Ah, I love myself. Actually, it all seems rather anti-climactic. I must go and hang out at the forums more, encouraging people who haven't made it yet.
I actually can't believe that trying this for the first time I actually succeeded... despite the fact that I didn't write for about ten days in the middle and then had to write over 7000 words a day to get it all out.
50 000 words. 30 days. 1 me. 1 win. HOORAY!
posted by Cedric @ 10:10 pm
"What do you mean you don't know how to swim?" Rock declared, utterly bemused.
They were discussing possible places to go and things to do over their summer break. As the heat wave continued and only barbeques of the illegal (or magical) kind were possible, there came the natural urge to cool down. And the fastest way to cool down was of course by diving into some water. Since there were no local pools and the Alduses had neglected to add one to their house, the beach was their best option as it took just as long to get to the beach as it did to get to a public swimming pool.
Alf shrugged. "I just don't."
"How can you call yourself and Australian, mate?" Rock stressed. "That's it. I've decided that what we're going to do on our next day off is teach Alf here to swim. Then we can follow through with my beach plan. Objections?" Rock asked sternly, glancing at the other teens just daring them to say that they had a problem with what he was saying. After there were no visible signs of movement from any of the teenagers Rock nodded, satisfied. "Good. When's your next day off work, Sprout?"
"Monday," Alf informed meekly.
"Right," Rock stood and began speaking to them like a general speaking to his troops. "Everyone will meet on the Aldus family back porch at 0900 hours. For the purposes of this trip we will make use of the Aldus family pond. Jessica Aldus, Damien Reid and myself will instruct the subject, Alfonso Struthers, in the arts of doggy paddle, freestyle and backstroke. At 1200 hours we will commune for lunch. Lunch will take the form of a picnic. In exchange for our teaching services the subject, Alfonso Struthers, will provide said midday meal. At 1330 hours we will instruct the subject, Alfonso Struthers, in the arts of breaststroke and butterfly. Am I clear?"
An over-enthusiastic chorus of "Sir, yes sir!" came from Damien, Alf and Jessica followed by a genuinely amused round of giggles.
"ANd guys," Jessica added. "Don't bring your best board shorts. They'll probably end up covered in gunk. If not moss or algae it will be mud."
"Understood," Alf stated, adding a neat salute which had Damien rolling in laughter as Alf looked so serious.
-=-=-=-=-=-That Monday, Alf gathered n old towel, his almost grown out of board shorts that he'd had since he was eleven, a pair of thongs that weer the cheap blue and white rubber kind that you could hardly buy these days and a t-shirt that had seen better days. He had a much neater change of clothes and though it was incredibly hot, bright and sunny, no sunscreen. The magic seemed to take care of sun protection. So, at nine o'clock in the morning he wasn't looking his best. He hadn't even showered though he usually did in the mornings because it would have been useless. And of course when someone is not looking their best, someone's law states that they have to run into whoever the current object of their affections is, or their worst enemy. Since Alf didn't have a worst enemy at the moment, he ran into Alyssa Marx while walking toward the Aldus house.
"Hi Alf," she greeted him with a smile and a wave, while he was doing his best to be unnoticed. He'd spotted her long before she saw him, something everyone who's ever had a crush would know. He was always hyper aware of her presence.
"Er, hi Alyssa," he greeted her looking around nervously and wishing she hadn't seen his bed head the first time they'd seen each other since school let out for the summer.
"Going swimming?" she inquired politely.
"Uh, yeah," Alf nodded, shifting in his slightly too small thongs. "Er, what are you going?" Real smooth, Struthers, Alf reprimanded himself. Make it seem like you're a creepy stalker.
Alyssa didn't seem to think that there was anything odd about the question, though and she answered normally enough. "I'm just going to Deborah's place. Then her brother's going to drive us to the West Hills Shopping Centre."
"Oh, cool," Alf commented dumbly. "we're going swimming at the pond at the Alduses' place."
"Oh," she said and Alf immediately realised what that must have sounded like. I like to jump into dirty ponds for fun because I can't afford to go to a swimming pool. He looked down and noticed that her toenails had been painted a fetching shade of pink.
"I like your toenails," he said, then mentally smacked himself. "Your nail polish," he amended.
"Thanks," she replied, then looked him up and down as though searching for something to compliment him on genuinely. "I like your hair," she said.
