Difference between revisions of "It Isn't Fair"

Latest revision as of 08:19, 7 September 2013

After the conclusion of the cooking contest, with all the hubbub and confusion, Minette just slipped away into the dark night of the port city of Luca, thinking over the events of the Cooking Competition. It didn't make sense. Not to her and it shouldn't to anyone else. She didn't win the contest. It was just her and Kyra Hyral. Her and Kyra. Freaking. Hyral. And she didn't. Win.

It was true, she didn't lose, either. But in this case a draw was just as bad as a loss. Because her opponent had, in the past, literally hospitalized people with her cooking. Minette had never hospitalized another living soul with her cooking. And when she bothered to do it right, people usually told her it was pretty good. So how? How, how, how, how could she have not won? By all rights, she should have stomped Kyra into the ground to grind her beneath a hee--well, a sandal!

Minette lay on her stomach on one of the many piers in the city, her face hanging out over the dark water. Slowly, languidly, she gathered up both of her braids in one hand and pulled them back; she didn't want them to get messy. Her other hand came around and for the third time tonight she shoved a finger down her throat until her body forced her to vomit. What scant little remained of her dinner came up, but for the most part it was a dry heave. One hundred and thirty pounds. The announcer said that she weighed one hundred and thirty pounds. She hadn't given anyone her weight, he must have guessed. And if he guessed one hundred and THIRTY, then she must be looking like a fat pig again. Gods, why did everything bad always happen all at once?

The truly sick thing is that Minette could have sworn, absolutely sworn that she'd heard Kyra complain that 'it wasn't fair' in reference to the competition. What right did Kyra have to complain about her life being unfair? What right did any of the other students from Alexander Academy have to complain about how bad their lives were? Oh, boo hoo, I was born pretty and rich and my parents cared enough about me to send me to the best school on the worlds where I made a ton of friends and got an education that would ensure that I'll be successful in life, everything's just not fair.

"It's just not... fair." Minette whispered, letting her braids fall back down towards the water.

Minette, age ten, stood in the small kitchenette of the Odam family residence. The three room apartment (four, if you included the bathroom) was cut into the very rock of the Thunder Cliffs. It was cramped and uncomfortable, but since the family spent three days out of four on the water, it was sufficient since Minette was still small and an only child. The front door opened onto a rickety wooden catwalk that snaked its way down the cliffs to the harbor below. Everything smelled of sea-salt, though that was considered a plus by those that lived there.

Minette stood on a stool, leaning up to the stone counter-top, a knife in one hand and a dead fish in the other. She did it just like momma showed her, placing one hand flat on top of the mackerel and cutting with her knife along the underbelly, from head to anal fin. She lifted the pectoral fin and slide her knife underneath, starting to cut. She stopped a centimeter in, biting her lip in concentration. No, that wasn't right. She pulled her knife back, angled it properly, then started to cut again. Better. She flipped the fish over and repeated the cut on the other side. A little bit of pressure on top, then Minette gave a sharp tug, pulling the head, backbone, and guts out all in one go. "Yayification!" Minette declared at the slightly mangled fish. But only slightly, she was getting better! Either way, it was another one down. The girl reached for the next fish; she still had a pile to work through. When she was done with that, momma said she would help her practice filleting them. And then cooking! Minette worked, pretending that she couldn't hear what was going on in the bedroom.

"OF COURSE IT ISN'T FAIR, DANNIL!" Minette's mother shouted at Minette's father, then fought to keep her voice down. It was futile, even a normal speaking voice would have been heard across the entire household. "But I'm not concerned with what is or isn't fair, I'm concerned with what simply is."

"Fine. Fine! Let's talk about what is." Minette's father responded, his deep voice strained. "We can't afford to waste those fish you've got her mangling. We need every pound for the market, money is too tight. How do you expect me to provide for her--"

"You can't!" Minette's mother ejaculated, exasperated. "That is what I'm saying. Five pounds of fish isn't going to magically make the difference. Ten pounds of fish won't pay our bills, or put Minette through school. Fifteen wouldn't. Thirty wouldn't!"

"But it would help!"

"Sahaugin droppings!"

"It would! Look, I know that things are hard, now, but it'll improve. We just need to go further out, to deeper waters. Find places where the massive trawlers can't go... it's an ENTIRE OCEAN, Melinde, they can't possibly be taking up all the fish with those giant ships! We just need to hold on until things turn around. They have to."

"They do NOT have to, Dannil. Listen to what you're saying, how foolish it is. You can't be serious. Our boat is small, it can't stay out in the deep waters for as long as those lightning powered abominations can. We're already going out further then we ought to. Remember what happened to old Jak Framell? He went out over the deeps and no one's seen his boat in three months."

"What's so foolish about wanting to provide for my family? I'm only doing what's best and what's best isn't wasting what little we catch teaching Minette how to cook. I'm... trying to look after her as best I can and what you're doing isn't helping!"

"No, IT IS THE ONLY THING HELPING!" Minette's mother shrieked back, losing her temper for the moment. "Why are you so stubborn that you can not see? What do you think she will do when we're old, Dannil? What do you think she'll do to support herself? To support us?"

