Chapter 10-Confrontation
The second I shut the door, a glass vase flew at my head. Without hesitation, I reached out and caught it. Pure reflex. Ainaelda had an ugly look on her face. A VERY ugly look.
"Wow, suddenly ever since you're an Elf, you're Superman? Wonder if there's any kryptonite around?" I gently set the vase on the nearest flat space.
"If I go, you're coming down with me, Wonderwoman."
"Please. Don't go all Dixie Chicks on me. You aren't my nanny, you know!" I rolled my eyes, making quite sure that she saw it.
"Oh gee, you know, I should have realized when you kicked him and he grabbed you that you were PERFECTLY fine, and I shouldn't interrupt. How stupid I've been!" She stood up, red in the face from anger. I had only seen her like this once, and it wasn't at me. It was when we were thirteen, and Dave Spence was dim-witted enough to steal her diary. When she found out, she turned that exact shade of red and threw her history book at him. It slammed him square in the face and gave him a black eye. You'd have thought he would have learned his lesson, but two days later, he teased her about the contents. I happened to be sitting next to her, and stopped her the second before she dove at him. We managed to get to the girl's bathroom before she burst into tears.
I had seen Ainaelda in her lowest moments, and dried her tears, and I had seen her at her best moments, and planned the parties. Now, the girl I had cheered on, picked up when she fell, took the knife away from when she thought she was alone in her bathroom, she hated me and wanted me dead. Literally? I didn't know.
"Hey, let me clue you in on a little secret, Katty: You aren't Batman. You can't go and expect people to fall over you. I don't care if you make Carmen Electra look like Mother Teresa, to me, you will never be Batman. You're just gonna be Fay Wray, screaming for King Kong to let her go." Oh. Oh, that really wounded me. Batman? Who said anything about Batman?
"Listen, schizo girl, I HEARD you talking to him. You want me back, you know it. You MISS me. Admit it or not, you know it, I know it."
"Oh, so now you're EAVESDROPPING on me? What happened to privacy? Somebody die and make YOU God, Katty? Think I fell asleep for that one."
"News flash for Mina, we ain't in the states no more!" Finally, she looked like she was at the peak of her desperation. I had seen the same look on her face when she thought she was alone in the bathroom. When she didn't know I was even in her house. When she had stolen that knife from her kitchen. When I had thrown it out the window before she could make the cut worse. She had yelled at me then, too. She screamed and raged. When she found out that I had called her mother, she yelled even more. Then she cried. She wasn't going to cry now. She wasn't going to slash her wrist. But she was going to do something drastic. I could feel it.
"Fine. Fine! You want it that way, we'll do it that way. Here, Katty, brutal truth. Fine. Okay." She took a deep breath, and I realized I was holding mine. I wasn't going to like what she was going to say. It looked like she was having a hard time saying this. I felt my anger ebb slightly. Ever so slightly.
"Mina, are you okay?" She gave a hoarse laugh, like she had broncitis again.
"Ainaelda." Okay, now I was completely and utterly confused.
"What? I thought you said that you wanted to be called,"
"Mina. I know," she interrupted, "call me Ainaelda. Just DO it!" she suddenly yelled. I was taken aback, and I shakingly obliged.
"Ainaelda. There. Ainaelda, are you okay?" She gave another little hoarse laugh. More like a bark. A dog barking. This could only end in tears.
"Okay." I was right, this WAS ending in tears; said tears were pricking in her eyes. Just like when I called her mother. "I wanted him to. I wanted him to kiss me. I liked it. But all I could think of was you, so I pushed him away. I wanted him to go crazy. No one's ever done that to me before. Think about it, Vinya. Everyone at our school hates us. You know why? It's not because we're mean, or stupid, or anti-social." I was shocked, but it hadn't really set in yet. I kept talking until it would.
"It's because we're just plain weird."
"Don't tell me you believe that. Please don't." I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it and shook my head desparingly.
"I'm not that idiotic. I know it's not. But it's what I tell my mom." I added. Whenever my got into her rare 'Get involved with your teen's life' moods, she'd ask me how my friends were. I'd say Ainaelda was fine. She'd say no, what about my other friends. The problem with this is that I HAVE no other friends. She'd say that it was nonsense. I'd set her straight. She'd ask why, I'd say it was because everyone thought we were kooky because we knew a foreign language that didn't even exist. You really can't tell her the real reason.
"Tell me why, then, if you know."
"Ainaelda, where is this going?"
"Tell me." I sighed.
"Because we haven't had a boyfriend. And we haven't had one because we're pathetic geeks who are, and I quote, 'living unsatisfactorily in our day-to-day lives, and thus prefer to immerse ourselves in a culture that better appeals to our adventurous and creative instincts.'" I said, hating every word.
"Exactly. I wanted that to happen. I wanted to have at least something in common with normal people." I snorted. The situation was serious, I knew that, but this was too funny.
"Normal people? Normal people don't speak Sindarin, Ainaelda." Then, it sort of sunk in. My friend has kissed Legolas, and liked it. She had, and I hadn't. He liked her, not me. I slumped down. "Tell me one thing, Ainaelda, please." She looked at me strangely.
