A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! As by request, I put a little more Gary (but just a little, sorry!) and a little more fun later. Not the beginning, although that's my version of fun. Perhaps I'm a sadist. No matter, just as a head's up, the game I describe later is actually a medieval game, and even goes back farther to the Ancient Egyptian days. I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Two days later at dinner Theo sank into his seat. By the jumpy way he was acting, everyone knew he had just learned some very juicy gossip.
"Well?" Gary demanded. "Spit it out."
Theo turned to Kimi. "Have I some news that will interest you."
"What?" Had he heard something about my family? She wondered.
"You are not going to believe this. You know Frantisek's sister? You know, Alisande, the one that's pregnant? Well, she gave birth a few days ago."
"Oh, that's nice, I suppose," she said. She wasn't sure how this would really interest her.
"I understand why Frantisek hates you so much! Kimi, the baby looks Yamani."
"What?" The floor seemed to drop from beneath her feet.
"It's true," Theo nodded.
"I – I can't believe it," she stuttered.
"Yes, the father is Yamani; he has to be. The Rezek family went on a trip to the Yamani Islands nine or ten months ago."
"That's –" she finally managed to say.
"It gets worse. The Rezeks claim that Alisande was raped while they were there. I don't know why they kept it a secret until now. Maybe the girl didn't tell them."
"How old is the girl?" Furtan asked.
"She just turned sixteen, I think. She'll have trouble finding a good marriage now. It is sad," he added as an afterthought.
Kimi didn't know what to say. And from the silence that followed, no one else did either.
That's why he hates me so much, she thought as she returned to her room alone. One of my people raped his fifteen year old sister. No wonder he thinks I'm a slut. He must think if the men rape girls, what do the women do? It made her feel sick. Worry settled down upon her like a blanket and she shrunk. What about his sister's child? If he treated Kimi this bad and hated her this much, how would Frantisek treat the baby? There was nothing she could do to stop it, but she felt great pity for the child.
An arm grabbed her roughly and Kimi swung to the side and twisted out of the grasp. She whirled to face Frantisek, whose arm was a in a sling.
"What are you doing? You can't fight me when you're injured."
"I don't care. Tell your friends to watch themselves, or otherwise they are going to come to an unpleasant end." He turned around swiftly and began to walk away.
"Wait!" she cried and ran after him. This had to stop, and it had to stop now before her friends got even more involved and the hurt. She could at least do this for them.
He stopped and stared at her, expecting a retort. "I know about your sister, and I just want to say, I'm sorry."
His eyes widened and she saw many emotions flit through them: pain, sadness, anger, shock, bewilderment. "What did you say?"
"Listen to me. You have to listen to me. Is this going to continue, with your sister's child? Are you going to kill the baby? I know you want to kill me for who I am, so does that mean you are going to take it out on your family? An innocent baby?"
"I –" He looked at a loss for words.
"Haven't you figured out that out? She will be the same as me. A half-Yamani, half-Tortallan child. Is she a girl?"
"Yes." He was starting to look uncomfortable and upset.
She didn't care. She had to make him understand. "That sounds familiar, a half-Yamani, half-Tortallan girl child."
"And a product of people like you!" he yelled. "My sister was raped by people like you!"
"That child will be me in a few years, did you think about that?" she said steadily. "I am not the culprit here. I did not cause a crime. That baby did not cause a crime either. Why must we be punished?"
Anger filled the air around him and his face turned red. "Shut up! You don't know anything, so just shut up!"
"No, I think I know quite a lot," she said thoughtfully. "You didn't even think about that before you put all your anger out on me. Well, now, I don't care if you continue to hate me or not, but promise me you won't harm that baby. Please, don't hurt your niece. That's all I ask for, and then I won't bring it up again."
He spat on the floor at her feet and ran off, and Kimi did not stop him. She knew that would be the closest thing to acquiesce that she would get out of him, and she had to accept it. A memory came to her, words her father had told her: Kimi, it really isn't in your nature to start physical fights. An intelligent verbal sparring is more your style, like me. It was true, she realized. It was easier than getting into any fight, and more things were settled than with a physical fight. A sad smile played across her lips as she thought about how much she enjoyed fighting. I can do both, she said to herself. She wished everything else in her life could be solved by just choosing both.
