TAZ/UP BELONG TO STARKID. NOT ME. HOWEVER MUCH I WISH I DID... *cries*
"Why did you lie to your aunt?" Up asked as they walked to the elevator on Christmas eve morning.
"She wouldn't let me come back." Taz sighed. "If I had gone back I would be sat in some high tea right now."
"Sounds like fun." Up grinned. The pair we're stood in the elevator a moment later and it whizzed up to the top of the starship. Taz looked at Up.
"Not really." she responded as she stepped out into the whitewashed corridor. "Jou have to be all posh. It's not fun."
"Depends on your definition of fun, Ms Lopez." Taz crushed her fingers against his mouth.
"Shut up jou idiota." Taz pushed the door open and walked across to grab her breakfast. Up joined her as she walked.
"Well, you'd get a better Christmas Dinner." Up grinned, Taz shrugged. If it was anything like the turkey at home, She would be happy. But they didn't even celebrate Thanksgiving here, so she would end up with cardboard turkey, she knew it. She dumped her tray down on the table and looked around. Jed was sat to her right and Up was settling to her left. Saki had left last night, and the only other Cadet left was George.
"Morning Taz." he grinned from where he was shovelling Porridge down his throat. Taz shuddered. George's Dad was a Commander down in an earth training camp, while his Mom was a school teacher back in Vermont. He also had two sisters, both Younger. He grinned at her.
"What?"
"It's Christmas soon!" he yelled.
"And?" Taz responded. George rolled his eyes.
"Presents!" He grinned.
"You get presents from Family." Jed explained. Taz sighed.
"None for me then." Taz whispered under her breath.
Taz spent the rest of Christmas Eve in the Gym throwing weights. George tried to find her but she Screamed at him. When another person walked in, Taz didn't pause as she hurled the chunk of Metal at his head. Up caught it but stumbled backwards.
"Taz? You alright?" Up asked, setting the weight down and acting very slowly. "'Coz if that was George, He'd be dead now." Up said calmly.
"I'm fine."
"You missed dinner." Up pulled a small packet from behind him. "I saved you some chicken." He passed it to her. She opened the bag to see ten golden chicken nuggets. Taz shrugged.
"I'm fine. Jou should know that." As then Taz ran. She didn't know where, she just let her feet carry her. She noticed she was on top deck after flying through ten flights of stairs. She paused before running down a corridor. Then another and another. Left... Right…Left… she stopped and then collapsed on the floor in a small crevice between two walls.
"Taz?" somebody was calling her.
"She won't have got off the ship. She'll be back. We have her door open so we'll see if it's shut or not." somebody told them.
"She's got to be up here!" Taz was dimly aware of the two accents colliding, Alabama and California. Taz twisted around. She judged that they were about three corridors away, and then stood up and began to walk in the opposite direction. It took her twenty minuetes at the walk, but they were close enough to hear her. She was soon enough at the elevator. She hit the button and waited. As the door Pinged open, she heard the voices quicken and footsteps. She slammed her hand against the door close and it shut. There was a pause and then the elevator descended down, slowly at first, then havering speed as it flew down Twelve flights of stairs. Finally it stopped.
Cadet Level, the sign to the left said. Taz ran, slipping through the corridors to her room, before running through the open door and slamming lock. Then she changed her pass code and curled up on the floor.
"She must have heard us." Jeds voice rang out as he stared at the shut door.
"Duh." Up replied before calling out
Taz's name.
"Doubt she'll reply." Jed countered before he walked off, leaving Up stood outside Taz's door.
"Taz?" he asked again. He sighed ad walked off, looking for Ice for his face, which was now bruising up from the Weight that Taz threw at him.
Christmas dawned on the Academy, nobody had anything scheduled until 2pm, lunch. The G.L.E.E had docked half of it's smaller craft into the academy for the Holiday.
"Taz?" Up had tried to get her in the morning and had ended up sitting outside her door, calling her name every now and again. He knew she was in there, as he heard the coffee machine whir on several occasions.
"Taz?" Up called at 1:50. "Im going to go upstairs... If you want to join us we'll be there." he sighed and walked upstairs. A minuet passed, and Taz still sat curled up in the corner between her bookshelf and her kitchen counter, a cup of coffee on the side. She was replaying memories of last Christmas.
