Um, this is the updated version of C10.1. I’ve included a brief description of Kevin’s hair, and also of the pens, as yong suggested previously.
Oh, and I’ve added in another section. (Phearsa: When I told you cheese featured in this chapter, I meant it.)
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Chapter 10 – Cheese it.
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It’s weird. Hell, everything’s weird lately.
Let’s start with yesterday. Mr Takeda was acting all jumpy during Karate, a really bizarre occurrence. I’ve never seen him being even remotely uneasy before. I swear he was nervous when he asked where Katherine was. Though of course he didn’t stutter at all. And he kept looking towards the doors throughout the whole session with that weird expression on his face. It’s as if he were expecting someone formidable to come through them.
And school was pure madness today. It is spirit week, yes, but I never expected… Katherine was so pissed that she missed school when I told her what the teachers did. The theme was stars, I think. Predictably, almost everybody was in silver or gold. Erica came to school with a ridiculously large pair of sunglasses. At this point Katherine closed her eyes really tight. I think she was trying really hard not to roll her eyes. When I told her that Mr Chancery was sporting an Elvis Presley-esque hairstyle while chatting about cell division, and that he even sang a song or two (he changed the lyrics to fit whatever he was teaching) in that mellow tenor voice of his, her reaction was really peculiar. She sort of blinked, then said, “Okay.” in an accent that’s almost American. Well, almost. It’s been two months since the start of school after all.
And the highlight of the day? Ms Ross bedecked in a weird shiny star-shaped costume, glittering for all she was worth all through assembly. She was practically sequined from head to toe. It was a refreshing change from her usual monotonous grey apparel. And she sang. Sang. Her voice was so beautiful! I never knew she could sing. Neither did Katherine, apparently. Her expression was so comical. And the way she said “Are you serious?” was even more so.
Later in the day, both her parents came to visit Katherine. Unfortunately, she was asleep then, so they hung around and asked me some questions. They seem to be friendly folk. And I realise that her mannerisms are almost exactly like her father’s. Though she’s less forthcoming. Definitely more reserved.
*
My brother ran his fingers through his hair. In my humble opinion, he looked rather like a porcupine, with random spikes of hair sticking out of his head. He stuck his fingers into a huge vat of gel and proceeded to coax the spikes to lie flat on his head. Then with a few deft flicks of his hands, he styled his hair into something very professional-looking. If I didn’t know better I’d have thought he’d copied it off some fashion magazine. Glancing at me in the mirror, he complained, “It’s so not fair. Why aren’t you going to the dance?”
I leaned back on my chair, grinning idiotically at my mathematics assignment. Oh, life was so wonderful. “Because,” I stressed, ” I have a lot of work to catch up on, and the doctor specifically told me to rest.” I looked up just in time to see him frowning as he straightened his collar. He turned back to glance at me, scowling. When he turned back, he tweaked his collar again.
“Blasted thing,” he cursed, glaring at the collar. “It’s still not fair. I don’t get to see you dance.” He smirked at me in the mirror.
I started attempting the first question. Ooh. Differentiation. Fantastic. “Look at the bright side. I won’t get to see you dance either.”
“There’s no bright side to this at all. I won’t get to see you in a dress.” He grinned evilly at me in the mirror.
Gritting my teeth, I retorted, “What makes you think that I’d have worn a dress?” I considered for a moment. The aerodynamics of my 0.05mm waterproof pen would be better than that of my turquoise marker. Then again, that green gel pen would work just as well. Oh, who cares? He was absorbed in his reflection again, now was my best chance of messing up his hair. Randomly, I grabbed three pens from my table and threw them at him in rapid succession.
He dodged the first two easily enough. The third one hit the back of his head and bounced off harmlessly, barely making a dent in his hair; he must have used a considerable amount of gel.
“Hey! You’re going to mess up my hair.”
“That was my intention.” Time to change the topic. “You’re going with Sharron, aren’t you?”
“Who told you that?” Bro’s expression was guarded.
“Oh, that’s easy to figure out. Being in hospital for five days hasn’t muddled my mind that badly.”
“Right. I was there one day when you weren’t awake, and you were talking absolutely crap in your sleep.”
I froze. “Oh? And what did I say?”
“You kept talking about this grey man. And you kept saying sorry. It was utter rubbish.”
