Story: Middle Part 23
[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf just decided to spy on Damien.]]
It was more difficult than you might think, spying on someone who used to be your best friend. After all, it was completely suspicious if, after a few weeks of not talking to each other, you suddenly start appearing everywhere your friend was. Alf knew that if Damien was anything like he was, he would be hyper aware of where Alf was at any time. After all, Damien probably thought he had more to be upset about than Alf did.
The next day, the inquisitive duo otherwise known as Alf and Jessica had followed Damien to the local shopping centre where they saw him go into the electronics stores. He bought a couple of games for his Xbox 360, which had both Jessica and Alf raising an eyebrow. A metaphorical eyebrow in Alf's case.
More than once while traipsing around the shopping centre Alf had nearly tripped when Damien stopped unexpectedly, and had Jessica complaining that he should just leave it all to her. At least she had practice at it.
It was three days of walking around the shopping centre before either of them even thought of using magic to track him. Alf because he didn't know how, and Jessica because she knew that they shouldn't. It came about that they were sitting in Jessica's room pondering a small silver coin. It was an enchanted five cent piece. Aliana had helped them, although they'd lied and said they'd wanted to keep track of each other. It was the first time Alf had lied to one of the Alduses, and it did not leave him with a good feeling. It was as though he was betraying his trust, even if Jessica did protest that she was pretty sure Aliana had known they were lying but thought whatever it was they were doing was harmless.
"I still don't know, Jessica," Alf frowned. "I mean, stalking him is one thing, but a tracking device?"
"We don't have to do it, you know," Jessica said. "I never said anything about doing it."
"It's just that it would make it a lot easier on us, since we wouldn't have to follow him everywhere."
"That doesn't mean it's ethical."
"But we've already been following him around. That's clearly unethical."
Jessica squirmed. "Would you make up your mind already? We either do or we don't. He's your friend."
Alf frowned. "He's not my friend anymore." And just saying it made him feel like a petulant child, six years old and determined that no he would not put up with whoever not sharing any longer. Alf flopped back on the bed, throwing his arms up in apparent exasperation. "Stuff this." He flicked the coin into the air and attached it to the ceiling.
Jessica gave him a look and pulled it down, grabbing it with her hand. "What do you reckon we should do with it?" She lifted it up, as though reading its surface would tell her what to do with it.
"Maybe we should do what we said we'd do," Alf stated. "Use them to keep tabs on each other."
Jessica smiled. "In that case I have heaps of ideas about what we can do with them. It can be like a project. We can use them as like walkie talkies and have conversations."
Alf matched her grin. "That's a neat idea."
"And I was thinking we could pierce holes through the centres and wear them on chains."
"Cool," Alf agreed, mainly because Jessica seemed so enthused. He was still of the opinion that a five cent piece on a chain seemed rather girly. It could at least have been a full dollar or two.
Jessica then ran off, presumably to find supplies leaving Alf alone, sprawled on her bed. Right now seemed like a pretty good time to have a nap.
[[End scene.]]
Story: Middle Part 22
[[Continuity Note: Alf just finished talking to Rock.]]
The next day at school, Alf found it hard to ignore when Damien, who was in his science class, when he began bragging about the brand new game he had for the Nintendo DS that Alf was pretty sure he hadn't had yesterday. He listened intently as one of the other boys asked where he'd gotten the money from.
"The PSP was a present," Damien explained. "I bought the DS with my allowance."
"You must have been saving for that for ages," someone commented.
Damien had been, Alf knew. But he also knew that with his currently weekly allowance of six dollars, he wasn't going to have enough to by the DS for another few months, even with the odd jobs that he did sometimes. Especially since Damien was a vicious spendthrift and had trouble saving two dollars a week.
"Yeah," Damien responded. Then added, seemingly for Alf's benefit, "It's helped that my parents upped my allowance."
"Is it wrong to be so suspicious of him?" Alf asked Jessica when they met up for lunch. "I mean, I know he wouldn't have had enough with six dollars a week, and he said that his parents had raised it. But he's been bugging them about it for ages and they've always thought that six dollars was reasonable. Even if he bartered them up to ten it would still have taken up until Christmas, at least."
Jessica was silent.
"I guess I'm just jealous. I mean, he dumps me as his best friend, then he goes and gets a bigger allowance and cooler things."
"You know," Jessica began in quite a serious voice. "Even if the PSP was a present, and he saved up enough money for a DS. It still doesn't explain his watch."
