At the mall/Page7

At the Mall
(Page 7) -

"By all means you can invite him if you want!" Julia grins and claps her hands, pleased that her daughter seams to be making some decent friends - Julia permits her daughter to go speak to Mark.

While she's away, Mitchel speaks to Julia and Julia looks over to where the voluntaris girl's from before currently are. "Bullying?" she says, sounding sceptical. Julia's voice carries faintly across to where Kimberly is. "Kimberly IS a Penni -" Julia insists, "They have priority over her - not everyone is generous you know." "They pushed her down!" "So she says." Julia stands up at the table, "They are voluntaris - they're allowed to be a little narky at our little penni child!" Mitchel is on his feet soon after as Julia sweeps across the room, around tables and through people making a bee-line for the girls.

Kimberly, hearing Julia and Mitchel arguing, looks over and sees her mother headed for the three girls. Oh no! She thinks, Man if they make something up I'm gonna catch it again before I get blistered! Sighing a little she nervous approaches marks table.

"M-mark?" She asks in a squeaky voice.

Mark looks around and then smiles when he sees Kimberly. "Oh hey, still hungry?"

Kimberly blushes, "N-no, thank you for treating me. That was very nice of you." she nervously brushes her hair forward so she can only see him with her right eye. "Um... I was wondering, I mean my Mom said I could ask you I mean if you wanted to you could."

Mark asks, "Well I don't know if I'd want to or not because I'm not sure what you want me to do." He watches as the little girl turns a solid red colour, "Um and why are you wearing a nappy?" the blush that produced put out heat waves he could feel.

Looking down she shuffled ehr feet and told him, everything. "You are a kitten aren't you," Mark says while reaching out. Putting his hand gently under her chin he tilted her head up. "Just a bundle of energy and full of mischief." He liked how she squirmed at that but nodded. "So what did you want me to do?"

"C-an... w-wou..." Kimberly swallows, "Would you please come to my birthday party this Friday? Please?"

"And if I do will I get to spank you?" mark asked, trying very hard not to laugh. Kimebers nodded. "Well I don't think I could say no to you kitten, you're too cute." Kimberly looked as if she'd die of embarrassment if it were at all possible at that moment.. Boy she's easy to tease! Mark thought. Making sure he had a straight face he said seriously, "I can assure you I've had lots of practise spankings penni! Our neighbour is a Penni. he gave me these." he holds up the back of his hand to show off his silver "M". "He's not as cute as you though."

"Would you come and tell Mommy that you'll come please?!?" She aks Mark in a rush.

"Sure Kitten," getting up he takes Kimberly's hand and says, "Lead the way."

Suddenly Kimberly realised that her mother and uncle were over with the three Voluntaris girls. Oh crap! Kimberly thought and was glad Julia couldn't hear thoughts.

Stalking across to food court, Julia rounded on the three girl's who had supposedly been involved with the fiasco earlier in the day - she did vaguely recognise them but when they had run past at the video store one had been covering her face with her hands and the other two trying to hide their faces with their hats, She did recognise the clothing though. Mitchel followed with a good frown on his face "This isn't going to go well."

"So It's you three!" The three voluntaris turn around at being addressed by a 40-something woman carrying a bunch of shopping bags and their reactions are in order; "What?" "Do we know you?" "I don't recognise her Jamie - is she an aunt of something!"

Moments later Mitchel arrives and three mouths drop open in surprise. "It's YOU!" the one called Jamie accuses "You and that brat girl from the video store!" "Where's the girl who socked Lucy in the face?" "The Girl...?" Julia looked to Mitchel who shrugged - apparently Julia hadn't known as much as she claimed.

"Yes - well I wanted to talk to you about that!" she addresses the young girls, "I had rather suspected there was some misunderstanding going on when that happened and I wanted your explanation of just what that was. I don't doubt that you three are normally good girls which is why I wanna hear your side of the story!"

Lucy, the leader pipes up, "Oh yeah ell we were just walking by the vid chips you know and your daughter was standing there day dreaming so I told her to move."

"That's right, the little runt wouldn't so we gave her a little push," Jamie added.

"She gve us some lip, dirty penni like that talking back to us!" Lucy says and looks annoyed, "Then she runs off and gets her boyfriend..." she gestures to Mitchel.

"Oh yeah and she got real vicious after that, socked Lucy right in the kisser she did!"

Just then mark and Kimberly walk up. "Yo Ames!" Mark greets the third girl who up until this point has remained quiet. "Jamie, Lucy." Lucy's eyes don't even register Mark, her gaze is fixed on Kimberly. The 6yo sidles behind mark towards Julia.

