"Anyway," Kimi said, "Would you like dessert?"
Maleta's eyes widened. "Dessert? Actual dessert? Yes!"
Kimi grinned at the girl, who looked more excited than she had all day. As lovely as the stories were, she supposed, the rarely indulged in dessert trumped them. Kimi went back up to the bar and ordered two slices of cheesecake. She sat back down at their booth, leaning across towards her daughter.
"So that was the easy part of the film, of course, preparing for it. Actually filming it was much, much harder..."
...
The final bell rang, signaling more than the end of the day. Another school year was over when the bell rang, and everyone just about dashed out of their classrooms. Kimi in particular was ecstatic, and she ran to her locker to get her things.
"Woah, slow down, Kimi!" Lil called from down the hall. She approached, wearing her traditional last-day-of-school outfit: a pair of pajamas and fuzzy slippers. "You're not going to the airport any faster by running."
"I might," Kimi said, sticking out her tongue playfully. "I really want to see Chuckie--I can't believe he insisted on staying over at his school a week after classes let out for him!"
Kimi hadn't changed a great deal since her brother had left home to go to Rennoll's Academy of Science. She was still cheerful most of the time, and she still dressed like she fell into a basket of clothing and put on whatever touched her. Feeling more boisterous than usual, she emptied her locker into her backpack and shut it with a slam.
"Goodbye high school, for three months!" she exclaimed, swinging her backpack over one shoulder. "Come on, Lil, let's go find everyone else."
They met where they usually did, at the big painted rock in front of their school. Dil was lounging in the sun on top of it, while Tommy and Phil were in the middle of an argument over something stupid. Kimi wasn't sure what, but she and Lil bounced up.
"Come on, let's go!" she called. "We need to get going home!"
Everyone complied--the other option would be being dragged home by Kimi, who couldn't wait to see her brother, and that would hurt. They were practically sprinting home at her speed, but Kimi didn't care. Her mind was focused totally on seeing her brother, and she managed to make it home ten minutes quicker than she usually did.
"Can we stop running now?" Phil complained,flopping onto the hallway carpeting.
Kimi replied, "Don't be such a baby, Phil. We didn't go that fast."
In return to that comment, Phil stuck his tongue out and stood up.
...
"Wait, Mum? Can you tell me who all these people are, then?" Maleta asked. "I mean, I know who Dad is, and Uncle Dil, but then there's the other people...who're they? What happened to them?"
"Oh," Kimi said, taking a bite of cheesecake. Perhaps they should have dessert more often, because this tasted wonderful. "I probably should've mentioned that. I told you about Uncle Dil, of course. I'll find you a picture of him and Jack and their kids sometime. In fact, I'll find pictures of everyone so you can picture them properly."
Taking a deep breath, she thought. "Phil and Lil were friends of ours--they were twins. Lil owns a diner now, if I remember, and I don't know what Phil does. I don't think anyone really does. Phil was always kind of weird."
Maleta giggled. Her mother's friends sounded very interesting. She would like to meet them someday, and she kind of wondered why she hadn't already. In any case, she definitely wanted to find out about Mum's brother. "And what about Chuckie?" she asked innocently.
Kimi felt rather taken aback at her brother's name, but she kept her composure. "I'll tell you about him in a bit. We're about to get to him, anyway."
"Really?"
"Well, that's who we were going to go meet at the airport. He was over in Maine for his school, which was quite expensive. However, Chuckie was very smart, and he won a scholarship, so it wasn't as hard on the family as it could have been..."
...
The airport was crowded, and Kimi bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for a glimpse of her brother. She stood between her parents, Chaz and Kira, holding their hands as she did when she was five. People streamed out of the airplane, but no one was her brother. She kept her eyes peeled for a gangly boy with shockingly orange hair.
Finally, they saw him, lugging his carryon along beside him and just generally looking exhausted. Kimi ran to hug him, though he didn't hug her back, and their parents swarmed around them both.
"Let me take that for you, Chuckster," Chaz said, lifting the dufflebag from Chuckie's arms.
"It's Charlie now, Dad," Chuckie said, rolling his eyes.
"All right then, Charlie," Kira said, giving him a kiss.
There was definitely something different about her brother, and it wasn't just the fact that he was going by Charlie now, thought Kimi. He seemed kind of uncomfortable by them all, and she felt kind of uncomfortable around him. It was probably just because he'd been gone so long, though. It couldn't be something that serious, after all. Chuckie just needed time to get back to normal.
...
"But you still call him Chuckie," Maleta said. "Didn't he want to be Charlie?"
"It's hard to call someone something new after they've been a different name all your life," Kimi answered. "What if you suddenly decided you wanted to be Alison from now on instead of Maleta? I'd have a hard time remembering."
"But it's like you weren't trying," answered her daughter, frowning. "You called him Chuckie now, and it's been ages since all this happened."
Kimi wanted to glare at the girl, but she didn't. "It's hard to call him Charlie, Maleta. Leave it alone, please."
