A/N: This is just a little filler I need to progress the story a bit I tried to spice it up with a little bit of Allison's history, some of it you might be surprised to learn (LOL)!. Review anyways!
Special Dedication: I'm dedicating this chapter to the tragic victims at Virginia Tech. My brother went there, and it's a miracle he managed to escape from his math room in the building that the killer victimized before he was hurt. My heart goes out to the victims, their families, and the survivors, because after going down for the day yesterday to talk and comfort them (along with my brother), it's so heartbreaking to see a college campus in such a horrible state. I came home early to finish this chapter just so I could dedicate it to them. God bless.
Nighttime came. Allison's parents went out for dinner and drinks to relieve some of the stress, which disgusted Bender. They hadn't even asked Allison if she was hungry. Bender, as a result, spontaneously decided to make Allison something himself. Wandering out to the kitchen after Marty and Danny left, Bender sifted through the assortment of cold takeout plates and bottles of vodka. He found a plate of cold KFC chicken to be the healthiest thing in the fridge, and he took that out and nuked it. While he waited for it to finish, he wandered into the small living room and observed a bit of the room. There were a few photos of Danny and Marty, but the only one of Allison was a photo of her when she was 5 or 6 and in a small beauty pageant (of all people, Allison was a child prodigy!) wearing a red tutu and smiling a front-toothless smile to the cameras, holding a bundle of roses and wearing a sash that said "Little Miss Shermer 1974." The girl was smiling, but her eyes were sad.
"I'll be damned," Bender muttered. Maybe that had something to do with her parents' ignorance of her. Allison wasn't exactly beauty queen material anymore. Maybe as she grew into her own…her artistic self who hid her eyes behind her bangs, her parents grew more distant because she wasn't their 'Little Miss Shermer' anymore. Bender thought Allison was strange from the beginning, but this certainly did explain a bit of the plot holes in Allison's life.
The microwave's timer suddenly went off, and Bender went to get the chicken out and put it on a plastic plate. As he did so, he hear Allison's door creak open slightly and heard the small 'pit-pat' of Allison's stocking feet slide down the hall towards the bathroom, and then another door shut. Did she think he left? No, she without a doubt heard the microwave timer go off.
Bender quickly dashed into Allison's room and closed the door. Her took a seat on the bed and stared at the door, waiting for Allison to return. While he waited, he read the article on the wall about Allison's greatest achievement…
Local Preteen Surprisingly Conquers Adult-Dominated Art Show
Gifted young lady shows the prestegious Regional Midwestern Art Show what she's made of.
Chicago Gallery, June 9, 1978—The annual Midwest art talent show is one of the most prestigious art shows in the northern half of the United States. Usually, these art shows are reserved for artists 18 and older, with a very few exceptional teenagers able to qualify in order to submit their art. This year, however, a new feat was reached in the show's history…a top prize in one of the most highly regarded categories (2-dimensional abstract art) was awarded this weekend to a girl of middle school age, 11 year old Allison Portia Reynolds. Her artwork features several biomorphic shapes in all colors fitting together to form a vague image of herself. The media used was oil crayon on canvas.
"It's really cool. I feel so proud," Reynolds remarked to our reporter, standing proudly by her award-winning piece, which will be donated to a traveling exhibit which, among its stops, with be at the MMA in New York City for 3 months starting this December, making her one of the youngest artists to ever be featured in the museum. "It's almost scary thinking about that," said Reynolds. "A lot of people will be judging me." Reynolds punctuated the statement with a high-pitched squeak.
Reynolds' art teacher, Mr. Chrisfield, was astounded at his pupil's accomplishment. "It wasn't even an assignment for class. The concept, the composition, the execution, was all her doing. I just did the paperwork! Every ounce of credit goes to her."
Her parents, surprisingly enough, were absent from the show and awards ceremony and therefore could not be commented.
Damn, Bender thought. If it were him, his mother would probably be there (she'd probably be selling herself, but she'd BE there, nonetheless). What a miserable set of parents. The MMA? Bender was about as artistically inclined as a monkey with a paintbrush and HE knew about the MMA! That was just plain ignorance. Marty and Danny were able to take photos of Allison at a kiddie beauty pageant that didn't amount to shit, but when it came to what Allison truly loved, they somehow weren't there. They weren't interested. They probably wanted a kid more like Brian or Andy. A perfect child in everything they did. It sucked that now, more than ever, she needed her parents. They may have finally acknowledged her existence, but they were more distant from her than ever.
Bender heard a toilet flush down the hall. Allison was coming back. Bender sighed. At least she could walk on her own now. No doubt the hospital gave her some form of pill to settle her stomach (and beyond). As soon as the door opened, Bender stood up. Allison was a complete wreck, a sad sight even for Bender's eyes. She wore an oversized black t-shirt. That was it. Her normally messy hair looked like someone had poured glue on it and frizzed it up. Bags hung under her red eyes. She stooped forward in her posture, almost like she was paranoid, looking behind her, expecting something coming for her. Bender being there seemed to surprise her, even though he'd been in her room a few hours as she remained in a catatonic-like sleep on her bed. Her jaw hung open, and her eyes were squinted.
"Why are you here?" she asked in a monotonous voice.
"You alright?" Bender asked. "Your dumbass parents went out to drink themselves into rehab, so I got dinner in case you wanted it."
