-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Tuck With Meals -*- Copyright 2002 by Ellen Hayes. Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when used for satirical purposes. This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and possibly sex. If you are legally not allowed to read materials containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading this. I am not responsible. Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish, state, and country. All rights reserved. See the bottom for distribution rights. Tuck With Meals *** 02:29 25 Aug Something alerted me, which shut me up, and I waited silently until I heard another tap at my window. I slid over cautiously and slowly moved my head until I saw Mike standing there in the backyard with the signal pole. *** 02:31 25 Aug "I dunno, it was just a nightmare," I said, feeling horribly embarrassed that he was over here at this time of the morning because I'd had a stupid nightmare again. "Yeah, so do you want me to stay over here with you so you can get some sleep, or not?" he asked again. "I'm already here," he mentioned, I guess in case I'd missed that. *** 06:00 25 Aug "BEEDOOP!" said Gallifrey, then played the opening bars of the CBS radio news intro. Which was a damned sight better than the horrid screeching of the piezo alarm that I had been waking up to. In fact, I was so happy and pleased with myself and my cleverness that I zoned until I got the second "BEEDOOP!" I rubbed my eyes and looked at the screen and found the random keyletter, which was 'P' today, and hit the 'P' key on the keyboard and it shut off. It was also just past half a waning moon today, said the file-read, with no holidays, and sunrise was just way too damned early. Macs had their uses, as did Windozers; they were just few and far between. *** 06:18 25 Aug "No, I gotta go to class, and then at two I haveta go over to the Parkers', remember? Well, I have to pick up Stella and Ricky, but still," I inserted, as I slid on an overshirt. "I think," Mike said sleepily, "that I'll just drive to school and nap in my car until homeroom. Wake me up when you get out, right?" "Don't you need to shower and stuff?" "I did that last night before I went to bed, Tuck," Mike reminded me. "And I got all my clothes and stuff..." He shrugged. "Just need to brush my teeth some and that's it, I guess." "'Kay," I said, "see ya at school, I guess." We locked hands for a while, and then I felt better about the whole thing. *** 06:52 25 Aug "What is Mike doing here?" Kim asked as we all watched him pull into the parking lot. "Uh, well, I guess he got up early," I tried. *** 06:55 25 Aug "And then he was in the middle, there on the ground, and someone had killed him, there was like blood and his intestines out and stuff, and I just completely freaked as I woke up, I guess," I recounted, wiping my arms in case my hair was standing up. "And then you spazzed out when you were 'awake' and called me," Mike finished. "He was in a complete panic," he informed the girls. "Scared the crap outta me too, until I figured out what was going on." "Man," Jill said in wonder. "That's awful!" "We always said," Mike said, "that it was Tuck's defense in case there were any telepaths trying to read his mind." "Yeah," Kim slowly nodded, "I think I'd leave at that point, if I was peeking inside your head..." *** 08:19 25 Aug I hoped Dad had read the four emails I sent him about remembering to order that laptop and the accessories; I really wanted the whole kit ASAP. Mainly, at this moment, because I had all my homework done and I was completely bored. *** 10:42 25 Aug A foot came out of a crowd suddenly in my path, and as I hopped sideways to avoid it, someone sniggered, "Faggot!" I shot back, rapidly and loudly, "Is that why you're trying to trip me, to beat me to the ground so you can get screwed by a real man for once?" That was probably not the right thing to say in this circumstance, I realized as I accelerated out of the area ahead of pursuit. But at least it wasn't lame and boring. *** 11:34 25 Aug "So, Kelly, there you are," Mike started, "in Seattle, still looking for a job. You thought when you got your law degree and passed the bar and stuff that you were on top of the world, had it made and so on, but it's been almost a month and you haven't gotten anything more than sort of half-hearted, 'We'll call you's from every single law firm you've been to. So it's not going too well..." *** 11:58 25 Aug "Don't you know ANYthing?" Jill snarled. "If they catch you, they'll KILL you, because you're not even supposed to exist!" "Well it's not MY fault!" Kelly complained back. "And who came up with that stupid idea in the first place?" "It's the TRADITIONS," Jill said like Kelly was a moron, which she sort of was at the moment, or was playing one anyway. "Jill," Mike interrupted after he rolled some dice, "you'd like to continue your chat with this young lady, but unfortunately you notice that there's someone you know, one of the Ancillae, coming-" "Which ones are those?" "The Harpies," Mike said. The 'Mrs. Grundy' of the vampires, I remembered. "Oh shit," Jill said, then rapidly demanded, "How close is she?" "Oh, a few yards, and it's a he," Mike grinned, "and," he said, and rolled, and smiled some more, "you realize that you will never get out of his range with her