Author's Note:
I've surprised myself with how much I enjoyed writing this story. I didn't expect to put as much time into it as I have already. This has been a pleasant side project to wind down from my The Strength of Courage story after so many years.
Chapter 4: Problem Child
Chara stared at her phone. A notification popped up on its cracked screen. Frisk let her know that she and her boyfriend would soon arrive to pick her up. Chara glanced at the duffel bag beside her on the bed. It didn't hold much more than a few changes of clothes. Frisk, Kris, and Asriel all had Friday off school, and Kris's mother had invited them to stay over at their house for the long weekend.
Three days in Hometown. Three uninterrupted days with her siblings. What would they do within all that time, Chara wondered? She doubted Frisk and Kris shared any of her interests. Most people didn't hang with street gangs in their spare time. They'd probably be horrified if they knew what Chara really got up to. Why was she going at all?
Memories of better days surfaced. Their parents were still alive. Their family was still intact. Then some drunken teens caused a car crash that took out three other vehicles, with her parents caught in the centre. Chara and the others were thrown into the foster care system, where adults who didn't give a damn palmed them off to the first homes that would take each kid in. No one ever wanted more than one new mouth to feed.
A knock on the doorframe snapped Chara to the present. Leaning against it, a cat-shaped mannequin smirked at her and crossed her arms. "Hey, Redblood. Still here, stinking up the joint?"
Chara scoffed. "Repo guy hasn't come 'round yet to toss your ass in the trunk?"
"As if a guy with that kind of job can pick up a girl like me," the mannequin cackled.
"If you possessed a different kind of doll, you might actually find guys who'd want to pick you up."
"Cheeky bitch. So, almost time to go?"
"Yeah. Little sis is coming by any minute. Then it's three solid days in the boonies. Try not to trash the place while I'm gone. Okay, Mew?"
Mad Mew Mew, the pink tigress of the Spectres, brushed one of the giant bells attached to her ears. "Now, now," she tutted. "You make it sound like I wreck shit just for the fun of it."
"You trashed three parking meters just last week," Chara reminded her, the smirk never leaving her face.
"They deserved it."
Chara's phone buzzed. Frisk texted that she and Asriel were outside the building. Sending a reply, Chara took one last look at her bedroom. The cramped space was barely habitable, with paint peeling from the walls and mould festering in the corners. Every piece of furniture was salvaged from the scrapyard, built-in with authentic wear and tear. It was a dump, Chara admitted. But it was her dump.
Mew Mew sauntered over and pulled Chara into a hug. "Seeya, Chara. Give those country folks a big, old Spectre hello from me."
"The last thing I need is Kris's family filing a restraining order. So, no."
"Pussy."
"Weeb's Wet Dream." Chara hugged her friend tighter. "Seeya, Mew. Gonna be boring without you."
"I'd come with, but it's impossible to get mud out of this dress."
Chara grabbed her bag and slung it over one shoulder. She and Mew Mew bumped knuckles before Chara made her way down the creaky stairs of their apartment building. Outside, Frisk's clean, second-hand car looked out of place in the battered street located in Ebott City's armpit.
Chara tossed her bag into the back seat and clambered in after it. Country rock played on the stereo. 'Topical,' Chara sniffed. One of Asriel's CDs, apparently. The poor guy was crouched over the passenger seat. His horns pressed against the car's roof.
The drive to Hometown was uneventful. Chara ended up thinking about Kris again. The humans who took him only wanted a young child. The ones who adopted her only did it because she was Caucasian, like her father, and Frisk wasn't. Instead, Frisk got stuck with whatever was left. Chara would still have traded if she'd been given the choice. Frisk would have made her stuck-up 'parents' proud. Chara had been nothing but a "disappointment." A wasted investment.
At fourteen, Chara spent her first stint in juvie after her short-lived mission to track down her siblings. She smiled at the memory of walking into her cell on the first day. Someone must have known she was coming and thought to play a prank on the new kid, for a life-sized doll of some pop culture cat girl was lying on the bottom bunk. At least, Chara thought it was a doll before it flicked its tail and glanced at her with a bored expression.
Mew Mew and Chara became fast friends. At the time, Chara wasn't sure what drew her to the monster. It was probably the give-less-than-a-shit attitude that Mew expressed towards everything. That, and the fun fact that Mew was actually a ghost in their one-hundred-and-thirties, inhabiting a mannequin they had found in an abandoned storage locker. The courts misidentified Mew Mew as a minor and threw her into the slammer for smashing a few windows. It was also Mew Mew who later introduced Chara to the Spectres street gang. They remained roommates and best friends for years.
Somewhere during the drive, Chara had dozed off. She woke up to dense forest in every direction, feeling more disoriented than after a hard night at the bar. Twenty minutes later, the first signs of civilisation appeared.