"She'll inherit our boat when she's old enough. She'll be a skilled sailor when that time comes, like any true Levitani."

"She'll inherit a tiny, worthless boat and an empty ocean, some legacy!"

"She was born on that boat, Melinde!"

"And you'd have her die on it, Dannil!" There was silence from the bedroom, very quiet. Far, far too quiet as both husband and wife stared each other down, as if daring one another to take the first swing. The silence was broken by Minette's mother, speaking softly and harshly. "I'm only trying to approach this practically and rationally. If she doesn't inherit our boa--"

"She will!"

"For Gods sakes, Dannil, can you be reasonable for just five bleeding minutes?! IF she doesn't, then what are her options in life? Hm? Tell me that, Dannil, tell me what her options are?"

The silence from Minette's father was either stubborn, or telling.

"Fine. I'll lay them out. She's not smart enough to get into a colle--"

"She's a bright girl!"

"NO, DANNIL, SHE ISN'T!" Minette's mother shouted back, her patience at being talked over and interrupted growing thin. "She isn't, Dannil." She concluded, the breath taken out of her by the verbal explosion. "She's just... not that smart. You know it, Dannil. You know that it's true."

Stubbornly, her father stuck to his position. "That isn't true, I've never seen anyone better at numbers then her and she's only ten. She'll be the most able navigator in the whole of Leviathan in another ten years!"

"Ah, yes, so she'll be able to count all of the money that she doesn't have! What good will that skill do her if you won't let me apprentice her to one of the zaibatsu ships?"

"NEVER!" Minette's father's bellow reverberated throughout the tiny domicile. He advanced on his wife, angrily, pointing a damning finger at her as if it were a weapon, his voice a harsh whisper. "That Ramuha filth is taking my ocean, they can not have my daughter as well. I'll be dead before I see my daughter as a servant to those wretches, to toil away endlessly at the controls of their abominable machines, slaving away to make some man in a stylish suit on another world even richer then he already is!"

"She isn't pretty enough to marry rich." Minette's mouth continued, slightly shaken. She didn't believe her husband would strike her, not really, but the anger in his eyes... "And unless you expect her to stand on a street corner and spread her legs, then she's going to have to learn how to cook."

"She doesn't--"

"SHE DOES, DANNIL! IT'S THE ONLY THING SHE'S GOOD AT!" Minette's mother exploded with anger at her husband's continued stubbornness. "The only thing not on a boat. She's not strong enough to work on the docks, she's too clumsy to work on the high-rises they're building in the city... if she's going to get a decent job, it'll be in a kitchen. Then maybe she can find someone who won't care about her looks and she'll be able to make things work with him."

"She," Minette's father declared stubbornly, "Is the most beautiful girl in the world."

"Only to our eyes, Dannil. Only to us. The rest of the world isn't as charitable. We have to do what we can for her, because no one is going to just hand her an easy life. We need to teach her how to work for it, how to find her own happiness, the value of hard work. Just waiting, hoping that things will become better... that isn't enough. She will need to learn how to fight for her own success and happiness."

"I still have faith, Melinde. Faith that the Gods will provide for us, that somehow, everything will be fine. Somehow."

Little Minette, aged ten, picked up another fish, holding a trembling knife up to the underside. She slipped the tip up towards the fish's chin, poked it in, then lost it. She tried again, poking a second hole, before dragging the knife along the fish's underbelly. She went slowly to be careful, but try as she might the cut was ragged. She lifted up one of the pectoral fins, and made a cut down towards the fish's head. She flipped the fish over and some of the guts started to slide out onto the cutting table. She started her cut on the other side. Feeling it too shallow, she went a little deeper, over-estimated, and her knife clipped through the spinal bone. With a sigh, Minette removed the head and dropped it into the bucket before scooping the rest of the guts out with her hand. It felt slimy and disgusting, but she kept at it. She blinked a couple of times to clear the wetness from her eyes and reached for the next fish. She picked up her trembling knife, and tried again. She had to. It was the only thing she was good at.

Minette lay on the dock in Luca, staring down at the remains of her lunch being dissipated by the gentle swelling and ebbing of the dark water below. The pendant around her neck slipped as she adjusted to make herself marginally less uncomfortable. The small crystal sliver seemed to refract with its own inner light, as if the water below was calling to it, but Minette barely noticed. She reached down to gently grasp the beautiful thing in her hand, absentmindedly running her thumb across it's irregular surface. It made her think of Souji. Souji had faith in her. He was kind of like papa in that regard. No matter what silly, stupid, or meaningless thing she did, he always had faith that she'd do it to the best of her ability. That she'd overcome the expectations of others. That she'd succeed. She supposed she let him down tonight, somehow.

Minette heaved a sigh and turned the night's events over in her head. It just didn't make any sense to her. How could she have screwed this up so badly? By all rights, she should have absolutely buried Kyra. And, since she was being brutally honest with herself, she'd set the competition up to be lopsided in her favor for that exact reason. In her mind it was wholly justified, though. It was the only chance she stood to get Kamon Lionward to notice her. After all, what other way did she stand a chance against Kyra 'Almost Perfect' Hyral?

