Chapter 1
"Yes!" I smile under my thick scarf. Standing next to the mail box, my one hand rests on the lid the other grasps our new Netflix video: The Princess Diaries. Alright so I've seen the movie before about a hundred million times before, but I absolutely love it. And today being Friday my official movie night well the television is all mine!
Peaking my eye through the rest of our mail, rather uninterestedly I remember I have to bring the rest in as well. Taking the remaining envelopes I tuck them all into my coat pocket and readjust myself accordingly to their new weight making sure none can fall out. It is mid January and the snow is falling heavily over little Mineral Town. Actually I'm starting to wonder if it is ever planning to stop at all. As of three days ago we have gotten a total foot and a half of snow yet still flurries are threatening to bring us up to two feet.
"DON'T YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME YOU TWO-TIMING, GIRL-STEALING, JERK!"
The on coming voice startles me but I'm immediately curious. Looking over in the direction of the loud voice I can't yet see it's speaker. But I shouldn't have to wait long as the hurried footsteps stomp closer and closer to the blacksmiths corner. Popuri you shouldn't ease drop… I tell myself, but the voice is continuing on and the footsteps getting closer yet. Despite my screaming conscious I duck behind the nearest evergreen, admittedly it doesn't provide much for my cover. And it didn't help my pink hair could stand out at a mile in summer let alone now when everything around me is painted a sheet of white. But counting on the growing tension I could feel approaching I kneel down in the freezing snow anyway just peaking my head out between two branches.
I can see Gray round the corner, his face is bright red in anger his fist clenched tightly as if he is truly seconds away from letting it fly. Even though I hadn't been the one to make him this way I cower back a little. I've never seen Gray actually hit a person. Desks, walls, pillars maybe, but not a person. Still fear grips me at the sight of him. "I told you it wasn't like that!" he booms to the scurrying legs behind him.
I have to lean forward a little more to see who it is coming. Rick! Oh what is my brother doing now?
"Oh really?" Rick is sputtering at the blacksmith. "Then what would you call it when a guy is caught out alone with a girl, which is not his?"
Gray has one hand on the door knob, "I don't have time for this," he growls.
"Oh yes you do!" Rick jumps up grabbing the blacksmiths arm in an attempt to pull him back. Unfortunately for my brother though he is no match for the burly apprentice. With one swing of Gray's hand he'd flung Rick clear across the pathway.
"Rick!" I scream completely forgetting I'd been eavesdropping. I swipe my hand firmly over my mouth like it could help me now, darn. But it is too late; having already blown my cover I rush out from my hiding spot over to stunned looking boys. "Are you alright?" I ask kneeling down over Rick checking for scratches or signs of injury.
"Popuri!" Rick growls pushing me away. "You get out of here! What did Mom tell you about eavesdropping?" I frown pulling my arms to my chest; I hadn't rush over here worried about him just to get lectured.
"Whats happened here?" I demand looking to each boy in turn two very different expressions spread across their faces. Ricks is one of anger, annoyance and honestly I can't tell exactly who exactly his hostility is directed to. While Gray's face on the other hand looks shocked as he looks wide-eyed from me to Rick, pestered and perturbed all at once.
"Nothing," Gray tells me his eyes narrowing under his hat.
I raise my eyebrows pointing to Gray's still outstretched arm to Rick whom of which is still lying on the ground. "Oh?" I ask.
"Go home!" both boys growl to me at once, making me jump.
"Make me," I reply stubbornly then Rick scrambles to his feet shooting me a look that just as easily says I'm telling Mom. And although I admit it almost sadly this is some leverage against me.
Not even bothering to comment again Gray slams the door shut disappearing into his work place.
"Yeah you better run!" Rick yells at the door, and I roll my eyes. What had been going on here anyway?
"Soo what hap-"
"You're not off the hook," Rick shoots me a glare though triumph is still displayed joyfully on his face. "I'm telling Mom about your little eavesdropping," he says grabbing my arm and tugging me down the road.
"I'm seventeen you know," I grumble shoving him away.
"And I'm twenty-one if you want to start rattling off ages," Rick says shortly as he opens the door waiting for me to walk inside. I comply reluctantly, seeing my mother sitting peacefully on the couch doing some scrap booking. Great well she can say goodbye to that peace. "Popuri was eavesdropping on me again!" Rick yells.
"Was not!"
"What! SHE WAS TOO I SAW HER WITH MY OWN EYES AND-"
My mother looks at us, "stop." One simple word said and yet such a big effect. One word and I drop from where I stand on my tip toes. One word and Rick drops his glare, large scowl, and his words cease. "Popuri were you listening in on your brother?"
"Well yes but he-"
"Apologize."
"But-"
"Apologize."
"Sorry Rick…" I say. Then before anyone could say anything else I rush. "He was in a fight with Gray!"
"Popuri you-"Rick fumes only to be interrupted by my mother.
"Oh? Rick what was this fight about?" she asks.
"Nothing really..."
"Rick was calling him a cheater and a girl-stealer," I provide sinking down onto the couch. I know it is a childish way to deal with things around here, but if I'm going to be in trouble for what happened out there so was he. And that's how it is going to be childish or not. And plus it helps that I want him to explain himself as well.
Rick glares at me but my mother's curiosity stops him. "Why is that?" she asks and it is then I started to realize how much she has us down to system with these questions. Did we really do things like this that often?
"I really don't want to talk about it…" Rick says eyes darting to the floor.
