A Better World
Non-canonical alternative happenings matching to the post before last, as they might have happened in an alternate dimension.
More specifically, a dimension in which young Rodney (aged 7-ish) had a young Seth as a friend (in reality Seth is either a lot older than Rodney or townies have immortality, making Rodney a heck of a lot older than Seth... we really need to get our story straight on that).
Sorry, I'm getting rather too attached to my villains, but I'm kind of fascinated and just watched something that really put this in my mind. And, despite the git that he might grow up to become, I feel the need to create a little Rodney who's actually in some way happy.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few days before the party:Rodney was sat against a wall in the playground, reading a book and trying to ignore the noise of the rest of the children playing around him, which was easier said than done in some cases.
"And now I, the great Seth Jayapalan, will walk all the way along the wall on my hands!" There were various noises of amazement or derision from the other side of the wall, but Rodney wasn't really listening and focused harder on his book. He only looked up behind him when he heard some gasps and dived out of the way just in time to not have somebody land on top of him.
Rodney stared as the boy landed on his head and shoulder. That had looked painful. "Funk," the boy said through clenched teeth.
"...Funk?" he asked, confused.
"Yeah. You know, the F word. Funk."
"... Are you sure? I thought that was a kind of music or something."
The boy looked up thoughtfully - which, given his upside-down position, was in fact down. "Well my sister told me it was funk. I dunno, but I think it ought to matter what you mean to say, not what you actually say and I mean to be swearing, so it should count." Rodney continued to stare as the boy looked at him thoughtfully. "You have long hair, but you're not a girl. Are you?"
"No!" Rodney said resentfully, before his curiosity got the better of him, "Are you okay?"
"Hm? Oh, right." The boy fell on to his back and then sat up and swivelled around to face him again. He felt his neck and shoulder and winced. "Meh, it's okay. I'll just tell everyone I got into a fight," he grinned.
"Who with?" Rodney asked incredulously.
"Sumo wrestler," the boy responded brightly.
"Nobody will believe that!"
"I dunno; my brother would."
"How old's he?"
"...Almost four?"
"Exactly!" Rodney wondered whether falling on his head might have hurt the boy's brain, he'd heard that could happen.
"I'm Seth Jayapalan," the boy said happily.
"Rodney Jalowitz."
"You're in my class, aren't you?"
"Yeah. You're the one who's always talking and getting into trouble."
He smiled - apparently this wasn't something that needed defending to Seth. "I haven't noticed you much before. Do you always just sit around reading and stuff?"
Rodney shrugged, "Books are good."
"Nah, books are boring. You should do something fun instead."
"Books can be fun!" Rodney started defensively, "This one's about a spy-"
"Why would you want to read about other people doing fun and exciting things when you could be doing them?" Seth asked, as if it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard.
"Because then I won't have to almost break my neck falling off of walls and stuff!" Rodney said reproachfully.
"I'm fine now, aren't I?"
Are you? Rodney wondered, staring at him. "Do you just like getting into trouble?"
"Yeah!" Seth smiled widely. "Well, that's not really the good bit. It's easy not getting into trouble when you've not done anything wrong; it's getting out of trouble when you have done something wrong that's the really fun part," he explained, his eyes lit up mischieviously. "Me and my sister Sara try it all the time at home. We're really good at it."
"You never get caught?" Rodney asked curiously.
"Well... we do get caught sometimes; our Mum thinks she knows everything we've done, but she doesn't!"
"But... isn't getting caught and punished really bad?" Rodney couldn't imagine wanting to push his parents, and his sister would probably only tell them about what he did, not help him.
"Being made to do chores or whatever isn't fun, but that just motivates you to try harder and do better next time, doesn't it?"
Rodney stared at him some more. "... I think I'd rather just read..."
"Laaaame!" Seth groaned and rolled on to his back. "Come ooooonn! Try something fun for once!"
Rodney hesitated. He shouldn't be listening, but... "Like what?"
Seth was sat up again in an instant, eyes alight. "It has to be something that breaks the rules - the bigger the better!"
"What are the rules anyway? I know you're not supposed to talk in class..."
Seth rolled his eyes and sighed, exasperated. "That doesn't count! Er, you're not allowed to fight-" he looked Rodney up and down, "Yeah, you probably wouldn't be very good at that." Rodney glared at him. "Oooh, you're not allowed to steal stuff! You could do that, right?"
Rodney shifted uncomfortably, "Steal what?"
Seth stared off into the distance happily, "It'd have to be something important. Something of the headteacher's. Oh! I know! She has a cat statue thing on the bookcases behind her desk - you should take that!"
"You spend a lot of time in the headteacher's office, don't you?" Rodney asked, shaking his head slightly.
"Of course!" Seth said happily. "Well?"
"I- I'll get in so much trouble..."
"Not if you can get away with it! And it'll be easier for you because you don't have a history, so if they catch you in the middle of it all you can just give them an innocent look and act all confused and they'll probably let you go. I try that myself but they don't believe me anymore," Seth grinned.
"I don't know..." he said hesitantly.
"Oh, go on go on go on go on-go-on-go-on-go-on-!"
"Okay! I'll try. But if I get into trouble-!"
"Yeah yeah yeah. They'll probably figure I had something to do with it anyway. Awesome!" Seth jumped up onto his feet and smiled brightly at Rodney "This is going to be so much fun!" And then he ran off, while Rodney just stared after him and gave an anxious sigh. What was he doing listening to him?
________________________
Lunchtime, the next day:
Rodney stood casually at the end of the corridor leading to the headteacher's office, trying not to look suspicious. He still knew that this was a terribly bad idea that could backfire even worse, but for some reason he seemed to want to do it. He wasn't sure whether it was because he wanted to impress Seth Jayapalan or if he wanted to get some attention for once or to go against his parents, but he was there now and he figured he might as well try. And Seth had probably been right; he was a good student and he could probably get out of it if it all went wrong.
He kept his head down as the headmistress went past, talking to the deputy head about something, heading towards the playground. This was his chance, but he might not have much time. He crept down the corridor, checking that nobody was looking out of any of the other open doorways, and quietly snuck into the headmistress' office, shutting the door behind him. Part one done. Now what had Seth told him to take? A cat statue or something, wasn't it? He looked around before spotting it - it was on the bookcase, as Seth had said, but he had left out the part about it being way out of Rodney's reach. He wondered whether he should climb the shelves, but vaguely recalled seeing bookcases crush people who tried that in movies or something, so he didn't think that would be a very good idea. Instead, he wheeled over the headmistress' deskchair and stood shakily on it. Even then the statue was only at the tips of his fingers, so he stood on the tips of his shoes and managed to gradually drag the statue forward until he got it into his hands- at which point the chair, already tilted by the way he was stood, crashed out from under him, throwing him to the ground - where he luckily managed to clutch the statue safely to his chest - and making enough noise to draw attention. He had to get out of there!
He scrambled to his feet, statue still in arms, because he wasn't about to give now. He slipped through the doorway and then impulsively into the room next door, which was luckily unlocked, just before somebody came down the corridor to investigate. The room turned out to be just a store cupboard, full of filing cabinets and supplies; if he hadn't been so desperate to get out of there before he got caught, he might have looked through some of them out of curiosity. A few moments later he heard the door of the office next door being closed and hesitant footsteps moving away. Heart still pounding a little, he waited a few minutes himself before daring to open the door a little to check if it was clear and then, satisfied, he hid the statue under his jacket and half-walked-half-ran, trying to be both fast and inconspicuous, back to their classroom.
