How many frogs have you kissed? An Interview.

"I don't know why I agreed to do this."
Ellie makes a face.
"Oh right. I have a psychotic best friend."
Ellie pokes Jen in the ribs.
"Ow," sounds of a scuffle. "Okay! maybe not psychotic." Giggling ensues.
"Are you two going to take this seriously?"
"Yes Eric, I will take this seriously," giggling continues.
Sound of something hitting the floor.
"Eric come back."
"Eric stop rage quitting."

Eric: "Alright, Jen, how many frogs have you kissed?"
Jen: "What?"
Ellie: "I'd say about thirty-three."
Jen: "What!?"
Eric: "Did you not understand the question?"
Jen: "I don't know why I agreed to do this."
Ellie: "Eric means that you are the Princess from that Disney movie who kisses frogs in order that they become a prince."
Jen: "I know what he means- wait a minute, that "princess" wasn't a princess she was like this wannabe restaurant owner-"
Ellie: "Tiana."
Jen: "What?'
Ellie: "Tiana."
Jen: "Who?"
Ellie: "The princess."
Jen: "She wasn't a princess- was she?"
Eric: "Jeezu-"
Ellie: "Eric!"
Eric: "Sorry"
Sounds of a scuffle.
Eric: "Not in the face!" giggling. "I'm sorry!" scuffling "I give! Surrender! Please!"
some silence.
Jen: "It's a good thing, this isn't on video. That would have been embarrassing."
Eric: "It's a podcast."
Jen: "It's a podcast."
Eric: "You know I hate you."
Ellie: "Wasn't Eric the twenty-third frog?"
Jen: "Let me think. No, I think he was the twenty-fourth."
Eric: "I hate both of you."
Ellie: "We love you too, Erica."
later.
Eric:"Let's try this again."
Ellie: "Jen, why do you equate kissing men with frogs."
Jen: "Well, Ellie, I am glad you asked me that. As you will recall, when I was fifteen, you told me the fairy tale of Princess Lea and the Frog Prince over tea in the Gazebo in the garden."
Ellie: "Good times."
Jen: "Wel, Ellie, as I am but a young impressionable lass-"
Sounds of giggling.
Eric: "Ow!"
Jen: "As I was saying, I am easily impressed by such a basic truth as finding out if you are meant to be by kissing someone, I saw fit to take it upon myself to go out, searching for true love which by my logic would be solved with that first true love's kiss."
Eric: "Your logic is flawed."
Jen: "You failed to bring this up when I kissed you."
Eric: "I kissed you first."
Jen: "It did do something."
Eric:"Oh? What was that?"
Jen: "It turned you into a frog."
Sounds of giggling, followed by a loud crash.
Ellie: "Eric stop sulking, you are a very handsome frog."
More giggling.
Jen: "Well I guess Eric is out."
Ellie: "It looks that way."
Jen: "Anyway, after going through the whole let's date and work up to the first kiss, I got tired of waiting to see if the guy would get around to kissing me."
Ellie: "You mean they didn't try to kiss you on the first date?"
Jen: "No....are you telling me I am missing something?"
Ellie: "All the guys, I've dated, tried to kiss me on the first date."
Jen: "Dammit. This sucks."
Ellie: "I hear you, sister."
Jen: "Wait-a-minute! you've dated like 4 guys since I've known you!"
Ellie: "Sorry, I wondered when you would do the math."
Jen: "And one of them was your brother Eric!"
Ellie: "Technically he's my foster brother and there was a lot of pressure."
Jen: "He forced you into it."
Ellie: "Nooo? I mean it was more like persistent pleading and I finally gave in."
Jen: "He whined his way into a date?"
Ellie: "Yes and like an idiot, I gave in and let him kiss me."
Jen: "Was there even a date?"
Ellie: "Who do you think I am?"
Jen: "Sorry, I forget, I thought you were his sister!"
Ellie: "You are just jelly that he took me to an actual restaurant instead of McDonald's."
Jen: "If you call O'Charlies an actual restaurant."
Ellie: "One cannot expect French Cuisine in Topeka, Kansas."
Jen: "We are in Ohio."
Ellie: "It's a metaphor."
Jen: "Oh sure, go use some fancy words to cover over that you let your brother kiss you."
Ellie: "At least, my brother didn't film me kissing a frenching a teddy bear with tongue and everything and put it on AOL..."
Jen: "What?"
Ellie: "Totally making out with Sir Reginald and everything."
Jen: "That bastard! I am going to kill him!"
Ellie: "Anyway, you were telling us how you got tired of dating Frogs."
Jen: "You think you are so smooth. I know what you did there."
Sounds of giggling.
Ellie: "Whew, this is exhausting."
Jen: "Yup. How does Eric do this all the time."
Ellie: "if I had to guess I suspect his other guests don't tickle as much or use headlocks."
Jen: "That was a hug."
Ellie: "Sure, let's call it that."
Jen: "Look, it just proved to be easier to get the guy to kiss me first."
Ellie: "Before or after he asks you out?"
Screaming and laughing ensues.
Jen: "Let's call it a draw."
Ellie: "I win! I win!"
More sounds of laughter and screaming.
Ellie: "I still win though."
Jen: "You know Eric is going to be sure we were making out or something."
Ellie: "You mean the recording?"
Jen: "We could delete it...right?"
Ellie: "Where is it? All I see is a microphone."
Jen: "Damn, now I will have to kiss Eric again...or threaten to."
Ellie: "No, leave him as a frog."
Jen: "Speaking of which, I've got to go."
Ellie: "Which frog is it this time?"
Jen: "His name is Ivan, I think he's French or something."

