Calypso High
Episode 9: Wild Honey
Notice: The BBs song title/Blaine arc has been extended to at least four episodes, just because of the way I'm writing it. Deal.
Marianna was still in shock as she drove home, a slim gold band now around her ring finger. She would glance away from the road every few seconds in amazement to see the ring. It was a tiny little diamond chip, but she didn't care. Nothing in her life had ever been about the money, and she knew quite well that Blaine was in college, had to pay for that, and besides, he wanted to be a musician. That was one hell of a career to succeed in-- but he had the talent, she was sure. They'd make it somehow.
Meanwhile, she really should try to focus on driving. Daniela was pouting in the back seat, as Mari had insisted that Blaine get the front seat. It had been Daniela's idea to introduce Blaine to the folks, after all. Tianne had already been dropped off. And it was just another block and a turn to Mari's house... her heart started pounding, the voices swirled around her mind at double speed...
"Brakes!" Daniela shouted. Mari hit the brakes just in time to avoid hitting a car that was in her usual parking spot along the sidewalk.
"What the hell is that?!" she shouted, slamming the car into park (the transmission protesting loudly) and jumping out. "Who'd be visiting after midnight?"
Blaine and Daniela got out of the car a bit less loudly. "Don't ask me," Dani said, shaking her head. "I didn't know Mom and Dad could stay up this late."
"And yet you were worried about missing curfew?" Mari said, rolling her eyes as she checked out the ugly navy BMW sitting in her spot. "Whoever took my spot is gonna get his... uh... oh God."
"What is it?" Blaine asked, ready to grab her if she fainted or something.
"Bad vibes. Seriously bad vibes coming from this car. I sense evil..." Mari's voice had dropped to a whisper. She regarded the car with severe hate.
"Not the car," Blaine said. "The owner. Right?"
"Yeah... I don't want to go in the house. Please, let's just leave. Before they notice I'm here, please let's get in the car and go."
"Too late," Daniela said, attention on the house. A short figure stood in the doorway: Pandora.
"They're back!" Pandora shrieked into the house. The way Pandora shrieked, half the town heard.
"No..." Mari whimpered. "I won't go..."
"You know you will," Daniela said, starting up the lawn. "Come on, just get it over with, and if it really sucks, you can run away."
"Funny, Dani, really freaking funny."
Blaine snagged Mari's hand as she started trudging up to the house, hiding her left hand (and the ring) in his own hand. "Whatever happens, we can deal with it, okay?"
"Okay," Mari agreed. She really loved him... it was going to work out, she just knew it. She trusted him implicitly.
As she got up to the door, Pandora and Daniela had both disappeared, although she knew they were hovering just out of sight at the top of the stairs, eavesdropping. Her parents had replaced them on the porch, and there was a third person who Mari had never seen before.
All three regarded Blaine warily.
Mari swallowed, hard. This was not good. Not good at all.
"Hi..." she said tentatively.
"Marianna, this is MacKenzie Trench," Dad said. The man, who Mari guessed was about five years older than she was (and therefore not much older than Blaine), was somewhat tall, slim, blond, and smug-looking. His demeanor reminded her much of Frogman.
"Hi," she said, automatically sticking out her hand to shake. It wasn't from any desire to touch him, more from being too confused and worried to do anything but fall back on her training. As MacKenzie accepted her hand (his was cool but dry, a firm yet tentative grip), Mari became intensely aware of her *other* hand. Blaine was still hanging on, hiding the ring and lending support. It would probably be best for her to introduce him, eh? "This is Blaine Brison," she said, inclining her head backward. Handshakes were exchanged all around, Mari carefully sticking her left hand in her back pocket when Blaine let go.
"Well, Mari dear," her mother said when the introductions were complete, "I hope you're not too attached to Blaine. He looks like a nice enough boy, but we've already arranged for you to marry MacKenzie."
Mari closed her eyes and prayed that she'd only smashed her car into a tree on the way home from the beach and this was a trauma-induced nightmare.
She opened her eyes. She was still on the porch, MacKenzie looking at her expectantly, her parents shooting their usual "you better stick to protocol or else" daggers. She felt Blaine's hand come to rest on the small of her back, cool against the sunburn but comforting nonetheless.
She supposed she'd turned purple, having been holding her breath. Time to let it out.
"No. Not on your life. Not on your collective lives." She was practically spitting venom. "Blaine proposed to me first, and properly-- I'm marrying him, and you have nothing to say about it!" Mari shoved her left hand in MacKenzie's face, showing off the little diamond.
"You have no choice in the matter, Marianna," her father said. "This is a legal contract. The gypsy woman who paired you was a notary public."