"And his birthday isn't until May. Not to mention why would anyone give you a present so close to Christmas time... unless of course, it was a Christmas present. But then wouldn't he have said that?" Alf was too preoccupied by this new information to notice that Jessica had spoken to him straight. "Is it stalkery for me to have noticed all of this about him?"
"I've noticed it too," Jessica added. "Something doesn't seem quite right."
"But you're influenced by hanging out with me too much."
"That doesn't mean I don't come to my own conclusions about things, Alf."
"Well, if that's not stalkery. Do you think it would be if we-?" here Alf paused, as though afraid of expressing this idea. "If we spied on him?"
Jessica looked at Alf seriously. "I was just thinking the same thing."
"Hey wait a second," Alf looked at Jessica. "Aren't you supposed to find a moral fault with my actions?"
"You forget, Alf," Jessica stated. "I spied on you before I approached you."
Alf shut up immediately, suddenly worried about what she'd seen and what she'd noticed in a way he hadn't before.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "I didn't see anything you have to be worried about."
Story: Middle Part 21
[[Continuity Note: Alf just encountered Rock who was attempting to leave the school.]]
"Rock!" Alf called again, just as he caught up to the larger teen.
"I am not speaking to you, Sprout," Rock stated, adding the nickname in reluctantly as though he was worried that it sounded more affectionate than it really should have.
"Oh come on," Alf pleaded. "What's the worst that could happen?"
"We haven't got anything to talk about," Rock protested, waving his hands a little more violently than was necessary.
Alf shrugged. He was getting used to Rock. "That doesn't mean we couldn't still find something to talk about."
Rock looked at Alf, finally stopping in his travels (not that he had a destination in mind anyway) as though daring him to find something that they had in common.
"Uh, did you watch the Bears game on Saturday?" Alf asked, figuring that Rock, as a guy would find something in common with him through sports.
Rock just looked at him as though he was an idiot. Apparently the question didn't even deserve a reply, as Rock walked off again. This time, Alf didn't bother to chase after him.
Maybe Rock was right. If he didn't feel sorry for him, and more than a little intrigued, Alf would never bother to even try to befriend Rock. He himself would have thought that they didn't have anything in common. So why was he trying? Maybe he really had gone so far as to adopt Jessica's, and consequently Rock's, family. Alf made a mental note to get to know his family better instead.
[[End scene.]]
Story: Middle Part 20
[[Continuity Note: Alf just proposed his plan to the Alduses. They liked it.
I wrote this in bed last night before I fell asleep.]]
On Monday, Jessica and Alf were sitting in their usual spot, eating lunch. As usual, Alf's eyes were drawn toward the corner of the quadrangle where Damien was sitting his his new friends. Although, strictly speaking, they weren't new friends. Damien had always been friends with them, but it was always just him and Alf when it mattered.
On this occasion, Damien was proudly brandishing a new digital watch which displayed the time in three different cities, could go underwater twenty thousand leagues, and beeped the time in Morse code if you pressed a button. All entirely useless functions if you were Damien. He never traveled to different time zones, let along three separate cities. Damien could swim no better than the average Australian boy, and would never go twenty thousand leagues deep even in a submarine as he was afraid of sharks beyond reasonable measures. Not to mention the obvious reference to Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, would probably have been lost on Damien. And the extent of Damien's knowledge of Morse code was that three short, two long, then another three short meant SMS. In an unforgivingly jealous moment, Alf noted that Damien probably couldn't split the series of dots and dashes into its corresponding letters.
This Alf related to Jessica. In her usual roundabout way, Jessica mentioned that he had a new PSP, too. A white one. If you want to know what that sounds like coming from Jessica, it's along the lines of: the bower bird has added a new colour to its bower. It was like code in itself.
One of Alf's thoughts only to be thought within the confines of his wardrobe was that Jessica did speak in code. Perhaps she was cursed that way. Or perhaps she was simply so worrried about people knowing what she thought that she scrambled them before they came out. Another wardrobe thought was how she managed to pass her classes. Obviously she would be okay in English, as all she'd write would be one gigantic metaphor or allegory, but he wondered how she did so well in her other subjects. Surely you needed practice at using the English language.
And Jessica did do well. She was known for winning the Principal's prize for dux of the year every year since she started at East Hills, unlike mediocre Alf. The following wardrobe thought was that she used magic. Or her parents did. He didn't think Jessica was capable of such unethical behaviour (unless she was hiding her true evilness behind bower bird code), but it was a completely different matter when applied to her parents. In fact, Alf wasn't certain if their ready acceptance of proposing his plan to the council was to pretend they'd thought of it themselves for greater glory, as much as they liked to pretend that their family wasn't really all that special.