"Really?" Alf smiled at her. "Because this is the way it looks when I get up and it would save me so much time in the mornings if I just left it. Not that I'm obsessive about it or anything, it just... it's really difficult to just get it to sit flat. But I bet you never have any problems with that since your hair's always so pretty," he finished lamely, finally realising that he was babbling and rambling on like a demented idiot.
"Thanks," she said again. "But my hairs' not perfect. And your hair really is nice." She then looked at him as though unsure about what to say next. Thinking she wanted to go, but didn't want to say it out of politeness, Alf started to say his goodbye.
"I guess you want to get going now. So I'll be seeing you." He started to walk away without waiting for her goodbye.
"Wait Alf," she said.
He stopped and turned to see what she had to say.
"I'm having a pool party on Saturday. Did you want to come?"
"Uh..." Alf was unsure how to answer. He did want to go, but he was meant to work on Saturday. "I have work on Saturday," he informed her, seeing if she would make his decision for him.
"Come after work, then," she said. "It starts at five and goes until about nine. We're going to eat dinner at my place as well. You can bring you Damien and the rest of your friends too."
"Okay," Alf agreed. "But I finish work at five on Saturday, so I might be a bit late."
"That's fine," she said with a grin, seemingly genuinely pleased that he would be able to come to her party. "I'll ring you with more details later, then."
"Cool," Alf said, nodding at her. "Wait, do you have my number?" he asked, stopping his head.
"It's in the phone book, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yeah," Alf nodded with a smile.
"Oh wait," she said. "Mine isn't." She reached into her pink leather hand bag and pulled out a sparkly purple pen and a bus ticket. She wrote a phone number on the bus ticket then passed it to Alf. "Call me if you have any problems."
"Thanks," Alf said, not knowing what else to say.
"You're welcome," she smiled. "Bye!" she waved before turning her back and walking away.
"Bye!" Alf smiled, already knowing that he was going to be late to his appointment with Rock, Jessica and Damien the swimming instructors.
-=-=-=-=-=-"You'd better have a good excuse for being late," Rock stated with a frown.
Alf shrugged. "I ran into Alyssa on the way here."
"Oh, you sly dog," Rock said, giving Alf a hearty thump on the back.
"Who says that these days?" Jessica asked her cousin with a condescending look on her face.
"Me," Rock retorted.
"What did she say?" Damien asked, moving on to more important things as they began walking down to the pond.
"Not much," Alf said, unwilling to go into the details of his expressions of delight over her toenails and her pretty hair. "She invited us to her pool party on Saturday, though."
Damien stopped in his tracks. "No way!"
Alf frowned at him. "You say that like it's impossible."
"It is," Rock grinned. "You can't swim."
"She doesn't know that," Alf smirked. "And isn't today supposed to be about changing taht?" he asked.
"I like the way you think," Rock said with a smile. "But we were going to teach you have to swim properly."
"Oh really?" Alf asked.
"And that is going to take longer than a day," Jessica interjected.
"So I guess we have to cheat," Rock finished.
"Cheat?" Alf asked. "How do you do that?"
"Don't you know my dear boy?" Rock smiled.
"You've forgotten the one thing that we all have in common now," Jessica stated.
"Magic?" Alf asked.
"Magic," the other three chorused in confirmation.
"Why do I get the feeling you guys have been having conversations without me?" Alf asked.
"Because we have," Damien explained simply.
"Right," Alf said, feeling a bit neglected because he knew that he was the one who'd caused them all to be friends. What if they forgot about him?
They arrived at the pond which was a delightful murky green colour.
"That is attractive," Alf commented.
"Told you so," Jessica smirked.
They stripped down to their swimming costumes and wondered if they actually did want to get in.
"Okay," Rock said. "Sprouts first. In you get." And with that, he picked Alf up and chucked him into the pond more easily than Alf though fair.
Alf came up feeling half drowned and sputtering. He concentrated with his eyes and used a fire spell to singe the bottoms of Rock's feet. His startledness caused him to fall into the water. Rock then proceeded to finish his drowning of Alf by holding him underwater. Damien and Jessica dive bombed into the water after that, allowing Alf to use Rock's temporary distraction to his advantage.
