(warnings: ARBD)
[season 1, episode 1: uno]

"JIMMY!" NATALIE exclaimed, almost jumping from the seat where she sat as Chuck McGill counted out her monthly payment.

"You ground yourself?" Chuck questioned his brother, not looking up from the money.

"Yes, I grounded myself." Jimmy grumbled. "Hey, kiddo." He greeted as Natalie rushed up to him, waving wildly.

"You gotta stop putting bacon on the list," Jimmy said to Chuck, rounding the corner. "That cooler's looking like a trichinosis stew."

Natalie wasn't quite sure what trichinosis was, but decided it sounded gross. "Ew."

"Perfect timing." Chuck announced, pulling the paper he'd been working on while Natalie cleaned from the typewriter.

"Professor Brans Vogelson?" Jimmy questioned as he read over the paper. "University of Helsinki?"

"Yeah, you're gonna have to get that translated." Chuck said.

"Into Swedish?"

"I think German," Natalie said.

"Finnish, actually." Chuck corrected.

"Oh."

"Finnish, uh, translating into...?" Jimmy was clearly confused, and his confusion was rubbing off onto Natalie.

"I'm sure there's someone at UNM who can do that," Chuck said.

"You do know I'm trying to start a legal practice?"

"Vogelson's been working on the effects of electromagnetic fields on zebrafish and-" Chuck stopped himself, getting distracted by a newspaper.

The Financial Times. Sounds boring. Natalie didn't voice these thoughts, though, knowing that it was rude to say such a thing, especially when it interested Chuck so much.

She knew he had a hard time, with his electricity allergy, or whatever it was. She remembered asking one time and getting a bunch of scientific responses about the brain- nothing she understood. No matter what it was called or what it truly was, he couldn't be around electricity, or even go outside. That was why Natalie helped him clean around his house and do some chores that required going outside.

Natalie talked to her oldest sister, Teresa who insisted on her name being pronounced with some kind of accent that made the R sound like a D, about it once, who'd said that Natalie should be extra nice to him, since he already had it tough. She also said that there was a fine line between being extra nice and pitying someone, which no one wanted.

Natalie understood that. When she'd tell people about her father, they'd give her this look. She hated that look. The look as if they believed she was something beneath them, like they had to think of her as less. Natalie didn't invite anyone over anymore because she didn't want to get the look.

"Oh, and don't let me forget," Chuck handed Natalie a small stack of cash. $260 for the next six months that Natalie would be cleaning his house. "Now, you just remind me next time you need to be paid, alright?"

"Alright, Mr. McGill, I will. I'll mark it on my calendar," Natalie said rather proudly. "That's what month?" She began to count out on her fingers to the month, but quickly lost count. "Never mind. I'll just figure it out when I get home."

"You should go quickly, before it gets too dark," Chuck said.

"If you ever need a ride, I think your house is on my way," Jimmy suggested.

"It's okay," Natalie said with a small smile. "My bike is just fine. Plus, it's nice outside and I should, like, cherish the summer air."

"Alright then, see you later, kiddo," Jimmy said, patting Natalie on the back as she left.

"G'bye!" She waved as she left. "Oh, and thank you again, Mr. McGill."

The summer afternoon air hit Natalie hard as she exited Chuck's house. The sun was only barely beginning to set, crafting a beautiful sunset in the sky behind the house, but it was still hot out, almost to a point that was uncomfortable.

The weather was familiar, not much different from that in Georgia, but Natalie still couldn't make herself feel at home.

The land almost seemed foreign. She'd figured out her way home, but other than that, everything else was unfamiliar. She didn't know anyone at school, didn't know what people did for fun around here, and had absolutely nothing to do the entire summer. She expected it to be incredibly boring.

"You should probably be careful 'round the windows," Natalie noted as she arrived at her house to see one of her sisters, Clare, practicing swings with her baseball bat.

Clare rolled her eyes, taking another swing at the air. "You sound like Teresa."

Natalie simply shrugged in reply, setting her bike against the house.

"By the way," Clare set down the bat and turned to Natalie with her hands on her hips. "You should be quiet. Dad's finally asleep and not mumblin' weird nonsense. So, don't wake him up."

