To a Squirrel - chapter 7
To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No
Rating: PG
Fandom: Ice Age
To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no
CHAPTER 7
I figure you all pretty much know the gist of it by now.
So please, read on, enjoy.
All the usual disclaimers apply.
*
“You’re really different at school.” He says, quirking a bushy eyebrow as she skips along the path beside him.
“Isn’t everyone?” Ellie replies, shaking her red mane from her eyes, and Manny thinks that if this were some c-grade chick flick, this would most likely be in slow motion. Manfred groans internally, clearly Sid’s bumbling chatter is having a bigger impact than he’d first thought. “This is our stop.” She says, gesturing to the small brick house hidden behind a minefield of a garden.
Before he can even open his mouth to comment, two exceptionally short, scrawny, scruffy forms race towards them in a blur.
“Ellie!” They cry in unison, and she giggles pleasantly, moving to squat beside them so as to be at eyelevel. “This guy buggin’ ya, Ellie?” One of them asks, pulling a plastic toy sword from nowhere.
“We’ll take him down if he is!” The other one cries, finally coming to a standstill so as to pull an incredibly bizarre kung-fu sort of pose.
The pair of them kind of remind him of Sid, Manfred thinks in ample amusement, only smaller and more hyper, something that he previously hadn’t thought possible. They’re obviously identical twins, with the same big blue eyes, same scruffy brown hair which looks perfectly at home atop their identical scruffy faces. The pair of them are tiny, wearing matching brown striped sweaters that are really, far too big. Neither looks a thing like Ellie, and Manfred can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
“Nah, Manny’s cool.” She glances at him with those big green eyes that are nothing like her brothers’. “Crash, Eddie, Manny.” She gestures to each in turn.
Quirking a dark eyebrow for what seems like the umpteenth time that day, he nods a polite hello, somehow not at all surprised when the two boys (they can’t be older than 10) poke out identical pink tongues. Ellie taps each of them upside the head, and pushes them back into the garden. It’s a matter of seconds before they take off into the bushes.
“So…” She says, scuffing the toe of her doc martins into the grassless earth.
He doesn’t say a word, just shrugs his huge shoulders awkwardly. Ellie lives in a good neighbourhood, a street filled with square, brick houses and white picket fences. It was a stretch from where he lived, hell, a stretch from where Sid lived, and he couldn’t keep down the feeling that he was a violent impostor in this homely little street.
Ellie gives him a strange look, before grasping his hand in hers. “Well, lets head in.” When he looks down at her their entwined fingers, she laughs, replying quite simply that the twins will find several creative ways to cause him grievous bodily harm if he’s not holding onto her.
“Ellie!”
There’s a tiny woman at the door of the house, and Manfred waves awkwardly when the woman shoots him an ecstatic grin.
“Coming, Mum!”
And Manfred can hardly believe that Ellie’s apart of this tiny family, because this woman can’t reach that much further than her daughter’s elbow.
They head towards the house, Ellie’s mother shooting Manfred excited grins at every turn. He would say something about it, but he’s sure that if Ellie ever comes over to his house, his grandmother will react in the exact same way.
When they get inside, he’s shoved into a worn, mammoth sized sofa, and Ellie rushes to sit beside him as her mum leaves to get lemonade and cookies.
“Sorry about my mum, she gets kinda…” Ellie trails off, running a hand through her red hair.
“Mothery?”
“Yeah.”
A self-conscious silence settles between them, as Manfred stares at the cat statues above the fireplace and Ellie twitters nervously about everything and nothing.
--CRASH-
“Crash, Eddie, the pair o’ you don’t start behavin’ and I’ll chase you outta the yard with a broom! Won’t that be a sight for the neighbours?!” Ellie’s previously soft-spoken mother screeched like a harpy apparently, Manfred might’ve grinned slightly at the yells, but Ellie just rolled her eyes.
“It’s nothing the neighbours haven’t seen a million times before, Ma!” All anxiety apparently forgotten, Ellie rose from her seat, gesturing for Manfred to follow her. “Soto should be here soon, so we should probably start…unless you want to be here all night.”
Manfred shrugged, to be honest, a part of him sincerely hoped that Soto would prove the irresponsible, drug-abusing slacker that school had always portrayed him to be, and simply not show up…Even though Manfred seemed to have run short of luck lately, this was something he could quite easily see going his way.
Neither of them spoke as they headed into another obscure little room, one that Manfred guessed was an office due to the desk and hulking bookcases. Ellie crawled to a corner, rummaging through boxes and folders.
“No offence, but you look nothing like the rest of your family…well, that might not be true, I haven’t seen your dad.”