They spent a fair amount of time splashing each other and trying to drown one another like that before they came too close to the deep part of the pond and Alf really did almost drown. He would have if it wasn't for his magic forcing him to the surface of the pond. And forcing the rest of them to remember why they were there in the first place instead of at the beach.
"Cheaters' swimming has two main rules," Rock began explaining. "Use levitation to get yourself moving, and use a little wind spell to breathe."
"A little wind spell, right," Alf said ruefully. He was awful at conjuring those. But as had just been evidenced earlier, Alf's magic would save him if he really did come too close to drowning.
He practiced cheaters' swimming until the others thought it looked like he was actually swimming well enough.
They had cold roast chicken and warm bread rolls for lunch, drinking fizzy drinks until their sugar highs brought them crashing back into the pond. They showered in a communally conjured rain storm (in which the other three insisted that Rock was not pulling his weight in) followed by a warm fire and wind blow dry before changing into their clean clothes. It was days like these that made Alf wonder how he'd ever managed to survive when he was only friends with Damien.
-=-=-=-=-=-Work that Saturday passed easily enough. Alf enjoyed it as always, and it gave Alf the idea to bring a pot of pansies as a present for Alyssa. Flowering ones, of course. Ones that would comfort her and be her friends. He added a few sweet peas in, too because he did love the small flowers. Rock would be picking them all up, stopping at Alf's work last so that they wouldn't be too late to the party. It had taken a lot of convincing before Jessica allowed herself to go with them, but in the end they were all there in the car, ready to party.
Alf would have to change at Alyssa's house, though. She had assured him that it would be okay when she rang during the week to confirm that he and his friends were coming. That phone call had been a little awkward as Alf's father had picked up. He'd teased Alf about the girl the rest of the week.
Two minutes after Rock arrived with the car, they were at Alyssa's house. She greeted them all with smiles, took Alf's present graciously, showed them where the drinks were, were the bathrooms were and where Alf could change, and where the pool was. Over all, she was a lovely host. Because he had the delay of having to change, the others had already managed to assimilate into the party, so Alf was feeling rather out of place and self conscious when he arrived outside with no friends. At that point he wished that he'd allowed his friends to wait for him.
Alf saw Damien with Chris and Mark and was about to walk over when Mark sent a malicious sneer in his direction. For some reason, he and Chris really did not like him. Jessica, in a floral bikini had managed to attract the attention of some of the other boys. Alf was momentarily surprised when he realised that she was showing that much skin. He'd never thought she'd be comfortable with that much skin showing, but apparently she was, though she did seem to be doing her best to minimise the amount of flesh showing. He guessed that if she was going to go to the party, she might as well go all the way.
Rock was harder to spot, and when Alf did spot him, he regretted it immediately. Rock was very comfortably with a girl he didn't recognise. The two of them were curled up together on a pool chair apparently locked at the lips.
Unsure about what to do, Alf decided that the only way to get rid of his apprehension was to dive straight into the pool and join the people rough housing. He didn't know who they were which increased his chances of success with them. Alf went for a run up and crashed into the pool spectacularly, disrupting the people in the pool and splashing the girls who'd been sitting beside the pool obviously trying not to get their bikinis wet.
"Hi!" he yelled over the music.
The kids in the pool smiled at him. The girls giving him second glances. He hadn't realised until just that moment that the fact that he had spent most of his summer doing manual labour had increased his muscleage somewhat. Not that he cared about what those girls thought.
"We were just about to start a game of volleyball," one boy said, spinning a beach ball on a finger tip. "Did you want to play?"
"Sure," Alf said with a grin.
"You can be on my team," one of the girls with dark red hair tied in a ponytail said to him. "We have less people."
Alf nodded and with that they decided on ends of the pool (luckily Alf's team ended up in the shallow half) before they swam and started tossing the ball around. Alf wasn't entirely certain what sort of scoring system was being used. After all, there was no net. And it seemed like whoever got the ball was the one who served it. But when Alyssa called them inside to get food, everyone else seemed in consensus that the other team had won.
As he pulled himself out of the water, his teammates began introducing themselves properly and congratulating him on a job well done. For once Alf felt accepted and he wondered why he'd never learnt to swim before. He was with Paula and Anabelle, cousins of Alyssa's grabbing plates and stacking them high with chicken wings and salad and pasta, when he managed to talk to Alyssa for the first time that night.
"Thanks for inviting me," he said to her. "The party's great."