She didn't want to talk about this now, especially not in public. Kimi immediately associated the name Charlie with less pleasant memories of the man, and she didn't want to think about them right now, even though she was going to end up telling Maleta one of the worst soon. Standing, she went to pay for their meal.
"Let's go home, Maleta. We'll keep up with the story on the way."
Maleta nodded, following her mother out. She wanted to know a lot more about this uncle of hers, but her mother seemed uncomfortable talking about him. Maybe she would on the way home. And if she didn't, Maleta could ask when they were safely at their house.
"So, back to what was going on. My brother--" since Maleta took issue with her calling him Chuckie, apparently--"came home, and we prepared to fill him in on the movie. Tommy thought he'd love it, since it was a story kind of like the Edgar Allen Poe stories Chuckie and I read..."
...
"What kind of idea is that?" Chuckie asked, raising an eyebrow. He was stretched out over a chair, legs over an arm, while Kimi, Lil, Phil, Dil, and Tommy sat on the floor around him. "It sounds stupid."
"It's not," Tommy said, frowning. "Maybe you didn't understand all of it. Here, let me explain it again--"
"You don't have to," Chuckie said shortly. "I get it. I just think it's stupid sounding. It's so--so--so--typical."
"What do you mean, typical?" asked Kimi defensively. "It's a great story. It has twists and turns and everything."
"But you know what's going to happen at the end." Chuckie rolled his eyes. "Eventually, the necklace gets destroyed. Woohoo."
"That's the point," Dil butted in, trying to rescue the conversation. "See, the fun is how we get to the point that the curse can be lifted. It's really good. If you read the screenplay..."
Chuckie shrugged. "At school, my friend, Nick, is making a movie, too. It's much more avant-garde. There's more than one ending."
Phil had been laying on his back, staring at the ceiling, but Chuckie's words made him sit up. "What's with you, Chuckie? You've been acting really weird lately."
"Charlie." Chuckie spat the word out. "And I have not."
"I don't know," Lil said. "You've been really crabby--"
"No. I. Haven't." Chuckie's voice was crisp and cold--it reminded Kimi of lettuce. Sharp-sounding, with no flavour. He stood up, and started for the door. "I'm going home."
Bet you weren't expecting another chapter, were you? Hah! I am back! I'll update when I feel like it, and now that summer vacation is three days away, I'll probably feel like it a LOT more often.
Anyway, please review if you liked the chapter. Please review if you hated the chapter. Please review if you didn't read the chapter. I'm trying to bring in the other elements I planned to deal with in Kimi's past, but getting through this story is only the beginning of the turmoil. Heh.
See you all later! Much love!
Maleta's eyes widened. "Dessert? Actual dessert? Yes!"
Kimi grinned at the girl, who looked more excited than she had all day. As lovely as the stories were, she supposed, the rarely indulged in dessert trumped them. Kimi went back up to the bar and ordered two slices of cheesecake. She sat back down at their booth, leaning across towards her daughter.
"So that was the easy part of the film, of course, preparing for it. Actually filming it was much, much harder..."
...
The final bell rang, signaling more than the end of the day. Another school year was over when the bell rang, and everyone just about dashed out of their classrooms. Kimi in particular was ecstatic, and she ran to her locker to get her things.
"Woah, slow down, Kimi!" Lil called from down the hall. She approached, wearing her traditional last-day-of-school outfit: a pair of pajamas and fuzzy slippers. "You're not going to the airport any faster by running."
"I might," Kimi said, sticking out her tongue playfully. "I really want to see Chuckie--I can't believe he insisted on staying over at his school a week after classes let out for him!"
Kimi hadn't changed a great deal since her brother had left home to go to Rennoll's Academy of Science. She was still cheerful most of the time, and she still dressed like she fell into a basket of clothing and put on whatever touched her. Feeling more boisterous than usual, she emptied her locker into her backpack and shut it with a slam.
"Goodbye high school, for three months!" she exclaimed, swinging her backpack over one shoulder. "Come on, Lil, let's go find everyone else."
They met where they usually did, at the big painted rock in front of their school. Dil was lounging in the sun on top of it, while Tommy and Phil were in the middle of an argument over something stupid. Kimi wasn't sure what, but she and Lil bounced up.
"Come on, let's go!" she called. "We need to get going home!"
Everyone complied--the other option would be being dragged home by Kimi, who couldn't wait to see her brother, and that would hurt. They were practically sprinting home at her speed, but Kimi didn't care. Her mind was focused totally on seeing her brother, and she managed to make it home ten minutes quicker than she usually did.
"Can we stop running now?" Phil complained,flopping onto the hallway carpeting.
Kimi replied, "Don't be such a baby, Phil. We didn't go that fast."
In return to that comment, Phil stuck his tongue out and stood up.
...
"Wait, Mum? Can you tell me who all these people are, then?" Maleta asked. "I mean, I know who Dad is, and Uncle Dil, but then there's the other people...who're they? What happened to them?"
