Fanon:Pleasant family (K6ka)

The Pleasant family is a family in my version of Pleasantview. It consists of Daniel and Mary-Sue and their two twin daughters, Angela and Lilith.

Much like EA/Maxis originally intended, the Pleasant family always ends up in disaster and misery, with either Daniel or Mary-Sue being caught having an affair, and always ends up in flying dust clouds, Sims being slapped with stars flying above their heads, and me, the heartless, selfish player, just laughs at the show in front of him as if Jimmy Kimmel was there.

Part 1: A stressful morning
Daniel Pleasant opened his eyes slowly. Sunlight from the slightly open windows filtered in the gaps of the partially drawn curtains, landing on his pillow, tickling his eyes open, telling him that the night was over and it was time to get out of bed.

He rolled over to his side, facing the middle of the bed, and reached out around his partner's body. But the warm lump that slept beside him was no longer there, replaced with the lukewarm bedsheets and several wrinkles in the fabric.

Daniel rolled over again and opened his eyes, a little more forcefully, almost squinting from the sun. His wife was out of bed, combing her hair in front of the mirror. From the reflection of the mirror Daniel could see his wife... wasn't in a good mood today.

Maybe he could fix that.

"Oh please, Mary-Sue, do you need to be up so early? Just stay with me for a little bit longer..."

Mary-Sue did not take his request too kindly. "I have to work today, Daniel," she grumbled. "Today might be your day off, but it isn't mine." And with that, she disappeared into the bathroom.

Daniel sighed. He liked sleeping in on a day-off from work, but he just couldn't do it if there was nobody beside him to snuggle in with. He slowly got out of bed, the springs groaning under his weight. He made his way into the bathroom, where his wife was brushing her teeth.

"C'mon, Mary-Sue... has the Devil bit you this morning?" he asked as he reached for his face towel. He always found it silly that some Sims brushed their teeth before eating breakfast. He always brushed after eating, otherwise, as he had said, "They'll just get dirty again when you eat."

Mary-Sue did not respond. She spat out the toothpaste, replaced her toothbrush, and left the bathroom.

Daniel sighed. He lathered a bit of soap on his face and began to scrub.

"I TOLD YOU THAT I WAS USING THE BATHROOM FIRST!"

The morning beauty shattered with Lilith's loud shriek, and her fists pounding on the bathroom door.

"C'mon, Angela! This is the third time I've had to tell you! It's a Thursday and it's my turn to use the bathroom first!"

Angela, who was inside brushing her teeth and washing her hair, did not relent. "If you don't stop banging the door until it breaks," she screamed through the lather, "I'm sure mom will bring out the cane again!"

"Yeah? Well, we agreed to the deal that we'd take turns using the bathroom! Don't you remember.... you little... you little... wank!"

"Just use the downstairs bathroom! How hard is that? Are you dumb or something?"

Lilith, exhausted after arguing fruitlessly, hurled some more profanity at the door, then spat on the doorknob. She stormed down the stairs to the downstairs bathroom, which lacked her toothbrush and comb. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were caked with dirt, and she was almost certain that it would be another horrible, horrible day. Like yesterday. And the day before that. She had seldom experienced a happy moment in life. Lilith was always the underdog of the Pleasant family. Her parents always favored Angela over her. Angela learned her toddler skills, Lilith was never taught any. Angela held a B average, Lilith held straight D's. Angela had the sweet, new clothes, Lilith had to wear century-old trash. Angela was the sun, Lilith was the thunderstorm. Angela was the light gentle breeze, Lilith was the tornado. Angela was an angel, Lilith was a...

"Euuuucccchhh!!!!"

Angela had touched the saliva-covered doorknob while exiting the bathroom, and she didn't have to ask who did it. She was now racing down the stairs to where Lilith was. "Once I get my hands on you, I swear I'll make you bleed!"

