Pure terror surged through every ounce of her body to the point of utter excruciation as her maternal instinct automatically forced her to assume that the very worst had just occurred. The atrociously panicked young woman wasted not a single second and darted to the fallen little boy's side at a pace most champion sprinters would have trouble matching. With her face as deathly pale as fresh snow, Frankie dropped to her knees and gathered the child into her arms.
"Mac? Mac, are you okay?" she yelped hoarsely, before pausing to place her head upon his chest in hopes that she would hear a steady heartbeat. "Mac are-"
The redhead stopped dead in mid-fret as soon as she glanced up and saw much to her immense surprise that not only was he obviously conscious, but he also was now gazing wide-eyed in confusion at her as if she were completely out of her mind.
"I…I think you accidentally closed the door on me." Mac said softly, then asked in genuine concern, "Are you okay?"
Once the truth dawned upon her that she had just made a mountain out of a molehill with her excessively immense overreaction, Frankie immediately began to feel the blood surge to her face as she was beset with humiliation.
"Oh…I'm sorry…" she managed to stammer as she loosened her hold, allowing Mac to clamber back to his feet. "Yeah…you're right, I did close the door right behind me when I…yikes, I'm sorry pal…I just thought that…y'know, at first I was afraid you had a…"
"Heart attack?" Mac calmly finished. Immediately she cringed a little as a wave of memories concerning some certain far-too-recent events flooded back to her.
"Yeah…" she affirmed reluctantly. "I…don't know why, I just panicked, and I…"
As she stammered on, the boy just broke out into a warm smile as he quickly traced his hand over his chest, pointing to where a large scar lay hidden from sight.
"Frankie, I'm all better, remember?" he reassured. "You don't have to-"
"Oh, no!"
Before the child could say a single word more, Frankie elicited a horrified cry, nabbed him by the arm and deftly pulled him close. After closely examining the bemused child for a moment or so, she let loose with a guilty moan as she enveloped him into a tight hug.
"Frankie, what is it?" he demanded bewilderedly. "I'm okay-"
"No, no you're not!" she objected glumly. "Just look at the size of that black eye!"
"Huh?" Mac grunted, until he finally noticed the dull ache in his rapidly swelling right eye.
"Oh…yeah, you did..." he admitted softly with a slight wince. "Ow..."
Frankie groaned, posing as the model of abject misery as she stroked his head furiously. "Poor little guy, you probably got hit right with the door handle, didn't you? I'm sorry, Mac, I'm sorry, if I just hadn't let my mind wander for a second or so, I-
"Frankie! Frankie! Frankie!" Mac burst out yelping and squirming like a child possessed the instant the guilt-ridden caretaker's embrace started to feel more like the tenacious squeeze of a boa constrictor. "It's okay, seriously! It was just an accident! Frankie, I'm all right!"
"Says the guy who just got slammed right in the face?" she only countered skeptically while she loosened her grasp. "Pal, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Frankie…I'm just fine." Mac persisted exasperatedly. As soon as she looked straight into the pleading gaze he cast upon her, Frankie finally managed understand that yet again she had yet again gone into conniptions of unnecessary proportions.
While she grew flush with embarrassment, the redhead ruffled his hair gently and begrudgingly conceded, "Well…it is just a black eye…"
"How about we just call it payback for when I dropped that overloaded laundry basket on your foot last week?" Mac suggested with a weak grin as he tried to allay her remorse. The well-timed comment worked like a charm, and despite her best efforts to fight it, started chuckling weakly.
"You had me limping for the rest of the day." Frankie laughed as she ruffled his hair affectionately. "Okay, okay, I get it, all's forgiven…c'mon, let's get you inside and cleaned up."
With this she effortlessly scooped him up and delicately placed him atop her shoulders.
"You're too hard on yourself sometimes, you know that?" he reminded the overly maternal young woman. Frankie shot back with a sigh,
"Hey, I was partially raised by Wilt since I was three. What else would you expect?"
"Well, he got the unnecessary apologizing down pat with you," Mac joked playfully. "Not so much with the basketball skills."
Frankie rolled her eyes. "You just got lucky yesterday, that's all …."
"…So, were you like, mouthing off to her? Did she ask you to help her with the laundry or something, and you didn't want to? Or did you track some dirt into the foyer just after she mopped it? Did you…"
As his azure creation persistently bombarded him with inquiry after curious inquiry while he packed his lunch for the day, Mac distinctly saw with dismay that Frankie kept on wincing involuntarily as she tended to breakfast clean-up nearby. Meanwhile, utterly oblivious to the torture he was causing the resident caretaker, Bloo continued asking away without pause,
"…Was she in a bad mood and you just got in her way? Or did you-"
"Bloo, I told you a hundred times yesterday, so I only want to say it once today; it was an accident. Frankie didn't do it on purpose." Mac finally snapped as he started to zip up his backpack. Despite this, Bloo only rolled his eyes and flashed a nasty glare Frankie's away, revealing how obviously unconvinced he was despite his creator's sincere objections.
"Pfft! Yeah, right!" The imaginary friend scoffed as he pointed to his friend's face. "You don't get a black eye the size of one of Coco's eggs 'by accident,' it's just not-"
"Oh, so it's no longer an 'accident' that you got two black eyes and a dozen other bruises last month when you crashed the wagon while riding it down the stairs, right after I specifically told you not to do it?" Frankie finally whirled about at he position at the kitchen sink and countered with a fierce scowl.