"What? What do you want me to tell you that I haven't already?" I hesitated.
"What ever happened to 'oh look, Vinya, it's the Elven pretty-boy from the Other Side'?" She smiled at that, and it was good to see a smile on her face again.
"Have you ever been watching a movie, and you know that this one guy's gonna fall in love, but you think he's butt-ugly?" I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes, the stereotypical black bad-girl pose, trained to intimidate.
"Girl, you better not be calling Legolas Greenleaf butt-ugly." She rolled her eyes, but for once, she wasn't trying to be snide.
"I'm getting to that. Anyways, you know what I'm talking about?" I had experienced my fair share of ugly movie stars. I nodded. "Well, then he falls in love, and he first kisses the girl, and he suddenly looks totally hot. You know?" Well, that question required some actual thought. Then, I had it. "West Side Story". I always thought Tony was kind of ugly. Then, he kissed Maria, and I thought he was actually pretty cute.
"Okay. Yeah. I can see that." She wrinkled her nose, like she always did when she was amused.
"Well, it's even more apparent when you're kissing him." I flopped onto the bed with a sigh.
"You're going to rub this in my face for all eternity, aren't you? Anyway, what about Aragorn?"
"Well, we got all eternity, don't we fellow Elf-maiden? I don't know, I still like Strider…but now I like Legolas! Ah, this is so confusing. What's next, Gandalf?" I shuddered.
"Oh, if you're my friend, you won't say that EVER again!" And just like that, it was like we had never thrown a punch at each other. We giggled together, pairing up the most unlikely movie stars we could think of. About two hours later, after the mad laughter had subsided, Ainaelda rolled off the bed and hunted around the closet, which held a lot more than just dresses, we found, and found a knapsack. She promptly began to stuff the more wearable items, as in, not dresses, and other sundry items into it.
"What are you doing?" I asked curiously. She grinned another grin I knew all too well. It was her devil-may-care, stop-me-I'm-dangerous look.
"Elrond said we couldn't join the Fellowship." I rolled my eyes, my reflexive response to anything I found to be out of the ordinary.
"Yeah, I was there, remember?" She was still grinning, not at all dismayed at my shot down.
"Well, the way I figure, what Halfelven doesn't know can't hurt him." I slowly smiled, and found another knapsack and followed suit. Then, I slowly set it down. "Um, Ainaelda?"
"Yeah?"
"They don't leave for another two months, remember?"
The second I shut the door, a glass vase flew at my head. Without hesitation, I reached out and caught it. Pure reflex. Ainaelda had an ugly look on her face. A VERY ugly look.
"Wow, suddenly ever since you're an Elf, you're Superman? Wonder if there's any kryptonite around?" I gently set the vase on the nearest flat space.
"If I go, you're coming down with me, Wonderwoman."
"Please. Don't go all Dixie Chicks on me. You aren't my nanny, you know!" I rolled my eyes, making quite sure that she saw it.
"Oh gee, you know, I should have realized when you kicked him and he grabbed you that you were PERFECTLY fine, and I shouldn't interrupt. How stupid I've been!" She stood up, red in the face from anger. I had only seen her like this once, and it wasn't at me. It was when we were thirteen, and Dave Spence was dim-witted enough to steal her diary. When she found out, she turned that exact shade of red and threw her history book at him. It slammed him square in the face and gave him a black eye. You'd have thought he would have learned his lesson, but two days later, he teased her about the contents. I happened to be sitting next to her, and stopped her the second before she dove at him. We managed to get to the girl's bathroom before she burst into tears.
I had seen Ainaelda in her lowest moments, and dried her tears, and I had seen her at her best moments, and planned the parties. Now, the girl I had cheered on, picked up when she fell, took the knife away from when she thought she was alone in her bathroom, she hated me and wanted me dead. Literally? I didn't know.
"Hey, let me clue you in on a little secret, Katty: You aren't Batman. You can't go and expect people to fall over you. I don't care if you make Carmen Electra look like Mother Teresa, to me, you will never be Batman. You're just gonna be Fay Wray, screaming for King Kong to let her go." Oh. Oh, that really wounded me. Batman? Who said anything about Batman?
"Listen, schizo girl, I HEARD you talking to him. You want me back, you know it. You MISS me. Admit it or not, you know it, I know it."
"Oh, so now you're EAVESDROPPING on me? What happened to privacy? Somebody die and make YOU God, Katty? Think I fell asleep for that one."
"News flash for Mina, we ain't in the states no more!" Finally, she looked like she was at the peak of her desperation. I had seen the same look on her face when she thought she was alone in the bathroom. When she didn't know I was even in her house. When she had stolen that knife from her kitchen. When I had thrown it out the window before she could make the cut worse. She had yelled at me then, too. She screamed and raged. When she found out that I had called her mother, she yelled even more. Then she cried. She wasn't going to cry now. She wasn't going to slash her wrist. But she was going to do something drastic. I could feel it.