before he catches you." "Uh uh uh I grab her and bite her neck," Jill said excitedly. "What?" "I bite her neck, like I'm feeding!" Jill insisted. "We're in the downstairs area, the dark one, we're in an alcove, right? So I'm feeding- And I hiss into her ear, 'One of the-', uh, what did you call 'em?" she asked Mike, then said, "Never mind, I say, 'One of the elders is coming this way so just STAY STILL!'" Mike eventually said, "Uh." "You're FEEDING on me?" Kelly sort of gasped. "Shut up!" Jill hissed at her. "And moan like you like it!" Kelly blinked a few times, and then got out, "Ooooooooooh," sounding very liking-it before she broke up laughing, like the rest of us were doing. *** 12:22 25 Aug "You guys are so weird," Kelly said to me as we walked along, on the way to our classes. "So're you," I said, grinning, and I don't think she saw or heard the grin until she was completely shocked, because she still looked completely shocked by the time she turned around to look at me. "What?" I said, "like weird is a bad thing to be?" *** 14:02 25 Aug Another day, another completely overloaded bundle of homework. *** 14:29 25 Aug I pulled my pager out of my pack to check for messages, and there was a new message there, so I flipped back and it said: TTTKIDTTT CEASE AND DESIST SENDING EMAIL X ITS ORDERED X SHUT UP ALREADY X YOUR PCJR IS SHIPPING TOMORROW X HAHA X TSIXT END "WAHOOOO!" I accidentally shrieked and danced. *** 15:08 25 Aug "I hate school," Ricky said, like this was news. "Yeah, who doesn't?" I asked rhetorically. Unfortunately, he wasn't up to 'rhetorical' in vocabulary class, apparently, because he started telling me who didn't. *** 16:02 25 Aug "Hmm hmm hmmm," I hummed musically as I twirled a paring knife and looked at the pantry. Then I secured the knife and went to go examine the freezer. *** 18:38 25 Aug "Try it, you MIGHT like it," I said. Miz Parker looked at me skeptically, then took the spoon I was offering and carefully nibbled at the sample of casserole. "Hmm?" she said after a few seconds as she ate the rest of it. "Not quite what you thought, is it?" I grinned. "What did you put in here?" "Ahhhh," I smiled, "recipes cost extra..." I had a thought, then, and said, "Unless I can borrow your washing machine and dryer tomorrow?" *** 19:04 25 Aug "Try it," I suggested to Mister Parker, who was looking at the casserole dish like he could still see tarantula legs hanging over the rim of the bowl. *** 19:05 25 Aug I managed not to laugh and point and dance off my chair chanting 'I TOLD you so! I TOLD you so!' but it was an effort. "Even the weird stuff she makes is pretty good," Ricky said, though whether to help or to get me in trouble I wasn't sure. *** 20:19 25 Aug I slipped a cookbook into my pack before I forgot, because I really ought to sit down with Miz Parker soon and see about expanding some gustatory horizons. Then my phone flashed. *** 21:19 25 Aug "Sine divided by cosine is tangent, everyone knows that," I mentioned as I peeked into the dining room. "Shut UP!" Sabrina snapped at me as I ducked the pencil she threw. "Now Sabrina," Dad said gently, "don't throw things at my children." "He's being a dork!" "Well, yes of course he is," Dad agreed. "Hey!" I protested. "But I need to keep him around," Dad continued, "or the police will get suspicious." "And Pam said," I said as Sabrina giggled a bit, "that when you get done here she'd like you to call her, which I think is actually an order, about some French homework?" "Oh God," Sabrina sighed, and rubbed her forehead. *** 03:26 26 Aug At least this time it wasn't Mike dead on the floor. Of course, me being pulled apart by two groups of happily screaming people as someone else sliced me into ribbons in the 'middle' wasn't what I'd call a 'fun' dream either. *** 06:50 26 Aug "What," Kim groaned at me as she got out of her car. "Did you have another nightmare last night?" "Yeah," I shrugged. "Have you talked to your therapist or someone about these?" Jill asked, kind of shyly. "I don't think it'll do any good," I said. "That would be 'no', I take it?" Kim said sarcastically. *** 06:58 26 Aug I accidentally caught Shannon's eye as she came in, and flinched, because she'd been one of the ones I remembered pulling. "How can you say that's 'just' a nightmare, Tuck?" Jill demanded. I shrugged. "I always have bad ones; if they weren't bad they wouldn't be nightmares, would they." That was not a question. "Oh, hey," Kim said, in a changing-the-topic tone of voice, "What are you doing this weekend?" "I dunno, why?" "Wanna come over to Sabrina's house?" she grinned. "It's been a while..." "When, Saturday?" She nodded. "Okay, th- Wait, it's JUST Saturday night, right?" "What's the problem?" "I had some plans for Sunday evening and Monday," I said. "But what about SATURDAY night?" Kim pressed. Jill put a chin on my shoulder and almost whispered, "Come join us, become one with us in the darkness of the night..." As I fell down laughing, Kim demanded, "What the hell did you say?" *** 11:32 26 Aug Seeing Julia wander past sparked an idea, so I told Mike I'd be right back and went to catch her. *** 11:34 26 Aug "You want..." Julia trailed off. "Not a DATE date," I insisted. "A friend of mine, Rachel, she wants to go out more, and you do all this neat stuff. So," I explained, "I thought I'd ask you when the next time you were