A/N: one again, FF.net decided to get rid of every tab I put in so that the
notes and thank you's got a bit messed up... hopefully, I can fix it.
Okay, I stepped away from the fandom for awhile, mostly because the whole
Manny thing is really, REALLY bugging me... so, let's just pretend it
didn't happen, mmkay? I'm sincerely sorry that I've taken so long, and I
have received a few e-mails... I've been zeroing in on my new Angel-Craze
(Spangel is my new religion...They're like an old married couple... ^.^ Who
hold hands! ~squee~ And, because I'm me, it will most likely get mentioned
several times in this. Go me!)... But... here we go!
Song o' the week: um... 'Fuzzy bunnies are my friends'? I couldn't really think of anything that would fit this chapter...
Dedications: Marpha, Kate, Hannanana (now I'm stealing the bunnies song! You must stop me!), and Erin (there! I named someone Lolita for you!)
-Chapter 2: I Sing, I Dance, I Hop-
The silence was golden. Sunlight slanted through the partway open window and shown on the dishes that cluttered the table, yet to be cleared away from breakfast. It flowed down the hallway, cluttered with children's toys, to the equally cluttered living room. Crayons were strewn over the coffee table, and video game controllers lay in a tangled mess before the TV. Nothing stirred at all.
There was a sound of a key scrapping in a lock. The front door opened to reveal Craig Manning, laughing his head off, and Martha Del Rossi, looking rather pleased that Craig had liked her Jake (Ghyllanhall) impersonating Christopher Walken impression. She entered the once golden house, looking around at the clutter a bit apprehensively. Craig noticed this.
"I'm sorry that house is a bit messed up." Craig said, pocketing his key again. "We're kind of in a rush in the mornings. Joey's usually here to straighten things up a bit, but he has to work today..."
"No, it's great!" Martha flashed a smile. "It looks lived in. My old house was really... I guess you would call it had sterile feel to it. Nothing could be out of place or my dad would go ballistic..." she stopped and grimaced at the memories.
"I'll go and get my guitar," Craig offered, changing the subject to something less painful. "Just make yourself comfortable."
He raced upstairs as Martha settled herself onto the old, beaten up couch. She picked up a crayon and doodled a bit before being distracted by several crashes overhead. Craig practically fell down the stairs, trying to carry his guitar, a small amp, about 30 feet of wire, and a large ream of paper. She looked at him oddly as he set everything up, before remarking "You could have just brought me your acoustic."
"I don't have one," he stated simply as he attempted to untangle the wire. "Ah, one of the lucky few who can start out with an electric." Martha lay back and sighed. "When I was 7, I told my mom I wanted to play bass. She made me take piano lessons for 4 years to build finger strength, then guitar lessons to get used to... I don't know, standing and strumming? Though it is a whole different set of muscles for bass... not to mention you don't really strum... Anyway, I had to do a year of acoustic before she even considered buying me an electric... and I still haven't learned anything about bass."
"That sucks." Craig finally gave up and just plugged the guitar in with the tangled mess. "If you ever get one, our band could use a bassist. We have three guitars and a drummer, but no bassist."
"That's sort of like my old band." She took the guitar from him. "Except everyone wanted to sing, so we had a drummer who had never taken lessons in her life, a bassist who had only a months worth of lessons, a guitarist who wanted to be the bassist, and about 5 singers. We were not a pretty sight."
She played a few chords and grimaced. After taking a minute to tune it, she lazily strum a few chords, before singing along.: "Fuzzy bunnies are my friends They sing and dance and hop. When I go and see them I hope they never stop. I want to be just like them So I sing, I dance, I hop. This is just one reason Fuzzy bunnies are the tops."
Craig cocked his head to one side and gave her a quizzical look. "Slaughterhouse Five is about bunnies?"
"No, you twit." She leaned over and slapped his arm. "That's just my warmup song... Pretty, ne?"
"Yeah, pretty." He rolled his eyes. "But I don't know what you're talking about when you say you can't sing. You're almost as good as Ash."
"Gee, thanks," she said rather sarcastically. "Trust me, when you hear this song, your eardrums may explode."
She proceeded to play a series of complicated chords with a rather odd strumming pattern. Her fingers flew and never missed their mark, and her pick hand seemed to have a mind of its own. Craig had never seen anything like it before, shocked to see that she wasn't even bothering to watch herself to make sure she was getting it right. She took a deep intake of breath and was just about to start singing when the front door opened.
