Chapter One: Something's Gotta Give!
by: lunasei
"This is boring!" said Tylor, as he stared out at the lake from where he sat. The view from the summer beach house was dull, and over played for the poor ten year old chipmunk. He had been sitting at the edge of the bridge out side his house fishing most of the afternoon. He looked over at his sister Celina, who was sitting next to him. She wasn't fishing, but writing in her little brown note book. Tylor frowned. "I don't get why we can't go with mom and dad on their summer concert tour?" he whined, as he turned his attention back to the view of the lake. He tugged on his fishing pole. "I'm sick of these boring summers with just us, our cousins, and Mrs. Miller! It's not fair! How come they get to have all the fun, and we, just sit here?" He glanced over at Celina again. He noticed that she was more into her story then his whining. He put down his fishing pole, seeing that he wasn't catching any fish. The restless chipmunk quickly snatched Celina's note book from her hands, demanding her attention. "Are you even listening to me?" He yelled. Celina's blue-green eyes narrowed with agitation at her blond haired younger brother. Tylor had just interrupted the best moment of inspiration she had had all year, and to top it all off, when Tylor snatched her book it caused her to make a long ink line across the page, destroying the neatness of the her work.
"Is it me, or are you deliberately going out of your way to get on my nervous!" she said in a annoyed tone.
"I want to see the world with Mom and Dad!" Tylor exclaimed.
Celina snatched her book back. Tylor's whining had become more then she could bare. However, she tried her best not to lose her temper. She had a bad temper that almost always got the better of her, so she had spent this whole year working on controlling it. It was a long road to hoe, but she was doing good so far. Celina took a deep breath, and sighed. "Tylor, listen, you know that mom and dad, and even our aunts and uncles never take us our their tours. Why, you might ask? Because on those tours they do grown up things, that do not involve us," she said as calmly as she could.
"Why not?" Tylor asked.
Celina's body tensed up. "Because, we are not adults, and we are too much to handle during concert tours," she replied. She hated this conversation because, this was the third time she had had it with Tylor. The point that he was not going with his parents on their summer tour or any tour in future had not sunk in to his thick skull.
"But I am old enough!" Tylor declared.
Celina shook her head. "No you're not. Shut up!"
"I want to go! Come on Celia, talk mom and dad, aunt Jean, Ellie and Uncle Simon and Theodore into taking us with them!" Tylor begged, as he looked up at her with his big blue eyes, revealing the truth behind his constant nagging. Celina opened her mouth to protest, but Tylor spoke over her. "Come on Celina, pleeeaaaase, they'll listen to you!" he begged. He looked so helpless looking at her with those eyes, so full of intensity. "Come on, we never get to spend time together as a family!"
Celina sighed. "Alright, I'll try my best, but I'm telling you, our parents never let us go with them on any of their tours," Celina replied.
"Yay! They're gonna say yes, I know it!" Tylor said, as he jumped up, and took off running happily.
Celina picked up her book and closed it. She decided that she would talk to her father, Alvin Seville, since she was more comfortable talking to him then her mother Brittany. Every conversation with her turned into an argument. With her father he simply gave her his answer, kiss her forehead (She hated it when he did that), and that would be the end of it.
Unfortunately Alvin had stepped out to get some last minute things for the trip, so Celina was stuck asking her mother this question. She would have waited till her father came home, but her mother asked her what she wanted to talk to him about; she had to tell her. Pretty much after years of being in this family, Celina learned that her mother answer to a question was pretty much as soled as her father's. So, if Celina wanted to get a yes out of her, she had to be crafty with her words, which was something she was good at. However, when it came to using her fences, charisma, and charm on her mother, it always backfired.
"Well, Celia?" Brittany asked, as she put one of her nice dresses into her luggage.
"Well, I was wondering if... well... if..." Celina was stumbling over her words.
Brittany sighed, she was growing very impatient. "If what?" she asked. She really wished Celina was better at getting to the point about what she wanted.
"Well, Tylor was wondering if we could go with you guys this summer?" Celina finally asked.
Her mother's expression turned firm. "Celina, We've been over this many times before. You guys can not come with us. This trip is merely business. It's not place for you guys. Now stop bothering me and go on out side and play!" she said.
