Brothers & Sisters
Daniel's POV
I have a strong feeling that I'm REALLY gunna love kindergarten. After we get marked down in some roll call thingy, we'e immediately shown around the entire kindergarten. Where we hang our coats and bags, where all the fun toys and games are, where we sit to down to do drawings and read books and stuff...AND...also where the small cafeteria area is too, which is good considering my tummy's gunna be starving by the time lunchtime comes. Every other boy and girl in the class is just as excited as I am about today and starting kindergarten...except one – my brother.
"Don't wowwy Miles, it's gunna be fun." I've said that to him about six or seven times so far and it's only 10 o clock. There better be some fun toys in here otherwise Miles' gunna have a BIG big worrying problem here.
And as we come to the last of our tour around this place, Miles keeps himself shy and hiding closely behind me as we move. We stand together in a big squashed huddle as our teacher Miss Roseley shows us the final area of the main classroom – the toys area.
"Now don't think you'll be playing games ALL day..." Miss Roseley tells us – to which some of the kids behind us moan and sigh. "BUT...don't worry, there'll still be loads of fun toys and games to keep all you lot amused." She walks over to some cabinet and starts to take out lots of boxes. "Now then...for you lot we HAVE..." Here we go, let's see what'll keep me and hopefully Miles happy. "A marble drop-maze..." Not bad. "...dozens of game-boards..." Whichs she shows us – very nice. "...loads more toys and construction games...and last bt certainly not least...a full-pack train set." And then, I feel Miles leaning forward even more than he was before.
"A twain set?" Miles whispers in what sounds like a happy voice.
"Miles, is that you being happy?" I ask with a smile.
"Yes yes yes YES YES YES!" He replies in the loudest whisper possible. Finally, Miles sounds as if he's happy.
10 minutes later, we're given a full 2 hours before lunchtime to do whatever we want and play with whatever you want. And I guess no one wins a prize for guessing what Miles wants to play with.
"C'mon Daniel...C'MON!" Miles forcefully pulls on my shirt – dragging me towards the train-set which he immediately starts to take out to gaze at the hundreds of track pieces.
"What are you two doing?" Alex comes over and asks both of us. Miles makes no response since he's in a happy World of his own.
"Well...me and Miles were gunna try and build the biggest train-track possible with this set, I suppose. Wanna help?"
"I sure would!" Alex replies with just as much excitement as Miles shows. And with that said, us three sit down on the green and blue-coloured rug to begin putting each wodden track-piece together. I haven't even touched my first piece yet and Mile has already built a bridge over a tunnel piece and a traffic jam. I guess this is gunna be loads of fun for all three of us – I don't think we'll even have enough time to make a big enough track.
Brothers & Sisters,
Rebuild your lives.
We're all drug takers,
Give us something tonight.
Kyle's POV
OK, one down, one to go. Or should I say, 100 down, 800 to go – my guesstimate at how many of this lot I have to talk to was WELL out. Little kids are pretty much the easiest type of audience you can give a lecture and speech to without worrying about what the hell you're actually saying – all those kids had pretty much lost track of what I was saying by the time I got to talking about future career and making the right decisions and all that stuff. Though I wish I could have done THAT one last – that way my first speech wouldn't have been affected by the thoughts of what on Earth I'm gunna say to THIS lot in a few minutes time.
As I'm sure anyone knows by now, speeches to 7th graders is by no means a walk in the park. I had a quick sneak-peak at the 700-or-so tightly packed group before I made my way here. I can tell by the looks on their faces and their body language that I was right all along – this is gunna be tricky. And as I stand to the right of the school stage behind the curtain, I realize that it's not a matter, for example, of WILL they start shouting offence and all that shit, but WHEN they'll start doing it, instead. However, this lot are growing up in a World that's STILL trying to rebuild itself from the war, so I expect SOME to at least give me some respect.
A cartoon in a ketamine,
Jelly mixed with margarine.
White doves fund the war machine,
Everybody moving!
Then again, I wouldn't expect anything more or anything less than a group of lazy-eyed, lazy-mouthed and lazy-eared teenagers whom 90 percent of them STILL need spoon-feeding, if ya' get me. I wouldn't be surprised if they were even lower than how they already are – if there is a lower low than this.
Cocaine - is for murderers,
Codeine - for the jurors.
Caffeine - been through all of us,
Everybody horney!
