Chapter 2 - Slow Burn
The second high school year finally ended, and Piper could not wait for the summer vacation. As promised she kept in touch with Alex and Granny and she was looking forward to seeing them both again.
She told her parents she would like to stay with her grandmother for at least a whole month this time, which was no problem at all. Sad but true, her parents were more than happy to ship their daughter to the elder lady for extended time. They even gave her a ride directly to Celeste's house.
"Granny, Alex, I am here!" she announced her presence from the gate. As she was passing by, she noticed the front yard was in colours of blooming flowers. The blonde had to smile; she felt like time turned back a year ago and she was excited to spend the holiday here.
"Oh, Piper, dear, we didn't expect you until later," said the owner of the household nonetheless she welcomed her grandchild with open arms and pulled her into a warm hug. "How are you doing? How's school? Any boyfriend?"
"I am well now, it's summer time. School still sucks and no boyfriend, thank you, guys are weird."
"I concur," came a voice from behind them. Piper quickly turned around and her heart started pounding rapidly. "Hi, Pipes," grinned the older girl and gently hugged the newcomer. "I really like your jacket," she noted on the plaid red piece of clothes which was the blonde's favourite one as well.
"Hi," the youngest of them replied happily. She had a tangling feeling under her skin yet not uncomfortable. She quickly looked at the garment in her arms. "It's the same I had last year."
"I really like it," Alex winked at her which caused a blush reaching the blondes' cheeks.
"What are you doing here?" Granny asked her ward surprised. "I thought you were with Greg."
"I was, now I am back."
The lady crossed her arms on her chest and looked at her adoptive grandchild. "Were you rolling in the forest?" she commented with a frown on her forehead looking at her from head to toe. Then she pointed at the messy mop of raven hair.
Alex tilted her head and replied slowly. "Yes."
The fair-haired teenager reached up and pulled a twig form the jet black mane with a giggle.
"I really like the boy but you should wait until you are married," commented the grandmother offended.
The insinuation caused something in Piper's chest to squeeze tight, and her smile disappeared. Well, the brunette was a beautiful young woman and for sure she was dating, yet the idea of her and some guy together made the other youngster uncomfortable.
"Oh good God no!" dismissed the older girl immediately. "I mean yes, I was rolling in the forest but by myself."
"That does not sound much better," commented the newcomer, nevertheless her tense nerves released some pressure and her chest stopped squeezing, so her smile returned. "Still too much information," she joked.
The brunette rolled her eyes. "I was rolling in the forest because I was hunting a hare. Now if you stop with your crazy ideas and hand over that butcher knife, I am going to clean it." The visitor fetched for the requested sharp object, when she was handing it over, their fingers touched and the blonde felt sparks of electricity. Instead of an actual reply, Alex smiled, nodded and left.
"Come, put the kettle on and sit with me," asked the grandmother and shuffled to the table. First the teenager helped her sit down and then she went to prepare the tea. "So tell me what's new."
"Oh, nothing special."
"I haven't seen you for a year, for sure there is something or someone special," the elder woman was curious about her grandchild's life.
"Not really," the girl really did not want to talk about her parents arguing most of the time, the father cheating, or the younger brother being a git, so she turned the conversation elsewhere. "But Alex mentioned you would have the knee surgery at the end of summer."
"Oh yes, looking forward to it. The third week in August, I cannot wait for it. I will be pain in Alex's eye for about six more weeks but then she finally could enjoy the college life and no more need to live with an old hag and taking care if the farm."
"Oh come on, I really don't mind!" called the brunette from the outside. The windows were opened yet still it was several yards to the barn where the ward was skinning the hare.
"How can she hear us?" wondered Piper and poured the hot water into a kettle with a tea bag.
"Because I have big ears to hear you better." The blonde almost burnt herself with the boiling water as she spilled it because suddenly the older girl's head appeared in the kitchen window. Alex chuckled. "Clumsy much?"
"You startled me."
"Hand over some of the plastic bags, please," she requested still with that silly grin.
The younger of them pulled out some bags form the third drawer and pointed at the dirty glasses. "Do you want me to clean them so you can see us better too?"
"Oh yes, please." The blonde stretched and carefully took off the item from the other youngster's head. Her heart started hammering again even though Alex just stood there with her gentle smile and waited. "Just don't break them." At that exact moment the glasses slipped from the nervous fingers. Fortunately Piper's reflexes were fast enough to catch them before falling. At the scene the young woman burst out laughing. The visitor felt embarrassed and she was pretty sure she was blushing like crazy, on the other hand she really liked the sound of the deep laugh.
