After School Special Ch8 + more Pg5 - Page 2

heya again, here's the next part, i know i'm doing it fast, but thought i'll just post it since idk when i'll come online after this! 😳..hope u don't mind..

Chapter 4: The Mean Boy and the Jerk

Ein almost burst into tears when the phone rang. He was so tired of the scrubbing and the dusting and the footrubs. God, the footrubs.

"I need your help." It was Princess, of course.

"I'll do anything, if it means getting to stop cleaning for a few minutes."

"Great, see you in ten."

Ten later, Ein sat on a different floor, scrubbing away a different family of dirt. "I can't believe your restaurant's gonna be in the haunted house. Don't you remember elementary school? All those ghost stories I told you? You screamed like a little girl."

Princess stared at him, then shook her head. "Baka."

"What does that mean?"

"I told you, it means friend in Japanese."

At that time, a puppy trotted into the main chamber. Ein smiled and petted him. "Whose a nice little puppy dog? Who is it? Who is it?" He turned to Princess. "I didn't know you got a dog."

She grinned. "I didn't."

"So she's not yours?"

"Oh, she's mine."

"Then what are you talking about?" He let the puppy lick his hands.

"That puppy is a rat."

Rat.

Rat.

Rat…

The memories clawed at his mind, so he screamed with all his might, trying to force the dark thoughts out.

He opened his eyes again with Princess hovering over him. Her popsicle rained down on his face.

He sat up and quickly glanced around. "Is it gone?"

"So he's an it now? What happened to cute little puppy dog?"

Ein rocked back and forth, shivering. "If I see that thing again, I swear, I'll run away and never come back here ever again."

She studied his face closely. "You really are scared, aren't you?"

"Of course I am! I was petting a giant rat!"

She shook her head. "There's something more that you're not telling me."

"Don't be ridiculous." He swallowed, hard. "But seriously, where is it?"

"Ratty's taking a nap in the mirror room, so don't worry. Keep cleaning."

Ein nodded and kept scrubbing. "It's going to take us forever to clean this place up."

"Don't worry. Sunflower's bringing some friends to help."

"That's good, at least." The front door opened behind him.

Honk, honk.

Ein's eyes narrowed. He recognized that honk. His bike horn! And more importantly--his bike! He turned around and pointed. "You!"

The spoiled brat also pointed. "Sunflower, that's the boy I was telling you about! The Mean Boy!"

Ein pounced forward. "Give it back!"

"No, it's mine!"

"Liar!"

Ein tried to shake the Jerk Boy off his bike. The caped hobo dashed forward, wrapped his arms around Ein and tugged at him.

"Break it up!" Sunflower ordered. "Everyone! Take a few steps back from each other and let's talk this thing over."

Everyone did as they were told, and sat on the ground, catching their breaths.

"I'd almost prefer the giant rat to this guy," Ein grumbled.

"Now Ein," Sunflower said. "What exactly is your problem with Vincent?"

"My problem is that he stole my bicycle!"

"I didn't steal it!" Vincent burst. "I needed it!"

"What's the difference!"

Sunflower studied Vincent for a while, then--"Can't you see what's going on here, Ein? Vincent was raised in such a horrific environment, he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong."

Ein crossed his arms. "That's no excuse."

Vincent also crossed his arms. "Well if Mean Boy had simply pointed out that I was doing something in the wrong, instead of chastising me in front of my men, no less, I of course would have remedied the situation appropriately."

"See, Ein?" Sunflower walked over and placed a hand on Ein's shoulder. "You shouldn't allow your anger to take control of your life."

Ein erupted, "I am not an angry person!"

***

Princess finished her beef jerky, and looked around for more sustenance.

"I'm going to go check about getting our business license," Sunflower said. "You sure you can take care of these two on your own?"

"Piece of cake." Oh yeah, that reminded her. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a plastic bag with leftover birthday cake inside.

