Chapter 5! Hurrah!
Ana stared at the many racks of clothing before her. The shirts came in tons of different colors and patterns and it looked as if there was a rack completely dedicated to each. Ana and Keiko went through each rack, collecting the ones that appealed to the two girls. They kept up a constant chatter, calling to each other about, 'Oh, this would look great on you!' and 'Wow, look at this one!'
"Hey, this one is perfect! Keiko, look!" Ana said. The girls had discovered that all the shirts came in 4 different styles. Ana's favorite style pertained to the shirt she was holding up to see.
The straps that held it up didn't just sit on the shoulders, but it looked like they wrapped around her neck to cross in an X on her back. The neck dipped down into a rounded V. It looked exactly like the black one Keiko was holding up, except Ana lifted up the loose folds to reveal an attached undershirt that was designed to cling to and follow the contours of the body.
"It's like a cami with a built in bra, only dressy!" Ana said.
"Sweet! See if they have it in white, Ana."
When the girls were done, and everything was bought, Jack and Ana waved good bye to Keiko.
"Who's your friend, Ana?" Jack asked smugly. She nudged him.
"Don't poke fun, Jake."
"Jake? My name's not—" Jack began, but Ana interrupted him.
"I figure it's best if we each kept a spare name or two around. Just in case."
"Why?" Jack asked. They entered the food court.
"Because. Aliases, hello? They come in handy. If I'm Mel in one setting and Anastasia or Ana in another, people won't really make a connection."
"But why would you need one? No one knows you!"
"Yet. Trust me, names are important. They're a form of identity. If someone is looking for Mel, they'll find Ana instead. If someone is looking for Ana, they'll find Mel. And when hanging out with other people who call me Ana when they're looking for Mel, or Mel when they're looking for Ana, that only adds up to convincing whoever wants to know that I'm whoever I want to be at the time."
"You can't believe it'll actually work," Jack scoffed. He bought some food and they ate at their table.
"Actually, I can. When I was in Junior High, having another name available turned out to be the best course of action. Once, there was this pep assembly at my school. My friend Shane had to sit on a second row bench and when I was just about to plop down next to her, her annoying, pervy little brother, Phillip, scooted in right next to her. He knew she couldn't stand him, so he was doing it just to bug her. Taylor and I tried to get him to move, but his fat ass wouldn't budge. So during the whole assembly, Taylor and I took turns kicking, punching, pinching his back, and slapping him really hard upside the head. Taylor was really rough on him. She's a violent person.
"Well apparently, the little creep was a grubby little snitch too. HE told his parents and showed them his "bruises" and got Shane in trouble. Their parents are the worst! Actually, I think it's just their mother. But neither of them cares much about Shane. They're mentally abusive, strict, hypocritical and unfair, and all around they act like asshole-ish dictators. Shane was told she couldn't hang out with me or be my friend. Kinda hard to follow those directions when we had choir together and walked to lunch right afterwards." Ana took a bite of the fries Jack had bought for them to share. Jack stared at her.
"What does that have to do with the names?" he exclaimed, incredulous. He ate some fries as well.
"Well, on the way to lunch, we have to walk past the gym. The choir room is in the Highschool and the gym hallway runs between the two buildings. It's the only way we can get to lunch after class. Shane and I walk together in that hallway. Phillip had gym and when the bells are about to ring, the gym kids wait around in that hallway. Phillip saw us walking and talking together. He snitched; Shane got in trouble; Shane told me and I made a plan."
"Still, what has it all got to do with extra names?" Jack reiterated.
"I'm getting there! It's part of the plan anyway. Shane told me she was told she couldn't hang out with me. More specifically, the girl with my name. Her parents don't know me, so they have no way to know the difference. I came up the idea to become someone else. One of the things I'm really good at is telling a convincing lie. I'm an amazing liar. I managed to persuade all my friends to start calling me Morgan. We practiced that day and then on the next day, I went up to Phillip and was nice and I introduced myself as Morgan. Then I made up some elaborate story about I was my own twin sister and the real me was playing hooky, so we swapped spots every now and again because we lived in different households and one of us was public school while the other was home schooled."