"Oh," Kimi said, taking a bite of cheesecake. Perhaps they should have dessert more often, because this tasted wonderful. "I probably should've mentioned that. I told you about Uncle Dil, of course. I'll find you a picture of him and Jack and their kids sometime. In fact, I'll find pictures of everyone so you can picture them properly."
Taking a deep breath, she thought. "Phil and Lil were friends of ours--they were twins. Lil owns a diner now, if I remember, and I don't know what Phil does. I don't think anyone really does. Phil was always kind of weird."
Maleta giggled. Her mother's friends sounded very interesting. She would like to meet them someday, and she kind of wondered why she hadn't already. In any case, she definitely wanted to find out about Mum's brother. "And what about Chuckie?" she asked innocently.
Kimi felt rather taken aback at her brother's name, but she kept her composure. "I'll tell you about him in a bit. We're about to get to him, anyway."
"Really?"
"Well, that's who we were going to go meet at the airport. He was over in Maine for his school, which was quite expensive. However, Chuckie was very smart, and he won a scholarship, so it wasn't as hard on the family as it could have been..."
...
The airport was crowded, and Kimi bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for a glimpse of her brother. She stood between her parents, Chaz and Kira, holding their hands as she did when she was five. People streamed out of the airplane, but no one was her brother. She kept her eyes peeled for a gangly boy with shockingly orange hair.
Finally, they saw him, lugging his carryon along beside him and just generally looking exhausted. Kimi ran to hug him, though he didn't hug her back, and their parents swarmed around them both.
"Let me take that for you, Chuckster," Chaz said, lifting the dufflebag from Chuckie's arms.
"It's Charlie now, Dad," Chuckie said, rolling his eyes.
"All right then, Charlie," Kira said, giving him a kiss.
There was definitely something different about her brother, and it wasn't just the fact that he was going by Charlie now, thought Kimi. He seemed kind of uncomfortable by them all, and she felt kind of uncomfortable around him. It was probably just because he'd been gone so long, though. It couldn't be something that serious, after all. Chuckie just needed time to get back to normal.
...
"But you still call him Chuckie," Maleta said. "Didn't he want to be Charlie?"
"It's hard to call someone something new after they've been a different name all your life," Kimi answered. "What if you suddenly decided you wanted to be Alison from now on instead of Maleta? I'd have a hard time remembering."
"But it's like you weren't trying," answered her daughter, frowning. "You called him Chuckie now, and it's been ages since all this happened."
Kimi wanted to glare at the girl, but she didn't. "It's hard to call him Charlie, Maleta. Leave it alone, please."
She didn't want to talk about this now, especially not in public. Kimi immediately associated the name Charlie with less pleasant memories of the man, and she didn't want to think about them right now, even though she was going to end up telling Maleta one of the worst soon. Standing, she went to pay for their meal.
"Let's go home, Maleta. We'll keep up with the story on the way."
Maleta nodded, following her mother out. She wanted to know a lot more about this uncle of hers, but her mother seemed uncomfortable talking about him. Maybe she would on the way home. And if she didn't, Maleta could ask when they were safely at their house.
"So, back to what was going on. My brother--" since Maleta took issue with her calling him Chuckie, apparently--"came home, and we prepared to fill him in on the movie. Tommy thought he'd love it, since it was a story kind of like the Edgar Allen Poe stories Chuckie and I read..."
...
"What kind of idea is that?" Chuckie asked, raising an eyebrow. He was stretched out over a chair, legs over an arm, while Kimi, Lil, Phil, Dil, and Tommy sat on the floor around him. "It sounds stupid."
"It's not," Tommy said, frowning. "Maybe you didn't understand all of it. Here, let me explain it again--"
"You don't have to," Chuckie said shortly. "I get it. I just think it's stupid sounding. It's so--so--so--typical."
"What do you mean, typical?" asked Kimi defensively. "It's a great story. It has twists and turns and everything."
"But you know what's going to happen at the end." Chuckie rolled his eyes. "Eventually, the necklace gets destroyed. Woohoo."
"That's the point," Dil butted in, trying to rescue the conversation. "See, the fun is how we get to the point that the curse can be lifted. It's really good. If you read the screenplay..."
Chuckie shrugged. "At school, my friend, Nick, is making a movie, too. It's much more avant-garde. There's more than one ending."
Phil had been laying on his back, staring at the ceiling, but Chuckie's words made him sit up. "What's with you, Chuckie? You've been acting really weird lately."
"Charlie." Chuckie spat the word out. "And I have not."
"I don't know," Lil said. "You've been really crabby--"
"No. I. Haven't." Chuckie's voice was crisp and cold--it reminded Kimi of lettuce. Sharp-sounding, with no flavour. He stood up, and started for the door. "I'm going home."
Bet you weren't expecting another chapter, were you? Hah! I am back! I'll update when I feel like it, and now that summer vacation is three days away, I'll probably feel like it a LOT more often.
Anyway, please review if you liked the chapter. Please review if you hated the chapter. Please review if you didn't read the chapter. I'm trying to bring in the other elements I planned to deal with in Kimi's past, but getting through this story is only the beginning of the turmoil. Heh.
See you all later! Much love!