I frowned. “Ah. Must have been a bad dream.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Chris told me that he couldn’t sleep one day because you kept muttering about this ‘grey man’. Who is he, anyway?”
“I don’t know.” I frowned.
Bro seemed slightly disappointed at my words. Then his eyes gleamed. “In any case, how’re you and Chris getting along?”
Cursing my stupidity, I feigned disinterest. “He’s a good friend.” I shrugged.
Bro raised his eyebrows. “A very caring friend indeed. Do you know that he tried to stay overnight at the hospital every day? I heard him argue with his father on Sunday.”
I frowned. “No, I was asleep.”
Bro rolled his eyes. “In any case, I expect he’ll be quite dejected, seeing as you’re not going to the dance.”
“I don’t think so. He’ll just go with someone else.” I reached for a pen and started flipping through the worksheet.
“Aha. So he did ask you to the dance.” He smiled at me triumphantly.
“No, he didn’t.” Somehow, I managed to keep my voice devoid of emotion.
My brother frowned. “I know he was intending to ask you, though.”
I merely raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”
He sighed, exasperated. “Look, sis, you…”
“Kevin! We’re leaving in five minutes!” Ma hollered up the stairs. He paled instantly.
I smiled. Now I was beginning to enjoy this. “Oh, you’ll be fine. Sharron won’t mind too much about your appearance. Just be yourself and everything will be all right.”
“What if…”
“Oh, forget what-ifs. Sharron’s probably worrying about the same things. No sense for both of you to worry, is there?” I ushered him out of my room, following him downstairs. Feathers met me at the ground floor, wagging his tail madly.
“Finally!” Ma exclaimed, wiping her hands on a rag. “What took you so long?” Father was standing beside her, appraising his son’s appearance. His eyebrows rose slightly as his eyes fell upon Bro’s hair.
“Nerves.” Bro grimaced. “Butterflies too.”
“Don’t worry so much, it’ll turn out just the way you want it to.” Casually, she threw the rag behind her. It landed perfectly on a side table. Must be years of practice.
“Thanks, Ma.”
They headed towards the garage.
“Good luck.” I grinned evilly as Bro looked back at me.
“I can’t wait for prom,” he threw over his shoulder as they disappeared through the door.
“Ugh.” I grimaced as the door clicked shut. Feathers whimpered by my side.
Then the door opened again. Father stuck his head in. “I know the doctor told you to rest, but take Feathers for a long walk, will you? He insisted on staying home when you were in hospital. I couldn’t drag him out of the house.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Probably more. Can’t wait to see Sharron. I bet your mother’s none too happy about this.” He grinned, green eyes glinting in mischief. I could almost imagine him strutting to a dance in his teenage years. He’d look a lot like Bro, I realised. Except for the eyes. “She’s so conservative. Traditional Chinese values and all that.”
I smiled as he shook his head, closing the door behind him.
*
Feathers strained on his leash, barking merrily as a hodgepodge of witches, aliens and bizarre monsters headed towards him. And was that a hunk of cheese? I blinked.
“Doggie!”
A bright yellow Swiss Emmentaler streamed ahead of the rest of the group, with a mummy trailing after.
I allowed myself to be pulled along as Feathers bounded towards the child. The puppy was smothered by yellow cloth as the girl threw her arms around his neck.
“Eree, you’re going to hurt him,” the miniature mummy exclaimed. “Let go.”
“Erin, Cara, stop harassing that young lady this instant.” A strict voice cut through the evening like a shard of glass.
I gritted my teeth, fuming slightly. Why did everyone call me “young lady” or “girl” these days? It must be time for a haircut.
“But this is Kathy.” Erin pouted, hugging my knee.
“We know her.” Cara provided, patting Feathers, who was obviously enjoying the attention.
“I’m sorry miss, they’re quite a handful.” An old granny who was accompanying the children tried to pull Erin away, but she wouldn’t budge an inch.
“It’s okay. We do know each other.” I ruffled Erin’s hair slightly.
She beamed at me. “Are you visiting us later?”
I paused. “Perhaps.”
“Please?” She looked up at me with enormous green eyes. Cara stared at me with hers too.
“Girls…” the granny began.
I caved in and groaned. “Oh, alright. I’ll be there at nine.”
They whooped in joy. “Can you…” Erin began.
