Pearl needs a place to stay

[lil-channeler.livejournal.com]

Finally done with all those questions, Pearl walked through the gates of the park. She'd have been more surprised and awed by the sights around her if she weren't so exhausted.

Though it was only mid-day here, she'd left home late at night and due to the stresses of the last few days hadn't slept in going on sixty hours. Her body sagged as her little legs dragged her to where Mr. Mouse told her that Miss Susan lived: the last building on the right hand side of the street before the statue.

Eyes drooping, she knocked softly on the door.

Comments

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

The threat was meant for Calvin's sake rather than for Pearl's; indeed, Susan had no intention of doing any such thing.

"There's the Carnation Cafe (http://www.mouseplanet.com/guide.php?pg=AAE402) ... but look, you don't need to make breakfast. I'm not too fond of letting children near the stove unless I'm watching either." No, that was not a meaningful look shot at Calvin there. "Come along, both of you, and we'll get you something to eat."

[lil-channeler.livejournal.com]

Pearl fell immediately into step behind Susan. She was so used to following Mr. Nick around, she didn't think twice about it.

A little surprised at the fact that she wouldn't be making breakfast, Pearl wondered what her chores would consist of, but decided to ask after they ate since her stomach was grumbling a little.

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

It was at this point that Calvin, whose brain had nearly shorted out with outrage, regained the power of speech.

"What?!?!?!"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Breakfast, Calvin. You are hungry, aren't you?"

There was, Susan knew, a lot more behind that "What?!?!?!" than merely the question of what was going on right at that moment, but it was easier to take these things one catastrophe at a time.

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

"No! I'm not!"

Which was true. His stomach was suddenly twisting in knots.

"You're kidding, right? This is a joke, right?" The voice was more reasonable. The sentiment was not. "She can't live here! This is where I live!"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"And there is room enough for both of you," Susan said firmly.

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

"NO THERE ISN'T!!! She...she'll get girl cooties everywhere!! This is MY house!!!"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Oh for the love of ... "Just a moment, Pearl," she said, and gently but firmly steered Calvin back into his room. She sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned forward.

"Calvin, look ... I am sorry, but I can't just leave her to her own devices. I've got plenty of time for both of you, and you needn't worry about that."

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

"I'm not. I don't care." Calvin crossed his arms, his lower lip wobbling. "But it's not fair. Why does she have to stay with us?! There's all kinds of places she could stay! I don't want her here!"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Something about the lip-wobble gave Susan a twinge, but she didn't dwell on it, focusing as she was on trying to get Calvin to see reason. "Looking after children is what I do, Calvin, and I can't very well look after her if she's somewhere else. And I did say it was likely that if any other children arrived here, I'd be looking after them." Which she had said, once, in passing. But it had been a brief, undwelt-upon throwaway moment, discussion of The Divine Comedy taking precendence at the time.

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

"You did not!" stormed Calvin. As if he'd be paying attention to offhand remarks about theoretical future events when there were giant half-frozen three-faced heads chewing people to focus on. He clutched Hobbes, who shot Susan a worried look. It was somewhat obscured, however, by the angle and also the comic book he'd been reading when the two humans came in and was still holding in one front paw.

Calvin glared at Susan over Hobbes's shoulder. "You can't just bring in any cootie-carrying girls you meet on the street! This is tyranny! Taxation without representation! It's not fair!!!"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"It has nothing to do with taxation, girls haven't got 'cooties', and as for tyranny --" She broke off; flaring up would not do. Sadly, she missed Hobbes's look altogether. "Calvin, please be reasonable. This will be fine."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to wince. She never told anyone that things would be "fine". Oh, bloody, bloody damn.

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

"It will, huh? Well, FINE, then!" Who needed a Susan anyway, telling you what to do all the time? Calvin yanked up the blankets on his bed and put his head under them, by way of signalling that the conversation was over. She could go and boss around her new kid all she wanted.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"...Calvin." She reached out a hand and stopped just short of trying to pat his head through the blankets. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily.

"We'll continue this conversation when you've calmed down," she said. "I'm going to take Pearl to get breakfast, and when you feel like talking, I'll be right here. With food, even."

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

Stubborn silence.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Right. Silent treatment. Nothing she hadn't dealt with before, countless times. "I'll be back in a moment, Calvin," she said calmly.

She opened the door. "Pearl?" Silence. "Pearl, are you there?"

She went through every room and storage closet of the First Aid Station twice, then around the building and through the childcare station next door, and there wasn't a sign of the girl.*

Oh, this was shaping up to be a superb day.

*This took rather longer than one might expect, providing an excellent opportunity for someone else to slip away in the meantime.

[irrepressible-c.livejournal.com]

Pillowcases make good stand-ins for suitcases. Well, quick stand-ins, anyway.

"So where are we going?" asked Hobbes, holding the case open as Calvin hurled in various items: his transmogrifier gun, various interesting rocks, a half-empty pack of chewing gum, a copy of the Odyssey they'd been working their way through.*

"Away."

"Okay."

"We'll go..." The full magnitude of it being impossible to go home had never really hit Calvin. Fortunately, his sense of pride was too strong for him to give in now, and admit he wanted to leave Disneyland for his boring old hometown and Mom and Dad. Reality, once again, approaches Calvin and does a hard swerve at the last minute.

"We'll go on that safari we've been talking about! Here, wear your pith helmet. We can look for other tigers, and see if they'll let us live with them."

"Tigers aren't herd animals," said Hobbes in a tone of mild offense. "We live alone and hunt alone."

"Well, then, we'll do that!" Calvin handed his backpack to Hobbes and slung the pillowcase over one shoulder, Hogfather Santa Claus-style. "We'll lurk in the shadows and be lone wolv...tigers together. Now shut up for a second."

Fortunately (or unfortunately) Susan was in the childcare station as they snuck away; Calvin's idea of stealth was to inch along walls while humming the tune from Mission Impossible under his breath. And then to run like heckfire. Considering he had to stop at one point to pick up a package of balloons that had fallen out of his inadequately-zipped backpack, they made good time to Adventureland.

* Monsters, giants, dead people drinking blood, people getting changed into animals: a surefire hit with Calvin. He generally skipped over the bits that looked like they might be mushy, though.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Furious and deeply worried, Susan paused a moment to wonder why on earth Pearl would have run off. The girl seemed acutely eager to please -- could Calvin's burst of temper have -- oh damn.

She wasn't going to yell at Calvin, or even really try to guilt-trip him; she just wanted to make him aware that his actions had consequences and --

She stood at the door of his room. The silence in the First Aid station was deafening, and she noticed gloomily the absence of the transmogrifier and the book.

"Oh, sod!"

((And Susan's day will continue in a new open RP, I think.))

[lil-channeler.livejournal.com]

Terribly upset at being the cause of so much anger and frustration, Pearl thought the best course of action would be to just leave. Miss Susan was nice to let her stay the night, but Calvin wouldn't let her stay longer, so she'd go. Maybe Sara would let her stay with her at the theater. Didn't Mr. Kira live there, too?

And so, with the determination of a young girl who once walked fifty miles in order to support Mystic Maya at her trial, she headed out the door in search of Sara.