Eartha -- Chapter 8

A new month, a new year, a new chapter, and a new attitude.... kind of. Thank you again to the real Garrick Strom who googled his name and found my story. That comment made me smile and randomly start humming "It's a Small World After All". I've had some other positive feedback from people who don't read the blog, but have read the new version of this story so that inspires me to continue. As for all my nay sayers, bring it on. You inspire me as well -- mostly in creating new evil characters that I can kill off, but hey, we all have our place in this world. And if some of you still feel the need to hide behind annoymous comments so be it. I can just delete you :) So, here I bring Chapter 8 another building block to a much bigger chapter. In my updated version of the story I hope to get the exciting stuff sooner, but until then enjoy.

Chapter 8

September first rolled up and no one in the Wicken family was very happy on the drive back to the subway station. Roger had not said a word to Mora or Eartha about his visions or about the conversation he had with Dr. Timmus. Eartha was still upset about her parents not believing that they were in danger and Mora didn’t have the heart to tell her daughter the truth. The subway station was packed with early morning commuters and unless one was really looking for it no one would notice the children spread out in the crowd carrying unusually large amounts of luggage. Eartha stood silently between her parents refusing to look at either of them. She couldn’t believe they were sending her back after what she had told them. Why didn’t adults ever listen to their children? She wondered.
“Okay, sweetie, it’s gonna be here any second now,” Mora said softly, “I know you’re still upset with us because you think we don’t believe you, but that’s not the reason that you have to go back to school.”
“If there is a danger out there we want you in the safest place we can put you,” Roger chimed in.
“What makes you think the school is the safest place for me?” Eartha asked.
“Well, they know for sure that there are plenty of psychics there and they haven’t attacked anyone there yet, so I’m assuming there is a reason for that,” Roger explained.
“They’ve already broken in once. What makes you think they wont do it again?” Eartha commented.
“They only took files that time,” Roger reminded her, “There is a lot of protection that Dr. Timmus has added to the school since then. I think they haven’t been able to get back in since then or they’re afraid to.”
“And you’re just going to leave yourself out in the open to be attacked?” Eartha asked.
“We’re not going to be attacked,” Mora insisted.
“We are protecting ourselves, Eartha. We will do our best to make sure nothing happens to either of us,” Roger tried to be reassuring.
“So, in other words, you don’t think you’re going to be attacked and you’re sending me back to school because you don’t believe there’s any reason to keep me at home,” Eartha shot back.
“First of all, there is no reason that you should be kept at home, regardless of whether we are in danger or not,” Roger said somewhat harshly, “Do you think I would keep you somewhere where I thought you would be in danger?” Eartha didn’t get a chance to respond because at that moment the subway pulled into the station. She only had time to give them hugs and kisses goodbye before the subway would take off again. She piled on with everyone else and quickly found a seat in the corner. She was one of the few people to actually obtain a seat and it was largely due to her small size. She looked around vainly for a familiar face, but all she saw was adult legs and torsos. She actually could have used the company of Garrick right about now. She really would have loved to get some of the anger and frustrations she had right now off her chest. She looked up and noticed that the people around her had slowly moved away from her and a few of them were actually glancing over in her direction. She realized quickly that her emotions were starting to lash out at others. She was out of practice with guarding herself. So for the rest of the ride to the school she focused on building her protective shield around herself again. She was so focused on building her shield back up that she almost missed her stop all together. She stood on the platform with a few other kids. Most of the students would be coming throughout the day. There had been schedules sent out to students a few weeks ago so it wouldn’t look so suspicious when an unusual amount of children got off on the same platform. Unfortunately, the fact that the platform was pretty much in the middle of nowhere made anyone getting off looking a little suspicious. The students kind of milled around the platform aimlessly until the subway was completely out of sight. Slowly the kids started disappearing out the door and back to school. Eartha was the last to go through the doorway. She purposely put some distance between her and the other students. She took her time getting to the main hall and then braced herself for all the kids that were bound to be hanging around the main entrance hall.
She stepped into another world the moment she stepped through the front door. The main hall was very bright and loud with student greeting the friends after a long summer. Eartha glanced around the room and felt a sinking sensation flow through her body. She wondered what it would be like to rush up to a group of friends and give them all a huge group hug. How would it be to get close to people? She sighed and moved her things towards the dorms. “Miss me?” Garrick’s lazy nonchalant voice asked from behind. She pretended not to hear him and continued to walk towards the dorms.
“Oh, my God!” he yelled out suddenly, “She’s gone deaf over summer vacation! What am I going to do now? How can I annoy her when she can’t hear me?” She spun around with an evil smile on her face. “I can hear you just fine,” she announced, “I just figured if I didn’t respond you would go away.”
“You look brown,” he commented suddenly ignoring her comment.
“And you look as pasty as ever,” she retorted.
“Gee, I missed your attitude,” he grinned pulling one of her bags out of her hands to help her out.
“It’s good to see you too,” she admitted in return. He jerked to a stop and threw one hand to his chest in false dramatics. He pretended to faint and said, “A nice comment from Eartha. The shock will kill me!”
“Are you done now?” she asked in a bored voice.
“Yeah, I think that’s good,” he said righting himself and continued to walk down the hall with her bag. She laughed and followed him. They dropped her bags on the floor and left them there.
“So, how was your summer?” he asked once they were back out in the hallway.
“It could have been worse. It could have been better,” she replied.
“You have the most unique way of saying a lot without saying a damn thing,” he laughed, “Could you be any more vague?”
“I’m sure I could if I tried a little harder,” she answered.
“So what did you do this summer? Or am I not allowed to know?” he asked.
“My parents rented out a beach house for the summer,” she said, “I was swimming most of the summer.”
“That would explain the brownness,” he chuckled.
“And I’m assuming you followed through with your skiing plans which would explain your pastiness?” she asked.
“You assumed correctly,” he nodded, “So why wasn’t your vacation fun?”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t fun,” she answered.
“But you did say it could have been better,” he shot back.
“And I still think that it could,” she said.
“What could have made it better?” he asked.
She shook her head at his relentlessness, “A pony,” she replied sarcastically making him throw his head back and laugh. “Well, it wasn’t so much the vacation that gave me a negative opinion so much as the vacation being over. I still think my parents are a target, but they don’t seem to be taking the threat too seriously. They sent me back here and it’s like I’m pretty much just waiting for the news that they were murdered.” She finally answered truthfully.
“That’s pretty morbid,” Garrick answered quietly.
“I know, but I can feel something horrible coming,” she replied.
“Maybe it’s not what you think,” he offered.
“And maybe it is,” she replied, “but no one will know for sure until it happens and I would rather be around my parents right now.”
“Well then I can see why your parents would send you here,” he said.
“What! Why?” she asked surprised and angry. He was supposed to be on her side.
“If they think they are a target they wouldn’t want to put you in danger too, right?” he explained.
“They don’t believe me!” she cried out, “And if they do they have a very funny way of showing it.”
“I’m sure they took what you said very seriously and they put you in the safest place they could think of. What if these people got a hold of you and started to use your power for their little mission?” Garrick explained. That shut her up immediately. She had been very selfish about wanting to stay with her parents. If what Garrick said was true then her parents had sent her back selflessly and here she was making them feel bad about sending her away. She shook her head and grunted in frustration. “I don’t want to talk about this right now,” she announced.
He scoffed and then asked, “Okay, so what would you like to talk about?”
She looked around and noticed that they had unintentionally come to the indoor garden. The door was unlocked and the lights were on inside. She was surprised even though she couldn’t remember a time when the garden was not open. She went inside and felt instantly at home and much calmer than she had been just moments before. “Well?” Garrick prompted her.
“Well, what?” she replied in a much lighter tone.
“What would you like to talk about?” he repeated. She had leaned over to smell one of the flowers and he knew that she was in another world right now so he didn’t press her to answer him. She drifted off further into the garden and he reluctantly followed her. She was already disappearing behind another corner and he quickened his pace to keep track of where she was going. He rounded the corner after her, but once again she was gone. He took off at a jog to find her and he could hear her laughing pretty far off. She was playing games now. He didn’t know whether to be annoyed or happy that she was no longer in a foul mood. He broke into a run determined to find her now. He saw a flash of her skirt as it disappeared around another tree. He followed it, but then he could hear her laughing from the other side. He stopped out of breath and confused. “Come on, now, you can’t give up so easily,” she called to him. He followed the sound of her voice and took off in that direction. “I will find you if it takes me all night!” he called out.
“I don’t think so,” he heard her voice behind him. He spun around and looked around to see where she had gone. Then he felt her gloved hands covering his eyes from behind. He gasped and spun around. She was standing before him with a huge grin on her face. “How did you do that?” he asked.
“It’s a secret,” she whispered. She stepped back and studied him for a moment and said. “I just noticed how much taller you got over the summer,” she commented suddenly once again quickly changing the subject.
“Yes, and you’ve remained your same old stunted self,” he replied.
“I think I’ll always be pretty small,” she said, “but since I have all these layers I’m not too concerned about it.”
Another person had entered the room she realized. Garrick still seemed to be unaware, but he noticed Eartha tense up and realized something was up. They both looked towards the door and saw Dr. Timmus standing just inside the door. “Ah, I knew I could find you both here,” he announced quietly, “Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but I need to ask you to go to the cafeteria with the rest of the students. There are some important notices that you should probably hear and you’ll probably want to eat before you go back to the dorms for the night.” Garrick quickly nodded and led the way back out of the room. Eartha paused for a moment and then followed him. Dr. Timmus slowed her down by tugging gently on her sleeve. “How have things been at home?” he asked.
“It could be better,” she replied.
Dr. Timmus nodded thoughtfully for a moment and then motioned her forward. Eartha knew that Dr. Timmus knew about everything that had been going on at her home, but he was choosing to remain silent. “No pearls of wisdom today?” she commented dryly.
“I think this is one family issue that I cannot help with,” he replied, “The only thing I have to say is that you all need to trust what the other is doing or trying to do.”
“I really don’t like your cryptic advice,” Eartha said pulling away from him and chasing after Garrick to catch up. She didn’t really want to know what Dr. Timmus had to say about her family problems.
“Hey, what was that all about?” Garrick asked as she finally caught up to him at the door of the dinning hall.
“Nothing,” she replied giving him a look that said don’t press me and he didn’t. She slumped down into a chair. This year wasn’t shaping up to be a very good one yet. The feeling that her parents were in danger was increasing and she knew that it was not just paranoia. Even Garrick had suggested that her parents knew what danger they were in and that really didn’t make her feel better. If they did believe her and they had sent her back to school for safety purposes then they felt they were in danger too. The tone in Dr. Timmus’ voice made her believe that the school year was just going to get worse from here on out. She was grinding her teeth and Garrick was giving her a strange look when she finally realized that she had completely spaced out for the past five minutes. She looked down at her food and pushed it away. She definitely was not in the mood for food. Garrick pushed her plate back in front of her. “You need to eat whether you’re in a bad mood or not,” he insisted. She sighed heavily and reluctantly took up her fork again. She knew Garrick was only looking out for her best interests, but if he had any idea what was going through her mind right now he would leave her the hell alone.

