Faith
Seventeen-year-old Faith Carter woke late into the night. Outside, there was a storm raging with hurricane like winds. She hated storms. They'd always scared her since she was a little girl. Faith glanced over at her clock. Two-thirty in the morning. She sighed, reached a hand down and petted the furry body at the foot of her bed. The response was a lick on the hand. Faith reached up and turned on the light on the bedside table. They, both Faith and the dog, blinked in confusion trying to adjust to the sudden light.
"Cocoa." The Newfoundland picked up its head. "Wanna' go get something to eat?" The dog's tail began wagging. "Come on then."
Faith slipped out of bed, slid into her slippers, and opened the door. The dog leapt off the bed and trotted down the stairs and into the kitchen. Faith followed suit. She was wondering what had woken her up. It couldn't have been the storm. Though they scared her, she usually slept right through them.
As she passed the study, Faith paused. Light was coming through at the bottom of the door near the ground. Uncle Nick was still up. He never got sleep these days. Quietly, she opened the door and peeked inside.
"Uncle," she said in a mock exasperated tone. The blond-haired man looked up. Faith continued, "It's two-thirty in the morning, what are you doing up?"
"I'd ask the same of you," he responded as Faith walked over and took a seat on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I woke up because… Well actually I don't know why I woke up, but at least I got some sleep unlike some people." Nick gave a short laugh.
"Yes, I suppose I should try and get some sleep. But only after I finish this one thing. It's very important."
"Okay," Faith said. She got up and left the room, leaving her uncle to return to his work.
She went to the kitchen, poured herself a glass of root bear (a/n: god's gift to all beings), and grabbed a box of Goldfish. Faith reached into a jar and tossed a few treats to her bear-like dog. She padded back into the study and sat down in front of the computer. Upon hearing, "Welcome, you've got mail," Nick looked over at her.
"Thought you were going back to sleep," he said.
"Mmm…" she murmured. She smiled and looked at him. "But I thought it would be better to spend time with my most favoritist uncle in the whole wide world."
"Right, I'm your only uncle you probably like at all. And besides, I thought you wanted me to go to sleep."
"Yeah," Faith said with a slow nod.
"Well, how can you spend time with me if I'm supposed to go bed?"
"I dunno," she said, "I just thought we should spend what few moments we're both awake together." Nick raised an eyebrow.
"Right. That's why you're going online to talk to your friends. So you can spend time with me."
"Uh-huh. Why else?" she replied with a grin. Nick sighed and shook his head.
"You're a piece of work, Squeaker," he told her in an exasperated tone, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "A piece of work."