Rating: PG

Summary: Another great day for Frohike Jr.

Spoilers: Nah.
 

October 27, 2000

I sleep better than I have in ages. I still can't breathe, but at least I can move and not everything hurts.

I grope for my glasses. I actually have a night table. Ally had the night tables that went to this bed and she let me take those, too.

I didn't hear the alarm. I hope I didn't oversleep.

Time says...

11:15.

SHIT!!!

I have to be at work in 45 minutes!

And I missed my writing class. Casey will probably mark me off on my next paper for that one.

Shit, shit, shit.

I have to get in the shower. Even if I'm late, I have to. I feel like a grunge and maybe the hot water will open up my head. Plus if I'm gonna tutor people, well, they don't have to love me, but they shouldn't have to smell me, either.

Dad's still sleeping. I can tell because his door's closed. He doesn't close it unless he's in there.

How the fuck did I sleep through the alarm? That thing sounds like a fucking cavalry charge when it goes off.

As I jump in the shower, it occurs to me: Dad turned it off. When I went to sleep.

I'm gonna kill him.

I HAVE to get to work.

Kelly comes on Thursdays. I have to be there.

I'm at least clean. I don't have time to shave, so the Frohike three o'clock shadow is gonna be visible to the world today.

I look like shit. Worse, I look just like my dad right now.

When did I start worrying about this stuff?

It's real late when I'm finally ready. I can't find my backpack-shit, I left it at Ally and Langly's. I gotta have it.

There's no way I'm gonna make it if I take the bus.

Dad's still dead to the world.

This is all his fault.

I take his keys.
 

Nobody at Ally and Langly's-Dad's asleep, Byers has classes to teach, Ally and Langly at work, kids at school. It's just the animals. Tiny goes nuts when she sees me.

I'm trying to find my backpack. I didn't go in the offices last night, so it can't be there. I came in the kitchen and I fell asleep in the living room. So it's gotta be there-maybe. Ally moves shit around. It's real annoying.

I don't know which key is the house key, and Dad's got about a thousand of them on his keyring, so I have to try a bunch of them before I score. And the Langlys have five locks on the kitchen door, so it's a lot of trial and error, even matching up the manufacturers.

Breaking and entering would probably be faster.

Place looks like it always does-coffee cups in the sink, newspapers all over the table, papers and books thrown everywhere. Somebody who didn't visit Chateau Langly regularly would think the place had been tossed.

Probably was. They never can find their keys. You'd think they'd figure out by now that they should leave their keys in one place all the time, but they haven't clued into that one yet.

Tiny follows me in, she's whimpering for me to pay attention to her. She wants to play, but I don't have time.

I have to toss the place again. Ally's gonna have a cow-okay if it's her mess, but somebody else's and she bitches to hell and back. I finally find my backpack under the dinosaur blanket.

Then I remember I still have the red fuzzy blanket from their sofa. Too bad. They're just gonna have to wait.

I try to make sure I secure all the locks, I'm not sure I did, but I know the alarm code and I get that set. At least they didn't change it after I moved out.

Surprised about that one.

I run back up to Dad's car and Tiny's following me, I'm trying to push her back-in spite of her name, she's one fucking huge mutt-but she jumps in the car with me.

I don't have the energy to argue with her. And my lungs hurt like hell. I can barely breathe.

I've already taken the car. Might as well take the dog, too.
 

First thing I do in the lab is send Casey e-mail, telling her why I wasn't in class. About five minutes later that anal-retentive woman has already sent me a reply.

"Michael-I know you're sick. Don't worry about it. I don't take off for dying people. What kind of barbarian do you think I am, anyway? KCS"

Does she really want to know? I don't think so.

Okay, so I'm off the hook on that one. I still have to do her assignment, I know you have to have a medical excuse or you just take the fucking zero, and I don't have a medical excuse, and I'm not gonna have one, either.

First I have to remember what the assignment was for this week.

No dice. First customer comes in, one of my math-o-phobes who finds algebra I a great mystery. I don't know what this girl's major is, but I'm guessing it's not computer science or engineering.