“You should tell me if you do, I’d love to see him myself.”
“What?”
“I’m adopted…hell, even in this family there’s no Dad. He up and left after the twins were born. Have no doubts, I’d clock him if I got the chance.”
Ellie didn’t seem upset really, but Manfred flushed in embarrassment. “I’m sorry…”
“Why?”
“Bad choice of subject.”
“Not really,” She shrugged absently, pulling a few folders from her bag, “I got over it a long time ago.”
“…I don’t live with my parents either.”
“Manny,” Ellie looked at him questionably, green eyes glinting, “Manny, you don’t have to say anything. I know you’re not an open person, and anyway, I didn’t have to tell you…you don’t owe me anything.”
He didn’t reply, but he couldn’t quell the feeling of relief.
*
Diego really wasn’t sure how the hell he’d ended up here. Really…no fucking clue.
The arcade was so…so elementary school, and even then, he’d never really taken to it. Now, at 16, he felt like an idiot. A tall, old, idiot. Sid however, was right at home.
After Manny had apparently ‘ditched’ them, (Sid’s words, not his) the freshman had approached him, all watery eyed and pouting lips and had demanded that the pair of them head to the arcade, lest they fall through the cracks of the school clique system. To be honest, Diego wasn’t even sure that made sense, but hey, whatever.
Sid was not only vocal when bored, anxious, happy and eating, apparently he was also extremely talkative when depressed and playing Space Invaders. Diego concluded that Sid’s vocal chords were probably less influenced by his mood and activity level, and more by his level of consciousness…ah, now there was a pretty thought…unconscious Sid.
So here they were, at the arcade, both clutching questionably tasting fruit smoothies (Diego really thought his was the most disgusting thing he’d ever tried in his life), and playing videogames that really, could only be challenging to the minds of those under the age of four.
“Ah, I died again!”
…And Sid.
To be honest, he still had no idea why he was here.
“I’m heading off, Sid.”
“What?” The freshman turned quickly, and the familiar music of death could be heard loudly in the background. “Why?”
“Really not my scene.”
“Aw, c’mon…we can do your thing tomorrow! Only, y’know, no shoot outs or drug groups or strip clubs…actually you might be able to talk me into the strip club-“
Diego gave Sid an odd look, rubbing the back of his short blond hair in something akin to annoyance. “This was a one-off thing, Sid. I’m pretty sure I made that clear. I’ve done my quota for the year, now I’m gone.”
He turned to leave, by pure sharp hearing, he heard the muttered, “What quota? The bitchiness quota?” And before Sid could utter another syllable, his back was pressed roughly against the Space Invaders machine. Round controls pushing awkwardly into the boy’s lower back.
Diego leaned into Sid, so close that he could smell the banana smoothie and McDonald’s chips on his breath. “I said that I was leaving, Osmond.”
“Ok.” Sid squeaked, cross-eyed and kinda choking.
The older boy dropped the latter, tossed his smoothie, and left with a smirk on his face.
He had a meeting with Soto in twenty minutes.
*
The clock rang seven in a painfully low octave, and what could possibly be the most irritating mechanical bird in the world forced its way out of its little wooden doors, chirping an excruciating seven times.
“Soto’s not gonna show, huh?” Ellie said, chewing on the back of her hb pencil.
“I highly doubt it.”
They’d gotten a fair bit done on the project, but boredom was quick to set in, as it is want to do in those ghastly adolescent years. Also, Ellie’s two little brothers were quite determined in their protection of their older sister. Not only glaring at Manfred any chance they got, but actually attempting to torture him. They’d tried a variety of tactics, from the simple, straightforward booby-traps to elaborate schemes that seemed destined to fail, since the pair weren’t patient enough to sit through it. One had included holding a torch onto his arm until he developed skin cancer…the twins had thought this quite cunning.
In the end, Ellie had threatened to bathe them, and they’d fled the room screaming.
“I should probably go home, Ellie. My Grandma wanted me home for dinner.”
Ellie’s charming smile may have faltered somewhat at that, but it had really been too quick to tell.
“Fair enough.” She grinned, rising from her seat on the floor. “I’ll walk you to the door?”
“Sure.”
Reaching the door was a journey far too short for both of them, and they stood opposite each other awkwardly on the porch outside.
“Thank, Manny…”
“What for?”
“Uh, well, taking this project seriously for one.”
He shrugged, “Like the topic.”
Ellie grinned, reaching over to peck him on the cheek.
“I kinda like the company myself.”
And with that, she closed the door to her tiny household, leaving a shocked Manfred behind.
*
TBC
.
