"Dad? Are you going out again?"
No answer. Nny was in his own little world again. Annette sighed and anticipated another night alone. The emaciated shadow of a man ignored her and moved toward the door with even more purposefulness. A small clinking sound betrayed the state of armament under his coat.
"I won't bother to wait up for you. Mind if I go up on the roof?" Again no answer. "Well, see you later, Dad."
The door slammed shut, and again Annette sighed. It was really quite annoying to live with a man that spent more time in his head than he did in reality.
"What should I do now, I wonder? Buy a pet? Kill something? Write? Talk to myself some more? Oh, the choices."
She decided, after staring at the head of a rabbit that had been on the wall for awhile, to paint. On the roof, but still, it was painting. She lugged her easel and some paints up, along with an arsenal of brushes. The sun was setting just as she opened the can of red.
"Alone, the serpent cries, deprived her sweet prey," hummed Annette, beginning the scene with a broad stroke of red, "while content rests the cat, the mouse sleeping gently ever today."
The painting took shape, the blood-red sky of sunset illuminating a ruined city swarming with monsters and nightmarish creatures scarcely to be imagined. It was almost peaceful for a post-apocalyptic scene. Nothing was being destroyed; you got the feeling that it had all been leveled long ago.
"What an interesting picture..." she murmured to herself an hour later, letting the last of the jade-hued paint dry. "But I'm still bored. I wonder if Squee's home?"
Without bothering to put away her materials, Annette took a running leap off of the roof. She landed in a crouch on the windowsill of a room on the second floor of the next-door house. A quick breath and she knocked on the glass.
"What the-Annette? What the hell are you doing here at this time of night?" Squee threw open the window and helped her into his room.
"Father went out again, and I'm bored. I don't really have anyone else to talk to. What are you doing?"
"Um, I have a history essay due tomorrow. I'm working on it now. It's about the French Revolution."
"Oh, how fun! May I help?" Annette darted over to the computer sitting in a corner. "That's not how you spell Bastille, you know."
"Um...okay. I guess you would know this stuff, wouldn't you?" Squee sat down at his desk once more and began to type, Annette murmuring her comments and corrections in his ear.
A long time later, there was the sound of a door slamming shut. Nny was back, apparently. Annette didn't bother to leave, as he probably wouldn't notice her absence anyway, that or care. Besides, it was fun helping people with history, especially with HER country's history.
"Hey, Annette, has Nny said anything about you going to skool here?"
The now-twelve-year-old girl nodded. "Yes, he says that I'm to start skool in September. Why?"
"Well, it's August. I'd have thought you'd be more worried about getting what you needed, or at least about whether you'll make any friends on your first day."
"Why should I bother to make friends with the sniveling little children when I already have much more mature, interesting amis?" Annette's huge violet eyes were utterly blank, devoid of any expression at all.
"Uh, well, because you're twelve. You should be talking to other twelve-year-olds. It's not good for you to only talk to older people. You have to learn to get along with other people your own age too. It's like a growing up thing."
"But I'm already much more mature than any of the children. I don't want to suffer in their inadequate company. They're disgusting little leeches, never doing anything themselves. They've grown fat and lazy on their parents' constant attention and catering. I'd much rather be alone than deal with the defective products of doting simpletons."
"Those are some pretty big words for a kid, Annette. Are you sure you feel this way? Nny didn't just tell you this, did he?"
"I'm sure that I feel this way. I do not even understand why it is that I must go to skool. I already understand most of the material that you go through."
"It's kind of illegal for kids to not go to skool."
"Laws are meant to be bent and broken."
The chillingly deadpan way in which Annette said these words was enough to give Squee pause. And let us not forget that this young man had seen a lot in his short life. Yet the seemingly innocent child was speaking in a way that scared Squee. This wasn't a first, but he still wasn't used to it.
"Hey, Annette, it's almost sunrise. You should get going."
"Whatever you say. Adieu, then."
"Salut."
Annette smiled and left the way she'd come. She had much to do before Nny registered her presence.