Once he got there he carefully put the statue down and collapsed on the desk to regain his breath. He wasn't even supposed to be in the classrooms at lunchtime, but that would be the least of his problems if he got caught. After recovering slightly, he turned back to the statue to look at it properly for the first time. It was a very nice statue, he realised, and he was glad he hadn't broken it: the painted pattern on the white porcelain must have taken the artist quite a long time. He wondered vaguely how much it had cost.
He was brought out of his train of thought by an excited gasp. "Ah yes, you did it!" Seth bounded in and grabbed the statue out of his hands, amazement glimmering in his eyes.
"Be careful - don't drop it!" Rodney warned as he saw Seth handling it so carelessly.
Seth looked at him blankly for a few seconds "Ohh, you want to show other people? Cool, but they probably won't recognise it so much." Seth put it down, harder than Rodney would have liked. "What are you gonna do with it now anyway?"
Rodney stared at it vaguely. "I don't know. I didn't really think about that."
"Ummm, well you could keep it as a trophy or... hold it to ransom!" Seth suggested, eyes lighting up again.
"Or I could just give it back." Rodney said thoughtfully.
"Whaaaaat?! Why?! That's stupid! You might as well do something with it now you've got it."
"But if I give it back I might not get into trouble," Rodney pointed out.
Seth gave him a Look; "So you can not have a statue and you might not get into trouble, or you can keep the statue and possibly not get into any trouble."
"Or I can try to keep the statue, fail to keep it hidden, and then get into loads of trouble for stealing and lying!"
Seth opened his mouth to make a counter-argument, but closed it again, looking thoughtful. He shrugged, "I still think you should keep it."
"It is a nice statue," Rodney said pensively.
"What? It's just a statue. A girly statue too. But it's a symbol of how you broke the rules and beat everyone else! That's why you want it."
"But the headmistress is going to notice it's gone pretty quickly. I accidentally knocked over a chair, so they probably know someone was in there already."
Seth's eyes were glinting again already, "This is one of the best bits! Hide the evidence and don't get caught!"
"How? Where?"
"What do you mean 'where'?! There are a million hiding places around the school if you're looking for them! Come on, I'll show you one of the best ones," Seth said, enthusiastically grabbing Rodney by the wrist and practically dragging him off outside.
___________________
The teachers had evidently been told of the theft during afternoon break, because there were bag and locker searches when they came back to class, with the teachers hoping they could recover the statue before it had the chance to leave the school grounds.
"Rodney, where's your bag?" It was the dreaded question, but one that they had been prepared for.
"Somebody threw it over a fence, Miss." His lying and acting skills had rarely been put through such a test.
"'Somebody'?" the teacher asked, eyebrow raised. They were always on the lookout for bullying.
Rodney made himself look reticent, but the teacher didn't move. "It was Seth Jayapalan, Miss."
Seth turned around from where he sat a few tables away and looked outraged, "Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"He has no evidence!" Seth protested, but they knew what the teacher would think and Seth appeared to give in. "Fiiine, I'll get it back after school..."
"Make sure you do," the teacher said sternly, moving on to the next student. Seth just flashed Rodney a bright smile of victory; that had been just about as easy as he had claimed it would be.
______________
After classes had ended, Rodney and Seth were sat behind the mobile classroom they'd hidden his bag under.
"You wouldn't have gotten spiders and stuff all over your bag if you'd just left the statue there," Seth pointed out as he watched his friend trying to flick all the insects off.
"But then the statue would have gotten dirty," Rodney said, anxiously avoiding letting any of the insects transfer to him.
"And now your bag's dirty instead. You make no sense."
"It's a nice statue!" Rodney protested.
Seth just shook his head. "No sense."
"Shouldn't you be getting home, anyway? It's the weekend now."
"Meh," Seth said, shifting to lie on his back. "Sara's got after-school ballet, my Dad'll still be at work and my Mum's got my little brother and baby twin sisters to look after."
"You have a big family. I only have one sibling."
"I like having a big family. You can always find somebody and with your parents distracted you can get away with a lot more," he smirked. "Got a few cousins as well, probably more coming from my Aunt Nicola."
"I have loads of cousins," Rodney said, frowning. "Don't like them very much. None of them are my age. But I'm going to have to go and see them tomorrow," he remembered, groaning. "I hate family parties."
"Really? I love family parties. But I do have some cousins pretty much our age, though they go to the private school instead, so you won't know them." He sat up suddenly with an idea, "Hey, can you bring friends to this family party if there's nobody there your age?"
Rodney looked at him cautiously for a few moments, "I- I guess so. The people whose house it is often have friends over and the parties tend to be so big that nobody really knows or notices who is or isn't there... Why, do- do you want to go?"
"I'll have to check with my Mum, but I'm not grounded at the moment so it should be okay. Of course I can never say definitely 'cause even if I don't do anything bad tonight or tomorrow, my Mum might still find out about something from aaages ago and ground me for that... But I'm always up for a party!" he grinned happily.
"Oh. Well, sure, I'll have to call you later to tell you the address and stuff though, 'cause I don't know it by heart." Rodney said, trying not to feel anxious or get his hopes up.
"Awesome," Seth said brightly, eyes lit up again.
____________
At the party:
Rodney followed his family into the house, where his Dad received a warm welcome from the men, his mother went off to join the other women drinking coffee, wine and hot chocolate, and his sister skipped off to join the teenagers in the garden, where it was getting dark but still warm - all leaving him stood there with nothing to do. He'd told Seth the address and to the best of his knowledge he wouldn't be grounded, but Rodney didn't want to stand around awkwardly hoping that he'd show up when he might not or, if he did, could be some time. He decided to go and play on his own for the minute; Seth, being so hyperactive, would probably find him quickly enough when he did arrive.
He took his shoes off and then squeezed down the hallway, between chatting - and slightly intoxicated - adults, and went upstairs. The first door on the left was the eldest cousin of the family's, so he knew he shouldn't go in there... The first door on the right was the bathroom... The second door on the left was the middle cousin's which he could hear music being pumped loudly from already... The third door on the left was Aden's and he certainly didn't want to go in there, so he was left with the second door on the right: his uncle and aunt's room, which nobody would use until the party was over. It would do pretty well, at least for now.
He went in and pushed the door shut behind him, then went and sat on the floor next to the double bed. Not having brought any toys or anything, he tried to resort to his imagination, recreating the spy scenes from his books. But he couldn't concentrate on it properly and found himself repeatedly looking at his watch, barely even noticing the actual time. Was Seth going to show up? If so, when? Rodney considered himself to be pretty independent, but actually having and spending time with a friend - even one who was so... whatever as Seth was - was somehow so much more satisfying than living in books and imagination. He sighed and gave up, frustrated.
He heard a loud burst of laughter from the garden and looked out the window to see what everyone else was doing. Most of the family seemed to have gone out there now and apparently his uncle was drunkenly telling some hilarious story from when they were all young. He scanned the rest of the crowd glumly - his sister was there with her friends gossiping away... his mother was crowded around the newly engaged second cousin with some other mums... His- uhoh. Aden had spotted him from down below. Rodney's insides froze as he watched his cousin turn to say something to his friends and they then moved towards the house. Oh no...!
He had to move, they knew where he was, but he wouldn't be fast enough to get safely to the adults outside and he couldn't go into any of the other bedrooms... The bathroom! He could lock himself in there until they gave up or somebody else came... But he could hear the boys running up the stairs even as he left the bedroom, so he ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him, but before he could lock it it was being pushed back open...! He pushed with all his strength, but one seven-year-old against three eleven and twelve-year olds was hard enough and his socks meant he had no grip on the tiled floor... He wasn't going to let this happen again...!
The door was finally pushed far enough that the other boys could squeeze in, then shutting the door behind them, cornering him.
