Day 1 of being a (pre) godmother: More Monsters (kids, whatever) and Four is Still a Jerk
When we wake up the next morning, it's easy to tell who are the morning people, even for me, and I've been gone for eight years.
(Needless to say, the Pedrad backyard is quite a sight for someone who got about five hours of sleep.)
Observing the yard, I take some close up footage/narration in my head as I watch my wacky friends. Still sleeping (aka will be woken up with a big bucket of ice water), there is
a) Shauna (that girl could sleep through an earthquake)
b) Uriah (who I have recently discovered snores like an elephant)
That's going to be fun. I consider calling dibs on waking up Uriah, but it's probably already decided who will do it.
Looking as if they didn't sleep for a decade and will die without coffee, there is
a) Me (I don't have a mirror, but I'm sure I don't look so hot and I feel even worse)
b) Zeke (to be fair, he has to deal with the devil's minion Alé so I don't really blame him)
c) Will (this kid has coffee running through his veins instead of blood. He smells like coffee. His soul is made of coffee. Caffeine is his only purpose for living. He needs coffee to speak coherent sentences. His brain runs on coffee. He smells like coffee. Will is coffee)
Looking as though they are wired on happy juice we have
a) Christina (is this a hormonal thing or is she always bouncing off of the walls)
b) Marlene (who has prepared breakfast, put away the unused tents, saved the universe, and mowed the lawn all at 4:30 am and is now evidently bored, sorting our pajamas by most color coded, cutest, comfiest, and saddest. It gives me a headache just looking at her)
And last but not least, the most-likely-to-kill-a-man-and-look-good-while-doing-it-even-though-they-probably-just-escaped-from-jail people
a) Lynn (is this surprising)
b) Four (who is giving the best intimidating wolf stares one can give while wearing a batman onesie and is currently staring into the abyss, and when I smiled at him looked at me like get away from me, creep which made my blood run cold.Reminds me why I hate him, really).
Long story short, it is one of those mornings when the sky is holding it's breath, your friends are catatonic, and you are rolling your eyes at the universe.
I, for one, am happy to be here anyways.
I smile at Marlene, who has decided to wake up Uriah. I want to see his face when it happens, but my plastic lawn chair is too comfortable to leave, sort of. I also want Mar and Uriah to have a little alone time.
Drifting off into thought, my gaze transfers to Four, who is smirking. Shauna, it seems, was just woken up by Zeke and is now half-heartedly beating him over the head with a pillow. Zeke is putting his hands up in surrender, and I laugh.
"Anyone want to watch a movie?" asks Christina. I groan. I love her to pieces, but Christina talks a lot during movies. She did move here from Candor.
"Umm…" says Will, looking apprehensive. He must be on the same track as I am. Chris looks at him, her eyebrows raised. I cannot read her face-is she amused, or annoyed, or both?
"What?" she challenges.
Will is saved from answering by a sudden entrance; Marlene, who is tugging a dripping wet Uriah behind her.
"We have an announcement to make," she begins.
Uriah beams. "I'm pregnant! And engaged!"
We stare at him blankly.
"Oh," he stammers out, turning red, "I mean, we're pregnant, well, no, Mar's pregnant, but we're engaged-did I get that right, Mar?"
Marlene gives him a bemused smile. "Yeah. Well, you tried, anyways."
We burst into a round of applause, hugs, and laughs. Zeke asks if there are any more pregnancies, and if there are to please tell him now so he can buy all the presents in one go. Four assures Zeke that he's not pregnant. I would laugh, but then I remember the cruel look from earlier and the smile slips off my face.
Mar says Lynn is the godmother (she and I exchange godmotherly fist bumps) and the wedding is planned for May. Uriah nods along; grinning like he's five and it is Christmas morning. Every once and a while he'll look at Mar and his face will light up staring at her, memorizing her features. I feel partially jealous. No one has ever looked at me like that. Well, Al doesn't count. No one I want to look at me like that looks at me like that.
