Thank for the comments and for still with me! Again I want to apologize for the late update.
I try to write my version of Ellie to be parallel to TLOU version. Only she sort of already knows things but less first hand experienced or see them with her own eyes so it still makes her feels awkward when she got to. Also due to living in self-parenting and less kind orphanage environment makes she always on guard. On the contrary, Sarah, raised by a loving single parent, had a relatively better life than Ellie that makes her more caring and selfless but that also causing her too vulnerable.
This chapter explores some detail on their relationships. Comments are welcome :)
Ellie wakes up to strange warm feels on her chest. She tries to stress up her body, but it feels heavy. She gradually opens up her eyes and became aware of why.
Yup, Sarah still cuddles with her!
'Man! That's escalated quickly !' She says to herself, remembering what happened last night and right now!
Is not like nobody ever snuggling her like that and sleep through it before - Riley did it countless of time, but that took years of friendship for her to go for it, else she either gonna get a kick or worst, get stabbed.
But with this blonde girl is a different story, heck they only know each other less than twenty-four hours!
Through the window, the sun is seen rising and it's time to wake up. As a home stay guest, Ellie better shows off her respects to her hosts by not being a lazy bum.
But first, she has to solve the problem on top of her - literally. She thought of doing it conventionally, it's too early to have surprise with this blonde girl.
"Hey...Sarah…wake up…" Ellie whispered softly, gently wiggling Joel's little girl's body. Sarah opens up her eyes with a cute hum...
"Rise and Shine !" Ellie promptly says when the pair of blue eyes from the blond girl meet up hers.
"Oh my god !" Sarah yells up and gasped, quickly pushes her head away from Ellie. She sits up and stumbled.
"How long I've been sleeping like this ?" She asked.
"Uhmm..Long enough ?…" Ellie wants to say 'whole night !' But looking at Sarah right now, it's certainly not a good idea.
"Oh, Ellie…I'm so sorry...It's a bad habit of me.."
"I don't mind Sarah.."
"Oh…We should not have slept together like this.."
"Sarah..I.." Ellie tries to stop her, but the blond girl keeps on babbling and blaming herself.
"You probably don't sleep well last night because of me.."
"Sarah.." says Ellie again, with slightly stern voice except she's not angry, but it's quieting Sarah, who look straight to her with total silence.
"I had the best sleep last night in my entire life…" says Ellie and bestow her a smile.
"You really mean that ?" Sarah asked. Ellie gives a quick nod.
"Yes, I am… Now, why don't we get off the bed and change our clothes and assist Maria on breakfast…" suggest Ellie. She still thinks tagging along with Sarah instead going alone.
"I think we should get some shower first…" says Sarah sheepishly grins.
"Ah yes, sure…" Ellie answers in a bit of dubious. 'Wow morning shower huh', that's really luxury thing for her. In the orphanage or even anywhere else she traveled, she just had to skip it. In fact, she can only take one bathing chance a day cause either she really tight on time or it strictly rationed.
Ellie insists Sarah go for it first, well, it's her (soon to be) aunt's house so she got the priority. Besides, that also means she can spend some time by herself on the bed.
"Oh, okay.." says Sarah hops off the bed and walks straight into the bathroom, mindlessly obliged to her request much to Ellie surprised.
'Hmm... that's pretty easy'.
Ellie leans back onto the bed granting herself a comfort of laying on a such a comfy bed, she ever sleeps and this time without somebody's head on top of her.
But fifteen minutes later, she starts to think allowing the girl went first is a mistake. Ellie lost count on how many times, she goes back and forth from lying on the bed to standing in front the bathroom door, thinking Sarah gonna come out. Of course, she never did.
"How long can you spend in there ?" She murmured, with her ears against the bathroom door, again, listening to Sarah's cheerful humming. Ellie barely catches the song until she herself start to sing it along.
'It's the Halican Drops! Damn…she even sings the full song !'. For that long inside a bathroom, in the orphanage, she probably got her ass whip!
