Oh no! Another Cliched Love Story!
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"If someone tells you you're not beautiful turn around and walk away, so they can have a view of your fabulous ass."
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4. Serving Mr. Frostypants
Guilt.
Guilt was an alien concept to Artemis Fowl II.
Doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons was a tradition and greed was regarded as a healthy habit in the Fowl family. Every Fowl knew better than to look into the consequences of their own actions. Knew better than to speculate how their crimes affected other people's lives. Because then they'd feel guilty and what good ever came from that emotion?
"You- what?" Artemis felt like his head was gonna burst. He had spent hours planning a museum robbery and he needed some rest, and now he had to deal with ...this.
At an ungodly hour, Cassie Mess decided to break into his room, through the window. And she was spewing nonsense. She was in her teddy bear pajamas and her dark brown hair was all over the place. Artemis noted that Cassie wasn't exactly as dull-looking as he thought she was when he first saw her. Her eyes might be the typical Plain Jane brown but they were always drowning in emotion.
Cassie needed little encouragement to repeat the same thing again. "I feel horrible for taking pictures of Maity, selling them and humiliating him in general. I mean I did benefit from them but I never thought about how it would affect him. He's the butt of everyone's jokes, he's losing his friend circle and he has dark circles." She walked to and fro, fiddling with her fingers. "Maity was never not nice to me and I just acted like some typical jealous bimbo. I mean, why did i overeact so much? It was just a crush and I went overboard and I feel awful. I mean I'm not his keeper. He can date whoever he wants. I just..." She sat on his bed. He was sitting on a chair and he wanted to tell her to get off his bed but he was too tired to blow Cassie's self-esteem. She ran her hand through her brown locks of hair, and then she looked at him with a determined face. "I, I want to right my wrongs. I want to help Maity gain back all he lost because of the pictures. I need your help."
Artemis mentally groaned and had half a mind of calling security and kicking her out. He would have but her words had disturbed him and rubbed him off the wrong way.
He pondered over his museum robbery. He would profit tens of thousands of pounds but what would happen to, say, the museum staff? Some of them might lose their job. Those people had hopes and dreams, one of them needed the money for their mother's treatment or something. Maybe one of them wanted to save enough money to send their kids to colle-
Artemis instantly stopped his train of thoughts from going anywhere unnecessary and yet, the museum robbery didn't seem so attractive anymore.
Artemis stood up and crossed his hands."It's easy to feel guilty and cop-out when you've reaped all the benefits of your crime." Cassie's eyes widened and Artrmis smirked. Gotcha. She could blab about her guilt all day but would she give up the profit she had made?
Cassie took out her pink iPhone and some crisp bills of money. "I spent a lot of money in ice-cream but I'm sure if I work for my dad during summer break I'll be able to get back the money I spent. Take this as the fee for your assistance. All my profit from the photographs, I'll give it to you. Just help me help Maity." She got on her knees and clasped her hands in prayer. "Please."
Artemis took a step back. What was up with this girl? She could've spent the rest of her high school life milking the Maity's embarrasing photographs cow but instead she was throwing away all her money for what? Gain Maity's lost popularity back.
He could've said no. His skin crawled as he considered how his crimes might have affected other people and he resalised with a start that Cassie Mess was better than him in one way, after all. She was the better person.
It left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He remembered the time she had went out of her way to apologise to him despite the fact that they were both equally at fault. Between the two of them, she was well.. the nicer one.
"Do you love him that much?"
"What?" Cassie blinked and stood up. "No! It has nothing to do with that! It was just a silly crush I took to a creepy level. I just realised that I wronged someone. Someone who never wronged me. It feels awful, Artemis. I don't know what got to me."
He wanted to tell her off for calling him Artemis but he decided against it. How did it matter anyway?
Now, every fibre in his being wanted him to tell her 'no, you annoying loser' but there was a teeny part of him that..
He took out a notebook and pen. "How many pounds did you earn?"
"I did not get fat!" Cassie said.
Artemis rolled his eyes. "Pounds, as in money."
"Oh. Umm.. I think around a thousand pounds."
He wrote something down. He took her iPhone and the money she was offering. He counted the money and after jotting down a few more things, he looked up at her.
"Well, you have to pay me about two hundred pounds more for my services."
"Well, how about I pay you the rest of it later? I promise I will!" She looked at him earnestly. "We just need to fix Maity's rep."
He should stop when he still had a chance. He was going to walk into a disaster. This was all a mistake. Turn while you still can, Artemis-
"Excuse me if I don't trust your word. I'll pay you one pound an hour. Serve me for 200 hours and I'll help you with this Maity situation," Artemis said.
He was certain of the fact that Cassi- Mess would say 'no, you ice-cube bastard'. He knew he was intimidating and the idea of serving him would even make the best of men wince. He didn't know if he wanted her around him for so long or not.
Why the bloody hell was he even doing this?
She gave him a pointed look. "I had offered you my slavery services when I wanted to apologise for the kiss. You told me that you didn't want me around because you thought I was a walking disaster."
He stepped closer and she took a step back. He smirked. She was finally acting the way she should. She was finally afraid of him.
