A/N: ENTER THE AUTHOR! And Randy Cunningham since the series is back and funnier than ever XD
Chapter Overview: Lets return to Antoinette for a bit just for fun.
"No way! Nope. Not going to happen, ever!"
It was a typical Saturday for Antoinette McFist, well it would have been typical if Debbie and Theresa were available to hang out, but apparently they were MIA for the day, as were Howard and Randy, leaving only one play-mate left for the young heiress to consider... Or rather for her mother to consider. It wasn't really that she didn't want to hang with... Him. It was just that- Well, she really didn't know what it was, but she did know that she didn't want to. It had been three months since they met, and while they did get along well, she didn't consider him friend enough to be on a 'house visit' basis.
Not that Marcy saw it that way.
"But you two get along so well... At certain times!" Marcy tried to reason, idly shoving the phone back into her daughter's hands. "And you said you had fun at the dance last week."
"That was different! A dance with the whole school present is way different then hanging out at home with just the two of us!" The young girl tried to argue, but still found herself snagging the phone from her mother. "I'm still not going to call him though."
"Come on, Anita." Marcy pouted out her bottom lip as she folded her arms under her chest. "You'll be complaining all day long that you're bored if you don't."
"You heard what we said at the school, that we hate each other in our down time. We're still friend-enemies!" For a moment, Antoinette felt like she had won this. "Thats why I am not calling!"
"Good, because I already called him for you." With this, Antoinette's usually dark face turned a shade of marshmallow white as she put the phone to her ear.
"And how, exactly, was it different?" A certain goth's voice came in through the phone, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Well, twit?"
"How long where you on the line for!?" Antoinette gasped into the phone, facepalming the color back into her face. "How much did you hear!?
"About two minutes, and enough." The reply was instant and this time it was amused.
"Next time you do that, please make some indication that you are on the phone so I know not to say anything stupid!" She sighed, finally regaining her composure. "Anyway, if you didn't hear this, my mom says that I should invite you over to-"
"Absolutely not." Well, that was something she hadn't expected.
"Why the heck not?"
"Would you like to pop over to my home for a bit?" She could just imagine his fanged grin on the other side of the phone as he idly attempted to turn the tables on her.
"Wait, what?" Antoinette pouted and crossed one arm over her chest. "I asked you first!"
"And I said no, so I asked you." Julian replied and Antoinette could almost hear his eyes rolling around. "So how about it, twit?"
"Thanks, but no thanks. I have more important things to do today." Antoinette mocked, unfolding her arms and stamping her hand on her hip for no real reason.
"How? All of your other friends are unavailable today, are they not?" A tense silence fell over the two phone lines, filled only by the occasional background noise on either end.
The McFist child simply bit her lip and let the silence continue on as she waited for him to start up the conversation again, this time letting him be the one to do it, as she did not want to. That didn't take long, as she would soon find out, as the sudden and very loud sound of a chair scraping against the floor soon sounded on the other end of the phone.
"Hey, Antoinette?" She heard herself gasp at the sound of her own name, mainly because this has been the first time that he had used it, instead of that rather plain nickname he had given her. "Do you know what Animal Oracle is?"
"No." She replied, leaning her head onto the phone to hold it in place between her shoulder and chin.
"Okay then." The sounds of shuffling cards closed this 'not-a-sentence'.
"Is that it?"Antoinette took her turn in sounding annoyed. "Thats all you wanted to ask?"
"Yes." Another but much briefer silence fell over them once more and this time it was broken by Antoinette.
"Is it something important?" She could hear a soft rustling sound on the other end and assumed that he was nodding his head. "Should I come over so you can show me?"
"Yes." This, like the dance, made the situation different. If it was important, then she would have an excuse to go over there.
"I'll be over in a few minutes." She sighed, rummaging around her pocket for her house keys to use later. "And only for a few minutes! Just show me your Animal, what ever it is, and then I'm leaving. Okay?"
"Fine, but I knew you would be." Again, the image of a fanged grin flashed through Antoinette's mind as her fingers brushed the cool metal of her keys and a sudden fire burnt in her next response.
