Start of the summer
I went with the family to see Deri and Van to the bus taking them off to camp. They were going to have a great time. The camp didn't allow the use of communicators aside from Sunday afternoons unless of an emergency or accident, so she'd be focused on her activities. After waving goodbye as the bus pulled out, my parents took me to breakfast, and from there I'd go to work.
"I'm a little surprised you agreed to help Carter after telling me you wouldn't," Mom said after we'd ordered. Her tone was mostly neutral, with only the faintest whiff of displeasure.
"He got my attention when he said he begged me to reconsider. A guy like that doesn't beg. And he really doesn't want the gods of Egypt to get a foothold here, which I thought was weird. At first I thought that he was afraid of the pharaoh, and he might be. The gods had stopped appearing to the people by the time of him and his dad, and although who really knows what happened in the temples, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility to think that maybe the pharaoh and the priests didn't actually see them much themselves. But Dr Hall doesn't seem afraid of the gods themselves. Deeply respectful, yes, and wary of their power. So there's something going on. After you guys all went downstairs, I did a little research. There's only one temple to the Egyptian gods in this country, and that's in Missouri, it's small, they're trying to see if they can get the gods of the Nile to work some magic on the Mississippi. But I think that Dr Hall is concerned about what would happen if his gods got a toehold here. The Mayan and Aztec pantheons aren't getting along, they and their followers clash, so do the Toltecs, but they might unite against the Egyptian gods, and that could hurt them, which would in turn affect Egypt if their gods are injured or killed. And the theocracy in Egypt is not terribly kind to those who don't at least observe the forms. So I think it's a good thing to keep the pharaoh at bay. Besides, even Uncle Tony is nervous."
"I was going to explain some of this to you ," she said.
"You blew me off in a very hurtful way," I said flatly. "And you didn't even have lunch the way you promised, so I ended up getting food poisoning from the one type of food that I had time to eat. On top of the fallout I still get because the world is not what you think it should be like."
"Lys--" Mom started.
"No. Look. You don't have the faintest idea what growing up here, in this city, this time, is like. You were the only kid on the islands when you were growing up, and everybody paid attention to you and fawned on you. Maybe your mom was loving to you, but she strikes me as a pretty cold fish. I get that she's the ruler of her people and all, but she hasn't been interested in me once I started to grow out of my brief cute phase. Even now, my life sucks, probably will for the next few years when hopefully I can get into a college where it doesn't matter. You don't say it, but your attitude is that I should rise above it, that it's silly to be upset about the party. Well, it isn't and I can't." I shut up as the server put our plates in front of us. Oh, yum, just the way I like it. Scrambled eggs, slightly underdone, link sausage, overdone, wheat toast, medium brown, and a bowl of fruit.
"I'm never going to be able to forget the humiliation I felt at the party. My friends stopped being my friends because they still want to go on dates and have fun. Nobody wanted to dance with me. The girls in scouts weren't as obvious about it, but nobody voluntarily wanted to finish up the badgework with me. Right now, the only good thing in my life is work, where only my boss knows my last name and all anybody cares about is if I get the fabric back on the racks and the notions stocked. So one person asked me, pretty nicely, for a favor. It's the only time that's happened for a while."
"Lysippe, while it's true that I don't understand what it's like to be a girl at this place and time, people are going to be envious of what you have all your life. You need to learn how to deal with it without letting it affect you."
"No, they're not envious of what I have, because right now I don't have much. The name is what has prestige and wealth and inspires that envy. That's what they see, and it doesn't have much to do with me, who I am as a person. Kids are gloating because I have what they see as those advantages but there's been this big awful thing. And no, I can't overlook it because it makes me miserable. You can't tell me that you've never been hurt by the actions of others and taken out a little anger on somebody." Her head inclined down. "You chose your life. I have to take what I'm given. Right now that includes a clueless father who assumes that the parent with the uterus knows best--pro tip: no--and a mother who is just so out of touch I can't even. I've been miserable and you couldn't be bothered to take an interest, offer to do something to make it better or anything. It wasn't even your idea to get me a pod. I'd bet cash money on that." And I knew I'd win that, thanks to what I'd overheard Grandpa Mark say. "And it was Uncle Tony who did the work and made it special, made me feel like somebody cared that I was hurt." Dad's eyes dropped.
"We won't make the same mistake with Deri, at least," he said. I rolled my eyes.
"Great for her. You'd have made sure she had what she wanted anyway. Doesn't help me any. I know that parents often favor one kid over the other, but it stings a bit to have it shoved in my face that you like her more than me." I shoveled my breakfast in as fast as I could chew.
"We don't love Deri more than you," he said. "I love both my girls equally." I snorted.
"You sure like her more. Just once I'd like to be somebody's favorite."
"I do not," he said sharply. "Lys, we've talked about this. I can't change what's happened." I swallowed with difficulty.
