I Left the Womb for This
Part Two
"I told you so,"
"What? What'd you mean?"
"They're all busy Angelica,"
"Busy? What a lie, how could they be too busy for the great Tommy Pickles?"
"Lil is at work, Phil's more interested in the TV and Chuckie wouldn't give me a straight answer but basically both he and Kimi are busy."
"Wouldn't give you a straight answer?"
"Yeah he was really sarcastic."
"Well he's certainly changed a bit hasn't he? Little punk."
"You have no idea… Anyway we all agreed that Friday night would be the best time."
"You graduate on Friday don't you?"
"Yeah,"
"Perfect, and don't worry kid I'll supply the alcohol."
"Great."
* * * *
"Gather round now class, since all our final exams are out of the way and there's nothing else to do I thought we'd do a little activity." Mr. Harris, the eccentric English teacher who claims he'd written poetry in the deepest heart of Brazilian jungles where the pygmies spoke ancient Latin and recited passages from the holy Bible.
"Move your desks around in a circle, we'll go round the group one by one and you can all tell me what you wanted to be when you were young compared to what your career path is now at the end of your schooling." He smiled widely and helped a few students move their desks.
Kimi started moving her desk in closer to the rest of the group and beckoned for her brother Chuckie to do the same. He crossed his arms over his chest and refused to move, despite the fact that his desk was almost in the centre of the circle.
"Come on now Chuckie," Mr. Harris said grabbing Chuckie's desk and moving it slightly to the side
"I don't see the point of this activity Sir," Chuckie said haughtily. Kimi sighed, he always thought he knew better than the teacher and that had gotten him into quite enough trouble in their high school years
"Chuckie, just play along," She implored, giving Chuckie her best puppy dog eyes. He smiled slightly, rolled his eyes very dramatically, and moved his desk closer to the edge of the circle.
"Since you're being so insolent Mr. Finster, you can go first."
"What am I supposed to do again?"
"Just tell us what you wanted to be when you were young, and what you want to do when you finish high school. Do you want to go to college? Do you want to start a trade or do you want to work at Seven Eleven all your life."
"I don't work at Seven Eleven, but now that you mention it…" Chuckie grinned and Mr. Harris sighed
"When I was little," Chuckie started loudly, "I wanted to be a movie star, but I realized I wasn't pretty enough. So then I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but I can't because I wear glasses. So then I wanted to be fire fighter, but you have to be really buff so you can pose for the calendars. So then I decided I'd be a welfare bum for the rest of my life. It's easy, lazy, and doesn't require more than a second grade education. I can do that."
"And what do you want to do when you finish high school?" Mr. Harris said hopefully
"I want to mooch money off the government."
Mr. Harris sighed again and shook his head. "You're a lost cause Finster."
"Man," Phil, who was also in their English class, spoke up, "I remember when you were little you were such a wimp, and admit it, you wanted to be a ballerina."
"Hardy Har," Chuckie said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "This coming from Mr. 'I Want to Eat Worms for a Living.' I hear circus freaks are big in Russia, you can finally realize your dream."
Phil chuckled good naturedly at Chuckie's dry humor, and Chuckie grinned to himself. As much as he tried he could never get to Phil and oddly enough he admired that. Most of his friends had resorted to calling him nasty or narky whenever he was in a foul mood. Maybe it just went over Phil's head, but he doubted that very much.
"Moving right along," The teacher said, louder than necessary, and around the class students explained their life long ambitions. Firefighter, hairdresser, movie star, pop star, sports star.
"And Kimi, what did you want to be when you were younger?"
"An assassin." A wave of laughter swept over the class, Chuckie laughed the loudest
"It's funny because it's true," He said between giggles, "I remember when she used to dress like a ninja and jump on me off the stairs," The class had fallen silent by this point but Chuckie continued, "And then when I broke her plastic sword she told me I was on the top of her hit list. Remember that?"
"Chuckie…" Kimi pleaded softly, trying and failing to tell him with her eyes to shut his gob
"And remember when you said you wanted to be a black widow?" Kimi smiled mechanically, a soft blush creeping onto her cheeks, "You had no problems with sleeping with men for money."
"That's enough Finster," Mr. Harris said sternly, and Chuckie continued to grin to himself
"And what do you want to do when you finish high school Kimi?" Mr. Harris asked hopefully
"Fashion design," Kimi lied. The teacher seemed content with her answer, and he moved on around the class
She couldn't believe her brother sometimes. Looking at him now smiling to himself, he didn't even realize he'd embarrassed her. In her youth maybe, yes, she had been a bit strange and obsessed but from the sideway glances people were giving her she knew they didn't understand at all. She was young and watched too many movies, of course she'd have bizarre ideas in her head that was what youth was all about. As for sleeping with men for money, not even Chuckie understood her black widow phase. It wasn't prostitution.
