RE: Trailer Trash, 50 pt A & C (Patreon)

/// After successive rereads, decided I wanted to start off Ch 50 more where Ch 49 left off, will feel better on read-throughs where reader goes immediately from chap one to the next. Ch 49 ending with Bobby and them at the drive thru feels like it promises just a bit more sweetness, so even if this section is more sugar than substance it just feels better to start Ch 50 right from this light note with more teen banter.

“Oh, just the usual old family woes,” Tabitha gave him a bitter smile. “I guess it’s a difficult time of year? Around the holidays.”

“Yeah, yeah, I feel you,” Bobby gave them a sober nod.

“She’s living with another family for now,” Alicia revealed. “Has been since—for a while now. How long has it been, now?”

“Since Thanksgiving,” Tabitha said.

“Yeah, since Thanksgiving,” Alicia said. “The one lady from the birthday party with our group, who was going around skating with the little girl—”

“Hannah?” Bobby guessed.

“Yeah, her and Hannah,” Alicia rolled her eyes. “Of course you know Hannah, already.”

“She’s one of our best customers!” Bobby protested. “Hey—did she like her Bug’s Life toys?”

“She did!” Tabitha beamed. “Thank you. Good call on the pull-backs.”

“Hey, one sec,” Bobby pushed himself back from the window and disappeared back into the McDonald’s.

“What about our ice cream?!” Casey called. “Hey! Hey!”

“Catch!”

A small plastic bag sailed through the opening, and Casey leaned partway through her driver’s side window to catch it in both hands. The baggie was then chucked over her shoulder towards Tabitha, who fumbled it and lost the Happy Meal toy somewhere in the darkness between the front seats and the middle bench she sat on.

“Oh no!” Tabitha exclaimed, fighting with her seatbelt for a moment.

The safety strap failed to let her lean forward enough to rummage around for the plastic bag, so she clicked open the belt and carefully began to search.

“Totally forgot this series had a third pull back, Princess Dot,” Bobby reappeared in the drive thru window. “The little girl ant.”

“She already lost it!” Alicia teased, unbuckling her belt and twisting in the passenger’s seat to look behind her. “Wow, Tabs.”

“I—I did not!” Tabitha blushed. “Casey, do you have a—”

“Aziz, light!” Casey quoted, reaching up and thumbing on the console light.  “Much better, thank you, Aziz.”

“Found it!” Tabitha reported, rising back up. “Thank you.”

“Aziz, light!” Bobby chuckled. “That’s from, uh—from—”

“Fifth Element!” Alicia answered. “Leeloo Dallas, Multipass!”

“Right! Fifth Element,” Bobby nodded. “Great movie. Great movie.”

“Bobby, how much for this?” Tabitha waggled the Happy Meal toy. “For Hannah.”

“Free of charge,” Bobby said. “That’s one’s actually defective, and also it fell off the back of the truck.”

“Bobby—no,” Tabitha rolled her eyes in exasperation, digging into her tiny jeans pocket for some dollar bills. “If it’s for Hannah, let me pay you for it.”

“Lo siento, no hablo ingles,” Bobby cocked his head at her and held up his hands in a show of confusion.

“He said your money’s no good here,” Alicia translated for Tabitha’s benefit.

“That’s not what he said!” Casey laughed. “‘Licia, I take Spanish.”

“I was paraphrasing,” Alicia stuck her tongue out. “Okay genius, what did he say?”

“He said, ‘Tabitha my sweet, I adore the way the moonlight shimmers in your eyes!’” Casey said. “I’m in my second year of Spanish, trust me my dudes.”

“Oh, right,” Alicia went with it. “Yeah, that’s what he said.”

“Here,” Tabitha insisted, pushing forward her money. “Here’s three, um, four dollars?”

“Jesus, Tabitha,” Casey laughed.

“Tabs,” Alicia scoffed. “It’s one Happy Meal toy, it’s not gonna be four freaking dollars.”

“They actually are stupidly expensive just on their own,” Bobby admitted. “We get them in for forty-three cents a piece I think, but then we charge a buck sixty-seven for them. It’s crazy.”

“Here, two dollars then,” Tabitha pressed forward the money. “Casey, can you please pass this over?”

“Sorry Bobby-boy, the lady insists,” Casey took the pair of bills and passed it across to Bobby.

He punched in the sale, and then stretched across the chasm between McDonald’s building and idling SUV to pass change back over to Casey, who gave it to Alicia, who handed it back to Tabitha, who then promptly deposited the pennies, nickels, and dimes into the seat cushion cavity with the rest for a future Jimmy passenger to discover. The girls shared bemused smiles at the charade, and then Casey gave Tabitha a smirk and clicked off the overhead light before Tabitha could scramble to find the seatbelt buckle again.