Classes started the next morning like clockwork and Eartha was actually glad to have something to focus her mind on other than her parents. She focused entirely on what her teachers were telling her. Even in her boring history class she was listening to everything that Mr. Sayers was saying. He was her least favorite teacher and it wasn’t exactly easy to willingly pay attention to him. So, when everything began to fade away she didn’t really notice at first. Her ears began to ring and when sound finally came back she wasn’t hearing what Mr. Sayers was saying. She could only hear someone sobbing. She couldn’t see anything yet, but then a light was slowly brightening the scene. She saw a woman kneeling on the ground with her back to Eartha. The woman was dressed in all black and was leaning over something. Eartha tried to get a better look, but she was frozen where she was. The woman was still sobbing, but she leaned back slightly to reveal another body on the floor. Eartha screamed and the vision faded immediately.
Mr. Sayers’ classroom reappeared instantly. She leapt out of her chair realizing everyone was staring at her. She grabbed her bag and ran from the room completely embarrassed. She took off down the hall in the direction of her dorm room. She couldn’t believe it was happening to her in the middle of the afternoon now. Wasn’t there a way for her to control this at all? And why was she getting all these horrible images of people dying? She slowed her pace slightly. She was getting a headache. Her eyes seemed to be burning so she clamped them shut, but this turned out to be a bad idea. She could hear the woman sobbing again. The vision was trying to come to her again. NO! She told herself not realizing that she said it aloud. She forced her eyes open again and a white-hot pain sliced through her brain. She felt like she couldn’t breathe anymore and she dropped to her knees. She placed her hands on the sides of her temples and moaned. “Eartha! What are you doing?” a voice asked from above and for one delirious moment she thought it was God. Someone was picking her up off the floor and carrying her away. She was still clutching the side of her head. Her breathing returned to normal and the pain began to subside, but she kept her hands where they were. She didn’t want to chance the vision trying to come back again. She looked up at who was carrying her and immediately recognized Dr. Timmus.
“You can’t will visions away,” he said to her.
“Why can’t I control them?” she moaned.
He smiled sadly, “If I could answer that the whole world would run quite a bit smoother.”
They were entering a room she did not at first recognize. Then she recognized the surroundings immediately. She was in the hospital wing. “I’m fine,” Eartha insisted, “I don’t need to be here.”
“She will be able to give you something that will relax you and reduce the chance of you having the vision. If you keep fighting the visions you will likely have a seizure,” Dr. Timmus explained, “After she gives you something, you can go back to your dorm to get some sleep.” He set Eartha down on one of the many empty beds and left. Eartha looked around, but saw no one. Normally she felt safer when she was alone, but the silence was actually making her uncomfortable. She shifted to look around the room. If no one was going to come she was going back to her room. She swung her legs off the bed and was about to stand up when the door finally creaked open at the far end of the room. The nurse entered the room. “Might as well swing those legs back up on the bed,” she said brusquely, “It will take a moment to fix up what Dr. Timmus wants me to give you. And if the vision starts to come back before I’m done just let it come. I don’t need you having a seizure on me.” She walked to the cabinets in the corner and unlocked the doors. Inside Eartha could see a number of jars full of mysterious liquids. Eartha watched her mix a few of the liquids together and then surprised herself by saying, “I understand that people can’t will visions to come to them, but I don’t understand why I can’t stop them from coming at any hour of the day.”
“I guess it’s much like any psychic ability,” the nurse replied in a much nicer tone than she had earlier, reminding Eartha that she liked the nurse from the last time she helped her, “If we could control our powers we could rule the world.” She laughed and looked over her shoulder at Eartha who wasn’t smiling. “I’m surprised that you, of all people, would think there was a way of controlling something like this.”
“I can heal just about anything,” Eartha commented, “But I couldn’t heal the pain that comes with the visions.”
“I haven’t met a person yet who can,” the nurse replied, “But I must emphasize the more you fight them, the more painful they will become.” She had finished with her concoction at this point and brought it over to Eartha. It was maybe a tablespoon of a dark green liquid in a small vial. Eartha wasn’t so sure about the liquid, but was more afraid that the nurse would force it down her throat if she refused. She gulped the liquid quickly hoping it didn’t have much of an aftertaste. It burned her throat as it flowed down to her stomach, but it didn’t seem to have a taste at all. “Okay, that should take a couple of minutes to take effect. It should be enough time for you to hurry back to your dorm room. You’ll know when it hits you,” the woman smiled which made Eartha even more uncomfortable, but she just nodded and rushed out of the room. Apparently no one really cared about the last few classes she was going to be missing.
She locked herself in her room and before she had a chance to turn her light on or take her boots off the whole room seemed to tilt forward. She gasped at the sudden attack at her equilibrium. As she walked forward to her bed the floor seemed to tilt with each step, but she managed to make it without falling. The world spun and twisted around her and then a heavy dreamless sleep fell over her. The mixture the nurse had given her was strong and lasted through the night and up to the next morning. Eartha woke from the noise of the other students getting ready for their classes. This was rare since Eartha was normally up and out of the dorm by the time the others were waking up. She rushed to get ready for breakfast. She had missed dinner the night before and was unusually hungry. She left the dorm without saying a word to anyone and no one seemed to notice. She really didn’t like the rushed feeling. The hallway was pretty empty, thankfully. There was only one student at the far end and he seemed to be coming back towards the dorms. “Hey!” the kid called out to her. She narrowed her eyes to see who was hailing her. Who else? It was Garrick.
“Hi,” she said unenthusiastically. She felt completely out of whack. All she wanted to do was fall back into the shadows and feel normal again.
“You weren’t around last night and I’ve heard some rather odd versions of what happened to you,” he inquired. He was trying to play casual, but obviously one of the outlandish rumors had gotten him concerned. She tried to muster a smile and she waved off his concerns, “It was another vision,” she said casually, “It came in Mr. Sayers class and I tried to stop it. Apparently that’s not a good idea.”
“What happened?” he asked. Her casualness wasn’t easing his mind.
“Nothing. I went to the nurse and she gave me something to sleep without dreams,” she explained cutting out the part where she felt like she was going to die when she couldn’t breathe and the part where Dr. Timmus had to carry her to the nurse.
“That’s all?” he asked unbelieving.
“Yep, except I overslept because of whatever it was that she gave me,” Eartha tried to reassure him, “I feel kind of out of it right now.”
“You look kind of out of it,” he agreed. The walked together towards the dinning hall. She mused over his concern. It wasn’t that it was all that unusual for him to be concerned about her. She knew he cared a great deal for her. It was that he had believed whatever rumors he had heard about what had happened. It was quite uncharacteristic for him. He usually didn’t believe anything that he didn’t see with his own two eyes. She laughed suddenly and caught him off guard. “What on earth did you hear about me that got you so concerned?” Garrick suddenly turned bright red and looked away.
“Oh, well, I wouldn’t necessarily put it that way,” he said quickly.
“What way?” she asked.
“It wasn’t that I was worried or anything. I was just wondering where you were, that’s all,” he replied.
