A/N: OhmigoshIfinallygotthisup. *inhale* Phew! This is a prize for the ever-eloquent Blackstar-98, who has been waiting far too long to receive this. It's been sitting on my monitor for about two days now, and as I've had little to no computer access, I haven't been able to put it up. A thousand apologies, especially if Abby is at al OOC. *grovels* XD Hope you like!
"But Daaaaa, I don' wanna!" Abby glanced up when she heard the voice. It sounded like it belonged to another girl, probably no older than her. A deeper, more annoyed voice replied. "Emmaline, we have been over this countless times before. You will address me as Father or Sir when we are in public, and you will not whine. Your mother has other business to attend to so you will be staying here until my meeting is over." Abby tilted her head in contemplation. Meeting? Her dad was in a meeting too. Did that mean the other girl was going to be staying here? Abby wrinkled her nose in disgust. Ugh. Every time somebody came over to her house it was one of those annoying, snotty kids whose parents worked with her dad. She hated spending time with them, and here she had been looking forward to a peaceful afternoon.
The door to the playroom burst open and the girl she had heard earlier was ushered in. The man standing behind her was very tall and very scary, and was wearing a dark suit and a blue tie. He looked like the kind of man that frowned all the time, and the expression on his face corresponded with that idea. The girl that had come in crossed her arms and pouted, but the man just sent her a particularly fierce glare and slammed the doors behind him. The girl turned around and Abby took a good look at today's playmate.
The girl was shorter than most kids her age, with long, auburn curls that were only barely restrained by several hairclips. She wore a frilly pink dress with some sort of butterfly design on it, though underneath Abby noticed Optimus Prime rainboots. Hazel eyes were narrowed in suspicion, and the girl seemed just as wary of Abby as Abby was of her. So, little Abigail decided to make the first move.
"My name is Abigail, and I'm six," she said, not moving from the patch of sun she had been reading in. "But you can call me Abby." The other girl's suspicion seemed to lift at the introduction, and she nodded curtly.
"I'm Emmaline, but that's a dumb name, so you can call me Emma. I'm five an' a half." Abby nodded back. "You talk funny. Like my Da, but different." Abby frowned indignantly.
"I do not talk funny. If you must know, I am from England."
Emma grinned, lopsided like the picture of the Cheshire Cat from Abby's book. "Do too." Then she glanced at the book in her hands. "Wuzzat?"
"It's a fairytale book." Emma nodded, approvingly this time. "Do you wanna see it?" Emma shook her head, her curls bouncing against her dress and her smile vanishing.
"Naw. My Da says- um, my father says I shouldn't read. He says it's gonna, um, poison my mind." She glanced back at the door before scooting a little closer to Abby. "But… can you keep a secret?" Abigail blinked in surprise. This Emma girl was certainly far odder than every other kid she had been forced to hang out with while their parents had meetings or brunches with her father. The first things they had done when entering the playroom were sulk or begin to talk about themselves. Abby knew it wasn't their fault that they were spoiled, but they could at least be nicer. And, while she had yet to get to know this new girl, she felt that she was different. So she nodded and watched with interest as Emma glanced at the door again, then scuttled over to where Abby was sitting. She fell to the floor in front of her, not caring that her dress was fully exposing her boots.
"I read comic books," she whispered, her face splitting into a huge grin again. Abby couldn't hold back a smile, either, and moved the book to the side. "Well, I'll tell you a secret too, then." Emma nodded, her face becoming serious in a flash. Abby thought it odd that the other girl could go from grinning goofily one second, then be completely stone-faced the next. "You're the first person to ever tell me a secret." Emma's expression changed to one of surprise, then she smiled again. "You too! I guess that makes us friends now, huh?" Abby smiled back and nodded.
"Top o' the mornin', Lightwood!" Abigail rolled her eyes and returned to her crossword, ignoring the hyper Irish 11-year-old that had just bounded into her room with an overnight bag. Her attempt at giving herself an Irish accent was coming along poorly, but Emma was anything, it was persistent. To the annoyance of Abby, that meant hearing about the most random things at the most random times without any ability to shut Emma up. Emma peered over Abby's shoulder, staring at the puzzle. "Crossword, huh? I prefer a good Sudoku myself."
"First off, it's evening, not morning. Second off, you're early. Did your mom have another luncheon?" Abby asked, turning around in her spinny chair. Emma leapt onto Abby's bed, bouncing lightly as she hummed La Bamba.
