A/N: Okay. I got back to writing and here's the second chapter. Things
pick up a bit. (Especially right at the end.) You'll now see why I've
classified this as animé fan fiction. Enjoy!
Chapter Two: The Secret Room
Aimee spent the whole weekend cleaning the house. Her mother gave her a very long lecture about responsibility and how it was her responsibility to look after her siblings and she had failed to do so. John had shared in her punishment for going along with her scheme. Despite their protests that the kids had been perfectly safe and that it had been unfair of Sharon to back out when she had no reason to, John was grounded for two weeks as well and both had their allowances revoked for the next month. It didn't take her long to decide that talking with Scott for five minutes was not worth all the trouble she'd gotten into over this.
Aimee showed up at school on Monday in anything but good spirits. And things only got progressively worse. She had forgotten her textbook for her history class and had to take a demerit to go to her locker and retrieve it. When she closed her locker before her second hour studyhall, her school ID, which hung from her neck, got caught on the locker door, and the cord broke. She improvized and tied the remaining cord around her right wrist, but it managed to be a nuisance for the rest of the day. Her geometry assignment had been all wrong despite the fact that she was normally one of the better students in her class. She got caught sleeping in her biology class, and she did not realize until noon that she had forgotten to bring her lunch and had no money with her to buy one.
"So," Misty asked at lunch, "why did you have to leave so soon on Friday? The game actually got close near the end."
Aimee scowled to herself, "I wasn't exactly supposed to be out, but I thought I could get away with it. Turns out I didn't. I'm grounded for the next month."
Misty raised her eyebrows slightly, "Tough break. Well, I told Scott you had a family emergency, which, I guess, was true."
"Thanks," Aimee replied in a melancholy tone.
"He seemed a bit disappointed that you didn't show up afterwards," Misty continued eyeing her carefully.
Somehow, this didn't cheer her much. What she really wanted at the moment was food. She prepared herself for hungry, miserable afternoon.
It was seventh hour, and Aimee had begun to feel unbearably weak. She was unaccustomed to going without lunch. She had just been called upon to stand and recite a section of Shakespeare's Macbeth. She was given the role of Lady Macbeth. Misty was the gentlewoman, and a boy named Gary was the doctor.
The three students walked to the front of the classroom, and their teacher announced the section they would perform.
"The Tragedy of Macbeth. Act 5. Scene 1."
Gary began, "I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?"
Misty replied, "Since his Majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep."
Aimee listened for awhile as the two discussed Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking habits and began to walk toward them rubbing her hands together when was cued to.
"What is it she does now?" Gary the doctor asked. "Look, how she rubs her hands." "It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands," Misty replied as the gentlewoman. "I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour."
Aimee chimed in with her first line, attempting to hold her play book and "wash" her hands at the same time, "Yet here's a spot."
She listened for Gary's reply and began again, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say! one, two--why, then 'tis time to do it. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?"
"Do you mark that?" Gary asked Misty the gentlewoman.
Aimee was feeling weaker and, now, dizzier by the moment, yet she continued, "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands never be clean? No more of that, my lord, no more of that! You mar all with this starting."
Aimee barely heard Gary and Misty exchange their lines and had to be prompted to begin her next line, "Here's the smell of the blood still."
Aimee paused for a moment, tried to steady herself, and took a breath, "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."
Her vision blurred, and she cried out, "Oh, oh, oh!"
It was not until Aimee collapsed that the teacher and the rest of the class realized she had not been following the script.
When Aimee opened her eyes a few moments later, she realized two things. First, she was lying on the classroom floor. Second, Misty, Gary, their teacher, and about twelve other people were peering down on her.
"Is she alright?" she heard everyone asking.
Now that Aimee was awake, the teacher began shooing them all away, "She's fine. Misty, walk her down to the nurse's office please. Cara, I want you take over in the role of Lady Macbeth, and Diane, you'll be the gentlewoman."
Misty helped Aimee to her feet, and as they walked out the door, Aimee realized she had never been so embarrassed in her life.
Several minutes later, Aimee was sitting in the nurse's office eating crackers. Misty had been sent back to class, and she was all alone now. Now that she had food in her stomach, Aimee felt worlds better. After a while, the nurse returned to ask how she was feeling. Aimee knew there was no use faking it, the nurse could see she was fine. Aimee admitted defeat was sent back to class.
I really don't want to go back into that classroom.
