I'm Back Darlings, I've been so busy but now it's summer break and I can do some more typing. I still own nothings at all
"It's like me, you know, with my grades..." Brian interjected, "like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't." Clair looked at him curiously, "Why don't you like yourself?"
Brian looked at her sadly, "Cause I'm stupid." Vasya shook her head, "No" she rejected the idea and Brian looked at her, "what do you mean No?" Vasya looked at him hard, "you're not stupid, You're the smartest person I have ever met and My uncle worked at MIT so that's saying something." Her words were comforting, but her eyes were hard as steel and as cold as the Russian Winters. "Why in God's name would you think that you of all people are stupid?"
"Cause, I'm failing shop" Brain admitted, thinking that this would be some big reveal but in reality Vasya gave him a look that said 'Are you Fucking Kidding me right now?'. Brain sighed and began to explain, "See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um...and we had eight weeks to do it and we're s'posed ta, and it was like a lamp,"
He stopped to gesture with his hands like he was carrying a large elephant shaped lamp, "and when you pull the trunk the light was s'posed to go on...my light didn't go on" When he said the final part, even though this was indeed an emotional tale for him to tell, Vasya felt like that last sentence was a metaphor for something. Maybe she was thinking too much into it, oh well, she would think about it later.
"I got an F on it. Never got a F in my life...When I signed up, you know, for the course I mean. I thought I was playing it real smart, you know. 'Cause I thought, I'll take shop, it'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average..." Bender cut him off, and Vasya thought he looked a little upset, maybe not upset, but not angry either, but at the same time he was angry to, what ever un-namable emotion it was, it wasn't a good one.
"Why'd you think I would be easy?" Bender asked slowly, and Brian smiled a little, "Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?"
Okay, NOW Bender looked angry. "I Take Shop" Bender smirked a little, that cocky smirk Vasya had become accustomed to in the past hours. "You must be a fucking Idiot." Vasya wanted to reach over and Kick him but thought better of it. "I'm a fucking idiot because I can't make a Lamp?" Brian asked incredulously.
"No, you're a genius because you can't make a lamp!" Bender shot back sarcastically.
"Well what do you know and trigonometry?" Brian asked and Bender rolled his eyes, "I couldn't care less about trigonometry!" Brain looked exasperated, "Bender did you know that without trigonometry there would be no engineering."
"Without Lamps, there'd be no light!" Bender shrugged and Claire cut between them, "Okay, so neither one of you is better than the other!" Allison must have felt left out because she suddenly interjected her own thought on the matter, "I can write with my toes!" she informed them and they all stared at her slightly no longer very much confused by her strange outbursts, "I can also eat, brush my teeth."
Claire looked mildly disgusted, "with your feet?" she gagged and Allison grinned, "Play heart and Soul on the Piano." Brain, now laying on his side joined it, "I can cook spaghetti."
Claire looked at Andy, "What can you do?" Andy chuckled nervously, "Uh, I can uh… tape all your buns together."
"I wanna hear Vasya play the Viola." Bender interjected and Vasya blushed as a chorus of approval met her, "Oh, I can't, not here." She laughed nervously, "Why not, you don't get stage fright do you?" Claire asked and Vasya shook her head, "No, but Vernon would hear us, then we'd all be in for it" she explained, "well what else can you do?" Andy asked and Vasya thought a moment.
"Well there is one other thing, but it's not that spectacular." She shrugged and Brain grinned, "and cooking spaghetti is? Come on let's see it." Vasya sighed, "Alright, uh, can you clear a space in the middle, just kind of back up, yea."
They all spread out and scooted back a few feet, and moved the desks and chairs a little bit until there was a ten foot by five foot rectangle of bare carpet for her. "Okay now, I haven't done this in a while so don't laugh, promise?" they all nodded and Vasya took a deep breath and shook out the joints in her hands and wrists , "alright, here we go." She rolled her neck and stretched her arms straight over her head, then slowly swatted down slightly with her arms in front of her. Before she had time to change her mind she swallowed hard and swung her arms back before launching off the position into a clean back handspring.