Alyssa smiled at him in response. "No problem."
And that was about it. Alf knew that she would be too busy to really talk to him. It gave him a warm feeling inside just to know that he was invited. And getting friendly with her cousins seemed to help, even as he dried off and began to feel self conscious of his lack of clothing despite the fact that the girls beside him were wearing about as much as he was and they had more to cover.
As it grew later, it seemed as though the party wasn't going to stop, but eventually Alyssa's parents came home and managed to encourage the twenty-odd teens to leave the house. It was only then that Alf managed to be reunited with his friends at Rock's car.
"How was it?" Alf asked Damien.
"Pretty good," he smiled. "Check it out," he said, showing Alf his forearm. There were at least three different phone numbers scrawled on it in black ballpoint pen.
Alf nodded in response. "How was it, Jessica?"
She just looked at him with a frown. "Not particularly exciting," she said. "Most of the guys were dead boring."
"I got laid," Rock put in.
"Too much information," Alf stated and Jessica shared his sentiment.
"Way to go man," Damien said, slapping Rock on the back.
Then Rock grinned. "I didn't actually."
Alf, Jessica and Damien groaned in response.
"Man, and I was just about looking up to you as an older brother," Damien stated. "That's gone."
Alf laughed.
"What about you, Alf?" Jessica asked. "Did you enjoy yourself?"
"It was all right," he stated. "Alyssa's cousins were nice."
"Are those the chicks you were chatting up all night?" Damien asked.
Alf shot him a look. "I wasn't chatting them up."
"Oh really," Damien raised an eyebrow. "Then did you get their numbers?"
"Yeah," Alf nodded. "But I don't think I'll call them."
"Isn't that a bit rude?" Jessica said. "I mean sure, you don't want to go out with them or give them that impression. But you could at least be friends. I mean, you spent all night talking to each other."
"Well I guess I can call and say hi," he said. "Maybe get MSNs off them. Then they'd be friends."
"Well," Rock said, as he unlocked the car and they all clambered in. "I propose that we also go to the next party we're invited to."
"Here here," Damien said in agreement. Alf only nodded as he quietly nodded off to sleep. Swimming really did take a lot out of you.
posted by Cedric @ 3:18 pm
Traditionally Alf would spend Christmas with his parents. Both his parents were only children whose parents had died, so they were basically all they had left in the world. Sometimes they'd go on a trip somewhere. Alf could distinctly remember a Christmas spent in California where they'd gone theme parking that day. Christmas in California was like Christmas in July in Sydney. Sometimes a friend of his parents would invite them over for lunch or dinner and Mr and Mrs Struthers would always accept since they never had anything better to do. Sometimes it occurred to Alf that it was a bit of a sad life. But they weren't Christians, so what did Christmas really mean? Just another public holiday but this time one where you needed to buy people presents. Family was important. The Struthers family had spent the last two years with Damien's family at their house.
But this year, the Struthers family be attending the extravaganza that would be Christmas celebrations at the Aldus Manor. From what Jessica and Rock had told Alf, it would be like one gigantic party.
Alf would be sleeping over from the night before Christmas Eve where he would watch as people filled the manor. People he'd never met before. People who weren't related to him. Aldus after Aldus would be converging on the Manor ready to get down to business and wanting their room back for that one day of the year. His parents would join them on Christmas day for the opening of presents and the traditional Christmas breakfast, lunch and dinner. Alf would not be going home until about New Years Day. He'd be at the Aldus house for over a week getting settled in. Damien's parents didn't quite approve of this. And since they didn't know about magic, they couldn't attend the celebrations so Alf, Jessica and Rock wouldn't be seeing him until the next day.
Alf arrived at the Aldus house bright and early on the 23rd of December. He carried a single bag. He wandered straight through the front door without bothering to ring. He'd noticed in the past few days as Alduses started to congregate that none of them rang the doorbell or even knocked. They all considered the main house their own, and it definitely was their house. He made his way up to Rock's bedroom where he'd be staying. He found that it had been prepared for his arrival. There was an extra bed beside Rock's and an extra wardrobe that Alf didn't think he needed since he had only brought one bag. Not to mention he basically lived down the street so if he needed anything else he could get it. He didn't get to sleep in his own room because they were going to be strapped for space with all the random Alduses from all over the place.