Lilith knew better than to fight, however. She ran into the bathroom and locked the door. Now it was Angela's turn to bang her fists on the door and hurl profanity at its inhabitant.

The door banging and screaming was easily heard in the parents' bedroom.

"My, do the two girls ever stop fighting?" Mary-Sue grumbled. "Sooner or later they're going to rip this house to shreds if they don't rip each other to shreds first."

Daniel did not respond. He was sitting in bed again, his mind spinning. He and his wife had not exchanged a kiss in over three months, a hug in two, and a decent conversation in one. He felt lost, dizzy, helpless, and useless. Getting married was, for a Romance Sim, bad enough, but to be coldly neglected by your own spouse? It was everybody's nightmare.

That is, if he wasn't holding his own affair...

Daniel was secretly dating the family's hired maid, Kaylynn Langerak. She was a lot younger than Mary-Sue, and a lot nicer and more cheerful. Ever since his wife paid more attention to her career than she did the rest of the family, Kaylynn was Daniel's only true friend and lover. When Daniel told her about his wife, the two joked "She should probably just marry her computer at work and sleep there and save herself the commute home."

Like it or not, though, Daniel and Mary-Sue were still legally married. And Mary-Sue probably wouldn't be very happy to see their marriage go up in smoke.

But then again, why would she care? She pays more attention to her job anyway.

The slamming of the bedroom door snapped Daniel out of his daydream. Angela stood by the door, putting her weight on the door to prevent it from bursting open from the brutal banging on the other side. "Lilith spat on the doorknob and now she wants to kill me!!" she screamed.

Daniel sighed. He should've said "I don't" at the wedding.

Part 2: Off to work, off to Hell
The toaster pastries tasted cold and bland. Daniel's plate was chipped after it fell off the table a month ago. Lilith didn't show up for breakfast, and all Mary-Sue ate was a stale muffin.

Angela sat at the table, eating quietly. Daniel stared blankly at the ceiling. It was his day off, but it may as well be his last day on Earth. Lilith had managed to break into the bedroom and the two exchanged punches. Both of them missed, but it left two unsightly cracks in the door. Neither of them claimed responsibility. And his cold wife wasn't making the situation any better. She didn't even give him a second look after finishing up in the bathroom, as if she would turn to stone if she looked at him.

Daniel sighed. He didn't want food. Some people ate food to feel better when they were depressed, but Daniel wasn't like that. He tried eating food as a comfort but only succeeded in getting slightly overweight as a result. Daniel didn't want to be fat. It would make being a romancer even harder.

He got up, dumped his toaster pastry into the trash bin, and dropped the dish into the sink. Normally, Angela would scold him for wasting food. But today she was silent, as if aliens (or at least her sister) twisted her tongue off.

Mary-Sue was nowhere in sight. Lilith was in the upstairs bathroom cleaning herself up. The house felt too unbearably uncomfortable, so Daniel went outside. It was warm out, a light breeze keeping it light and cool, but Daniel felt none of it. The birds were chirping, and in the distance the pad-pad of a jogger's feet were audible, but Daniel heard none of it. He sat down on a bench and lay there, staring blankly at the scene in front of him.

"I've had quite enough from the both of you!" Mary-Sue yelled at her two daughters.

Angela and Lilith were unshaken. "She deserves more punishment!" they both yelled, pointing at each other.

"She spat on the doorknob!"

"She violated our deal!"

"She tried to hit me!"

"She tried to hit me too!"

"She left a hole in the wall!"

"So did she!"

"And now she's accusing me of doing it!"

"That's because you DID!"

"Enough is enough!" Mary-Sue shouted. She was on her last string. "If you two don't stop fighting each other I'll have to call Mrs. Lawson and have her watch..."

She didn't have time to finish her sentence. Lilith took one swing at Angela and smacked her in the nose. Angela returned the favor by punching Lilith in the stomach.