It was simple. All she had to do was beat Kyra in a cooking contest, then she'd win one date with Kamon. Only one, but Minette was certain that she'd only need one date. Just one, to show him that even though she was ugly, and fat, and dorky, and clumsy, and kind of dumb, that underneath all that she was a good person inside, because that was the only thing that mattered. Of course it was, everyone always kept saying that all her life. They wrote books about that, made movies about that. Humanity was almost obsessed with the notion that prettiness didn't matter, that what was inside was the only thing that counted! And that was her chance to show Kamon what she looked like on the inside.

And she blew it. Minette supposed that it was probably for the best. She figured that she wasn't all that pretty on the inside, anyway. She was sneaky, after all. And petty. And cruel, if she thought it was justified and if she could get away with it. After all, she went and set up the whole cooking competition because it was unfair! That wasn't something that a nice person did. So maybe Kyra was a better person then her in every way that mattered. Well, whoopie do, then. Maybe the others were right. Maybe she should settle for being a lesbian with Th--no, that was stupid. Thirza deserved better then stupid Minette.

Opening her dangling hand a little, Minette's eyes fell on the pendant again. Souji. He'd given it to her, for a job well done. She hadn't looked into it, but she was pretty sure that the pendant was more expensive then her clothes. All of them, not just the ones she was wearing. Combined. He was always so good to her, had always been supportive. And he didn't have to be, that was the part that always confused Minette. He could have just ignored her back at school, or treated her like any other employee... but he didn't. She was... special to him, somehow, in a way that Helena and the others weren't. She wasn't sure why and she dared not think it was love. For one thing, if she wasn't good enough for she certain wasn't good enough for Souji Murasame. So Minette concluded that it was simple friendship, because surely he wasn't friends with, like, Frank. Frank was an acquisition. Oh, man, what if she was an acqui--no, that couldn't be true. Souji bought her pretty things, he didn't by Frank pretty things. Clearly, she was a friend and not an acquisition; you just didn't buy acquisitions pretty things. Like, unless you wanted to have sex with them. And that clearly wasn't the case because she was like... disgusting. Yeah. Had to be friendship. Souji was a good friend.

But Gods damn it, how did she not win that contest? She did everything short of ch--

"Oh. My. Gods." Minette uttered, down at the dark water below. She gripped the pendant tightly. "But how?" She whispered out loud. Did Alma stop time? No. That would have showed up in the playback. No creative use of Stop was involved. But, wait, that's why they changed the amount of time in the middle of the competition! She'd thought she'd have an hour for each course, so she planned three complicated, difficult dishes that required constant care. She planned on making eclairs, by Leviathan! Eclairs! Those alone would have been difficult in the time allotted. Okay, okay. So they somehow conspired to take away her chief advantage. It was brilliant, really. It wouldn't have affected Kyra one way or another, but Minette's entire strategy was undercut! She could appreciate the deviousness of it all, even if it also infuriated her. And then... and then, there was the foreign judge. Who was that guy? An outsider. And who brought him in? She didn't. Souji wouldn't have. It had to have been Kyra, or someone that wanted her to win! It all made sense now, Kyra fed them a freaking malboro and Soan still voted for her... voting in favor of his friend! It all made sense, now. Under-cut Minette's odds, corrupt two of the judges to clinch things, and suddenly it's almost believable that Kyra could win a cooking contest. Only... only Kyra didn't win. It was a draw. Because Souji voted for her (clearly a man of integrity), and so did...

"Oh. My. Gods." Minette exclaimed, her head jerking up.

Kamon voted her for. He didn't vote for his girlfriend, he voted for her. For Minette. Ohmygoshohmygosh. He WAS a man of integrity and the thought made Minette giddy enough that she rolled back and forth on the boards of the dock, giggling like a schoolgirl. "CHANCE!" She called out to no one. "I STILL HAVE A CHA--"

Minette rolled over, to find herself staring at a beady pair of yellow eyes.

There was a long, quiet pause born of shock. Minette stared at the glowing pricks of light, mute and stupid, as the shadowy little black creature stood there on it's haunches, staring at her. The little thing quorked its head to the side, as if studying her; Minette screamed, the shrill sound echoing over the water. Her arm lashed out by instinct, her yo-yo bouncing downwards, skipping off of the water twice, before hitting the end of the string and rebounding backwards. Charged with arcane fire, the yo-yo smashed into the small Heartless and made it explode into dozens of fading clouds of blackness.

Minette lay there, chest heaving up and down with fright. Oh, Gods, how long was the thing just sitting there? Oh Gods, that was creepy AND terrifying! She was almost, oh, Gods. She didn't want to think about it. Her yo-yo clattered to the dock next to her; she didn't pick it up, instead scanning the area to make sure there weren't any more of the little things around. No? Oh, Gods... that was... Gods! Minette gathered herself up, gathered her yo-yo up, and dispelled her thoughts. She had to get back to the inn. Oh, Gods... that was... close? Gods!