"Well I don't think that you are going to get it off your chest any better if you don't," my mother smiles and it is times like these I think she looks the most vibrant. Still the young curious women that she had been in my younger years free of sickness…
Rick nods but even so I could tell he still isn't sure that he wants to say more on the subject. I don't see why it is so secretive. My eyes drift to the movie still placed in my hands, I really do want to watch it…
"Well I suppose it was a little stupid of me…" Rick starts bringing my attention back to him. "I was heading over to the Supermarket to talk to Karen like I always do and I kinda saw Gray there instead… You know they used to date and well I got jealous I guess." I think this over I knew that the two rumoredly had a thing but I never thought that it was actually true…
Why would Rick be jealous anyway? Does he like Karen like that way? Weren't they all just good friends? The thought bugs me; why is it that it everyone in town seems to be pairing off? I mean I suppose it's to be expected most of us are near young adults. But all the labels complicate things so much! Just take that fight Rick had just picked for example. It's stupid, I think. But somewhere in me wonders if I'm just bitter I've never had a special someone myself. I glance at the movie in my hands. Why haven't I gotten my fairytale prince yet?
"Now Gray has Mary, they've been dating for a good few months now you know that. There's no need to take it out on him." Mom says.
"I know," Rick admits dejectedly.
"Maybe you should apologize?"
"What!" Rick almost jumps out of his skin. "No way, just because I was wrong to assume him of cheating on Mary; doesn't mean that he isn't a dirt bag jerk nor does he deserve my apology!"
"Well that's mean…" I comment though no one seems to be paying much attention to me.
Mom merely smiles though, "come here Rick I found something that I think you should see." Curious myself I scuttle over behind her and Rick who is now settling on the couch. On her lap she pulls out a big binded red book dated Popuri&Rick Six/Eight. I lean forward more in between the two to get a better view.
"What are you showing me Ma?" Rick asks but she doesn't reply as she opens the book. She flips through a few pages looking for the right one. As she does I see pictures of me as a child smiling in my Sunday dresses and helping my Dad work I don't remember all of them being taken but I smile at them. However where she stops leaves me confused.
"Look right here," she says pointing to the top of a picture on the right page. In the picture it shows my father, her, Rick, and I all smiling broadly at the beach. I only vaguely remember Dad forming the castle with us. "Do you remember this day?" she asks Rick.
"No," Rick says averting his eyes away from the picture quickly making it most obvious that he in fact did.
"It's the day that Gray first visited Mineral Town," I murmur from behind them.
"That's right," my mom says. Peering deeper into the picture I can see the shipment boat a blur in the sea behind us. Though it is fuzzy I remember the boat coming to the shore and us escorting the young boy and his parents to Sibara's house… I smile Mom is reminding Rick that this jerk that he'd been bad mouthing for the past hour now used to be his best friend…
Though I hadn't thought of this fact in years, -it seemed rather irrelevant now since things had changed so much- Gray had been one of our best friends. My family has lived in Mineral Town long before I was born but Gray hadn't. Instead he used to come and visit his grandfather every summer when his parents got their busy season at work. I was never sure what exactly it was that they did but I knew it involved something that bringing Gray along would be just troublesome.
So they'd bring him to his grandfathers every summer, and each time Mom would end up babysitting him for the days. (Siabara didn't like him near his work space either. Ironic now that I think about it, isn't it?) As Mom goes through the pictures it is like a reawakened memory of ice pops, dungeon castles, late sleepovers and well childhood... Something I try hard never to let die myself, no matter how impossible the task sometime seems.
But as the pages flip my pink haired face fads from the pictures until soon I'm not even there at all. I know the years are passing and the times where I'd been thought of as an equal to the boys is dulling. They'd grown new interests and I'd been pushed to Ann as a friend instead.
The pictures feature the boys playing alone now, Rick and him pulling on each other playfully their times with the video games getting more and more frequent. Years were going by in the pictures stocked full of memories I did not share. When finally the album was four years after and Gray is no longer existent.
"What happened to Gray?" I ask eyes widening I'd never realized such a truly drastic change. Something happened. Something changed in that blond haired cheerful boy depicted. He was nothing like the now grumpy apprentice next door. What happened to their friendship? How could two people so close drift so far apart...?
"Nothing!"
"Rickie honestly now-"I stand for emphasis as I stare down at my brother but instead I draw attention to how soaking wet I really am. I hadn't noticed before with all the excitement but my stockings the hem of my dress are completely soaked through. Melting snow dripping through the fabric and my hair making puddles along the floorboards. The time I'd spent crouching in the snow listening to the boys fight reveled.
"Oh Popuri you're dripping everywhere go up stairs and get washed up!"
"Sorry!" I shirk. I dash up the stairs but as I look back I can see Rick's eyes still focused intently on the pictures, what had happened between those two?
And that concludes the first chapter of the story you don't know how hard I'm working on. It will feature my most favorite pairing in the world, one that I've wanted to write so many times... But for fear I couldn't do the characters justice I was afraid. I have many many chapters of this finished and this (if some people have been wondering) has been taking up far to much of my time. Hence the delay in other stories...
This has most possible makings of my longest fic ever because I want to do it justice and while doing that I want nothing to be rushed. (If only I could find this type of dedication to my school work, xD)
Reviews as always are very much appreciated.
Thanks so much for reading, next chapter will most likely be up next Sunday/Saturday.