"Okay, thanks," Natalie said, giving her a soft smile. Clare didn't smile back, and simply picked up the bat again and started to swing again.

As she entered the house, Natalie wondered if Clare wasn't just practicing for a game while using the bat, but getting out her emotions. Clare had always been an angry girl, and that hadn't changed when the family moved to New Mexico. The swings she was taking were rather hard.

Natalie crept quietly through the silent house, only a couple of floorboards creaking along the way.

Arriving in the dining room, Nat carefully set down her backpack and approached Teresa, who was holding a flashlight over multiple sheets of paper.

"What are you doin'?" Nat asked in a whisper.

"Bills." Teresa replied begrudgingly, her voice at a normal volume instead of a whisper.

Natalie glanced to the door, hoping the noise didn't wake her father.

"He ain't gonna hear. Basically knocked out at this point."

"Oh." Natalie glanced at the paper beneath Teresa's elbow to see dozens of numbers. She assumed they were math for the bills. That or homework. "Where's the lights?"

"Couldn't pay the electricity bill so they cut us off. We'll have 'em back soon," Teresa said reassuringly, though she almost sounded like she didn't believe the words herself.

Natalie dug around in her pocket and pulled out the money Chuck had paid her. "Here. It's two-sixty."

Teresa glanced at the money then back to Natalie. Natalie could tell she didn't want to take it, but had to. Nat got up silently, grabbed her backpack and left with a mumble about homework.

Proceeding through the living room, Natalie glanced over to the couch where her father lied, practically motionless. He could have been dead. Natalie knew he wasn't, however.

Almost spooked by his daughter's presence, Davide awoke with a snort, glancing around wildly as if someone was there to kill him. Spotting Natalie, he squinted. "Val, that you?"

"No, dad," Natalie said through a frown. "It's me. Natalie."

"I'on' know any Natalies."

"Natalie. Like your daughter. I'm your daughter." He's just tired. He's not in his right senses. Natalie thought, trying to comfort herself, but she knew the words weren't real.

He hummed out an oh. "Well, you want to get me beer, Natalie?" he said the name as if he didn't quite believe that it was actually her.

Natalie stared at him. He was still endorsing his bad habit despite it being what was destroying him in the first place. Do it yourself. She wanted to spit at him. If you want to ruin your life, you can do that on your own. I won't help. But she didn't say any of this.

Natalie glanced to the doorway, and saw Clare resting against the doorframe, her arms crossed. She raised her eyebrows and nodded in the direction of the fridge.

Natalie followed Clare's direction and made her way to the fridge. Her hand brushed the handle, before dropping back to her side. She turned to face Clare, who'd followed her into the room. The silent words hung in the air. I don't want to.

"You have to. You're just gonna make him throw a tantrum like a little baby if you don't."

"He's already messed up enough," Natalie argued. "I don't want to make him worse."

"You said it yourself. He's already bad. What does it matter at this point?"

From the dinning table, Teresa hissed out a need for silence. "Just give him the beer, Natalie. Don't act like a little kid," she said, annoyed.

With the unanimous vote from her sisters, Natalie opened the fridge and shakily grabbed a beer. She made her way back to the living room and handed it to her father.

"What's this for?" He questioned.

Natalie didn't even bother to answer. She simply grabbed her bag from the ground and made her way to her room.

Nat angrily tossed her helmet the ground, letting her bike fall from her grasp and clatter down into the deep and wide divot of the skate park.

"Hey! Watch where you're dropping your shit, kid!" A ginger with a skateboard said from inside the bowl.

"Yeah! You ruined our take," someone who looked like the other man's twin said. He clicked the stop button on a video camera, obviously irritated.

"Sorry," Natalie said through a cringe, skidding down the incline to grab her bike. "I just got a little frustrated. I'm tryin' to do the thing where you, like, lift up the front tire and it was so not working which is so not cool and-"

"I'll cut it short for you. We don't care," the one with the camera said and the other nodded. Natalie almost found it creepy how much they already agreed with each other.

"Sorry, I-" Natalie begun, but a familiar voice cut her off.

"Hey, fellas. You can leave the kid alone now. We got business." Natalie looked up to see Jimmy standing at the edge of the divot. With the light shining behind him, he almost looked like some kind of guardian angel, about to save Natalie. It made her want to laugh.

