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toxic_cornSeries: Claudia Kishi: Pirate's Queen
Title: Chapter Six
Authors: toxic_corn and nutmeg610
Fandom: Dodgeball/Baby-Sitter's Club crossover (yes, really)
Disclaimer: Claudia belongs to Ann M. Martin and Scholastic books, and Steve belongs to Rawson Marshall Thurber and 20th Century Fox.
Rating: R/NC-17ish
Summary: Claudia's trying to get by, working at an art gallery until she gets discovered. Little does she know that the strange wanna-be pirate she meets in Central Park can offer her more than she ever imagined possible.
Author's Note: Most likely the last in the crack series, which includes Your Boyfriend Snorts Cocaine, Mary Anne, Wanna Get It On, Dawn?, Kristy and the Doctor, and Stacey Loves the Invisible Man.
Round-up Post
Chapter Six
krusherkoach: well, can you blame him? you’ve been a bitch.
luvvey_kitten06: Maybe not a bitch, but you haven’t exactly been nice.
artislife: thnx guys
- chatroom conversation between Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Shelten, and Claudia Kishi
“And it breaks my heart, and it breaks my heart, and it breaks my heart…”
Groaning, Claudia rolled over and swiped her cell phone from her nightstand. It had better be the mayor or Jake Gyllenhaal on the line if she was getting woken up at this hour.
Neither. It was Kara.
“Hello?” Claudia grumbled.
“Hi!” Kara said cheerfully. “How’s my favorite artist?”
“Sleepy.” Claudia looked at her clock and pouted when she saw it was 9:30. “Stacey and I stayed up until the wee hours waiting for the papers to come out so we could read the reviews.”
“Oh? How were they?”
“Mixed.”
“Well, forget the negative ones and cherish the positive ones. That’s that I always do.”
“Uh.” Claude had told her the opposite, saying you learn more from criticism. She rather liked Kara’s advice more; it was way easier on the ego.
“Anyway. I was just calling to congratulate you and… commission another show from you.”
That woke her up. “Wow, really?”
“Really.”
“Do… you want to see anything in particular?”
“No, I trust you. Everything you do is so beautiful.”
Claudia smiled. “Well thanks, Kara.”
“Oh, no problem. I’ll come to the gallery sometime and we’ll talk more about it. You go ahead and go back to sleep.”
“Thanks,” Claudia said gratefully.
“Sweet dreams!”
~*~
Claudia ended up having no dreams and when she shuffled out to the kitchen to make something to eat, Claude and Stacey were long gone. Probably off being disgustingly sweet and in love. She toasted a bagel and slathered nearly half the pack of cream cheese on it, all the while pondering what she should do for Kara’s show. Maybe she could look through her sketchbook and get some ideas.
Once she had her food settled on a paper towel, she went out into the living room and sat down cross-legged in front of the coffee table to eat and flip through her sketches. She nixed several ideas and was considering others when she found her sketch of Steve from when they had first met.
Right away, shame sliced through her at how she’d portrayed him. He looked like a ridiculous caricature of who he really was; the smile was inane and stupid, the eyes dull and lifeless. How could she have ever seen him that way? She set her bagel aside, no longer hungry.
The more she looked at the sketches, the more she wanted to make them right. Steve was a friend of Kara’s; maybe she’d like a show with him in it? Some kind of maritime theme. She could go to an aquarium sometime and draw the fish there. Maybe she could get Stacey to pose and turn her into a mermaid.
Excited by this idea, Claudia scrambled to get her phone to dial Joe’s Gym. Once she had the phone in her hands though, she was brought up short remembering his behavior from the night before. He’d been so cold and politely formal. Maybe he’d say no?
“Well, you won’t know until you try,” she said out loud and then made a face. “Talking to myself. That’s way crazier than pretending to be a pirate.” Finally, she hit the dial button before she could talk herself out of it and waited for someone on the other end to pick up.
"Joe's Gym, this is Caitlin. How can I help you?"
Claudia swallowed, hoping her voice wouldn‘t sound croaky. "May I speak with Steve please?"
"May I ask who's calling?"
“This is Claudia Kishi.”
“Hold please.”
Claudia waited patiently for five minutes, all the while her nervousness got worse. Suddenly she regretted calling him. Of course he was going to say no. She was wasting both her time and his. Caitlin’s too for that matter.
Just as she was about to hang up, he came on the line. “Steve O’Brien.”
"Hi, this is Claudia." You used to like me, remember?