"No way," Jack said. "He didn't really buy it, did he?"
"That's the funny part! He totally did! (1) I managed to create my own alias and everyone called me Morgan at lunch, or whenever Phillip was around. It was cool, cos I got to start over a little. Phillip sat at our table and we all found out he was really funny. Everyone in our group has a sick sense of humor, including me, and we were happy to find out that Phillip was the same! So anyway, everyone got along, fun times were had, Shane and I could hang out without Phillip snitching, and Shane didn't get in trouble anymore. Over time, I eventually revealed my true identity, but he didn't care at that point. I don't think he even remembered the pep assembly incident."
Jack snagged the last fry as Ana was reaching for it. She snapped her fingers and made a 'damn' face. "So you kept out of trouble and did what you wanted anyway." He said.
"Yep. It also allowed me to stay out of trouble when I was keeping my real name. Mostly anyway."
"Really? Another story? Cool. Spill it!"
"Alright, there was this one girl who sat at the table behind us. Her name was Jessica Ingles." Ana paused and scowled. Her voice took on a mean undertone.
"At first, I felt sorry for her. Normally, I try to ignore the mentally deficient. I'm somewhat nice to them even though they creep me fuck out. But if there is such thing as a preppy retard, Jessica was the one. Ugh, I hated her! I was nice to her for a while, waving at her in the halls as I passed, saying 'hi' in the morning. And damn it, there is a picture in the back of the yearbook of me standing next to her fat ass because I felt bad that she had no one to take group photos with when the photographer came around! It's immortalized in that yearbook! For anyone to see!" Ana took a sip of her soda.
"After that, she wouldn't leave us alone. She wanted to be included in our group. I'm sorry I ever gave her the attention. She wouldn't leave us alone! She bugged me, she bugged my friends, she butted into our conversations, she was an annoying pest, and she wouldn't go away. No one liked her and we all told her so. Every time I yelled at her, called her names and such, I was using the name Morgan. She would've gone away eventually, except for ONE person refused to be mean and send her away. And I damn near broke up with him for it too."
"You had a boyfriend?"(2) Jack asked. Ana's scowl got deeper.
"Yeah," she said grudgingly. "I don't want to talk about him now."
"Maybe later," Jack conceded. Ana nodded, then continued with her story.
"Finally, one day I got fed up. That day I snapped because she's so stupid and she didn't get that no one wanted her there and she was so stubborn and stupid—"
"You already said stupid." Jack interjected.
"That day," Ana continued on. "I threw a punch at her in the cafeteria at our tables, but she turned at the last second. So I ended up thumping her hard in the spine and at the same time, I called her a retarded bitch. I said it really mean, too, like if someone was writing dialogue for me, they'd write 'she snarled' right after the words. (3)
"She'd sat behind our table long enough but she couldn't quite remember my name; she "knew" it started with an 'M'. She thought my name was Morgan, so when she snitched to the principal, about an hour later, I might add, he didn't get around to me for about a week, and only because he couldn't figure out who the 'Morgan' she was talking about was. It's a shame he had the bright idea to use a school yearbook. Worse than a line-up, I tell you; I wasn't around to refute anything she said. So she picked me right out and said, 'That's Morgan'. The principal was confused and told her that I couldn't be Morgan. She insisted and he told her my real name.
"For the next three days afterwards, he came to my gym class and pulled me to the side and asked questions, trying to figure things out. I played dumb and pretended not to know anything. 'What happened? Where? Who? I don't know her. I've never heard of Jessica Ingles in my life! I know a Jon Ingles, but I didn't know he had a sister. We do have a weird girl who sits behind us at lunch. We don't know her name, but she talks to herself all the time. Really crazy. She tries to tell us all sorts of weird things that never make any sense, but we ignore her for the most part.'" Ana put on the doe eyes and an innocent look, ducked her chin and looked up through her eye lashes. She made her voice sound all sweet and naïve as she imitated what she'd just said.
