And we're back... to the future! lol, sorry, I couldn't resist that joke. I hope you guys are doing well. I figured after the intensity of revisiting the village, a fluffy chapter would be appreciated, so buckle up for some good ole family fluff. And after this, we're on to the final 10 chapters of the story ovq tis a bittersweet milestone. I mean, I'm still going to come back and continue writing after RE9 that hasn't changed haha but still. Anyways. On to the shenanigans!
Song Suggestion: Fly Away by Tones And I
Disclaimer: I own nothing capcom please dont sue ovq I am a smol lvl 1 goblin and i do not drop good loot.
It was great to be home again. For Emma that only lasted for a day as she instantly had to pack up to go to New York for the weekend. Coming back to the little home on the cul-de-sac was a breath of fresh air though. Daily routines from months prior returned along with the sense of normality that they brought. Wake up, walk duke, wake up the kids, make breakfast and pack lunches before sending Chris and Rose off to the BSAA so she could go to work as well with Piers.
Emma smiled while thinking of this as she made her way home for the day, listening to the babbling child in the car seat behind her. He was going to be two in a few months. How crazy was that? It was strange, she'd gotten used to Rose's growth rate and because of that, it felt like he was growing so slowly. Rose was going to turn 4 in a few months too. Emma's smile fell slightly at that thought. She was growing so fast. Rose was maybe an inch taller than her now.
A defeated sigh escaped her as she shifted her focus to parking in the garage. Once the car was turned off, Emma got out and helped Piers out of his seat.
The toddler hurried over to the garage door and tried to reach for the door knob to no avail. While he'd grown to be about two and a half feet tall, the doorknob was barely out of reach, so he couldn't get it to turn.
Emma waited for a moment to let the child try before reaching to pick him up, just enough so he could reach.
Piers smiled at his sudden growth spurt and happily grabbed onto the doorknob to turn it, allowing the door to open. To his great delight, Duke was right there waiting to greet them and lick the child's hands and face to see if there were any leftover crumbs or jam from snack time.
"Duke, back up bud," Emma says as she slowly hobbles forward while carrying the increasingly heavy, giggling toddler. Once she was far enough into the house she put down Piers and closed the door behind them. She smiled as she watched Piers happily squeal and run off with Duke following closely behind. After taking she shoes off Emma made her way over to the kitchen to get to work on making dinner for the evening. She unlocked her phone to check the time before setting it up on the small speaker dock to play music. "Thank god it's Friday," She says under her breath while she gathered ingredients to get started.
She continued to Hum along to the music as she worked, and about 30 minutes or so later the garage door could be heard. "We're home," Chris announced as he and Rose walked in.
"Welcome home," Emma called back.
Rose remained quiet as she took off her shoes and watched as Chris walked away. Another day, another week, and even with all of her hard work to keep up with the rest of Hound Wolf Squad to prepare for the mission next week, Chris was still treating her like a child. She grumbled at this thought as she made her way up the stair towards her room.
When the others would do drills and exercises, she'd be told to do much less. When they were going over formations and combat, she'd be left to sit on the side. When they were going over strategies, she was told to listen and observe, but also stay out of the way. It wasn't fair. With that thought, Rose flopped on her bed. It wasn't fair. The director seemed to think she was mature enough, so why didn't Chris? With a pouting frown, Rose dug out her phone and went to the all-knowing, all mighty google to try and solve her problems. With a quick series of taps against the phone's screen, Rose was greeted with the results to her question. How can I look more mature?
The teenage toddler scrolled down a bit until one link caught her attention. A WikiHow article titled How to look older as a teenager.
Bingo, Rose thought as she clicked the link and started to read through it. The article provided a few different options with neat little cartoony pictures. Rose scrolled through the options and skimmed through the actual written advice. The first section talked about wearing mature clothing and dressing nicely. The next went over grooming habits, showing somewhat terrifying, uncanny faces that supposedly had makeup on. The last section went over behavioral changes, and it was all kinda boring and looked like it would take a while. So for now, she focused on the two things she could change now.
Rose got up and hurried over to her closet to start digging though it. There was always that dress from two years ago- that got destroyed. Right. As she went through her clothes, she found the more of it fit into the categories that the article said to avoid. Printed shirts with silly sayings on it. Clothes that were too big or too small. Clothes with too many colors and obnoxious patterns. With each rejected shirt tossed onto the floor, she grew more frustrated. If that article was right, she'd never be taken seriously like this.
