forsyth | Oooh, writey-type stuff.

Writing for a twelve year old Forsyth is interesting. Even if I do kinda cheat since it's basically older Fors telling the story, but anyway. This is about half done, started it last night at StupidEarly AM, then did about 1K words on it today. Gotta get back into practice for Nanowrimo soon.

Presents from Mom: A Story of Fors's Childhood
In Which Our Hero is Like Twelve So Can Be Excused His Behavior, Not That He Really Cares, or it Makes Much Difference.

"Yay, Mom's home!"
"Yay! Hi, Mom!"
"Hi, mom!"
"Mommy!"
That'd be us. My family, I mean. The most restrained one would be my oldest sister, Edalin, who was actually just back home visiting herself. She'd joined up with a couple of friends, kids of mom's friends, and they'd all gone out adventuring together. Eliza'd spotted Mom first, so was the first to pounce, but I was close behind, then Cedric just grabbed her leg, since he wasn't quite coordinated enough to jump around like the two of us yet. Hey, he was still a kid, like, a kid kid, you know?'
"What'd you bring us?"
Me again. Hey, what can I say, I'm direct sometimes. Besides, Mom always brought us cool presents back when she was out for a while, like a couple months, this time. So, hey.
Mom freed an arm from Eliza's grasp and ruffled my hair. "Nothing, if you little monkeys won't even let me in the door. Gods, I'm a mess, let me clean up a little at least."
"Nuh uh!" I said, "You gotta pay the toll to get by! What'd you bring us?"
"Fors, Mom's not a jungle gym, let go."
"Ow! Eliza, you're a spoilsport. Besides, you're not getting on Cedric's case for hanging on to Mom."
As a matter of fact, Mom'd picked Cedric up and was playing with him, and letting him cling to her, tighter than I'd been. "Cedric's also eight. You're older, you should know better."
"Pff, just 'cause you're older doesn't mean you've got the right to boss me around. Blah blah blah, I'm Eliza, I'm so superior just because I'm older and busy worrying about what boys think, blah blah blah."
"Forsyth, quit it, she's allowed to be a pest who's just worried about boys," Edalin said.
Mom stepped in the door and sidestepped around our argument. She patted me and Eliza on the head, then handed Cedric to Edalin. And leaving us to our squabble, she ducked into her and Dad's room long enough to grab a robe, then headed out to the little bath house out back. It took me and Eliza longer than it should have to notice, taken as we were with the fascinating digressions on boogerhead we were calling each other. "Hey... where'd Mom go?" I asked.
Edalin didn't answer me, she was busy bouncing Cedric on her knee. He was already getting big for that. "Quit being so greedy, Forsyth!" Eliza said.
"I'm not greedy, I'm just curious! I wanna know!"
"She's cleaning up, leave her be."
Idea. "Oooh, hey! That means she had to put her backpack down!" I took off for Mom and Dad's room.
"Fors!" Eliza called.
"Let him go," Edalin said, "She didn't have it with her, anyway."
Which I, of course, didn't know. I slid the door open, to sneak up on the backpack, and slipped inside. The backpack wasn't anywhere to be seen, but that didn't mean anything. Sneaky sneaky, and under the bed! Nothing but Dad's slippers. Bah. On the chair? No. Behind it? Still no. Underneath? Well, no there too. Hmm. Ah, the closet!
I sidled up to the door, slid it open a fraction. No movement. HA! Flung it wide... empty. Well, I mean, clothes and stuff, and stuff Mom and Dad put up on the top shelf, though I didn't know why, not like it really kept us out of it or anything. Parents are silly that way sometimes. But, no backpack. Hmm... So, where could Mom have put it... I stood and thought. Okay, where'd she gone? She'd come in, and then slipped out to go clean up, so she must have put down the backpack... hey, she didn't have it with her when she came in! That's no fair! It's not like we'd take anything from it and keep it!
Well, I knew one person who'd know! I started for the door, but stopped. Hmm. Eliza and Edalin were spoilsports like that, they'd say I was disturbing Mom or something like that. So... I'd just not tell them! Or let them know! Ha, that'll show them, so I ignored the door and headed for the other obvious exit, the window. While Mom'd been gone, I'd figured out how to get it open without setting off anything, it just took a little work, and it just hooked into some stone thingies Mom and Dad had, as far as I'd been able to figure out.
I peered over at the back door. No sign of anything. Good. Of course, there wasn't any cover around the bath house out back, but I figured they wouldn't be looking. And they'd be too slow to catch me anyway. And I ran. The door was shut, and latched. Which wasn't generally too hard to undo, but there's also the simpler way, so I just knocked. "Yes, Fors?" Mom asked from inside, accompanied by splashing.
"How'd you know it was me?"
Mom chuckled. "Who else would it be? What do you want, this is the first decent bath I've had in weeks."
"Oh, well, I was just wondering if you'd lost your backpack or something, you didn't come in with it. I'd go steal it back for you if y'needed."
"That's sweet. And that's all, just concerned about my stuff?"
"Yup," I said, innocently, "Somebody's gotta keep an eye on you."
"Don't worry, Fors, it's fine. I left it with a friend to keep an eye on it, to help you kids learn patience."
"Patience? Us? We're as patient as can be!"
Mom laughed. "Sure you are. That's why I wasn't even in the door when you asked what I got you."
"I was just curious, everybody makes such a big deal out of it..."
"Patience is a virtue, kiddo."
"No it's not," I pouted, "And that's just a copout, anyway."
Mom laughed again. "Okay, fine. How about this, if you practice patience you won't be so bored when you're waiting to sneak in and steal cookies from your Dad. Or later on, too."
"Bah, you're just saying that."
"You'll find out. Now you'd better go, before your sisters spot you and complain at you for bothering me."
"Hah, they're too slow, they'll never catch me! And I'll find that backpack, you'll see!" I said, and ran off.
So, who would Mom give the backpack too? Well, hey, I know who she'd go see first! To the bakery!