Jack laughed. Wuya asked, "What happened next?"
Ana chuckled, her head still ducked down, but her face anything but innocent now. Her voice was dark again.
"He came back every day after lunch, asking questions. He'd said that Jessica had gone to him, bawlin' her eyes out. She'd said that I punched her in the face in the hallway after lunch. I told him it wasn't true. I acted outraged and indignant. And I was!" Ana scowled. "I told him that nothing she said was true, that he had the wrong person. I told him I didn't do anything she said I did and that she doesn't even know my name. And that was actually the truth."
"How?" Jack asked. "You said you punched her! Didn't you?"
"I did punch her. But she was still lying. If you remember, I punched her in the back in the lunchroom during lunch. Not in the face, in the hallway, after lunch. I never told him that, but she was still lying and I was still telling the truth."
"Sounds like a game of Clue, to me," Jack muttered. Ana smiled. "You guys have Clue here? That's so cool; we have it in my world too!"(4)
"That's cool," Jack said. "But what happened next?"
"On the third day, he was mad. He yelled at me, saying I was lying and blah, blah, blah. Longer story short: I got suspended. My mom was terrible; she sides with the principals no matter what they say, even when she knows they're wrong. I didn't know how I got suspended when I had at least 9 people on my side; more since everyone else at the table who weren't in my inner circle vouched for me too. Plus, there was a table across from ours that vouched for me, because it was filled with a whole bunch of my other friends who hung out with their other friends and such. They all were on my side and they all put a word in for me, because I'm just that awesome."
"Modest too," Jack chuckled. He motioned for Ana to continue.
"After I got back from being suspended, I found out the reason why. There was one, count it, ONE, other brown-noser who sat at the end of the table that Jessica sat at. He didn't sit with her, not all the time. He was the only person who sided with her, lousy prick.(5) And because the principal was an unfair jerk-ass, I got suspended. Because of one person who wouldn't get with the program. Tch. Typical. If it was me in there crying cos some bitch thumped my back and called me a name, no one would have done anything. I would've just had to deal with it. Of course, people don't come up and just thump me, cos a few learned the hard way that I thump back!"
"Huh." Jack said. Just then, Keiko came up to the table.
"Hey Ana, do you wanna swap numbers?" Ana grimaced.
"Sorry, I can't. I've never even had a cellphone before." Jack blinked.
"You do now," he said. He reached into his pocket and handed a silver phone to Ana.
"I got it while you two were shopping," he said. I got one for me, too. My # and the home phone are already programmed in. And I have yours too." Ana smiled broadly.
"Wow, thanks Jake! Cool!" Jack didn't react to the name this time.
"Wanna add me, Ana?" Ana nodded and Jack watched as they took turns swapping numbers.
"Thanks Keiko. Have you met my friend?" Keiko shook her head. Jack picked up the name book while Ana wasn't looking. While the two girls were chatting, Jack searched for names.
Keiko sat down at the table and ignored Jack.
"Are you new here?" she asked.
"In a matter of speaking, yes. But I have Jake here, so—"
"Jared" Jack interrupted.
"Huh?" Ana looked to Jack, blinking. He rolled his eyes.
"My name is Jared." Ana caught on quickly and smiled sheepishly.
"O-oh yeah. Right. Sorry, I keep getting you confused with someone else I know—KNEW. Sorry Keiko, this is Jared." Ana said. Keiko put her hand forward across the table to Jack.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Keiko." Jack took her hand and shook it. "Jared Silas. Likewise." Keiko blushed a little, then stood.
"I gotta go. I have to be somewhere soon and if I don't skedaddle I'll be late."
"K! It was nice to meet you!" Ana called as Keiko left. When she was gone, she turned to Jack.
"Jared Silas?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Anastasia?" Jack countered.
"Touché. What's your new name mean?"
"Jared means 'one who rules' and Silas means 'Silvanus the forest god'."
