Chapter Eight

(Hey, y'all!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I will be out of town on Friday and Saturday and I'll try to work on the next upcoming chapters as I travel with my family.

So here's another chapter because all of y'all are special!

Enjoy the story and life as it goes!

-imaginarytoon1)

Words have consequences.

-Albert Marrin

We are free to choose our paths, but we can't choose the consequences that come with them.

-Sean Convey

Beatrice:

When the six minutes were up, Angie would lose us and won't even have the chance to sprint after me and Psycho (I know that because I watched Angie run at school. She runs like a person with a badly twisted ankle.).

As Psycho and I ran, I noticed that Psycho had a huge bump on his head. I knew that I needed some aloe to do the job since I don't have an ice pack with me. Thankfully, there's an old lady (People who live in my neighborhood call her "The Plant Lady") who lives a little further down the street and she has this huge garden of many types of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and healing plants. The Plant Lady even grows aloe plants and she doesn't charge anyone for taking one or two stalks of aloe.

"Okay, Psycho. We can stop running now." I said.

We immediately began to slow down and I took a closer look at the bump on Psycho's head.

"Angie isn't coming, Psycho. Are you all right? Does the bump on your head hurt?" I asked.

Psycho gave me a small reassuring smile and held his sleeve-covered thumb and pointer finger about a centimeter apart.

"I know that you're thinking that you're going to be all right but we still got to reduce the size of the bump. You don't want to have a headache in the future." I said. "Thankfully, I know someone who can give us something that can help. Let's walk down the road a little bit and we'll be right there."

"I can wait, Pretty Girly." Psycho replied.

We began to walk. As Psycho and I were walking, I looked at our surroundings. Our footsteps shuffled on the rock and dirt road as we moved and the birds chirped as they flew. The warm summer wind began to blow on my face and goose-bumps ran up and down my neck. It was the middle of the afternoon and right now, it's a quiet time for everyone. Little kids and their mothers take their afternoon naps, people who were a part of certain gatherings or groups sipped on their afternoon tea, book-lovers read their books and eat their apples, and some boys and girls were enjoying their last few days of summer by messing around in their front or back yards and do water activities. I know because I walked up and down my neighborhood and wandered around town so many times.

When I saw a little brick-and-tin-roof house with a giant garden, I knew that Psycho and I were heading in the right direction.

As soon as we arrived, Psycho waited patiently by a mailbox and I walked to a few flowerpots that had giant aloe plants growing in them. There was a knife in between one of the pots and I grabbed it. I cut a huge stalk of aloe and I put the knife down. I took the stalk with me and left the house.

Psycho was still standing next to the mailbox and he looked really excited when I came back with the aloe.

"What's that, Pretty Girly?" He asked.

"This is an aloe plant." I replied. "My grandparents used these kinds of plants whenever someone is hurt. They call the aloe plant 'the miracle plant'. It's the cool, gooey substance inside the plant that does the healing, not the skin of the plant."

Carefully, I rubbed the plant on the bump and Psycho didn't exclaim or yelp in pain. He was actually enjoying the cold feeling from the aloe. I don't blame Psycho at all. I had the same reaction with aloe when I was a kid. It was really a handy thing for me to use and best of all, it's biodegradable and it can decompose itself back into the ground without having to harm anything.

"All right, Psycho." I said when I was done with the aloe plant. "The bump would be less noticeable in a few minutes. Once we get to my house, let's act like everything worked out and nothing else occurred."

"No fight, no fight. No fight, no fight, no fight." Psycho said and giggled.

A few minutes after walking away from The Plant Lady's house, Psycho asked me why I don't get along with Angie. I gave him a full explanation and he was practically stunned. After a brief pause, Psycho asked me what an omelet was. After defining the word 'omelet', I had to explain to Psycho that I usually don't fight with people but whenever they do and if I get angry, then I tell them that I would flip them like an omelet. Whatever a person does to me, I do it right back to them. It's like they threw a Frisbee at me, I catch it, and they get hit on the back on their head because of not paying attention.