His parents had been worried about him staying at the Aldus house for so long, but they hadn't said anything. They just told him to call them every day at a specific time and that if he didn't call then they would and if they were at all suspicious then he would be coming home right that very minute.
The room was prepared for Alf's arrival. Rock was not. Alf decided that the best way to wake his friend up would be to jump up and down on his bed. This got Rock out of bed only because the bouncing caused Rock to roll off the side of the bed. Sadly, he was still asleep. Alf quickly suffocated Rock, holding his nose and mouth closed, waiting for him to wake up. For a second Alf thought he might have accidentally killed his friend, but he woke up, and all was bright and happy in the world.
They ate breakfast in the breakfast room where a bunch of foods were laid out on the table and it had turned into a serve yourself buffet. It was like living in a hotel or something where you knew everyone staying there. Well, Alf didn't, but Rock and Jessica managed to politely say good morning to everyone and introduce their friend.
That afternoon, Alf met Rock's brother for the first time. Eric was also a tall young man. A little shorter than Rock, though, and not as muscled, either. He had a light tan and had dyed his hair purple. He was twenty and seemed to adore his younger brother who basically ignored him all the time except when he wanted something. This was new to Alf who'd never imagined Rock as being a spoilt younger sibling. Especially not with the way Aliana treated him. Alf imagined that Dr Aldus might spoil Rock if he'd take the time to spend any time with his father.
It was a happy Alf that fell asleep that night.
-=-=-=-=-=-The next day it was Rock who woke Alf up by jumping on his bed. Apparently he'd decided that waking up extra early just to wake up Alf early was definitely worth it. Alf singed him with a couple of little fireballs and but did not have enough wits about him to counter when Rock shot them back.
Christmas Eve was spent getting to know the various crazy Alduses. They sat around a television and watched Christmas carols by candlelight with various family members.
Christmas Day was fun, but while Alf sat with his parents, for the first time he felt jealous of Rock and Jessica. Because although their immediate families were quite small, they had such large extended families that they would never be lonely unless they wanted to be. Alf wanted that, but knew he couldn't have it. The best he could hope for was to be unofficially adopted into the Aldus family.
posted by Cedric @ 1:03 pm
The four magical teenagers were eating lunch together at school one lunch time when Alyssa Marx and a couple of her friends walked past.
"Hey Alyssa," Damien called out to her. "Hi Deborah, Alexandra," he greeted the two girls with her. Judging they way they were only carrying wallets, with no backpacks, Alf judged that they were headed for the canteen.
"Hi Damien," Alyssa greeted him with a small smile. "Alf," she added, ignoring the two Alduses as she had no connection with them.
"Er, hi," Alf managed to get out. Her curly dark blonde hair was tied into two low pigtails today, curling around her shoulders, contrasting against the blueness of her school shirt.
"You haven't sat with us, lately," Deborah said to Damien, batting her long dark lashes flirtatiously, while curling the end of her long ponytail around her fingers.
Damien smirked. "You haven't come and sat with us, either. I think it's your turn."
"But we don't know those two," the light blonde haired one pouted, rudely pointing at Rock and Jessica.
"Then there's no time like the present for introductions," Damien said with a smile. "That's Rock and Jessica. Alyssa, Deborah and Alexandra." He indicated each person.
"Hi," the three girls chorused.
Jessica eyed them with contempt and Rock looked them over dismissively. Damien frowned at them. He knew that Alf had difficulty getting along with other people, but he didn't think that Rock and Jessica would be the same.
"So, now you know each other," Damien said. "You can come sit with us tomorrow."
"Okay," Deborah nodded eagerly, speaking for all three girls.
"We should go now, though," Alexandra said. "The canteen line's going to be soo long," she complained.
"Yeah," Deborah agreed and began walking off with Alexandra, but not before shooting Damien one last coy smile.
"Bye then Damien, Alf," Alyssa farewelled. "Nice meeting you two," she said to Rock and Jessica with a wave before running after her friends.
"You want us to eat lunch with those girls?" Jessica asked, quirking an eyebrow at Damien.
"Why not?" Damien asked.
"Because they're vapid?" Rock suggested.
"Alyssa's not," Alf interjected.
Damien smirked at him.
"Says you," Jessica retorted, looking at Alf.
"See," Damien grinned. "This is precisely why you have to let them sit with us tomorrow."