"That's it!" Without thinking, Mary-Sue walked up and struck Lilith in the face. Lilith was slightly shaken, staring horrified at her mother, but she recovered quickly.

"And you slap me? You should slap Angela the demon too!"

"Hey, you deserved it more than I did!" Angela screamed, defending herself.

Mary-Sue had no patience left. She raised her hand to strike Angela, but was cut short with a car horn honking outside.

Time for work. And she was a horrible mess, both emotionally and physically.

Mary-Sue sighed. "You two better be at school whether you like it or not! I'll ask your father when I get home, and if he tells me either one of you were staying at home I.... I will.... ugh, let's not even go there." And with that, she stormed out the door.

Her carpool was waiting by the mailbox. She turned her head to look at her husband. He had finally mustered the strength to get off the bench but apparently was too stupid to do anything useful. There he was, flirting and kissing with a sponge mop with a paper plate face on it. Mary-Sue sighed in disgust. Why did she even marry such a man?

She got into the car and slammed the door, hopefully loud enough to snap Daniel out of his romantic trance. It didn't.

"Good morning, Mary-Sue. How was your morning so far?" her driver asked.

"You mean how screwed up my morning is?" she responded. "Oh yes, I've had quite a wonderful morning. My two daughters almost killed each other, there's a gaping hole in my bedroom door, I had stale toaster pastries for breakfast, and my husband's kissing a sponge mop! If you consider that a good morning, then yes — I am having a great morning."

Just in front of the car was the school bus that would take Angela and Lilith to school. Mary-Sue's driver was about to drive around the bus when Mary-Sue told him to stop. "I better keep an eye on my two daughters so they'll actually get on the bus instead of hiding in the bathroom."

Angela left the house first. She hollered something inaudible towards the front door, then strode off. She caught a glance of her insane father and took one step towards him, as if to try and get him out of his trance, but retreated at the last step and continued towards the bus.

Lilith was second. She walked and shouted, hurling what must've been insults towards Angela, Mary-Sue thought. She walked several meters off the path and away from her father, as if he was infected with some contagious disease. She stopped just outside the bus door, spat on the pavement, and climbed aboard. The bus drove off into the distance...

"May we leave now?" her driver asked, snapping her out of her trance.

"Yes. We can go now."

Part 3. The house to himself
Daniel opened his eyes. A face was on top of his face. It stared at him with white, beady eyes. And its lips were... wet...

He threw the face off himself. The mop went crashing back, banging on the bench loudly before falling to the ground. The face stared up at the sky, still gleaming, still wet.

Daniel groaned. He had done it again. If only he went to college and studied Simology, he would know why things like this happen. He didn't see Derek Vijayakar, the newspaper delivery boy, drop off the SimCity Chronicle. He didn't see Mortimer Goth pass by on his morning walk. And he certainly didn't see his family leave for school and work. Now here he was, standing awkwardly on his front lawn with a sponge mop with a paper plate face for company.

Daniel picked up the mop, ripped the paper plate face off of it, then walked the mop back inside the house, where he dumped it next to the stairs. What is there to worry about, Daniel thought to himself. Things like that happen every day in SimCity alone. And besides... Kaylynn's coming today!

Kaylynn's coming today!

Kaylynn's coming today.

Kaylynn's coming.

Daniel smacked himself in the face. So what about Kaylynn if she's coming today? Oh right, she's your only true friend ever since your wife married her computer at work, the mouse as the ring-bearer and the keyboard as the Best Man. Your wife's at work and your kids are at school. And because you're all alone in the cold, you made do with the family's hired maid... Kaylynn Langerak. And she comes every morning to clean your house...

Well, Daniel thought to himself, if she is coming over, I'd better take some of the work off her shoulders.

Daniel never had a Servo before, but he could see why Sims who had the money were going for miles to buy one. They could clean, cook, garden, take care of the kids, and even served as a nice (but sterile) spouse when you needed one. Now if he could only get a Servo to replace Mary-Sue...

