A/N: While typing this, I realized this chapter was going to be really long, so I split it in two. Well anyway, here's the first part, the second will be uploaded asap
#2 : 1/2 ~ Fly By The Wayside
"So cool and crazy and wild and upside down.
I'm bored, and that's not fun.
I wanna get away,
But I'm too tired to run.
I'm gonna find a place where there are no rules,
and the world is wild.
I have the tools to make things happen.
And the reaction will explode.
The lights go off, the world flips upside down,
I brought the party to town.
My deal to make, my chance to take.
So take a ride, fly by the wayside.
Fly by the wayside!"
"It's beautiful…!"
"Your gonna like it here," the man smiled.
"Yes it is! So, by the way, I'm Tallulah and this is Gaston," the redhead introduced, long mascara lashes blinking.
Tayoncé wasn't listening. Below was a city of bright colors, rapidly moving odd formations, and for some reason, bubbles. It had taken her attention and Tayoncé wowed in amazement.
"Yeah, it's pretty," Tallulah agreed and turned to Gaston. "Now, on to the orphanage!"
"WHAT?! NO!" Tayoncé yelled, making Tallulah jump. "I-I'm not going anywhere with you!" She looked around as if remembering where she was again. "Hey…n-now put me down; take me back now!"
"I'm sorry Tayoncé," Tallulah spoke, "but you have to—-"
"No, I don't! If I have to go anywhere, it'd be back. Now!"
Tallulah looked to Gaston. "I'm sorry but neither of them are here any—"
"...Neither of who—-"
"That girl..." Tallulah thought for a moment. "Your friend and her mother."
"What do you mean not here! They're back there—-i-i-in-in-in..." She was starting to get worried. Why did she stall instead of running sooner, she thought. Who were these people? Why did they kidnap her? Then it hit her—how did they know about Mayonna?!
Tallulah looked at the younger girl with sympathy.
Tayoncé's eyes squinted. "What's going on—"
"Do you smell that?" Gaston shouted and began sniffing the air. Tallulah opened her mouth to answer but was shut up by a "that's not good" from Gaston, looking frantic. He was bent over some kind of meter near the steering wheel, Tallulah could barely see. "We're running out of fuel!" he declared, showing both girls the meter but pulling it away too fast for them to read it.
"What?!" Both girls called, astonished.
Tayoncé tried again. "But I have to go back—-"
"We have to take this back to the house to recharge," he spoke more to Tallulah.
Neither of the girls could put any more say in, as the time machine was then racing away at full speed.
*~o~0~o~*
They parked somewhere along the outside of the house, the duo practically dragging Tayoncé out the time machine. The girl had barely moved since, practically paralyzed by shock and fear as these two strangers—no, kidnappers—led her to a tall door which Tayoncé guessed was the garage, as how inside were similar odd vehicles and machines. She barely caught Tallulah murmuring something to Gaston about an available extra room.
Tayoncé was left to sit in a chair to wait for the two to finish arguing before being led away, again, to some strange place. Stuck here, she was on high alert and knew that she would crash whenever she finally returned to her bed.
The chair she was seated in was a surprisingly normal-looking plastic chair; the two, the man with black hair and young redhead with an odd curl in her hair, were just a little way off at the other side of the garage, obviously trying not tho let Tayoncé hear. Once in a while someone's arms would flail and Tayonceé knew that the debate was heated. Besides a few odd looking machines and the—what she guessed, though there was still much doubt—time machine off to the side near the garage door, there were two large tubes hanging from the ceiling at either side of the expansive room. Gears and blueprints were framed on the wall and there was a dark, nasty blotch on the pavement that seemed to be permanent from some dangerous mishap; handprints were stained into the pavement as well.
There was no sun down here and Tayoncé's mind was going a mile an hour, too scatterbrained to think clearly. One of the tips Mayonna's mother had given here as, in times like these when she couldn't think clearly and was about to panic, to breathe. Tayoncé's eyes closed and she forced her breath to come out slowly.
