Chapter 25
One day before the fight.
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There is more to life than long division.
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-Part 1-
The school doors flew open with the daily charge of students exiting the building. The school day had ended, and the students had all been released, each one of them receiving their daily taste of freedom slammed with a wave of heat indicative of the late afternoon around this time of year. Teachers were at their dismissal duty posts and overheard the daily chatter of students discussing propositions of activities to engage in with the free time that awaited them at the end of each school day. It was getting close; everyone could smell it. The air was getting dryer and crispier with each passing day; but there were still lessons to learn and tests to take and although it wasn't long now before this school year would be nothing more than just a memory, the students now measured their time in weeks as opposed to months.
At the edge of the elementary side of the building where the kindergarten, first, and second grades were released stood a brown eyed twelve-year-old boy with brown fur, dressed in a pair of brown cargo shorts, a green sweater with the arms pulled up, and a blue and red hat with the brim backwards. He was small for his age, but his size belied his capabilities as well as his life experiences. His stance was heavy as if something more than just the bright brown cotton backpack on his back was weighing him down. He did his best to conceal it from everyone and for all those without a trained eye, he was successful. He, like a few other students with younger siblings, was waiting to pick up someone. Specifically, he was waiting for a six-year-old girl with golden honey fur, dressed in a pink shirt, a blue overall jumper, and who had blue pig-ties around her ears. He hadn't been waiting any more than a few moments when she made eye-contact with him which was shortly followed by an excited run in his direction.
"Kiiiiiiit!" she yelled enthusiastically as she jumped into his arms for a quick hug before sliding back to the ground, pulling the sleeves of his sweater from his elbows back to his wrists as she did so, Kit pushing them back up shortly after.
"Meeeeee!" Kit sarcastically responded soliciting a giggle out of Molly. "How was your day Cupcake?"
Molly caught the use of the nickname 'Cupcake', something that had typically been reserved for use by Baloo. She considered Kit's use of it significant but decided to ignore it for the time being. Instead, Molly looked at Kit with a shit-eating-grin before answering, "I helped Ralph and Wanda put a whoopee cushion under the substitute's chair!"
"Did you get caught?!" Kit asked though his own laughs that he forced through his nose.
"NO! He never saw it coming!" Molly exclaimed, her face all aglow with her mischievous accomplishment.
They weren't related, not in the traditional sense at least. They shared a mother, but she was Molly's mother in all actuality and although Kit had been adopted, she had never formally adopted him however, Molly was more than willing to share the love with him. Nevertheless, Kit and Molly never considered each other to be siblings, they were best friends though, like two peas in a pod, and there was an undeniable platonic love which had developed into a strong bond between them.
"Nice! High-five!" Kit held up his hand and Molly jumped to slap it, hitting her target perfectly. Kit then turned to begin the walk home, Molly following at his side, reaching for to hold his hand, Kit delighted to oblige.
"How about you?" Molly asked as part of their end of the school day ritual.
Kit stalled for a moment before answering as if something was on his mind, "Oh, ya know. Same ole, same old. Algebra is kinda fun now though. Turns out I have been doing it ever since I first started navigating and didn't know it."
"Since when?"
"Ya know" Kit said as he brought his other hand to his chin to think, "I don't know actually."
Molly caught that. Kit had just done what Baloo did when he was thinking about something. Then she eyed Kit's left hand, his forearm was bandaged, she dismissed it earlier but now she was suspicious. Why was Kit acting so weird? "Kit, what happened to your arm?"
Kit looked at it briefly before passing it off as nothing, "I fell, no big deal; went to the nurse's office and she wrapped it up for me."
"It's not broken, is it?" Molly naïvely asked.
"Not at all, probably just bruised or a bit red, almost sliced it open but it should be fine tomorrow or in a few days. Like I said, no big deal."
"Hay Cloudkicker!" came an annoyingly familiar and arrogant voice from behind them. "I ain't seen ya all day. Where've ya been?"
Kit let out a sigh but kept walking. "Great, Michael, just what I need to cap off the day."
"Umm, Kit, did you hear him?" Molly asked looking up at Kit and then back at Michael as they continued down the street making eye contact with the older taller boy.
