Did I say "Hope to update on Monday!"? Arghh. The Austin trip took longer then expected. Much longer then expected. Not to mention the food was nasty. Iced tea at every meal—and no real sugar or lemons. Only those el cheapo little packets filled with Sweet 'N Low. Yechh.
This is the part where you all shout things like "EXCUSES!" and "LIAR!" or "PROCRASTINATOR!" even maybe "JUST GET TO THE CHAPTER!"
I shall oblige. By the way, this chapter skips about a week of 'boring old Traffic', because I'm sure you all won't mind terribly.
I know you all think the party makes them sound like teenagers, but I figure they mature slower—besides, their parents are still around and well to make sure they don't do anything wrong. Except for Holly, but her parent's story will come out later.
I didn't get online ALL YESTERDAY. I'm so proud of myself. Though I think I'm suffering from withdrawal.
A Tolkien and Harry Potter reference in this chapter.
Summary: Right after Holly gets a job in the LEP, she cuts her hair. Each auburn lock falling through the floor makes her think about choices, and especially their consequences. What will happen after?
Disclaimer: I don't own Artemis Fowl. Eoin Colfer does.
Haircut
Chapter Fourteen
Holly was currently at Trouble's house, at a guy party, infested with guys everywhere—watching Haven crunchball on a large screen, having fake fights on the ground, and some even drinking, though Trouble really was against it.
The cool thing about his house, though, was that he lived with his dad. Well, technically he lived with his entire family—his mom and Grub lived in the wall connecting the duplex.
Apparently Grub and Trouble got into so many fights that the parents had to split them up.
But his dad was away—his job was a Mud Man item dealer. He traveled to conference-type things around Haven to see if Mud Man items were genuine, and bought and sold those items.
So on the other side of Trouble's house, beyond the partying and the laughing Recon and Traffic officers, was an entire museum of surface items.
And Holly was itching to see them.
She had been curious about Mud Men ever since her surface expedition. They had bathrooms inside! No way. If the Mud Men were barbaric enough to keep the toilet inside the house, then who knows what else they'd be crazy enough to do.
New cultures were always exciting. When Holly was barely in school, she had visitors from another part of Haven—a far off, desolate place. And they were so strange! They'd eat healthy things for lunch, like fruits and vegetables, when most young elves would take the lunch opportunity to pig out on whatever junk food they could get their small hands on. Not to mention their strange accents—like they had been speaking one language far too often.
But anyway, here Holly was, quite bored and quite anxious to see those famous Kelp 'artifacts', as people liked to call them.
She checked her watch impatiently. It had been a whole two hours since the party started, and this was the point when Holly decided it wouldn't be rude to ask to go see them. Making her way through the turbulent crowds, she started to search for Trouble.
Of course, this was easier said then done. Since all elves had red hair and dark skin, she went around for a good ten minutes poking all the elves in the back. Luckily they weren't all elves—Trouble had some sprite and pixie friends too.
"Trouble? Is that you?" she asked for what seemed the fifty-billionth time.
This time, it was Vein who turned around, and there seemed to be a very awkward silence in the room—though everyone was hustling and bustling about them. It was obvious Vein now knew that it was Holly and Trouble who had seen him and Lili in the Recon room… and he apparently wasn't as proud about it as Lili was.
Finally, he mumbled something and turned back to his drink.
Holly faintly wondered what it was (the drink)as she turned back to the (never-ending) task of finding Trouble.
But though she also had red hair and nut-colored skin, she stood out rather drastically in the room full of males. One sprite in particular singled her out, buzzing over to him with his feet barely skimming the ground and his bright red windbreaker flapping as he flew over. Sprites were like that—once they get their wings it's all "Feet? What feet?"
"Hey, lady. What's your name?" She growled inwardly. The last thing she needed—some guy trying to woo her while she searched for her friend. Even better, she couldn't even tell if he was drunk or not. The swagger of a walk and cheery attitude made it seem so, but then again, he could be just dumb.
"Holly Short."
He nodded, trying to seem like he had some sort of perception but failing miserably—the buzzing of his wings just made him look like a moron. Like he noticed, though.
"So, Holly, why'd you single me out? What do you want with Chix Verbil?"
She tried to point out that it was him that had approached her, but she never got the chance. He just kept on talking and talking…
"Do'ya know why they call me Chix, Holly?"
"No," she answered halfheartedly, "I don't."
"Because the chicks dig me! Hahaha!" Now, Holly thought dryly, he's either really drunk, or really stupid.
Finally, she caught a glimpse of red hair –again—that could only be Trouble. She hoped.