"Hello? Is Raven-"
"This IS Raven, idiot. How's it going, Annie?"
"Well. Ca va?"
"Eh, you know. The norm. Where's Nny? He isn't dead, is he?"
"Of course not. He's just sleeping. Sort of. I had to put sleeping pills in his brainfreezy. He hasn't closed his eyes more than a second in months. Anyway, I just wanted to talk. I haven't had much contact with people for a time."
"Well, okay. What did you wanna talk about?"
"Anything. Everything. Nothing. Something to get my mind off of things. The noise starts up in my head if I don't keep some sort of distraction going."
"Okay, then. Uh, you said last time you went to Hot Topic that you were starting skool in September. Nervous yet? It's only a couple weeks away."
"Not especially. I don't really get nervous. In fact, I'm not sure how much I CAN do in the emotional field of things. Squee thinks I should make friends with the children in my class. I actually find myself wondering if I might be able to identify more with the teacher than the students."
"That might just be the case, but you really should try to get along with the kids. After all, you'll have to deal with them for nine months, so you may as well be on good terms with most of them."
"I suppose it sounds logical..."
"God, girl, you sound like Nny. Then again, you're just learning English, so I suppose you'd kind of pick up your teacher's speech pattern."
"Yes. People tell me I talk like him. I find it amusing. Speaking of, he seems to be stirring. I put him in the living room, and I think I just heard something shatter. He must be angry."
"Maybe you should go, then."
"Yes, I believe that would be best...Salut, Raven."
"Salut, Annie. Good luck at skool if I don't see you before then!"
"Merci. Au revoir."
Annette hung up, then smiled. Nny was definitely angry. No matter. At least he might talk to her now. She rose and left her room, pausing before entering the living room. Nothing had been thrown yet, as far as she could tell, but still.
"Nny?"
"What the hell did you do to me?"
"You fell asleep. It's good for you." Annette took the silence after her comment as an invitation to enter. "How are you feeling, father?"
"My head is killing me. I need to take a walk or something."
"Can I come with you tonight?"
"What?" Confusion threw more shadows over her father's face.
"When you leave tonight, may I accompany you? I'm itching to get out of the house."
"Yes, fine, whatever. Just bring your friends."
Her "friends" were the two dolls she had acquired soon after she began her stay with Nny. Their names were Jack and Sally, and they each held one of the bone-handled daggers that Nny had given Annette for her ninth birthday. She brought them everywhere, because who on Earth would suspect that a little girl with a pair of dollies could be lethal?
"Of course, Father."
"Don't call me that."
"Sorry, Nny. Habit."
"Whatever. Can you leave me alone for awhile? I need to go do some...eh, stress relief."
"Room Fifteen is full again. The blond is scared of snakes," Annette informed him, knowing full-well what her father meant.
"Thank you."
The door to the basement creaked shut, and almost immediately the screaming started. Annette waited for a minute, then followed. It always fascinated her to watch Nny work.
He had heard her, apparently, since the door to room fifteen was open. Inside were the two dozen irritants that he had caught in the past few weeks. You could tell that the ones on the walls were relieved that he hadn't chosen them to "teach." The blond was strapped to a wicked-looking device full of sharp edges in the middle of the room.
"Pleez," she moaned, trying to speak around her forked tongue and the various metal objects forcing her mouth open. "Oh, gud, pleez lemmee gow...uh din meen i, awness! Pleez lemmee gow..."
"You should have thought of that BEFORE you insulted me. You don't regret it at all, do you? You're just pissed as hell that you didn't get away with it. Well, my pretty little friend, you really should have watched your forked tongue. You're a viper, you know that? I should put you with the other vipers. I'm sure you'd all get along alarmingly well. Painfully well, in fact. Yes, I do think the vipers will like you. Or perhaps not. Either way, it's not my problem after that. Come along, what was your name again?"
"I num ih Ssindee. Pleez, pleez lemmee gow...I beggun oo."
"Too late for that, I'm afraid, Cindy. I've already done so much damage, it'd be mean to let you live. Besides, the wall needs a fresh coat of paint."