"Hello Little Rodney," Aden said, smiling malevolently. He didn't need to say much else. He knew Rodney remembered their history. Rodney swallowed and tried not to shake.
"L-Leave me alone." He tried to sound authoritative and stern, but knew he didn't pull it off.
Aden had a look of apparent concern. "Leave you alone? Do you want to be left alone, Rodney?"
Rodney was pretty certain his answer to that was yes, but all of a sudden being alone sounded like a very bad thing. He settled for swallowing again and not saying anything.
Aden turned to his friends "He wants to be left alone, guys." Rodney didn't trust that he could possibly be being genuine. "The problem is, Rodney," he said patronisingly, turning back to him, "that this is a party and there are lots of people around, so being alone is very difficult." Rodney swallowed once more. He didn't know what was about to happen, but he knew it would be bad. "Maybe we should help him, guys."
And then Aden had his arm against Rodney's throat with him pushed against the wall, while he was gesturing something to his friends that Rodney couldn't see. He tried to fight or wriggle free, but he was struggling enough to breathe and his cousin was too strong and he couldn't even reach to kick him away. He couldn't see exactly what the other boys were doing, but they were by the sink and they were throwing things out on to the floor. What were they going to do?
And then the door opened again and Seth's head poked in "Er-" then he spotted his friend who was staring at him by this point, "Oh hi Rodney. Er... what's going on?"
"You're a friend of Rodney's?" Aden asked, surveying the newcomer.
"Er, yeah. You're... not?" he guessed, frowning. But then one of the other boys had slammed the door shut behind him and held Seth in the same way Rodney was captive - arm against his throat, slightly off the floor. Seth looked puzzled at the boy and then turned to look at Rodney. "What's going on?" Rodney just stared at him, speechless. How could he possibly not tell?!
Aden's other friend turned to him "What do we do now, Aden?"
"How big is that cupboard?" Rodney's cousin asked with a dark humour to his voice. Rodney tried struggling harder as he finally understood what they were planning, while Seth just slowly raised his eyebrows and looked around quickly.
"Well," started the boy holding Seth, "we could always try-" but he was cut off by his own scream of pain and, when he moved backwards, Rodney saw that Seth had bitten deeply into his other wrist, which he then followed up with by kneeing the boy in the crotch, which caused him to fall backwards into the other teenager. And there was little Aden could have done to avoid Seth headbutting him in the stomach while he was still trying to restrain Rodney. Rodney's body seemed content to just stand there awestruck, but Seth grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out of the room, slammed the door shut and then started fiddling with the lock on the door.
"H-how did you do that?" Rodney asked shakily.
Seth glanced up from the lock, which he seemed to be trying to pull apart, "Have you really never been in a fight before?" he asked curiously. "We have these things called teeth that can be used for biting, heads for headbutting and knees for... kneeing. We use them when people try to shut us in cupboards."
"But... you made it look so easy!" he stared.
Seth shrugged and smiled "It's easy when people underestimate you."
The doorhandle was now rattling angrily. "What are you doing? I think we should get out of here..."
"Don't have to." Seth pulled backwards, holding half the door's lock in his hand. "We have locks like this on our bathrooms at home. Not only can you lock and unlock them from the outside if you know how, but if the two pieces come apart while the door is locked, it can't be opened from the inside - unless they have a pair of scissors and know exactly how to use them. They're locked in." He summed up happily.
"How did you ever discover that?!"
"Being forced to spend a lot of time in the house due to frequent groundings," he beamed.
"But they're going to get out eventually, aren't they?"
"Well yeah, somebody else will probably free them sooner or later."
"Then we ought to get out of here because they'll kill us when they are," Rodney said anxiously, but then he realised Seth wasn't listening.
"Hey, did one of those guys call the guy holding you Aden?"
"Yes, why?" Rodney turned to where Seth was looking. "Oh- Oh, no. No, that's not a good idea." But Seth's eyes were alight with mischief and he was moving towards Aden's room. "Seth. Seth, don't!"
"Oh, come on Rodney, we'll just have a little look..." Rodney didn't really have a chance to stop him, so he followed him inside.
"Okay, you've looked, let's go downstairs. And hide."
"But we're here now, we might as well do something! You can't tell me he doesn't deserve it..." Seth's eyes were scanning the room, alive with the infinite possibilities it could see.
Rodney crossed his arms, trying to remain calm. "Whether he deserves it or not, it's not about that! We're gonna get killed as it is!"
Seth, who was now stood on Aden's bed, still wearing his shoes, turned back to Rodney and gave him a winning smile "Well that's good; dying is the most that can happen to you, so if we're going to get killed either way, we might as well do as much as we can!"
"That's- that's not what I- Hang on, what are you doing?" Seth had picked up some marker pens from Aden's desk and was approaching the posters above his bed with a malicious smile. "Seth, don't, seriously. Think - I'm going to get hurt so much worse than you will for this!"
"What did you ever do to them before?" Seth asked flatly. Rodney opened his mouth, but had no answer. "Exactly, if they're gonna get away with being mean to you either way, you might as well earn it. Now have fun for once," he said, chucking him down a pen and starting on some of the posters himself.
Rodney hesitantly stepped up onto the bed too and brought the pen up to one of the posters. He could do this. But what should he do to it? "Oh for funk's sake," Seth interjected a few moments later, "it's not a work of art, Rodney!" and he proved it by drawing randomly over the poster. Apparently satisfied, Seth jumped down from the bed, scoped the room and then pulled everything off the desk and out of the wardrobe and dresser and chucking it all over the floor until it was entirelycovered. Rodney just stood and watched from the bed, not sure whether to be happy or terrified.
"Right, well, that was fun. What now?" Seth asked, turning back to him. Rodney just stared at him, still speechless. "I'm hungry, let's go get some food." He went to leave, then realised Rodney wasn't moving out of shock and dragged him downstairs by his wrist again.
Seth happily helped himself to the barbecue and buffet in the garden while Rodney just stood and continued to stare from the side. "Are you really not hungry?" Seth asked.
"How can you eat? How can you-?" Rodney shook his head in disbelief.
Seth looked at him and tilted his head to the side, "You worry way too much, don't you? Live in the moment."
"At the rate you're going, I'm only going to be alive for a moment!" he half-shouted, not wanting to draw attention from the rest of the people.
Seth rolled his eyes and started eating. "Mmm. You should try the chicken drumsticks. Really nice."
Rodney sighed and grabbed some food for himself, which did actually help to calm him down a little. But not for very long;
"Hey has anybody seen Aden lately?" one of the teenagers asked. Rodney kept his eyes down and kept eating, but he could never account for Seth.
"I think I heard he'd locked himself in the bathroom with his friends," Seth said seemingly innocently, which caused everyone listening to look at each other.
"What did you have to tell them that for?! Now they'll free him!" Rodney hissed at him after somebody went to look for Aden and everyone else turned their attention elsewhere.
"Because now they're all wondering what three teenage boys were doing locked in a bathroom together," he said with a devious smile. "And, even if they blame us, they still can't really explain it with admitting they were bullying you."
"They're still going to kill us. And even if we try to hide around the adults so they can't, Aden's at least going to kill me sooner or later at some family event!"
Seth finished the last of his food thoughtfully. "So it's better if we take them on together."
"Well that's not quite what I-"
"I have an idea!" And then Seth was dragging Rodney off by his wrist again before he could even finish talking.
"Seth? What are you doing in the fridge? Do I even want to know?" Rodney stared up reluctantly at his friend, who was stood on a chair and rummaging around.
Seth leaned backwards and looked at Rodney curiously. "I don't know, do you think what you are imagining is more worrying than this is? Is your imagination better than mine?" he went back to rummaging.
Rodney was trying to think of a response when suddenly they heard the sound of numerous feet coming down the stairs. "Oh no...!"
