Chapter three!
If you couldn't guess, this is Justine! Yay!
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Oh by the way, I am no TP, no matter that I want to be like her when I get old enough!
You might notice that one of her brothers, the youngest, I said his name was Flow in the beginning but it is actually Fred, and Justin, her most annoying brother and second youngest, is actually Jerry. Some changes helped made by my beta, Sweet Sassy Sarah! Sorry! I will change that, but right now I am on a tight schedule and have to finish making this chapter perfect!
"JUSTINE!" Screamed a male voice, one floor above where I sat, a dreamy eyed girl, watching a mouse devour a piece of cheese. "Justine? Where are you? I need your help!" The voice called again. Sighing, I swung my blond hair behind me and pushed myself off of the floor, and started climbing the stairs out of the basement.
"Yes, Claus?" I called out to my older brother, who was soon going to be celebrating his 23rd birthday, and had been living at home now for about a week with his wife, Sadie.
"I told you an hour ago to do the laundry! I have no proper clothes to go out with tonight, and neither do you!" He screamed from down the hall.
"There isn't a reason to scream, Claus, I am right here!" I stomped into his room, leaned on his door frame, and huffed. "Besides, you are quite capable of doing your own laundry. And I do have something to wear when we go out tonight, actually. And I have something for tomorrow, when we have our Market Sale." The Market Sale was when all of the merchants put a lower price on all of their wares, for one day only, and people tended to buy more. It was a good and a bad thing.
"Oh! I nearly forgot about that! I'll need all of my clothes washed, then, Justine, and one of Pa's old hats from down in the basement, if you please." He was tidying up his room, which was tidy enough.
"I don't 'please.' I'm not doing your laundry when you have two very capable hands of your own. I feel bad for Sadie when you two live alone at your house. I bet she does all the chores!"
"Please, Justine." He sounded annoyed. "I can't deal with you right now. Just go and do what I ask!" "You aren't Pa, and you never will be!" I screamed at him. "Whenever he isn't around you always boss Fredrick and I around like we are babies! We aren't! Fred's fifteen and I'm thirteen and I don't need you to be calling and whining and making me do stuff like your personal maid! I am not!" I told him, my voice rising in anger. I flicked back a short strand of pure blonde hair, my tiny eyebrows knotting together.
"Justine, I am not trying to be Pa, I am just trying to take care of the house and you. And don't talk about Fred like he isn't here, he's right behind you!" I turned, but didn't see Fred in the hallway. Just then, Claus grabbed my middle and pulled me down to the floor. He wrestled me, and finally I managed to punch him in the stomach hard enough for him to let go.
"See? I am not a baby."
"No, but you are gullible! And that hurt!" Claus responded, rubbing his stomach. "Alright, I'll do my laundry, but you go make sure everyone's rooms are tidy."
"Yeah, what ever." I said as I walked. Even though I am the smallest in my family (my brothers are all over six feet, even Flow, and I am stuck at 5'3'') I can beat any of them at wrestling. It's how we decide arguments and split up chores. The stronger one always wins…and I haven't been beaten in a while.
"Ender? August?" Two of my older brothers were twins, and shared a room on the same floor as Claus. "You in your room?"
"Yeah, we're in here!" They said together.
"Claus said to have your room ready and made, and get some good clothes. We are going out with Pa tonight, remember?"
"Yeah, we remember." Ender said.
"Thanks, Justine." August added. Both were just turning eighteen in a month, which left Jerry. He is sixteen and a half, and probably the most annoying of all of my brothers, including Claus.
I had to walk up a flight of steps to get to the floor he shared with Mother and Pa.
"Ugh. Jerry? You in your room?" I was met with silence. "Jerry, you better answer me or I'll make you do your own laundry again!" A loud snore emitted from behind his closed door. "I thought so!" I barged into his room, banging the door with a loud Bang!
"Wow! What the…? Mithros, you scared me half to death," he said sarcastically, faking falling over. He was sitting on his bed, dressed in good breeches and a fancy tunic, smiling as he brushed through his tousled blonde hair.
"I was hoping you'd die. Darn. Get your room tidy. This place is a bomb shell. Claus is going to throw a fit."
"Why don't you clean it, oh Miss Priss, and I'll take care of Claus?"
"No, I don't think I will, and if you call me that one more time I will be sure to snap your head off of your thin shoulders." Everyone in my family was muscular…except Jerry. He took after my mother, skinny and lanky, but my had my father's height...like everyone else. I was short, skinny, and boyish except for my long blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
"Oh, I'll be sure to remember that next time, Gutsy Justine. Midget." I left his room, not caring to comment. Heading up the last flight of stairs, my room was small, with no door. It used to be the attic, but when I was born Mother wanted me to have some privacy so she gave me my own floor.
"Ah, home sweet home!" I plopped on my small bed before shedding the boy's breech's I had on and putting on a long, beautiful blue dress that matched my eyes. I always felt uncomfortable in only a skirt, but if I went out to something fancy in anything but a dress, my Pa made me turn around and go home to change. And then I was embarrassed and I had to wear a dress anyway.
