It has been a REALLY long time since I wrote a chapter I really liked and I liked this one. Also little bit of manners to impart on you. If you're someone who looks at something in a store and then just tosses it aside on the ground with the thought "Oh the workers will clean it up!" PLEASE STOP. Yes, it's part of what we do, but if many people do that, we get a big mess, and if they keep doing that when we're trying to clean up, it gets bigger and just... no. We're trying to keep stores clean but we can't do that if customers keep messing it up. We can only do so much. Help a sista or brotha out...
Also, please do not bring 40 items into a 20 items or less lane! And NEVER EVER EVER go into a line that says "Lane Closed" and or has the light off.
As you can tell I had a very trying day. Onto story goodness.
January
She continued to watch the scene play out, flickering as if it was threatening to fizzle away. Wendy stood before ceremony, in front of North, smiling joyously as the fanfare rang. Several of the mini fairies draped a flowing necklace around her and two of the Yetis placed a long cloak across her shoulders. Morgan clutched her daughter tightly and stroked her hair. A tear froze in place on Jack's cheek and he kissed her face. The two of them watched their daughter approach the center of the stage and wait patiently for North's declaration. This was the day she had been longing for since she was incredibly young, and now she was beginning to explode with every positive emotion she could ever produce. She sighed happily and then met North's own smile with the exposure of her teeth to display her happiness. The book opened and he began to speak, reciting words that he had several times before, for his own parents. He asked if she were willing to protect the Philosophy of Childhood and she didn't waver in her answer. The fanfare sounded again with her answer and then he uttered those words she had wanted so long to hear.
Wendy yelped when her mother swung her out of her bed and picked her up. The images of bedroom seeped into the pictures that still remained in her dream and then she became aware that she was still human. Nothing had happened and she was still just as mortal as everyone else on earth, and there was no ceremony to welcome her as one of the Guardians. While Morgan laughed and sang with celebration, Wendy moaned and let her chin tilt into her shoulder. Quickly, she released her arms and Wendy stumbled to find her balances again. She yawned and looked at her mother sadly.
"Wenders?" she whispered worriedly. Instinctively, she placed a hand against her forehead. "Are you okay?"
"Mom, I'm not sick," she told her. "I've never been sick. It's too cold for germs to live up here."
"You don't look okay..."
"Just tired. And a little terrified. I was not expecting you to rip me out of bed." What Wendy had told her was true. Although there were many occasions when Morgan or Jack had come into her room to wake her up, never once did they so enthusiastically pick her up and spin her around. Her excitement was infectious, and Wendy could definitely feel a bit of a buzz from her energy, but the emptiness her dream had given her just blocked all general feelings of happiness from blossoming. She sighed and forced a grin. Morgan eyed her suspiciously, but then decided she was satisfied with the reaction. Giggling, she pulled her daughter through the hallway and into the kitchen. Immediately, Morgan flew from where she stood over to the oven where Jack was standing over the griddle.
"No, no, no!" she protested, lightly slapping his arm while she pushed him away. "How many times do I have to tell you you will freeze anything that is cooking on the stove?"
"I just want to help, she's my daughter too..." he smirked with laughter rolling in his electric blue eyes.
"Set the table, Frostbiter," Morgan insulted, passing over plates with silverware on them. Wendy yawned again and then was smothered in a hug from Jack. She inhaled the relaxing sharpness of bitter cold and then buried her face into his sweatshirt.
"Good morning, Snowdrop," he said.
"I want to go back to bed..." she grumbled, trying to tear away from them and head back down the hall to her door. Jack held a firm grip on her however. He glowed as he looked at her and shuffled her over to the table.
"I know, you're tired," he sympathized. "But your mother and I-"
"Excuse me," Morgan warned, her voice low as she reminded him of what actually happened.
"I peeled the oranges and I made sure the chocolate didn't melt!"
"But I cooked it!"
"Because you won't let me!"
"That's because you always freezer burn everything!"
