A Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 1 ‘Fitting In’

A Diamond Tiara in the Vogonverse story

Diamond woke up feeling the bitter cold from outside. She heard someone grunting just a short distance, and she crawled out of bed. Near her dress was a sweater, pair of jeans, close to her size - and apparently someone had made a hole for her tail, and a pair of white cotton panties in a clear plastic package. She tore open the package, lifted the pair of panties, studied them for a moment, and then carried them and the other clothes to her bed.

“The batteries are charged, so the waterheater should be working. We’ve got a fifty-gallon tank on this thing, so keep your shower short,” she heard Fredrick’s voice saying.

“Where?” she asked.

“There should be a sliding door opposite of the bed. Just pull it back. Inside you should see a shower stall and a small toilet. I wish that I could say this thing was made with newer technology, but I’m afraid that’s not so. This thing is pretty old. I think it’s owner’s manual said it was made in 1986, so, we’re dealing with some really outdated plumbing,” he replied.

She pushed open the sliding door, and the room looked clean. She could smell the mild scent of peppermint, and a little bit of lavender. She walked into the room, closed the door, and looked above her. There was a small current to separate the toilet from the shower. Sighing, she looked beside the toilet to see two old, faded towels, three hand cloths, and two bars of soap.

She grabbed the larger one and noticed how it smelled like Peppermint. She turned on the shower, feeling the blistering cold water hitting her before it turned delightfully warm. She began soaping her pelt down, enjoying every single moment of getting clean. The smell of peppermint covered her and then she felt the water growing cold again. She let out a shriek of surprise when it went completely cold. She finished washing off, turned off the shower, and stepped out on the worn shower mat.

“Hey, are you okay?” Fredrick asked from the other side of the door.

“The water got cold,” she said.

“The water… Oh man… That means that the tank’s empty. Oh well, it’ll refill and heat up in about an hour,” he said.

She dried off, tried to get her mane to behave, but it didn’t want to without being brushed the normal one hundred twenty-seven times she would brush it before school. She rolled her eyes, looks at the the meger accomdiations and finally seen what looked like a scrunchy. She picked it up, saw that it was one, and pulled her hair into a pony tail. She pulled on the clothes left for her, and enjoyed the feeling of the worn in clothes.

“They might look terrible, but at least they feel good,” she thought.

She opened the door to see Fredrick.

“Okay, it’s daytime, and right now everyone that has a job has caught the early transport, and those who aren’t working legal jobs are busy cooking their bathtub meth, so we’ve got a real chance to get over to the grocery and get a few things. How do you feel about helping out?” he asked.

“I…” she looked at him and closed her eyes, “Okay.”

She followed him out of the rectangular shaped home and he closed the door. Once again they came through the slightly slumped over metal tunnel, and finally they exited through the rear two doors. He locked it and then they moved through the large stack of burned out, and rusted out carriages.

He stopped before they were all of the way out.

“Okay, it looks clear,” he said.

They moved out into the dark courtyard, and finally out of the stacks as he called them.

“Fredrick, is that you?” a voice called down.

He stopped and looked up at a silver haired old woman.

“Mrs. Gladstone, how are you doing today?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m fine, just fine. I’ve got some soy bacon and powdered eggs. Maybe you’d like to have a little bit of breakfast with me?” she asked.

“I’m afraid that I can’t Mrs. Gladstone. I’ve got to get a little grocery shopping done,” he said.

“Oh, well raincheck then… Say, who’s that scamp with you?” she asked.

“This is Diamond Tiara,” he replied.

“You don’t say… I’d keep my eye on her,” she replied before she closed the door.

Diamond Tiara looked at her for a moment before looking at Fredrick.

“What did she mean?” Diamond asked.

“I’m not sure. Usually she’s the sweetest little old lady. Okay, we’ve got some ground to cover, so let’s get a move on,” he said.

The two of them walked hurriedly down the street. The sounds and sights of the decaying neighborhood around them made Diamond walk closer to him. When they turned a corner and the sound of a gunshot went off she grabbed his arm and buried her head in his shoulder.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It sounded like that one was pretty far away. If I was to guess it was most likely about three or four blocks down that way. I wonder if it was the Union Station Stacks… I heard that they had a fire down there. I bet they’re really overcrowded right now,” he said.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, if a stack burns or falls down the survivors all get to move into the other stacks. It’s not like they have a whole lot of choices on where to go. Most of the folks are okay with it, because the more people they have in a trailer the less they have to pay,” he said.

She looked at him and tried to picture what it would be like to live with more than just her daddy, her mama, and her in their house. She couldn’t picture it at all. She couldn’t think about how full thier home could have been. Her musings were interrupted by the sound of door chime. She looked around to see that they were inside of a small room, with a glass front, and there was a line of machines standing up.

“Okay, let’s get a couple of bags,” he said.

She watched as he pressed one of his thumbs against a red indent on a machine. It beeped and released six bags for him. He lifted them up, checked the bottoms, and nodded. She watched as he walked toward the last machine and looked through it.

“Diamond, is there anything that you want in here?” he asked.

She walked down and saw several different cans of various things. One of the first things she noticed was the spaghetti things they ate last night. She pointed to them, and he nodded. He pushed two numbers, and then pressed the number five. The machine’s red indent glowed for a moment and he pressed his thumb against it. Once that was done she noticed a cork screw looking thing began moving and it dropped one can after another until it reached five. Once it finished there was a chime and he pulled the drawer open at the bottom. He handed her a bag, had her open it, and then placed the five cans inside of it.

They moved on to the next machine and he did something similar. She even smiled when he got two small carrot cakes for them, and then finally he came to the last machine. She noticed that he looked inside of it, and pressed two numbers that she realized was for the milk. He had asked her what kind of milk she liked, and she had said that she liked chocolate. She watched as a quart bottle of chocolate milk dropped into the drawer.

He looked at the time and then at her.

“Okay, we’ve got to move, and move fast. The workers are going to be getting home in around twenty minutes, and if we’re out there with food they will take it from us,” he said.

“I’d like to see them try,” she said holding a bag close to her.

Author's Note

(And we’re calling it good on that chapter. I know, it’s a short one, but I just wanted to help establish a couple of things. One, what grocery shopping is like for those living in the stacks. No fresh groceries. All of it is pre-packaged, and the stores are automated. If you’ve got credits it can be reasonable, but if you’re using vouchers then it gets expensive quick.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

LF)