I did all of this for you
Just to make your dreams come true
And I won't let them bring you down
This is all so much more than pretend
"I hope this room is to your liking." Chris said as she opened the door to the guest room across from Koty's room. I walked in and was actually taken in by the cuteness of the room. It didn't have much, but the homey feeling of it made her feel...welcome. It had a queen size, at least, bed near the window, that looked out across the pasture where the horses were kept, a dresser was to my immediate right when I walked in, then I saw that to the left, near the window, was a closet with a white sliding door, you obviously had to pull it back to get it to open.
"It's beautiful, Mrs. Jacobs." I said. Chris raised her hand.
"Please, call me Chris, my students don't even call me that.." She said.
"Alright then, you call me C.C., and I take it you must be a teacher." I said as I sat down on the bed.
"Yep, I sure am. I'm a music teacher, I run the band and chorus, and I am also the ROTC's shooting range teacher, all my students just call me Miss Chris, they apparently think it sounds funny." She laughed a little as did myself"So what about you, what do you do?" She asked as she leaned against the wall, folding her arms over her chest. I couldn't help but stare at her for a moment. Other than khakis, she was wearing a white shirt as well as a denim jacket and her feet were covered by a pair of Nike tennis shoes and the only piece of jewelry she had on, other than a pair of little silver heart earrings, was her wedding ring. This woman was just as plain as they come, and I wished I was something like she was.
"I'm a Broadway producer. Perhaps you've heard of it, Sheffield-Babcock productions?" I asked. I watched as Chris racked in her brain, she looked up at the ceiling and if by magic, she looked back down at me with a smile on her face and her eyes wide like someone had just given her a present.
"Yes! I know of you! You're Maxwell Sheffield's business partner! Wow! I'm excited that I am standing here talking to you!" She exclaimed.
"Well believe me, I'm not much to be excited about. I'm not all you hear about in the magazines and newspapers, I have a life that I am not very proud of after meeting y'all for the first time." I said and then she heard Chris giggle. "What is it?"
"You just said "y'all", I think you're catching onto our style of speaking." She said and I chuckled a little herself.
"I've never heard anyone quite like any of you speak. But there's something different about you, you don't have a major Texas accent like your husband and Derick, perhaps that is from being a music teacher?" I asked.
"That's part of it, but I was also raised in Georgia near Savannah. My parents were very high up people, I hated it, but I didn't have a choice. My sister and I were taught to speak like ladies. Ha, I sure showed them. When I was about seven years old, I was given a BB gun by my grandpa and he also gave me a little stick pony. I used to pretend to be some kind of cowgirl that would shoot at bad guys, then jump on her horse and ride away. I was a little over imaginative." She smiled...
C.C. stopped momentarily to wipe her eyes, Chris's smiles were so beautiful and so full of life, it really hurt to write these little details down. Her foot was beginning to fall asleep, so she decided she needed to get up and walk around for a moment. She placed the book on the bed and stood carefully to her feet. She placed her hands on the small of her back and pushed outward, making it pop and circling her neck, like Anja had taught her to do without having to break her neck.
She walked around the room slowly trying to get the feeling back in her feet, she wasn't sure how long she'd been writing, but when she looked out the window, she had a pretty good idea of how long. It was starting to get dark out with the lights of the city still shining in. Snarling, she yanked the curtains closed and laid down on the bed, leaving her feet over the sides and her arms were spread out like she was bored slam to death. There was a knock at her door and she turned her head to look at it.
"Miss Babcock?" Niles asked as he stuck his head in the door. She smiled at him and motioned with her fingers for him to come in.
"It's all right Niles, just come on in." She said as she looked back up at the ceiling, a smile still on her face.
"Here, I brought you something to eat." He said as he showed her the platter with a plate on it. She sat up and took the plate from him and the glass of water as well.
"Thanks Niles." She said. He placed a hand on hers for a moment and squeezed. He smiled at her before he turned and walked out, he didn't want her to be alone either, but he knew it was what she'd want.
Apparently he had known she'd been craving a grilled cheese sandwich. As she munched on it happily, she picked up the composition book again and began to read over what she had written. This was amazing she could remember every little detail, but, it all had been burned into her flesh like a scar, and no matter what she put on it, it'd always be there.
When she was finished with her food, she picked up the pen again and began to write, this chapter would probably be the happiest, at least for a little while.
When we walked back downstairs, we discovered that Rick was helping Tanita with her homework, he looked rather funny sitting cross legged on the floor, his legs were almost too long to do so. Anja was sitting on the couch was engrossed in a book she was reading, no telling what it was.
"She's like me, loves to read, except her writing is ten times better than my own while Tanita also loves to read and write, she excels best when it comes to keeping everyone laughing." Chris explained and I nodded.
"They seem like sweet girls, they're twins obviously." I said.
"Yep, I named them both after friends of mine, but one lives over in England and the other in Belgium, so they haven't been able to see them yet, but if you saw them in person, you'd swear they looked just like them." She smiled as did I, then I realized something.
"Where's Derick?" I asked, I couldn't believe he'd leave me alone, I might try to make a break for it, though I don't think I'd make it very far.
"He went outside to make a phone call, he's out in the barn if you want to go check on him and I wish ya would, he's been out there a while." Rick said as he continued to help Tanita do something.
"Ah-h, ok then, I shall go see him then." I said as I walked toward the back door. I had rolled my eyes at the fact I had to go find him myself, I wasn't his keeper, hell, he was mine at the moment.
When I got within earshot of the barn, I heard him arguing with someone on a cell phone obviously, whoever was on the other line apparently was giving him hell.