Why was she even arguing with herself about that? She knew perfectly well what she had intended when she said black widow. It was just childish innocence really, games, pretend. She had never really known what she wanted to do once she left school. She resented looking too far into the future, setting goals which she knew she would never accomplish. She had a vague image of herself in college, but she didn't know what she would study. She wasn't particularly good at anything, average at best. She just wanted to take things as they came, was that such a bad thing?
Around her the rest of the class talked and laughed happily, their activity forgotten and the teacher in deep conversation with one of the 'brighter' students. Kimi, however, had begun to feel very low. The feeling followed her to math class, to history class, through lunch time and fell to dead low during art class.
"What's the matter Kimi, you've been sulking all day." Chuckie piped up from beside her at the work desk. She was doodling in her notebook a picture of herself stuck in a glass box.
"I don't know Chuckie, all this talk about finishing high school and going to college just annoys me."
"Why's that?"
"Because I don't even know what I want to do at college. I mean, I applied for all those different courses, but I don't really want to do any of them."
"I thought you said you wanted to be a fashion designer," Chuckie said simply and Kimi scoffed
"Yeah right, I don't know the first thing about fashion.
"You're a lot more fashionable than most of the girls around here," Chuckie replied consolingly, though she detected a great amount of spite in his voice.
"But I don't want to be a fashion designer,"
"So don't be one, who really cares anyway, just do whatever the hell you want to do."
Kimi smiled, despite her brother's bluntness that was precisely what she wanted to hear. Chuckie smiled back and for just a moment she saw the old Chuckie. The clumsy, shy, loveable Chuckie she remember from her childhood and she wished just for a moment he'd drop the tough guy act and just be himself again.
"Kimi Finster," The art teacher called loudly and beckoned her over to her desk
"Yes miss?" Kimi nervously took a seat opposite the teacher, who stared at her over the unruly mess of papers and art supplies strewn over the desktop.
"I wanted to talk to you about your marks in this class," Kimi's stomach lurched, talking about marks was never a good thing, "your art is good Kimi, but I'm afraid not one single piece matches the curriculum. We're in high school now Kimi, drawing cartoons just isn't acceptable. And quite frankly many of the themes present in your artwork isn't suitable or accepted by this school. I regret having to fail you Kimi, I really do."
Kimi was shocked, to say the least. The teacher continued talking but there was simply too much information for her stunned brain to acknowledge. She stood up from the seat, stared at the teacher for a moment longer before walking out of the room in a zombie like trans. As she wandered down the hall she wondered why the teacher hadn't said something earlier. Then her mind rationalized, that look in her eye was so obvious, she wanted Kimi to fail. It was the only conclusion. The teacher was so jealous of her work that she purposely led her to believe she was passing the class that whole time when she was actually failing miserably.
Kimi sat down by the girls' bathroom and stared down the hall. She was horrified, angry, sad, disappointed but she couldn't feel anything at the moment over the numbness. She wanted to cry, and before she knew it thick warm tears were rolling down her cheeks.
The bell for end of class left and around her she people bustled and talked and laughed and ignored her hunched form. Graduation was only a few days away and she'd have a big fat fail right under Art. They might even send her to summer school to make up for it. She'd be stuck with the weirdo's and dumbasses.
"Do you know how many classes I failed?" Kimi shook her head miserably at Chuckie's question. At some point he had sat down next to her by the girls' bathroom despite the stares of passers by, "I failed art as well. And I failed that computer class. Kimi, I came so close to failing English it's not funny, and I've been speaking English practically my whole life."
Kimi would've smiled, but the tears kept coming and the sobs kept wracking her body. Chuckie put his arm around her shoulder and said lovingly
"I think you're the best artist in the whole school,"
"You're only saying that because you have to."
Who cares what that stupid old bat says," Chuckie covered quickly, "She wouldn't know a Picasso if it slapped her in the face."
"But she failed me," Kimi said, "She failed me because I didn't get a chance to explain anything. She didn't understand."
"Please don't cry Kimi," Chuckie said desperately, "It'll all work out in the end I promise."
"I wish I could believe you Chuckie," She sniffed suddenly feeling rather embarrassed she had burst into tears like she did, "I really wish I could believe you."
* * * *
"Did you see Kimi today?"
"Yeah she looked pretty down,"
"What was it about?"
"I don't know."
"Watch for other cars Phil." Lil grabbed Phil's arm, as if that action could possibly make the car stop. Unlike many of her friends Lil had gotten her drivers license as soon as she possibly could. She didn't want to waste time walking too and from places. She hadn't taken drivers ED as a slack off class, and it was well worth it. All except now, she didn't even remember how she had been roped into teaching Phil how to drive.
"Oh come on there's none coming,"
"It's a stop sign Phil, it means you have to stop and watch for other cars."
"Yeah that's what they try tell you."
