Month Long Hiatus

And so finally, there came a day, when Bearfoot was granted the pleasure of finally having a short day off. Emma was already at Andy's preparing for a meet up with her friends, Melody and Riff, when the day came. Kousei would be there with Tsubaki and Watari tomorrow, and they would make a weekend of hanging out.

The others were already on break, but her own school would have another class on Monday before letting the children leave for their summer vacation, so she'd attend her classes with Melody and then they'd be back and ready to hang.

That was before the team showed up in the middle of the day. At first, she thought that it was one of her friends, showing up a bit early. With a small hum, she placed the knife she was using to cut the three layered cake down and brushed her hands along her apron.

"I'll get it!" She yelled up to Andy, walking over to the door intent on greeting one of the two people she'd invited. Needless to say, she was rather disappointed when it turned out to be Karl and his friends.

"Emma!" Cat said, quickly pulling the girl into a hug. "I missed you this week!"

Only this week? Emma thought bitterly to herself, as she had been missing the interactions with her friends for close to a month. She was almost positive that her birthday would need to pass before any of them realised that half of her friend group had up and disappeared. The girl bit her lip, moving aside to let them in without saying anything.

They took the opportunity to pour into the house, Shawn moving beside the girl to say hello.

Emma smiled, despite herself, watching her cousin in the corner of her eyes as he took his shoes off.

"Good Afternoon, Emberlyn."

"And a Good Afternoon to you as well, Shawn, but I thought I told you to just call me Emma."

"Yes well." Shawn rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as Emma closed the door behind the five.

"What happened to member six?" She asked, looking over them all. Karl, Cat, Oscaar, Timmy, and Shawn were all there, which meant only Isaac was missing.

"He and Shophie had a date." Karl commented. "Oooh, Cake."

"Not for you, cousin dear." Emma said, pushing him back with a hand on his chest. "I'm having friends over, weirdo."

"Who?" Karl asked, brows furrowed in absolute confusion. Emma stared at him in wonder, for how could he really think that she would just put her life on hold when he and the team pulled a disappearing act. There was no way.

"Riff and Melody. They're coming over and we're all having a movie night in the living room."

"Who's Melody?" Karl asked, even more confused.

Emma crossed her arms, holding her cousin's gaze head on. "She's one of the new friends I made during your month long Hiatus from my life."

Okay, so maybe she was the only new friend, but whatever. She wasn't going to tell Karl that though. He needed to learn that there was a time when he needed to back off, and this was that moment when he needed to realise that he had made a mistake and he needed to get over it.

"What…"

"Happy Summer Vacation by the way." Emma added. "Last classes are on Monday."

"Holy-" Karl started, but was cut off by Aunt Andy coming down the stairs.

"Are they here yet?" She asked her niece.

"No, but Karl is." She said, turning around to resume cutting the Cake.

"Who?" Andy asked, turning the corner to find them. "Oh, you're cousin's back early! Hello everyone."

Well that was one way to add to their guilt, and Emma was happy she wasn't facing them, wide as her smile was at this point. Andy was always good at reading the atmosphere in a room and helping out the youngest family member. "Are they joining you guys?"

"No." Emma answered quickly. She'd just finished cutting the cake when the doorbell rang, alerting them all to another person at the door. Karl beat her to the door, despite her running to answer it, he was right there after all. Riff and Melody were both standing on the front porch.

"Sorry, this is cancelled now." Karl said, closing the door back.

"KARL!" Emma yelled, pushing her cousin away from the door and re-opening it to wave them in. "I'm sorry, he's an idiot."

"All families have them." Melody commented as she tucked a bit of her brown hair behind her ear. She'd cut it to slightly above her shoulders for the anticipated Summer heat. "Don't worry too much about it, Emie. We won't be scared off that easily."

"Yeah, your big scary cousin isn't that scary." Riff mocked, and Emma laughed at them both. "I think I could take him."

"Now don't test him Riff, he's trained to kill." Emma commented good naturedly.

"Oh, I'm shaking." Melody joined. "I think I may faint, oh dear."

With that, Melody collapsed into Riff, causing the others to howl in laughter. "Well I guess me and Riff just have to eat the cake by ourselves then."

"Cake!" Melody cried, hopping up and sniffing the air, before her eyes locked on the three layered cake held together by quite a bit of icing. Her eyes glistened as she saw it, head spinning as she took in such a beautiful sight. "Oh my, looks like a sugar rush on a silver platter. You really know how to get a girl's heart beating faster."

"Well, I am a girl after all." Emma commented idly. "But I do appreciate the compliment, so thank you."

"Little Emie's making friends." Riff teased, poking the girl's side. Emma giggled in response, swatting away his hand and nodding her head towards the table. The boy shrugged before going over to claim his own cake, and she turned back to her cousin once more.

"We've got the living room booked already." She revealed, whatever tension had been there gone. "We're planning on staying there tonight, so you guys can use whatever else you need.

Riff grabbed the cake and marched it into the living room, leaving Melody to bring the plates along, and Emma to carry a slightly heavy box filled with soda.

"Enjoy!" She called in farewell to her cousin, who stood there stunned at his cousin's actions.