Unexpectedly Complicated.

Chapter II: Fallout

September 7th, 2012
Eddy feels awkward. He usually does, but now he feels even more awkward. There is a girl staring at him, and her eyes are burning holes into his head. He is terrifically aware of it, as well. To make matters worse, Dahlia is also examining him. Why is everyone looking at him? He lowers his head so that his nose touches the page. He is an enigma. A shadow, invisible. He's so focused on coming up with words for not seen, that he doesn't notice the bell until someone taps him on the shoulder. A chill runs up his spine. He looks up, surprised, to the face of the girl. Eddy's heart has never pounded so hard in his human life. He is not sure why he finds her so...he doesn't know what he finds her to be. He thinks, rather ludicrously, that she is a vampire.

She fits the part.
"Hello." She smiles a slow, suggestive smile. Eddy's eyebrows disappear below his unfortunately long hair hanging in his face.
"Hello, you're new?" He inquires. Her very red lips smile at him.
"Yes. And the bell has rung. That is what I was going to tell you." Her eyes are purple. Purple.
"Oh. Thanks." He mutters, wondering why Dahlia had just abandoned him. It was so unlike her...the girl walks beside him. Eddy knows the world is scheming a conspiracy against him.
"Uh...so..." He begins, praying that he sees one of his friends.
"My name is Madeline." Her voice is soft, and smooth Like velvet. Eddy thinks, but then realizes how absurd it is to compare one's voice to a fabric.
"Eddy." He says, feeling as though he should whisper in her presence. She graces him with a smile, unsettling, yet strangely compelling, that perhaps is even a smirk, or a grin. Eddy can't tell. He examines her profile, and he can't tell again whether she's beautiful or horrifying. Perhaps both. He's assaulted by the feeling of awe, She seems so...fragile. Like glass. Like if you held her too tight she'd snap in half. he feels wrong, looking at her so intently, because he feels...unworthy of it.
She's too much for me.

Eddy almost feels regretful as Clementine catches up to him and the strange, pallid girl. He didn't want to give her untrue impressions. It was obvious to him that she was being very observant of him. He realizes that he is completely terrified of these two girls together. As Clementine chatters on about absolutely nothing and Madeline stares through her, Eddy is actually glad. He doesn't have to talk to her, but he did like having her to himself.

Clementine stares down the new girl. Eddy, bless him, is entirely and utterly confused. Good thing I came in when I did. She thinks, satisfied. He can't see the fact that the world's creepiest girl had taken an unsavory interest in him. Clementine ignores the fact that he gapes at her like a stupid, love-struck fish. Eddy wasn't one to fall in love. He is now looking incredibly grateful to her, as though he didn't like being alone with her. Madeline finally drifts away in her ghostlike way to her next class, though Clementine isn't particularly interested in what it is exactly. She stares at Eddy's hand. She felt the need to latch onto him and hold on for dear life. She doesn't know why, but she just does. She wonders if he would mind, and feels stupid for even thinking that. Of course he would. They have their next class together, she's pretty sure it's History. She'd probably copy off him anyways, and he'd let her. She wishes, for the umpteenth time, that she could stop herself from wondering about stupid things.
Maybe it isn't stupid.
Maybe it is.
My head hurts.

Rather short part. The next one is well worth the wait.

 

Eddy is having a moment. He sees Clementine's hand twitch, and the look in her eyes when they flicked toward him. She made it hard to concentrate. He isn't quite sure how, though. He watches her left hand flick across the page as she stares at her worksheet. In Eddy's moment of clarity, he puts two and two together and looks at her sideways. She is nervous, nervous about something...Eddy just doesn't know what.

Dahlia smells something fishy. Maybe that's just James' sandwich. Or maybe James himself. She scrunches up her nose and realizes its the new girl, her eerie form settling into the chair Clementine was sitting in, but had gotten up to go to the bathroom. She watches Eddy break into a cold sweat. She watches the whole lunchroom turn and look at them. She also realizes that the actual smell of fish is coming from James' sandwich. The new girl. Object of attention, in a small high school, maybe 600 students, if that has approached a loose cannon others knew better than to confront. James makes a noise like a dog being kicked mixed with stomach acid rising into your throat. Dahlia gives her the angry librarian look that she pulled off scarily well. Under the table, again, James's foot finds hers, and she looks sharply at him, and he shrugs, a sheepish look across his face. Dahlia thought this was impractical at the time to notice this, but he has dimples in his cheeks and they are very nice looking-
"Why are you in my seat?" Clementine jolts her back into the here and now.

