Welcome back! In this chapter we'll meet Tabby and get a little glimpse into her home life, and the reason she was assigned godparents to begin with. If she seems to be too articulate for a 4 year old, pardon my ignorance. I have no real experience with children, so I tried to keep her dialogue very simple, yet understandable.
Enjoy!
All FOP characters do not belong to me.
Oddly Foster Parents
Chapter 2
"Can I help you?" the fairy with magenta hair asked without looking up as Wanda appeared before the receptionist's desk with Cosmo in tow.
"Hi, Crystal," Wanda greeted, releasing her husband's arm and floating closer to the counter. "We need to see Jorgen." The receptionist, Crystal, looked up quickly at the sound of the familiar voice and smiled.
"Oh, hello Wanda. What did Cosmo do this time?" she asked and offered the green haired fairy a raised eyebrow. Cosmo smiled weakly. Wanda shook her head, a slight smile on her face.
"Nothing yet, but we have to speak with the big guy regarding our new godchild assignment. Is he in?"
Before the receptionist could answer, a loud explosion shook the entire building, emanating from behind the closed door of Jorgen's office. It suddenly burst open, with a charred Binky emerging quickly from the large black smoke cloud within.
"B-but sir, I was—" the little fairy stammered as the large figure of Jorgen Von Strangle stepped out of the darkened room.
"SILENCE!" Jorgen bellowed in his thick Austrian accent, making both Binky and Cosmo cower. "How many times must I tell you, I only like spicy mustard!"
"Yes sir!" Binky cried before quickly disappearing down the hall. Jorgen glared after him for a moment before taking notice of Cosmo and Wanda.
"Eh?" he uttered in surprise. "What are you two doing here? What has Cosmo done now!" The muscular fairy's voice was edged with impatience, and he pointed his large wand in Cosmo's direction. The green haired fairy shook noticeably and quickly hid behind his wife.
"No-nothing!" Wanda stammered, and pushed the giant star away from them. Jorgen could sometimes fly off the handle—especially when Cosmo was in some way involved—and looking down the business end of his wand was particularly unnerving. "We're here about our assignment!"
Jorgen's face scrunched into a look that could have either been disappointment or confusion, and Wanda had a good idea that it held a little of both.
"Oh," he said simply, and lowered his wand. "Godchild assignments are final. Now get going." With that he turned and marched back into his office, waving his mighty wand once to dissipate all the remaining smoke. Wanda and Cosmo exchanged a glance, and the pink haired fairy quickly flew in after him.
"Wait a minute!" she called, slightly annoyed at the rude treatment. "Jorgen, I think there's been some sort of mistake!" The large fairy stopped in mid-stride and turned.
"A mistake?" he repeated, pegging her with a dark look. "Are you, a puny fairy, saying that I, in my muscular perfection, have made a mistake?" Wanda paled and began to shake.
"W-well, uh . . ."
"And you!" Jorgen shouted, pointing to Cosmo—who had been hovering in the doorway, doing a fair impression of a potted plant. "Do you also think I made a mistake?"
Cosmo's automatic reaction was to deny any such thing. Jorgen, make a mistake? Impossible! Jorgen doesn't make mistakes, he corrects them—usually with a big heaping helping of pain just for good measure. And Cosmo should know, he'd been on the receiving end on more than one occasion.
He opened his mouth to say just that when Wanda turned and gave him a look. Not the annoyed look like when he blurted out something stupid, or the hurt look when he blurted out something stupid and mean, but a look she didn't often give him. It was a pleading look, a look that said 'Help me!' and made him completely forget anything that had gone through his mind just a minute ago. His sense of self-preservation was overruled by his love for his wife.
"Y-yeah," Cosmo whimpered, floating quickly to his wife and clutching her shoulders. "If Wanda thinks there's a mistake, then there must be." Jorgen frowned.
"There IS no mistake," he said gruffly before leaning his wand against the wall and returning to his desk. "All godchild assignments are approved by me personally, and I do not make mistakes."