"Dirty Penny?" Julia replies with a frown the size of the Atlantic. "I don't much like that tone young lady." Giving Lucy a nasty look Julia took the girl by the ear and dragged her out the way of other people - "I was willing to give you three the benefit of a doubt but with attitudes like that -"she drags the kids towards a clear space. "Where are your parents - are they here?" That was when that Mark boy came over with Kimberly in tow. Julia frowned at the medicalos boy greeting one of the girls.

"You boy - do you know these girls?"

Mark straightens at the tone. "Ma'am I only know them from school. Ames... Amy that is has been tutoring in pre-calculus. I don't really know Lucy or Jamie except as friends of Amy."

"Ow hey..." Lucy whines, "Let go! I'm not a penni! No my dad dropped us off!" she complains/explains as Julia drags her out of the way of others. "And I just meant that pennis have done something wrong or they wouldn't be pennies. Right?"

"Yeah," Jamie pipes up, "The kid's... you know, not as clean as the driven snow and that sort of thing. Lucy didn't mean anything nasty by it, did you Luce?"

"Nope, not a thing!" Lucy says while trying to get out of Julia's grip, "Honest!"

"Come on Ames, you were there, you saw it. That kid punched Lucy just because she said that he," she points to Mitchell, "Was her boyfriend. Didn't she?"

"Well yeah..." Amy is looking nervously between her friends, and Julia, "That is true Ma'am" Amy says to Julia, "Your, daughter? She shouted about him being her Uncle or something and he," Amy indicates Mitchel, "stopped her from going after Lucy again."

"See? I was just trying to look at some holos and might have bumped the kid down. She took off," Lucy desperately explains, her ear is hurting now. Julia is a good expert ear pincher as Kimberly knows form past experience. Kimberly, looking completely miserable, just stands there while this production is going on. Everything was out now. She was totally humiliated. The 6yo didn't dare look at anyone and focused instead on her feet.

Then Mark asks her, "Kimberly, is it true?" She looks up and sees him looking at ehr oddly. Everybody has their breakpoint point and Kimberly had reached hers. Bursting into tears she turns and stars to run off.

Seeing Kimberly Panic, Julia nods to Mitchel - ordering "Get after her!" It takes only a moment for Mitchel to enter hot pursuit, following Kimberly out of the hubble and bubble of people and down ironic enough to the Penni Supplies level of the mall. Meanwhile, Julia rounds on her three victims.

"Dirty Penni - " Julia replies with a sneer, "Is a term used by Penni Haters!" The older woman releases Lucy's ear but continues to scold. "You would do well not to use it around the parents of Pennies - MY Daughter may have been convicted of a crime but SHE has been learning manners and good behaviour by the seat of her pants! I will not have you using such a blatant insult against her!"

Julia glares at the children - and leans up against a table. "Children like you three are supposed to be good rolemodels for children like mine and her you say you pushed her down, called her names and went out of your way to antagonise her!" Julia points to the one called Amy, "You seam to be the quiet one and since your leader here has already proven when I came over here pure dislike for penny's I want to know. Which is truer - what Lucy was just saying now or what she said when I first approached her?"

While this discussion is taking place, Mitchel is tracing Kimberly, using the tracer from Julia's handbag to follow the young girl and grateful for the laws regarding the callers around Penitant's necks. He finds her hiding near the Fitting Store - one of the fitters leaning over it and trying to get her to talk.

"Ya know dear, as a Penni - running off like that will likely only get you in more trouble!" the store person is informing the already crying girl - "At the very least don't try to hide from them - come in here and sit down, we can let yer mummy know where ya are!"

When Mitchel finds his little penni he doesn't say much, simply making the crying girl look at her and then pulling her into a hug with a comment of 'Dear me."

Kimberly tries to calm a little but it's hard. Even still she does as the shopkeeper asks. Meanwhile Amy, suddenly finding herself on the receiving end of Julia's glare, fidgets. "Ma'am.. I never once heard Lucy call Kimberly a dirty Penni in the store." Lucy gives a huge grin at this statement.

"See!" Lucy says while still rubbing ehr ear.

"BUT," Amy continues, "Lucy did shove her and shouted something like 'Hey penni get out of the way.' With the difference in size Kimberly fell down. Luce asked where her parents were and your daughter took off. Then this guy comes back with Kimberly and Lucy asked if she'd brought her boyfriend to stick up for her." Amy stops there and shuffles her feet.

"Then what?" Asked Mark. When Amy looked uncomfortable he said, "Come on Ames. Won't do any good for anybody holding things back."

Amy sighed a little and admitted, "Well then after Lucy said taht thing about he boyfriend your duaghter hit Lucy in the nose and shouted that quote... he is my uncle you butt kisser..."

"See I DIDN'T call her a dirty Penni!" Lucy says.