So, where were we?

Research has begun.
Since Mondays are usually disastrous I will start with a fairly whimsical commentary on doing research via youtube.

1. Coming out videos. The popular ones feature beautiful boys and girls, men and women and I suspect because I am old, the girls and boys are older than they seem to me, telling me - I mean youtube-at-large that they are in fact gay and then they invariably burst into tears. At first, this made me very uncomfortable, I had to watch about 6 of them before I realized why.  The very pretty young woman would smile at the webcam, thank everyone for their continued support, I would look at the 500,000 plus subscribers (a few have over 1million) and then announce that they were, in fact, gay and they were coming out to the world and then, as if on cue, burst into tears or weep in a very appealing fashion. It comes across as rehearsed, I am not saying it's not genuine- hell if I came out as heterosexual, I would be a nervous wreck and probably have to do a dozen takes before giving up and choosing the least horrendous one. It just seems to be contrived. In all my viewings, and I realize I have but scratched the tip of the ice cap on top of the mountain here, there wasn't a single one where I got any other feeling but relief. I mean bursting into tears of.... that's what I mean. I sat there thinking: are they happy and crying? are they relieved they could finally say this and not implode? are they sad? mad? embarrassed? just being emotional (insert sexist slur)? Nope, I still don't know. I need Deadpool. I need Shakespeare. I need an aside. The reason I am crying here at this point in the video is because: (insert a reason why you are crying).
   I am not a bastard despite what you are thinking, I am a writer looking for a reason, an actor waiting for a motivation, "cue crying, what is my motivation for crying?" 
2. I was disappointed that youtube appears to only feature the beautiful (by pop culture standards) on every video I found. Admittedly I only tried for 30 minutes to find a less than ideal woman or man talking about coming out. I ended up with what I was almost sure was going to be a misogynist bashing coming out videos and found at least a better point of view.  His name is Onison. I did watch quite a few of his videos and his wife's. He's a really egocentric borderline asshole  who I find very insightful and amusing. I gave up after that.
3. The bisexual websites were at once confusing, buy this book, dig through this community discussion board on Reddit (I love Reddit but it's a full-time commitment finding the answers there) or go to a blog that makes absolutely no sense (of course it was 11:30 and my body can't decide if I am a night owl anymore or if I ever was). I tried a few "things you should never say to a bisexual" videos and posts and rolled my eyes because they were things you shouldn't say to anyone unless you are in deathmatch on Halo and the guy you are saying them to is 17 years old with the maturity of a 5-year-old and just called you mother an unseemly term implying that you should just off yourself right at that moment. But I digress.
   In short, not helpful.
4. The polyamory sites and pages were somewhat helpful in at least clarifying that there are multiple types of polyamory and what I thought it was - wasn't exactly what those sites say it is- if that makes sense. It did concrete some things for the plot of the novel.

Finally, I am reaching out to anyone, who is willing to start a conversation with me. I really want to get this novel written without screwing it up. I know that this is just surface stuff as I am really writing a book about relationships and the nature of love.