"Breathe," she spoke to herself, "breathe…"
Mayonna's mother had told her to think of a memory to improve her mood as well.
Tayoncé tried. Her mind searched but what she found was something less inspiring.
"Come here!"
Tayoncé's stomach cringed and sunk on cue. Despite the little one smiling up at her, the small bit of happiness vanished immediately. She plugged the small one's mouth with a pacifier and placed her in the middle of the pile of pillows and sweaters. Tayoncé hurried down the stairs, hoping they wouldn't give away under her.
"Yes ma'am," her voice cracked against her will as she entered the room, greeting the obviously steaming) woman tapping her slipper-covered foot on the floor impatiently. As a matter of fact, the woman was never patient.
"What the…" She paused to take a calming breath. "What is this?" The woman asked, her eyes not meeting the girl in front of her. She was vaguely trying to hold in her anger.
"What is wha—?"
"Don't act dumb with me! What the HELL is this!" The question sounded more like a statement as her dark eyes darted to the girl. She was holding up a piece of clothe.
"You're scarf…" The girl answered faintly. Her defense didn't seem to help. The woman's temper increased. "You said I could wear it to school so I could cover up the—"
"I said NOTING about you using anything of MINE," she stated coldly. "You know good and well—-"
"Yes you did. I asked you before I left yesterday," Tayoncé defended.
"Don't you tell me what I did and didn't do!"
The girl earned the bellow close to her ear, making her eardrums hurt, but she didn't dare even raise her palm.
"Now what is this—I'm out of milk, eggs, cereal, and almost out of bread AND liquor. Now why didn't you 'ask me 'bout that yesterday before you left'?" She mocked her daughter. "And this? That little pain in the ass pissed on my carpet!" She asked lifting up a foot to show a faint stain. Tayoncé refused the urge to correct her that it was spit-up and not in fact pee.
However, Tayoncé didn't say anything. Well, she couldn't because at that moment a wire slapped her side. Biting her lip, she refused to scream. She looked up into the woman's dark eyes and saw brown emptiness. No pity, just hatred. That's all she has ever seen in those eyes. No other emotion ever showed as far as she could remember—maybe boredom and annoyance. Except when she had her daughter at her feet in pain, pain that she caused. That's when she ever seemed happy.
'Tayoncé….'
She heard a faint whisper. She continued covering her head, kneeling on the floor, waiting for the swings to finish.
"Tayoncé…"
Her mother liked to use the wire hangers nowadays.
"Tayoncé… ...TAYONCÉ!"
The voice grew louder with the strikes until Tayoncé jolted upward. Her sight met green eyes.
"Are you alright?" Tallulah's voice was a dramatic change from her mother's in her daydream, but a good change. And Tayoncé was thankful for that.
"Are you alright?" Tallulah repeated. She and Gaston noticed that Tayoncé was holding her sides.
Tayoncé wasn't hurting; it was just the shock of the dream was still wavering away."Y-yeah, yeah. I'm...ok."
"You sure? You don't seem like it…" Tallulah's brows knitted.
"I'm sure."
The redhead went quiet and Tayoncé guessed she must have said it too harshly.
"Oh don't worry 'bout it," Tallulah rubbed it off with a flick of her wrist. "We've got to get you inside." She grabbed for the other's girl's wrist, pulling her through another large door, Gaston in tow. His arms were folded making Tayoncé's stomach turn. She knew this place was going to be interesting in one way or another, and a thought flashed through her mind about the look of the house, and just from the hallway. The ceiling were incredibly high and it was very artistically decorated. This didn't seem like a place to kidnap someone, but then again, no place really does. Tayonceé weighed her chances of how far she could get by running.