"You are a walking disaster. I just realised I would enjoy watching you dance to my every whim, instead. So what do you have to say?"
He watched various conflicting emotions dancing in her eyes. She inhaled sharply. "Well then, Master Fowl, you have a new slave."
He should have been delighted at the very prospect of having the annoying girl following his commands but the whole thing left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.
He had a feeling that things were about to change.
"Butler, we will have to call off that museum heist. I just find the whole thing.. awfully dull. I need to look into a few matters, on my own."
"I can't believe you're making me fold a thousand paper cranes. Whatever for?... They look like sheets of actual gold." Cassie studied the square-shaped golden paper in her hands. It was so golden that it looked like gold. "Huh? Funny, isn't it? Izzy says you're some criminal mastermind. If that's true then maybe these sheets are really made of gold. You're asking me to turn them into paper cranes so you can smuggle them, huh, bad boy?" Cassie wiggled her eyebrows at Arte- Fowl.
Fowl looked up from his laptop and rolled his eyes. "I'm your boss and I should not feel the need to explain you anything but those are for my parents. I was thinking of replacing the dinning hall's chandelier with a thousand golden cranes. If I adjusted the lighting in the hall just right, the collection of thousand cranes can act like a chandelier."
"Wow." Cassie went back to folding cranes. "Under all that 'stay-away-from-me-'cause-I'm-trouble' attitude you're really.. thoughtful."
Artemis snorted. "Ofcourse I'm thoughtful. I'm a genius. That's what a genius does- think."
Cassie shot him an exasperated look. "I meant thoughtful as in caring. You do know what a thousand paper cranes signify, right? Legend says that it'll grant you one wish."
"I know that."
"Well, it signifies hopes and dreams. It's really thoughtful of you to gift your parents something that symbolises hopes and dreams. Especially after your dad has returned after such a long time."
Artemis stiffened. "Why do you know about that?"
"Because it was in the newspapers, silly. 'Patriarch of the Fowl Family Returns Home'. Like, do you not know what a big deal your family is in Ireland and in Europe? You're family is practically royalty."
Artemis relaxed. "Yes. I forgot about that. My memory is not all that reliable these days." Cassie could feel the frustration in his tone and something told her that the sentence had an underlying meaning to it.
"Don't worry, Fowl. If you lose your brains, at least you'll have your good looks. You can be an actor. Tall, dark, cold, handsome men are all the rage these days." This time Arte- Fowl shot her exasperated look. "Less talking, more folding."
"So that's all I'm gonna do? Fold papers?"
"Yes."
"Can't I do something more interesting? Like make a secret compartment for your secret stash of porn magazines."
He shot her a 'I-need-to-drill-some-sense-into-your-brain' look. Cassie knew the look because he usually reserved it for teachers."Why would I own porn magazines when I can just see the real thing in action in the internet?"
Cassie opened her mouth, closed it and opened it, again. She giggled and then she fell onto the ground, laughing hysterically. "Sometimes I don't know if you're joking or not." She said between gasps.
"I could say the same thing about you." He didn't even look up from his laptop this time.
It had been two hour and Cas- Mess was working on her 25th paper crane. Except the occasional chatter, both of them were quiet. Maybe, because Cassie could feel how tense Artemis had gotten.
He should stop referring to her as Cassie. She was not his friend or anything. She was just annoying Mess.
He felt played.
He felt that Cass- Mess had somehow talked him out of the Museum heist and talked him into helping her with that stupid problem of her's. Her guilt was affecting him in all the wrong ways possible. He was a Fowl and her emotional turmoil was making him question his morality. And then there was that comment she had made..
'..you're really... thoughtful.'
He didn't take it as a compliment. He was supposed to be the bad guy. The villain. The criminal. What gave her the right to say that he was 'caring'? Because he wasn't.
His memories had been a blur ever since his father's return and now this. He didn't want to change. He was who he was and he was not gonna let some girl manipulate him into changing himself.
She thought he was 'caring'? Well he was gonna show her how cruel he could be.
He looked out of the window. It was around six in the evening and it was raining cats and dogs. The strong winds shook the trees violently and the thunders crackled murderously.
He picked up a pile of unimportant papers, opened the window and threw them out.
Mess watched him with her mouth wide open. "You'-you're.. littering, Artemis!"
Who gave her the permission to call him by his name? The useless little girl.
He was going to get rid off her, cruelly.
"There were a total of 200 pages I threw out. They are important. Go and pick them up. If you don't find them all by tomorrow don't bother coming back. Our deal will be nullified. I will not help you help Maity Pennypocket, then."
"I need to get all those papers by tomorrow morning," Mess said slowly. She looked out the window, at the stormy night. "Or you're not gonna help me fix Maity's reputation."
Mess left his room, leaving the golden paper cranes and square-shaped golden papers.
Artemis interwined his fingers and smirked.
He figured she was a quitter. That's what losers like her did- quit.
So, why didn't he feel all that victorious? Probably because he littered. Yes that was it.
It was around 4 a.m.
