Adventures of the B.G.C.:

Nerves and Butterflies:

Part 1 Mounting Nerves:

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Edric Blight's gold eyes watched his twin sister stride back and forth across the parlor floor, disturbing the peace gifted upon the house after their parents left on another business trip. The Blight siblings were gathered in the large room, supposedly to do homework though only Amity was working on school related things. Edric had been perusing Penstagram, glancing toward Emira occasionally as she muttered at her own scroll, until his sister had suddenly tossed her scroll aside and taken to pacing. He looked over toward where Amity sat, noticing she had stopped her work to also observe their sister. Emira seemed like her mind was far from Blight Manor though, as she kept crossing the room, turning, and repeating these actions again and again.

"Is everything okay, Em?" Edric finally asked. For a few moments she did not even seem to hear him, again he exchanged a look with Amity. Suddenly Emira stopped, directly in line with the obnoxious family portrait on the wall. She faced her brother, crossed her arms and glared at him. "Uhhhhhhhhhhh. . ." He drawled, trying to remember if he'd done anything to upset her recently.

"Why is it so hard?" Emira demanded. As there was no lead in for the comment, he really had no idea what she was talking about.

"I think we need a little more info, Em." Amity saved Edric, drawing his twin's attention toward her instead. "Why is what hard?"

"Asking." Emira said this, receiving more confused looks from her siblings before she deflated visibly. Soon she dropped into a seat next to Edric, leaning against him and pointing at her scroll where it sat, discarded, a few feet away. "Why can't I just ask her to go on a date?"

"Oh!" For once Amity and Edric spoke almost as one, and it drew a weak laugh from Emira. She smiled finally, her stress cracking slightly at the sudden synchronicity between her siblings.

"You're probably over thinking it." Amity told her.

"What if she says no?" Emira grumbled as Edric laughed beside her.

"You ARE overthinking it." He confirmed, stressing the word "are". Amity was fighting a smile across the room, probably realizing she had no real room to talk since they both knew who her Grom note had been meant for. Edric hugged Emira with one arm and winked at her. "What are you trying to say?"

"I just. . ."

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" . . . don't want her wondering why I haven't asked." Viney lamented to Jerbo and Barcus. They were sitting on the floor of Jerbo's living room, having finished most of their homework before they started talking.

"Again." Jerbo added and watched Viney's eyes turn his way. The lanky teen witch shrugged at his friend. "Aren't you always the one to ask her out?"

"We've only been on one date." Viney said and saw her friends both give her a skeptical look. "What?"

"How many times did you ask Emira Blight out and get a rain check?" Jerbo asked.

"Okay, okay." She held her hands up in surrender before sighing. "I did tell you why though."

"Yup, she was being a good big sister." Jerbo confirmed with a shrug.

"Bark bark growl bark." (Jerbo's right, wait for her this time.) Barcus stated and Viney sagged where she sat.

"You guys win, I'll wait a little longer." She conceded, though it was clear she didn't like the idea of waiting.

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{Hey, Cutie! You, me, Friday?} Emira read the message Edric had written for her, it hadn't been sent though. Amity, now sitting on Emira's other side leaned forward to shoot Edric a look after reading it as well.

"No, Ed." The youngest Blight said, drawing a giggle from Emira.

"What? Quick, complimentary, to the point." He defended his idea, nodding to himself at each point.

"It sounds like she doesn't know how to speak." Amity replied. Edric looked insulted even as he laughed.

"Like you'd say no if Luz sent that."

"If Luz called me 'Cutie' I'd check her temperature. That kind of cheesy nickname is really more an Ed and Em thing." Amity said coolly, though the little smile crossing her face softened the implied insult.

"Be nice, Mittens." Emira told her as she deleted Edric's suggestion and passed the scroll to the younger Blight. "What do you think I should say?" If nothing else, this was improving Emira's stress level.

"Okay, Friday, right?" Amity got a nod and turned her eyes back to Emira's scroll. She typed, deleted, typed, and repeated for a few minutes. Finally, she passed the scroll back to her for review.

{Hi Viney, are you busy Friday? If you're free I thought maybe we could go do something? Together? Like a date?} Emira read this. She tilted her head back and forth as she considered this message. It sounded almost too innocent and vulnerable for Emira, she tended to at least sound a bit flirty. Still, it was a lot closer than what Edric wrote, which honestly surprised her. Normally Edric was the one that could basically channel her thoughts. It seemed romance was an exception to that.

"I can work with this." Emira muttered, as she started changing a few words here and there. She ignored Amity and Edric leaning on her shoulders to read as she tapped away.

{Hi cutie! Hey, are you busy Friday? If you're free I was thinking we could go do something together? I still owe you that second date after all.} Emira nudged her siblings with her elbows, silently asking for opinions. Edric extracted the scroll from her hands, tilting it so his sisters couldn't see, and adding something. Once he was done, he handed it back to Emira.

"Send it." Amity said as an agreement. Emira grinned, feeling much better about the message, and hit send.

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Viney had just set her school bag down in her room when her scroll chimed in her pocket. She pulled it out, expecting to see a message from Jerbo asking if she made it home. Instead, the message she found made her smile widely and feel awash in overwhelming warmth.