"Shut up," was the only remark she uttered before disappearing into the bedroom to look for a cleaning cloth.
The room did not change much, only more books and CDs were added in the shelf and the air mattress was already pumped up with bed sheets on the top of it.
She wiped the glasses and returned back to the kitchen's window.
"You will have to put them on, since my hands are bloody," the brunette lifted up her dirty hands. "Just don't poke my eyes, I like them."
"Yeah, they are really pretty."
The older girl chuckled again. "Smooth."
What the heck was going on? She was out of control like a school boy having a crush on the teacher. This was Alex, just Alex, her adoptive cousin. They spent last vacation together and kept sending emails during the school year. There were no funny feelings. She could not have a crush on her, because she had a crush on the third year football player Josh. Alex was… intimidating. Yes, that was the correct expression, intimidating. The high schooler just needed to find a way of being less intimidated by her.
During the tea, she let Granny talk while her mind was figuring ways of how not to make a complete idiot of herself in front of an intimidating person. She could either avoid the other girl, which would be impossible in the small house and also super weird because she was looking forward spending time with her.
After the snack she went outside to see how the ward was doing.
The vegetable garden was blooming, there were even more plants and herbs, alas the blonde was surprised that there were not as many animals as she had remembered, there were no sheep, no goats, no geese anymore, instead there were at least twenty chicken and four piglets.
"What happened to the animals?" she asked.
Alex turned around to face her. "Since I am at the college now, I don't have so much time to take care of them and Granny has bad knees, so we got rid of most of them."
"But you cannot get any golden goose egg anymore," the younger of them joked leaning against the fence.
"Right? I told Granny we should keep at least the biggest one," they laughed together and the youngster fell at ease. Alex picked up some leftovers of the hare. "Fancy a paw or tail for good luck?"
The blonde took the paw, "Thanks," she smiled and looked around. "Need any help?"
"Not anymore. But you can cook."
"Nah, I will leave that up to Granny. Nothing is better than grandmother's meal."
"Yeah, but you have to cook it yourself while she commands you around." They laughed again. "Come on, let's get some vegetable and tell me how's Josh."
"Still unreachable. I mean, he is the admired freaking football star and I am the annoying know-it-all. I mean people should admire knowledge too, shouldn't they?"
"They should."
"Stupid people are laughed at, clever people are laughed at, is it really all about tons of makeup and cheerleading?"
"Well, it definitely keeps you fit," noted the college student.
Piper opened her mouth in surprise as she realised something, "You were a cheerleader?!" she yelped. "I knew it! No one can have your figure without tons of training."
"How do you know what my figure looks like," the brunette raised her eyebrow suspiciously.
"I saw you naked last year and you don't look like you put on any weight."
"Ah, you are right, but nope, no cheerleading, I rather run in the forest with hares."
"And with the other Alex, huh?" noted the younger of them knowingly. "How is the wolf doing anyway? I haven't seen it yet."
"She is well, thank you for asking. You might see her next week."
"Next week? Where is she?"
"Always around," winked the ward mysteriously but did not add any more info. "So except being a nerd with typical girl crush on the school's sport's team leader like most of the kids, did you get the driving licence."
"Oh come on, but Josh is soo cool and handsome like a Greek god, jet black hair, green eyes, biceps like Achilles-."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Alex interrupted her companion with an eye roll, "I read plenty of him in your emails."
"Who was your high school crush?"
"The literature teacher."
"Tell me about him."
"Maybe later."
"Oh, come on, Al."
But the other girl just smiled and headed to the house.
They cooked dinner according to Granny's recipe, which indeed included the elderly woman commanding the girls what to do. They turned on a stereo, listened to old songs and had fun while being productive.
The stew did not turn great as Piper added a bit more spice than needed, but it was warm and they were hungry.
They played cards later and enjoyed the evening and each other's company.
Just like the last summer, Alex offered her bed for the visitor and took the mattress. The younger of them tried arguing but the older girl was still intimidating enough for the blonde to keep arguing for too long. She would need to work on it and for sure she would win a quarrel next time. But to be honest, who would fight too long if an actual bed was offered instead of a mattress. Nah, it was mostly a play.
It was early morning, just when the first rays of sun seeped through the window when the city girl was woken up.
"Pst, Pipes, wake up," whispered Alex urgently.
"What'sup?"
"Market, come on."
"What?"