Everything else is really setting, I just want it to be believable and accurate.

I promise the next post will be something more along the lines of what I originally planned to post. let the character exploration re-commence!  

progress!

We have a working title:

The way you danced into my heart by Allison Bree Fitzgerald

that's the whole title.

and almost a paragraph of a forward that will be complete when I finish the book, probably written and rewritten in stages.

and the first page of the framework.

What is the Framework?

For those of you who don't know. The framework is a fancy word for the vehicle which is, in turn, a fancy way of saying that the structure upon which the story is told. A classic example of this is Pride and Prejudice or Dangerous Liaisons (yes the title is in French) where the framework is either conversations only or letters that are written. In the case of something like the Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, the story is told through a series of Journal or Diaries entries. Most of the time it does quite well if you are telling the story from a limited point of view.

But I want the story to be told through multiple points of view with Allison Bree's POV- being dominant to tie it all together. So, it's my intention to use first person narrative with third person omniscient (limited) [I know all the terms are wrong, some Stuffy English Professor will, no doubt swoop in to correct me....anyone? Oh well]

I am probably insane (insert Billy Joel song)

Things to do. 

1. Research: I suspect I will be watching a fair amount of the L Word and other gay/lesbian tv cinema until I can get a lesbian, a gay man and a bisexual woman to talk to me.
2. comb through the internet for source material, find it and ask nicely if I can quote them without being burned at the stake for daring to upset their fans.
3. read everything that is written in diary journal form without going mad first
4. pray for a miracle or someone who suddenly says "I get what he's trying to do!" and contacts me so we can talk almost every day about what I am trying to do.
5. be patient, Phil Collins did sing "you can't hurry love or finish a novel fast or something like that.
6. write some more blogs to try out other points of view, get feedback???? Well, I will pretend to get feedback and then me and the characters will discuss this all over tea with Sir Reginald and Tiny Tina.

Peace. 

PSS: If you wish to help me out

leave a comment or send me an email @ mikemumbled@gmail.com

The Sounds of screeching Brakes. or what this was and probably what this will become from here

I started writing a love story here.
I made the fortunate mistake of listening to Neil Gaiman talking about writing, reading and writers and somewhere north of Roanoke VA on I-81, I realized this wasn't going to be a love story and it wasn't going to be short.
It's a novel.
A novel I plan to finish.
now for a few possible reactions.

"That's the best news I've heard all day. or not."

"I knew that was what you were going to say- no wait a sec!"

"You said LOVE STORY! I had guarantees....NOW I am a bit upset."

"You just could leave it as something simple?"

"Woohoo!"

So, for those of you hoping to continue getting the juicy bits. You will, but

(I KNEW THERE WAS A BUT)

What is here and what will be here are character sketches and ideas that will be going into the novel. The novel itself will be written offline.

Yep. 

Gnashing of teeth follows.

It's just how I write novels (the two I am writing anyway)

I am still going to come here and write.

So some reassurances.

This is still a story about finding and keeping love.

It has a new narrator. I had originally planned to have everyone tell their own story and that is still true, but I am going to frame around Allison Bree's diary. 

Allison has not been introduced yet and won't until I have had time to discuss/read some diary/journals of women who were teenagers in the nineties and became adults in the time since.

Much of what I am trying to tell her, came out of my head and dozens of books and tv shows and movies.

I want to share all of them with you, so for now, I will keep telling you the stories but just understand you are reading the outline of a novel.

One final note.

I am a writer of fantasy and science fiction

this novel will be fantastic and have science 

but it won't be the same thing.

This is going to be a story about 5 people and how they

changed each other.

hope to see you back here...soon.

Interlude One: Tea time with Lady Fitzgerald.

Jen went over to Ellie's house almost every day following her initial encounter with Ellie and Eric.
Eric hated this, it was obvious why since Eric made no secret of it from here and should he be able to catch Jen before she could get within earshot of Ellie, he would confront her and say things like:
"Ellie is feeling ill today, go home."
"Ellie is not here, she had to stay over at school"
or
"Ellie no longer likes you, you're boring."

