Name: Spiders, Matches, Aunts, and Uncles
Patton's Age: 9
Fanny's Age: 9
Natalie's Age: 6
Grade: 3rd
Fanny pedaled harder to catch up to Patton "So you finally got the house all moved in?"
"Yeah, we finished the boxes last night so we're partially moved in. We haven't unpacked everything and mom isn't in any rush because we're still sleeping on the floor in our rooms. I got the attic." Patton said proudly "The house was built in Victorian times and has a basement, 3 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, and the attic."
"Wait a minute Patton."
Patton stopped and turned around to look at her "What?"
"There are three of you and three bedrooms. Why do you have the attic? Just because you need to separate yourself from the other two females in your household?"
Patton just stared blankly for a minute "What?"
"Uggg. Did you take the attic instead of the other bedroom because you needed to get away from your mom and sister?" Fanny said annoyed
"Oh, no. We kind of brought someone back from Poland with us." Patton said as he started pedaling his bike again, Fanny caught up soon after "That's who I meant when I said I really didn't want you to meet her. She's not as bad as my mom and has pretty much raised me my entire life but I still think she's pretty bad."
Fanny stopped "How bad?"
Patton stopped abruptly and sighed, leaning non the handle bars "CeCe is 18, she's my dad's little sister, she got pregnant by her best friend when she was 16, she dropped out of school when she was almost 17, he left her and she lost the baby, then dad died, and now she lives with us and she's a drunk with 4 boyfriends."
Fanny just stared for a minute "Wow. Tragic."
"Not really that much different from everyone else in my family. They normally just do stuff and if the authorities don't like it….whatever."
Fanny laughed "You're not like that."
"Wanna bet? I listen to orders in the KND because I like the KND. I don't like police officers so I can't promise I'll be Mr. Perfect when I'm a…stinkin' teenager." Patton started to pedal again as Fanny followed.
Drilovsky House
Patton and Fanny walked up to the front door of the whitish-gray, three story, Victorian house. Fanny reached for the door handle but Patton stopped her.
"I can't promise the sight you'll probably see when you walk in there won't scar you. CeCe just moved to a new place and there's a great chance she's having fun with a 'special uncle' on the couch." Fanny grimaced then pushed past Patton and walked into the house.
The two were standing in a small living room connected with a dining room and kitchen separated only by a half-wall. There were boxes everywhere and the never unpacked or repacked suitcases that the Drilovsky kids took when they went to Poland lay next to the spiral staircase. A short, 6 year old girl slid down the banister and landed right in front of the kids.
"Hi Fanny!" Natalie said hugging the redhead
"Hi Natalie, you have a good time in Poland?" Fanny asked as Patton dropped his orange backpack on the dark brown leather couch across the room from the front door
"Yeah, Reid, Nikki, and Duncan wouldn't leave me alone though. They think they need to baby me even though I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Me and Savanna and Annie locked Patton and Owen in a sticky outhouse!"
"Who?"
"Our cousins." Patton said after swallowing a mouthful of Root Beer "And Owen is my best friend. We've known each other since we were little. Our dads were best friends.
"Cousins? I thought you said your mom was an only child and CeCe lost her kid?" Fanny sat down next to Natalie at the dining room table "How are they your cousins?"
"Daddy's brother." Natalie said sucking on the twisty straw Patton had dropped into her soda can
Patton carried one to Fanny and held it out "You want one?"
"No." she giggled "Your dad has a brother?"
"Yeah, it goes Peter, Casmir, and Cecelia. Casmir is our dad, Peter is Reid, Nikki, Duncan, Savanna, and Annie's dad, and well, then there's this thing." Patton gestured toward the short woman who had just walked through the sliding glass door leading to the dining room.