"Whoo" Andy cheered and the others clapped loudly, "Bravo." Bender applauded, "you are now the stereotype of the Russian gymnast," Vasya stuck out her tongue at him "Khuy tebe" She sat down and they began to scoot in again, "I want to know what Bender can do." Vasya demanded and the others agreed, "Yea, you have to take a break from being an Ass at some point." Andrew agreed and Bender flipped him off.
"Alright, I'll do it for you Ruski." He agreed and pulled his Zippo lighter from his pocket. "I bet you that I can guess what hand you put this in every single time." Vasya eyed him, "Bull." She said bluntly, "I swear." Bender insisted and handed her the lighter. "Okay, I'm game, but what do I get if you lose?" she pressed and Bender grinned, "Tell you what If I lose you get…" he thought a moment before smiling cockily, "my scarf" Vasya grinned, and stuck out her hand, "Deal."
"Hold it, but If I win My prize is a kiss from you, on the lips." Vasya opened her mouth to protest before grinning, "On the cheek," she agreed, "Deal?" Bender shook her soft olive toned hand with his heavy callused one.
"Hold it tight now." He instructed as he closed his eyes and Claire who would serve as the mediator tied the spoken of red scarf around Bender's eyes as a blind fold. Vasya stuck her hands behind her back so he wouldn't see and placed the lighter in her left hand. "Now hold the hand with the lighter in it up to your forehead for fifteen seconds, Claire will count." Vasya did so as Claire counted the time off on the clock on the wall.
Once fifteen seconds had passed, Bender told Vasya to put down her hand and hold both hands side by side as he quickly removed the blind fold. He looked at her hands for all of five seconds before tapping her left hand. "It's in there." He said confidently. They all gaped as Vasya opened her left hand and held out the shiny zippo lighter.
"How in the Hell…" Andy began, Vasya faced him with slight indignation, "You Jerk you saw didn't you?" she accused him half playful, half serious. Bender shrugged, "How could I, I closed my eyes and there was a blind fold." They both looked at mediator Claire who shrugged, "There's no way he could have seen."
Bender smirked and turned his cheek, "Time to pay up Ruski." Vasya sighed and smiled a little, accepting defeat. "wait." She paused and asked Claire to borrow her lipstick "If I'm going to do it Might as well do it right" she sighed and borrowed Claire's lipstick, applying it sparingly. "That's the spirit." Bender applauded.
Vasya rolled her eyes at him and leaned in a little to peck his cheek chastely, Only what happened next caught her completely off guard. Bender seized the moment to turn his head quickly and wrap an arm around the curve of her waist, pressing his lips hard against hers. Vasya was shocked at first then, once she recovered, she struggled against him he kissed her passionately. She pushed against his chest furiously, and Bender grinned into the unwilling kiss and quick as lightening snuck his tongue into her mouth before letting her go.
Vasya scrambled away from him, panting heavily with tears rimming her eyes and pink smears on her lips. The others stared in utter shock as She struggled to collect herself. She stared at him in a mixed expression of anger and betrayal and fear before tears spilt over and dripped down her face, which began to blush a deep red. She had never been so humiliated In her life, it felt like a hundred pair of eyes were on her.
She didn't even glance at the others before turning tail and fleeing. They all stared at Bender whose lips were also smeared with pink only his lips were pulled into a self-satisfied smirk. "You're a shit" Allison broke the silence in a low whispered, "You shouldn't have done that to her, it wasn't funny."
Bender's grin didn't falter, "Am I laughing?" he asked snidely, Andy snapped forward, "you fucking prick!" He barked and Bender's grin fell into an angry grimace, Claire suddenly snapped into reality and she felt a sudden flood of rage on behalf of her absent friend, "Vasya Has been nothing but nice to you even when you've been a complete ass hole!" she snarled, "What the hell is wrong with you, why do you treat everyone like shit?!"