"Yeah, I heard him" Kit said as he lifted his left arm to a right angle so that his fist was hidden from Molly's eyes by his head, "but I'm telling 'im allllll he needs to know" Kit said with a sly smile as he then shot up his middle finger as strong and as tall as he could, "let's just keep walking, I'm sure he'll get the message."
-END Part 1-
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-Part 2-
"MOM! We're home!" Kit yelled as he moseyed in the door, the daily routine of the Higher for Hire family continuing as unrelentingly as life itself.
"CHAIR! NOW YOUNG MAN!" Ms. Cunningham angrily demanded at the top of her lungs.
Molly jumped and clung to Kit's arm out of shocking fearful surprise, yanking him down just a bit on the right in the process, confused as to what was happening, her legs wrapping around Kit's, her mother's actions registering in her mind before the meaning of her words.
"Wha'd I do?!" Kit protested, not even flinching at the obvious signs that he was clearly in trouble, his high youthful voice filling the room, his resistance to being startled showing itself as a result of his harsh upbringing, "I ain't even been'ere all day!"
"I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT! CHAIR! NOW!" Ms. Cunningham continued to project at the top of her lungs as she pointed at the chair in front of her desk which had gained the notoriety of being called 'The Hot Seat' for whenever someone was sitting in it, there was always business to be dealt with, and right now, Ms. Cunningham meant business. Ms. Cunningham then looked at her daughter who was halfway to panic-town and softened her face for just a moment. "Molly, please go outside and play. Kit and I need to talk."
"And by that you mean yell at me." Kit sarcastically added without fear as he folded his arms and shifted his weight to his other leg after Molly released him from her grasp.
Ms. Cunningham returned her gaze to Kit and her eyes burned with infernal rage, "KIT! ZIPIT! CHAIR! NOW!"
"I GET IT! I'm in court! Let's get this over with." Kit stated with rebellious resignation, throwing his hands up in the air as he made his way to the hot-seat and awaited his "medicine", slinging his backpack from his shoulders to hang over the side of the back of the old wooden chair.
Molly hung her head as she turned tail and exited the building pitying the imminent fate of her dearest friend, and as soon as Ms. Cunningham heard the door latch close, her fury was unleashed.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! AND DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME!" Ms. Cunningham stared Kit down, she was ready to unleash the beast upon his backside and did not care if it would do any good or not. If it disciplined him, great, if not, at the very least it would hurt his pride, not to mention that it would make her feel better. With his often displayed "I-don't-give-a-shit" demeanor as of late, the school letters, and even Ernie coming to talk to her a few weeks ago, she was at the end of her rope as to what to do with him.
Kit returned Ms. Cunningham's look with one of his own. Did she know? No. How could she? He had never been late, not even once even amidst a few close calls. He was always at school for Homeroom first thing in the morning before sneaking out to the docks, Molly had no idea what he had been up to and he had made sure to pick up and take care of her every day. He had successfully hidden all the money except for today's which he had in his backpack and he didn't see any silver dollars on her desk. He had also made sure to even sneak back into school in time for Algebra class and, "OH NO!" he thought to himself as he realized his critical mistake. How could he not have thought about it earlier?! "Attendance! I forgot to account for the other classes! She does know! So stupid!" Kit kept his cool and remained calm. Did she scare him? No, not at all, not in the traditional sense at least. She only scared him for what he could lose from her which, admittedly, wasn't much what with the fact that Kit was ready to skip town a few weeks ago; the only thing he had to lose was Molly and, much to his disdain for the reality of things, he was sure that even she was slowly slipping away and would not be in his life much longer.
He considered a number of strategies. Deflecting the question, misdirecting her with a convoluted answer, passing off blame. "Nah, just the truth" he thought. The sharp tip of the iron clad truth, all she wanted was all he needed to say, besides, what could she do to him that hadn't been done to him already anyways? "Working. And I don't lie" he said to her conveying his trustworthiness and making his response aggressively clear and to the point.
Ms. Cunningham's face softened but only slightly, he had caught her off guard with that one. She honestly expected him to be off doing something he wasn't supposed to be which, technically he was, but she was expecting him to be out doing something like smoking, drinking, vandalizing a wall with graffiti, or other typical mischievous teenage hellraising, and, well, she didn't know what else; not to say that she was fine with him skipping school to go work somewhere. "Working? WORKING?! WHERE?! WITH WHO?! WHAT ABOUT MOLLY?! HAVE YOU BEEN TAKING HER WITH YOU?!"
