February 16th, 2016
Palo Alto, California
1100
"I think I'm Cinderella."
Arlynn's comment came abruptly, breaking the semi-uncomfortable silence between them. For Wally it came as a surprise, considering the child hadn't spoken for the last hour or so. The two were at a Baskin Robbins, each enjoying their own frozen treats despite the fact that it was mid-February and near freezing outside. Wally had come up with the idea in order to cheer Arlynn up from...whatever was bothering her. Arlynn had still acted unusually subdued so Wally figured it wasn't working until, well, this.
"...What?" Wally asked, both out of genuine confusion and in order to keep the kid talking (so he was worried, okay?!).
Arlynn stirred her mostly melted hot fudge sundae with her spoon as she stared at the treat in deep thought for a moment. Then she took a bite and looked at Wally.
"I'm Cinderella." she repeated, as if it made complete sense and the absolute sureness in her tone made Wally feel a bit slow on the uptake as he tried to make sense of the statement.
"Um. Okay?" he said, still at a loss.
Arlynn gave a single nod, as if approving his statement, "If I'm Cinderella then Linda's definitely the evil stepmother who wants to keep me from being with the Prince and...well, I guess you're the prince then, Wally."
Wally blinked. Huh?
"What do you mean 'keep you from being with the prince'?" Wally asked. Had he missed something?
Arlynn opened her mouth to speak for a moment, but then for whatever reason, wavered and opted to eat another spoonful of ice cream as she shrugged.
Okay, Wally had no clue of how to deal with this, "Alright then..."
"Or maybe I'm Snow White," Arlynn continued, "And Linda could be the evil queen. But now I'm not sure if that would make you the dwarfs or the Prince. Probably more the dwarfs."
"Um..."
"Or I'm Dorothy. And Linda's the wicked witch. Though I guess that'd be kinda a stretch since the wicked witch only wanted Dorothy's red shoes. She's still mean though."
"Kid, did something happen?" Wally asked bluntly. Okay, maybe he could have used more tact in his questioning, but the kid was being weird (er than usual).
"No," Arlynn lied, "But Linda's definitely the evil stepmother."
Wally took a bite of his own hot fudge sundae, "Honestly, kid, I don't get this grudge you have towards Linda. I bet if you got to know her, you'd probably get along. Linda loves kids."
Arlynn snorted, "Somehow I'm not so sure about that."
"Well, you make it kind of hard for her to like you by acting like a little prick around her." Wally said in defense of his girlfriend, "And anyway-"
Arlynn raised an eyebrow at Wally's abrupt cut off to his sentence, "Anyway?" she prompted.
"...I texted her earlier. She agreed to watch you tomorrow while I'm at school."
Arlynn groaned, "Really?"
"Wow, don't sound so excited."
"Why would I be excited?"
"Because maybe you could use the chance to show Linda that you're not as much of a prick as you let on."
"Stop it, I'm blushing." Arlynn said flatly.
Wally ignored her sarcastic comment as he gave Arlynn a stern look, "Be nice to her tomorrow, Lynn."
"Yeah, yeah..." Arlynn muttered.
"Lynn."
"I will! Geez, you sound like my mommy."
Wally knew that Arlynn hadn't really meant anything behind the statement but he felt his heart stop for a brief second regardless. Arlynn didn't seem to notice his temporary distress however, as she finished off her dessert. A few minutes later the two walked down the streets of Palo Alto, wandering aimlessly as they tried to kill the hour they had to wait for the next bus to arrive.
"You should get a car." Arlynn replied as she tucked Fluffy, her new constant companion, under her coat, "Fluffy's getting cold."
"Fluffy is an inanimate object," Wally replied, "And we've discussed this already."
Arlynn was silent for a moment before her expression became oddly thoughtful.
"Hey, Wally?"
"What?"
"Do you...like me?"
Wally stopped walking for a brief moment as he looked at the girl quizzically, "Well, sure I like you kid. I mean you're a tad annoying, but..."
