Chapter 9
For some strange reason Rie bitching of those who are directly bugging her has it's effect. The one the most surprised about it, is Rie herself, but she is happy the bigger part of the school chooses to ignore her like before. Plus, it's easier dealing with Seth now she knows she isn't losing it and her dad knows about him. He hasn't asked a lot about Seth yet, only if he ever ate or slept and that was about it. Ofcourse Seth must be a totally weird thing for him too, but at least he is treating her as a normal human.
The few that stil try to make a fool of Rie are those little annoying boys who think they are cool and though by picking on those who aren't socially high in the standards.
But every
now and then Rie threatens then to kick them impotent and flashes her
foot up, hitting one of them fully in the croch, making the rest run
away in fright.
,What if they all turned on you?" Seth asks,
watching the boys run away, one of them crying in pain.
,Matter
of getting the leader." Rie breaths.
,If they
decided to revenge their leader?" Seth asks.
,They won't,
they are too selfish for that." Rie heaves her schoolbag on her
shoulder and turns around, suddenly facing Marten a.k.a. Fanny's
boyfriend. Before she is able to recover she bumps into him, but he
pushes her on her feet gently, making a cute 'wow' sound.
Rie
backs away and looks at him. ,Pardon me."
,I'm not blaming
you." Marten says and he smiles, passing her. ,See you
around."
Rie looks over her shoulder at Marten. What was that
about? Since when did anybody of the Fanny Fan Club act nice to her
like that? Following the rules of the We Love Fanny Club he oughta
yelled at her, called her a big beeatch and whiped his foot on her
back!
,Mathclass." Seth sings, dancing around in front of her,
immediately stopping this because a student walks straight through
him. He shivers. ,Crap, I don't like that."
Rie ignores him
and hurries of to Mathclass.
When
Rie is walking out of the schoolbuilding after school she catches her
dad waiting for her, Aye on his shoulders. ,Goodafternoon Rie!" He
says, a happy note in his voice.
,Ellow." Rie mutters,
hurrying towards him and pressing her body against her father's as
a hug. She doesn't feel wrapping her arms around him in full
enthusiasm.
,I thought you would like icecream." Her father
says, gesturing to walk along with him towards town.
Rie
hestitates. ,Ehm… I have homework."
,Lie to
somebody else, you are 3 weeks ahead in homework." Her father says,
putting a hand on her shoulder, urgeing her along. ,We're getting
some icecream. You like chocolate flavour right?"
,No lemon."
Rie mumbles, liking the urgeing hand on her shoulder. She smiles
faintly.
,And how's Seth?" Her father asks.
,I'm
fine." Seth cries out happily. ,Somebody walked through me today!
Didn't like that very much!"
,He's fine, somebody walked
through him, he didn't like that." Rie repeats and her father
nods. ,Okay, that's great!"
,No it's not, I don't like
people walking through me!" Seth says.
,Stop your whining."
Rie snaps. ,Come on!"
Her father frowns. ,Makes me wonder…
how old are you Seth?"
Seth stops dead in his tracks, thinking,
then he hurries to catch up with Rie and her father who didn't wait
for him. ,Ehm… I don't know. Seventeen or something, I
guess."
,Do you age then?" Rie ask now.
,What did he
say?" her father asks, very interested in Seth.
,He's 17."
Rie quickly says, looking at Seth, who has his answer on her question
ready.
,Yes, I age." He nods very fast along with it. ,I can
recall being smaller and suddenly I just… grew…I guess I must
have been 10 years old or something."
,Are you walking around
for 7 years already?"
,I don't know. I guess. Maybe longer."
Seth says, shrugging. ,I have been everywhere, looking for somebody…
I have been around spiritual people and they… sort of sensed me I
think. But from the other hand, they were all complete frauds."
,You
have been everywhere?" Rie says, now very excited.
,Yeah, I
guess. Just went on a plane or a boat." Seth says. ,Just went to
look everywhere, didn't have anything else to do. I also went to
school!" Now he looks at her with a very proud look on his face.