Rating: PG
Fandom: Ice Age
To a Squirrel at Kyle-na-no
CHAPTER 7
I figure you all pretty much know the gist of it by now.
So please, read on, enjoy.
All the usual disclaimers apply.
*
“You’re really different at school.” He says, quirking a bushy eyebrow as she skips along the path beside him.
“Isn’t everyone?” Ellie replies, shaking her red mane from her eyes, and Manny thinks that if this were some c-grade chick flick, this would most likely be in slow motion. Manfred groans internally, clearly Sid’s bumbling chatter is having a bigger impact than he’d first thought. “This is our stop.” She says, gesturing to the small brick house hidden behind a minefield of a garden.
Before he can even open his mouth to comment, two exceptionally short, scrawny, scruffy forms race towards them in a blur.
“Ellie!” They cry in unison, and she giggles pleasantly, moving to squat beside them so as to be at eyelevel. “This guy buggin’ ya, Ellie?” One of them asks, pulling a plastic toy sword from nowhere.
“We’ll take him down if he is!” The other one cries, finally coming to a standstill so as to pull an incredibly bizarre kung-fu sort of pose.
The pair of them kind of remind him of Sid, Manfred thinks in ample amusement, only smaller and more hyper, something that he previously hadn’t thought possible. They’re obviously identical twins, with the same big blue eyes, same scruffy brown hair which looks perfectly at home atop their identical scruffy faces. The pair of them are tiny, wearing matching brown striped sweaters that are really, far too big. Neither looks a thing like Ellie, and Manfred can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
“Nah, Manny’s cool.” She glances at him with those big green eyes that are nothing like her brothers’. “Crash, Eddie, Manny.” She gestures to each in turn.
Quirking a dark eyebrow for what seems like the umpteenth time that day, he nods a polite hello, somehow not at all surprised when the two boys (they can’t be older than 10) poke out identical pink tongues. Ellie taps each of them upside the head, and pushes them back into the garden. It’s a matter of seconds before they take off into the bushes.
“So…” She says, scuffing the toe of her doc martins into the grassless earth.
He doesn’t say a word, just shrugs his huge shoulders awkwardly. Ellie lives in a good neighbourhood, a street filled with square, brick houses and white picket fences. It was a stretch from where he lived, hell, a stretch from where Sid lived, and he couldn’t keep down the feeling that he was a violent impostor in this homely little street.
Ellie gives him a strange look, before grasping his hand in hers. “Well, lets head in.” When he looks down at her their entwined fingers, she laughs, replying quite simply that the twins will find several creative ways to cause him grievous bodily harm if he’s not holding onto her.
“Ellie!”
There’s a tiny woman at the door of the house, and Manfred waves awkwardly when the woman shoots him an ecstatic grin.
“Coming, Mum!”
And Manfred can hardly believe that Ellie’s apart of this tiny family, because this woman can’t reach that much further than her daughter’s elbow.
They head towards the house, Ellie’s mother shooting Manfred excited grins at every turn. He would say something about it, but he’s sure that if Ellie ever comes over to his house, his grandmother will react in the exact same way.
When they get inside, he’s shoved into a worn, mammoth sized sofa, and Ellie rushes to sit beside him as her mum leaves to get lemonade and cookies.
“Sorry about my mum, she gets kinda…” Ellie trails off, running a hand through her red hair.
“Mothery?”
“Yeah.”
A self-conscious silence settles between them, as Manfred stares at the cat statues above the fireplace and Ellie twitters nervously about everything and nothing.
--CRASH-
“Crash, Eddie, the pair o’ you don’t start behavin’ and I’ll chase you outta the yard with a broom! Won’t that be a sight for the neighbours?!” Ellie’s previously soft-spoken mother screeched like a harpy apparently, Manfred might’ve grinned slightly at the yells, but Ellie just rolled her eyes.
“It’s nothing the neighbours haven’t seen a million times before, Ma!” All anxiety apparently forgotten, Ellie rose from her seat, gesturing for Manfred to follow her. “Soto should be here soon, so we should probably start…unless you want to be here all night.”
Manfred shrugged, to be honest, a part of him sincerely hoped that Soto would prove the irresponsible, drug-abusing slacker that school had always portrayed him to be, and simply not show up…Even though Manfred seemed to have run short of luck lately, this was something he could quite easily see going his way.
Neither of them spoke as they headed into another obscure little room, one that Manfred guessed was an office due to the desk and hulking bookcases. Ellie crawled to a corner, rummaging through boxes and folders.
“No offence, but you look nothing like the rest of your family…well, that might not be true, I haven’t seen your dad.”