“I didn’t say you were worried. I asked why you were so concerned,” she corrected him.
“Yeah, I was concerned,” he said defensively, “You’re my friend and I thought something bad might have happened to you… or your parents.” He added that last part under his breath.
“What about my parents?” she asked.
“Well, one of the rumors that was flying around was that you had a vision about your parents being killed and that you jumped up out of you seat and ran out of Mr. Sayers class,” he explained, “You know I’m not one for believing rumors, but with as worried as you’ve been about your parents I thought there might actually be some truth to it this time.”
“It wasn’t about my parents,” she assured him, “I don’t know who they were. I tried to stop the vision and it gave me a really horrible headache. So, I couldn’t really see what the people looked like. The woman seemed really familiar, but it wasn’t my mother.”
“What happened in your vision?” he asked timidly afraid she would snap at him.
“It was a woman crying over the body of a man. I couldn’t see either of their faces and I tried to stop the vision,” she said simply, “I don’t want to know about any more deaths.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” he agreed, “Were you able to stop it?”
“Kind of,” she said, “temporarily, but it tried to come back again and I tried to stop it again, but it hurt. Dr. Timmus told me that if I kept trying to stop them I would probably have a seizure.”
“When did Dr. Timmus come into the picture?” he asked. Oh, damn! She should have stopped talking a long time ago. She realized.
“He saw me in the hallway after I left Mr. Sayers classroom,” she explained really wishing she hadn’t gotten into this conversation with him.
“Hmm,” Garrick replied scrunching up his face.
“What?” she asked not really wanting to know what he was thinking but knowing that he was going to tell her anyway.
“Well, I was just wondering what Dr. Timmus was doing walking through the halls. I mean, he’s a pretty busy man and he’s not the type of person to take a leisure walk through the hallways. Do you think he knew something was going to happen?” he asked.
“I don’t know, maybe. Or maybe he was reading my thoughts and felt the need to see exactly what was up,” she replied trying to dismiss this subject. Garrick wasn’t so willing to let it die. “Does he normally come to your aid when you have visions?”
“No, but I usually don’t try to stop them either. Can we please drop this subject? I’m really sick of talking about this,” she snapped.
“Yes, because anything about you is restricted information, right?” he snapped back. Before anything else could be said by either of them the bell rang for class to start. They both turned away from each other and went their separate ways to their classes.
What right did he have to nose into her business? She didn’t put him through the third degree all the time. She thought vehemently. If I want to keep my private life a secret what business is it of his? She went through her morning classes and when lunch rolled around she purposely went an entirely different direction than what she normally went to avoid him. If he didn’t care for her secretes he didn’t have to be around her. She didn’t know if he tried to find her at lunch, but she made sure that she didn’t go to an obvious place that he may find her. She did the same thing for dinner as well. She knew it was childish and that he was only concerned about what happened to her, but she was stubborn. She had gone long enough without friends and if he didn’t like the way she was she could quite easily go back to being a loner. She shouldn’t get too close to anyone anyway. She didn’t linger very long after dinner. She went back to the dorms and quickly locked herself in her room. The next morning she managed to sneak out of the dorms and slip into her new hiding place. She wasn’t really sure why she was doing this, but she didn’t want to be the one to apologize. Why should she? She hadn’t done anything wrong. So, why was she the one hiding? She wasn’t really sure, but she continued to avoid Garrick for the next week. By the time the weekend came she felt a little sad. He had obviously given up on their friendship and he wasn’t even trying to find her anymore. So, on Saturday morning she finally braved going back to the garden. On Saturdays the school gardens tended to get a little busier with students. Bored with studying or hanging out in the common areas they would often go to the gyms or the gardens. She managed to find a place in a dark corner where no one would see or bother her. Giving up her friendship was harder than it was supposed to be. She thought. Why? She had gone through her old school without getting attached to anyone. And even those friends she had made hadn’t made her feel so lonely when she had left them to come to Mead Institute. What had made this friendship different? God! Why had they fought over something so stupid! This was dumb. Why did she have to keep secrets? He already knew her biggest secret and he had never abused that. Why did she feel that she had to be so guarded all the time? He had been nothing but a good friend to her. He didn’t keep secrets from her and she had gotten mad at him for being a concerned friend. How foolish. He had other friends and no problems with talking to other people. He had only befriended her out of pity and she had pushed him away. Now, he was fed up with all the secrets and had probably decided that his other friends were easier to be around. Lost in her own little world she hadn’t really noticed that someone was casting a shadow over her from behind. “Still avoiding me then?” Garrick’s low voice asked in an attempt to sound casual. She could hear the strain and felt the tiniest bit of relief that he hadn’t given up on her just yet. She didn’t turn around for fear that he would see her relief and laugh. “Would I be here?” she asked quietly.
“I suppose not,” he sighed heavily, “I’m sorry I get so nosy, Eartha. I just want you to be able to trust me… I mean, I haven’t told anyone any of your other secrets and it just kinda feels like a slap in the face every time you close yourself off to me.”
She finally looked at him, “You shouldn’t apologize for being a concerned friend,” she replied and then quickly dropped her eyes down to the ground, “And I do trust you… more than I’ve ever trusted anyone, well, except maybe my parents. Every time I start to talk to you about myself I hear a little voice in my head that says I’m talking too much. And I automatically get defensive. It’s not because of you, Garrick. It’s because any other time when I started to talk too much something bad would happen.”
“So, you run away,” he said simply, “You climb back in you shell and make sure no one has even the slightest chance to hurt you.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” she replied.
“I’m not going to tell anyone anything you say. I won’t hurt you, I promise,” he insisted.
“No one has ever purposely gone out of their way to hurt me… It just happens,” she explained.
“Well, not with me,” he argued and she just shrugged her shoulders. He finally felt that it was okay to sit down next to her so he did. Then she surprised him by leaning her head on his shoulder and saying, “I’m sorry for being so childish.”
“Well, that is what we are,” he reminded her lightly.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “It’s too bad we’re not allowed to be.” He put an arm around her to comfort. Their friendship had been mended and a huge weight was lifted off Eartha. Thay sat in silence for a while and then to break the silence Garrick asked, “Have you had any more of the visions this past week?”
“No,” she frowned because she hadn’t really realized how quiet her mind had been for the past week until he mentioned it, “I’m not sure if that’s a good sign or a bad sign. My dad always said that when the visions take a long time to come to him that it’s always because something bad is building up.”
“Maybe yours won’t be like that,” he offered. She nodded even though she didn’t really believe that. She had a feeling that her visions were just like her dad’s. So, what was next? This year had already begun badly and she had a feeling that it was only getting worse. She sighed heavily. She really needed to talk to her parents right now. Seeing them would make her feel a lot better. “Are you okay?” Garrick asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered back.

