Sketchy

A/N: I know y'all are about ready to keel over. Two ficlets in one day. What is the world coming to? This is another I came up with at the VS3 fest. Thanks to Alaidh for the beta.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They don't really know me.

All they see is Sketchy, the fool. Sketchy, the idiot. Sketchy, the moron, loser, screw-up, dumb guy, wuss… I could go on and on.

But that's not who I am.

I am not a tool provided solely for their laughter. They don't think I notice the little giggles, pointed fingers, rolling eyes, and hidden whispers.

I'm not stupid.

I am Calvin Simon Theodore! What a name, huh? My parents were hippies a few decades too late. If they'd been born in the right time, I might have had a name like Harley, and the girls would have been lining up to take me for a ride. Or Stallion, and then I could… I guess I don't need to go on about that, do I? As chance would have it, they were born too late and I ended up being named after a trio of cartoon chipmunks. Thank God not many people knew the significance (probably because they called me Calvin and not the actual chipmunk name, Alvin), or I could have been beaten to death in elementary school.

Mom called me Cal, and had the best smile. I wanted to see it as often as I could, so I drew picture after picture. I drew her, Dad, our dog, and our house. I drew anything I could, all the time. That's why I started getting called Sketchy. My sketches always made Mom smile... at least until the Pulse.

After…

Dad lost his job, like many other people then. And like many other people, he decided he couldn't deal. He left us. Permanently.

I became the man of the house... at least until we lost our house. Then we had to move in with my Aunt Frieda, and she smelled. I won't even say what happened to the dog. Mom stopped smiling.

I tried to help when I could. I took odd jobs here and there, brought a little money home. Heck, wearing a sandwich board was even kind of fun. But when I came home one day, my mom was gone. Aunt Frieda decided that 15 was old enough to be on my own, and that ends that story.

Anyway, when you've got nowhere else to go, why not go to Seattle? These days, it seems like it's everyone's last hope. For me, it was a place I could call "mine", like my home before the Pulse. After I got here and settled in, it was finally a time when I could begin to build my dreams. To build dreams, you need money, and to have money, you need a job. And even though my job at Jam Pony is a lame, dead end position, and has absolutely no chance of going anywhere, ever, it has managed to get me all I need.

My family.

Herbal Thought, Original Cindy, and Max – they're like… like… my dad and my mom and my dog, all over again. Okay, so maybe a dog isn't the best description for Max, but she is man's best friend. Lassie! She's like Lassie, always there to save Timmy's ass from the well. They all are always there for each other, for me.

They still think I'm Sketchy, mostly for other reasons now. But I drew a picture of Original Cindy and Max for them one day, and their smiles were as bright as the sun. Like my mom's smile used to be.

And I know I'm loved.

That's who I am.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE END

PL news: I have been noticing all of you who've been heckling me. ;) My PL beta, Tallera is at the head of the heckling line, and she said the rest of y'all can get behind her. I have a solid outline for the next chapter (okay, for the next 5), and have some work started, but it's probably going to be a while. :)