Celina slowly made her way out of her mother's room. She didn't know why she felt so bummed out. She already knew the outcome of this question before she came to ask it. Unlike her younger sibling, she had accepted that this was her life. That this was how her family was; busy and almost always absent. The thing that was hard to take was watching her younger siblings hopes fall down the drain whenever mom and dad missed their birthday, or something else big, like a recital.
Celina made her way down the stairs. She stopped midway, when she saw the bright eyed faces of her two more younger siblings, Raymond and Clarissa. To everyone they were known as Ray-ray, and Clary. Ray-ray was seven and was beginning to look more and like his father every year, and Clary was five. She was a tinny little thing and very cute with her short little puffy cherry blond pigtails, and big brown eyes.
"S-so sister a-are we g-going with mommy and daddy this time?" Clary asked. She wasn't very good with full sentences yet, but she was getting there.
"Are we?" Ray-ray said excitedly. "Tylor said you talked to them, and they were for sure to say yes! Come one, what did mom say!?"
Celina sighed, then gave a look that said, "What are you talking about? I don't know what kind of crazy story's your idiot of a brother has been feeding you two, but I did no such thing," she lied. Right now she wanted to scream at Tylor. It was one thing to place all his hopes and happiness in her hands, but to also hand her Ray-ray and Clary's, was harsh. It almost broke Celina's heart to see the Clary's eyes fall to the floor with disappointment.
"Ohh..." she said, then she ran off crying. She pushed past Tylor who was exiting the computer room. The poor little chipmunk was fragile like that.
"I take it, mom said no?" Tylor said, already reading the answer from Celina's face.
Celina nodded slowly. "Yeah..." She replied dryly, trying to stay calm. However, when Ray-ray walked off upset, she found herself even more angry with Tylor. Her eyes narrowed, and her hands balled up into tight fists. "Run," she said coldly.
It was that cold, tone that triggered Tylor to run for his life. The young chipmunk took off running out the front door, and into the front yard. He could hear Celina running after him. "Tylor you are such a jerk!" she yelled, as she ran. The two chipmunks ran past their aunt Jeanette and uncle Simon, and their two cousins, who were just getting out of their car. She almost ran into her cousin Evette, making her drop whatever was in her hands. Which lead to her being upset, and chasing after Celina.
"You are sooo paying for that Celia!" Evette yelled angrily.
However, at this point Celina's mind was focused more on her brother, and what an idiot he was. It was way more important than any high-tech device that Evette had. It took a while, but Celina finally caught Tylor. He had made a dumb turn on to the bridge. Celina pounced on him, then Evette pounced on Celina, and then the three chipmunks fell into the lake. The whole thing took all three of them by surprise. For Celina and Tylor, swimming was a piece cake. However, because Evette, the inexperienced swimmer had fallen in with them, there was a problem. Evette was panicking. She grabbed on to Celina in attempt not to drown.
Celina finely broke through the surface. "Eve, get off me! Your pulling me down with you!" Celina said in a panicky tone.
"I can't swim Celia, don't let me go!" Evette cried franticly.
"Stop pulling on my sister!" Tylor yelled. He had forgotten about the scary fact that his sister was going to hurt him. He was more worried about her drowning, because of Evette's frantic panic attack. Not only did Evette not know how to swim, but she also was afraid of water. She wanted out of it, now!
"Get me out of here!" Evette cried, while unthinkingly dunking Celina's head into the water. Celina knew she had to do the only thing she could do at this moment, and that was get away from her crazy cousin. She swam deeper under water and over to the right.
As Celina did so, she noticed something shinning not too far away from her on the lake's surface. At the time of the day it was unnatural. The sun was setting, and this thing was glowing brightly as though the sun light was hitting it directly. Celina swam over to it trying to hold her breath as long as she could. The fuss above water had calmed down, meaning Tylor had helped Evette out of the water. Celina's blue-green eyes widened, when she noticed that the shining object was a golden compass. She reached down and grabbed it, and swam up. She gasped for air when she broke through the water's surface.
As soon as Celina caught her breath, she swam over to the bridge where Tylor and Evette were both sitting dripping wet. "You are such a dork. The water's only four feet around these parts. You can practically stand in it!" She heard Tylor mutter to Evette.
