(Author's Note: SO sorry it took this long! I got caught up in school and
finals and work... but I got a review a day after summer vacation started, as
a karmic reminder to get some more work done on this fic! I've had
characters running scenes in my head all day, so I guess its time to
appease them by writing them down!)
Cherry's POV:
It took nearly an hour in the Pike's backyard before the muscles in my neck and shoulders started to relax. Family reunions are Not My Thing. My family is very small – my parents couldn't have their own kids, so they adopted me from Columbia late in life. My extended family includes one set of grandparents, one aunt, one uncle, and one cousin. Rosh Hashanah and Hanukah and all the other Jewish holidays are pretty low-key – some prayers, some temple time, and a hell of a lot of eating. That's what I'm used to in terms of family.
In terms of lots of people, I'm more used to wild parties. The kind with random couples locked in the host's bedroom, plenty of illegal substances, and neighbors calling the cops because of the music level. Of course, I haven't been there since high school, but it's still a situation in which I know what I'm doing.
But this? Lots of people, but family feelings? Freddy movies aren't as scary. By this point, I was introduced to everyone, but between thinking about the letter from Atland and worrying about making a bad impression, I alternately babbled and clammed up. I felt like an idiot. The only person I connected with at all was Jordan – because he's also training in psychology, he challenged me to a debate of Freud versus Jung. All of it went right over Nicky's head, I could tell. He tends to prefer philosophy to psychology. The second I started throwing around terms like 'oral stage' and 'anal stage' I knew he wanted to respond with something dirty, but simply wouldn't do it in the presence of his family. So he wandered off.
Having relaxed me a bit, Jordan also left after awhile and I wound up talking to everyone for a bit. They were the typical shallow conversations, lightly veiled attempts to grill me as to my intentions towards their son/brother and my life goals. I managed to be noncommittal, but pleasant. What should I have said? That I loved Nicky, but we would probably be breaking up in a few days so I could pursue my education? Ignoring Atland would be one of the stupidest moves in my life. So I kept myself a little separated from the family. No use getting attached to them, right?
After another half an hour or so, as I was sipping my seventy-eighth diet soda, Jordan came back up to me, but he didn't challenge me to a debate this time.
He leaned against the heavy tree with me. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly.
I could tell he was trying for a private, non-family conversation, but I lied anyway and said nothing was wrong.
He smiled. "I won't insult you by pretending to believe you. And I won't insult your knowledge of psychology by attempting roundabout questions. You're important to my brother, so I'd like to know what's wrong."
I couldn't help but smile back, though it faded quickly. "Doctor-patient privilidge in effect?"
Jordan held up two fingers and intoned solemnly "Scout's honor."
"You were never a scout."
"Pure semantics."
I couldn't help but trust him. And I did need to talk. So I spilled the story – most of it. I told him about the Atland school, and about how I wasn't invited because of my spectacular grades – because, lets save a lie here, my grades weren't that great – but because of my complete life turnaround and my unique experiences in therapy. I glossed over a lot of the former, preferring not to divulge the more intimate details of my life to a relative stranger. But I gave him the gist of it.
He was looking at me critically by the time I was done. "And does Nicky know....any of this?"
I smiled again without realizing it. "Nicky and reality don't get to meet all that often. He's got all these great idealistic ideas and never wants to really see what's happening, I think. He likes to think that everyone had the spectacular childhood he had. I told him once that I'm not very close with my parents, that we don't get along, and he looked at me like I had three heads."
"Reasonably analysis, but kind of unfair. I think he sees more than you think. For instance, he's watching us right now and wondering what we're talking about that's taking so long and looking so intimate."
I backed up half a step from Jordan. Glancing over at Nicky, I found that Jordan had been right; Nicky was watching us and pretending not to. I smiled at him and, taking it as an invitation, or a sign that my conversation with Jordan was at a close, he started walking towards our tree.
"I'd tell him quickly," Jordan muttered before Nicky reached us. "He might just surprise you."
I smiled again at Nicky as he reached us and swept me up into a hug. "So!" he said, keeping an arm rather possessively around my waist, "what conversation am I interrupting?"
I grinned. He was being cavalier about it, but I'd always wondered if a bit of a jealous streak ran through his laid-back nature. Turns out I was right....there was. "Just trying to figure out how moviemakers can toss around psychology-related words in scripts without taking the faintest care what the word really means. It totally ruins a movie for me. Like in The Haunting? Liam Neeson says Lili Taylor is in a 'fugue state' when it's anything but."
Nicky studied me a long moment, then chuckled. "Well, I don't know a fugue state from Washington State. Want to take a walk around the neighborhood?"
"Sure," I answered quickly. I glanced back at Jordan once on the way out of the yard. So he thought Nicky would surprise me....I wasn't sure about that, but I'm sure I'd find out. I'm a horrendous liar, and I knew it was only a matter of time before pretty much everything was exposed.