"Trouble! Over here!" she shouted, hoping he'd hear her—and that it really was him.
Fortunately for her, it was. He came over, grinning. "I could recognize your voice from all over the 'plex, considering it's the only female one in here." Holly inwardly cackled when the smile became more of a forced one—he had spotted Chix.
"Oh. Hello, Verbil."
The sprite pouted. "Aw, dumping me for an elf? I mean, look at him, Holly, he's walking Trouble!" While Chix was left laughing (hard) at his own joke, Holly pulled Trouble away. As quickly as possible—she didn't want to see Chix (or his flashy Mud Man windbreaker) again.
"What was it that you wanted, Holly?" She looked up at him. He didn't look mad, to her relief, or annoyed, just curious.
"Well, I kind of wanted to see the Mud Man items." His expression cleared at once. "Why didn't you ask before?" He laughed when she tried to stammer out that it would've been rude, and simply led her to the room in the very back of the duplex.
"Really, Trouble, I didn't really envision you as the 'party at my house' type of guy. Which is rather strange, because I usually have correct assumptions about people."
"That's because I'm not a 'party at my house' type of guy."
"Then… why the party at your house?"
He shrugged. "The rest of us guys plan the party, pick the most appropriate house, meaning the one with no strict rule people around, and invite people by word of mouth."
"And your house is the most appropriate?"
A bright grin was flashed her way. "Yup. My parents hear the party starting, and take Grub to the other half of the duplex. Luckily, the walls are rather soundproof for being so skinny."
They had arrived at the back room. Trouble wordlessly let her in.
There were strange things scattered all over the room. A lot of the items resembled certain things that they had in Haven (like the phone—except in Haven all phones are wireless), but a lot of the items were so, well, colonial-like that none used them below the lithosphere. Well, a lot of the middle-class people used them because they believed it gave their houses a better 'feel', and the poorer people used them because they had no other choice. There were basics that everyone had, though, like a computer and phone and such.
"A lamp?" Holly laughed, and pulled at the lace string fondly, turning the light on and off. "They still use these?" Down in Haven, energy was taken from the center of the earth to power everything in the city. Scientist had proven that there was enough energy down there to spare--- of course; everybody knew that, it just looked nice on the front page. Front page of the online news, of course, newspapers were inky and took time and energy to dispense.
Trouble nodded. "They use a lot of old things. It was only a century or two ago that they got electricity."
The pair laughed at the sheer absurdity of being without electricity. Electricity powered their every need, almost—having everything depend on electricity would of course make the People feel like they completely relied on it, which would make it seem like they weren't independent. Appearances could be very important.
They went on in the room, laughing more at certain things. For one, the large collection of books. Elves being tall and fair indeed. Holly chuckled when she imagined Foaly living in a forest (without any computers), gazing in the sky and commenting on how bright Mars was.
And she explored the computers for a while. Who uses dial-up nowadays? Other then the people in the ghettos, of course.
"Holly, come over here, I want to show you something."
She left the long antenna to see him. "What is it?"
"You'll love it—it's these Mud Man guns that use really large bullets… they don't even stun… oh, wait, they're not here." He frowned slightly. "That's strange, I saw them here about a week and a half to two weeks ago."
Holly shrugged and went back to the old-fashioned technology. She couldn't wait to tell Foaly about this.
Finally, Trouble proudly uncovered a dusty item under a gray sheet of paper.
It was a piano. Not the pianos that the People used, electrical ones that you could fold up and put in your pocket, but a classic one with the strings and the heavy buttons. The one that you can't put into your pocket.
"Whoa," Holly said, her fingers tracing the letters and trying to rub off the dust, "this must be pretty old."
"No, actually, it's only from a couple years ago."
She looked at him incredously. "They don't have electrical keyboards?"
He half-shrugged. "Well, they do, but the Mud People buy the wood ones anyway. Claim they have more of a 'natural sound', whatever that means."
"Right. Can you play anything?" she asked, just out of curiousity.
"Well, just that Mud Man child's song." There are a lot of Mud Man children's songs, but Holly immediately knew what he was talking about. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. That song was a favorite around elfish children who hadn't gotten up to the surface to get their first magic yet.
Sincechildren hadn't been up to the surface, they hadn't seen the sky—or the stars. And of course, every little child wants to hear about the stars… henceforth 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' was a big hit. Companies translated it into hundreds of different languages so youngPeople could practice their gift of languages. Most of the People had the lyrics imprinted in their minds.
An unasked question hung between them for a moment, before Trouble sighed and sat down at the large piano, looking rather small in its shadow.
END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Uck, it seems like one of those filler chapters. Please tell if you like.