"Because you were not occupying it." She shrugs, and Eddy looks torn between being incredibly teenaged boy like, a sentiment only James could understand, and wetting his pants. Both of them included his pants, and they were both terrible. James nudges his foot, sympathy written on his face, and on that of every male in the whole room. Eddy sinks in his chair. Clementine was kind of crazy when she was mad.
"Well, I'm back, would you mind getting up?" Clementine was trying desperately to be nice, and not to scream.
"Yes. I do mind. I rather like this seat." She stretches lazily. Eddy and the girl on her other end are both terrified. The girl just has the common sense to take her lunch and scurry away. Eddy is rooted to the spot.
"But...it's my seat."
"Too bad."
"Bi-"
"Clementine."
The minute Eddy's hand lands on hers as she grips the chair he's sitting in with a terrifying force, her anger melts. His big cow eyes beg her to stop, and she can't resist. Madeline rises suddenly, smirks at Clementine and to Eddy says,
"I hope you will consider who you keep as company more carefully." and then walks back to her empty table.

Clementine is beyond mad and confused.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She fumes. Eddy looks like he's about to be sick.
"Clementine, calm down." James' new girlfriend says apathetically,
"But...that was uncalled for!" She sputters, and the girl, Lola, rolls her eyes and takes James' hand. Clementine watches Dahlia squeezes the hamburger in her hand till the grease forms a puddle. She drops it, anger flaring in her eyes, and it's painfully obvious what she's feeling. Clementine sympathizes, as she watches Eddy stare at Madeline intently.

"This is like a Midsummer's Night Dream. Everyone is with the wrong person." Dahlia says thoughtfully as they walk to Biology.
"What?" Clementine looks at her emptily,
"Oh, right, see, there was these brothers, Lysander and Dimitrius, and this guy wanted his daughter Hermia to marry Dimitrius who loves Hermia, but she loves Lysander so she refused, and then those two plan to run away and they tell Helena, who loves Dimitrius even though he dumped her, and she tells him about their plans and they follow them into the forest, where, at the same time, there's a group of fairies and a group of craftsmen practicing a play. The king fairy, Oberon, wants to knight this Indian kid given to them by the mother of the prince who's wedding Titania, his queen, blessed, but she refuses, so to get his revenge, Oberon gets Puck to...you're not listening to me, are you?"
"Huh?" Clementine isn't listening,
Dahlia sighs heavily, " Never mind."

"Eddy, what do you think of Lola?" James asks from their bedroom floor.
"She seems nice," Eddy says as he works on his trigonometry. James puts down his pen, "Nice?"
Eddy looks over his shoulder, "Yeah, nice."
"Nice as in 'I completely hate her entirely can't you tell' or nice as in 'I genuinely like her' nice?" James looks at his cousin quizzically and sits up.
"Uh..."
"Eddy, I've lived with you for four years, you can't lie to me. " James shakes his head, and Eddy sighs and takes off his glasses. He spins his chair around to face his cousin, "She's pretty. Personality-wise, however..." Eddy trails off, and James motions him to continue, "I won't get mad."
"I don't like her."

James wants to know why. He, for one, likes her very much. At least when she does that thing with her tongue ring...James really likes her.
"Why not?"
"I uh...she's not my cup of tea."
"Meaning?"
"I just don't like her."
"Give me a ****ing reason then!"
"She's a bitch." Eddy says simply, and he spins his chair around. James gets taste in his mouth that could only be described as dirty socks.
"Eddy?"
"Yes?" Came the sharp reply,
"Why does life have to suck so much?"
Eddy has no answer to that. He has darkened the number 7 so much that he's torn his paper.