Jen would look down at Eric who would slowly become aware that Jen was taller than him, then Jen would lunge forward until he got out of her way. Jen would call Ellie's name out in a loud voice and Ellie would rush into the room or the entry hall or out into the yard and curtsy in her graceful manner, her skirts flaring and declare:
"It's so nice of you to drop by Lady Olsten. Would you like to take a spot of tea on the veranda or gazebo?"
Jen would do her own curtsy wishing she had a skirt like Ellie's instead of the torn jeans of soccer shorts. Eric would sneer at her as if she was some street urchin before stalking off to the house. He seldom stayed with them for these visits.
Ellie would look at Eric and tsk at him disapprovingly before coming to Jen. Ellie would look so happy to see Jen, a smiles, bright eyes, mischevious grin. Together they would walk hand in hand to wherever the tea party was set out. There were always enough chairs for each of the stuffed animals and Ellie and Jen. On the occasions that Eric would be civil enough to join them Ellie would ask him sweetly to fetch himself an additional chair. He would grumble and stomp back to the house to get the chair.
The amazing things about these tea parties were;
One, it was alway real tea with hot water steeped with some exotically flavored tea. Jen had asked her mother about this, Patricia said she had played Tea-time as a girl but her parents only let her use water. When Jen asked Ellie about this, Ellie giggled and declared that it would be a water party and not a tea party then. Eric would give his well-practiced sneer as he pointed out only the lower class would pretend such a thing.
Two, the biscuits and crumpets were real food. Again, when Jen asked Ellie would giggle and blush and after a little coaxing admit that she baked all of it herself, then she would add that Eric helped her do it. Eric would look a bit abashed as Jen told them she had never baked anything. Ellie was for authenticity, the very idea of plastic food and water was unmentionable.
Three, each of the animals wore a specific coat or hat that assigned them a station. There was Sir Reginald the Teddy Bear with a monocle and the velveteen vest. Lord Faldaroy the Rabbit who had a bow tie and cardigan sweater. Lady Cathy the Cat who had a bonnet, and Mister Alex the Monkey who was actually a Curious George but with a sewn-on tuxedo.  It would take a while before Jen figured out that Ellie would repeat whatever she imagined the animals response to was to a question or a statement was for Jen's and Eric's benefit. After she realized this was the case, Ellie turned to Jen one afternoon and asked her to repeat what Sir Reginald had just said. Jen look baffled as she had never thought it was her place to speak for the animals. Jen stuttered for a moment then made up a plausible lie and said that Sir Reginald had wanted cream with his crumpet was quite put out about it. Jen had no idea what cream was or what being put out was. Eric looked delighted for a second as he seemed to be hoping that Ellie would declare Jen unfit for any more tea parties but he was to be disappointed.
Ellie burst into laughter, placed her right hand on Jen's upper arm as she remarked to Sir Reginald that she had just "run plum out of cream that morning and next time there would most assuredly be cream with his crumpets in the next day." Jen sat there looking at Ellie for a long time finally understanding that she could say anything for the animals and Ellie would accept it as a matter of fact. Eric looked sick which made Jen feel bad for him and also glad that he would not be rid of her that easily.

About two weeks of going over to Ellie's house for tea parties almost every day, save for Sunday when her father declared that they were going to church- where Jen and Saul learned to their mutual horror that Saul's football coach attended as was married to a girl's volleyball coach. Jen, sat in the pew paralyzed with fear since she realized at that moment, that her father had not given up on her as an athlete but had been biding his time waiting for her wrist to heal. As her father talked with the coach and his wife and Saul and Jen were paraded up for show and tell. Saul turned to his sister and whispered, "kill me now."
Jen looked back at him and knew at that moment that Saul hated football and like her, he had thought by getting pulled from the last team that he could escape their father's obsession. Alvin turned in the pew in front of them with a big smug grin on his face.
"I guess we won't be seeing either of you around much anymore," he said.
Jen wanted to punch him instead she hunched over with sudden cramps and threw up all of her breakfast all over Alvin who cried out in horror. It wasn't the first onset of her first period, but combined with stress, anxiety, and fear, it was the most spectacular sign of it to occur in her life.
Needless to say, by the time Jen had been escorted out of the church by her mother and a herd of women to the bathroom to get cleaned up, and Alvin had stopped screaming, Saul laughing, her dad apologizing to the coach and his wife, the Olsten's did not go back to that church ever again.
Patricia explained to Jack that this was a normal stage in Jen's life and there was no need to lose his mind over it. Jack lost his mind over it.
Jen was grounded for 2 weeks for throwing up on Alvin. Alvin was grounded for a month for screaming in church and for calling his sister a fucking bitch. Saul was ground for a week for laughing at everyone including his coach and father. Patricia stopped talking to Jack unitl 4 days later when he relented on the grounding and mumbled an apology to his children before leaving the house for work.  Rebecca sat at the table watching everyone looking baffled and confused.
By the time Jen got back to Ellie's house everything had changed.