"Gypsy woman!" Mari shouted. "Are you people *insane*?! Screw this, I'm outta here!"
She spun around, leaping off the porch and dragging Blaine along with her. She didn't stop till she'd gotten in the car and got it started again. Blaine, not knowing what else to do, and having no way of getting home or back to his car without her, jumped in as well.
***
Daniela and Pandora watched Marianna tear out of the neighborhood from the upstairs hall window. "Wow, she really ran away," Daniela said. "I was just joking."
"Say Dani, do you think Mom and Dad arranged marriages for us, too?" Pandora asked.
"Nah, I bet they just figured Mari wouldn't find a good one on her own. Wonder what's gonna happen now..."
***
Mari didn't stop driving till she'd gotten all the way to the south end of town, to Soul Surfin Point in the Surf Strip. The entire way, she had the radio on as loud as it would go. Blaine just let her get her demons out and held on as well as he could.
When she finally screeched her way into the parking lot at Soul Surfin Point and turned off the radio, her hair had fallen loose from its "practical" bun (was that really what she'd been worrying about just a few hours ago?) and was windwhipped into a mad frenzy of curly tresses. She still had so much anger in her... and all she could do was fall into Blaine's arms, sobbing.
"I'm so sorry," she cried. "I knew something bad would happen. Nothing ever goes my way!"
"Shh, it's alright," he soothed. "We'll go far away from here, if you want, and we'll figure something out."
"Far away where?"
"California? You always wanted to go there, didn't you? Or England, if you think we can stand the climate."
"Calypsoans? Hah. We'd die without sunshine," she said, lifting her head and smiling a bit.
"Yeah, you're right. Bermuda?"
"Or Hawaii."
"Or Australia. Best surfing in the world down there, I hear."
"But you don't surf, silly," Mari said, tapping Blaine lightly on the nose with her finger. "I want *you* to be happy."
"I'll be happy wherever you are. You'll never leave me, right?"
"Never," Mari said, leaning back into Blaine and sighing happily. "Everything will turn out all right..."
***
Back at the DeSkas' house, MacKenzie Trench shifted uncomfortably in his armchair. The DeSkas all seemed to be a bit... off. Marianna actually had seemed to be the most normal of them all. The little girls had been arguing and giggling in turns from upstairs, interspersed with flashes of music that were way too loud for going on 1 a.m. Mrs. DeSka occasionally leaned up the stairs and yelled at them to go to bed. Meanwhile, Mr. DeSka was still trying to engage MacKenzie in a conversation about politics-- something he usually professed to know nothing about, as it disgusted him.
If only Marianna had stayed. And Blaine Brison, too. They could have talked this whole thing out. He and Marianna could have gotten married for just a short while, a year, maybe even had a child, then divorced. He could get on with his career, and she could get on with school or whatever it was she wanted to do. Marry Blaine. Although, keeping her for a while longer than that could be good for his career, too-- and not his career in selling bulk greeting cards door-to-door, either. He'd noticed her high psi level just by shaking her hand, although his preliminary research into her school records had said it was much higher. She'd probably been blocking. But anyway, especially with those blocks, if she could be indoctrinated into the System, she'd be a great partner. Marianna had that look, that if she tried it, she'd love jet-setting around the world, meeting people and stealing their nations' secrets. Spying was such a rewarding job.
Of course, she was still in high school, and MacKenzie did have better things to do at the moment than court a high school girl. He'd wait a few years, let her go to college, get all of her wild tendencies out of her system. Then he would marry her, bring up that lovely contract if necessary, and establish a base here in out-of-the-way Calypso Beach.
So many possibilities, so many conflicts... and he had to pretend to be a greeting card salesman on top of that! And, apparently, he also had to be on top of local politics even though he hadn't been to Layla:) since his birth, three days into the two-week-long Gypsy Beach Carnival, twenty-one years ago. That, of course, was where his family and the DeSkas had found the matchmaker gypsy and dealt the accursed blow to their respective childrens' autonomy.
"So, MacKenzie--"
"Please, sir, call me Mac. Everyone else does."
"Oh, sorry. Mac. How's the greeting card business?" Mr. DeSka asked for the hundredth time that night.
"There doesn't seem to be much call for it in Layla:). I've noticed there's a booming singing telegram business, however."
"Ah, yes," Mr. DeSka said, chuckling. "Daniela rents out two of their best tenors every major holiday to send songrams to her friends: Christmas, Easter, Valentines, Halloween, July 4th, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day..."
Mac Trench stretched his back as best he could while Mr. DeSka droned on about young Daniela's spending habits.