"Now then, can I have SILENCE again please…?!" The Principal of this school announces over the mic from where he's stood on stage. I take a final peak onto stage to see he's stood behind a digital panel which is currently projecting who's on stage to a much larger image scale. I guess the back-row are gunna see just as much as me as the front row are. "Now today we're being joined by one of the brightest and most successful businessman and art traders in not just this country, but the entire World…" He says – to which my 4-piece 20K suit keeps me from blushing slightly. "He's taken some of his most important time to come to talk to you all about business and future careers, so listen carefully…" Yes, DO listen carefully. No one knows this, but I'm not in a really good mood as of now – headquarters just PM'd me on my Cell telling me that the company is trading down a whopping 26 points in the market. I'm sure I'll be able to sort that problem out, but if I get any major annoyance from this lot whilst I try and make an important speech to them……well……I haven't got pissed off in a long time, so I don't really wanna show evidence of that today. "Now will you please help me in welcoming on stage…" Here we go, time to do the introductory walk. "…CEO of KBSM – Mr. Kyle Marsh-Broflovski…"
I make my way towards the centre of the stage where the podium is placed. I show a quick smile and get a quick glance at the first few rows. Already, I see signs of 'can't-be-fucking-bothered' written all over their face – especially on one……ummmm…'different' looking girl who despite clapping, is chewing gum and got her eyes half-open. The entire front-row looks like a scene out of The Usual Suspects – every one looking like they could punch someone's face in and rob your house before you can blink. I take a quick guess that this is some kind of naughty-row for all the worst of the worst lot in this school.
Crackwhores - back in town again,
Eggshells - sniffing benelyn.
Burning all the oil again,
Smoking makes you holy.
"Thank you Principal Bates." I say as I step up a step behind the podium. "Good Morning students of Los Angeles High School……" So for the next 45 minutes, I guess I've got 700 or so staring faces to cope with. "……today, I'm here to talk to you…about your futures – an understandable reality that you ALL will have to face sometime in the next few years." Someone in the back coughs out loud – which is oddly followed by some sort of synchronized musical sheet of coughs. I continue with my introduction, but whilst I talk, the coughs seem to be getting louder and more strangely timed to occur when I start speaking again. In terms of annoying me – that's condition green. I can see to the left of me from the corner of my eye that the Principal is merely standing there by the end of the stage and watching as the students watch me – probably knowing they've planned to annoy me but unable to do anything about it.
I move onto the first section of my speech. "To start off with…I'm sure you're all aware that you'll be leaving school in the next few years – having made up a final decision on what you're doing afterwards. However, the main factor that people don't realize is that they think it's all just a matter of picking and it happens. No, it's more than that – MUCH more. For starters, people believe that decisions in careers and education are all down and based on one particular word." Here we go with testing out my relationship with the crowd. "Can anyone think of the word I'm talking about, anyone? It's something that you ALL would like a lot of and THINK you'll always have a lot of, no matter where you go…" Silence. Dam, this lot are dim – no offence. "It's a three letter word……and begins with the letter 'F'."
Almost immediately, I hear someone cough in the back. However, THIS cough is different. It wasn't one of these regular throat-clearing coughs, OH NO, it was one of those childish 'Put-a-word-in-between-your-coughs' cough. And by how much sniggering and quiet laughing there is……I know dam well what that word was. And let me tell you, it's the ONE single three-letter 'F' word I just can not stand in this World. And just like that, the same 'cough' is heard from two more – one on the back left and one on he middle right of the crowd. More laughter - condition yellow.
20 Minutes Later
Right then, on to how my presence fits into this speech equation. I'm onto major decision-making now in terms of jobs and careers. I've spent about 15 minutes talking about University and colleges and stuff like that and how learning and education are vital to their futures – not that paid much attention to what I had to say, but there ya' go. Anyway…"I wanna tell you about a past design project I was a part of in the art and design section of my company a few years back. It was for the LCS Kaiyado Structure in Tokyo – some of you might have heard of it in the news. One of my most important decisions I had to base the entire future-work on was to how to design and construct the main tower of the architectural structure and how we a team would manage to erect the thing."
And as soon as I say the word 'erect', dozens of sniggering boys start laughing quietly again. I know f'sure what they're laughing about. Oh hardy ha HA – I said 'erect' and that sounds like the word 'erection', VERY FUNNY – oh GROW…UP! I still see at the corner of my eye that the Principal is keeping a close watch on all these students and he looks like he's about to leap across and hit someone – yeh, if only he didn't look so helpless and powerless himself. Knowing how schools lack in dealing with idiots like these, he probably wouldn't even give detention to someone even if they blew up the whole school with a Hydrogen bomb from out the Chemistry Lab.
Anyway, I continue on…"During this process though, another factor was how along with erecting the architectural structure…" More sniggers. "……other problems like keeping it up, keeping it straight AND keeping it strong enough to withstand structural attack." Again, a small group of random-plotted boys start quietly sniggering and laughing under their breath. The annoyance of it makes me pause in my speech until they're all finished with their pathetic thoughts. 25 minutes in and I'm already on condition orange.