---
"Boys! Boys! Guess what? Look what Gary got from his father!" Kimi cried as she and Gary raced to Patrik's room where they normally studied together. They stumbled into the room and on top of the startled pages. Kimi fell onto Jon, who was sitting on the floor against the bed.
"Ow! Get off of me! You're heavy!" he yelled. Kimi started apologizing, but then she saw the glint in his eyes and knew he was just teasing her.
"Heavy? I'll show you heavy!" And the two of them wrestled for the spot on the floor.
"You two cut it out," Furtan ordered. "I thought you had news for us?"
"Ha!" Jon said when he pinned her, and then he released her.
"I let you win." Her pride stung a little as she moved away to a different spot.
"Liar! I had you and you know it!"
"No! I let you win all the time. I figure it's good for your self-esteem."
"Oh, yes, that's it. You just can't admit I'm better at wrestling than you are," Jon said smugly. She glared at him and opened her mouth but Gary cut her off.
"I got this from my father," he said. He opened the box in his hands and all the pages stood up and gathered around it.
"Wow," Patrik said. "It would be really nice if we knew what it was."
"I'm getting to it. You just need to use your patience. That is, if you actually had some," Gary said.
"So what is it, Gary?" Furtan interrupted Patrik's retort.
"They're pins," he said proudly. "It's my favorite game, but I had to leave the pins and ball at home. My father knew how much I missed them, and he figured it would be great as a break."
The pages did not play games often, and this caused a great deal of excitement. "A game? I love games!" All the boys and Kimi announced at once.
"How do you play?" Patrik wanted to know.
"Well, we need a bit more space than your bedroom," Gary said pointedly.
"Is there any place we can go?"
"I know!" Eyes glittering with excitement, Theo rushed to the door and flung it open. "Follow me!" he cried.
All the pages stared at him. Furtan shrugged and followed like Theo bade, and soon all of them followed.
"What you need is a long room so you have room to roll the bowl and get it to a good speed," Gary said. Usually a more serious boy with sarcastic tendencies, Gary now acted young and eager. Theo led then to the library and then to a side room. It was very long and square, and it was completely empty except for a few chairs. It was perfect.
Gary pulled out the pins and walked to the other side of the room and arranged then in a triangular pattern. They were wooden and circular with flat bottoms. He pulled a large heavy ball out of the package and grinned at it with familiarity.
"This," he held up the large ball fondly, "is my ball to play this game. What you do is take this and you put your fingers in the holes like this," he showed them the wholes cut into it, "and then you walk forward and throw it at the pins." He went over across from the pins. Walking forward purposely, he pulled the ball back and let it roll furiously down the room towards the pins. All but two of the pins were knocked down and scattered in every direction like flies swatted away from a pie. The friends cheered for Gary, and Patrik went to retrieve the ball.
"I'm next!" he cried happily. He tried his best to mimic Gary, but the motions with his hands and feet were not coordinated and the ball went rolling in the wrong direction. "I tried," he said ruefully. "Who's next?"
"I am!" cried Theo. He raced to pick up the ball. Cradling it gently in his hands he got into the start position. He also tried his best to mimic Gary, but succeeded. He hit two pins on the edges of the triangle.
"Nice one, Theo," Gary smiled at him. He set up the pins again and quickly got out of the way for Kimi.
"All right, boys," she said playfully. "Watch and learn." She walked forward quickly and released the ball. The ball rushed forward at full force toward the pins… and missed completely.
"Still learning, Kimi," Gary teased.
"Would you mind showing that to us again?" Patrik added.
"I blinked and missed your form." Jon said with dramatic sadness.
"I think you did very well for your first try, Kimi," said Furtan.
Kimi ignored Furtan. She sighed. "You all are just jealous of my superior skills," she said with flair. "Honestly, I've never met such a jealous group in my life. Oh, Patrik, dear, you know I learned from the best." She batted her eyes at him.
"In everything," he agreed with a grin.
The rest of the time was spent playing the game, which Gary called "bowling". They knew that they still had class work to finish, and other things to do before the lights' out, but there is sometimes a need to play a simple game and have fun with friends.