|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:46 pm
Quite personally Lin didn't think it would make a difference for some people such as the annoying screech generator that was coming up behind her. However she did not miss the look in his eyes, and her mother wondered why she never agreed with the woman! Though she couldn't help but have her interest increase at hearing he had a foster mother.
"It might..." Lanying replied, "But some people are just dolts, speaking of which...."
She prepared for another argument with the person in question as she felt her shoulder being grabbed as she was being pulled away from Anthony. Lanying wasn't completely sure what her nanny was saying but it was directed at Anthony. Probably some sort of delusion about him not being in his proper place or some sort of nonsense.
With a brisk shove she yanked her shoulder away from Ms. Kai's grasp before turning on the nanny in full proper lady fury. (Honestly was there such a thing? People seem to think so).
"You are being rude," Lanying told the woman coldly.
"Miss. Laurel," her nanny spoke in a condescending manner, "A lady."
"Must be polite at all times which you are clearly not," Lan interrupted, "A lady must not raise her voice, in which you have been screeching like a banshee for the past few minutes, a lady must always remain calm, which you are not, and a lady must always must be the image of respectability and there is nothing respectable yelling at a perfectly normal person just for being. I don't know why mother has you on a role model, you are perfectly terrible as a role model and should be dismissed."
She said this with her arms simply holding Eri and in a calm and seemly reasonable tone if it weren't for the icicles dripping from her words.
"Now if you'd excuse me, I am going to spend time with Anthony," holding Eri with one arm she used her free hand to lift up her skirt into a polite curtsy.
"But Miss! He is-"
"A Deus, and therefore my behaviour is perfectly acceptable," Lanying replied turning.
With expertise that came from years of practice she blankly ignored the woman as she turned around and took Anthony's hand. It was a real pity her mother would not dismiss Miss. Kai, but they both knew that with Eri and with Lanying's knowledge of social graces she was not at all stepping out of line.
"Perhaps," she told Anthony, "You know a more pleasant place."
Which would be better since Ms. Kai was probably going to be gapping like a fish for a while.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:59 pm
For the first time in a long time, Anthony had no idea what to think of what was going on. Sure he was used to people thinking the worst of kids that were in the foster system, but usually they didn't treat him so badly until they found out - not to mention, they would never had screamed at him in such a manner. And while he could understand their attitudes most of the time, this time he was certain that he had done nothing this time to deserve such a scolding.
When Lanying took his hand, however, he was more surprised than ever. He had been certain that she would have nothing to do with him anymore, and that he would never have been able to see or talk to her again - yet here she was, defying her nanny, insisting that she would be spending time with him.
"Um," he gulped, reaching for his bag and nudging his skateboard along with his foot, "maybe ... the schoolyard?"
And as he walked alongside his new friend (did he dare call her that? She would be his first in a very long time) he couldn't help but peer nervously over his shoulder at the very scary lady that was staring after them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:05 pm
"Ignore her," Lanying told Anthony quietly, "She's as insane as the rest of my family."
Insane, out of touch, completely illogical in normal social manners was Lanying's personal opinion. Unlike her other peers she understood the need to pay attention to normal people, who worked at normal jobs and the fact those people were grounded in the here and now. Unlike some that is...
"She is a hypocrite, talking about lady manners and not following through."
Lanying's grandfather had always said, sadly to himself among his drinking buddies that his dear granddaughter's first words had to be hypocrite and cynical.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:17 pm
"Is that what a hypocrite is?" Anthony blinked. "I hear that word a lot, but I never knew what it is. Sandy says most people are hypocrites, but I never knew what she was talking about."
He paused.
"Is that what the people are who treat me like that when they say I'm the one who's bad?" he asked, just to be clear. "I try to be good, I want to make my family like me so maybe I can stay with them for once, I'm tired of moving and switching schools all the time."
He had to wonder though if he wanted to be in a real family after all. Lanying made it sound as if it was a bad thing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:00 pm
Lanying tended to forget she did not think like other children, not to mention she was sure Anthony was possibly younger than herself. She glanced at him, trying to deciding how to explain this from what she understood.
"Not exactly, it's a way a person could be one, but not it," she finally replied, "A hypocrite is a person who says one thing, but does something that is completely different from what they said. Like Ms. Kai is always trying to get me to act like a lady. Be polite, don't raise my voice and all those rules I already know, but she doesn't act like one herself."
As for Anthony's family problems (which were obviously a different sort from her own) she had no answers to that. She had always heard about foster kids (but tended to dismiss them seeing as they came from her peers). For all she knew the grown ups he knew were just as bad as the ones she knew... even though she knew not all grown ups were... unreasonably idiotic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:13 pm
Antony nodded. Yeah, he could understand that.