Well, good luck with that. The nearest shop that sold Servos was thirty miles away, in Downtown SimCity. And once he got there, he'd have to cough up the money to buy it too. The family's recent financial situation has been grim. Angela was unable to attend her middle school graduation trip because Daniel's check bounced, and Mary-Sue was out of the question. Nobody knew where the money went, although it seems likely Lilith was partly responsible for it. And even if he did have the money to buy one, what's the point of kissing a cold piece of metal? He may as well make do with his sponge mop, which was just as cold and unforgiving as a robot.

And anyways, if they did get a Servo, Mary-Sue would not hesitate to fire Kaylynn. And then Daniel would be a cold fish.

So Daniel did the cleaning. He walked into the kitchen and started washing the breakfast dishes, drying them with a dish towel before putting them back into the cupboard. He got out a washcloth and wiped the counter and the dining table. He then went up the stairs and into the bathroom, stepping gingerly over the puddles and the spilled shampoo on the floor. Yes, because Angela and Lilith hated each other so much they were willing to make each other slip and fall, even though they both used the bathroom themselves. Seems like they were willing to shoot themselves in the foot if it meant their sibling could get a shot of their own. And who cares about collateral damage - Daniel was out in the cold while the Pleasant family seemed to dwell in their own troubles. And here he was, playing maid. He mopped up the puddles and wiped the shampoo off the floor. With a brush, he scrubbed at the bath tub until it was clean. He scrubbed misplaced Sim waste off the sides of the toilet before cleaning up the toilet seat, which both sisters delighted in dirtying to disgust each other. The sink was the worst of all. Because both sisters shared the sink to brush their teeth, it always wound up with every part of the sink being dirty. Dried toothpaste hung on the faucet. Angela and Lilith's toothbrush were on the floor, the cup that held them smashed next to the sink. Someone — either Angela or Lilith, maybe both — had clogged the sink with dirt and leaves, allowing the murky water to pool up. Angela had added urine to the water, and Lilith opened an oxygen absorber packet and dumped its contents into the sink. Even the mirror endured some of the assault — there was an ugly crack dividing the mirror into two. One was marked "A" for Angela, and the other "L" for Lilith. Has his two daughters really come to such a point where they won't allow each other's mirrors to see each other's faces?

Daniel was displeased. He put on gloves and swept up the smashed mug, then tossed the two toothbrushes into the garbage. After bravely sticking his gloved hand into the drain to pull out the cloggage, he drained the contaminated water and then scrubbed the sides of the sink. With a washcloth he scrubbed the faucet until the dried gunk came off.

He decided to leave the mirror alone. His daughters were already cursed with 7 years of bad luck. He didn't need to curse himself as well.

He was just in time. He heard Kaylynn's van pull up just as soon as he was done with the sink. He ran out of the bathroom and practically rocketed down the stairs. He didn't have to worry about his daughter's rooms. Both forbade anyone but themselves from entering, and even hired personnel avoided them. He came to a stop just by the door. There was a man at the door, leaving a gigantic pink box tied up with pink string with a bow on top and a note taped on top. But Daniel's attention was focused on Kaylynn. There she was, strolling up the walkway. The man greeted her with a wave and she smiled back. Now she was a sweet lady. She cared about the people around her, unlike Mary-Sue, who wouldn't lift an eyebrow if an old lady got mugged on the street in front of her eyes.

Kaylynn pulled out the house keys from her pockets when she approached the door but smiled and replaced them when she saw Daniel at the door. The door swung open and Daniel practically pulled her inside. Kaylynn must have really felt it, for she said, "I must be the finishing puzzle piece for your day."

"Because you are, indeed," Daniel replied. "The only thing that makes me complete." All of a sudden Daniel felt quite warm and confident inside. "Can you dance?" he asked, a wide grin appearing on his face.

Kaylynn was a bit confused. "I thought I was here to clean your house..." she began.