Letter to my comment-ers

Dear _____________,

In response to your comment(s) I have a few things to say. No, I did not recieve and "For Dummies" books and once again I must inquire, why do you read blogs of people you don't like? And why do you try to leave annoymous comments. Own up to them. It's kind of sad and pathetic that you feel the need hide what and who you are. And yes, even though your comments don't post I still get them sent to my e-mail account.

As to my other commenter (and I hope you're not one in the same) I do have a half assed apology to give you. My last blog was not complete and it was nothing more than a rant about the holidays. It was not a dig at you or your boyfriend or any gifts I received. I appreciated all the gifts I received especially from you. When I say the blog was incomplete I meant specifically the part dealing with where you commented. Honestly, we knew they were from you and not him (I'm trying to leave names out of this so bare with me) and the only part we were joking about is if they really had come from him and not you. I don't want to return them and it was a poorly formed joke. I thought the fact that you guys sent anything at all was nice and thoughtful. I'm sorry you couldn't have been there. I could have told you a story about why I found it so funny. I won't write it here because I'm trying to leave this anonymous. I wish you would have left me a way to contact you instead of having to blog again. I hope you keep reading my blog because if you don't you will never get this apology. Not that I apologize for writing my blog the way I want.... I have my blog to rant about stuff when it bugs me. This holiday sucked for me and I wanted to let it out in a forum that wouldn't make all the people who love me think I am ungrateful. No one really reads my blog and its more of a journal than a well established blog. This is my place to be free if that offends you don't read it. I write what I feel and I'm not going to compromise my feelings to please people. Especially people I've only met twice before.

with regards,
Courtney

Eartha -- Chapter 7

Well, here we go again. Another chapter in the story. A chapter I enjoy because we see Mora and Roger again although after this point the story become primarily about Eartha and Garrick. This is the last we see of one of my better characters and even though not a lot happens in this chapter its probably one of my favorites. Enjoy.