"Joey, you're home early." Craig tried his best to sound uncaring. He didn't want Joey to embarrass himself at the sight of a guitar again. There was only so much of the old Zits' song that he could handle.
"It was a slow day, so I locked up early." Joey started to straighten out the mess that still lay in the front hall. "Remember, you have to take Ang...." he had noticed Martha, who sat on the couch smiling shyly at him.
"Who might this lovely young lady be?" he asked, extending a hand to her, though his eyes remained on Craig, reflecting a few questions that needed to be answered.
"I'm Martha Del Rossi." She shook his hand heartily. "Just moved in this week."
"I see," Joey said, though he wasn't listening at all. "Craig, can I talk to you for a sec?"
Martha glanced from her new friend to his guardian, almost seeing the sparks that flew from the looks they were giving each other. Finally, Craig stood and followed Joey into the next room. She smirked and moved herself closer to the door, intent on eavesdropping, while playing a few chords to make it appear that she wasn't.
"What have I told you about having girls in the house when you're alone?" Joey's query failed to remain a whisper. Martha bit back her laugh. She could have stayed on the couch and listened to this.
"You said I couldn't have Ash around when you weren't home." Craig sounded a bit exasperated, as if they'd gone over this hundreds of times before.
"You know what I meant."
"You made that rule so I wouldn't go too far with my girlfriend, and she isn't may girlfriend."
There was a few seconds of silence, then: "I can't believe you."
"What?"
"Did you think she wouldn't find out?" "Who wouldn't find what out? "I don't want you to ruin your relationship with Ashley just because your following your hormones." "Joey!" "And yes, I realize this Margaret..." "Martha, Joey. It's Martha." "Okay, I realize this Martha is very pretty, but just because she's willing doesn't mean you have to go along with it." "Joey!!" "I know how it feels. I've been in your shoes before. But this isn't a good way of dealing with this..." "Joey, we're doing an English project!" "And your working on it on a Thursday? When you know I won't be home?" "It was just given today and she had a great idea that we wanted to get done." "So why were you singing to her?" "Me sing to her? She's the one holding the guitar! And she's the one playing it now! That's what our project is! A song about a book we're reading."
They went back in forth like that for a few more minutes, Joey intent on finding the ulterior motive to Martha's little visit. It was already hard for her to not keel over in laughter from the start, so when she heard that the argument was coming to a close, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep a straight face for very long. She moved back to the couch just as Joey and Craig re-entered the room.
"I hate to stop the party, but I've got to get home." Martha stood up quickly, resting the guitar on the couch. "I have to walk Lolo to ballet."
"Lolo?" she heard Craig call after her.
"Lolita. My youngest cousin, Marco's younger sister. I promised I'd take her so she could give me her own tour of the town." She grabbed her bag and jacket from next to the door.
"Well, I have to pick up Angela and take her to ballet too." Craig grabbed his own jacket. "And since there's only one dance school here, I'll assume it's the same class and offer to go with you."
"Sounds good to me." She turned back into the house. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Jeremiah. Hopefully next time, I can stick around for a bit longer."
"Bye," Joey said, a bit tired and a bit absentmindedly, still a bit confused from his argument.
They waited until they were a ways away from the house before they began to discuss.
"Can you believe it?" Craig rolled his eyes. "He actually thought I would cheat on Ash."
"That's not what shocked me." Martha laughed a bit. "I couldn't believe that he thought we were both horny enough to just do it on your couch!"
Craig gave a small laugh, and Martha went on: "Though it would be kind of cool to be the girl who's being used to cheat on someone, but is aware of it. It's like I'm a mistress or something. I could become a dominatrix! 'Mistress Martha' has a bit of a ring to it, ne?"
"You're a bit too perky to be a Mistress," Craig managed. "Unless you were the happy dominatrix. All your stuff could be pink and fuzzy yet covered in black PVC."
"Mu hu hu!" she called into the night, doing her best to make her otherwise comical laugh sound evil. It was drowned out by the loud laughs of the teenager who made it and her companion. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"So I divide by 2, then take the square roots..." Marco mumbled to himself later that night as he struggled with his Algebra homework. "So the answer is 5 radical 2... no, that can't be right..."