She went through her whole closet and found a resounding nothing. Rose glared down at the pile of reject clothing before an idea came to mind that caused her expression to soften. She was about the same height as Emma now. Emma had lots of clothes for work. Rose peaked out of her room before slowly sneaking her way down the hall over to the master bedroom and gently closed the door behind her. Rose hurried over to Emma's closet after deciding the coast was clear, and she started shifting through various shirts and dresses. A beat up tub stat at the bottom of the closet and caught Rose's attention as it was labeled 'clothes'. It looked like the container managed to survive the whole house falling apart ordeal, and if Emma put them away that meant she didn't want them any more right?
The logic was sound enough for Rose to pull out the container and start digging through that as well. Her eyes widened as a grin formed as she pulled a sparkly dark blue dress out from the box. "Pretty," Rose happily cooed. While part of her was certainly entranced by the shimmering glitter, she slowly glanced back at the more boring clothes on hangers. "Next time," Rose says with a disappointed sigh as she put the dress down and went to get one of the boring business dresses.
One step down and one to go. Rose's eye tailed over toward's the master bathroom. She had a feeling she knew exactly where to find the last piece that she needed. She hurried over to the bathroom and flipped on the lights, so she could see, and quickly changed into the borrowed outfit before she dug around under the sink for Emma's makeup bag. It took a bit of hunting, but she eventually found the zipper pouch that held various crèmes, pastes and powders along with several weird looking brushes.
Rose read over the article again before digging through her options. "Okay, it says to use eyeliner to outline my eyes. Wear neutral colors, like golds and browns. Avoid bright or pastel colors, And use foundation." This was kind of confusing though. Did that mean eyeliner goes first?
While Rose got to work with the fancy face paints Emma was just about done setting the table. "Dinner's just about ready," Emma states as she put down the last of the silverware. "Chris can you get Pier's in his chair?"
"On it," Chris replied as he moved to get up and look for the smallest troublemaker of the family. It didn't take long to find Pier's Curled up on Duke's mostly abandoned dog bed by the couch, with Duke laying on the floor next to it. "Oh great," He said under his breath as he shifted to try and pick up Piers and hold him with one arm so his other hand was free to dust of the collection of dog hair stuck to the child. "You are not going to let us sleep tonight are you?"
"He didn't fall asleep did he?" Emma asks upon hearing the quiet question and upset whining of the confused child.
"Yeah, can't have been for more than twenty minutes though. I saw him running around when I came in," He forced a neutral expression as he carried the sufficiently dog hair free kid over to the table.
"Alright, well. With any luck he'll still sleep through the night," Emma replied before making her way over to the stair. "Rose? Rose it's time for dinner!" She shouts up. Not response. "Weird..." Emma says under her breath before glancing over to the front door. It was still locked, so she probably didn't slip outside. "Rose?" Emma asks again as she goes to make her way up the stairs.
Sure enough, Rose's room was empty with a giant pile of clothes on the floor and to her confusion the door to the master bedroom was open. Emma quickly hurried over and found that her room was similarly a mess, with light leaking out of the master bathroom. She cautiously made her way over to find Rose wearing one of her dresses which was a little too big for Rose and Rose's face was unevenly covered in a thick smear of foundation, bronzer, toners and way too much eyeliner. The majority of the containers were now cross contaminated as there was foundation in the powders, the eyeliner pencil was flattened while blush and eyeshadow managed to make its way into the foundation.
She wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. "Rose, what are you doing?" Emma asks instead which caused the young teen to jolt.
"Mom! Hey uh. Just. Trying some stuff I saw on the internet," She says with a nervous smile as Emma walked over to more closely survey the damage.
Emma took a deep breath as she picked up her favorite tube of lipstick that had been rather unceremoniously smashed into the lid, likely from Rose not knowing how to open it. Upon closer inspection of Rose it became more apparent that the shirt that she borrowed was now stained. "Well... I wish you would have talked to me first," Emma admits. Yes, Her child destroyed some of her things, but things can be replaced.