planning to go to like a recital or a concert or a play or something was. Something, you know, cultured," I grinned. "And then all three of us could go together, maybe have dinner or something." I shrugged, because she didn't look delighted with the idea. "I just thought I'd ask, it's no big deal if you don't want to or anything." "No, sorry," she said, and I shrugged again, but she continued, "I'm just bitchy today, I'm, well..." She looked at my face, then she leaned close and lowered her voice and told me, "I'm on the rag today, scrambling my period so I CAN go out this Friday night. So, if you want to go or something that'd be cool." "Well, if- You're doing what?" I asked. "Scrambling?" "If you fiddle your birth control," she said, again in a subtle voice, "then you can make your period come when you want it, sort of. Better than having to worry all evening about tampons and stuff." "Oh, okay," I said. "Trust me, it's all a pain in the ass," she said confidentially. "I thought you put those things elsewhere!" I said in a shocked voice. "Ugh! Don't be disgusting!" she complained as she chuckled a bit. *** 11:36 26 Aug "When did you finish Kelly's prelude?" I asked Mike as I waved at Julia as she left. "Last night while you were at work, dude," Mike said. "Didn't I tell you that love of money was the root of all evil?" "Yeah, but then you asked to borrow ten bucks." *** 11:37 26 Aug Mike dinged the play bell and waited until we settled down. "So, it's two months later, and Kelly, Jill has been working hard to teach you the stupid customs of the vampires, and-" "They're NOT stupid!" Jill insisted. "Shut up Jill," Mike ordered. "The Storyteller is describing things. And," he resumed, "it's two months later, and you're both hanging around the house getting ready to go out for yet another round of mindless feeding, like some kind of brainless primitive worm back a half-billion years ago-" "Am I getting bored with this?" Kelly asked. "Well, you were," Mike smiled, and Kelly and Jill both groaned in anticipation of something horrible happening. They were learning. *** 11:39 26 Aug "Soooooo!" Matt leered from his position on the floor. "Are we going to a party? A gallery opening perhaps? A new play? Exhibition? Of sculpture? I love sculpture, especially live ones." "He's just lying on the floor saying this stuff?" Kelly asked Mike, who nodded. "How did he get in here?" "You left the chimney open!" Matt replied cheerily. "I just laid a finger aside my nose," he put a finger along his nose, "and up the chimney I went!" "Could you do that again?" Jill asked frostily. "Now?" "Oh, but I thought we were going to a party," Matt said, and grinned maniacally, then flipped around until he was standing on his head looking at them. "Your nose looks so much bigger this way I bet YOU could go up the chimney," he said, like it was reasonable. "Or perhaps I could go up YOUR nose like a chimney? Do you suppose if I did I'd find another world on the other end? Or just end up sitting in your hair? Perhaps I'd be on your mind all the time. You never call me, you know, and I get awful lonely..." "Who IS he?" Kelly demanded. "I'm her husband, didn't she mention me? Of course we're all married, in blood as it were, but she and I have a special relationship," Matt chattered as he tried walking on his hands. "Uh," Jill said, unable apparently to keep from staring at Matt. "Mike, I KNOW him?" she asked. "Oooohhhh yes you do," Mike smiled. "He's been hanging around you for YEARS," he grinned. "And he is either completely insane, or faking it too well, and at the same time he knows far more than he should." "I just ask the worms," Matt said. And smiled, sweetly. Book's Little Brother apparently had either long experience with schizophrenia, or a very good imagination, and I would prefer to think of it being the second one. *** 11:41 26 Aug "Ohhh, that's not good," Matt tsked at them, still upside down. "You know the penalty that King John will enforce if he catches you, breeding like the cattle. With the cattle, on the cattle, over the cattle, around the cattle... He'll sic the Sheriff of Nottingham on you! And no red-breasted cloth of lincoln green robin will be able to save you then!" "She's NOT MINE!" Jill insisted. "I can tell, she's far calmer and sweeter of disposition," Matt snapped back. "Tell me dear, are there any Malkavians in your family?" "Any what?" Kelly asked. "A VERY good answer, I applaud you!" Which he did for a few moments before he lost his balance and fell over, almost kneeing me in the face, but I wasn't quite so enthralled that I forgot to dodge. "Do you know the one about the elephant and the rabbi too?" Matt asked as he scrambled to his feet. There was an immensely loud knocking, which surprised everyone. "It's coming from the front door," Mike said as he continued to bang on the table. "I love knock-knock jokes!" Matt said, and sprang - literally, both feet off the ground for an instant like he was doing ballet. "Noooo!" Jill hissed and grabbed him, like Kelly did a second later. Matt sang out, "Whooooo's mmmmph?" "Shut UP," Jill hissed, keeping her hand over his mouth. Mike stopped knocking for a second, then started banging with his fist. "You can hear a voice ordering something, or that's what the tone of voice sounds like, but you can't make it out from here," he said over the emphatic thumping. "Mrffmmph!" Matt said dramatically. *** 11:43 26 Aug "Renegades?" Jill said. "Sabbat!" I corrected, with a shudder. "And they have to be hiding someplace," I said. "Which is why your Prince has ordered you to open your house for a search. You understand, of course," I weaseled, "we're certain there's nothing here, but in order to avoid charges of favoritism..." I would have kept going, but I got distracted by Matt passing a note to Mike. *** 11:44 26 Aug "Perhaps you wouldn't mind calling him so I can hear this for myself?" Jill tried, still sounding calm. "Of course not, m'lady, in fact..." I trailed off again, this time because Mike was waving at me. he signed at me. "Uhhhhh," I said, being stunned. "Ahhh, is that the pizza boy I ordered?" Matt said cheerfully from behind Jill. "You hadn't noticed him coming down the stairs," Mike said as Jill whipped around. "Shush," Mike said over Jill. "In fact, whatever you were going to say falls completely out of your mind when you notice him, because he's completely naked at this point." "And smiling," Matt smiled when the first burst of laughter died down. "And smiling," Mike repeated, also smiling. "And I've got a pink ribbon tied around my-" "Naked?" Jill said in disbelief. "Perhaps this is an, inconvenient, time for you?" I asked slimily. "The two goons behind the weasel break up laughing at this point," Mike described, as several people broke up laughing again. *** 12:14 26 Aug "This is a complete OUTRAGE!" Jill complained bitterly, "and I WON'T put up with this!" "Of course, mademoiselle," I said as I bowed a bit. "And the Prince knows exactly what a terrible imposition and invasion of your delicate and exquisite nature this is, and I'm sure if you bring it up-" "They're knocking on the wardrobe," Mike interrupted, which was where Kelly had pathetically attempted to hide when they came up the stairs. I'd have gone out the window, if it was me or my character. "One of them studies the front for a minute, then reaches out and-" Mike dinged the play bell, then started dodging immediately. *** 12:15 26 Aug "THURSDAY!" Kelly complained bitterly. "I have to wait until THURSDAY to find out?!" "He's like that," Jill sighed. *** 12:17 26 Aug Matt shrugged, having apparently turned off his schizophrenia emulation. "I just kind of free associate a little," he said normally. "That was really creepy after a while," Kim said. Matt nodded without much emotion, like this was entirely to be expected. *** 14:25 26 Aug On the one hand, it was nice of Miz Parker to say I could do laundry at her place, since that was a lot cheaper than doing it at Rachel's laundry room. On the other hand, it wasn't so good, because that meant I had to collect everything and then stuff it into my car and then wash it and dry it, fold some of it and hang some more, and then take it all back at some point, and I STILL had a date to go on. On the gripping hand, if I hurried with the wash, I could perhaps have something clean and nice to wear when I went out with Travis tonight. And, I'd run out of hands - maybe a prehensile foot? - but if I was lucky he wouldn't want to go out anywhere tonight... *** 15:07 26 Aug "You brought your laundry?" Ricky complained as he got into the front seat. *** 17:48 26 Aug "How often are you and Travis going out?" Miz Parker asked, with a smile on her face. "Well, duh, as often as we can," I said with a grin of my own. *** 18:21 26 Aug Folding was gonna have to wait until I had some time, which I did not have right now, as I was cooking in between drying the last load of clothes, and if I hurried - which I was doing - I just had time to stuff everything into my car - which I was also doing - and then run back to the stove before something exploded or the clouds let loose and un-dried everything I'd just dried. *** 19:04 26 Aug "Hi!" I smiled at Travis. He looked good against a backdrop of rain, but he always looked good. "Hey," he smiled back, then sniffed. "What's cookin'?" "Nothing for us," I said as I ushered him out of the house and shut the door and locked it. "If you really want to have me cook you something, then let me know a couple days in advance and I'll fix you a feast like you wouldn't believe." "You couldn't do it tonight?" he teased as he readied his umbrella. "Do you have any pots, pans, a food processor, good kitchen knives, wheat flour, any fruit, sherry- cooking sherry, not to drink, uh, extra virgin olive oil... yeah, see? That's why I need a couple of days." "You need all that?" "You like Italian, right?" I grinned at him. "GOOD Italian food starts with good ingredients and good tools, my sweet." He touched my shoulder, then, and caressed it in a way that left me breathless, which sort of went away when he said, "Speaking of Italian food, and tonight..." *** 20:23 26 Aug Dinner had been going quite well until I caught a noseful of someone's nasty perfume - not a whiff, this was more like a full frontal Guards Shock Army assault - and did not manage to put my fork down before I started sneezing. *** 20:25 26 Aug "It'll come out," I lied as we both dabbed at the large red stain on the front of my blouse with our napkins. I HOPED it would come out without six-molar HCl. "Maybe you should go to the bathroom and try and rinse it out?" Travis suggested. *** 20:34 26 Aug Silly me, I hadn't thought to