At first glance, Hometown wasn't too different to the suburban parts of the city. It wasn't all shacks and barns like Chara assumed. She stared out of the window to the monsters standing around outside. Kris had mentioned he didn't grow up knowing any other humans. Chara now realised he had meant there were no other humans in Hometown. Only monsters. Monster adults; monster kids; monster postal workers; monster police officers. Just monsters… everywhere she looked… Chara couldn't take her eyes away.
Frisk drove through to the other side of town. A single house with a red van stood at the edge of the forest. Chara saw a small crowd out front, holding up a banner with the words "Welcome to Hometown."
"Looks like Mom invited my old class over," Asriel chuckled. "Kris's too, I think."
'Great,' Chara frowned. 'Maybe I should stay in the car?'
The crowd cheered as they stepped out from the vehicle. Asriel stood tall and leaned back, pressing his hands into his aching spine. A giant goat woman approached him. Asriel was the same height as his mother, yet he seemed smaller once she enveloped him in a hug.
"It's so wonderful to meet you, Frisk," Toriel said, swallowing her into her arms. "Asriel has told me so much about you."
Then she spied Chara and came after her. "And you must be Chara! Welcome to our home."
The woman's strength surprised Chara. But once Torial had her pressed against her chest, Chara felt how gentle her embrace was. Her body was warm and soft. When was the last time someone had held her like this? Like a mother? Chara put her arms around Toriel and thanked her. She couldn't reach all the way around the monster's waist.
"Girlfriend?!" Chara and Toriel separated to watch Asriel talking to a chubby, purple cat. "But I thought we had something special, Azzy?!" the girl screamed.
Asriel pinched his nose in clear irritation. "I've told you already, Catty," he sighed. "We went to the prom together. That was all that was. You and I were never dating."
"Well, what does she have that I don't?"
"For starters, the common sense not to try and pour a glass from the entire punch bowl. Or twerk on me in front of my mother. Or get arrested in the parking lot all on the same night."
A green alligator with lipstick cackled aloud. Catty turned on her and completely forgot about Asriel. Gingerly, he escorted Frisk into the house while the two monster girls locked into a heated argument. Chara found Kris among the spectators and hugged him.
"You keeping good?" she asked.
"Yeah," he answered. Not much for talking, he was. That was fine. Neither was she. It worked spectacularly.
Toriel led Chara to where she and Frisk could leave their bags. A camping mattress laid across the living room floor, with pillows and blankets thrown over the sofa. Kris's house looked clean and comfortable. Chara found photographs all over the place with him and Asriel shown together over the years. She was glad that he at least got a decent life at some point after he was taken.
Out behind the house, several picnic tables awaited them with a banquet. Smoke from a barbeque grill thickened the air, stimulating Chara's appetite. Kris was already seated with his classmates. His friend, Susie, sat beside him.
"Hey, there." Chara turned to find an orange cat monster addressing her. A cigarette burned between his tombstone-sized teeth. "You're lil' Kris's sis, am I right? How ya doing? Name's Hamilton. And yours is?""
"Not a name you'll be saying in anyone's ear soon."
The guy's bravado shrivelled like spinach on a pan. "Ouch… Brutal." Chara rolled her eyes. She'd been in this town for less than an hour and she was already being hit on by men who thought they were all that.
"Hey, Chara," Asriel called. "I see you've met Burgerpants already."
"Azzy! Mah man!" Burgerpants knocked fists with Asriel and man-hugged him like he hadn't just been rejected five seconds earlier.
"Howdy, Ham! I see you're actually trying to talk to girls for once."
"Love is a harsh battlefield, my friend," Burgerpants said, puffing his smoke. "And I heard you finally hooked yourself a chick!" Chara then heard him whisper. "She's… not this one, is she?"
"No, Frisk is with Mom in the kitchen. You must not have seen Catty blow her fuse earlier."
Chara walked off before Burgerpants could explain that he had been in the bathroom. If the options today were to hang around Asriel's schoolfriends or Kris's, her choice was clear. Kris's classmates introduced themselves to Chara. After a few minutes, she decided that they weren't bad kids. Ridiculous and weird was simply the standard with monsters.
Soon, everyone had arrived and was seated. Toriel tapped a spoon against a glass. Silence fell. "Thank you, everyone, for coming," she announced. "Today we welcome Asriel back from college. It seems like the time that passes between his visits grows longer. But perhaps that's just me being a silly, old goat." Many laughed in good nature, including Asriel.
"But another, just as marvellous reason we've gathered here is to welcome Chara and Frisk; our Kris's human sisters." An applause interrupted Toriel. "It's been many years since they lived in the same home together. A miracle has brought these children back together.
Toriel directed her gaze towards them. "The years we've spent since Kris joined our family have been a blessing. And now that we've had the chance to meet Chara and Frisk, I hope we experience many blessings more. Chara, Frisk, I thank you both for coming all this way to meet us. I want you both to know that our door is always open to you."
Chara felt shaken to the core as everyone in the yard clapped and cheered. She didn't even know most of these people, yet they seemed so happy about her simply being here. This was… not normal for her. A funny feeling wriggled in her chest. She didn't know if that was good or bad.
It filled her with… something…