He removed the girl's restraints with a practiced ease and took her by the hair, the hair he'd left perfectly intact for some reason. She screamed and struggled, but the frail appearance of her captor masked a fearsome strength, and she couldn't twist out of his grip. Nny dragged her into the corner where a large box was hissing and shaking. Cindy started screaming again.
Annette watched, silent, as Nny nailed the lid to the box shut. Cindy was shut inside, screaming and pleading away. It amused Annette to see the woman's futile attempts to garner sympathy from a man that barely knew emotion, let alone sympathy. She smiled when the screams stopped. It must have been the poison finally taking effect. The woman must have been bitten dozens of times. What a horrible way to die.
And Annette could barely suppress a maniacal giggle of glee.
Nny gave the box one more disgusted glance before moving on to one of the other guests, a skinny, obviously-crack-addicted teenage boy. The show was over. Annette gave a sigh of disappointment and left as quietly as she'd come.
Much later, Nny left the basement and began to gather his things. Annette fetched weapons for him, including a half-dozen sporks and several daggers. She was happy just to be able to accompany him on his little walk. He paid little attention to her, but that was fine as far as Annette was concerned.
"Where are we going, Nny?"
"I don't know. Wherever. Doesn't matter. Just as long as it's away from here."
"Okay. Just wondering."
They left the house, Annette staying two paces behind her father at all times. It was a system they'd used for going on three years, and so far it had worked. Jack and Sally were clutched in Annette's hands, their feet just barely trailing on the ground. A little girl following her daddy down the street. Perhaps they were on their way to a movie.
Annette felt for the knives hidden under the dolls' clothing. Yep, still there. If anyone pissed her off, they would really get more than they had bargained for.
"Can we go see an movie?" asked Annette awhile later, after Nny had taken care of a good few irritants in a back alley.
"If you really want to. Which one?"
"They're having a midnight showing of The Grudge at the little theater by all the cafes. How about it?"
"Sounds good." Nny abruptly turned a corner and headed toward a section of town that he only visited when Annette was accompanying him.
Annette was happier than she'd been in a long time. The movie was awesome, even though she'd seen it many times. That little boy never failed to scare her, as cute as he was. Nobody bothered her or Nny, although there was quite a commotion in the lobby when a rather annoying kid at the refreshments counter had his throat slit. Apparently the boy had been rude to Nny or some such thing. Still, it was a pleasant enough evening.
They arrived back at sunrise, and almost immediately Annette went to her room and fell asleep. She was too far gone to notice when Nny came in and awkwardly pulled the blankets up to her shoulders.
Then it was quiet. Nny went back into the living room and turned on the television. Nothing on but an old episode of Cops. And when you've seen one episode, you've seen them all. There was nothing to do but go downstairs and preach some more.
An hour later, Nny returned to the couch. The bible saleskid hadn't even screamed. All he had done was keep trying to get him to join some church about a guy named Jehovah or something. Even cutting out his tongue wouldn't make him shut up. It was all really very annoying, not satisfying at all.
"Dammit. What am I going to do now?"
The sun rose. A bloody red glow bathed the room, making the scarlet glisten on Nny's clothes. He absent-mindedly ran a finger down the side of his face, smiling at the bright red that came away. The wall was very happy, even if Nny himself was not.
Annette made a fitful noise from the other room. She must be having nightmares again. It happened every summer since she had...turned up. By now they'd grown used to it, and Annette was even in the habit of relaying her dreams to Nny. He smiled at the whimpering sounds and anticipated another interesting story over breakfast.
"Let's get skool supplies today."
This was Annette speaking over the din of screams downstairs one day. She handed Nny a screwdriver and glanced at the blind face of a policeman who was being nailed to an autopsy table. The man screamed a wordless animal plea as the tip of the screwdriver got closer and closer to his throat. Annette looked away. The blood didn't bother her, nor the screams, but a person's organs were private in Annette's opinion. They weren't meant to be removed and shown around.
"Why?" There was a tearing noise, and Nny swore. "Dammit...he wasn't supposed to move...Anyway, why would you want to get skool supplies?"