"Why?" asked Rock dimly.
"Because our boy Alf has a little crush on Alyssa Marx."
"I do not!" Alf shot back, causing the other three to laugh hilariously.
"So he does," Rock commented.
And realising that any words that next came out of his mouth would damn him further, Alf kept his mouth shut diligently.
"Since when?" Jessica asked him, looking at him curiously.
Damien laughed. "He's liked her since like, year two."
How Alf wished that he had some way to stop them from teasing him. But as far as he knew, Damien, Jessica and Alf did not have any embarrassing crushes. Not that it was embarrassing to have a crush on Alyssa Marx. Half the boys in his year had a crush on her. Probably because she was so cute and pretty and nice to everyone. She knew everyone's name and that made you feel special.
Jessica giggled and Rock laughed openly while Alf tried his very hardest not to blush.
"I guess we could stomach sitting with them for you, Alf," Jessica said, making it sound like she was making a sacrifice bigger than humanly possible.
"They're not that bad, Jessica," Damien protested.
"Only because they were flirting with you," Rock inserted.
"Jealous, much?" Damien asked.
"Oh, you know it," Rock said, sarcasm evident in his tone.
"Don't worry," Damien said. "There's two of them. You can have Alexandra."
"Which one's she?" Rock asked, as though actually interested.
"The one with light blonde hair," Damien said.
"No thanks," Rock said. "I like them older."
"Ugh," Jessica complained. "Can you not talk about girls when I'm around? I'm not interested."
"Really?" Damien asked. "I was so sure you were a lesbian. I was looking forward to seeing some girl on girl action."
Jessica smacked him. "You're so crude."
"Don't I know it," Damien smiled, smacking his lips at her.
Jessica rolled her eyes and staunchly returned to eating her lunch, ignoring anything else Damien and her cousin had to say. Alf decided to follow her example and soon the girls were forgotten in favour of the boys' second greatest desire: food.
-=-=-=-=-=-The next day at lunch, Rock, Alf, Damien and Jessica were joined by Alyssa, Deborah and Alexandra, as well as Damien's friends Chris and Mark. They ignored Alf as they usually did and Damien seemed to enjoy catching up with his friends once again.
Alf on the other hand, was feeling left out. Rock managed to fit in well enough, teasing Damien's friends who he'd bullied at some point. They were extremely surprised to discover that Rock was now friends with Damien. They seemed afraid that all of a sudden he'd turn around and assault them as well as insult them, and that amused Rock greatly. Jessica was paying careful attention, making sure to reign in Rock when he was getting too mean and the other boys were taking him too seriously. Rock would then laugh, causing the other boys to join in nervously as Rock stretched his muscles, pleased that instead of losing his power to intimidate by having friends, it seemed to have increased.
Alf on the other hand, didn't have much to say while Deborah and Alexandra flirted with Damien and the other boys. Alyssa joined in on the conversation sometimes, and at one point she and Jessica were engaged in conversation. Alf sat to the side, beside Jessica and across from Alyssa, occasionally sending admiring glances her way, and eating his sandwich, barely paying attention to what anyone else was doing.
Deciding to help with a little matchmaking, Jessica was determined to work Alf into the conversation somehow, then carefully extricate herself from it.
"So what's your favourite flower?" she asked Alyssa, pretending to ask a random question just because she was running out of good things to say.
"Oh, pansies, I guess," Alyssa said.
"Really?" Jessica queried, without wanting a response. "I like pansies too. But Alf prefers sweet peas, don't you Alf?"
"Huh?" Alf asked, looking up, surprised at being addressed.
"Are sweet peas your favourite flower?" Alyssa asked him. And Jessica decided that that was good a moment as any to stop saying anything.
"Uh, yeah," Alf said.
"Why do you like them?" Alyssa asked.
Think of something not idiotic, think of something not idiotic, Alf chanted to himself. Please don't make a fool of yourself, Alf. "Because they're... friendly."
Alyssa smiled at him charmingly. Apparently that was a good thing for him to say. "That's why I like pansies," she said.
"Did I just hear you correctly, Alyssa Marx?" Chris interrupted. "Did you just say that you like pansies?"
The other boys laughed at that.
"Then you and Struthers would be a good fit," Mark added. "He's the biggest pansy around."
Alf looked away sadly. That's why he hated hanging out with Damien's friends.