"Yes, I understand that, Jorgen," Wanda said, her voice slightly higher than usual. His wand may have been out of reach, but he was still very strong. The guy didn't exactly NEED magic to put a hurting on anyone if he felt so inclined. "But we think that there may have been a little . . . something you missed on the paperwork." That sounded better than 'you goofed up', didn't it? Jorgen shook his head.
"I carefully examine the details of each prospective godchild and assign them accordingly. I have never made a mistake based on the information available at the time of the assignment," he said calmly, but sternly. Wanda nodded and poofed up the re-assignment paperwork.
"I know," she said, showing him the first page. "But if you'll just take a look at this line . . ."
"SHE'S TOO YOUNG!" Cosmo suddenly shouted, feeling immensely proud of himself for finally figuring it out. "She's only 4 and that's too young for a godparent . . . or two." Wanda and Jorgen were staring at him, making him blush. "I-it just kind of hit me."
"She is a needy, miserable child, and needy, miserable children are assigned fairy godparents," Jorgen said, practically quoting page one of 'So You Wanna Be A Fairy Godparent?' Wanda shook her head.
"But—"
"NO ARGUMENTS!" the head fairy suddenly boomed, getting to his feet. Wanda wisely backed away, with Cosmo clutching almost painfully to her arm. "You have your assignment, now GO!" He reached for his wand, but Cosmo quickly raised his and poofed them back to the little house in Fairy World. The little green haired fairy may not have been very smart, but he knew when it was time to go.
"Well, looks like we have a new godchild," Wanda said, going over the paper in her hand once more. "A four-year-old girl. I didn't think that was allowed."
"Wanda?"
"Yeah, hon?"
"Why is 4 too young?" Cosmo asked hesitantly. He had figured out WHERE the mistake was, after letting it roll around in his brain for a while, but now he couldn't figure out just WHY it was a mistake in the first place. "If she needs fairy godparents, that must mean she's really sad and unhappy. Isn't it good that she's getting us?"
"Ordinarily, yes," his wife replied as she sat down on the couch. Cosmo followed and sat beside her. "When it's a slightly older child like 7 or 9, and they can fully understand the whole concept. But a four year old . . ." She shook her head. "It's just so young."
Wanda glanced at her husband and noted the familiar look of confusion on his face. He wanted to understand, but he just . . . couldn't. She would have to think of a different way of explaining.
"Remember in Godparent History, when we were supposed to learn from the mistakes of past godparents?" Cosmo nodded slowly. "Remember the story about the godparents who were assigned a 4 year old a long, long time ago?" He nodded again. "That assignment caused a lot of problems for Fairy World, and it changed the way we did things. It was decided that 4 was simply too young for godparents."
"Well, Jorgen doesn't think she's too young," Cosmo commented, looking down at the re-assignment form. "Maybe that one all those years ago was just a fluke." Wanda shrugged.
"Maybe. I guess it doesn't really matter either way, because it sounds like Jorgen won't change his mind. I guess we'd better get ready to go." Cosmo nodded.
"Okay. You pack the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen and the bathroom, and I'll pack the attic!" he cried before poofing away in a cloud of greenish smoke. Wanda shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Thanks, Cosmo," she muttered. "'Preciate the help."
Tabby sat in her playroom, quietly playing with her favorite doll. She gently combed her fingers through the doll's yarn hair, her eyes soft and faraway. Her most recent nanny, Maureen—or was it Mary? Megan? Did it even matter anymore?—was sitting to her left, finishing out her second pigtail. Tabby really didn't like pigtails, but didn't see a need to make a fuss. Her nannies never stayed for very long anyway—no one in her life ever did—so what was the point in telling them what she liked?
"There you go, sweetie," the nanny said as she tightened the girl's pigtails. "All done." The woman leaned forward to kiss Tabby on the forehead and the girl pulled away with a grimace. This nanny always smelled funny.