"Right, got it, come on!" And Rodney was being yanked out of the house by his arm once more. His feet actually responded to his brain's orders to run away for once. "Where can we hide?" Seth asked.
"There's a playpark down the road," Rodney said. "But I've hidden there before, they'll probably find us-"
"It'll do."
They reached the park and scrambled up the ladders into the kids' playtower. They both crouched behind the brightly coloured half-wall and looked over the top in the direction of the house, only partly illuminated by the streetlights.
Rodney sat down properly and rubbed his shoulder. "You know you're gonna dislocate my arm soon, right?"
"If you'd rather have whatever they want to do to you, you're free to go back. And it wouldn't be so bad if you'd react faster and start running when we need to." Seth said quietly.
"We wouldn't need to run so much if you'd stop doing all this stuff."
"If I stopped doing all this stuff you wouldn't be able to run because you'd be shut in a cupboard." Rodney wasn't sure if they were arguing because Seth had no spite in his voice. He couldn't understand Seth at all. "Here they come."
Rodney moved back forwards to look through a gap in the playtower wall. "They'll come here first," he whispered. "Do we start running again? I don't know where else we can go, except find my parents or hide somewhere in the house."
"We don't need to run yet."
Rodney looked across at him suspiciously. "Are you enjoying this?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," he said with a smile. Rodney just shook his head again. "If I'd known this was what your family parties were like I wouldn't miss them for the world."
"You're welcome to them." Aden and his friends had reached the playpark now and were looking around. "What are we going to do?" Rodney whispered desperately.
Seth shot him a devious grin again and brought out what he must have taken from the fridge - a box. He opened it, revealing a fair number of eggs. Rodney stared at him wide-eyed with fear and shook his head, Seth smiled wider and nodded in response. Rodney tried gesturing and pleading with his hands, afraid that any speech might tip the boys off, but Seth simply gestured back along the lines of 'What else are we going to do at this point?' Rodney deflated and put his head in his hands, which made Seth beam happily and pick up one of the eggs with a malevolent look. "I hope you've got good aim," he whispered.
This was enough to tip the boys off. "Over there!" the boy Seth had bitten earlier shouted, shortly before getting an egg square to the face.
"Bullseye!" Seth shouted and laughed happily. "Come on Rodney, give it a go!"
"You little shit!" the other boy shouted, before getting an egg to the stomach.
"Come on guys, you're getting beaten by an eight year old!" Seth shouted down at them, barely able to speak for the laughter and hitting the first boy in the thigh with another egg.
Rodney meanwhile was holding an egg behind the wall and shaking slightly. Besides the fact that he was pretty sure he couldn't throw well at all, actually trying to do it... Seth had done pretty much everything so far and he had been literally pulled along for the ride. Maybe he could survive for the rest of the night the same way.
But then he was brought back as Seth yelled - Aden had crept unseen up one of the ladders, grabbed Seth by the ankle and pulled him over. If Seth was gone, Rodney was definitely going to be gone. Funk it, he thought and threw the egg straight into Aden's face, just a few feet away, then picked up more and hit his cousin as fast as he could, but Aden was already on the playtower and eggs alone weren't going to knock him off. Especially since they'd now run out of eggs.
Aden approached Rodney, whose legs had begun to shake. "Playtime is over," his cousin said ominously. And so, with a burst of adrenaline, Rodney replicated Seth's move and rammed him in the stomach with his head, knocking him over and off the playtower. It suddenly struck Rodney that that kind of thing often killed people on TV and in the movies, but Aden had managed to grab hold of one of the ladder rungs. Rodney wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not. "Come on boys!" Aden shouted to his friends and they all moved to climb and cover all three ladders to the tower.
Rodney rushed over to Seth before they could get there, "Seth, are you okay?"
"I hit my head..." he said vaguely.
"So that has to bother you this time?!"
"Are there meant to be two of you?" Seth asked, eyes slightly unfocused.
Rodney stared for a second. They didn't have time for this! "Can you run?" Whatever, he'd have to, because the others were at the top of the ladders! Rodney pulled Seth up by his shirt and pushed him onto the fireman's pole, which he luckily still had the sense to hold on to and Rodney followed him down. "RUN!" Luckily Seth had the sense to do that too and they managed to get back to the house, through the rooms and into the garden, where Rodney pulled Seth under the buffet table, which hid them with its tablecloth. His heart was going a hundred miles an hour, he was sure. Seth just slumped sideways slightly and blinked too much, frowning.
"Tell me you're not dying," Rodney said anxiously.
"I can't get my eyes to focus properly," Seth said. "And my ankle hurts too. And there are still two of you."
"Well we can hide here until the party's over. So long as you're definitely not dying."
"Naaahh'm undestructible..." Seth said dozily. This was not helpful. What was Rodney going to do?
He wasn't given much of a choice though; "Aden! What happened to you?!"
"Rodney! Rodney and that... friend of his chucked eggs at us!"
Oh no, Rodney thought, head in his hands again. This was so not fair! "Tha's no' fair!" Rodney suddenly looked up - Seth had actually gone out there! Argh! He had to follow him though, so he reluctantly emerged from under the tablecloth, where a lot of people stared at him. And then Seth half collapsed on to his shoulder. "We did do the thing with the eggs," Seth continued, "but they was going to put Rodney in a cupboard and I've still got th' marks on my neck and they've been mean to Rodney for aaages and one of them pulled me over and I hit my head and now-" Seth looked at Rodney "Oh hey, there's three of you now! You could form a band..." Everyone just stared at Seth, but he seemed to have passed out.
"I think someone should help him," Rodney said quietly, trying not to notice all the stares.
A little while later Seth was being tended to in the kitchen by a family member who was also a doctor, and Rodney sat quietly nearby, biting the inside of his lip nervously.
"So what actually happened?" his father asked tiredly.
Rodney decided to go with the truth. "Aden and his friends tried to shut me in a cupboard but Seth fought them off and locked them in, then, er, Seth and I kind of messed up Aden's room. Then they got free and were coming after us, but Seth grabbed some eggs to help protect us, but while we were fighting them off again Aden pulled Seth over and he hit his head and... Is he going to be okay? If you do find something wrong with his brain it may have been like that for a while though..."
"He'll need to have a proper full check up, but it looks like just a bad concussion. Hopefully he'll be fine in a little while." The doctor-relative said kindly.
"Has this been going on for a while?" his father continued.
Rodney didn't say anything or look up from the floor, he just nodded silently.
"I see."
Then the doorbell rang as Seth's mother arrived. Everyone had been rather worried about this part.
"I'm Marina Jayapalan, Seth's mother - what happened?"
Everyone paused. "We were just playing and he slipped and fell and hit his head Mrs Jayapalan," Rodney filled in. Everyone looked at him, but nobody contested what he said.
"Oh. Well, he does tend to get himself into these kinds of situations," she said, looking stressed.
Seth chose that moment to wake up. "Oh, hi Mum! There's only one of you. Am I in trouble?"
"What for?" Marina asked with an edge of suspicion in her voice.
"You wouldn't get in trouble just for falling over Seth," Rodney filled in quickly.
"Er, right, yeah, of course. Sorry, concussion, very confused," he said with an innocent smile. "So if this counts as going to the doctor's do I get sweets?"
Marina stared at her son before shaking her head. "We have to get home, but I'll see if we have ice cream in the freezer at home."
"Yaaay! You're the best!" he said as he followed her out. "Bye Rodney, see you at school on Monday!"
Rodney gave a smile and a small wave and shook his head too.
It was the first family party Rodney ever enjoyed and he brought Seth to every one afterwards (where he may not have gotten concussed, but alcohol reproduced many of the same symptoms once he became a teenager).
