Jeezum crowe! The Olympics! Argh! Why are they not here yet! -cries- I want the Olympics! My sources say that they should have started already and of course, I have heard absolutely nothing about any sporting event other than the... Super Bowl. Steelers won. Whoopdie freakin' do. Shut up Detroit. Erm... enough of me being irritable. Now for a chapter I am both proud of and ashamed of. This might tick off some readers with the one-sided bias of the emotions in the writing, but remember, the Nehszriah is trying to convey old and skewed feelings. Having biased wording seriously helps. I do not own Slayers, Portland, Detroit or abusive older sisters. Nor am I an abusive older sister. That would just be wrong; plain and simple. I love me little brothers, no matter how much they tick me off. -hugs brothers and nearly crush their spines-
Roku
Unlikely Pasts Collide! The Memories of Bloody Mary Revealed!
"So then, we're traveling together, huh?" Kurt asked as he looked from his plane ticket over towards Lina's. He examined both carefully, seeing that they had the exact same flight, with seats directly next to one another.
"Well, I don't mind that much," Lina scoffed as she shifted the large duffel bag on her shoulder uncomfortably. "It does not look like any of our teammates got the same plane as us. That's at least good." She did not want to have to deal with anyone else from the team during a flight to Detroit for another three games against them, considering that six games against Detroit in a week was torture enough as it was. Standing in the domestic flight terminal at Portland International on the spring evening, Lina and Kurt looked around to see if they could spot any of their baseball comrades. To their utter relief, they found none.
"Flight 265 to Detroit is going to leave in ten minutes," a metallic female voice on the speaker system warned. "Flight 265 to Detroit is leaving in ten minutes..."
"Shit! That's our flight!" Kurt swore. He took Lina by the forearm and started running off towards their flight. He ran with such a fury that Lina nearly lost grip of her wig that kept her identity the secret it was. They were lucky though, for they just barely made the plane before the last call was announced.
"That was close," Lina chuckled right after the airplane took off and the list of safety drills was run. The airplane was not very full, there being only about ten or so other people in the entire section, none of whom sat anywhere near the two teammates. Knowing this, Kurt freely laughed at Lina from his window seat.
"Sure was. Did you know that I have never traveled by airplane before?"
"Neither have I."
"Kind of funny about how much in common we have," Kurt mused as he looked out of the window, smiling down upon the suburban world they were flying over.
"Yeah. Local talent, rookies, same age, generally feared by our opponents..."
"We played on the same fields and played the same kids..."
"Huh?" Lina interjected, snapping her head in the direction of Kurt. He was still looking out the window, a glazed expression in his eyes. "What do you mean that we played on the same fields and against the same kids?"
"Don't you remember?" Kurt asked, coming out of his nirvana-like trance. "We played in the same Little League when we were kids. Different teams of course, but we went up against one another a few times..."
"I do not remember that," Lina said nervously. "Exactly how long ago was this?"
"Oh, I think about eleven years or so. You hit my best friend in the face with a ball after he started name calling. He needed to go to the hospital..."
"Then that was twelve years ago," Lina said quietly, turning her blushing face away from Kurt. A flood of memories came back from that day when she was almost kicked out of the league for injuring the opposing pitcher due to her unusually good aim with a bat. "What happened to him?"
"Oh, he's fine," Kurt said. Lina looked over at him to find that he was... smiling.
This is just a tad bit weird, Lina thought to herself. Why would he bring this up? She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, wanting to change the subject.
"S-S-S-So apparently we played in the same Little League," Lina stuttered. "From your perspective... what was it like?"
"Playing against you Lina?"
"Sure... why not...?"
"Everyone of us wanted to wet ourselves after you bashed Alec's face in," Kurt said with a pleasant smile. "Now that we are older and pretenses are gone, you don't seem all that frightening anymore. Maybe it is because we are sort of stuck together on the team and all that jazz."
"I was really scary?" Lina asked softly. Kurt let out a deep laugh.
"Of course you were! Remember when I made up your new moniker?"
"Yeah..." Lina said, thinking back to the day she signed with the Slayers. Looking upon the day now, it was Kurt who suggested that Lina be known as Liam instead and fool the League. "Why did you do that?"
"Well, I was a bit shocked at first when you showed us that you were Bloody Mary, but then an idea hit me. Since you were so intimidating as a kid, I figured you still had not lost that fierceness you possessed and due to the nature of your fight with the Mazoku Bastard, you proved my theory right. Now it is going to be the opposing professionals that will want to run home to their mothers, not me."
"Makes sense. Using me as a weapon of mass fear and chaos amongst the Majors. I get it," Lina said in a epiphanic voice. She looked at Kurt with bright eyes. "This means that you think I'll strike fear within the hearts of our opponents?"