"Because I start skool on Tuesday. It's already Friday. If we don't go this weekend, I won't have any notebooks or folders or anything!"
The cop, who wasn't quite dead yet, listened to this perfectly civil conversation with an air of disbelief. How the hell would this little kid not be terrified to death of that creature? Yet she was acting like the talk was taking place at some normal location like the breakfast table. His final thought was That is one dysfunctional family.
Nny looked down distastefully at the dead cop. He hastily made a long gash in the man's throat and turned him over to let the blood drip into a bucket on the ground. This would take awhile. Perhaps a trip was appropriate.
"Fine, fine. But where are we going, exactly?"
"How about Hot Topic? Tenna said they have a lot of skool stuff there."
"Alright. Do you remember how to get there?"
"Uh...non, je regret."
"Well, I remember how to get to the mall at least. You can find your way from there, right?"
"Yes, I believe so."
Nny nodded and removed his blood-covered gloves. He didn't bother to do anything to clean up, though, so really the only thing now that wasn't blood-splattered was his hands. Annette gave a squeak of delight and bounded up the stairs, already thinking of what she would get for skool.
Ten minutes later, Annette danced into Hot Topic, already at home in the dim, noise-filled store. Tenna waved excitedly at her from the counter and poked Raven, who smiled and greeted her. Nny sauntered in after the girl, warily glancing at everyone in the place like they would attack him.
"Hi, Annie! How are you?" Raven called over the din of Zombie.
"I'm well, thanks. You?"
"Good, good. Whatcha need?"
"I'm here for skool supplies."
"Awesome! What grade were you going into again?"
"Ninth."
"Really? Weird. You're not old enough, are you?"
"The skool administrators decided I'd be better suited for a higher grade level."
Tenna popped up behind Annette and led her away, chattering excitedly about what she should get for skool.
"Ooh, you'll need notebooks and pencils and a bunch of folders and some paper and-wait, how about Emily? There's a lot of her stuff here. Or Zim. I dunno. Maybe Happy Bunny? Oh, the possibilities are ENDLESS!"
"Alright, Tenna. Do not become too ecstatic; you'll burst a blood vessel."
"Hey, Nny. How's the kid behaving?" Raven smiled at her acquaintance and rolled her eyes. "What's that on you, stage blood?"
"No, it's quite real. There was some trouble with a law enforcement officer earlier. And Annette is behaving quite well, though she isn't above slipping sleeping pills in my brainfreezies. She seems to think I need the sleep."
"Well you do, you know. She seems to be a little overwhelmed, eh? Poor kid. Tenna had five cups of coffee earlier, so she's a little wired."
"A little? I'd say she's about ready to O.D. If she dies, can I-"
"No, Nny. You can't cut her open. It's not good for business. Speaking of, please don't kill anything in or near here, okay? My boss will fire my arse if I have one more incident on the job."
"I promise not to kill anything. But can I hurt them a little?"
"No."
"Oh. Well, I'll just have to make do. You seem nice; Annette would be upset if you died suddenly."
"Can't have the girl upset now, can we?" Raven's perspiration had taken a definite turn for the worse.
"At any rate, she seems happy enough now. I think Tenna's caffeine buzz is wearing off."
"You guys should stop by the dorm sometime. We're all at the college outside of town. Carpe Noctem, it's called."
"Like the magazine?"
"Yeah. Seize the night, and all. It's an arts skool for Goths and freaks. We're dorm thirteen oh six."
"I'll remember that. Here's Annette. She looks like she's bought out the store."
"You DO have money with, correct?" Suspicion narrowed Raven's black eyes to the point of full closure.
"Yes, of course."
"Aw, well, I'll still give you the employee discount, okay? It's twenty percent off today. You picked a good time to do some shopping." She rang up the multitude of supplies, shook her head at the still-astronomical total of it all, and threw everything into a few of the biggest bags they had behind the counter. "Have a nice day, you two."
"Merci. Salut, Raven. Salut, Tenna."
"Goodbye, girls."