"Guys..." Wendy moaned, the familiar clench of her gut sickening her. She always had the uneasy, nausea sweep over her whenever an argument was brewing between the two of them. "Please don't do this now..." The winter spirit reached a hand up and slid his fingers along his lips, demonstrating zipping them shut. A sliver of a grin carved into Wendy's lips and Morgan smiled at the two of them interact. From the stove, she flipped a few pieces of toast with golden swirls on it onto a plate, and then picked up a peeled orange of the counter top. She smashed the orange slice so it's juice dripped and sprayed all over the toast and then she drizzled chocolate frosting over it. With the fondness of a mother, Morgan marched over to Wendy an rested the plate before her.
"You never let me have this," Wendy observed, twitching her nose at the sight of her favorite breakfast food. "You always said you should never have frosting for breakfast."
"Well, it's your birthday. I decided I could make an exception." Wendy found it a little easier to smile at her mother's act, and she turned to press her lips into her cheek. Somehow, that simple little thing caused her heart to lift and the cavity below it filled with electrified energy. Her tiredness faded and she was no longer too disappointed. Once she began to get that feeling of wholeness again, she dug her fork into her food and began to shovel it into her mouth.
"Wan ith-"
"Okay, you're not allowed to speak with your mouth open," Jack reminded lightly. "There will never be an exception for that."
"Unless you're bleeding and need immediate care," Morgan made sure to put with amusement crossing her gaze.
"Or dying." Wendy's fork clattered against her plate at the word "dying." She gasped quickly and then hid it with a sneeze. Dying was a word she was struggling to come to terms with these days. Her parents would not die, but she would. It felt a little unfair. Then she remembered her dream and how it just seemed to invigorate her in a way she had never thought possible, and the longing to go back to sleep came again. She wanted that same feeling, how it billowed elation in the crevices of her body and she was submerged in the greatest emotion. There would be a day when she would die, and though she knew she had to die to become a spirit, the chances of such were incredibly slim. While there were a few dozen spirits scattered throughout the world, those were spirits that were gathered over periods of hundreds of thousands of years through so may people. That meant the chance of Wendy becoming something she had only ever dreamed about – literally – was almost nothing. And then there was Guardian on top of it. Where they were, there was only six. The chances of becoming that were even less. Only the Moon could decide who was worthy, and the Moon's judgment was fair.
Wendy also knew his judgment was based on sacrifice, selflessness, concern for children, protective spirit, and the greatest love to ever exists. With that knowledge hammered firmly into her mind she wasn't so sure she would ever be able to perform Guardian duties on the basis on the traits. She would perform them all right, but only with the hopes of being selected to be a Guardian. And that was not selflessness, that was selfishness; a huge reason she would not get selected. Thinking through it all just banged against her head until it throbbed with intensity. She wanted the dream. All she wanted at that moment was to fall asleep and keep confined in her dream. Her mother always told her imagination could create reality. Maybe if she kept on dreaming, it would becoming real. Wendy nearly choked on her French toast with the ridiculousness of her mind's process.
"Okay, you two promise you'll be okay setting everything up?" Morgan asked as she shuffled a long cream colored coat around her shoulders. Jack threw her mischievous look and she groaned with worried agitation.
"I'm joking!" he laughed. "Go, go! The sooner you get Wendy's friends here, the sooner we can start!"
"Why did I decided to do this...?" Morgan asked the sky and then turned the knob on the front door before escaping the house. Jack looked to his daughter who was finishing up her food.
"Do you want to have a snowball fight inside the house while your mother is out?" he asked. Memories of countless times when her dad had gotten in trouble for doing such things surfaced to her brain and the nostalgia filled her with glee. It had been a while since last they did it as Morgan hated it, saying it ruined a lot of the good designs of the house and was horrible on the woodwork, but she realized with his remarked she missed it. Plus, the thrill of doing it under mom's nose made her lust for it even more. For a couple of hours, she forgot all about the greatest fantasy to ever plague her slumbering mind.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It had only taken a half hour for the whole house to be trashed, although part of that had been caused by the previous snowball fight Wendy and Jack had gotten into. The other part was from Licorice running around and galloping after the kids as thy ran through the house. Most of the things that had been knocked over were because the kids had tripped and fallen.