The disappointment in Emma's tone created the ever lovely kick in the gut feeling that came with guilt. "...Sorry," Rose says while avoiding looking at Emma, which was all the more difficult thanks to the mirror. At least when Chris got mad, she could get mad back. This just made her feel bad and there wasn't anything she could do about it.
Emma moved to gently put the lipstick back on the bathroom counter. "After dinner you and I will go to the store. I'm going to need to replace some of this," She stated and motioned for Rose to walk with her back downstairs. "If you still want to try using makeup, while we're there, we'll see if we can pick up some stuff you like." This would be a learning experience, for both of them. While she was trying to be the mature adult, she wasn't sure how to handle this. If she just told Rose that her attempt at using makeup looked awful that might hurt her desire to express herself and at the same time, letting Rose leave the house when she looked like a raccoon fell into a paint factory could be cruel in and of itself.
"There you are I was starting to think you got lo-" Chris paused as Rose's appearance finally registered. "What happened?" Did she get a black eye? What. Why?
Rose remained quiet as she moved to take her seat at the table.
Emma took her seat as well. "Rose decided she wants to try wearing makeup. Would you be able to watch Piers after dinner?" She simply replies as she moves to start serving herself from the various dishes on the table.
"Oh," Is that what that is? "Sure. I can do that." Chris agreed while trying to avoid any further comment on the subject. That was a danger zone he didn't particularly care to enter.
The remainder of dinner was eaten in silence. Well, Rose tried to eat, but found that her food would occasionally have a less than pleasant waxy flavor to it if it touched her lips first. Drinking water was nearly impossible without leaving stains on the glass and her eyes felt sticky to the point blinking felt like it took more effort than it usually needed.
The torturous meal time for Rose, gave Emma enough time to think of some semblance of a plan. Once they were both done, Emma started clearing the table. "Rose, before we go to the store, can you please wash your face? The clerk running the stand will want to show you how to use the products you pick and that will be easier if your face doesn't have make up already on it. There are some soft wipes in my bathroom labeled makeup remover. You'll want to use those."
"Oh," Well. That kinda made since. "Okay." Rose replied and hurried upstairs to do that.
"Are you sure about this?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Chances are she'll end up not liking it, but if she has her own to mess with, it will at least giver her a place to go to when she's more genuinely interested when she's older." Maybe she would have hesitated a bit more if Rose was any other little girl but, Rose was rose so 'Older' was going to be in a few months at this rate anyways...
"Alright," Chris says seeming unconvinced still, but he let it go.
By the time that Emma finished clearing the table, Rose managed to get about 85% of the makeup off and called that good enough. With that Emma gathered her Purse and the two made their way to the local mall. The drive there was uneventful, but the closer they got to the department store's make up counter the more nervous Rose felt.
"Hi How can I help you?" Asked the clerk after seeing Emma stop by the register.
"Hi, my daughter was interested in getting some basics of her own," Emma says as she put the unsalvageable containers on the counter.
"I see," the clerk seemed to quickly pick up on what happened. "Sure I can help with that. What's your name?" They ask as they made their way around the counter.
"Rosemary,"
"It's very nice to meet you, Could you take a seat here?" They requested and Rose did as she was told. "Okay then, Rosemary, let's get started. What do you want make up for?" they asked while trying to get a slight head start by picking out pieces that might match her skin tone.
"... I want people to take me more seriously," Rose hesitantly admits which caused the clerk to pause.
"Well," The clerk thought over their next words carefully. "Taking care of your appearance is certainly a good place to start with that." With that they got to work explaining different products, what they did and how to use them properly. The clerk would apply a bit of the product before handing the brush over to Rose and letting her try and do the same thing on the other half of her face. This ultimately resulted in a bit of a lopsided look with the clerk having far more experience but, it was also hardly noticeable since they went with very minimal application of nude tones. Overall, Rose's second attempt was a marked improvement from Rose's first attempt.
"How do I look?" Rose asks with a wide smile as she could even tell this was closer to what she was trying to do the first time.
"Very grown up," Emma says with a weak smile in return.
"Okay mom," The clerk says while picking up the products they provided for Rose. "We're okay with buying these?"
"Yep," And here came the learning portion for Rose. "After you finish ringing those up. Could you please let me know how much each of these will cost to replace?"