Anyway, when Psycho and I got to the house, I had to remind Psycho again that he should act like nothing went wrong and I will be washing my face. I told him to not tell the other weasels that I will be washing my face because I'm going to act like I didn't know that he watched me when I went to Angie's house. He smiled and nodded his head really hard.

The last thing that I want is a commotion. I thought. I don't want ANY of the weasels to know that I got in a fight with Angie. I would like to keep most of my defensive side a secret.

Carefully and quietly, I turned the knob of the front door. I heard the television playing. I knew that Tommy and/or the Toon Patrol are in living room. Psycho slipped through the small, thin crack of the door and after pushing the door a little bit further, I slipped inside and I quietly closed the door.

I quickly ran to my bathroom and when I arrived, I closed and locked the bathroom door.

I looked at my reflection and my scratched cheek had a little bit of dried blood on it. I grabbed a washrag from one of my cabinets and I ran it under some cool water. While I was washing the dried blood off my cheek, I felt the cuts stinging a little bit as I gently rubbed the rag. I reached under the sink and grabbed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a bag of cotton swabs, Band-Aids, and my grandmother's theater make-up.

My cuts stopped stinging after I applied some hydrogen peroxide. After drying off my cuts a little bit, I put the Band-Aids over my cuts and I began to use the cotton swabs to apply the base make-up. I'm making myself look like that I haven't got in to a fight with another girl. As I applied the make-up over my Band-Aids, I would hear Greasy and Psycho laughing really loudly and I wasn't sure if they were laughing at something on the television or one of the weasels who did something to hurt themselves.

Five minutes later, I noticed that the base made my face look like one part of it hasn't been sun-tanned. I grabbed some blush from the bottom of the sink and I added a little bit of it on my cheek.

Finally, I was ready. I put all of my make-up back under the sink and I threw my washrag in my dirty laundry basket. Then, I unlocked the door and I quickly and quietly snuck out of the bathroom.

I walked to the living room and none of the weasels saw me, not even Psycho. On the television, one of Dad's old recordings of seven-year-old me tap-dancing to a sci-fi/techno/pop remix at a basketball court with a green sparkly outfit and a white mask. I don't remember the name of the tune but I do remember everyone who was at the basketball court having impressed looks on their faces after watching me do rapid tap-dancing to songs that sound like it was created by aliens.

When that video ended, Greasy asked,

"How long did the muchacha dance?"

"Beatrice danced since she was five. At the age nine, she stopped dancing." Tommy replied.

"Wow. For a while, I thought that she was just a piano person."

"Not only Beatrice can play the piano and dance, she also sings in the church choir."

"She sings, too?" Greasy exclaimed.

"Uh huh." Tommy replied.

"Speaking of muchacha, I wonder what's taking so long. Psycho, was everything all right when you followed her to wherever she had to go?"

"Pretty Girly was-" Psycho began.

"Working everything out with another girl who was behind the burning of my tree." I interrupted, surprising everyone in the room.

"Oh, there you are." Psycho said.

"How long have you been standing there?" Greasy asked.

"For a few minutes." I said.

Then, Smarty gave me a suspicious look and he hopped off the couch.

"And did everything 'quirk' out with the other girl, Birchwood?" He asked.

"Yyyesss." I lied. "And the word that you're looking for is 'work'."

Smarty didn't buy my answer. He knew that I was lying. What's even scarier was that Smarty was staring at my cheek.

"Birchwood, I know that you're hiding 'sumptin'." He said with his eyes on my base-covered cheek.

"What are you staring at?" I asked, even though I knew that Smarty noticed my base-and-blush-covered cheek.

Smarty brings his hand up to my face and with an unexpected but swift tug; he pulled the Band-Aids off my cheek. I quickly covered my cheek before he noticed anything.

"Take your hand off your cheek, Birchwood." Smarty said.

