Hey! New chapter! I hope it will make some of you happy despite what happened to the world these past few days. Don't forget to write a review, I love your words.
Enjoy my little cupcakes!
Rollo had a terrible headache. He shouldn't have been drinking so much beers after he came home last night. He remembered he went to a grocery store on his way home. He seeked in his memories. What did he buy again? He checked the bill and was immediately stroke by a lightning of realization. The amount of money that was written on it was too damn high.
- What the hell, Rollo grumbled his eyes half closed.
He threw the bill and looked around him. He was lying on the couch with a plaid around his legs and his hair were tied in a man bun. He didn't shower and his mouth stunk. The very first thing that came to his eyes was a bottle of vodka, half full. How much of it did he drink, he couldn't remember. He sat up on the couch. Suddenly headache stroke again. Rollo grunted, his hands on his head. He looked farther.
- What the hell, he exclaimed.
There were empty bottles of beer everywhere. On the table, on the book-case, on the couch -so that was what hurt his back-, on the desk, the computer, the floor, the books, the tv and even some on the electric heater. It was a fine mess. Rollo even was surprised Ragnar or Lagertha didn't wake him up to clean the mess he made. Especially Aslaug, who couldn't stand a messy place.
He stood up and stretched his body out. He folded the plaid up and sniffed at himself. He immediately made a backward movement. He stunk. His T-shirt was soused with alcohol and he sweated abundantly. He decided to take a shower to get rid of his disgusting smell. He went to the bathroom, hoping no one was in there, and especially Lagertha. She could kill him for that, he was sure of it. He carefully looked inside and sighed in relief. No one. He closed the door behind him and began to wash his hair. He had a special technique for them to stay soft and silky. He shampooed his hair, then, applied a mask on it. His brother usually said this attitude was girly, but Rollo didn't care, he loved his hair and he intended to keep them good looking. Besides, he had a beard, which appeared manly to him. After he cleaned his hair he applied soap on his body and rubbed hardly to get rid of filth and bad smell. He felt like cleaning his soul. It was like he was getting rid of bad memories. When he was clean, he tied his hair in his usual man-bun and brushed his teeths. They were white and he suspected that they were the main reason Siggy dated him. He dressed himself with a cleaned T-shirt, a track suit and went out of the bathroom. His belly rumbled. Apparently, he was starving. He headed to the kitchen to take his breakfast.
When he saw what hour it was, he almost fell down. 2 O'clock. PM! He groaned. He wasn't productive at all. He bent to the fridge and opened it. It was as empty as his stomach. There was barely three beers and he already had drunk enough for what seemed his entire life. He looked at the coffee machine. Thank god it contained coffee. He poured some into his mug, added sugar and drank it. After he was fully awoken, he grabbed a yoghurt and, without looking at the lapsing date, he began to eat it. He immediately spat it out. It tasted like feets! He almost vomitted. He threw it in the trash can with anger. It was at this moment he heard keys in the lock and people coming inside. He heard Lagertha, Aslaug and Ragnar talking about what seemed to be bog paper. They entered the kitchen and as soon as she saw Rollo, Lagertha said:
- Well, well well. Look who woke up.
- Hi Lagertha.
- I hope you also cleaned your mess in the living room, Aslaug said crossing her arms.
- Hi Aslaug, Rollo answered.
Then, he noticed they all had grocery bags filled with food and other products.
- I assume you noticed we needed to go grocery shopping, Lagertha said.
- Yeah. The fridge was empty. Do you need help?
- Yes. Put that away in the fridge.
Rollo complied and in less than 10 minutes, everything in the kitchen was at its place.
- Why do you have one of yesterday's pub's glass, Ragnar asked intrigued.
Rollo looked on the living room's table. Indeed, the glass was there. Rollo looked in his memories again and the picture of the girl with the phone stroke his mind like an All Black with another Rugby player. He hit his head with his hand.
- I forgot to give it back, he moaned in despair.
- How, Ragnar asked.
- Well, there was this girl on her phone, and I left without thinking about the glass.
- A girl, Ragnar asked puzzled.
- Yeah. A french girl. Fierce and kind of rude.
Ragnar gave him the "surpised look" and went away to his room, saying he needed to prepare himself for the start of the school year. Aslaug brutally came inside the living room and yelled at Rollo:
- Are you kidding me? You didn't even cleaned a little?
- I just woke up Aslaug.
- Well then, begin your day by some housework!
Rollo rolled his eyes and Aslaug went to her room. He went to take a trash bag and stared at all that he had to do. It was gonna be a long afternoon. Lagertha came by his side.