Brian paused and looked around, it was obvious he wouldn't be much help here but he might as well go and Find Vasya. "I'm going to see if she's okay." He muttered, but only Allison heard him and nodded in agreement, but she didn't follow him as he stood and stepped around Andy and toward the direction Vasya went, only then did someone notice him.
"Brian?" Andy looked toward him, "Where are you going?" Brian didn't turn when he replied, "To go find Vasya, someone has to make sure she's okay."
Bender didn't pay the exchange any mind as he turned toward the Jock, "What do you care what I think, anyway?" Bender said coldly "I don't even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference..." He reminded the Jock of his past words and the guilt Andy felt was obvious by his face "I may as well not even exist at this school, remember?"
Bender then turned to Claire who was on the verge of tears herself, "And you…" he pointed a thick finger at the redhead, "don't like me anyway" Claire glared at him with venom, "You know Vasya has just as many feels as you do, and it hurts her just as much when somebody steps all over them!" The subject of the fight seemed to have gone past Vasya now, but they still used her as a pronoun, sort of like when someone tells a story about "a friend of theirs" but they really mean themselves.
Bender rolled his eyes, now furious. "God you're so pathetic! Don't you ever! Ever! Compare yourself to me, okay?! You've got everything and I've got shit!" Bender was on a roll now, "Fuckin' Rapunzel right? The school would probably shut down if you didn't show up. Queenie isn't here!" He eyed her, "I like those earrings Claire."
Claire trembled, "Shut up" her quiet voice shook.
"Are those real diamonds Claire?" Bender pressed harder and Claire shook her head, "Shut up!"
"Did you work for the money for those earrings Claire?" Bender asked at the same time Claire yelled at him again "Shut your mouth!"
"Or did your daddy buy those for you?"
"Shut Up!" She barked furiously, tears now pouring down her face.
(Meanwhile)
It took a little while, but Brian found Vasya upstairs hunched over in the corner of the records room where all the audio recordings, maps, and newspaper clippings were kept. She had her knees drawn up to her chest with her head buried in her arms as she shook with slowly dying sobs. "Uh, Vasya?" Brian closed the door behind him quietly, the sniffling stopped suddenly as she froze, "Are you alright?"
Vasya looked up and away, wiping her swollen, puffy eyes and nose, "I'm fine" it came out harsher then she meant it to, but she was just so humiliated she didn't think she could face any one. "Hey, uh… What, what Bender did back there, that was…" Brian shifted uncomfortably, "that really wasn't cool, he- he really shouldn't have done that to you I mean…" Vasya rested her burning hot face on the cool cotton of her grey slacks. Brian, unsure of what to do slid down the wall until he was sitting a few feet away from Vasya.
"Do… Do you want to talk about it or…" Vasya shook her head, talking about it was the very last thing she wanted to do. "Okay, uh, I'm sorry, I just… I really don't know what to do here I've never really…" he cut the end off and sighed. "Look, Bender did a shitty thing, a really shitty thing. And you're the last person it should have happened to, I mean you're just so to nice to everyone and you're smart and you're talented and you work so hard for what you want, and you don't deserve to be stressed all the time, or to never have any freedom, or just be pushed around, because you're amazing and I wish that somebody could see that and just treat you the way you deserve to be treated." His pep talk turned into a rant.
Brian realized what he just said and blushed as his eyes widened, "I'm sorry that sounded really weird" Vasya stared at him with an unreadable expression that made Brain nervous. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. Sure she had been called smart and lord knows people said she was talented, but no one had really put it that way before. She couldn't imagine a life different from this, she was so used to being told what to do, when to do it and how.