"The Detroit Tigers fear us at least," Kurt smiled. "They hate the fact that we have to play fifteen more games against them this season. That series sweep we had the last three games was quite embarrassing to them. Jim Leyland is fuming the last time I heard."
"That's awesome," Lina chuckled.
"Then again," Kurt added with a smirk, "it is just the Tigers after all."
Lethargically, Lina stretched and yawned deeply while trying to suppress a giggle. "I'm going to get some sleep. I'll need it since we are going to be a few hours off schedule."
"Fine then. I'll l..." was all Lina heard Kurt say before she fell asleep. Lucky that there was no one sitting behind her, Lina leaned back in the chair and relaxed, drifting effortlessly into sleep.
80808080808080808
Lina looked around the empty gravel ballfield, searching for someone else that could play with her. To her dismay, there was only the birds and squirrels over by the grove of trees at the very edge of the field. Despite it being a cool morning in early summer, not a single other kid was there.
"Damn it!" Lina cursed. She took her bat bag over to where home plate was and brushed the grey stones from the white rubber pentagon. "Just brushing me off since I am a girl, huh? I'm gonna show them!"
With tears resting in the corners of her eyes, Lina picked an aluminum bat and a baseball out of her bag. She tossed the ball high in the air and then quickly prepped herself for its return to her. After a second, she swung the bat hard, a metallic clink resounding throughout the air. The white ball flew far into the outfield, scaring off the small animals over by the trees.
'To Hell with John,' thought Lina as she ran after the ball, remembering the classmates that promised to meet her there. 'To Hell with Billy and Robbie and Jim-Jim and Ricky and Junior and Stevie and to hell all the rest of them!' She forcefully threw the ball back over to the metal backstop cage and ran the diamond's length once more. Becoming tired, Lina sat down on home plate to catch her breath.
"Hey you, get off our field!" Lina heard some kid snap at her. She looked up to see a group of about ten boys all around her age.
"Can I play with you?" she asked eagerly, eyes going as wide as saucers.
"No way!" the boys' leader said. "We don't want to play girly-ball."
"I don't play girly-ball! I play baseball!" Lina yelled. Her face turned red as the leader just laughed at her.
"Boys play baseball. Girly-girls play your girly-softball. Go away!"
"I want to play baseball!" Lina cried, the tears now streaming down her face. On impulse, she lunged at the small gathering of boys, fist curled and ready to land a good sucker-punch on their ringleader. She did, and even knocked him to the ground. Before the other boys could drag her off, she had given the boy a black eye, bloody nose and his cheek began to immediately swell up.
"What are you?" the bloodied boy spat. His eyes were wide with terror, deep fear for Lina growing at the core of his soul.
"I think I've heard of things like her!" one of the other boys shouted. "I think they're called a 'Bloody Mary'! They beat you up and make your face all bloody!"
"You idiot, my mom drinks those. It's a mixed drink..."
"What's a mixed drink?"
"I dunno."
"Maybe it is Coca-Cola and Pepsi combined! My older brother says that such a thing should never happen, or the universe will explode!"
"Why can't I play with you guys?" Lina yelled, starting to struggle against another breaking point. "Give me a good reason!"
"...because you are a girl! Girls can't play boy sports! Go home and play with your dolls or bake cookies with your mom!"
"I can't!"
"Yes you can!"
"I have no mom!"
The boy went silent as he wiped the blood from above his lip, staring all the while at Lina. He could see this girl, dressed in boy's clothes and being just as grubby-looking as he was, starting to break down at the seams. He did not know that was actually what was happening, for all he saw was her standing there silently. Her glare was like that of a ruby-eyed hawk: piercing, making you feel shivers all up and down your spine and through the core of your very bones.
"I have no mother..." Lina said, the anger in her voice resonating in an almost possessed fashion. "Don't you dare talk about my mother!" Lina picked up the aluminum bat that was besides her feet and raised it high in the air. She took careful aim at the boy still cowering from when she tackled him to the ground.
Yet when she brought down her swing, there was no bat. She looked behind her to see the shadowed figure of someone familiar, their identity being blocked out by the blinding rays of the rising sun. Looking around like a frightened rabbit, Lina discovered that none of the boys were there anymore. The figure moved position, so that she could now see their identity clearly.
"Lun-n-na-a?" Lina stammered. She looked up at her older sister by three years, the bangs covering the elder's eyes so that Lina could see no expression.
"What have I told you about beating up other kids?"
"...I ...erm..."
"I know they are jerks, but you are being no better!"
"...but they..."
"You could have hurt someone. They would hurt so bad that they would have to be buried, just like Mother.
"J-J-Just like...?"
Red streaked Lina's vision as she crumpled to the ground. The spots in her arm and back where the bat connected with the girl throbbed as she tried to nurse the agony. Tears overflowed from her face and moistened the gravel dust beneath her face.
"I hope you are having a very happy birthday little sister," Luna said with a sneer. "How does it feel to finally be eight... years... old...?"