As soon as she was puled through the door, her voice leapt from her throat and ran away. Tallulah pulled her forward, wrenching her finger away from the colorful wall and down another hallway. The walls were a bright, but not too-bright yellow. Though the feeling left and her stomach knotted when she saw Tallulah peeking around every corner. Was she not supposed to be here? What if she was caught! She doesn't know these people, and what if there were others here? They'd surely not handle finding her here well.
Her train of thought was broken as the sound of something splattering shattered the silence. Tallulah and Tayoncé slowly turned around. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest, but when she looked…she didn't see anything—except a shadow. Looking up, she followed Tallulah's furious gaze and saw a man, maybe two or three years older than Tallulah, hovering with a jetpack and some sort of gun.
He snickered. The gun pointed lower. Tallulah still didn't notice Tayoncé's eyes grow wider as she scolded the other. Nor did Tallulah see the girl sprint out of ear and out of sight. She didn't hear the Tallulah was scolding the other, and didn't want to stay around to. She didn't notice the form she was running into until it was too late, and was sent flying to the floor. Looking up, saw an old woman with pink hair and glasses blinking back at her.
"Oh are you alright, hun?" The woman smiled generously, despite just being bumped into. It was also surprising that she hadn't stumbled over either.
She reached out, but Tayoncé shrank away in reflex. The woman looked a bit hurt at this but saw fear in Tayoncé's eyes and apologized, saying that she must have hit her pretty hard.
"Let's get you some ice for that, dearie," the woman tried again and this time Tayoncé didn't move away—she let the old woman help her up. She jumped to the woman's arm.
"Please, ma'am, I don't belong here! Two people—back in the garage. They kidnapped me here!"
The woman turned to her with a puzzled looked. She then broke out in a laugh to Tayoncé's dismay.
"Is this another game you kids are playing? You must have hit your head harder than I thought. That's what fluff is for," she chuckled, giving her large hips a tap.
Tayoncé's couldn't believe this and was frozen in utter shock as the woman carefully took her arm.
Tayoncé tried to process the information she had just gotten and this all just didn't add up. She needed to watch her back, especially if there were more people in this house.
"So are you a friend of Tallulah's or Wilbur's? I haven't seen you around here," the woman asked, trying to make small talk.
Tayoncé thought about her answer for a moment, remembering Tallulah was her redheaded kidnapper. "Y-yes…" she lied.
"Oooh! Is this the first time she's brought you over?"
Again Tayoncé lied yes.
The woman welcomely suggested Tayoncé call her Grandma Lucille and continued talking a little; Lucille did most of the talking. Their walk continued down a surprisingly long hallway, Lucille pointing out each and everything in sight, doors and potted plants. They paused in front of tall double doors. Music could be heard from inside.
"And here is our music room," Lucille flashing a smile to he girl behind her and opened the door.
And sure enough, when Lucille opened the door, music blasted from within at full force—by frogs!
Another woman in a blue and white dress stood at a podium, waving a wand in time with the tunes. She glanced back at hearing the doors open.
"Hi Lucille," this new woman greeted, still conducting the small amphibians. Once catching their guest trying to slink off, she put a halt to the mini band. "Oh, hello. And who might you be?" she called to Tayoncé.
"This is a friend of Tallulah's," Lucille introduced, grabbing Tayoncé by the shoulders. The girl didn't move her eyes from the ground. "It's her first time here."
That was said with some emphasis that Tayoncé took notice of and looked to Lucille with a very uncomfortable feeling In her chest.
"Oh," the woman in blue smiled in greeting to which Tayoncé hesitantly returned. The repeated "oh" when Lucille explained it was Tayoncé's first time at the house was said with a more knowing tone and Tayoncé began to worry and when she should run. She'd heard of entire families being a part of kidnappings and began worrying if she was to be next name in the news. This lady in blue now had an expression that read something like: "Oh boy, she's in for it!"
"Hi, you can call me Franny."
Tayoncé was bracing to run when the one in the blue dress openly and quite suddenly hugged her. This made the girl stiffen and gasp in surprise—she'd never been hugged like that before, not even by her friends. It was an embrace she'd not been used to.