She had short, black hair the was covering her right eye and dark black eyes like every Drilovsky Fanny had met. She was also gorgeous like Fanny guessed Drilovsky's were blessed to be. She was slightly taller than Patton and shorter than the other Drilovsky's. She had a cigarette in her hand and the smoke started to choke Fanny up as she had never been around cigarette smoke before. You could tell CeCe was 18, she had on a gray crop top that was very low cut and a pair of shorty shorts. She had a black cap on that said Cas D's on the front. She kicked off her black combat boots and plopped in the living room on the couch.
"CeCe! Do you have to smoke that thing in here?" Patton said standing up and walking in between CeCe and the television which had an R rated movie on that Fanny knew her parents would have a heart attack about her watching.
CeCe glared at him "It's never bothered you before."
"It's not me it bothers."
Patton pointed toward Fanny and CeCe looked over the half-wall at her "Hey!"
"Okay!" Patton said turning off the TV "This is Fanny, she's my-"
"Girlfriend? She's peikny." CeCe turned around and plopped back on the couch grinning at her nephew "Of course, you're a Drilovsky. You wouldn't care if she was peikny or not."
"Fanny isn't my girlfriend and she isn't…well…..she is peikny." Patton pointed at Natalie "Don't you dare say anything!"
"I'm not!"
Fanny looked confused "Hold on one cruddy minute, what's peikny mean?"
Patton choked on the root beer he had just taken a sip of "It doesn't mean anything. Right CeCe?"
CeCe grinned "Right. So you're the Fanny Patton is always talking about."
Fanny blushed "He talks about me?"
Patton glared at CeCe "Of course I talk about you Fanny, I talk about Rachel too."
Fanny frowned "Oh."
CeCe got up and walked to the fridge, grabbing a beer. "Whatever. I never agreed to babysit you guys today, let alone another kid." She was about to open the can then looked at Fanny "Is it alright if a little underage drinking occurs?"
Fanny waved her hands in front of her as self-defense "Oh that's fine, I'm not going to tell anyone."
CeCe nodded and took a sip, sitting down at the counter. Patton chuckled then walked over to her "You don't babysit us; you drink yourself into a coma and get paid for it."
"As I should. I'm still around more than your mother." CeCe grinned "So, have you told her all about Poland and stuff yet?"
Patton looked dumbfounded "Look at you being all friendly towards people." He grinned as Fanny chuckled "Yeah, I've told her a lot."
"Including all about Owen and Veronica?"
Patton looked at Fanny with a surprised face "No, I kind of accidentally forgot them."
"Who is…..Veronica?" Fanny asked
"Uh….Owen's cousin."
Fanny looked shocked "Oh…okay."
"There really ain't any difference between you guys and them except I've known them longer. Our dads were best friends." Patton said sincerely, before looking sad after mentioning his dad. He had pretty much gotten over being saddened by it but the fact that his father was dead sometimes hit him hard. Fanny noticed this and decided not to further the discussion.
The door opened and a tall man who looked just like the picture of Casmir Drilovsky that was on the mantle place walked in. He had two grocery bags in his arms and Bodanah was following him.
"I nadal nie sądzę, jesteś naprawdę próbuje Bodanah." The man said while setting the groceries on the counter
"Po prostu nie rozumiem, Peter, nie jestem na to gotowy. Starałem się być dobrym rodzicem od Patton urodził, ale nie jestem materiałem matka!"
The man turned to her and raised his hands in the air, yelling in a hysterical voice "To szaleństwo!"
Patton laughed "To szaleństwo, że jesteś szalony, jestem szalony. Wszyscy jesteśmy szalone!" ("This is insane, you're insane, I'm insane. We're all crazy!")
Natalie and CeCe laughed while Fanny just sat there. Bodanah noticed this and turned to her "Who the hell are you?"
Patton facepalmed and sighed "Mom, this is Fanny."
Bo stared at her son for a minute, then at Fanny grinning "Kids, speak English around Fanny, she doesn't understand Polish."
The man behind her stared in shock at her before walking in front of her to face her "What the hell was that 'Kids you need to speak English'?! You sound like a real mother! Just do that more and you won't have this problem."
