face.
"What? Sad you're no longer the center of her universe?" she asked him. He shook his head.
"No, just sad that out of all the people she knows, it's you she likes," he told her and she laughed.
"Better me than Cindy…" Amelia said in a softer voice and batting her eyebrows.
"Oh shut up," he told her.