“I know. How can I help you?”
"Oh, well I was just calling to ask if you'd want to maybe pose for me sometime, and I could put the sketches in Kara's show."
“For Kara?” His tone warmed up a bit and Claudia felt a sudden flash of jealousy.
“Yeah.”
"Well, since it's for Kara..." She could hear pages turning and wondered if he was actually looking through his date book or just using her page ruffling trick. "I'm a bit busy, though."
"Oh, okay. Well, umm... if something opens up, feel free to give me a call. I know Kara would love it so... yeah."
There was a long pause. Then, "When were you thinking of doing this?"
"Umm, well I have a studio above the gallery. We could do it there." She realized too late that she said “do it” and felt her face heat up.
"Okay, that tells me where, but when exactly?"
"I...umm, well, I'm free everyday after five, except Saturdays... I get off at seven, and Sundays I'm completely free so... whenever you're free after those times." Oh my lord, I’m such a spaz!
"Would this Sunday work for you?"
"Yeah! That works great." Claudia smiled in relief.
"All right, so it looks like I'm available then around three. Is that okay?"
"Yep, perfect. Thanks!"
“Sure. Bye.” Just like that, he hung up and Claudia raised her eyebrows, hanging up as well.
This was going to be a great working relationship already, she could tell. “Nothing you didn’t make for yourself,” she said grimly and picked up her bagel, taking a big bite as she scowled.
~*~
Sunday arrived quickly and Claudia prepared by buying new art supplies with the retainer Kara had given her. She loved the smell of new sketchbooks and for days she eyed them where they were stacked on the kitchen counter, longing to draw in them. She had just barely managed to hold herself back.
At 2:30, she went to the gallery and up to one of the studio rooms, telling Ginnell at the desk that she was expecting a model and to send him up when he arrived. Setting up her supplies, she opened the curtains and inspected the lighting. He’d look good on that couch. Well, she was finding out a bit too late that Steve looked good anywhere but for the purpose of art, the couch would be a good place to sketch him.
While she was arranging a stool for her to sit on, there was a cautious knock on the door. “Come in!” she called.
Steve stuck his head in cautiously. “I wasn’t sure if I had the right room.”
“You do.” Claudia smiled welcomingly. “Sit down and get comfortable.” She watched him reluctantly take off his jacket and drape it along the arm of the couch before settling down on the cushions that squeaked loudly. “Thanks for doing this.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Steve said, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs a bit nervously. The action drew her attention to his lap region and she tore her gaze away to look up at his face. “I’ve never been the subject of art before; I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do.”
Claudia opened her sketchpad and gave him a look that she hoped was comforting. “Just be yourself, that’s all I need. You know, you have a very interesting face. I’d like to sketch your profile.”
“Interesting face?” he repeated. “Is that the artistic way of telling me that I’m ugly?”
Claudia’s eyes widened in horror. "N-No! Not at all!"
Unimpressed, Steve chose not to answer and instead presented his profile for her to sketch. Still shaken up by his gross misunderstanding, she started to draw him, unnerved by how quiet it was. Usually she had music playing or she and the model would talk some, but she’d forgotten to bring her cd’s with her and Steve was obviously not in the mood to chit chat.
She was sketching the lines of his neck when a tickle in her nose made her face twitch. Uh oh. “Uh… uh…. ACHOO!” Quickly, she covered her mouth to save her sketch from the power of her sneeze.
Steve jumped in surprise but then laughed. "Gesundheit!"
Claudia laughed too and sniffed. “Thank you.”
After that, the ice seemed to have been broken and the silence that fell was much more natural. Claudia looked at her sketch thoughtfully then back at Steve. He’d lowered his head a little from when they’d started. "Could you tilt your chin up a little bit more?"
Steve lifted his head back into its original position. “Like this?”
“Mmm hmm.” Claudia went back to work as Steve held the pose perfectly until…
“Ah… ah…. ACHOO!” Catching the sneeze in his hands, he burst out laughing immediately afterwards, his whole face lighting up with self deprecating humor.
"There must be alot of dust in the air today, huh?" Claudia asked, laughing with him.
"Yeah, maybe. Do you have some tissues somewhere?" Steve sniffed.
"Uhh, yeah. Hold on." She got up and found a tissue box on a little table by the window and brought them back to him. “Here you go. I’ll bet someone was working with clay in here and didn’t clean up after themselves.”
“Thanks.” Steve blew his nose with two loud honks and then tossed the used tissues into a nearby wastebasket.
