RODEO (linewalksyou) wrote in immune_ic, @ 2012-02-12 15:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2012 [02] february |
WHO: Rory Everett and Rodeo Williams
WHAT: Some therapeutic arts & crafts
WHERE: NY Public Library
WHEN: February 12, 2019
RATING: Low/Medium
STATUS: In Progress
To most of the kids in the library, Rodeo was like their favorite big brother-- he watched out for them, but he wasn't above getting into some trouble with them either, and he always had presents. Despite the mood he'd been in since the night Charlie found out the truth about him, Rodeo hadn't abandoned his babysitting duties, and most of the kids hardly knew anything about him had changed. A few would ask about his Cherry-- he had told them about her, drawn a stick-figure picture of her, told them she was stronger than Superwoman and prettier than a princess-- but he just lied and told them she would still come meet them soon.
Rodeo was glad for the distraction that caring for the children provided him. It was like when his sister was small, and it had never mattered what had gone wrong in his life-- he had always smiled for her, took care of her, and for as long as he was with her he was mostly able to ignore his own misery for her sake. It was the same with the children in the library, and they didn't notice anything much off with him-- save for the bruises. His lip was split, his cheek was reddened, his eye circled by a dark bruise. There were scabs from scrapes and bites, but he just told the children funny lies about each wound if they asked about them, leaving them all giggling and unconcerned.
That day, he had a project for them. He came to the Easy Reader section with a duffel bag full of craft supplies, dropping it down onto one of the tiny tables in the area the kids all gathered in to play during the day. He let them dig in and pick their own supplies, but they all had a common theme in mind: making Valentines for all their friends and family. Soon the entire area was covered in scraps of red paper, pink paint fingerprints, explosions of glitter. Rodeo was unconcerned with the mess, too indulgent with the children to be overly disciplinary with them. Rodeo was sitting on one of the miniature chairs, his long legs sprawled out comically, helping one little girl cut out hearts from different shades of construction paper.
"Yeah, I got a Valentine," Rodeo was telling her with a grin, folding a piece of purple paper in half and cutting along the arch of another heart. "My baby sister's gonna be my Valentine. Who's your Valentine, sweetheart?"