More specifically, a dimension in which young Rodney (aged 7-ish) had a young Seth as a friend (in reality Seth is either a lot older than Rodney or townies have immortality, making Rodney a heck of a lot older than Seth... we really need to get our story straight on that).
Sorry, I'm getting rather too attached to my villains, but I'm kind of fascinated and just watched something that really put this in my mind. And, despite the git that he might grow up to become, I feel the need to create a little Rodney who's actually in some way happy.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few days before the party:Rodney was sat against a wall in the playground, reading a book and trying to ignore the noise of the rest of the children playing around him, which was easier said than done in some cases.
"And now I, the great Seth Jayapalan, will walk all the way along the wall on my hands!" There were various noises of amazement or derision from the other side of the wall, but Rodney wasn't really listening and focused harder on his book. He only looked up behind him when he heard some gasps and dived out of the way just in time to not have somebody land on top of him.
Rodney stared as the boy landed on his head and shoulder. That had looked painful. "Funk," the boy said through clenched teeth.
"...Funk?" he asked, confused.
"Yeah. You know, the F word. Funk."
"... Are you sure? I thought that was a kind of music or something."
The boy looked up thoughtfully - which, given his upside-down position, was in fact down. "Well my sister told me it was funk. I dunno, but I think it ought to matter what you mean to say, not what you actually say and I mean to be swearing, so it should count." Rodney continued to stare as the boy looked at him thoughtfully. "You have long hair, but you're not a girl. Are you?"
"No!" Rodney said resentfully, before his curiosity got the better of him, "Are you okay?"
"Hm? Oh, right." The boy fell on to his back and then sat up and swivelled around to face him again. He felt his neck and shoulder and winced. "Meh, it's okay. I'll just tell everyone I got into a fight," he grinned.
"Who with?" Rodney asked incredulously.
"Sumo wrestler," the boy responded brightly.
"Nobody will believe that!"
"I dunno; my brother would."
"How old's he?"
"...Almost four?"
"Exactly!" Rodney wondered whether falling on his head might have hurt the boy's brain, he'd heard that could happen.
"I'm Seth Jayapalan," the boy said happily.
"Rodney Jalowitz."
"You're in my class, aren't you?"
"Yeah. You're the one who's always talking and getting into trouble."
He smiled - apparently this wasn't something that needed defending to Seth. "I haven't noticed you much before. Do you always just sit around reading and stuff?"
Rodney shrugged, "Books are good."
"Nah, books are boring. You should do something fun instead."
"Books can be fun!" Rodney started defensively, "This one's about a spy-"
"Why would you want to read about other people doing fun and exciting things when you could be doing them?" Seth asked, as if it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard.
"Because then I won't have to almost break my neck falling off of walls and stuff!" Rodney said reproachfully.
"I'm fine now, aren't I?"
Are you? Rodney wondered, staring at him. "Do you just like getting into trouble?"
"Yeah!" Seth smiled widely. "Well, that's not really the good bit. It's easy not getting into trouble when you've not done anything wrong; it's getting out of trouble when you have done something wrong that's the really fun part," he explained, his eyes lit up mischieviously. "Me and my sister Sara try it all the time at home. We're really good at it."
"You never get caught?" Rodney asked curiously.
"Well... we do get caught sometimes; our Mum thinks she knows everything we've done, but she doesn't!"
"But... isn't getting caught and punished really bad?" Rodney couldn't imagine wanting to push his parents, and his sister would probably only tell them about what he did, not help him.
"Being made to do chores or whatever isn't fun, but that just motivates you to try harder and do better next time, doesn't it?"
Rodney stared at him some more. "... I think I'd rather just read..."
"Laaaame!" Seth groaned and rolled on to his back. "Come ooooonn! Try something fun for once!"
Rodney hesitated. He shouldn't be listening, but... "Like what?"
Seth was sat up again in an instant, eyes alight. "It has to be something that breaks the rules - the bigger the better!"
"What are the rules anyway? I know you're not supposed to talk in class..."
Seth rolled his eyes and sighed, exasperated. "That doesn't count! Er, you're not allowed to fight-" he looked Rodney up and down, "Yeah, you probably wouldn't be very good at that." Rodney glared at him. "Oooh, you're not allowed to steal stuff! You could do that, right?"
Rodney shifted uncomfortably, "Steal what?"
Seth stared off into the distance happily, "It'd have to be something important. Something of the headteacher's. Oh! I know! She has a cat statue thing on the bookcases behind her desk - you should take that!"
"You spend a lot of time in the headteacher's office, don't you?" Rodney asked, shaking his head slightly.
"Of course!" Seth said happily. "Well?"
"I- I'll get in so much trouble..."
"Not if you can get away with it! And it'll be easier for you because you don't have a history, so if they catch you in the middle of it all you can just give them an innocent look and act all confused and they'll probably let you go. I try that myself but they don't believe me anymore," Seth grinned.
"I don't know..." he said hesitantly.
"Oh, go on go on go on go on-go-on-go-on-go-on-!"
"Okay! I'll try. But if I get into trouble-!"
"Yeah yeah yeah. They'll probably figure I had something to do with it anyway. Awesome!" Seth jumped up onto his feet and smiled brightly at Rodney "This is going to be so much fun!" And then he ran off, while Rodney just stared after him and gave an anxious sigh. What was he doing listening to him?
________________________
Lunchtime, the next day:
Rodney stood casually at the end of the corridor leading to the headteacher's office, trying not to look suspicious. He still knew that this was a terribly bad idea that could backfire even worse, but for some reason he seemed to want to do it. He wasn't sure whether it was because he wanted to impress Seth Jayapalan or if he wanted to get some attention for once or to go against his parents, but he was there now and he figured he might as well try. And Seth had probably been right; he was a good student and he could probably get out of it if it all went wrong.
He kept his head down as the headmistress went past, talking to the deputy head about something, heading towards the playground. This was his chance, but he might not have much time. He crept down the corridor, checking that nobody was looking out of any of the other open doorways, and quietly snuck into the headmistress' office, shutting the door behind him. Part one done. Now what had Seth told him to take? A cat statue or something, wasn't it? He looked around before spotting it - it was on the bookcase, as Seth had said, but he had left out the part about it being way out of Rodney's reach. He wondered whether he should climb the shelves, but vaguely recalled seeing bookcases crush people who tried that in movies or something, so he didn't think that would be a very good idea. Instead, he wheeled over the headmistress' deskchair and stood shakily on it. Even then the statue was only at the tips of his fingers, so he stood on the tips of his shoes and managed to gradually drag the statue forward until he got it into his hands- at which point the chair, already tilted by the way he was stood, crashed out from under him, throwing him to the ground - where he luckily managed to clutch the statue safely to his chest - and making enough noise to draw attention. He had to get out of there!
He scrambled to his feet, statue still in arms, because he wasn't about to give now. He slipped through the doorway and then impulsively into the room next door, which was luckily unlocked, just before somebody came down the corridor to investigate. The room turned out to be just a store cupboard, full of filing cabinets and supplies; if he hadn't been so desperate to get out of there before he got caught, he might have looked through some of them out of curiosity. A few moments later he heard the door of the office next door being closed and hesitant footsteps moving away. Heart still pounding a little, he waited a few minutes himself before daring to open the door a little to check if it was clear and then, satisfied, he hid the statue under his jacket and half-walked-half-ran, trying to be both fast and inconspicuous, back to their classroom.
Once he got there he carefully put the statue down and collapsed on the desk to regain his breath. He wasn't even supposed to be in the classrooms at lunchtime, but that would be the least of his problems if he got caught. After recovering slightly, he turned back to the statue to look at it properly for the first time. It was a very nice statue, he realised, and he was glad he hadn't broken it: the painted pattern on the white porcelain must have taken the artist quite a long time. He wondered vaguely how much it had cost.
