HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I originally planned to have this already done by today, but of course, life got in the way :/
But it doesn't matter, the fanfic must go on! Enjoy my definitely cringe writing.
Luz paced outside on the porch. She was beginning to get impatient now.
What was taking all the others so long? She had been stalling for almost two hours now, and she was starting to run out of things to distract her abuela with to keep her from nitpicking Camila. Plus, some of the things she tried to use were beginning to backfire and just make Miranda scold Camila's way of going about things more!
So Luz had decided to try and clear her head out on the porch. She hated the idea of leaving her mamá to fend for herself, but she needed this for only a few minutes.
As she was pacing, she noticed two familiar witches walk down the sidewalk, and up to the house. The human felt a smile appear on her face at the sight of them.
"We're back, Luz!" Willow called out, waving.
"Jesus Christ, you have no idea what a relief it is to see you both..." Luz sighed. "I've been trying to keep the peace between abuela and mamá for over an hour, and it's harder than it sounds!"
"We can tell... Are you okay, Sweet Potato?" Amity asked, noticing how tired Luz's eyes looked.
"I'll be fine. Just a little stressed." Luz answered, "So, what'd you end up buying?"
Willow snapped her fingers, and a medium sized vine plant sprouted out of the ground, that was holding a large bag.
"We got a new tablecloth, pumpkin place-mats, and even found that Cornucopia thing you asked us to find!" Willow grinned.
Luz looked in the bag, a relieved smile appearing on her face. "Oh man, you two are lifesavers. This stuff is perfect!" She thanked the two.
"Of course! We were happy to help!" Willow smiled, which Amity followed suit with a smile of her own.
"Want us to just put this inside on the table?" Amity asked.
Luz was silent for a few moments, which Amity put together in only a few moments why that was.
"Those two haven't come back with the table yet, have they?" She deadpanned.
"No, they have not." Luz sighed, "And trust me, abuela made sure to point out the missing table to mamá."
"I'm sure they'll be back soon." Willow assured the stressed human.
Luz exhaled again. "I hope so-"
"What is going on out here?"
The three flinched, and turned to see Miranda walking out of the house and onto the porch. Camila was close behind, looking just as stressed as Luz was, if not more. Willow quickly undid her vine magic, hiding the plant she had summoned.
"Luz, who are these two girls?" Miranda asked, curious.
"Uhh... These are my friends!" Luz replied. "This is Willow, she's a friend from school who's joining us for Thanksgiving!"
Willow shyly waved, "Hi there..." she greeted.
"Hello! It's always nice to meet a friend of my nieta!" Miranda smiled, patting the shoulder of the witch girl. "Such a rare sight."
"It's good to meet you too, Ms. Miranda!" Willow politely smiled back.
Miranda then turned to Amity, "And who might you be, estimada?" she asked.
"I'm Amity, Luz's-" The witch girl began, only to be cut off.
"Friend! My uh, other friend!" Luz quickly said, smiling nervously.
"Oh, well it's nice to meet you as well!" Miranda smiled, shaking the hand of the slightly confused witch.
"Uh, nice to meet you too..." Amity greeted as well, confused on why Luz had stopped her from saying 'girlfriend'.
But before she could question it; the sound of grunting and panting was heard, and they all turned to see Gus and Hunter shuffling over to the lawn from the sidewalk. The two had switched up their tactic to carry the table. Hunter now was lifting it by holding his back to the bottom of it, while Gus was in the front keeping it from tipping over onto the grimwalker.
"We got the table, Ms. Noceda!" Hunter called out, heaving it over with Gus' help.
"It only took a few pulled muscles for us to get here!" Gus nonchalantly added.
They set the table box down on the grass, both of them panting with relief to get the weight off, while Miranda looked at them both curiously.
"Who are these two?" Miranda gestured at the two boys.
"That's uh... My oldest adopted son, Hunter, and his friend, Gus!" Camila claimed, pointing at said boys.
"Hi there!" Gus waved, easily going along with the role.
"Why did he call you by your last name then?" Miranda questioned, "Shouldn't he just call you mamá?"
"Oh! Um, it's just... Instinct, I guess?" Hunter reasoned, smiling sheepishly.
