Chapter 2.45- Burnt Toast

          All in all, for Mariah, the day had turned out to be pretty good. Roger hadn’t cried at all that afternoon during class, which meant she could hear everything Mrs.Byrd said. Since she could hear, she was able to finish all of her work on time. Finishing all of her work meant she had no homework today. And Mrs.Byrd had even praised her on how well her work was done. She got praised a lot for her work, (probably the teacher trying to ‘build her up,’) but it meant a lot today since it probably also meant Mrs.Byrd wouldn’t tattle on her for fighting. Put it all together and Mariah was feeling the happiest she’d been in a very long time.

          Too bad the feeling didn’t last. With a long way to go before she reached the front door she heard it. The raised and angry voices coming from inside made her stop in her tracks, stomach twisting as a scowl crept onto her face. Of all the days this was just her luck. Why couldn’t she ever be happy for more than a moment?

          The sight of her mother cowering in the kitchen met her the moment she walked in the door. Though she wasn’t yet used to seeing Layla home again it was still a relief to see her instead of Abuella Sabria. Too bad she could hear her.

As quietly as she could Mariah crept closer to the kitchen hoping she could catch her mother’s eye. Instead, Sabria’s tirade began to escalate and she began to be afraid of getting caught in the cross fire.

          So Mariah averted her eyes and walked on hoping to be ignored this time. She’d had enough of Abuella Sabria’s attentions the past few years her mother was away.

          Even though she’d reached the safety of her room Mariah remained tense. Her eyes swept the room searching intently for signs of anything that might have been disturbed. While her grandmother had lived in the house with her and her older sister Tiburcia she’d searched the girls rooms regularly, looking for who knows what.

          Tiburcia had moved out the moment she was old enough, her formerly good relationship with their grandmother destroyed. But that was also the moment Sabria latched onto Mariah, doing her utmost to ‘See.’

          She’d find even the tiniest bit of skin and then start going on and on about what the future would hold. How terrible Mariah would be, how she’d break her grandmothers heart and didn’t she love her grandmother? Didn’t she think lying was terrible? And how that because Sabria could See how Mariah really was that she’d never be able to fool her grandmother.

          Mariah clambered up onto her bed, listening to the continued sounds of Sabria’s rants as they drifted up the stairs.

          Now she was onto how Layla had taken the wrong course in her attempts to save Ignacio. Mariah snorted and rolled her eyes. The old fraud.

          Smirking, she reached down between the mattress and the wall and fished out a book she’d checked out from the library time and time again the past few months.

          At first, she’d checked out ‘Seances and Sixth Sense Abilities’ trembling in dread lest Abuella Sabria find out. That feeling lasted maybe a week, that was when the book finally started making sense to her. There was no such thing as a Seer, or a Psychic, or a Fortune Teller. It was all logic. Logic and paying attention to your surroundings, what was told to you before, and details others over looked.

Anyone could ‘predict’ something. And she’d been doing it to her classmates with varying degrees of success for the last week. Experimenting to see what could happen, and what her classmates reactions were.

          And here was a new nugget! If you could be subtle enough, you could get those gullible enough to believe in your psychic abilities to act upon it themselves!

          Mariah silently chortled, rocking in mirth on her bed until a new wave of angry voices reached her. What if Abuella Sabria had done just that to get Layla to kill her uncle and father?

          Slowly she lowered the book, a sneer curling her lip, fresh hatred for her Abuella surging through her.

          Closing the book she allowed herself to listen to the exchange between Sabria and her mother for a moment. As she concentrated on the words she tried to apply the tricks from the book to what she overheard.

          Then she recognize tip number 3. If you’re incorrect, turn the situation. Perhaps the Receiver didn’t properly handle the situation. The Seer is never wrong.

          Rolling her eyes, Mariah shook her head wondering how much longer Sabria would continue. Layla wasn’t really responding and Mariah hoped Sabria would finally tire of putting down her mother.

          And then she heard the happy sound of the front door slamming followed by silence. That didn’t take nearly as long as she’d thought it would. Perhaps now she could go back to being happy.

          Sounds of pots and pans clanging on the stove confirmed that the calm would continue and she hopped off of her bed ready for a little play time.

          Mariah played happily in her room, rejoicing in the toys Sabria usually wouldn’t let her play with since she spent most of her time grounded. But when a strange smell reached her nostrils she decided she’d better to down to see what her mother was up to.

          In the kitchen, Layla sat silently and still at the bar while a steady trickle of smoke seeped out of the oven.

          Mariah gasped.

          “Mom! Something’s burning!”

          Layla didn’t move.

          “Mooo-oooom!” Mariah yelled, and she ran over to shake her mother.

          “Wha- Oh! Oh oh no!”

