Seated on the steps of the house they purchased over almost half a year ago, Esper frowned up at the beaming sun with mild irritation.
It was hot here, hotter than it was in Mississippi in her opinion - where humidity ruled - and it was sweltering. The sun shined nearly all the time and there were no clouds to temper the burning rays.
Not to mention she left all of her sports classes in the south.
It was terrible.
Oh and on top of all of that, all the children here hated her!
But that could be contributed to a particular incident during her first two weeks of living here in which she very well terrified half of the block. Which to be honest she was grateful for considering that fiasco of an informal meet and greet - aka said incident - had the fortunate outcome where the little brats no longer tried to touch her.
She only wished they hadn't in the first place because they nearly made her have a damn seizure.
Now usually visions didn't come to her if just one person touched her, maybe a flash or two because her ability was still weak. But having a bunch of people making skin to skin contact with her while she was wearing a sleeveless dress?
Ha fucking ha.
Well, let's just say the neighborhood moms decided that their kids shouldn't play with the crazy, screaming new girl no matter how charming her mother was.
And speaking of said woman, there she was, back from her jog in this sweltering heat. Esper wasn't sure how her mother did it but she did, the woman managed to retain her consciousness while exercising in this horrible temperature.
Patricia Brandon was a beautiful woman, with her long dark hair, green eyes, and heart-shaped face, it was no wonder that she was always in the limelight of every social event.
At twenty-three years old, Patricia had Esper at the tender age of fifteen with a blond exchange student from Brazil. Her mother could have gotten an abortion, her grandmother had been in full support of whatever her daughter would have chosen but she had chosen her. No one would have begrudged Patricia anything due to how young she had been but nevertheless, Esper had been born and her mother was home schooled just so she could be close to her.
That being said despite how flighty her mother was, the young blonde girl knew the woman loved her with all her heart. Why else would she deign to bring her child with her on most of her trips? She had only left Esper with her mother because she wanted Esper to know a stable home and they talked to each other every day they were apart.
Her mother was young and still in her prime, Esper didn't at all begrudge her for wanting to still have a life after bringing another one into the world. She, in fact, encouraged it. Her mother tried her best with her and that was all that mattered.
"Hi!" She grinned as her mother bent down to press a kiss to her forehead. "How was the jog?"
"Ooh it was trés long!" She moaned as she opened the door and stepped into the house. "And with everyone trying to talk to me on the way it took forever to get back. Je suis fatigueé!"
Laughing at the garbled french coming from her mother as she lay face down on the couch, Esper over again marveled after how Cajun her mother still sounded.
As far as she knew her grandfather had come from New Orleans and had, for a time, moved the entire family down there. So ergo, her mother, her grandmother, and by proxy her, had a Cajun accent. Or rather, her mother had a Cajun accent, her grandmother slipped in between that and a sweet Mississipi one, and Esper spoke with a bastardized version of the two.
Luckily for her it didn't sound bad.
"Well, mon cherie," Her mother asked as she rolled off of the couch. "I'm guessing that you'd be in the mood for some Louisiana cuisine? It's bout time I taught you how to make some gumbo oui?"
"D'accord!" Esper beamed because hot damn she loved cooking. "But you should shower first, sweat doesn't dry comfortably."
"Smart mouth." Her mother mock scowled and she grinned.
"I learned from the best."
"Your grandmother?"
"The one and only."
"Hm, I knew she'd be a bad influence on you." Her mother sighed dramatically before she moved up the stairs. "Well I'm going to go clean up, be ready to cook in an hour and some change Esper."
Nodding once, Esper slide off of the couch.
"I'm gonna go cactus hunting with Bella from down the block in the meantime!" She called as she moved towards the door, halting just as she pulled it open at the sound of her mother's voice.
"Bella?" Her mother questioned. "Bella Swan? Renée's daughter? Is that who you've been hanging out with so much?"
Nodding even though her mother couldn't see it, Esper smothered a snicker. She would never stop finding it funny that Bella shared a name with the protagonist from the Twilight Series who had zero self-preservation instincts. Not to mention her parents - oh the irony! - were named Charlie and Renée. The girl even managed to look like a young Kristen Stewart.
It was wild!
"The one and only!" She confirmed, actually excited to go hang out with a child who was the same age as her. "I'll bring you back a cactus!"