Sunflower straightened her tie. She left, briefcase in hand.

Princess rubbed her hands together and began devouring. It took her a few delicious moments before she could hear the horrible silence infecting the room.

Ein and Vincent sat on opposite ends of the haunted chamber, scrubbing at the floor, slowly, mechanically. They stared at each other with unblinking eyes.

"So…guys…either of you see any good movies lately?" No response. "I saw this one movie about a guy and a girl falling in love, and I don't really remember what happened, but there was this one scene where the girl was cooking a meal for the guy. Meat loaf, mashed potatoes. It looked sooooo good." Still no response.

She sighed, and went to work cleaning the walls. Everything was going along just fine, until she came to this one black spot.

The darned thing wouldn't come out. "You darn thing won't come out." Finally, she--"ahhh!"--and pounded the spot with her fist.

The lights dimmed, and an eerie music began to play.

The ghosts were going to get her! Worse yet, maybe they were after her cake! She rushed over and grabbed Ein. "Help me!"

Ein snapped out of his trance, and forced, "You're…choking…me…."

She let go and grabbed him around the waist. "They're after my cake!"

Ein stood, and she stood with him, still holding on tight. "It's just music, Princess. Probably left over from the amusement park days. We just need to figure out how to turn it off." He took a step, and she took a step with him. "Did you do anything before the music started playing?"

She shook her head, and spoke into his neck. "I was just cleaning."

"Stop that, it tickles."

"Sorry."

"Are you sure you didn't do anything? You didn't flip any light switches?"

"No. All I did was hit that black spot on the wall."

"This one?" He pounded it, and the lights brightened, and the music stopped playing.

Princess searched the room, making sure there weren't any phantoms or goblins hanging around. There weren't, so she let go of Ein.

"Now that wasn't so scary, was it?" He said, patting her head like a child. A second later, his eyes widened, and he wrapped his arms around Princess. "Help me! It's coming to get me!"

Princess turned around, and Ein turned with her. Sheesh, it was just Ratty. "You're a nice little Ratty, aren't you?" She stepped closer to the cute furball.

"Ah!" Ein let go of Princess and sprinted out the door.

Princess petted Ratty for a while, then led him over to the others in the room. "Ratty, meet Vincent and his friend. Vincent and his friend, meet Ratty."

Vincent shook Ratty's hand--"A pleasure."--then kept scrubbing the floor.

Princess was a little disappointed. "You don't seem very surprised that I have a giant rat as a pet."

"Oh, should I be?" Vincent scratched his chin. "I just assumed it was normal for your kind to have rats as pets."

"Are you implying that because I'm Japanese--!"

"No, no. You misunderstand. I'm referring simply to our economic differences. When I was growing up, I wasn't even allowed to have an ant for a pet, let alone a rat of this caliber."

So it was true. This poor guy had been living in a dumpster his whole life.

***

Ein finished sitting fetal-position whimpering in the dirt, and was just about to head back inside to get his bike back, when someone grabbed his shoulder. He turned around.

"I know what you want to do," Sunflower said. "But please, let Vincent have the bike. At least until he can afford his own."

"What do you mean until?"

"You do realize he's homeless. That's how I met him. He sleeps in a cardboard box."

Ein looked at the entranceway to the haunted house, and saw Vincent sitting there, working.

Huh, maybe he was wrong about this guy. Maybe Vincent wasn't a spoiled little brat.

Vincent turned around and petted the bike with a stupid smile on his stupid face.

Jerk.

Ein started walking toward Main Street.

"Ein, wait," Sunflower said. "We need your help."

"I'm not in a very helpful mood at the moment."

She sighed. "Like it or not, Ein, you paid the most money for this restaurant, so me and Princess both agree you're the boss. Shouldn't you be here while we're creating it?"

"I'm not the boss. All I did was give money to my friend to help her out. That's it. I don't mind helping out with the cleaning, but I'm not going back there until the rats are cleared out."