Aimee's cheeks turned red at the thought of it.
School's out in half an hour, and we won't really be doing
anything anyway. I could just skip it couldn't I?
She continued to walk slowly down the hall. She didn't want to go back to class, but she really didn't want to get caught out of class by a teacher either. She was in enough trouble at home as it was. Aimee considered stopping at her locker for a magazine and camping out in the bathroom for the next thirty minutes. The idea was not all that appealing to her which is why she gave it up when she noticed the door on the right side of the hall.
She had never really noticed it before. The only odd thing about it was that it had no classroom number or any other sign to say what was inside. She glanced around and, finding that she was alone, decided to let her curiousity get the better of her. She placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it, expecting it to be locked. It opened.
Aimee stepped cautiously into the room and shut the door behing her. The only light in the room came from a computer screen sitting on a large desk against the right wall. There seemed to be a great deal of electronic equipment cluttering what space the computer did not occupy on the desk. Aimee eyes strayed to wall opposite the door. From the light of the computer screen, she could see that it was completely lined with shelf after shelf of various DVDs. Curious, Aimee walked up to the shelves and peered at the contents. Of the eight shelves, five of them contained only animated movies. Of those, the majority were Japanese.
Wow. Somebody here's more obsessed that I am!
Finally, Aimee turned her attention to the wall on her left. Lining this wall were four stalls, similar to bathroom stalls with full length doors that reached the ceiling. It was then that Aimee noticed the numerous wires and cords connecting the four little rooms to the computer. They had been tacked down on the floor with electrical tape to keep people from tripping on them. Now that she had studied the whole room, Aimee realized it was much too small to have been a classroom. It must have been a janitor's closet or something similar.
Why on earth would the school have built a room like this? It
doesn't make any sense. What's it all for anyway?
Aimee found herself drifting back to the wall of DVDs. She ran her fingers along one of the animé shelves and stopped on a boxed set of Trigun episodes.
I'm only grounded from TV at home. I've got some time now. I
may as well watch my favorite episode. I could probably play it in
the computer.
Aimee slid the last DVD out of the box, opened up the case, walked over to the computer and inserted the disc. A message flashed across the screen.
PICK AN EPISODE:
23 24 25 26
Aimee grabbed the mouse and clicked on "25".
SIMULATION STARTING.
"Simulation?" Aimee muttered to herself. "What the crap? I just want to watch the episode!"
The screen went blank and nothing happened. Aimee slapped her hand against the side of the monitor. Nothing. She pressed "Enter" on the keyboard. No response.
"Okay," she said to herself in frustration, "this is crap. Somebody needs a new computer."
After several more minutes of trying to coax the computer into doing what she wanted, Aimee gave up and walked back over to the stalls.
I never did see what the looked like on the inside. I may as
well look now.
She stepped up to the door second from the right, turned the knob, and opened it. It was just a simple black stall just as looked from the outside.
Okay. That was pointless. I'm not sure what I was expecting,
but it was certainly more exciting than this.
Aimee shrugged to herself and stepped inside for kicks.
Imagine that. It's still boring.
She remembered the glow-in-the-dark mood ring she had on her left index finger and decided to shut the door to see if it would glow. As the door latched she heard something beep. Suddenly, there was an explosion of light, and Aimee found herself standing in the middle of a small desert town. There were shops and people and cars all around but something it didn't seem quite right.
It's so surreal. Nothing looks like it should. It all looks
flat like...like a cartoon.
Aimee froze in horror at the realization.
That doesn't make any sense. How could I be in a cartoon? I
mean, what would I look like?
She heard someone shouting and turned to see a tall young woman with long brown hair running towards her yelling, "Meryl! Meryl!"
Oh, my gosh! That's Millie Thompson! I must be in Trigun!
But, where's Meryl?
Aimee turned around to see Meryl, but, for some reason, she wasn't there. She did, however, see a large barrel of water. Remembering that she'd wanted to see what she looked like as a cartoon, Aimee peered into the water, and Meryl Stryfe stared back at her.