“Erin! Cara! You won’t get any candy if you don’t come with us,” the old lady threatened.
Erin hugged my knee one last time. “See you later!”
I waved, grinning madly. “Bye!” As they retreated into the distance, I shook my head, chuckling. Hunk of cheese?
-
The pens are a bit… well, I didn’t really describe them in detail… As I’ve been trying to tell everyone, I’m not Katherine. For one, I’d never throw my 0.05mm waterproof pen at my brother. It’s too precious. I’d probably chuck something considerably bigger if I wanted to mess up his hair anyway. (Like a dictionary. No, just kidding.)
:0 I’d just get up and mess it up real bad XD
really, you’d think guys were vainer than girls. My cousin is ready to kill if you even touch one strand of his hair…and when you ruffle it, it just goes back to normal, but he’ll always try to “style” it back to normal…and to me there wasn’t any diff o.0
realised i haven’t used this yet. reminds me of hatsune miku from vocaloid.
okay! i actually had to google swiss emmentaler. does kat know that much about cheeses? (actually what’s the plural of cheese anyway.)
and i’m just spotted something weird. both siblings are in the same room! presumely it’s kat, because she’s doing work there, yet presumely it’s also her brother’s! because he’s styling up there!
argh hurry up and get to another spirit week. i wanna have a cacti/petri dush of culture (unique to which country, i don’t know)/owl/chameleion/stuff.
and yes i made a lame joke above. and yes i have decided to spell it as chameleion because it’s an entirely new species. it’s nearly transparent like some shrimps are, hence they don’t actually change colour because they don’t have any.
hahaha! Your bro will just get a concussion instead! (if you throw a dictionary) and (EDIT: xinboon), you can just throw soft toys at him you know. wait. do you have soft toys? hmm.
and i have a problem with this part:
He raised an eyebrow. “Chris told me that he couldn’t sleep one day because you kept muttering about him. Who is he, anyway?”
i think the “muttering about HIM”, you should refer to the grey man. cos when i look at the sentence, i would think the him is Chris at first sight. Maybe it’s just that my brain works differently or whatever, but it’s a bit odd. well, just a suggestion, you dont have to take it XD
and why is kat grinning madly?
and no matter what you say, Kat is WAYYY too much like you, so stop denying it.
WHEEE i got lavender!
(for the randomly generated uh..what do you call that?… SQUARE.) XD
My bro’s not THAT vain. I think. Anyway, I wouldn’t have wanted to mess up his hair if he was going to prom. I’d just keep my mouth shut.
Cheese… is a truly diverse and… refined subject. Swiss emmentaler is actually quite common in supermarkets around the world. Just not in our country. I think the plural of cheese is cheeses.
No, they’re not in the same room. I think I’ve mentioned somewhere that they share the same bathroom. (The bathroom has two doors. The idea was from some hotel in Penang that, strangely enough, I’ve stayed in twice, once when I was 6 or so, and once a few years ago.)
I’ve been fascinated with the concept of a two-doored room ever since.
Chameleion is a new species? Really?
Even if f kath had soft toys it wouldn’t be near her work table. Hmm. I think she does have soft toys. Just… yeah, it’s not on her table.
Um. Kath’s grinning madly because she finds cheesy halloween costumes highly amusing and uber cool. And plus, it’s Erin that’s wearing the ridiculous costume, so she looks sort of cute and adorable in a silly way.
Yeah. I know you love lavender.
i think it’s a gravatar. but i’d like to call it an identipic.
my aunt’s house has a two-door bathroom! because she has two sons and they share it. so kat actually throws the pens from where she’s sitting at the desk to the toilet? hmmm. since this issue has generated so much controversy i think you should describe the surroundings more rather only focus on the happenings?
and yes chameleion is a new species. don’t contradict me. people who are contrary are extremely disagreeable, you know. they make me knit my brows, without even having to use wool.
you could make my character tell intelligent, cynical, sacarstic jokes! which no one laughs at…?
i get the feeling you’re punning on cheese. good!
oh i agree about the HIM bit too.
and what did you edit out!!!!
[...] [...]
I didn’t edit anything out. I added things in.
And i’ve sort of made the necessary changes from your comments, boonny.
(Sheesh. Reference drawings.) But I didn’t refer to any… uh… drawings. Or photos.