"Don't freak out once I do, Smarty." I replied.

I took my hand off my cheek and just as I predicted, Greasy went daffy. That's another way of saying 'He went crazy'.

"What happened?" Greasy asked.

"All right, I'll tell you. As soon as I met up with the person who was behind the burning of my tree, I told her that she really needed to stop torturing me or she would be asking for a lot of trouble." I explained.

"Beatrice, did Angie's cat scratch you?" Tommy asked.

I gasped.

"How did you know that I was talking to Angie?" I asked.

"I know you very well, Beatrice." Tommy replied.

"It wasn't Angie's cat who scratched me. It was Angie herself who did it. Then, things continued to get worse after Psycho was chasing after Angie's cat." I looked at Psycho who had a frightened look on his face. "It's okay, Psycho. The cat kind of deserved to be chased. Don't worry about it." Then, I went back to explaining. "After the cat climbed up a tree, Psycho tried to chase after it but I held him back because the cat already had enough scare for now. Then, Angie threatened to hit me with a broom if I didn't help her get her dumb ol' cat out of the tree. I told her that I wasn't responsible for her cat's actions. Even though Angie didn't see Psycho, she unknowingly whacked him on the head with her broom and then, she hit me. I fought back and pushed her in a mud puddle. Then, I said a few things to her and I broke her broomstick in an uneven half."

Tommy and the weasels looked at me with surprise. I think that the weasels were even more surprised than I expected.

"Beatrice, please don't tell me that you pushed Angie and she fell into a mud puddle." Tommy said.

"I did." I confessed.

"Don't tell me that you said anything else before and after you broke Angie's broomstick."

"I did but I won't even dare to repeat on what I said to Angie."

"Tell us, Birchwood." Flasher said.

"Yeah, tell us." Wheezy said.

"Do I really have to tell you?" I asked.

"Yeah." All but Greasy and Tommy said to me.

"You don't have to." Greasy said.

"Tell us, 'Birdwood'." Stupid said.

"It's 'Birchwood'." Tommy said to Stupid. "Beatrice, you know very well on what happens if you keep something bottled up. Just go ahead and tell us and I won't tell Mom or Dad."

"All right, all right, I'll tell you...verbatim…word for word. I said: 'You just messed with the wrong person. You do not mess with a Birchwood girl, her family, or her trees. If I see you or find out that you've been wandering around on my property again, I'll'-" I began and my voice began to grow softer and softer until it was no longer loud enough to hear.

"You'll what?" Everyone in the room asked in unison.

I nervously looked at everyone in the room.

"—'I'll flip you like an omelet and I'll…switch you good.'" I finished.

Psycho was the first to giggle and then, Smarty, Greasy, Wheezy, Stupid, Flasher, and Slimy began to laugh out loud. Smarty and Wheezy began roll around on the floor and I looked at Tommy in embarrassment.

"Did you—ha, ha, ha, ha!—actually say that you were going to 'squish' her?" Smarty laughed.

"It's 'switch' and I did say that but I didn't want to. It just slipped out of my mouth." I tried to explain.

…

Tommy:

For the first time since telling off Judge Doom, I was shocked to hear that Beatrice had to use her tough and defensive side to talk to a childhood bully. Usually, Beatrice would try to keep her tough side hidden and try to stop a bad situation by using non-violent methods but if someone gets her TOO ticked off, then that's when the defensive and tough side begins to show.

"Usually, I try not to show my defensive side and…sometimes it gets the better of me." Beatrice said to Smarty as he and the other weasels were trying not to laugh anymore. "I show my defensive side if I get too angry and after doing and saying some things, I sometimes regret those actions and sometimes I don't. Other times, I'm stuck in the middle."

"I get that feeling, too." Sleazy said (He introduced himself at the park after Beatrice took off running to our house).

"Yeah, so do I." Greasy said and nodded.

"And Birchwood, what did you mean by the other girl 'unknowingly hitting Psycho'?" Smarty asked.