"There's only one rat."

"Yeah, right."

***

"Scrub faster, my minion! Faster!"

Old Hobo Joe scrubbed like a good little soldier.

Vincent realized Sunflower was staring at him, and he felt a strange feeling in my stomach. "Forgive me, Sunflower, for not doing more myself. My hands are not accustomed to this kind of work."

Sunflower nodded. "Don't worry about it. I understand. Probably the only work you're used to is stealing."

"You're quite right. My father stole from innocent people, and then I stole from him."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Vincent."

Vincent had never met someone who understood him so well, and yet didn't despise him for it. "Thank you."

***

Ein wasn't in any rush to get back home, so he spent some time standing outside Mario's, thinking about what--who was inside.

He took a deep breath, and that wasn't quite good enough, so he took another deep breath, and built up enough courage to enter.

The Waiter, Wall, towered over Ein, and squinted down at him. "Mr. Einstein, you had best not eat here right now. Mr. Mario is here and he is in one of his moods."

Ein sat down in the waiting area, to get out of view. "He still hasn't forgiven me for making him lose his sight in one eye."

"Not to mention his smell in one nostril, and--"

"You're right. I'd better go. But first, I need to talk to one of the waitresses who works here. I don't know if she's here right now, but she has long brown hair, green eyes. She's only been waitressing here for a few weeks, at most."

"You mean Daisy."

Daisy. Sweet, beautiful Daisy. "Yeah, is she here right now?"

"No, she is not."

At that moment, Daisy walked across the eating area.

"But I see her right there."

Wall sighed and leaned over, until his giant mouth was an inch from Ein's ear. "Let me give you a little advise, Mr. Einstein. You best stay away from that girl. She does not want to speak to you. You humiliated her."

"I know, that's why I'm here. I want to apologize."

"I cannot allow you to speak to her directly, but I will relay a message if you so please."

"I please. Uh…" He pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket. "Give this back to her. Tell her I can't accept it. Tell her I'm sorry for everything I did to her. And um…."

"Something else to add?"

"No. That's it. Thanks, Wall."

"No problem, Mr. Einstein. No problem at all."

Ein sat for a while longer, then left.

***

Wall put the money in the cash register, without any intention of ever taking it out again. "I am sorry, Mr. Einstein," he said to the empty air. "But it is for your own good."

Chapter 5: Autophobia

It was the first day of Ein's community college class, and that meant something very grand. A fresh start. Perhaps now he could end his days of being considered a weirdo, and become a normal student for once.

His clothes were nice, but not too nice. He got his haircut in the morning, because it was getting a bit longer than the average length of boys. (He'd looked up the statistics on the web).

He took a seat next to a nerdy-looking kid with thick glasses and wild red hair (but not the cool kind of wild; not the mohawk or spiky kind of wild, just uncombed). This way, sitting next to the weird kid, Ein would seem that much more normal.

Things were actually coming along quite nice so far. For once.

Then Mrs. Kyoto entered the room.

Princess's mother.

This couldn't be happening. Perhaps she was taking some sort of adult class nearby and she'd accidentally stumbled into the wrong room. Or maybe it wasn't Mrs. Kyoto at all. Maybe she was just someone who looked exactly like her, with the exact same haircut, with the same blemish on her arm, who happened to wear exactly the same outfit that the real Mrs. Kyoto wore on Princess's seventeenth birthday.

"Hello class. My name is Mrs. Kyoto and I'll be your professor for this quarter." She wrote her name onto the chalkboard.

Ein felt his face puffing up. No. No! He didn't want to be gerbil cheeks. Not here.

"Welcome to Psychology 101."

What was Ein worried about anyway? She couldn't know that he was responsible for Princess's revolution.

"Here we're going to learn about all the wonders of the human mind. But first, as I'd like this to be a comfortable atmosphere for all of us, perhaps we should all introduce ourselves. Let's go around the room."

The students spoke, but Ein couldn't hear anything. All he heard was his own heartbeat. The bitter taste of dread on his tongue grew stronger and stronger as the students counted down. Three. Two.

"Hello, uh…my name is…." Ein felt his eyes crossing.

"Class, this is Einstein. He is a very good friend of my daughter, and, I assure you, a very good human being."

See there? Mrs. Kyoto just saved him from making a fool of himself. Ein didn't know how he could have suspected her of foul play in the first place. She was a very nice woman.

"Now who do we have next?" Mrs. Kyoto said.

The nerdy boy next to Ein stood up. "The name is Chucky and I'm allergic to strawberries, tomatoes, cheese, beef, horseradish, kiwis, and seaweed, and I'm an expert on all that is science fiction and paranormal phenomena, if anyone's interested, I started a Tron Club here at the college, at every meeting, we watch Tron once, talk about it for about fifteen minutes, then watch it again, so far I don't have any other club members, but I'm quite hopeful for the future, thank you very much, I--"

"Very good, Mr. Chucky," Mrs. Kyoto said.

Chucky sat down again.

Ein could almost cry out of happiness.

Almost for sure, the class had already forgot about Ein's little stuttering fiasco.

Thank goodness for geeks.

***

Sunflower walked with Princess into the haunted house. It was time to get cleaning again.

She almost tripped when she saw the state the main chamber was in. It was absolutely spotless.

Old Hobo Joe walked in from another room, covered with dust and dirt and grime. He had a mop in one hand and a broom in the other.

"Old Hobo Joe, have you been working here all night?" Sunflower asked.

Old Hobo Joe nodded, then saluted, mop and all.

"You didn't have to do that."

He just stared at her.

"But thank you. We…we really appreciate this."

"Yeah." Princess nodded vigorously. "Really. A lot."

Sunflower looked around. "Where's Vincent? He never came back to the castle last night."

Old Hobo Joe walked into the mirror room.

The two girls followed.

There he was, sleeping in the center of all the funny mirrors, cuddled next to Ratty.

Princess smiled. "See? I'm not the only one who likes that rat."

Vincent opened his eyes into slits, and mumbled, "Is that you, daddy? Have you come to apologize?"

"It's just us, Vincent." Sunflower sat down beside him. "You do know you're sleeping next to a rat, don't you?"

"Indeed I do." He petted the rat and sat up. "She kept me warm all night, like a giant teddy bear."

Princess looked at Sunflower expectantly.

"Well." Sunflower shook her head. "I guess if you and Vincent like the thing, we won't get rid of it."

"Yay!" Princess hopped around.

"I've been working on our budget layout," Sunflower said. "Since we don't have much more cleaning to do, we might as well start buying our supplies. I found a place where we can get used stoves and refrigerators and stuff like that. There isn't much money left after all that and the food, so we're going to need paper plates, plastic silverware, fold out tables and chairs. It'll be difficult, but I think we can do it."

Princess nodded. "Let's go."

Vincent stood, ready to leave.

Old Hobo Joe handed a paper to Vincent.

"Let's see here." Vincent studied the paper. "You've done quite well, soldier. Thank you for the report."

Old Hobo Joe saluted and walked out.

Sunflower couldn't help but envy the two of them. They had a strong bond, as strange as it was. It was sad almost, because Sunflower knew she would never have a strong bond like that ever again. Her life would be numbers from now on. She had to remember that.

She had to.

***

Chucky took another deep breath, then--"Then I said to him, no way aliens would ever take over the planet because that'd mess up their experiments and the number one rule of experiments is try not to affect the outcome, and then he said to me, but what if the aliens are only experimenting on us so they can eventually take us over, and I said, if they're capable of building spacecrafts that can transport them lightyears to us, then they obviously have the technology to take us over if that's their intent, and then he said--" Another deep breath.

But luckily Mrs. Kyoto entered the room (the stretching break was over), and Ein leaned over and said, "We'll talk later."