“Girl,” Alicia made a face at Tabitha. “You spoil Hannah.”

“I do not!” Tabitha said. “I mean—what do you want me to do?! She’s cute! Blame Bobby!”

“Wait, what?!” Bobby laughed, pausing to affix the spoon to the McFlurry machine. “How’s this my fault?!”

“Yeah, Bobby was just tryin’ to be chivalrous,” Alicia said. “Not his fault either if you’re cute.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m not that cute,” Tabitha said in embarrassment. “I’ve got nothing on Hannah.”

“Different kind of cute,” Alicia decided.

“Tabitha, you’re pretty cute,” Casey nodded. “You’re all like, weak and shy and injured and all. Provokes those—”

“Weak?!”

“—Provokes those protective instincts.”

“I’m not weak!”

“Okay, okay. Scrawny?”

“Scrawny?!”

“You look like you’re ninety-pounds when soaking wet,” Casey shrugged. “Oh—c’mon. Back me up here, ‘Licia.”

“She’s uh, she’s not scrawny, she’s petite,” Alicia failed to hide a grin. “That’s what they call anorexic these days, right? Petite?”

“I’m literally about to have ice cream!” Tabitha fwapped her good hand against Alicia’s shoulder in consternation. “Ice cream, which is all sugar and empty calories and—”

“Yeah, where’s that ice cream?” Casey hollered into the window. “Chop, chop!”

“Geez, I’m—hold on a sec,” Bobby started the McFlurry mixer with a loud whine from the machine. “You broads are the worst customers.”

“Oooh, you did not just say that.”

“Am I really cute?” Tabitha wondered out loud.

“Tabs, you’re like, free McFlurry cute,” Alicia confirmed with a prideful preening raise of her chin. “Free Oreo McFlurry. Trust me, I know this, and I know this because I am also free McFlurry cute.”

“Aww, man,” Casey moaned again. “Why can’t *I* be free McFlurry cute?”

“Because, you have a boyfriend,” Alicia teased. “Serves you right!”

“Stupid boyfriend!”

*     *     *

/// Then, for Part C we're jumping forward past 50 pt 1 and 50 pt 2 to chip away at some of the next actual Christmas day bits. A fair bit is telling rather than showing, I'm iffy on whether to go through Kiki's Delivery Service in full detail like a reaction video. Was fun to do for Pleasantville, but might not be the focus I want here. Lot of these are just exploratory writing exercises that help me climb back out of my end of AnimeCon Harem mindset and back into comfy RE: Trailer Trash mindset.

*     *     *

“You’re sure you’re gonna be okay?” Mrs. Macintire asked. “If you’re havin’ second thoughts, just say the word and I’ll turn us around.”

“It’s going to be alright,” Tabitha assured her. “If my dad wants to try to lecture me or argue or anything, I’ll shut him down or just leave the room. I’m not putting up with it today. Not on Christmas.”

They were in Mrs. Macintire’s sporty Acura, which seemed to Tabitha to be where Sandra and her spent the most time together. That wasn’t to say they didn’t chat at the house now and then, but there Mrs. Macintire seemed to be in a different gear. At home, the woman could laze about, vegetate in front of the television or just lay in bed reading next to her husband for hours. When Mrs. Macintire was in her car and going someplace, she became active and lively and filled with purpose—these were the moments where she most wanted to plan things and discuss and think things through.

Tabitha clutched a paper bag from Food Lion in her lap, which contained the wrapped Gameboy Colors for the boys, Holiday cards, and four gashapon plastic toy capsules she’d received after feeding an exorbitant amount of quarters into the vending machine up by Food Lion’s front windows. She’d had a last minute clever idea for what she could do with them.

“I just hate the idea that he’s gonna cause some stupid fuss and leave you in a bad mood around Christmas time,” Mrs. Macintire sighed. “Ugh, that man…”

“It’ll be fine,” Tabitha shrugged.

They’d already had a quiet Christmas eve celebration the previous night, with Tabitha remembering to ask for them to move it forward to early evening rather than just before bed so that there was enough time for Hannah to watch a movie. Tabitha had received a gorgeous dressy pair of white sandals not unlike the pair she’d borrowed back on black friday, as well as another Disney CD and a Mariah Carey CD—her Butterfly album. She was a bit perplexed by that one, having never been much of a Mariah Carey fan, but went with the assumption that it was Officer Macintire’s pick, and that he hadn’t really known what to get her.

Then, Mrs. Macintire had retired for the night to spend private time with her husband, while Tabitha curled up under a blanket with Hannah in the living room to watch the gift Tabitha had picked out for her—Kiki’s Delivery Service, the only Ghibli movie she thought she could get her hands on in 1998. It was an enjoyable evening, and Hannah loved the movie, the little girl mostly seeming surprised that she’d never even heard of it before.