"No! I ain't done it yet! I'll get around to it, I just want to milk this out for as long as I can. We don't want to make Mr. Sheffield give in if I kill her now." I heard him sigh. "Yes sir, I'll do it as soon as possible." Oh shit, he was still going to kill me! I stopped in my tracks and was seriously about to run my ass all the way back to New York or somewhere other than here when I saw him walking out of the barn. I pretended to be staring up at the sky like I'd heard nothing at all, time to be a dumb blonde.
"I've never seen a sky quite as blue as this!" I exclaimed.
"I'd imagine not, the city doesn't really have a skyline durin' the day as far as I am concerned, at night though is a different story, but, I still like to see stars every once in a while." I looked back down at him and he was smiling a lopsided grin. He had a hand in his pocket and had put his weight on one foot, if he wasn't a murderer and a kidnapper, I'd find him charming and handsome...but still not my type.
"Alright, look here Derick Jacobs," I walked over to him and stuck my finger to his chest. "You had better tell me when I will get to go home, your family is very nice and I really like Chris, but you'd get me out of here fast, or I swear to God above that I will blow the whistle on you." I said as I jammed my finger in his chest.
He held up his hands as if he was giving up. "I will in good time, just be patient ok? Come here, I want to introduce you to someone very special to me." He turned his back on me and walked back into the barn. I stomped my foot and growled. I clenched my fists at my sides and trudged in the barn after him.
I found him at the very end and he was standing in front of a stall, he had his hand stuck in through one of the bars and I could hear him snapping his fingers at something. What the hell? He motioned with his free hand for me to come closer and as soon as I did, I saw what he was snapping at, in the stall was a little baby foal, a palomino who was deciding whether or not to come near him.
"And this is-s-s-s?" I asked, wondering why he'd brought me to this horse.
"This would be Sunshine, she's my pride and joy." He said before he clucked his tongue.
"I'm sure her mother is very beautiful." I said as I folded my arms across my chest and he looked at me like he was not amused.
"Haha Miss Comedian, no, I saved her, her mother died giving birth to her. I was the only one here to help with the birth, and ever since then, she's thought I was her mother, funny ain't it? Look, here she comes. Hey baby." He cooed as if he were talking to a child as the little filly walked to the bar where his hand was at. She pressed her nose against his hand and he scratched it. She gave a little snort and then she eyed me, she whinnied and then began to paw at the ground, I knew what that meant, she hated me to.
"She really is pretty, but I don't think she likes me that much." I said. He chuckled and grabbed my arm gently. He put me in front of him and with the hand that had been stuck in the stall, he gently slid my arm through the rails and placed it on Sunshine's nose. She sniffed me and gave a happy-ish sounding whinny and in reply, I scratched her nose.
"See? All is takes is time." Derick whispered into my ear. My eyes grew wide when I realized his hand was still on my own, so I tugged it free and then moved away from him.
"Derick! May I speak to you please?" Chris yelled from out of the barn. I looked back at him once more before I ran from the barn, past Chris, who looked at me like I was crazy, and I didn't stop running until I reached the truck. I jumped inside and slammed the door. I couldn't believe he'd just been so kind to me, at first I thought he was going to kill me, but something was tugging at my heart that he wouldn't kill me, with that thought, I placed my hands on my face and sobbed quietly, I had no earthly idea why, but I did.
When I had finished my little pity party, I looked up and saw that Chris and Derick were talking, but by the way it looked, Chris was getting scared. She had her hand covering her mouth, then she turned her back to him and was shaking her head as if he'd told her some horrible news. I saw her purse her lips together and look up at the sky, like she was searching for an answer. Derick put his hand on her shoulder and she turned her head to look at him. I could see her sigh and nod. She turned back to face him and he told her something, but I couldn't make out what it was. She placed her hand on his shoulder and nodded again. I noticed that she was walking toward the truck, and I quickly assumed the position I had been a few minutes prior, I even added in little sniffs and stuff like that.
"C.C.? Are you all right?" Chris asked as she stood by my window, I could tell she was there by the distance in her voice, as well as I could hear her more out of my right ear than my left. I opened the door and propped it open, she moved back a little ways so she wouldn't get hit with it.
"I'm fine, just a little...homesick." I said, and I was surprisingly telling the truth, or half of it anyway. I did miss my home, Chester, Maxwell, and the rest of the motley crew, and I'd only been "here" for a day, or had it been longer? Probably two would be my best guess.
"I understand, I really understand now. Hey! I have a suggestion! Whenever I don't feel so hot, I always take a shower, and don't take this the wrong way, but uh," She lifted up a few strands of my hair, you could definitely tell that it hadn't been washed in a couple of days. "You need one, seriously." She said as she dropped the strands and they landed right now the bridge of my nose. I looked at it cross eyed for a moment.
"That's the best idea I think I've heard in a long time." I said.
"Good, and seriously though, don't take that the wrong way, I just wanted to see if you could feel better. And it is also my understanding that you don't have any other clothes than that. You look about my size before I had three kids, but I still kept them, just in case I ever got that tiny again, so come on, I'll show you where you can get a shower and I'll find you some clothes." She took my hand and helped me out of the truck. Now I knew that she knew what had happened. Chris was the one who everyone could tell their secrets to, unlike Niles though, who could keep a secret until he met another person, she could keep them forever if she had to.
Song lyric is from Contrast by Not Tonight Josephine and the horse is named after their new single, don't know why it is called that, but in the words of the great Sophia Petrillo, I digress, sorry it took a while for the update, but I wanted to make it a little clear here that Derick is trying to get C.C. to trust him, but she's smart...or so she thinks (: