[ussbansheec] "Skipping School"
- From: "Moria Grace" <bansheec@xxxxxxx>
- To: <ussbansheec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 22:58:01 -0400
"Skipping School"
Anna, James, Victoria, and Moria McEntire
There was no way she was setting foot inside her school. By now everyone would
have heard about what had happened, and Moria simply didn't want to deal with
it. She'd gotten up and gotten dressed in her uniform and had even walked with
her sisters and Joshie, but she never went into the building. Instead Moria
headed for the hospital, stopping at the book store to pick up the newest
releases in James' favorites mags, then at the sweet shop to pick up his
favorite candies. Slipping into the hospital, her contraband safely hidden in
her satchel, Moria made it up to James' floor. She headed for his room but
stopped cold at an all to familiar voice. She'd thought her mother would be at
work by now, ducking into an empty room she waited to see if she'd leave.
"I want to be kept fully informed of his condition," Anna said firmly to a
nurse.
"Yes Dr. McEntire," the woman replied as if she were coddling a demanding child.
"Any change and I want you to tell me," Anna continued.
"With all due respect, Doctor, go to work. Shoo!" Lilin beamed at Anna. "Go on,
get! We can handle things and you know very well we can." She made ushering
motions with her hands until Anna left and then sighed with relief. With s
smirk, she stuck her head into the room where Moria was hiding and called, "You
can come out now, she's gone."
Moria jumped, her face flushing with embarrassment at the sight of the middle
aged Bajoran woman. "Don't do that Lil!" Smiling sheepishly at her old nanny,
Moria asked, "How'd you know I was here? She didn't see me did she? I'm suppose
to be in school. She'll kill me if she knew I'd cut school. I don't think she
has that many gaskets left to blow."
"You know I have eyes and ears everywhere, Mo," Lilin chuckled. Nodding toward
the door, she led the girl in to see her brother. "And no, she didn't see you.
I've not seen her this wound up since Mac and Joshie were in here four years
ago. I swear it amazes me sometimes that woman still has red hair." Smiling
fondly, she ruffled Mo's hair and said, "He's still groggy but if you don't
talk too fast he should be able to understand you."
Moria smiled. "He's been listening to be talk like this all our lives. He could
understand me in his sleep. Actually I think he has a couple of times."
Stepping over to her brother's bed, Moria's light hearted smile quickly turned
into a worried frown. She'd never seen James' in the hospital before. They'd
all had their share of medical issues, trips to specialists, and time spent in
a hospital bed, but all of James' had been done when they were very small.
Reaching out, Moria brushed her fingers through his hair.
"Hey Mo," he smiled up at her, his face pale but eyes bright. "Where's Mum?"
"On her way to San Francisco I hope." Mo answered as she sat carefully on the
edge of his bed. "Other wise I'm toast." She laughed as she pulled off her
uniform blazer and her tie, tossing them both onto a near by chair.
James chuckled dryly. "Not gone to school then, tut tut." He reached out his
hand and squeezed hers. "Thanks."
"You cracked your ribs and damaged your lung for me, bro, I think skipping out
on Mrs. Lewis' Shakespeare quiz is worth coming down to keep you company." She
replied with a bright smile. "I brought you some stuff."
"Ooooo," he teased, "d'you bring Sally with you? She hidden in your satchel?"
Moria laughed. "No but she called last night to see how you were. Asked if it
was ok if she asked you to a holomovie or something." Flipping open her well
worn and still treasured bag, Moria pulled out the mags and candy and set them
on James' lap. "There's new specs out on the new argo shuttles in the top one."
His eyes brightened as he immediately flipped it open. "Oh man, I can't wait to
get my hands on one of these. You know we get to strip one down and rebuild it
during the second year at the Academy? It's gonna be like pure heaven."
Snuggling back against his pillows, he put the mag aside and smiled at Moria.
"Thanks Mo, how much do I owe you?"
"Nothin'" She replied as she sat on his bed again. "I got them for you. Though
if you really wanted to repay me you could get better really fast and come
home. The house feels odd without you. No one knows what to do when Mummy isn't
yelling your name every half hour."
James very carefully stuck out his tongue at her. "Lilin said I'm only here for
observation, she said I can go home tonight and stop taking up precious bed
space. So... what's up?"
"Sally told me that Manny got his ass kicked." Moria replied. "I guess the
story is that after you took me home you came back and really trashed and
humiliated him." She smiled at him. "You'll be a hero when Mummy lets you go
back to school."
James blinked a few times before asking the obvious question, "Who beat up
Manny? Coz I sure as hell didn't."
Moria shrugged. "Everyone who saw it said it was you. It was dark and they saw
a tall, thin, blonde boy who came back to defend his family."
"Huh, weird." James grabbed one of the candies and tore it open, offering it to
Mo. "As long as he looks worse than I do, I don't really care."
Taking the candy, Moria popped it to her mouth. "Wouldn't know, everything I
know I heard from Sally last night. I'll find out more when she calls to find
out where I was today."
"Mum's gonna be spitting when she finds out you skipped school," James plopped
a candy in his mouth. "What's the real reason you didn't wanna go in?"
"Mummy wouldn't honestly know what to do if a day went by without one of us
getting into trouble." Moria smirked before taking another candy, unwrapping it
and bouncing the balled up wrapper off of James' forehead. "I really did want
to come see you, but I just couldn't make myself go in there."
"Ouch," James said with mock resignation. He picked up the ball and aimed it at
her nose - a perfect shot. "You did nothing wrong, Mo. Why're you avoiding it?"
"I know." She replied softly rubbing her nose. "But the opposite side of the
ones who will make you a hero, will turn me into a slut. I don't think I could
handle that well."
"If they even look at you funny, I really will beat them up," James said
gruffly, forcing as much bravado into his voice as he could. "Only, this time
I'll use a stick or something."
Moria laughed. "I'll buy you a Klingon pain stick cause if you start going
around picking fights at school you'll need it to defend yourself, or do I need
to remind you of the Natalie Poolman mishap last year. Ya know I think her nose
is still crooked."
"I hope so, though the way she shoves it up Jennifer's arse, it might be from
that rather than the way you hit," he smirked. "And how is dear sweet Jennifer?"
"She called the house last night." Moria admitted. "Asking for you. Apparently
beating up Manny in my defense changed her mind about you, since your now the
hot new thing. Somehow the connection was severed before she could find out
where you were."
"Thank fuck for that," he laughed, pausing very briefly when it made his chest
ache a bit. "I don't want that harpy anywhere near me. Kinda like Sally
though," he smiled shyly. "She's pretty." Then he blushed and shoved his nose
into a mag. "Not that I was eyeing up your friends or anything."
Moria huffed. "Well she was sure checking you out. If I had to hear any more
about how cute you were I'd have gagged." Then she smirked.
James peered over the top of his page, still blushing furiously. "She thinks
I'm cute?"
"Gross isn't it?" She teased.
"Oh yeah," he mumbled, his colour deepening. "I guess so."
Moria rolled her eyes and laughed. "I'm teasing you prat! Geez. I think you two
could be a half descent couple, or at least as descent as sixteen year olds
get."
James shrugged, still too embarrassed to form a coherent sentence. When he
calmed down a bit, he admitted, "She's kinda fun too."
"Maybe I can get her to cut out of morning classes tomorrow and bring her with
me." Moria told him. She had no plans to go to school tomorrow either. She was
being a coward and she knew it, but she didn't care. High school was hard
enough without having stuff like this over one's head.
"You can bring Sally here tomorrow if you like, but there won't be much to
see." He smirked as he said, "I go home tonight Mo, I did tell you."
Moria chewed on her lip. "Oh yeah." So much for those plans. She'd have to find
somewhere else to go. She was out of paints, maybe Sammy would let her hang out
at the shop for a while.
"I can't wait to get back to school though," James beamed. "Mum says it'll be a
few days before she's happy and then it's back to work on that shuttle in
'shop. We're onto the warp core now. The Prof even said we can try out other
technologies, like Romulan and stuff." His eyes had gone slightly glassy as he
practically drooled over the idea. "Of course, Lilin's promised to take me over
to the research labs here too. Apparently they're working on a heart for some
guy who got shot through his."
"They're working on upgrading the one used on Ambassador Picard. It's all Vix
and Mummy talked about when it appeared in Mummy's last medical journal." Moria
laughed and rolled her eyes. Between her mother and sister talking medical and
her father, brothers, and PJ talking mechanics, dinner around their house was a
bit boring for her.
"Oh you're joking!" James sat up quickly and then hissed out a breath as he
felt a stab in his side. "Ow," he whispered through involuntary tears, "that
hurt." He rubbed his side to ease it but all that did was make him burn. "Owow,
that really fucking hurt. Damn bloody ribs, why can't they just stay not
broken?"
Concern and panic filled Moria's eyes making them darker. "Jimmie? I'm going to
get Lilin." She got off his bed and headed for the door.
"I'm fine," he huffed as he rubbed harder. "Mum told me not to make sudden
movements, something about what she did to the lung or something. She said it
would hurt if I leapt around and stuff."
Moria paused and looked between her brother and the door. Finally she walked
back over and sat on the bed next to him. Lilin would be coming into the room
sooner or later anyway to either check on him, or to warn them that their
mother was coming. "So stop leaping around."
James stuck his tongue out at her before leaning back against his pillows. "I
had this really neat idea for an upgrade to a heart, I wanna run it past the
guys down in the lab, Lilin says they're really interested. Can you imagine? A
16 year old working on Ambassador Picard's heart?" James beamed as he continued
to rub his side.
"Why not a 16 year old? Someone has to pick up where Uncle Josh left off. Dad
says the engineers coming out of the academy now are idiots who need their
hands held and their ass wiped for them. " Moria beamed at her brother.
"Oh bloody marvelous," James muttered. "Kinda nice to know what he'll think of
me when I'm done, huh?"
Rolling her eyes she flicked James in the forehead. "No one thinks you'll be
one of those lot, James. You know more now then most of the third years already
there. You'll see, just wait till your exam scores come in."
James just humphed. "Gotta pass the early entrance exams yet. And this time off
isn't helping any. Phil said they were a pig, he's failed them twice now."
"Phil's a bloody twit who wouldn't know a wrap coil for a hair dryer." Moria
smirked, she wasn't any better and would have failed her one and only shop
class miserably without James' help. "Ya know Vix is bringing home all the work
your missing."
"She is?" James brightened. "Oh bless and she's coming over after school with
Mum."
"Knock knock," Lilin said from the doorway.
Panic once again filled Moria eyes. "Mummy's going to the school?" She jumped
off the bed and yelped at the sound of Lilin's voice. Spinning around to look
over at her in the doorway she was only slightly relieved to see she was alone.
"He's in pain." She told the nurse.
"Is he really? Been jumping about like a Jack-in-the-box, has he?" Lilin smiled
fondly at the pair. "You know, if you leave now, you need to go by the back
stairs because I think I saw your mother's car pull up about a minute ago."
"Shit shit shit." Moria muttered. Grabbing her bag and blazer off the chair
she'd tossed them on, then she kissed her brother's cheek. "I'll see you when
you get home, Jimmie."
James blinked and waved. "Err... yeah, see you later."
After giving Lilin a hug and thanking her for the warning, Moria slipped into
the hallway outside her brother's room and headed towards the back stairs.
She'd slip out of the hospital and head home, hopefully before the school
called about her absence. She just hopped her mother had waited outside for
Victoria.
"Blasted bloody broken lifts," Anna huffed as she climbed the back stairs,
Victoria bouncing along behind her. As she turned another turn in the
stairwell, she caught sight of a familiar pair of legs. "Moria?"
Moria froze. Looking up as if she were staring at a snickering Fate, she sighed
and then whacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. For the briefest of
moments she wondered if she could make it if she turned and ran back up the
flight of steps she'd just thundered down. Sighing she came the rest of the way
down to the landing that turned onto the set of stairs her mother and sister
were on. "Um.. Hi?"
"What on Earth are you doing here? Why weren't you at school?" Anna demanded.
"School? Oh, um, I..." Why couldn't she ever come up with a believable lie?
Teenagers and kids all over the Alpha Quadrant were lying on a daily basses,
and yet Moria was totally incompetent at it. Was she missing the part of the
adolescent brain that could spin excuses at the drop of hat? Or was it that her
heart broke when ever she tried? Suddenly looking down at her feet she stared
at an invisible spot on the toe of her black school loafers. "I didn't go." She
admitted quietly. Stupid bloody Goody-two-shoes.
"Would you mind telling me why?" Anna asked evenly.
Moria simply shook her head.
"Go down to the car and wait there, I need to take Victoria up to see her
brother and then I'll come out." With that, Anna led her other daughter away.
Nodding Moria headed down the stairs slowly. She'd been able to get James to
stop talking about why she didn't want to go to school by bring up Sally. Some
how she didn't think that was going to work on her mother. Heading out to the
parking lot she looked around for her mother's car, which wasn't hard to spot
among the hover cars, and shuttles. Finding the doors locked, Moria climbing
onto the car's hood and drew her knees to her chest.
Once Victoria and James were happily settled with Lilin, Anna headed back out.
For some very strange reason, the lifts were working going down, it was just up
that they had trouble with. Rolling her eyes at the idiocy of modern
technology, she strode out into the parking lot and bleeped open the car, As
she approached, she said, "Get in, we're gonna go for a drive."
She'd seen her mother coming but when the car bleeped she still jumped. Sliding
off the hood of the car, Moria climbed into the passenger seat and instantly
missed the comfort of being curled into her little ball.
Starting the engine, Anna set them off toward the highway. "Tell me, precious."
Moria signed inwardly in relief. Her mother had used her nick name which, for
now, was a good sign. Staring out the window, Moria chewed on her lip and
mumbled. "I just couldn't go."
"Why not?" Anna asked quietly as they swung out onto the large road.
Opting to change the subject away from her feelings, Moria asked. "Are you mad
at me? Am I in trouble?"
"I'm not mad, I'm just confused." Anna took the turn that would bring them to
the coastal road, one she was very fond of driving along. "Why don't you want
to go into school?"
Moria really wished she could curl up again, preferably with Kowalski. "Nearly
half the school was there." She finally admitted.
"Oh precious," Anna sighed. She pulled the car over into a layby with a view of
the ocean and looked over at Moria. "D'you know what? Anyone who even thinks
about taking that pig's side over yours is a bloody fool. D'you know why?"
Moria shook her head again.
"It's because they'd be just as bad as he is. Men like that, they're sick in
the head. They're disgusting but more than that they're wankers and when they
can't get the satisfaction they need from their own hands they try to steal it
from someone else." Anna held her daughter's eyes for a long moment. "You were
strong, you fought back, I'm proud of you."
A very light pink tinted the skin just under Moria's eyes. She always blushed
like that whenever one of her parents talked about anything at all that in
anyway what so ever had anything to do with sex. "I'm not being very strong
right now. I don't think I can handle the whispers and giggles. Fools are not
there's going to be kids there who think I slept with him."
"Bullshit," Anna barked before hissing at her lapse. Sixteen years, she
thought, I kept it up for sixteen years, not a bad record considering the mouth
I had on me once. "They know you left with your brother after he was beaten up."
Moria couldn't help but smirk at her mother's slip. But then she shook her
head. "The truth doesn't always matter in high school, Mummy."
"Very true," Anna sighed, rubbing her eyes. And then something occurred to her
and she started to smile. "Well, when they start, just tell them he was crap.
Tell them that his penis was no bigger than your pinky and he had no idea where
to stick it. Tell them, in the end, the only way to get him off was to use your
thumb and forefinger."
Moria blinked, blushed crimson, and then burst into giggles. "Mummy!"
Grinning at Moria, Anna just shrugged. "Just elaborate on that, it'll shut them
up, believe me."
"But isn't that admitted that I did it?" Moria asked.
"There comes a point when people will believe what they want to believe and the
more you deny it, the more they see that as proof to the contrary. So if you
just say yeah and that he was really crap, he'll do his best to keep the rumors
down from his end and soon it'll all just die down."
Moria sat there for a while. Turning away from her mother she stared out at the
water before them and thought about what she was saying. After what seemed
forever she turned her head and looked once more into her mother's eyes, and
nodded. "Ok, Mummy, I'll try. I just hope they can't tell I'm lying as well as
you and Vix can."
Chuckling lightly, Anna put an arm around her daughter. "We can only tell
because we've known you for 16 years."
"Good point." Smiling, Moria leaned over and gave her mother a hug. It still
wasn't going to be easy walking into school tomorrow, but she'd try. Maybe
things wouldn't be as bad as her imagination was leading her to believe.
Settling back into her seat with a sheepish grin she looked at her mother and
chewed her lip as she asked, "Ok so since your not mad at me does that mean I'm
not in trouble for skipping school?"
"Oh, you're in trouble," Anna said mildly. "You're grounded for a month." Then
she smiled again and kissed her girl's forehead. "But that's it."
"A whole month for one day?" Moria blinked. She was suddenly glad she'd gotten
caught. She'd be locked in her room until she left for college if it had been
days.
"We're working on a logarithmic scale here, precious," Anna said with a smirk.
"So the lower number of days all have the same punishment, but if we'd been
talking about weeks then the punishment goes up in a big woosh."
Moria rolled her eyes. "Like I'd ever get away with weeks." She laughed. "I
couldn't even get away with one day."
"Hence," Anna said sagely, "the logarithm." Then she chuckled and cuddled her
daughter again. "James is sort of grounded too, I don't want him running around
and the like until I'm absolutely satisfied. So you'll have company,"
Moria laughed again. "Isn't that kinda asking for trouble? I mean I think we
got yelled at more that one week we were suspended together then we did the
enter year we were twelve." In the back of her mind Moria wondered if there was
a way to get out of the house while James was home. She'd heard about a new
lecture on the world wars being held at USC that she knew James would
absolutely love.
"I think I can handle it." Anna started the car up again and pointed them in
the direction of the hospital. "If the worst comes to the worst, I'll just nail
your bedroom doors and windows shut."
For most parents that would have been an idle threat, but when PJ had lost her
door completely after being told she would if she walked away from their
parents and slammed it one more time, all of them figured it would be better to
put some stock in what their parents warned about. "That would make it really
hard to go to the bathroom." She teased.
"That's what chamber pots are for, precious," Anna said lightly.
"A what?" Moria asked blinking.
"A chamber pot," Anna laughed, keeping her eyes on the road even though they
were dancing merrily. "It's a ceramic pot that people used to keep under their
beds and use to go to the toilet in."
Moria crinkled her nose. "OH GROSS!"
At that, Anna laughed even harder. "We'll get you one to go under your bed,"
she said, giggling.
"Eww, no thanks, I'd rather just make sure my door doesn't get nailed shut."
Her nose was still crinkled but then she laughed. "We could get one for Joshie
so he can wear it on his head like he use to with his potty chair when we were
babies."
Tears started to roll down Anna's face as she giggled harder and she had to
pull over. Resting her head against the wheel, she wheezed a little as the
image of her little blonde haired boy with a chamber pot on his head flashed
through her mind and she started giggling again.
When the car pulled over and her mother put her head down, Moria suddenly
panicked. "Mummy? Mummy are you ok?"
When Anna could finally breathe, she nodded and said, "I'm fine, I needed that,
thanks. I've not laughed like that in a long time."
Sighing in relief Moria sat back against her seat and let her heart stop
pounding. "Have we gotten that bad, Mummy?"
Anna gave her daughter a considering look and shook her head. "I just worry so
much about you all."
Leaning over Moria kissed her mother's cheek. "I'll try not to make you worry
so much. Z said that his uncle got really sick from worrying to much."
"That he did," Anna said softly as she started the engine once again. "But I'll
be fine, I've got your father to balance it out." As they pulled into the
hospital parking lot, she smiled at Moria. "Let's go and get the terrible twins
and bring them home, eh?"
Moria laughed as she nodded. "I'd hardly call Vix terrible Mummy, out of all of
us she's the only one you don't have to worry about getting into trouble and
messing up."
"Oh how very right you are." Stepping out of the car, Anna stretched and felt
her spine crack. "Nice," she muttered. The trip up to James's room was much
shorter given that they'd fixed the lift. When they got there, James was
dressed and ready with a slight rosy tint to his cheeks. But it was Victoria
that piped up.
"They used his idea, Mum! They're gonna try his suggestion for Ambassador
Picard's heart!" She beamed.
Moria all but tackled her brother as she wrapped her arms around him. "See I
told you! Just like Uncle Josh.. Your absolutely brilliant!" She beamed.
James blushed even brighter and shrugged. At first the expression made Anna
laugh as she thought, yeah, just like Uncle Josh. And then her smile faded a
bit as she turned away. "Everyone set?" she said quietly, not even sure why she
still hurt so much, it was 16 years ago, not bloody yesterday.
Fuck. Moria flinched. They'd all made a pact years ago not to mention their
uncle around their mother or Aunt Belle. They always got this pained look in
their eyes as if their hearts were breaking all over again. Their Dad was the
only one who could talk about Josh, yes he still looked as if he missed him,
but it wasn't the kind of heart breaking look their mother and aunt got. "Yeah,
we're ready. Can we stop and get ice cream to celebrate? I mean we do have the
future head of the Star Fleet corp. of Engineers here and he's going home after
being his sister's white knight. I think this calls for triple scoops."
"Absolutely," Anna said cheerfully.
"Mint chocolate chip," Victoria said firmly.
"Rocky road," James replied.
"Butter pecan, rum raisin, and tootie fruity." Moria added. At the odd looks
she was getting she blinked. "What? I said triple scoops, never said they all
had to be the same." She smiled brightly as they all headed to the care. Life
is hard, She mused as she watched James and Vix climb into the back so they
could sit together. But life's good.
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- » [ussbansheec] "Skipping School"
