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Maellard Jay and his son were driving home from the Hometown High theatre, and the man couldn't be any prouder, second place, second place, that counted for a lot.
A shame poor Berdly couldn't see that yet, what with his downcast look, and red puffy eyes, Maellard slowed the car down to a pace safe for him to take his focus away for a while, his boy needed a pep talk.
"Are you still worked up about losing, son?"
Berdly nodded.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
He shook his head.
"Will you at least let me say something while we drive?
He nodded again.
"Good. I'm not gonna try to sell you some funky new timey stuff like 'winning doesn't matter' or 'at least you participated' because those plainly aren't true, winning's one of the most important thing to strive towards, but losing is just as important, because it shows you what you lack, the chinks in your armour, and how the one who beat you, well, beat you."
"So the only thing left once you've lost, is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get better."
"But dad, losing is the only thing people are gonna know me for after the Bee."
"Only if you let it."
"What does that mean?"
"It means they will only remember you for losing if you don't get something out there that makes people forget. Something that makes people hear about this little spelling bee and go 'So? Berdly's done way more.'"
"I can do that?"
"Of course you can! Don't let anyone tell you you can't. Don't let what happened today rule you, it didn't rule me, and any failures you run into will be nothing like mine… not if I have anything to say about it.
Berdly looked away bashfully.
"Thanks dad."
Maellard nodded sagely, "Good to hear… say, why don't you and I go pick up some ice cream?"
"Yay! Do you think they're gonna have the Special?"
"Won't know 'til we check."
[Br]
"Berdly?"
"I'm still studying Dad!"
"Well you can study later buddy, you need to eat dinner."
"I just need to clean up my notes."
"If this is about the-"
"That was a year ago! I just want to do better next time."
"But you better remember to eat."
[Br]
"You okay?" The lizard monster asked Berdly, looking no worse for wear after what she just did to help him.
The big kids who tried to bother him were all on the ground, bite marks on their hands and the slots where she socked them starting to bruise. Berdly couldn't imagine anyone his age could be this strong, but here was proof.
"I-I'm okay, thank you for uh… helping me."
"Yeah, don't mention it." A pained moan warbled behind them, and the purple girl turned around to glare at him. He shut up fast.
"Since, they're not gonna bother you anymore, I'm gonna go now." She shot a look away from Berdly, shaking a few of her bangs loose, "Bye."
"Wait!" Berdly reached out to take her shoulder. "Maybe you should come eat lunch with me?"
"I dunno..."
It was at that moment when her tummy started to rumble and the girl blushed.
"Okay."
"Yay! Come on, my dad's waiting for us outside." Berdly tugged at her wrist to get her to follow him out, but stopped halfway out the door.
"I almost forgot, what's your name?" He asked.
The girl brushed her hair out of the way, and Berdly could finally see her eyes.
"Susie."
[Br]
“So.” Maellard asked between bites of casserole, “Do your parents mind you eating here Soose?”
“Soose?” Susie tilted her head, confused.
“Just a nickname honey, don’t sweat it.
“Oh. I dunno, they probably think I’m still at school or something.” She shrugged and took out another slice of lasagna. It was weird eating food her family only ever ate once every other month for lunch.
“They don’t check on you?” Berdly looked at her.
She shrugged again. “It’s cool.”
“As cool as it may be, someone’s still gotta look out for you.” Maellard pointed out.
Susie stayed quiet.
"Yeah… this stuff is really good too." She mumbled to change the subject.
Maellard perked up, "Glad to hear it. You wanna know how to cook those sometime? I'd teach Berdly but he doesn't like getting messy in the kitchen."
"Really?"
"Of course."
[Br]
"Hey Berdly! Can I come eat at your house again?" Susie asked.
"Sure, but…" Berdly wrung his wings behind his back. "Are your mom and dad mad that you went there without permission last time?"
"Nope." Susie smiled.
"Okay… I can tell Dad you're coming then. Lunch or dinner?"
"Dinner!" Susie said, a little too quickly. "Uh, please?"
"Alright."
[Br]
"So we need to put the chicken in the salt water overnight so it tastes better?" Susie frowned, she didn't want to wait until the next day to make fried chicken.