Arlynn rolled her eyes, but stayed otherwise silent. Wally widened his. He had been expecting some kind of sarcastic quip or at least an indignant reply on her behalf that she wasn't annoying. This whole subdued and non-argumentative thing she was doing was...weird. Wally didn't like it.
"Kid."
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure you're good?"
Arlynn raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him, "That's weird. I didn't even know people had records anymore. Let alone broken ones."
"Har, har." Wally replied flatly though he was internally relieved.
That's better.
February 16th, 2016
San Jose, California
1200
"You're obsessed."
Linda didn't look up from her laptop screen as she heard another voice in the room.
"I'm not," she replied, the click-clacking of the keyboard keys not slowing down in the slightest, "I'm curious."
"No, girl. There is a fine line between curious and obsessed and you crossed it long ago."
Linda paused, glancing back at her roommate who stared back at her, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. Then she rolled her eyes and looked back to her laptop, resuming in her task.
"You wouldn't understand, Kate." she sighed.
"Oh, yeah?" Kate replied and Linda could just feel her challenging look, "Try me."
"I already told you." Linda said with another eyeroll.
"That your boyfriend is apparently bunking some kid? Yeah, I know that. What you haven't said though, is why it bothers you so much that she's with him. What, is this jealously?"
Linda scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous. The kid looked like four. And it's not that she's staying with him that bothers me."
"Then what?"
Linda took her laptop off her lap and placed it beside her as she turned around fully in her bed to face Kate, who leaned in the doorway.
"They're lying to me." she stated.
Kate looked unphased, "About what?"
Linda groaned slightly in frustration, "That's the problem! I don't know and Wally won't tell me!"
"So? You're his girlfriend, not his keeper. So long as he isn't being unfaithful or doing anything illegal, he doesn't have to tell you everything that goes on in his life." Kate replied.
"No, you're not listening, Kate. He's lying to me, not omitting information or being cryptic, no, he's straight up lying to me. Wally doesn't do that. ...Or he didn't before, at least."
Kate raised an eyebrow, "Okay, maybe this is a stupid question, but did you ask him why?"
"Yes! Well...no, not exactly. He- I don't think he knows I'm onto him."
"So..."
"I can't just up and go to Wally and say 'Hey, so your explanation about the kid was crap, mind dropping the BS and telling me what's really going on?'"
"Why not?"
Linda groaned, "Ugh, Kate! You're not being helpful."
"Well, you're not exactly doing much to help yourself, Lin. If you want to get to the bottom of it then you have to address the source, and if Wally won't tell you then ask the kid. I'd bet that she'd spill the beans."
Linda twirled a few stray strands of her dark hair as she whistled a nonspecific tune.
"Lin..."
"I may have, ahem, confronted the kid earlier."
"Nicely, right?"
"Well it started out that way..."
"Lin!"
"You weren't there!" Linda defended, "For whatever reason, the kid's just had it out for me since we met and she's rude, and sarcastic, and such a smartass. I just...there's something about her, okay?! She got under my skin and I lost my temper so I wanted...I wanted to get under hers."
"You went 'Mean Girl' on a four year old?"
"She could've been five..." Linda retorted weakly.
Kate continued as if Linda hadn't had even spoken, "That's just... that's low, Lin. Even for you. Especially for you."
"I know, okay?! I'm a terrible, despicable human being who deserves to burn in the deepest, darkest depths of hell!"
"Well I wouldn't go that far. But it was pretty bitchy of you to go off on a child. A child, Lin."
"God, no need to make feel like an even bigger piece of crap! And anyway, I'm gonna make it up to the kid."
"By googling her on your laptop?" Kate asked, catching a glance at the still open screen, "So 'Arlynn' huh? No last name?"
Linda shut the mentioned object, "Not one that was mentioned and would you stop peeking at my stuff?!"
Kate shrugged, "Not my fault that you're not discrete in your obsessive stalking... and Google? Really?"
"Not like I have a whole database to pull information from and for the last time, Kate, I'm not. Being. Obsessive. I just, I want information okay?"
Kate rolled her eyes, "Oh God, you're one of those girlfriends." she groaned.