bring a change of clothes with me to dinner, and I'd left my car in front of the Parkers' house, so all I had was my bathing suit to change into - and I wouldn't have had THAT if I hadn't demanded Travis' keys so I could get my pack - so I could stand at the sink and play laundress while other women drifted in and out. And I was lucky to have the suit at all, though I sort of chilled at the realization that I'd been carrying it around school. *** 20:40 26 Aug Someone came into the bathroom, which was not unusual; what was unusual was that she was calling, "Valerie?" and looking around while holding a very familiar looking shirt. "He didn't," I sighed to myself. "I'm Valerie," I said to the woman, who I vaguely remembered as the hostess. *** 20:42 26 Aug "I was afraid after it took you so long, that it wasn't coming out," Travis said apologetically. "I'm just glad you're wearing a T shirt underneath. Or were," I smiled. It was a bit tight across his chest, but that meant I could look at him and it was almost like no shirt at all. "The stain came out eventually, but it made the blouse kind of transparent. Next time we go out, though," I teased, "we have to make sure that we're better coordinated, since your shirt doesn't really go with my skirt tonight." "It looks good," he told me. I hoped it did, but I had a feeling he just liked seeing the skin where his shirt was hanging open because I'd tied the shirt in a knot at the tail. It looked way too stupid on me if I buttoned it up like he'd been wearing it. *** 21:04 26 Aug "You want ice cream after that?" "Well, if you don't want to," Travis partially offered. I knew he wanted to have some, though, because he wasn't subtle enough to bring it up for another reason. "No, no, that's fine," I smiled at him. "Where?" *** 21:20 26 Aug Apparently, having ice cream on weekday nights was a cool thing to do if you were in college, judging by the number of college-aged people in here. I felt a little out of place, but not too bad, since I had my own boyfriend. And, no one was especially looking at us weird, which was nice. *** 21:51 26 Aug "Whatever you want to do," I lied. "Ummm... busy this Thursday?" he asked me. "Not any more," I smiled. "No, come on," he protested mildly. But he was smiling back. *** 22:54 26 Aug "Hey," Mike said as he got up. "You got home finally." "What are you doing here?" I sighed. I really wanted to go upstairs and go to bed for a while. No, what I really wanted was to go back to Travis' place and go to bed for a while. Like a month. "I had to ask you something," he said as he motioned us towards the stairs up. "No, wait," I said, and pointed towards Dad. I signed. "Oh," Mike sighed. *** 22:56 26 Aug "Yeah, we're gonna have a super-maxed-out gaming weekend," Mike said to Dad. "We're not entirely sure whose house it's going to be at, though. We may end up moving around." Mike shrugged. "Two days?" Dad confirmed. "Oh, we'll be here for Sunday dinner," I said when I caught on that he was worrying about that. "That wasn't what I was worried about," Dad lied. "Are you going to get enough sleep? And what about homework?" "I'll get it done!" I protested. "We'll be having a community homework bazaar when we get tired of gaming," Mike said. "And that would be..." Dad said. I said, "Next week," just when Mike said, "October." *** 23:02 26 Aug "Yeah, that looks really good," I nodded and smiled at the picture on my big monitor. If I didn't know better, I'd swear Ashlee had lied about her age to someone to make some money. "Were the cum splatters original or did he add them?" "I didn't think to ask, and I don't want to know," Mike said. "Good point," I agreed. *** 23:10 26 Aug "So, give this to Kelly tomorrow morning, and tell her what to do, right?" I said as I handed Mike the reloaded floppy disk. "Right," Mike agreed. "And remind her NOT to run it until class is almost over," I said. "And to TAKE THE DISK WITH HER." "Right," Mike nodded. "Is that your shirt?" he pointed. *** 23:16 26 Aug Mike was chugging a coke before he went home, and then something caught him and he choked a bit and then exploded. "Yeah, THAT's how it happened!" I snapped as I first ducked and then got up to quickly get a towel or two. *** 23:20 26 Aug Scrubs were cheap, durable, easy to clean, and ugly as heck, which is why we had some of them as spare clothes. Mike was now wearing a scrub top before he went home, because it hadn't stopped raining yet and his shirt was not going to be washed unless he wanted to stay here and do it himself for two hours, and I was planning on going to bed. So, Mike's shirt ended up on the top bunk and Travis' was wrapped around the bear so I could look at it and faintly smell him as I went to sleep. I wished he was here, but this was the next best thing. *** 05:58 27 Aug I wished I could find Travis because I really wanted to have lunch with him. Even if it meant I was going to be skipping gaming for the day, it was worth it. But I couldn't have lunch with him if I couldn't find him, and the damned lunchroom seemed to be completely full, and I didn't feel like trying to push and slither my way through the crowd. Finally I gave up and went outside, and started looking around, because it was a nice day and he might be- "Daddy! Daddy!" called some children, who came running over from the playground outside the high