"Oh shut up Pete. Let Bo be how she wants to be. Patton and Natalie are fine kids." CeCe said with a wave of her hand and her eyes on the TV she had just turned back on. Fanny realized that this was Peter, the eldest of the Drilovsky siblings.
Patton and Natalie smiled at their uncle who was dressed in a gray button up shirt and jeans. He looked much more sophisticated than his sister, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew.
"Patton knows how many bullets any one type of revolver holds. He's 9! These two are growing up on the street, surrounded by gangs, and prostitutes, drugs, and-" he grabbed the beer CeCe had "alcohol."
Cece growled at her brother "So do your kids, and anyway, your one to talk Pete, how much did you get off the Chinese business man you were trying to rob last week?" Cece grabbed the beer back from her brother then mumbled "Where is the damn whiskey?"
Bo scoffed and reached into the cupboard for the whiskey "These two are fine Peter. Your kids run around exactly like mine do, and Duncan is the same age as Patton, the twins are a year younger! If anything, growing up in America is going to be better than Poland. I will have you know that some small part of me doesn't feel hatred when I look at the two of them. I do sort of love them." She turned to Patton and Natalie "Put the groceries away you two."
Patton sighed and rolled his eyes in Fanny's direction which she laughed at; his mother saw though and smacked him on the head. He got up and started to put the groceries in the high cupboards away as Natalie put stuff in the fridge. Peter sat down with a whiskey glass he had grabbed and looked at Fanny "You must be Fanny right?"
She smiled "And you must be Peter right?"
He laughed "I can see why my niece and nephew like you. Since they moved they haven't been around my kids as much so it's nice to know that they are around some kids. Wouldn't want them to stay loners."
CeCe almost choked on the liquid in her mouth "Patton and Natalie? Loners? That's the best thing I've ever heard! Well, right behind Luis saying I was the only girl he was sleeping with."
Peter stared at her then waved his hand at her "Don't mind my sister. She isn't good with people she can't get into bed with."
Bo scoffed again and Cece swore "Screw you Peter!"
Fanny heard a crash and looked around Peter, who also turned around, to see Patton glaring at his little sister with milk dripping from the top of his head "NATALIE!"
Natalie screamed and ran upstairs as Patton chased her, cursing in Polish.
Fanny laughed with Peter. Cece and Bo just rolled their eyes and Bo swore "They do that a lot, don't they?" Fanny asked
"Yep, CeCe used to do that with Patton when he was really little. She's only 10 years older than him so he went 3 years of his life thinking she was his older sister." Peter said "All of us lived in the same house in Poland so all the kids are more like siblings than cousins. Cece probably feels more like and older sister to Patton than an aunt."
"Bodanah?" Fanny asked while staring at the bubbles in to foam of her root beer
"Yeah?" Bo said not looking at the redhead
"How old are you?"
"I'm 26." Bodanah said slowly
"Wait a minute, Patton's only 9. That means he was born when you were 18."
Bodanah sighed "Smarty are ya? Yeah, I was actually 17 when Patton was born and 16 when I got pregnant but my birthday is August 24th so I was turning 18."
"Um...Patton might not say it. But having a family who is all going through the same things is really meaningful to him. Even if you don't seem to know how to be a mother, it looks like you kinda-sorta try."
Bodanah smiled and almost fell over, she lent on the counter "Well thank you Fanny, Petey, take some tips from this little girl."
Peter rolled his eyes and stood up "I best be going if I'm going to make my flight. Tell the kids bye and not to kill each other."
Bodanah and CeCe both saluted and Fanny waved. Peter grabbed a black bag next to the table and a brown leather jacket in the living room then saluted and walked out the front door.
Fanny sipped the last of her root beer then stood up and placed the cup in the sink. "Patton's room is in the attic correct?"
Bo and CeCe nodded.
