NOTE: This was the
first Laverne & Shirley story I ever wrote and actually finished. Actually,
it's the only one I ever finished, but that's entirely not the point. I was
twelve when I wrote it and was still learning all the rules of writing, so if you
see any mistakes or have feedback of any kind please e-mail me at PeteyGal13@aol.com
The young girl just lay there, atop
the hill, rubbing her temples as if she had a headache. She watched the clouds form shapes and, for
the moment, was content.
But suddenly, two large shapes bore
down on her, blocking the beautiful white fluffy clouds. We can’t have this, now can we? She thought to herself. This is just so disturbing on a beautiful
day like today.
"Hello." the shorter one
blurted, rather loudly.
"We was wondering if you could
settle a bet for us?" the taller one asked, in a nasal voice.
The girl grumbled, then pushed
herself up and sat cross-legged on the grass.
"Ok." she sighed, hoping
that after she answered their questions that they would be off.
"Which one of us would you
rather kiss?" the short one asked, puckering up.
She studied the two boys carefully,
taking in their appearances and expressions.
The way that the little one was positive he would win, and the taller
one just looked hopeful.
"Him." she said, as she
pointed to the taller one.
His face lit up with joy as he
flashed her a silent 'Thank you.'
"What?!?!?!" the little
one cried, enraged.
"That’s it, I won Squig. Pay up!" Lenny told him.
"Absativtely not, lets go ask a
SMART dame!! This one looks too dumb to
know the better man even if she smells it with her own nostrils!!!"
Squiggy yelled, waving his arms.
The girl jumped to her feet,
enraged. This greasy thing disturbed
you from a simple moment of solitude plus he insulted you? We cant stand for that, now can we? She thought to herself.
She towered over him, not as tall as
his friend but pretty close, she was going to pound this worm. Even if she got arrested again, the cops
would take one look at him and probably thank her.
"Don’t EVER call me stupid, I
may be a lot of things but I'm not ignorant!" she screamed in his face.
"I didn't call you stupid or
ignormant, whatever that means. I called
you dumb, stupid,” he explained, rather stupidly.
"Squig, that aint very
nice. Can I have my buck now?"
Lenny asked, now the only one not screaming his lungs out.
"No! I wanna fix this stupid gutsy broad!!!" he yelled in her
face.
That was it, the last straw. The girl made a fist and jammed it into his
stomach, hard. He toppled down the
small hill and landed in the duck pond.
"I'm gonna fix his little red
wagon.." she mumbled as she started down the hill.
She was about to reach into her
pocket when the taller one, Lenny, gently grabbed her arm.
"Nah, don’t do that. His wagon don’t need fixin', our friends
Laverne and Shirley already offered last week,” he said, as she looked back at
him.
The girl looked at him, his eyes
were so soft and innocent. Nothing like
the jerk she had just rolled down the hill.
"So, uh.. what’s your
name?" Lenny asked her, releasing her arm and jamming his hand into his
pocket.
She sighed, knowing that this would
turn into a talk about her life story if she wasn’t careful. But for the first time, with this guy, it
didn’t seem to matter. He would be
understanding.
"People call me Al.,” she told
him, sitting down in the grass Indian style.
Lenny sat down across from her, the
same way. Setting his elbow on his knee
and resting his chin in his palm.
"Your name's Al? Isn’t that a guy's name?" he asked, not
meaning it as an insult. He was truly
curious.
"My name isn’t Al, people just
call me that. No one really cares what
my real name is. Al is short, easy to
say,” she explained, not becoming even slightly aggravated as she expected to
be.
She silently commended herself for
having such patience; her illness usually aggravated her and made her short
tempered. But not this day, at least
not talking to this guy. She explained
the way a mother would explain a question to a young and curious child.
"I care, what’s your real
name?" Lenny questioned her, looking into her dark and lifeless eyes.
He watched them closely; her eyes
seemed to brighten up when he had spoken his last statement. Her midnight blue orb's where that of a
child's, but they had seen too much pain and sorrow to shine anymore.
Lenny wasn’t sure how he could tell
she was young. Her appearance could be
categorized as young, but her skin was very pale and she seemed so old and
haggard. When he studied her face she
appeared ill, though hiding it very well with her tough outer mask. The slight perk of excitement in her blue
eyes gave him a warm feeling that couldn’t be placed.
"My name's Allania, its not
very usual..." she then trailed off, almost embarrassed from pronouncing
it for him.
Her head sank a little,
disconnecting with his gaze and drifting to the duck pond. His friend had left, but he did not seem to
notice.
"I think its very pretty."
he soothed, slowly reaching his hand for the side of her face.
