Songs and Kisses
Ch. 6 of Altea High
Lance sprinted down the rest of the way that led up to his front door, backpack thumping rhythmically against his side. He slung his bag from his shoulder, got his keys, and opened the door shouting, “Did you kids remember your Temper Gummies?”
“Yeah!” a voiced piped up.
Two sets of feet scampered down the stairs followed by a loud thump and a shout. Lance dropped his bag in the entryway, let the door swing shut, and rushed over to see his two younger sisters piled on top of each other. The shorter one struggled under the other who slumped even further, crushing their sibling under them.
“Melodyyyyy! Get off! Lance!”
Smothering his chuckles back he hoisted the older sister by the armpits, releasing the younger. Despite Melody going limp in his hold, increasing her weight tenfold—what is his mother feeding this girl?—he held her under one arm like a football.
Cora, the rambunctious eight-year old, leapt up and fled the room shouting, “Freedom! Sweet freedom!”
Melody’s body shook with laughter and peered up at her big brother through her chestnut bangs. Her big blue eyes sparkling with mirth. He scrunched up his nose in a exaggerated glare. “Did you guys really take your gummies?”
She nodded and he dropped her, she landed on the carpet with a little poof, her little body splayed as she embraced the floor. He stood over her for a second or two before abandoning his own flesh and blood.
It was only a few more seconds she lay prone before she skipped up and followed him into the living room. “Cora! Do you have homework?” he yelled into the house.
“No!” Her faint voice drifted from somewhere on the other side of the house.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m in third-grade, how much homework do you think I have?” Her voice steadily decreased from shouting to a reasonable decibel as she walked through the door with a handful of cookies.
“I dunno,” he swiped two cookies while Melody stole another despite their sister’s cry. “Maybe they’re secretly having you work on government secrets under the guise of homework.”
“Pfftt,” Cora rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, hermano.” She flopped on the couch, lengthwise, dark hair fanned out over the cushions. Scrounging out the remote from between the cushions she turned on the TV and put on some cartoon that he hasn’t kept up with.
He turned away from the kid in the bear hat talking to a girl that was made of fire to Melody who was patiently waiting on the piano bench, flipping through her music sheets.
He sat next to her on a bench that barely fit two people, but would comfortably sit a ten-year-old and a gremlin. So if Pidge could teach his sister piano then that would be great, but she doesn’t, so he either sits with his left butt cheek off the bench or get a bigger bench. Sadly, the bigger bench won’t fit in the living room so half butt cheek it is.
“Are you sure you didn’t change your mind on the piano?”
She shook her head as the tapped a simple tune on the keys. Listening closely, he could hear the slightly out of tune Yankee Doodle Dandy.
“Y’know, the guitar is pretty cool, I could teach you the guitar. And it’s mobile!”
She stared intently at him, sky blue eyes piercing his soul, as she played out the theme song for Charlie Brown, slowly but forceful.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, I get it. I’m just saying there might be better options out there than the piano.”
After a few hours at the piano he could hear the door click thrice, one in one direction and the second in the other and one last firm one. “What have I told you about locking this door!”
Lance winced and bit his tongue before responding. “Sorry, Mamá! Won’t happen again!”
“That’s what you always say, tonto.”
His mother came over to the piano and ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead then Melody’s. “Mijo, the day you remember to lock the door is the day the world ends.”
She walked over where Cora was passed out on the couch and maneuvered her dead-to-the-world body to something more comfortable before collapsing on the couch. After a minute she rustled out stacks of paper out of her bag and set them next to her on the well-loved sofa.
“Taking home work again? Tsk, tsk, tsk, what would dad say?”
“Well considering he’s away on a case that would make him a hypocrite.” She stuck her tongue out at him and he reciprocated with Melody peeking from behind him to back him up.
He took out his phone and looked up a sheet music on it. Might as well make the last bit of practice time fun. The printer in the office adjacent to the living room whirring loudly as he found the one he wanted. His mom always did her work in the living room with the kids, why she has an office he doesn’t know.
“Can I know who it is?” he asked as he walked to get the music sheets.
His mother doesn’t bother answering him until he’s back in the room. “You know it’s confidential but I will say that it’s a win.”
Lance nodded. “Cool, cool… are you meeting Plax tomorrow?”
“Yes, I assume she told you?”
“Yeah, it’s the monthly report, but I will say that she’s been doing great at school if you want my opinion.”
His mamá looks at him with her big brown eyes. “Lance, you know that I don’t think that Plaxum is a bad kid. These check-ins are to make sure that she’s adapting.”
Lance pursed his lips and tapped out the notes slowly, hearing that familiar tune that his sisters were playing since the movie came out. Melody’s worried frown turned into a smile that showed every tooth including the adorable crooked canine. She clapped and eagerly started to copy his finger movements in the higher key. He said without looking up from the keyboard, “I know. It, it just feels like you’re treating her like she’s… she’s a villain or something. Like you’re checking in because you don’t trust her.”
“Lance, mijo, it’s not like that at all.” She got up and stood next to the piano, arms folded on top. “I know that it might look like it but I can’t change the system. Even if they’re good kids the government wants to make sure that the public is safe and this is the solution they’ve come up with. Kids of supervillains make the public uneasy and it’s either monthly lunch dates with me or her not going to school.”
He didn’t stop playing but let his head drop closer to her. She carded her fingers through his hair soothingly before moving around the bench and crouching down next to his sister. “I just don’t think it’s fair.”
“It’s not fair, mijo. But education is important and with education she can help the world be a little less unfair.” She smiled and pecked Melody’s cheek. “Buen trabajo, mija! Qué canción es esto? Suena familiar. It sounds familiar.”