"I'm going to go make sure he hasn't murdered his sister." She started to walk up the spiral staircase and now understood why Patton had dubbed it 'The Staircase Of Death'. She climbed all the way to the third floor where the stairs opened into a very large attic, there was a large double bed, a television on top of a dresser, some videogames as well as a gaming system, and some weights in the corner next to two piles of clothes. One had a sticky note on it that said clean and the other had a note that said dirty. The TV was playing the 4th Friday The 13th movie and something was making noise in the bathroom. Fanny walked over and opened the door to see Patton with a match standing over the tub and breathing heavily.
"Uh…what are you doing?" Fanny asked, leaning against the doorframe.
Patton jumped and turned to her and curled the lit match in his fist, dropping it after yelling something in Polish "I'm just uh…enjoying the heat of the fire from the match."
Fanny smirked while walking over and looking in the tub, crawling around in the tub was a little spider. Fanny thought it may have been a Daddy Long-Leg. She turned to Patton and gestured at the spider.
"I was trying to burn the stupid long legged demon back to the hell it came from but you interrupted me!" He pointed a finger in Fanny's direction
"I interrupted you from killing something as harmless as a moth?! Why were you trying to murder the poor innocent spider anyway?!" Fanny yelled right back at him
"Innocent?! Spiders are not innocent!" Fanny almost yelled back before realizing what was going on, at which point, she laughed causing Patton to raise an eyebrow in confusion "What's so funny?"
"You're afraid of spiders, aren't you?" she said grinning
Patton started to sputter "I am not afraid of the horrid, venomous, demon from the deepest part of hell!" he said in his first complete sentence in almost 10 seconds.
Fanny laughed harder at this and started walking back into Patton's bedroom, her dad never let her watch horror movies, or anything over a G rating for that matter. Patton came running out after her "So what if I am?"
"Then admit it, everyone's scared of something."
"Spiders though? You're talking to the guy who took down 6 Chickenpox Gun wielding Teen Ninjas alone, but can't even look at a spider without almost wetting himself."
"Even the best KND operatives are scared of something Patton, take me for example." Patton raised an eyebrow at Fanny referring to herself as one of the best KND operatives, sure there was talk about huge promotions in sector W but those were probably just rumors "I'm afraid of doctors and…dentists." Fanny looked down at her hands that now rested between her knees.
"Wait a minute Fan, isn't your mom a dentist?"
"Well, she used to be, before Shaunie was born. I was okay going to her because she's my mother and I trust her, but after she retired and we started going to that weird guy downtown…I don't know, it just never felt the same again. I guess I don't like sharp things around my body."
"Reid put a giant fake spider on my teddy bear when I was 4." Patton muttered
"He did?"
"I was 3 and it was nighttime and all I wanted was Mr. Tumbles but I couldn't touch him because that gihugic spider was on him and I sat up all night just staring at the spider and when my dad came in in the morning to get me up he just removed the stupid thing like it was nothing. That's why I didn't want anyone to know about my fear, I didn't want my dad to find out I was scared of something."
Fanny grabbed his hand causing him to look at her "I'm sure your dad was afraid of something Pat."
"Fanny, he ran into a burning building just to save someone who didn't like him and was probably already dead."
"And I'm sure he was terrified." Fanny said standing up "But he probably just thought about you guys, sadly, it didn't turn out so well for him."
Patton stood up too "I ain't a baby Fanny."
Fanny giggled "I know you ain't." she said getting closer to him
"Now you're makin' fun of the way I talk?" he whispered getting even closer
"You need to pay attention in reading Patton Roman Drilovsky." Fanny breathed as their faces were inches apart, she then tore away and ran toward the stairs "I'm going to take you to a magical place called a library okay? Dyslexic kids like you love these things, or….probably hate them, but whatever, I'm not giving you a choice so come on."
The beginning of this long chapter does have a plot that'll appear much, much, much later in the story. This is really the moment the sexual tension between these two starts, not that it's really sexual when they're 8 but it'll turn into that. The next chapter is going to cover the basics of Rachel and Patton's relationship because they are going to have a huge talk and Rachel is going to love/throw a hissy fit at the results.
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