“You should tell me if you do, I’d love to see him myself.”
“What?”
“I’m adopted…hell, even in this family there’s no Dad. He up and left after the twins were born. Have no doubts, I’d clock him if I got the chance.”
Ellie didn’t seem upset really, but Manfred flushed in embarrassment. “I’m sorry…”
“Why?”
“Bad choice of subject.”
“Not really,” She shrugged absently, pulling a few folders from her bag, “I got over it a long time ago.”
“…I don’t live with my parents either.”
“Manny,” Ellie looked at him questionably, green eyes glinting, “Manny, you don’t have to say anything. I know you’re not an open person, and anyway, I didn’t have to tell you…you don’t owe me anything.”
He didn’t reply, but he couldn’t quell the feeling of relief.
*
Diego really wasn’t sure how the hell he’d ended up here. Really…no fucking clue.
The arcade was so…so elementary school, and even then, he’d never really taken to it. Now, at 16, he felt like an idiot. A tall, old, idiot. Sid however, was right at home.
After Manny had apparently ‘ditched’ them, (Sid’s words, not his) the freshman had approached him, all watery eyed and pouting lips and had demanded that the pair of them head to the arcade, lest they fall through the cracks of the school clique system. To be honest, Diego wasn’t even sure that made sense, but hey, whatever.
Sid was not only vocal when bored, anxious, happy and eating, apparently he was also extremely talkative when depressed and playing Space Invaders. Diego concluded that Sid’s vocal chords were probably less influenced by his mood and activity level, and more by his level of consciousness…ah, now there was a pretty thought…unconscious Sid.
So here they were, at the arcade, both clutching questionably tasting fruit smoothies (Diego really thought his was the most disgusting thing he’d ever tried in his life), and playing videogames that really, could only be challenging to the minds of those under the age of four.
“Ah, I died again!”
…And Sid.
To be honest, he still had no idea why he was here.
“I’m heading off, Sid.”
“What?” The freshman turned quickly, and the familiar music of death could be heard loudly in the background. “Why?”
“Really not my scene.”
“Aw, c’mon…we can do your thing tomorrow! Only, y’know, no shoot outs or drug groups or strip clubs…actually you might be able to talk me into the strip club-“
Diego gave Sid an odd look, rubbing the back of his short blond hair in something akin to annoyance. “This was a one-off thing, Sid. I’m pretty sure I made that clear. I’ve done my quota for the year, now I’m gone.”
He turned to leave, by pure sharp hearing, he heard the muttered, “What quota? The bitchiness quota?” And before Sid could utter another syllable, his back was pressed roughly against the Space Invaders machine. Round controls pushing awkwardly into the boy’s lower back.
Diego leaned into Sid, so close that he could smell the banana smoothie and McDonald’s chips on his breath. “I said that I was leaving, Osmond.”
“Ok.” Sid squeaked, cross-eyed and kinda choking.
The older boy dropped the latter, tossed his smoothie, and left with a smirk on his face.
He had a meeting with Soto in twenty minutes.
*
The clock rang seven in a painfully low octave, and what could possibly be the most irritating mechanical bird in the world forced its way out of its little wooden doors, chirping an excruciating seven times.
“Soto’s not gonna show, huh?” Ellie said, chewing on the back of her hb pencil.
“I highly doubt it.”
They’d gotten a fair bit done on the project, but boredom was quick to set in, as it is want to do in those ghastly adolescent years. Also, Ellie’s two little brothers were quite determined in their protection of their older sister. Not only glaring at Manfred any chance they got, but actually attempting to torture him. They’d tried a variety of tactics, from the simple, straightforward booby-traps to elaborate schemes that seemed destined to fail, since the pair weren’t patient enough to sit through it. One had included holding a torch onto his arm until he developed skin cancer…the twins had thought this quite cunning.
In the end, Ellie had threatened to bathe them, and they’d fled the room screaming.
“I should probably go home, Ellie. My Grandma wanted me home for dinner.”
Ellie’s charming smile may have faltered somewhat at that, but it had really been too quick to tell.
“Fair enough.” She grinned, rising from her seat on the floor. “I’ll walk you to the door?”
“Sure.”
Reaching the door was a journey far too short for both of them, and they stood opposite each other awkwardly on the porch outside.
“Thank, Manny…”
“What for?”
“Uh, well, taking this project seriously for one.”
He shrugged, “Like the topic.”
Ellie grinned, reaching over to peck him on the cheek.
“I kinda like the company myself.”
And with that, she closed the door to her tiny household, leaving a shocked Manfred behind.
*
TBC
.