school cafeteria. One of them, the bigger, was a boy, about eight years old, and the other one was a younger girl in a smaller replica of the dress I had on. They ran right up to me, calling, "Daddy!" the whole time, and when they got closer the little girl said, "Daddy, Travis is waiting for us!" as I scooped her up and perched her on one of my hips. "Well, let's go see him," I said, smiling, and they both cheered a bit and we walked around the playground, my heels tack-tacking on the concrete as we went, until I saw Travis, dressed in a fantastic looking suit and leaning against the fender of a Mercedes and looking at- No, he was Looking at me. The children squealed and the boy ran off as the girl thrashed, so I let the girl down and she ran after her brother or homed in on Travis, who grinned and greeted them affectionately. "Hey," Mike said from the side, and I looked over and there he was, in a loincloth, tending a fire. Around the fire was the rest of the gaming group, and the Pack too, wearing leather bits and painted faces and feathers in their hair. "We're having the big ritual today," Mike said, and held out his hand to me, so I tried to look for Travis so I could tell him what I had to do, but he was beckoning me to the car. "I can't leave the children," I said as I turned back to Mike. "Debbie's going to take care of them," Mike said, and I looked at him and then back at Travis and there was Debbie, rocking the baby on her shoulder as the boy pestered her with questions, I could tell from his posture and her expression. "She's almost as good as you." I waved, and they waved back, and then I turned to Mike and started disrobing, shortly ending up feeling really naked since I didn't have any paint for the ritual. *I have to borrow some,* I thought, but I felt embarrassed to ask until I told myself, *These are my FRIENDS.* I thought it was Mike that said, "Beedoop!", but it wasn't, it was something else, by my head, and I turned as the notes rang out and then I was looking at the MacinClock. *** 06:14 27 Aug I hoped I wouldn't get Mike's shirt and Travis' shirt confused, since Mike would swim in it and Travis probably couldn't get it on, respectively. *** 06:57 27 Aug "Maybe it's going out with Travis?" Kim suggested. "You mean, I have to go out with him every night to get some sleep? Oh well," I said, putting my wrist to my forehead, "it's such a torment but I guess OW!" I complained as someone poked me in the ribs. *** 10:42 27 Aug "Your dad was asking me if I knew who you were out with last night," Sabrina said in a apparent attempt to cause me to die of a heart attack. I almost grabbed my chest in shock. "Don't WORRY," she said, "I told him I wasn't sure but if it was the girl I was thinking of, that she was nice. And played basketball," she smiled. "Oh God," I moaned softly. Amanda suggested, "Maybe if you asked Kathy REALLY nicely, she might help you out if he wanted to meet this girlfriend of yours?" And giggled. "She'd do that for me?" "Your dad's helping ME out, and he's tons better than you or any math teacher I've had since I was ten," Sabrina said, and nudged me as she smiled some more. "Kathy might be willing to help out a little, if you'd do her a favor or something." "Hooo boy," I sighed. "Don't forget, we gotta get over to the lab first thing today," Mike reminded me as he sat down. "Why?" Sabrina asked. "We gotta check on something," I evaded. *** 11:31 27 Aug We had kept our stuff packed so that when the bell rang we were out of there like racehorses, but we were halfway there before I noticed that Sabrina had done the same thing. "What, and miss whatever it is?" she said at me before I could ask her what she was doing. "There's nothing going on," I hoped. "Liar," she said, as Amanda giggled. *** 11:34 27 Aug When we rounded the last corner, Kelly was coming towards us looking a little confused. And Ashlee was nowhere in sight. "So?" Mike asked as we got within casual speaking range. "I..." Kelly said. Then she looked at us. "What did you do?" Well, I guess she was looking at me. "Never mind that, not here and not now," I said emphatically. "Where's the disk?" She dug in a large pocket and pulled out the envelope with the floppy inside. I checked to make sure it was in fact my disk and not hers, and it was mine. "Where is Ashlee?" I asked as I stuffed the thing into the deeper recesses of my pack. "She's," Kelly turned to point. "She's still in there, I think. She didn't get up when class was over, she just sat there." "How long before the bell rang did you run it?" "Um, maybe two minutes?" Kelly guessed. "Something like that." I took a breath and let it out, and motioned to everyone that we should leave. "What did you do?" Kelly asked me again, but I ignored it. *** 11:38 27 Aug "Oh, before I forget, I got your shirt," I told Mike, and dug through my pack and handed it to him. "Man!" Bob laughed, "What, did you forget it after you two had sex or somethoof," he ended as George did something which I'd seen described as 'muckling onto'. Dan joined in a second later, and then Bob was pinned and gagged, as Mike and I got up to provide some visual screening, since I didn't want to go back to visit Dobson again this soon. A little encouragement got the other freshthings to do the same thing and so we all stood around looking down at Bob, who didn't seem