Sorry for the day-late update, but Monday was my stepmom's bday and yesterday was my dad's bday. (They're actually a year apart, not born the same year, but it's neat their bdays line up.) We didn't do all that much together, my dad didn't even take off work for his own bday, but I did spend the day off my laptop, for the most part. Also I baked him a cake, would've done one for my stepmom too, but she's actually the one who came up with the idea so I just facetimed her while she was at work so me and my brother (sister's in another state with her own dad) could sing to her as well and so they could sing to each other when we did the cake around one forty-fifty or so before he left for work. [Also: I try to keep it at a minimum, but you may have by now noticed I overshare a lot! So sorry for that, I guess it's just kinda a habit. I usually edit out like half the notes I write at the end of my chapters, but I do tend to ramble, as well. And would you look at that, I did it once again. Sorry.]
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan. And so, accordingly, I do not own any works credited to that name. (Or to related names. i.e. Uncle Rick.)
I pretty much spent Friday continuing to paint the first guest room. By the time I had to clean up and get ready to head to the school to watch Jay's tryouts, I had finished the left wall and started on the back one, getting about a third or so of it done.
When I got to the school and went to the football field, I sat on the bleachers with Maddie and Lydia. Maddie handed me all of my work from yesterday and today, which I had asked her to get. I could do it over the weekend, two day's class work really wasn't that much.
"Lee!" Jay called. I looked at him from the bleachers and shook my head. He gave me puppy dog eyes, and I sighed.
"Fine!" I called back. He smiled broadly.
I went down to join him on the football field. He was a fast runner, and he always used to have me throw footballs for him to catch. I was great at throwing a perfect spiral.
I threw the ball to Jay, and he caught it as he ran. He'd run back to me about halfway and toss the ball back. We went on like that for a few minutes until the team was out on the field with the coach, watching us. I tossed the ball to the coach, who caught it, and went back up to the bleachers to sit with Maddie and Lydia.
I watched as the coach had Jay do a couple of different things to see where his talents lie, and I watched as he set up a little simulation. "Ashton, Tucker, you're offense. The rest of you, you're the other team. Go." The coach tossed the ball to Kiernan and nodded at him. The team and Jay set up to play. Kiernan was obviously the quarterback of the team, and the coach had set up the mini simulation so that Jay was playing the part of wide receiver. Jay would make a good wide receiver, he was exactly what the role needed. Fast, tall, and light in weight.
After running through the mini game, the coach blew the whistle and called all the boys over. "Tucker, how'd you like to be wide receiver for Spruce Creek High's football team?" The coach asked. Jay smiled wide, and the coach dismissed the boys from practice, telling Jay they'd get him a jersey by next Friday.
Maddie, Lydia, and I went down into the field to congratulate Jay, and I told him I knew the coach was setting him up for that position. He just smiled wide.
"What is she doing here?" A haughty voice asked. I turned to see Chelsey in a cheerleading outfit, coming from wherever the cheerleaders had been practicing.
"Supporting my brother in his football tryouts?" I asked. "Is that a crime?"
"Attacking people, and stabbing them is." She sneered. I sighed.
"Did you see the wound? No. And don't try to tell me you did, because it was literally just a scratch, less than you might get from falling down on the ground." I told her.
"You're a lying bitch. You attacked the three of them, and you stabbed my friend." Chelsey accused. "And we're going to gather the evidence, and report you to the police, who will lock you away like the crazy psychopath you are."
"Chelsey. Come with me." Kiernan said, walking away from us to where he was just out of earshot. Chelsey sneered at me once more, then turned and flounced over to him.
W couldn't hear what Kiernan said, but we could clearly hear Chelsey shouting at him in response. "No! I forbid it!" He said something else to her. "You will not dump me, Ashton! If this relationship is going to end, it will be on my terms!"
Kiernan said something else, then turned and started walking back towards us.. "Well, I slept with Chase last week!" She said haughtily, obviously trying to make him jealous.
He stopped for a moment, looked over his shoulder, and said "Good for you. You're both players and fakes anyways." She stormed off, and Kiernan wouldn't say anything about it when he reached us again.
In the time it took Kiernan to shower and come over after practice, I finished my schoolwork from the last two days. The teachers weren't really requiring me to do much.
When Kiernan got up to my room, his hair was still wet, and his shirt clung to his chest. I put away my finished work and we went down to the music room, me grabbing my journal first.
We were almost done writing the song when my mom entered the room. We stopped for a moment so we could hear what she was going to say.