"Screw that, I could never eat again," Allison said in her zombie-like voice, shuffling towards the bed. "You didn't hear already? I'm pregnant."
Bender acted (to the best of his ability) completely surprised. "What? I'll kill him for this if it's the last thing I—"
"—shut it off, John. I know you know, I'm not in the mood for sarcasm." Allison reached her bed and plopped down on it. She inched her way to the head of the bed and grabbed a pillow, hugging it like a teddy bear.
"Did you call Sporto?" asked Bender. "He needs to know."
"No, he doesn't," said Allison. "He's gone. Fuck him."
Bender grunted. She was right. Andy probably wouldn't give too much of a damn anyways.
"I'm afraid to call him," said Allison. "Things were going so well, I thought I'd finally gotten over him and moved on. For once in my life, things were perfect. You and your friends made me feel like I belonged! For the first time since spring, I was independent! I was! Now that Andy's gone, I suddenly need him back," Allison whined. She reached for a picture from under the pillow she'd picked up and handed it to Bender, along with a framed photo on the nightstand by her bed. Bender looked at both photos. The unframed one was Allison in Andy's arms, seated on the hood of Andy's Bronco. Allison' face was pleasant enough, but unlike the framed photo, she wasn't really 'glowing.' In the 'glowing' photo, she was with Bender, Tad, Ernie, Jerry and Rudy in front of Fender Bender's Auto Shop on Halloween. Allison, dressed as in a gypsy skirt, a tank top and tie, a rainbow Cher-style wig, sunglasses on her head, a crown right behind the sunglasses, and a Ronald Reagan mask, was smiling widely among the others. That night had sure been fun. They'd gone around to all the employees' houses and telling them that there was a party at the auto shop, and they'd made the shop into a haunted house and scared the crap out of everyone…THEN partied!
"You don't need him back, but you do need to call him and at least know that he forgot something when he left…"
"…oh stop it!" Allison. "I just….can't believe it! I'm pregnant with Andrew Clark's baby."
Bender looked around the room before he spoke again. "You can always abort it," he suggested.
"I couldn't bring myself to do that," said Allison. "Besides, Danny—"
"—Danny doesn't know your middle name. Why would you allow him to influence a decision that will ultimately only affect you? He abandoned you, Little Miss Shermer!"
Allison shot up in bed so quickly that her lower back began throbbing with a dull ache. "Who told you?"
"I saw the photo. What's the deal with you being a midget future prom queen?"
Allison groaned. "Marty and Danny tried to make me into a Claire-like clone so that I could make lots of money for them with all that pageant crap because they weren't doing so well financially. When I won that title, it was the proudest they ever were of me. I never liked it. I never thought I was good enough. All the girls around me backstage were borderline evil, and I knew that I'd rather kill myself than be like that. So I secretly began trying to find other ways of expressing myself. Before my grandma died, she took me to a museum in Milwaukee. I stayed there for hours. I loved all of these pieces of art and decided that was what I wanted to do. Create. But Danny and Marty said that no Reynolds family member has ever had the ability to draw a stick figure. But that night, I sat down in my room, drew my cat Fritz, who was just a kitten, and asked my art teacher to criticize it. He was blown away and said I had a natural talent," said Allison.
"Evidently you do," Bender muttered, looking at the Art Show article above Allison's head.
"But Marty and Danny were pissed off when I told them I wouldn't be competing in a state pageant I'd qualified for. That's when they began pulling away, and now, well, they ignored me!"
"Sucks," Bender nodded.
"They tried again, to make another baby. Maybe a daughter who liked all that beauty pageant shit. It made me fell like shit, knowing they were trying to make up for the mistake that was me. Marty actually conceived. But it was born prematurely and died a few days later. Marty went through menopause a short time later," Allison sighed. "And if you tell ANYONE—"
"—I won't!" Bender said, holding up a hand. Ingrid walked into the room, meowing. She sniffed the edge of Allison's bed, meowed again, and leapt up onto it. Fritz popped in a second later, sniffed Bender's shoe and leapt up into his lap. Bender didn't move…but he did lay his hand on the cat's back.
"Is this one Fritz?"
"Yep. And this bucket of fuzzy lard is Ingrid," said Allison. Bender laughed.
"Nice names," he said. He could only imagine what Allison was going to name her kid.
"I'm not giving it up for adoption either," announced Allison out of the blue. "I'm gonna keep it."
"Why should you? I don't see why you shouldn't, it's just gonna be a burden," Bender said, stroking Fritz, who was quickly taking a liking to him.
"Why would I abandon my child just like Marty and Danny abandoned me?" asked Allison. Bender understood and nodded silently. She did have a good point.
"But I will make sure that you will call Sporto. You have to. Even if you don't want him back in Shermer, god knows I sure as hell don't want him back, he has a right to at least know about being a father."
"You're right. Maybe his father will pick it up, have a stroke, and die from it!" Allison squeaked with subtle excitement. Bender laughed. Allison's small smile suddenly melted again. "Can I wait, though? I'm still a little shocked myself," she asked of Bender.
Bender nodded. "I've never been illegitimately pregnant before, but I doubt it's a hoot," he remarked. Allison sighed.
"I think I'll be alright soon enough," said Allison. "But are you still gonna stick around, John? I mean, I don't think I'll be much fun around you guys—"
"—screw everyone else. I promise I won't ditch you like that asshole did."
Allison suddenly felt 1000 times better.