          Smoke poured out as Layla opened the oven, making both of them cough. Mariah went and opened windows while Layla pulled whatever was in there out. 

          Finally, Mariah went to sit down watching as Layla scratched her head over the plate of whatever had survived the oven. The first time Layla had burnt something Mariah had ran to grab it out of the oven just as the social worker had walked in the door for a routine check in to make sure she was still being looked after. Mariah had barely managed to convince Mrs.Jensen she was alright and that it was a one time thing. It couldn't happen again.

          “Mom?” She asked tentatively.

          There was no answer. Instead, Layla continued to mutter over the plate of waffles.

          Mariah sighed as her stomach grumbled. She really hoped the waffles weren’t too badly burnt. She was kind of tired of calling for pizza, and breakfast for dinner was always a treat.

          When Layla finally came and sat next to her Mariah had a brief hope that perhaps her mother might be a little more together and might talk to her. That hope died a swift death though, when Layla sat stony and still.

          “Mom?” It took everything she had to break into that reverie, but she had to know how together her mother was today, especially after her grandmother’s barrage.

          “Mom?” A little louder this time and it made Layla jump as she turned to survey Mariah with wonder in her eyes.

          “Mom, are the waffles okay to eat for dinner?”

          Layla blinked and looked around.

          “The waffles didn’t burn. It was the toast I had under them,” she finally admitted. “The toast burnt.”

          Mariah sighed in relief before she became confused.

          “Toast?” Mariah asked. “Why did you have toast under the waffles?”

          “Daddy loves toast for breakfast, and the waffles would have made the toast soggy so I put it on the bottom rack. He’ll freak out if he finds out I burned it. So don’t tell him when he comes in okay, Tiburcia?”

          Mariah’s shoulders slumped. Her mom wasn’t here today. For a moment tears pricked her eyes and the corners of her mouth trembled. The last two days she’d had her mother and things were going so good! Why did Abuella Sabria have to ruin everything?

          “No,” Mariah was able to answer at last. “No, I won’t tell that you burned the toast.”

          Layla grinned as Mariah turned away, angry, sullen and disappointed.

          “I knew I could count on you not to tell him about burnt toast,” she said cheerily. “Now then, get your breakfast while it’s hot. You want to eat it before the bus arrives!”

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So was anyone confused there? If you were I’m incredibly sorry.

          The quick n’ dirty version is Sabria was there yelling at Layla, blaming her for the death of both of her sons (in italics since I know y'all are going to ask.) Mariah then snuck upstairs and informed us that Tibi has already grown to YA and moved out. She also informed us that Sabria used Mariah as an Object for her Sight and proceeded to drop hints and clues that Mariah scoffed at (We'll find out later just what Sabria Saw when using Mariah as her medium.) Mariah also found a skeptics book about Seers that she’s using to shore up her disgust with her grandmother. Finally- Layla is just broken. She has good days and bad days, and on the bad days she can’t remember the time or the year or who people really are in an attempt to block the world out. I hated doing this one, but but but… It’ll work out in the end.

          And finally finally, because I want to keep this as transparent as possible, strictly speaking this is no longer Appaloosa Plains. I still love the town layout, and the look and feel but the small animal spawners were driving me nuts, as were the obscene amount of moonstone spawners, and then anything I had in town Showtime related kept glitching and lagging my game. So I shipped her into CAW, moved all the gem/metal/insect spawners around (since Layla is a 'collector' I've got their locations all memorized and had gotten bored with it,) deleted a few spawners, added a handful from the newer EPs (lesser value only,) deleted everything Showtime related, deleted that ginormous Equestrian Center in favor of a Rabbit Hole Rug at the training grounds, added some empty lots, fixed some routing and broken roads, then Portered the entire population over to my New Appaloosa Plains. So you'll start to see a lot of buildings not normally found in AP; one was the school last chapter and there will be 2 new buildings next chapter. Just wanted you to know.

Chapter 2.44- Surrender

          She had no idea how she’d managed to get on top of him, much less any idea if she’d even managed to injure him or not. For all she knew she was the injured one but she couldn’t feel it if she was. She also didn’t know quite where she was or who exactly the small knot of kids surrounding them were or how many of them had come over to watch. She only half registered that technically Roger was standing just out of bounds and that made her angrier.

          That twit would probably get in trouble for being out of bounds while she was the one pounding on Andre because Benji and Andre were picking on him again. For the thousandth time this month picking on him while he stood there and took it, holding his tears in until they went in from recess and she had to sit next to him hearing to his quiet sobs while trying to listen to what the teacher said. It wasn’t fair and she’d had enough.

          “Geez, Andre,” Benji’s voice floated to her from somewhere far away. “You’re getting beat up by a giiirl. I thought you said you beat up your sister all the time.”