"Bye, Annie! Bye, Nny! Good luck at skool, Annie!" Tenna grinned and waved before losing interest and becoming entranced with a display of ragdolls in the back of the store.
Annette was as happy as could be. Her loose pigtails bounced up and down in time to her skittering gait, and the smile on her face nearly split her head in half. Nny found it amusing to watch her stumble everywhere, tripping over her own feet and bounding away again, giggling insanely. For the first time in a long time, she looked like a normal little girl walking through the mall with her father.
Albeit the father was covered in what looked suspiciously like blood and had a mass of raw scratches on his face and arms, but still. That was about as normal as you could get. Anyway, they were back at the house in another ten minutes, and Nny went back downstairs.
So Annette was left to herself again. She immediately went about sorting through her skool supplies, separating the notebooks and folders from everything else. Her pen paused over the front cover of an Emily the Strange notebook. Hesitantly, she wrote in her careful script:
Antoinette
But something wasn't quite right. What was her last name? Should she go with her mother's surname? What was Nny's surname, anyway? She settled for what she knew.
Antoinette C.
That looked okay. It still was a little strange, but what else would she do? The skool would likely have her listed under Nny's surname anyway. She repeated the name on all of the notebooks and folders, a slow icy nervousness creeping over her. Would the other children like her? What if they all labeled her a child and resented her intelligence? How would she deal with-
But the skool had placed her in French. At least she would know the teacher. It was still the one that Squee had had for French. She would be able to talk fluently there. Her other classes might cause problems...
Supposing she couldn't understand the teachers? What if they all talked too fast? Nny had developed a sort of mixed dialect including many French words along with English. He talked relatively slowly, anyway. Annette had trouble understanding Tenna, and she still talked slower than a lot of Americans she had heard while walking about the city. And if Annette couldn't understand the teachers, they might fail her and send her back to the middle skool. That would probably kill her, as the younger children were probably even less likely to accept a foreign student.
But it was probably nothing. The students would probably just glance at her and leave her be. Still, though, there were always the possibilities...
Annette jolted upright. She had slumped to the floor somehow, and the sun had set. She must have fallen asleep. That was uncharacteristic of her. She capped her pen lest it dry out and decided to go to bed. Her insomnia was obviously subsiding, and sleep was just what she needed.
"Will you be alright, Annette?"
The girl started. Apparently, they were at the skool. She smiled and nodded mutely, clutching the strap of her messenger bag in a death-grip.
"You know if anyone bothers you that you can tell me. I'll deal with the irritants for you. Do you have your friends?"
"Yes..." Annette swallowed audibly. "Bye, Dad."
"Goodbye, Annie. Good luck."
Did he just call me Annie? Annette grinned and hopped out of the car, her morale somehow restored by the simple goodbye. He'd noticed her. He'd actually been paying attention. And he had cared.
But then she was in the building, a monster of a skool with harsh bricks and graffiti covering everything within reach. The most common phrase seemed to be "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." This was not a very comforting idea.
And then there were the people. So many of them, almost everyone taller than she was. At twelve, Annette was much smaller than the average eleven-year-old. The few people who WERE shorter than her were hanging out with the tallest teenagers in the skool, so they had no chance of being tormented. But little Annette had no one.
Being as how her locker seemed to be big enough for her to fit into, Annette decided to just keep all her things with her at all times. No way was anyone going to shove HER into her locker.
Her first stop was Administration. She received her schedule, a student planner, and a map of the skool. Then she was sent on her way and left to figure things out for herself. Some help they were. As it was, she found her way to her first class without much trouble.
And what a disaster. The teacher spoke so quickly, Annette barely had time to register that her name was being read off. After that, nobody wanted to talk to her or even look at her. Flickers of conversation washed over her, mindless chatter about what so and so did over break and who got the most drunk at the fourth of July party at Lindsey's house. There was no mention of Annette. Why should there be? She never went to parties, never talked to anyone around her age.
Second hour wasn't much better. Granted, it was French, but all that really happened was that the teacher told her that she'd be helping grade papers and correct pronunciations on speaking exercises. Again, no one bothered to talk to her.