"I am taking you to the market."
"Why?"
"So you can learn how to drive."
"Later."
"No, now, come on!" she urged.
Indeed the teenager got up and shuffled to the bathroom. Still a bit groggy she brushed her teeth and looked into the mirror. Shit, another fight lost. She woke up when she realised the situation and the Power of Alex. But then again, she could practice her driving skill, so not bad.
She jumped into the old pick-up truck and looked at the back seats. "What's there?"
"Oh, just some vegetable, herbs and eggs for sale, so drive carefully or you are paying for my text term."
Fortunately Alex was a quiet passenger and patient instructor. She chose to take the side road to the town which was so quiet that they rarely met another car and Piper could get a grip on driving. When they were reaching the city, the brunette suggested switching. The market was placed at the skirt of the town but on the other side than where they lived.
They broke the stand and the youngster wondered at the amount of vegetable they had.
"Does Granny have a secret garden?"
"No, but it is really hard to move in the greenhouse. Also there is compost at the back of the garden where the melons are doing extra great. Plus I am not a fan of veggie anyway."
"Really?" Piper looked her up and down. "But your body is of a healthy eater ready to advertise eating veggie all day long."
"That is a business trick," she winked and offloaded the truck. She looked around and nodded to someone. She turned back to her partner and requested, "Would you mind keeping an eye on the stand? I will get us some bread."
"Sure."
The brunette took a basket which was set aside, covered with a doily and left. "If anything, just give me a call."
Before Piper was able to utter something, her companion was gone.
It did not take long for the dark-haired woman to get back, however meantime the city person was proud of herself that she managed to sell out the eggs, one basket of tomatoes and some peppers. "Good job, Pipes," praised the older of them proudly.
The girl's chest puff out yet her cheeks tinted crimson as she blushed. Her parents were rarely proud of her and it was nice to hear she was useful.
On the way back, again Alex drove through the town and Piper took over to get them home. She was excited telling her grandmother about the market experience and the elder lady suggested that maybe she should think about a Business school as well.
They spent some quality bonding time over the game of Scrabble and Jenga. For an old woman, her grandmother was quite precise and in contrast most of the time Alex lost the round. Ah, at least there was something which lowered the brunette's intimidation.
Until it was bed time and the girls really did not want to sleep, they got comfortable on the bed taking the laptop with them and watched some movies. Fortunately they had very similar taste, so it was not hard to agree on the genre, alas it was hard to actually finish until the end as Alex fell asleep on the blonde's shoulder who just turned her head and took a deep breath smelling the familiar scent of mint shampoo and wildness. The smell put her at ease and instead of the occasional nervousness, she felt calm and soon fell asleep as well. Yup, she really liked movie nights.
Unless they were watching supernatural werewolves and vampires which they could not agree on the best version and Alex always had comments about the stupidity of this or that adaptation because in reality many things could not work. Hence Piper was determined that it did not matter as nothing was real and during the actual full moon night, the younger girl was about to go into the forest, spend the night there and prove the non-existence of anything supernatural. It was the first time she saw Alex honestly scared and even though she wanted to laughed, the older of them had nothing of it and insisted that the visitor would just sleep tight in the bed with closed windows and locked door. It was another quarrel the blonde lost but seeing the fear in her friend's eyes, she promised to stay in. Actually the teenager stayed in her grandmother's room as the lady requested her presence because she was still hunted of the event so many years ago when they were attacked by a huge wolf and Granny still had nightmares, Well it was just one night and Piper was willing to sacrifice herself for her grandparent's comfort, even though it was not fair that she had to sleep in a recliner while the ward had the whole bed for herself.
In the morning, the youngster needed a proper stretch before she forced her muscles to work as her body was stiffed from the sleeping chair. She stood up and went to the kitchen where the breakfast was already served.
Alex greeted her with a tired smile. "Hey."
"Wow, you had the whole bed for yourself however you look worse than me."
"Yeah, tough night."
"Did the movies get under your skin and you dreamt about howling at the moon."
The other girl chuckled. "You have no idea. We are switching to fairy tales."
The village life was not as dull as one would have thought. It was peaceful with different daily routines and duties, but not boring at all. Piper actually enjoyed it as it was so different from the city and actually she even learnt how to cook something.
The vacation at Granny's was over and it was time to return to her arguing parents and annoying brother.
Hopefully the year would pass by soon and they all would meet again next summer time. Unless Josh finally noticed her and he would take her to a romantic cruise through the Caribbean Sea.