"Is everyone ready?" Mother called from the first floor.
A chorus of "Yeah" and "In a moment!" floated down to her, and I laughed. Grabbing my hair, I yanked a brush through its dense, heavy layers before running down the stairs.
"JUSTINE! JUSTINE? JUSTI-" Mother was screaming as I ran to her side.
"Yeah, Mother?"
"You are going to stop my heart one of these days! Help me get the boys outside… go up and grab August and Ender or they will never come down. I shall have to take off that door of theirs if they can't hurry up…maybe some public views will help them move faster…"
"Yes, Mother," I said politely as I ran upstairs. Huffing and puffing, I knocked on Ender and August's door. "Hello? My gosh, hurry up! Mother's waiting!"
"We are coming!" They said.
"Hurry faster!" I waited in the hall next to their door until they came out, wearing proper clothes and good boots.
"Are you sure you are really thirteen? You look like a midget of ten, to me!" Ender joked. I punched his arm.
"And you look like a fool of a giant trying to pass off as a human. Come on!" I ran back down the stairs just as Mother was about to scream for us.
"Next time, you both take less time. Understand?" Mother scolded the boys.
"Yes, Mum, of course," they said together and grabbed some bread from the bread box.
"Stupid boys," I muttered.
"Like you're much better, fighting about putting on a skirt! You're a girl! Girls love skirts, especially that cute little gixie in the Market yesterday. What a sight!" August said and Ender nodded.
"I'll show you what I love…" I promised them and punched them both. "Once I am in something comfortable."
"Your brothers have a point, Justine. You're a girl, and I don't like it that you wear boy's clothes around the house and even out sometimes. Goodness knows what the people on the streets think!"
"I don't care what the people on the streets think! I barely care what you think, Mother. Let me tell you that!" I heard her sigh as I spun around and out of the door. Pa was already at the small restaurant where we were eating with someone he was trying to sell a big load of cedar wood to. Cedar is very expensive, but it looks wonderful anywhere and holds up for quite a long time. Claus and Pa talked to the man about it, telling him how wonderful it is, while I stared off into space.
"This is a fine young girl you have here, Master Cleo." The sentence bobbed into my head and I looked up from my plate, letting my hair cascade over my shoulders.
"Yes, I take great pride in her. My youngest, you know."
"Yes, yes…I've heard she was. I'm amazed she can hold her own in a house so packed with men. At least you have your Mother, right dear?"
"Right, Master…"
"Master Pier. I sell and collect special woods to turn into chests and drawers and things, and it keeps me happy, but I can't say I can claim to have a daughter as beautiful as you. I can't claim to a daughter at all, but my wife is due to give birth in a couple of moths."
"Congratulations!" everyone said as he nodded and smiled.
"Yes, yes, we are hoping for a boy, but should it be a girl I will take tips from your father on how to raise her," he said. With that, he signed a document that proclaimed he would buy all the wood, took his hat, and left with a flourish.
"He's quite strange," I commented.
"He's polite, and you don't be rude," Mother said.
"Yes, Mother."
:-X-:
Sitting on my bed, massaging my sore feet, I blew my short bangs out of my eyes.
"Gutsy Justine!" Jerry called softly from the stairs leading to my room.
"Annoying Justin. Why are you here? It's past bedtime!" I called just as softly.
"You promised me a fight, and as the one who got pulled into this, I pick the time and place. Now. Up here."
"We can't fight up here! They'll hear! And you weren't pulled into anything! You wanted to!"
"Whatever. Let's go outside!" "Let's fight tomorrow, please! I am tired!" I begged.
"I know. That's why I want to fight now."
"Why? So you have a chance of winning? You still don't and it just is making me grumpy talking to you like this."
"Just come down. One little scuffle and that's it, I swear!"
"Fine." I climbed off of my bed, and went down the stairs as quietly as possible. Halfway down, there Jerry sat, and we climbed the rest of the way down to his floor. Tip-toeing past Mother and Pa's room, we ran out of the rest of the house, until we were on the street.
"Hah!" Jerry laughed as he swung a punch at my head. Ducking, I kicked him in the ribs, hard enough to make him fall. Trying to get on top of him, to hold him down and proclaim myself as the winner, he hopped up throwing me off balance and punched me in the side. Taking the pain, I side stepped and twisted, then dug my heel into his ankle.
"Ow!" he screamed, trying to get his hands on my hair. Taking both of his huge hands in my small ones, I bit one of his pinkies. He screeched and jumped about for a while, until he pulled away from me. "Bitch. I know Mum was letting you get away with too much, but you aren't even fighting fair! I said hands and feet only!"
"Really? When? I never heard you say that!" I said and lunged at him, using my hands as shield and my feet to strike his knees, a much easier target then his stomach. He went down loudly, and then a bunch of hands grabbed me at once.