          “Leave him alone, Benji,” Kelci’s voice had the same through-a-tunnel sound for Mariah. “He’s trying not to hit her since you don’t hit girls. Not that she should count as a girl. She’s just a freak.”

          Fueled by the disdain of her classmates Mariah finally landed a punch with enough force that Andre gasped while the surrounding kids groaned.

          “What on-” And Mariah felt herself lifted off of Andre, arms and legs still flailing in an attempt to injure the boy.

 

          When Mariah finally decided to stop swinging she found herself facing Andre with a very angry Mrs.Byrd at her side. The other kids had all fled. All except for Roger, who Mariah took no notice of.

          “Alright,” Mrs.Byrd began. “Alright, who start-”

          “-She did.” Andre interrupted, glaring.

          “I did not,” Mariah spat.

          “Uh, yes. You did.”

          Ears starting to burn, Mariah balled a fist and gritted her teeth. Stupid little-

          “You are the one who always gangs up with-” Mariah snarled. She even surprised herself with the force she put behind her words.

          “-Am not.” Andre interjected.

          “Mariah! If you don’t calm down-” Mrs. Byrd added as Mariah made to lunge at Andre.

          “-that stupid Benji-”

          “-We do NOT call names Mariah-”

          “-to be mean to Roger”-

“-we’re not being mean-”

“Andre? Roger?”

“-you’re about to learn what happens to people who are mean! I’ll kill you, you PlumbBob damn-”

          “You’d kill me just over-”

          “Shut up, you evil- If you don’t watch out, I bet you’ll find your shoelaces undone one day and you’ll trip and break your leg!”

          “Enough! Enough enough enough! Watcher.That’s.Enough!”

          Andre and Mariah stopped when Mrs.Byrd finally managed to make herself heard over their squabbling. However, they did not stop glaring at each other.

          “Andre, take a hike. Recess is half over and I think you ought to be playing and getting some of that energy out.”

          At that, he turned, sticking his tongue out at Mariah once he was behind the teachers back.

          “And as for you Mariah-”

          “-Yeah, what about me?”

          Mrs.Byrd sighed, her expression hardening slightly as she tried to hide the pity in her eyes.

          “We all know this is a very sad time for you after your losses, but it’s not an excuse for you to beat up on your classmates, or to threaten their lives. You’ve got to keep your temper under control.”

          Mariah swelled slowly, anger coloring her vision and rendering her speechless.

          “I mean it Mariah,” Mrs.Byrd added, seeing the red face in front of her. “I really don’t want to call your grandmother again.”

          Eyes suddenly slits, Mariah hissed between her teeth.

          “My mother returned home this weekend. You don’t ever have to call my grandmother again.”

          “Well then,” Mrs.Byrd narrowed her own eyes in response. “I’m betting you really don’t want me to call her.”

          The two glared at each other for a few minutes until Mariah finally deflated a little and lowered her gaze.

          “Good,” Mrs.Byrd rolled her eyes and sighed. “Now go play. And please keep your temper!”

          Slowly, heavily, Mariah made her way to her favorite recess haunt, the picnic table farthest from the playground. So long as she didn’t turn her back the teachers didn’t seem to mind her sitting there. They seemed to think she used the time to be grieve, or ‘sort out her emotions.’ Usually she used the time to plan on that days escape from Abuella Sabria. Today she used the time to calm herself down.

          She had no idea what had come over her. Since the first time she’d gotten into a fight on the playground she’d done her best to keep her emotions in check and her temper in control. She landed in a foster home for a week when the school had called the social worker assigned to her.

 

Seems they were afraid she had “social adjustment problems” that were exacerbated by recent events. Once she was allowed to go back to her grandmother she’d carefully kept her temper in check. She might have hated having Abuella Sabria taking care of her, but the foster home had been worse.

          Of course, now that her mother had finally been released from prison things weren’t too much better.

          Layla had kind of snapped, broken, once she’d pulled the trigger on that pistol. And of course, there wasn’t anything anyone could do to bring back her daddy. Uncle Raul had already killed him. Layla had only killed Uncle Raul.

          At least the DA had agreed it was all self-defense. If he hadn’t her mother would probably still be in prison. Probably forever. And she couldn’t slip up again. She couldn’t let anyone ever take her away from her home. Her mother needed her too much now.

          If the bench boards hadn’t shifted due to the added weight Mariah probably wouldn’t have noticed that she’d been joined. She stiffened, nostrils flaring. None of the other kids had ever bothered her here before. They all counted her as a freak whose mother had killed her father and uncle. She’d allowed them their ignorance in return for her peace. She didn’t much appreciate the intrusion even now.

          They turned to each other at almost the same instant. Both wide eyed, both still silent.