She noticed this, and moved away
from his gentle touch before he could lay a finger on her. He saw immediate fear in her eyes, she was
afraid to be touched and Lenny was determined to know why.
"So.. uh, what’s your
name??" Allania asked, stuttering and searching for words. His gesture of kindness had made her uneasy,
she did not like being touched.
"Well, people call me a lot of
things... but my name is Lenny." he told her, sticking his hand out to her
so she can shake it.
She met his gaze once again, and
appeared very frightened of his gesture.
Frightened like a child who was lost in a mall, searching for her
parents or anyone willing to help. She
peered at his hand as if it were a poisonous snake, as if anyone who touched it
would perish immediately.
Then she realized he was reading her
like a book, she slumped back into her rough attitude. Sticking her hand out to shake his.
He gently took her hand; Allania's
skin was cold and clammy. They just
stood there, frozen in that moment in time.
Her hand shook nervously in his warm grasp, it appeared she couldn’t
stop this as Lenny felt the muscles in her hand tighten and relax a few
times. Kindness was a new and
frightening experience for her, and Allania was very afraid of it.
He did not restrain her there; she
just seemed to be in shell shock. Not
moving, and hardly breathing. He
tightened his grip a bit, trying to stop her hand from shaking. To no avail, as he then figured it was just
nerves.
She then snapped back to
reality. Quickly pulling her hand out
of his safe, warm, grasp.
Lenny then watched her carefully as
she seemed to turn off her emotions.
When she looked back up at him her eyes were cold and lifeless, almost
fading to black. Her face was
expressionless, and seemed even paler than before.
"So..." Lenny mumbled,
attempting to break the silence. "Where are you from?"
"No place special." she
told him, being as bleak and non-descript as possible.
"Well, where would that
be?" Lenny asked again, trying to pull her back out of her mental shell.
"No place at all,
actually." she mumbled, her voice becoming automatic and that of a drone.
Lenny gave her a puzzled look; she
sighed and began vigorously rubbing her temples. She then stopped, closed her eyes for a quick moment, and then
continued to speak.
"I don’t have a home,” she told
him, straight out. Half expecting that
he wanted nothing to do with a homeless girl and would just walk away, but he
didn’t.
This didn’t seem to bother him at
all. It was not disgust that she saw in
his eyes, but it was concern for her.
Now Allania thought, she'd seen everything.
"Well, ha' come? Did you get kicked out of your apartment or
sumthin'?" he asked, with a hint of worry in his tone. Worry for her, not for his own well-being.
This young man was turning out to be
very pleasant without his annoying little friend, Squiggy. Allania could just imagine how many times
that weasel had taken advantage of this poor guy, who was obviously not wise to
the ways of the world.
He needed a real friend, and Allania
was prepared to be one for as long as her doomed fate would allow.
"I've never had an apartment, I
doubt I ever will have one either,” she told him, still in her bleak tone of
voice.
She wasn’t a cold person, just leery
of certain things. She wanted to know
people, to be cared about, but she wasn’t sure how to go about doing it.
"Where do you sleep?" he
asked her, becoming even more concerned.
"Here.." she said, as she
touched her shaky fingertips to the ground. "There..." she told him,
as she pointed to a small pavilion.
"But I usually just cat nap there; I have a place I stay downtown. Not a home, really. Just a place to sleep when it gets
cold."
Allania looked curiously at the
young man, she could tell that she was warming up to him. He made her feel better, she had begun to
notice. She didn't feel as nauseated as
she usually did, he lifted her spirits.
This Lenny was so child like and innocent, she felt like a mother, which
was something she knew she would never be.
A single drop of rain fell from the
sky and landed with a soft 'plop' on Allania's pronounced nose. More drops followed as she squinted her eyes
and looked up into the now gray sky.
Her beautiful white puffy clouds had turned drab, and the lovely clear
peaceful blue sky was now cold and dark, threatening a storm.
"Whoa, looks like were in for a
really bad storm." Lenny said, standing up.
He reached his hand down to help
Allania up, but she ignored it and pushed herself up awkwardly. She didn’t need help, she thought. I can stand up on my own.
She then walked, ever so slowly,
down the hill towards the pavilion. But
something stopped her; she looked back at Lenny standing atop the hill in the
cold rain that was beginning to pour.
She turned and went back to her, for some reason she could not leave his
presence.
"Would you like to come to my
place.. until the storm passes?" Lenny asked her, shielding his eyes from
the rain.
She furrowed her brow, as if
thinking. She then gave him a look of
acceptance as they started off in the other direction, towards the large truck
in the distance.