He was brought out of his train of thought by an excited gasp. "Ah yes, you did it!" Seth bounded in and grabbed the statue out of his hands, amazement glimmering in his eyes.
"Be careful - don't drop it!" Rodney warned as he saw Seth handling it so carelessly.
Seth looked at him blankly for a few seconds "Ohh, you want to show other people? Cool, but they probably won't recognise it so much." Seth put it down, harder than Rodney would have liked. "What are you gonna do with it now anyway?"
Rodney stared at it vaguely. "I don't know. I didn't really think about that."
"Ummm, well you could keep it as a trophy or... hold it to ransom!" Seth suggested, eyes lighting up again.
"Or I could just give it back." Rodney said thoughtfully.
"Whaaaaat?! Why?! That's stupid! You might as well do something with it now you've got it."
"But if I give it back I might not get into trouble," Rodney pointed out.
Seth gave him a Look; "So you can not have a statue and you might not get into trouble, or you can keep the statue and possibly not get into any trouble."
"Or I can try to keep the statue, fail to keep it hidden, and then get into loads of trouble for stealing and lying!"
Seth opened his mouth to make a counter-argument, but closed it again, looking thoughtful. He shrugged, "I still think you should keep it."
"It is a nice statue," Rodney said pensively.
"What? It's just a statue. A girly statue too. But it's a symbol of how you broke the rules and beat everyone else! That's why you want it."
"But the headmistress is going to notice it's gone pretty quickly. I accidentally knocked over a chair, so they probably know someone was in there already."
Seth's eyes were glinting again already, "This is one of the best bits! Hide the evidence and don't get caught!"
"How? Where?"
"What do you mean 'where'?! There are a million hiding places around the school if you're looking for them! Come on, I'll show you one of the best ones," Seth said, enthusiastically grabbing Rodney by the wrist and practically dragging him off outside.
___________________
The teachers had evidently been told of the theft during afternoon break, because there were bag and locker searches when they came back to class, with the teachers hoping they could recover the statue before it had the chance to leave the school grounds.
"Rodney, where's your bag?" It was the dreaded question, but one that they had been prepared for.
"Somebody threw it over a fence, Miss." His lying and acting skills had rarely been put through such a test.
"'Somebody'?" the teacher asked, eyebrow raised. They were always on the lookout for bullying.
Rodney made himself look reticent, but the teacher didn't move. "It was Seth Jayapalan, Miss."
Seth turned around from where he sat a few tables away and looked outraged, "Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"He has no evidence!" Seth protested, but they knew what the teacher would think and Seth appeared to give in. "Fiiine, I'll get it back after school..."
"Make sure you do," the teacher said sternly, moving on to the next student. Seth just flashed Rodney a bright smile of victory; that had been just about as easy as he had claimed it would be.
______________
After classes had ended, Rodney and Seth were sat behind the mobile classroom they'd hidden his bag under.
"You wouldn't have gotten spiders and stuff all over your bag if you'd just left the statue there," Seth pointed out as he watched his friend trying to flick all the insects off.
"But then the statue would have gotten dirty," Rodney said, anxiously avoiding letting any of the insects transfer to him.
"And now your bag's dirty instead. You make no sense."
"It's a nice statue!" Rodney protested.
Seth just shook his head. "No sense."
"Shouldn't you be getting home, anyway? It's the weekend now."
"Meh," Seth said, shifting to lie on his back. "Sara's got after-school ballet, my Dad'll still be at work and my Mum's got my little brother and baby twin sisters to look after."
"You have a big family. I only have one sibling."
"I like having a big family. You can always find somebody and with your parents distracted you can get away with a lot more," he smirked. "Got a few cousins as well, probably more coming from my Aunt Nicola."
"I have loads of cousins," Rodney said, frowning. "Don't like them very much. None of them are my age. But I'm going to have to go and see them tomorrow," he remembered, groaning. "I hate family parties."
"Really? I love family parties. But I do have some cousins pretty much our age, though they go to the private school instead, so you won't know them." He sat up suddenly with an idea, "Hey, can you bring friends to this family party if there's nobody there your age?"
Rodney looked at him cautiously for a few moments, "I- I guess so. The people whose house it is often have friends over and the parties tend to be so big that nobody really knows or notices who is or isn't there... Why, do- do you want to go?"
"I'll have to check with my Mum, but I'm not grounded at the moment so it should be okay. Of course I can never say definitely 'cause even if I don't do anything bad tonight or tomorrow, my Mum might still find out about something from aaages ago and ground me for that... But I'm always up for a party!" he grinned happily.
"Oh. Well, sure, I'll have to call you later to tell you the address and stuff though, 'cause I don't know it by heart." Rodney said, trying not to feel anxious or get his hopes up.
"Awesome," Seth said brightly, eyes lit up again.
____________
At the party:
Rodney followed his family into the house, where his Dad received a warm welcome from the men, his mother went off to join the other women drinking coffee, wine and hot chocolate, and his sister skipped off to join the teenagers in the garden, where it was getting dark but still warm - all leaving him stood there with nothing to do. He'd told Seth the address and to the best of his knowledge he wouldn't be grounded, but Rodney didn't want to stand around awkwardly hoping that he'd show up when he might not or, if he did, could be some time. He decided to go and play on his own for the minute; Seth, being so hyperactive, would probably find him quickly enough when he did arrive.
He took his shoes off and then squeezed down the hallway, between chatting - and slightly intoxicated - adults, and went upstairs. The first door on the left was the eldest cousin of the family's, so he knew he shouldn't go in there... The first door on the right was the bathroom... The second door on the left was the middle cousin's which he could hear music being pumped loudly from already... The third door on the left was Aden's and he certainly didn't want to go in there, so he was left with the second door on the right: his uncle and aunt's room, which nobody would use until the party was over. It would do pretty well, at least for now.
He went in and pushed the door shut behind him, then went and sat on the floor next to the double bed. Not having brought any toys or anything, he tried to resort to his imagination, recreating the spy scenes from his books. But he couldn't concentrate on it properly and found himself repeatedly looking at his watch, barely even noticing the actual time. Was Seth going to show up? If so, when? Rodney considered himself to be pretty independent, but actually having and spending time with a friend - even one who was so... whatever as Seth was - was somehow so much more satisfying than living in books and imagination. He sighed and gave up, frustrated.
He heard a loud burst of laughter from the garden and looked out the window to see what everyone else was doing. Most of the family seemed to have gone out there now and apparently his uncle was drunkenly telling some hilarious story from when they were all young. He scanned the rest of the crowd glumly - his sister was there with her friends gossiping away... his mother was crowded around the newly engaged second cousin with some other mums... His- uhoh. Aden had spotted him from down below. Rodney's insides froze as he watched his cousin turn to say something to his friends and they then moved towards the house. Oh no...!
He had to move, they knew where he was, but he wouldn't be fast enough to get safely to the adults outside and he couldn't go into any of the other bedrooms... The bathroom! He could lock himself in there until they gave up or somebody else came... But he could hear the boys running up the stairs even as he left the bedroom, so he ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him, but before he could lock it it was being pushed back open...! He pushed with all his strength, but one seven-year-old against three eleven and twelve-year olds was hard enough and his socks meant he had no grip on the tiled floor... He wasn't going to let this happen again...!
The door was finally pushed far enough that the other boys could squeeze in, then shutting the door behind them, cornering him.
"Hello Little Rodney," Aden said, smiling malevolently. He didn't need to say much else. He knew Rodney remembered their history. Rodney swallowed and tried not to shake.