None of these thoughts changed the fact that Alf was jealous of Damien. All the more when he noticed Alyssa Marx was part of Damien's little group, and sitting right next to him, listening intently to every word he said about his new game.
But with a turn of the head, Alf left his jealousy behind when he noticed Rock trying to sneak around the corner of one of the school buildings. He said a hasty farewell to Jessica who merely checked her own watch before she began drawing in a notebook.
"Rock!" he called as he ran, calling attention from half of the playground. If he'd taken a second to look, he would have noticed that Damien was wearing a look of jealousy similar to the one that Alf had been sporting earlier regarding the watch and the PSP.
Rock, in his usual fashion, pretended not to hear Alf and went about his business. In fact, since he'd been trying to sneak off school grounds at that moment, he adjusted his path to make it look as though he was headed toward a bathroom.
This wasn't the first time that Alf had tried to approach Rock since he'd proposed the truce to him. In fact, he'd been so disheartened that he'd ranted to Jessica. In fact, that was as close to a true argument with Jessica he'd had. She had told him, straight for once, that no matter what she'd tried, Rock still thought she was an idiot, so eventually she'd stopped trying and that he should too, because Rock was never going to learn that not everyone was out to get him. It seemed that nothing but Rock could cause otherwise happy Alduses to have complete personality rotations. And despite what Jessica thought, Alf was still determined to find out why.
[[And then I fell asleep.]]
Story: Middle Part 19
[[Continuity Note: We find Alf and Jessica walking home, for Alf to tell the Alduses his great news.]]
Jessica and her parents, and Alf himself sat in the sitting room where they'd had their original meeting, in a set-up akin to that life-changing moment. The monumentality of the current situation wasn't lost on Alf.
"So what is it you wanted to speak to us about, Alf?" Mrs Aldus asked.
Alf looked at her. Had she really agreed to a meeting when she didn't know what he was going to be talking about? Had she really forgotten since this morning? Admittedly it was quite early in the morning, but she had been awake when he'd arrived, barefoot in his pyjamas.
"I have a possible solution to the council's problem," Alf said.
The adults looked a little sceptical, but seemed to think that since they'd allowed this meeting in the first place, they had better go through with listening to what Alf had to say.
"Okay," Mr Aldus stated. "What is it then, Alf?"
"Well, Aliana's made me listen to the past few council meetings over the past few days. And it occured to me that they way they've proposed to integrate into the non-magical world is wrong."
The three Alduses looked quite offended at that statement, and Alf worried that they wouldn't pay further attention, so amended his comment. "Well not wrong per se. It's just not the most inconspicuous way to go about it."
"But it's a monumental occasion," Mr Aldus protested. "Of course it shouldn't be inconspicuous. It should be very conspicuous since there are hundreds of magical people suddenly declaring themselves different. We shouldn't be hiding, we should be proclaiming."
Well, if Alf had wanted the answer to the question about which side of the debate Mr Aldus was on it became quite clear that moment. He hadn't expected the mere voicing of his idea to be so difficult. He had expected the difficulties later, when they'd actually heard what he had to say. Perhaps he just should have said it.
"Of course," Alf agreed verbally. "But the main problem with that idea is that we have no idea how well everyone is going to be received throughout the world, especially since people are known to be jealous and intolerant of what they don't understand."
"Right," Mrs Aldus agreed.
Meanwhile, Jessica was catching on to what Alf was saying, but didn't want to ruin his thunder.
"Basically, we should be prototyping and testing people's reactions to magical society."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Mr Aldus asked, with a note of scepticism still present in his voice.
"Well, who are the people most likely to accept the fact that there are magical people in the world?" Jessica was about to answer, but Alf noticed, and continued regardless. It was a rhetorical question. "Their friends, people who know them well, of course. I think that each person should tell their best friend or whoever close to them, and, judge by their reactions how well they'd be received in that community. Once they're okay, everyone can tell someone else, and eventually, the whole world will know."
The elder Alduses sat in stunned silence. Jessica sat as though pleased that she'd been able to discover the one who would solve their problem.
"My dear boy," Mr Aldus proclaimed. "That is sheer genius."
"And so simple," Mrs Aldus remarked. "It's a wonder no one in the council had thought of it earlier."