Chucky closed his mouth, swallowing the packet of air he'd built up.

And the both of them faced the front of the room.

"Now then, everyone," Mrs. Kyoto said. "I thought it would be fun for our first day if we went over some information that I think we would all enjoy. Phobias."

Ein felt his spine tingling, but he assured himself there was nothing going on.

"As I'm sure you all know," Mrs. Kyoto continued. "Phobias are fears of some specific thing or situation. They can be irrational fears, or excessive fears. Many times phobias are caused by some traumatic event in your past that has lodged itself to your subconscious mind, and can be triggered when you're faced with a certain object or situation. Does everyone understand?"

There were numerous yesses and nods.

"Good. Now why don't we go over some phobias, for the fun of it. I'll just open my phobia book to random pages." She opened her book and read out loud. " Dentophobia is the fear of dentists." She flipped to another page. "Homichlophobia is the fear of fog." Another page. "Zemmiphobia is the fear of rats."

Ein brought his hands to his face, but not in time to suppress the girlish scream that escaped his lungs.

Everyone looked at him and laughed.

Mrs. Kyoto looked at him, puzzled. "Einstein, are you okay?"

"Oh, yes," he said. "Fine. I just had something stuck in my throat. So…so I tried to…scream it out." He shook his head while the students laughed. That was one of his worst ones yet.

"I see." Mrs. Kyoto brought her eyes down to the book again. "Then let's continue. Autophobia is the fear of being alone."

***

"Sunflower, is that what we're looking for?" Vincent pointed. They'd been exploring the town's garage sales for hours, and this was the first big white rectangle thingy they'd come across. He forgot what it was called.

"Yes, that's an old fridge. Exactly what we need." She straightened her coat. "I'll go barter with the seller."

Vincent looked around, and couldn't believe the useless knickknacks and doodads people were willing to pay for.

"Hey, look at this!" Princess held up a stuffed cat.

Vincent snickered. "What kind of hunter would go after a beast so small?"

"It's just a toy," Princess said. "Not real. Don't tell me you didn't even have a stuffed animal growing up."

He shook his head.

"Well then, it's about time you have one." She got some change out of her pocket.

"No, you don't have to do that. Really."

"I insist." She dragged him over to the little old man who was selling all the junk.

Sunflower was still talking to him. "If there's nothing wrong with it, why is it so cheap?"

The old man tightened up his face and accentuated his wrinkled. "I told ya, I just don't want it in my house no more."

Sunflower crossed her arms. "I'm not buying it unless you tell me."

The little man sighed. "Fine, you want the truth? That fridge over yonder has developed quite an attitude over the years. I didn't mind it at first, but now I got myself a new wife, and she's all the attitude I can handle right now."

"I heard that, George," said a little old woman, poking her head through a window.

The old man waved her away. "See what I mean? Anyway, there ain't nothing wrong with the fridge. He still keeps things cold, you just gotta keep your wits about you when you're dealing with him. So do you want the fridge, or don't ya?"

Sunflower studied his wrinkled old face for a while, then nodded. "Here's the five dollars."

He took the money, with a tip of his hat.

Princess stepped forward, and gave him the change. "For the stuffed cat."

Without warning, an adolescent boy grabbed the money can off the old man's table and made a break for it.

"Get him, my minions!" Vincent commanded, but then realized Old Hobo Joe was back at the castle, taking a nap.

Princess ran after him. The boy knocked over a lamp in his path, and an instant later, Princess tripped on it, smashing against the lawn.

Vincent dashed over to help her up. And he couldn't believe it. Her nose was actually bleeding. He'd never seen real blood up close like this before. He felt a little woozy.

The boy made it to the sidewalk, when a Ninja, dressed in all black, his face and everything else covered, leapt out from a behind a bush and grabbed him. The boy kicked and squirmed, but the Ninja didn't budge. He grabbed the money can away from the boy, and forced a little pamphlet into the boy's hand. Vincent could just barely make out the title. It said, "How Not to be a Thief in Modern Day America."