"Sarah…" Ellie gave a soft knocked on the bathroom door.
"Just a sec !" Joel's daughter shouted from inside.
Well, her 'sec' ended another more or less five minutes. The blonde girl - wrapped only in her towel - finally opened the bathroom door.
"Sorry, " she grinned out apologetically to Ellie, who still patiently waiting for her to get off the bathroom.
"It's okay," says Ellie try not heave a sigh, instead, forcing her smile to the girl. 'Lucky you this is not orphanage'
The shower is so good! It was the first for Ellie, having the water flows satisfyingly all over her body parts and it's not just a lukewarm, it's real warm. Now she knows and feels the reason why Sarah took it forever.
After that refreshing shower, Ellie got off, of course, she did it less time than Sarah.
She doesn't bring many clothes with her, actually don't have that many of them too. So she thought of wearing back the red shirt and blue jeans she wore yesterday but both are missing! Ellie eyeing around while trying to remember if she misplaces it last night. 'No way, I remember I folded them and put it beside my backpack!'.
She points her face to Sarah. The blonde girl is checking herself in front the mirror, twirling her body and tugging her hair while still humming a song.
"Sarah, you see my clothes?"
"What clothes ?" Sarah a bit baffled.
"My shirt..The red one I wore yesterday, the one with sunset theme…It was folded here…and my jeans" Ellie start to feel anxious. She always does when something of hers is suddenly missing even the suspect is an innocent girl as Sarah! Losing her things were an often occurrence in the orphanage, thus, triggered her mistrust issue.
"I stuffed them into the laundry basket with mine," says Sarah pointing the baskets just near the exit door.
"Oh Okay thanks.." she replied. 'Oh god, why am I such a paranoia'
On the other hand, laundry day is a rare occasion where she belongs, so Ellie tends not to waste wearing fresh clothes every day. In fact, she used to wear the same shirt more for a couple of days straight!
She's lucky, Sarah was oblivious to her anxiety that she had no intention to show.
"Hey, look at what I found !" Sarah sounds as Ellie is looking at herself in the mirror, already dress up. She's wearing the red flannel shirt. The very shirt she wore in the dream when she and Joel returned to Jackson. What's ironic to her the shirt is chosen by Sarah.
She turned to see and flabbergasted - Sarah is holding a book, a diary book and it look exactly like the one she found in the dream!
"It's a diary, I think it's Maria's," says Sarah. Her eyes look full of curiosity at the book. Ellie snaps.
"Oh my god! It can't be real !…Oh, this is so bizarre…" Ellie suddenly out mouth, to the fact the book exists and hold by someone who she thought to suppose to be dead, in her dream that's now turning reality, hits her nerves and making her losing her guard.
Sarah raised her eyebrow, she catches what Ellie said and gave her a questioning stare.
"What do you mean it's real ?" Asked Sarah. Ellie guzzled her throat 'Damn it, she got me, now how do I get out of this!'
"Um... Err… I heard about people love keeping a diary before blogging become a thing, now I see it for real…" she answers her with full confident that she'll be saved, but she's not yet.
"Okay…What's so bizarre about it ?" Sarah didn't seem to satisfy to her first answer, but she gushed out the second question.
"Ya knows, I just don't get the idea, writing something about yourself, your memories and only you can read about it…while we today eager to share it with the online world" She lied, she actually loves the idea. Having a diary actually is a cool idea expressing all the thought out of your chest without worrying it gonna die or leave you like everybody she knows did so far. Ellie sacrificed the thought to protect the dream of her from Sarah awareness.
"Hmm…I don't get it too…" Sarah naively fast flipping the book "Wait the minute, what do you mean 'only you can read it' ?"
"It means only for the writer's eyes"
"But...I've already read some of it….." Sarah guiltily confessed. She quickly put down the diary and put up both her hand like surrendering.
Initially, Ellie thought of calming her down and tells her it's not really a big deal. For teenagers like herself and Sarah, sometimes there'll be always a moment of lacking the sense of propriety and ample of curiosity. But in this case, the twelve years old Sarah is just entering the teenager developmental while Ellie is about to exit it into the next level, so Ellie sort of more 'insightful'.
