Rags to Riches

The best TechNet has to offer. That’s what Callie said about this stupid dinner party. The best. And I’m being forced to go to this. Okay, sure, it was really just so that douche Connor and I can learn to get along. But still. Donovan apparently thinks I’m good enough of a person to bring to “the best of TechNet”. How the hell does he think that? I tried mugging him! I’m not “best of” material here. How does Don even think I would be able to manage this?



-What are you talking about?”
(3:38PM)

-Kenny we’ve talked about all of
this already. It’s really not that big
of a deal. You’ll be fine
-Plus, you have me there to help
if you need it. I’ve been to 100s
of these things before
(3:41PM)

-Take a deep breath OK? I
promise you’ll be just fine
(3:46PM)

-Wait why do you say that?
He loves you Kenny. He doesn’t
have any reasons to hate you
(3:47PM)

-Seriously Kenny. Just breathe.
You’re gonna make yourself
sick from being so stressed rn
(3:51PM)

-Kenneth…
(3:59PM)

-Seriously though. You know
my dad’s not gonna let you get
out of this
-Like no matter what
(4:09PM)

-OK well i was gonna come
pick you up around 6, but how
bout i come get you rn for coffee?
(4:14PM)


I flung myself off my bed where I had curled up into a bit of a ball by the headboard before deciding to text Callie. I pulled my coat off the back of the chair that I don’t actually use for anything other than throwing my clothes on and slipped my feet into the shoes underneath it. I stopped at my bedroom door and double checked that I had everything I needed. Then I realized what a pointless act that was and shut the door with a roll of my eyes.

I literally didn’t have to bring anything to this stupid party tonight, which almost made it worse. It was like, well, just like Callie phrased it earlier in the week; she said I was her “Ken-doll” for the tux fitting. And I know she was joking about that, but that’s what this whole night was going to feel like. I’m just a doll that Don gets to dress up for a night and parade around this dinner party to all his big-shot friends. He bought a tux, tie, dress shoes, even new fucking socks for me to wear to this thing tonight. They’re designer socks. What the actual fucking hell?

I found Annabeth sitting in the middle of her room, her new watercolor paint set scattered around her and her big pad of drawing paper. She looked up when she saw my shadow from the doorway and smiled, plopping a paintbrush into the cup of cloudy bluish water to her right and jumping out of her spot to hug my legs. “These paints are abmazing!”

“Ah-mazing,” I corrected, chuckling as I patted the top of her hair.

“Whateber.” I swear, that’s the response I get every time I tried correcting how she pronounced things. I just laughed. “They’re still plibbin cool.”

“Do you mean flippin?”

She ignored me and continued, hugging me tightly.

“I love them so much. Thankyouthankyouthankyou! You really are the bestest brother eber!”

“Aw, thanks Anna. I’m so glad you like them. I knew your old ones were all crumbly and the colors weren’t really all right. And I already got you new crayons a little while ago. You needed new paints.”

“And I love them! Thank you!”

“You’re so welcome honey. But I just wanted to let you know that I’m leaving for that thing I told you about yesterday. Mom should be home soon, but I’m locking the door on my way out anyways. Remember, don’t --”

“Oben the door for anyone other than Mommy and Daddy. I know. I’ll be fine, I probise.”

I chuckled, ruffling her hair lightly. “And don’t forget the Russell family across the street said you’re welcome over there any time you don’t want to be home alone.”

“Eric Russell is a weirdo. He smells like cheese.”

“Annabeth,” I half-scolded, trying not to laugh. She wasn’t wrong; that kid had this weird, lingering scent of cheese always about him. “Be nice. You don’t have to go over there if you don’t want, but if you don’t want to be alone, you can.”

“Okay Kenny. I’ll be okay though. I’m still painting, so I’ll stay home. You go hab fun at your thingy! I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Absolutely honey. I love you! Be good.”

She finally let go of me and grumbled quietly, only because of my ‘be good’ comment, as she went back to her little art set-up and sat back down.

