it’s the first official christmas she’ll spend with the shea
family and she’s nervous. excited, too, but her nervousness
is going to win out, she’s sure. the now green haired girl wrung
her hands, blue eyes cutting to and fro her half brother emmett
to the door, wondering if they all would think badly of her if she
ran and hid instead. what if they don’t like her? what if she does
offend somebody? what if she gets angry? what if she lashes out?
“hey, relax,” emmett bumps his shoulder against her own. “you’ll
be fine. they’ll love you. you’ve been at our house more than i can
count on my fingers. gladys knows you, my dad knows you. you…
just get to know a few more people. and hey, who knows? maybe
we can call julie while we’re at it. won’t that be fun? i think it would.”
a few more? a few more? lou ellen snorts. the shea-blake-mortella
family was crazy big! cousins and nieces and aunts and uncles and
grandfathers, grandmothers, sisters and brothers; you name it, they
have it. “wha’ if i screw this up? seems like a louellenish thing t’ do.”
“you will if you keep up the negativity,” emmett tries his best to mimick
her drawl. “what happened to ‘positivity, people!’? i mean, think about
all the piggyback runs you’ll miss out on if you bail now.” lou stares at
him: “have y’ever considered becomin’ a motivational speaker, it could
be yer callin’ in life.” emmett shrugs, “have you ever considered not
running away?” from the flinch, he knows he hit the nail on the head.
still, she smiles afterwards, all teeth and blue eyes meet green-greyish
ones. it’s on. it’s so on. for the dramatic effect, she’ll crack her knuckles
and loosen up her neck a little by moving it from one shoulder to another
(just like those fighters do in the movies she actually, probably, should
not have shown her younger brother). he knows it’s all for show, though.
“oh so we’re goin’ there righ’ now? y’really wanna tangle wit’ me, red mage?”
“if i must, if it gets you out of this mindset, then yeah. bring it, lil’ weirdo.”
they look at each other and then at the door of their cabin. both had packed
their essentials already, lou’s backpack was purple, emmett’s was red.
cees, who had gone home to spend time with his own folks, had come up
with it together with rose tanner, a daughter of iris. when they got tired of
the colors of their respective backpacks, all they had to do was invision it
changing from, say, silver, to black and then it did. they had been spelled.
as if someone yelled ‘go!’ they both sprinted towards the door. emmett,
having longer legs, was there first. he wrenched it open and jumped from
the stone steps, lou ellen hot in pursuit.
they’d gotten an iris message from thorsten shea about fifteen minutes ago,
saying that they were waiting outside of camp, below the hill. the past ten
minutes had been entirely lou ellen’s; she was worrying about making a
good first impression. emmett had rolled his eyes exactly three times
during those ten minutes. she was his sister! they’d love her, he was sure.
“last one at the car is a doof!” she yells, laughter ripping free from her throat
afterwards and emmett laughs as well. yes, this was going to be a very merry
christmas.
romaincrisis
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