"I've already cleaned it, don't you worry about it!" Daniel said. "Besides, I really want you here to... erm... fill me and my empty heart..." He turned around and turned on the stereo. Salsa music filled the room, and almost naturally, Daniel began tapping his feet along. "Come on, Kaylynn," he said, laughing. "I should've taken up dance class when I was younger. Don't follow in my footsteps to failure. Let's just..."

The two almost instinctively embraced. "I've rarely danced to music in my life," she whispered in his ear. "My aunt was the only person in my family that ever played a musical instrument... and even then she wasn't very good at it..."

Part 4. The mid-morning to disaster
"Mrs. Pleasant, I'd like to see you in my office, please."

Mary-Sue walked briskly over to the controller's office. She knocked loudly on the door. "Come in!" came the reply. She opened the door and walked in.

"Ah yes, thank you for coming," the controller began. "Anyway, I need you to help me out here with the paperwork here on my desk. I need you to go through this entire stack of paper..." — he gestured towards a tall, thick stack of freshly printed paper — "...and assign priority levels to the tasks there. If you need help, you can poke Georgina first... and then ask me if she can't help you. Do you have any questions?"

"No, none at the moment," Mary-Sue replied.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me... I have three callers waiting on the line." The controller picked up the phone and went back to work.

The stack of paper felt warm in her hands as she walked it back to her work station. The smell of freshly photocopied paper almost rejuvenated her... at least temporarily. She plopped the stack onto her desk with a loud bang. She sighed at the massive pile, then pulled out the sheet at the top of the pile and started reading.

BANG! The sound of skull meeting metal rang out through the hallway.

"I told you to keep three steps away from my locker!" Lilith shrieked.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! Someone accidentally bumped into me and I went into the red zone!" Angela screamed back.

"What's going on here? What's all this racket?" Mr. Zimbel asked, walking out into the hallway. He groaned at the sight of the two sisters, hands to neck, banging each other's heads onto the lockers. "I thought we settled this! You two aren't supposed to be anywhere near each other! Why are we still strangling each other?"

"Because she invaded my territory, so I'm just doing what I have to do!" Lilith bellowed.

"Hey, I already told you, it's not my fault!" Angela protested.

"Enough, please, enough!" Sweat ran down Mr. Zimbel's face. He looked around. A crowd was starting to gather, and even some of the teachers came out to observe the scene. "Alright, let's just let go of each other and head to class, before I call—"

The crowd shifted slightly as Lilith fell to the ground, being pushed by Angela. She just managed to get back on her feet when the dust clouds started flying. The crowd watched in awe as the two sisters fought each other to the bitter end.

"That just about does it," Mr. Zimbel sighed, in defeat. He went back inside his classroom, picked up the phone, and dialed for the principal's office.

The TV was on, tuned to an audible but comfortable volume. The 1994 movie "A Cold Affair" was on. It involved a man who was coldly neglected by his wife and children, and was secretly in love with the gardener, who came to their house every two days to tend to the family's garden. At first, their affair went unnoticed. One day, the wife got injured while at work, and she was advised to go home. The man and the gardener were making out in the living room right when his wife walked in. The results... were ugly.

"Sounds a bit like us, right?" Kaylynn asked jokingly.

"Sure does," said Daniel. "Except the last part definitely won't happen. If Mary-Sue did get injured at work, she'd probably just rest at her desk and order takeout for dinner. She wouldn't put a single thought towards her family, let alone acknowledge that she even has one!"

"Oh, she does. Shame they're just a hunk of metal."

A commercial break came on, replacing the sobbing of the movie with a light, uplifting jingle. "Feeling lonely?", a voice said. "Can't find a decent date? Are you being rejected by your own family? Fear not, come to Rodney's Hideout! Play a round of poker, maybe a few drinks or too, and dance the night casually with our antique 1950's jukebox! Rodney's Hideout - Come Chill With Us!"