Five or six more years for Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, Tabitha thought to herself with a wistful smile. Maybe TEN more years for Ponyo. Kinda iffy on the exact dates, just somewhat remember the general timeframes.

As for the adults in her life, Tabitha bought holiday cards. Most of her budget was reserved first for children, then the kids her age, and it was embarrassing to realize all of the grown ups were something of an afterthought. She spent the last fourteen dollars of the money set aside for Christmas spending on nice Hallmark cards, and then spent three evenings and two mornings writing in them. Rather than some generic well wishes concise enough to be read aloud to everyone upon opening the card in a performative Christmas display, Tabitha put time and thought into writing multiple paragraph entries earnestly expressing how thankful she was for each of them and how much she appreciated them being a part of her life.

Even dad, Tabitha felt her mood sober all over again. Because—just a few weeks ago I was thinking to myself he was the greatest dad in the world. Yeah, we do have issues. Because he’s wrong about family things and stupidly stubborn about it. But ASIDE from that, he has always been kind and cared about me and been a pretty good dad.

*     *     *

“Tabitha’s here!” Nicholas exclaimed from the window.

“Finally,” Aiden huffed.

“Did she bring presents?!” Sam demanded, jockeying with Nicholas for the position at the glass pane.

“She’s—ow, cut it out doofus—she’s got a huge bag!” Nicholas reported.

“Huge? How huge?” Aiden started towards the front door, but Joshua beat him there.

Tabitha! Joshua couldn’t help but be thrilled as he swung open the apartment door.

The air was frigid but the front yard wasn’t exactly a beatific winter wonderland—all the grass was dead this time of year, a sick looking greenish-yellow at odds with the oranges and browns of wet leaves strewn about everywhere. There had been snow in the air earlier this week, but to the boy’s disappointment it just wasn’t cold enough for snow to stick on the ground. Some of the leaves near the curb had a rime of frost on them, and they could all see their breath, but that was about as exciting as winter was going to get.

“Close the front door, for heaven’s sakes!” Grandma hollered over. “What, were you raised in a barn?!”

They weren’t supposed to let all the heat out, so Aiden and Joshua shoved each other in the doorway for a moment before stepping out on the porch and closing it behind them. The pretty lady from the roller rink who’d helped stand him back up when he fell was waving at him from a car, and Tabitha was struggling her way free of the passenger’s side with a big paper grocery bag.

“Presents!” Aiden cried, running down the steps and immediately slipping on a slick patch of leaves.

“Careful!” Tabitha called over. “Are you okay?”

It wasn’t even a bad fall, and Aiden deserved it anyways so Joshua dashed his way past where his brother was clambering back up to his feet and ran over to Tabitha in a surge of excitement. Despite Tabby wearing that same old hoodie he’d seen her wear all winter and a pair of ordinary jeans, Joshua was struck by how lovely his cousin had become. Not beautiful, exactly, and gorgeous was probably too far. Lovely seemed to fit just right. Her red hair looked nice, she was pale but had those kind and delicate features. She was just really pretty.

More importantly, she had presents!

“Christmas presents?!” Joshua crushed in to give her a big grappling hug.

“Yes, yes, I have your presents for each of you,” Tabitha awkwardly patted his shoulder with her cast hand, hefting the paper bag up higher in her other arm so that he couldn’t peek over the edge and see inside.

“Can we open them?!” Joshua disengaged from the hug and opened his arms, offering to take the burden of carrying that heavy thing from her.

“Not yet!” Tabitha gave him an exasperated smile before looking past him. “Aiden, are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” Aiden reported, catching up to them but not stepping in for a hug.

He just wants presents, but he doesn’t even LIKE Tabitha, Joshua decided, giving his brother an unfriendly stare. He’s taking stupid mom’s side. Which is DUMB. Dumb and like, totally ungrateful when he’s wanting presents from Tabby still. What a philistine!

Philistine was edging out paramecium brain as this week’s popular word exchanging back and forth between the boys, despite grandma’s insistence that they were using the word wrong. It was a diss word, how could they possibly be using it wrong? They used to be allowed to say swears back when they were with their parents, but around grandma they’d get in trouble even saying tame ones like shit and dickbag. Abbreviating it to D-bag wasn’t quite as impactful and didn’t really satisfy when the brothers were insulting each other back and forth.

“Merry Christmas, boys!” The pretty lady in the driver’s seat called.

/// More to come in the next couple days! Getting back into my RE:TT groove and trying to find my Christmas spirit for this. For those wondering about the Oldsmobile Officer Macintire wanted to fix up for a Tabby Christmas present, that's gonna be a late present / delayed plot thread. Just feels more realistic if it's tied up in impound paperwork and repair for a few months.