"Sure," The clerk replied and started ringing up each piece. "That will be $10 for the mascara, $28 for the powder foundation, $30 for the liquid concealer and" they paused as they entered the code for the last piece "Normally the lipstick is $26, but it's on sale right now for $18."
Rose winced as the price for each piece was listed off. That would take like 3 months of her allowance to pay for.
"The total cost for the replacements will be $92.88 with taxes," The clerk states. "Would you like to purchase that as well?"
"Yes please," Emma confirms while noticing Rose's shrinking back slightly. Emma shifted to look at Rose. "I'm not mad," she started off. "But I wanted you to hear that, because it's hard to tell how much something is worth just by looking at it. It's important not to assume something is replaceable, and ask before you use something that doesn't belong to you. Okay?"
"Okay..." Rose agreed before watching as the clerk put her make up in the bag with Emma's. "How much does mine cost?"
"Don't worry about that Rosey," Emma says as she moved to give the young teen a side hug. "I don't mind getting you started. Just be careful with it, if you have to replace it, then you'll have to pay for it yourself. Fair?"
"Fair," Rose agreed as her smile returned. "Thanks mom."
'*'*'*'*'
Unfortunately for Rose, the addition of makeup didn't change a thing. She went with Hound Wolf on their latest mission for a week and the only thing that it did was give her acne while she was still left behind to watch the camp. The lack of progress made for a rather sulky Rosemary who was currently in her room laying on her comfy fluffy new rug next to Duke while playing her usual Phone game with Rose.
[WinterR0se21] And then They made me go to bed early, can you believe it?
[AzureW01f] that suuuucks
[WinterR0se21] Watch your right there's a goblin
[AzureW01f] oh shoot good catch. thx
[WinterR0se21] NP
[Azurew01f] OH! I almost forgot! I saw the coolest thing while you were gone!
Rose raised an eyebrow as she saw a link show up shortly after this message. huh. A quick click took her out of her game and over to a webpage that showed white typewriter like text on a black background that held the band logo for Solence. Her smile grew as she scrolled down the page, which announced various dates and locations. One in particular stood out to here as she excitedly squealed. Rose quickly flipped back to the game so she could talk to summer.
[WinterR0se21] No way!
[Azurew01f] Yes way! We have to go! The tickets are like 80 bucks and we have 2 months until the concert.
And this is when the impossibility of the scenario started to set in. She already spent her allowance for the month, she'd have July and August... so if she didn't spend any of that she'd have $60... That would be nearly impossible.
[WinterR0se21] I don't think I can go. Even if I don't spend my allowance, I'd be short 20 bucks and my family is going on vacation next month.
She was definitely going to want to at least buy a snack or two during their trip. This sucked... if only there was another way she could get mon- Rose quickly sat up and hurried down the stairs. Rose quickly made her way over. "Chris Chris Chris,"
"What what what?" He asks in return as he quickly looked around for any sign of danger as Rose Skidded to a halt in front of him.
"Do you and Mom want to go on a date?" Rose asks hopefully. Please go on a date if you do, then you have to give me $20 to watch Piers.
"Why?" Chris asks as his previous concern shifted to confusion as his raised an eyebrow.
"Because I want $20?" Rose admits with a forced grin.
He should have guessed. "You'll get your allowance in a few weeks, Can it wait?"
"Not really," Rose says before peaking past Chris to look for Emma. "Mooom tell Chris you need to go on a date!"
Hearing this caused Emma to crack up. "What are you up to now?" She asked as she shifts her attention away from supervising Piers' toy time for the time being.
Rose took a breath. "Summer and I have this band that we really really like and they're going to be in town and we really wanna go but it's only two months away and the tickets are like $80 each and by the time of the show I'll only have $60 so I need to watch piers so I can get the last 20. Pleeeeease."
The rushed confessional left both parents at a loss for words. An $80 concert ticket wasn't actually an $80 concert ticket. it was $160 for two tickets because one of them would have to go with, plus parking fees, plus gas prices and that's also assuming she wouldn't see some t-shirt or poster that she HAD to have which would potentially result in a teenage fit about how it's not fair because she didn't know and that would turn into bargaining to try and get next month's allowance early. Not to mention dinner out because they'd have to eat something. So that $80 ticket would actually cost them roughly $240. And that's not including the expense of going on a date, so they can give Rose $20.
