Seven Snippets, Seven People
tagged by @indecentpause to share seven snippets!
Long, so Under the Cut. Also from a few different WIPs! Because seven snippets is a lot!
My sword meets Zias’ and the force of the clash sends me skidding backward and I gasp for air, blinking quickly at him.
“You’re slacking today, Jack.” He says, smiling, and laughing slightly. “That normally wouldn’t have got you like that. Rough day at school?”
I keep my sword up defensively, staring at him. He’s talking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re pausing in practice. “You could say that,” I say faintly, and his smile immediately falls away.
It was. I got reprimanded in AP Calculus for not paying attention, and the teacher didn’t at all care that I already knew the material.
Because I’ve taken this class before. So she called me out in front of the whole class, and took my poetry note pad. She didn’t even give it back at the end of class, so both my arms, from my wrist to the inside of my elbow are covered in tiny red writing.
And it was just second period, so I was more than a little stressed for the whole day.
“Please don’t make us start over in grade nine again after this. I’m so tired of high school.”
“Well,” he lowers his own sword, “for what it’s worth, you’re probably too old to pass as ninth graders at this point anyway, but you’re still too young to not be in school.”
“Hey, if we can pass as seventeen, we can pass as eighteen. We- We don’t have to be in school.” I relax out of the fighting stance, since he did. “Please, I don’t…”
Two, from Foggy Press Radio:
It was Halloween night, and Noah had his costume’s hat off and was fidgeting with it in his lap while he waited for Lucian to get back, when Haley sat down next to him.
“Your date ditch you?” She asked, fiddling with her tiara in her temporarily pink hair, “I still can’t believe you went with Pokemon rather than dressing as Finn to match me and Liz.”
“I didn’t feel like being the third wheel to Bubbeline,” he responded dryly, “And Lucille offered to make the costume for me; so why wouldn’t I?”
“Lucy’s running around as Elesa, isn’t she? I thought I saw her.”
“Yes, she is,” Noah muttered, “She loves matching costumes. Jenna is dressed as Iris. And no, Lucian didn’t ditch me, he just had something to go do. I’m just waiting for him.”
“I love,” Haley said, elbowing him, “That you didn’t even deny that he’s your date. Hilbert.”
“I’ve given up on that argument,” he put his hat back on, fixing his bangs under it, “and unless you want me to call you Bonnibel, don’t call me Hilbert again. Besides, when I played, his name was Noah. He is the player character, after all.”
“Oh tch, you’re no fun, Noah.”
Three, also from Foggy Press Radio:
Liz stares at him for a long moment before continuing like he said nothing, “Ghosts are a very broad topic, and one that deserves to be looked at on a more individual level, but for tonight, we’re doing an overview of the whole subject. The history of belief in ghosts and ghost hunting, and even a little fraud thrown in for Noah, because he is right sometimes, even if he’s an idiot about his boyfriend.”
He just sighs, staring down at the floor, while Haley bursts into giggles.
“You know, No, she’s right. You are an idiot about Lucian. When I dated his sister last summer-” Liz scoffs, but Haley presses on like she didn’t, “I saw a lot of him, and I’m poooositive he misses you.”
“He was at our house on Monday,” Liz says, “so I think that’s being worked on, but Noah’s still an idiot; because he definitely wants Lucian to be his-”
“Shut up Liz!” he snaps, leaning forward on his knees with both hands crossed to cover his eyes, and she stops talking at once.
“Just move on,” he mutters.
Four, from The Fair Folk (ohhh I haven't even introed this one):
People are staring; who wouldn’t at the nineteen old kid waiting for a bus with two instruments and a large suitcase?
I’ve always hated people staring at me; hated attention and the spotlight. Every competition won, every round of applause had me sprinting off the stage as soon as I knew I was safe to.
The only thing I had to turn to for comfort was the very thing that put me on that stage in the first place. It was inescapable. It even reshaped my body as I grew up with it.
I look at my hand, trying to ignore the staring of strangers. My fingers are twitching, yearning to touch an instrument to ease this anxiety. My long, calloused fingers and muscled palm; hands that literally grew differently for having been a musician growing up.
“Do you know how to play both of those, Mister?”
“Not a Mister,” I say reflexively, glancing down at the kid, who can’t be any older than three or four, “and yes, I can.”
“Oh, sorry Miss! That’s cool though!”
“Not a miss, either kiddo,” I say, smiling despite myself, “it’s Mx.”
“Oh! Oh! You’re non-binary? Mommy’s sibling is; it must be cool to be however you want. I like being a girl but boys get cooler toys.”
I don’t bother correcting her that I’m agender specifically, and instead just crouch down next to her and grin, “I’ll let you in on a secret,” I stage-whisper, “you can be however you want too. There’s no reason you can’t play with so-called boy toys ”
Five, from Eyes Wide Open:
“I wish you weren’t involving yourself in this…” I say softly, and she scoffs. “I mean it, Mia. I wish you weren’t. You… you weren’t born into this like the rest of us-” I push my bangs back to show the tattoo there for a second. I intend to get that removed eventually, if I live that long. I refuse to have them marking me forever. “You could have- should have been able to just… live, but…”
“Well, my life was never gonna be free of it all. Even if it was just in the way all of you were affected, or the precautions for if something like this did happen. It’s never been normal, and I’d MUCH rather hang with you and make sure you’re not on your lonesome than maintain some false sense of normalcy.” She shakes her head. “I don’t wanna be normal if being involved lets me help my favorite big brother-cousin.”
“You’re too goddamn nice, Mia…”
“Great!” She laughs. “Can you tell that to my history teacher? He seems to think I have an attitude problem.”
I snort. “Maybe that’s because you do. Don’t talk back to your teachers if you want them to like you, Mia.”
“I’ll stop talking back when he stops being WRONG!”
I laugh into my hand, actually smiling. It’s been a while since I laughed, like, for real. Mia’s good at that though, making me laugh.
Six, from Storms (Anna's perspective):
“Yeah,” he starts tapping his fingers on the table whilst taking a long drink, “Thank you for letting me help, Anna. Issac wouldn’t have. He still thinks of me like the helpless fourteen-year-old I was when our parents died.”
“Hey, you’re still a kid Ethan. It’s his job to look out for you.”
“You’re only three years older than me,” he says dryly, “It’s weird for you to call me a kid. Maybe more like two and a half, depending on when your birthday is…”
“Sorry, anyone still in high school is still a kid to me.”
“I’m twenty in May,” I say with a grin, “I’m closer to twenty than eighteen. You don’t get to claim half years with me, kid.”
“Ugh,” Ethan puts his head down on the table, “I still don’t think the age gap between us is significant enough for you to be calling me a kid.”
Seven, from Storms (Issac's perspective):
I immediately regret walking away once I do, having to hold myself up on the railing at the top of the stairs. No one else is up here. Ethan is at work, and Lexi is supposed to be at a friend’s house. If I- If I finish going up the stairs, I will be alone. I don’t want to be alone, but I know Anna isn’t following me, because I hear her voice, with her talking to them in the dining room. I don’t really know what she’s saying, but she’s not coming after me.
I sink slowly to sit down on the steps, trying to breathe slowly. What am I so scared of anyway? That Anderson will somehow be around the corner when I go up these last two steps? That’s patently absurd, and I know it’s absurd. So why is my heart racing? Why am I stopped here on the steps, starting to cry again like a goddamn little kid?
tagging: Doing this always makes me anxious but lets try @novel-emma, @asher-orion-writes, @blind-the-winds , @kjscottwrites , @andromeda-grace , @radley-writes, @talesofsorrowandofruin