I see it in the way Will smirks at Christina and puts a hand over hers, in the way Zeke and Shauna laugh with each other and share a kiss, holding Alé between them, in the way my parents would slow dance when they thought Caleb and I were asleep.
I want that feeling. For no particular reason I look at Four at this thought, who is pretending to chat seriously with Aléjandro. He actually looks good, and kind, and sweet, joking around with Alé. Maybe I was judging him wrong.
Thinking like this makes me think of our kiss-sour and sweet, rushed and soft, surprising and unsurprising, and that terrible feeling where I felt content, like this was destiny. This only proves he's a good kisser, I told myself then. Not that you like him. That would be stupid.
I walk over to say hi. Start anew, Tris, I command myself.
Four looks my up and down, scrutinizing my sweats and old soccer jersey, and I feel my skin crawl. I want to shout that he can't judge, he's standing with bedhead in a batman onsie on the grass, but I manage to shut my mouth.
Alé does not look at me that coolly, but instead shies away.
"It's Auntie," he whispers into Four's collarbone. I feel my cheeks redden. Trust the monster to make things more awkward.
"Why are you over here?" Four asks.
"I thought, since we were godmother and godfather, we might as well not be at each other's throats the whole time," I say.
Four does not respond, just glances down at my small frame again. I indignantly cross my arms and turn away. I know I'm short, but can he at least make an effort to look at my face instead of the top of my head? Everyone else does.
"Okayyy, that went well," I mutter, heading to the coffee carafe and pouring myself a mug. Looks like Four the stony jerk is officially back. Let's throw a party.
I can feel his gaze upon me now, but I refuse to stare back. If he doesn't pay attention to me when I talk to him, why should I? Even though he's staring, not talking.
Wait. Four is staring at me?
I freeze, unable to turn around. What if he knows I still think about that kiss? Does he still think about that kiss? What?
My coffee cup slips from my fingers and spills onto the dirt, cracking into a thousand pieces. I barely register the mug's crash, or the steaming liquid racing towards my bare feet.
Christina takes care of that problem for me.
"Tris!" she yells, tugging me out of the danger zone. "You okay?"
"Fine, just…zoned out." I say. My eyes sweep over the group, who are looking at me worriedly. I try not to let my gaze linger on Four, whose face is blank. In a desperate attempt to call attention away from myself, I ask "How about a movie?"
Chris punches her fist in the air, triumphant. Will whispers in my ear, "Make it something you've seen before. You'll never be able to hear, much less understand a new one with this gang."
I agree.
On the way in, Four says, "Tris."
I give him a questioning look, letting Shana and Lynn file around me. "What?"
"Be careful," is all he utters before he and a dozing Alé slip past me into the house.
We watch Singing in the Rain, which I barely register because I am too busy thinking about what Four said.
Why does he care? All he's done is watch be bullied and ignore me. "Be careful?" Too late now, jerk.
I am not sixteen anymore.
Day 45 of pre-godmotherness: Names, Girlfriends and Taxi Cabs
Pregnant ladies are extremely hard to negotiate with, as I learn from being around Chris and Mar.
Four and I, designated baby helpers, have just been shoved in a taxi to get to Lynn's apparent girlfriend's business because they sell baby stuff, which is confusing and hard to register before you add in the fifteen degree weather. Try to resist? Please. Christina and Marlene give death glares worse than Four's, I've learned.
I read the address (written in Chris's illegible handwriting) to the non-English speaking driver numerous times before giving up and passing all responsibility to Four, who thankfully paid attention in Foreign Language and is now communicating in broken French to the driver. It is freezing outside and I am thankful for the cab's warm interior.
When we get out in uptown Chicago, Four and I begin run to where we can see Lynn waving at us from inside a warm, cozy looking shop hidden amongst the loud skyscrapers. I can see my breath when I pant, sprinting to get out of the crisp winter air.
"Since when did Lynn have a girlfriend?" I ask Four while waiting at the stoplight. He shivers impatiently.
"Her name is Lauren. Apparently she is assistant manager to this company that designs baby clothing, strollers, stuff like that. Didn't you know?"