More of the math-phobic wander in. They get two midterms in algebra I and the next one is next week, so there's a lot of panic cruising around.

God, some of these people are too stupid to live.

I get somebody from statistics-I haven't had too many stats customers so far, but these are business majors mostly and they've got this project and most of them aren't too bright, either. A few more of them drift in.

I feel like shit and I've got a roomful of customers.

I see people from my calc class. No Kelly. Not yet. We go over the assignments together, and I send them away happy. At least they're smart enough that they can Get It after a while.

It's nearly 3:30 when I finally clear people out for a while. I need something to drink real bad.

A new head and a new pair of lungs would come in handy, too.

But Kelly usually comes around this time, and I don't want to miss her.

There's a phone call for me, according to the Nazi who runs the office here.

Shit, who'd be calling me? At work?

This makes me real nervous.

I get the phone that's out in the lab, I can pick up without going into the Nazi's office-which is good, she's one of those people that when she's out sick, and you move one Post-It, she goes ballistic on you. I avoid her. She's been described as "emotionally fragile" and she doesn't handle things well.

What the fuck is she working here for.

"H'lo," I mumble into the phone. I'm not sure who the caller is, and I'm not too eager to identify myself.

"MICHAEL!"

Oh shit. It's Dad. I forgot about the car.

Should've left him a note.

Well, he knows now.

"Since when do you just help yourself to the car?"

"Since YOU turned off my alarm and I overslept almost four hours!"

"There was a reason for that, you know."

"Yeah? What? Get me fired?"

"No, so maybe you'd stay home and get well. Dana Scully arranged to have one of her friends see you today."

"Well, I don't have time, I've got work until 6 and then I've got a class and I'm sort of stuck here so that I can get paid!" I spit the last words real hard at him.

What the fuck does he want from me, anyway?

"Michael, you're being an idiot."

"And I haven't even done the article I told Byers I'd do! When am I supposed to do that, huh?"

"I think the article will keep."

"I don't think so." Last thing I need is these guys thinking I'm a slacker. They already do, I just keep trying to prove them wrong.

They need some proving wrong.

"Michael, you should go home now."

"I don't think so!"

He doesn't say anything for a minute. Then finally, "Bring the car back to the offices tonight after your last class, if you're going to insist on being stupid. And next time, ask first!" He hangs up the phone.

I hiss 'bastard' and slam down the receiver.

Fuck. Kelly's there.

And I bet she heard the whole thing.

This is not a Kodak moment.

"Hi," I mumble. I am so fucking embarrassed.

"You look like shit," she tells me.

Just what I needed right now. Thanks Kelly.

"You sound like shit, too."

Anything else you can do to make me feel better?

"Look, are you here to do math or just to bust my chops?" I'm in a REAL bad mood now.

I was looking forward to this?

Yeah, I was.

She's so damn gorgeous. She's got on her tight jeans and this peach colored T-shirt that makes all her curves look good. The sleeves end above her wrists and I can see that she's got such pretty little wrists. Nice hands, too. No nail polish, but really pretty hands.

I hide mine as a reflex. I bite the hell out of mine, a habit I share with Ally and Langly and Miranda and Mulder.

Amazing what we have in common.

She looks miffed now. "I did come here to go over the homework, but if you're too busy being pissed off, I can leave now."

No no no. Don't do that.

"Sorry," I mumble at her. "Bad day."

"Tell me about it." She looks pretty unhappy herself. "I got my chem midterm back and I only got a 94 on it. And I studied my butt off."

ONLY a 94? Is she looking for compassion here?

"Yeah, well, my dad turned off my alarm last night so I overslept and I missed my first class and I was late and I had to borrow his car and he's not too happy right now."

"You should've stayed home," she tells me. She's siding with HIM?

"Yeah, but then I couldn't do math with you."

"You sound awful. You really should go home."

"Well, I can't because if I don't work I don't get paid and that's a problem."