I locked the door after myself like I said I would and started walking down the sidewalk in the direction that Callie’s house would be. I kept my hands shoved in my pockets, one wrapped around my dad’s knife, and my head down as I walked. People didn’t typically try to bother me in this neighborhood - I’ve built up too tough of a reputation around here for anyone to think twice about it - but I knew well enough to always be prepared for the worst, so I’ve never given my dad’s knife back.

I walked like that, lost in thought, for a few minutes before I heard the purr of a surprisingly familiar car coming my way down the road. ‘Surprisingly’, because I hadn’t realized until then just how many times I had been in Callie’s car recently. She saw me giving her a small wave and pulled up beside the curb next to me. I opened the passenger door and ducked into the seat, sighing slightly as I sunk down into the way-too-comfortable-for-a-car seat.

She looked at me out of the corner of her eye with a quirked eyebrow. “Hey there sunshine. Are you feeling any better about all this?”

The sound that came out of me was somehow equal parts high pitched squeal and throaty groan. I drug my hands down my face probably harder than necessary and gave Callie just about the most pathetic look possible.

"Still not good, I take it?"

"I don't think coffee will do anything productive to my insanely on-edge nerves right now. And coffee always helps me. That's where I'm at right now."

"How about tea? The coffee shop I'm thinking of has really good teas, and I'm sure they have some that are good for calming nerves." Her eyes were on the road, but she reached out her hand and patted my knee comfortingly. And maybe it was just the nerves making my imagination run wild, but I could have sworn that Callie's hand lingered a bit longer than normal. I shook my head at the thought and took a deep breath.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

And it was. We sat at that coffee shop for well over an hour, a huge pot of tea between us, filled with quite possibly the most delicious and the most effective calming tea I'll have in my entire life. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought that the tea was laced with weed, because that's a bit what it's effect felt like. My heart rate slowed back down to normal and the huge knot of apprehension in my chest dissolved more with each gulp of tea. By the end of the pot, my muscles were no longer tight with anxiety and I felt almost light; like I could handle just about anything that came my way.

That didn't exactly last too long, though. We wasted as much time as possible at the coffee shop, Callie trying her best to make me feel better about the upcoming situation, but we had strict orders from Don to be back to their house by 6:30 at the absolute latest. By the time I found myself shoved in that tux again, with some guy I'd never met taking an unnecessary comb to my hair, I felt that knot starting to form again in my chest and couldn't stop fidgeting.

The entire car ride over, all I found myself doing was tugging on the ends of the tux sleeves and chewing on my thumbnails, a nervous habit of mine that I've had since I was little. Callie was with me in the backseat of Don's ridiculously luxurious car and kept swatting my hands when she caught me doing either things. She eventually resorted to grabbing both of my hands so I could do neither of those things and held them in hers, rubbing soothing circles in my palms. The only thing I could do at that point was lean my head back, close my eyes, and try to steady my breathing.

I must have completely zoned out for the remainder of the ride, because the next thing I knew, Callie was standing in front of my door, urging me to step out of the car. Once I looked her in the eyes, she started whispering soothing words to me.

“I’m right here, Kenny. Remember to breathe. I’m here for you tonight. You can do it.”

I took a deep breath and pulled myself out of the car begrudgingly. Shaking my head, I sighed and said,"Let's just get this over with."

Callie stuck out her elbow, signalling me to link arms with her. She smiled at me sideways and nodded towards where her parents were standing. "Come on, my darling date. We're together in this tonight."

Another deep breath to clear my head again and we were following Don and his wife Tracy into the huge banquet hall type building - like I really know what to call the thing. I vaguely wondered where Connor and his girlfriend were, since I hadn’t even seen them at the Seville’s house when we were all getting ready and being groomed by their own flipping team of stylists or whatever the hell they were. The whole point of me even going to this stupid event was so that Connor and I could “get along”, so where the hell was he at?

At our table, apparently. His smug face was the first thing I saw when we entered the freaking humongous main room. The room was filled with what seemed to me far too many tables and also far too many sophisticated looking people sitting at and mingling around such tables. I’m surprised I even saw Connor through the barrage of glitz and glamor surrounding him. But then again, maybe my mind was just reaching out for anything even slightly familiar, no matter how annoying it was.