"'One who rules the forest God'. Cool."
"I see you're hard at work making new friends," Jack commented.
"That's Keiko."
"So I've heard."
"Keiko is Kimiko's best friend, Jack."
"And you would know this how?"
"The fans and I tend to pay a LOT of attention to details in the show. Kimiko talks with Keiko all the time. They tell each other everything. Even if I didn't know a lot about things that are to come, we now have an ear on the inside. I know Kimiko loves to gossip with Keiko all the time. And vice versa."
Ana could tell Jack was catching on, and quick. His eyes widened and he said, "So Kimiko tells Keiko stuff…"
"And Keiko will end up telling me stuff." Ana finished. "Or you. But that's another reason why we need to keep secret alternative identities. She's likely to tell Kimiko all about her new friend Ana, and Jared, the boy who was with her. When we meet the monks in a showdown, we're Mel and Jack."
"They'll have no idea that we're also Ana and Jared. Kimiko won't know and she won't think to warn Keiko and we can still get our information! AND it's a double-trick, 'cause one of us will keep our real name at all times, alternately. Sweet! How did I get lucky enough to be paired with a fellow evil mastermind?" Jack exclaimed, putting his hands to his head. Ana folded her arms behind her head and leaned back in her seat. She sighed.
"Eh, I practice. Spent a lifetime of bailin' me and my brother out of trouble. I think 70% of the few times we get caught, we don't get in trouble for the shit we do."
"Bump it, baby!" Jack held out his closed fist towards Ana. She cracked an eyelid and smirked, then bumped her fist into Jack's. The ring on her right hand nestled into Jack's knuckles briefly before they both pulled their hands away with a little waggling of their fingers.
"Come on, " Jack sighed. "We need to get all these clothes home. It's getting late and I'm not too comfortable in public." He and Ana gathered up all their bags stuffed full of merchandise; three bags each.
As they reached the giant fountain in the center of the mall, Ana noticed two boy children standing around. They looked to be about 11 and 12. Since Jack was walking faster, he had ended up about 15 feet in front of Ana. As he passed the boys first, they pointed at him and laughed. When he heard their jeering, he cringed slightly and turned around slowly. Ana stopped too and saw Jack scowling at the boys.
Ana caught his eye. He looked at her. She was standing directly behind the taller of the boys and neither one of them had noticed her yet. Ana tossed Jack an evil grin. Gripping her bags on the opposite side from the boys, the hand gripping them wedged firmly on her cocked hip, she made a quick sashay and swung her hip to the right (her left) in a swift and firm motion. It bumped into the boy roughly and he screamed as he lost his balance and face-planted into the water.
The smaller boy stopped jeering at Jack and laughed at the other boy in the water instead.
Ana started towards Jack again and didn't stop as she rocked her hip again to send the other boy into the fountain.
"Hey!" the first boy shouted. Ana turned as she slipped an arm through Jack's, openly mocking the children in the water.
"What?" she asked in a mock innocent voice.
"You pushed us in!" the other boy shouted.
"Oops! Ma bad! Guess Karma really is a bitch, huh?" she taunted. The taller boy stood up, dripping wet.
"Who are you?" he questioned. Ana's lip curled at that.
"Karma," she sneered. Then she and Jack deftly spun on their heels and walked away. The indignant shouts of the boys could be heard as Security dragged them both out of the water and scolded them.
Okay, I had to cut this chapter short because it was originally too long. So it will be continued in the next chapter, okay? Now for the numbers:
(1) Ha! Phillip's such an idiot...
(2) We broke up soooo long ago... He was a total douche.
(3) Heh, irony... The dialogue thing, not the punch and "retarded bitch".
(4) It would be entirely too hard to not have anything in common with this world, so they DO have some stuff familiar to us. Actually a lot.
(edit)
(5) I only recently learned that the boy who vouched for Jessica didn't know the whole story. He apologized for getting me suspended and we all took turns making fun of Jessica. (the lower classmen are in the highschool with us now.)