"Because it's the law Phil, do you want to pass your driving test?" Phil glared at Lil and she pointed to the windscreen, her eyes wide with anger
"No Lil I want to spend all that money to fail the test."
"Then stop being such an ass and drive properly." Phil mumbled something under his breath in an annoying high pitched voice and they both fell silent. Of course, it being Phil who was in the car with her, the silence didn't last long
"I heard Tommy was gonna dump Kimi, maybe that was what she was crying about."
"Why would he dump her? They've been dating for ages." Phil shrugged and fell silent, concentrating all his efforts into avoiding school children who ran haphazardly across the suburban roads.
Lil, however, was concentrating, perplexed, on Phil's last comment. Tommy dump Kimi, she didn't understand. They had started dating almost a year and a half ago and neither of them had shown any signs of disinterest. Their relationship was something Lil, everyone, had taken for granted. If that could fall apart so easily, without anyone knowing, what else was falling apart right under her nose? The thought scared Lil more even than Phil's constant jerking of the steering wheel.
"This car has power steering Phil, you don't need to pull it so hard, just keep it steady." Lil said automatically, not even bothering to listen to Phil's smart ass response.
"I can't believe Tommy would just dump Kimi like that," Phil said, causing Lil's stomach to churn, "I mean, they were just so perfect together."
"Yeah," Lil tried to push her negative thoughts out of her head, she could be so pessimistic when she wanted to, "I think we should head home now Phil, I've got to get ready for work."
"Mrs. Fancy Pants I Gotta go to Work. Just five more minuets." Phil pleaded, stopping the car in the middle of the road
"Phil you can't stop in the middle of the road, there's cars coming behind us. And no, I don't want to be late for work, the boss will kill me."
Phil smiled to himself slightly as he began driving again, but it was no laughing matter. Lil's boss was a monster, literally. She wouldn't be surprised if he really did try to kill her if she was late. He was mean and chauvinistic and blamed her for everything that went wrong, even though most of the time it was that dumbass Anthony who dropped drinks or broke china. He ever tried to convince her one day she wasn't allowed a break during a ten hour shift. She'd told a few people about her poor working conditions, and they had all told her the same thing. And she really would quit if she could, but she needed the money too bad.
When they arrived home she hurriedly showered and dressed and drove to work. She arrived ten minuets early and her co-worker Anthony was desperately trying to serve the throng of customers that mobbed the front desk.
"Where have you been?" He asked desperately, ignoring a woman's impatient shouting
"What'd you mean? I don't start for another ten minuets. Where's the boss?"
"Asleep out the back."
"What?" Lil dumped her stuff behind the counter and hastily began serving people coffee and cake, "Why didn't you wake him up?"
"Yeah right," Anthony snorted, "That'd be like poking a sleeping dragon in the eye. I'd rather deal with the customers."
Lil, in any other situation would have been furious, but she was so inundated with impatient customers she didn't have time to feel anything. After half an hour of furiously serving people the crowd died down and she was able to start serving tables instead of being stuck behind the counter.
She walked around the small café with a pot of coffee asking people if they wanted refills. She spotted Chuckie's almost dreadlocked fiery red hair as soon as he entered the shop. He and Kimi took a seat at a far table and she meandered over toward them.
"Hey Lil how's work?" Chuckie asked pleasantly, Kimi smiled weakly at her. She looked as if she'd been crying.
"Awful as usual," Lil replied good naturedly, leaning up against the table
"You should quit if it's so bad Lil, stick it to your stupid boss." Kimi said encouragingly, though it sounded kind of hollow and forced, as if her mind were elsewhere.
"Yeah," Lil agreed halfheartedly, her mind also on Kimi and Tommy's relationship. Chuckie left the table without a word and strolled up to the front counter to order
"Did you and Tommy really break up?" Lil asked, sliding into Chuckie's empty seat
"What?" Kimi's eyes widened in shock, "No what gave you that idea?"
"Well you looked like you'd been crying heaps," Lil explained quickly, a warm rushing of relief spreading over her.
"No, I'm just feeling down that's all." Kimi said with a small smile
"So you and Tommy are all good?"
"As far as I know, yeah." Kimi began to look suspicious so Lil decided not to take it any farther.
"Well, give me a call tonight I gotta get back to work." Lil stood up just as Anthony called to her for help with the front counter. Kimi smiled again, a lot wider this time, and nodded her head.
Even though her boss was an ass and stayed asleep the entire night and neither she nor Anthony had the courage to wake him. Even though the customers were rude, even though Anthony was hopelessly clumsy Lil couldn't help but be in a good mood. Kimi and Tommy weren't breaking up; maybe she had just been too paranoid about finishing school and facing change. Things couldn't change that much, that fast, could they?
AN: Okay I know this chapter is weird but it'll all come together soon. Bear in mind that, while I intend to put romance in this story, it's also a story about other things in life that people have to deal with. Just be patient and I'll get to the good stuff when it's nice and ready. ^_^