Alf thought it dreadfully obvious why no one magical had thought of it. They'd never heard of the term 'prototyping' before. The other, real, reason was evidenced in Mr Aldus' reaction. They'd never thought about it before because they wanted to do it in a large scale way. Mr Aldus wanted parades and fanfare. The council members wanted political assistance. Alf just thought about the problem.
"I think Alf should propose his idea at the next council meeting," Jessica voiced.
Alf immediately went pale. He'd had enough of council meetings. They were dreadfully boring and seemed to do basically nothing. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I was thinking either you, Mr Aldus, or Mrs Aldus could do it," he sad, looking toward the adults.
"You're right, Alf," Mr Aldus agreed. "They wouldn't go for a plan if you were the one that pitched it to them. One of us will have to pretend that we came up with it, unfortunately. It would be nice if they would go for it if you proposed it."
"But they wouldn't," Alf agreed, merely glad that there was an actual reason for him not going besides the fact that he was scared of being bored to death. Council politics just didn't interest him the way it should have. On the other hand, he was also a little offended that the council wouldn't believe anything he said. But he had gotten the impression at the meeting he attended that they thought of him as a mere oddity, and largely an outsider as he'd been raised without any knowledge of the way real magic worked. They wouldn't put any stock in what he thought. It had been difficult enough for the Alduses to grasp it, despite their knowledge of his character.
"I think, Karen," Mr Aldus said, turning toward his wife. "You should be the one to propose it. Bela Kun has not thought much of my opinion since I commented on the size of his nose, and I fear his will be the deciding vote."
"All right," Mrs Aldus nodded. "Is that all right with you, Alf?"
"Sure," Alf nodded in return.
"We'll work on the proposal together," Mr Aldus said to his wife. "Then run it by you when it's finished, Alf."
"What about me?" Jessica asked. The acceptance of Alf into the family as one of their own had diminished some of the spotlight on Jessica, the picture of an only child.
Mr Aldus looked at his daughter as though he'd forgotten her presence. "Of course you can look at it then, too, Jessica," he mollified her.
The rest of the evening was spent discussing the plan in more detail so that Mr and Mrs Aldus could put it together in speech format without Alf's help. The winds of change were blowing, but Alf wasn't going to stick around to see which way the wind would blow next.
[[End scene.]]
Story: Middle Part 17 and 18
[[Continuity Note: Alf's in bed with his magical mystical oracle orb.]]
He soon fell asleep listening to the droning voice of Bela Kun. He was against the apparent magical assimilation and his main arguments were that they'd had all this opportunity before, and why hadn't they done so? Because people were in general unaccomodating. This was the third meeting, the fourth if you counted the one that Alf had been physically present at, that Alf had listened to, and it seemed as though they only rehashed the same arguments. The current council spokesperson, Ewa Markiewicz was for the transition, and her main argument was that all people, including them, should be allowed to fully express themselves. For a spokesperson, her voice really wasn't very nice to listen to, Alf had noted that attribute some time into the first hour of council meetings.
Alf awoke to a startling realisation. And no, it wasn't that he'd forgotten to write his essay... that startling realisation came later... in third period. Alf's startling realisation was that he knew how to resolve the crisis. What crisis? The council's crisis. He was so excited that he ran to Jessica's house before school to speak to Mr Aldus. Unfortunately for Alf, Mr Aldus wasn't in, so he'd have to wait until after school to speak with him.
In Alf's third period history class, as previously mentioned, Alf's history teacher mentioned an essay which he then finally remembered. Of course, it was too late now, but it became clear to Alfie that this was probably a problem he was going to have for the rest of his life: the problem of juggling magical things with normal, non things.
After school, he walked home with Jessica. He'd refused to tell her his idea since he wasn't sure if it was completely stupid, or just a little bit stupid, and he didn't want to have to say it more than once. Instead, he wanted her to wait until they got home.
[[I think my crappiness about the whole thing was reflected in my writing. But at least it's up now, right?]]
An actual author's note
That's when you know things have been truly hellish, when you feel the need to blog your lack of written material. Whoever thought a poor internet connection could wreak such havoc on one's writing? I certainly didn't and it's enough to chuck me way back to the not on time stretch... I think. It all depends on how it goes for the rest of today, I suppose. I'm losing steam which is never a good thing.
If you're wondering where parts 17 and 18 are (provided part 19 goes up... see, this is why I numbered them), I'll probably chuck the ... hundred or so words that comprise it into one blog when I can be certain that it's actually going to be posted.
My lack of internet connection also means that my word count is now horribly wrong and I'm really going to have to fix it. And that is my frustration for the day. Vented, now I shall move on.
