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Freed of his colorful predicament, Merroth was on top of the world, or at least self-decided king of the corner of the daycare he claimed, chasing away all invaders with an earnest glee that most other children found only in magical ponies, coloring books, and assorted sweets. At the moment, he was busy scrawling words on the wall with one of the markers he had "liberated" from the coloring area. A few of the words were dirty, but mostly he just wrote the longest and therefore best words he knew as proof of his clearly massive intelligence. Someone would notice what Merroth was doing and stop him eventually, so he would enjoy it while it lasted and then end up in time out, same as usual. His only regret was that all the markers in the coloring area were washable.

"Time out is over there," said Merroth, annoyed. He pointed at another corner, which was where he and the other children were always sent for time out since he had claimed this particular corner several days ago. Apparently, this particular lug wasn't bright enough to catch on. "Shove off." Merroth resumed writing the word "particular" with a backwards letter K, waiting to hear Christian get up and go away.

Merroth finished his word with a curly flourish and frowned with displeasure. He turned to Christian. "Look, ugly, this is not time out and I don't share so why don't you take your fat a** and go time out over there before I call the grownups on you?" Merroth was sure that, if he pressed the point, he could get one of the daycare workers to back him up, since they had more or less allotted this corner to Merroth by putting time outers in the other corner. (That, or Merroth had been placed in permanent time out, and the daycare workers had just decided it was safer for the other children if they had time out in a separate location.) Failing that, he might be able to get Black to rid his corner of Christian, though Merroth wasn't going to bank on that possibility. Black was around the daycare somewhere as usual, but she was notoriously unreliable in this sort of situation.

"I want you gone," reiterated Merroth. "You have cotton in your ears or is your head just too thick? I'ma count to ten. One, two, three..." How he loved countdowns, and they were especially useful as a suggestive method for child discipline.

Merroth trailed off mid-number. "Eiyyyy... yeyt..." He looked at the remaining xylophone half. Now, he figured, was as good a time as any to become hysterical. He took a deep breath and stuck his arm out, pointing at the farthest possible corner of the room. "GetoutofmycornerNOW! GetoutgetoutgetOUT!"

Merroth was, at this point, incensed beyond all reason. How dare Christian threaten him. He picked up the nearest piece of metal and hurled it at Christian's retreating form with all his might. His eyes were wide with fear, but he was not willing to back down.

"You!" proclaimed Merroth, face breaking into an expression of wild satisfaction. He shook his head, but he was in a state of mixed fear and euphoria and he could not easily back down from it. "Just try it! I don't care! You hit me! But ohhh, you just THINK who they gonna blame if you touch me! Come on, big guy! Uglyface! Fatso! Hit me! Do it!"

"Dammit, you freak," shrieked Merroth. "I don't care! You think you can kill me? Prove it. I dare you! You big, fat, ugly coward! Don't THREATEN me if you're not gonna do it!" He stamped his foot, shook his fists in the air, and turned positively red in the face. The veins popped out on his neck.