"That's what I was about to tell you at the park. Tommy, will you make sure that I'm not skipping any details?" Beatrice asked.

"Yeah. Fire away with the explanation." I replied.

"All right. Tommy and I believe that strange things are going ever since I began to recover from the sleepwalking incident." Beatrice began. "One of the strange things was getting these messages from fortune cookies. I found four on my piano on the day that I got out of the hospital and a few weeks later to right now, Tommy and I found a two, three…or four more fortune cookies and they also gave us strange messages. Another strange thing that happened was a magic lamp falling from the sky-" Beatrice stopped for a second after she found Psycho covering his head with one of our throw pillows in our living room. "Psycho, it's not going to rain magic lamps. It was just one lamp that dropped out of the sky." Then, she goes back to the explanation. "Anyway, Tommy and I woke up a genie that was inside the magic lamp and he explained that Yen Sid has granted me and Tommy a special gift that very few people in this world have. We have the ability to see, hear, and talk to Toons who wander around here and outside of our house but nobody else, except for those who have the same gift as me and Tommy, can see Toons."

"That would explain why the little squirts didn't see us at the 'clay-baround'!" Smarty exclaimed.

"That would also explained why Angie, the girl that I had to talk to, unknowingly hit Psycho and tripped on him after he bent down." Beatrice said. "Tommy, are there any details that I'm missing?"

"No, you're good." I said.

Then, I heard the front door open.

"Who just walked in?" Smarty asked.

"BEATRICE ELAINE BIRCHWOOD, are you home?!" Mom angrily shouted.

"That's our mom." Beatrice said.

Then, Mom walked in the living, along with Dad, another man with salt-and-paper hair, and Angie. Dad looked frightened but Mom looked angry and she had her hands on her hips.

"Beatrice, what happened to your cheek?" Dad exclaimed.

"And why did you push my daughter in the mud?" The other man exclaimed.

Uh oh. The other man is Angie's father.

"Dad, my tree was burned down this afternoon." Beatrice said with sadness present in her voice.

"Do you know who burned it down?" Dad asked.

"Angie did it. She came by, dumped some nail polish remover on the tree, and lit it on fire. I didn't see Angie do any of that-"

"If you didn't see Angie, then how did you know that she did it?" Mom asked and crossed her arms.

"She left behind a bottle of nail polish remover and it literally had her name written on it." Beatrice said. "It's true that I pushed Angie in the mud but I did it for defense."

"What happened, Beatrice?" Dad asked.

"Before I pushed Angie in the mud, I told her that she really needed to stop hurting me or saying mean things to me. She scratched my cheek and then, she hit me on the back of my head with a broomstick. I stopped her and pushed Angie in the mud."

"I'm proud of you, muchacha. I'm glad that you stood up for yourself." Greasy said to Beatrice.

"Beatrice, that's no excuse for you to push Angie in to a mud puddle." Mom said.

"Mom, I had to defend myself and you know how much I liked that tree! Don't you even care about what I like and what I choose to do?"

"If Angie had punched Beatrice in the nose, what would Beatrice do in return? She would fight back if she had to!" I exclaimed.

"Beatrice also punched me, spat in my eyes, and threw a mud ball at my face!" Angie exclaimed.

"That's because you were threatening me, scratched my cheek, and tried to hit me with that mud ball! How much abuse are you going to throw at me?!" Beatrice exclaimed angrily.

"Not only did she did those things to me, Beatrice also proved that she's crazy after talking to an invisible person while Charlie was running around my backyard!"

"And this is where I come in." Angie's father said and took out a brochure and a crinkled piece of folded paper out of his trousers pocket. "Check out this brochure and make up your decision after reading it."

After Mom unfolded the brochure, I was shocked to see that it was an advertisement of an insane asylum.

"That particular place can help Beatrice not see those invisible people and not hurt my daughter. It'll help her a lot." Angie's dad said.