The table Connor was seated at was in the middle of the room towards the front, fairly close to what looked like a stage. As the four of us approached the table that was apparently reserved for just the six of us, I finally started to take in some more surroundings. What surprised me first was how gorgeous the girl sat next to Connor was. She wasn’t the conventional type of pretty girl, kind of like how Callie was, but more knew how to dress and do her makeup in all the right ways so that men would fawn over her. She also looked vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn’t even begin to think about where I may have known her from when I had Connor’s eyes boring holes into every fiber of my being. Not only was he glaring at me with a certain kind of jealous rage, but also with a disgusting amount of shock when I got close enough for him to see my appearance more clearly.

God only knows how I was able to manage any of my emotions at all, so I surprised myself when, instead of reaching across the table and smacking that look off his face like I wanted to, I offered him a smile and a hand. “Good evening, Connor. Miss,” I bowed slightly towards his girlfriend and offered her my hand when Connor completely ignored it. “I don’t believe I’ve ever caught your name.”

“Oh, Ella. My name’s Ella. And who might you be?” She greeted me with plenty of courtesy, but with an underlying sense of apprehension too.

“I’m Kenneth, Don’s new intern. Everyone calls me Kenny, though. It’s a pleasure to meet you Ella.”

“Oh, you’re the famous Kenny,” she said, giggling. She turned to Connor and only about half-whispered, “You made him sound like a downright scoundrel. He’s a perfectly normal looking intern, darling. I’m sure you’re just overreacting.”

I saw the same muscle in Connor’s eye twitch just as it did the time he stormed out of his dad’s office and hoped nothing explosive would happen. My reserve of ‘nice-guy interactions without any preemptive thoughts’ was running pretty low already, so I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to be able to keep up the sanity-facade I had going on.

Thankfully Don cut the tension (or at least my tension) by putting a hand on Connor’s shoulder and asking him if he and Tracy could speak to him in the hall. Callie touched me gently on the arm and nodded towards the chairs at the table, silently asking me if I wanted to sit. God yes.

She took the seat next to Ella and patted my shoulder reassuringly as I took the seat next to her. "See? Everything is going fine so far. Like I said before, just try to ignore Connor if he's being a butt. Dad's talking to him now though, so maybe he'll actually calm down tonight and be nice."

"Wouldn't that be something?" I grumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Sorry. I know I need to behave too for this night to actually work. I’m just so fucking stressed right now.” Callie and I were both whispering, but Ella’s head snapped our direction when I cursed. “Ooh, sorry, Ella. Old habits die hard.”

She just laughed. “Don’t you apologize, Kenny. Trust me, I’m around enough cursing on a daily basis for the three of us. Among other ‘indecent’ things,” she added with a smirk, “if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I was still looking at Ella, but the blush that snuck onto Callie’s face was fierce enough to grab anyone’s attention.

“O-oh look,” she stammered almost nervously, pointing towards what I assumed was the kitchen. “They’re starting to bring around the h'orderves.”

I saw the assortment of servers making their ways through the room, balancing large trays on their shoulders, but didn’t understand Callie’s urgency in pointing them out. I looked back at Ella with a quirked eyebrow to see if she had any answers for Callie’s suddenly odd behaviors. She laughed lightly and waved me off, shaking her head and giving Callie a small, playful shove of the shoulder. The glare Ella received in return was one that could melt ice, which I never would have thought was possible from Callie.

I didn’t have any time to dwell on it though, because the rest of the Seville family was approaching the table again. Connor had his head bowed, almost as if in shame, and his parents’ faces were both tinged with exasperation. Ella rubbed Connor’s lower back comfortingly as he sat back down and leaned close to him to whisper something in his ear. Whatever she said must have been exactly what he needed to hear because I could physically see his shoulders loose tension and his whole body relax.

