Talking In The Rain

Chapter 1

Hey, y'all, comment a prompt on my work for that!

He really should have noticed Emerald.

After all, she was standing directly in front of him, holding a large, sparkly shopping bag and a large umbrella. Instead he smacked into her and tripped over the curb like an idiot. And soaked the stupid sketchpad Rock had handed him with the explicit instructions "Don't get this wet". And honestly, he was worried about if Rock would then try to kill him over it.

Probably.

Then heard a cough and "You know, I think that's what the other side of the pavement is for."

"Sorry. I...I was trying to not get this wet...but, whatever, it's soaked." Then opened it up and flipped through it, weighing if it was salvageable. Nope. Well...maybe the middle pages. Maybe if he found a hair dryer? Nah, it was pretty toasted. He started wondering if he could just lock Rock in the closet and wait for him to forget the previous anger. Emerald walked up behind him and said "What's that?"

He shrugged "Rock's sketch pad. He animates disturbing things in it. Honestly, it's no loss that those things are gone." She frowned "What kind?" "Once he animated someone getting torn apart graphically until I stole it and scribbled over." She shuddered. 

That had been very disturbing. They'd been at Rock's house, everybody had been chatting...except him, because they were chatting about killing the mayor. More disturbing, they appeared to think that they could pay their way out. Eventually he'd started animating that and he'd stolen it to scribble out before actual evidence could be made. 

Then spent the rest of the day hiding in the bathroom, as they got really mad about that.

She shook her head "Have you ever considered getting...less..."

"Crazy friends? Yeah. Turns out I don't attract the kind of crowd with sanity." She frowned "Seriously? I mean...everybody on Team Runt hates you, but everybody hates Team Runt too. I'm pretty sure you could at least get Bumbi to hang out with you." He sighed, gathered up the pages.

"In case you haven't noticed, Bumbi's an idiot. Besides, if I even found a friend that wasn't "influential", Dad would go crazy. You know that, anyway. You've been to my house." She'd been there, mostly to just talk with him. Then sighed depressively and said "And you've seen how much Dad places on influence." 

She lowered her head, remembering that. Dad had glared her into the ground. Hissed angrily about "Uselessness", and "Stupidity". And exiting, she'd been kicked in the ankles so she fell. Pebble also got kicked out with her. And she was fairly sure that afterwards Pebble got punished. And honestly, from how insane that man had acted, she was a little worried for him. 

She then sighed "How are they influential? They're man-babies, aren't they?" He shrugged, "Their parents are rich. And I mean really rich. Seriously, they're idiots, but their parents are so rich they can buy everything in a fifty-mile radius. In my opinion, they're not gonna do well when their parents die and take the money with them, but that's a problem for later."

"Aren't you guys fairly well-off?"

"Emerald, we're sort of rich, but it's not that much. More upper-middle. I at least know what a normal or poor person's life is like, and also I'm not crazy. I'll admit, I'm not that great in terms of knowing what someone normal is like, either, but if you could see them...Emerald, they think solid gold couches and butlers are normal. I'll complain about something like having to clean my room or organize my chests or something, and they'll be like "Don't you have a butler?"

He shuddered at that particular memory. There's a certain feeling when you're engulfed in incredibly out-of-touch idiots. It's not fun. They just keep on talking about their "problems" (which aren't problems. They're stuff like "Daddy won't let me buy a new horse"), and then you just have to take a break before you explode from how so, so incredibly out of it they are.