"THAT'S HORSE TURD!" Beatrice exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Greasy, Psycho, and Sleazy exclaimed, even though Mom, Dad, Angie, and her father can't hear or see them.

"I'm not going to that stupid place! I'M NOT CRAZY! I was being defensive! I rather eat playground dirt than go to an insane asylum!" Beatrice exclaimed.

"Beatrice, lower your voice!" Mom said.

"And here is this slip of paper that was signed by the head of the asylum. If you don't call him as soon you get this, then you and your family will have to give up your property and live in a poor house." Angie's father said.

I heard the weasels, Beatrice, and Dad gasp in shock.

"Hey, they can't do that!" Wheezy exclaimed.

"That is horse turd!" Greasy exclaimed, agreeing with Wheezy.

As soon as Mom stopped reading the paper, she handed Dad the slip of paper and said to me and Dad, "Tommy, Abbot, we can't lose this house. I'm afraid that Beatrice will have to go."

"NO, MOTHER! I'M NOT CRAZY! THAT IS NOT SHOWING SYMPATHY TO YOUR OWN DAUGHTER! DON'T YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT ME?! I…AM NOT…AN ANIMAL! I AM…A HUMAN BEING! YOU'RE SOUNDING LIKE I'M A SICK DOG AND I HAVE TO BE PUT TO SLEEP!" Beatrice exclaimed.

"Scarlett, be reasonable. This is our daughter and she's our family. YOU CAN'T GIVE AWAY FAMILY!" Dad exclaimed.

But Mom didn't listen. She walked in to the kitchen and grabbed a pen from one of the drawers. She wrote something, probably her signature, on the paper and gave it back to Angie's dad.

"Thank you, Mrs. Birchwood. I'll let the head of the asylum know that you signed the paper and he'll let us know if he can accept Beatrice into his asylum." Angie's dad said.

Angie smiled evilly at Beatrice, stuck her tongue at her, and left with her dad.

…..

Beatrice:

Two hours after what happened, I walked out to the backyard. Then, I realized that my tree was burnt and I decided to walk down to the public park. It was the same park where Kaitlyn killed herself.

When I arrived at the small lake of the park, I gathered up some flat rocks and sat down on a bench made out of two logs.

I picked up one of the rocks and it skipped three times after I threw it pretty hard.

After three more rocks were tossed and skipped, a teardrop rolled down from my cheek and it stung my cuts a little bit.

As I thought about how Mom would do after she sees me leave, time passed really quickly. Soon, afternoon turned into a cool evening. All I ever did as time passed was skip rocks and feel the sting from my cuts as teardrops rolled down my cheeks.

It was approximately eight-thirty at night when I heard some footsteps shuffling towards my direction. With the help of giant lamp post at the lake, I saw Greasy's shadow walking towards me.

"All right if I join you, muchacha?"Greasy asked.

"Go ahead." I said quietly.

Greasy walked up to the log as soon as I threw my last flat rock.

Two…three…I thought as I counted the number of skips. …four…five…six…seven…

The rock stopped skipping and it disappeared in to the water.

"That was a good one." Greasy said and he took off his coat.

"New record for me." I mumbled.

I felt Greasy's coat covering my shoulders and then, he sits down on my left side. It doesn't feel too cold right now.

"I was really worried about you when you left your house and didn't come back. Are you doing okay?" Greasy asked.

"I just can't believe that my own mom would go that far. I feel so unwanted. I feel like…an untouchable." I replied. "But what I'm usually called by my mom is 'bad luck penny'."

"She calls you that?"

"She's been calling me that since I began to read at a college student level. My mom never wanted me from the beginning. She wanted to have two sons but when I was born; my mom didn't appreciate anything about me."

"What do you mean by 'anything'?" Greasy asked.

"Reading at a college student level when I was three, playing the piano at a young age, and being smarter than a lot of students in my schools." I replied.

"Those are good things."

