Little Rich Kids -- Turner/Melany

[A Moment In Subtext]

Boy Meets World
Little Rich Kids
By. A Moment In Subtext

I.
When Jonathan Turner was one year old he lived in an old stone house in Conneticut. It was a beautiful old house, each brick preserved for centuries, each shutter repainted twice a year. Its lawn was kept mowed low enough that the child could play in the front yard, in full view of his mother in the window.
Young Jonathan was too young to realize how special the house, and all its trimmings, were, however, and he treated them as if they were his own personal playground. In a sense, perhaps they were.

II.
When Jonathan Turner was two years old his parents had guests over for tea. They were rich, beurocratic people, as his parents were, and even though they doted on him as much as his parents did, he didn't really like them much. He was much more interested in their daughter, his playmate, as he'd been told.
She didn't look like much to him, but he was only two, and his parents told him he'd have plenty of time to get to know her. He didn't learn that her name was Melany until after she'd left.

III.
When Jonathan Turner was three years old his parents were called away on business and he had to stay with Melany's family for about a week. Their house was as big as his, and as it wasn't familiar, there was a lot to explore. Melany wanted to show him everything, as if he couldn't find it for himself, and he finally sighed and let her, just to make her shut up.
It was actually quite a fun week, he decided later, but he didn't want to stay at Melany's again for a very long time. He liked his own house just fine.

IV.
When Jonathan Turner was four years old he asked his parents if he could go to school. They, predictably, said no, he was a year too young, and that was okay with him, he just wanted to see what they'd say. His parents knew that he was smart, though, and went and bought him a pile of Learn-to-Read books and games, and he spent hours playing with them.
When Melany came over he had fun showing off for her, until he learned that she could read too, and he knew their parents were watching them from the doorway and he looked up and smiled.

V.
When Jonathan Turner was five years old his parents sent him the pre-school. He and Melany were the smartest kids in their class and everyone knew it. He knew, and she knew, that they bragged about it just a little too much, but they were five years old and it didn't matter.
They spent most of their recesses together on the swings, because all the other children were afraid that they were better at whatever game they were playing, and Jonathan and Melany didn't mind because, hey, swings are fun when your five years old, and they'd get their chance eventually.

VI.
When Jonathan Turner was six years old he entered kindergarten, and you know how kids are in kindergarten. He was happy and content for the most part, but he started to get restless staying on the swings and tried to join the other kids in their games.
But he'd been too much smarter than them, too much richer than them, for too much longer than them, and they knocked him down and ran away. Melany was right there, though, helping him up and telling him he didn't need them. They were rich and they didn't need anybody else, and for the first time in his life, Jonathan started to doubt that.

VII.
When Jonathan Turner was seven years old his parents bought him his first bicycle. He learned quickly, and he loved his bike. He took the training wheels off himself one afternoon and spent the whole day learning how to ride without them. He scraped up both of his knees in the process and both his mother and Melany scolded him for it later.
He tried to teach Melany to ride, but she refused. Why did she need to learn to ride a bicycle, she could take a limo anytime she needed to go anywhere. But Jonathan liked the feeling of the wind in his hair, and of getting somewhere without his parents help. Of course, he kept this revealation to himself.

VIII.
When Jonathan Turner was eight years old his parents built him a tree house. It was made of plastic, and it had glass windows and a metal ladder, and he though the wooden one with the rope ladder that he was in the bargain store looked like more fun, but he didn't say so. Instead he invited Melany into his tree house for tea, and they ate milk and cookies on fake china and pretended they were their parents age, and that they were old friends who'd just met up after years of seperation.
Jonathan thought it was rather silly to pretend that they were old friends since they'd grown up side by side, but Melany enjoyed it and he decided that he liked seeing her smile, so let her prattle on about whatever fake gossip she'd decided to make up for that day.

IX.
When Jonathan Turner was nine years old he finally convinced Melany to learn to ride a bicycle. She didn't like it very much, and he didn't force her to do more than learn, but he thought that maybe she liked the feeling of the wind in her hair enough to ride on the pegs he begged his parents to put on his, and he was right.
So for several weeks he carted her to and from her house and his, to the park, to the ice cream place, wherever, because they both liked the feeling of the wind in their hair. But then Melany got her hair cut, and he thinks her parents must have talked to her, because she told him she didn't like bicycles anymore and would he please not bring it near her house anymore.