"Go back to start!" Zeta demanded, her voice surprisingly harsh as she pointed an accusing finger at Nathan. Wendy laughed, loving the rare moments she got to see her best friend so authoritative. It was a pleasant change in someone so passive.
"Okay, okay..." Nathan grumbled, but smirked as he moved his pieces on the board around. Dylan rolled the dice and discovered with frown that he was too be eaten by alligators and had to lose his turn before he could fight his way out of them.
"Oh that figures," he humphed. "Eaten by alligators definitely seems to be my lot in life."
"It's okay," Zeta softly told him, patting his shoulder. "You can fight your way out of the alligator, I know you can."
"In the game, or in life?" he challenged with a raised eyebrow. Zeta blushed as she struggled for the answer.
"Well, the game definitely... but I do think you also will be okay and do great things in life, Dylan. I mean, I don't see how you couldn't."
"This is getting too deep," Elizabeth interrupted, tossing her dice across the board. "Let's just play the damn game how about." Wendy's eyes flicked up to her sister, still coming to terms with hearing her use such language, especially since lately her vulgarity had actually surpassed Nathan lately. Zeta flinched. She was uncomfortable with swear words. She didn't even really care for the word "crap." "Yes! I get to advance to the next tier! Suck on that, ya losahs!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." Nathan snapped as Wendy began her move. "You have to find your way through a thick jungle. What tool are you going to use?"
"Uhhh..." Wendy glanced at her cards. "Twine."
"How the hell can you cut grass with twine?!" Elizabeth snorted as she took Wendy's card from her.
"Well maybe a whip then... I lost my machete..." Wendy said, eyes following the path on the game board. It was starting to sink, the memories of how many fights had started over this game in particular. Of course, it was the one that just happened to be Wendy's favorite.
"Oh look at that I got a double!" Nathan screamed, chucking the dice in Elizabeth's face. "That means I'm nearly back up to you guys."
"Shut up, ass!"
"Elizabeth..." warned Morgan from the other room.
"Sorry mom!" Elizabeth shouted. Her eyes rolled, showing she was not sorry. A few more turns, a few more arguments, and the game had completed, Elizabeth only slapping people twice and Nathan only earning one bruise from his sister. It was probably the safest game Wendy had ever played with her siblings.
"Elizabeth, Nathan, I need your help in the kitchen!" Morgan called. Sluggishly, the two Barry children picked up their feet and trudged along into the other room. There was the rush and slap of water as the sink filled up and Wendy could tell they had told to help with the dishes.
"Was there something you were going to say to us?" Zeta reminded her friends, and nodded with shocked remembrance. She sat up and let both her friends into her bedroom, where all three of them proceeded to sit on her bed. As Wendy recounted her dream, she got that pinch of desire again to lie down and let herself sleep away back into that dreamworld. As always, Dylan frowned while she spoke, and Zeta wore a look of perplexity with her thought. Wendy was sure to tell them all the details about the dream, as well as the general overall feeling – that it was a wonderful dream and she was dying to go back to sleep so she could have it again.
"This is about the fourth time a dream has done this to you..." Zeta calculated.
"Yep," Wendy confirmed. "The last one was about three weeks ago, I think. And I started feeling really good a week ago and didn't feel too depressed over it. Now this happened. I don't know what to make of it. I've heard of good dreams, but never something so wonderful that it kills you to wake up. I'm not tired even, I just want to have it again."
"Who's to say it would even be the same dream?" Dylan voiced. "Last time you didn't dream about that."
