Mary Sue - Coming Home

Chapter 12 - What to do about Wolf Girl

The Band sat silently while The Girl spoke. They had found comfortable places amongst the toys and idly stroked them while she spoke. Amelia was the first to speak, "Well, that was ... interesting," she said, with the fake enthusiasm she used when she had no idea what to say.

"Did that really happen? Are you the girl?" asked Reina, clutching Prince Boldly to her chest.

The girl nodded, her voice thick with emotion and presumably overuse. "And the only person you spoke to was Melon?" asked Liara. "Because that doesn't make any sense." The Girl eyed her suspiciously.

"We should talk about this for a moment, alone. You seem thirsty," he said to the girl, offering her a bottle of water from his sack. Baroness Patiently looked serenely from the depths of said sack.

The Girl took the water and awkwardly began to drink it, while the Band moved away to discuss the situation without the girl being exposed to the whole thing.

"There's no way a little girl taught her how to speak and read. She uses complex sentence structure." Liara said.

"We need to call social services," Amelia said. "That girl is alone, and maybe living with a bunch of dogs, with who knows what kind of diseases, and even though she looks..." she glanced back at the girl in the distance, "oddly healthy, who knows what diseases lying down with dogs for years has given her."

Reina finally spoke, "Yeah, because social services always helps." Reina's family had been plagued by social services. Some of her relatives were illegal, and their kids were constantly having social services called on them by "helpful" neighbors who didn't like the way the family was living. There had been families broken up, and lives disrupted. While most of the people in family services seemed to have good intentions, their privilege got in the way of actually helping people. "Who knows what they'd do to a chica lobo."

The three girls bickered for a moment about the possibilities and what to do before Destiny sighed. They grew silent. "What if she's right?" he said simply.

Liara looked at him quizzically, "Were you listening just now? We were just saying it's impossible that she's right."

"It's impossible that a new girl moves to town and become a football hero while on the cheerleading squad, too, but that happened. What if this girl magically survived living with wolves and then learned how to speak and read?"

They sat for a moment. "It's still impossible, but I have no precedent, so yield that my data is incomplete," Liara said finally.

Destiny continued, "And we can find out more later, if she's still around. But right now, we're the only ones who know about her, and she's lucky for that. Can you imagine if Brett and the football team found her?" They all shuddered.

"Or even Kelly and the field hockey team?" All of them but Reina shivered again. They stared at her.

"What?" she said defensively, "Kelly is hot."

Amelia spoke with a determined voice "Then she needs help. Probably more help than we can give."

"But NOT social services. Not government. I refuse to let her get ETed." Reina said, and Liara nodded somberly.

Amelia frowned sadly. "Who, then? We can't do this alone."

"She can stay with my family for a couple days," said Reina eagerly. "We could get to know each other," she said with false bravado.

"Living in tight space with a bunch of strangers, unknown and honestly, powerful smells, both human and food?" asked Liara. "And a sexually aggressive host who she might feel obligated to?"

Reina glared at her for a moment, then dropped her shoulders. "I resent that last bit, but the first part is true." She looked away, a little hurt. "You know I wouldn't molest chica lobo, right, Li?"

"Of course," Liara said. "I didn't say you'd do it, only that she might feel obligated."

"Sexually aggressive?" Reina asked.

"Yes." said Destiny and Amelia in unison.

"Pretty sure she'd be noticed at my place," said Amelia after another moment of thinking. Amelia's place was a hotbed of activity and strangers while her mother ran for the Senate. Her dad had been a senator, but when he'd had to take an extended leave of absence, her mom had stepped up and voted in his place. It was some obscure local law, but she'd been so popular and successful that he'd stepped aside long term, and she won her own seat the next election. Now, she was attempting a national office. There were always strangers in and around her house. A half-naked wild girl would definitely be noticed.

Destiny and Liara looked at each other. The started speaking at the same time, then again. Finally, Liara gestured at Destiny. "Yeah. My mom would probably not notice. And she's one of the few adults I think wouldn't immediately call," Reina gave him a warning look. "Social services."

Liara smiled. "That's what I was going to say. My 'rents are in the middle of something right now, so might not notice immediately, but my mom would instantly report a feral girl to the government. And Dr. Fate can be trusted," she switched to a weird voice, "with the seeeecrets of the uuuuunniverse."

It was a running joke to call Destiny's mom Dr. Fate. Mostly because that was her name, but also because it sounded like a comic book character. There was a comic character with the name, but they'd looked and it was sadly nothing like Destiny's mom. She was politely competent, kind, but always distracted. She might feed wolf girl for days without really noticing.

Liara continued, "And my house is filled with a bunch of random electronics."

"Wait, why?" asked Amelia.

"There was a deal. My mom asked my dad, and he loves old electronics, but these ended up being newer, but then I said we could use them for the school robotics club, but also for my AI boyfriend, or at least proof of concept."

Amelia looked at the others with the customary concern she always showed when Liara's future robot boyfriend was brought up, but they seemed unconcerned, so she dropped it. There was a noise behind her and she turned to see the wolf girl coming up.

"You guys talked a lot. Have you figured out how to help me find Melon, yet?"

The Band looked at each other. It was almost unsaid that they didn't think she should go directly to Melon, but no one could say anything about it now. "Yes," Amelia lied. Of all the Band, she was the only one particularly adept at lying. "But you're going to stay with Destiny for a few days while we figure it out."

The Girl walked over to Destiny and brushed her body against him as she walked past. It was an intimate familiar gesture, and Destiny almost fainted. It would have sent Amelia into a lecture and Liara for her notepad if it hadn't been followed by "What's social services?"