AU: Humble beginnings

[CG]

Heyo fellow Never Forgottians. CG here with another fanfic under her belt. I've drawn in the past, if you've seen my gallery and I hope you have, I've drawn at numerous ocassions the Imaginary troupe as youngsters, or more or less what I think they'd be like if Imaginaries have normal life spans like us.

Well here you get to actually read about them, this being the first one I've started. It isn't even fully completed yet, so this is just part one. If it gets a good enough response I might continue; if not I dunno. I might leave it, or continue writing it either way.

So here we go.

Humble Beginnings Part 1

You couldn't ask for a brighter day even if you had wished for it using a genuine Genie from a lamp. The sun was bright against a sky that was dotted with puffy white clouds, a lovely rejuvenation from the slight storm the skies had opened up with just one day before. Really, it was a wondrous day that could have been full of possibilities, freedom and fun if it weren't for one little thing.

"Wilton! Do hurry up, you can not be late for your first day at school!"

The shrill voice broke the peace, echoing through the large hallways of the rather large house that sat atop a hill. It was a home, not just a house, to a mere family of three but it could easily house up to ten or more occupants without any strain. But, that was the kind of house you lived in when the bread winner of the family was a successful head of a bank.

There were expensive carpets upon the floor, keeping the cold marble floor at bay with their warmth. The walls were covered in portraits of ancestors, and more recent family photos as well as portraits. If you walked down a particular corridor in the west wing of the large house you would see the progression of the family that lived there now. From the parents (Oswald and Celia Michaels) first proper date, to their wedding, honeymoon, Celia?s pregnancy, the arrival of the egg then finally the arrival of the child.

The child in question, named Wilton Norman Michaels, was busy tying his shoes. He looked more similar to his mother then his father, given his feet were somewhat bigger in proportion to his body then they should (maybe an indicator of how tall he'll one day become, like his mother), and the lobes on the sides of his face were round like hers, and unlike his father's more pointy lobes. This morning he wore black shorts that went to his knees, a white short sleeved shirt and a blue tie hung around his neck. The shoe now properly tied he stood up and grabbed the small suitcase from his study desk.

"Wilton!" Celia, his mother, was growing less and less tolerant for her son's tardiness.

"Sorry! I'm coming!" Wilton called back as he hurried out of his bedroom and then down the stairs. He came to a halt in front of his mother, who today was wearing a more business like suit, since today she was going to the country club.

While Wilton was red in complexion, Celia was a more deep pink hue. She adjusted the collar of her own jacket before leaning down to fix his tie. "I'll have to get your father to teach you how to do your tie properly once he gets home." she said primly as she undid his tie entirely, and redoing it.

"Okay." he replied around a choke, since she had a habit of doing ties a little too tight for his liking. Once his tie was properly tied, Celia stood up and walked towards the front doors of the house. "Um... Mother?"

"Yes?" she asked, as she pulled one of the large doors open.

"Are you sure you can't come with me?" Wilton asked, as he looked down the steps which led to the driveway where a large black car sat, waiting to take him to school.

"Oh Wilton we spoke about this yesterday. You know I can't, I have to go to the Country Club!" Celia waited for him to walk out the door before following him. Behind her, one of the maids shut the door behind her. "You're not scared, are you?" she asked, testing him slightly.

"N-no!" Wilton shook his head, "I'm not."

"Well then, nothing to worry about!" Celia and he stood by the car whilst the driver, a multi-armed blue gentleman opened the door for Wilton, who climbed inside. "Don't be afraid, dear. You're a Michaels. We don't let them see fear. Have a good day!" she kissed him on the cheek before the door was shut again.

Wilton watched the shape of his mother grow smaller and smaller into the distance before she was overshadowed by the large brick wall with wrought iron gates that led up to their house. He turned in his seat and buckled himself in, and opted to just watch the scenery whiz past his window. He had only seen his new school once, when his Nanny had shown him when they were out doing some chores together. Well, she was doing the shopping and Wilton had insisted on going with her, so she had pointed it out to him. It had seemed nice, the buildings arranged in a square and in the middle of the buildings were where the courtyards were. Places to play sports, eat lunch around some trees, and access the cafeteria. But around the outside of the buildings was the grassy area of the oval, and cut off from there was a smaller grass area along with the playground.