,I felt I still had to do a lot of normal stuff for when I would
turn visible again one day! I wouldn't be too far behind in school
if I did!"
Rie stops walking and looks at Seth. ,You … you
went to school?"
Somehow this touches her so badly. Eventhough
nobody can see him, everybody ignores him, he still keeps his hopes
up and goes to school.
,I just went everywhere. Not filled with
enthousiasm, though… Being ignored is the worst thing. The only
thing that comforted me is that I still could be around people."
Seth smiles faintly and then shrugs. ,It doesn't matter. I'm
with you now. I'm happy again."
Supressing the urge to hug
Seth very tight Rie quickly starts walking again.
,So what did
he say?" Her father asks, who waited patiently.
Rie looks at
her dad. It's still weird that nobody can see and hear Seth while
she can.
,He's ageing, so I think he's not dead or
something. And he traveled a lot and went to school… to ehm…"
She can't say it.
,Interesting." Her father frowns,
apparently thinking of something.
Aye, who was sitting on his
shoulders in silence all this time, now says,,Who's Seth? Why is
Rie talking to herself?"
,To scare you." Rie snatches. ,And
Seth is a friend of dad and me!"
,Friend?" Aye wraps his
hands around his father's face, blinding him. ,I wanna be his
friend too!"
,You do!" Seth now cries out happy, his face
cracking up in a grin. He is flapping his arms up and down in
enthusiasm. ,That's so cool! I'm having friends."
,Seth,…
do you have a last name?" Rie's father now asks, trying to adress
Seth and not ask it too obviously through his daughter, still he
casts glances to his daughter, because he himself hasn't got a clue
where Seth might be standing.
,A last name?" Seth repeats.
Rie nods. ,Yeah, mine is Stalker, so what's yours?"
,Rie
Stalker… mmh." Seth thinks. ,I thought… it's so hard to
recall, because… I don't remember anything from the time I was
visible. If that would be the case I would be hanging around my
family… I think…"
,What do you remember?" Rie asks.
,There must be something you remember, or maybe there a things that
remind you of your visible life, so you can remember."
Seth
shrugs. ,I don't know. I really don't know."
Rie looks at
her dad. ,He can't remember, dad. He only knows about being
invisible."
,But I must have been visible, because I remember
the youngest age I have been in this state was 10 years old! So I
must have been visible when I was younger!" Seth cries out, not
wanting to let all hopes get lost.
,If we want to help Seth, we
have to find out who he is." Rie's father says to Rie. ,And we
can't do anything with the knowledge of his first name and the
uncertainy of his age. He doesn't even know where he used to live,
we're eve further away from home!"
Seth now looks really
excited, though Rie would think he would be dissapointed. Her father
just said there is so little chance they can find out who he really
is, but still Seth is looking like a kid who just got a box of candy.
,You want to find out who I am?" he cries out. ,Oh jolly! I'm
so happy!"
,Seth, did you hear him?" Rie snaps. ,You are one
of the thousand people on the Missing People List. We can never find
you if we don't even have a clue where you came from in the first
place or what you're last name is!"
Seth calms down and swings
his arms around Rie, urgeing her to a stop, almost cutting of her
air. ,Yeah, but you're trying to help me and that's already more
then I could ever hope for."
He rubs his cheek past hers and
whispers a thank you.
Rie feels her cheeks go red and eyes her
father, who is looking a little taken aback by Rie's sudden stop
and now red face. ,Don't worry dad, Seth just hugged me in a Thank
You."
,Thank you?" Her father replies. ,Thank you for
what?"
,That we're helping him… though it's very little
help." Rie mumbles, freeying herself from Seth's arms and
catching ahold of her father's arm. Her cheeks are still burning
red.
,I think you're a nutter." Aye giggles and he rocks
back and forth on his father's shoulders.
With angry eyes Rie
looks at her little possum of a brother. ,What?"