***
Marianna parked her car in an overnight garage downtown, not the safest place, but sufficient considering the circumstances. Then she and Blaine walked back to the beach.
Walking always helped her clear her mind, but this morning the best she could hope for was focusing on Blaine. With no jacket and a bare back, Mari had started shivering not long after stopping down on Surf Strip. So she and Blaine walked slowly down the abandoned streets of Calypso Beach, his arm draped as best as possible across her back, she clinging around his waist. It was, physically and mentally, a dependence Mari was not proud of. She'd probably feel better tomorrow afternoon at work, at the Pilgrim's Bodega. Then, she'd be earning money, something to help Blaine.
At the beach, Blaine's Corvette waited patiently. The guys he'd driven to the beach had left with other people, hours ago, and the ashes of the bonfire were already cold and buried under the sand. It was nearly three o'clock, the sun not even thinking about rising yet, hidden behind the eastern hills and forests of Greater Layla:). Dark clouds gathered in the southwest, the promise of a storm still hovering in the air, and choppy little waves leapt up from the surface of Calypso Bay and slammed into each other. An odd cross-wind pushed some waves backward.
Mari hadn't spoken in hours. It was just enough to be close to Blaine, to feel his skin against hers, to know he wasn't going to abandon her or betray her. Blaine hadn't spoken, either. They operated in tandem, silently, as they had mere hours ago around the bonfire, singing. And they remained silent, as they got into the car and Blaine wrapped a beach blanket around Mari's shoulders.
Finally, as they drove through the streets of Layla:) once more, Mari turned on her beloved oldies station.
And exploded. "Why the hell do they have to play crap like 'Hold That Tiger'?! I NEED BEACH BOYS!!"
"Whoa, whoa," Blaine said, veering slightly left as he'd nearly jumped out of his skin. "Check the CD player."
"Logic," Mari muttered. "Logic is a foundation upon which to build mental stability."
"Right-o. Are we going to my house?"
"Unless you think your parents will kill us both."
"No, just me." Blaine glanced at Mari as she popped Pet Sounds into the CD player and looked up at him skeptically. "They have this thing where I'm always wrong and I corrupt young girls and my brothers and anyone else I come into contact with."
"Oh, yeah, mine have that too," Mari nodded. "I think it's called oldest-child syndrome." She glanced at a street sign as they coasted through a stop sign. "You live in Newshregsburg?"
"Didn't I mention that?"
"You don't act like one of them. You act like a true Calypsoan. You like the beach and you don't wear Pierre Cardin swim trunks and you listen to rock music."
"I was born in Calypso Beach. Well, Layla:) & Memorial like everyone else, but we lived on the bay. We moved to Newshregsburg when I was eight and my dad got a job in one of the recording studios up there."
"Oh."
"Here's home," Blaine said, pulling up to the curb in front of a two-story that had probably been a farmhouse back in Newshregsburg's agricultural beginnings. "We'll have to sneak in my window."
"Please tell me your room is on the first floor."
"Yeah. 'Round back here."
The Brisons' back yard was well-populated with trees, one of which bore an aged but sturdy tree-house. Mari took in every detail discernible by the light of a bug zapper hanging from the back deck.
"Quiet now," Blaine warned. "I'll get in more trouble for waking up Dad than for having a girl in."
Mari nodded silently, chewing on her bottom lip. Suddenly this did not seem like the best idea. Moving in with a guy-- however temporarily-- who still lived with his parents? Oh, well, the window was open and Blaine was halfway through already. Gee, she hadn't noticed before what a nice butt he had!
"Hold on," Blaine said, sticking his arms out the window for Mari to grab. Then she braced her feet against the outside wall and climbed in. Blaine turned on a light... and Mari had to stifle a scream.
"Mar-- what's wrong?" Blaine said, whipping around... to find his brother perched on a chair, looking like a blond, tanned devil.
"You?" he laughed quietly. "You, Mister Perfect Child, are bringing a girl in the house. At three a.m., no less."
"Shut up, get out, say nothing to Mom or Dad. Especially Dad," Blaine glared, moving toward his brother with obviously evil intent.
"Unless you feel like singing soprano the rest of your life," Mari chimed in malevolently. This was one of her fortes-- getting rid of bothersome siblings.
Brother Davy thought a moment, then disappeared to parts unknown.
"Never knew you were so handy with a threat." Blaine raised an eyebrow at Mari. She just shrugged, then yawned. "You must be exhausted."
"Oh, I've only been up for... twenty-two hours..." Mari said faintly. Then, as that number hit her, she swooned.
***
To be continued in a while...