BATIM: Nothing Comes For Free

"No, no, no! You're doing it all wrong, Alice!" Susie snapped. The ink angel stopped in her tracks and looked to the female human. She had been trying to perfect the song and dance routine that Susie Campbell had written for the new cartoon that was to be filmed the very next day. But no matter how hard she tried, her efforts just wouldn't please the human. Alice's black hair plastered to her head and hung around her shoulders in a defeated fashion. Her normally glowing halo dimmed to a mere shimmer when Susie yelled at her for the twentieth time in the same hour.

Alice let out a sigh of anguish. For she knew that Susie would not give up until she had done the routine just how she wanted.

"From the top again!" The lady commanded and leaned against the wall of the animation studio. Ms. Campbell had been given a large enough room for which she could mentor the ink angel in acting skills, particularly in dancing and singing.

The petite ink girl raced back to the corner of the room and began the routine again. She stepped forward rhythmically and began the song once more.

Here it comes again, Alice thought. The very part she always messed up. It was a difficult twirl and leap that Susie wanted her to perform. Nonetheless, Alice Angel tried her best to please. She had almost made it through the twirl when her high heels bumped against one another. The girl went to take a step forward to keep her feet from tangling. But it was no use. The pointed bottom of her shoe got caught in a crack in the floorboard and she pitched forward. Alice fell right on her face with a screech of fear. But that fear was not from falling. It was from how the human was going to react to this latest mess up. The ink angel cautiously lifted up her head. Ms. Campbell was coming over. Did she finally feel guilty for making her do so many rounds of the dance? That was not likely.

Susie knelt down and helped the ink creature up. Alice knew that she didn't do that to be nice. That just meant she had other things to complain about.

"Oh, Alice! Look what you did to your bow!" The human pouted. Alice looked down to find her white bow knocked askew. It was very noticeable since her dress was a dark black just like her shoes and hair. Susie adjusted the garment and then noticed another flaw on the girl. "You smudged your makeup, too!" Ms. Campbell had put some pink blush on the angel's cheeks in an attempt to give them some color. Otherwise, her skin was as white as paper. The human roughly rubbed her fingers on the ink girl's slightly chubby cheeks.

"Sorry, Susie. It won't happen again." Alice replied, not making eye contact. She discreetly tried to pull her hair away from the small white horns that protruded from her head. Unfortunately, the lady took notice right away.

"I do wish you would keep those covered, Alice." The human's greedy fingers proceeded to cover the undesirables over with the hair again.

"But they're part of who I am. You can't change that, Susie." Alice softly argued. She knew that raising her voice at the woman was not necessarily a good thing.

"Perhaps not." Said Ms. Campbell. "But they're still not very angel-like. Anyway, let's get back to practice, shall we?"

"Susie, could you possibly give me a demonstration of exactly what you want me to do?" The ink angel probed. She had a feeling that the woman was asking something impossible of her.

"Sure, you need to do it like this." Susie proceeded to perform the routine. She did just like Alice had done right up to the point where the difficult stunt came in. The human stopped halfway through the twirl and stared at the cartoon character.

"Well?" Alice probed but not surprised in the least.

"Yes, well, you know what I mean." The lady said shortly.