But just as I resume my speech, the nightmare suddenly comes to life. A cell-phone starts ringing one of those ridiculous-sounding versions of the Nokia tune. Y'know, the one that had that annoying beeping jingle, well nowadays, they've got about 50 different-sounding versions of that chime, from classical instruments to belching noises…URRK! But this one, which coincidentally comes from a lad in the front-row is of the Nokia tune which is sounded by a person's voice trying to impersonate the Nokia tune. Yep, a ring-tone of a person impersonating the Nokia theme-tune – how ridiculous can you get?! As the phone blasts out that 'noise' at max volume, some people start doing that daft 'Oooooooo, you're in trouble' sound while most turn towards where he's sat. It's so annoying that it forces me to look up at him in a serious manner. He looks back at me and appears to switch it off with a smug and cocky look on his face.
Texting - abbreviates the brain,
Aspirin - takes away the pain.
Rock on, everyone will say:
'That's the way it is'.
15 Minutes Later
I'm finally coming towards the end of my speech. I wrapping it up with something about focusing on targets and the most important things in life – not that these students will probably agree on what the most 'important' thing in their lives will be. I seemed to have calmed down now since that cell-phone incident a while ago now. Everyone's remained quiet so far and they actually look as if they're paying attention.
And then……ARGHHHH……THAT. Everyone looks again to that guy with the loud cell-phone from before. Now I know – for the past 10 minutes he's been chatting away silently on his phone to some friend (if he's got any) of his, and it's only now that he let out a low-toned but quiet laugh. Condition Red – CONDITION RED! I can feel the emotions in my head running wild. Suddenly, I snap - I finally find myself having no control over what I'm about to do. Then again, good thing the stage is only a step higher than the actual ground. And as he stares off into the distance and continues to snigger and talk, I realize he can't see me walking up to him – GOOD. And just like that, I snatch the $250 cell-phone from out of his hand and with all my strength…I slam it down onto the ground – shattering it into a small split explosion of black and silver metallic and plastic pieces. I think he caught the drift.
"As I said before……education is a major focus that you all have to pay attention to…" I continue my speech as if nothing ever happened – finally having removed all my anger on that ridiculous kid and his phone – something which he shouldn't even have in school. I walk back onto the stage and make my way back behind the podium to see 700 blank and shocked faces looking directly at me – even the Principal is stunned. Ah well, at least I've got their attention now.
Meanwhile
Miles' POV
I guess I was wrong about Kindergarten – it is good, it's really REALLY good. It's the afternoon now, and me, Daniel & Alex are finishing off the finger paintings we're all doing at the moment. In the morning, whilst we were having our morning play-time recess, we got a chance to meet the other boys and girls in our class. Everyone was still shocked to find out that we actually were the two boys whose daddies were billionaires – I guess they heard rumors about it from their mommies and daddies, but never believed it until now. But whilst we three were finishing off our brilliant train-track thing, this unhappy-looking boy called Roger came up to us with an unhappy look on his face.
"Gimme that twain…" He said. "I want it NOW."
"Ummmm, but we're using it for the twain twack…" I replied to which he just snatched it from off the track and bust one of the bridges as well. Ah well, I guess he must have forgot to say 'please' – daddy always tells me to say please whenever I ask for something. I guess Roger forgot. But it wasn't the first time Roger accidentally forgot to say please. And it made me wonder if he knew what he was doing as well.
Brothers & Sisters,
Rebuild your lives.
We're all drug takers,
Give us something tonight.
Not only in Lunch did Roger start eating my orange, (which tastes nasty and icky anyway) but even during this finger-painting drawing, he took a few cups of paint that I was using. I didn't mind him taking the yellow and blue, but I was using the red. I didn't mind, I just waited for someone else to finish with the red paint.
We've been finger-painting for an hour now. We've been asked by our teacher to draw our parents – a mommy and daddy. Me and Daniel were slightly confused to what a 'mommy' was as we'd never ever heard of that before.
"Oh right, I forgot, you two don't have a mommy do you…" Miss Roseley said with a smile. "That's OK; you just draw your two daddies instead." This is what we've done instead. Daniel's looks like a few blobs holding hands in front of a bigger blob which looks silly and funny whereas mine looks a little more…well…better…I mean…come on…at least mine's got happy faces in it with four big red smiles on our faces. Suddenly, Roger who's sat next to me accidentally spills blue paint all over my work.