"Tell me about it," she says again. "Don't you just hate the people around here who don't have to do anything but go to school and they just fuck around all the time?" It's the first time I've ever heard her say fuck. Sounds weird, coming from her. "Only reason I'm here and not at university is because I don't have the money and I'm trying to save it so I can go and then go to medical school. I got scholarships, but they won't cover everything, and I'd rather wait and do my upper division at university and have the money for that. I have no idea how I'm going to do medical school. I'll probably be drowning in debt the rest of my life for that. I hate this place. I'm working my butt off and there're all these slackers and they have money and they don't have to work in their mom's crummy diner-"

"How often do you work?" One of my more original pickup lines.

"I was supposed to do five shifts a week, but I cut it down to four because I really need to study, and my mom's not too pleased. I mean, she wants me to be a doctor and all that, but she doesn't understand." She looks pretty depressed. "It's like she just thinks I'm brilliant and all this is easy and I can just get A's.

She goes on. "I'm the first person in my family to finish high school, forget about going to college. My mom was fifteen when she had me. Can you believe that? When she was my age, I was almost four." I told you I'm a math genius-I figure she's almost 19.

"When do you turn 19?"

"January 13."

I need to file that date away. I'll put it on my computer at home.

"I'm trying to get my little sister to finish high school even though she's expecting her first baby." Now she looks really depressed. "It's like my mom's proud of me but she doesn't get it. She doesn't realize how long this takes and how hard it is."

"How old's your little sister?"

"16." Now she really looks sad. "Carrying on the family tradition. Get knocked up, marry the wrong guy, get divorced, have no money."

"But you're not doing that."

"And everyone in my high school hated me. They thought I was so stuck up. Just because I wanted to do better than they did. Just because I didn't want to stay in Warrenton the rest of my life and work at the auto parts store and marry one of the morons and spawn more useless human beings.

"And I'm still there. And I work in my mom's diner and everybody sees me and they all give me so much shit and I'm so tired of it. It's like last night I worked till ten and my mom wanted me to work till midnight and I needed to study and there was nobody much there anyway but she still gave me so much shit about leaving early." She's got her cheeks in her hands, and
she just looks miserable.

Almost as miserable as me.

"Yeah, well, my dad expects me to do good here, and bring in money, and write for the magazine-"

"You write for a magazine?"

Oh God. She actually sounds mildly impressed.

"Yeah, well, it's my dad's and he and two of his buds run it, and I just contribute articles sometimes and do some research."

"That is so cool that you can write." God, she sounds like she might admire something about me. I can scarcely believe this. "That's why I'm taking Casey Steinert's class next semester. I hear she's really good at teaching people to write. I'm not good at writing. I can do science, but I can't write too well. And I have to be able to do that if I want to be a doctor."

She leans back in her chair. God, she is so cute. Even when she's pouting, like she is now. She's got full lips and they're real pink and I wonder what it would be like to kiss them...

"I hoped people would be different here than in high school. But it's the same old same old. I talk to a few people but not very many. I talk to Allison in class sometimes, the lady you know. She's sweet. She encourages me a lot." Yeah, that sounds like Ally. "What about you? Do you know many people here?"

"Not really. I don't have time just to hang. And there's not many people I want to talk to anyway."

"I'll tell you one thing: I'm sick of being poor. I'm only 18 and I'm already sick of it. I want to be able to afford a decent car and not have to shop in the thrift stores and scrounge for used textbooks because I can't afford the new ones. I want to be able to go to the bookstore and spend a fortune instead of going to the library and worrying about getting books back on time because I can't afford the fine. I don't want to have to wait for the pink notice to come about the electricity before we can pay it. I don't want to have to be dying before I can see somebody because I have to go to the charity hospital.

"And I'm not going to depend on men. Lot of good it's done my family." She sounds real bitter on that one.

I feel like I'm getting stabbed in the heart.

Am I supposed to apologize for my gender at this point?

I just tell her, yeah, being poor sucks, I've been on the streets pretty much since I was 16...why am I telling her this? She doesn't need to know how sucky my life's been.

But I tell her anyway.