"Knock Knock, favorite cousin," Martha called from his door way, where she had been standing for the past five minutes.
Marco jumped slightly. He glared over at the girl in the door, but was very happy about the distraction. Martha sauntered over to his bed, sprawled out on it and began to play with one of his pillows. "How was Craig's."
"Joey's insanely overprotective." She turned over on her stomach. "Didn't get any of the project done, though."
"Don't tell me he made you listen to that awful Zits song," Marco groaned, pitying her already.
Martha's face screwed up. "I don't even want to know what that's all about. He just thought that me and Craig were about to have wild passionate monkey sex on the living room couch."
Marco rolled his eyes.
"Have you thought about that whole 'telling me who you're crushing on' thing?" Martha queried, tilting her head slightly.
"A little," he admitted, suddenly feeling very self conscious. "There's this senior, Dylan..."
"Nope, try again."
"What?"
"Rule Number One in the art of dating: Never have a senior for a first boyfriend. If things get serious, you'll have to end it when they go off to collage." She shifted her position once again, now sitting cross legged on the mattress. "Besides, if it's the Dylan I think you're thinking of, he's a creep."
"But... he's gay..."
"So?" Her eyes narrowed. "Just because two people are gay doesn't automatically mean they're attracted to each other. Same way that just because two people of the opposite sex are alone together doesn't mean they're going to have wild passionate monkey sex."
"But... he's cute..."
"Were you the one who spent most of their developmental years over their house? No. Trust me, you're too good for him." She tossed the pillow at him for emphasis. "Any other ideas?"
"Not really... What about you?" Marco asked, throwing the pillow back.
She caught it as a small, secretive smile spread across her face. "I have a few prospects..." she admitted, her grin turning almost evil. "And a few good plans..."
"Why do I suddenly dread my very existence?" Marco shuddered at the thoughts that statement had given him.
"Mu hu hu!"
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~ A/N: not doing direct thanks at the moment, sorry... The Joey/Craig argument was written before he became and asshole and actually did cheat on Ash... got loads of laughs after that one, let me tell you... Have I mentioned I hate Manny? I never thought they were good together and now? ~sigh~ those silly writers, making one of my fave chars all jerk-like... But I digress. Feel free to hurl flaming balls of trash at me if I don't update anytime soon... or to send me some nummy Spangel-related pics if you like it. Mmm... Spangel...(yeah, I'm obsessive, what else is new?)
Song o' the week: um... 'Fuzzy bunnies are my friends'? I couldn't really think of anything that would fit this chapter...
Dedications: Marpha, Kate, Hannanana (now I'm stealing the bunnies song! You must stop me!), and Erin (there! I named someone Lolita for you!)
-Chapter 2: I Sing, I Dance, I Hop-
The silence was golden. Sunlight slanted through the partway open window and shown on the dishes that cluttered the table, yet to be cleared away from breakfast. It flowed down the hallway, cluttered with children's toys, to the equally cluttered living room. Crayons were strewn over the coffee table, and video game controllers lay in a tangled mess before the TV. Nothing stirred at all.
There was a sound of a key scrapping in a lock. The front door opened to reveal Craig Manning, laughing his head off, and Martha Del Rossi, looking rather pleased that Craig had liked her Jake (Ghyllanhall) impersonating Christopher Walken impression. She entered the once golden house, looking around at the clutter a bit apprehensively. Craig noticed this.
"I'm sorry that house is a bit messed up." Craig said, pocketing his key again. "We're kind of in a rush in the mornings. Joey's usually here to straighten things up a bit, but he has to work today..."
"No, it's great!" Martha flashed a smile. "It looks lived in. My old house was really... I guess you would call it had sterile feel to it. Nothing could be out of place or my dad would go ballistic..." she stopped and grimaced at the memories.
"I'll go and get my guitar," Craig offered, changing the subject to something less painful. "Just make yourself comfortable."
He raced upstairs as Martha settled herself onto the old, beaten up couch. She picked up a crayon and doodled a bit before being distracted by several crashes overhead. Craig practically fell down the stairs, trying to carry his guitar, a small amp, about 30 feet of wire, and a large ream of paper. She looked at him oddly as he set everything up, before remarking "You could have just brought me your acoustic."