What still bothered me was how familiar Ella looked to me and the fact that I still had no idea where I might have known her from. I tried not staring at her, but it was almost hard for me not to do so. Callie, however, seemed to have calmed down from whatever was bothering her earlier and was back to focusing on whether I was handling everything alright. I nodded tightly when she asked if I was okay, mostly because my throat felt so dry that I couldn’t speak clearly if I wanted to. I tried clearing my throat, which only made it worse, and she picked up on it instantly.

She reached across the table to grab the tapered glass pitcher thing - decanter? Is that the right word? - from the middle of the table and pour water in the goblets in front of the two of us. ’Fucking hell, goblets and decanters. Why am I here again?’ All of my suppressed insecurities about the night came rushing back and I emptied my glass of water almost as soon as Callie poured it.

“Oh, Calliope dear. Would you pass the carafe?” Tracy called across the table. Okay, so it’s called a carafe. I have never heard that word in my entire life. ’Oh sweet baby Jesus, it’s getting even worse.’ My throat tightened up again and I pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to snap myself out of the mental state I could feel that I was about to slip into.

My eyes were still closed when I felt a hand lightly touch my leg under the table. “Kenny? Is everything alright?”

I shook my head and sighed. “I don’t even know right now, Callie. There’s so much to take in that I’m not used to. I almost feel kind of light headed because of it all.”

“You might just need to eat. I get light headed sometimes when I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, that might be it.” I knew it wasn’t. Or, if it was, it was only a very small part of why I felt the way I did.

“I’ll go grab some h’orderves. They probably won’t bring out any real food for a while. Dad had to be here early, so the dinner doesn’t actually start for close to another half hour. And goodness only knows how minimal the first course or two might be.” She said this sentence like it was something I would be used to, having more than even two courses in a meal, and it only made my anxiety spike again. Callie was trying her best to diffuse the situation for me, but there were still things that were normal to her that she didn’t think about being new to anyone else.

Before I knew it, she was sitting down again and setting a small plate in front of me. “I wasn’t sure what kind of things you’d want, so I just grabbed some of the most filling looking ones.” She started pointing at everything on the plate and explaining them, which I was insanely glad for since I wouldn’t have known most of them otherwise. “Those are mushroom-polenta squares, caramelized onion tartlets, these are basically cheese balls made from cheeses even I can’t pronounce, salmon cucumber bruschetta, calamari -”

I wasn’t so much looking at the mess of fancy finger foods in front of me as I was listening and trying to breathe, but my eyes snapped downwards at the mention of calamari. I was really hoping it wasn’t going to be the tentacle kind, but wasn’t surprised to find that it was, and there were just these little baby squid looking things staring up at me, they’re tentacles curling every which way.

My breathing hitched and my left eye started twitching as I remembered the reason behind my irrational fear of anything resembling tentacles. ’Oh my god. No, Kenny. Stop thinking about that crap. It’s been almost eight years. You shouldn’t still be this freaked out by tentacle porn. Oh Jesus. Just stop thinking about it Kenny. Breathe.’ My eyes were slammed shut as hard as I possibly could and I took in the biggest breath my body would allow. The harder I tried not to think about that fateful night that basically scarred ten year old me for life, the worse things got. The connections that my brain made at the second were the last straw.

’Tentacle porn. No, don’t think about that. Okay, normal porn. Shit, no, don’t think about that either. Don’t think about Starr Oceana and Celia Ryder - wait.’ My eyes snapped open to stare at Ella. ’Oh Jesus Christ almighty. No wonder I couldn’t place her. She doesn’t look the same without a dick in her mouth. Holy fuck, Celia Ryder is sitting right in front of me. Celia Ryder is dating Connor. Connor is dating a pornstar.’ My breathing was coming back to me now, but was making me hyperventilate soon enough.

“Kenny. Kenny! Talk to me Kenny!” Callie was pushing against my shoulders gently to try and grab my attention. “Take a deep breath Kenny. Everything’s going to be alright.”

“No it’s not. Oh my godIneedsomeairI’llberightback.” Getting those last words out, even if they weren’t exactly coherent, was the last thing I could do before I scooted my chair back and bolted in the direction of the closest door. I just needed to get out of that room as soon as possible. I knew I would have had a full blown panic attack if I’d stayed in there any longer.