happy. "Bob," Mike said patiently, "if you don't stop being an asshole, we're going to have to insist that you leave." Bob said something in reply, but the only things I caught were 'fags' and some painful noises as something hit him a few times. Mike waited until things calmed down, which took a minute or two, and then said, "Let him up, and let's see if we can't do SOMETHING before the end of lunch. Bob, be nice, now," Mike said. They let Bob up, and I thought he was going to try and start something by the way he was glaring, but he just shut his mouth and glared before stomping off. "Okay, so..." Mike said as he sat down and rang the bell. "So, the tribal elder says..." *** 14:04 27 Aug "Oooh," I said to myself as I remembered something. *** 14:08 27 Aug "I'll have the dentist fax the note to you tomorrow morning from their office," I said. "What's your number here? Oh, and don't get all upset if you get my brother Brian's note and not mine, they did that last year and I almost got in trouble for it. The office help there is, well... Not as good as here," I said diplomatically, and smiled. "Sure thing, and thanks for letting us know ahead of time," the secretary smiled back. "Oh no," someone moaned, and when I looked up it was Dobson. "It's JUST a dentist's appointment tomorrow!" I told him before his heart failed. He was being a hell of a lot more reasonable than Nickerson had ever been, and I had no wish to lose him, especially not over something as trivial as this. *** 20:04 27 Aug "Hi Mom," I sighed as I came in. I was not too tired to smile at the sight of her doing dishes, though. Mainly because it wasn't me doing them. "Hi, how was sitting?" she asked. "Oh God," I sighed. "Did- Never mind. Mom," I said, "I hereby apologize for the first two years of my life, when you and Dad had to feed me. It's not so funny now as I think it was then." Stella had certainly thought it was the best time she'd had in ages. Mom smiled. "What did she do?" "Blow. Everywhere. Then she knocked the jar loose when I was wiping some out of my eye, and it broke all over the floor. I think she did the aerosol spray of food trick that time as a distraction so she could take out the jar." "Oh, I hated it when you used to do that," she nodded. "Don't you mean 'Susan' or 'Brian'?" "Ooooh no," she said, sounding quite certain. "It was you. At least, you were the best at it. Compared to trying to get food down YOU, Brian was a piece of cake." "Cake?" Brian asked as he came in with several dirty coffee mugs. *** 20:13 27 Aug "Your friend Sabrina is very nice," Mom told me. I almost argued with her, telling her the truth, but managed to catch myself in time. After all, I'd rather have Mom thinking they were all nice, rather than her knowing what they were REALLY like. *** 20:24 27 Aug I had intended to go to bed WAY early once I got done with the trash, hoping to repeat the success of last night, when the phone started flashing. I checked Arrakis and it was Pam, of all people. *** 20:41 27 Aug It was actually Pam and Amanda and Julia and Kim, of all people. Which was actually a fairly large percentage of 'all people', or at least the ones that I'd talk to on the phone. I wondered sometimes how girls had lived before conference calling. "So how are you and Travis?" Amanda smirked. "We're going to drop out of school and spend the rest of the year screwing ourselves and each other into oblivion at his place." I hoped that would shut them up. It didn't, but in between the laughter and catcalls I heard someone going, "That would be nice..." *** 21:03 27 Aug "I think we broke up," Amanda sighed. "You THINK?" I wasn't the only one to say. "He hasn't called me back in a week, and I've been leaving messages on his machine!" Amanda said back. "Even my phone number in case he lost it or something." "Like what KIND of messages?" Julia asked. *** 21:31 27 Aug "Oh, and you need to call Kathy before you go to bed," Sabrina added She'd joined the conversation after she got home - thus not speaking to me at my house but waiting until she could get me on the phone; there was something wrong with that. "So don't forget." I wanted to forget because I wanted to go to bed immediately. "You have her number?" "Oh, give it to me anyway," I said as I switched keyboards over to Arrakis and prepared to enter some info on Kathy for a speed-dial. *** 22:19 27 Aug I finally got Kathy on the phone. And boy was I glad she had a separate line; it was kind of late. At least I'd had plenty of time to write some emails, especially to Travis saying I'd love to do something Thursday night. Susan was okay, and Amy was ready to drop out, run away, and start living out of dumpsters like she usually was at this time of year, but she had said it was nice talking to Travis again. I was a little jealous, but reasoned that New York was a long way away, and if she did run away from home and come here I'd have plenty of warning and could dig a pit trap before she got to Travis in the flesh. "Hey, uh, Val, lemme call you back in a few, okay?" she said. "I got a ton of messages on my machine." "Uh, well, two are from me," I said. "I've got six- no, seven," she said. "So I'll call you back in a few, okay?" *** 22:27 27 Aug The phone flashed, and Arrakis said it was Kathy, so I picked up with a nice, "Principal's office Dobson speaking." "That's where you