"Well. That's," Emma tried to start while she and Chris glanced at each other, seemingly having the same understanding. "Don't you think that's a little short notice?"
"I mean. Kinda, but I really want to go," Rose says in return before poking at her phone. "If I get to go, then I'll get to take a bunch of cool pictures with Summer and put it on my Pinstagram."
"What the hell's a Pinstagram?" Chris asks as he held the side of his head.
"It's like Pintrest and Instragram mushed together. I think one of them bought the other a year ago or something. but that's not the point," Rose explains before holding her phone up for Chris to look at. "Look at how boring it is. it's just pictures of Piers and the dog and some weird looking frog I found outside last week. I don't get to do anything cool."
Chris accepted the phone and scrolled through the various pictures of places around the house. "You get to travel on international security missions once a month now. What happened to that being cool and exciting?" Chris asks while still trying to process this lovely bout of new information. First it was crushes, then make up, now social media and concerts? When did she even make an account for this? How'd she figure out how to make an Email account?
"Well I don't get to do anything when I go with. Let alone take pictures of it," Rose countered as her expression soured.
"I think what Chris is trying to say," Emma starts getting up so she can walk over. "Is that we need some time to think about it." With that said she take's Rose's phone from Chris and hand's it back to Rose. "It's not a no, but it's not a yes either."
"Fine," Rose says as she takes her phone back. That probably meant it was a no, but they just didn't want to say so yet.
Chris waited until Rose was out of ear shot before speaking. "We can't afford that."
"I know," Emma quietly admits as she makes her way back over to Piers who was playing with a few stuffed animals. "I just wanted to buy us some time."
"Fair enough..." Chris replied as he moves to take a seat next to Emma on the living room floor. "Do you know what band she was talking about?"
"Maybe" She admits as they both shift to take out their phones. Emma went ahead and looked up the band from the poster she bought with Rose last month. Sure enough, they had a tour date in the area in roughly 2 months. "I could try calling a few old work friends. see if they have any deals they can cut. Maybe one of the guys at the station. They always have access to discount tickets for their promotional deals and contest."
"You're actually okay with letting her go?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow as he looked up from his own research.
"Well. If you take her and Summer it shouldn't be an issue," Emma offers in return. "And if we cut it down to one chaperone then both families could work together on the shared cost portion."
"It's still expensive," Chris points out. " but... If it's two months out... it's kind of close to her birthday. Maybe we can just get her one larger gift by letting her go."
Hearing this caused a slight smile to form as she picked up one of the stuffed animals to play with Piers. "You'd be willing to go with them?"
"Yeah, can't be that awful," Chris shrugged and went back to checking his phone. "Just check with Jack, see if Summer has asked them about the concert. If we're doing this as a birthday gift, then I won't bother talking to them about splitting the cost for the chaperoning. They're cutting it as close as we are."
Emma leaned over to give Chris a quick peck in response.
"Hey Em," Chris asks while poking at his phone.
"hm?"
"How do you make a Pinstagram account?" He asks while trying to find the login button, but the web page had no such feature.
"Why are you trying to make a Pinstagram account?" Emma asks through stifled laughter as she leans over again to look over his shoulder. Sure enough, he was on the mobile web page that advertised the app and not the actual app.
"Reasons,"
"Chris, leave Rose be. She can handle having a tiny bit of space for herself," Emma half-heartedly chides as she nudges him.
Chris looked back at Emma with a deadpan stare. "She doesn't even clean her room. Are you sure about that?"
Emma started cracking up. "Okay. That's fair," she relents. "You need to download the app first," She gently takes the phone from Chris and gets that started for him before handing it back. Emma watched Chris continue to work on setting up his newly created social media page with mild amusement for a little while before speaking again. "So, when do you think we should tell her?"
"Let's give it a bit. See if she behaves, since she's been running a hot streak lately. Maybe ask her to watch Piers for us as a red herring," Chris suggests. "We have wedding stuff coming up in a few weeks so, we would have asked her to watch him then anyway."
"Sounds like a plan," Emma agreed before turning her attention back to Piers.