'Damn it Luna,' Lina thought, barely unaware of anything besides the sheer pain and rage that coursed through her. She lay there, crying, hearing her name being called from somewhere far off. The voice got louder, more familiar by the second.
"Ku...rt...?"
"Lina! Wake up!"
Lina sat up straight in her seat, breathing heavily and staring him straight in the eyes. He looked very pale, as if he had just seen a ghost.
"Are you alright Miss?" a sweet voice came from behind her. Lina looked over her shoulder to see a very nervous stewardess.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," Lina said in a low voice. The stewardess looked strangely at Lina as she walked away.
"What in the hell were you dreaming about?" Kurt hissed in Lina's ear.
"Let me just say that my family's relationships are not the best things in the world," she sighed.
"They must be the worst ever. You were moaning curse words and tossing and turning and I tried to wake you up the whole time but you wouldn't come to! The stewardess was about to tell the pilot to make an emergency stop in Denver for you right before you finally did wake up!"
"I'm sorry," Lina said, the memories from her childhood still flashing before her. She shuddered and snuggled into her reclining seat.
"I'm just glad there is no one else sitting by us," Kurt said thankfully. "You were making quite the scene."
"It was the day she hit me with a bat..."
"What...?" Kurt asked, trying to look into Lina's downcast eyes. "Who hit you with a bat?"
"My sister."
"I'm sure it was just an accide..."
"It was on purpose," Lina curtly interjected, not even letting Kurt finish. "She hit me with my bat after I beat up a boy with my fists. I was about to hit him with the bat myself, but instead she almost broke my rib cage and back. The bat was metal. I was eight."
Kurt was barely sure he could take in what Lina was saying. She was curled up in the chair next to him, shaking badly as if the room's temperature was sub-zero.
"If it will make you feel any better, I think of you like a sister... a sister that I would never wish anything bad upon."
"I almost killed your best friend with a baseball..."
"He's happy you did that," Kurt reassured. "If you did not do that, Alec would have never had to sit out of baseball for as long as he did and get into reading books. He's now going to school to become a professional historian and librarian for the state... and loving every second of it! We owe you more than anything else!"
The pair were silent for a short while, Kurt irritated with Lina's nightmare and Lina crying bucket of tears on the inside. She did not dare shed a tear for real in fear of disrupting her natural character. Then again, being curled up like a scared little girl was not in her nature either. She sat up and shook her head in a short burst so that she could at least attempt to shake out all of the bad memories.
"I always wanted a brother," Lina smiled at Kurt, making both parties feel much better. "Now I have someone to give noogies!" She playfully put Kurt in a headlock and rubbed her fist into the top of his skull.
"Ow! That hurt!" Kurt laughed as he wriggled free from Lina's grip.
She's smiling again, he thought. Good. I promise Lina, I will always be there for you as a real sibling would, no matter what happens.
Things To Know
Will Nehszriah Ever Leave Detroit Alone?: Unless they get some brains real quick... not likely.
Why Did Kurt Flat-Out Forgive Lina?: I know he was scared of her and he was fairly mad at her for hurting his friend, but it all ended up for the better. Because of this ironic turn of events, his friend found his bright-future/calling-in-life and if it were not for his pea-sized common sense as a child... he might be dead from a drug overdose or making minimum wage flipping burgers in a grease-pot restaurant (Nothing against those restaurants of course).
Chibi Lina has a Dirty Mouth: Yes, there are cases where small children in America develop horrible language. I made Lina such a case. As well as my youngest brother. I think he's the only one in his kindergarten class that can control the usage of curse words.
Girly-Softball: Yes, now I am exaggerating. It is true that I refuse to play softball, but I by no means think of it as "girly-ball". I think of it as "settling". Besides, the boys are supposed to be idiotically mean. They are part of the driving force behind Lina's stubborn determination to get into the MLB. All girls who play sports have most likely had this happen to them sometime in their lives. There is now a law in America that says that prohibiting someone from playing sports due to their gender is illegal. I want to see a boy play volleyball for my high school before I actually think of it as being a fair law. There I go, saying things I shouldn't... again...
The Squirrely Ignorance of Lina's Tormentors: They're what... eight years old? I work on a weekly basis with ten-year-olds that I knew as eight-year-olds. Kids that age say these kinds of things.
Über Violent Luna: Lina's supposed to be afraid of her, right? I wanted a really good reason for Lina to fear her sister. Making Luna a gut-wrenching breed of cruel seemed to be better than having say... Amelia or the Farquain boys come in and drag Lina off the idiots. It sort of fits that Lina and Kurt adopt each other as siblings though, being that is pretty much what they are becoming and Lina's relationship with her sister is not really what she would like it to be. What does everyone think about it? This does mean that Kurt's role in the fiction is going to increase. Banzai!