"Fine. Fine! You want it that way, we'll do it that way. Here, Katty, brutal truth. Fine. Okay." She took a deep breath, and I realized I was holding mine. I wasn't going to like what she was going to say. It looked like she was having a hard time saying this. I felt my anger ebb slightly. Ever so slightly.
"Mina, are you okay?" She gave a hoarse laugh, like she had broncitis again.
"Ainaelda." Okay, now I was completely and utterly confused.
"What? I thought you said that you wanted to be called,"
"Mina. I know," she interrupted, "call me Ainaelda. Just DO it!" she suddenly yelled. I was taken aback, and I shakingly obliged.
"Ainaelda. There. Ainaelda, are you okay?" She gave another little hoarse laugh. More like a bark. A dog barking. This could only end in tears.
"Okay." I was right, this WAS ending in tears; said tears were pricking in her eyes. Just like when I called her mother. "I wanted him to. I wanted him to kiss me. I liked it. But all I could think of was you, so I pushed him away. I wanted him to go crazy. No one's ever done that to me before. Think about it, Vinya. Everyone at our school hates us. You know why? It's not because we're mean, or stupid, or anti-social." I was shocked, but it hadn't really set in yet. I kept talking until it would.
"It's because we're just plain weird."
"Don't tell me you believe that. Please don't." I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it and shook my head desparingly.
"I'm not that idiotic. I know it's not. But it's what I tell my mom." I added. Whenever my got into her rare 'Get involved with your teen's life' moods, she'd ask me how my friends were. I'd say Ainaelda was fine. She'd say no, what about my other friends. The problem with this is that I HAVE no other friends. She'd say that it was nonsense. I'd set her straight. She'd ask why, I'd say it was because everyone thought we were kooky because we knew a foreign language that didn't even exist. You really can't tell her the real reason.
"Tell me why, then, if you know."
"Ainaelda, where is this going?"
"Tell me." I sighed.
"Because we haven't had a boyfriend. And we haven't had one because we're pathetic geeks who are, and I quote, 'living unsatisfactorily in our day-to-day lives, and thus prefer to immerse ourselves in a culture that better appeals to our adventurous and creative instincts.'" I said, hating every word.
"Exactly. I wanted that to happen. I wanted to have at least something in common with normal people." I snorted. The situation was serious, I knew that, but this was too funny.
"Normal people? Normal people don't speak Sindarin, Ainaelda." Then, it sort of sunk in. My friend has kissed Legolas, and liked it. She had, and I hadn't. He liked her, not me. I slumped down. "Tell me one thing, Ainaelda, please." She looked at me strangely.
"What? What do you want me to tell you that I haven't already?" I hesitated.
"What ever happened to 'oh look, Vinya, it's the Elven pretty-boy from the Other Side'?" She smiled at that, and it was good to see a smile on her face again.
"Have you ever been watching a movie, and you know that this one guy's gonna fall in love, but you think he's butt-ugly?" I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes, the stereotypical black bad-girl pose, trained to intimidate.
"Girl, you better not be calling Legolas Greenleaf butt-ugly." She rolled her eyes, but for once, she wasn't trying to be snide.
"I'm getting to that. Anyways, you know what I'm talking about?" I had experienced my fair share of ugly movie stars. I nodded. "Well, then he falls in love, and he first kisses the girl, and he suddenly looks totally hot. You know?" Well, that question required some actual thought. Then, I had it. "West Side Story". I always thought Tony was kind of ugly. Then, he kissed Maria, and I thought he was actually pretty cute.
"Okay. Yeah. I can see that." She wrinkled her nose, like she always did when she was amused.
"Well, it's even more apparent when you're kissing him." I flopped onto the bed with a sigh.
"You're going to rub this in my face for all eternity, aren't you? Anyway, what about Aragorn?"
"Well, we got all eternity, don't we fellow Elf-maiden? I don't know, I still like Strider…but now I like Legolas! Ah, this is so confusing. What's next, Gandalf?" I shuddered.
"Oh, if you're my friend, you won't say that EVER again!" And just like that, it was like we had never thrown a punch at each other. We giggled together, pairing up the most unlikely movie stars we could think of. About two hours later, after the mad laughter had subsided, Ainaelda rolled off the bed and hunted around the closet, which held a lot more than just dresses, we found, and found a knapsack. She promptly began to stuff the more wearable items, as in, not dresses, and other sundry items into it.
"What are you doing?" I asked curiously. She grinned another grin I knew all too well. It was her devil-may-care, stop-me-I'm-dangerous look.
"Elrond said we couldn't join the Fellowship." I rolled my eyes, my reflexive response to anything I found to be out of the ordinary.
"Yeah, I was there, remember?" She was still grinning, not at all dismayed at my shot down.
"Well, the way I figure, what Halfelven doesn't know can't hurt him." I slowly smiled, and found another knapsack and followed suit. Then, I slowly set it down. "Um, Ainaelda?"
"Yeah?"
"They don't leave for another two months, remember?"