Daniel sighed. He wasn't looking for a date, he already had one, right in his arms, sitting right next to him. But he was certainly being rejected by his own family... what's the solution to that?

"The solution? A new one, of course", said Kaylynn, reading Daniel's mind. "The only challenge would be telling Mary-Sue and your kids... but I don't think they'll care, would they?"

Daniel did not respond. He felt smaller and smaller at the prospect of a new family and a new commitment.

"HIGH" Mary-Sue wrote on the sheet of paper and pushed it to the "Done" pile on her desk. She got up and stretched her cramped muscles, then sat back down. She took the next sheet from the "Incomplete" pile and looked at it. There was a bright pink sticky note on top of it, which read:

"Joey Aviatis,

"Please scan through, proofread, and copy-edit these speeches as needed by tonight. I need them for a business presentation tomorrow.

"-Calvin Patel"

Hmm, now this looks interesting, Mary-Sue thought. This is obviously a "HIGH" priority task, but this looks like a job she could do! Mary-Sue had an okay eye for syntax, and maybe she could take at least some of the workload off the controller's shoulders. Should she do it?

The controller will be impressed by my performance, Mary-Sue thought. He might promote me, even! I'll do it! Of course I'll do it!

She pulled out the document and started to scan it:

Good evening, and tank you for comnig to tis confrence.

Mary-Sue blinked and tried to re-read the text. The typos were still there. Well obviously the controller has no idea how to type properly, she thought to herself.

With a red pen she marked the typos and added her suggestions for change. She then moved on to the next paragraph and resumed scanning.

"Stop looking at each other and look at your textbooks," Mr. Chelsea, the principal, snapped. "I've already had the two of you try to kill each other in the hallways. I don't need my office to become a bloodbath!"

The two Pleasant sisters glanced down at their textbooks for a brief moment, but resumed to staring at each other with pure loathing when the principal looked down at his paperwork again. It was almost like a staring contest, except blinking was allowed... sometimes...

The principal looked up again. "Hey!" he protested, and the two looked back down at their textbooks, like people in church saying their prayers. The words on the page swam into a blur as tears filled her eyes... no, she thought sharply. I won't let my sister see me cry! She blinked away the tears as best as she could, but the words looked like mumbo jumbo to her.

Angela snorted loudly. Hah, she can't even keep the waterfalls in! Lilith thought to herself, pride filling her soul, but drained quickly when she caught a glance from the principal. He wasn't angry or disappointed, but rather shocked, at how Lilith could be smiling when she was clearly in trouble.

Lilith clamped her hand over her mouth and tried to force it closed. Too late. Angela saw it. "I told you, Mr. Chelsea!" she wailed, a Niagara Falls of tears pouring out of her eyes. "She's enjoying it! She wants to see me cry!"

"And who's turn was it to use the bathroom first? Me of course! So you totally deserved it!" Lilith responded, a smirk on her face.

"Well yeah? You didn't have to spit on the doorknob! Or pound on the door! Or leave a hole in the wall..."

"Hey, you did it too!"

Head met desk for Mr. Chelsea. Why did I even think about putting these two in the same room... heck, the same building! Mr. Chelsea though to himself. These two hate each other so much they practically want to see each other... get beat up, that is...

A ruler vanished from Mr. Chelsea's desk. The principal's eyes followed it to Angela, who had the utensil held behind her head, like a tomahawk.

"Don't you DARE!" Mr. Chelsea screamed.

Too late. Fortunately, Angela missed, but Mr. Chelsea had recently had his office walls repainted. Now there was a ruler stuck in the wall, thrown with such force that it actually punctured it! If that had been Lilith's head...

"Alright, both of you, sit DOWN!" He got up from his chair and stood between the two, like a referee standing between two boxers.