"That's MY business, not yours!" retorted Kit his pointer finger pointing to himself on the chest and then to Ms. Cunningham, looking to end what he saw as a pointless conversation.
"Uh, Excuse me?!" Ms. Cunningham chastised. "I am your boss AND your mother, EVERYTHING you do is MY business! And Molly is MY daughter, what you do with and around her is definitely MY business! So why have you been skipping school, what's been going on?!"
"You wanna know my business?! FINE!" Kit jumped to his feet and pulled the orange cylinder that contained his day's wages from 'The Exchange' out from his backpack and slammed it on the table with a loud 'WAM' and held it there. "Here is my business!" Kit then unwrapped the orange package of silver dollars in a single motion and in the blink of an eye, threw them in Ms. Cunningham's face while she raised her hands to shield herself. "And they pay more than you!" Kit then turned to leave amidst the sound of clattering coins all around.
"Don't you walk away from me young man!" Yelled Ms. Cunningham as she stood and made her way around her desk to catch him, eyeing the sum of shiny silver dollars that had spread across her day's work and upon the ground surrounding her feet. "What has he been doing to make so much money in one day?"
"OR WHAT?! Unless you got some handcuffs in your back pocket, you can't stop me! I can go where I want, do what I want, when I please! Not that you would care. All you give a damn about is money! That and when I can be your little errand boy and babysitter! I'm surprised you're not on your greedy hands and knees right now picking all that money off the ground!"
Ms. Cunningham took hold of his hand and pulled him around and threw him back into his chair. Before he could jump back up, she placed her hands on his wrists, leaning forward to use her bodyweight to keep them on the armrests, forcing him to remain seated. "Kit, you may be knowledgeable beyond your years, but you are still trying to run off like a child!"
"Newsflash lady! I am a child!" Kit struggled for a little bit before giving up and staring her dead in the eyes, his anger clashing with hers. "Get out of my face!" he yelled at her.
"Is this how you act in front of Molly when I'm not around?" Ms. Cunningham's words did little more than wound Kit's integrity. But Kit did not answer, nor did he care. Instead, he just glared at her, then, as quickly and as surprisingly as the angered words had been spewing forth from his mouth, he head-butted her. Ms. Cunningham saw the impact coming and turned her head at the last moment taking the hit to her right cheek. She stumbled back half a step, releasing her hold on his wrists in the process, but before Kit could make his escape, without thinking, she sent her right fist flying. With the force of her punch, she had sent him back into the chair; maybe now she had his attention.
Just as she had predicted earlier, nothing more than Kit's pride had been harmed in their brief altercation and her cheek hardly even stung, but she was sure that he got the picture and understood who was in charge under this roof. "Kit, every day it's something else with you and I'm getting sick and tired of it! You don't listen to me unless you're on the clock, you contradict me in front of Molly, you go out and wander…" Ms. Cunningham struggled for words before just continuing, "…I don't even know where for hours on end doing I don't even know what, and now you refuse to stay in school?" She yelled, pointing her finger at him as she did, Kit still sitting in the chair silently rubbing the side of his face, continuing to glare at her with an unbroken spirit. "Kit, it's like I don't even know who you are anymore, like you're a completely different person, and I don't know how much more I can take! With a single phone call I can have you hauled out of here and thrown back into an orphanage!" Ms. Cunningham then pointed to herself, then to Kit, then to the door. "I have custody of you, but I haven't adopted you. You can either shape up or ship out! Get your butt in gear, or you're outta here, get it?!"
There was silence for a moment, long enough for Ms. Cunningham to back up a little to lean against her desk and fold her arms. Kit placed both hands on the armrests of the chair and looked down before looking back up at her. He bore the face of defeat and resignation, apathy and exhaustion, he seemed to truly be considering what she was saying to him. "Make the call" he said.
"Wha…..what?" Said Ms. Cunningham, her voice full of disbelief; was he calling her bluff? Was this another ploy by the bastard-imposter who now sat in front of her who kidnapped the sweet, kind, well-mannered boy she used to know but wore his same face?