Annette got lost on the way to her third period class. A senior girl pointed her in the right direction but refused to give specific directions, so Annette was late. She was in tears by the time she made it to Choir.
The girl found her in the corner, crying silently to herself and hugging two ragdolls to her chest. She had long, bright purple-black hair that went down to her elbows, though with the cornrows it seemed shorter. A pair of sharp icy blue eyes took in the whole situation in a glance, and black-painted lips curved into a small smile.
"Hello. You look very sad. What's wrong, little one?"
"D-don't call me that. Je-je name is Antoinette. Comment t-t'appelles-tu?"
"I'm Ben. Oh, my God, I'm so glad you're here! But seriously, why are you freaking out on me?"
"Why are you glad I'm here?"
"You speak my language, girl! Now tell me what's up. I've been watching you today, and you seem really freaked out."
" Nobody here is talking to me. They won't help me, either. It's like I'm being ignored and loathed. I'm so scared of them. Help me, please! The teachers talk too fast. I can't understand them. Why is your name Ben? I thought that was a masculine name... "
"Poor thing, being ignored all day. And as for me name, my dad thought I was a boy. Rather funny story, but that'll be for another time. Do you wanna go into the hall and talk for awhile or something?"
"Okay. But don't call attention to us, alright? I don't want anyone thinking I'm weak."
"Don't worry about it. Hey, teach! Can I go outside with the new kid? She can't understand much English and I need to help her sort out some stuff."
"Go ahead, Ben."
"See? That easy. Come on, Annie. You don't mind if I call you Annie, do you?"
"Not at all."
Ben led her out into the hallway outside the cafeteria. The first lunch of the day was starting, and a large group of students thundered past their hiding-spot by the music wing doors.
"It's loud here, but nobody will overhear. I love sitting out here whenever I possibly can. There's so many people to watch. Are you feeling any better now?"
Annette nodded. "I just had to get away from the students...They scare me. I hate being left out of everything. My...father just decided to send me to skool. I've been in the country for about three years now, but my English wasn't that great. What? Why are you staring at me?"
Ben, who had been looking intently at Annette, smiled and looked away. "Nothing. It's just interesting. You're speaking French, but every now and then you throw in an English phrase or word. You live in an English-speaking house or something? Classic 'Mom's French but Dad's American' sitch?"
"Sort of. My mother...erm, had an accident three years ago. My father got custody after she died-they were divorced. We've sort of worked out a system of French and English that we both understand for the most part. My apologies if it irritates you."
Ben grinned again. "No, it's okay. Hey, Annie, want to meet my friends?"
"Okay."
Ben stood and took off, Annette trotting along behind.
"You know, I'm really supposed to be a sophomore, but they held me back because I failed too much stuff. You look too young to be in hi skool. What's your story?"
"I, um, should really be in seventh grade, but they decided I'm too intelligent for middle skool. I'm fine with it, as I probably would have had a harder time in middle skool anyway. Who are your friends, now?"
"Hey, guys, I got a new kid for you to meet. A brainiac freshie. Say hi, Annie."
Ben gestured to a group of kids sitting nearest to the ramp at the cafeteria's exit. They were all in various stages of Goth and Punk, most with dyed and/or wildly cut hair and lots of chains. Annette felt at home immediately.
"Hey, Annie. You're a short kid, you know?" The teenager nearest Annette, obviously a senior, grinned and offered a chain mail-encircled hand. "Name's Eric. Nice to meetcha."
"Erm, hello. I am Antoinette." Annette bowed slightly and took the offered hand with only brief hesitation.
"Hey, I'm an Antoinette, too!" A girl with black-lined eyes and blue hair gave an amused snort of laughter. "Call me Toni."
"Thomas." A kid with shaggy black hair grinned and gave a small bow. "Eric's right. You ARE short."
"Don't scare her off, Tommy. She's obviously a child genius. Don't mind him, Annie. He likes to play games. I'm Remi. Yeah, a guy's name, I know, but my parents did the same thing Ben's dad did. Parents can be idiots sometimes." Remi shook her bright red bangs out of her eyes and smiled.