"Did you see that, Mr. Chelsea? She tried to KILL me!" Lilith screamed. "I have to retaliate or she'll be tormenting me for the rest of her life." Lilith tried to grab one of the inviting office tools on the principal's desk, but Mr. Chelsea wouldn't allow it. As he moved to block Lilith, Angela grabbed the pair of scissors. The principal thought fast, but at a cost. His hand reached out and pulled the scissors out of Angela's hand and away from Lilith's head. As he did so, his hand got caught between the two blades and cut some of the skin off.

Mr. Chelsea, glaring at the blood on his hand, had enough. "I need some help in here!" he called as the two sisters tried to go for it again. Almost immediately the office was filled with office staff. Chaos reigned as they tried to get the two sisters away from each other.

"You two are done!" Mr. Chelsea called out as the two were dragged out of the room. "I'm having you both expelled!"

"It's all your fault, Angela!" Lilith screamed.

"No, it's yours..." came the reply.

"Both of you, just SHUT UP already!" Mr. Chelsea was officially done. "Just get out of my office and stop breathing my air!"

After the door was closed, he looked around his now-ruined office. Man, the nerve of some kids these days! he thought. I wonder how their parents take care of them...

Lunch for Daniel and Kaylynn was unimpressive — mac and cheese — but how else could Daniel manage with no cooking skill? It would seem impolite to ask Kaylynn to cook for him; after all, this was his house.

Kaylynn fortunately wasn't interested in the food.

"Come... maybe some love will make it taste better," she said, inviting a spoon into Daniel's mouth. "At least that's how my father used to put it."

The mac and cheese made its way into Daniel's mouth. It did taste better... or at least, feel better.

"I promise you: once I get out of this lousy house, I'll take you out to the best restaurant in the city!" Daniel took out his phone and raised it high up into the air. "Our photos will be our memories, and those memories will always count." He looked at his reflection from the phone screen. He could see Kaylynn's face beaming up at it. It would make the perfect selfie.

&#42;click&#42;

"Out of curiosity... have you ever taken a selfie with your wife before?" Kaylynn asked?

"Nope. I don't even think she knows what a selfie is!"

Part 5. A double whammy
"^ comma", Mary-Sue wrote.

There. That's all of it. She looked through the speech notes one last time. The entire thing was covered in red ink. She lost count of how many typos she fixed, and the punctuation was a laughable misery. She also completely rewrote three paragraphs and partially rewrote two more. It was just that bad, she thought to herself.

The entire ordeal has taken her more than two hours to complete. She gathered the sheets of paper and filed them neatly in the controller's inbox. She then returned to her desk and started going through the pile of paper she was originally working on.

A few minutes later, the office doors opened. The controller walked in and nodded to the receptionist. As he passed Mary-Sue, he said, "Working hard, Mrs. Pleasant?"

"Very hard," she replied. "And there's a lot left to do, still."

"Yes, I can see that." He looked at the stack of papers. "That's some Everest of paperwork you still have to do. I could've sworn it was the same size when I left the office three hours ago!"

"I found your speech notes," she said, "and I took the liberty of proofreading them for you. The notes are in your inbox."

The controller frowned and went into his office. A few minutes later, he came out again with the speech notes in his hands.

"Mrs. Pleasant, I... well, first of all, thank you for proofreading these notes. However, I had assigned Mr. Aviatis to proofread them, and I had assigned you to prioritize the stack of papers. Mr. Aviatis should be doing his assigned task and you should be doing yours. I see that you have barely scraped the tip of the iceberg and you still have a mountain of paper to go through." He shook his head in sharp disapproval. "I expected better of you, Mrs. Pleasant. I need someone who can do their assigned tasks first, before they go do something industrious."

"I...I... I'm sorry, Mr. Patel," Mary-Sue stammered.

