Prompt 39.01

[starglyph.livejournal.com]

Five reasons for the falling-out between Landry and Lam.


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Comments

[notadate.livejournal.com]

01 (age five and three quarters)

Nathan Edinburgh was a poop-head.

"He is too."

"No he's not."

"Yes he is."

"Isn't."

"Is!"

"Nathan! Carolyn! It's time for our indoor voices," Miss Hayden said.

"Carolyn's a liar, Miss."

"I am not."

"Are."

"My dad is too fighting the Communals."

"I think you mean Communists, Carolyn," Miss Hayden said.

"Prove it!"

"I will. When he gets back, I'll bring him in and he'll tell you."

But her dad never did have time to come in, and Nathan teased her up until the last day of school.

02 (age seven)

"Mom! Mom! Mom, guess what! Jessica Little invited me to go to her house for a sleepover next month and they're going to play games and watch movies and can I get a new sleeping bad please, Mom, please?"

There was a long pause. "Carolyn, come into the kitchen."

Her mom was sitting at the kitchen table. Carolyn knew before she even said it. "We're moving again."

"I'm sorry."

"But mom, it took me forever to make friends, I don't want to do it again!"

"Your father's been reassigned to Texas."

"I don't want to move to Texas!"

"Keep your voice down."

"No! I hate Texas and I hate moving and I hate Dad and his stupid job!"

She ran past her father standing at the front door on her way to her room. She slammed the door behind her and waited for him to come up and say something, but he never did.

03 (age eleven)

Dana's parents had gotten divorced two years ago, so she was like an expert or whatever.

"The custody stuff can get really bad, but as long as your parents don't go crazy and kidnap you and, like, take you to Mexico or whatever, it can also be really cool. My parents were all nice to me and they were always buying me stuff because they wanted me to tell the judge that I wanted to live with them. So, yeah, make sure you pretend that you're still thinking about it, even if you know who you want to live with."

Carolyn stared at her tater tots. "It doesn't matter what I want. Dad signed some papers and I'm staying with Mom."

"He's not even trying to get custody? Man that sucks."

Carolyn shrugged. She didn't bother to wipe away the tear that rolled off the end of her nose and dropped into her tater tots which was, like, really gross, but she wasn't hungry anyway so whatever.

04 (age sixteen)

Tonsillitis was no fun, but there were worse ways to spend a week than on the couch watching All My Children and eating ice cream.

Her mom dropped the mail on the coffee table before leaving to get groceries. Carolyn flipped through the mail absently, distracted by Cecily and Nico on-screen. Nestled between the J.C. Penny catalog and the gas bill was a light blue envelop with an APO address in the upper left corner.

The show went to commercial and Carolyn tore open the envelop. The card inside was printed on cheap paper with an ugly pastel flower on the front.

Carolyn,

Your mom told me about your surgery I hope you feel better soon (enjoy all the ice cream!) I miss you. I'd like to hear from you, but I know you're probably busy with school.

Write if you get a chance.

Love,
Dad

Carolyn tucked the card under the TV Guide and went back to her show. She really did mean to write back, but, well, stuff came up. When the card accidentally got tossed in the trash during a burst of cleaning a few weeks later, she forgot about it altogether.

05 (age eighteen)

The letter was written on official stationary, neatly typed and probably dictated to a secretary. He had a secretary now, he'd mentioned it in some letter or other. Carolyn guessed that meant his career was going well. Nice for him. Too bad it meant he'd missed her high school graduation three months ago. Like the half dozen letters he'd sent between then and now made up for that.

Carolyn tossed the letter in her bag and sat down.

"Welcome to Biology 101," the professor at the front of the room said and Carolyn grinned. That sounded so cool.

"There's an attendance sheet going around. Sign next to your name and pass it on."

When the paper got to her, Carolyn found her name and raised her hand. The professor looked at her.

"Um. There's a mistake on here. My name isn't Landry. It's Lam."

[starglyph.livejournal.com]

Well done, and nice take on the list. :)

[notadate.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much. :)

[paian]

I really like the development of the voice in these, and the progression, and the way it ends when she's really started to become the Self we meet on the show much later. Thanks for writing this prompt!

[notadate.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[sid]

Boy. Portrait of an estrangement in the making. A LONG estrangement.

Very nice job. :-)

[notadate.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)