- Do you need help?
- Any help is welcomed at this state, he said.
- Let's get started then.
They began to put the bottles which still contained alcohol away in closets, fridge and other places. Then, they undertook to throw every empty bottle in the room.
- Who was that girl? Do you know her name, Lagertha asked looking at a bottle.
- No. I just know that she is beautiful and fierce. And french.
- Weren't you supposed to date Siggy?
- I am. It's just... now that she is Norway, we just son't see each other very often.
- Why didn't you join her, then?
- I didn't want to stay at home doing nothing while she was earning her salary. I just don't feel like it.
- Go on, Lagertha said intrigued.
- Well, I don't want to be useless. I don't want her to provide for to my needs. I want to earn some money too. I want my share. I want to have a purpose in life and I want to not be the family disappointment.
- Rollo, you are not your family disappointment.
- Really? Have you talked to my mother lately?
Lagertha looked down. She knew what his mother thought. Actually, as she was always invited to eat with Rollo's family, she often heard their discussions. She knew Rollo and Ragnar's mother often said Rollo needed to find a job, to study and how Ragnar was better, because he had better grades and because he did good studies. She said that she was proud her youngest son succeed in life and Rollo always stayed in the shadows.
- You could have figure your life out in Norway with Siggy.
- I wanted to follow my brother.
- Why? Aren't you jealous of him?
- I'm jealous, yes, but that doesn't mean I don't love him. I need to protect him from himself and help him improve as a person.
- You don't talk about that very often, she noted.
- I don't like to expose myself on this field.
- Not even to Siggy?
- Not even to Siggy. Even if I love her.
- I'm glad you can talk to me about that.
- Despite the fact, that, you know...
- You used to like me as a kid? Come on Rollo, it has been ages, she laughed.
- I still feel shameful when it comes to that, he said blushing a little.
- You don't have to.
- I did betray him in a way.
- Don't worry. After all, he broke up with me right?
- Yeah. I've been wondering: why did you accept to live with him here? And why did you follow him to Ireland?
- So this is my turn huh?
- Yeah, kind of.
- Well, I wanted to come with Ragnar, yes, because we are friends, but I also wanted to stay with Aslaug, because we became really close friends despite what Ragnar did to us. And of course, I wanted to come and watch over you.
- What are you? My sister, Rollo asked smiling.
- Think of me as your annoying little sister, she added grinning.
They laughed and continued their cleaning of the room. The time they talked to each other, they already removed every single bottles from the living room. They wiped every single place to get rid of alcohol tracks and smell and then, as a sign of good faith to Aslaug, Rollo vacuumed the room. When it was done, Rollo sat back on the couch while Lagertha went to her room, patting Rollo's shoulder as she walked toward her door. He took something from his secret closet and began to do his very secret hobby.
It was monday morning. Helga woke up when she heard her alarm clock. Floki was already gone. He began his day very early every day. She grabbed her jeans, pull a T-shirt and went to the kitchen to take her breakfast. While she was enjoying her tea, she remembered the sunday she spent with Floki. They woke up late -obviously- and they spent the day doing activties separately. Floki was building a robot while Helga painted on a huge canva. Now that she thought of it, they never really had been that apart. She felt like something broke when Floki was at the party. She tried to repress these thoughts. She didn't want to to analize them. It was too painful. She finished her tea and grabbed her bag. She didn't need to take the big one -it was rectangular shaped and contained her paint, her canvas, her sketchbooks and basically all she needed to art- after all, she only had art history today. She checked if she had her keys, her tram card, her notebook and her pencil case and when she was done, she finally went out. Her long blonde hair streaming in the fresh wind of Dublin. And she immediately felt this day was gonna be a good day.
She arrived in the classroom ten minutes early. There was barely two persons in here. She spotted an empty sit next to a young dark-haired girl and took this opportunity to make new friends. She sat by her side and after a moment of hesitation she said:
- Hi! My name is Helga, nice to meet you.
The girl turned her head, surprised. But her expression was soon replaced with a cheerful smile.
- Likewise. I'm Judith.
- What do you want to do after your graduation?
- I'd love to be a designer. Like, my dream is to see some of my patterns on people's clothes. And to create cute designs. I really love it!
- I get it. That sounds great.
- What about you? What do you want to do?
- Well, I love painting. I really want to be a famous artist. But I like design too.
- Woaw. I'd love to see what you do.
- It's on canvas, so I can't really bring them with me all the time, but I do have a little sketchbook with watercolours and stuff.
- Really? Do you have it with you right now?