"Mhm. But I took the liberty of doing that last night so we could skip right to cooking." Maellard took out a large kettle from the big cooler in the Jays' expansive kitchen.
"Nice..." Susie's eyes glassed over in thought, "chickens are birds right? Isn't this canning- canna-"
"Cannibalism?" Maellard guessed, smiling warmly at his son's best friend as he whisked together the flour and spices.
"Is it?" Susie asked, she took out a batch of chicken thighs from the pot and put them in another bowl to fill it with water.
"No, y'see, chickens are feral animals. You, me, and Berdly are all Monsters, there's a difference." Susie handed Maellard the thighs, who then dunked them into an egg wash.
"We have omelettes for breakfast all the time." Berdly piped up from the dining table, scratching away at an answer sheet.
Susie blinked. "Oh, sorry." She let the meat drip the eggwash back into the bowl then dunked them in the coating, getting it nice and covered before moving onto the bread crumbs, a nice brand of panko crumbs.
"There's no harm in asking, Soose." Maellard checked the temperature on the oil he'd been heating up in preparation for the chicken.
"Thanks dad."
Susie froze halfway through coating the last piece of chicken.
Maellard shut off the heat, and smiled.
"I- I- I'm sorry Mr. Jay, I didn't mean to-" Susie couldn't finish before she got swept up in a hug, light pats on her back and shoulder, she tried reaching for the paper towels in vain, she ended hugging back, smearing eggs and flour on his back.
"Aw Susie, it's okay. It's flattering honestly." Maellard frowned, "And y'know… if anything gets really tough at home, you can come here."
"I can?" Susie whispered, sniffling.
"Whenever you need it."
"But I… I got eggs on your shirt..."
"It's fine. I can clean these anytime I want." Maellard felt some anger well up in him that this poor girl had to think about dirtying something as inconsequential as a shirt when she had heavier things weighing on her mind.
Maellard gave Berdly a look, his son got the hint and went in for a hug of his own.
"You're safe here. I promise."
Susie cleared her throat and pulled away from the hug, "I'm- I'm okay now, can we keep cooking now? Please?"
Maellard chuckled. "Sure thing." And turned the stove back on.
[Br]
"Are you sure you can do the test on your own? Passing this is really important." Berdly asked, stuffing the last of his stuff in the locker.
"Relax, Berd, I can totally get through."
"B-but I still think we should study together more often, I have all the books."
Susie scoffed, "So you can peep over my shoulder and keep telling me the answers? Nah."
"Helping isn't cheating Susie. And I only did that once."
"It's still annoying though. How would you feel if I kept backseat gaming for you whenever I come over?"
"This is different." He whined.
"Bull. C'mon dude, I'm cool with studying at your place, but just, step off when I say step off."
"'Kay, but you will tell me if you've got any problems."
[Br]
"So what was your score?" Berdly tried peeking at Susie's answer sheet.
The dinosaur held it tight to her chest, "No looking dude, I don't know either."
"You waited for me?"
"I wanted to see it with you."
"Oh. Well, you should look at it now."
"I'm doing it, slow down nerd." Susie kept her eyes away from the paper, nervous about what was inside…
"WOW!"
"Jeez Berd," she rubbed the side of her head while her bestie's yell rebounded in her skull, "my ears… ow, and what the heck's up with your wo-"
It was a perfect 100.
"I did this?"
"Um. Yeah. You did."
"I got a perfect score?" Susie's voice wobbled, her tail wagging uncontrollably under her jacket.
"Uh huh."
Susie's grin slipped down into a self-satisfied smirk.
"Nice."
[Br]
"Step off Hot Topic, this spot's for the big brains." Susie sneered, Catti stepped away from the front desk.
Catti bristled, "You get one good test score then you think you can do anythin."
"Why wouldn't I be able to do anything?" Susie grinned back.
"What does that mean?"
"I'm better than you."
"Wow."
Catti headed to her usual spot beside that little bubbly human kid, and Jockington.
Berdly gave Susie a look.
"That was a bit harsh y'know."
"I know, but I can't pass up a chance to sit next to you dude."
"You sit next to me all the time."
"But you’ll be doing it at the front of the class now.”
“You didn't need to make a big deal out of it though.”
"Sure I can."
"Doesn't mean you have to."
