Entry 2:
True to his word, Geese started my training in bojitsu the very next day. Surprise, seems I had a natural flair for beatin' the crap outta people with sticks. Who'da guessed, eh mate?
Anyway, that was only the beginning. Geese had Lily and I removed from the factory. He assured me she would never have to work a job like that ever again. I got my daily training, and a whole lot of other training besides. He even bought me some snazzy suits, which I really liked because they made me look like professional trouble. And Lily, she got to go to school, just like she wanted. I remember when she came home the first day, her face positively shining.
"Billy!" she'd yelled, bursting into my room just as I was putting on clean clothes after one of my training sessions. "Look what I got at school today!"
"Oh yeah? What's that?" I asked, collapsing wearily onto the couch. She snatched a book out of her school bag and crawled into my lap to show me. I flinched as her knee dug into a particularly painful bruise.
She turned her big, worried green eyes on me.
"What's wrong?"
"You're getting too big to be sitting on me," I said, tickling her sides. "Look at all that fat, you must've gained a million pounds since we've been here! You're not a girl, you're a whale!"
"Oh Billy, stop it!" She giggled. "Stop it, look at this!" she demanded, waving her book in my face.
I stared at it, flipped through a few pages, and nodded.
"A book, that's great."
Detecting my insincerity, she turned the full force of her childish indignation on me.
"It's not just a book! It's Black Beauty! It's about…"
I don't actually remember what she said after that, since I pretty much tuned it all out. I picked absently at my blisters, some of which had torn open again during training that day. I ripped the skin off one with my teeth, and it started bleeding all over the place.
"Shit!" I cursed before I could stop myself.
"What happened to you?" she gasped, her eyes round with horror.
"Nothing! Just some blisters, that's all." I shrugged.
She grabbed my hands and stared at them in utter shock.
"Don't they hurt? You need some bandaids! I'll go get some," she said, turning to leave.
"No!"
I grabbed her roughly, pulling her back onto the couch.
I winced at the hurt in her eyes, eyes that looked like they would spill over with tears any minute.
"It's just that I'm not supposed to. My teacher says that with bandaids, it'll take longer to build calluses. Besides, it doesn't hurt that much."
She frowned, disbelief plain on her little face.
"That's stupid!" she declared.
"It's boy stuff, so you wouldn't understand," I said. "Besides, you do what your teachers tell you, don't you?"
She considered this for a moment, and then switched tacks.
"Billy, why don't you come to school with me?" she pleaded.
I shook my head.
"You go. I like it here."
"But-"
"No."
She sighed in that totally exasperated way that only little kids seem able to manage.
"All right, but I'll read you my books, ok?"
I smiled for her benefit. I figured, the least I could do was pretend to listen.
"Sure, read me…er…," I checked the front cover of the book, "Black Beauty."
She grinned, snuggled down next to me, and read.
I tried to listen, I swear! But now that I think about it, I think I fell asleep.