"Eh, suit yourself you little brat," she said sourly as she walked toward the door. "You sit up here in your own little world and don't bother me while my stories are on, okay?" The little pigtailed girl didn't reply. "Yeah, that's a good girl."
Nanny Maureen/Mary/Megan walked towards the hallway as she pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket. She gave the pack an experienced shake as she closed the door with her foot, leaving Tabby alone with her thoughts and her many dolls.
"She smells bad," the little girl whispered to the doll in her hands. "And she makes my hair hurt." Tabby reached up and loosened her pigtails, relieving the pulling on her scalp. Then she picked up the ragdoll she had been playing with and knee-walked to the rest of her family of dolls.
"Time for nappy, Miss Suzie," she said, carefully laying the doll in line with the others. "Night, night, go sleepy."
She leaned forward and gently kissed the doll's yarn hair before walking to the door connecting this room to her bedroom. A giant Victorian-style dollhouse—one nearly as tall as the little girl herself—sat in the corner of her bedroom near the door connecting the two rooms, and she didn't give it a second glance as she climbed onto her bed and curled under the covers for her own nap.
Had she stopped to look into one of the upper windows of the dollhouse, she may have seen two pairs of eyes staring back at her. One set pink, and the other green.
"The poor dear!" Wanda whispered as she watched the little girl settle into bed. "She's so lonely!"
"But her babysitter doesn't seem too bad," Cosmo said quietly, looking confused. "Aren't we usually assigned because babysitters are mean?"
"Not all the time, Cosmo," his wife said, her eyes glued to the girl in bed. "Sometimes a neglectful babysitter is worse than a mean one." Cosmo shrugged.
"But she put her hair in pigtails and tried to kiss her. Doesn't that mean she cares, even a little?"
"Maybe," Wanda said quietly, her brows knitting together. "This whole assignment is so odd!"
"Tabby sweetie!" a voice suddenly called from the hallway, making the little girl practically leap out of bed.
"Mommy!" Tabby cried as a 30-ish woman with a perfect tan, perfectly styled blonde hair and perfectly applied make up entered the room. She smiled and her perfectly bleached white teeth nearly blinded Cosmo.
"Hello, sweetie!" the woman said sweetly as she bent down to pat her daughter on the head. "How are you, darling?"
"Fine," the girl answered as her father—also perfectly tan and as equally bleached as his wife—walked in. "Can we go to the park today? I wanna play on the swings!" Her mother smiled sweetly and patted her head again.
"Oh, not today, baby. Daddy and I have a very important meeting to get to. We might not be back until really late tonight, so you'll stay with nanny Milly."
"No, Allie, Milly was last week," her husband corrected her, ruffling his daughter's hair. "Maggie is downstairs right now." His wife looked confused.
"I thought Maggie was a month ago," she said, getting to her feet. "Remember Tom? Right after that nice girl from Montana." The man shook his head.
"No, you're thinking of Nelly, and she was from Iowa. I don't think we've ever had anyone from Montana." Allie thought about this.
"Let's see," she said, counting off on her fingers. "Missy was from Nevada, Mrs. Stark was from Vermont, those two twins were from Wyoming—"
"Oh, yeah," Tom said, a wide smile crossing his face. "Lucy and Cindy. I forgot about them." The smile dropped quickly when his wife shot him 'The Look'. "I mean, they were nice. Tabby really seemed to like them."
'Like' was not exactly the way Tabby would have phrased it if asked, because she in fact never saw those two girls much. They had spent most of their employment on the phone or out back in the swimming pool. The only reason they had quit was because Tabby's parents had forgotten to pay them one time too many, and the girls had walked out in the middle of the day—after helping themselves to some of the good silverware and nicer picture frames, that is. Tom and Allie had discovered their daughter all by herself in the kitchen, eating slices of cheese to stave off her hunger.