"And that's why you and I aren't a good fit, Mark," Alyssa shot back.
"Ooh," the other boys laughed.
"I don't know why I'm friends with them," Alyssa commented to Alf.
And Jessica, noting that Alf wouldn't want to talk anymore agreed, and engaged Alyssa in conversation.
So after that day, it was still just the four of them. Alf a little pleased that he'd managed to have a small conversation with Alyssa Marx, even if it wasn't very much and had been interrupted. It was the most they'd said to each other since primary school.
posted by Cedric @ 10:19 am
One afternoon after school when Alf didn't have a magic lesson with Aliana, but Jessica had to help out at Dr. Aldus' dental surgery, the place where they'd first met, Alf found himself wandering the hallways of the Aldus family house. Despite the fact that he'd been in and out of here ever since he discovered his magic, Alf realised that he hadn't spoken to any of the people who lived here who weren't part of the Aldus family. With a little boredom, Alf intended to do just that today.
He'd managed to forget where any of their rooms were located, so he was wandering aimlessly, admiring the artwork and various family heirlooms that any house that had been handed down through the generations would be bereft without, when he noticed a strange man at the end of the hallway. Racking his memory, Alf tried to put a name to the silhouette, but he had to come to the conclusion that he'd never met the man before.
"Hello," the man said, turning to greet Alf. "Do you live here?" he asked.
"Um, no," Alf responded, wondering why that was the man's first question.
"I didn't think so," he said with a smile, as though very pleased that he was correct in his assumption. "I didn't think I'd met you before. And you don't look like an Aldus."
"Uh, who are you?" Alf asked him curiously. Who was he to know what an Aldus looked like? As far as he could tell they all looked very different.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that question?" he asked with a bit of a malicious look on his face, as though he were a small child about to dob on someone.
Should the man be the one asking the question? Alf didn't know. "Fine," he said. Then stated his name, "Alf Struthers. And you are?"
"Reginald Murami," he said with a grin, taking Alf's hand and shaking it vigorously. His shift in demeanour had Alf slightly confused. He supposed that was the effect Reginald was looking for as he seemed overly pleased with himself. "So what brings you to the house?" he asked Alf.
Alf shrugged, not entirely certain he should trust this strange man even if he did meet him in the Aldus house. "Just bored, I guess."
That seemed to be the wrong answer to a question Alf didn't realise was being scored.
"Bored?" the man asked with a frown. "Why, when I was your age there was no shortage of things I could do to entertain myself. You know, proclaiming yourself bored is no better than saying to the world: I am boring." he reprimanded.
This made Alf properly defensive. He'd just been insulted. "Well I'm not bored now," he informed the man. "Because I decided to come here and have a look around."
"No," the man disagreed with a shake of his head. "You're not bored because I'm here to entertain you."
Alf rolled his eyes internally so that the slightly crazy man wouldn't see.
"Come along," he said, grabbing Alf's wrist and tugging him through the hallways of the manor.
Before Alf could ask "Where are you taking me?", they'd arrived at their destination: a rather unremarkable looking door.
"I know what you're thinking," the man said, causing Alf to wonder if the man really did know what he was thinking and therefore had 'seen' Alf's previous eye rolling. "You're thinking," he continued. "What's so great and interesting about this door? It looks like all the others. How is it supposed to make me less bored with myself?"
That wasn't what Alf was thinking so he gave a relieved nod in response.
"I knew it," the man said cheerily, tapping his nose. "The Nose knows."
Alf's attention was drawn to the man's rather large nose. He hadn't noticed it before, but it was shaped rather like a tap and he wondered vaguely if you could turn it on and off like a tap, too. It wouldn't be a particularly useful talent, though. Very few people in the world would want to see a man's nose gushing snot, but Alf imagined that it might be useful in entertaining small children.
Alf was so preoccupied by his thoughts of noses and mucus that he'd missed Reginald's dramatic opening of the door. The man was looking at him expectantly so he took a peek inside. The room inself was about as unremarkable as its door. It was a bedroom, furnished as though by someone two centuries ago but maybe have only been furnished one century ago, like every other room in the house. It had, perhaps, a few more knick knacks than the other rooms in the house collected on its shelves, but was very similar to Jessica's bedroom, and the spare bedrooms they sometimes sat in to have private conversations. Alf turned to look at the man, disguising his contempt as curiosity on his face.