Jen Olsten

She was born Jennifer Olsten. She chose to go by Jen instead when she turned thirteen. She was standing in the hallway waiting for her older brother Alvin to finish in the bathroom. After five minutes, she began to beat on the door.
"I'm busy!" Alvin chirped.
Jen liked to think of him as that chipmunk....
"Come on Alvin! I need to pee!"
"I'm busy Jenny 5309!"
"My name isn't Jenny!"
And just like that- she decided that everyone would call her Jen from then on.
A week later she googled Jenny 5309. she watched the youtube video, then she went in search of her brother. She found him on the curb of their suburban road in Ohio hanging out with his skateboarder friends. A bunch of dweebs who considered themselves "Thrashers."
She walked up to him as he was bragging about doing 360 flips. He looked at her.
"What do you want retard?" He said as his friends leered at her and laughed.
He looked back at his friends for a moment to laugh at his own joke with them. When he looked back
Jen slapped him across the face as hard as she could muster.
Jen played softball since she was nine. So she could slap the shit out of her brother.
He stood there dumbfounded while his friends laughed at him. She stepped on his board flipping it up into his crotch. He let out a squeak and doubled over.
Jen then grabbed the board and threw it over the fence behind his friends who all dived for the ground as it sailed up and over them out into road beyond. Luckily it did not hit the car that was passing at that point but there was the definite sound of screeching tires and cussing.
Alvin looked up at his sister a mixture of fear and hatred in his face.
"I'm telling Dad!" he managed to say over his pain and discomfort.
"That'd be great," Jen said with a big toothy grin. "while you're at it- you can explain to them how you called me a whore, dickweed."

Alvin's story was edited down to the brass tacks when he told his father what Jen had done, it did not include the slap in the face or crotch hit. It was just about her throwing his prized skateboard out into traffic getting it run over by a semi-destroying it in the process. Alvin almost managed not to cry as he pointed at his sister at the dinner table while his older brother Saul had tears in his own eyes from as he struggled not to laugh at Alvin. Her father looked at Jen as this was all reported to him. When Alvin finished his story tears on his red face, her father looked at his daughter and raised a single eyebrow.
Jen looked back at him defiantly, crossed her arms and said.
"You ever hear that Tommy Tutone song about the phone number, Dad?"
Alvin was grounded for a month.
Their father decided it was best that everyone call Jen by her new name and anyone other than her mother caught calling her Jenny would be doing the dishes for life.
Alvin never called her Jenny again.