~*~*~*~
"Hey Shirl!! Where's all the 'Scooter Pie's'?"
Laverne yelled to Shirley, whom was out of view, presumably in the tiny
two-person bedroom of their basement apartment in Milwaukee.
Shirley walked out and followed
Laverne around the kitchen, shutting all the cabinets that Laverne has searched
through in her mad dash to find her precious 'Scooter Pie's'.
"Laverne, I didn’t have enough
money to waste on junk food this week!
That’s all, end of story. Don’t
have a fit, we will get some next week." Shirley told her, flitting around
the room tidying things.
Laverne then pulled a box of cereal
out of the cabinet and walked over to Shirley.
She began shaking the box at her.
"You can buy YOU Oat Bran and
you can buy ME 'Scooter Pie's'?? What
kind of a twisted, disgusting person are you?!?!?" Laverne yelled, suffering from lack of
Pie's.
Shirley was about to reply but was
interrupted by a door banging open; both the girl's whirled around to see a
drenched Squiggy in their doorway.
"Hello!" he mumbled
angrily, storming over to the girls.
"Get out!" Shirley
ordered, promptly.
"Where's Lenny!?!?!?"
Squiggy demanded.
As if on cue, Lenny and Allania
walked through the door.
"Hey Squig, you locked the
apartment!" Lenny exclaimed, brushing himself off.
They both were a bit damp, but
Squiggy was soaked. Compared to him
Lenny and Allania were bone dry.
"Hey Lenny, you left me in the
park during a storm!!!!" Squiggy shouted, approaching him angrily.
His gaze turned to Allania and his
jaw hit the floor.
"You brought her!! You were gonna let her into our
commode!! The dumb broad???"
Squiggy cried, with a mix of anger, shock, and surprise on his face.
Allania glared at him and began to
roll up her sleeves but Lenny stopped her by gently laying his hand on her arm. Allania was becoming OK with him touching
her, but it was gonna take a while for her to get used to it.
"Shut Up, Squigmann!"
Lenny yelled angrily.
He received looks of surprise from
everyone in the room accept Allania, she was surprised that he was shouting but
very pleased to see Lenny standing up for himself and for her. That would have usually aggravated her but
it was different with Lenny, he didn't know.
He didn't think she was a weak little girl, he didn’t pity her.
"I heard enough from you at the
park, you have no right to call her dumb.
Because she isn’t, Allania is very smart." Lenny told him, not
yelling anymore but talking forcefully and attempting to get his point across.
"Wait, wait, timeout..."
Laverne said, placing her hands together to form a 'T'.
Everyone looked towards her, as
Laverne walked over to Allania.
"Who are you?" Laverne
asked her, with a slightly demanding tone.
"Why do you care?" Allania
snapped back, glaring as she looked down on Laverne.
The one thing she really liked was
her height, it was intimidating to many people and made fights and such a lot
easier.
Laverne was going to start telling
off Allania but before she could she was interrupted by a sharp cry of
pain. Allania doubled over, clutching
her stomach and mildly convulsing.
She curled into a ball in the corner
of the doorway as Lenny, panic stricken, knelt down beside her.
Allania then squeezed her eyes shut
to avoid they're pitiful looks, she couldn’t look at another human being
feeling so sorry for her. She just
ignored the angry shouting and tried to shut them out, her convulsions became
worse and through her closed eyes hot salty tears began to drip. She squeezed them closed but it hurt badly
to hold it back, the pain was unbearable.
There was now yelling and screaming,
what had she done? She had turned four
people against each other who were supposedly the best of friends. God, why couldn’t she just die now and end the
torture? End her pain and everyone
else’s; be taken where she wouldn’t be constantly in agony or constantly in the
way.
Allania was a wreck, and she knew
it. She was lying in a basement and was
choking on her tears. If she did
survive this she would loose all respect from every single one of them, if she
had any to begin with. She couldn’t go
through this again, it just couldn’t be happening.
"Curse this wretched world!”
she thought aloud. "Curse
everything in it that caused me to be!
Curse my mother and my father, curse their parents, and theirs!!"
But she couldn’t be heard over the
uproar, so Allania coped the only way she knew how to. It was the same thing she did when her
parent's used to fight. She covered her
ears and sang loudly, she then began rocking back and fourth.
"Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tendereed. Some say
love, it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed." she sang strongly,
through choking sobs.
Stop it!!! Her mind screamed, don’t do this to yourself! She had never fallen apart in front of
anyone, and she wasn’t going to start now.
Allania weakly pushed herself up,
using the wall as an aid. She then
stood, wobbling. Her seizure had
passed; she was going to be fine right now.
At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.
"SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!!!!" she
screamed at them repeatedly until they stopped.
"Make up, be happy!! I wont make any more trouble, OK!!" she
told them, bring back her monotone voice.
Allania then steadied herself and
stormed out the door, Lenny looked very hurt.
He had seen her collapse, but her long brown hair covered her face so he
could not see her in pain.
"Look at what you have
done." Lenny told Squiggy, coldly.
"I hope you’re proud of yourself and I hope you’re happy. Cause you just lost your best friend."
Lenny ran out the door after her as
Squiggy stood there, in shock. The
girls looked at each other and they all stood there contemplating what had
happened for a long time.
~*~*~*~
Allania sat on the edge of the roof
of Laverne & Shirley’s apartment building, dangling her feet almost
playfully. She would hold onto the edge
and lean over, toying with the inevitable.
Again, a pained expression took residence across her face, but it wasn’t
that sort of pain. She leaned back and
looked up at the sky, the gray clouds were gone and the beautiful white puffy
ones had returned.
Then she smiled, and it felt
good. Allania couldn’t remember the
last time she smiled like she had just then, only the clouds could do it. She didn’t know where her fascination with
the sky came from, and doubted she ever would.
But it was amazing.
The weight-less clouds that floated
in the big blue unknown. The great
balls of gas and flame that hung there at night, not making a sound. It was so peaceful when she would lay there
and look up, it had helped her cope with life more times than she could
count. But she still had been looking
over the edges of buildings as long as she could remember, toying with the
possibility of jumping.
How good it would feel to fly
through the wondrous sky that she held so dear, like a bird. She didn’t care about the consequences; she
knew that she would probably die soon anyways.
The added bonus was death on impact, if it was high enough. She wouldn’t feel a thing and it would all
be over.
Suddenly a wave of guilt washed over
her body, causing her to close her eyes.
She thought of Lenny. Then
again, that was stupid. He had known
her for how long? A few hours, that
would make no difference to him then.
Would it? She asked
herself. Then another thought came to
mind.
Giving up. If she jumped she would be giving up, and Allania was a
fighter. That’s one thing she could
honestly tell herself, she was a fighter... but this. This was the chicken's way out, and she knew it.
Just then she felt a hand rest on her
shoulder, it caused her to jump and almost go toppling off the edge. But before she could fall two large, strong,
hands caught her by the shoulders and pulled her backwards.
She turned around and saw Lenny,
standing there with a sad expression plastered on his face. His eyes searched her face for an
explanation.
"Why?" he asked softly, as
she looked down. Obviously ashamed.
He then gently reached his hand
towards the side of her face, but this time she did not draw back. He cupped the side of her face and gently
lifted it up.
Allania's eyes met his and she
looked at him deeply. His eyes were
full of concern and worry for her, it was for her. She was amazed he cared, no one else ever had and she smiled
weakly at him.
"Why?" he asked again, not
demanding an answer but genuinely concerned.
Allania mustered up all her courage
and pushed away her fears of rejection, and being pitied.
"I'm dying, and I'm
scared..." she stammered, her voice then wavered and cracked, "I have
epilepsy, there is no known cure."
Allania burst into tears and Lenny
took her in his arms, he let her cry.
He stood there and held her, trying to imagine how she felt. To know that you only have a little while
left, that you might never accomplish your dreams.
"And the thing is, I only have
two things I want in life. Respect and
love." Allania told him, sniffling "The sad part is I doubt I ever
will receive either."
"Don’t say that, I respect
you." Lenny told her, comfortingly.
She smiled at him and gave out a
funny little sigh, he grinned at her goofily.
She then slowly swung her legs back on the roof and let Lenny help her
up.
"And do you know what?" he
said, almost in tears himself from this emotionally exhausting day.
"What?" Allania asked him,
attempting to dry her eyes.
"I also think I love you."
Lenny told her, tearing up.
She didn't say a word. Allania simply looked up at him with the
hopeful eyes of a child, wishing to the high heavens that he really meant
it. Lenny did mean it, and he showed
her so by gathering up the shaking girl in his arms and hugging her tightly.
At that moment in time, Lenny felt
as if he could protect her from death.
He could protect her from anything and he vowed that he would try.
She then looked up at him, her face
was red and tearstained but she was wearing the biggest smile he had ever
seen. Then Lenny looked into her eyes
and they shined, the bright blue orbs were practically glowing with
happiness. Allania, like himself, had
the eyes of a child.
He
could see so much from just looking into her deep, mysterious, blue eyes. Right then and there Lenny fell in love with
those eyes, and the soul behind them.
Allania was special, even if Lenny was the only one in this world who
knew it.