"Apology accepted, but unfortunately I'm going to have to give your position over to the next person in line." He removed his phone from his pocket and began typing. "Starting tomorrow, I want you back on the phones as a campaign worker. You'll be kicked to the bottom of the queue, so you will need to work your way up again." He gave Mary-Sue a sober look. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Pleasant. I look forward to having you as an intern again soon. Allow me to relieve you of your current duties." He took the stack of paper and carried it off to Joey Aviatis's desk.

Mary-Sue sat quietly at her desk, staring at her computer screen, which was turned off when her computer went to sleep. The computer screen reminded her of the inky blackness of space. She felt like she was lost in it, millions of miles away from any living being, tumbling helplessly as the universe expanded away from her. She was lost, forever alone, and unable to return.

She had been demoted.

"Okay Angela, it is now time to go home. Your detention is over, and I see you finally got some of your work done. You are to go straight to your regular classes tomorrow morning, and if you see Lilith in the hallways, you are not to talk to or touch each other. And I don't want to see you in here ever again. Do you understand me?"

Mrs. Linde, the vice-principal, gave Angela a harsh, cold stare. "Do you understand me?" she repeated.

"Yes Mrs. Linde... but—"

"No 'buts'!" she snapped. "Mr. Chelsea and I are on the verge of having you expelled. We've hired enough counselors to deal with you, had to force timetable changes on you thrice, and at one point had to have the police pay you a visit. If the behavior of you and your sister doesn't improve by tomorrow, Officer Davidson will be having a lovely talk with the both of you. Now gather your things. Do you take the school bus or the transit bus?"

"The school bus."

"You will be taking the 2446 bus and not the bus you and your sister usually take. I will not tell you what bus your sister is taking, and you are not to go anywhere near her bus. If you do it will result in an immediate expulsion. The same goes for your sister. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

Mrs. Linde led Angela out of the office. Lilith was nowhere in sight, but Angela had been forbidden to know about the whereabouts of her sister, at least until they got home. They walked outside, where a fleet of buses were parked in the school's parking lot.

"The 2446 is over there," Mrs. Linde pointed. "The one nearest to the Stop sign."

Angela nodded and silently walked over to the bus. What else could she say? Mrs. Linde rarely expressed anger in her actions, and the fact that she was angry now meant that she — and her sister — had really blown it this time.

She climbed inside. The bus driver was staring off into space, mumbling some inaudible words, while the rest of the occupants chattered amongst themselves.

One of them recognized Angela. "Hey Angela!" he shouted. "How's the war going on?"

She felt like slapping him. Or whipping her books at him. Maybe a punch in the gut. But she was in trouble already, and she knew better than to get herself into deeper trouble. She walked past him and sat down at the back of the bus, shielding her face with her bag. The boy kept taunting and jeering at her, gathering support from the crowd:

"Hey Angela, win any fights against your sister?"

"Angela deary, why the scowl? Aren't you the angel?"

"Archangel versus archangel! Ooh ooh! Michael versus Lucifer!"

"Angela, you sure are nice, but your sister looks tough!"

"She'll beat you to a pulp!"

"Maybe she will get Dustin!" The passengers oohed.

"Isn't she already dating Dirk?"

"Bah, screw him!"

"Angela, maybe you can have Dirk instead!"

The bus driver finally woke up from his trance. "All of you, sit down, right now, and zip your mouths!" he barked at the baby-sitting mirror.

One by one, everyone who stood up got back into their seats, and the conversation died off.

The driver started up the bus, shut the doors, and drove off. The atmosphere on the bus relaxed, and the conversation stirred up again, this time completely unrelated to the Pleasant sisters incident.

Except for the boy who started it.

When the bus driver wasn't looking at the mirror, he got out of his seat and made his way down the aisle to where she was sitting. "Hey Angela," he whispered. "I know relationships like the back of my hand. If you want Dirk and Dustin without Lilith knowing, just let me know. I won't tell a soul. Promise?"

She had enough. "Excuse me, mister bus driver, but this kid here is harassing me!"

The boy remained silent for the rest of the trip.