"Yeah right, that water is at least six feet. I almost drowned," Evette cried, as she cleaned her glasses. Bad vision was thing that ran on that side of the family. It was a really bad problem for Evette, because she was both near and far sighted. She had long brown hair that was worn up in a bun. She was a very preppy looking smart girl, and plain. She was allergic to almost anything you could think of, and scared of the weirdest things. For some crazy whacked out reason she tended to think that Celina was out get her.
"That's what you get for jumping on us!" Tylor replied. The two moved out of the way so Celina could climb on to the bridge.
As soon as Celina was out of the water, she noticed that the whole water scene had caused a lot of commotion. Even her mother had ran down stairs to make sure everything was okay. Mrs. Miller had ran out to the bridge, along with Dave.
Celina casually walked past the two. "Don't ask!" she said.
Alvin met her halfway to the veranda. "What happened!? You're soaking wet!" he asked in a worried tone. Celina had never seen her father so worried, considering the fact that she only saw him and her mother for a handful of months in a year.
"Just went for a mid day swim!" Celina said sarcastically.
"Don't you walk into my house with those wet clothes!" Brittany said, as Celina walked up the veranda steps. "Wait here, I'll get your robe," she said, as she waked inside. Brittany returned quickly with Celina's robe. Celina took her clothes, shoes, and socks off as fast as she could. She slipped on the robe, and rushed into the house and up the stairs.
When Celina got into her room, she noticed that she was still holding the compass in her hand. The compass was glowing dimly now. It looked old, possibly ancient. She walked over to her vanity mirror, and sat down. Celina studied the compass for a few minutes until it stopped glowing. With in the face of the compass was what looked to be a small map. It had the respected directions on it: north, south, east, and west, however, the needle moved at it own will; it kept pointing east. Celina turned it over and looked at the back. There was nothing, but a pretty engraved flower designs on it. She closed the compass, and put it in her jewelry box where she knew it would be safe. She ran her fingers through her stingy wet red hair, and sighed. "Ugg, I need a shower," she said under her breath, looking into the mirror. She rested her head on her the surface of her dresser, and closed her eyes for a moment.
Celina looked over at her bedroom window, when she got the eerie feeling that she was being watched. Her eyes narrowed coldly, when she noticed her cousin Zachary spying on her from out side. He was Evette's older brother. He was thirteen years old, and he was almost the exact image of his father when he was his age. It was a very scary thing. The dorky four eyed chipmunk gunned it when he realized that Celina had noticed him. Celina put her hands on hips, and shook her head. "Zachary you pervert! If I catch you peeping in on me again, I swear to god you will live to regret it!" Celina screamed. She closed the curtains in her room the sat down on her bed. She gave frustrated growl. This day was turning worse as the minutes passed.
"Zachary, stop peeping on Celina! We talked about this! I better not hear a word about it when we get back!" Aunt Jeanette's voice called out from down stairs.
"I wasn't doing anything," chimed Zachary casually. He never admitted that he was deeply infatuated with Celina.
"Sure you weren't!" Celina yelled back.
"Celina, stop yelling!" came Brittany's voice.
Celina shook her head. "Whatever..." she muttered, as she began putting on a fresh pair of clothes. A moment later she heard a soft knock on her door. "Yes," Celina asked, as she looked over at the door.
"Are you decent yet?" came a soft sweet voice from behind the door. Celina recognized it as one of her more favored cousins, Renee. She smiled, walked over to the door, and opened it. Just as the door opened, Celina was bombarded by a young chipmunk with long curly blond pig tales. The two cousins fell backwards onto the floor. "Celia! I missed you!" Renee exclaimed happily, as she hugged her cousin tightly.
"R-r-r-r-r-eni! Celia-can't-br-eath..." choked Celina.
Renee giggled a little bit, then eased off Celina. She was still laying on top of her, but not squeezing her. "Missed ya," she said with a closed eyed smile.
"Missed you too. When'd you get here?" Celina asked. Renee back off of her, and let her sit up.
"I just got here. Evy's pissed," Renee said. She couldn't help but giggle at the whole thing. "She claims you broke her I-pod, but it doesn't look broken. She's just upset because she got wet."
"Typical, the summer would start out like it usually does. With Mom and Dad gone, Eve mad at me because one of technical doodads got broken, and it's all my fault!" Celina said.
Renee sighed and shook her head. "That girl is still claiming that you and Tylor tried to drown her in the lake!"
Celina folded her arms and frowned. "Yeah right, the other way around would more correct!"