"Till now," Mark blandly counters and then blushes. "Sorry Ma'am, none of my business!" He firmly closes his mouth and his ears turn a bright red. Boy, mark thinks I thought I had a kitten, turns out it was a baby tiger! He could understand Lucy. He'd hated pennitatas until not to long ago. He'd given up that anger. And if I'd met Kimberly before maybe I would have pulled my head out of my butt a little sooner then I did!

Julia listened with curiosity as the exact conversation was explained with some detail, certainly more than she had been aware of. From her position at the front of the store she had heard her daughter screech at the three girls, had seen the girls run off, and had figured quite truthfully that there had been a fight. "So it was Kimberly who hit you?" Julia confirmed with Lucy, listening to the reply. "I guess that explains her asking to be blistered later." Julia frowns, "Lashed out from anger, and now she's feeling guilty like hell." Julia sighs, her temper cooling down.

"For the record - " Julia defines, "The completus who was here earlier is basically my older son so I count a slight against him the same as a slight against me!" Putting a finger on Lucy's still sore nose but not surprised when the girl pulls back Julia adds, "YOU young lady need to learn better manner, Although I congratulate your friend Amy for her stark honest. You too young man." Julia nods to the Medicalos. "My daughter is a Penni - which means she does need correction but the four of you should be acting as good role models." Fishing in her purse, Julia pulls out her personal caller - a small box on a keychain similar to the old fashioned mobile phones, and waves it in the air.

"I want you four to give me your profile - I'll be talking to each of your parents and if your lucky you may get to attend my little Kimber's birthday party on Friday - I wont say in what fashion though!

Mark, having already said he agrees, fetches out his caller and the adult and child press the ends of their phones together - a little screen showing that data is being transferred.

Downstairs, Mitchel is having a much more difficult conversation. "Oh Kimberly, ma luv" The boy is cooing, "ma dear Kimberly!" Mitchel hugs the nearly six year old girl as she cries and pets the young girl on her head. "I am so sorry, I really am!" he frowns, "So much of this is my fault - but you have so much left to do today." Holding the girl, Mitchel activated his caller, not one fixed into a collar like Kimberly's was but a function in his normal communicator. When Julia was done she would know instantly where he was and be able to find them.

"Ma dear girl, most of your trouble today was your own making." Mitchel was getting possessive again but more importantly showing his caring nature. "You caused a lot of problem, and you asked to be blistered." He holds the girl's head. "That's going to happen soon - it's nearly time - but trust me. Trust Julia, your mum! I know how you feel and right now I think you need a good four step," Mitchel just keeps cooing, "A really, Really good four-step."

amy immediately complies with Julia's request to have her parents contact data. She had a sinking feeling that she was going to be forbidden from hanging around with Lucy and Jamie. Jamie looked between Lucy, who was looking mulish at Julia. After shuffling her feet and squirming a little she also complies.

"I don't think its right," Lucy grumbles but seeing she's not going to get any support in standing up to Julia also coughs up her parents contact information. She looks sulkily at Julia and shoots nasty looks at Mark and Amy. "Can we go now?"

While that's happening Kimberly is trying to calm down. Mitchel's arrival definitely helped. She listens to him and she doesn't try to deny that a lot of her problems today was of her own creation. When he mentions a good 4-step she can't help but agree.

By the time Julia arrives [ with luck ] Kimberly has calmed down a little and when she arrives Julia holds her daughter, her arms providing comfort even though there's a worried and slightly sad look on the woman's face. "Are you ready for you're last chore of the day?"

the nearly 6yo girl was completely surprised when Julia arrived and hugged her. She'd been expecting several things form a sharp scolding to swift and painful spanking. To be hugged by her mother though was something unexpected.

"Are you ready for you're last chore of the day?" Julia asked her daughter.

Snuffling Kimberly nods, noting the sad and worried look on her mother's face. The child really can't understand the look. If it had been mad she could understand or determined but sad? She didn't have time to think about it though. "Yes I'm ready Mother," Kimberly says dully, "Then may we go home?"

Julia holds her daughter for a while before leading the young girl away from the Fitters booth. "If we're going to do this we may as well do it properly." Julia takes her child towards a store on the south wall of the shopping complex. The area is massive, right along the wall are a series of 12 closed, soundproofed rooms with large displays over the door. Several of the doors showed 'Vacant' but many of them had names displayed there along with the age of the individual and (more interestingly) beside the name the letter V or P and for one a letter C. Julia ignored the actual booths, taking her child up to the counter where two tall women in white and blue suits grinned broadly, speaking with a parent who was about to drag a 7yo penni off to one of the booths.

Julia aproached the attendants, being curt but polite.