[Br]
"Ughhh. Why can't I kill people with this guy?" Susie's poor microphone rattled around Berdly's head.
"Susie, you're a Medic, you're not supposed to get kills with him."
"But his weapon is so cool!" She whined.
"It's just a needle gun, the other classes have cooler stuff." Berdly reasoned.
"Screw this, I'm playing Soldier."
"..."
"WHY IS HE SO FREAKING SLOW!?"
"Remind me to send you some rocket jumping maps."
[Br]
Berdly tried to tug himself away from his friend's grip to no avail, Susie wasn't always this forceful, what did she want to show him this bad?
They turned a corner and Berdly felt a wave of terror ripple down his spine.
"Susie - gah! Hey! - We can't spy on Ms. Undyne's house, what if she spots us? She'll think we're looking for a teacher's guide on the next tests!"
"C'mon, we do too well at school for that. But if she does spot us then she can answer my question…"
Susie stopped at a nondescript window that looked over the sparse living room of their teacher.
“You see what she’s got there on the wall?” She pointed.
Berdly humoured her and got up against the glass to take a better look.
His eyes narrowed, “A diploma?”
“Not a diploma dumbass, diplomas, look!” And sure enough, there were more certificates lining the walls.
“Woah.”
“Yeah woah, look at all those, I can’t see what they’re all for, though.”
“Well.” A new voice said from behind them, the temperature around the two dropped.
"The first degree you saw was an degree, bit of a mistake on my part if I'm honest."
Berdly could feel his glasses fog as he started to sweat buckets through his shirt.
"Next was sports science, I was in a big football phase 'round that time, I don't regret that one."
Susie, for her part, didn't show her fear, but the thoughts of expulsion and cheating accusations thundered through her mind, and her throat bobbed to the beat of her racing pulse.
"Then that one," Ms. Undyne fingered the third, "was for culinary science, I took that course because my ex-girlfriend hated my cooking, can't blame her though."
"How does it take burnt spaghetti to figure out you're a shit cook?!" The fishwoman cackled.
The only thing keeping Berdly from collapsing into a pile of blue, feathered jello was the firm grip his sister and teacher were keeping on either side of his shoulders. The last remnants of the nascent ego shattered during the Spelling Bee turned into yet finer dust.
Susie felt impotent, the weight of realising how much of a prodigy her teacher was nearly drove her to her own knees.
"The last of 'em are like… STEM courses, those kinda blended together and were all pretty fun."
That was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the floodgate of questions that boiled in the two's heads surged forth.
"You're a genius!?" Susie blurted out.
Undyne groaned, "This is why I don't brag about the diplomas, the genius tag is so overrated."
"When did you start college!? Doing all that with undergrad and graduate work is crazy!" Berdly squawked, trying to grasp the sheer difficulty of the work done.
"I was like… fourteen, fifteen? Highschool was boring and I just wanted to do something productive for once, so… college!" Undyne flashed the teenagers a razor sharp grin.
Undyne reached a fever pitch of hilarity seeing the shocked faces of her two pupils.
"Oh my Angel, kids come on, the work wasn't that hard, you just gotta stay dedicated and deal with snobby intellectuals for a decade or two."
Her face scrunched up in distaste when she realised they were still eyeing her like she was the messiah.
"Seriously, stop looking at me like that or I swear I'm going to make your assignments harder than the others'."
Susie's eyes sparkled. "You promise?"
"The fu-"
[Br]
"Fuck took you so long?" Dad grumbled from the TV, the old style CRT static was the only thing lighting up the house.
The lightbulbs died years ago, Susie didn't remember the last time they worked.
"Nothing, I had to do some more stuff at school."
The TV switched off, Susie tensed.
"You got your ass reamed in class again!?" Her father stood up to his full height, the beer can in his hand sloshed around in his shaky grip.
“What? No! I was doing extra work because I wanted to be there."
"Bullshit! Get over here you little-" He made to swipe at her and Susie dove away, the larger man's claws taking a chunk out of her backpack, cutting the strap loose and spilling what was inside all over the dirty carpet.
Her phone clattered out along with the rest, Susie grabbed it and rushed up the stairs, years of practice let her avoid the steps that were weak or had already left a hole.