"Yeah!" Bloo swiftly agreed with a furious nod as he immediately took the bait and tumbled right into her trap. "See, no one can get…wait...no, wait! No, I mean, that was…uh…no I didn't mean to go down, I was just walking by the top of the staircase when…when I tripped on a banana peel and fell right into the wagon, which…which…which Eduardo had left there, yeah, and then I…it just…"
Once the non-nonsense look on the caretaker's face made it blatantly clear she wasn't buying a word of his mumbo-jumbo, he abruptly trailed off and began backing out towards the nearest exit, though not before taking care to try and excuse himself lamely,
"I…I think I um…need to, uh…t-take the roast out of the oven 'fore it burns, so…so I don't ruin dinner, and…uh…"
Without another word he darted off and vanished from sight. Frankie shook her head and sighed exasperatedly before she focused her attention on her nine-year-old charge. "You all set?"
"Yeah, I think so." Mac replied as he zipped up his backpack and started to toss on his jacket. "I guess I better get going to-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa,whoa! Hold on!" his guardian demanded flatly as she placed a hand on his shoulder and shot him an incredulous gaze. "You're not actually walking to school this morning, are you?"
Taken slightly off guard by the inquiry, the child paused before a moment before answering bemusedly, "Well…yeah, it's only drizzling a little outside. I mean, you can barely feel it-"
"That's how it is now, but chances are that it's going to be raining buckets when you're halfway there." Frankie objected as she hastily wiped her hands on a dishtowel.
"But Frankie-"
"Nuh-uh." she objected flatly. "Wait for me in the foyer, and I'll go grab Grandma's car keys"
"C'mon, you don't need to drive me there." Mac protested. "I'll be okay-"
"Oh, heaven forbid I actually take the ten minutes out of my day to keep you from getting drenched to the bone." She responded sarcastically. "Hold on, I need just a minute…"
Frankie's intuition had served her well; what had started out as the mildest of drizzles had escalated into a full-fledged downpour by the time she pulled up in front of the school in a long line of mainly school buses and mini-vans.
"Whoa!" the caretaker exclaimed as she stamped on the breaks. After the car had come to a jerking halt, she glared fiercely at the SUV just in front of them.
"For Pete's sake! Would it have killed this lady to give me some warning before she stopped?" she grumbled bitterly with a scowl before turning to the child in the passenger seat and abruptly softening her tone. "You okay, pal?"
"Yeah…yeah I'm all right." Mac answered as he zipped up his jacket. "Just a little startled."
"I'm sorry pal, it's just the nerve of some of these drivers…ugh…okay, now, if the weather doesn't clear up by the afternoon, I'll be right here to pick you up after school lets out. Okay?" Frankie reminded as the little boy fumbled to undo his seatbelt.
"I know, I know-"
THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP!
They were abruptly interrupted by the sight of a rainbow-sleeved arm banging on the passenger side window, followed by a muffled but still easily discernable high-pitched squeal ringing outside in the midst of the deluge.
"Hiiiiiiiiiiiii Mac!" Goo cried as she started leaping up and down to peer into the car, nearly dropping her bright lime green umbrella in her excitement. Frankie broke out smirking as opportunity fell right into her lap.
"Well, guess you better get going. Don't wanna keep your girlfriend waiting now, do we?" she teased mercilessly.
"Frankieeeee…" Mac groaned and banged his head against the back of his seat, getting a few giggles out of his crimson-haired tormentor.
"Kidding, only kidding." She chuckled as she leaned over to give him a quick hug and a kiss on the forehead. "You have a good day now, okay?"
"Okay! Bye, Frankie!" Mac returned the hug before scrambling out of the car and into the pouring rain, where almost immediately his awaiting friend burst out chatting up a storm before he barely got in a few words.
"Hey, Goo-"
"Hi Mac, I haven't seen you since Friday! So how was your weekend? Good? Not so good? Kinda good? Pretty good? Very good? Sorta good? Ooooh, ooooh, cool black eye! Where'd you get it? Football game outside and the ball hit you? Where you and Bloo wrestling? Were you running around and around but you didn't see where you were going at all? Hmm?" she babbled before pointing to the heavy Band-Aid adorning her leg. "I had an accident over the weekend too, see? See it? I went to go ride my bike outside and I was going really really really really super out of control fast down the sidewalk, y'know, almost like…"
As she joyously jabbered on and on, the pair scooted up the stairs to the front doors, lest they were nearly drowned where they stood outside. As they rushed inside, on the way they passed a familiar face standing in the entrance, carefully monitoring the flow of schoolchildren.
"Good morning, Principal Thurston." The pair chorused as they went by. The heavyset fellow grinned and replied politely,
"Good morning to you t-"
The instant he saw the bluish-black anomaly marring the face of one of his students, he stopped dead in mid-greeting as his expression contorted with alarm.
"Hold on, young man!"
"What? Hey, what?" Mac yelped confusedly. "What are you-"
"Mac, where did you get that-"
Not wanting to be late for class, the child abruptly pulled away and scooted off down the hallway, yelling as he left, "Accident!"
Moments later Mac vanished from sight, leaving his concerned principal with deeply aroused suspicions as he found himself facing an all-too-familiar scenario. "Accident"…how many times during his career had he heard that excuse before from an injured child? As much as the man hated to ignore it, what had just happened seem to be almost textbook signs of a either a bully prowling the hallways of his school, or God-forbid…
Well, there maybe he was being rash, for he had no real reason to believe to suspect that what he just saw was the result of-
BEEP! BEEP!BEEP! BEEP!
"For God's sake, learn to drive! Have you ever even heard of turn signals before, jerk?" Frankie poked her head out the window and screeched angrily at the hulking SUV in front of her.
As the principal watched the young woman he knew as Mac's guardian tear off down the street, an overpowering sense of horror slowly washed over him as he struggled to make sense of what he had just witnessed in such a terribly short time span. The vaguely explained injuries received while living with what looked like a disturbingly ill-tempered guardian…it all seemed to be far too coincidental for his liking as the administrator hastily concluded with a horrified gasp,
"Oh, dear Lord…"