Chapter 7

Eartha could not get home quick enough. She was fidgeting the entire way back home and she managed to be the first one off the subway to find her parents. She saw her mother first and she took off running without a second thought. She threw herself at her mother and embraced her in the biggest bear hug she could muster. She felt her mother’s bare cheek against her own. She felt the warmth flow through her body and was overjoyed to finally be able to really feel someone again. Even her father avoided touching her bare skin ever since he transferred a vision once. She held her mother for an eternity afraid that she might be dreaming. She saw her father coming towards them from the other direction. They were alive. That was all that mattered at this moment. Alive and well. They were never going to leave her sight again. She would make sure of that. Not until the monster killing psychics were caught and locked up forever.
“My goodness!” her mother exclaimed, “What is this?”
“I was so afraid,” Eartha mumbled into her mother’s hair as she finally relaxed.
“Of what?” her father asked.
“That they would come after you before I had a chance to see you again,” Eartha explained turning to her father for another bear hug.
“No one is coming after us,” her mother assured her, “we’re not ever really part of that psychic community. The only person we ever talk to is Dr. Timmus. We hadn’t even heard of the disappearances until he called.”
“These people don’t care if you are active in the psychic community or not. If you have any kind of ability they’re going to try to recruit you,” Eartha said.
“No one has approached us about joining anything,” her father tried to calm her.
“But they will! I just know there’s a reason for all this!” Eartha exclaimed.
“A reason for what, sweetie?” her mother asked.
“All these visions I’ve been having!”
“Visions?” her father cut in as her mother gasped and stepped back.
“Yes!” Eartha cried out with annoyance, “All the visions of those people disappearing and then that man that they killed for not joining their group.” Neither of her parents could speak. They both stared at their daughter dumbfounded. It took Eartha a moment to realize what this meant. “Dr. Timmus didn’t tell you that I was having visions?” she asked.
“No,” her mother whispered.
“There must be a reason for that,” her father insisted, “he wouldn’t keep something that important from me.”
“What has he told you?” Eartha asked.
“He told us about the attack from that vampire kid and the break in. He warned me that my file might have been taken and that we might be at risk. Then last week he called me and told me a number of people known to have psychic abilities had gone missing recently. What exactly have you been seeing? Wait! We shouldn’t be talking about this here,” he said suddenly, “Let’s go home.” He quickly ushered his wife and daughter out of the subway station. He changed the subject to lighten the mood, “We have a surprise for you, Eartha,” he said happily.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You are not going to spend your summer vacation locked inside the house this year!” he exclaimed.
“What do you mean?” Eartha asked tensely. She had been looking forward to resting all summer to muster her energy for next year.
“We have rented a beach house for the summer,” he explained, “It’s a private beach. Only the people with the beach houses can use it, so you wont have to worry about a lot of people being around.”
“We’ll have a real vacation this year,” her mother added.
“Well, when do we take off for there?” Eartha asked grinning.
“Right now,” her father announced, “We have your summer clothes packed up and ready to go in the car. Eartha happily skipped ahead of her parents towards the car. Mora and Roger exchanged worried looks.

“I just can’t believe she’s having visions on top of everything else she has to deal with,” Mora said with her arms wrapped across her chest. She was standing at the beach house window looking down at her daughter running through the surf.
“You must have known she was going to inherit something like my abilities,” Roger reminded her. He came up behind his wife and wrapped his arms around her.
“But I thought her extreme version of my gift was what she inherited from you,” Mora protested.
“That had nothing to do with me,” he replied, “She would have been like that even if I had no abilities at all. Those two gifts have nothing in common. She’s stronger than you just like you were stronger than the parent that passed it on to you.”
“It just seems so unfair that a little girl should have so many burdens like this,” Mora whispered.
“And how fair is life?” Roger asked, “Besides they’re only burdens when you view them as burdens.”
“God! What? Are you a walking proverbs book today?” Mora exploded suddenly, “Our daughter suffers everyday and all you can say is ‘life isn’t fair’! She can’t have friends or a normal life; she can’t even do things normally. She’s swimming at five o’clock in the morning because there’s no one swimming that early and yet ‘it’s only a burden if you view it as a burden’? How else am I supposed to view it?!” She pushed him away as he tried to comfort her. She didn’t want to feel better about this. She had brought a little girl into this world that could never fit in and would never feel normal even among people like Roger.
“Mora, had I known you were a healer when I met you I would have forced myself to give you up no matter how much it hurt,” he whispered honestly, “I know the dangers, but I didn’t know what you were and that changed everything. It changed both of our lives and there isn’t anything we can do to change it. Don’t think that it doesn’t pain me to see how difficult it is for my daughter, but that is how it is and we need to accept that or Eartha never will.”
“I just want her to be normal… to feel like she belongs… just once,” Mora whispered defeated. Roger couldn’t say anything. As much as he would have liked to tell his wife that Eartha could be normal he wasn’t even sure that was true and he couldn’t completely accept what his daughter was going to have to deal with for the rest of her life.

The summer ended too quickly for Eartha. She knew her parents were safe as long as she could see that they were safe. She couldn’t go back to school. If she went back she wouldn’t be able to see them and she couldn’t be sure that they were safe. She would just have to discuss her concerns with her parents rationally. They weren’t safe if she wasn’t near them and that was simple enough to understand. There was no way they would make her go back to school once they understood that. Eartha was very sure of herself and went to discuss school with her parents right at that moment.
“I’m not going back to school this fall,” she announced.
“Oh really?” her mother replied as her father just smirked.
“No, I can’t. It’s not safe,” she explained.
“Don’t you think Dr. Timmus knows when it’s safe for his students to come back?” her father asked.
“No, I mean it’s not safe for you if I go back to school,” she explained.
“Safe for us?” her mother asked.
“We’re not in danger, honey,” her father reassured her.
“Yes, you are!” Eartha insisted. They apparently didn’t understand what she was trying to explain to them. “There must be a reason that these visions are coming to me and not to anyone else. It’s warning me that you two are in danger and I can somehow prevent it.”
“Visions are not necessarily an omen for the person receiving the vision,” Roger explained.
“Have you seen us in one of your visions?” her mother asked.
“No,” Eartha replied.
“Then what makes you think that someone is coming after us?” she asked.
“I just have a really bad feeling about these visions and I just know there’s a reason why I’m having these visions~” she stopped suddenly. They weren’t going to believe her and they were going to send her back to school. She knew there was just no way they were going to keep her home this year. She could see the look in their eyes. They didn’t believe they were in any kind of danger and that she was just being paranoid.
“Honey, I remember my first visions too,” her father tried to comfort her, “and they made me overly anxious about everything too.”
“You’ve never seen anything like this!” Eartha shouted savagely, “You don’t have any clue what this is like! I’m just waiting for the next body to appear in my mind and I don’t know if it’s going to be you!” She turned and ran from the room seconds before she burst into tears. She was angry with her parents for not believing her, but she was more upset with herself for not handling that situation better. Her parents were never going to believe her if she broke down into tears every time she tried to explain these visions. She was just being too emotional and that’s all they would see.