"I'm sorry," Franny apologized, pulling away, noticing the girl's change in posture.
"It's alright," Tayoncé spoke automatically.
She brushed a strand of her light brown hair out of her face. Franny invited them to stay and watch Frankie—her star pupil and apparent singer—and the Frogs perform. Lucille dragged her in and Tayoncé was sat to watch before she had a say.
For the girl, it was an awesome thing to see—animals actually singing! It blew her mind. It wasn't until the song was over did Tayoncé realize that more people had gathered in the music room. She just stayed at her spot by the wall as they congratulated Franny on her work with the frogs, completely oblivious to the silent girl. Suddenly they turned to her, all spilling greetings at once. But because of the lack of it from her life, Tayoncé took this to offense, her eyes growing large with fear and on the verge of screaming.
She swallowed. 'These people aren't going to hurt you too,' she convinced herself. 'Why would they be this nice if they were just going to hurt you? ...But what about that one with the gun..?' She suddenly remembered Lazlo, the one with pistol. She mentally scolded herself, to calm down, remember her manners and see if that would help her situation. herself. She put on her best smile and waved to them all which happened to be two elders, a robot, and Franny. And yet, these were more people than she was used to talking to her at one time. Her arm lowered at catching sight of the tall golden robot in the back.
"Wow, you're pretty. What's your name?" The old man asked her suddenly. She wondered if he was one of those on medication because all of his clothes were worn backwards, except for his shoes, of course.
She answered: "T-Tayoncé…"
"That's a pretty name," the old man complimented.
He then re-introduced Grandma Lucille and Franny. The only new one was the robot, who apparently was named Carl. It shocked her even more when the bucket of bolts spoke directly to her, as if on its own and like a real person. After complimenting Franny again on her progress with the frogs, the old man—Bud—insisted introducing Tayoncé to the rest of the family. The girl told that he didn't have to, but Lucille thought it was "a swell idea." She was to go make some treats anyways.
Tayoncé screamed on the inside.
The first place Bud took her was to see the family dog, Buster, a breed of Terrier, he looked like, who wore glasses. He then showed her to a man wearing a superhero spacesuit, talking into a phone about a pizza when a flying saucer came into view.
Her head spun. What kind of place was this?! Where flying saucers were out in the open and dogs needed correction lenses?
Next, the old man took her to see his two brothers, Joe and Fritz. She met Joe's wife, Billie, who favors locomotives—at how she was also wearing a jean dress, and a train conductor's hat with black gloves. Tayoncé found out where Gaston had gone to, seeing him racing Billie's life-sized "toy" train against his canon. She didn't stay long enough to watch the feud.
And Gaston hadn't caught sight of her, taking this one race as his break.
Bud then introduced Tayoncé to Petunia, Fritz's—puppet—wife, who was very negative and backlashing. Tallulah was arguing with the man with the gun still, who apparently was her brother, Laszlo.
Tayoncé was shown who was who and found that they were all a family, related to one another and she couldn't hold back her amazement. No wonder the house was so large! Also, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy. God, she wondered what it would be like to have such a large family, or any one at that.
Bud had just enough time to show Tayoncé a door that had a 'DO NOT DISTURB' sign before Lucille called them. "And this is where Cornelius works on his inventions. He usually has this Do Not Disturb sign whenever he's here." Bud let out a chuckle that quickly died out.
Tayoncé wasn't sure whether she should say anything about it or continue as if she hadn't heard it. Instead, she asked, "who's Cornelius related to?"
"He's me and Lucille's son…and married to Franny." That's when Lucille called for Bud, but her voice sounded to come from some place they couldn't distinct. Tayoncé watched Bud speak into something that looked like an intercom tube that disappeared into the wall.
"Yeah, Lucille?"
"Will you bring that sweet girl...Tanya, I think her name was, down here to the kitchen? I want to ask her if she would like to help me make dessert."