A/N: Alright, you've read it. Now, review it! I need to know that people are actually reading my stuff, or there's no point in me writing any more on this one. Chapter 3 will not be here until I get five reviews. (Plus, I need to watch episode 25 again to make sure I don't mess anything up.) Sorry, but I already know that almost nobody reads my other story,The L6 Conspiracy (Gundam Wing fic). It's very discouraging, and it gives me writer's block. So, if you want any more on this, review it! Thanks! ^_^
Chapter Two: The Secret Room
Aimee spent the whole weekend cleaning the house. Her mother gave her a very long lecture about responsibility and how it was her responsibility to look after her siblings and she had failed to do so. John had shared in her punishment for going along with her scheme. Despite their protests that the kids had been perfectly safe and that it had been unfair of Sharon to back out when she had no reason to, John was grounded for two weeks as well and both had their allowances revoked for the next month. It didn't take her long to decide that talking with Scott for five minutes was not worth all the trouble she'd gotten into over this.
Aimee showed up at school on Monday in anything but good spirits. And things only got progressively worse. She had forgotten her textbook for her history class and had to take a demerit to go to her locker and retrieve it. When she closed her locker before her second hour studyhall, her school ID, which hung from her neck, got caught on the locker door, and the cord broke. She improvized and tied the remaining cord around her right wrist, but it managed to be a nuisance for the rest of the day. Her geometry assignment had been all wrong despite the fact that she was normally one of the better students in her class. She got caught sleeping in her biology class, and she did not realize until noon that she had forgotten to bring her lunch and had no money with her to buy one.
"So," Misty asked at lunch, "why did you have to leave so soon on Friday? The game actually got close near the end."
Aimee scowled to herself, "I wasn't exactly supposed to be out, but I thought I could get away with it. Turns out I didn't. I'm grounded for the next month."
Misty raised her eyebrows slightly, "Tough break. Well, I told Scott you had a family emergency, which, I guess, was true."
"Thanks," Aimee replied in a melancholy tone.
"He seemed a bit disappointed that you didn't show up afterwards," Misty continued eyeing her carefully.
Somehow, this didn't cheer her much. What she really wanted at the moment was food. She prepared herself for hungry, miserable afternoon.
It was seventh hour, and Aimee had begun to feel unbearably weak. She was unaccustomed to going without lunch. She had just been called upon to stand and recite a section of Shakespeare's Macbeth. She was given the role of Lady Macbeth. Misty was the gentlewoman, and a boy named Gary was the doctor.
The three students walked to the front of the classroom, and their teacher announced the section they would perform.
"The Tragedy of Macbeth. Act 5. Scene 1."
Gary began, "I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?"
Misty replied, "Since his Majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep."
Aimee listened for awhile as the two discussed Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking habits and began to walk toward them rubbing her hands together when was cued to.
"What is it she does now?" Gary the doctor asked. "Look, how she rubs her hands." "It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands," Misty replied as the gentlewoman. "I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour."
Aimee chimed in with her first line, attempting to hold her play book and "wash" her hands at the same time, "Yet here's a spot."
She listened for Gary's reply and began again, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say! one, two--why, then 'tis time to do it. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?"
"Do you mark that?" Gary asked Misty the gentlewoman.
Aimee was feeling weaker and, now, dizzier by the moment, yet she continued, "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands never be clean? No more of that, my lord, no more of that! You mar all with this starting."
Aimee barely heard Gary and Misty exchange their lines and had to be prompted to begin her next line, "Here's the smell of the blood still."
Aimee paused for a moment, tried to steady herself, and took a breath, "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."
Her vision blurred, and she cried out, "Oh, oh, oh!"
It was not until Aimee collapsed that the teacher and the rest of the class realized she had not been following the script.
When Aimee opened her eyes a few moments later, she realized two things. First, she was lying on the classroom floor. Second, Misty, Gary, their teacher, and about twelve other people were peering down on her.
"Is she alright?" she heard everyone asking.
Now that Aimee was awake, the teacher began shooing them all away, "She's fine. Misty, walk her down to the nurse's office please. Cara, I want you take over in the role of Lady Macbeth, and Diane, you'll be the gentlewoman."
Misty helped Aimee to her feet, and as they walked out the door, Aimee realized she had never been so embarrassed in her life.
Several minutes later, Aimee was sitting in the nurse's office eating crackers. Misty had been sent back to class, and she was all alone now. Now that she had food in her stomach, Aimee felt worlds better. After a while, the nurse returned to ask how she was feeling. Aimee knew there was no use faking it, the nurse could see she was fine. Aimee admitted defeat was sent back to class.
I really don't want to go back into that classroom.
Aimee's cheeks turned red at the thought of it.