I purse my lips, frustrated. Is he trying to remind me that I basically left the group for almost a decade? "No, I didn't."
"Huh."
The light changes, and we receive a few looks for leaping across the sidewalk like gazelles, but most let it slide. People here have seen stranger ways of running.
The door jingles when we all but crash into it, desperate for warmth. If there is one thing Four and I have in common, it is a distaste for cool weather. I'm not crazy about scorching heat either, but it definitely beats the cold you can feel in your bones like today's weather.
Lauren, who has long brown hair and warm green eyes, invites us inside. The first thing she says is, "Cold out there, huh?" with a smirk.
She reminds me of Lynn. I can see why they're together.
Before we left, Chris and Mar asked for some magazines from the store, a few photos, to buy all the stuff on their wish list, and a large jar of pickles, preferably with peanut butter. I have decided never to be pregnant.
Lauren gives us a tour, with her boss Juanita, who has told Four to call her Nita, flirted with him three times already and I have decided is not to be trusted, tagging along. Lauren is very helpful in picking out baby stuff I think Christina and Marlene will like-when she isn't kissing Lynn, that is. Nita just giggles and follows Four around the store. I wonder if she knows just how desperate she looks.
A half an hour passes, and I have never wanted to leave a place as much in my life. I mean, the store is fine-if you like baby stuff, which I don't really care about-but Nita is getting on my last nerve. She'll throw me glares whenever I ask Four if we're done yet or if Mar would like a blue or green or pink or red pacifier for her baby boy. Tapping my foot impatiently, I wait for Four to get the message. We're done, have been for a while now, and can we please leave? I'm hating the little pangs I get when Nita laughs at whatever Four says and I feel like I want to punch her. It's none of my business, and plus, it's Four. Why do I care?
Eventually Lynn tells from my glowers that this is killing me and escorts us to another cab, where we sit in cool silence the whole way to Christina's place.
Four leaves immediately after we drop off everything, but I stay behind to talk to Chris.
"Hey," I say. "Do you have a name for the kid yet?" Christina is having a girl, and couldn't be happier.
"Yeah!" she waddles over to me, and I laugh as she narrowly avoids tripping over her new crib. "Want to know?"
I straighten up. She'll tell me?
"Nora Skylar Beckett." She grins.
"Ooh," I chorus. It's a very pretty name. "Do you know if Mar has picked out a name yet?"
Mar pokes her head into the room. "Logan Samuel Pedrad."
"Gorgeous," we praise.
As they survey the stuff Four and I blindly purchased with Lauren's help with comments like "Hmm" and "Well" and "Ooh", I think hard about whether Four had enjoyed Nita's attention. Did he flirt back? Why do I care?
Do I want Four to flirt with me?
As soon as I think of it I wish I hadn't, for just like the blue eyes, the thought stays with me the whole day. I begin to imagine dating Four, and the handsome way he stares at people, and how my head would perfectly fit on his chest, but then I catch myself and shudder, earning several concerned gazes at dinner. As Zeke then begins to tell the tale of how he lost Alé in the supermarket and found him twenty minutes later pigging out in the ice cream aisle, I can't even listen, consumed by the outrageous thought that Four and I would work well together.
You guys are very lucky for the quick update. I had a lot of extra time and decided to sit down and type! Most updates will take two to four weeks. Polls on my profile are active, if you want to check that out, and hope you liked the chapter! The reviews were amazing and made me smile so much. Loved the name ideas! Thanks especially to the guest Kingdom Kid and the user FantabulousDivergentGal, who wrote astoundingly sweet reviews. Lets get 25 reviews for the next chapter, please. The answer to last chapter's question, as you can see, was an outburst of Uriah/Marlene. :)
Survey Question: What character should be introduced to the story?
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I've decided to put coffee in every chapter, hence the title. I don't even know why, as I don't particularly like drinking it. Thanks for reading! I wasn't expecting all the positive feedback. Please review. Also, I don't own Divergent.