"I don't have one," he stated simply as he attempted to untangle the wire. "Ah, one of the lucky few who can start out with an electric." Martha lay back and sighed. "When I was 7, I told my mom I wanted to play bass. She made me take piano lessons for 4 years to build finger strength, then guitar lessons to get used to... I don't know, standing and strumming? Though it is a whole different set of muscles for bass... not to mention you don't really strum... Anyway, I had to do a year of acoustic before she even considered buying me an electric... and I still haven't learned anything about bass."
"That sucks." Craig finally gave up and just plugged the guitar in with the tangled mess. "If you ever get one, our band could use a bassist. We have three guitars and a drummer, but no bassist."
"That's sort of like my old band." She took the guitar from him. "Except everyone wanted to sing, so we had a drummer who had never taken lessons in her life, a bassist who had only a months worth of lessons, a guitarist who wanted to be the bassist, and about 5 singers. We were not a pretty sight."
She played a few chords and grimaced. After taking a minute to tune it, she lazily strum a few chords, before singing along.: "Fuzzy bunnies are my friends They sing and dance and hop. When I go and see them I hope they never stop. I want to be just like them So I sing, I dance, I hop. This is just one reason Fuzzy bunnies are the tops."
Craig cocked his head to one side and gave her a quizzical look. "Slaughterhouse Five is about bunnies?"
"No, you twit." She leaned over and slapped his arm. "That's just my warmup song... Pretty, ne?"
"Yeah, pretty." He rolled his eyes. "But I don't know what you're talking about when you say you can't sing. You're almost as good as Ash."
"Gee, thanks," she said rather sarcastically. "Trust me, when you hear this song, your eardrums may explode."
She proceeded to play a series of complicated chords with a rather odd strumming pattern. Her fingers flew and never missed their mark, and her pick hand seemed to have a mind of its own. Craig had never seen anything like it before, shocked to see that she wasn't even bothering to watch herself to make sure she was getting it right. She took a deep intake of breath and was just about to start singing when the front door opened.
"Joey, you're home early." Craig tried his best to sound uncaring. He didn't want Joey to embarrass himself at the sight of a guitar again. There was only so much of the old Zits' song that he could handle.
"It was a slow day, so I locked up early." Joey started to straighten out the mess that still lay in the front hall. "Remember, you have to take Ang...." he had noticed Martha, who sat on the couch smiling shyly at him.
"Who might this lovely young lady be?" he asked, extending a hand to her, though his eyes remained on Craig, reflecting a few questions that needed to be answered.
"I'm Martha Del Rossi." She shook his hand heartily. "Just moved in this week."
"I see," Joey said, though he wasn't listening at all. "Craig, can I talk to you for a sec?"
Martha glanced from her new friend to his guardian, almost seeing the sparks that flew from the looks they were giving each other. Finally, Craig stood and followed Joey into the next room. She smirked and moved herself closer to the door, intent on eavesdropping, while playing a few chords to make it appear that she wasn't.
"What have I told you about having girls in the house when you're alone?" Joey's query failed to remain a whisper. Martha bit back her laugh. She could have stayed on the couch and listened to this.
"You said I couldn't have Ash around when you weren't home." Craig sounded a bit exasperated, as if they'd gone over this hundreds of times before.
"You know what I meant."
"You made that rule so I wouldn't go too far with my girlfriend, and she isn't may girlfriend."
There was a few seconds of silence, then: "I can't believe you."
"What?"
"Did you think she wouldn't find out?" "Who wouldn't find what out? "I don't want you to ruin your relationship with Ashley just because your following your hormones." "Joey!" "And yes, I realize this Margaret..." "Martha, Joey. It's Martha." "Okay, I realize this Martha is very pretty, but just because she's willing doesn't mean you have to go along with it." "Joey!!" "I know how it feels. I've been in your shoes before. But this isn't a good way of dealing with this..." "Joey, we're doing an English project!" "And your working on it on a Thursday? When you know I won't be home?" "It was just given today and she had a great idea that we wanted to get done." "So why were you singing to her?" "Me sing to her? She's the one holding the guitar! And she's the one playing it now! That's what our project is! A song about a book we're reading."