          If she weren’t afraid he’d spend the next hour crying in class she’d have sent a sharp rebuke his way to frighten him off. That method had proved most effective so far.

          So she sat quietly, waiting to see what Roger wanted, not even daring to blink.

          Her eyes burning, Mariah finally blinked.

          “Pleasedon’tkillme,” Immediately, Roger’s hands flew up in surrender and Mariah frowned at him.

          “I’m not going to kill you,” she answered sternly. She knew all the other kids also thought that since her mother was a murderer that she could be one too if she wanted to be.

          “I just- I just- I- just- it’s that- I just-” Roger spluttered.

          Shaking her head, Mariah sighed. Usually, she wanted to be feared so the other kids would leave her alone. With Roger though, she wasn’t sure if his fear of her would make his crying worse or better.

          Roger’s hands lowered slowly and his stuttering slowed to a halt. Mariah turned back to him to make sure he was alright.

          “You’re not going to kill me?” Roger’s voice squeaked in disbelief.

          “No. I’m not going to kill you,” Mariah answered. “I don’t kill people. But no one believes that.”

          “You said you’d kill Andre,” said Roger, a hint of fear coloring the curiosity in his tone.

          “Roger, I was really angry. Have you ever said something when you were angry that you didn’t really mean?” The counselor used that line a lot during Mariah’s sessions.

          For a few minutes he sat next to her silently and Mariah relaxed a little bit. She wasn’t sure if he was really contemplating her words or if he was just trying to figure out how to run away from the freak. Then his face lit up and he turned to her with a bright smile.

          “Yes,” he said proudly. “Yes, I have said things when I’m angry that I don’t mean.”

          Mariah stifled a giggle. According to the counselor it was natural to do that, but not something to be happy about.

Now that he’d established that she didn’t really intend on killing him he’d run back to the other kids to establish her as a liar, cementing her epithet and ensuring her solitude for another few months. So she turned away from him and lapsed back into the silence she found most comforting.

          But he didn’t leave. Instead Roger sat there beside her and intruded on her thoughts. And the more she thought of him, the angrier she became.

          Unable to take it any longer Mariah turned to Roger abruptly, startling him.

          “Why do you let your brother and Andre pick on you every single day?” she demanded. “You should stand up to them! Or tell someone. Why don’t you tell your mom if you don’t want to tell Mrs.Byrd?”

          Rogers eyes widened and he blinked at her intensity, but he didn’t answer her immediately, making her temper rise all the more.

          “Roger!” Mariah cried. “Roger this is not something you should stand for! I can’t believe you plan on just letting them bully you day in and day out for the rest of your time in school!

          “This is not something where you can just stand by! Did you plan on perhaps spending the rest of your life crying every afternoon? Do you ever want friends?”

          “But I have a friend. I thought.”

          Mariah snorted. “If you thought Andre was your friend you are sadly mistaken.”

          Mariah adopted the same tone her counselor used when Mariah dared to voice her actual opinion on things. It was an exasperated tone used slowly as you explained the reality of things.

          “Roger,” Mariah began. “Roger, Andre is never nice to you. He makes fun of you, threatens you, and will sometimes use you as his ‘escape goat’  when Mrs.Byrd catches him doing something wrong.

          “A ‘friend’ is someone who will stand up for you, and who doesn’t make fun of you and who is nice to you and you like them. Has Andre ever been nice to you?”

          “I wasn’t talking about Andre,” Roger answered. “I was talking about you.”

          That took the wind out of her sails. Stunned, Mariah turned away from him once again.

          “You’re always nice to me in class,” Roger continued. “You talk to me. No one else does. And you stood up for me today when Benji and Andre started making fun of me. So that makes you my friend, right?”

          Mariah’s jaw dropped slightly. That booger. Using her own arguments she’d gotten from the counselor on her.

          “Fine,” she said. “Fine, I’m your friend. But don’t expect that to mean anything. Ok?”

          Roger’s face split into a huge grin as he nodded happily. “Alright.”

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          I’ve actually had these pics for about 2 weeks now, but life, the universe, and everything. You get it right?

          Raul had already beaten Ignacio to a pulp and he just didn’t survive that. So Ignacio was already beyond reasonable help when Layla pulled the trigger on Raul. She wasn’t aiming for anything vital on Raul but being drunk and a first time shot she missed spectacularly and killed him. Ignacio was the only thing keeping Layla together and the awareness that she probably had a hand in the events that led up to his death was more than she could handle.

          While generation 2 is still in charge (and in game- Ignacio is alive. Rules yo.) we’re going to go ahead and shift focus to Mariah in story. So this is still Generation 2 until Mariah hits YA. She’s going to prove a very interesting heir with a really… interesting… roll and I’d like her story to get going so here we go!