"I can see you are amazed by all you see before you," he declared, reminding Alf of a poor magician who wouldn't deviate from his act despite a lack of audience attention. "You are wondering: Who does this bedroom belong to? Well, wonder no longer. Feast your eyes on the bedroom of Reginald Murami!" he introduced, gesturing toward the room.
Alf rather expected that announcement to come with a clap of thunder and a cloud of smoke, but no added theatrics accompanied Reginald's own.
"Dare you enter the bedroom of Reginald Murami?" he asked Alf with a glint in his eye.
That glint suddenly worried Alf terribly. He didn't know this strange Reginald Murami. He'd never heard of him until he'd introduced himself. What if he was a sexual predator, a paedophile just waiting to stumble upon teenage boys who were a bit small of their ages?
"Uh, sorry," Alf said, backing away. "I don't think I do dare." And with those words he ran toward where he thought the front door of the house was located, leaving a disappointed Reginald Murami to wonder what he'd said to scare the boy off.
Alf was correct in his estimation of the front door of the house as he ran into Jessica coming into the house with Dr Aldus.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Dr Aldus asked.
"Oh, nowhere," Alf replied. "Just excited to see Jessica."
Dr Aldus smiled at the two of them kindly. "Well, I'll see you when I see you two, then."
"So what's going on?" Jessica asked Alf.
"Do you know who Reginald Murami is?" he asked her.
"Uncle Reginald used to live here," Jessica answered.
"But he's here right now," Alf stated worriedly. He used to live there? Had he died? Was Reginald Murami a ghost? It would explain his rather eccentric behaviour. You couldn't expect ghosts to be right in the head.
"Really?" Jessica queried. "No one was expecting him. Not that I know of, anyway."
"So he's not dead?" Alf asked her.
"No," she shook her head. "There are no such thing as ghosts. Why would you think that?"
"He's a very strange man," Alf stated, hoping Reginald wasn't in earshot.
"He's an Aldus like Rock is," Jessica explained. "We think him not having magic made him a bit, unbalanced, if you know what I'm saying. He pretends he can do magic. Actually he does it for a living. Sometimes I even wonder how he does things."
"Oh." Well, that explained the second rate magic act. "I suppose I'd better apologise for being rude to him, then."
"What did you do?" Jessica asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at the younger teen.
"I ran away when he invited me into his bedroom."
"Oh," Jessica responded. "You should apologise, then. He's got all sorts of cool stuff in his room. And he's great at telling stories about them. You're never bored with him around," Jessica grinned.
"I guess I'd better do it now, then," Alf said.
"Yup," Jessica agreed. "I'll go with you."
Alf nodded his acquiescence and by default Jessica led him through the corridors of the manor until they reached Reginald Murami's now familiar door. Alf noticed that it hadn't taken nearly as long to get here as it did when he had run down to the front door by himself. Apparently there was a short cut.
"Why isn't his last name Aldus?" Alf asked as the thought struck him suddenly, just before the knocked.
"It is," Jessica stated. "He just uses Reginald Murami the Magnificent as his stage name." She knocked on the door.
Reginald opened it and looked at Jessica happily. "Hello my dear," he greeted her, then noticed Alf beside her. "And you," he acknowledged.
"I came to apologise about earlier," Alf said. "I just noticed the time and realised Jessica would be waiting for me. I'd like to see your bedroom now if you'd let me." Both Alduses looked at him as though they knew he was telling a lie - though in Jessica's case she really did know that it was a lie. They let it slide without verbal acknowledgment and Reginald allowed them entrance to his room.
Jessica asked where he'd been over the past couple of years and Reginald launched into tales about elephants and (Komodo) dragons. He showed them some things he'd picked up: strange baubles and trinkets that looked as though they were made from expensive gemstones and turned out to be made of painted wood; and various carvings and voodoo dolls, a number of things that nons thought were magical but really weren't.
Then he began showing them his magical items that glowed and tinkled with other-worldly power. It was long past dinner when they remembered to eat, and Mr Aldus had already told Alf's parents that he would be sleeping over that night. So Jessica and Alf were easily entertained by Reginald the Magnificent the rest of the evening.
posted by Cedric @ 9:27 am
My NaNoWriMo story for 2006. Hopefully to be completed.