"Wow, so your adopted child doesn't even call you mom... That's certainly something." Miranda remarked, shaking her head in noticeable disapproval.
Camila inhaled heavily, resisting the urge to fire back. She knew it would only just make Miranda's comments worse if she did.
"And you really made them get a new table for you? Once again, clear evidence of laziness from you." Miranda added.
Camila grumbled under her breath, while Luz subtly made her way over to the two boys.
"What took you so long?!" She whispered sharply to them.
"We had to carry a heavy table over three blocks to get it back here! Give us a break!" Hunter snapped back, hushed.
"Why didn't you just do the same-day delivery option?!" Luz questioned, keeping her voice down.
"...Sorry, same-day delivery? They do that?" Gus blinked, taken aback.
"Yeah, in fact, it's free on your first order! Which is a horrible business strategy for a table making company." Luz remarked in a whisper.
"We carried this thing all the way here... AND WE COULD HAVE JUST HAD IT DEILVERED?!" Hunter exclaimed, no longer keeping quiet.
"What are you two yelling about?" Miranda questioned, hearing Hunter's outburst, which made the grimwalker blush.
But once again, before Hunter could answer, they all heard more grunting. But this time it was a bit higher pitched, and sounded more annoyed than worn out. Luz and the others turned to see King dragged along Eda back towards the house. The latter was holding multiple cases of various alcoholic drinks.
"Alright, alright already! Geez, you didn't have to drag me the whole way back!" Eda complained, as King finally stopped pulling her.
"We spent way too long in that store! Luz is probably gonna be upse-" King cut himself off when he noticed everyone on the porch. "Oh... Hey." He sheepishly waved.
"King, Eda! You made it back! Good!" Luz smiled.
"Oh, and you've brought drinks... Yay." Camila feigned un-enthusiasm. But in reality, she was thankful that Eda had gotten the liquor. It was already clear that her secret stash (that totally didn't exist) wasn't going to be enough to get her through the holiday week.
It was then that Luz noticed Miranda's silence, and tried to quickly cover in case she was about to question King's appearance. "I know he looks kind of weird, and it's why he-"
"Oh, que lindo!" Miranda gushed, quickly approaching King with her arms wide.
Those three words echoed through King's head as his eyes widened, remembering exactly what happened the last time he heard those words, and his fight or flight instincts triggered. He chose flight, and tried to scurry away. But to no avail, as Miranda scooped him up and snuggled him.
"How precious! You must be the second boy Camila adoptado!" Miranda smiled. "Your name is King, right?"
"Yes! I got adoptado and whatever else! Please, let me go!" King struggled in Miranda's grasp, "I can't believe this is happening AGAIN!"
"Hey, it's not her fault you're so small and easy to snuggle." Eda joked, smirking at the sight.
Miranda eventually put King down, and glanced at Eda.
"Hm, who might you be?" She questioned, looking the witch up and down.
"I'm Eda Clawthorne! King's distant aunt twice removed thrice added and removed again." Eda claimed with a smirk, and Luz resited the urge to facepalm.
She really should have known Eda would have used this as an opportunity to screw with someone.
"...I see." Miranda murmured, blinking a bit.
"Yeah, decided to drop by this Thanksgiving to see my nephew... Apparently." Eda added that last word with some amount of minor annoyance, having not been given a heads up on roles.
Camila chuckled with a hint of nervousness, hoping Miranda would buy the cover. "Well, we're glad-"
"I GOT THE TURKEY!"
Everyone flinched at the sound of the sudden voice, and running up from the sidewalk, came the Collector. He was holding a goose in his arms.
"It was so easy! They're everywhere over at the park!" The star-child grinned.
Everyone, especially Miranda, looked at the Collector in bewilderment as the goose in his hands honked.
"Collin, that's a goose." Luz mumbled with a hand over her face, keeping herself from yelling and hiding her annoyance.
She didn't want to take her frustration out on the Collector. Not now, and not really ever. He was just trying to help, he was just a little... Confused.
"Oh! That explains why those people back at the park were pointing at me and saying "What's that child doing with that goose?"..." The Collector murmured in realization.
