*Much to my pleasure, people are reviewing/following my story! Holy shit snacks! I forgot how much joy that can bring! Many thanks to all who come to read my banter*
Every day spent in class during one's high school years are painstakingly drawn out. Rajiya was convinced that San Francisco University High School was in its own sloth-like dimension.
This feeling worsened ever since the puppets had come to live with her and Jeremiah. Against her liking, Rajiya was forced to leave them at home everyday when she was gone (amongst all the obvious reasons, sneaking them in would prove futile, as Blade and Six Shooter would most definitely set off the metal detectors located at every possible enterance of the school). The puppets worried about their Mistress while she was out, but managed to keep themselves busy in the immense loft.
The ability to have literal free reign was liberating, and soon each of the puppets had fallen into daily routines of their own alongside their human counterparts. Jeremiah (if he'd managed to get to spend a night at home) would wake up at 4:00am to get ready for work. He'd be finished and on his way out as Rajiya got up at 5:45am to make coffee for him as he dashed out the door to (somewhat) beat traffic.
The puppets slept in Rajiya's room upstairs with her. When her alarm clock would go off, Pinhead would hit the snooze button two different times before they all rose, stretching. Jester was always curled up under Rajiya's right arm, Pinhead claimed the pillow on the left side of the bed to be in charge of the alarm clock. Six Shooter was content at the foot of the four poster bed, and Blade preferred to be on top of the dresser so he would have a decent view of the entire room, including all doors and windows. It was force of habit, plus with his appendages being the way they were, Blade was not as suitable of a snuggle buddy as Jester was with his velvet clad suit and small frame.
After preparing Jeremiah's thermos of coffee (lots of toffee-flavored creamer, just the way he liked it), and kissing him good-bye after seeing him to the door, Rajiya would go back to her bedroom to get dressed and do her hair. By 6:30am she would come back downstairs to the kitchen and sit at the bar counter on a stool and eat the whole wheat toast with strawberry preserves that Six Shooter had made for her while Pinhead prepared her a thermos of tea (she had a well stocked cupboard full of loose leaf varieties, and he never made the same kind two days in a row). Depending on the time of year Jester and Blade would either bring her a peacoat, head scarf and umbrella combination or a light cardigan. Very rarely would she go without any covering/accessory, the bay weather tended to stay on the cooler side.
The honk of a car horn outside would indicate her ride, a.k.a. Jake, arriving at approximately 6:45am. Rajiya would hug all the puppets, who'd gathered together at her feet by the door to bid her adieu. A quick peck atop each of their wooden heads and Rajiya would flounce out the door and lock it behind her.
This is when things would get interesting.
The Toulons did not see the need for a replacement maid after the last one quit...and had run screaming out the door upon entering the home and discovering Six Shooter with bottles of Pledge wood cleaner, Windex, and several microfiber clothes, dusting the entertainment center. On her (frantic) way out she had caught sight of Blade and Jester trimming dead fronds of the beautifully potted pygmy palm trees by the front door. The maid then, in all her panic, tripped over Pinhead as he was attempting to replace the door mat after shaking the dust and debris out of it.
Jeremiah and Rajiya did not ask the puppets to do such chores, but the figurines had insisted. Not only did they like helping around the 2,000sq foot modernized loft-style house, the maid was annoying and always seemed to stay for an eternity, forcing the puppets to hide in Rajiya's room under her bed. They decided to use scare tactics (yes, they intentionally had themselves walked in on that day) when the air-headed woman almost sucked one of Jester's tiny legs into the Dyson vacuum when she thrust it under the bed carelessly one day.
In other words, she was not missed.
After all the humans had left the premises, any light chores were completed within an hour's time. After words the puppets would usually split off to do their own activites. Blade would typically go into Jeremiah's study and sift through his medical books and look at case files that might've been left on the desk. Medicine had certainly progressed since he himself had his own practice...a rather long time ago. The advances in modern medicine seemed infinite, so he had plenty to look through and take in.
Six Shooter would entertain himself with target practice in the small backyard or with watching westerns on one of the hundreds of channels available via satellite on the 84" flat screen television hanging above the gas fireplace in the living room. Taking naps on the ultra comfortable couch was favorable as well.
Pinhead had taken to starting a small herb and vegetable garden with Rajiya in the backyard, and spent a good deal of the afternoons tending to it if the weather allowed it. He didn't mind the average temperature of 55-65 degrees, or even the fog. But when there was rain or even mist, he found it bothersome and would go inside to find something else to do. Which usually meant playing/pranking with Jester.