James is woken up by moans, that night. Not just any moans, Eddy's moans. He looks over the side of his bunk, and Eddy is tossing and turning, sweat gleaming on his brow in the pale rays of the full moon.
"Clementine..." He murmurs and makes a choking sound, and then says, "Please...it's...Clementine..." and James knows this is not a nightmare, at least not from his end. This, this is rare. Priceless, even. St. Edward, having a wet dream. He is not sure whether to laugh or cry, but he climbs down to grab the earplugs they kept in the drawer of their nightstand for such occasions, desperately trying to avoid waking him up, or even looking at him. They're used to Eddy's ears, however. They didn't talk about it. They didn't need to. There were some things that simply were to embarrassing to mention. James just can't believe Eddy is having one.

Eddy can't either, when he wakes up. James breaks the silent rule of not talking about it.
"It's perfectly natural." James says as they're brushing their teeth. Eddy chokes on his toothbrush.
"Shut...shut up. Shut the hell up. Shut the hell up or I'll decapitate you with dental floss." James looks over at him from his sink in their bathroom, an evil grin on his face. Eddy looks like rabid dog, a stringy, ridiculous rabid dog.

Eddy is in a forest. He has the head of a donkey and is having a mad affair with Queen Titania who just so happens to look like Clementine as a result of Puck, who is truly terrible at hiding behind the curtain and looks like James, and Oberon who is Dahlia drinks coffee. Sadly, Eddy hasn't finished the scene yet.

Eddy stares at Ophelia, his lines memorized and clear in his mind. He won't be distracted by the fact that Ophelia looks like Madeline and Polonius looks like Clementine and King Claudius looks like James, which is worrying, and Dahlia is Queen Gertrude.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
To die opposing them?"
Eddy's mouth tries to form "To die; to sleep:
No more;" but his dream changes.

Eddy feels light as air. He looks at himself in the mirror, the ridiculous sun hat he's put on himself, and decides against it. He tries another, making faces, and he stands abruptly. Consuelo/James says,
"What has Chino done to her?" In a horrid Italian accent, and Eddy replies,
"Chino? Why Chino?"
The girls all give each other looks, that he watches from the mirror. He smirks at them.
"Maybe she is just dolling up for us! Gracias querida." Rosalie/Dahlia steps out from behind her sewing machine and curtseys, something Eddy never imagined Dahlia ever doing.
"Rosalie! Consuelo! My adorable friends can you keep a secret?" Consuelo/James leaps out from his seat, and Eddy is horrified by the fact that he is in woman's clothing,
"I'm hot for secrets!"
Eddy decides to be a tease, which is horrible because he despises when people do that.
"No. I won't tell you." He takes off his hat and puts it on Consuelo/James, making him look even more comical.
"What?" Fransica/Clementine yelps indignantly,
"What?" He, Maria, mimics.
"The poor girl is out of her mind." Consuelo/James says,
"I am crazy." Eddy tries vainly to roll the r in crazy, but fails miserably. At least I have the pink bow on my head.
"She might be that. She looks somehow different." Rosalie/Dahlia muses,
"I do?" Eddy says coyly,
"And I think she is up to something." Rosalie/Dahlia gives him that librarian look.
"I am?"
"'I do, I am' she talks like a parrot!" Consuelo/James huffs.
"What is going on with you, Maria?" The line before the song.
No! Please, please, no! Eddy's mind wails as he belts out,
"I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and fine, and I pity, and girl in the world that isn't me. I feel charming, oh so charming, it's alarming how charming I feel!" Eddy is cut off as he butchers the note.

He wakes up in a cold sweat, and James is smirking at him from his side of the bathroom. For the third time this week. Eddy is beginning to hate everything.

 

*every
Not any.

 

*and is drinking coffee
Oh the mistakes I make.

 

Clementine's behavior has not helped his problem. She has been trying to talk about feelings with him. Feelings. The inner man in him wails in despair. Men do not have feelings, is his father's sentiment. He's been decidedly manly about the situation.

The new girl confuses him even more. She's stuck to his side like glue, and the more she hangs around him, the more unsettled he becomes. He feels like an exotic animal she's marveling at. Not that he treats her any differently.