- Yeah. Do you want to look?
- Yes.
Helga took her sketchbook out of her bag and handed it to Judith. The colours were bright, shining and powerful. The lines were strong and had that dynamic Judith apreciated. There was mostly landscape paintings, skys, people on the tramway and little plants. Plants in pots, on the ledge of windows, on balcony and even in the concrete of the city. It was like she entered a whole new universe. A magical one where everything that seemed normal and average was a door to another dimension and thousands of possibilities. It litterally bightened Judith's day. She gave Helga's sketchbook to her and said with admiration:
- This is so good. You have such talent! I feel like I just went to a magical kingdom. Your art is so bright.
- Thank you, Helga answered with a radiant smile. What about you? Do you have a sketchbook too?
- Yes. Here, she said handing hers shyly.
Helga opened it. There was mostly line arts, colored with color pencil and felt-tip pen. There were animals, everyday life objects, like cup of coffee from starbucks, shoes, nutella jars, peanut butter jars, tea and coffee pots. All of it was colored with soft and sweet colours. It was so sweet, Helga felt immediately comfortable. Just as if she was back in her bed with hunderd of fluffy pillows and a full bag of marshmallows with hot chocolate. She saw some deers heads and couldn't help but to notice how well drawn their antlers were. Her art was so pure and sweet, she felt like she found in Judith a really good friend.
- This is amazing! Your art is so soft! I love it!
- Really? Thank you, Judith replied shyly but happily.
- You know what? We should really hang out some time. You know, to draw, talk about art.
- Yeah, I'd love to. But not where I live. I already have two roomates and there isn't enough place for us to draw freely.
- Okay, then I'll invite you to my place. I only live with my boyfriend, and we have a large living room. So it's okay for you to come.
- I'm really glad you came to sit by my side Helga, Judith said.
- I'm glad too, Helga replied.
The teacher entered the room and class began. All the students took their notebook out of their bag, ready to win the year.
The classroom was crowded. Aslaug arrived late and couldn't find an empty seat in the front of the class. She was uspet. She always sat in front so that she could hear the teacher better. Resigned to her fate, she sat on the only empty chair, at the bottom of the class, next to a black-haired guy. She took her notebook out of her bag and sought for a pen. She groped for five minutes, but couldn't find any. She sighed in despair. That year started really bad. The guy next to her saw her expressions and said with a strong english accent:
- Take one of mine.
Aslaug took it with relief and thanked the guy with a large smile.
- Thank you …
- Athelstan.
- Thank you Athelstan. You saved the day.
He smiled, happy he helped someone.
- What is your name?
- Aslaug.
- This is not very common.
- I'm from Sweden, that must be why. I could say the same to you.
- Yeah, my parents wanted my name to be original, he said embarrassed.
- Can I ask you something?
- Yes, go on.
- Why did you chose to study litterature in Ireland when you could have done it in England, I don't know, in Exeter maybe.
- I just wanted to learn another way of putting letters with each other. I think it's interesting to learn a new way of speaking and I thought I could find it in Ireland.
- You seems really keen on learning.
- I am. But the same apply to you. Why did you choose Ireland instead of England?
- I wanted to follow my boyfriend here. Even if our relationship is not always fine, I still wanted to be with him.
- What a lucky man, Athelstan smiled.
- Thanks, she smiled back. What about you? Do you have anybody in your life.
- No. I didn't find anyone, he said lowering his head.
- Don't worry, it will come soon enough.
They shut for the rest of the class, taking notes, listening to the teacher, exchanging their notes and working hard. Athelstan put some glasses on his nose shortly after class began. Now that she thought of it, Aslaug had already seen his face somewhere. She looked in her memories and sought deeper.
When class was over, she finally remembered. He was that guy that helped the girl with the abusive boyfriend.
- Hey, she said to him, weren't you the one that stopped this girl's boyfriend from hurting her at the party?
- Indeed I was. Why?
- Well, I just think that that was admirable from you, and very brave. You are a nice guy Athelstan.
- Thank you, he answered shyly.
- I really like to be your class neighbour. You have really good notes and a nice way of thinking.
- Thank you. I like being next to you too. You are very bright.
- We should be permanent class neighbour then, she laughed.
- Yeah. Let's work together more often.
- It will be my pleasure. Good by Athelstan, have a nice day and see you tomorrow.
She waved her hand to say good-bye and left the classroom. Aslaug was happy, she found a study partner and felt this year was gonna be good. The sky was blue, there was no sign of rain and she knew she had all the afternoon for herself. Yes, this instant, Aslaug was happy.