Behind her, Susie heard her father step on a very weakened step, the loud "BITCH!" and the sound of his foot falling through.
Susie slammed against the door to her room, she ripped off the dust caked slip of duct tape wrapped around a piece of cardboard that she used as a makeshift door stopper.
She curled up against the corner of her room farthest from the door, her heart was racing, the blood in her ears shaking her skull.
Susie took the reprieve that locking herself inside gave to calm down.
The light of her phone was blinding after sitting in the dark.
She opened up the numpad and dialled 911, taking the liberty of turning on the speaker, just in case.
"Hello." A woman's voice garbled from her phone's crap speaker.
"Hey." Susie whispered, "M-my dad's drunk, and he's angry."
"Oh. Alright, just hang tight hon, I'll be right with you, can you tell me where you live?"
"I took the bus… I dunno."
"Ah, won't be a problem then, my colleagues can track you, but that'll take a while, is there anywhere you can hide from your father?"
"I'm in my room."
"Any locks?"
"There are."
"Windows?"
"Yeah-" Dad was at the door, punching and slamming into it with force.
"Susie! Open this door!"
"Shit."
"Oh my, we'll try to get to you as quickly as we can, Susie, if you can climb out of that window, do it now."
"Got it, thanks." Susie hung up.
[Br]
She could hear the sirens as the police car pulled up along the curb, Susie snuck out of the bushes she was hiding in to greet the officer.
The policeman was tall and slender, his uniform clinging to him in a way that would be much more flattering if he were a she, and while it was hard to see in the dark, it looked like he was wearing makeup.
All in all, he seemed pretty fruity, not the sort Susie would expect to be in the police, but who was she to judge?
"Hey." She called out. "Are you the cop?"
"Calling me a cop does my profession a disservice," the officer sauntered towards Susie, "I prefer the term 'peacekeeper', but c'est la vie, where's your father?"
"Still inside, he thinks I'm in my room."
The 'peacekeeper' huffed, "Alright, I'll go talk to him, why don't you go stay in the car for the moment? Alphys will drive you to the station."
"Okay," Susie nodded, "Thanks." And with that, she walked over to the car and slid into the open backseat."
Another monster was waiting for her inside, a tired looking reptile woman (a relative to her own species?) staring at her phone.
Her eyes flicked up at the rearview mirror and she jumped in place, before settling back into her seat when she realised it was just Susie.
"Sup." Susie greeted.
"H-hi." The woman waved back, absently docking her phone to a charging station."
"Y-you're the 911 call right? I hope M-mettaton didn't give you any trouble."
"No trouble, he's cool."
"G-great! Good to hear, yeah, he is pretty cool when you get to know him, we can talk more while I drive you to the station if you want."
"Sure."
The vehicle pulled out onto the road, leaving Mettaton in the darkness.
"Is he gonna be okay?"
Alphys turned a corner. "He holds his own, if all the bruising and fights didn't mess up his looks I-I'm pretty sure Mettaton could get into the UFC if he ever wanted to."
"But isn't being a cop worse?"
"He says violence isn't as consistent because Hometown isn't a very dangerous place."
"Makes sense." Susie turned on her phone and sent some texts to Berdly. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of c-course, ask away. Hehh."
"Mettaton called himself a 'peacekeeper', he doesn't like 'cop', what's up with that?"
"Oh, short answer, he wants to differentiate himself. The long answer… are you good for a quick history lesson?"
"Totally."
"Great. Okay. A few years ago, the Mayor's daughter disappeared. I-I might be missing some details but she got disillusioned when the police force couldn't find her, so she signed a bill that massively defunded them, and all their equipment was put into surplus or got auctioned away to private citizens."
Alphys braked at a stoplight.
"Some of the neighbourhoods pooled their funds for security companies to fill the void left by the lack of real policing, others just got a bunch of guns together and did it themselves."
"You can do that?" Susie asked.
"Well, d-duh." Alphys shrugged. "We live in New Hampshire, you'd think people would be doing that anyway."
"Huh."
"B-back to the story, um, me and Mettaton were fresh out of the police academy in the city when we came back here, since the market was open and people were going to pay us, we took over the abandoned police building and set up."
"Nice."