oughta be," Kathy said ominously. "All those messages except one, are about you. What is this about me dating you?" "Oh uh, that's not about DATING dating," I said, making a mental note to shave Sabrina's head and paint 'I AM EVIL' on it. "Um, what about the watching Kelly part? That's REALLY important." *** 22:54 27 Aug She'd said 'yes' to watching Kelly, and 'maybe and DO NOT push me' about the lying-about-dating-in-front-of-my-parents part, so, since I wanted her to be happy and especially not desiring disassembly of me, I didn't push it. And then we'd talked about other things, like who she was really dating and who I was dating and how they were and so on for a while, before I remembered something else I wanted to know about. And if anyone would A know this and B talk to me about it, it was probably Kathy. Or maybe Susan or Amy, but I'd have to write another email which would take longer than asking verbally, "Kath... you know about birth control pills, right?" "Yyyyyyyyyeah," she said hesitantly. "Sort of." "Julia said yesterday something about scrambling her period so she'd be able to go out without having to worry about it, for Friday night. And Amy, on the camping trip, she was using her BC pills to screw up her period so she wouldn't have one that month too. Is that common?" "Yeah," she said more confidently. "I heard about the trick a long time ago, from a girl I knew. You don't want to do it that often, but once in a while is okay." "Does Debbie know this?" "Yeah? We all do." "Okay, so... so, so at that convention Debbie and I broke up at, she was on 'em, I know she had 'em with her because she was taking them in the morning... Why did she have a period that weekend?" I realized I was starting to sound hysterical about the time that I stopped, which was good. Kathy sighed into the phone. "Tuck," she said. "What?!" "She screwed up." "What?" "She screwed it up, she took the wrong pills at the wrong time and instead of stopping her period for a few days, she brought it forward a few days." She sighed again. "That's one of the reasons she was so upset, because she just got it backwards at the completely wrong time." Pause. "You're not lying to me, are you?" I asked. "No, V- Tuck, I'm not," she said solemnly. "Ask Kim about it, she was there when Debbie said she took the wrong pills and I told her what she did and she got worse. More upset, I mean." "Oh my god," I said. Then, "But why didn't she tell me?" "I..." Kathy said. "Um." "What?" "I think," Kathy said slowly, "she was embarrassed she'd messed it up, and she guessed that she had on the trip and didn't want you laughing at her or something. Besides, Tuck, it's... sometimes it's a little hard talking about female biology to your boyfriend, ya know?" 'Harder talking to your boyfriend about male biology,' I didn't say. "But, I mean, but-" "Look, Tuck, I think she was wrong not to tell you at the time, but I wasn't there," Kathy said. "And it doesn't make a difference now, does it?" "I dunno... it seems to," I said honestly. *** 23:11 27 Aug I'd looked over at my bed and thought that maybe it had been the bear or something. So, I was going to try again, and see if I couldn't sleep until morn- *** 23:12 27 Aug "Damnit!" I said at the email I was staring at, which was the one I'd just remembered, which was the one from Mom reminding me about a morning dental appointment. "No, wait," I retracted, since it wasn't until nine in the morning and I didn't have to go to school before it, which meant I could sleep in. "Cool!" I said instead. *** 23:14 27 Aug On the one hand, it required a little more brain to type stuff into the MacinAlarmClock than just sitting there numbly holding a button and watching a register increment. On the other hand, this one didn't panic me awake, and I'd have a clue when I woke up WHY I was waking up at that time, since every little bit of assistance at reboot time was good. Well, usually. *** 06:04 28 Aug I couldn't claim I'd had GOOD dreams, but at least they weren't the kind that made me scream a lot. "It's Travis," I sighed as I looked at the bear, which was still wearing his shirt. "And I have to give that back to him tonight." *** "Men always want to be a woman's first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: what they like is to be a man's last romance." - Oscar Wilde Distribution: No part of this work may be distributed as an original work by another person or group. Permission is given to redistribute this by electronic means, as long as the entirety of the work (from the BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE header to the END PGP SIGNATURE footer) is distributed, and credit is given to the original author, me. And no fee may be charged. Archiving is permitted provided no fee is charged for access. All rights reserved. + ==[-------- Ellen Hayes @>--,--'--- ellen@barkingduck.net + PGP DH/DSS keyfing: 33D4 156A AE39 53E2 0313 6714 2878 56A8 61B0 9CDC + http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes -=[1990]=- vicki .sig virus 11.4 + -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBPUDNNXYDebnvyV1VAQEIKwP/deIBg/NEVYyxIy4BCX2a2nEx770RdlpU oeVZ3nlscDA1ztG80e5PRJgvqXlh2+H7LXrxmOkagvv1R7Y5TMZj8iKWPCMSwoqc E6uHqaUD3AQQsFnTPbQiCJ5H6KKJ64kSyt8J5r2HLIFGpl1tEsUDBm+TfOiDkEF/ ZzGdZ95oXl0= =166B -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----