Wilton wasn't scared, no, but he was nervous. He had never gone somewhere without either one of his parents (mostly his mother) or his Nanny with him. And school? All day with a whole bunch of other kids of various ages and species, learning important things? What if nobody liked him? What if the teacher was really mean? He gulped nervously before he began playing with his laces.

The car drove down the road, and it whizzed past a pedestrian area without slowing down. It was a close shave for someone walking across the walk, she had curly pale lavender coloured fur which seemed to cover ever inch of her. Short horns adorned the top of her head, and what you could call small fangs jutted from her mouth. Instead of hands she had hooves, and one was holding onto the hand of what could no less be her son. He looked just like her, except his fur was dark purple and instead of having two eyebrows he had one thick unibrow above his yellow eyes. As the big black car had whizzed past he had released a high pitched squeal of terror. His mother though, didn't share the same terror.

"¡Estúpido!!" she all but roars after the car, shaking her free hoof, now a fist, at it. She growls to herself before leaning down and scooping her crying child into her arms. "Shhh, Eduardo, sshhh. Is okay, they es gone now. Shh." she makes it across the street, Eduardo crying in her arms. "Aayyye carumba," she mumbled to herself. "Great start to New Year, new place, I tell you father, don't I tell him? You would no be settling in, change this big you es ascared already of estúpid cars who no look where they is going."

This is Flaca Dellarosá, she and her husband Gonzalo recently moved to the city from further south of the border, bringing their young son Eduardo with them. Gonzalo was a wrestler and fighter by trade, and he had to go where the work was. So far wrestling in America had become really popular, so he had moved his small family, away from his large one, to make a name for himself. Flaca had never thought much of the move, more concerned for the welfare of her only son, who was quite possibly one of the more sensitive youngsters one could meet. He was scared of practically everything, from the dark all the way to striped socks. No kidding. And here he was, now off to his first day of school and Flaca along with Gonzales had spent the better half of a year preparing him for the idea of being without them. Now, his fears finally calmed had been sparked to life all over again because of a stupid driver.

[CG]

By the time the school finally got into view, Eduardo was no longer crying, luckily. He was still in his mother's arms, chewing on one of his hooves in his teeth. He too had sharp teeth like his mother, but given he was only around six years old they weren't as frightening as his father's. Gonzalo had massive incisors, and a massive pair of horns atop his head. He was an intimidating looking man, which was most definitely an advantage in the ring not only psychological-wise, but physically, since they could do some real damage. But for now, Eduardo was but a small comparison to what he one day might become, cradled in his mother's arms.

Who happened to see the black car that had almost knocked her down drive off again. She growled lowly, but said nothing as she finally reached the school oval and began to cross it. As she walked across the oval she passed another parent who was walking their child. This was a bird, but somehow looked like a living plant at the same time. It was a he; similar to that of a peacock only instead of long feathers he had leaves of all sorts of colours over his wings, and tail. He was deep blue more or less, with splashes of yellow, gold, red, and white on his leaves. He paused to stretch his wings out, his under feathers being coloured like that of a tropical flower.

Besides him was his daughter. She was very different to what you would normally call 'normal' in this world. She had the head of a palm tree, long green leaves for hair. Her beak was red and kind of bumpy, and her body was that of a small plane. It had a blue top, white underneath, and a red line running from her neck to the tip of the planes tail. Meanwhile her feet and legs were orange, shoeless. In fact she was more or less naked, like her father.

He glanced at some of the older students at early morning play, ruffled his feathers a bit before walking on. His daughter paused to watch the kids for a moment before hurrying after him. "Well, have a good day Coco." he said as he reached the chain link fence which the students would pass through to get to their classrooms. Coco smiled up at her father,

"Co co coco coco!" she replied, her sentence constructed of that one singular word. Her father understood her, no worries. He smiled, before spreading his wings and flew off into the sky and out of sight. Coco waved him off with her foot before spinning around a few times and hopped on after some of the first years. Coco hopped on past Wilton, who had to stand back and stare at her for a few moments. Wow, some of these students were odd looking to say the least. Back there he had spotted a short, almost pencil thin boy covered in soft green fuzz with only one big eye atop his skinny body and black skinny arms and legs. Now, some bird... plant, airplane creature was in his class too? At least he wasn't the oddest looking one here.