"Andre! CMON!" Anton had yelled. Andre always slept in at christmas to annoy dad. Last year was the first one when it was the five of them and Pepe, their Data-Dog. That meant this was the first year Taz didn't have to wear a skirt. She lay sprawled out in front of the plush orange sofa, playing some sort of tug-of-war game with Pepe. Anton was shaking presents frantically, and Mom and Dad were watching the TV. Andre walked downstairs at last and Dad let us loose on the presents. As the smallest, I climbed to the back and threw gifts to people, excluding the heavy ones. Anton and Andre (and Pepe) began to dismantle the front of the small mountain under the Tree, and soon we all had a small pile of gifts each. We looked at each other before simultaneously ripping them open, Pepe jumping between everyone excited with all the wrapping paper flying throughout the air. Andre was complaining about the jumper Aunt Connie had knitted him. Anton was eating a bar of Chocolate. Mom and Dad were looking at the matching His and Hers towels from one of Moms Clients (she owned a Law Business). I was sat, wedged beside my brothers, opening a small box from Andre, which contained a red bandana. I looked at it and laughed, before strapping it into my hair and grinning like a mad girl.
I remember that bandana. I don't remember what happened to it. I tug at my black tufts of hair. One of Up's friends, a Nurse named Kit, said it might take a few years to grow back, as I hadn't cut it in a long while. She offered me a pill to make it grow faster, but I refused.
"Save them for those who need them." I shrugged. Kit sighed. Up shrugged and looked at her, his eyes apologetic. She looks a lot like Up and Rick, Taz thought. She shrugged before standing up, stiff and sore. "The appeal for Turkey has grown." Taz murmured out loud, before opening the door. She nearly tripped over the small package on the floor, a neatly wrapped box. Taz picked it up, it had no Note attached. Taz opened it up, and saw a neat pile of Pills. /you do need them. -Up/ a note inside read. Taz sighed before picking one of the white tablets and looking at it, before she knocked it back and put it on her counter.
"Hair growth pills." Taz grinned as she left the room. "Feliz Navidad." she ran up the staircase, ignoring the evaltor until she was running down the Corridor.
"UP!" she yelled when she saw him and Jed walking down the corridor.
"So your not dead?" Jed grinned as she hurtled up to them.
"Shut jour mouth." Taz laughed, and they walked to the canteen.
The effect of the Pills was strong, and the next day, Taz's hair was a lot less clumpy, a lot thicker and slightly longer. She twisted a lock around her fingers.
"Where is that bandana when I need it, Andre!" Taz laughed to her Brother.
"Taliciana, why must jou wear that now?"
"Hey, jou said there's no such thing as a bad Gift, Madre." Taz joked. Andre grinned and fiddled with his new cell phone. Taz grinned, looking over his Shoulder she saw it was to his Girlfriend, Alicia. Taz had met her a few times, and she seemed nice. To her other side, was Anton, Playing with a Tamogotchi. Anton loved Vintage Toys from along time ago. Taz sighed, she hated Christmas some times. People were dying, starving or freezing right now and here she was, sat at a plump dining table, eating Turkey. She hated herself sometimes. On the school bus, Taz had seen girls stare at her thick clean hair, clean skin, money to buy lunch. They sat, only there because it was Law to have an education, with Pasty Skin, Unkept hair and empty bellies. When word got out on the last day that Taz would have a Quinceañera, and that it would be a major event with food, music and a hall to have it in, those children would have died to have that. Have it, Taz thought. I don't want a stupid Party. Something bad is going to happen I know it.
Between Up and Jed, Taz sat picking all the meat off the bones of the Turkey. A nurse with brown hair came and sat down beside Up.
"Hey!" Kit yelled as Up stole a potato from the plate.
"Sorry little sis." Up grinned.
"Little sis? Rick told me all your family had died." Taz choked.
"Rick forgets about me... Because I refu-"
"Eat your damned Turkey." Up shoved a potato in her mouth.
"Thats not a Turkey, Up. It's a Potato." Jed pointed out.
Taz silently vowed to find out what Kit was saying.