,Aye learned
a new word at school." Her father explains. ,The first thing he
said to me when he saw me was: Nutter. I don't think he has a clue
what it means."
Aye smiles with bared teeth and hugs his
father's head. He can't make his arms meet while doing this, but
he does block his father from view. ,Hey watch it Aye!"
He
grabs Aye in his collar and lifts him off his neck. ,You better walk
for yourself for a while now, huh? Exercise is good for you."
As
soon as Aye's feet touch the floor he's racing away, to the
playground a few feet further. He's going like the wind, apparently
not tired of the schoolday. Rie watches him climb upon the slide and
she wishes she dared to take a seat on the swings. She likes swings a
lot, but she stopped playing on them when Aye was born.
,You
sit, I push you." Her father says, like he's reading her mind,
and he nods his head to the swings. A smile on his face.
,Dad,
grow up please." Rie mutters, turning her face away. ,Swings are
for babies."
,I don't think they are for babies." He says,
walking towards the swings. ,If we had a big tree in the yard I
would hang a swing in it and swing on it every day."
,But you
are crazy and a grown-up." Rie says, following him akwardly, Seth
on her tail.
,Meaning?" Her father asks, sitting down on a
swing, his eyes on Aye, who is going up and down the slide without
taking a pause.
Rie stuffs her hands in her pockets and kicks
against the swing next to her father's. ,I'm a teenager, I have
to keep an eye on my social status."
,Yeah
right. You don't give a damn about that." Her father laughs.
,You're not a follower, Rie. You like doing things your own way,
so sit down on that swing and enjoy yourself."
,I pass." Rie
turns her back on him and faces Seth, who is looking at her with a
frown.
It's kinda enjoying how Seth dares just to look at
people without a trace of embaresment. He just looks and stares at
everything he wants to stare at, without blinking.
,What do
you want?" She snaps, not meaning to be so mean to him, but she
can't stop herself.
Seth comes closer to her, he's so tall.
He's a whole head taller then she is.
,Why don't you sit
down on that swing?" He asks.
Rie's mouth drops. ,Mind your
own bussiness, Seth!"
,You're my bussiness!" Seth says,
folding his arms over his chest, a grin on his face.
Rie pokes
his finger in his chest. ,And who are you to decide that?"
,I'm
Seth!" And he turns around to watch Aye, who is apparently really
enjoying himself on that stupid kiddy-slide.
,Rie,
telephone!" Rie's mother calls from the top of the stairs. ,Some
guy from school!"
Rie frowns and looks at Seth. ,Guy from
school?"
Seth shrugs. ,I don't know. How should I know if you
don't even know?"
Rie pushes her chair back from her desk,
where she was making her homework and hurries to the stairs, taking
the phone from her mom, who has a Is-It-Your-Boyfriend?-expression on
her face. Rie sends her a Are-You-Kidding-Me-expression back and
dissapears in her room.
,Rie Stalker." She mumbles with no
enthusiasm at all, hopeing to keep the conversation as short as
possible.
,Hey, it's Marten."
Rie holds her breath.
Marten? Why in the world is Marten calling her? She eyes Seth, who
approaches her, his ear close to hers so he can listen along with
her.
,Ehm…I was wondering…" Marten asks with a little
hestitation in his voice. ,If you…could ehm… help me with
maths."
Rie frowns and Seth shrugs. Why is he wanting the help
of the schoolfreak? This isn't making any sense! There are people
in Fanny's Popular Group who can help him with maths.
Why
doesn't he ask them to help him? Marten isn't even in her
class!
,Are… are you there?" Marten asks, sounding a little
insecure and Rie can't help thinking it sounds so cute. She gasps
at this thought and hangs up the phone.
She is not going to help
him! There is something fishy about him wanting her help.
Seth
now looks at her with the greatest frown ever. ,You hang up on him."
But then the phone in her hand rings again. Like it's on fire,
she throws it on her bed and muffles the sound with her pillow. She
is not going to answer it again, he can choke in his stupid
maths-homework. She ain't gonna help him!