"Oooops……SO…WWY!" Roger says right next to me. No problem – I was gunna try and make a much better one back home anyway, now that I know how to actually make these things.
30 Minutes Later
Back over at the toy-area, me, Daniel and Alex are over at the building blocks trying to make the biggest block wall so we can trap Alex inside it, ha ha. But out of nowhere, Roger storms in and knocks the whole thing down.
"Woger…why'd you do that?" I ask.
"Coz'…I can do ANYTHING…" He replies – looking down at me.
"But we were twying to build a big massive wall to bwock Awex in and you destwoyed it."
"EXACTLY…but wike I said, I can do anything I want, but YOU CAN'T."
"Why not?" What's he trying to say.
"Coz'……you're a…" And what I hear next is something that I'll never forget. And I…and I……I…
Rohypnol - like a chloroform,
Sugar - from the day you're born.
Washed out, like a dinosaur,
Really don't believe it.
Daniel's POV
I didn't hear what Roger just said to Miles, but whatever it was……it wasn't nice, because it's left Miles in tears. And as I watch Miles running off crying, I turn to Roger who's got a great big smile on his face. And…no, it can't be! Did he just do what I think he just did? My guts tell me what my heart is telling me as well…and without warning, I launch forward and punch Roger right on the nose – knocking him to the ground and causing him to bang his head on the wall as well. And just like that, Roger starts screaming and crying - woah, I never realized I could punch that hard.
"DANIEL MARSH-BROFLOVSKI!!!" I hear from other end of the classroom from the teacher. AW-OH – I'm in trouble.
Sticking with sniffing super-glue,
Sulphates - keeps you in a zoo.
Monkeys - turning into you,
Everybody hoping.
Kyle's POV
"Mr. Marsh-Broflovski……please WAIT, on behalf of the whole school, PLEASE…JUST give me a chance to say…I apologize." He says for the hundredth time as I make my way out into the car park where my chauffeur-driven limo is waiting.
"Apologize? For THAT? HA, don't make me laugh…do you not realize now embarrassing not to mention idiotic your students have made themselves be seen today?! And to think, this is SUPPOSEDLY one of the best high schools in the country. Well if that's the case, I guess in the next 10 years, this country's pretty much fucked isn't it?"
"No…Mr. Marsh-Broflovski…please. I agree – that was totally unacceptable from my students here. And I assure you, I will be taking serious and immediate measures with the students in particular about this – consider the students you brought to focus will receive heavy punishment."
"Oh great, and how long will that last? A month? A week?! A DAY?!" No response. "Peh, that's the problem – they get away with murder nowadays Mr. Bates. Interrupting my speech is one thing…but calling me a f……a f……I can't even come to actually saying it……it's unacceptable."
"I understand completely."
"Do you?!"
"Yeh you're right…I don't."
Taking a deep breath, I open the door. "You'll be hearing from my lawyers in a few weeks time – I expect a written apology from not only the school-board but from THAT student in particular about what happened today. And before you ask…that student can pay for another cell-phone HIMSELF."
And with that, I'm gone. But just as I'm a few feet from reaching the limo, my cell-phone starts buzzing. "Yeh………yes this is Mr. Marsh-Broflovski………my sons……Daniel and Miles? What's happened………WHAT?! And Miles…………upset? About what……………" My jaw drops and I suddenly can not believe what I'm hearing from the receptionist at the kindergarten. "Of course…I'm on my way." Clicking my phone off and making my way into the limo, the driver starts the journey back towards the kindergarten. Good thing it's 3 o clock – bad thing that I'm coming to pick those two up in one of the worst situations yet. I pick my phone out again and begin to call…
Meanwhile
Stan's POV
"So to put it in basic terms, I think the three major advertising designs need to be a bit more sharper – the layout is good and all major factors are well presented, though keep working at it and update me with the newest designs next week, understand?"
"Yes sir…" The round-table design team with me in the conference room today say just as our meeting is coming to an end.
"Ummmm, excuse me sir…" A Receptionist walks in with a phone in her hand. "This is really important……your husband's on the phone…" Kyle's ringing me? What's going on? After I give the meeting the usual 'goodbye…see you next week' sign-off, I walk back into my main office and rest the phone next to my ear. "Hey Kyle…what's going on?" And what Kyle tells me within those very few minutes is something that makes me wanna sprint out of the headquarters, down 18 floors, down into the underground car-park and straight into my car – driving immediately towards the kindergarten. Whatever's going on – something's happened concerning Daniel & Miles. Oh Christ…
Author's Comments: Not only will we be hearing from THAT student again, but we'll also be hearing a lot more from Roger. Be prepared, Roger is one of those kinds of people.