"Yeppers! Por ti sere, por ti sere~ an' Da's busy, as usual, so Mother went ahead and dropped me off early, since your folks are always so cool about it. And sleepovers aren't for sleep anyway!" She reached over and hooked the handle of her bag with her foot and kicked up, sending the bag flying onto the bed beside her. She unzipped it and dug around before pulling out several objects that made Abby raise an eyebrow.
"Really, Emma?" The objects in question were movies, each one of them Westerns. Emma shrugged and continued to grin mischievously, splaying them out in her hands like playing cards.
"C'mon, you know how much I love cowboy movies! Look, we got Tombstone, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, High Noon, both versions of True Grit, The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, as well my personal favorite, Purgatory." She saw Abby's expression and sighed exasperatedly. "Come on, Abs! I didn't raid Da's movie collection not to watch a slew of Westerns on. My 'rents don't let me, and you of all people know that." Abby rolled her eyes, but let a smile flit across her features, and turned around to boot up her computer's DVD function. "Awright!" Emma sang, flopping back on the bed and starting into La Bamba's chorus. Abby couldn't help but laugh and sing along.
Abigail Lightwood rubbed her forehead, trying with al her might not to flip out. Emma was capable of some pretty stupid things, but this had to by far top everything else she'd done, ever, in all her 13 years of living. And Abby was now an unwitting accomplice in the whole thing. Leave it to Emma to drag her into this.
"You replaced the cheddar cheese with spicy shredded squid."
"Uh, yeah. You shoulda seen Mother's face, though," she added, grinning broadly at the memory. "It was hysterical!" She shrunk back, however, at Abby's acid glare. If looks could kill, Emma would be in the morgue.
"And then you came here to hide." Another nod, and Abby once again had to restrain the growing urge to kick Emma out and just let karma do it's work. But she better; Emma had taken the blame for a few of Abby's own blunders, and besides, if she didn't, she couldn't be sure she wouldn't end up with itching powder in her pajamas. Also, Emma was making that stupid 'boo-boo kitty face'. Darn that face.
"Why, may I ask, did you think it was a good idea to make the cheese-squid swap?" Abby asked, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. She was so gonna need some Aspirin. Emma shrugged and shoved her hands into her pockets, rocking back and forth on her heels. She was as good at staying still as she was at staying out of trouble.
"Well, she grounded me just 'cause I accidentally-on-purpose set that pink dress on fire. I mean, it was taking up so much space in my closet, and something black would be so much nicer, an' I was never really gonna wear it anyway, so…" she chuckled nervously at the murderous look Abby was giving her. "Um. You, ah… you're not letting me off the hook for this, are you?"
"I'm going back to England." Emma gaped at her friend, trying and failing to form the right words. Abby sighed; she had figured Emma would do this. For all her hyperness otherwise, Emma was absolutely terrible at coping with situations like this. Luckily, she knew by now how to handle the girl. "It's not my choice, so don't get angry with me. And I thought about waiting to tell you, but I knew you would find out, so I decided I'd bloody well get it over with now." Emma closed her mouth, frown deepening as she took it all in. Finally, she sighed and nodded once, then again. She looked back up at Abby and gave her the best smile she could muster, which at the moment, was a rather weak one.
"When?"
"The end of the school year. We're moving as soon as summer starts, so after this, I'm afraid it's going to be hard to communicate." Emma nodded again, her eyes going distant as the gears in her head whirred.
"So that leaves us about… a month or so?" Abby nodded. Emma smiled again, this time a bit stronger. "Okay. Okay, yeah. Yeah, we can make that work." Her smile turned into the Cheshire Cat grin Abby was so used to, and the brunette felt somewhat relieved. "We got a month to get you ready for prom and get to ride Chang, so be it. We're gonna make your last few weeks in America the best weeks ever!" Abby laughed, her spirits lifted. If she couldn't talk to Emma while in England, they would just have to make do. Luckily, Emma was very good at making do.
XD Lame ending, amirite? The squid-and-cheese swap and itching-powder-in-pajamas are both pranks I have pulled, rather successfully and with a surplus amount of grounding. XD Anyway, this isn't canon to the Emmaverse, since Abby is in her own. :3 You can read more of Abby in Blackstar-98's story, These Small Hours. It's really funny, so you should check it out! But please leave a review before you go. :)