"Good afternoon!" the attendant greeted, to the point. "Name?" "Kimberly Andeler, age 6, Nearly." Julia holds up a finger, asking the attendant to wait a minute and fetches out her pad and a chip. Placing them on the counter it takes a little while for Julia to look through, paging through the info on the chip and then turning it around so the attendant could see. "We want to order one of these." Julia indicates, the attendant nods and smiles at Kimberly before winking at Julia. "No problem maam!" Julia tabs across on the PADD and continues, "Also, this and ..." she tabs again, "This. Plus - ah" Kimberly's mother hesitates.

Learning over the counter with a sigh Julia lowers her voice. "Can I pay for a double session please?" She asks politely - getting a quizical look from the attendant. "It's just - my daughter needs special punishments right now and I'm not sure how long this is going to take!" Julia waves at Mitchel and the boy led her down along the row of booths as Kimberly's mum clarified things with the attendant.

One of the signs lights up over a door; "Kimberly Andeler Age 6 - P 40 minutes"

Mitchel opens the door and led Kimberly inside - sitting the girl down on the single solitary wooden chair in the middle of the room - a plain wooden chair with no sides. Mitchel smoothed the girl's hair down and rests his forehead against hers for a moment. he sighs, "When mum comes in," he explains, "Be honest with her. She loves you, remember that - you asked to be punished so she will punish you as you asked but remember she is doing this cause she loves you and cause you seam to need this."

Sniffling Kimberly follows Mitchell into the booth. She listens to what he says and nods sadly. "I know Momma loves me Uncle Mitchell. I know you do too. And I know I asked for this, I want this!" She sniffles a little more then says, "I feel bad, about getting you in trouble and being naughty and..." A sob escapes her, "It's just I don't think... I mean..."

She looks down at her knees and twists the shirt tails up in her fingers. "i just don't think I'll ever be good enough for Mum." she starts to cry quietly, "It hurts!" She cries, "I try and try and I always screw up!" She scrubs at her eyes, "I've always screwed up my whole life!" She sits staring at Mitchel but looking through him. "S-sometimes," Kimberly whispers, "Like now..." a hiccup escapes her and she sniffles, "Why didn't they just erase my personality?" her shoulders slump, "I'll never make parole."

Almost inaudible she says, "never..."

"It'll work out ma luv - trust me, It'll work out." Mitchel gives Kimberly a last kiss on the forehead and leaves. Kimberly was left alone for a few minutes and when Julia arrived she was quiet. Julia's face was fixed, her eyes looking at her daughter with a small sadness and at first she did not speak. Steeping around behind her daughter, Julia rested her head on Kimberly's and placed her arms over the young girls shoulder. Julia could not help see how totally miserable her daughter was.

When she finally spoke, Julia spoke quietly. "Let's start at the beginning." Julia began, holding her Penitant gently but keeping the weight on Kimberly's shoulder so she could not rise. "What was the crime that brought you here?"

Kimberly sit quietly as ehr uncle leaves. She feels the Vranchia she'd eaten earlier start to congeal into cold lump as she heard the door open again. There was a long silence but she didn't turn around.

the almost 6yo girl hates herself for how nice it feels to have her mother hug her. All too soon though Julia indicates it's time to begin but the little girl finds she can't stand up, Julia is keeping her on the chair.

She can't look at me, Kimberly thinks. That thought sends a bolt of pain through her as if she'd been physically hurt. I deserve it...

Sitting up as straight as she can, Kimberly folds her hands in her lap and says, "I was once a very bad man. I became a pennitats because I was convicted of raping two women. I wrongfully blames women for everything that went wrong in my life. Eventually I lashed out and badly hurt and violated two innocent people because of my own failings."

Julia nodded slightly. "That's right, you raped and attacked two women out of spite and malice!" Julia stood up at this point, acting a little like an inquisitor and walked around Kimberly, staring down at the girl with a cold expression. "You hated them!" She accused, "You were sadistic! You were Brutal! You thought they deserved it! You still think that right?" The last sentence was almost a shout. "You Hated women, do you still hate them? DO you HATE ME?" Julia growled the last four words, bending down in front of her daughter so that her face was directly opposite Kimberly's. "Do you STILL hate WOMEN?"

Kimberly's eyes widened and she tired to lean away form Julia. The color drained form Kimberly's face as she was asked if she hated Julia. "NO!" She cried, "I don't hate you Mommy I don't! I LOVE you!" Starting to sob she says, "I hate me!... not the physical but the me that was a guy!" She takes several deep breathes. "I ju-just w-want him to go away." Looking down Kimbers said, "It hurts when I think about what I did and it should!" She looks up at Julia, "I just want... I want me to go away."

Julia smiled for just a moment and placed a hand on either side of the girl's head. "Kimberly, do you think I hate you then?" Julia made sure the young girl was looking at her, "Do you really, really think I or Mitchel or any us hate you?"