"Jeesh. Some poor lad must 'ave been 'aving some fun, and this gixie knew 'ow to fight!" one of the men holding me said, and I smelled the putrid sent of alcohol on him.
"LET. ME. GO!" I screamed. I hadn't realized, but while Jerry and I had been fighting, we had moved down the street, away from our house. They wouldn't be able to hear my yelling from here. I tried to jab my elbow at one of the men holding me, but he just held my arm tighter and bent it back.
"OW! I ORDER YOU TO LET ME GO!" I screamed as I fought tooth and nail against the arms.
"Oh hun, why would we do that?" whispered a voice, which smelled of alcohol and smoke. His hands reached a very off limits section of my upper body, and I screamed and kicked, which only made him laugh and laugh harder. "Oh, shut your trap! Ain't no one gonna save your sorry little butt now!"
As he said that, the wind picked up, blowing hard against the arms constricting me. "What the…?" a voice said, and he was blown down the alley. The other men were also blown toward houses, and some smacked into them so hard they began to bleed. Looking around, I saw Jerry laying on the floor, one eye black and blue, but fine.
"They left me and came after you!" he breathed. "What…where did they go?"
"I don't know.." I choked, tears streaming down my face. A wind came and took them away, leaving peace and happiness in it's wake. "I think I blew them away…"
"Magic? With magic, you mean?" Justin asked, sitting up.
"Yeah, I think. And wind."
"Huh. We should take you to get tested… for magic, I mean. There's a Temple down the way, you know the one. I'm sure you can get tested there."
"Can we do it in the morning? I'm beat."
"You are the color of a beet, too." Justin said with a smile.
"Oh shut up, Your not much better. What are we going to say to Mother and Pa?" And then it hit me. "OH MY GOSH! What are we going to say to them??"
"Shush, not so loud. Do want more of those loonies coming after us? Just tell them you fell out of bed and hit yourself on the closet, and I'll say…I wanted some water, and I tripped going down the stairs, and hit my eye on the railing," he said.
"Fine, but I doubt they will believe that. I don't fall out of bed," I said.
"Sure you do. We hear you fall all the time, right?" he asked, winking with his good eye.
"What ever. Let's go."
:-X-:
After Telling Their Lies…
We headed out to the Temple, saying we each wanted to catch up with some friends at the park…which was coincidently right next to the Temple. Very cool, I know.
"Hello? Dedicate…Sun Flower, is it?" Jerry asked, reading a slip of paper next to the man at the front desk.
"Yes? That's me," Sun Flower said.
"Hello, good day. My sister would like to be tested for magic. When can this take place?"
"Give me a moment, and I can do that right away. Come here, child. What's your name?"
"Justine," I said, trying to make it loud, but my voice shook and squeaked. Dedicate Sun Flower was making me nervous.
"Don't be shy. Step into the side room over there, close the door, and I'll be in in a second." I saw the door he was pointing at, which led to a room about the size of a closet with two chairs in it.
I walked in and shut the door, and noticed a circle of oils along the ground. Around the door, the oils had been swept away. Stepping over all the oil, I sat in one of the two chairs in the room.
"Good, good," said Dedicate Sun Flower a few minutes later when he came in. "I'm sure you want to know about the oil. It's a combination of Protective, Healing, Cleansing, Containing, and Binding flowers and spells, made by the famous Dedicate Rosethorn of Winding Circle, for me. Well, for the Temple, but she has a special brew made for me to test new Mages, in case some of the magic slips or someone lets a spell lose by accident. Now, I want you to clear your mind and think of the most peaceful thing you can."
Startled, I closed my eyes, but my thoughts jumped crazily between the oil and what happened last night, which was not in any way calming. Deciding to think instead of the air that had caressed my face last night and stroked my eyes, I smiled and sank into the chair.
"Mhm…good. Keep it up…" Thinking about how it swirled and wooshed, I wished it would come to me now. Just then, a breeze swept into the room.
"Oh…Oh dear!" Dedicate Sun Flower said, as the papers he carried twirled out of his hands and across the floor. Bending to pick them up, a smaller gust blew them to my hands. "My dear," he said, "you don't have academic magic, but you….you might be…you…I'll take you to Rosethorn. She'll know what to do with you…and your…wind." He was upset, and sweating slightly, muttering and stuttering. He went out of the room, beckoning me to follow. I handed him the papers, which he put down like they were burning bricks in the trash.
"But I don't…" I started.
"No, no don't talk…stay there. Please, don't come any closer. I'll just…tomorrow…I'll have someone take you up there…tomorrow," he said through gasping breaths and nodded, then turned to someone else in the room.
"So, it went well, then?" Jerry asked cheerily as he walked up to me.
Chapter three!! YIPPEE!
Another thanks to my wonderful Beta Sweet Sassy Sarah. I would suggest her to any and all of people reading, but I don't want her to be taken. :P.
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