Bud turned to Tayoncé. She had been standing close, clearly eavesdropping.
"Well, would'ja?" Bud turned to her with a toothless smile. Tayoncé sucked in a deep breath as she thought for a moment.
"I would like to, Lucille, but I should be getting home—-"
"She said yes," Bud interjected, calling back to his wife.
Tayoncé looked terrified. She knew it had to be getting dark outside by now and she needed to be getting back to her new home—with Mayonna, her mother, and Esperanza. If she didn't, she knew Darla was going to report to someone about her getting "kidnapped," then she and Esperanza would never be safe.
Well a safe and better life for the orphan baby, because that is really all that Tayoncé knew would happen. She focused so hard on school so that she would graduate sooner—hopefully skip a grade or two int he future—so she could move out earlier. And maybe adopt Esperanza herself. Well, that was the plan before Mayonna's mom decided to take them both in. Still, she was eternally grateful.
Tayoncé and Bud could hear loud bangs by the time they made it down the stairs and to the kitchen.
"How many levels does is this house have," she had asked him.
"About three of four, I think," Bud responded.
Just the mere thought made her more exhausted.
The commotion grew louder when they approached, hearing pot and pans hit the floor suddenly when Lucille poked her pink head from around the corner.
"In here!" she said in a sing-song voice.
"Mrs. Lucille?" Tayoncé asked on her own, for the first time since she'd been here. "Are you alright?" Right after she asked, a pot bounced out of the room.
Bud and his wife looked at the girl, almost shocked.
"Yes dearie," Lucille quickly wiped the expression from both of their faces, "but I could use some help, though."
Tayoncé agreed to help the older woman. And soon Lucille had her baking cookies alongside her handing her ingredients, stirring when ordered necessary. It would have been an enjoyable experience if Tayonceé wasn't thinking of every possible way to get back to that red car int he garage and leave the house.
After the first batches of dough was shoved into the ovens, Lucille had walked off, saying she would "be back in a little bit." Tayoncé was to be the eyes until then. But all she could do was think about how to escape.
She thought of a map in her mind she had hopefully accurately made after Bud showed her the premises. She was a least on the other side of the house where the garage door was. In order to get there, she'd have to pass Joe, that train and canon room, and whoever else was in the hallways.
There was no doubt Gaston and Talullah were looking for her as well.
Tayoncé began to sweat and rubbed her palms on her denim shorts. What was she going to do? It probably wasn't safe right now to go walking around alone. Especially now—when some would be on a hunt for her. Besides, how exactly was she to leave after finding the bright red car. She didn't now how to operate it!
Tayoncé waited in the kitchen for ten more minutes. Fifteen, twenty-five, and then thirty who minutes passed with no signs of Lucille. The oven timers had gone off by now and she set the trays of cookies on the stove to cool.
Tayoncé decided it wouldn't be bad to take one or two. She did help make the cookies after all.
She picked up one from the pan, bit into it. It was crunchy with a little chewiness in the middle—perfection! The cookie was finished far quicker than she expected or liked. She limited herself to two more cookies, but she first wanted milk to go with it. She searched the many cabinets for a glass before giving up—this kitchen was almost twice as big as a normal-sized kitchen, and she didn't feel like searching more.
Tayoncé settled for a small bowl she found instead, and poured some of the milk she found. She noticed the cookie tasted different when she dipped it in the milk, with a slight tangy taste that didn't settle with her well. She took a sip of it by itself, and had to lean in the doorway so she wouldn't double-over and spill what was left in the bowl.
It tasted horrible! But she couldn't let it go to waste. Tayoncé ate the remaining one and a half cookie before emptying the weird-tasting liquid down the sink. But she didn't get there, and the bowl flew from her hands as yet another force rammed into her. She was knocked to the floor and didn't bother getting up this time, just staring at the ceiling with a blank glare.
"Are you okay?"