"Make sure it's a cute one!" Patricia hollered and Esper rolled her eyes.
"All cacti are cute!"
Locking the door behind her, she slipped her keychain back around her neck and made her way down the sidewalk to the house of her only friend.
Bella Swan - ha ha! - was an interesting and surprisingly fun girl despite how very drab she often looked. She wasn't so much as quiet but responded when spoken to and she possessed enough dry wit and sarcasm - as much as a nine-year-old could have - for the two of them to get on like a house in flames.
Not to mention Bella was extremely mature and was so adorably confused as to why a good majority of the kids on the street were terrified of her. It seemed how threatening Esper could be sailed right over her pretty little head. Quite like Bella Swan from Twilight, her Bella didn't know how to gauge danger correctly.
Which was surprising because the two of them had actually met when Esper had been off scaring a group of ten-year-olds because for some reason, people felt very inclined to touch her. If she didn't know any better she'd say that she had some kind of mental compulsion thing going on.
Seriously she wasn't kidding.
This particular problem started a year after coming into her abilities when at one of her grandmother's parties, every single person there had touched her at least her five times each. The flashes of memories left her with a headache worse than high hell.
And when she moved that hadn't changed at all because while at school she had somehow gotten cornered. She had simply sat down and not two minutes later she had to scoot away from a group of boys who had taken residence right next to her. Esper had been forced to practically hiss at them when they tried to put their sticky palms on her shoulder. And when they didn't desist, it went from hissing to scowling to shouting at them in an accent so thick, she might as well have not been speaking English.
Oh and let her just say, it had been surprisingly humid that day and with her added irritation, her hair had puffed up with the fury of a thousand wronged gods. Needless to say those particular boys had left her along ever since.
After her whole tirade was done, she met the wide eyes of one Bella Swan and she scowled even harsher.
"What?" She had called out on a growl. "You wanna touch me too?!"
And with a shake of her head, Esper decided the girl was going to be her friend.
"No," Bella had said as she visibly leaned away from Esper. "you just - you seem like you don't like being touched."
And from that day she had stuck oh so very close to the little girl who managed to be the only one to understand the concept of personal space.
Which was perfect for her because after being in Phoenix for three months and having made zero friends, her mother was starting to worry.
And like she said before Bella knew how to keep her hands to herself so that fact deserved to be mentioned twice.
Knocking on the door, Esper gave a smile as her new bestie pulled it open.
"Heya," She greeted with a small wave. "You ready?"
Watching her nod and shout goodbye to her mom - who Esper gave a heartfelt 'Hi Ms. Swan, bye Ms. Swan!' to - Bella pulled the door closed and nearly tripped down the steps to her house.
Grabbing the girl's elbow Esper grinned.
"Still a trainwreck on two feet even after being in the presence of my graceful self for four months, aren't we Swan?"
Bella shot her a narrow glare from the corners of her eyes as she gave a huff.
"Graceful nothing." She said as she adjusted her hold on her tan planting pot. "I saw you trip over your shoelaces just yesterday."
"Ah but I still looked graceful didn't I?" She said smugly. "You know what they say about me don't you? Esper's beauty, she's grace, she knock all your teeth out if you touch her one more time-"
"I'm sure that's not how that goes." Bella interrupted dryly.
"But that doesn't make it any less true."
Bella gave a grunt of begrudging agreement.
"It's still confusing that so many kids are scared of you." The dark haired girl muttered as her brow furrowed. "You literally almost cried two days ago because a stray cat licked your hand."
Gasping Esper pressed her palm to her chest and plastered a hurt look on her face.
"That cat blessed me with its acknowledgment Bella," She whispered in her best scandalized manner. "how dare you blaspheme that."
"Yeah okay." Bella hummed. "Are you going to your gynmastics lessons now?"
Esper nodded.
"I have them everyday all week." She said with a pout. "It's annoying."
"Sucks to suck." The brunette said drolly with an eye rol and Esper smirked.
It had taken some time but Esper had thoroughly sassed Bella up to the point where the girl snarked without provocation at anything she found to be foolish.
She was almost proud of her when her friend spun her dark eyes in a circle of disbelief.
Now if only she could get the girl to recognize danger when it was staring her in the face.
Question one: What do you think of kid!Bella? Is she in character?
Question two: What do you think of their relationship?
Question three: What do you think of Esper's mother?
Edit: 4/13/18