"I think there are a lot of grownups who are like that," he agreed. "The Child Services people keep moving me different places, they say I've got to live with good people so that I can learn from them and become a good person, too ... but the people they've been sending me to haven't been really good, and I don't think most of the people who work there are good people either."
He never did understand why they talked like that.
"But the part I don't get," he added with a frown, "is that if they're sending me to good people all the time, why do they take me away from them again and say they're not the right people?"
How the heck was he supposed to learn what a good person was, then?
"But I think that Doug and Sandy are good people," he grinned. "I haven't been with them long, but Sandy says I should call them Mom and Dad, and they buy me presents and stuff. None of my other families did."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 5:55 pm
"I think a lot of grown ups have a twisted sense of what is 'good'," Lanying replied.
She could so understand how grown ups never made any sense, telling you one thing and doing another. Chances were though she bet those grown ups were lying to Anthony, which wouldn't surprise her at all, but she was after all cynical that way. It was the same way her mother could be all charitable at some grand event to raise money for who knows what and the next moment not understanding why so much money was wasted as she would say.
"They probably don't know what good is... the people at the Child Services."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:20 pm
"Well, they put me with Sandy and Doug this time," Antony shrugged, "so they must know how to do something right."
He pointed just ahead of them. "There's my school playground, will your nanny be okay if we play there for a bit? Or whatever? I have to stay close in case Sandy comes looking for me, if I'm not here or at the skateboard park she'll get worried about me."
He paused. "And I don't want her to get in trouble, they might take me away again."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:29 pm
"She'll be fine," Lanying assured Antony.
Well that was an lie she knew, but quite frankly she doubted the woman would be pleased with anything. It wasn't like her nanny was going to argue with her, not without bringing up the fact she was no proper 'lady'. She was just as fine to stay in the playground, though she had to look around curiously. Lan had never been in one before, so this was a new experience for her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:53 pm
Antony grinned. "Okay then," he said happily. He pointed ahead again. "Can we go sit on the swings?"
He had noticed that a lot of people talked together while they were sitting on swings beside each other, and he had always wanted to try it himself. This, however, was the first opportunity he'd ever had in his life to do so. It was the first time someone was talking to him without laughing at him or teasing him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:00 pm
Lan nodded, sitting on the swings seemed to be fair enough. Sure it wasn't like the bench swing back home, but she was sure these weren't meant for just sitting. Though at the moment they would be use to sit.
"Alright," Lanying replied glancing at them.
They looked sturdy enough, in fact more so since they were metal and rubber. In fact in some ways rubber was better to sit on than wood and it wasn't an overly hot day so she wouldn't burn herself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:10 pm
Antony left his skateboard and backpack at the side of the swings, then headed over and sat down on one of them. He had only been on a swing once before, but he liked the way it wrapped around him, it was ... oddly comforting.
"So ... do you think maybe ... we could get to know each other a bit better?" he asked Linyang hesitantly, wrapping his fingers around the chains of the swing. "Maybe ... we can be ... friends?"
He looked at her hopefully. If this worked out, it would be the first time in ... well, in as long as he could remember.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:39 pm
Linyang thought about it, her mother would not approve at all. Not since of course Antony was not only not from any family her family knew (which wasn't saying much) but he was also a foster child. Well it wasn't his fault he was a foster child, for anyone knew he could have come from a very well off family (even though she knew that was unlikely but she could play that off with any of the more.... dramatic family members and do that).
No... no he wasn't the type her mother would approve of at all, but since when did she care? Besides he was a Deus, and that would be excuse enough, she would have to just play it right. Tell her grandfather first, that would wiggle him in without her mother's approval. Besides, it would be nice to have someone who wasn't looking to be friends with her just because they thought she should be friends with them.
"I'd like that," Linyang looked over to Antony giving him a smile.
Yes, this was something she would prefer, someone sane.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:59 pm
Antony's entire face grew bright with happiness, and he averted his eyes self-consciously. He didn't know really what to make of this - usually when something good happened, it was canceled out by something not so good. At the moment, however, he couldn't see anything bad coming, so he decided that he would go with the flow.
"I'm nine," he offered, deciding to get going on the whole 'getting to know each other' thing. "How old are you?"
He was pretty sure that she was older than him, but that could just be because of how neatly she was dressed, and how she was talking about being taught to be a proper lady. He wasn't sure what that meant, but it sounded grown up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:24 pm
She was right, he was younger than her, but then again it was always hard to tell. It didn't sound overly young, at least not from what she could tell. After all talking about grown ups was very adult indeed.
"I'm twelve," she told him, "So not that much older."
Even though at their ages it was worlds apart, but she was fine with that. Younger children were at times better company after all.
"Do you live close to here?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