“No prob.” Claudia took her seat again. "I'm almost done. I just need to map out the shadows then I can fill them in later."
"Map out shadows. Right. Okay,” he said, clearly not understanding what she meant.
Claudia continued working peacefully and she only had to correct Steve’s movements a few times before she felt satisfied with the end result. "There! All finished. You can move now."
"Ohhhhhhhh good." He gave a good, long stretch that made the fabric of his shirt tighten against his chest in an intriguing away. In this moment of comfort, Steve lapsed back into pirate speak. "Yaaaarrrrrr that be the thing!"
To her surprise, the pirate thing didn’t really bother her anymore and she smiled. "You were the perfect model. Thanks for helping me out."
Steve stood up and draped his jacket over his arm. "Good luck with your collection."
"Thanks. Good luck with... the gym.” Feeling lame, she looked down at her shoes.
“Thanks.” He stood there a second before saying, "Um, can I see what you've done or is it a secret...?"
"Oh! Right. Sure. I meant to say... I just forgot..." Now feeling uber lame she waved him over to take a look.
He came over and stood close to look over her shoulder. So close that she could smell him. Mmm, pirate smell nice. Like Pert Plus, clean laundry, and… cinnamon?
"What d'you think?" she asked, hoping she didn’t sound anxious.
"It's great,” he said honestly.
"Yeah? It was kind of hard to capture your eyes the way they really are. They're really... expressive."
He sent her an amused look. “They are?”
“Yeah.” She looked up at him and grinned. "You didn't know that?"
"That I have expressive eyes? That's not usually how people describe me." Steve shrugged, not looking all that comfortable anymore.
"How do they describe you then?"
He gave her a look. “Pirate.”
That made her look away, embarrassed. Duh much? "Right.”
"Well, I should get going. Goodnight, Claudia." Feeling the tentative bond they’d formed start to unravel, she watched him head to the door, slipping on his jacket.
"Thanks again!" she called after him.
“Sure!” He shut the door after him and Claudia stared at it a long moment before pouting and tossing her pencil down on the floor.
How did she manage to always mess up this bad with guys?
< Chapter Five : Chapter Seven >
Title: Chapter Six
Authors: toxic_corn and nutmeg610
Fandom: Dodgeball/Baby-Sitter's Club crossover (yes, really)
Disclaimer: Claudia belongs to Ann M. Martin and Scholastic books, and Steve belongs to Rawson Marshall Thurber and 20th Century Fox.
Rating: R/NC-17ish
Summary: Claudia's trying to get by, working at an art gallery until she gets discovered. Little does she know that the strange wanna-be pirate she meets in Central Park can offer her more than she ever imagined possible.
Author's Note: Most likely the last in the crack series, which includes Your Boyfriend Snorts Cocaine, Mary Anne, Wanna Get It On, Dawn?, Kristy and the Doctor, and Stacey Loves the Invisible Man.
Round-up Post
krusherkoach: well, can you blame him? you’ve been a bitch.
luvvey_kitten06: Maybe not a bitch, but you haven’t exactly been nice.
artislife: thnx guys
- chatroom conversation between Kristy Thomas, Mary Anne Shelten, and Claudia Kishi
“And it breaks my heart, and it breaks my heart, and it breaks my heart…”
Groaning, Claudia rolled over and swiped her cell phone from her nightstand. It had better be the mayor or Jake Gyllenhaal on the line if she was getting woken up at this hour.
Neither. It was Kara.
“Hello?” Claudia grumbled.
“Hi!” Kara said cheerfully. “How’s my favorite artist?”
“Sleepy.” Claudia looked at her clock and pouted when she saw it was 9:30. “Stacey and I stayed up until the wee hours waiting for the papers to come out so we could read the reviews.”
“Oh? How were they?”
“Mixed.”
“Well, forget the negative ones and cherish the positive ones. That’s that I always do.”
“Uh.” Claude had told her the opposite, saying you learn more from criticism. She rather liked Kara’s advice more; it was way easier on the ego.
“Anyway. I was just calling to congratulate you and… commission another show from you.”
That woke her up. “Wow, really?”
“Really.”
“Do… you want to see anything in particular?”
“No, I trust you. Everything you do is so beautiful.”
Claudia smiled. “Well thanks, Kara.”
“Oh, no problem. I’ll come to the gallery sometime and we’ll talk more about it. You go ahead and go back to sleep.”
“Thanks,” Claudia said gratefully.