“What do we do, now?” Mora asked in a choked whisper.
“She’s overreacting, Mora,” Roger tried to reassure her, “We aren’t a threat to anyone and no one even knows where we are. She has to go back to school~”
“Did you hear her?” Mora asked, “I think this threat is a little more serious than you would like to believe.”
“Mora, I somehow think I have a better grasp on this aspect of her power a little better than you,” he shot back and then realizing how rude that had come out he added, “I’m sorry.” Mora didn’t accept the quick apology thought. In fact he saw the explosion coming before Mora even realized what she was going to say. He closed his eyes and waited for it.
“You are so fucking arrogant!” she shouted, “You think you understand everything better than me just because you’ve been dealing with this longer?”
“No, I~” he started.
“You don’t have a clue what this is like for her! She sees people being abducted and she can’t do anything about it! She sees people being murdered, but she doesn’t have a clue who’s doing it! All you can do is predict what I’m going to say next and you somehow think you have a better grasp! I think you’ve lost your grasp on reality!” Mora’s face was red and her eyes were quickly welling up with tears, “She’s in pain. This is torturing her and I don’t need a special power to tell you that.” She finished completely defeated and breaking down. He took her in his arms and she had no strength left in her to push him away.
“Mora, I know what she’s going through and I know that it’s torture,” he said quietly, “No, I don’t go through this torture first hand. I had to watch my roommate from school go through it instead. I found out about five years ago that he committed suicide. I understand it in my own way, but even if we are in danger, having her here is not going to make the danger go away. She has to go back to school because if we do get attacked I don’t want her here. She will survive and go on even if we are the next to go.” Mora froze unable to say anything. He was right of course. They had to send Eartha back to school just to keep her safe. Mora suddenly pulled away from Roger and ran upstairs and, just as their daughter had, locked herself in her bedroom.
Roger stood in the living room alone and sighed heavily. When had this gotten so complicated? Why now? When everything had been going so well. He and Mora had never been closer since they discovered what the other was. They had put Eartha in the best school for her special ability. Everything had been running smoothly and then it all began to crumble away slowly. All three of their lives were being torn apart and all because of some psychotic psychic who thought he had the right to rule the world. He knew just as well as Eartha that he and Mora would not survive the attacks. He couldn’t tell his wife that he was seeing flashes already. It was getting closer and the images he was seeing were getting clearer. It would frighten her and she would want to run and take Eartha with them. He knew all too well that running away only made everything so much worse. These people who were attacking psychics were everywhere. There were stories of disappearances across the country. He had already discussed what he was seeing with Dr. Timmus, but all he could tell Roger was to watch for the signs and do everything in his power to protect himself and his family. He also told Roger to send Eartha back to school as soon as he possibly could. If these people got a hold of Eartha they would use her abilities to destroy those who would oppose them. Roger knew that Dr. Timmus’ advice was sound and the school would be the safest place to keep Eartha… especially if he and Mora did not survive. He couldn’t explain this to Mora and it was impossible to tell his daughter. He could save his daughter by sending her away and if he could save Mora’s life by doing the same thing he would. He went to the study and called Dr. Timmus.
“Hello, Roger,” Dr. Timmus answered the phone, “I sensed the disturbance. I assumed this would happen as the new school year drew near.”
“Eartha knows that we are in danger,” Roger said.
“I know. All she wanted to do for the last month of school was go home to make sure you were both safe. The fact still remains, however, that it is imperative that she comes back to school,” Dr. Timmus reminded him.
“I know, but how can I explain this to either of them without upsetting them?” he asked.
“Not upsetting them is out of the question at this point, Roger,” Dr. Timmus said bluntly, “and, really, it’s up to you how much you want to tell them…. Have you told them about your visions?”
“No,” he sighed, “I don’t want to frighten them. I really don’t want them to know. Especially Eartha.”
“Why ‘especially Eartha’?” Dr. Timmus asked.
“You said it yourself, she has to go back to school. If she knows that I’m having visions of the possible death of her parents there is no way she will leave us. I can’t put her in danger and if that means I have to lie to her and tell her that we’re not in danger I will do it,” Roger stated.
“Then why are you calling me?” Dr. Timmus asked.
“What do you mean?” Roger snapped.
“You’ve already made up your mind. Are you calling me to get my approval?” Dr. Timmus returned.
“I don’t know,” Roger moaned, “I honestly don’t know. I don’t want to lie to either of them, but I don’t think I have a choice if I want to keep them safe.”
“All I can tell you is to follow your gut. It almost never steers you wrong,” Dr. Timmus offered.
“Thank you.” The conversation ended and Roger still felt unsure about what he should do.

Randomness Part II

Random Quote of the Day: "Is it safe?"

Random Thought of the Day: Liquid food coloring stains. Just pretend like the red is blood to make things more interesting.

Random Bitch of the Day: If wearing compression pantyhose makes you uncomfortable maybe you should question your sexual orientation.... because we are not going to change all our paperwork to please one insecure man. (This rant is about four weeks old, but it still bugs me).

Another Random Thought of the Day: Christmas is the time to see how many times your family can make you cry. This is why I despise the holiday. Sorry to all you Christmas enthusiasts.

Side Notes for Anyone Who Cares: I have re-written the first six chapters of my Eartha story and I have written more on The Dreamlands. I will probably have something new to post by the end of this month.

Thank you. Enjoy the day.

P.S. Randomness According to Nick:
A few interesting/random things-today is the last day to Hanukkah
-this morning I saw three cars parked on 60th street that had smiley faces drawn on the snow on their windshields, it made me smile
-apparently Sunday is Free Hug day, the sick puppies are playing in town, but I just found it amusing that we're having a free hug day

Randomness

Random Thought of the Day: Chunky Roses.

Random Quote of the Day: "The sky is blue. It's beautiful. And so are you."

Reminder of the Day: I'm buying Harry Potter #5 on Tuesday so anyone who thinks that's a good present for the holidays needs to think again.

Another Random Thought: Singing in the shower at 5 am is not appropriate when you live with other people. It's probably a good thing that I don't sing in the shower.

Thank you for wasting two minutes of your day to read this utterly pointless blog.

Eartha -- Chapter 6

Holy crap!!! Three months later and I finally continue with the posting of my story. Once again, I am re-writing much of this story and now its slightly different than what I'm posting. I completely re-wrote the last scene in the book, but since that is still several chapters away it really doesn't matter at this point. So, here is the calm before the storm and I'm sure when i re-write it it will be different, but oh well. Enjoy.