"You heard me!" said Kit as his voice wobbled, looking up to meet her eyes, "I quit! I don't work here anymore! Now, make the call!" He angrily demanded with bitterness, removing the blue and red navigator hat Baloo had given him from his head and throwing it at her, clearly indicating his sincerity. "There's nothing here for me now anyways!"
Ms. Cunningham set the hat on her desk. It was obvious to her that he was desperately trying to maintain a stoic display, attempting to sound as strong and mature and grown up as possible, but Kit was also fighting back tears and Ms. Cunningham could see it. "My friends have abandoned me, the Seaduck hasn't flown in months, you don't want me around here no more, my teachers don't like me, the money I make isn't enough to get the doctors to do anything, not that they would admit that they could do anything anyways, and…" he sounded infuriated as he spoke, yet a single tear from his right eye belied his true feelings; he wiped his face with his sleeve and sniffed as it fell "…Baloo is gone and he's never coming back, I know that now. The only reason I haven't left yet is because of Molly. I'm her best friend, I love her, and I don't want anything bad to happen to her! But if you want me gone so badly, make the call, I won't try to run like last time; or don't and I'll leave on my own, I don't care anymore. I'll take my chances out there just like I always have. Just…..just gimme the night to pack up. I'll take Molly to school tomorrow, I'll stay at school tomorrow, and I'll bring her home; it'll give me the chance to say goodbye." Kit paused for a moment, returning his gaze to the ground. He knew that as soon as he said it out loud, just like with Baloo and working with 'The Exchange', it would become true. He savored the final seconds before he said the words to shatter the already decaying unorthodox family. "And then when you and her go home for the weekend, I'll leave, and I won't be here when you reopen on Monday. I'll be gone for good and you won't have to worry about me anymore."
As Ms. Cunningham digested everything he was saying, she couldn't believe her ears. She didn't realize how much she really didn't know who was sitting in front of her until right now. She had clearly given him too much space and freedom. She had thought that this new parenting strategy was working until the letters and phone calls had come in detailing Kit's rampant absences. Perhaps she had given him so much room so as to inadvertently distance herself from him. Still though, she was so angry with him, so frustrated, so ready to wash her hands of him. Her fists were so tight in her folded arms she swore she could start to feel the skin on her knuckles begin to crack open from the tension. She could do and say so many things right now, and a part of her was ready to just let him go or kick him out. But then her mind registered his reason for sticking around and not running off again to some place somewhere else to once again start over and she couldn't help but feel for him; she knew he liked Molly what with how often they played together, but had no idea how much he had grown to genuinely care for the wellbeing of her daughter. Kit's words of affection and concern for Molly provoked the same feelings to rise in her except that she not only felt them for Molly, but for him as well.
Still, as a parent, she had a job to do, a duty to perform. She opened her mouth to continue her chastisement of his behavior but before she spoke, her most cherished memory of him came to mind and suddenly she remembered the small innocent lost boy leaning against her in what scant clothes passed for his pajamas at the time, begging her to finish the only bedtime story he had ever been told, fighting back the fatigue of the night while waiting for his loving father to come home, trusting her word alone that he indeed would, hoping against hope that he had not abandoned him. She looked at him now and in contrast to just moments earlier, she no longer saw a problem child walking an endless mile sitting in front of her. She did not see a source of strife to be put on trial. Instead, she saw the same boy who was lost and alone, who was fighting the world all by himself with everything he had and was losing, whose father, unlike last time, was not coming home. And upon seeing this she understood and she relented.
"Kit", she said with an exhale and a sigh as she remained leaning against her desk, her arms still folded, shifting her weight to cross her legs. She looked to the floor, perplexed as to where to go from here and he raised his eyes in an attempt to meet hers. "Go to your room" she said shaking her head. "I'm…I'm not calling anybody, not right now, just, just go to your room. I think it's best for us both to be alone right now. I'll call you when it's time for dinner."
Kit looked at her as if somehow this was an affirmation of her distain for him, that she indeed wanted him gone, and so he just nodded his head as he stood and began to make his way toward the stairs, leaving Ms. Cunningham staring at the ground where more than half of the coins that comprised his day's pay lay. "Ok" was all he said, the two letters escaping his lips as softly as the sound of his steps away from his mom's desk and toward the stairs.
-END CHAPTER 25-