“Sweet dreams!”
Claudia ended up having no dreams and when she shuffled out to the kitchen to make something to eat, Claude and Stacey were long gone. Probably off being disgustingly sweet and in love. She toasted a bagel and slathered nearly half the pack of cream cheese on it, all the while pondering what she should do for Kara’s show. Maybe she could look through her sketchbook and get some ideas.
Once she had her food settled on a paper towel, she went out into the living room and sat down cross-legged in front of the coffee table to eat and flip through her sketches. She nixed several ideas and was considering others when she found her sketch of Steve from when they had first met.
Right away, shame sliced through her at how she’d portrayed him. He looked like a ridiculous caricature of who he really was; the smile was inane and stupid, the eyes dull and lifeless. How could she have ever seen him that way? She set her bagel aside, no longer hungry.
The more she looked at the sketches, the more she wanted to make them right. Steve was a friend of Kara’s; maybe she’d like a show with him in it? Some kind of maritime theme. She could go to an aquarium sometime and draw the fish there. Maybe she could get Stacey to pose and turn her into a mermaid.
Excited by this idea, Claudia scrambled to get her phone to dial Joe’s Gym. Once she had the phone in her hands though, she was brought up short remembering his behavior from the night before. He’d been so cold and politely formal. Maybe he’d say no?
“Well, you won’t know until you try,” she said out loud and then made a face. “Talking to myself. That’s way crazier than pretending to be a pirate.” Finally, she hit the dial button before she could talk herself out of it and waited for someone on the other end to pick up.
"Joe's Gym, this is Caitlin. How can I help you?"
Claudia swallowed, hoping her voice wouldn‘t sound croaky. "May I speak with Steve please?"
"May I ask who's calling?"
“This is Claudia Kishi.”
“Hold please.”
Claudia waited patiently for five minutes, all the while her nervousness got worse. Suddenly she regretted calling him. Of course he was going to say no. She was wasting both her time and his. Caitlin’s too for that matter.
Just as she was about to hang up, he came on the line. “Steve O’Brien.”
"Hi, this is Claudia." You used to like me, remember?
“I know. How can I help you?”
"Oh, well I was just calling to ask if you'd want to maybe pose for me sometime, and I could put the sketches in Kara's show."
“For Kara?” His tone warmed up a bit and Claudia felt a sudden flash of jealousy.
“Yeah.”
"Well, since it's for Kara..." She could hear pages turning and wondered if he was actually looking through his date book or just using her page ruffling trick. "I'm a bit busy, though."
"Oh, okay. Well, umm... if something opens up, feel free to give me a call. I know Kara would love it so... yeah."
There was a long pause. Then, "When were you thinking of doing this?"
"Umm, well I have a studio above the gallery. We could do it there." She realized too late that she said “do it” and felt her face heat up.
"Okay, that tells me where, but when exactly?"
"I...umm, well, I'm free everyday after five, except Saturdays... I get off at seven, and Sundays I'm completely free so... whenever you're free after those times." Oh my lord, I’m such a spaz!
"Would this Sunday work for you?"
"Yeah! That works great." Claudia smiled in relief.
"All right, so it looks like I'm available then around three. Is that okay?"
"Yep, perfect. Thanks!"
“Sure. Bye.” Just like that, he hung up and Claudia raised her eyebrows, hanging up as well.
This was going to be a great working relationship already, she could tell. “Nothing you didn’t make for yourself,” she said grimly and picked up her bagel, taking a big bite as she scowled.
Sunday arrived quickly and Claudia prepared by buying new art supplies with the retainer Kara had given her. She loved the smell of new sketchbooks and for days she eyed them where they were stacked on the kitchen counter, longing to draw in them. She had just barely managed to hold herself back.
At 2:30, she went to the gallery and up to one of the studio rooms, telling Ginnell at the desk that she was expecting a model and to send him up when he arrived. Setting up her supplies, she opened the curtains and inspected the lighting. He’d look good on that couch. Well, she was finding out a bit too late that Steve looked good anywhere but for the purpose of art, the couch would be a good place to sketch him.
While she was arranging a stool for her to sit on, there was a cautious knock on the door. “Come in!” she called.
Steve stuck his head in cautiously. “I wasn’t sure if I had the right room.”
“You do.” Claudia smiled welcomingly. “Sit down and get comfortable.” She watched him reluctantly take off his jacket and drape it along the arm of the couch before settling down on the cushions that squeaked loudly. “Thanks for doing this.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Steve said, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs a bit nervously. The action drew her attention to his lap region and she tore her gaze away to look up at his face. “I’ve never been the subject of art before; I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do.”