The twins both looked around nervously. "How did you find us?"

"You know him?" Natalie questioned.

"You know him?" One of them countered.

"You answer first! I asked first."

Rolling his eyes, one of the twins turned back to Jimmy. "How did you find us?" He repeated.

"I know," Jimmy said sarcastically. "Eerie, right?"

Natalie assumed he had known they skated previously. He had to have gone to a couple skate parks to find them. If there even was more than one skate park. Natalie was only aware of this one because Clare had dropped her off before heading off to softball practice.

Obviously freaked out, the twins began to move away. "Woah, come on. Give me thirty seconds." Jimmy protested, holding his hands up to stop them. "Could be the most profitable thirty seconds of your lives."

"You're givin' 'em money to listen to you?" Natalie asked incredulously.

Jimmy pointed to Natalie. "That, I'm not doing. However, I would like to offer a business opportunity to these fine young gentleman."

After everyone settled down, Jimmy began to tell a story about a boy who seemed rather popular. Natalie only understood that it was about a young Jimmy when he referred to the character as Slippin' Jimmy.

"Slippin' Jimmy. What the hell kind of name is that?" One of the twins questioned skeptically.

"Shut up! Let him tell the story," Natalie said.

"Well, I'll tell you now. Winters in Cicero are murder. You guys, growing up out here in the Golden West, you don't know. Okay? I'm talking cold that'll freeze the snot right in your nose. I'm talking wind that'll cut through your jacket and carve you up like a Ginsu knife. In fact, most folks in Cicero were scared of winter. But not Jimmy. Jimmy would wait around all summer, and when September finally rolled around, and he'd feel that first cold wind come sweeping off Lake Michigan, he knew it was coming. Was it Christmas? Was it Kwanzaa? Better. It was slip-and-fall season. As soon as it was cold enough, he'd find a nice, smooth patch of ice. State Street was good, Michigan Avenue was better. He'd pick his spot wait for it to get busy, then he'd walk out on the ice and boom! He would biff it so hard people would come running from five blocks away."

Natalie couldn't quite tell if the whole slip on ice thing was a metaphor for something else, but all Natalie knew was it had to be some kind of scam.

"Yeah, but did he collect?" One of the twins asked.

"'Did he collect?'" Jimmy scoffed. "Slippin' Jimmy had it dialled in. One good fall, he'd clear six, eight grand."

"Jeez! That's a lot," Natalie noted, awe in her voice.

"Exactly. That'd keep him in Old Milwaukee and Maui Waui right through Labor Day."

"Eight grand?" one of the twins said doubtfully, though there was a hint of awe in his voice too.

"Eight grand." Jimmy confirmed. "Now, see, I look at you guys, I see potential. Even you Natalie. Now see, they already have something going with their skateboard. A nice wrinkle, makes it a year-round gig. Clearly, you know how to take a header." He pointed to the twin with the skateboard. "Right? But I gotta ask you, your best day ever, how much did you clear?"

They looked at each other. "...Six hundred and thirty."

"Six hundred and thirty bucks? Was that for one fall?"

"Two."

"Two falls in one day?" They nodded, almost ashamed. Jimmy laughed. "Even at your age, that's gotta hurt. And Nat," Jimmy referred to Natalie with a hand. "How much do you make, working for my brother?"

"Ten bucks a week," Natalie sighed before rushing to add, "but I'm still grateful! It's good I even have a job at all."

"Hey, no need to be sorry. I've got a job for you. How's two grand sound?"

Natalie's mouth fell open in shock. "That's a lotta money."

"Two grand for one hit?" The twins questioned.

"One hit," Jimmy said. "Plus, you get to learn from the best."

"And how does, uh, Nancy here come in?"

"It's Natalie!"

"Right, whatever."

"You'll see," Jimmy said before clapping his hands together and standing up. "Alright, then. Chop, chop, we don't want to waste any time."

All three people followed suit, getting up. The twins glanced at each other, almost doubtful. But Natalie wasn't doubtful, she was just excited.

A scam!

SYDNEY SPEAKS
alrighty here's this chapter redone but not really please comment please don't be a silent reader commenting rlly motivates me so like yeah