"And I don't know how to get past what happened." I drank the rest of my juice quickly, pressing the button on the fob. "I need to go to work. Thanks for breakfast." I got up and left. I didn't have long to wait until my pod showed up
I was twenty minutes early for work, so I stayed in my pod, listening to music, until it was time to go in. I was interested in learning what got done before the doors opened to the public and didn't want to mess this up, so I used the time to calm down and by focusing on how much I liked the work got in a better frame of mind.
What happened in the hour before we opened was that any bolts of fabric that might have been missed were put out, new fabrics that had been priced and processed into the system the day before were brought out and arranged at the front of the store, the notions were completely stocked, the checkout counter was stocked with blanks for the receipt printer, things were dusted, the floor gone over very thoroughly. We had a short employee meeting, where our manager told us that filming on that TV show would start this week and to be helpful. We had a lot of staff today because weekends were always busiest, and I was assigned to shadow one of the assistant managers, learning what fabrics would be appropriate for what uses and how to help the customers. They had a house publication that they used for training, but you can't learn everything in books, either. I shadowed Carla for a few hours, then I had my lunch break, spent time putting fabric back, then was told to go study the book. I needed to learn basics about clothes construction, upholstery, and what went into making things like cushions, bedding, and draperies. What interfacing was and how to use it. How to select a thread for a project, both how to match the color and how to select the right kind for the application. That the kinds of fibers used were and what their best uses were. It was a lot to learn, and my scout badge barely scratched the surface. I clocked out at six, my first eight-hour day. I got a nice surprise at the cash register when I bought a book on sewing that was meant for students at Parsons or FIT. We had an employee discount: cost plus 1.25% for everything in the store. AI Tony got me laughing on the way home.
I was just in time for dinner. Shoot. I'd forgotten that we'd be eating a little later because of the meetings. I found myself talking to Grandpa Bruce during cocktail hour; he was interested in my job, never having worked retail himself, and he liked learning new things. You never knew what might come in handy as Batman. He's a good conversationalist when he wants to be, and talking to him meant that I could keep my distance from my parents. After dinner, everybody else went downstairs; Alan gave me some cookies and a mug of tea and I went upstairs. I don't really like tea but coffee at night time keeps me awake too long. I poured it down the drain and ate my cookies while looking at my new book. After a bit, I brushed the crumbs off my front and went up to the attic. It took a good hour of searching and moving things around, but I found what I was looking for, an old sewing machine. It was an elegant black thing, with elaborate gold designs painted on it, "Singer" on the arm, and mounted in a cabinet that probably weighed half a ton. A very delicate manual was in one of the drawers. I considered my surroundings.
It wasn't illegal to want to learn how to use a sewing machine, but I didn't want to deal with the hassle that would come with anybody knowing. I spend another hour looking for a place to set up, and finally realized that the best place was the closet that had held all the beautiful clothing that had been donated to the Costume Institute. It was completely bare, had its own light source and climate control, and was certainly spacious enough. I pushed and pulled the sewing machine cabinet across the wood floor; even with some discs that I liberated from the supply in a cabinet by the door that reduced the friction between furniture and floor, it was hard going. But at least it didn't mar the floor. I got the sewing machine placed where I wanted it, then looked around for a small table that I could use to cut fabric on. I really lucked out and found an old sewing basket, misplaced in with a bunch of chairs. It had a wide range of silk thread colors along with needles, pins, and a couple of different sizes of scissors. I brought that and a straight chair into the closet and shut the door to investigate my findings. The thread was perished, unfortunately; I unwound some from the spool and tugged; it sort of disintegrated. But the needles, pins, and scissors were sharp and ready to use. I took the spools of threads with me downstairs along with the manual for the sewing machine. In my room, I dumped the thread into the trash can and scanned the manual, printing it out for a more durable copy. I spent the rest of the evening reading about how to operate the machine and maintain it; there was historical information about fixing the things on the net too. I learned that it was something called a treadle machine and that I'd be pushing on the bottom paddle-shaped thing to operate it. I liked the sound of that, being the force behind the operation. I went back to my sewing room briefly to ascertain that the machine worked. It was going to be a workout in itself, pushing on the treadle, but I'd see what they recommended at work. Maybe it needed a little oil? Of some kind? I decided on making a couple of throw pillows for my first project, and researched the supplies I'd need for it. And a pattern, but simple patterns like that were all over the net. I stumbled on information that told me how to clean and condition the machine so that it would work, and added the specific products that were recommended to my shopping list.
I was only scheduled to work one day each weekend, so I had plenty of time to study the next day. The sociology was pretty easy to pick up; geometry needed more work but it was easier than algebra had been. The Justice League left after breakfast, and I returned to my room, opening the window and enjoying the breeze as I studied. Just before I packed it in to get some lunch, there was a tap on my door and Aunt Amy stuck her head in. "It's a gorgeous day. I wondered if you'd like to have a picnic with me in the gazebo down by the lake?"