"L-Leave me alone." He tried to sound authoritative and stern, but knew he didn't pull it off.
Aden had a look of apparent concern. "Leave you alone? Do you want to be left alone, Rodney?"
Rodney was pretty certain his answer to that was yes, but all of a sudden being alone sounded like a very bad thing. He settled for swallowing again and not saying anything.
Aden turned to his friends "He wants to be left alone, guys." Rodney didn't trust that he could possibly be being genuine. "The problem is, Rodney," he said patronisingly, turning back to him, "that this is a party and there are lots of people around, so being alone is very difficult." Rodney swallowed once more. He didn't know what was about to happen, but he knew it would be bad. "Maybe we should help him, guys."
And then Aden had his arm against Rodney's throat with him pushed against the wall, while he was gesturing something to his friends that Rodney couldn't see. He tried to fight or wriggle free, but he was struggling enough to breathe and his cousin was too strong and he couldn't even reach to kick him away. He couldn't see exactly what the other boys were doing, but they were by the sink and they were throwing things out on to the floor. What were they going to do?
And then the door opened again and Seth's head poked in "Er-" then he spotted his friend who was staring at him by this point, "Oh hi Rodney. Er... what's going on?"
"You're a friend of Rodney's?" Aden asked, surveying the newcomer.
"Er, yeah. You're... not?" he guessed, frowning. But then one of the other boys had slammed the door shut behind him and held Seth in the same way Rodney was captive - arm against his throat, slightly off the floor. Seth looked puzzled at the boy and then turned to look at Rodney. "What's going on?" Rodney just stared at him, speechless. How could he possibly not tell?!
Aden's other friend turned to him "What do we do now, Aden?"
"How big is that cupboard?" Rodney's cousin asked with a dark humour to his voice. Rodney tried struggling harder as he finally understood what they were planning, while Seth just slowly raised his eyebrows and looked around quickly.
"Well," started the boy holding Seth, "we could always try-" but he was cut off by his own scream of pain and, when he moved backwards, Rodney saw that Seth had bitten deeply into his other wrist, which he then followed up with by kneeing the boy in the crotch, which caused him to fall backwards into the other teenager. And there was little Aden could have done to avoid Seth headbutting him in the stomach while he was still trying to restrain Rodney. Rodney's body seemed content to just stand there awestruck, but Seth grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out of the room, slammed the door shut and then started fiddling with the lock on the door.
"H-how did you do that?" Rodney asked shakily.
Seth glanced up from the lock, which he seemed to be trying to pull apart, "Have you really never been in a fight before?" he asked curiously. "We have these things called teeth that can be used for biting, heads for headbutting and knees for... kneeing. We use them when people try to shut us in cupboards."
"But... you made it look so easy!" he stared.
Seth shrugged and smiled "It's easy when people underestimate you."
The doorhandle was now rattling angrily. "What are you doing? I think we should get out of here..."
"Don't have to." Seth pulled backwards, holding half the door's lock in his hand. "We have locks like this on our bathrooms at home. Not only can you lock and unlock them from the outside if you know how, but if the two pieces come apart while the door is locked, it can't be opened from the inside - unless they have a pair of scissors and know exactly how to use them. They're locked in." He summed up happily.
"How did you ever discover that?!"
"Being forced to spend a lot of time in the house due to frequent groundings," he beamed.
"But they're going to get out eventually, aren't they?"
"Well yeah, somebody else will probably free them sooner or later."
"Then we ought to get out of here because they'll kill us when they are," Rodney said anxiously, but then he realised Seth wasn't listening.
"Hey, did one of those guys call the guy holding you Aden?"
"Yes, why?" Rodney turned to where Seth was looking. "Oh- Oh, no. No, that's not a good idea." But Seth's eyes were alight with mischief and he was moving towards Aden's room. "Seth. Seth, don't!"
"Oh, come on Rodney, we'll just have a little look..." Rodney didn't really have a chance to stop him, so he followed him inside.
"Okay, you've looked, let's go downstairs. And hide."
"But we're here now, we might as well do something! You can't tell me he doesn't deserve it..." Seth's eyes were scanning the room, alive with the infinite possibilities it could see.
Rodney crossed his arms, trying to remain calm. "Whether he deserves it or not, it's not about that! We're gonna get killed as it is!"
Seth, who was now stood on Aden's bed, still wearing his shoes, turned back to Rodney and gave him a winning smile "Well that's good; dying is the most that can happen to you, so if we're going to get killed either way, we might as well do as much as we can!"
"That's- that's not what I- Hang on, what are you doing?" Seth had picked up some marker pens from Aden's desk and was approaching the posters above his bed with a malicious smile. "Seth, don't, seriously. Think - I'm going to get hurt so much worse than you will for this!"
"What did you ever do to them before?" Seth asked flatly. Rodney opened his mouth, but had no answer. "Exactly, if they're gonna get away with being mean to you either way, you might as well earn it. Now have fun for once," he said, chucking him down a pen and starting on some of the posters himself.
Rodney hesitantly stepped up onto the bed too and brought the pen up to one of the posters. He could do this. But what should he do to it? "Oh for funk's sake," Seth interjected a few moments later, "it's not a work of art, Rodney!" and he proved it by drawing randomly over the poster. Apparently satisfied, Seth jumped down from the bed, scoped the room and then pulled everything off the desk and out of the wardrobe and dresser and chucking it all over the floor until it was entirelycovered. Rodney just stood and watched from the bed, not sure whether to be happy or terrified.
"Right, well, that was fun. What now?" Seth asked, turning back to him. Rodney just stared at him, still speechless. "I'm hungry, let's go get some food." He went to leave, then realised Rodney wasn't moving out of shock and dragged him downstairs by his wrist again.
Seth happily helped himself to the barbecue and buffet in the garden while Rodney just stood and continued to stare from the side. "Are you really not hungry?" Seth asked.
"How can you eat? How can you-?" Rodney shook his head in disbelief.
Seth looked at him and tilted his head to the side, "You worry way too much, don't you? Live in the moment."
"At the rate you're going, I'm only going to be alive for a moment!" he half-shouted, not wanting to draw attention from the rest of the people.
Seth rolled his eyes and started eating. "Mmm. You should try the chicken drumsticks. Really nice."
Rodney sighed and grabbed some food for himself, which did actually help to calm him down a little. But not for very long;
"Hey has anybody seen Aden lately?" one of the teenagers asked. Rodney kept his eyes down and kept eating, but he could never account for Seth.
"I think I heard he'd locked himself in the bathroom with his friends," Seth said seemingly innocently, which caused everyone listening to look at each other.
"What did you have to tell them that for?! Now they'll free him!" Rodney hissed at him after somebody went to look for Aden and everyone else turned their attention elsewhere.
"Because now they're all wondering what three teenage boys were doing locked in a bathroom together," he said with a devious smile. "And, even if they blame us, they still can't really explain it with admitting they were bullying you."
"They're still going to kill us. And even if we try to hide around the adults so they can't, Aden's at least going to kill me sooner or later at some family event!"
Seth finished the last of his food thoughtfully. "So it's better if we take them on together."
"Well that's not quite what I-"
"I have an idea!" And then Seth was dragging Rodney off by his wrist again before he could even finish talking.
"Seth? What are you doing in the fridge? Do I even want to know?" Rodney stared up reluctantly at his friend, who was stood on a chair and rummaging around.
Seth leaned backwards and looked at Rodney curiously. "I don't know, do you think what you are imagining is more worrying than this is? Is your imagination better than mine?" he went back to rummaging.
Rodney was trying to think of a response when suddenly they heard the sound of numerous feet coming down the stairs. "Oh no...!"