School's out in half an hour, and we won't really be doing
anything anyway. I could just skip it couldn't I?
She continued to walk slowly down the hall. She didn't want to go back to class, but she really didn't want to get caught out of class by a teacher either. She was in enough trouble at home as it was. Aimee considered stopping at her locker for a magazine and camping out in the bathroom for the next thirty minutes. The idea was not all that appealing to her which is why she gave it up when she noticed the door on the right side of the hall.
She had never really noticed it before. The only odd thing about it was that it had no classroom number or any other sign to say what was inside. She glanced around and, finding that she was alone, decided to let her curiousity get the better of her. She placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it, expecting it to be locked. It opened.
Aimee stepped cautiously into the room and shut the door behing her. The only light in the room came from a computer screen sitting on a large desk against the right wall. There seemed to be a great deal of electronic equipment cluttering what space the computer did not occupy on the desk. Aimee eyes strayed to wall opposite the door. From the light of the computer screen, she could see that it was completely lined with shelf after shelf of various DVDs. Curious, Aimee walked up to the shelves and peered at the contents. Of the eight shelves, five of them contained only animated movies. Of those, the majority were Japanese.
Wow. Somebody here's more obsessed that I am!
Finally, Aimee turned her attention to the wall on her left. Lining this wall were four stalls, similar to bathroom stalls with full length doors that reached the ceiling. It was then that Aimee noticed the numerous wires and cords connecting the four little rooms to the computer. They had been tacked down on the floor with electrical tape to keep people from tripping on them. Now that she had studied the whole room, Aimee realized it was much too small to have been a classroom. It must have been a janitor's closet or something similar.
Why on earth would the school have built a room like this? It
doesn't make any sense. What's it all for anyway?
Aimee found herself drifting back to the wall of DVDs. She ran her fingers along one of the animé shelves and stopped on a boxed set of Trigun episodes.
I'm only grounded from TV at home. I've got some time now. I
may as well watch my favorite episode. I could probably play it in
the computer.
Aimee slid the last DVD out of the box, opened up the case, walked over to the computer and inserted the disc. A message flashed across the screen.
PICK AN EPISODE:
23 24 25 26
Aimee grabbed the mouse and clicked on "25".
SIMULATION STARTING.
"Simulation?" Aimee muttered to herself. "What the crap? I just want to watch the episode!"
The screen went blank and nothing happened. Aimee slapped her hand against the side of the monitor. Nothing. She pressed "Enter" on the keyboard. No response.
"Okay," she said to herself in frustration, "this is crap. Somebody needs a new computer."
After several more minutes of trying to coax the computer into doing what she wanted, Aimee gave up and walked back over to the stalls.
I never did see what the looked like on the inside. I may as
well look now.
She stepped up to the door second from the right, turned the knob, and opened it. It was just a simple black stall just as looked from the outside.
Okay. That was pointless. I'm not sure what I was expecting,
but it was certainly more exciting than this.
Aimee shrugged to herself and stepped inside for kicks.
Imagine that. It's still boring.
She remembered the glow-in-the-dark mood ring she had on her left index finger and decided to shut the door to see if it would glow. As the door latched she heard something beep. Suddenly, there was an explosion of light, and Aimee found herself standing in the middle of a small desert town. There were shops and people and cars all around but something it didn't seem quite right.
It's so surreal. Nothing looks like it should. It all looks
flat like...like a cartoon.
Aimee froze in horror at the realization.
That doesn't make any sense. How could I be in a cartoon? I
mean, what would I look like?
She heard someone shouting and turned to see a tall young woman with long brown hair running towards her yelling, "Meryl! Meryl!"
Oh, my gosh! That's Millie Thompson! I must be in Trigun!
But, where's Meryl?
Aimee turned around to see Meryl, but, for some reason, she wasn't there. She did, however, see a large barrel of water. Remembering that she'd wanted to see what she looked like as a cartoon, Aimee peered into the water, and Meryl Stryfe stared back at her.
A/N: Alright, you've read it. Now, review it! I need to know that people are actually reading my stuff, or there's no point in me writing any more on this one. Chapter 3 will not be here until I get five reviews. (Plus, I need to watch episode 25 again to make sure I don't mess anything up.) Sorry, but I already know that almost nobody reads my other story,The L6 Conspiracy (Gundam Wing fic). It's very discouraging, and it gives me writer's block. So, if you want any more on this, review it! Thanks! ^_^