"I don't think they're good things anymore. I'm tired of other people making me answer every question in a lesson and how they use me for selfish reasons. Mom would always say, 'That's what happens when you're bad luck penny'."

Greasy looked at me with concern.

"Do you believe those things that are being said to you, muchacha?" He asked.

"I believe that I am a bad luck penny. I try not to get any bad luck but it always comes to me wherever I go. I probably gave you bad luck when you and the other members of the Toon Patrol had to go back to jail after you tried to make me sleepwalk to Toon Town." I replied.

"Oh, no. That wasn't bad luck. It was a consequence because it was a wrong thing to do."

"If you say so, Greasy."

The wind blows for a second and then, Greasy turns my head toward his direction by placing his hand under my chin.

"When you said that you were going to flip that other girl like an omelet, I wasn't making fun of you. I was laughing because I was amazed and I never heard anyone say that in my life. But if I did hurt your feelings, then I'm sorry." He said.

"Greasy, it's okay." I replied. "But like I said earlier, I try not to reveal my defensive side but it gets the better of me sometimes."

"I believe you."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"By looking at your eyes."

My cheeks burned with embarrassment.

"My-my…my eyes?" I asked.

"Yeah. Whenever I look at them, not only do I see the beauty and the deep blue color, I see the innocence and curiosity that you have."

"I…I don't know what to say right now." I said.

"It's all right. I would also like to say that I'm glad that you stood up for yourself, even though things didn't work out in the end."

"That's what I get for being a bad penny."

Greasy grabbed my arms and I looked at him with surprise.

"You're not a bad luck penny." He said. "You're a smart, beautiful, and very talented girl. You can't let those words hurt you, muchacha, because there are some things that are not true about you at all. I want you to listen to me. Don't let those hurt you because you are not a bad luck penny. Even if people say that you are, there is always that light at the end of the tunnel. I even believe that there is some hidden destiny that is waiting to be discovered as you go with your life, muchacha."

Greasy pulls me in and begins to hug me. As he continues to talk, he rakes his fingers through my hair.

"Regardless of what those people say to you, I like you just the way you are. Respeto y amo." Greasy said and he kissed the top of my head.

"What does that mean? The last part of the sentence." I asked.

"It means 'I respect you'."

"Oh, okay."

"I really do like you, muchacha." Greasy said. "Even if your mom says that you're a bad luck penny, you're still the kind, smart, and talented girl that I see whenever I talk to you."

"That's one of the nicest things that I haven't heard in a long time." I said.

Greasy stopped hugging me and asked me if I was serious. I told him that I was.

"Don't let anyone put you down with their words, muchacha." Greasy said and put his left hand on my right cheek. "You're stronger than they are and you speak the truth. I want you to keep that in mind."

"I'll try." I said.

Then, Greasy smiled and looked at something on his right.

"Oh, yeah, um…your brother wanted me to bring you back your house because he was getting worried about you." He said. "I'll walk you home."

"You sure that you know the way back?" I asked.

"I'm sure."

As Greasy and I walked, I asked him about the dog tags around his neck. He told me that he was wearing those dog tags because he's not allowed to use magic for a certain period of time and he illegally copied a couple of my memories for personal purposes. That made a lot of sense.

Greasy really meant it when he said that he knew where we're going because I noticed that we didn't turn down to the wrong corner. I guess I shouldn't have underestimated him.

When we arrived at my house, I gave Greasy back his coat and I thanked him for sticking with me.

"I can walk the rest of the way." I said, although I'm ten feet away from the house.

"It's all right, muchacha, I'm letting you walk the rest of the way. Plus, the other members of the Toon Patrol are probably waiting for me back at Toon Town and I need to be heading that way." Greasy said. "Until our next meeting, adios."

After I said good-bye to Greasy, I walked to the front door. I began to have a feeling that trouble is about to come to me. I know because after closing the door, I saw a man, who looked like Judge Doom in his human form, walking towards me with an evil grin.