Chapter 6

The next few months of school were torture for Eartha. She didn’t feel that she was allowed to speak or write to her parents often enough to make sure they were all right. She was also becoming a nuisance to some of the other students when she continually inquired about the well being of their parents as well. Most assumed she had gone insane from her vision and very few sympathized with her. Only a few of the other precognitives understood how a vision could drive you mad thinking about how you could change what you had seen. Of course, Garrick was still sticking by her side, but she wasn’t entirely sure that he believed what she had seen either. For a while everyone assumed she had just had a really bad dream until the disappearances began.
The first few went unnoticed for several weeks by most people, but Eartha knew each time one of those people disappeared. She often woke in the middle of the night feeling the terror of the person being snatched. She was almost getting used to feeling terrible all the time, but not really. She felt responsible not doing more after each vision. Each time Eartha felt another person taken she went immediately to Dr. Timmus to tell him to expect another missing person and each time she went to speak to Dr. Timmus she became more hysterical. She knew her parents were in danger and she wanted to go home. Dr. Timmus assured her that her parents had been notified and were well prepared for the worst. This did not calm Eartha in the least. She knew quite well that Dr. Timmus had warned many people and several of those people had still turned up missing or dead.
Then the night came that Eartha woke up screaming. No one could calm her or make her stop. Dr. Timmus was sent for. Before he even got to the dorm he could hear her screaming that the murders had begun. Many students had begun to gather around the other two dorm rooms as well. He didn’t bother sending them back to bed because he knew they would not obey.
Dr. Timmus was unable to calm Eartha with words and was eventually force to sedate her. Before she passed out she looked at Dr. Timmus and whispered, “They tied him to a tree.” He was unable to get any more information from Eartha since she had finally gone out, but he knew what this meant. The situation had gone from serious to dangerous with those few words. People were now dying and the only link he had been able to find was a hysterical eight year old who was only able to tell him when to start looking for bodies. The officials had even less to follow and were almost useless when it came to the investigation. The local police in each of the cities where a disappearance was discovered was making most of the progress. Without the connection of all the missing people being psychic the police were just filing them away in the missing persons file because what police force would believe Dr. Timmus if he told them they were all psychics? So far all Dr. Timmus could be thankful for was that the school year was almost over and he would be able to dedicate his summer to tracking down whoever was hunting these psychics down.

“Are you okay?” a timid voice approached her the next afternoon in the garden. She looked up to see Garrick’s worried expression looking down at her.
“Compared to what?” she whispered with a faint smile. He sat down next to her, but he couldn’t muster a smile to return. He just stared for a moment and then finally asked, “What is happening to you?”
“I didn’t know they would hurt so much,” she whispered looking away, “he never told me that they hurt.”
“What hurts?”
“The visions… I saw him die… and I could feel his… fear… his pain,” she was focusing all her energy on keeping her voice perfectly steady and for a moment she accidentally dropped her shields. Garrick’s emotions came rushing at her before she had a chance to block them. She gasped suddenly caught completely off guard by what she felt. The pain and fear that she normally absorbed from people who were upset or worried was not there. All she was receiving from Garrick was love and concern for her well being. He was upset and she felt it, but she could feel the love behind it and it was so much stronger than any negative emotions she had ever felt from anyone. Garrick didn’t seem to notice her surprise and unconsciously he reached over towards Eartha, “I’m so sorry…” he whispered and he touched her bare cheek. She pulled back out of habit and she regretted it. He pulled his hand back quickly realizing what he had just done, but she smiled to reassure him that it was okay. She didn’t know how to explain the feeling that she had just absorbed. It was the oddest sensation… she actually felt better, revived somehow. No one had ever made her feel better by touching her. It had always been a negative experience and yet, she felt stronger. Of course, she was still upset about seeing that man, but she no longer felt the exhaustion that the vision had created. She distrusted the feeling entirely and quickly decided not to tell Garrick what she felt. It was a fluke… it had to be. People drained her of energy. They didn’t give it back to her.

The school became a very tense place for the last couple weeks of school. Especially for Eartha. Everyone was more frightened of her now than they ever had been before. Now, not only was she hiding what she was from everyone, but also on top of that she was predicting murders. Even for precognitives this was unusual. Most seers could not predict exact events or anything that specific. Eartha had no problem with the other students keeping their distance now. She was more focused on going home for summer vacation and she was worried about her parents. She knew there was a reason she was getting these visions. And she was positive it was personal, that this would affect her directly. She knew that whoever was attacking these people was going to go after her parents sooner or later. Somehow she felt that if she were there to watch over them they would no longer be in danger.
Her finals she rushed through and didn’t really care if she did not do very well on them. She wanted nothing more than to go home and she didn’t care about anything that was keeping her from her goal. On the final day of school when all the other students were throwing end of year parties she was locked in her room packing her bags. The next morning she was the first student out on the platform waiting for the subway that would take her back to her parents. She knew it wouldn’t even be there until eleven o’clock, but she was still waiting on the platform at seven.
Around eight o’clock she heard the first sounds of other people coming to the platform. “Why am I not surprised to find you out here?” a familiar voice asked.
“Where else would I be?” she returned. She didn’t bother turning around, Garrick knew well enough not to touch her. “Aren’t you going to eat breakfast before you go?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied.
“You do know the subway wont get here before eleven right?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Then why don’t you eat first?” he asked.
“I’m not hungry,” she said, “You know, if you want to go to breakfast there’s nothing stopping you.”
“I ate before I came up,” he said.
“Then why are you so concerned about me getting breakfast?” she snapped.
“I’m not,” he shot back, “I just don’t understand the stupidity of standing up here for the next few hours when you know you aren’t going to get out of here any quicker than the rest of us.”
“I just wanted to be away from them and this would be the quietest place to think and I won’t lose track of the time this way,” she explained.
“Whatever,” he mumbled. She heard him walk away and leave the platform. She glanced over her shoulder to see if he had gone for good. She was alone on the platform again. She felt bad now. She knew she had been rude to Garrick for no reason. He had been nothing but supportive ever since he found out exactly what she was. She considered going after him, but something kept her in her place. It was a feeling in her stomach. A fear that warned her not to get to close. Never get too close. Any friends that she had ever made in the past had disappeared and it hurt like hell every time she lost another one. If she never got close she couldn’t get hurt. She heard footsteps again and she receded into the shadows like she unconsciously always did.
“Eartha?” Garrick’s confused voice called out. She stepped back out surprised to see him back. “Oh, hiding again,” he said knowingly as he held out his hand with two good-sized muffins. “Here,” he said prompting her to take one, “Blueberry and cherry.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly taking the blueberry muffin.
“No, no.” he laughed, “They’re both for you. I told you I already ate.” He put the cherry muffin in her hand. He brushed the few stray crumbs off his hands and pants. She took a bite of the blueberry muffin and automatically began to feel guilty. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly.
“Why, it’s not your fault the muffins are crumbly,” he said not realizing she wasn’t talking about the muffins.
“No, I mean for being rude to you before,” she explained quickly looking away.
“Ah!” he said dismissively, “I’m used to your mood swings by now.” He grinned at her in his goofy way that told her that she hadn’t offended him at all and that he was surprised that she had even brought it up.
“So, where are you going over summer vacation?” he asked changing the subject.
“I don’t know,” she replied, “We don’t normally go anywhere. Too many people exhaust me and most entertaining places are pretty crowded in the summer. I don’t think it will be any different this summer.”
“Well that sucks,” he said lightly.
“No, it’s peaceful,” she smiled, “It’s good for me.”
“I’m going skiing,” he stated proudly.
“Ugh. Haven’t you had enough of cold weather?” she asked.
“We’ve been cooped up all year. I didn’t get to see any snow except through windows,” he reminded her.
“I’m ready to see the sun again… and my parents,” she said. A dark shadow seemed to cover her face as the thought of her parents in danger crossed her mind once again. They were home all alone with no idea how much danger they were really in. No one knew what was coming except her. They hadn’t seen what the others had done to that man… just for not joining their group. Her parents were on the list… she knew it. All these visions were some kind of warning for her. They were telling her to go to her parents and not leave them. The moment she left them they would be gone from her life forever.
“Hey,” Garrick broke in on her thoughts, “They’re gonna be fine.”
“Yeah,” she replied halfheartedly. She looked over at him and noticed he wasn’t convinced by her reply so she smiled at him. Garrick wasn’t entirely convinced by her smile either, but knowing that he could never really insist that her parents were going to be fine he didn’t say anything. Before he had a chance to lighten the conversation again the subway arrived. Neither of them had realized that a number of other students had joined them on the platform or how much time had passed.