And she's actually paying attention. I think. At least she seems like she's paying attention.

Tiny's been sleeping under one of the tables, and nobody's noticed her, but she gets up and starts licking Kelly's hand. Tiny is huge, but the only thing she'll do is love you to death.

"Is this your dog?"

"No, not really, it's Ally's dog, but Tiny thinks I'm hers." Great. Now she knows at least dogs find me desirable.

She just said she doesn't want to depend on men. Maybe she likes dogs better.

"Someday I'm going to have a place big enough for dogs and cats. I've never had a pet."

"Didn't have one either till I moved down here, and they're not really mine, but I take care of them."

"Well, Michael, at least you know what it's like not to have everything handed to you," she finally says.

She's not kidding on that one.

"So you live with your dad now?"

"Uh-huh. In Alexandria."

"Definitely uptown from Warrenton. Alexandria's not exactly the slums."

"The old part of town's not exactly Arlington, either."

"Yeah, but Alexandria has something other than churches and bars."

"Not much besides, unless you count Blockbuster and Bustamante's."

"What's Bustamante's?"

"Great Italian food."

"Only restaurant I've ever eaten in is my mom's, unless you count McDonalds. I'd love to someday just be able to eat in a nice place, and not worry about it."

"Busty's isn't fancy. The food's real good, though. Maybe we should go there sometime."

"I don't have the money."

"I didn't say you had to pay." I'm not sure how I would, either.

"Well, when I'm not working or going to school, I'm studying."

I'm being turned down here. Politely, but turned down, anyway.

"So do you wanna go over the homework?" I ask her.

I'm depressed the rest of the day.
 

I like my astronomy class.

Not only do I get to watch Kelly, but Luke's a cool dude, and the class is interesting.

How much you want to bet that he and Casey bitch about their students when they're in bed together?

I wonder if that's foreplay for professors.

I feel somebody tapping my shoulder. It's Luke.

I realize the room's empty.

Shit!

"You okay?" he asks me. And he even tries to look genuinely concerned. "Casey said you were real sick."

"I'm okay." Shit. I was drooling. Disgusting.

And Kelly saw it all. Jesus.

I fell asleep in class. Oh man.

I am really making a great impression here.
 

I almost go to the bus stop, then I remember I have Dad's old boat of a T-Bird and I have to pick him up at the offices.

At least I'll get to Chateau Langly in time for ER. And it's the Halloween episode, which is always cool. Eriq LaSalle's Shaft two years ago was such a kick.

I've got to walk about two blocks because there's never any parking nearby. It's clearing out now, but only because the night classes are almost all over. And it's two city blocks, not two residential blocks.

I can't breathe. I feel like I'm drowning.

Makes me happy I have Dad's car, even if he is gonna kick my sorry ass later.

I'm unlocking the Bird when I hear somebody screaming "SHIT!" followed by crying.

It's a girl, and she's got car trouble from what it looks like.

What is it in the Frohike genes that makes us do these things? I mean, I'm dead tired, I have tons to do, I feel like hell, I'm gonna get killed when I get home...

So I walk down the street-I'm trying to run but I can't get enough air.

It's Kelly. She's standing by a little blue Mazda that looks like it's seen better days, and that was a long time ago.

I ask her what's wrong, and she says it won't start.

So I try jumping it first-always the first line of defense.

Nothing doing. Her starter's dead. I'm sure of it. She could use a new battery, but from the looks of it, the terminals aren't that corroded or anything, so it should hold a charge.

No sound. I'm sure it's her starter. I do know about cars.

I tell her this and she starts to cry. She doesn't have the money to buy a new starter she says. And if she doesn't have her car, she's not going to be able to get to school tomorrow, and she cries even more.

One of the advantages to parking way out in the south 40 is that there's no meters, no 2-hour limit, and not a lot of traffic, so she can probably leave her car here, no problem.

But she's got to get home.

So like any normal male who's dead tired, sick, overworked and up to his ass in trouble with a minor deity, I do the only rational thing.

I offer to take her home.

END OF PART 8