"Konnichiwa. I am Kayako. Nice to meet another foreign girl like myself. How are you, hon? Want something to eat?"
Annette stared, wide-eyed, at Kayako and her black mass of tangled hair that partially hid eerily green eyes. A moment of stillness, and Annette shook her head. Then her stomach rumbled loudly, and everyone cracked up.
"I like the kid already. Eric, go get the girl something good. Whatcha want, sweetheart?" Thomas gave the girl a wolfish grin. "Fries? Cookie? Vodka?"
It took Annette awhile to work out what he'd said. Her face reddened, and she quietly requested fries. Eric nodded and darted off, disappearing before she realized he'd left.
"Well, Annie, looks like you've got some people to talk to, eh?" Ben grinned and motioned for Annette to sit down. Ben opted to sit on Thomas' lap, throwing an arm around his shoulder to steady herself.
"How's your first day going, Annie?" asked Kayako, keenly eyeing the cookie on Toni's tray for a moment before returning her gaze to Annette.
"Um..."
"Poor thing's got a bit of a problem. Nobody wants to talk to her." Ben made a sad face and shrugged. "Well, I'm in most of her classes, so she'll probably be okay. What class do you have next, Annie?"
"It says Honors Algebra 2."
"Dammit. Anybody have that next hour?"
"You mean with Browning?"
"Yeah, that's what her schedule said."
"Nope, sorry."
"Don't think so."
"Sorry."
"No..."
"I do."
Annette turned to see a very tall boy staring at her. He tossed his books onto the table in front of Annette and gave her an annoyed look. She squeaked and stood up to let him sit down. The kid's elbow-length hair brushed Annette's arm, momentarily blocking her vision.
"Hey, Wolfgang, you're here!" Ben hugged the boy, not noticing the look of disgust on Wolfgang's bony face. "That was Annie that you glared at, you know. She's a new kid. Poor thing, nobody wanted to talk to her. Say hi, Wolfie."
Wolfgang turned around and gave Annette the once-over. Piercing violet eyes mirrored Annette's blank stare for a time before he smiled. Instantly, the spell of hostility was shattered.
"Hey, Annie. Let me guess, Antoinette, right? Yeah, thought so. You've got Browning? I'll escort you to the classroom. Ben, you can bring her to the commons, right? I'll be by the stairs. Who the hell let you into hi skool, anyway, Annie? You'll get killed if you don't have an armed escort at your side at all times."
"How reassuring. Please don't talk to fast. I'm not used to it yet."
"Sorry, kid. Hey, want to sit down?"
Annette looked around. "There's no seats left."
"I don't bite, kid. I swear. Don't freak out on me, Annie. You're really human-phobic, aren't you? Does it make you feel better to know I'm from Neptune?" Wolfgang grinned, giving rise to the image of his namesake.
Annette hesitated, shrugged, and accepted the offer. It made her feel like a small child to be sitting on someone's knees, but at least the height difference was reduced a little. Eric came back with the fries, which Annette shared with Wolfgang, seeing as how he hadn't gotten a lunch. Time slowly passed.
"Wolfgang." Annette repeated the name as if trying to make sure she'd articulated it correctly. "I like that name. German, correct?"
"Yeah. Means something like 'the path of the wolf.' I always thought it'd be funny if I turned out to be a werewolf. Turns out I'm just an alien."
"Don't listen to Wolfie. He likes to pretend he's an alien to creep people out." Ben shook her head and stole the cookie Kayako had been eyeing. "It's really kind of funny to see the normals run away screaming, though."
Wolfgang rested his chin on top of Annette's head, letting his hair drape over the girl's shoulders. It gave them the appearance of being a two-headed monster, accented by the catlike pupils of the former's eyes. Annette growled and punched him. Wolfgang got a good laugh out of that, even when he was clutching his possibly-dislocated shoulder.
Then again, everyone else got a kick out of it-literally and figuratively.
