Barbie Boy Chapter 10: Of Cabbages and Burger Kings
A/N: Today I'm graduating with my bachelor's degree in Spanish and Linguistics from UCLA.
Also, to answer some FAQs
1. At least two characters will die
2. It will not be Leanne
3. This is an M-rated story
4. This is not Bocu no Pico
5. Mello does not get a sex change
okay, we all good? :D great!
Also, Mello's teacher...she gets upset over an aspect of Mello's picture that isn't described in this chapter. Er...well...don't hit me, please. My head already hurts enough XD
"Who are you?" a voice whispered into Gina's ear.
The redhead's muscles relaxed at the feminine touch and she slowly leaned her body back into the slight embrace, turning her head enough to make out the silhouette of her not-quite assailant.
"Claire?"
The hands removed themselves from Gina's waist and the redhead turned fully to face the smaller shadow in the room.
"Who are you?" the voice repeated.
As a form of answer, Gina Jeevas slipped her hand into her pocket and retrieved a lighter. She flicked it open and let the flame cast an eerie glow between their faces.
"You're Claire Leeds, right?"
The blonde woman nodded and then slipped forward onto the taller woman, clutching at her blouse for support. Gina nearly set the other woman's hair on fire as she struggled to keep Claire form falling on the floor while closing the lighter. But that moment was enough for Gina to see the extent of how red Claire's eyes were.
"Shit, you're really gone, aren't you?" Gina spoke to no one in particular.
She lay the younger woman down and reignited her lighter, looking for some kind of tool. After searching through the various odd assortment of junk, she found a screw driver and smiled. Then she went to work on unscrewing the hinges of the locked door.
And while Gina struggled to release herself from the makeshift prison, the children at Goatwick Elementary undertook projects of an entirely different sort.
Recess had long ended to Matt's and Mello's disappointment. But as sorrowful as their parting felt, Mello couldn't ward of his own smiles if he tried. The children parted ways and Mello returned to their respective classrooms—in opposite directions of course. His teacher, a greenhorn named Ms. Kidder, was waiting for her first grade class with their projects ready.
"Alright class, we're going to do something fun now. We're going to draw pictures about our favorite memories. When you're finished, I want you to write some words explaining what the picture is."
There was a collective response from the six-year-olds, completely positive. Mello smiled, looking at his wonderful ring that Matt had given him and knew exactly what he was going to draw. He made sure to use all the appropriate colors and did his very best with his crayon art. The costumes weren't exactly right, but Mello was satisfied with his work.
"If you don't know how to spell a word, please ask me or the aid, Mr. Luntle, and we will help you." Ms. Kidder reminded the students.
Ms. Kidder and Mr. Luntle walked around observing the children as they worked. The pictures were pretty standard: baseball games, birthday parties, eating candy...One boy even drew a picture of his cat eating a butterfly, although Mr. Luntle wasn't sure how that could have been a happy memory.
"I need help!" Mello raised his hand straight in the air, catching Mr. Luntle's attention.
The man stood over the boy, observing the picture. It seemed that Mello had drawn a room and two people in it, one with yellow hair and the other with red hair. Their stick figure hands seemed to be joined together and there were a lot of a lot of flowers in the picture. The blonde one looked like an angel with her white dress. Mr. Luntle wondered if Mello's picture was of his parents.
"How do you spell wedding?" the boy asked.
Mr. Luntle was surprised that the boy had drawn a bride and groom. He helped the blond boy sound the words out and watched him scribble the word in large scrawly letters.
"Tell me about your picture, Mello. Who did you draw?"
Mello beamed and wrote some more words down on the paper. He carefully labeled himself and Matt before lifting the paper and handing it to Mr. Luntle.
"This is me and Matt when we got married. See my wedding ring?" Mello wiggled his thumb at the man and frowned a little, "I was beautiful before I got a haircut."
To say that Mr. Luntle was surprised would have been an understatement.
"Ms. Kidder, could you please come here?"
Emily Kidder approached the table to examine Mello's work, which Mr. Luntle had in his hands. She paused to admire the detailed sketch work of the six-year-old before reading the sentence description. The young teacher bit her lip, unsure and untrained with how to handle the situation. She blinked and regained her composure.
"Why, Mr. Luntle, it's only the first day of school! They're bound to do funny stuff like that." She laughed into her hand.