Thankfully, Miranda didn't seem too put off by him holding the goose. If anything, she seemed amused.
"Who's this little niño?" She asked, smiling at the star-child.
"Oh, this is Collin! He's um... My second adopted little brother!" Luz smiled.
God, she was glad the Collector's first trip to the Human Realm had made it so she had to think of an explanation for the star-child's sudden presence ahead of time.
"Nice to meet you, Abuela!" The Collector greeted, holding his hand out (which caused the goose to wiggle free).
Miranda kneeled down, and shook his hand. "How polite! So young, and already a gentlemen." She complimented.
The Collector giggled a little, blushing slightly. "Thanks..." He replied back, already liking Miranda.
Eda then smirked as she spotted someone walking on the sidewalk towards them. "Well, well... Look who finally decided to stick their face out of the book store." She remarked, to which Lilith rolled her eyes at.
"We are SO sorry we took so long. Just lost track of time while in the library." Lilith explained.
"Hoot! They had an entire section on owls! We had to stay and read some of them!" Hooty added from his spot on her back.
"Uh, did your backpack just speak?" Miranda blinked, taken aback by Hooty.
Lilith opened her mouth to answer, but Luz beat her to it.
"Y-Yeah! He's one of those artificial intelligence things!" Luz claimed, "You know, like Alexa!"
"Oh, so Siri?" Miranda questioned. "I've heard of that!"
"Yep! Like that! This one is custom-made, responds to the name Hooty." Luz added.
"I'm full of amazing information and stories!" Hooty piped up cheerfully. "Would you like to hear one, hoot?"
"...Maybe later." Miranda blinked, still taken aback by the "AI" in the backpack. "Anyways, who are you then?" She asked Lilith.
"Lilith Clawthorne. I'm Edalyn's older sister." Lilith answered, seeing no reason to lie about her family ties.
"Oh, so you're also the niños' distant aunt twice removed thrice added and removed again?" Miranda asked, surprisingly being able to remember what Eda had said before.
"...Yes." Lilith simply replied, giving a confused glance at Eda, who simply smirked in amusement at the fake family tree chaos she had created.
"Okay!" Camila clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention. "How about we all head inside, and get settled while we wait for Raine and Vee to get back with the groceries?"
"Sounds good to me!" Gus smiled.
"Yes!" King agreed.
"Finally! A break from lifting tables!" Hunter grinned.
"...We still have to bring the box INSIDE, you know." Amity pointed out.
"Don't worry, I got this." Willow held her hand up... And with ease, heaved the box over her back, and began to carry it inside.
Everyone was surprised, while Hunter simply sighed fondly.
"Titan, I love her..." He smiled, following the plant magic witch as he did.
"Well Camila, I hope if you went through the effort of getting a new table, it turns out to be a good one." Miranda commented, and Camila gave a forced smile.
"I'm sure it is." She uttered out.
Everyone else began to head up onto the porch, and inside the house. But Luz stayed back with the Collector, thinking for a few moments. Eda turned as she got on the porch, looking down at Luz.
"Aren't you coming, kiddo?" She asked, noticing the human not following. "I figure you should be present when we start mixing the drinks."
"I'll be right in! Just wanna talk with Collin for a minute!" Luz smiled, gesturing for them to go on without her.
The second everyone had gone inside with the door shut, Luz turned to the Collector, a desperate expression on her face.
"Okay, I want you to take my phone, and look up what a turkey looks like." Luz told the star-child, pulling her phone out. "Then, bring it back. PLEASE, I am begging you Collin..."
"You can count on me Luz!" The Collector saluted, before snapping his fingers to summon a star platform, and hopping onto it with the phone. "I'll get the turkey for the Thanksgiving with Abuela! Don't worry!"
The human waved him off as the star-child zoomed off into the sky. She sighed heavily, turning to join the others inside. Things were going somewhat decently so far, she just hoped their luck would last till the end of the week.
The next chapter probably won't be out tomorrow, as it'll be my 18th birthday! And I plan on going out to eat and enjoy myself.
So see you next time, and hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving! (Feel free to mention how it went in the reviews.)
Remember to leave a favorite and review if you enjoyed reading! I love reading your thoughts in the reviews!