There was quite a crowd gathered at the first years rooms, the students were gathered amongst each other mostly, talking, making quick friends on the first day. There were some parents also gathered, who just wanted to see their children off properly. Wilton observed some of them, who seemed to know one another fairly well. One mother stood out from the rest easily since she was quite big (especially to a first year), with horns and sharp teeth. She had a dress on, light pink with white flowers on it. Stood by her, all but clinging to her leg was obviously her son. She seemed to sense someone was looking at her, and her eyes cast downwards and their eyes locked.

Wilton gulped and automatically looked away, knowing it was rude to stare at others. In a world wholly populated by sometimes quite strangely designed beings, you were taught early not to stare. A slug like creature could very well save your life one day, after all. He suddenly heard a voice, obviously belonging to one of the mothers. "Well hola little muchacho." she said, her voice surprisingly warm and calming compared to just how monstrous she looked.

He turned his head slightly to look at her again, reminding himself not to stare. "H-hello ma'am." Wilton stammered.

"You is starting school today for first time too?" she asked.

Normally, Wilton wouldn't speak to strangers. But that was when he was out and about, here, it was school. She wasn't a predator or anything bad like that, she was a mother just like his was. He smiled slightly, fidgeting with the straps of his backpack. "Yeah... oh, my name's Wilton. Sorry I forgot to say it." Wilton had been taught, as well as never to speak to strangers, to properly introduce yourself.

"Is big day, si..." Flaca nodded her head in a wise way, before turning slightly and put one of her hands to her son's back. "This is mi own little muchacho, Eduardo. Eduardo, say hola to Wilton."

Eduardo stared at Wilton in silent terror as he still clung to her dress, blinking his large eyes before staring down at the ground and managed to squeak out faintly, "Hola Wilton."

"Forgive him, he is shy." Flaca smiled a bit before standing up again.

"Oh it's okay." Wilton replied, looking up at Flaca before back to Eduardo again. He smiled, as friendly as he could. This other kid looked to be the type bullies will have a field day with; he had seen TV shows all about bullies; another factor that made him uneasy about going to school. But the kids in TV always worked it out in the end, why shouldn't he?

Then the bell rang, signalling the start of classes. The parents that were there (mostly mothers) hugged, kissed and waved their children goodbye. Some were more mature then others, waving back, some shed some tears... Eduardo didn't like the sound of the bell at all so he let out another strained squeak from the back of his throat and he dug his hooves into Flaca's dress before burying his face against the fabric. Flaca sighed before lifting her up into her arms again, "Eduardo, we discussed this. You is having to go to school now!" she said gently, but still with that firm authority mothers had.

"No!" Eduardo said, muffled by her fur since he now buried his head into the area to the side of her face.

Wilton smiled sadly, before getting a small idea. He stood up as straight as he could. "I'll stick with you Eduardo, it'll be okay!"

Eduardo sniffed before lowering his gaze to the red boy, weighing his options. His parents had been telling him for a long time now that school was when he went to learn things with other kids his age. Neither could be there with him, but he would make friends. Something Eduardo had yet to make since the big move here.

Flaca smiled warmly, "There you see? You already have a friend." she very slowly lowered Eduardo onto the floor, before kissing him on the forehead. "It will be over before you know it. Buenos Dias Eduardo."

Wilton and Eduardo watched her leave. Wilton even gave the nice lady a wave, before looking at Eduardo. He was the spitting image of her in practically every way. His fur wasn't curled like hers, more or less straight and shaggy. The one eyebrow that sat atop his eyes was the thickest he'd ever seen, especially on someone so young. Whilst he didn't have sharp fangs like her, he did have some pointy looking teeth; but nothing as dangerous. He wore a white short sleeved shirt, actual suspenders that kept his grey slacks up and black shoes. Both were indeed a sight to take in. Wilton turned around, before tapping Eduardo on the shoulder. "C'mon Eduardo, can't be late."

Eduardo emitted a small whine but slowly turned and followed Wilton into the classroom.

[to be continued]

[AerostarMonk]

I must say, you have crafted quite the world here. It looks like the beginning of a very great story. Keep up the good work.

[antgirl1]

My god, this is the sweetest story I've ever read so far. Keep going!

[emperor26]

Nice story you got there, CG.

[Nathander]

Wow....just, wow....incredible CG, as always. Please do continue.

[KazooBloo]

Reminded of the SB scene when I read that title.