Mr. Luntle swallowed. "Funny? I don't know if I'd call this funny."
"It's not funny!" Mello pouted. "That's my favorite memory. Even more than the first time I tasted chocolate!"
"Oh my! That important? Well then, you be sure to treasure that picture, alright, Mello?"
Ms. Kidder smiled but on the inside she was panicking. Maybe it was just a fluke. Maybe it would go away on its own. After all, the boy was young and impressionable. She did make a mental note, however, to monitor Mello closely. It was quite possible that Mello had been born with a perceptual defect in his brain, but she didn't want to jump to such a lofty conclusion on a single piece of evidence. If he produced consistent examples that deviated so strongly against the norm, however…she would be forced to take action. Until then, she smiled and acted as if nothing was wrong. She wouldn't send Mello to the school specialist to be evaluated unless his behavior was consistent.
"Mello, there is something that's bothering me though," she finally said to him. "Something's not quite right in this picture. This is kind of wrong."
She pointed to the part of the picture that was bothering her, "This is not normal. Do you know why?"
The boy shook his head, "It looks perfect to me."
The Keehl boy was upset. The grownups were making a fuss again about things they declined to explain. It was the same at home. People just wanted to restrict him from expressing himself in a way that showed his happiness. It was truly truly frustrating.
But at that moment, Mello wasn't the only one under scrutiny for irregularity and behavior issues.
"Crazy bitch. You broke my fucking door!"
Gina wiped her brow, which was teeming with sweat from the manual labor. It had taken quite some time, since the door still seemed jammed even after she'd popped the hinges, but the storage room hadn't been completely void of useful tools. Mrs. Jeevas thought she'd hit the jackpot with a pair of kitchen shears. But then she went and broke the blade when she'd tried to wedge it between the hinge and the wood. The real treasure revealed itself in a fold-up card table, which was promptly used to ram the door until the table cracked and the door was loose enough to push free of its frame.
"Well we'll be leaving now. Thank you for your cooperation, gentleman." Gina waved to the proprietor of the Johnson's Milk Time Bar.
In her arms she held a small carpet bag and a blanket—Claire's. The younger woman followed Gin, and she drag a disheveled Claire Leeds in her wake
"Hey, Claire's on the job right now, Missy. You can't just take her."
Gina whipped around to forced a crooked smile on Walter Johnson, "Y'know what? Claire quit. And if you have any objections, then I'll bring the police to investigate the weed stash you're hiding on the second floor."
The threat wasn't empty, but it didn't make Gina feel any safer.
If she had been a decade younger, the Jeevas woman would have broken bottles of the head of the bar's proprietor. As it was, she wasn't really in a position to be so reckless anymore. Gina spat the words at the men, but her confidence was only surface deep. She had more than a sinking suspicion that she'd face serious consequences for her little 'kidnapping action.' She didn't know if any of the men had weapons. Her sharp intuition told her that she was nearly powerless in such a situation and any physical confrontation with the men of the bar could lead to worse than injury. Once upon a time, she wouldn't have hesitated to violently push her way through and fix what she saw as a shitty reality. But she wasn't quite that selfish anymore, to take such stupid risks. With Asiclo Jeevas overseas in Iraq, Matt needed to come home to somebody.
Which is also the precise reason why she went for Claire in the first place. Gina's mother instincts were in hyper mode and she was extremely pissed at Claire's parenting skills. It pissed her off even more than that stupid bigot family of the Keehls. And dammnit, she was going to do something about it!
Without another word, Mrs. Jeevas guided Claire Leeds to her car and drove her to the Jeevas' home. On the way she stopped at a Jimmy's and bought a few sets of hamburgers and fries, tossing the bag to her passenger. The younger woman tore through a bag of fries and didn't utter a word of thanks.
Gina rolled her eyes as she pulled into her own driveway. If things continued that way, it was going to be like taking care of three children.
A/N: Aha, Mello's oh-so-innocent picture. XD It's more complex than meets the eye, but that picture is the catalyst for something (read, evil). If you read the original posts of Barbie Boy, you might remember that shortly after this chapter there's a confrontation between Gina and Halle over this picture. That's not happening anymore. After the filler chapter with Mikami and Light, we're gonna have the school officials call Leanne in to discuss Mello's 'problem'
Can you guess what his problem is? :D