"Okay, two things. Lyric, next Friday, I'm heading up to Blackmeadow Range for the weekend, so you'll have to find someone to stay with since we don't have spare keys yet. Jay's already figured out where he's staying. I won't be leaving until you get home though, so you'll be able to grab any last minute things or even whatever you'll need for the weekend." Mom said.
"You should bring us up for a weekend next time. I've never been, and Jay hasn't been in a couple years. I remember I never wanted to go because it was too long a drive." I said. Mom laughed.
"That's because it was always a fifteen hour drive from that area of New England. It's only two hours from here to go see my brother. But I'll bring you guys next time." Mom told me.
"Two hours is much better than fifteen. Long car rides like that make me feel claustrophobic and restless. Unless I manage to fall asleep. It's okay, then. But otherwise, I feel nauseous." I said with a shudder. Mom just smiled.
"Anyways, another thing." Mom turned to Kiernan. "Mind inviting your parents over for dinner seems they're in town tonight?"
"Sure." Kiernan said.
"I totally vote we finish this first. We're so close to done." I said.
"Well, dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. Your family is invited." Mom told Kiernan, and he nodded. Mom went back downstairs.
We finished the song about five minutes later. We really were close to done. We played it through once, to see how it sounded.
When we finished playing, I jumped up from my seat at the drums and hugged Kiernan, who was sitting on the piano bench. He turned and hugged me back. I was really excited, proud of the song we had written.
After a few moments, I let go of him and stood. I shoved my drumsticks in the back pocket of my skinny jeans. I left my red and black flannel unbuttoned, under which I wore an olive green tank top. "C'mon, let's go invite your family." I said as Kiernan stood from his seat.
"In a moment." He said. I gave him a confused look as he joined me by the door. My hand was on the knob, but I paused before opening it.
Instead of saying anything else, Kiernan leaned over and kissed me. His lips lingered for only a moment before he leaned back, winked at me, and said "Let's go invite my family." As we exited my house, he acted like nothing had happened. Leaving me to wonder what the hell had happened.
When we got into his house, we went into the kitchen. Inside was a man and woman, Kiernan's parents.
"There you are, Kiernan. We didn't see you when we got home." His mom said.
"He was over my place. We finished the song we were writing for our music project." I said happily, waving my drumsticks in a cute little wave. When had I taken those out? I shoved them back in my pocket.
"Lyric's mom invited us all over for dinner, which will be ready in about ten minutes or so." Kiernan said.
"Alright, why don't you run upstairs and get your sister? Mason is at a weekend camp." Kiernan's dad said. He exited the room.
"So you're musically inclined?" His mom asked.
"More like performing and visual arts inclined. I'm in music and art at school, I take Contemporary and lyrical dance classes, and I paint in my free time." I said. "I'm also taking taekwondo."
My phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it. "Hello?"
"Lee, there's some guy here to see you. I left him outside, said I'd get you. He says he's one of your dance instructors." Jay told me. I paled.
"Jay, do not let that man into the house. You and Mom need to stay away from the door. I'll be there soon." I said, and hung up. I looked at Kiernan's parents. "I need you to do a couple things for me. One, call the police and tell them that there is a dangerous man outside your home. Two, do not leave this house. I wouldn't put it past him to harm anyone who got in his way."
They looked frightened and confused, but Kiernan's dad pulled out his phone. I immediately left the house and went over to mine, where he was waiting by the front door.
"How did you find me?" I asked him.
"You will speak to your father in English." He told me.
"I'm good." I told him. He slapped me across the face, but I barely felt it. "Why are you here?"
"Isn't it obvious? I've come to collect my daughter." He told me in that hate filled voice of his.
"I'm not an object that you can do what you like with." I told him. He slapped me again.
"I am your father, and I own you. Now, quit speaking that infernal language!" He shouted.
"You're the one who taught me to speak it." I said.
"No, I did not. That was a trait you picked up from your insolent mother." He told me. That confused me. I never even knew her, how did you pick up a language from someone like that?
"Now, come with me." He said. "We're leaving."
"No, we are not. You are. I'm not going with you." I told him. He backhanded me this time, rather than slapping me.
At this point, Mom and Jay must've realized who it was, because they came outside. Mom started to shout at my father, threatening to call the police, asking how he found us, and Jay stood protectively in front of me. I really wished they had stayed inside.
After a moment of her shouting at him, my father shoved my mother into the side of the house so hard she fell to the ground and could not do more than sit up. My father made to grab at me, but Jay grabbed his arm and kept him away. Next thing I knew, Kiernan was helping Jay restrain him.
"So that's what you do? Find out dear old dad's visiting and set up an ambush?" My father spat, his arms held tightly behind him by my brother and Kiernan.