Her entire life had been laid out for her, a goal had been set for her that she had never gotten a say in. She practiced when she was told to practice, she always did her work, looking back when she met Claire and her friends she mainly just did as they did. She couldn't remember a single time when she wasn't doing something someone else's way. Hell, she didn't even know if she truly enjoyed Playing the Viola anymore, she just couldn't ever imagine doing something else.
Brian looked at her and her empty stare and shuffled uncomfortably, "Uh, Vasya? Are you okay?" Vasya's face split into a watery grin, "I'm better than okay, I'm fantastic." Her voice cracked from the crying but she didn't frankly care. Brain noticed immediately that her accent thickened considerably, causing the Ts to sound like Zs.
"Brian you're brilliant!" without warning she enveloped him in an embrace, her arms wrapped around his neck. "I am?" Brian asked and Vasya pulled away a little, "Yes, you are the most brilliantly wonderful and extraordinary person in the world! Never forget that!" she squealed and pressed her lips to his cheek. "Thank you so much" she went back to hugging him.
Brian paused a moment to understand what just happened before accepting whatever internal epiphany she may have had and hugged her back. "Come on!" she pulled away and pulled on his hand, "Let's go!"
"Go where?"
"Back down stairs of course" she laughed.
"Are you sure you want to?" Brian asked, wondering if her sudden good mood was brought on by some sort of psychological breakdown. Vaysa only smiled back at him, "Positive"
They ran down the stairs, well Vasya ran, Brian was sort of dragged behind her. And Vasya came upon the sight of Bender yelling at Claire.
"I bet he bought those for you! I bet those are a Christmas gift! Right? You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner fuckin' year at the old Bender family! I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said "Hey! Smoke up Johnny!" Okay, so go home'n cry to your daddy, don't cry here, okay?"
Vasya strode up the group, eyed red and puffy and cheeks still wet but smiling not the less, "Fuck you Bender" she said casually, causing the others to look up at her in shock. "Just because you're mad at the world doesn't mean you have to take it out on her." Bender looked up at her with a sneer. "Bravo Ruski, looks like someone has been taking their confidence pills." Bender stood up face the much shorter black haired girl, "who knew a tongue in your mouth would loosen you up a bit."
The group expected Vasya to blush and get embarrassed, Andy began to stand up, "Don't you think you've messed with her enough for one day Asshole" Vasya stopped him by smiling up at Bender, "You're a Pig, you know that John?" she used his first name casually, "Is that so Ruski?" Bender rested his large hand on her shoulder and she didn't even flinch, "Yes it is, and the Name is Vasya. Now if you would kindly remove your hand from my person I would very much appreciate it" Her words said civilized but her voice and eyes said if you don't stop touching me within the next ten seconds I will show you the true wrath of Mother Russia
John chuckled and held up both hands in surrender, "Not a problem…Vasya" she nodded and walked across the circle to where Brian and Allison had been sitting, and she waited for Brain to sit next to her. Allison caught sight of Andy who was staring at the floor seriously. "What the matter" she asked him and he shook his head, "My God, are we going to end up like our parents?" He almost whispered.
Claire shook her head, still in tears, "Not me, ever"
Allison stared straight ahead. "It's unavoidable, it just happens." Vasya looked at her, "What happens?" she asked curiously "when you grow up, your heart dies" she said somberly. Bender scoffed, again sitting down, "Who cares?" he sneered and Allison looked at him now in tears herself,
"I Care"
Dun Dun Dun, cliffy, I am sorry for not updating sooner but I've had a ton of stuff on my plate. I wanted Vasya to have a bit more character development, so I took what seems to be a reoccurring theme in her life, (Having no control/ no backbone to speak of) and pushing it to the max, (Aka Bender kissing her without her permission) so to cause her to finally grasp what is wrong with her life, (Her having no back bone, being pushed around, basically going with what people tell her to do instead of doing what she really wants) I hope Bender in this chapter wasn't too out of character, I realize what he did to Vasya was pretty extreme but it felt right when I wrote it and when I read it, so I went with it.