"She still hasn't gotten over her fear of water?" Renee asked.
Celina stood up and shook her head. "Nope, and it is really sad too," replied Celina, as she walked over to her dresser mirror. She started combing her hair. Celina had short straight hair, so it didn't take much to style it.
Renee smiled with glee. "I made brownies!" she said. "Their in the kitchen, want to try some?" she asked already knowing that Celina could never resist the power of the all mighty cao-cao bean.
"Is that a trick question?" Celina asked. With that the two made their way down the stairs.
Celina and Renee entered the kitchen. They were greeted by Renee's mother, Eleanor who was making sure they had enough food for the tour. "Celina! So there you are! I was wondering what happened to you." she said, as she gave her a big hug. Eleanor was one the most loving chipmunks Celina had ever known. Maybe that was why her kids turned out so normal.
One of her younger baby's, Lily was sitting on the counter peeking into Renee's batch of brownies. The crafty little five year old was about to sneak a brownie, when Eleanor stopped her. "Nah-uh, no brownies until you've had dinner," she said, as she picked her up from the counter. It was a weird thing to watch for Celina, because Eleanor never yelled at her kids. She only gave them a firm talking to, then cuddled them, and send them on their way. "Alright now, you go play." she said with a loving nudge.
Eleanor turned her attention back over to her daughter and Celina. "So are you two excited about summer this year?" she asked. She never knew what else to talk about with them. They both had gown up so quickly.
Celina shrugged. She walked over to the batch of brownies, picked one up, and started nibbling on it. "Well it's not like anything exciting is going to happen, but it's better then school..." she said.
"Anything's better then school," chimed Renee, as she pulled up a chair next to Celina, and took a brownie.
"Yeah. You're starting junior high this fall, right?" Eleanor asked. "That must be exciting!"
Celina sighed. "I'm already in junior high... remember?"
Eleanor laughed a little. "Oh yeah, you are twelve huh?"
Celina gave a tight smile. "Yep. I'll be thirteen next month. I'm gonna be an eighth grader." A part of her was used to her family member's losing track of her, while another part felt that it was weird to have to keep reminding her family about when her birthday was, what grade she was in, and how old she was. Any normal family would remember at least some of these things.
"Oh wow. My you've grown a lot," Eleanor said with big eyes. It felt like only yesterday when Celina was just a little toddler running around the house. Had time really flown by that fast? Was the little pig tailed girl, who gave people flowers really going to be a teenager in a month? It was amazing how quickly time flew by with this family.
Celina nodded, and gave a half hearted laugh and replied. "You say that every time you visit us, Aunt Elly."
"Hey, Celia, why don't we go up stairs, and help me unpack, hum?" Renee said, trying to break the tension. It was clear that her mother didn't seem to notice it in Celina's voice, and actions. She guessed her mother wasn't as observant as she was with the' emotions of others.
"Oh yeah, you two better go do that. I'll get dinner ready since Brittany hasn't started it yet," Eleanor said.
"Sounds like a good plan, Momma," replied Renee.
The two chipmunks went back up stairs. They stopped short when they noticed that Clary and Lily were both in Celina's room playing around with stuff on the floor. "Clary, Lulu what are you two doing?" Celina said, as she ran into her room. She tried to keep her cool. After all Clary and Lily were only five year olds, and they didn't know better.
"Lulu's making Clary pretty!" replied Lily, as she placed the golden compass around Clary's neck. The little chubby chipmunk smiled proudly at her work, as she gestured to Clary. "See, Clary look like a princess now!" she giggled.
At this point Celina didn't know if she should scream at the little brats, or laugh hysterically at the cute sight of Clary's hair all done up in cute pink and purple ribbons and bows, and clipped back in studded burettes. The gold compass looked heavy around her neck, along with the studded tiara that barely fit her head. She had bright pink lip stick that was also smudged on cheeks and eye lids. She was dressed in a cute pink flapper dress, and a fluffy pink boa. Celina cupped her hands over her mouth and started laughing, along with Renee. The two laughed for a few moments until Celina realized something. The makeup Clary was wearing was not hers, and she never recalled owning a pink feathered boa, or a long string of pearls. "So, where did you two find all of these things?" Celina asked.
Clary laughed. "In the big room down stairs, silly!"
"Yeah! It was in the big chest!" Lily chimed happily.