{Hi cutie! Hey, are you busy Friday? If you're free I was thinking we could go do something together? I still owe you that second date after all. I can't wait to see you.} From Emira to Viney. Viney sat on the end of her bed, typing and deleting a few messages before she finally decided to send one.

{I'm all yours on Friday, I can't wait either. What are we doing?} From Viney to Emira.

{That's a surprise.} Emira's message this time was followed by a winking smiley face.

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Viney stood in front of a mirror and shrugged to adjust how the secondhand coat rested on her shoulders. Her green eyes scrutinized it as she moved her arms a bit to see how it fit as she moved. Bracus, sitting off to the side and watching his friend try on coats, gave a few soft barks. Viney sighed, turning to look at her friends as she waved her hands a bit helplessly.

"I just want to look nice, like really nice." She told them and Jerbo smirked.

"Hey, Barcus is right, you've looked nice in just about everything you tried on today." Jerbo reassured his friend, thinking over the various pieces of secondhand clothing she had tried on. "Not that set of orange pants though, those probably don't look good on anyone."

"My uniform pants are orange." Viney reminded him with a playful look.

"That's different." He said, waving a hand to dismiss the comment as he eyed his friend. "Although, Emira does like you in uniform so maybe we could reconsider the orange pants." There was an adamant bark followed by a growl and Viney laughed. "Barcus has spoken, no orange pants."

"Yeah, no. No orange clothes on this. . ." She seemed to lose her voice and a slow smile came back to her lips. "I have a date, a second date, with Emmy."

"Oh, we're back to this." Jerbo laughed when Viney snapped out of it enough to glare at him jokingly.

"Back to what?" She asked and Barcus gave a barking explanation that caused her to blush and fidget. "Of course I'm stupidly happy, I really like her! She's so sweet."

"That is not something I ever thought I'd hear said about one of the Blights, and now I've heard it from two of my friends." Jerbo shook his head with a helpless expression. "I suppose Edric is also a sweet boy wrapped in a thick layer of pranks and tricks."

"Oh trust, if you see that boy with his pet bat, Jerbo you will never see him the same way again." She grinned and turned back to the secondhand coat she wore and the mirror. "So, it looks good?"

"Looks great." Jerbo confirmed, Barcus giving his own sounds of agreement.

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"Who's a cute little bat baby?" Edric cooed at his bat, who he was rocking in his arms. Amity rolled her eyes at her brother and exchanged a look with Emira.

"How did we lose that argument with him?" Amity asked her sister, referring to Edric's pet. Emira sighed and offered a shrug.

"Titan only knows." Emira shifted her gold eyes from their brother back to the half dozen outfits laid out on her bed. Her sister moved to stand a little closer to the bed and consider the outfits, mostly dresses, that remained in consideration.

"What are you doing on your date?" Amity asked, hoping that would help narrow things down a bit further.

"There's a fair in the next town over, so I was thinking we'd go spend the afternoon and evening there." Emira continued to eye her choices. "What to wear on a date to a fair?"

"Stop being a princess and just pick something." Edric chimed in, tone filled with boredom, causing Amity to laugh and Emira to threaten to throw a pillow at him. He made a show of cowering, and sort of curling around his pet bat protectively.

"No, you'll hurt your nephew!" He exclaimed as dramatically as he could.

"That flying rodent is not my nephew." Emira told him in a very unamused tone, her gold eyes narrowing at her brother and his bat.

"Nor mine." Amity told their brother as he pouted at them. The youngest Blight turned back to the clothes again as she spoke. "Ed has a point though, Viney doesn't seem like the type to judge you based on your outfit. Maybe you just need to pick something you like."

"Oh, I know she won't judge me, but that doesn't mean I don't want her to be amazed." Here Em did a sort of jazz hands gesture to indicate excitement. "I want her to think I'm the most beautiful girl she has ever laid eyes on."

"She already does." Edric said as his bat settled on one of his shoulders, both his sisters turned to look at him. "What?"

"Ed, you can't just say something like that without elaborating." Amity informed him and a devilish smile crossed their brother's face. "Did Viney say something to you?"

"Maybe, or maybe I just overheard her and Jerbo talking in the halls at school."

"When did this happen?" Emira asked as Edric buffed his fingernails on his shirt with an air of self-importance. "You and I are always together; I would have heard it too."

"You were in the restroom." He watched that thought turn in his twin's mind, and she looked somewhat mortified.

"I was in the restroom and you were spying on Viney and Jerbo?"

"Not spying, I don't think she really cares if her girlfriend's brother hears her gush about how pretty her girlfriend is." He shrugged but still looked immensely proud of himself. "Frankly, I think all of you, looking at you and Luz too Mittens, are really obvious."

"This isn't helping Em find an outfit." Amity finally told them and Emira turned back to the bed as she nodded. "Also, Em, are you two riding Puddles? If so, maybe not a dress?"

"Yeah." Edric agreed with their little sister as he finally joined the two by the bed to really consider his sister's options.

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Author's Note:

I apologize, I know I went entirely silent for around six months. Life sometimes just swallows me. That said, short as this is, it will have at least one more chapter, but I cannot promise how soon I will post it.