"I'm not one of those anything!" Linda retorted defensively, "And if you're not gonna help, then leave."
Kate shrugged, "Fine by me." She had just started to walk out when Linda called for her.
"What?" she asked.
"Do you think you could keep yourself busy tomorrow? I'm babysitting." Linda asked.
"Babysitting? And this child doesn't happen to be the one that you're jealous of, right?"
"I'm not--" Linda groaned and chose to not rise to the bait, "Yes, Arlynn is coming over while Wally is at school. I figured that since I'm not at work, why not, right?"
"Sure, whatever. But, Lin?"
"What?"
"Be nice."
"God, Kate! You make me sound like some type of elementary school bully!"
"Well..."
"Leave."
Kate couldn't hold back a laugh as she left the room.
Linda sighed before reopening her laptop.
She would get to the bottom of this.
February 17th, 2016
Palo Alto, California
0800
"I don't wanna go."
Arlynn was pouting, her arms crossed and cheeks puffed out as she stubbornly refused to move from the spot where she was standing in the living room.
The whole shabang. Wally thought with exasperation as he stared at the child. While Arlynn hadn't had quite thrown the full-out kicking and screaming tantrum yet, Wally would bet that she wasn't far from one. Sure she didn't seem like the typical bratty child who'd pitch a fit if she didn't get her way, but hey, he'd been wrong before.
...And Wally really didn't want to deal with that. Especially this early in the morning.
"Kid," Wally said, doing his best to keep the annoyance out of his tone, "We talked about this."
"Yeah. And I told you I didn't wanna go." Arlynn replied petulantly.
"And I told you that you were going anyway." Wally snapped because screw patience.
If anything, Arlynn seemed to grow more determined, "No." she replied, her tone letting Wally know that there would be no rational reasoning on this one.
Wally heaved a sigh and glared at the girl. Arlynn glared back.
One 30 minute bus ride later, Arlynn struggled to get out of Wally's grip as the man walked up the stairs to his girlfriend's apartment, Arlynn slung over his shoulder.
"This is kidnapping, you know." Arlynn said as she continued her futile struggles.
"I doubt that, Lynn."
"Well I bet the police will agree with me when I call them!"
Wally snorted, "Yeah, see how well that goes for you."
Arlynn ceased in her struggles as she opted to huff dramatically, "You're mean." she said bitterly.
Wally didn't reply as they reached Linda's apartment door and he knocked twice, placing Arlynn down. In a flash (no pun intended), he gripped the four year old's wrist as her muscles tensed, prepared to take off.
"Don't." he said simply as he repositioned the girl to stand in front of him, both hands gripping her shoulders not too tightly.
Arlynn's response was another huff as she crossed her arms.
Linda opened the door not a second later, a welcoming grin on her face.
"Hey." she greeted.
Wally smiled back, "Hey." He squeezed Arlynn's shoulders slightly as she remained silent.
"Hi." Arlynn said, her voice barely above a whisper as she stubbornly refused to make eye contact.
"Babe, I cannot thank you enough for doing this." Wally stated.
Linda gave another grin as she pecked him on the cheek, "Hey, she's your family. And besides, not like I have work or anything. ...Well for the rest of this week, anyway. It's no problem," Linda smiled down at Arlynn who had dared to peek at the woman, "I think Arlynn and I will have a great time getting to know each other."
"Yeah, well," Wally said, releasing Arlynn's shoulders and gently nudging her towards the inside of Linda's apartment, "I owe you one anyway. Um, I should go."
Arlynn had no time to react as Linda took her hand in hers and gently pulled her inside, "Yeah, I'll see you!" Linda called.
With that Linda closed the door.
So, yes, Kate is another OC but I just really wanted to get out some of Linda's thoughts on the matter and figured why not? Don't worry though, she's definitely not going to be a major character in the story. I'd like to give a big thank you to all my reviewers! If you noticed, I tried to take some of the constructive criticisms into account and make Linda a bit less bitchy. However, I just couldn't see her being completely okay with the whole situation. Thanks for reading and happy early thanksgiving! :-)