Jen had four siblings. Saul 4 years older, Alvin 2 years older, and Rebecca 3 years younger. Her mother, Patricia was a librarian at the community library and an avid knitter. Every year, each child got a brand new sweater for Christmas. Only Rebecca ever wore hers. Her father Jack was a car salesman who had dreamed of being a sports star but lost out due to a football injury in college which cost him his dreams. Jack had dropped out of College met Patricia and decided to relive his sports dreams vicariously through his children.
So far, Saul had been his favorite excelling in football to become the youngest all-star quarterback in their hometown of Perrysburg. Alvin had been introduced to several sports but shown no interest in furthering his father's desire and had turned to skateboarding instead. Jack hated the whole skateboarding thing until Alvin had shown his father Tony Hawk and extreme sports. Jack had taken Alvin to several events before concluding that Alvin did not have an athletic gene in his body.
Jen had been introduced to softball and soccer at an early age and to her father's relief been quite good at it. When Jack had started for Rebecca, Patricia had thrust out her knitting needle and told him a flat no on Rebecca following Jen or Saul into sports. Jack had spent a week sleeping on the couch in the den before patting his youngest child lovingly on the head and presenting her with a new barbie.
Jen had wanted a G.I. Joe instead of a new softball bat but her father would not hear of it.
Jen did not hate sports, she just didn't like the way it made the parents behave at games, her teammates screaming obscenities at the other team. She tried hard to not let it all get to her until one day in mid-spring when she had struck out at the plate and her father had strode across the field in the middle of the inning right up to the umpire and yelled in the man's face, calling him a cheat and a liar and a traitor to his class. The two men had scuffled with a lot of kicking dirt onto each other's shoes until a policeman had arrived to separate them and the game was called off due to a rain storm that no one could see but everyone agreed was about to happen.
In the aftermath, Patricia had to go bail her father out of jail, Jen decided that she was done with watching her father behave like that, so she tried to fake an injury and ended up breaking her wrist.
Blocking an incoming softball with your wrist proved to be both stupid and painful. The end result was no more softball and soccer for that season. Saul became the sole focus of her father and she was relieved.
Then Saul came home one day and informed Dad that he had been cut from the starting lineup for making a "C" in Chemistry. Her dad went nuts, he yelled at Saul who just shrugged at him. When that failed to get a response her dad called the school, and when that failed they moved. Yes, Jack uprooted the whole family from their home in Perrysburg and moved them to Sylvania. He did this on the pretense of changing jobs, but everyone knew it was so Saul could get back into the starting lineup with the Sylvania Southview Cougars.
Jen didn't mind as she had been kicked off the Softball team - she suspected mostly due to her dad costing the team the regionals. She liked the idea of going to a new school where no one had heard of the incident. The only one who took it hard was Alvin who lost his little posse of thrasher skateboarders. Jack ignored Alvin and his whining about it as he focused on making sure that Saul would get scouted for a good college team.
Alvin withdrew into video games and grunge rock until he had little to do with the rest of the family. Rebecca seemed oblivious to all of it happily reading her books and knitting with her mother. Which left Jen on her own with not much to do. It was at this point that Jen realized that she had never taken the time to have a pastime or a hobby that wasn't a sport. The first few weeks in the new neighborhood she would spend her time after school wandering around looking for potential playmates.
One afternoon as May was winding down, she came upon a small girl about her age sitting in an odd little house (a gazebo as she would learn later)  playing with teacups and stuffed animals. The girl was talking to each animal as if they were members of a tea party. Jen was impressed with the skill that the girl poured the teas, the gracefulness of her actions and her careful speech as she talked to each of the animals. The girl wore this skirt and blouse that looked like it belonged in a museum.
Jen watched the girl carry on until a boy walked up next to her. She looked at him and realized that the boy wore a miniature version of a tuxedo. She looked at him and he stared back at her in her torn jeans, tee shirt and sneakers.
"Go away." the boy said making a shooing motion with his left hand.
Jen shook her head no.
"Go away!" the boy said louder and made as if to shove Jen.
"Ah, Eric." the girl said looking up from her visiting with a rabbit in a tux similar to the one the boy wore. "I see you have found our new tea party guest."
"She was just leaving," Eric said.
"Nonsense." the girl replied standing up from her table. She glided out to where Jen stood. The girl curtsied gracefully and looked up at Jen, smiling.
"I am Lady Fitzgerald, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," She held out her hand palm down.
Jen reached out a carefully took the girls hand, it was so soft and delicate.
"I am Jen Olsten."
"Lady Olsten, what a lovely name, please join us in the garden gazebo for a spot of tea and refreshment." the girl said still holding onto Jen's hand. Jen glanced at the boy who was scowling.
"Ah, forgive me, Lady Olsten," The girl said. "This young man is my valet, Eric Whinestien."
Jen grinned at this, as she was pretty sure from the sour look on Eric's face that Whinestien was not actually his last name. She nodded as she let the girl guide her to a vacant seat at the table. Jen sat down trying and failing to be graceful as she could manage. Eric made as if to move one of the stuffed animals- a teddy bear in a velveteen vest.
"Eric!" the girl said, "Sir Reginald will not be leaving, he just got here!"
"Ellie, please," Eric whined glaring at Jen.
Ellie ignored him.
"Lady Fitzgerald, may I please sit in a chair?" Eric pleaded.
Ellie, Lady Fitzgerald, paused for a moment tapping her bottom lip, then swept the stuffed cat into her arms and gesturing Eric into the vacant seat opposite Jen.
And that was how Jen first met Ellie Fitzgerald, her best friend.

When Eric met Ellie.