Celina's eyes widened, and her expression tuned serious. "You two went though all of mom's old costume stuff?" she wailed. In back of her mind she knew she had to hurry up, and get those things off of Clary before their mom saw her and through a fit. Celina remembered the huge fit she threw when she discovered her playing with her old costumes when she was Clary's age. It wasn't a pretty sight. She learned a valuable lesson that day, Brittany Seville deeply treasured her past things, and didn't want them ruined. She was lucky her father was there that time, or she would have got a spanking.
"Umm, Clary sweetie-pie. We need to take these things off right now, and get you cleaned up," Celina said, as she bent down the pick up Clary. However, Clary wiggled out of her grasp, and shook her head. She liked looking like a princess, and didn't want to take it off.
"N-n-no!" she said firmly. This was the clearest word Clary had ever spoken, and the strongest.
"Clary, you know we're not supposed play with mommy's things," Celina said, as she stepped towards her to pick her up again. "Now come on!"
However, Clary was in protest mode. She started jumping up and down, shouting loud and firmly. "NO! NO! NO!"
"Clary!" Celina said firmly. "Stop it!"
"Isn't that your mother's Homecoming Tiara?" Renee asked, as she pointed at the tiara.
"Yes, and it needs to come off, NOW!" Celina said, and tried to grabbed at her little sister. "Before mom sees you!"
"NO! I wonna be a princess!" Clary exclaimed loudly before running out of Celina's room. As Clary ran, she tripped on the long string of pearls that was around her neck, and fell on her back side. The sting of pearls snapped and spatter everywhere. Her mom's home coming crown slipped off her head, and made a 'clinking' sound as it hit the ground. It wasn't noticeable yet, but one of the rhinestone studs had popped out. It didn't take too long for Clary started crying at the top of her lungs. It didn't help much that Lily started crying too. Even though she wasn't the one who fell.
Celina and Renee were about to walk over to Clary and pick her up, when Brittany came out of her room. "What's going on?" she asked. She stepped into the hallway not noticing the arraignment of scattered pearls all over the floor. However, Brittany wasn't soon to notice them after she slipped and fell on her backside, while unthinkingly stepping on them. "Ow, what in the world is this mess!" she said, as she picked up one of the small pink pearls from the floor. It was apparent in her voice that she was very displeased right now. She looked over at Clary, then Lily, then over at the pearls. She fully recognized them from her roaring twenties costume that Ms. Miller made for her in the 9th grade. Brittany's gaze slowly moved over to where her homecoming tiara laid, then back to Clary. By now her brain had fully registered that her youngest daughter, and her niece had got into memory chest. Her temperament went to whole other level of anger, and she exploded, "CLARY! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
At this point Clary and Lily were both crying their heads off, scared. It wasn't too much longer, until Aunt Jeanette and Eleanor came running up the stairs to see what all the commotion was about. Lily ran over to her mother and hid behind her. She didn't like yelling. She had never been yelled ever in her life. Actually she had never witnessed anyone at anyone in all her five years. Lily grabbed on to the him of Eleanor's dress, as she watched Brittany walk over to Clary. She took the little girls face in her hand.
"Look at me!" Brittany said firmly. Clary's big eyes looked at her mother all wide and frightened. "Why did you touch my stuff?!" Clary tried to look over at Lily or Celina, but Brittany held her face firmly in her hand. "No, look at me little lady! You tell me why you made this mess and why you went into my things!?" she said firmly.
Eleanor quickly took Lily down stairs and out side into the back yard, when she noticed that she was scared.
"Brittany, calm down. She's just a little girl!" said Jeanette, as she took a step towards her sister.
Brittany looked back at Jeanette. "Leave me alone Jean. Don't tell me how to raise my kids," she said sharply. She was too angry to think right now. She looked back over at Clary who was shaking badly. The poor thing looked like a deer in headlights. "Answer me, why did you touch my stuff?" She was about snap when Clary tore away from her gaze again, but a voice broke though, Celina's voice.
"Momma stop!" she pleaded. Brittany looked up at her eldest daughter. Then, a quick flashback hit her, where she was standing in the same spot, and Celina was Clary's age, and she had cried out those same words, but it was for herself. Brittany snapped out of it quickly.