"When can we go to the park?" the little girl asked, breaking her parents out of their game of 'Name the Nanny'. "I wanna play with you." Her parents exchanged a glance before kneeling before her.
"We're very busy, sweetie," her mother said, placing a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "Daddy and I have lots of meetings and places to go."
"Grownups have lots of responsibilities, kiddo," her father added, ruffling her hair again. "We can't just run off to the park willy-nilly! We promised to be somewhere, and keeping your word is important."
"Am I important?" Tabby asked quietly. Her parents smiled.
"Of course you are," Allie said with an oh-so-perfect smile. "You're very important. That's why we hire all those nice nannies to take such good care of you while we're away."
"Oh," Tabby said softly. "That's why, huh?" Her mother nodded.
"Uh huh, that's why. So you be good for Nanny . . . uh, for the nanny, okay, sweetie?"
Tabby nodded. "Okay."
"That's a good girl!" Tom said with a smile. "Who's Daddy's little girl?" Tabby smiled weakly.
"I am."
"That's right!" He and his wife stood and walked toward the door as Tabby watched silently. "Be good!"
"I will," Tabby replied as her door closed behind them. "I just wish I didn't have to be all alone."
Inside the dollhouse, Wanda turned to Cosmo. Her eyes were shiny and her cheeks wet. She had witnessed scenes very similar to this play out thousands, perhaps millions of times in her life as a godparent, but they never ceased to touch her heart. These poor children tried so hard to reach out to their parents, only to be carelessly and thoughtlessly turned away. Granted, Tom and Allie didn't seem as neglectful or indifferent as some, but they certainly didn't seem like they cared very much about their daughter, either. Certainly not enough to postpone or even cancel whatever plans they had made in order to spend some much needed time with the girl.
Having never been able to bear children of her own, this astounded the pink haired fairy. Why on earth would people even have children in the first place if they weren't going to spend any time with them?
"Wanda?" Cosmo whispered, looking worried. "Are you okay?"
Wanda nodded, wiping her cheeks dry. Tabby's parents might not be here, but her new godparents were. And it was time to make themselves known.
"I'm okay, sweetie," she said sweetly, grabbing her wand. "Our new goddaughter just made her first wish. Why don't we go grant it, hmm?" Cosmo smiled and nodded, raising his own wand.
"Right! I love this part!" he cried as they poofed out of the dollhouse with the perfect synchronization that comes from living and working together for nearly 10,000 years.
Tabby was still standing in the middle of the room, staring at her bedroom door when she heard a strange kind of stereo 'poof' sound behind her. She turned and saw two brightly colored little people with wings and crowns floating in mid-air. They were smiling at her, and holding sticks with stars at the top.
"Hi, Tabby!" they cried in unison, making the girl jerk involuntarily.
"I'm Cosmo!" the green one cried, leaning forward.
"And I'm Wanda!" the pink one added, also leaning forward.
"And we're . . ." they said in unison as they swirled together, a stage—complete with spotlights and sparkly dust—appearing beneath them. "Your Fairy Godparents!" Large neon letters appeared above their heads, sparking and blinking furiously.
Tabby stared wide-eyed.
Wanda watched the little girl, worried that their grandiose entrance might have scared her.
Cosmo twitched uncomfortably. Holding the 'ta da' position for so long was starting to give him a cramp.
"I think we need a new opening act," Wanda muttered to her husband as Tabby continued to stare.
"Can we move?" he muttered back, his body quivering. "I'm starting to lose the feeling in my arm!"
Wanda released him and quickly poofed the stage away. As a result, Cosmo fell to the floor with a soft 'whump', just as Wanda flew closer to Tabby.
"Hello, sweetie," the pink haired fairy said with a sweet smile. "How are you—"
Before Wanda could say another word, Tabby threw her head back and screamed.
"I hate this part!" Cosmo cried as the two fairies clamped their hands over their ears.
End of Chapter 2
I'm currently still working on chap 3, so that might take a while to get up.
Toss me a review if you feel so inclined!