"Shut it."
Purple. Black. Purple. Black. Purple.
Those were the colors and the pattern of the pinstripes on his bedroom wall, making the room appear even darker in the daylight then it probably did at night. Not that Antoinette really minded as she lounged back on the fluffy, spider bean bag chair that she had been offered just a few minutes earlier, as the dark colors gave off more of a homey feeling than they did anything else. Just a short distance away, Julian stood next to his bed, idly shuffling a deck of cards while avoiding any, if all eye contact with Antoinette. The cause for this was currently unknown and neither teen made a move to find out.
"So, cards?" That wasn't even a complete sentence, but it would have to do for now. "Magic?"
"Both." Somehow this whole 'conversation' was making sense to them.
"Why?" Antoinette sat up, suddenly not feeling the same awkward tension she had felt over the phone and instead feeling very curious in what he had to say to her.
"It started when I was four." And he left it at that, but then added. "Its another hobby of mine."
"Sounds fun." She shrugged, sitting up just a little bit more.
"Huh, thats a first actually." He looked up at her suddenly and held out a random card from the top of his deck.
"Someone calling your hobby fun, or the ace of spades?"
"A bit of both, especially considering that this is a tarot set and not playing." He made a face suddenly and handed the card to her suddenly. "Hold onto that."
"I'm guessing you aren't very good at card tric-" A flurry of cards suddenly came flying at her as the other cried out suddenly in frustration that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
"Of course not, twit! I'm terrible at it!" At this point, Antoinette had already thrown her hands up in a shield like way to block the cards from hitting her face, but she soon lowered them.
"What was that all about?" She asked, noting the drained look that the other now wore.
"Force of habit." He muttered, suddenly sitting down next to her and plucking a random card from the air as it tumbled down to the floor.
"Was that really necessary?" She sighed, watching the last of the cards as they slid down.
He didn't speak, and instead silently stared at her. She didn't really mind, for the three months she had known him gave her time to get used to his existence in her life, which of course included the random things he did. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that she didn't mind it when they happened. With another gentle sigh, she reached out suddenly and touched his wrist, shaking her head slowly.
"Hey. Don't do that." She warned, shaking him just a little to snap him out of whatever trance it was he was in. "Whats wrong with you?"
"I just realized something." He said numbly, gently shaking her hand off of his. "Two things actually."
"Okay, so name them." Antoinette pouted, her ears perking up a bit.
"First off, there is a young woman in my bedroom." Okay, so a roll of the eyes was a totally predictable move on his end.
"And this is weird, because?" Antoinette frowned this time and stared up at him.
"Thats a first for me." He admitted shamelessly as he began to study the card that he had caught earlier.
"And the second?" At this she sat up and began making attempts to peak at the card.
"Second, is this your card?" He suddenly flipped the card over so that she could see.
What Antoinette saw made her gasp softly. She got off of the bean bag suddenly and got in very close to study the card closer, just to make sure that she was seeing things correctly. Sure enough, in his pale hand he held the Ace Of Spades, and a quick glance into her own dark hand reviled that her card had changed suddenly to the Queen Of Hearts.
"No way..." She muttered, looking between the two cards and then up at the smirking boy just a few inches away from him. "You set that up, didn't you?"
"Not this time." He smirked a bit wider, almost proudly.
"You did! Thats probably why you invited me over." Antoinette laughed, suddenly casting the card away to the floor.
"I did not. It was magic!" He laughed softly in response, watching the card fall from her finger tips as she suddenly dropped to her knees and began to pick up the cards that had fallen. "And what are you doing now?"
"Do it again." She said suddenly, stacking the cards and handing them to him. "If you didn't plan this, and it was just magic then do it again and we'll see what happens."
"Can't. I already showed you my cards, so now you are going to take your leave." He smiled and gingerly took the cards from her. "That is what you said over the phone."
"Well, I changed my mind." She replied with an idle shrug.
"That fast?" He almost sounded amazed.
"Tell no one about that." She muttered, waving him off idly.
"Fine, fine." With that, he handed her a card and began to shuffle them again.
"Now do it."