Fowl men had always been light sleepers. He had started working on his museum heist again. It was the only thing keeping his mind out the unwanted emotion gnawing at him- guilt. He had grown tired of rolling around in bed.
Something yellow in his peripheral vision caught his attention. He looked out of the window. He could only see a yellow smudge moving around. He opened the window to see clearly.
He froze.
Someone in a yellow raincoat and a pair of yellow rainboots was going around collecting bits of white paper on the ground of the park. It was still raining like crazy and that certain someone was covered in mud.
Cassie.
He really, really hoped it was not her.
He abruptly closed the window and told himself that he was so tired that he was hallucinating.
The weather was so bad that he was sure even school would be called off. No one was outside.
His guilt was making him see things.
He got back to bed and tried not to think of crazy girls in yellow.
He woke up when he heard someone knock on his door.
Cassie walked into his room, shivering and wet. Her brown hair stuck to her face and her bright skin was paler than the moon. She was holding a pile of papers and her teeth rattled as she spoke. "I went back to my dorm to get my rain clothes, you know? I started hunting for the papers as soon as I could cuz I figured that the quicker I get to them, the less they'll be spread by the wind, you know? I found 199 of them by the time the birds started singing. I spent hours looking for the 200th paper until I realised.." Cassie walked towards his window, opened it and bent out. She closed the window and looked at him victoriously. "Until I realised that the 200th paper was stuck to the window sill all this time. Tada!" She showed him the paper.
"I.." Artemis stared at her dumbfounded. She looked painfully exhausted. She was barely standing.
"Wait, let me count them again. Just in case I missed something, you know? Then I'll have to search for the rest of them." She placed the pile of papers on the table and started counting. Her fingers trembled. She looked like she was about to collapse.
Artemis instincts kicked in. "Go to the bathroom. Take off your wet clothes and go take a bath. The water is hot. I'll get you some warm clothes."
"But the papers..!" Cassie protested.
"Screw the papers!" He said angrily. "You need to take off your clothes or you'll catch an awful cold." He practically pushed her into his bathroom.
He patiently waited in his room as Cassie took her bath.
He counted the papers to pre-occupy his mind. He did not want to think about what just happened.
There were 196 of them. Not the 200 Cassie had counted.
He could not blame her. He doubted if he could have counted till 10 in that awful weather.
He did not want her to be disappointed so he took 4 sheets of paper, got them wet and crumpled them. Then he added them to Cassie's stash of papers.
Cassie opened the bathroom and peaked out. "Um, my old clothes are still wet so can you call Izzy to send some of my clothes? I don't think you want to see me in a towel."
"Any longer in the tub and you'll catch a cold. Here, take some of mine." He tried not to look as he reached out his hand to give his clothes to her.
"Whoa. I didn't know you owned anything but our school uniform and those Armani suits of yours." Cassie giggled. She was wearing grey sweatpants and a navy blue hoodie, over a normal t-shirt. Her skin had returned to its usual color, thankfully.
"My mother sent those to me. She wants me to give a shot at the whole 'normal teenage boy' thing. Never touched them." Artemis said. He gave her a cup of hot chocolate. "I was not sure if you liked tea or coffee, so I took the safest bet."
"It's my fav." Cassie drank her hot chocolate happily. She felt that Fowl was kind of, sort of, maybe opening up to her. But why?
"You know, I'm really, really grateful for the help. You didn't need to do this." Cassie said.
"Help?" Artemis looked at her, owlishly.
"Well, I could've just dropped by, submit the papers and leave. You didn't need to take care of me with the bath and clothes and the hot chocolates."
He looked at her, angrily. "Why did you do this whole thing, you idiot?"
"Because you said those papers were important and you also said that I couldn't return without those papers. You said you wouldn't help Maity if I didn't find them. Plus, I really want to finish this whole paper crane-slash-chandelier thingy. Getting those papers was important for everyone's happiness- yours, mine, Maity's and your parents'. Why are you angry at me? Did I not get all 200 of them?" Cassie started freaking out.
"No, you found them all," Artemis said, quickly.
Cassie shot him a relieved look.
"You are so.. naive. It is worrisome. There are people like me who might take advantage of your gullible nature." Artemis looked like he was complaining to himself.
Cassie scoffed. "I'm not gullible. I know what porn, sex, prostituion and.. stuff is."
Artemis rolled his eyes. "Go back to your dorm and take some proper rest. There is no school today because of the bad weather. "If it's a free day I can earn some hours by working on the paper cranes.." Cassie started speaking.
"No. Let us forget about the 200 hour contract. The moment you're done with the thousand paper cranes I will help you out with the Maity thing. You have more than enough time to go and get some rest. And here," He handed her over her pink iPhone and the money she had given him. "I'll only take the paper cranes as payment."
She looked at him straight in the eye. "Um, I know I'm supposed to call you 'Boss' or Fowl but can I call you Artemis? In my mind I keep referring to you by your name."
"Yes. Now go home, Cassie."
Cassie grinned and Artemis gave her a small almost-smile.
A/N: So, I'm back after a loong time, but guess what? Updates are gonna be regular. Tell me what you think ;)
See you on the 22nd April. XOXOXO.