Cherry's POV:
It took nearly an hour in the Pike's backyard before the muscles in my neck and shoulders started to relax. Family reunions are Not My Thing. My family is very small – my parents couldn't have their own kids, so they adopted me from Columbia late in life. My extended family includes one set of grandparents, one aunt, one uncle, and one cousin. Rosh Hashanah and Hanukah and all the other Jewish holidays are pretty low-key – some prayers, some temple time, and a hell of a lot of eating. That's what I'm used to in terms of family.
In terms of lots of people, I'm more used to wild parties. The kind with random couples locked in the host's bedroom, plenty of illegal substances, and neighbors calling the cops because of the music level. Of course, I haven't been there since high school, but it's still a situation in which I know what I'm doing.
But this? Lots of people, but family feelings? Freddy movies aren't as scary. By this point, I was introduced to everyone, but between thinking about the letter from Atland and worrying about making a bad impression, I alternately babbled and clammed up. I felt like an idiot. The only person I connected with at all was Jordan – because he's also training in psychology, he challenged me to a debate of Freud versus Jung. All of it went right over Nicky's head, I could tell. He tends to prefer philosophy to psychology. The second I started throwing around terms like 'oral stage' and 'anal stage' I knew he wanted to respond with something dirty, but simply wouldn't do it in the presence of his family. So he wandered off.
Having relaxed me a bit, Jordan also left after awhile and I wound up talking to everyone for a bit. They were the typical shallow conversations, lightly veiled attempts to grill me as to my intentions towards their son/brother and my life goals. I managed to be noncommittal, but pleasant. What should I have said? That I loved Nicky, but we would probably be breaking up in a few days so I could pursue my education? Ignoring Atland would be one of the stupidest moves in my life. So I kept myself a little separated from the family. No use getting attached to them, right?
After another half an hour or so, as I was sipping my seventy-eighth diet soda, Jordan came back up to me, but he didn't challenge me to a debate this time.
He leaned against the heavy tree with me. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly.
I could tell he was trying for a private, non-family conversation, but I lied anyway and said nothing was wrong.
He smiled. "I won't insult you by pretending to believe you. And I won't insult your knowledge of psychology by attempting roundabout questions. You're important to my brother, so I'd like to know what's wrong."
I couldn't help but smile back, though it faded quickly. "Doctor-patient privilidge in effect?"
Jordan held up two fingers and intoned solemnly "Scout's honor."
"You were never a scout."
"Pure semantics."
I couldn't help but trust him. And I did need to talk. So I spilled the story – most of it. I told him about the Atland school, and about how I wasn't invited because of my spectacular grades – because, lets save a lie here, my grades weren't that great – but because of my complete life turnaround and my unique experiences in therapy. I glossed over a lot of the former, preferring not to divulge the more intimate details of my life to a relative stranger. But I gave him the gist of it.
He was looking at me critically by the time I was done. "And does Nicky know....any of this?"
I smiled again without realizing it. "Nicky and reality don't get to meet all that often. He's got all these great idealistic ideas and never wants to really see what's happening, I think. He likes to think that everyone had the spectacular childhood he had. I told him once that I'm not very close with my parents, that we don't get along, and he looked at me like I had three heads."
"Reasonably analysis, but kind of unfair. I think he sees more than you think. For instance, he's watching us right now and wondering what we're talking about that's taking so long and looking so intimate."
I backed up half a step from Jordan. Glancing over at Nicky, I found that Jordan had been right; Nicky was watching us and pretending not to. I smiled at him and, taking it as an invitation, or a sign that my conversation with Jordan was at a close, he started walking towards our tree.
"I'd tell him quickly," Jordan muttered before Nicky reached us. "He might just surprise you."
I smiled again at Nicky as he reached us and swept me up into a hug. "So!" he said, keeping an arm rather possessively around my waist, "what conversation am I interrupting?"
I grinned. He was being cavalier about it, but I'd always wondered if a bit of a jealous streak ran through his laid-back nature. Turns out I was right....there was. "Just trying to figure out how moviemakers can toss around psychology-related words in scripts without taking the faintest care what the word really means. It totally ruins a movie for me. Like in The Haunting? Liam Neeson says Lili Taylor is in a 'fugue state' when it's anything but."
Nicky studied me a long moment, then chuckled. "Well, I don't know a fugue state from Washington State. Want to take a walk around the neighborhood?"
"Sure," I answered quickly. I glanced back at Jordan once on the way out of the yard. So he thought Nicky would surprise me....I wasn't sure about that, but I'm sure I'd find out. I'm a horrendous liar, and I knew it was only a matter of time before pretty much everything was exposed.