'*'*'*'*'
Rose had been rather mopey since then. Three day's had passed since Rose got her parent's non-answer about the concert, yet Rose sat in the front doorway before heaving a forlorn sign as she enjoyed the cool, sunny Sunday breeze while the other kids of the cul-de-sac rode around on their bikes, skateboard and scooters.
Growing up sucked! Her latest visit to the doctor said she was almost on par with a 14-year-old now. Her clothes were either two sizes too big or three sizes too small. She had growing pains, ALL the times. She didn't have the money or freedom to do fun things like adults would, but when she tried playing with her toys, like her bike, she outgrew them too! With that thought, she glared over at the bike that was sitting on the grass. She tried riding it, but just sitting down on it was a chore and she looked ridiculous. Ridiculous wasn't going to work when she wanted the other kids to like her enough to talk to her.
"Rose, pick a side and close the door. We're not paying to air condition the world," Chris warned as he walked by.
Rose grumbled as she got up and walked in to the house so she could close the door behind her before slowly shuffling into the house. The sulking shuffle eventually lead her to the kitchen where Emma was in the middle of her usual weekend meal prep work.
"Oh goodness," Emma comments as Rose shifts to practically lay on the counter next to her. "It looks like a puddle just formed on my counter," With that, Emma reached to grab a paper towel from the holder and lightly wave that at Rose's face in an attempt at a joke to get the sulking teen to laugh.
Instead, Rose irritatedly batted the paper towel away. She wanted to talk, but also she didn't. It was weird.
"What's the matter?" Emma asks as she took the hint and put the paper towel down and went back to cutting up chicken breasts into bite size cubes.
"My bike's too small," Rose grumbled. "I outgrew it. Just like everything else."
"Oh. Oh, right. They replaced it for the exact same model instead of asking us about it..." Emma winced at that. poor kid. "What did you need your bike for anyway?"
"To ride it," Rose replied with an unimpressed stare. What else was she going to do with it.
The smart aleck reply caused Emma to roll her eyes. "It is nice out today." She says instead. "Are the other kids out too?" Emma asks even though she had a feeling she already knew the answer to that question.
"Yeah. Not like it matters but, even if I wanted to talk to them, it's not like I could keep up. What would I do? Just run alongside them? I'd look like a dork."
"You're pretty fast, and you've been keeping up with Hound Wolf well enough, I'm sure they'd just think you're good at running," Emma suggests as she tried to keep a lighter tone. What else could she do at this point. If she wanted a bike for her birthday instead they could do that, but it would have to be one or the other.
"I keep up with Hound Wolf because Chris makes them run slower," Rose countered with continued defeat.
"Now that's just selling yourself short Rose. You're doing well," Emma stopped what she was doing to walk around the child and get to the sink so she could wash her hands. "This is really bothering you, huh?"
"What was your first clue," Rose asks as she flopped her head over so she could continue to watch Emma.
"If you want my help, you're gonna drop the sass," Emma warned, though her tone remained patient. She turned off the water and walked back around to grab the discarded paper towel from before. "Come on. I think I have something you can use."
"Really?" Rose quickly perked up upon hearing this as she followed Emma out of the kitchen and over to, confusingly enough, the basement.
"Yep," Emma confirmed. "Luckily I moved them down to the basement after we finished fixing it up, so they managed to survive." she made her way down the stairs and around the corner to open one of the storage doors under the stairs. as she did so she eventually found a dusty duffel bag she hadn't touched in roughly three years. "Here we go." Emma unzipped the bag and stared down at the roller skates inside with a nostalgic smile. Technically, you're not supposed to use rink skate on pavement. Using them on pavement roughs up the wheels and can damage the rink, so you're supposed to have separate pairs. Emma only had the one. But there was nothing saying rink skates couldn't become pavement skates. As long as they didn't go back to the rink.
"Those look really old," Rose says as she looks at the clearly used skates with an attempt at hiding her disgust.
"They're broken in," Emma admits before offering them to Rose. "We're about the same high, same shoe size too so, they should fit you if you want to try them." Rose's scrunched up nose was not a lost social cue though. "It's either that or you're running."
"...Fine, I'll give them a try," Rose agreed as she accepted the offered skates.