"I hate her," Dahlia says, eyes burning, "I hate her around him. I hate her tongue in his nose. I hate her voice. I hate her attitude and the way she dresses and I hate her parents for conceiving her. I bet it wasn't even good-"
"Dolly, is there something you want to tell us?" Eddy says, as he watches Lola delicately feed his cousin a fry, and James look at her like he's had a stroke and one side of his face is frozen, with his eyes trying desperately to look suggestive or passionate but ends up looking like he's a drugged elephant in response. Eddy is going to be sick.
"She's in love with him." Madeline says, and Clementine decides that she will now call her Captain Obvious.
Dahlia makes a weak, protesting sound but all of the Dahlia in her has dissipated as she watches, hopelessly in love with a complete idiot.

Clementine can relate.

This is the end of Chapter II. I've gotten everything mixed up, so pardon me if I don't update very quickly. Expect an update sometime in November.

 

It arrives later than expected.
Oh well.
...
I sowwy.

Chapter III: Silent Suffering.


September 29th, 2012.

Dahlia's birthday is an unremarkable day. It falls upon a Monday, the demon of days, which marks the end of the weekend. This is what Dahlia's birth means. She is the middle, perfect for her complete and utter boringness. She has an older brother who is also quite unremarkable except for his nose, and a little sister who is very remarkable because she has red hair, whereas everyone else is blonde. They all have the same shade of blonde, an almost light brown but not quite there. Her father has forgotten her birthday today, but he has a baby to look after. Her mother is a police officer; therefore she is excused for forgetting her birthday too. Her sister is only eight months and her brother is in Germany. They are all excused for forgetting her birthday.

James is forgiven for forgetting her birthday because Lola consumes his every waking moment, especially because her birthday is on Saturday of this week. Eddy is forgiven because Madeline is forever doing her cold but enticing thing; Clementine is forgiven because everyone else is.

Dahlia is not present during lunch. No one finds this very odd at all, she'd been avoiding them all day.
"She wouldn't even speak to me in English." Eddy sighs, and nibbles on a dill pickle. It drips onto the table.
"Same for me." James sounds depressed, his voice monotone. His usual gusto when it came to even Lola was missing; so much so that she abandoned him to go flirt with other boys, possibly to make him jealous. Clementine is surprised James simply hasn't begun wailing like a small child that has been denied ice cream, as he is usually inclined to do. But James has a plan. He is sulky that it does not get to be put into play yet, but it would be.

He finds her quickly after school.
"Happy birthday Dolly." He smiles toothily at her and gives her the present he's gotten her.

It is a cheesy Mickey Mouse mug, with her name on it.
She thinks she might cry. She doesn't know why it touches her so deeply, but it does.
She hugs him and whispers,
"Thank you."
"I love you." He mutters into her hair.
She looks up at him,
"What did you say?"
"You're welcome," and then he smirks, as James usually does when he's lying or hiding something.

Later that day, her mother surprises her with a cake. Her parents gives her fifty dollar bill and a turtle she has named Geoffrey. Her sister does her adorable baby thing, and John, her brother, sends her a snow globe and a card telling her how much he misses her and how beautiful Germany is. Eddy and Clementine show up at her house with pizza and movies. They had planned this with her parents last week. Eddy gives her a book that looks wonderful and Clementine gives her a little pink tiara, and a purse that Dahlia absolutely adores, mainly because it's not pink. As she watches a fabricated story about a fabricated character portrayed by a man with a pumpkin head who says something meant to be hilarious and Eddy laughs because he is easily entertained, and Clementine rolls her eyes, but smiles at him all the same because Eddy is Eddy, she feels tears welling up in her eyes, because it is very hard not to love people who show up at your house to watch a good six hours of terrible movies on a Monday night. The snow globe has a cuckoo clock in it. Dahlia falls asleep during the last movie, splayed all over Clementine's lap.

It's terribly short, but I found that I would split this chapter up a little, because this part is mainly about Dahlia's birthday. Lots of Dahlia in this chapter. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It also makes me want to read books above a third grade level.
...
Nah.

Oh, and don't forget to tell me what you liked about this part. Or what you didn't like. It's a free...
Forum?
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...or don't at all. Fair enough.

 

Thank you. 