Since I have no life and a lot of free time, here's the next chapter!
starspring: Sorry for the confusion. I'll try to clear it up a little in later chapters, k?
kataracullen: cheesy, eh? Hmm, let's see if we can fix that.
I came home to find that Goldilocks was sitting on the couch in front of the TV, pigging out on the potato chips, chugging down all the soda, and placing her feet on the table. She set the TV on the cartoon channels and looked like she had been there since I left, so it was a pretty good guess that neither she nor Red saw what happened on the news.
"Where have you been?" She asked, nonchalantly, once she saw I was home.
"Around." I replied, walking toward the stairs. Normally, our conversation would have ended at that, but this time, it continued.
"Where'd you get the bear?"
I held on tight to my teddy bear. "It's from the toy store."
She arched an eyebrow and grinned. "You stole it, didn't you?" She knew I was a shoplifter, and she always used it against me, trying to blackmail me into doing her bidding (though, it never worked, since I would rather confess my sin rather than be her slave, so she never got me.) She had been trying it for years.
I sneered at her. "FYI, a friend gave it to me."
She laughed at this. "Oh, please, Blu. You don't have any friends! Just admit that you're a thief."
I clenched my fists (she was really getting on my nerves). "I do so have friends! …And even if I was a thief---" (which I sort of was) "---I would be trying to steal valuable things, not some teddy bear!"
Goldi rolled her eyes. "Whatever. If you do have friends, why haven't I met them?"
I scoffed. "Because I like them, therefore I don't want to torture them." I began walking up the stairs.
"Hmmph. So who gave you the teddy bear? And for what reason?"
I paused, not facing her. "Pin." And I ended it at that, ignoring the bratty comments she had left for me. I walked into my room and locked the door, then sat on my bed, holding the teddy bear in my arms. Why did Pinocchio give me you? I mentally asked the teddy bear.
Maybe he likes you, A voice of hope replied in my head. Nah, I thought. Who would like a girl like me?
Obviously Pinocchio.
I sighed and lied down in my bed, hugging my teddy bear like I used to when I was little, and I drifted to sleep…
I regained consciousness after my fall. My neck hurt like a bitch, and I lay there, paralyzed, as flames engulfed my house. "Mommy…" I groaned, tears spilling from my eyes. I was facing the living room window, and was horrified at the sight I saw: my parents, trapped behind flames. "Mommy! Daddy!" I wanted to get up, try to help them, but I couldn't move. I was in too much pain.
I wanted to look away, to close my eyes, but I couldn't. The sight was just that horrible. I screamed when I saw that my mother's skirt caught fire, and she panicked, trying desperately to take it off while my dad tried to fan out the flames, but it didn't help. Suddenly, my mother, while in an unsteady standing position trying to take off her skirt, lost balance and fell against my father, and they both fell in the flames. I screamed.
Suddenly, a small figure grabbed me and dragged me away from the flames. I didn't see who it was, but their grabbing me shot pain throughout my body. I didn't look to see who it was, because I was too busy watching my home-- my parents-- burn. I cried for my mama, bawled for my papa, even though I knew they were dead.
The Fire Dept. arrived and doused my house with their hoses. It seemed like almost an hour before they finally put out the flames. A fireman saw me in the bushes, and gently picked me up. "Get this one to the hospital." he said as I was wrapped in a blanket and placed in an ambulance.
'Wait, there's someone else,' I wanted to say, remembering someone had carried me away from the flames, but I was in too much pain and shock to say anything, and I was taken to the hospital, crying, still seeing flames all around me…
Did I mention I hated nightmares about what happened to my parents? Because I really do. This time, rather than starting at my jumping out the window and skipping to the part where I woke up in the hospital, I dreamed about the details of what happened.
Godmother, I hated the details. I put my teddy bear under my bed with my dirty clothes and other junk, hiding it beneath the mess. I did this with all the things I cherished, knowing that Goldi would try to steal it. Okay, so I stole things from others too, but that's for a different reason.
You see, like I used to do with Robin, I steal things to help others get by (mostly myself… okay, just myself) Like money for food, or just food, since Porky-locks eats us out of house and home. Goldi, however, steals things just because she wants them. Got a new scarf? She wants it. Got a new bracelet? She'll want that too. Anything new someone gets, she wants, and if she doesn't get it, she'll throw a fit and/or steal it herself, hiding it away in her room.
I caught her in the act of stealing Red's sandals, and I told her parents. …But what happened? She hid the sandals in my room, pinning the whole thing on me. Red's parents and Goldi's parents were devastated that I tried to frame the 'little angel' for such a sin, and Red refused to trust me.
Now, I had a bigger problem. "BLU!!" My aunt Hood's voice yelled from downstairs, meaning I was in deep shit.
She had better have seen the news… I thought and prayed, even though I knew it would have nothing to do with that. I walked downstairs, seeing Red's parents and Goldilock's parents standing in the living room, looking very crossed, and Goldi standing between them, faking tears out of her eyes. Oh, great. The little bitch framed me for something again.
"Blu," My uncle Hood said calmly. "Goldilocks told us you stole something from her."
WHAT?! "I didn't steal anything," I said, trying not to glower at my pitiful cousin.