"What?" She said a little confused. Then Brittany looked at Clary's terrified face and realized that she had just lost her temper over an old sting of pearls, and some old useless rags of her past. None of which was worth losing a temper over. This was a lesson Brittany was supposed to have learned a long time ago with Celina, but here she was repeating it with Clary. The minute Brittany let go of Clary's face the five year old took off the compass and ran off crying. She ran past her aunt, down the stairs, and outside.
Celina hands tightened into to small fists. She was infuriated. She never liked to see her baby sister sad. She bent down and for some reason she picked up the golden compass. Then looked her mother right in the face. "You didn't have to yell at her like that, mom. She's just a five year old. She doesn't know better, and I don't see why you should be so upset over some old rags that are never gonna fit you again!" Celina said, trying her best to contain her anger.
With that she stormed past her mother and down stairs.
Renee stood there speechless for a minute. She had never heard so much yelling in her life. Her mother never yelled at her over dumb things like this. If her mother caught her playing dress up in her old clothes at age five, she'd be the one taking pictures of it. But, this wasn't her mom, this was aunt Brittany, who was probably more sentimental then her mom. Renee sighed. "Well... I'm gonna go unpack," she said, wanting to clear away from this scene as quickly as possible; leaving Brittany and Jeanette alone in the hallway.
"Dammit!" Brittany said, as she buried her face in her hands. She had been trying really hard not to lose her temper.
"You need to try and have a little more patience with your kids Brit... we don't want the past to repeat its self," Jeanette said, the tone in her voice was serious. With that she went back down stairs.
Celina sighed in relief, before stepping on to the back yard porch. She had never yelled or copped an attitude to her mother ever in her life. Tonight was her first time ever doing that. She was worried that her mother would flip, mutate, and come after her. In all truth Celina was hoping to find Clary and talk to her. She remembered being her age, and how hard it was for her take being yelled at over dumb things. However, she was out of luck. Clary had hid herself well; she was good at doing that.
Calmly she made her way over to bridge by the lake. Many thoughts ran though Celina's head as she walked through her back yard, and on to the bridge. She sat down in her normal spot, where she usually sat to write or clear her mind. It never bothered her to be alone here, day or night. She looked at the compass. It began to glow softly again. Her eyes widened slightly as the compass's began to warm up, and it's arrow stared to move on its own. The arrow kept pointing east and lighting up. "I wonder why it keeps doing that?" she said to herself.
Celina closed the compass, when she heard the sound of soft sniffling from under bridge. She stuffed the compass into her front jean pocket, and peeked over the side of the bridge. On the bridge hiding in a rock that barely touched the water, was Clary. She was crying and hugging her knees tightly. She gasped when she noticed Celina looking at her.
"Hey you, what are you doing hiding under here?" she asked with a smile. She was happy that she found Clary.
"I-i-is mommy still mad?" Clary asked.
"No..." Celina lied. She'd say anything to get the crazy little chipmunk out from that unsafe spot. "Why don't you come on top, hun? It's dangerous under there sweety." She held out her hand to help her out from under the bridge. Clary took her hand and climbed up. Celina gathered her into her arms, then sat back and cuddled her. "You know mommy loves you, right?" she said.
"I wrecked her pearls..." Clary said in a sad voice. "They are broke forever now..."
Celina laughed a little. She nuzzled her nose. "Nah, we'll fix them. It's easy," she said.
Clary bit down on her lower lip. "Really?"she asked.
"Yeah, they'll be as good as new," Celina replied. The two sat there for a few moments, just looking up at the stars.
"Celia?" Clary asked.
"What?" replied Celina.
"Will mommy and daddy be gone long this summer?" Clary asked.
Celina shook her head. "They wont be gone long, at least not any longer then all the other summers they left."
"Do do.. they like, touring more th-then being with us?" Clary asked.
Celina was quiet. She didn't know how to answer that question. She wasn't sure her self if their parents like traveling more then they liked being around them. Clary looked up at her older sister, waiting for her answer. Celina gave a half hearted smile. "Well, I think our parents do these tour things, not because they like it, but because they have to do it... that's how they get their money to support us," Celina replied. She had to say something to gave the little chipmunk so kind of assurance, that their parents loved them. She ruffled Clary's hair. "Well, we better get you cleaned up before dinner time, hum? Then will fix those pearls," Celina said. Clary nodded firmly. Then Celina stood up and carried her into the house...