"No..." Wendy sighed while she pressed her chin into the palm of her hand. "And the other two before that. I could never continue them. I've had them and they don't come up again. And then I still and think about them and go over what ifs. Even today. I was so excited for my birthday party, and this morning I just didn't want to be here. I could only think about my future and how that probably won't reflect the future my parents had. I just kept thinking about it and the more I thought, the more depressed I got over it." She wasn't sure how to explain such sickly feelings about something like a dream. It was just far too much for her to believe, but she loved every bit of it.
"Well let's see," came Zeta's soft voice, but with responsible demeanor. "What was your first Dream?"
"That I was attending public school."
"And the second one?"
"I lived in Harrisburg and could see you guys all the time."
"The third one was the one where discovered your place of birth, wasn't it?"
"Mm-hmm!" said Wendy. Zeta bit her lip, while concerned outlined on her forehead.
"These are all things that you really want to happen," Dylan said, as she stared at the floor to help himself figure it out.
"But never will," Wendy moped. "One way or another. And that's the part that stresses me out."
"Huh,"he mumbled. "Too much happiness is upsetting you. That's a new one. Well, I guess I must be delightful, because I'm never happy," he teased. Wendy threw a stuffed cat at him and then parted her teeth to grin.
"I don't know if I've heard of that..." Zeta muttered, and then her ears pricked at the sound of Jack's whimsical voice flooding in from the hallways. "Oh!"
"Wendy, do you think you could-"
"I got it Mr. Frost!" she squealed. Flailing wildly, she escaped from the bedding and skipped into the other room, where Jack was chuckling loudly at her excitement. Wendy slapped her hand to her forehead. Dylan boisterously chuckled and hung his head low.
"She has no idea she doesn't stand a chance," he sighed, but his tone was of endearment for the girl.
"My parents love each other... a little too much. They kiss a lot and its gross." She demonstrated her revulsion by letting her tongue fall out of her mouth and making a face. Dylan smiled at her, and then the corners of his lips dropped. He twiddled his thumbs nervously.
"What's the big deal anyway?" he added quietly.
"I know! I mean, mom says I'll find out some day, and I guess it's kind of cute the way Dad treats her and everything. But kissing? That's just gross. It's s like spit on spit. I'm sure disease spread faster that way."
"Maybe it's just something to have to try to know..." he whispered. "Do you want to find out?"
The comment caught Wendy so off guard, she didn't hear it for five seconds. When she did recognize what he had said, her eyes bulged at she stared at him as if he had asked her to do something wildly inappropriate.
"Uhhh..."
"Just to find out!" Dylan corrected, face white washed with his own embarrassment. "It has nothing to do with any feelings for you. It's just, you want to know, I want to know.. we're alone so no one would make fun of us, or ever know. Zeta's probably going to lose track of time looking at you dad." She pressed her lips together, going over the suggestion very carefully in her mind. The proposition sounded ridiculous and a little adult, but maybe it was how people found out, and maybe she would understand a little more about adults.
"Okay," she agreed, deciding she would probably need to know for educational purposes. "Just a quick kiss on the lips."
"Right," Dylan said, face now flourishing. He seemed to recognize the weakness in her arms as they wobbled in her lap, because he pushed himself up and moved forwards. Wendy breathed and then closed her eyes, inhaling air until she felt the tickle of his wet lips grazing hers. As quick as they appeared they were gone again, and Wendy took a moment to let it sink in. His lips were warm, but other than that all she felt was skin and wet. And perhaps a little bit of embarrassment. But there was no electricity or fire or whatever it was the adults were calling it those days. She had no explosion of excitement.
"Huh," she said, looking at him. "Nothing."
"Oh good! I thought it was just me..." he laughed. The color in his face seemed healthier now and she was pleased to see him so normal looking.
"So nobody knows right?" Wendy reminded him. "Not even Zeta."
"Course not," he winked. "We're just going to keep a secret. Between us." Wendy giggled, finding a bit of happiness in the idea of a secret. Secrets with friends were just another thing that she thought would never happen in her life.
Okay so now I am going to pass out. See ya later my rosettes! Night!