Eric was 12 going on 13.
Ellie was 11 going on 12.
They first met in Ellie's parlor on a misty Monday morning in April.
The social workers and Ellie's parents told them that they would be siblings: brother and sister. Eric fell in love with Ellie at first sight. Ellie did not.
Ellie looked at this slight boy with tassel brown hair, somber expression, sad brown eyes, brown clothes, thin hands. She did not like they way he was looking at her, she did not like his brown, drab clothing.
Being children, neither of them could put into words, the idea that would lie- in wait- in the sub-consciences for years; that they were being forced into a relationship role neither of them would want. The adults had decided their fate without understanding what it would do to them later in life. The grief and stress that it would cause. All they understood right now was that Eric was infatuated with Ellie while she despised him without any clue as to why.
"This is your brother, Ellie," her father said to her.

So is this what a brother was? Ellie thought, she felt like she had missed something vital in her Nancy Drew book reading. She was fairly certain that one did not acquire siblings like this.

"Take him back, I don't want a brother," she mumbled looking down at her shoes, they were black is red buckles. She liked the red buckles. "I want to have a puppy instead."
Most likely, her father did not hear her. Most likely no one heard her. No one (the adults anyway) responded as if she had said anything. When Ellie looked up, the adults had left the parlor and she was alone with the strange boy. She looked to the door, her mind on escape, but it was closed.

Eric gazed at this girl, her bangs hanging in her eyes. He felt love, he thought it was love, it must be but since he had no basis other than what he had learned from TV, he decided that must be what it should be. He struggled through the muddle of his mind to find something that would tell him what to do. Then, the thought struck him, he should hit her like the Alfalfa from the little rascals must have done- or did he just kiss Darla. he couldn't remember.
Well, he had to do something.

The boy walked towards her until they were face to face.
"I like you." He said and blushed.
"Uh," Ellie replied.
The boy leaned forward pushing his face into hers, their forehead bumped, embarrassment and pain shot through her head as Ellie stumbled back and fell.
Crash.
Ellie lay on the carpet stunned.
The boy leaned over her.
"Are you okay?" he squeaked.

Eric knew that he hadn't paid enough attention to that movie. He looked down at the girl lying on the carpet and rubbed his forehead which didn't hurt as much as he thought it would. He had tried to kiss her but smacked his forehead into hers instead. She had stumbled backward then fallen and he hadn't even tried to catch her. For a time, he just stood there looking down at her. Her dress had ridden up her stockings and he could almost see her crotch.

Her skirt was up to her knees, she could feel the cool air on her thighs. Ellie had a rush of white-hot anger at the idiot boy, he had attacked her and now was leering down at her. Was this what having a brother supposed to be like. She sat up to glare at him and noticed her skirt was hiked up and the boy was staring at her private place. She rolled over to her knees, pulling her skirts down as she did so, she clambered up to her feet, her head throbbing, and turned to face him.

Eric felt a stab of fear as the anger in her face registered in his mind. She would probably cry, that was what girls did- right? He should put his arm around her to give her a shoulder to cry on. Yes, that would be best, since the kiss maneuver had failed. He stepped forward raising his arm.

The boy lunged forward bringing his arm up. Ellie's eyes went wide. Unbelievable, she thought and then punched Eric in the stomach as hard as she could. This wasn't very hard, but Eric wasn't made of stern stuff, so he doubled over in shock and pain.
Eric gasped for breath, she hit hard for a girl. He looked up where she was looking at him, her fists up ready to fight. He sat down on the floor. After a moment, he tried to speak but no words came out.

Ellie glared down at her attacker. She'd hurt him.
I can't have a puppy. I am a bad girl, no one will give me a puppy.

"I," Eric said, "I was just trying to kiss you." There he had declared his love for her.

Ellie felt ill. The boy just wanted to kiss her. She had punched him for trying to kiss her. Had she a larger vocabulary she would have found the words to express how she felt about this latest bit of information. Instead, she opened her mouth to say "I'm sorry," but nothing came out. She burst into tears instead because now she was sure no one was going to give her a puppy. She cried and cried and nothing could stop the tears from streaming down her face. her whole face hurt.

Eric looked up at this girl, sobbing like there was no tomorrow. He got back up and hugged her as she sobbed into his shirt. I don't understand girls, he thought as he led her to the sofa. They sat there as she cried, the sobs just coming and coming until she cried herself out. She looked completely miserable, but she leaned against him, so it couldn't be that bad.

"My name is Eric."

"Ellie," she began to weep softly as looked down at her empty hands where no puppy would ever be held.