By all means, Jester should have ceased to exist by this point. He was immensely lucky that his commrades loved him as dearly as they did, because he tested their patience and love on a nearly daily basis. He'd make webs out of fishing lure in doorways for Six Shooter to walk into and get entangled in. Blade had found himself stepping onto and sticking to fly-paper on 4 seperate occasions, all having been in different locations of the loft. Pinhead probably got the most slack out of everyone; he'd weighed his options and decided that getting bitched out by Blade and Six Shooter was easier to deal with than suffering god only knows what Jester would have planned for him. More often than not the pranks resulted in the victim being trapped/stuck until Rajiya would come home, usually with Jake in tow, and would require both humans to free them. As soon as the key could be heard turning in the lock of the front door, all the puppets would become excited not only because they had missed their Mistress, but also because it usually meant freedom from whatever gag Jester had pulled that day.
The routine changed slightly by the time Rajiya finally got around to getting her driver's license. She'd been afraid of driving in the city she'd grown up in and found the steep hills and other commuters daunting. However, after putting up with Jake's road rage and several near-pull over confrontations/fist fights for a couple years, she decided to acquire her license at 18 years old. Jeremiah offered to buy Rajiya whatever car she'd wanted, but she was happy a simple VW Jetta. She was also willing to pay for half of it with her job at the small hindu/middle eastern shop on Haight/Ashbury shopping district called "For The Love of Ganesh". It meant the puppets could come with her; a treat for Mistress and puppets alike. They also moved out of Jeremiah's house (much to his paternal dismay) and into a nice two bedroom less than a mile away with Jake.
After school Rajiya would come home and pick them up before heading over to Jake to get him if their shifts coinsided (he worked in the Loyal Army store a couple blocks away). On weekends or during the summer they would just head to Haight/Ashbury at 9:00am and remain there until closing time, which was usually between 6-7, depending on business. The puppets loved being in the small and rather cramped shop, it'd reminded them of some of the nicer antique shops they'd been in in the past. Not to mention they could roam/hide in the curtains, garments, and scarves or upon the various shelves to help bust shoplifters.
As Rajiya got older, she seemed to have more and more male customers come into the shop to creep on her. She was indeed becoming more beautiful, her face and jaw line more refined and her curves finally all coming to place. At 19 she'd finished growing and stood at about 5'9". Rajiya kept her hair long and her makeup minimal, which allowed her bronze skin to glow. The puppets knew with exasperated sigh of hers signaled another suitor coming into their place of business. They'd praise her, sometimes tastefully, but most of the time these men were completely shameless, class-less morons. The stoners who'd wander in from an intense smoking session in Golden Gate Park would swear ("Dude, on my..my mom's fucking grave dude!") that Rajiya was Adriana Lima. Normally, she'd laughed it off and took it as a huge compliment. But after hearing it repeatedly, it got old real fast. On one particular day, she decided to sass back at a troop of 3 DeadHeads who came in for the 4th time that day to show new people each time how similar she looked to the model.
"Despite my name not being Adriana? Nor does it even start with an A..." she drawled, drumming her manicured nails on the countertop as the puppets would subtly gather at her feet behind said counter.
"You ARE her though!"
"I am not even Brazillian!" Rajiya retorted, groaning as one of the guys teetered on his feet and nearly knocked over the Ganesh statue near the small offered Prayer Room. "Excuse me, have some respect, if you can manage such a thing."
"Damn girl, our bad," he laughed, feigning his being sorry. When the three of them burst out laughing after accidentally overturning a bin of incense, Rajiya had had enough of these goons.
"All right, that's it!" she said sternly, narrowing her grey eyes. "You all reek of patchouli and failure, get the hell out of my store. I need to close anyways." They laughed at her irritation, only infuriating her more. The puppets had panned themselves out around the men by them, ready to take action if needed.
"Bitch, just chill-" one said crudely before getting his hand slashed by Blade as he set it on a shelf to balance himself. "What the fuck!" he cried out, unable to see the dark puppet hidden amongst the books and scriptures on the shelving. "I just cut my fucking hand on something!"
Rajiya knew exactly what his hand had gotten cut on, or rather, by. "Don't worry, you probably have tetanus already," she said, half laughing. "You should probably bounce before it gets waaaaay worse for all of you."
"You threatening us?" another said menacingly, taking a step towards her. He was only able to take one before Pinhead reached out from behind a beaded curtain and twisted the man's ankle with his massive hands. "What kind of weird voodoo shit you got going on in here?!" he shouted, hopping on one foot then.
"Come on, let's leave this freaky Brazilian bitch to her witchcraft," said the only uninjured one of the group as he helped his friends.
"Try Indian, you ignorant jackasses," Rajiya stated, relieved they were leaving without much more trouble having to ensue. It took a couple hours to clean up last time the puppets had to get involved in the removal of a creeper or two.