"I told you all to stay inside!" I said. They weren't safe out here with him, even with him restrained like this. No one was.
"That's it, speak English." My father cooed.
"Shut the fucking hell up, bastard!" I screamed. The wind howled and clouds covered the sun, darkening the sky.
"Where did you develop such a tendency to curse, child?" My father asked mockingly.
No one else saw it, and I almost missed it, but my father had a knife. I tackled Kiernan out of the way, so that the knife only lodged in my hand rather than his abdomen. I stepped back in surprise, but never once cried out. Jay, on the other hand, looked like he was going to vomit, while Kiernan was stunned. Mom was still in the ground, but she had managed to prop herself up.
"Damn girl." My father cursed as Jay grabbed his other arm and Kiernan pulled himself back up.
"What was your plan? To come get me and hurt me even more like you've always done? Or were you really going to kill me this time?" I asked.
"Not a single word about the blade in your hand?" My father asked, an eyebrow raised.
"What can I say? You've toughened me." I replied. I pulled the blade out of my hand just as a stream of cop cars arrived.
I probably wasn't seen in the best light, holding a bloodied knife in front of a restrained man, because a cop got out of his car, gun pointed at me, and yelled at me to drop the weapon. I did so, and held up my bloodied hand that was now gushing blood. I probably shouldn't have pulled the knife out. "It's okay, I was just pulling it out of my hand." I called to the cop. He blanched for a moment, probably at the fact that I was so totally calm about this.
"Is this the dangerous man you've got restrained?" The cop asked, coming over, gun lowered but still in hand. More cops were getting out of their cars. I realized they hadn't used sirens so not as to alert the dangerous man that was called in.
"Yeah, I had the neighbors call after my brother called me while I was over there and said a man at the door claimed to be one of my dance instructors. They're all female, for my classes." I explained quickly.
"And how did you know it was a dangerous man?" The cop asked.
"Because he's pulled something like this before. Except that time he went to my school, pretending to be an uncle. When they told me I was being dismissed by my uncle, I told them my uncle lived fifteen hours away and I had never met him before, so he wouldn't be dismissing me from school." I said.
"Who is the man?" The cop asked. "A stalker?"
"Yeah, my father. I was taken away by Child Protective Services when I was six for a reason, bastard." I spat the last part at my father.
That unfortunate moment was when my father decided to elbow Jay in the gut, run about the yards, and turn back around, gun in hand. He pointed it at the officer, whose own gun was aimed. Every other officer there had their guns trained on him, too.
"Lyric, be a dear and come here, before I shoot one of your friends." My father called.
"No." I said simply.
"Stop speaking that infernal language or I'll shoot you!" He shouted. I realized that it reminded him of my mother, because she had apparently know it. But I wasn't going to stop speaking a language because my psychotic father couldn't deal with his past.
"I can speak whatever damn language I want! I don't care if you can't deal with the past and this language reminds you of my mother! I'm not just going to stop speaking a language just because my psychotic father can't deal with his past!" I shouted.
"Lee, not the thing to say to an unstable man with a gun." Jay said in a low voice that my father could not hear. I turned to him.
"I don't care! He abused me until I was six, showed me nothing but hate! My earliest memories are of hiding and crying and being beaten until I fell unconscious! I'll yell at the bastard however damn much I want!" I shouted. Tears were starting to fall down my cheeks.
The next thing I knew, a shot had gone off, I was on the ground underneath Kiernan, and a whole bunch of other shots went off.
The chaos ended about sixty seconds later, thought it felt more like sixty hours. Kiernan was still on top of me, and I was about to ask him if could get up when I saw the blood on the side of his shirt. "He shot you." I whispered.
"Did he?" Kiernan asked. He looked down at his shirt. "Guess he did."
"Kiernan, I'm dizzy." I said. It was hard to keep my eyelids open. I had lost a ton of blood after pulling that knife out of my hand.
I faintly heard someone yelling for an ambulance to be called. I felt Kiernan collapse against me, likely from the shock of it all, and you know, getting shot, just as my eyes slipped closed and I lost consciousness.
Oh, the little bit of a cliffhanger we've got going on here. And the sudden appearance of a deranged man. What will happen next? I don't know! (Actually, I do, but I was just saying that to be dramatic.)
Just as was the case with taekwondo, I know next to nothing about football. Feel free to correct me on anything, I just did a little research to see what I could find and try to make it accurate. (God, I know more about football and basketball game/meet schedules than I ever wanted to from researching for this other fic that I work on off and on. And I don't even need it that much!)
Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You are not inclined to do any of those things if you do not wish, but I appreciate it all the same!