The Ninja let go of the boy, and the boy ran away. Then the Ninja gave the money can to the old man.

The old man tipped his hat. "Thank you kindly, Mr. Ninja. I've heard a lot about you, and I thank the stars every day that we got a person such as yourself in our town today."

The Ninja ran back behind the bush at an impossible speed, and vanished.

"Who was that?" Princess asked.

The old man chuckled. "The Ninja, of course. Don't tell me you haven't heard of him."

Princess, Vincent, and Sunflower shook their heads.

"He's been the talk of the town for the past few days."

Sunflower said, "We've been occupied with other things lately. Who is this Ninja?"

The old man scratched his beard. "No one knows his true identity, but he's been a busy bee, I'll tell ya what. Going around, doing good deeds and all that. He seems to be a new breed of hero. By that I mean he's got compassionation for the evil-doers. He never captures 'em, never beats 'em up. Just stops 'em from doing bad things, then hands out little booklets and things like that."

"George, the toilet's broke again!" cried the old woman, her head poked out the window.

"I gotta go, youngins. Enjoy that fridge if ya can. But don't say I didn't warn ya."

***

Ein's stomach roared. "So what's for dinner, Grandma? I'm starving."

She hopped up on a chair. "ME TOO, BUT I THOUGHT TONIGHT YOU COULD COOK US DINNER!"

"I really can't--"

"THAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH TEENAGERS THESE DAYS! THEY LOVE EATING THE FOOD, BUT THEY DON'T GIVE A HOOT ABOUT COOKING IT! YOU TAKE AND YOU TAKE AND YOU TAKE, AND YOU SOMEHOW ASSUME THAT TAKING IS THE BEST PART OF THE DEAL! IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU LEARN TO GIVE!"

Ein sighed. "I'm not really hungry anymore. I'll see you tomorrow, Grandma." He headed up the stairs with--"THERE YOU GO AGAIN! GIVING IN TO YOUR OWN--" blasting behind him, before he shut the door and locked it tight.

Grandma didn't know anything. Ein gave everything he had, until he was completely depleted of energy, and it still wasn't good enough. Anyway, he didn't have time for her ramblings now. He needed to get into bed and think things through. Just as he was about to submerge himself into the dark circus of his covers, the phone rang.

"Princess?" He held his new phone with sweaty palms. He didn't like the fact that he was speaking into a clown's open, grinning mouth. "Where are you calling from? Are you back home?"

"No, we got a new phone for the haunted house. Why would you think I'd go back home?"

"No reason really."

"I know you're probably busy with your classes and all, but could you stop over some time tomorrow? You should be there with us. We're setting stuff up."

"I can't help you tomorrow. I have too much going on."

"But you're the boss, Ein!" Princess boomed. "This was your idea. You have to be there."

"Number one, I'm not the boss. Number two, I won't be there as long as Jerk Boy and the oversized rodent are involved."

"I'll make sure Ratty stays in the other room while you're there, okay?"

"And what about the other rat?"

"Vincent isn't so bad once you get used to him."

"So now you're siding with him? Do you remember what he and his hobo buddy did to me?"

"I know, I know. It's just…you really should be there tomorrow. We need our boss to oversee everything."

"I am not the boss, and I don't want to be a part of your stupid restaurant or your new best friends!" Everything in Ein's mind collided at that moment. He couldn't believe the words were actually coming out of his mouth. He listened to the silence for a long time. "Listen, Princess…I'm sorry. I…I've just been under a lot of stress lately. With my grandma, and the bike, and the rat, and the Waitress Girl, and…I didn't mean it."

"No," her voice was strangely soft. "You don't need to apologize."

"Princess…."

"I'm not mad. Really. I understand. I'm going to go now, Ein. Goodbye."

And that was that.