"Right, got it, come on!" And Rodney was being yanked out of the house by his arm once more. His feet actually responded to his brain's orders to run away for once. "Where can we hide?" Seth asked.
"There's a playpark down the road," Rodney said. "But I've hidden there before, they'll probably find us-"
"It'll do."
They reached the park and scrambled up the ladders into the kids' playtower. They both crouched behind the brightly coloured half-wall and looked over the top in the direction of the house, only partly illuminated by the streetlights.
Rodney sat down properly and rubbed his shoulder. "You know you're gonna dislocate my arm soon, right?"
"If you'd rather have whatever they want to do to you, you're free to go back. And it wouldn't be so bad if you'd react faster and start running when we need to." Seth said quietly.
"We wouldn't need to run so much if you'd stop doing all this stuff."
"If I stopped doing all this stuff you wouldn't be able to run because you'd be shut in a cupboard." Rodney wasn't sure if they were arguing because Seth had no spite in his voice. He couldn't understand Seth at all. "Here they come."
Rodney moved back forwards to look through a gap in the playtower wall. "They'll come here first," he whispered. "Do we start running again? I don't know where else we can go, except find my parents or hide somewhere in the house."
"We don't need to run yet."
Rodney looked across at him suspiciously. "Are you enjoying this?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," he said with a smile. Rodney just shook his head again. "If I'd known this was what your family parties were like I wouldn't miss them for the world."
"You're welcome to them." Aden and his friends had reached the playpark now and were looking around. "What are we going to do?" Rodney whispered desperately.
Seth shot him a devious grin again and brought out what he must have taken from the fridge - a box. He opened it, revealing a fair number of eggs. Rodney stared at him wide-eyed with fear and shook his head, Seth smiled wider and nodded in response. Rodney tried gesturing and pleading with his hands, afraid that any speech might tip the boys off, but Seth simply gestured back along the lines of 'What else are we going to do at this point?' Rodney deflated and put his head in his hands, which made Seth beam happily and pick up one of the eggs with a malevolent look. "I hope you've got good aim," he whispered.
This was enough to tip the boys off. "Over there!" the boy Seth had bitten earlier shouted, shortly before getting an egg square to the face.
"Bullseye!" Seth shouted and laughed happily. "Come on Rodney, give it a go!"
"You little shit!" the other boy shouted, before getting an egg to the stomach.
"Come on guys, you're getting beaten by an eight year old!" Seth shouted down at them, barely able to speak for the laughter and hitting the first boy in the thigh with another egg.
Rodney meanwhile was holding an egg behind the wall and shaking slightly. Besides the fact that he was pretty sure he couldn't throw well at all, actually trying to do it... Seth had done pretty much everything so far and he had been literally pulled along for the ride. Maybe he could survive for the rest of the night the same way.
But then he was brought back as Seth yelled - Aden had crept unseen up one of the ladders, grabbed Seth by the ankle and pulled him over. If Seth was gone, Rodney was definitely going to be gone. Funk it, he thought and threw the egg straight into Aden's face, just a few feet away, then picked up more and hit his cousin as fast as he could, but Aden was already on the playtower and eggs alone weren't going to knock him off. Especially since they'd now run out of eggs.
Aden approached Rodney, whose legs had begun to shake. "Playtime is over," his cousin said ominously. And so, with a burst of adrenaline, Rodney replicated Seth's move and rammed him in the stomach with his head, knocking him over and off the playtower. It suddenly struck Rodney that that kind of thing often killed people on TV and in the movies, but Aden had managed to grab hold of one of the ladder rungs. Rodney wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not. "Come on boys!" Aden shouted to his friends and they all moved to climb and cover all three ladders to the tower.
Rodney rushed over to Seth before they could get there, "Seth, are you okay?"
"I hit my head..." he said vaguely.
"So that has to bother you this time?!"
"Are there meant to be two of you?" Seth asked, eyes slightly unfocused.
Rodney stared for a second. They didn't have time for this! "Can you run?" Whatever, he'd have to, because the others were at the top of the ladders! Rodney pulled Seth up by his shirt and pushed him onto the fireman's pole, which he luckily still had the sense to hold on to and Rodney followed him down. "RUN!" Luckily Seth had the sense to do that too and they managed to get back to the house, through the rooms and into the garden, where Rodney pulled Seth under the buffet table, which hid them with its tablecloth. His heart was going a hundred miles an hour, he was sure. Seth just slumped sideways slightly and blinked too much, frowning.
"Tell me you're not dying," Rodney said anxiously.
"I can't get my eyes to focus properly," Seth said. "And my ankle hurts too. And there are still two of you."
"Well we can hide here until the party's over. So long as you're definitely not dying."
"Naaahh'm undestructible..." Seth said dozily. This was not helpful. What was Rodney going to do?
He wasn't given much of a choice though; "Aden! What happened to you?!"
"Rodney! Rodney and that... friend of his chucked eggs at us!"
Oh no, Rodney thought, head in his hands again. This was so not fair! "Tha's no' fair!" Rodney suddenly looked up - Seth had actually gone out there! Argh! He had to follow him though, so he reluctantly emerged from under the tablecloth, where a lot of people stared at him. And then Seth half collapsed on to his shoulder. "We did do the thing with the eggs," Seth continued, "but they was going to put Rodney in a cupboard and I've still got th' marks on my neck and they've been mean to Rodney for aaages and one of them pulled me over and I hit my head and now-" Seth looked at Rodney "Oh hey, there's three of you now! You could form a band..." Everyone just stared at Seth, but he seemed to have passed out.
"I think someone should help him," Rodney said quietly, trying not to notice all the stares.
A little while later Seth was being tended to in the kitchen by a family member who was also a doctor, and Rodney sat quietly nearby, biting the inside of his lip nervously.
"So what actually happened?" his father asked tiredly.
Rodney decided to go with the truth. "Aden and his friends tried to shut me in a cupboard but Seth fought them off and locked them in, then, er, Seth and I kind of messed up Aden's room. Then they got free and were coming after us, but Seth grabbed some eggs to help protect us, but while we were fighting them off again Aden pulled Seth over and he hit his head and... Is he going to be okay? If you do find something wrong with his brain it may have been like that for a while though..."
"He'll need to have a proper full check up, but it looks like just a bad concussion. Hopefully he'll be fine in a little while." The doctor-relative said kindly.
"Has this been going on for a while?" his father continued.
Rodney didn't say anything or look up from the floor, he just nodded silently.
"I see."
Then the doorbell rang as Seth's mother arrived. Everyone had been rather worried about this part.
"I'm Marina Jayapalan, Seth's mother - what happened?"
Everyone paused. "We were just playing and he slipped and fell and hit his head Mrs Jayapalan," Rodney filled in. Everyone looked at him, but nobody contested what he said.
"Oh. Well, he does tend to get himself into these kinds of situations," she said, looking stressed.
Seth chose that moment to wake up. "Oh, hi Mum! There's only one of you. Am I in trouble?"
"What for?" Marina asked with an edge of suspicion in her voice.
"You wouldn't get in trouble just for falling over Seth," Rodney filled in quickly.
"Er, right, yeah, of course. Sorry, concussion, very confused," he said with an innocent smile. "So if this counts as going to the doctor's do I get sweets?"
Marina stared at her son before shaking her head. "We have to get home, but I'll see if we have ice cream in the freezer at home."
"Yaaay! You're the best!" he said as he followed her out. "Bye Rodney, see you at school on Monday!"
Rodney gave a smile and a small wave and shook his head too.
It was the first family party Rodney ever enjoyed and he brought Seth to every one afterwards (where he may not have gotten concussed, but alcohol reproduced many of the same symptoms once he became a teenager).