"Don't mess with me. Ever." Annette's eyes blazed momentarily. "My father doesn't like it when people bother me."
"What's he gonna do, kill us?" Eric laughed.
"Yes. Yes, he will. How do you think my mother died?"
It went completely silent at the table. Two minutes later, everyone breathed a simultaneous gasp of amazement and jealousy.
"Are you serious? God, my parents are just accountants!" exclaimed Ben.
"Dude, I wish I had a dad like that." Eric's eyes glazed over as he entered a daydream about mass murder.
"I'd love to have a father who understood my homicidal urges..." That was Kayako speaking with a smile on her face.
"Can I move in?" Wolfgang's expression was dead serious, but his eyes betrayed the jest.
"Man, why can't my parents be like that?" Toni stole Ben's soda, probably to get back at her for the theft of her cookie.
"Actually, it's really very dull around home. I was essentially on my own for three years. Father never paid much attention to me. But at least he let me dress the way I wanted. His friend Squee was surprised at my choice of style. I suppose it's not often you see an eight-year-old Gothic girl walking around. And I'm sorry, Wolfgang, but Nny likes his privacy. He would be annoyed to have anyone else around."
"Eh, no problem, kid. Squee, huh? I think I remember him. Kind of small, black hair, skittish look on his face?"
"Yes, that is him. He lives next door to me."
"Nice kid. He graduated last year, didn't he?"
"Yeah, he's in college with Mimi."
"Oh, now I remember. It was that Carpe Noctem place, right?"
"Yep. With Tenna and the girls."
"Cool. Those four were weird."
"Erm, not to interrupt, but the majority of students seem to have left the cafeteria." Annette glanced around the rapidly-emptying room.
"Eh, don't worry, kid. We got ten minutes to get to class. Come on, Annie, wanna see more of the skool? They'll never miss ya in Choir."
Suddenly, Annette found herself sitting on Wolfgang's shoulders, and the whole group was moving toward the ramp. She mumbled some protest before they left the cafeteria, then settled back to enjoy the view. with the added six and a half feet of height, Annette could see almost to the other end of the skool. Masses of blurry faces swam past, and a deafening mix of conversations made her feel slightly dizzy.
Wolfgang swung her back down before he went into a classroom in the wing labeled "B." She felt a strange rushing sensation as her body tried to reestablish equilibrium, but she was fine after a moment.
"Here we are, kid." Wolfgang grinned and turned to leave. "See ya, guys. Annie, make sure you wait for me in the commons after third hour. I'll take you to algebra. And Ben, make sure you don't ditch her. Bye, guys. By the way, Toni, history test. Be prepared. It's murder."
The group waved and dispersed, and after a moment it was time for Annette and Ben to leave as well. The teachers might miss them if they were gone for too long. A mad dash back to the room, and they found that the class was still on one of those annoying "get to know you" games.
"Those people seemed nice enough," murmured Annette once the two had regained their seats in the back row. "I am glad to have made friends already."
"Yeah, well, you're little. It's like a little sister, ya know? We have the whole protect the children thing going. Still, it ain't often that a freshie gets accepted on their first day. I think they like ya." Ben slumped down in her seat and grinned. "Good work, kiddo."
"Thank you. Er, where am I supposed to meet Wolfgang, now?"
"I'll show ya. It's the commons, a little open area around the lockers that the freaks like us hang out in. Dammit, we still got an hour until class gets let out."
"Yes, well, the teachers are distracted enough. Care to talk more?"
"Yeah, sure. So, how's life?"
"...Abnormal. How is your life?"
"It's life, ya know? So what's up with you that made you say it's abnormal?"
"Living with an insomniac can be very interesting."
"Is that...blood on your arm?"
"Yes, I believe so. A convenience store clerk was being rather uncivil to my...father earlier. He became angry and put a spork through the man's skull."
"Wow. You serious, kid?"
"Yes, of course. Why would I be joking?"
"Because that's a pretty harsh thing to do."
"Is it? The man was very irritating."
"You are one warped little girl, you know that? I think I'm going to like you."