They went back in forth like that for a few more minutes, Joey intent on finding the ulterior motive to Martha's little visit. It was already hard for her to not keel over in laughter from the start, so when she heard that the argument was coming to a close, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep a straight face for very long. She moved back to the couch just as Joey and Craig re-entered the room.
"I hate to stop the party, but I've got to get home." Martha stood up quickly, resting the guitar on the couch. "I have to walk Lolo to ballet."
"Lolo?" she heard Craig call after her.
"Lolita. My youngest cousin, Marco's younger sister. I promised I'd take her so she could give me her own tour of the town." She grabbed her bag and jacket from next to the door.
"Well, I have to pick up Angela and take her to ballet too." Craig grabbed his own jacket. "And since there's only one dance school here, I'll assume it's the same class and offer to go with you."
"Sounds good to me." She turned back into the house. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Jeremiah. Hopefully next time, I can stick around for a bit longer."
"Bye," Joey said, a bit tired and a bit absentmindedly, still a bit confused from his argument.
They waited until they were a ways away from the house before they began to discuss.
"Can you believe it?" Craig rolled his eyes. "He actually thought I would cheat on Ash."
"That's not what shocked me." Martha laughed a bit. "I couldn't believe that he thought we were both horny enough to just do it on your couch!"
Craig gave a small laugh, and Martha went on: "Though it would be kind of cool to be the girl who's being used to cheat on someone, but is aware of it. It's like I'm a mistress or something. I could become a dominatrix! 'Mistress Martha' has a bit of a ring to it, ne?"
"You're a bit too perky to be a Mistress," Craig managed. "Unless you were the happy dominatrix. All your stuff could be pink and fuzzy yet covered in black PVC."
"Mu hu hu!" she called into the night, doing her best to make her otherwise comical laugh sound evil. It was drowned out by the loud laughs of the teenager who made it and her companion. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
"So I divide by 2, then take the square roots..." Marco mumbled to himself later that night as he struggled with his Algebra homework. "So the answer is 5 radical 2... no, that can't be right..."
"Knock Knock, favorite cousin," Martha called from his door way, where she had been standing for the past five minutes.
Marco jumped slightly. He glared over at the girl in the door, but was very happy about the distraction. Martha sauntered over to his bed, sprawled out on it and began to play with one of his pillows. "How was Craig's."
"Joey's insanely overprotective." She turned over on her stomach. "Didn't get any of the project done, though."
"Don't tell me he made you listen to that awful Zits song," Marco groaned, pitying her already.
Martha's face screwed up. "I don't even want to know what that's all about. He just thought that me and Craig were about to have wild passionate monkey sex on the living room couch."
Marco rolled his eyes.
"Have you thought about that whole 'telling me who you're crushing on' thing?" Martha queried, tilting her head slightly.
"A little," he admitted, suddenly feeling very self conscious. "There's this senior, Dylan..."
"Nope, try again."
"What?"
"Rule Number One in the art of dating: Never have a senior for a first boyfriend. If things get serious, you'll have to end it when they go off to collage." She shifted her position once again, now sitting cross legged on the mattress. "Besides, if it's the Dylan I think you're thinking of, he's a creep."
"But... he's gay..."
"So?" Her eyes narrowed. "Just because two people are gay doesn't automatically mean they're attracted to each other. Same way that just because two people of the opposite sex are alone together doesn't mean they're going to have wild passionate monkey sex."
"But... he's cute..."
"Were you the one who spent most of their developmental years over their house? No. Trust me, you're too good for him." She tossed the pillow at him for emphasis. "Any other ideas?"
"Not really... What about you?" Marco asked, throwing the pillow back.
She caught it as a small, secretive smile spread across her face. "I have a few prospects..." she admitted, her grin turning almost evil. "And a few good plans..."
"Why do I suddenly dread my very existence?" Marco shuddered at the thoughts that statement had given him.
"Mu hu hu!"
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~ A/N: not doing direct thanks at the moment, sorry... The Joey/Craig argument was written before he became and asshole and actually did cheat on Ash... got loads of laughs after that one, let me tell you... Have I mentioned I hate Manny? I never thought they were good together and now? ~sigh~ those silly writers, making one of my fave chars all jerk-like... But I digress. Feel free to hurl flaming balls of trash at me if I don't update anytime soon... or to send me some nummy Spangel-related pics if you like it. Mmm... Spangel...(yeah, I'm obsessive, what else is new?)