"It is, y-you want to see something nicer? Normally this stop light takes a few minutes to switch back, even on an empty road but…" Alphys lifted her phone from its charging deck, then she opened an app that showed a map of where they were with some stop signs.
She tapped the one right in front of them, and the light went straight to green.
"Mayor Holiday paid me out of pocket to install control chips in the street lights, and I sold passwords to access the app to the other security companies, b-between us all traffic control just got a lot easier."
"Woah."
.
[Br]
Maellard woke up to the sound of his landline ringing, he groaned and reached for his glasses.
Taking the clean mug from his bedside table, he filled it with water from the bathroom and swigged. In normal circumstances, he didn't trust the potability of tap water, but Angel, he was tired.
The landline blared again, like it was angry he'd taken a detour.
He sighed and answered it.
"Hello?"
"H-hi, is this Maellard Jay?"
"Yeah…?" Maellard quirked an eyebrow.
"Good. W-would you mind coming to the old police station? We have someone with us who says she knows you."
"Is her name Susie?"
"Yes."
"Is she in trouble?"
"Well, it-it's more like she escaped trouble, we really do need you to pick her up though."
"I'll be right there." Maellard hung up, and stretched off the sleep from his joints.
Maybe he could finally do what he realised needed to be done years ago.
[Br]
It was a short walk from his house to the police station, Maellard had been here enough times (growing up the way he did had him trend in that direction) that it was child's play to recall the route he took to get there.
He could see light shining from inside the building, Maellard pushed the door open and took in the sight.
Susie was sitting on an office chair, nursing a bottle of iced coffee in her hands, one of the officers propped himself against the bars of the holding cell with a large green lizard monster splayed out on the floor inside, while the other cop (it was easier to just give all the private police a blanket term) was busying herself on the computer, probably some office work…
But on closer inspection, she was actually playing some kind of MMO.
Slow night tonight.
None of them had noticed his arrival yet, which gave Maellard time to get cheeky.
"Hey Soose, didn't I tell you not to drink anything at night?"
Susie turned to look at him.
"Da- Mr. Jay!" She stashed her coffee, got up from her seat, and rushed to meet him.
Maellard met her in a tight hug, "What happened?" He whispered into her hair.
"I'll tell you later, you should talk to the cops."
"Alrighty," the two pulled away and Maellard walked up to the officer standing guard.
"Good eve to you, Maellard Jay I presume?" He flourished a dainty hand in greeting.
His mannerisms were… flamboyant, to say the least, flamboyant yet not to be trifled with, but if he was able to put down someone as big as the man behind them, it was best not to cross him.
"That's me," Maellard took the hand with his wing and shook. "Mind telling me what happened tonight?"
"This uncouth fellow behind me," he gave the bars a rap with his fingers, it sounded like metal hitting metal, "is our poor young lady's father, and he was drunk, make of that what you will."
Maellard frowned, "I am making it out, and it doesn't look good."
"You and Susie are close, correct?"
"She's my son's best friend, been that way for years."
"Has she not spoken to either of you on the poor conduct of her father's behaviour?"
Shame rippled through Maellard, an uncomfortable, tingly chill that ran up his spine and into the rest of his body.
"It's… a touchy subject, Susie doesn't like it when either of us push, and hearing about this… it tells me she just wanted to be happy whenever she came around."
"What'll happen to him?"
"That's for the court to decide."
Maellard nodded, "Okay. Thank you for your time, officer…?"
The man bowed his head. "Mettaton, ever at your service."
"Heh, okay, have a nice night." Maellard smiled and waved Susie over to follow him out.
[Br]
"A courthouse? Uh, weird place to go for a weekend first thing in the morning, but, you're the dad..." Susie grinned, "Dad."
"Or maybe he just wanted to get it out of the way early so we can do something fun." Berdly pointed out.
Maellard just laughed. "Berd's right. You've been with us for a couple months now, it's high time we made it official."
The three entered the courthouse, Berdly and Susie split off to busy themselves in the reception area while their father went to get Susie's name changed.
"So." Berdly started while he waited out his respawn. "You'll be a Jay, in about, thirty minutes, how do you feel?"
Susie grinned, her body turned away from her best-friend-turned-baby-brother so he couldn't see her spawn camp.