He snuck a look at his sister who snuck one back to him with a little smile. Nope. She wasn’t talkin’, in Spanish or otherwise. Maybe they should try sign language next.
Lance knew she tried to change the subject. He knew that she would answer if he continued but decided to let it die, he answered for Melody and his mother. “It’s Evermore, Mamá. Someone put up the piano sheet music for it.”
“Remind me which is Evermore, mijo?”
“You know,” He started from the beginning, Melody’s fingers tangling with his before she took them back. His voice was a little too high to match Josh Groban. “I was the one who had it all. I was the master of my fate. I never needed anybody in my life. I learned the truth too late.”
“Ooooh! Beauty and the Beast!”
“Yeah,” He slowed his fingers and put Melody’s small hands back on the keys, pointing to the notes on the sheet music, letting her make her way through them. “Can I go out tomorrow?”
“Lance, it’s a school night.”
He looked at her, mouth agape. “Mamá! It’s Saturday tomorrow!”
Her body jerked and she whipped out her phone, going to her calendar app. “What?! It can’t be Friday already!” Her shoulders slump and her head cants to the side. “It’s Friday. Where does the time go.”
“You said you were meeting Plax tomorrow! Didn’t you know which day!”
“I knew that I was meeting her tomorrow I just didn’t realize it was Friday!”
”Aye por dios.” Lance laughed.
His mom hit him on the shoulder with her phone over his little sister. “Aye, don’t swear!”
He held up his hands with Melody ducking underneath them. ”Lo siento, lo siento, Mamá!” She stopped her assault, with a disapproving frown. He tried not to laugh, as he was sure she would try to beat the swear words out of his brain. She had a weird Cuban-Catholic-mother spider-sense whenever any of her children were swearing. He might have speculated with his older siblings whether or not she secretly had a superpower to sense swearwords from her offspring despite evidence of her being a civilian. “So can I go out tomorrow?”
She rolled her eyes, her entire body following dramatically. “I suppose. Is it with that superkid you were talking about?”
Lance flushed red. He allowed his lips to slip into a sly smile. “Maybe.”
It’s just for coffee. It’s just for coffee. The mantra in his head was on repeat as he made his way to the local coffee shop. He tried to calm his heartbeat, the constant thumping against his breastbone distracting. There was nothing to worry about! He was Lance the most controlled superkid at Altea High! He was cool as ice. Ice Ice Baby was his theme song. Nothing could shake him. Not explosions, not a fire-powered mullet, not Professor Slav on one of his million of dimension possibility calculation ramblings, and certainly not a coffee date.
He approached the glass doors. He took a deep breath and exhaled his worries out. She said yes to the date. She said yes to the date. She likes you. There’s nothing to worry about. It’ll go great.
He walked through the doors and in the sunny corner with a frothy frosted thing, a teal straw with a pink ring poking out of the whipped cream, was his date. Dyed blonde hair pulled into two perky pigtails, her black roots only serving to make her that more noticeable, as if anyone wouldn’t be already in awe and staring. Her normally warm brown eyes purple and larger from the colored circle lenses and golden skin glowed in the sunlight.
He put on a winning smile. “Hey, Nyma, did I keep you waiting?”
Her pink, pink lips tugged into a smile. “It’s fine, you’re right on time. I like that.”
He relaxed some and slouched into the comfy armchair across from her. He made a show of looking around the quiet coffee shop, empty except for the barista. “You might be asked to leave soon. You’re making the other women look bad.”
She giggled wind chimes and sparkling water and his heart took a dive. What he wouldn’t do to hear that laugh again. She leaned forward, the neckline of her top dipping. “Very smooth, very smooth. I should call you Google, because you have everything I’m looking for.”
He clutched his hands to his heart and collapsed back into the cushions. His heart, his heart! Peeking and eye open he could see the cute little wrinkle in her nose when she giggles at his antics. He let his hands fall and let head fall to the side, soft smile apparent. “Out of all your beautiful curves, your smile is my favorite.”
She stopped laughing and blushed red across her cheekbones and it was the cutest thing he’s ever seen. “Seriously, you’ve got to stop being so cute or else you’re going to put me into cardiac arrest.”
“Lance!” She playfully hit him on the knee. “You’re making me blush!”
He smiled again. “All in a day’s work, beautiful.”
She set aside her drink and scooted forward in her chair and took his hands between hers. “Lance,” She smiled softly at their joined hands and rubbed her thumbs in distracting circles on his skin. “I wanna be honest with you.” She took a deep breath. “I—I really, really, really like you. I like your smile, I like your positive attitude, and I love your eyes... I would really like us to date. Exclusively.” She peeked up at him with her heart-stopping eyes.
Lance felt his heart stop and race double-time. He tugged on her hands to get a little closer, her head tilted in confusion before he slotted their lips together. She melted against him, head tilting further for him to get better access, scooting closer until her hands wrapped around his neck. Her breath was sweet and smelled of coffee and he could feel the stickiness of her lipstick. His hand drifted up to cradle her head, the warmth of her skin permeating the slight coolness of his skin from when he used his powers that morning when he iced the floor of his sisters’ room as a prank.
He slowly broke the kiss, out of breath. Looking at her perfect face her eyes were still closed and her lips still parted. Looking at those pink-smudged lips he pecked them one last time and once on her nose, smearing some of that pink on that little button. She giggled. Eyes still closed her lips tilted into a smile, relaxed, he felt his face heat. It was a good thing she had her eyes closed or else she could see how red his face was becoming. He responded, “I would love to be your boyfriend.”
Finally her eyes opened and crinkled with happiness, she rested her forehead against his and rubbed the tips of their noses together, transferring that pink. “Then I guess I’m your girlfriend.”
Ch.1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 Ch. 5
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