X.
When Jonathan Turner was ten years old he started to notice girls for the first time. It wasn't surprising that Melany was the first girl he noticed, since she was practically the only girl he ever spent any time with, but he was surprised when she admitted to noticing him back. Both of their parents were sitting in the next room and hiding their smiles, and Jonathan knew it and so did Melany and that didn't stop them from drawing a friendship picture.
She was wearing an orange dress and he was wearing a blue suit, and the colors didn't quite match because crayon colors never match, but when they ripped it in half and each took one they both thought the colors were beautiful.

XI.
When Jonathan Turner was eleven years old, kids started to realize that it would be good for them to have rich friends. He and Melany were suddenly surrounded by the best and the brightest of their class, and eagerly hanging on their every word.
Melany seemed to thrive in it, giving orders like a princess and watching as they were obeyed. Jonathan loved the way her eyes lit up like when they were young whenever one of the girls offered to do her hair, but he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong with the picture. After all, what was so special about them, their parents had money, so what?

XII.
When Jonathan Turner was twelve years old, he got up the nerve to ask Melany out. Their first date was at a fancy resaurant in the fanciest part of town. Their parents were in the next booth over, and he was a perfect gentleman and she was a perfect lady, and he decided that if this was what dating was he didn't like it.
Then she kissed him goodnight and he decided that maybe he did.

XIII.
When Jonathan Turner was thirteen years old, his parents told him that he and Melany were meant to be together and he wasn't sure he liked that fact. Dating a girl wasn't the same thing if it were a pre-destined fact, so he broke up with her. He wasn't sure if she really understood, but she nodded and said she did.
He was sure when she said that it was okay for them to just be friends she really meant 'for now,' because she believed the same thing his parents did, and maybe someday that would be okay, but it wasn't now and that was it.

XIV.
When Jonathan Turner was fourteen years old the closest thing he had to a male best friend moved out of state. It wasn't that he actually missed the boy, just that he missed the company, and then he remembered Melany and went to talk to her.
She had a smug look on her face when she asked him if he was asking her out again, and he'd had to admit that he might as well. Then the look on her face when she said yes made him completely forget that he was supposed to be mad at her for being right, and he whisked her away to the old plastic tree house and they drank milk and ate cookies on fake china as if they were an old married couple, and Jonathan decided that he didn't mind pretending as much as he used to.

XV.
When Jonathan Turner was fifteen years old he and Melany fought about ethics, or something similar. It had started as a school debate, and had followed them all the way home and for the next two months. He doesn't remember exactly what it was about now, only that they didn't speak for so long that when they finally did it took him a while to recognize her voice.
Then they'd both apologized and promised to never not talk to each other again. But forever is a very long time, and no one can keep every promise they made in high school.

XVI.
When Jonathan Turner was sixteen years old his parents offered him a car. It was the coolest car money could buy, but he decided he didn't want a car, he wanted a motorcycle. His parents had laughed until they'd realized he was being serious, and then they went out and returned the car and bought him the coolest motorcycle money could buy.
Jonathon bought himself a leather jacket and a pair of sunglasses, and every time her drove down the street her had a parade behind him. Melany thought it was silly to want a bicycle more than a car, but he'd argued that it got the job done just as well, and he still liked the feeling of the wind in his hair. He offered her a ride, but she'd declined and walked stiffly back home with her head held high and they'd never spoken of it again.

XVII.
When Jonathan Turner was seventeen his parents told him that he and Melany were such a sure thing that the wedding had been planned years in advance. Jonathan didn't think he was ready to get married he told them so, but they all said it was nonsense, he'd been with her from birth anyway, why not make it legal. So to make his point he ran away from home.
He stayed in a friends spare room, and was amazed that his non-rich friends even had spare rooms, then felt ashamed of himself for thinking like that. His parents found him about a week later and told him that he didn't have to marry Melany until he was sure he was ready for that commitment and he went home with them.

XVIII.
When Jonathan Turner was eighteen he graduated high school and decided he wanted to go to collage. Melany didn't see the point of going to collage if all he was going to do was take over his fathers business, but Jonathan was a stubborn lad and he got his way eventually. His parents gave him the money for four years of collage tuition and kicked him out of the house.
He decided to go for it and live on the collage campus. Halfway through the year he decided that he didn't want anything to do with his fathers business, his calling was in teaching. When he told his parents, and later Melany, this, the reaction was. . .a bit extreme. His father wrote him out of his will, and all but disowned him, and Melany changed her phone number twice. Eventually he gave up on them. He didn't care as much for being the spoiled rich kid as she did anyway, and what good was being rich if you were that stuck up.
So he turned his back on all of it.