"I feel awesome. Like all the bad stuff in my life means I earned it." A crit rocket (courtesy of a pocket Medic) splattering Berdly and his teammates in a gib shower. "How about you bro?"
It felt so good to call him that.
Berdly scowled down at the kill-cam he got. Shaking his head, he promptly switched classes to Pyro.
The look on his face softened when he started thinking, "It's great, you were my first friend, we've stuck together since we were little kids, you were there for me, I was there for you, this just makes it feel… a little more real."
Susie sniffled and left the pub server they were playing in.
"Susie?"
"N-nothing." She wiped herself off and switched off her Deck.
It was then that Dad came back with a small binder of documents.
"Okay guys, it took a bit of finagling with the clerk but it's all cleared up now. Y'know what that means..."
Susie flashed a toothy smile. "Dinner at QC's?"
"Glitching out the older games at the arcade?" Berdly chanced.
Maellard grinned at the guesses. "Good suggestions, I'll keep those in mind, because what we'll actually be doing is… whatever seems fun, last day of summer and all." He headed for the door, intent on not burning anymore daylight.
[Br]
"Wowzah." Susie said, her gaze zoning out as her purple face turned a shade deeper.
"Wuhw?" Berdly asked through the spoonful of apple cobbler in his beak.
"Behind you dude, check her out."
Berdly swallowed his food and turned around to see what got Susie so flustered.
And he couldn't blame her, woah.
"It's the Mayor's daughter." He turned back to his food.
"That's the Mayor's kid? I thought she disappeared?"
"You're thinking about the other one. Noelle's just been at a boarding school for a while."
"Who told you that?" Susie asked, taking a bite out of her breakfast sub.
"Catti. They were friends as kids."
"Huh. Still, damn, she's- she's scorching." Susie took in the sight.
"Those antlers are metal as hell, like, crazy sharp."
"Susie-"
"And those legs, holy crap, she probably runs a lot," she took another bite, "jeez."
"Susie, please."
His sister leaned over conspiratorially. "Do you think I've got a shot with her?"
"You don't even know if she's gay or not." And that wasn't even a question you asked over breakfast.
"Only one way to find out." Susie slid out of her seat and swaggered over to the deer monster.
Berdly sighed, he put away his spoon and gulped down his water, it was way too early for these sorts of fireworks.
[Br]
Noelle thought she'd been inconspicuous when she went into QC's on the pretence of breakfast, but she really wanted to find Catti and make up for lost time.
And it was looking like she'd have to make up for more.
This absolute beefcake over muscled buffoon, was blocking her way to the rest of the diner.
Noole ogled glared, at the bare, muscled arm that was barring her entry, the slow trace of her eyes up to her assailant's face was most definitely not her taking her sweet time appreciating the merchandise this amazonian goddess inconvenience had on display.
She was being intimidating, yes, if anyone asked, she was being intimidating.
"Do- do you mind?" Noelle gazed right into the mystery girl's eyes, they were quite the unique pair, a dull golden shine in the place of the standard white.
Noelle could almost compare them to the sky during an early sunset, but that was far too much flowery language than she deigned to use at the moment.
"Of course I mind." The reptilian monster grinned, showing off a set of wicked sharp teeth.
In the shadows of Noelle's mind left mostly untouched, ancient "OHMYGOSHBADGURL" alarms blared, awakened for the first time in a setting where Noelle was conscious.
"I mind when someone as pretty as you slips past me without even getting to say hi."
"Well… hi, there I said it, let me through."
"Ooh, feisty," Mystery Girl laughed, "well okie dokes Princess."
She gave Noelle a dramatic bow with a flourish.
"You want me to roll out the red carpet? Maybe drop on the ground and be the carpet?"
"If you're offering." That took her aback, giving Noelle just enough room to slip past her.
With the 'danger' past, Noelle's face burst into metaphorical flames, would she be going to school with that girl? Were they going to be classmates? She looked back and saw the purple scaled monster sit beside who Noelle assumed was Berdly.
A flash of white hot jealousy blazed inside for a moment at the thought of him dating her.
But that subsided with the simple logical reasoning of: "why would she hit on you if she was already on another date?"
Checking the kitchen to see Catti still busy, Noelle headed to the restroom to calm herself instead.
Coming back to Hometown wasn't going to be as simple as she hoped.