"You did too!" Goldilocks snapped, crying convicingly (damn, why did she have to be a good actor?!). "You stole that teddy bear I got from the toy store this weekend!"
"You didn't go to the toy store this weekend." I can't believe she was lying like this!
"Yes I did! I went there after you… after you… hit me!"
"You hit her?!" Goldi's mom gasped.
"I most certainly did not!" I snapped.
"Yes you did!" Goldi bawled, then turned to her parents. "I-I was just watching TV, and she took the remote away from me, and when I tried to take it back, she punched me!" She pointed to her cheek, where there was a bruise (obviously, she did it herself, being an expert on pinning crimes on others). "I then ran out of the house and into town, and I got lost, so I went into the Toy Store, and Mr. Geppetto asked me why I was crying, and I told him Blu was being mean, so he gave me a teddy bear to make me feel better and brought me home, and Blu was gone, so he went back to the store. But when she came home, she took away my teddy bear, saying I didn't deserve it because I ran off!" Then she bawled again, as her parents glared at me.
"You've got to be shitting me," I muttered quietly, then spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear me, "She's lying! I didn't hit her, she gave herself that bruise! I was out all day!"
"Liar! Give me my teddy bear back!"
"Blu, just calm down and apologize to your cousin," My uncle Hood said, rubbing his temples.
They all looked at me, waiting for me to apologize. I noticed Goldi gave me a sinister smirk, I win again, it seemed to say. I clenched my teeth and bawled my fists. "No," I said sternly.
"Blu---" My aunt Hood gasped.
"No, I'm not apologizing for something I didn't even do!" Godmother, I was getting blamed for everything today! I stormed up to my room.
"Blu!" My uncle Hood yelled. "You get back here this instant!"
"Forget it!" I slammed my door shut and locked it. I was mad as hell. They always listened to the brat, never to me. I grabbed my backpack and pulled out all my valuables: a shoebox full of money (which I forgot about until now), a compass Robin gave to me for my tenth birthday, a glow-in-the-dark flashlight (very rare), the teddy bear Pinocchio gave me, and finally, the item I possessed dearly…
A round locket made from pure, solid gold with a blue crystal in the middle of it. It was a gift the Dwarves and Snow White made for me for Christmas. But it wasn't the gold or jewels that were valuable to me, but what was inside of it: a picture of me and my parents, together and smiling, sitting on a picnic blanket on the beach, having fun. Engraved next to it were the words, Forever With You. I winced, placing the locket around my neck, and placing everything else into my backpack.
I climbed out the window, jumping over to a tree branch that was conveniently right outside my window. I climbed down the tree, crouching on my hands and knees and sneaking past the living room window, accidentally overhearing the conversation.
"…just upset, is all," My aunt Hood was saying. "It is the anniversary of Anna and Dave's deaths, and I guess she's still traumatized."
"That's still no excuse to abuse her cousins," Goldi's mom huffed. "I think, from now on, we'll be taking Goldilocks on our business trips, rather than leaving her here with Blu." She spat out my last name as if it were a poisoned apple.
At least one good thing came from this. I thought.
"And we expect you both to do the same," Goldi's dad said firmly to Red's parents. "If she puts our daughter through this sort of torment, just think of what she does to a girl her age…"
"Red hasn't complained about anything," My uncle Hood said. "She namely stays in her room texting, on the computer visiting social-network sites, or just going out with her friends."
"In other words, keeping away from Blu---"
"Roger!" My aunt Hood snapped.
"Don't deny it, Sarah," Goldi's mom said, sneering. "That niece of ours is nothing but trouble! She's been caught in various crimes, and she's even been in cahoots with that thieving son of yours---"
"Our son is not a thief!" Uncle Hood snapped. "…At least, not anymore… He's become more responsible, now."
"But that didn't happen until he caught that John felon." Goldi's dad pointed. "I doubt, with all due respect, that Blu wouldn't be the kind of person who would do the same deed. She's more criminal than Robin once was."
I clenched my fists. Now they were saying Robin was a criminal--- the bad type of criminal, anyway. I was getting really pissed, but that's not the worst of it. "She should be sent to an institution." Goldi's mom stated. "If she's this traumatized, as you've said, she should be sent to a mental facility for professional help---"
"Enough!" Aunt Hood shouted. "I will not listen to any more of this!" She forced Goldilocks and her parents out the door. "Good day!" though, she didn't say it sweetly, slamming the door in their faces.
"Mommy, are they going to send Blu away?" I heard Goldilocks ask innocently, though I could sense eagerness in her voice.
"That's up to them, sweetheart." Goldilock's mom replied. They got into their car and drove off, and I ducked into the bushes to avoid being seen.
"Maybe they're right, Sarah," Uncle Hood sighed. "Maybe Blu does need some therapeutic help."
"Henry!" Aunt Hood gasp. "We are not sending her---"
"Not to an institution, but a therapist. Maybe she needs someone to help clear her head---"
I couldn't listen to any more. They thought I was insane, that I was mentally sick and took it out on Red and Goldi! And, bringing up my parents' deaths as the cause… That was going too far! I gripped my backpack and ran into the woods, away from my so-called 'family'.
A/N: Ooh, tension! Please R/R, flames are used for burning, cooking, and heat, nothing else.