Speaking of being insightful, she suddenly thought of poking some fun of Sarah. Not to hurt her feelings, but more onto straying the blonde girl thought away from her almost revealed the secret.
Ellie pretends to look up at her disbelievingly, with her brow quirked.
"Oh Sarah, what you have done…I thought you are a better person" says Ellie sounding judgy with a deliberate shook off her head. Ellie doesn't mean any of that! Sarah is a better person and Ellie is just tantalizing!
"I…I always want to be a better person Ellie…I seriously don't know it's..it's a private thing !" Says Sarah tremulously.
"Hmm.." Ellie just crossed her hands.
"I swear, I just glance at one page !…Nothing more…Please don't tell Maria" Sarah suddenly softly grab with her both hands on Ellie's. Ellie gasped in a surprise of the blonde girl reaction, however, what more surprise to her is something else - her lack of reflection to it. For somebody who she just meets, why she never wants to push her away and makes a 'back off' gesture? She did that before with Riley in their first meet, in fact, she did her 'no touching policy' with anybody she just knew, but why not on this girl!? Instead, she just let the girl hold her hands while she persuading her.
Her intention to taunt Sarah now dramatically reversal. She's now felt guilty herself. It's really excruciating to see Sarah's culpable face when minutes ago she was cheerfully humming and singing so Ellie determined to bring that back.
"Well…Sometimes it's not that bad to break some rule, Sarah, don't worry about it" says Ellie. ' Joel gonna be piss if he know I'm the bad influence of his girl'
"Really, promised you won't tell Maria ?" she asked. Ellie shakes her head.
"No, of course, I won't"
Sarah seem relieved, she's smiling but the smile is empty and she still looks shaken. Ellie just can let her like that!
"[Scoffed] Okay, to make you feel better, let's look into one page together. Both you and me, so if thing goes south, both us can't say we never peek". Honestly, she as well desperately likes to know what is written in the diary.
Sarah's face lights up again upon listening to Ellie's words.
"Uhmm…Okay…" says Sarah nodded. Ellie picks up the diary and randomly opened into one page and both girls examine it.
For the next seconds, the only voice heard is Sarah, babbling about the page they are looking at. Her voice becomes an afterthought in the back of Ellie's mind as the flashes from her dream pierced in front.
Is this really all they had to worry about? Boys ….
"Wow! Can you believe this, she wrote about which boys she wants to go out with…seriously, boysss…wait till Uncle Tommy read this"
Movies….
"Titanic? We weren't born yet when the movie was out …but I know the ship was real and both hero and heroine are fictional !"
Deciding which shirt goes with which skirt?
"[Chuckled] How hard is it to match a shirt and a skirt !?"
And just about when Ellie thought it couldn't be any more than just a coincident
It's bizarre….
"Know what…You are right Ellie, it is bizarre…" conclude Sarah, finally closing the diary. While Ellie just stood astounded.
This dream of her, what is it significance…What does it trying to tell her !?
"[Scoffed] Sarah…" Ellie croaks her voice. The blonde girl looks upon her with eyebrows raised. Ellie paused, she just stares upon Joel's daughter face as the girl is waiting for her to continue her words. Ellie just wonders if she told Sarah about the dream, is it gonna be any help? It'll come down to either Sarah is going to trust her or thought her a freak who try to say she's Joel new 'baby girl'.
"Ehmm…We should keep this under our wraps…" Ellie finally says. Nope, she still can't reveal it. Sarah nodded and whispery announce 'okay'
"Especially the 'boys' part…" continues Ellie, followed by tracing of a smile on Sarah.
"[Chuckled] Oh.. that's for sure…" answers Sarah.
"I think we should go downstairs now…" Ellie heaves a sigh and then smile. Her awkwardness re-emerge for the fact she gonna meet Joel again!
Sarah nodded with a smile and leads their way to the door, followed by Ellie.