"Go crawl back in your Tee-Pee or Wig-Wam, you weird broad," one spat as they shambled out the door. Rajiya snorted in disgust.
"Wrong kind of Indian, white trash. Go read a book or two while you're fucking off." She burst into laughter when Six Shooter and Jester tightened a line of hemp rope at ankle level and sent the three stoners stumbling into a cursing confused heap on the sidewalk outside. Jake walked up then, stepping over the men as he came to the doorway. One of them pointed at him. He cocked an eyebrow.
"Mother fucker looks like Cary Grant! What year is this? 1938?"
"Sounds like you found some good shit in Golden Gate Park," Jake replied with a smirk. Rajiya had often made the same comparison. He closed the shop door behind him and locked it, looking down at Jester and Six Shooter, who'd already attached themselves to his long legs. Jake walked awkwardly over to Rajiya, who was still laughing. He handed her some hot tea in a to-go cup as he took a drink of his own.
"It appears you've had an interesting day at the office," he said as Rajiya finally stopped laughing and Jester and Six Shooter joined Blade and Pinhead at their feet.
"Ooooooh yeah," Rajiya said, giving Jake the usual kiss on the cheek. "That's one way to put it. I'm sooooo ready to get the hell out of here and have tomorrow off."
"Sundays are good for something after all," Jake said as Rajiya closed up her register and gave the store a once-over. "We still on to meet Dad at The Citrus Club?"
"Yeah, its like right next to your store you didn't have to come all the way to the other side of Haight for me," she said, feeling guilty for being the reason he walked several blocks in the damp winter air. He shrugged off her concern.
"Oh sure, I'm gonna just let you walk down this street in the dark alone," he snarked at her as he opened his large messenger bag for the puppets to get into. "Bitch please, Frisco be cray-cray."
"Ever the gentleman," Rajiya snarked in return as they exitted the shop and locked the door behind them. She tightened her scarf around her neck and wormed herself under one of Jake's arms as they walked down Haight together. "Cary Grant, indeed!"
Jake laughed. "I might be gay, but I can manage chivalry once in a while for a girl."
"You're cheating on me?" Rajiya feigned offense; Jake squeezed her shoulder.
"Whatever, skank! You're the only beezy for me." He brought the messenger bag around to the front of himself and opened it as they walked. The puppets gave each other enough room to emerge evenly. "Thanks for keeping an eye on my Home Girl," Jake said to them and Blade waved his knife dismissively.
"Bitch, please," Blade mocked, but was only heard as a hiss. Somehow though, through body language and tone, Rajiya and Jake had been able to understand the puppets nearly completely by this point. They laughed at the gothic puppet's gesture, taking it exactly for what it was.
They continued their walk, almost halfway to the thai food restaurant they were meeting Jeremiah at. The puppets had turned themselves around to be looking in the same direction as their human counterparts. The brisk air did not bother them in the slightest, seeing as how the mist from earlier in the day gave way to a clear, cold night sky.
"I like nights like this," Six Shooter said to his friends. "Any night I can see the stars, really."
"Reminds me of the hotel," Pinhead put in. "When we'd go sit on the balcony with Andre...and the others.." He ended his sentence there, it was a sore subject for everyone.
"It is nice to have and hold onto good memories," Blade comforted his comrades, who nodded in agreement. "And think of all the amazing memories we make now, day after day, with Raj and Jeremiah and Jake. We haven't had to fight, fiercely, in many many years. We have been given a great gift, being in the company of such wonderful individuals."
"I really love Raj," Jester added happily. "She is the best Mistress ever! I don't think she's ever gotten mad at us for anything...even when I put Krazy Glue on the handle of her blow dryer that one day."
"You woulda deserved a good thrashin' for that, little one," Six Shooter said as he and the other puppets laughed at the memory of Rajiya screaming in the bathroom with the styling tool cemented to her hand, waving her arm around wildly and crashing into cabinets and knocking the shower curtain off of its hooks. When the puppets had come in to investigate they discovered tears pouring out of her eyes, but she was also laughing so hard she could hardly catch her breath. She'd praised Jester for a prank well done and gave him a kiss for it.
"That was one of my best, not gonna lie," Jester said in a smug tone as they all approached the restaurant. The puppets ducked back down into the bag until Jake and Rajiya were seated at their private booth in the back, where they then re-emerged and hugged Jeremiah around his waist, under the table and out of sight.
It was the rememberance of days and times like this; days and times full of happiness, closeness, and unceasing love, that were the only things that were able to get the puppets and their Mistress through the very very difficult times ahead.