My October

As it turns out the month of October was extremely busy for me. It started off with Nick and I returning to the grand town of Vermilion South Dakota for..... D Days!!! Woo hoo! So exciting. D Day (for those of you fortunate enough NOT to live in Vermilion) if SDU's Homecoming week. What it boils down to is a college town of several thousands students all getting wasted and stumbling around town. No worries of drunk driving because pretty much everything is within walking distance for you to stumble to. Here is Ashley stumbling.

Most of the day we spent drinking at the apartment of my cousins Ashley and Spencer. We ate chili and chocolate/peanut butter cake (not necessarily in that order) and Ashley's dumb cat, Vic Mackey, climbed inside my book bag to take a nap. He's a lazy piece of crap as you can see. We played drunken board games and took a walk around the neighborhood. Of course at that point half the crew had disappeared or passed out and we were left with only a few people who I like to call The Lasters. Yep, that's right, I'm the only girl who can hold her liquor apparently. Shortly after this picture was taken even Nick was passed out on the loveseat. Dustin went home a little while after that leaving Spencer and me to reluctantly go to bed at well. Boo, to all you lazy drinkers.

So that was the weekend of October 13th and it was highly entertaining. I mean where else can you yell out "STD Days!" and actually get people to cheer?

A brief stop on Tuesday October 16th, Boss's Day, since I was the only person in my office to remember and buy cards and bagels for everyone. Yeah, I'm the good one.

I took three days off after that which gave me plenty of time to clean out the storage room in the basement and turn it into a makeshift bedroom for when Ashley, Spencer, Dustin and Erica came down that weekend for Hutch's big Halloween Bash. I also managed to make a lot of food those three days: cupcakes, cookies, chili cheese bean dip, lots of jello shots and my green mixture that would be my "Absinthe" at the party that weekend. I also managed to do some laundry and other boring stuff that would make me a good little house wife if I had a husband :D

So the big Halloween Bash comes next. Where I went as the Green Fairy aka the Absinthe Fairy, Nick went as Duffman, Kristi was a mechanic, Madonna was a nurse, and Hal..... well, no one really knows what Hal was supposed to be, but eventually he gave in and just accepted that everyone thought he was Willy Wonka from the newer version with Johnny Depp. My costume got plenty of praise, mostly because my 'absinthe' was a tasty concoction that everyone wanted a piece of. I got a lot of people wasted that night between my 'absinthe' and the jello shots. There was the usual drama that goes around every year and because Hutch is usually a huge asshole his skank was there. He promised she wouldn't come, but this is a Hutch promise which usually means little to nothing. I think she got the point that no one likes her when two people rang out simultaneously "The Skank?" when someone asked where she was.... she was, of course, within earshot when this happened. Plus I kept referring to her as "the wench" all night because she was so appropriately dressed as a wench. I guess you can't really argue with what you are.

We all had fun regardless of the drama and the Skank because we were all wasted and my cousins were in town and still willing to drink a little more when we got back to the townhouse later that evening. Unfortunately they all wore exceedingly lame costumes which forced me to make fun of them throughout most of the night. I passed out really quick that night and still managed to wake up with the glue like glitter plastered to my face. That stuff took at least two showers to get off. I was pretty impressed.

The following and last weekend of the this fine month just so happened to be the busiest weekend of the month. Friday started off with an early departure from work to get to a wedding in Lincoln. I didn't take my camera in, but Nick got a bunch of pictures. I had somehow obtained a hole in the side of my cheek the day before making me completely miserable. Every time I opened my mouth it hurt, chewing food was painful and bordered on impossible and the pain was spreading throughout my mouth and onto my head. It didn't matter how much Advil I took I was miserable. I went back to the hotel (which was pretty cool since it was in an Embassy Suites) and went to bed with the TV on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was a pretty pathetic night and not much better of a morning the next day. Nick was being the best boyfriend in the world about my whining and crying and after watching the truly fantastic movie Across the Universe we went to Walgreens to get something to fix my problem.

That evening we had another party to go to at Madonna's brother's house (another yearly tradition). By this time my cheek had been sufficiently numbed up and I was in a much better mood. I was lame and wore the same costume because I had put so much effort into it, but Nick went as White Goodman and Kristi was a blue fairy. Madonna and her siblings all dressed up as musicians which ranged from Beethoven to Michael Jackson to Dolly Parton.

The party didn't quite manage to live up to the Drama of a Hutch party, but it still managed to be entertaining and fun. Nick got a lot of comments on his costume which was nice for him since he took so much effort on it (you know asking his mom to sew all the pieces together). :D And yes he really did shave his facial hair to look like White Goodman's handlebar 'stach. Sad.

Sunday was the 28th and my mother's birthday. We had already decided earlier in the week that we would be unable to go out on her actual birthday due to the fact that I was going with Nick and Kristi to see Carlos Mencia who was in Omaha for the first time.

He liked our crowd so much he stayed on the stage for two hours! That's pretty awesome considering most comedians can barely come up with a hours worth of entertainment. The comedians that were with him were all fantastic too and I think at least a couple of them will soon be doing shows of their own. Fantastic. No pictures though. No one brought their camera.

On Halloween Day I had to work. Duh, it was Wednesday, obviously. That didn't stop me from dressing up. I went Emo for Halloween! Of course no one actually got that because the Emo revolution hasn't been around as long. I explained to a couple staff members that emo kids are pretty much our goth kids of old with a slightly better fashion sense. Except they apparently really enjoy having their hair in their eyes because they don't want to see the horrible-ness of the world. Don't cry emo kid!

So that was my fantastic October. And for the first time real pictures in my Blogger. Yeah, I had that one flip off picture several months back, but that doesn't count because I just found that picture on Photobucket especially for that blog. Well, let's hope that November has something to offer us that can try to match up with October :)