"They take a little learning to get used to," Emma warns. "I can help show you the basi-"
"NO," Rose quickly rejected. "I mean. No thanks. It's not that it's not appreciated, it's just. you know." Rose stumbled over her words. How does she tell her mom she's kinda lame without saying exactly that. Having the other kids see her being babied by Emma, would be worse than running after the kids to get them to talk to her.
"Okay," Emma replied while trying to keep a straight face. "Make sure you wear a helmet." This kid is gonna learn a lesson today.
"Kay," Rose replied and with that, she quickly went back up the stairs to head outside. Rose sat on the grass by her abandoned bike and quickly got to work on taking off her shoes and putting on the skates. They were a smidgen tight, but not enough to be uncomfortable, since she was used to her clothes not fitting properly anyway. Once the laces were tied nice and tight Rose shifted to stand up and walk off the grass the second she did so the wheels began to turn and in a matter of seconds she lost her balance and fell over.
From Inside the house Emma stood by the window and watched. "Guess her helmet doesnt fit anymore too..." Maybe she should go and get Rose.
The soft thumping created by Emma tapping her foot got Chris's attention as he walked by, carrying a basket of laundry. "Hey," he says to get Emma's attention. "What's wrong?"
"Just, being a helicopter parent," Emma replies while keeping her eyes trained on the struggling teen.
"What's she doing now?" Chris asks as he put down the basket by the stairs so he could stand next to Emma. "Are those your skates?"
"Yep," Emma replied.
"Did you let her borrow them?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. He knew how much those meant to her.
"Yep,"
"You're still panicking," Chris points out as he gently rubs her back to try and get her to calm down.
"Well she's not wearing a helmet like I told her to so, This is a bit more dangerous than I thought it would be," Emma admits with a frustrated frown. "This little lesson about patience isn't worth a trip to the hospital."
"Looks like you don't have to worry too much," Chris says as he watches Rose start taking the skates off while scowling. "Her patience is already spent and she didn't make it out of the driveway."
Emma winced as she watched Rose toss the skates one after the other over by her bike and rigidly hurry back to the house.
"They're broken," Rose says while fighting back frustrated tears. She could barely stand, let alone move. What was Emma thinking, giving her those?! falling over hurt.
"Broken?" Emma asks as her concern compounded. "What makes you say they're broken? Did one of the wheels come off?"
"The wheels are too loose, there's no way to stand when they just move forward on their own," Rose explained before looking at a few scraps on her hands from catching herself.
"Let me go take a look," Emma replies as she heads outside to collect the discarded roller skates. she gave each one a quick once over to make sure they didn't get damaged from being tossed like that, and they seemed to survive the abuse. She breathed a sigh of relief before sitting down to put the skates on instead. While she was a bit rusty after her 3-year break, it wasn't particularly difficult to make her way out of the driveway and do a few laps with a few simple ground trick to test her muscle memory. The goal wasn't to show off though, just prove a point so after 3 or 4 laps Emma made her way back to the house and to the front door with relative ease.
Seeing Emma prove her wrong was beyond frustrating for Rose. If the problem wasn't the skates, that meant she was the problem, and she didn't want to be the problem.
"Well I don't think they're broken Rosey. They work fine," Emma confirmed as she steps into the house and closes the door behind her before sitting down so she could take the skates off. "I was trying to tell you before. They're not easy to use. New skills take a time and practice. Practice requires patience." Once the skates were off she shifted to stand back up again. "Practice can move a bit quicker and require less time, when you're willing to learn from someone who has more experience instead of struggling on your own."
Rose remained silent and avoided eye contact. It wasn't bad enough that Emma proved her wrong. Emma had to go and lecture her too? However to Rose's surprise the lecture didn't last very long and instead the skates were offered to her once more.
"So. Since the skates aren't broken. Do you want to practice?" Emma asks.
Rose looks over the dingy, old, worn out, boots with wheels. "I'll keep practicing." Rose agrees and accepts them back.
Tadah~ a nice Rose and Emma centered chapter with some good old character growth in the form of parental bonding and continued aging. Rose is now on par with a 14-year-old and the aging rate is continuing to get worse. It's been interesting doing the research for this stuff to keep Rose's mentality in line with her advanced age. Next chapter is gonna be one more fluff chapter and probably focus on more Rose and Chris fluff along with a bit of Chris and Emma time since they do have wedding stuff to do before we get back to the crazy daisy times.