Claudia opened her sketchpad and gave him a look that she hoped was comforting. “Just be yourself, that’s all I need. You know, you have a very interesting face. I’d like to sketch your profile.”
“Interesting face?” he repeated. “Is that the artistic way of telling me that I’m ugly?”
Claudia’s eyes widened in horror. "N-No! Not at all!"
Unimpressed, Steve chose not to answer and instead presented his profile for her to sketch. Still shaken up by his gross misunderstanding, she started to draw him, unnerved by how quiet it was. Usually she had music playing or she and the model would talk some, but she’d forgotten to bring her cd’s with her and Steve was obviously not in the mood to chit chat.
She was sketching the lines of his neck when a tickle in her nose made her face twitch. Uh oh. “Uh… uh…. ACHOO!” Quickly, she covered her mouth to save her sketch from the power of her sneeze.
Steve jumped in surprise but then laughed. "Gesundheit!"
Claudia laughed too and sniffed. “Thank you.”
After that, the ice seemed to have been broken and the silence that fell was much more natural. Claudia looked at her sketch thoughtfully then back at Steve. He’d lowered his head a little from when they’d started. "Could you tilt your chin up a little bit more?"
Steve lifted his head back into its original position. “Like this?”
“Mmm hmm.” Claudia went back to work as Steve held the pose perfectly until…
“Ah… ah…. ACHOO!” Catching the sneeze in his hands, he burst out laughing immediately afterwards, his whole face lighting up with self deprecating humor.
"There must be alot of dust in the air today, huh?" Claudia asked, laughing with him.
"Yeah, maybe. Do you have some tissues somewhere?" Steve sniffed.
"Uhh, yeah. Hold on." She got up and found a tissue box on a little table by the window and brought them back to him. “Here you go. I’ll bet someone was working with clay in here and didn’t clean up after themselves.”
“Thanks.” Steve blew his nose with two loud honks and then tossed the used tissues into a nearby wastebasket.
“No prob.” Claudia took her seat again. "I'm almost done. I just need to map out the shadows then I can fill them in later."
"Map out shadows. Right. Okay,” he said, clearly not understanding what she meant.
Claudia continued working peacefully and she only had to correct Steve’s movements a few times before she felt satisfied with the end result. "There! All finished. You can move now."
"Ohhhhhhhh good." He gave a good, long stretch that made the fabric of his shirt tighten against his chest in an intriguing away. In this moment of comfort, Steve lapsed back into pirate speak. "Yaaaarrrrrr that be the thing!"
To her surprise, the pirate thing didn’t really bother her anymore and she smiled. "You were the perfect model. Thanks for helping me out."
Steve stood up and draped his jacket over his arm. "Good luck with your collection."
"Thanks. Good luck with... the gym.” Feeling lame, she looked down at her shoes.
“Thanks.” He stood there a second before saying, "Um, can I see what you've done or is it a secret...?"
"Oh! Right. Sure. I meant to say... I just forgot..." Now feeling uber lame she waved him over to take a look.
He came over and stood close to look over her shoulder. So close that she could smell him. Mmm, pirate smell nice. Like Pert Plus, clean laundry, and… cinnamon?
"What d'you think?" she asked, hoping she didn’t sound anxious.
"It's great,” he said honestly.
"Yeah? It was kind of hard to capture your eyes the way they really are. They're really... expressive."
He sent her an amused look. “They are?”
“Yeah.” She looked up at him and grinned. "You didn't know that?"
"That I have expressive eyes? That's not usually how people describe me." Steve shrugged, not looking all that comfortable anymore.
"How do they describe you then?"
He gave her a look. “Pirate.”
That made her look away, embarrassed. Duh much? "Right.”
"Well, I should get going. Goodnight, Claudia." Feeling the tentative bond they’d formed start to unravel, she watched him head to the door, slipping on his jacket.
"Thanks again!" she called after him.
“Sure!” He shut the door after him and Claudia stared at it a long moment before pouting and tossing her pencil down on the floor.
How did she manage to always mess up this bad with guys?
< Chapter Five : Chapter Seven >
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 05:48 pm (UTC)I love Steve, and I'm hoping he's discovered that giving girls the cold shoulder is a surefire way to get them into bed.
Go Steve-O! YARRRRRRR!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 06:07 pm (UTC)