"Hi, Dad!" I called, as I stepped in and peered around the bakery.
"Hello, Fors, and what exactly are you looking for?"
"Hmm?" I asked innocently and looked up at Dad. "Me? Nothing. Well, actually, Mom misplaced her backpack, asked me to look for it for her..."
Dad continued mixing the bowl of batter. "Uh huh. Funny, she said she was gonna go wash up, I told her I'd be back as soon as I finished the welcome back cake, she didn't say anything about her backpack."
"Well, she forgot something in it, you know how women are."
Dad snickered. "I don't even pretend to know anything about women. So how do you know so much, Mister I'm Twelve!"
"Twelve and a half! And I've got two older sisters, plus all the other girls around, they're all pains in the butt!"
Dad snickered again. "Not trying to go through her backpack for presents, then?"
"Who, me? I'd have to make sure everything was there, nobody stole stuff from it for her though."
"Well, that's nice of you. Don't know where it is though, I imagine you're gonna keep looking for it?"
"Oooh, whatcha making? What kinda cake?"
"Banana swirl, because Mom brought back some bananas with her and wanted to use them. And no, her backpack's not back in there either, do you want to keep distracting me, or do you want to let me finish the cake?"
"Bye, Dad! Don't have the cake without me!" I said, munching a cookie as I left.
"What, three cookies not enough for you? You're gonna have to help me out here tomorrow to make more cookies, you know."
But I didn't answer, since tomorrow was a long way away, and I was already outside, and I had to find that backpack! So, who'd Mom go with on her trip, maybe one of them knew. So, who'd been gone? Phontar, but he tended to wander off on his own sometimes, fascinated by a cool butterfly or something else, almost thought he must be part ferret. Oooh, I knew where to go! Where adventurers always go! The bar! Not that we were really supposed to go there by ourselves, but hey. Besides, it's not like it was a REAL bar, like the one I snuck into last time Mom took me to a city. Well, it was really more like a medium large town, but it seemed a lot bigger when I was eleven.

Accomplishments: Look up two lines.